7 lifestyle tips to stop getting sick

Confession time: I prefer getting all my nutrients from food rather than popping supplements and powders. I focus on eating healthy and this used to be enough. I’d rarely get sick. Since becoming a Mum it’s a different story. Of course I took supplements prior to conceiving, during pregnancy and most of breastfeeding (I forgot here and there), and I irregularly take them now. Experience is telling me, though, that diet alone isn’t doing enough to build up my nutrient stores post children. It’s hard not to get a cold from a toddler child that needs cuddles and kisses and likes to give cuddles and kisses back. Pre-children I never got sick. I was dedicated to my fitness, ate a pescatarian whole food, low sugar, anti-inflammatory diet, and went years without so much as a cold. 

After two pregnancies and four and a half years of continuous breastfeeding (that’s a lot of nutrients sucked from my tissues) and, 5 years later, I still have my sleep interrupted by babes. I also have a child in day-care a couple of times a week who’s exposed to new pathogens constantly. It feels like I get sick A l l   t h e   t i m e.   I’m actually embarrassed about how often I get a cold. This is postnatal depletion syndrome.  

I’ve had enough. 

I’m boosting my nutritional profile by taking some concentrated vitamins and minerals, essential fatty acids and probiotics RELIGIOUSLY. And of course, botanical medicine. Medicinal Mushrooms are renowned for boosting the immune system, but intuitively, they don’t resonate with me at this time. Rather Echinacea, Baical Skullcap, Japanese Knotweed, Siberian Ginseng, Lemon Balm, Nettles and Withania are here to help me. I feel like my immune insufficiency is caused by nutrient depletion, and once I have those stores up, the mushrooms may be ready to help me. 

So here’s 7 lifestyle tips to overcome immune insufficiency caused by postnatal depletion:

1. Antioxidant rich foods. Antioxidants modify your immune response.  The phytochemicals that antioxidant rich foods provide the body help repair damage to your tissues caused by your immune response to infection. When you see colour in your fresh produce, you can safely assume that’s antioxidants, so that’s why the phrase ‘eat the rainbow’ is so popular. 

2. Getting adequate sleep: , the sleep hormone melatonin performs as a potent antioxidant, repairing and restoring your body. I know this is easy to say and not do when you mother small ones, so ask for help where you can, and do your best. It may mean turning off netflix and getting into bed earlier. Your sleep is much too valuable. 

3. Protein: Inadequate protein is linked to dysfunction in the immune system. Protein is available in meat, dairy, beans, legumes, wholegrains, eggs, nuts and seeds.

4. Wholefood diet - one that is based on foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. Not only do whole foods contain a wide array of nutrients, wider than foods that have been segmented, they also retain their vital force, or prana. Nutrients in their natural state work synergistically in the body to benefit the immune system. 

   Leave out

5. Sugar: Sugar is an immune suppressant with studies showing intake of sugar reduces the capacity of white blood cells to function properly, so therefore your immune response is weakened. Studies have shown that eating sugar can deplete the immune system for up to two hours after consumption. So that’s every time you eat sugar, you’re weakening your immune response for a time. 

6. Caffeine: Chronic and excessive intake of caffeine is likely to function as a stressor to the already depleted immune system. HOWEVER, in small amounts it’s actually anti-inflammotory, antioxidant and helps modulate the immune system, and may be particularly helpful in auto-immune conditions.  Yes I love caffeine. It’s been a saviour for me these past 5 years as I’m woken up often in the night and unnaturally early as well, that cup in the morning is supportive. If you’re having a lot, or having it with heaps of milk and sugar, then any anti-inflammatory effects may be lost. I try and keep to under 200mg of caffeine a day. For me this means using nespresso pods at home and rarely buying a coffee when out, as the caffeine content can vary greatly in cafe coffee. 

7. Preservatives: additives and colourings - Foods with these additives have, for the most part, long lost their vital force. Overly processed foods, while do provide calories to keep you going, do more harm than good in the long run. Often high in the wrong kinds of fats, sugars and a driver of inflammation, these kinds of foods wear you out. 

