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.
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.
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.
I’ve heard many people say that they don’t set a New Years resolution because they view New Years as somewhat arbitrary. For me, the new solar year, begun on the solstice and beginning to evidence itself in a growing length of day by New Year’s Eve, is a moment in time for setting a new intention (or even a couple of new intentions).
The idea of seasonal medicine – that every season has its medicine – supports the idea that a new solar year is a good time for a new beginning. A time to consider what we’ll grow and nurture in ourselves and in our lives and relationships during the coming sun cycle. After all, the seed catalogs have begun to arrive!
Happy New Year to all who choose to celebrate, to those who claim a fresh beginning, and to those who just enjoy a quiet day, perhaps recovering from a night of revelry.
This little thyme plant is a cutting from one of my garden plants. A joyful little being in my kitchen window, it gives me a warm feeling in my heart to see it there leaning toward the winter sun. It’s getting leggy and could use a trim to encourage a fuller, bushier look.
Thyme is culinary, medicinal, and ornamental. Aromatic, warming, and delicious, it’s stimulating for digestion and makes an amazing steam to treat cold and flu. Soothing, safe for adults and kids, it helps prevent respiratory infections.
And it’s adorable. Look at those precious little leaves.
It’s also easy to grow. To bring my little friend inside, I just took a snipping of one of my plants, dipped it in rooting hormone purchased at a garden center, and popped it into moist potting soil. I kept it moist in the window while it established some roots and voila! In the garden it likes a moist sunny spot.
Recently my husband, who’s an ER doc, agreed to work an extra shift to help a colleague who needed the time off. It was a late night shift at a hospital over two hours from our house, which meant sleeping in the sleep room they reserve for doctors who are wiped out and need to rest. It also happened to be back-to-back with another late night shift, so it promised to be a tiring 48 hours.
Jon doesn’t sleep well at the hospital, though he’s done it many times in this situation. It’s a good idea because a long drive after a ten hour shift is sometimes not safe; that said, in general he gets a rotten night’s sleep because of traffic through or noise outside of the room.
This time I thought to send him with some Valerian tincture and some Passionflower capsules. The Passionflower is relaxing, quiets an overactive mind. Jon doesn’t have that problem but with all the commotion around him I thought it wasn’t a bad idea to have Passionflower on board to ease him back into a restful mental space. More valuable though in this setting was the Valerian. It’s a sedative herb – inducing sleep for most people who take it. I figured the herb would put him to sleep and help him stay asleep.
Every once in a while I’m told Valerian meets a person that it keeps awake – having the opposite effect it usually has. But I’ve never met a person that has had that experience, so I felt reasonably confident sending it with Jon to help him rest.
He came home the next day saying “wow! that’s some powerful sh*&#t!” It really helped; he’d been able to sleep, and had a better couple of days for having rested. In fact, he asked for more on a follow-on night when he was feeling wired at bedtime. In the second case I thought maybe a back rub would be better, and he settled for that and fell asleep.
All the same, Valerian has a new friend in Jon.
If you are interested in learning more about Valerian or other herbal remedies you can find me at bespoke-herbals.com. Wishing you a restful winter’s rest.
That may seem a little provocative but this is a concrete statement I’m prepared to stand behind. I’ve never met a plant that did more for people during the night than Passionflower.
Sure, Valerian helps you sleep… but Passionflower quiets the night-time ruminating, worrying, anxious, and repetitive thoughts that are so common for people. Categorized as sedative, nervine and anti-spasmodic, Passiflora incarnata is a perennial native to the southeastern US, and the flowers and fruits are the medicinal parts of this plant.
People for whom I’ve recommended it say things like “the best night’s sleep I’ve had in as long as I can remember,” and “wow the Passionflower is awesome!” For my part, I can say that when I take passionflower tincture or a capsule before bed I reliably sleep much more soundly than I do without it. My mind is calm. Also, I am prone to grinding my teeth at night and the passionflower eases that noticeably, too.
There’s more to passionflower than its bed-time virtues. Great for over-active and anxious minds it can be taken during the day, too, to help with anxiety. But I think that Passionflower’s super power is it’s ability to calm the mind for sleep.
