I got a phone call from a good friend the other night…
“Ummm, Aimee, I ju- [coughs] just thought you sh- [clears throat, coughs] should know that I have H1N1.”
Awesome. (Here are a few of my thoughts on H1N1 if you missed my earlier post.)
Six of us were hanging out with our H1N1 buddy the same night she went to urgent care to get the diagnosis. We were all digging our hands into a bowl of pretzels, sitting close, giving hugs, playing board games… all sorts of dirty-germ-spreading things.
Hubby was hanging out at the H1N1 party as well. That means double our chances of getting sick. Additionally, it’s the end of the semester, so I’ll be a bit more crazy than usual (which also results in driving the hubby more crazy). Thus, it’s definitely time for some immune-boosting measures and some extra prophylactic pig flu duties.
We’re making sure we get enough sleep, taking the usual public health measures, popping our multi-vitamins, adding an extra boost of Vit C and Zinc, ingesting lots of ginger and garlic, drinking some teas and we’ve added this:
The above is a product from New Chapter, called “Immunity take care,” which is really just an elderberry extract (sambucus nigra). The stuff isn’t cheap– I got a bottle of 30 lozenges, which is a one month supply for $30. I buy this brand because of its potency and similarity to the full herbal chemistry of elderberry as it is found in nature.
Elderberry has been used for thousands of years to boost the immune system and there’s a lot of research to support its use today. The most interesting study is a recent one that put elderberry flavonoids up against H1N1. Amazingly, elderberry held its own. The authors of the study claim that the elderberry flavonoids compare to the anti-influenza activities of Tamiflu. (I’ll leave the Tamiflu discussion alone for the time being…)
The study was funded by HerbalScience Singapore, a life sciences company that also has a relationship with New Chapter. The authors are also affiliated with HerbalScience. Even so, the research is pretty interesting. And at the very least, it suggests that more research on elderberry and H1N1 is needed.
So, for the next 2 weeks, hubs and I are pumping the elderberry (and the rest of our anti-flu goodies) and we are NOT getting sick. Not getting sick. Not getting sick. (Adding positive affirmations as well.)
If you have any other immune-boosting practices, please share them in the comments below!
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