   If you’re rundown or experiencing repeated illnesses, nutritional and herbal medicine will help you build up your immune system and resilience. Nature has everything you need to thrive. Please book in for a naturopathic appointment for health coaching and a herbal and nutritional plan to restore your vitality. Life is too short to waste it feeling awful. 

Quercetin - The essential anti-viral supplement you never heard of

There’s been some good evidence for hydroxychloriquine lessening the impact of Covid-19. After some initial badly designed studies (and some bad press) it’s been found hydroxychloroquine improves outcomes and lowers fatality rates when administered early enough in the infection lifecycle.

Hydroxychloroquine works as an ionophore - that is - it helps zinc pass through cell membranes into virally infected cells and stop the virus replicating. It’s the zinc that stops the virus once inside the cell. Hydroxycholoriquine  is like a gate opener that allows the zinc the pass through. 

The thing is - hydroxychloroquine isn’t for everyone and has some serious side effects. 

You know what else works as a zinc ionophore? Quercetin - a flavanoid found in onions, apples, grapes, berries, and citrus fruits. It’s also found in herbs such as St johns wort, Gingko and Cranberry. Quercetin is also great for soothing allergies, protecting your heart and improves reproductive health in men. It's an all round good thing to have in your body.

Quercetin is also available in supplement form and I recommend taking with vitamin C and zinc to get maximum anti-viral effects in the case of respiratory infection. 

If you want to add some immune enhancing supplements and herbs to your medicine cupboard, I have some naturopathic appointments available where you get a health plan and prescription of quality herbs and/or supplements tailored to your individual needs. You can book your appointment here.

Safe herbal immune support for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

With a global pandemic and winter upon us (here in Perth), this is an anxious time for everyone but especially for those of us due to give birth in the coming months.  I love herbal medicine for protection from illness and immune support however not all herbs are proven safe in pregnancy - so what to do to nurture your health and immune defences while pregnant?

Pregnancy takes more nutrients out of you than any other time in your life - except breastfeeding, which takes more. In classical chinese medicine it is said that pregnancy depletes jing- life force - due to this very nutritionally taxing time. 

If you’re low on certain nutrients your natural immune defences may be reduced leaving you more susceptible to succumbing to illness or suffering a longer duration of infection. 

Eating lots of wholesome, clean and fresh foods is the best response. Think the rainbow of vegetables and fruits, whole milk, whole grains, avoid flour based foods, deep fried foods, overly refined foods (chips, milk chocolate, lollies) Get as much nutrition as possible into your day, and leave out foods that are inflammatory and drain your energy to digest them. this means no overeating, not too much sugar, you know right from wrong. 

Our culinary herbs containing rosmarinic acid are have wonderful immune boosting properties, these include rosemary, thyme, lemon balm, sage and oregano. These are all delicious in soups and stews so add plenty to your meals. Lemon balm is lovely as a tea, is easy to grow, and also calms your nerves and helps you off to sleep. Enhance your connection to the herbs by thanking the plants for helping protect you against illness as you sprinkle them into your dinner.  

IF you are nutrient deplete, supplements are a good way to build up your reserves again. Iron is commonly depleted during pregnancy so get your levels checked and ensure you’ve got good reserves. Zinc, B vitamins and other micro-minerals are important and a good pregnancy multi-vitamin will ensure you get adequate levels of these in combination with a nutritious diet. 

Plant Medicines can help you

Not all herbs are deemed safe in pregnancy however there are plenty of herbs that can be used to help you get over an infection, prevent a virus from doing serious damage, or to boost immunity beforehand.  Echinacea builds up the immune system and staves off colds and flus,  and has been proved quite safe for pregnancy and breastfeeding. Elder flower is  beautiful and nurturing, as well as delicious. Astragalus and Baical skullcap are especially supportive against Coronaviruses and are both quite safe in pregnancy. I recommend chatting with a qualified herbalist for specific doses. 

And Sleep. 

