MyHerbCorner

Posts Tagged ‘cold’

Mine oh mine what a week!
I am so thankful for the invention of the wash-machine!
It kept going nonstop for a few days because my ‘crocs’ have been sick.
Christoph has an ongoing tonsillitis and cold for quite a time and finally went to the GP for some antibiotics (no, that wasn’t my idea…)
Anyway, when we lay in bed and he was coughing into my face (again…) and then when I was opening my eyes to see a pile of used tissues in front of my nose I was not even that surprised but a bit worried about MY health.

I kept drinking the new anti-flu remedy but when David was wandering vomiting through our bedroom I thought I take St John’s wort too… just in case…
Gosh!
That night after I cleaned the mess David had left in his bed and our bedroom I was excused to sleep by his side in front of the open bathroom door (away from coughing sneezing big croc… and close to the toilet so David could reached it in time…)
I was very worried when David kept vomiting the whole day and not even kept a sip of water in his little body. Then there was also a slight diarrhoea.
Since he had no chance to take a medicine I infused some chopped garlic covered with olive oil in front of our warm fire place.
Then when it was ‘smelly’ enough I rubbed it on his feet (sole) just like you do when a child has a cough. The antibacterial, anti-viral and antibiotic healing properties of garlic are then transferred through the body.
Since he had problems to keep something down I also rubbed a bit of this garlic oil onto his stomach and was happy when he fell a sleep.
Our body is an amazing healer and restorative when we are fast asleep…

For Christoph I made a quick cough relieving massage oil (had no time for a chest rub which is the same oil but hardened with some bees wax)
In a small jar I gave approximately 6 Tablespoons sunflower oil which is soaked up better by the body then olive oil. To this oil I mixed essential oil of eucalyptus (around 10 drops) lavender (6 drops) and white camphor (4 drops)
Rubbing it onto my husbands chest and back (over the lungs) he fell asleep too.
Here is a pic of David on the floor and Christoph on the sofa while the big white bowl was placed carefully between both just in case someone couldn’t make it to the bathroom…

We have a wonderful house where there is always a room flooded by sunshine.
The two slept wonderfully warmed by the sun which is also a useful healer.

Meanwhile I was resting as well since I had not much sleep the last days and we all woke up together when the room was filled with shadow… the sun was gone behind the trees…

Anyway, this was a few days ago and David was back at school today. He is fit (and naughty!) again and I am thankful the garlic helped him.
My husband feels also better and has already emptied a bottle of my marshmallow cough syrup and is now drinking plantain cough syrup which is helping to reduce the swollen glands.
The tonsils look fine again (of course from the antibiotics he says and yes, he might be right even when he was gargling with my ‘killer tincture’ of clove with sage…)
Poor Christoph doesn’t get away without my teasing because I am the one who has ‘no’ flu shoot and keeps using herbs while he has all his ‘pharmaceutical’ remedies and gets sick…

In my own well being I am not sure what kept me healthy over the stressful time with two sick people beside me.
Was it the cayenne remedy or St John’s wort?

On Trademe I found this lovely little book called Herbal Medicine, by Dian Dincin Buchmann.

It’s full of recipes and great info.
Many of the recipes are hand down by Dian’s grandmother who learned some herbal treasures from Gypsies in Romania.
Others are the reflection of old books like Culpeper and Gerard, but also from modern scientific friends of her.

One recipe I would like to share with my dear friends in New Zealand and other Southern Hemisphere people who feel the cold of winter is an ‘Anti-flu preparation’

Anti-flu recipe

2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup boiling water
1 cup apple cider vinigar

Grind together cayenne and salt and add boiling water. Steep until cool. Then add the vinegar and store in a bottle.

Adults can take 1-2 tsp every half hour. You can dilute it with water in an egg cup if it is to strong for you.

For prevention just take a teaspoon once a week (or every day if you like)
This is like a home made flu shoot and worth to try.
I used it to taste and was surprised to find yellow mucus the next day when I blow my nose! I had some mucus up there for a long time and never got rid of it… until now
Even my husband (you know… normally using the pharmacy stuff…) tried it! Gosh! You should have seen his face! He forgot that I had mentioned there is vinegar in it… lol
Think he will tell me today that he is fine only to escape my ‘new medicine’

But he can’t escape everywhere because since I learned more about cayenne pepper I keep up to give it into every meal we have
Cayenne is sharp to the taste, but mild to the digestive tract.
It is actually an aid for the digestion and a nutritional source of vitamin C.

An energy drink is described by adding a quarter teaspoon of cayenne to fresh pressed or unsweetened grapefruit juice. This drink can be taken on a trip into the mountains or for long distance driving. Maybe you guys up there in the Northern Hemisphere like to try this
Dian says this drink is also helpful for during exam periods or times when alertness must be maintained over a prolonged period.
I sure gonna try this!

