Four Immune Stimulating Herbs And A Bit On How They Work

My first idea for this post was to write about how certain herbs can help to strengthen our natural immune response. 

But then I thought to myself that someone else has already done that, I will just find it and give you all a link.

I could not find anything of the sort.

Ok, I do not think that I went further than the first page of search results, but who does.

Anyway, all I saw was stuff, kind of like this, listing off different herbs or giving recipes.

What is interesting though is there is not a lot of research proving that most of these herbs actually strengthen the immune system.

Let me explain.

For example, a herb such as thyme, is a very strong antimicrobial herb, which is very useful when trying to fight off an infection.

But it does not affect the immune system (as far as I know).

These kinds of plant medicines are very good to help fight disease, but that is not what I am talking about here. 

Also the four herbs that I am going to talk about.

• Garlic

• Elderberry

• Withania

• Astragalus

Are not herbs that strengthen the immune system by simply nourishing the body (those are great to).

But these are herbs that actually strengthen the body's natural immune response.

How do they do it?

Let me try and explain a few of the ways that they work without getting all scientific and boring.

Also because I can't be bothered to go and look up all those fancy names that I can never remember, let alone spell.

Even spell check doesn't know what they are. 

From what I understand there are two ways that they can work.

1 - they cause the body to produce more white blood cells which go around our body killing germ cells that might have found their way in.

2 - this one is a bit hard to understand but there is something beautifully poetic about it, they produce a sort of in check state of inflammation that is ready to go in a sort of controlled state at the first sign of trouble. 

Pretty cool right?

For any of you who would like all the big words and scientific lingo here are the links to each of these herbs research articles. 

Garlic

https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/food-beverages/garlic

Elderberry

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464614002400

Ashwaganda(Withania) 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3252722/

Astragalus

https://cmjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13020-019-0234-0

 

Medical Mushrooms

Personally I don't have any experience with these Mushrooms.

Most of the multivitamins that I purchase do have a combination of a few of them and for me I feel that it's enough.

Their immune system strengthening properties are what sparked the idea for this post while researching immune stimulating herbs.

All of the medicinal mushrooms have more or less the same five health benefits.

This makes a lot of sense being that well in the end they are all mushrooms,right.

The Five Health Benefits Of Mushrooms

• Prevent diabetes

• Anti-aging

• Anti Cancer

• Keep The Heart Healthy

• Strengthen The Immune System

There is a good solid amount of research to back this up but still nothing has been scientifically proven 100%.

Here is the article that brought this all to my attention.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684115/

Three Great Antispasmodic Herbs

 

When treating a dry hacking cough it is a good idea to add an Antispasmodic herb to the formula.

This helps to calm the cough.

But the interesting thing is that also when treating a wet, productive cough, you should have an Antispasmodic herb in your formula.

It might seem counterintuitive to some because if the cough is productive we are going to add expectorant Herbs to help clear the lungs.

The reason we still want an Antispasmodic herb is so that the coughing action is slow, steady and clearing.

This is one of those things that I learnt that stayed with me.

Truth be, it even resonates very well with me now. Not only physiologically, but also as a state of being.

We need to be in a way slow and consistent to be productive, not spasmodic.

Don't be such a spaz.

Ok a link to the clinical research is under each herb.

Tilia

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4147264/

Mint

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5814329/

Sage

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4003706/

Five Anti-inflammatory Herbs - With Clinical Research To Prove it

 

Anti inflammatory Herbs are extremely useful.

But the thing that can be confusing is knowing which plants that are used traditionally as anti inflammatory have actual clinical research to back up the tradition.

I obviously can't help with all plants that are known to be Anti-inflammatory but here are the first five that I was able to think of.

For the most part the anti inflammatory actions have to do with showing the activity of these things called prostaglandins which cause inflammation in the body.

I will write the name of each hey and a link to the research that I found below the name.

Ginger

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3665023/

Chamomile

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/

Aloe Vera

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330525/

Yarrow

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3232110/

Plantago

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5878035/

What Are Figs Good For?

 What Are Figs Good For?

Well they are good to eat and delicious.

But really now.

Figs are a great low calorie snack when eaten fresh, but try to stay away from the dried ones they are packed with sugar and that means calories.

Figs are great to get the digestive tract moving, making them a great help when dealing with constipation.

I have an uncle that got nicknamed the fig man because he ate a bunch of figs one weekend and well he found out what a great laxative they can be.

If you get what I'm saying.

Figs are also packed with vitamins and minerals.

Just take a look at the photo below.

There is also some research pointing out that figs may be helpful in keeping the heart healthy.

Here is a link to all that research if you are interested.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/figs-benefits#2

The reason I actually thought about figs is because they are in season now and the figs growing on the tree in my yard are just so good.