Personally for me, pregnancy was the only time in my life when I would crash as soon as my head hit the pillow and slumber all night long - until the very last weeks when my belly got in the way. Melatonin is produced at night time and especially while we sleep. Melatonin is also one of the best defences we have against the Coronavirus sweeping the globe right now. This powerful antioxidant repairs and prevents damage caused by the virus and researchers are investigating the possibility of using supplemental melatonin in treating Covid-19 patients in hospital. You can boost your natural reserves by getting up just after sunrise, spending a good amount of time outside during the day (and boosting your vitamin D levels - another important immune defence nutrient) and making sure you turn off screens an hour before bed and have some wind down time. 

Also every hour of sleep you get before midnight is worth twice as much as the sleep you get after midnight. I find for me, lights out at 10pm is optimal, and I’m a night owl, so lights out earlier as you wish. 

What Covid-19 does to you and herbs that can help

I was feeling rather calm about the Coronavirus Covid-19 until about two days ago, when I read the tweet of a doctor in Italy describing the scenes of overstuffed hospital wards and not enough supplies to go round. Their resources are being rationed out to only the most high-risk patients, that is patients over 65 years of age. 

Witnessing the pandemic conditions and overextension of medical staff overseas, I feel we all have a responsibility to minimise risk of spreading the disease further. For me that means lots of hand washing and laying low. I’m also going to make sure my loved ones have their own bottles of herbal tincture, to boost immunity and reduce anxiety in these rather strange times. 

 I see a lot of “don’t worry, it only affects older and immune compromised people” being thrown around on social media, as if older and immune compromised people aren’t among us, important or loved. These members of our society can benefit most from herbal support through this epidemic. 

 I love herbs because they come in whole package of phytonutrients and medicine all compete with the co-factors that help absorption and function in the body. I’ve come to think of them as super concentrated forms of nutrition and healing. They are taken directly from nature, and their unique make up interacts with our make-up perfectly.  

 So what does Covid-19 actually do to you and what herbal support is out there to look after your immune system?

 Most people get a mild case of the illness, a dry cough, a runny nose, fever and feel generally run down. Some have no symptoms and all, this is thought to be because they have particularly strong immune systems.  For some though, they’ll be sicker than others, their lungs will be affected and they’ll have difficulty breathing, and in the very worst cases, there will be organ failure and death. 

 This is an overly simplified explanation of what Covid-19 actually does: 

 When first entering the body, Covid-19 likes to invade the cilia in your lungs. The cilia are like little hair like structures that move in synergistic waves. Their job is to coax debris and unwanted substances out of your lungs, - like phlegm and mucous. Their little wave actions of the cilia gradually move unwanted mucous and debris up out of your airways, where you are stimulated to cough and get rid of it altogether.  

If the virus is beating your immune system it will kill your cilia, and you will lose the ability to expel mucous from your lungs. Instead of coughing up, phlegm sits in your lungs impacting your ability to breathe (pneumonia). You can support the health and resilience of your cilia with herbs such as Licorice, Elder, and Astragalus. 

 The virus enters your cells by attaching to angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE-2) receptors on the cell surface. When they infect your cells ACE-2 is down regulated, and all the functions that ACE-2 performs - of which there are several important ones- downregulate (aka reduce) as a result . One of the functions of ACE-2 is protecting the lungs from a build up of mucous. Protection of the lungs is compromised and then mucous and unwanted substances are able to build up in the lungs.  ACE-2 tends to be lower in older people and this is likely one of the reasons they succumb to the virus more than fitter, younger people. Gingko, Licorice, Baical Skullcap, and Dan Shen can support ACE-2. Hawthorn and olive leaf may help protect your lungs and other organs from injury. 

Gingko is a tonic for older age so I particularly like this herb to use as a preventative in our older relatives. Astragalus is wonderful for chronically depleted immunity and another great one for the immune compromised to take preventatively. 

 Though you may recover from the virus after a few weeks, scarring on the lungs has been observed in recovered patients. Damage to the lungs can take months to repair, and doctors studying the effect of Coronavirus on lungs in Wuhan aren’t convinced the scarring will ever repair. So supporting your lungs as much as possible before and through infection is crucial. 

