Alternative Health

Herbal Immunity Builders

prevent the common cold with natural boosters

Much has been written about herbal cold remedies, but opinions vary so widely that it’s difficult to know how to begin tackling a cold with herbs. We decided to consult some experts—not doctors and pharmacists but herbalists who are personally and professionally involved with the herbal medicine industry—and asked them, What do you do when you have a cold?

We must have chosen the right group of people for this survey. None of them has been really sick for years, they say. In addition to using herbs to alleviate the symptoms of a cold, they also use them daily to promote good general health. And this, they feel, prevents cold viruses from taking hold in the first place.

echinacea

yellow dock Jeanne Rose, prominent herbalist, author, and teacher in San Francisco, relies on a trademarked formula she calls YEGG whenever her chest tightens up and she’s coughing more than usual. She combines yellow dock, echinacea root, goldenseal, and ginseng in a ratio of 1:2:2:1, puts it into capsules, and takes three of them three times a day for ten days. “And I eat lots of garlic soup,” she says.

Mark Blumenthal of Austin, Texas, executive director of the American Botanical Council and editor of HerbalGram, adopts the following regimen when he feels a cold coming on: two to four tablets of garlic daily, a whopping 3 to 4 grams of vitamin C daily, two to three droppers of echinacea root extract every four to six hours, two to three droppers of liquid astragalus (an herb often used in Chinese medicine) every four to six hours, and two 500-milligram capsules of goldenseal root four times daily. “Why don’t I get colds? Because I know about Echinacea,” says Portia Meares. An herbalist living in Wolftown, Virginia, former editor of The Business of Herbs Magazine, and a founding member of the International Herb Growers and Marketers Association, there’s no doubt Meares knows about Echinacea.

Garlic and echinacea, used alone or in combination, seem to relieve many of the early symptoms of a cold. Our respondents incorporate this pair into the diet in small amounts with the goal of maintaining a vigilant immune system, increasing the dose to supplement natural defenses if a cold virus gains a foothold. Many times, they observe, no other treatment is necessary.

You don’t have to believe that echinacea root supports the immune system by stimulating circulation and respiration or that garlic increases blood flow to the extremities and boosts the immune response directly. For many people, it’s enough to know that garlic and echinacea can make you feel better.