I’ll leave it there for now, except to note that I’ve seen in some recent literature that Passionflower isn’t recommended for people who take beta-blockers, or for young children. On reviewing this in the American Herbal Products Association’s Botanical Safety Handbook, though, no safety precautions are reported with the exception of some people reporting allergies to Passionflower.
Safe, effective, and sure to support a better night’s sleep – a pretty good bed partner, wouldn’t you agree?
The content presented here is for informational and educational purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice with healthcare professionals.
That last piece of leftover pie I had for breakfast this morning left me thinking “I need a cup of peppermint tea.” Too many sweets over the last few days has taken a toll.
I drink peppermint tea whenever my stomach’s unhappy. Peppermint, the binomial name is Mentha piperita, is known to have other health benefits but it’s enough for me that that it tastes great and soothes my stomach. It’s fabulous after dinner with honey (and maybe even a dollop of cream) for a sweet treat, too.
To make it:
Boil water
Pop a peppermint tea bag into a mug of the boiling water.
Cover the tea – this keeps those volatile oils in your teacup. You can use a little dessert plate over the cup if I don’t have a proper teacup.
Let the tea steep for at least 5 minutes (10-15 minutes is better).
Enjoy the mint on its own or add honey or milk if that appeals.
You can buy peppermint tea bags at the grocery. Or you can grow it! It’s easy… so easy, in fact, that it will spread if left alone.
The peppermint show above is in my garden. Peppermint is perennial. If you plant it in good soil it will grow in sun or part shade. It isn’t fussy and I’ve never needed to water it once it was established, though it thrives with periodic watering. But be careful! It will take over your garden if you let it!
To make tea just cut the stems and hang them up to dry or use a dehydrator.
Fire cider is great for your immune system, leveraging garlic, onions, ginger, horseradish, cayenne, honey, and apple cider vinegar.
Healthful tonics like this one have been around and in use since ancient times — our ancestors knew what was good! In the 1970s, Rosemary Gladstar, a wonderful herbalist, coined the term “Fire Cider” and it stuck. The recipe is below – feel free to scroll down directly.
Fire ciders are popular; there are many recipes out there. A simple one: chop onions and garlic and grate horseradish and ginger, and add it all to apple cider vinegar, ensuring the roots are submerged. Let them stew, shaking daily for 3-4 weeks, and add cayenne and honey to taste (this basic recipe comes from Rosemary Gladstar’s herbalism certificate through ecoversity).
Whipping up a healthful potion is always fun, and It would be hard to overstate the value of Garlic, ginger, onion, and horseradish roots combined with apple cider vinegar, for good health:
Garlic: An ally against colds and flu, support for immune function, healthy cholesterol, and a vermifuge/in treating intestinal worms.
Ginger: Reduction of inflammation, joint pain, cramps, nausea, and morning sickness.
Horseradish: traditionally known for its power to clear your sinuses, horseradish is full of antioxidants and nutrients, antibacterial properties, and is good support for healthy metabolism, digestive health, healthy cholesterol and, of course, as a decongestant.
Onions: Rich in antioxidants and packed with flavor, WebMD says “They’re rich in chemicals that can help protect your heart, lower your risk of some cancers, and make it easier for your body to make insulin. Onions are also one of the greatest vegetable sources of quercetin, a plant compound with many health benefits.”
I think fire cider is fun to make. I’ve been cooking with garlic, ginger, onion, and cayenne for years–all are aromatic and lend food an irresistible flavor profile … but horseradish was a new acquaintance when I first made fire cider. Grating it releases volatile compounds and a pungent, strong aroma that was unmistakably familiar as an ingredient in winter and fall sauces.
I had to hunt around to find fresh horseradish; if you see it at the grocery grab it! It’s a cold hardy perennial that you can also consider growing.
I love having a remedy on hand for days when I or a family member feel a cold coming on – and fire cider does the trick. Tough love in a jar, you can take a teaspoon every day to support your immune system or use it on salads.
