Folk Remedies for the Flu

originally posted by: underwerks
Of course when he was a kid you could buy opium at the hardware store.

Now you just need to see Billybob in his double wide.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Taking a cold bath with a fever could cause the fever to jump big time after you get out. Taking a hot bath with a fever is bad as well, and could cause you to get dizzy and pass out. You want a Luke warm bath.

If it's just a chest cold no fever that's when you want the hot bath.

Strawberries contain a chemical that steers the immune system to fight viruses, while steering it away from fighting bacteria and fungal infections. The chemical also steers the immune system to fight cancer, especially esophageal cancer.

That chemical is not very heat stable, so making freezer jam is better for flu treatment. Also the pectin naturally fights bacteria and fungi on it's own. The riper the strawberries when the jam is made, and the fact that more of this chemical forms in naturally grown berries, the stronger it is. Frozen strawberries also are picked riper so they may be stronger, sugar does not damage this chemistry either, neither does freezing.. But remember, if you have the flu it helps, but it will not help pnemonia much. It works in a couple of ways, one is it interferes with replication of the virus or cancer and the other is that it increases antiviral chemistry at the expense of anti bacterial chemistry. Just eat some onions on your burger before having the strawberry shortcake.

Onions and garlic are both antiviral and they stop the hemoagglutination that the flu virus causes too. Don't get carried away, both are blood thinners and if you are on blood thinner meds, make note of their property.

Bromelaine destroys viruses, by being absorbed and causing the virus to be destroyed, eating off the thing that they insert into the cells. Monolaurin, from coconut oil and milk, softens the virus so our immune system can attack it, it also softens the shell of other microbes.

So, maybe just throw some fresh pineapple chunks, some strawberries, and a tad bit of coconut into the blender with some ice cream and make a strawberry shake. Sounds tasty, I am pretty allergic to milk though, it stimulates an immune reaction....oh wait...boosting the immune system might be a good thing. I hate all the mucus, but the fresh pineapple is antimucosal so the antidote is in the mix.

Pine needle tea works great too, from white pine, make sure it is white pine. But if you are intoleant to tamaflu, you will be intolerant to the pine needle tea too, cause it is the same chemical that is active.

There are lots of things that can help fight diseases, Chicken soup made from dark meat is probably one of the best I know, with celery, carrots, onions, garlic, and some cabbage. Put some sage into it, it makes it taste good and sage is also antiviral.

Hot totties is good for colds and flues, make sure the brandy is decent though, it tastes better if you use good brandy and real honey. It needs ginger or ginger brandy, the flavoring in ginger brandy is bioactive for fighting flu. We always have the ingrediants to make hot totties in stock because it works, every time. Plus after three of them you do not care if you are sick. You are more worried about having a hangover the next morning.

originally posted by: Skorpiogurl
I used to get the flu every year. It was a guarantee that I'd get it and be down for a week.
I changed my nutritional plan and haven't had it since (knock on wood)
But one that I heard a while ago that always stuck with me - Cut open an onion and put it under your bed. Supposedly it would absorb the germs/bacteria and shorten the length of the flu.
I never tried it but I do know that onions absorb everything around them so it might work

After a couple of days under the bed, it will chase away anyone with or without the flu so they can't make you sick sleeping with them.

I did some studying on that, and it is not real, just eat more onions and keep a couple of onions on the counter, they do not need to be cut open, the thiols in them can destroy viruses, but a bag on the counter does the same thing. Garlic hanging on the door is supposed to deter evil too. Actually a real ceder wreath hanging on your door to the house has more antiviral effect than twenty cut up onions, the terpines in ceder kill viruses, the smell contains turpenes. Most pine trees have this ability, but your fake christmas tree does not have that ability to kill viruses, a spruce tree does.

a reply to: rickymouse

Pine needle tea works great too, from white pine, make sure it is white pine. But if you are intoleant to tamaflu, you will be intolerant to the pine needle tea too, cause it is the same chemical that is active.

My mom used to eat a lot of pine nuts. I personally couldn't stand them. I thought they smelled/tasted like soap.
She never had the flu though!

originally posted by: willzilla
I normally make up some garlic soup for colds and flu. For hiccups, my nurse sister told me to say grapefruit juice. I haven’t had them to try it out.

