The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

We wish you peace and health!

Influenza

Definition

The flu is a highly contagious respiratory viral infection. Spread easily by coughing, sneezing, and poor hygiene. Vaccines have been only partially effective because of new and different viral strains that are constantly changing.
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Symptoms

Early stages, similar to the common cold, are headache, weakness, and aching of back, arms, and legs. Dry throat and cough, tired quickly, loss of appetite, and sometimes nausea and vomiting. Rarely fatal, flu does make the patient more susceptible to ear infections, pneumonia, and sinus problems. Flu lasts for 7-10 days. Patients who have heart or lung diseases or are pregnant are prone to viral pneumonia. The system should be built up with good nutrition following a bout with the flu.
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Treatment

Bedrest, plenty of fluids, fever control, relieve symptoms as much as possible.

Go to bed and stop eating. If treatment is started when early symptoms appear, recovery will be in 24-36 hrs. Mix 1 tbsp. yarrow, 1 tsp. pleurisy root and a small pinch of cayenne; steep in a pint of boiling water for 20 minutes; drink a cupful every hour. This tea will cause profuse perspiration, bed clothes being changed as needed. Tepid sponge bath will bring down fever, care should be taken not to chill the patient. Alternate the herb tea with fruit juices; orange, grapefruit, or lemon. Keep bowels open. Fresh air in patient’s room if possible.

Eucalyptus oil: Put 5 drops in a hot bath or 6 drops in boiling water, put a towel over your head and inhale vapors.

One tbsp. slippery elm bark powder mixed with 1 part boiling water and 1/2 cup honey will relieve cough and sore throat. Store in a jar and give 1 tsp. every 3-4 hours.

Echinacea, ginger, pau d’arco, slippery elm, and yarrow tea.

To reduce fever, take catnip tea enemas.

Also, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. lobelia tincture every 3-4 hours until fever drops.

A tincture of goldenseal and echinacea is recommended for children. 8-10 drops in liquid every 3 hours until flu symptoms are gone.

Mix equal parts of juniper berries, black elder flowers, coltsfoot, lance-leaf plantain, and sallow bark. Steep 1 tsp. in 1/2 cup boiling water. Take 1/2 to 1 cup a day, sweeten with honey.
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Nutrients

Vitamin C, 5,000-10,000 mg. per day in divided doses.

Vitamin A, 15,000 IU daily, is a powerful antioxidant and helps immune system.

Zinc Gluconate lozenges, every 2 hrs. dissolve lozenge under tongue. Use until symptoms stop, follow directions for children. Stimulant for immune system.

Garlic capsules, 2 capsules 3 times per day, acts as an antibiotic and immune system stimulant.

Multivitamins, taken as directed on label, gives aid to healing.

Kelp, 5-10 tablets per day, has an antiviral action and helps in reduction of inflammation.

Vitamin B complex, 100 mg. daily, a necessity in cellular enzyme function.
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Herbs
  • Agrimony
  • Ague weed
  • Angelica, European
  • Basil
  • Bayberry
  • Birch
  • Blood root
  • Boneset
  • Borage
  • Bryony, white
  • Burdock, great
  • Burnet
  • Calendula
  • Calla, wild (water-arum)
  • Catnip
  • Cayenne
  • Celandine
  • Celery seeds
  • Centaury
  • Chamomile
  • Chrysanthemum flowers
  • Cinnamon
  • Clover, red
  • Coltsfoot
  • Costmary
  • Cow-parsnip
  • Culver’s root
  • Dayflower, Asiatic
  • Dropwort
  • Echinacea
  • Elder, black flowers
  • Elm, slippery
  • Ephedra (Ma huang)
  • Eryngo
  • Eucalyptus
  • Fenugreek
  • Fern, maidenhair
  • Feverfew
  • Flag, sweet
  • Garlic
  • Ginger, wild
  • Golden seal
  • Goose grass
  • Holly, mountain
  • Honeysuckle flowers
  • Horsemint
  • Horsetail
  • Hyssop
  • Indigo, wild
  • Jasmine, yellow
  • Juniper berries
  • Kudzu root
  • Lady’s slipper
  • Lavender
  • Life everlasting
  • Lobelia
  • Lungwort
  • Male fern
  • Mallow
  • Marjoram
  • Meadowsweet
  • Milkweed
  • Mint
  • Motherwort
  • Mulberry leaves
  • Mullein
  • Nettle, hedge
  • Oak
  • Oats
  • Onion
  • Osha
  • Pansy
  • Pennyroyal
  • Peppermint
  • Persimmon bark
  • Plantain, lance-leaf
  • Pleurisy root
  • Poke root
  • Primrose
  • Raspberry, leaves
  • Rosemary
  • Sage
  • Sallow bark
  • Sassafras root
  • Senega snakeroot
  • Spruce, Norway
  • Sticklewort
  • Stillingia
  • Tamarack
  • Tansy
  • Thyme, garden
  • Vervain, blue
  • Violet, garden
  • White pine
  • Yarrow root
  • Yerba santa

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Recommendations

Wash hands often, flush tissues after use, do not give aspirin to children with a fever. Check children with frequent colds and flu, for thyroid malfunctions and/or allergies.
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Suggestions

Drink potato peeling soup twice a day, made fresh daily. Potato peelings (the skins) should be peeled 1/2 inch thick. Discard center of potato. Boil peelings for about 20-30 minutes, strain, cool, and drink. Carrot or celery stick in the soup is optional.
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Bibliography

LiveStrong.com: Fenugreek for Congestion

LiveStrong.com: Fresh Ginger Root for a Cough

LiveStrong.com: Turmeric for Coughs

Buy It! The Complete Medicinal Herbal, by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993

Buy It! Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Fifth Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements, by James F. Balch, M.D. and Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C., Avery Publishing Group, Inc., Garden City Park, NY

Buy It! The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

Buy It! Indian Herbalogy of North America, by Alma R. Hutchens, Shambala Publications, Inc., Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973

Buy It! Back to Eden, by Jethro Kloss; Back to Eden Publishing Co., Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994

Buy It! The Old Herb Doctor, by Joseph E. Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1984, sixth printing 1994.

Buy It! Earl Mindell’s Herb Bible, by Earl Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D., Simon & Schuster/Fireside, Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

Buy It! Planetary Herbology, by Michael Tierra, C.A., N.D., O.M.D., Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. WI 53181., Copyright 1988, published 1992

Buy It! The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine, by Dr. David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, Second edition, 1988.

Buy It! Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000

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