Winter Wellness: Boost Your Immunity This Winter with These Easy Tips
As a mom of 7, we have had our fair share of sicknesses. And looking back at my holistic health journey, I have never been someone that likes to use pharmaceuticals if they can be avoided.
It is fairly acceptable to understand the importance of building immunity. But I think that most of us think of symptoms as something to be afraid of and to suppress. Understanding what symptoms actually are helps to relieve the fear that often contributes to our dependence on medications.
When you begin to think of all the sick symptoms as a natural detoxification process for the body, you will appreciate every one of those sneezes, coughs, and even those fevers.
In the words of Dr. Natasha “Bless the cold!”
Our body’s are created very intelligently.
Every day we are exposed to a plethora of toxins - through our food, our environment, our homes, plastics, fragrances, food additives, pesticides, and on and on.
Our body has to filter all of those toxins out on a daily basis. As long as the body is able to keep up with the toxic load, you may not have any symptoms.
But when there is a backed up system, the body has mechanisms to help clean you out!
The process can be quite dramatic and uncomfortable! All of these symptoms are caused by your immune system:
Fever
Headache
Body ache
Low energy
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Pain
Cough
Runny nose
Sneezing
Tears
Mucus production
We are equipped with an amazing protector, call the immune system.
It is never misguided and it always uses the right tools for the job.
We must respect its work, because without the involvement of our immune system we cannot survive in this world. let along recover from any illness!
The immune system is not our enemy! It is a magnificent and powerful ally given to us by God.
The mainstream explanation for symptoms is that your body is attacking itself, so drugs are prescribed to reduce the symptoms. The drugs temporarily reduce the symptoms, giving the illusion that the person is getting better. But the disease will inevitably progress and get worse over time. The toxins may recirculate in the body only to give you symptoms somewhere else.
This theory is all wrong.
Click the image for a free PDF
Here are all the winter “tools” I keep on hand for our family’s winter Wellness. Click for your free printable PDF.
Meat Stock (chicken, beef, etc)
Hot tea - ginger, herbal, lemon
Local Honey, raw & unfiltered
Rice Bag for aches & cold feet
Baths - epsom salt, baking soda
Natural salt for gargle
Ferments - saurkraut, beet kvass, garlic, kefir
Tonics - fire cider, elderberry
Garlic oil, onion
Honey butter mixture
Common Wintertime Symptoms & the Natural approach to supporting those symptoms
Ear Infections
To understand ear infections, we have to look at the structure of the ear.
Ear infections happen in the middle ear, which is quite small.
The Eustachian tube stretches from the middle ear to the back of your nose and throat.
The mouth, nose, throat, Eustachian tubes and middle ear of a newborn baby are sterile.
Fairly soon after birth, mouth, nose and throat get populated by a varied mixture of microbes. Many children develop abnormal flora in that area.
The abnormal flora will do 2 things:
The epithelium of the Eustachian tubes will produce too much mucus in order to clean itself
The tube tonsils will be in a chronic state of inflammation, blocking the tubes and not allow mucus to drain ot.
Mucus filling the middle ear provides good growing environment for infection.
Antibiotics for Ear Infections?
When a child has typical symptoms of ear infection - pain & fever - antibiotics are prescribed.
Antibiotics clear away the infectious agent, but do not remove the glue ear.
In fact, in the long run, they make the situation worse by altering the bacterial flora in the nose and throat even further.
So with the middle ear still filled with mucus, the ear infection happens again and fairly soon.
So then the next step is to add pipes or tubes into the child’s ears. This operation is a symptomatic measure, a crutch in a way, that does not remove the real problem.
The real problem is the abnormal flora that has developed in the child’s nose and throat.
Though the course of antibiotics will clear that particular ear infection, it will also lay the ground for the next one to come.
How to normalize bacterial flora in the ear:
The diet should not provide food for abnormal bacteria. Remove all sugars, including fruit, starches, and all processed carbohydrates.
A strong therapeutic probiotic should be added. A probiotic pill can be put on the child’s tongue before bed so the probiotic bacteria can work on the flora of the mouth and throat all night.
Keep your child warm all the time. Wear warm clothes, keep a hat on their head.
Drink plenty of hot drinks. Hot water with a slice of lemon and a spoon full of honey, herbal tea.
Take 1-2 tbsp cold-pressed olive oil and mix in a crushed clove of garlic. Leave it for 30 minutes, strain through a sieve or cheese-cloth. Put a few drops of this oil into your child’s ear every hour. Keep the oil at room temperature and warm it up slightly before putting it in the ear.
Take a large white onion, chop it up finely and wrap in cotton cloth. Put it in the microwave or warm it up fairly hot but tolerable to the touch. Put it on your child’s ear and securely cover with a warm hat. It is a bit messy but works amazingly well!
After treatment for ear infections:
If you leave a child with an ear infection without any treatment, he or she will recover. People treated ear infections very effectively for centuries with simple home remedies.
If your child runs a fever below 100* you do not need to reduce it. The fever is the body’s way of fighting the infection.
However, if the temperature is above 100*, try to reduce it.
2. Common cold
Colds are thought to be caused by viruses, but it is not the virus that creates the fever, the runny nose, the headache, the cough and all the other symptoms of a common cold.
Your immune system creates all these symptoms.
The immune system is responding to the virus and dealing with it.
An immune system that is malnourished and unable to function well doesn’t actually have “normal” cold symptoms because their immune system isn’t working properly.
If a person develops a fever, cough, runny nose, and headache, this is a cause for celebration!
All of the symptoms caused by your immune system are “weapons” it uses to fight the infection and expel it.
It is very important to allow your body to do this work.
While it is doing this work, you may feel miserable, but if you allow this process to complete without using painkillers, anti-fever drugs, anti-coughing drugs, antihistamines or any other medications, you will recover fully and come out of the illness stronger than before.