Garlic chicken soup will help just about anything and keep vampires away too

I had the kerosene or turpentine treatment. A rag soaked in it around my neck and drank it with honey and whisky from my grandmother when I was a kid. I dont know if it cured me but at least it didnt kill me. Drinking some turpentine isnt advisable.. I dont care if its in whisky. LOL! Given turpentine was a different formulation back when.. but still. The other grandma gave me fresh elderberries.. black lace elderberries grow like crazy everywhere... and blackstrap molasses.

Now that Im an adult... its elderberry syrup and bone broth like crazy. I had tamiflu when H1N1 made me so sick I wanted to just go ahead and lay down and die. Id gotten a secondary infection from it and was coughing up yellowish FOAM.. Im telling you, I think the elderberry saved my life.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: rickymouse

Pine needle tea works great too, from white pine, make sure it is white pine. But if you are intoleant to tamaflu, you will be intolerant to the pine needle tea too, cause it is the same chemical that is active.

My mom used to eat a lot of pine nuts. I personally couldn't stand them. I thought they smelled/tasted like soap.
She never had the flu though!

People years ago used to chew spruce gum too, I have never tried it, but I bet it works. I wonder if the pine resin would work to treat flu, it oozes out of the trunk sometimes on our pine trees.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: willzilla
I normally make up some garlic soup for colds and flu. For hiccups, my nurse sister told me to say grapefruit juice. I haven’t had them to try it out.

Garlic chicken soup will help just about anything and keep vampires away too

Naw, garlic does not keep away vampires, that is a myth. I have werewolf porphyria and my daughters have the vampire porphyrias and they are always asking me for Chicken soup when they or their families get sick, I have about four cloves of garlic in the pot. I make many big pots of soup a month, with eight in one family, and four in the other, plus my granddaughter is now married and has a kid. We have big thermose containers, five of them, for hauling soup to the kids and grandkids. I pick one up when I drop a pot off. One thermos can hold seven big bowls of soup.

So, garlic and vampires is a myth. Raw Broccoli makes vampires crazy and can cause them harm.

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: rickymouse

Pine needle tea works great too, from white pine, make sure it is white pine. But if you are intoleant to tamaflu, you will be intolerant to the pine needle tea too, cause it is the same chemical that is active.

My mom used to eat a lot of pine nuts. I personally couldn't stand them. I thought they smelled/tasted like soap.
She never had the flu though!

People years ago used to chew spruce gum too, I have never tried it, but I bet it works. I wonder if the pine resin would work to treat flu, it oozes out of the trunk sometimes on our pine trees.

Hmmm turpentine .. real turpentine.... is made from Pine. Maybe grandma wasnt really trying to kill me.

originally posted by: Advantage

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: rickymouse

Pine needle tea works great too, from white pine, make sure it is white pine. But if you are intoleant to tamaflu, you will be intolerant to the pine needle tea too, cause it is the same chemical that is active.

My mom used to eat a lot of pine nuts. I personally couldn't stand them. I thought they smelled/tasted like soap.
She never had the flu though!

People years ago used to chew spruce gum too, I have never tried it, but I bet it works. I wonder if the pine resin would work to treat flu, it oozes out of the trunk sometimes on our pine trees.

Hmmm turpentine .. real turpentine.... is made from Pine. Maybe grandma wasnt really trying to kill me.

So, your grandma was giving you turpinhydrate with codeine? That was a really good medicine, I wonder if that is still being sold at the pharmacies. The good stuff you had to ask for at the pharmacy counter back in the eighties after people started abusing the stuff. The turpinhydrate works like Tamaflu plus the codeine was a cough suppressent so you did not crack your ribs when coughing. It worked pretty good, but like tamaflu it just cut back the duration of the flu a day or two but also kept a person from hurting their ribs and voice box from coughing so hard.

People think that Tamaflu is a new discovery, it is not, the same chemical found in the star anise fruit is found in white pine needles. But, if people knew free pine needles were just as good as that medicine that is found in China, far far away, they would not pay fifty bucks for a bottle of it.

a reply to: rickymouse

Those broccoli farts are pretty terrible.