When the virus overtakes enough cells, your immune system can go into overdrive and release a cytokine cascade. This is where key organs can shut down, such as your lungs and kidneys. There are a number of biological chemical interactions that happen at this point that may lead to total shut down and death. Again, this is only in a very small percentage of the population, and observed in the aged and immune compromised. 

 Cordyceps, olive oil and leaf and Japanese knotweed are great for protection of Cilia and endothelial cells against scarring and damage. Astragalus, Baical skullcap, Cinnamon and Elder support your body systems in protection against cytokine cascade. 

 Cinnamon, ginger and cayenne are warming and circulatory stimulating, to promote action in your immune system. These spices are easy to add to food and can be taken as tinctures or in teas as well. 

The high antioxidant content of Olive leaf and Japanese knotweed has been shown to protect against ischaemic damage - that is damage to cells when oxygen supply has been reduced. With this herbal support your cells may manage to withstand the hostile conditions of viral attack just a bit longer. 

Vitamin C in doses between 6000 and 12000 mg is being administered to patients in China, as it seems to be helping. Doctors on the front line in China are also recommending Vitamin C as a preventative measure, so make sure you get lots of fresh, raw fruit and vegetables to maximise your Vit C intake. Great sources include blackcurrants, broccoli, citrus fruits, guavas, pineapples, rosehips, strawberries and tomatoes. It’s also available quite cheaply in supplemental form,aim for 3000mg per day. Be sure to make a good cold pressed olive oil dressing for your salads as well. 

Zinc has wonderful evidence behind it for reducing the duration of symptoms in respiratory viral infections. In fact, scientific literature has found zinc inhibits the virus from replicating by inhibiting Coronavirus RNA polymerise activity. The trouble is you need to get enough zinc inside the infected cell, which is tricky.  In China and South Korea, Coronavirus patients are being administered with a pharmaceutical drug called Chloroquine Phosphate which is an anti-malarial drug that opens the gates of the infected cell and allows the zinc to pass through. Once inside the cell, zinc stops the virus replicating. That specific medication is available by prescription only through a doctor and it comes with side effects. I, by no means, recommend that you go out and request a prescription from your doctor. Making sure your zinc intake is good, balancing with a diet rich in a variety of fresh foods, and supplementing with zinc if you’re low will help. Although I don’t have the scientific papers, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the anti-viral herbs here help the passage of zinc into an infected cell in the same way.

Foods high in zinc include pumpkin seeds, red meat, bilberry, brewers yeast, capsicum (also a great source of vitamin C), egg yolks, ginger, milk, seafood and wholegrain. 

Not all herbal supplements are created equal. To access high quality herbal tinctures you can book in for an online acute immune consult. It’s very affordable, it takes 15 minutes and the consult fee includes a custom-made liquid herbal blend for your unique circumstances. It’s easy to book in through this link. We’re blessed to have these herbal plant allies, robust with health-supporting phytochemicals, at our fingertips. It would be a shame not to use them. 

References

https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/videos/coronavirus-epidemic-update-34-us-cases-surge-chloroquine-and-zinc-treatment-combo-and-the-lockdown-331935

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.25722

Kerry Bones, Simon Mills Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy 2nd Ed (2013) Churchill Livingstone Elsevier

Henry Osieki, The Nutrient Bible 7th ed, Bio Concepts Publishing

Steven Harrod Buhner, Herbal Treatment for Coronavirus Infections, 2020  

Flu shot healer ginger turmeric smoothie

I went to get the flu shot while I was still sniffling slightly at the end of a cold. I’d been feeling better for days. I wouldn’t usually get such a thing while still experiencing symptoms of illness, but my gorgeous husband Andy bought into all the fear in the media and begged me to get it done sooner rather then later. If I didn't have small children to care for I wouldn’t have been so hasty.

Twenty four hours after my flu vaccination I woke up completely wiped out (energy levels about a 1 in 10) and and my cold was back with a vengeance. Over the week it’s worsened into laryngitis and now a cough.

