This time
of the year, back to school and changing weather all signal one thing: COLD
SEASON!
The Sell
family is not immune, though we strive to be one of these years. When our
family got hit hard just two weeks ago, we felt it out for a couple days to see
sniffles, Andy, Liam and Elly remained immune. Within a week, however, Andy
succumbed to some sort of cold variation that was completely different than
Ethan’s and my symptoms.
Within a
few days, he was coughing very hard and deep. One day he was laid out
completely and that’s when we started looking online for symptom descriptions.
I found a site on the Mayo Clinic website. There we saw that most of what he
was suffering matched up to Whooping Cough, or Pertussis.
A home
diagnosis is not as reliable as the sort of diagnosis a doctor’s office would
give, seeing as they take swabs and samples to verify in a lab. However, given
the general public fear of this bacterial infection and the way we’ve seen
whole families quarantined by the county, we decided to play it safe and keep
Andy at home. Whenever there is a case of whooping cough, it is blasted all
over the news and people are urged to get in right away for the pertussis shot or
a booster, especially kids.
We don’t
believe in vaccinating our kids. As I write that, I realize I’m stating it like
a religion, but that’s how militant the government and local health authorities
have gotten about vaccination. You pretty much have to say it goes against
one’s religion in order to get a “pass” for your family. That’s
messed up. One of the minor reasons we are homeschooling is so we don’t have to
compulsorily shoot up our kids for public school.
Many of
you might believe differently about this and that’s ok. I’m not here to make
converts. Andy and I have simply done some research and looked deeper than the
photocopied handouts from the CDC that we always get at each well-checkup.
Being spoon-fed anything is not always Truth.
That
being said, we didn’t want one of several things to happen upon a doctor’s
visit:
1. Being
forced to explain our kids’ lack of “up to date” immunizations when
it’s none of their business.
2.
Possibly being quarantined when we have no plans to leave our home anytime soon
anyway.
3.
Causing a major “outbreak” fear mongering of the media and hospitals.
4. The
only thing doctors give for pertussis is antibiotics which we avoid at all
costs anyway, since even one dose severely damages the essential gut flora
necessary for proper immunities in the first place.
Whew.
That was a lot. I’m getting to the point of this post, trust me!
While
Andy lay resting in bed, I took a break to look up some herbal remedies for
whooping cough and learn more about the infection online. I came across a
wonderfully written blog article at Natural Home, a sister publication of GRIT
magazine. We love Natural Home for its many eco-conscious building ideas and
home accessories. One of their bloggers, Heidi Cardenas, had some ideas for
licking the cough right at home with some common household spices and herbs. Her ideas explain the individual benefits of a variety of herbs and spices, each with its own cough-fighting properties.
Here is
her link: Natural Home Remedies for Treating Whooping Cough
When I
read the short post to Andy, he said…”That sounds a lot like the
ingredients for mustard.”
And so
began our experiment: Mighty Mustard. Below, Andy details the ingredients and
prep.
MIGHTY MUSTARD
The flavor is intense. You may have to tweak it based on
your level of taste comfort. Do this with water; you want a consistency like a
thin paste or a slightly thick mustard. It will be slightly grainy and the
onion and garlic will be very fragrant.
Use high quality, organic and raw whenever possible,
especially the onions, garlic and ginger as they are the powerhouses of this
recipe.
Ingredients
1/4 Cup turmeric
1 half head garlic, peeled
1 Tbsp mustard
1/4 white onion
1 Tbsp mustard seed
4 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp mineralized sea salt (we use Redmond’s)
3 Tbsp fresh ginger (finely grated and compressed)
4 Tbsp Bragg’s apple cider vinegar
water to taste/texture
1 Tbsp cinnamon
Add all but water to food processor and blend on high until VERY
smooth. Slowly add the water until you are at the desired consistency. If the
sharpness is too strong, cut it with another tbsp or two of honey. If it is
still too intense, cut it with more water. Flavor mellows with age so the more
you make the more palatable it is. Stays for up to a month in the fridge.
Take one tablespoon four to five times per day, or once every
four hours when ill. Take as a condiment for preventative care whenever you are
well.
The
reason we are even sharing this with you all today is because it worked
miraculously! Andy wanted to call it Spicy Death Kill because the
intensity of the flavors melding together, but he dutifully took one spoonful
every few hours washed down with a glass of water. We began this experiment
late morning and by evening, he was showing a reduction in coughs by two thirds
and when he did cough, it wasn’t the deep body cough of the pertussis; it was a
phlegm extracting cough. The garlic, ginger and turmeric are all expectorants,
as well as anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-spasmodic.
The next day Andy continued the regime and he was nearly back to his normal self with
energy, vibrant color and very few whooping-type coughs (though some still crop
up).
