Thank you to everyone who joined me yesterday for the Natural Remedies for Cough, Cold, and Flu Mini-Class. It was a lot of fun and I’m sure you were left with a lot of questions. I’m going to do my best to answer them today.
Q: Where can I get the essential oils you talked about in the video?
A: Although there are many different essential oil companies with comparable blends, the essential oil blends I talked about in the video are available from Butterfly Express. They are:
- Deliverance – for immune system support
- Breezy – for upper respiratory system support
- Aspire – for lungs and lower respiratory system support
Also:
- LifeForce – for immune system, fever, adrenal gland
- Stefanie – for lungs, to help fight pneumonia bacteria
- Mariah – for lungs and the flu
- ThermaCare – for fever and the flu
*NOTE: Always apply essential oils with a carrier oil, never apply essential oils neat – no matter the quality or purity of the oil or what you’ve heard or read. Applying any EO neat (even lavender) sets you up for sensitivities.
Q: Can I purchase the tinctures or do I need to make them myself?
A: The tinctures are available for purchase from Butterfly Express and so are the herb packs if you want to make the herbal tinctures yourself. The herbal combinations (tinctures) I talked about in the mini-class are:
Also:
- SuperC – first response for cold, lymph drainage
- WC – cough, expectorant
- PL – lung congestion (milder than L Con, use with an infection fighting formula)
- LCon – strong lung congestion
- IB – immune builder
- FC – flu combination
- RC – infection fighter
- RC-L – infection fighter that’s effective for bacterial or viral flu
If you want to make your own herbal tinctures,
- Here are the written instructions
- Here is a video
- This is where you can purchase pre-made herb packs for the tinctures listed above.
Q: What about the homeopathic remedies you talked about?
A: The homeopathic remedies I talked about in the mini-class are cell salts (sometimes called tissue salts) which can be purchased at most health food stores that sell supplements. Butterfly Express also sells a liquid version in the form of ‘Blessed Water’.
- Ferrum Phos – low fever, at the 1st sign of cold or flu, head cold, headache, earache
- Kali Mur – medium fever, mucus, cough
Q: Will you share your recipe for The Brew?
A: Absolutely! The Brew is very simple to make:
Ingredients:
- Raw honey (local is best but any raw, unheated, honey will work)
- Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (NOT apple cider flavored vinegar)
- Cayenne Tincture
- Water
Instructions:
- Put 1/4 cup of raw honey in a quart jar
- Add 1 cup of warm water (not too warm, less than 98°) and stir to dissolve the honey
- Add 1/4 cup of raw apple cider vinegar
- Add 3 1/4 cups of cold to tepid water
- Add 7 – 100 drops of Cayenne tincture and stir
The mixture should be hot (not temperature hot, spicy hot) but drinkable. This can be refrigerated and consumed over the course of 2-days as a general tonic, as a healthy substitute to Gatorade, when you have heavy menstrual cycles, when you have an infection, etc. When I feel like I’m coming down with a cold, I drink the entire batch in one day.
Q: Can I use cayenne powder instead of cayenne tincture?
A: Cayenne powder floats on top rather than mixes in which burns your lips when you drink. I wouldn’t recommend it, but in a pinch it would be better than not making The Brew at all.
Q: Will you share your recipe for bone broth?
A: Of course! You’ll find my recipe for bone broth in my article, ‘Osteoblasts, Osteoclasts, and Apple Pie’. Enjoy!
Q: What about the alcohol in the tincture? Is there something I can use that doesn’t contain alcohol?
A: If you’ve every used Benedryl, then you’ve consumed more alcohol than you would if you used an alcohol based tincture. I will admit though that going to the state liquor store to purchase vodka to make the tincture is a bit awkward! I explain it to my students this way: If I take some herbs, steep them in water for 4 hours or more, what I have isn’t water anymore, its an herbal infusion which contains all of the nutrients from the herbs. If I take some herbs, steep them in alcohol for 2-3 weeks, what I have isn’t alcohol anymore, it’s an herbal tincture which contains all of the nutrients and medicinal compounds from the herbs.
However, the taste isn’t the greatest (Benedryl has more alcohol than a tincture, but it also has sugar added which makes it better tasting), so for children, you can purchase most of these tinctures in a glycerin base instead of an alcohol base. Glycerin doesn’t extract as many of the medicinal compounds as alcohol does and it doesn’t have as long of a shelf life (only about 9 months – 1 year for glycerin; who knows for alcohol) but it’s much easier to get your kids to take it.
Q: You didn’t mention anything about stomach flu. What if we’re throwing up?
A: Well, for any kind of nausea or vomiting, I would start with some clay water. 1/4 – 1 tsp of Redmond bentonite clay in a cup of water, stir, and sip. In many cases that will take care of the nausea or vomiting with just one cup. If not, I would continue sipping the clay water until it did.
I would continue with the Deliverance EO to help support my immune system and then apply any of the other oils depending on my symptoms (chests congestion, sinus congestion, etc.).
Butterfly Express does have some essential oil blends that can be helpful for nausea too. I would apply these (always with a carrier oil) to my stomach:
- EZ Traveler – motion sickness, nausea, dizziness, vertigo, morning sickness
- InsideOut – upset stomach, stomach cramps, contipatin, diarrhea, bloating, belching
- Julia – gas, constipation, colic, nausea, upset tummy, other intestinal distress in infants and small children
The following herbal combinations may be helpful too:
- NAUS – primarily for hormone related nausea as in menstruation, pregnancy, etc
- COL – for colic, gas, and stomach pain in children and adults
- COLA – for colic, gas, and stomach pain in adults
I also did a mini-class on clay that might have some useful information.
Q: What if I don’t have any of those oils on hand? It’s going to take a a couple days for me to get them, so what do I do in the meantime?
A: All essential oils have anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal properties. Some oils will have more of one property than another but they all have these properties to some degree. For that reason, using any essential oil is better than using nothing. I would simply order the oils I need and use what I have on-hand until they come in.
Q: What other essential oil companies do you purchase oils from? Do they have blends that could be used instead of these?
A: Most essential oil companies will have similar blends. Each aromatherapist will create a blend based on their experience with the herbs / oils, so although the ingredients may differ, the purpose will be similar. If you visit the Resources page of my website, I share links to the essential oil companies that I use.
Q: I want to learn more about herbal medicine. Can you recommend a program?
A: There are some wonderful herbal training programs! School of Natural Healing, Dr. Christopher’s, Learning Herbs, Herbal Academy… You’ll find links to these programs on my Resources page too!
Q: Can you recommend any additional resources to learn more?
A: Absolutely!
I must say you inspire me, thank you for sharing such valuable information. I intend to enroll in your foot zoning course as soon as financially possible and, while waiting for that day, your mini classes and multiple videos/articles I glean from various sources keep me going.
One thing I’d like to understand better and learn to use effectively is homeopathy, especially for children but also when nausea is involved which makes it so hard to swallow bitter tinctures, teas and so forth. Does homeopathy really work, how truly effective is it? Does it act as a support to EO and herbal remedies or does it stand on its own?
Thank you
Hi Odile, thanks for commenting and for such nice words of encouragement! Homeopathy is a fun area of self-help and I find it both stands on its own and can be used as a compliment to other remedies. However, I typically reach for Redmond clay when I have a challenge with nausea. For additional information, Joette Calebrese and Shilpa Bhouraskar are two good resources to learn more about homeopoathy. I hope to see you in Foot Zoning class! 🙂