Avoid Getting Sick during the Cold & Flu Season

For most people, colds are a pesky thing that occur in Autumn. Mostly because we fear the cold weather that's upon us and don't feel like giving up on wearing shorts just yet. As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, sometimes, even if we do bust out the pants at the first sight of cold weather, it still sneaks up on us. Furthermore, with the advent of  a cold comes the inescapable dose of antibiotics. Or does it?

The Echinacea flower is a great natural remedy
to fight the cold and flu.

For many, these antibiotics then spell a certain brush with thrush or bowel upsets. It can't be helped, you say? That's just the way it is? Well, maybe not. The body does not automatically fall prey to a stalking virus just because the winter is looming. For many people, a dose of flu or a bad cold, with its concomitant catarrhal clearance, is their body's way of breaking down and evacuating all the grunge that has built up over the summer months.

Avoid Rich Foods

We know its hard, but make sure you don't overload your system with rich foods, too much alcohol and an overindulgence in fine cheeses. This will go a long way towards lessening the toxic load that's trying to be flushed in the pre-winter clear-out. Easing up on your mucus-forming dairy intake will also reduce catarrh, inflammation of mucus membranes, and help clear up a stuffy nose.

Drink Tea and Add Ginger

Cleanse your body in a pain-free way throughout the year by drinking Nettle Tea and by including ginger in your diet. Hint: adding it to your tea is an easy way to reap its benefits.

Ginger is a wonderful blood tonic that warms and cleanses the tissues. As it stimulates circulation, it will keep you warm and encourage you to stretch your legs. Staying indoors with the central heating on is a prime way to incubate yourself with some hefty germs. Ginger is also an anti-inflammatory, so if the flu has you in its tender clutches, drink ginger tea or pour boiling water over some chopped fresh ginger and add a squeeze of lemon juice and honey.

Nettles are a real favourite though. Nettle tea or tincture will clear acidic wastes from your tissues, leaving less debris for the body to tackle by other means. It is nutritious, too: iron, vitamin C, calcium and many other minerals are found in its leaves, after they have been subdued into a suitable form to consume.

As people turn back to such natural methods to keep themselves free of the common cold, a greater understanding of the problems inherent in antibiotic use is happily coinciding with a deeper scientific appreciation of the benefits of many traditional herbal remedies. As well as being as efficacious as their pharmaceutical counterparts, they often have a distinct ability to produce distressing side effects that aren't present in many conventional drugs.

Antibiotic Cautions

Antibiotics, despite being vitally important in multifarious conditions, they are not always the answer for flu and colds. They work only when bacterial infections are present, such as for those with bronchitis, etc. They do not work against viral infections and, are frequently less than useful when given in such circumstances as they kill both friendly and unfriendly bacteria, leaving people vulnerable to thrush and bowel problems.

Overuse of antibiotics has steadily created a growing number of bacteria that are immune to them, threatening doctors' ability to treat serious illness. The emergence of superbugs - pathogens with a resistance to antimicrobial drugs - was firmly linked to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in a report of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee of UK.  

A.Vogel Echinaforce®

Happily for those anxious to avoid excessive antibiotic prescription, the herb Echinacea, in the form of fresh herbal extract A.Vogel Echinaforce^®, is used to protect and treat colds as well as influenza type infections and similar upper respiratory tract infections.

A.Vogel Echinaforce® works by increasing the efficiency of the immune reaction, making the body more able to identify and kill off invading bacteria and viruses. It acts as a preventative to ward off infections or it can tackle infections already present. One of the many benefits of taking Echinacea for viral infections is that it stimulates the immune system to attack any invading virus rather than a specific one, making it effective even when viruses mutate.

One of the problems of flu vaccinations is that they target a specific virus, still leaving the patient vulnerable to other strands... Unlike antibiotics, Echinacea does not have undesirable side effects, such as destroying friendly bowel flora. In fact, Echinacea has anti-fungal properties allowing it to kill off unfriendly organisms such as those causing thrush, whilst promoting the growth of friendly bacteria and bowel flora.

If you still think you're bound to get sick, try adding a regular dose of vitamin C to your cold prevention package. Vitamin C stimulates the production of white blood cells and mops up unfriendly free radicals that do damage to body tissues. The body cannot absorb large doses of this vitamin at one time, so take a low dose several times a day for better protection. If you live or work in a polluted environment, this is even more necessary.

Helping the natural detoxification processes of the body throughout the year can therefore make a great difference to how your body reacts come cold and flu season!