As I progress my way through Herb School for the 2nd time. I see how integrated every system in the body is. As we look at the Immune system, we see how the body as a physical entity identifies ‘self’ and ‘not self’. ‘Not self’ are things like viruses, pathogens, bacteria and parasites.
As we are in a viral pandemic still our focus has been, is, and still will be focusing on my health. Mental health, emotional health and physical health. All are integrated and important on creating and maintaining balance or homeostasis within.
I’ve learned in my healing arts how everything is interconnected from thought, to emotions, to physical form. We have the ability to see the manifestations of our thoughts with physical illness in the body. A long held misaligned thought creates illness in the body. It is the manifested 3D world physical form of the thought. One way to start to identify these is through Louise Haye’s book You Can Heal Your Life. She has a really lovely list of an illness and the misaligned thought/beliefs.
With herbs we can start to bring the body back into balance as well or even better use them as a preventative before things go full blown into an illness. I’ve been focusing on my health and regaining balance since I caught the C-word. One of my favorite ways of dealing with my current misalignments is with my Fire Cider. I tend to have chronic nasal drip. I have for years and I see instant results with using Fire Cider to dry up my congestion. Ultimately this is a short-term solution, as the real need I’ve identified is being fully gluten free.
“Gluten is particularly problematic for some people as it may trigger automimmune diseases and is connected to autoimmune thyroid issues…” Holford, 2010; National Health Service 2014)
When working the herbal journey (same as the pharmaceutical western medicine journey) it sometimes requires some experimentation as to identifying root cause. Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve gone on and off gluten and predictably gluten tends to upset my digestive tract and apparently causes inflammation in the whole body, hence the nasal drip. Earlier this year caused a rash on my face for 4 months. When I quit gluten the rash cleared up. I share all of this not to gross you out but to share my journey and what I’ve learned in case it tracks for you as well.
I’ll share a couple tips for keeping your immune system healthy and strong:
1 – The lymph system is one part of the immune system. It needs help flowing because it doesn’t have a pump. Movement is its pump. Doing jumping jacks or trampoline, swimming or getting lymphatic massages are 3 things you can do to keep it flowing. Dry brushing is another way to stimulate the lymph. Using a brush outside of the shower and using massaging motions toward the heart.
3- Stress Management – If you are in a high stress job or situation causing you stress working on managing it by therapy, mentoring, exercise, deep breathing, or meditation.
4- Diet
Here is where I move back into the herb discussion.
My first blend or tool has been using Fire Cider or what I named my Crow Spice Cider. Crow Spice Cider is a blend of kitchen ingredients used via folk method or remedies for hundreds of years. The blend cures for a month or more. I made two flavors. One original and one Citrus and spice infused.
Ginger is one ingredient. Ginger root herbal actions are anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antispasmodic (which helps when you have a cough) carminative (helps digestion and gas), circulatory stimulant, expectorant (helps expel mucus). Fire cider throughout the years has typically been used in fall & winter to keep the body warm to fight off colds and flus. Research on ginger shows how “ginger’s volatile oils stimulate the immune system to fight both bacterial and viral infections (McIntyre, 1996) Ginger’s antiviral actions include stimulating macrophage activity, preventing viruses from attaching to cell walls, acting as a virucide (Buhner, 2013)
Turmeric – Anti-inflammatory & Antioxidant
Garlic – Anti-inflammatory, Anti-microbial, cholagogue, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, hypolipidemic, hypotensive
In the citrus blend is:
Cardamom– Anti-fungal, Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, antispasmodic, carminative, expectorant
To give you an idea of how each ingredient works according to their herbal actions. I list some not all to not overwhelm you but illustrate how “you can let thy food be thy medicine” as Hippocrates suggested.
If you are wanting to help support your immune system and are currently suffering from a cough, nasal congestion or get sick often you may want to try adding this into your daily intake. You can safely take up to 1 oz per day. With the current bottle size options you can start with 1-3 droppers full per day and work your way up. After I sell out of the 1 oz sample size options I’m going to start offering some larger sizes than 2 oz and 4 oz. If you want a 30 oz one month supply, please contact me privately for your bulk discount.