This smoothie is exactly what my body has been craving. I got to the stage where I only want to drink this and eat other fresh foods, such as cooked and raw vegetables and fruits, with a bit of protein - like tofu or fish. It feels like denser foods such as dairy and grains are interfering with my body’s immune process. I only want to eat foods that add something to my nutritional profile, not take away from it.

Except for coffee, because this woman’s gotta mother still.

Ingredients - add straight to your blender

2 stalks celery

4cm round of pineapple, peeled

1 whole orange, peeled

1 whole lemon, peeled

1 green apple

3 red radishes, washed

1 clove garlic

3- 4 cm knob of ginger, grated

2-3 cm knob of fresh turmeric, grated or 1 heaped tsp dried

half to one whole avocado

30ml of Elderflower Syrup

A really good grind of black pepper - this helps the absorption of the medicinal properties of turmeric

Enough filtered water for volume of ingredients and size of blender, - perhaps 1 - 2 cups

Blend it all together and enjoy

Ginger Cacao Hot Chocolate

Over Easter we were all struck down with colds. I couldn’t get enough ginger at the time. Swallowing ginger tea, or slurping gingery soup feels like a direct assault on the virus as it travels to your stomach. Being Easter Sunday I thought I might try and mix my ginger with some chocolate and here’s the result.

Grate a 3cm piece of ginger and place the ginger in a tea pot. Add very hot water, but not quite boiling, and let steep for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile Place 1 tsp of cacao in a mug. Pour the hot ginger tea over the top and stir the cacao until dissolved. Top off with some milk of choice and sweeten to taste with maple syrup or honey. Delicious.

Ginger Pear & Pumpkin Soup with Coriander Pesto

 This recipe is a velvety celebration of autumn. Ginger is highly revered as a 'universal medicine' in ayuveda, according to Rosalie de la Foret in her book gorgeous book 'Alchemy of Herbs.'  The immune boosting and anti-inflammatory properties inspired this recipe but ginger is quite good in pregnancy nausea and motion sickness, and helps remedy a fever by dilating the blood vessels. The Ras el hanout offers quite a bit of anti-inflammatory and circulatory stimulant properties as well. This is truly a soup to warm, nourish, and revitalise. The coriander has an affinity for toxic heavy metals and will bond to them and carry them right out of your body.  

• a good chunk of Pumpkin, diced
• 1 Brown Onion
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 4 cm knob of ginger
• 1 Pear, peeled, cored, chopped
• 1 litre bone broth/vegie stock
• 1 ras el hanout
• 2 bunches Coriander
• a couple of glugs of olive oil
• 1 lime
• ½ handful almonds

Preheat the oven to about 190℃. Spread the pumpkin out on a baking tray. Add 1 - 2 tbsp olive oil. Stir to smother the pumpkin in oil completely and season with some pink sea salt. Roast for 30 minutes.

Once the pumpkin is in the oven chop your garlic and onion and add some more olive oil to a pot on the stove. Heat to medium and add the onion. The longer you let the onion simmer the more delicious it will be, so brown for a minimum of 5 minutes but for as long as 25. Once you're satisfied with your simmered onions add the ginger, garlic and Ras el hanout and stir until fragrant.

Add the stock and the pear and bring to a strong simmer. Add in the pumpkin hot from the oven, remove your pot from the heat and blend until smooth. I like to use a stick blender because the process of transferring hot liquids into a blender makes me nervous.

Serve with a dollop of Coriander pesto

Coriander Pesto

Add Coriander, almonds, olive oil and a good pinch of salt to a food processor.  A mini one will be fine if you have one of those and blend. You could also use a mortar and pestle. Grind or blend into a chunky paste.

Conquer That Cold! 7 strategies for getting well ASAP

Oh no, there's a familiar yet dreaded tickle in the back of your throat. Your energy levels drop to zero and that mild headache just won’t go away. Don't distress! Follow these guidelines and with some good rest you’ll be back on your feet and healthy before the snot stream cascade. This is what I do when I’m getting sick. With these little tricks of the trade 95% of the time I manage to prevent my condition developing and lasting more then 1 – 2 days.

