It's that time of year again, and now both young and old are sniffling and coughing, some stuffy noses are there too. Then it's time to conjure up some herbal comfort in the kitchen, or pull out the green herbal pharmacy. Of course, there are also some 🐝Vossabia product which can be great for helping and relieving seasonal colds. And what about stress? Check out my treasure trove of herbal magic to help me!
The common cold comes with all its familiar symptoms: sore throat, stuffy nose, runny nose, runny eyes, cough, dry cough and sometimes fever. On average, we get colds two to three times a year (children up to nine times), but if you find yourself getting colds quite often, it might be a good idea to try to strengthen your immune system as well. With a green pharmacy on hand, it is possible to both strengthen yourself and relieve the symptoms.
Native Americans swore by echinacea for hundreds of years. They chewed echinacea root, in addition to using it in tea, for colds, fevers, flu and many other ailments. This beautiful perennial plant has become super hot in modern times, and it's easy to jump on the "trend" as many people have very good experiences with this super plant. And again: it's so beautiful! Look how beautiful it is here in one of Vossabia's gardens:
Black elderberry is another super plant for flu and colds, and if you don't have the plant in your garden, you can buy good black elderberry products at health food stores. Studies of black elderberry show very good results in faster recovery from muscle aches, fever, and other flu-related ailments.
There are quite a few herbs that can help strengthen the immune system and reduce the symptoms of colds and fever. In Panterbalsam I have 4 of them!
Panterbalsam has been a "lifesaver" for me who has had chronic sinusitis since my early teens. It's scary to think how dependent I was on nasal spray at times, not good! But then I developed Panterbalsam 18 years ago! WOW!
Rub it under your nose for a slightly stuffy nose, stuff it inside and rub the nasal walls for a really stuffy nose: it loosens and opens up and BREATHE FREELY!! Thanks peppermint, eucalyptus, camphor and rosemary!
A stuffy nose can be caused by allergies and can be just as annoying (or more so) as a cold, and then you just have to resort to this saving angel!
Panther balm actually has many uses for colds. Apply it to headaches (I apply it where it hurts, and down the muscles in the neck and out into the shoulders), apply it to the outside of the neck for the beginning of a sore throat (several customers have reported symptoms that disappear if you get out quickly at the beginning of a sore throat), cough: apply it to the chest and back of both children and adults, and we have found that the mucus comes up more easily. Pain in the sinuses, apply it! And if you have slightly stiff shoulders, back pain or other places, all you have to do is find the black box, let the herbs work and there is a good chance that the aches and pains will ease.
Cold sores on the lips are also quite common, and very uncomfortable. Here too, many people turn to Panther Balm for effective help, but our excellent Calendula Balm and the Mint and Lavender Lip Balms are also good helpers for such outbreaks.
What else can you do from your kitchen counter to help yourself and your loved ones when the seasonal virus is ravaging?
Here's some of what I've started doing when someone here needs some herbal magic for colds and flu:
Honey and garlic! Nature's antibiotic deluxe! This combination is really great for respiratory ailments, and especially in the upper respiratory tract such as the sinuses. A real power combo, and it's not just the antibiotic effect that can be useful, but also the beneficial immune-stimulating properties. These are our family's best tips for both prevention and treatment of colds and sinus problems:
Put honey in a glass, or use a whole glass of honey (the darker the honey, the more medicinal properties, like heather honey for example), finely chop 4-5 cloves of garlic, let it soak in the honey. Eat a spoonful 2-3 times daily. It's going to help a lot here!
Garlic and shallots are great for colds and sinusitis, so lots of garlic for colds. Use as much as you can in cooking, and preferably add it at the end of cooking for full effect, as heating weakens some of the garlic's antibiotic effects.
Chaga : This incredible mushroom that looks like "tumors" on birch trunks (often slightly older trees, and typically where they have an injury). It has been used as medicine for probably thousands of years, and in addition to all the experience that different cultures and indigenous peoples have with it, there are many exciting research results with chaga as well. I make strong tea from it, which I freeze, and then the young people and we adults drink chaga tea during periods when we feel we need to strengthen ourselves, and as part of treatment for colds and flu. The chaga mushroom is antiviral and immune-boosting and one of the most powerful antioxidants there is! Read more about chaga in Rolv Hjelmstad's herbal encyclopedia online or in book form.
Do you have an herb garden, or do you have access to, for example, peppermint, yarrow, meadowsweet, nettle, rosemary, thyme and lemon balm? These are some herbs that are known to have a good effect on colds, and they are great to use in tea, among other things. Make your own mixture for tea, feel free to vary the plant combination, and you will also get different taste experiences. I have an herb garden where I can still go out and collect great herbs to have fresh right in the pan to make tea.
I also dry a lot, so I have it all year round for tea, food and to make tinctures (extractions in alcohol) that we use in the water glass to strengthen and treat. Tinctures of yarrow, nettle and red clover are always on hand here!
By the way, a DIY cough suppressant tip: make thyme tea! And/or put a few drops of thyme essential oil in a good vegetable oil, like extra virgin olive oil if you have it, and rub it on your chest. Thyme is so good for coughs!
The forest strengthens you!
How about a short walk in the forest to harvest for a dissolving steam or to collect plants to make a super tincture? Juniper, spruce and pine are very suitable for steaming for colds, and smell so wonderful. Add a little mint too, and it will dissolve even more. But, another super tip, if I may say so myself, is to get acquainted with STRYLAV (or Usnea). It is the "beard" of old birch trees, and it is also one of nature's fantastic antibiotics. It can be harvested all year round, but is perfect now when there is not much else to harvest. Add alcohol for 4 weeks, and you will have a tincture that could easily become an important part of your green pharmacy with its expectorant, fever-lowering and immune-boosting properties.
My gang has each had their own light bouts of colds now, so I'm the only one who has escaped for now. But I do have some stress that I keep going into the herbal zone to reduce. Earlier today, I had rose root tincture in my water glass (fantastic for stress), and then I stood stirring pans of fantastic herbs and made the body soap Skogen on my body afterwards, so it was an uplifting inhalation of freshly boiled juniper together with essential oils of pine and eucalyptus. The shower was so wonderful!
Hard work and stiff shoulders when you have to do it all by hand with shampoo and body soap, but NO PROBLEM! Panther balm lightly massaged into the shoulders, and maybe I can get Olav to give me a body massage with Wild Herb Body Balm ? Yes, and then there will be a cup of tea with lemon balm and chamomile from the garden to really calm down in the evening ;)
Herbal magic, then, for all kinds of needs.