Tag Archives: well being

Epilogue on Clinical and Herbal Medicine Together

Elderberries
Native to the Northern Hemisphere and a modern staple in many households, elderberries, in the form of elderberry syrup, help the body fight the flu by blocking the virus’ replication.

By way of an epilogue, the flu (Influenza A to be precise) had a short stay of about 4 days in the house, thwarted as it was by the raft of anti-flu remedies I mentioned in the last post.

For my part, I did feel it coming on but the blend of elderberry, echinacea and goldenseal capsules, and fire cider were successful – no flu days for me and I didn’t need to call on the Tamiflu. Same for Jon – he took only herbs and did not have the flu, although he had he had the added protection of a flu shot.

Clinicians often suggest avoiding herbs to their patients because they don’t know much (or anything) about their effects. And most herbalists don’t think the living is better through pharmacology. But there is room for both in everyone’s lives–and which to choose depends on the change you are trying to support or effect.

Wishing everyone a healthy flu season. I heartily recommend picking up some Elderberry (Sambucus) Syrup, just in case.

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Clinical or Herbal Medicine? Both!

capsules in a capsule maker, a bowl of powdered herbs, a bag of vegan gelatin capsules
Cold care caps made in a pinch

Flu season medicine … in a house occupied by a seasoned clinician and an herbalist … amounts to a comparison of tamiflu and elderberry plus echinacea and goldenseal where the comparison is not made since occupants take BOTH. With some fire cider as a chaser.

It works out, actually. In this house the flu hasn’t lasted long. We could engage in speculation over which remedy is most effective but no one wants to hedge their bets in favor of one or the other. We just take everything we can get our hands on.

My son came home with the flu this week; we tested to him to be sure it was flu rather than covid or some other virus. Naturally we threw every remedy at it and his recovery has been speedy – particularly since he didn’t have a flu shot. But when I woke up feeling a touch of something in my throat and went to the cabinet for some elderberry syrup … it was gone. Oh, no.

a pot with a deep purple liquid in it
Elderberry syrup has a deep red-purple color

Elderberry is shown to prevent the virus from replicating in our bodies, so this morning was spent making the syrup pictured here from some dried elderberries I had on hand.

And the cold care caps… also an empty bottle. So I whipped up some of those … pictured at top. And downed a few tablespoons of fire cider. I will be looking for a prescription for tamiflu too, if I get hit by the flu bus.

This was not how I planned to spend the morning, but life happens.

Wishing everyone a flu-free January.

Part of a recipe for Elderberry syrup in a book
Rosemary Gladstar’s Elderberry syrup recipe.

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