Hit the Herbs: Here’s the thing, while conventional western medicine can’t do anything much to kill a cold or a virus, there ‘s heaps of help waiting in the plant world. There are many amazing dynamic and effective herbal combinations that boost your immune system and have direct anti-microbial and anti-viral action. Herbal medicine can reduce the duration and severity of your cold/flu by days. Taking herbs in liquid form is best, but dried herbs in capsule form also work, albeit probably not as fast. Most naturopaths do quick acute immune consults so call ahead on the day and book in.

Essentials Oils: Eucalyptus and Tea Tree are magnificent anti-viral’s and decongestants. Thyme and oregano are also great anti-microbials and fab for throat infections. I’ve become a devotee of throwing my head back, opening my mouth and letting 1 drop (that’s 1 drop) of tea tree oil fall onto the back of my throat. You can then gargle and swallow, or if gargling is too much, just swallow. Make sure your tea-tree is 100% pure. Right now in my essential oil diffuser I have eucalyptus, cloves, wintergreen and myrrh, all wonderful for killing bugs and helping you breathe easier.

Zinc and Vitamin C: During periods of illness I recommend 45mg of zinc daily in two divided doses and vitamin C at 2000mg per day (for an 60kg adult) in divided doses. For a child administer the weight appropriate percentage of the adult dosage, for example, a 20kg child would take 700mg of C in instances of respiratory illness.

Eat whole cloves of garlic. I know this sounds yuck, but you can swallow it like a pill, you don’t have to chew! It’s important to crush the garlic first, this activates the anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial immune boosting goodness called Allicin within the clove.. Garlic also helps keep you intestinal bacteria in check. Some people do this every day as a preventative measure. Apparently after you get used to it you don’t smell so much. Hmmm.

Ginger and lemon tea: I like to chop my ginger and simmer in a saucepan for 20 mins or so, and then add fresh squeezed lemon juice just before I drink, You can add garlic and honey to this combo, but I prefer to eat my garlic whole (see above)

Healing Chicken Soup: A high quality protein soup made with bone broth is full of minerals and amino acids required for kickass immune function. Plus the act of making a delicious home made meal with the intention of healing is beautifully nurturing and health restoring for all who partake in it's nourishment. There's magic in the mix. Try my recipe here.

Bed Rest. I know it’s hard to drop everything, obligations and necessity keep us out and about. Do what you can to rug up and keep warm as much as poss, and get some good and proper rest! Outsource the cooking duties for one night, leave the washing in the basket. Get into a good book or a fave magazine, and laze about with your aloe vera tissues and an immune essential oil blend (see above) The more energy you have to devote to fighting off that flu the better.

Get well soon my lovelies

Love Libby

Healing Chicken Soup

Yesterday only hours after boasting about my ‘immune system of steel' my husband Andrew, I fell ill with headache and fever. I was straight home to bed were I stayed for hours, I downed immune boosting herbs, anti-viral essential oils, vitamin c and zinc, I was making myself ginger lemon tea and swallowing garlic cloves whole. I managed to muster up the strength to cook myself a healing whole chicken soup, and today after plenty of rest, I feel like I’m in convalescence, I managed to stop this monster in it’s tracks.  

A soup made with the whole chicken, provides proteins essential for the production of immune cells, and all the wonderful minerals from the bones are leached into the broth providing zinc, magnesium, calcium, and Vit D just to mention a few. Only recently have a started eating meat after 13 years as a vegetarian, and sometimes vegan. I ate my soup yesterday with gratitude reverence for the chicken, and all of the life giving and healing vitality it bestowed. I beleive yy intention of healing while I prepared and ate this dish played just an important role in my quick recovery as the nourishing ingredients themselves.

Here is my recipe adapted from Perth author Jude Bleureu's “Healing Chicken Soup in her amazing book Wholefood.