The body is detoxing
Nature doesn’t do anything without good reason! Common viruses associated with common colds have a very important mission in Nature: they provide regular cleaning for our bodies!
When you ‘catch a virus’ it means your body needs this virus to remove accumulated toxins.
We live in a polluted world: every day we breath in plethora of chemicals. These accumulate in the mucus membranes of your nose, sinuses, and breathing passages. When you ‘catch a cold’ you get a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, etc. These are functions designed to clean up the mucus membranes of your nose, sinuses and breathing passages.
If those areas are clean, your body will not use the virus and you will be a ‘lucky one’ who didn’t ‘catch the cold’.
The cold often raises your body temperature, which means that your body has to do some deeper cleansing in other organs and systems.
The common cold is not a haphazard situation that develops in your body by accident.
When you get a cold, it is not a time to take anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics and anti-fever medications.
It is time to feel blessed! your body is giving you a chance to clean up and prevent a whole host of chronic illnesses from developing, such as autoimmunity and cancers.
What to do:
Do not reduce the fever or any of your symptoms.
Allow your body to do the work unimpeded.
Keep warm and well hydrated.
Sleep as much as you can.
Avoid stress and exertion. Don’t go to work or school.
Spend quality time together.
3. Fever
Fever is good for us!
It is a major tool our immune system uses for killing disease-causing microbes, destroying toxins and removing cancer cells.
If you have a fever for a few days and do not interfere with it, but allow your body to run high temperature for as long as it needs to , you clean your body, remove chronic infections, prevent cancer formation and rejuvenate yourself.
During fever your immune system re-sets itself, re-balances its various branches, re-groups and becomes more effective at dealing with the environment.
If you allow your immune system to use fever to the full, you can prevent autoimmunity from developing in your body.
If your immune system is not allowed to use fever properly, the ground will be laid for developing autoimmunity, chronic inflammation, allergies, chronic infections, parasites and cancer in the future.
Educating the body
It is particularly vital to allow fever to run in our babies and small children.
Children are born with immature immune systems, which require education.
The first fever your child develops is a major educational experience for the child’s immune system.
If the fever is not allowed to run, the child’s immune system has missed an imprtant lesson.
Instead it has received a wrong lesson, which may lay the ground for allergies and autoimmunity in the future.
In most cases the fever will only last 12-24 hours.
Majority of fevers are caused by the common cold, which generally do not need a doctor’s attention.
Supporting the body
What to do:
Let the fever run!
Keep them warm: When we have a fever we feel cold and may even shiver. To keep warm, wear only natural fibers - cotton & wool. Sweat is very healing. Toxins leave the body and your temperature comes down naturally.
Keep them hydrated: warm water with lemon. Having honey-butter mixture with a pinch of natural salt helps replenish salt and minerals into the body.
There is an old proverb: starve a fever, feed the cold. When we have a fever, food becomes a burden for the body to deal with and wants to spend all its resources fighting the disease.
When the temperature begins to come down, start with the best food. Homemade meat stock and chicken stock is very nourishing.
Avoid anything made from flour and sugar, as these foods undermine your immune system.
4. Tummy bug
Every winter many people get a tummy bug. One example is norovirus.
This virus leads to a day or two of vomiting and diarrhea.
Animal experiments have shown that norovirus can restore and normalize gut flora which has been damaged by antibiotics.
Immune function is also normalized as well as the physical state of the gut wall.
Vomiting and diarrhea are major cleansing functions of the digestive system.
They are uncomfortable, but they flush out toxins and parasites from your gut, leaving a cleaner and healthier body.
Some people also develop a fever which means their bodies need deeper cleansing.
5. Feeding Your Immune System
Most foods that feed the immune system are animal based.
Protein, fats, and fat-soluble vitamins are provided in animal based foods, all of which give your immune system the tools to resist illnesses.
When we have a cold, we need to focus on hot soups and stews, made with homemade meat stock, fatty meats, and well-cooked veggies.
Organ meats are very important to eat regularly.
Cholesterol is vital for our immune system. It has been recorded that people with high levels of cholesterol are protected from infections: they rarely get colds and they recover from infections more quickly.
Cod liver oil is rich in cholesterol and has long been prized as a remedy for the immune system.
A daily mixture of raw egg yolks and fresh cream was a common cure for tuberculosis and is credited to its high amount of cholesterol.
Fermented foods for your Immune System
Fermented foods provide active probiotic microbes and easy to absorb nutrients.
Yogurt, kefir, sour cream, cottage cheese, and whey are soothing and healing for the digestive system and the immune system.
Herbs like curcuma, ginger, garlic, onion, cloves, cumin, caraway, dill, cilantro in small amounts should be a regular part of our diet.
***It is not a good idea to have freshly pressed juices when you have an infection, but is good to have them when you are well.
***It is not a good idea to have chocolate, fruit and nuts when you have an active infection. These foods alter the immune balance and make us vulnerable to viruses, can activate resident viruses, or easier for viruses from the outside to come in.
Cooked vegetables have a different effect on the body than raw. They are easier to digest and are more nourishing than raw.
When you have an infection, eat your cooked vegetables hot, not cold
“Everything in nature supports each other, balances each other out and creates an environment for each other.
We are all children of nature. It is vital for us to be in close contact with it to keep our bodies healthy. It is important for us to be physically active in the fresh air in natural environments, to be in contact with animals and other forms of life on our beautiful planet, and to sunbathe regularly.
All of these activities help us build a robust immune system and a healthy beautiful body!”
~Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
Credits: Gut & Psychology Syndrome, Gut & Physiology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
The information provided on this website is for general knowledge and informational purposes only, and does not constitute medical advice. It is intended to supplement, not substitute for, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
