Winter is the season of coughs, colds and sniffles!
On the farm, we keep our immune systems continually boosted with our daily dose of kefir, so it’s pretty rare that we get ill. But there are always new strains of bacteria and viruses evolving out there, and every so often one of them will sneak past the gates of the immune system, and bring us down. When this happens, here’s what we do:
For a cough or head cold:
Bring about one inch of water to the boil in a saucepan. When it is boiling, add 3 drops of CG Oil. Cover your head and the pan with a towel and inhale the steam for 2 minutes. Repeat morning and evening until symptoms subside.
The essential oil travels on the steam, making its way directly into the infected area in the sinuses and lungs. The trick here is little and often. As the minute particles of oil are impacting the infection physically, instead of systemically as an antibiotic would do, you need to repeat this treatment frequently to resolve the infection. Then dab a little kefir on your little finger, and put it up your nose. Repeat on the other nostril. Sounds odd, but what you’re doing here is killing off the bad bacteria with the CG Oil, and then re-populating those cleared out spaces with helpful lactobacillus. If you don’t re-populate with the good bacteria, the pathogens will simply grow back to fill up the empty spaces again. This will reduce the duration of a head cold dramatically.
For a sore throat:
Squeeze the juice of one lemon into a mug. Add 1 drop of CG Oil, and 2 TBSP of heather honey. We use heather honey instead of manuka on the farm, because the indication is that much of the honey on the manuka on the market these days is fake, so you’re paying all that money for nothing! Good old fashioned UK-based heather honey is a mono-honey, just like manuka, and has been shown to be even more powerful in terms of its antibacterial properties. 1 Fill mug with hot water and stir thoroughly to dissolve the honey. Allow to cool to a comfortable temperature. Gargle each mouthful to allow the mixture to contact your sore throat, and then swallow. Repeat once daily. Note – I only use honey medicinally, not as a daily flavouring. It is extremely high GI – just as high as refined sugar – so harms your microbiome and shouldn’t be used all the time. I also use sterilised honey dressings on wounds – it’s fantastic for preventing infection!
For flu symptoms:
Make the lemon-honey-CG Oil drink as above, and add 100 g of fresh ginger, crushed. Steep for 20 minutes. Drink when cool enough, making sure that you don’t swallow the ginger. This is a beautiful warming drink that also aids digestion.
For stomach cramps:
My sure-fire stomach cramp cure is a smoothie made of red cabbage and apple. Blend 200 g of red cabbage and one apple, chunked to a fine pulp and just covered with water. (I love my Nutribullet for this, and all my smoothies.) Add water as needed to make a drinkable consistency.