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: Advantage

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: rickymouse

Pine needle tea works great too, from white pine, make sure it is white pine. But if you are intoleant to tamaflu, you will be intolerant to the pine needle tea too, cause it is the same chemical that is active.

My mom used to eat a lot of pine nuts. I personally couldn't stand them. I thought they smelled/tasted like soap.
She never had the flu though!

People years ago used to chew spruce gum too, I have never tried it, but I bet it works. I wonder if the pine resin would work to treat flu, it oozes out of the trunk sometimes on our pine trees.

Hmmm turpentine .. real turpentine.... is made from Pine. Maybe grandma wasnt really trying to kill me.

So, your grandma was giving you turpinhydrate with codeine? That was a really good medicine, I wonder if that is still being sold at the pharmacies. The good stuff you had to ask for at the pharmacy counter back in the eighties after people started abusing the stuff. The turpinhydrate works like Tamaflu plus the codeine was a cough suppressent so you did not crack your ribs when coughing. It worked pretty good, but like tamaflu it just cut back the duration of the flu a day or two but also kept a person from hurting their ribs and voice box from coughing so hard.

People think that Tamaflu is a new discovery, it is not, the same chemical found in the star anise fruit is found in white pine needles. But, if people knew free pine needles were just as good as that medicine that is found in China, far far away, they would not pay fifty bucks for a bottle of it.

Nope.. it was turpentine.

I recall the ETH w Codeine! You could get it OTC I think. Youd take a spoon full and have to huff and puff in and out real fast or it would take your breath!

Cold steep a few grams of dried Amanita muscaria mushrooms into a tea.
A couple cups of this a day will knock out most any virus.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
I'm not going to talk about the WUFlu here, but I would like to discuss things in general
seen as folk remedies for the flu.

Some good stuff in there, but I'd add...

Fast. Fasting when sick is the best/fastest way to full recovery. Drink plenty of clay water made using a high quality clay (I like the three-clay blend from Eytonsearth). If you really think you need something more, drink fresh, home made broths (I love chicken), but fluids only.

For the liquids, alternate with lemon/cayenne/ginger water or tea, and pure water.

Get a good nebulizer, and nebulize oregano oil. Seriously. This could save your life (and save you an expensive trip to the hospital).

Engage in gentle rebounding - known as the 'health bounce', where your feet don't leave the mat. This energizes the lymphatic system.

I never take anything for symptoms (although I rarely get sick), that just covers things up. It may make you feel better, but then you go to work and continue to spread it around.

Kimchi has proven effective against influenza virus:
prnewswire - kimchi effective against influenza

Lactic acid bacteria, green onion and ginger in kimchi serve as natural antiviral agents, highly effective in preventing influenza. Kimchi has the greatest antiviral effect when it is the most delicious (the well-fermented stage, about 3-7 days after kimchi is made). When the SARS epidemic swept China, kimchi safeguarded Koreans against the epidemic. A joint research team from the Korea Food Research Institute and the World Institute of Kimchi proved kimchi's effectiveness against flu.

In this study, extracts from kimchi at the well-fermented stage were administered to cells infected with the influenza virus (H1N1) and the avian influenza virus (H7N9). In all of the cells, plaque formation significantly reduced, meaning the growth of the flu had been inhibited. In the animal experiment where flu infected mice were fed kimchi, the weight loss due to the flu also declined. In addition, the survival rate of the mice who consumed kimchi was 30% higher than those who did not.

Dr. Kim, said, "Lactobacillus plantarum, which is produced in large quantities during the fermentation of kimchi, and its sub-ingredients such as green onion and ginger are thought to hinder the growth of influenza virus. We concluded that bioactive compounds from lactic acid bacteria produced by kimchi fermentation serve as antiviral agents by affecting the virus membrane surface or promptly activating immune cells mobilization."

According to a 2005 BBC report:
news.bbc.co.uk...

Scientists at Seoul National University fed an extract of kimchi to 13 infected chickens, and a week later 11 of them had started recovering.

Overall, kimchi is a great food to prevent influenza, it combines at least three flu fighting ingredients. It looks like kimchi was designed to fight the flu.

a reply to: rickymouse

Onions and garlic are both antiviral and they stop the hemoagglutination that the flu virus causes too.

There are people that beat the Spanish flu by consuming large quantities of just those two items a 100 years ago.