…back? Not really…
I can’t believe it myself BUT I did catch a cold I never had before!
When I got the first sign I treated with Echinacea tincture and a lot of traditional herbal cold and flu tea (equal parts yarrow, peppermint and elderflower) Of course I also drank hot lemon juice water with honey. But it got worse and I had fever for the first time since over 20 years!
I shivered by high temperature (what is called a cold cold because you feel cold even your body temperature is over 38 degree C) and warmed my body with ginger and with a lovely soup of pumpkin (Vitamin B complex), potatoes (Vitamin C), curry (anti-inflammatory) and a LOT of garlic (anti-bacterial)… and then I snuggled under heaps of blankets
Annoying is that I have no taste or smell since 3 days (let me say that this is the first time in my life! I know one day but THREE! That sucks!) I am a person who is relying on smell. That’s one of my most important senses and when it is not working… I can not work… which I shouldn’t anyway… but hey it is Spring and there is a lot to do!
Maybe that’s why I got the cold in the first place, overwork, to much stress, to less sleep and too much coffee and then the trouble of shivering in the cold outside when the New Zealand Southerly sent us a hello from lovely Antarctica.
So, now with a blocked nose I was eager to clean my sinus by making steam inhalations (something I haven’t done since PUBERTY!) I am not a fan of the smell of thyme, but since it is an antibacterial and first thing you use against congestion, I gave it a try (couldn’t smell it anyway hahaha)
Now, this didn’t help and I guess my husband couldn’t stand it longer to see me suffering such a bad cold and so he came back from his business trip to Auckland and brought me THIS…

…what a NICE gift! Grrr! In German ‘gift’ means poison so this is really the right word for this present
OK, here I am and try the chemical club for the hope of relief…
At least I can protect my liver by drinking milk thistle (Silybum marianum) tea

Don’t miss to collect the leaves of blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum) now … (if you live in NZ of course ;- )

They make a great family tea for cold winter months (or should the cold snap surprise us again ;- )

To strengthen the immune system drink a cup of this leave tea twice a week in the morning and in the evening. Add lemon juice and honey to enhance the action.

According to herbalist Hermann-Josef Weidinger a tea of 1 Tbsp dried blackcurrant leaves infused in 1 cup hot water  for 15 minutes, is a home remedy to stay healthy when drunken once a week (one cup in the morning and one in the evening)

To generally gain strength he suggests to take it as a cure over a period of 3 weeks.

He also says that a treatment with blackcurrant leaves is beneficial for sufferers of arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis.

You can also collect leaves of any other currant to use as flavourful tea, but for medicine take the black one.

Another plant you can also harvest now is Beebalm (Monarda) If you cut it back to three leaf axes you will get nice bushy plants comes summer which will provide you (and the bees :- ) with a lot of flowers

This tea is great for colds and to flavour bitter teas. I like to use a leaf and flower tea as an ice-tea in hot summer. The pic here is my Monarda didyma which has red flowers in summer. They make a gorgeous red syrup and everyone stays in line to get some of this delicious liquid. Hopefully I will have enough flowers to show you a syrup.

When the cold snap hits our country or when the season changes we love to use honey for our breakfast.
The kids instinctively ask for honey milk (which soothes the respiratory tract) and also for honey on the bread (instead of their favorite raspberry jam)

It is said to use honey from locally beekeepers so you have locally pollen in your golden treasure.
This is said to be help full against allergens like hay fever.
If you live in an environment surrounded of water or air pollutions (like we did in our old country) I wouldn’t suggest that. Animals and herbs are much less effected by this pollutions than people. You can see that in the areas between motorways in Germany where rare birds have their nests and plants are lush and green (sometimes black from the exhaust gas pollution before the rain washes it down into the ground)
If you live in such an area you may like to consider to take locally honey.

Honey is an antiseptic as well as a natural antibiotic and comes in so many different flavors. There is the yellow ‘Linden flower honey’, the spicy ‘Honey dew’ or the creamy ‘Red clover honey’. We are lucky to live in New Zealand because this country provides us with it’s famous ‘Manuka honey’ which is considered to have the most healing properties.

One of my favorite honeys is ‘Borage honey’ which reminds me of an Austrian summer meadow. My grandfather and later my uncle used to be beekeepers and they had some hives at the edge of a beautiful forest. The produced honey was very dark and had a strong aroma.

In New Zealand we also have honey dew and I am so amazed of the ‘Beech honey dew’ which I haven’t heard of in Austria (even there are big beech woods)

If you want to make an energizer it is just the time to go out into the forest and collect pine pollen.
Take a bag and put over a pine twig with noodles full of pollen.

In this picture you see the new sprouts standing tall and the little yellow-brown male noodles full of pollen.

You can collect pollen from any pine. Click here for an older post entry with a close up picture.

At home check for bugs before you stir your golden harvest into a jar of honey (1 Tbsp pollen to half a cup of honey)
This honey is a kicker!
A teaspoon in the morning will keep you fit and healthy. Or just pop in a teaspoon if you lack energy.