why lemon + ginger won’t help your flu

Everybody reaches for the ginger and lemon, or even elderberry when they catch a flu, but that’s actually not the most helpful thing you can do. 

Ginger and elderberry are immune stimulants, they keep the flu away, but once the flu is in your body, your immune system is stimulated. Why would you want to stimulate it even more? more stimulation doesn’t equal more effectiveness, in fact, it might make things worse. 

So, what can you do?  

You can help your immune system to work optimally, give it everything it needs to cover all bases, supply it with all its fuel, 

not push it to work more. 

The immune system is hugely complex and requires a multitude of things, but some of the  most accessible things are; 

• minerals and vitamins (some through herbs)

• warmth 

• energy 

• lymph drainage 

To start, the easiest things: 

Stay warm, cover your head, neck and feet well. Your immune system requires heat in order to work, and the heat is what kills pathogens, that’s why we get fevers. 

In order to create such heat, the body needs to speed everything up, and doing this requires a huge amount of energy. 

You can save energy for this process by taking things slower. 

You can also give more energy with regular, carb filled and easily digested meals like stews, porridge, soups etc..

However, your immune system also requires mobilisation and for the pathogen to be eliminated, it does this through the lymph. 

Lymph is a fluid network around the body and cannot move itself - it requires mechanical pumping from the musculoskeletal system. 

So, whilst you want to save energy, you also don’t want to be sedentary. 

Ok, now the minerals and vitamins. 

Vitamin C - stimulates production of white blood cells 

Vitamin D - modulates immune response to avoid overreaction 

Vitamin B complex - such an array of activity in cell function including production, function, and repair 

Zinc - development and function of T-cells and NK cells 

Iron - facilitates oxygen transport 

Pretty much every single vitamin and mineral plays a role too. 

Herbs highest in all minerals and vitamins are generally kitchen spices;

• nettle leaf 

• parsley 

• coriander 

• thyme 

• rosemary 

• oregano 

most of these are somewhat antiviral, meaning they interrupt viral replication (this happens in many different ways)

So, it’s not the ginger or the elderberry or other ‘immune-boosting’ herbs that will help you shift a flu that’s already there, 

It’s going to be a tea or decoction of green kitchen spices, and rosehips (or any hip) for the high vitamin C content.