And keep it on hand! You’ll want to take 1-2 tablespoons at the first sign of a cold and repeat every 3-4 hours until symptoms subside.
Basic Recipe:
1/2 cup grated fresh horseradish root
1/2 cup (or more) chopped onions
1/4 cup (or more) grated ginger
1/4 cup or more chopped garlic
Apple Cider Vinegar (raw and organic if you can get it)
Cayenne pepper (fresh chopped or powder or flaked – whatever you have/can get)
honey to taste
Directions – add the horseradish, onions, ginger, and garlic to a jar and pour the apple cider over it to immerse the ingredients by a couple of inches. Seal and store in a warm spot. Let it macerate for 3-6 weeks and shake it
Last night at 11:30 PM I received a text from my youngest, now away at college. “I’m at the ER with a fever, feel awful.” And later at 2:30 AM, “I tested positive for the flu. They gave me Tylenol. I’m heading home now.”
We are a four hour flight away, so there wasn’t much I could do other than to ask her to keep me posted. I hadn’t yet put together cold and flu capsules for this coming season and was planning to make and send them this week. I didn’t know when I mixed and made them yesterday that she was already sick. I think that comes solidly in the Murphy’s law category!
I did in fact make cold care capsules (pictured above) yesterday, pack close to 50 of them – more than she’ll need – in a box, and mail them to her. I anticipate they’ll arrive right around the time she’s starting to get better. Oh, well. Next year they will be on the plane with her.
These capsules are very effective. When taken at the first sign of symptoms they always seem to prevent a serious cold or flu from setting in. I often pair them with a nice dose of Emergen-c to hedge my bets, being a belt and suspenders kind of girl. 🙂
The formula, which comes from Rosemary Gladstar’s recipes, is simple:
1 part powdered Echinacea angustifolia
1 part powdered Hydrastis canadenis/Goldseal root
1/2 part powdered Althaea officinalis/Marshmallow root
1/4 part Capsicum annum/Cayenne
Mix them together evenly and encapsulate.
making capsules is easy with a capsule maker. And you can buy gel capsules online inexpensively.
Dosage: Take 2 at the first sign of cold or flu and every 2 hours up to 9/day and not exceeding 3 days.
If you would like to buy capsules I make and send them. A trusted technical advisor and I are working on an on-line store for these kinds of apothecary essentials. Till that’s up and running, and mindful that flu season seems to have started early, please drop me a note at kirsti.frazier@gmail.com. The cost is $47.99 for 30 capsules or $84.99 for 60 of them.
Goldenseal root, an herb endangered in North America from over harvesting, emerging from the forest floor in spring
This is no ordinary plant. You might say “well, Kirsti you think all plants are special,” and that’s true. But I have a real love affair going with this one.
Overwhelm is a real thing in our society. We all know the feeling of a too-long to-do list. And the overly full chest, overly heavy feeling that accompanies difficulty focusing in the face of a long list of tasks. And the anxiety that accompanies that has a way of setting in and staying.
Motherwort, pictured here, is widely used to truly calm that kind of anxiety in just such moments. A few drops of the tincture under the tongue definitely chases the feeling of overwhelm away. It’s legendary, used also in blood pressure remedies, to strengthen the cardiovascular system, and as support for premenstrual and menopause symptoms. If I had only known about it years ago, I could have eased many years of intense premenstrual cramps.
Just the other day I was out walking with a clinical herbalist, Stephan Brown, in his garden here on the cape. I’ve been taking motherwort tincture for months, originally to help with my blood pressure, I soon learned it benefits my mental state, as well.
But I have never seen the plant growing and I could not have identified it if it jumped up and slapped me in the head.
Knowing nothing about me or the remedies I favor, Stephan plucked a stem of motherwort from a nearby plant and presented it with a flourish. Herbalists and plants are both naturally psychic. There’s no getting around it.
square stems of the lamiaceae; motherwort has an especially strong stem
I went back today to gather some with his permission. A member of the mint family with the characteristic square stem of that species, you can see the shape in the picture above, making it easy to identify.
The lovely leaves are drying now, which means I can make my own bottle of tincture. Pure magic.
Backyard Botanics 