We are
not doctors. We don’t boast any sort of treatment background; we just know this
worked in our family. It’s worth a try in yours. You know ol’ Gramps had some
sort of ointment or oil he always took everyday and swore by it. Mighty Mustard
(aka: Spicy Death Kill) might always be in our fridge as an immune building
condiment. Perhaps it should be in yours as well!
PS: Don’t
be pushed into doing anything you are not sure of. The pertussis vaccine
doesn’t even work effectively beyond three years and when there have been
outbreaks, just as many immunized people as un-immunized were sick with the
cough. In fact in some cases, more immunized people were sick than those that
had not taken the shot. Food for thought, friends:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/30/whooping-cough-vaccine.aspx
For the Young’ens…or those with no
heat tolerance like me!
This is
for my friend Jill, who had a very good question. She asked with the last post
if there was a way to make the Mighty Mustard a little more palatable for kids
not too keen on eating a super spicy condiment. Unfortunately, the mustard
itself gets its kick from the very items that are the most healthy for one’s
body: garlic, turmeric, ginger and onions. While we discovered that the
mustard’s strong flavors definitely mellow after a day or two in the
refrigerator and continue to mellow every day it sits, the Mighty-ness of the
condiment remained far too strong for our children to take it with a smile.
Therefore,
I had a backup plan for the kids. (And me!) We haven’t seen the miraculously
quick results of the one-day of treatment that Andy saw with Mighty Mustard,
but we have seen results. As well, there is science behind these
simple ingredients and they can be found at most health food stores. We found
ours at NDC in Oshkosh for those of you local to the Fox Valley.
Remember,
homemade or raw is best when you can get it.
Kid-Friendly
Tonic for Cold and Flu
1
teaspoon Colloidal Silver (optional*)
1
teaspoon Elderberry reduction (syrup)
4-6 oz
orange or apple juice (preferably fresh squeezed, but whatever you can get
is fine)
Mix all
three ingredients in your child’s favorite cup and serve with breakfast. Tell
them it’s a berry orange juice and let them have it. Serve up to four times per
day for to 7 days.
Above,
you can see the brands we found at Nutrition Discount Center last week. Both
are super kid friendly and the directions tell you how much to serve based on
age. I drank a teaspoonful of the elderberry syrup by itself as it was so tasty
but my kids seemed to prefer it “watered down” with juice. Also, they
are not sold with child safety caps, probably because it would be hard to
overdose on a natural thing like elderberry. Even still, don’t let your toddler
grab it while you are preparing breakfast. They are smart little buggers and
want to do exactly as Mommy does. See below for evidence of Liam’s Hitler-esque
elderberry experience.
Now that
you have the recipe, I’ll talk a bit on the health benefits of colloidal silver
and elderberry.
Colloidal Silver
Much to
our amazement, the slightly yellow water is nothing but silver added to water
at the molecular level. That’s it! But it’s been used for centuries as an
anti-bacterial agent and for disinfecting medical tools and instruments. When
anti-biotics became prevalent in the 1940’s, the use of colloidal silver
declined dramatically until in 1975, the medical establishment declared that
oral ingestion of the silver had no substantiated claims to helping build up
immunities and clear out viruses for colds and flu.
*Now I am
not medically trained and I don’t have sufficient background to refute or
endorse those claims. This is why I put it as optional in your tonic. We use it
because we have talked to a couple people who have used it to great success in
killing off all variations of the sorts of colds that hit people this time of
year. Two actually are trained medical professionals and therefore
gave us peace in allowing our kids to have a sip of this unique water.
Something
to note here is that we swear by raw milk and will always drink raw milk, which
has been consumed by humans for millennia. Only in the 1930’s did they decide
that maybe it might not be the best and then as the the years passed, it became
a “serious public health risk.” We have done our research
on that and have decided to go with the alternative health community and drink
to our hearts’ content the un-cooked milk product the medical establishment so
adamantly abhors. Not everything the medical community deems “worthless” is
actually so.
Elderberry Syrup
This is
far less controversial and I only looked it up after two moms in my world
recommended it for our kids’ colds. Knowing a tad bit on the herbal remedies
that elderberries are known for, I looked into it further, lamenting that I had
missed the season of harvest right here in my area by only a month or two. (Next
year, baby!!)
Elderberry
syrup alone is known for its ability to treat those with colds and flu, causing
their symptoms to subside days earlier than those who did not take the
elderberry. It has strong antioxidants and has even been used for anti-cancer
properties in patients. Because it is readily available in the northern
hemisphere, it makes sense to me that the berry has been used for so many
centuries in North America, Europe and Asia for the curative remedies. Even the
medical establishment is beginning to green light this one. 🙂
Below is
a link to a two minute video put out by Fox News just this past March on the
health benefits of elderberry. Enjoy!
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1526868241001/health-benefits-of-elderberry/
Rebekah Sell lives on a small plot of land with her husband, Andy, on which they are hoping to build a sustainable homestead. With a small business and four kids, life is always interesting as Becky and Andy live fully the idea that the journey is the reward. Find her on Google+.
