Home Remedies

Can’t find the Swine Flu vaccination? Don’t fret! We’ve got a few home remedies that have some solid science behind them (footnote: we’re not doctors and only played pretend ones as children). They’re from an old high school friend (reconnected on Facebook, don’t you just love the modern world?) I posted my worries over a case of Swine Flu at my children’s school and Michelle Brode, commented on my status that her six year old child had just beat the H1N1 using herbal and other immune boosting remedies — probiotics, Vitamin D, Elderberry and Astragalus. While I use probiotics for my digestion and Vitamin D to help me sleep (it helps me sleep as if I spent a day at the beach), I’d never heard that these things could help with the flu.

A quick Google® search on all these immune boosters proved there’s a lot of truth to it. No surprise really, Michelle was one of my smart friends. We think Funs are most likely to try alternative methods, also Organics (and to some degree Smarts especially after I point you to these studies). A US study of 19,000 people has already shown that Vitamin D boost immunity against upper respiratory infections.  Probiotics are also thought to boost systemic immunity. An article that appears in the August 2009 issue of Pediatrics the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics backs this up. 

No big western studies back up the use of Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) but it is a traditional herbal immune booster and may mitigate or reduce the effects of the flu. And Astragalus, has been touted by that alternative doctor Andrew Weil for some time.

Now Classics, we understand. You just want to know where to get the vaccination. Google® has an app for that.

Best for Funs, Organics, Smarts, oh, and Classics

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