Posts Tagged ‘Swine Flue’

Author: Caroline Osborne

It’s in the news every day – swine flu is spreading, more cases confirmed, more countries affected, schools closed…

Will it be a flu pandemic like 1918, which lasted over a year and killed 50 million people worldwide, or will it fizzle out like in 1976, when more people died from the vaccine than from the flu? (25 from the vaccine, 1 from the flu.)

I wasn’t around in 1918, so I can’t say what it was like, but this latest strain appears to be milder than the usual flu’s. When you have flu, you might feel like death warmed up, but flu is normally only life threatening to the very old, the very young and those who already have serious health problems.

This latest flu is no different – most of the deaths (and there haven’t been many) have been people in these vulnerable groups.

For healthy adults and older children, you’re not likely to die of flu, swine flu or any other. If you want to avoid it, concentrate on staying well, not on worrying about getting ill (worrying lowers your immune function).

• Take lots of vitamin C, which helps your immune system.

• Avoid sugary, fatty and processed foods and artificial additives. These sap your body’s energy as it works hard to digest them and clear them out.

• Eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables for their vitamins and minerals, and to keep your blood pH alkaline. Germs of any sort can’t survive well in an alkaline environment.

• Get plenty of exercise. Exercise encourages deep breathing and stimulates your blood flow, getting more oxygen to every cell of your body. Bacteria and viruses don’t like too much oxygen, but your cells like plenty.

The best protection for small babies is their mother’s milk. For weaned babies and toddlers, and the elderly, the tips above will help – lots of vitamin C, lots of good food, stay off the junk food, moderate exercise and lots of fresh air.

If you don’t want to rely only on your immune system, you can use the added protection of plant power. The Four Thieves’ Vinegar was proved to be potent against the most contagious and deadly of diseases.

The Four Thieves used common herbs to protect themselves from infection while robbing from houses whose owners had died of plague. They themselves never got ill.

The herbs they used were ones that you might well have in your garden – rosemary, thyme, sage and lavender. Not only do these herbs smell wonderful; they are powerful disinfectants. The original four thieves sprinkled themselves with a vinegar infusion of these herbs before entering the streets and houses where plague was rife.

You can use these herbs in lots of ways: carry sprigs of them around with you, place them in vases round the house, or make an infusion (i.e. pour boiling water over the fresh or dried herbs, like making tea) and add it to your bath, rinse your clothes with it, use it around the house as a disinfectant.

If you are planning further ahead, you can make the vinegar infusion. Place a handful of each herb in a jar of cider vinegar. (Cider vinegar is another natural antiseptic.) Leave it to infuse for six weeks then strain off the herbs. You can keep the liquid in a spray bottle for convenience. Spray it round the house or on yourself – the smell of vinegar will soon go, leaving a subtle smell of the herbs.

If you prefer, you can use essential oils instead. They have the same antiviral and antibacterial properties as the whole plant, in a more concentrated form. (Never use them undiluted on your skin.) I often use thyme oil as a disinfectant. Tea tree, from Australia, is even stronger. Tea tree and lavender are two oils that are safe to use undiluted.

Herbs and their essential oils are made of many different molecules, so that viruses and bacteria can never develop resistance to them in the way that they do to chemical drugs. Also, they don’t have harmful side effects. Have you read the list of side effects of the common flu drugs?

About the Author:

Caroline Osborne from www.natural-health-for-you.com says: I love to communicate with people especially about health. I am more and more convinced that nutrition is the key to health and to understanding ill health. I hope I can convince you of the importance of paying attention to good nutrition.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Swine Flu – Should You Panic? (or How To Avoid Swine Flu.)