Healing Chicken Noodle Soup

Okay first of all this works best if you have a really big soup pot, like a proper stock pot. I don’t have one of these and tried making my soup with a le crusset casserole dish. It worked but it was a tight squeeze, and I made a bit of a mess.

I whole organic free range chicken 2 medium sized brwn onions or a large brown onion 3 stalks of celery 3 carrots a few sprigs of fresh thyme 6-8 sage leaves 2 sprigs fresh oregano 1 corn cob, kernals removed and reserved 3-4 garlic cloves 1 tsp apple cider vinegar 2 bay leaves sea salt black pepper 2 handfuls of flat leaf Italian parsley 8 dried shitake mushrooms two handfuls of noodles, soba noodles, vermicelli egg noodles, or whatever noodles you acquire

1. Place your large soup pot over a low heat and place the whole chicken inside. IF therese is skin on the chicken the fat will serve to cook the vegetables, but you can add some olive oil to help the cooking process along.

2. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and gently sizzle. Add the thyme, sage and oregano, and then the corn and the corn cob, garlic, ginger and half the parsley. Add the stock, the shitake mushrooms and the bay leaves. Cook for one hour.

3. Lift the chicken out of the liquid and remove the flesh. I used a pair of tongs, and a fork to get this job done. Also take out the shitake mushrooms and slice them up nice and small. Add the bones and mushrooms back into the broth and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.

4. Remove the bones and the corn cob, and check soup for consistency and flavour. Add the noodles. Add more herbs if you like, some extra salt as required or some tamari. When the noodles are cooked through the soup is ready.

Happy Wellness

Fight Flu with Elderberry

After not being sick for years I flew into Broome the other day (yes on a holiday) coming down with a head cold. It started in my ears and at the back of my throat. My ears were tingly ears and swallowing felt weird and uncomfortable. The uncomfortable feeling moved down into the larynx. My head was tired, as the plane came into land my ears felt like they were filled with glue, very painful pressurised glue. I was equipped with lemons, ginger, and a herbal tablet that contained immune boosting, energising anti-inflammatory herbs. I craved horseradish and ate it with my lunch that day, the cooling radish helped clear my sinuses and soothe my throat.

Immediately after stepping off the plane I felt the humid air dry up my nostrils. It was like a healing gift from the universe. I felt grateful that on the day that I am hit with my first cold in two years is the day I fly to extreme northern Australia. The symptoms were relieved somewhat by the climate but the underlying cold was still hanging around.

Several days later I stepped out for lunch at an amazing Japanese fusion restaurant and I noticed they had an Elderberry extract available for a refreshing beverage, claiming to be the 'Flavour of Angels'. Being an angel lover I fell for the sale point hook line and sinker and ordered one immediately.

Yes my Elderberry was indeed was incredibly delicious. I had a hunch though that the elderberry was actually just what the doctor ordered for my head cold. Knowing that Elderberry is considered good for the respiratory system I decided to some research when I got home. As it turns out my hunch was correct.

• Some viruses, such as influenza A and B, and the Herpes virus, have little tiny spikes on their exteriors. These spikes piece the outer membrane of your cells allowing the virus to enter and infect the cell. Elderberry has constituents that actually deactivate these spikes, so they are unable to piece your cells and continue to infect you further.
• Several studies have shown that with regular dosing of Elderberry extract flu symptoms were less severe and resolved a couple of days quicker then those taking placebo.
• Elderflower is particularly effective at fighting colds and flu when taken with zinc and vitamin C.

I noticed in the pharmacy the other day that you can actually buy a bottled extract of Black Elderberry, botanically known as  Sambucus nigra (Fun Fact: Sambucca liqueur is made from elderberry hence the name Sambucca). The product is marketed with cold and flu syrup, and I recommend getting the one with  added Vitamin C and Zinc. The product also comes in dried tablet form and lozenges. I'm more inclined to go for the bottled variety as the healing constituents are better preserved that way. I love sharing health and well being knowledge. If you love hearing it subscribe to my newsletter and I'll let you know about any new updates.

In health and wellness

Lib