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Tag: flu symptoms

Homopathic Flu Remedy: Oscillo

Here’s a story about how I cured my flu last weekend. In what looks to be shaping up as a bad flu season around the nation, it’s helpful to have a remedy ready at hand to minimize the illness and speed the recovery.

On Saturday I awoke with what I thought was a head cold: stuffy/runny nose, headache, fatigue, generally feeling lousy. Over the course of the day I took various homeopathic remedies for sinus congestion and colds, did a few rounds of Sinus Rinse, and drank some garlic tea. On Sunday I awoke after an uncomfortable night with little sleep feeling worse and wanting to just stay in bed as much as possible. My head hurt and even reading felt too strenuous. I drank tea but the idea of food was unappealing.Oscillococcinum flu remedy

The thing about homeopathic remedies is that if you don’t have the right remedy, you won’t experience any relief from your symptoms. The wrong remedy won’t make anything worse, but nothing will improve. Clearly I had not hit upon the correct remedy yet for my head cold.

Then, in a conversation with my soon-to-graduate-from-medical-school-younger-brother, he asked if I had experienced any diarrhea. As a matter of fact, I had, though I hadn’t connected it with how I was feeling at the moment. He suggested I might have the flu.

It hadn’t occurred to me that I might have the flu because I hadn’t experienced what I considered to be classic flu symptoms of fever, chills, and body aches. Nor had I vomited, which might also have tipped me off.

I still wasn’t sure what I had was the flu, but thought it would be worth taking the homeopathic flu remedy of Boiron’s Oscillococcinum, just in case. I mixed the contents of a single vial with about 3-4 oz. of clean water, and then put one teaspoon of the water underneath my tongue. I was surprised to find that within 10 minutes I began to feel better. I took another dose 15 minutes later and began to feel even better. I took a third dose about an hour after that, and a final dose at bedtime.

On Monday morning I awoke refreshed after a night of deep, restful sleep. The only lingering symptom was a slight runny nose, but otherwise, I felt energized, hungry, and clear-headed. We loaded up the family and spent a beautiful day skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado, a two-hour drive from our house.

While we of course do all we can to avoid getting the flu in the first place, sometimes you can catch a virus despite your best efforts. Oscillo has worked for my family many times over the years when prevention has failed. Homeopathic remedies are generally safe for anyone to use with no side effects. If, after one teaspoon of the Oscillo water, there is no improvement, it is not the right remedy and you should cease taking it.

This time of year you can often find Oscillococcinum in a Point-of-Purchase display near the check-out stations at natural food stores like Whole Foods.

Natural Remedies for Flu and Swine Flu

It’s great to talk about natural ways to avoid getting the flu, but what about when you’ve already come down with symptoms? How do you treat it then with natural remedies?

On Sunday, my 5-year-old came home ill. She had thrown up in the lobby of a movie theater and immediately left without seeing the movie. Luckily, the theaters are close by and she was home, cleaned up, and tucked into bed in less than 15 minutes. She had a headache, a minor fever, chills, and a newly running nose.

“It’s the flu,” one of my family members with a medical degree pronounced with certainty.

Yes, I had to agree; from her symptoms it would appear to be one of the flu strains going around, be that H1N1 or not. I decided to treat it as such.

As soon as she walked in the door we headed for the bathroom, where we brushed her teeth, washed her hands and face well, and gargled with warm salt water.

The salt water gargle will rinse away germs from this entry point as well as soothe a swollen or irritated throat.

A few minutes later, I emptied a vial of homeopathic Boiron Oscillococcinum Pelletsunderneath her tongue. (We actually had to divide it into several doses for her little mouth, but she took them all within 20 minutes.)

I consider Oscillococcinum as a natural form of Tamiflu; the sooner you start using it after seeing flu symptoms, the less extreme your case will be. The box says it’s recommended to alleviate “symptoms of flu: fever, chills, body aches and pains.”

Oscillococcinum (if you know how to pronounce this, please enlighten me!) comes in little vials that you dissolve underneath your tongue and in your mouth every 6 hours up to 3 times a day. As with all homeopathic remedies, you’ll want to stay away from food or drink for at least 5 minutes before taking it and afterward, too.

Because it’s homeopathic, it is safe for everyone including babies and nursing or pregnant mothers. You can still use it even if you have been vaccinated or you’re taking Tamiflu or other medications as it won’t affect them.

My little one tossed and turned and dozed on and off and sipped some hot mint tea to calm her stomach that afternoon. At dinner time she ate a decent portion of chicken stew with garlic that my hubby had brewed up in the crock pot (he’s the crock potter in our household — I don’t have the forethought or the patience for such slow cooking!), but by evening she was complaining of a bad headache and chills. Her fever felt a little hotter, but I still considered it mild.

I gave her a second vial of Oscillococcinum and tried to put her down for what would be a restless night with many awakenings for both of us.

The next morning she was up early and very hungry. I kept her home from school to see how she fared and found she took an unusual nap around 3pm for about 45 minutes (not surprising, given how little sleep she and I had the night before!), but otherwise was just about back to normal.

Did she have the flu and did the Oscillococcinum nip it in the bud? Or was it just something she ate that didn’t agree with her? Who knows.

All I know is that she showed flu symptoms on Sunday afternoon and by Tuesday morning she was 100% recovered.

We are very relieved.