To shorten the duration of the flu you can try olive leaf and elderberry, two anti-viral herbs. They should be available in any health food store and even in many drug stores. For the congestion, anything we recommend might work and might not; that's how medicine of any kind works. Planetary Formulas makes a good formula based on the herb mullein that helps with congestion. Bromelain, vitamin C and quercitin combinations act as anti-histamines to decrease inflammation. Freeze dried nettles and scutelaria, or Chinese skullcap, are also good anti-histamines. Ephedra based compounds used to work great, but they're hard to find or completely unavailable now because of the stupidity of the FDA and idiot American teenagers who were using them to make meth. I don't know if you can find any, but you might find ma huang as a single herb, also called ephedra; it is a mild upper but ephedra-based bronchodilaters were the best and this herb contains small amounts of ephedra that are unlikely to harm anyone. But you'll need a really good health food store to find it. There are also homepathic remedies, which also might be available in a drug store, for sinus and chest congestion. A good tea is Gypsy Cold Care by Traditional Medicinals. Other clearing herbs are wild cherry bark, slippery elm, coltsfoot, and many others, but again, you'll probably need a health food store to find them. As for OTC medication, I wouldn't know, as I don't use it for that purpose.
hi...got this msg after I had made my trip uptown(first one in a week!!)
I visited our health food store and asked him what was the best of anything he had for severe chest congestion........and he recommended the following.
fenugreek seed tea..by 'celebration herbals NY'...I seep it for 12 min than drink 3 cups a day.
every heard of it?
well I'm on my second cup and last for tonight, will let you know if it works at all.
Fenugreek is used for clearing, but formulas work better than single herbs. On the other hand, any hot tea will help, even the old standby honey and lemon tea, which is just fresh lemon and a teaspoon of honey in a cup of hot water, basically. Helps bring up what's in your chest. Hope the fenugreek works for you.
well you know I did sleep better..didn't cough all night and my chest is less heavy this a.m., so it appears to have done something!..I will keep using for a few more days....I could probably have saved the money and maybe just bought honey???....
enjoy the forum and look forward to getting alot more enlightened as time goes..thx