The Flu and the Common Cold - What the Difference is and How to Deal with Them Naturally

Each year, as the weather changes and the kids are back in school - we are all suddenly exposed to people getting sick all around us, including the workplace. Weather has a lot to do with it, as well as the viruses you are exposed to, but how well you are able to fend off the bug is up to you, and your body.

The key to minimizing your chances of contracting either a cold or the flu is prevention. Not just in the form of avoiding sick people, but preventing your body from being susceptible to the viruses that you are being exposed to. Your immune system depends largely on your digestive system. Keeping your body free of toxins, harmful foods, and clear of mucus is essential, and cleaning out the digestive tract can be extremely beneficial.

The Common Cold	The Flu (Influenza)
Symptoms: Runny nose, sneezing, scratchy or sore throat and nasal passages, stuffy nose, fever, mucus buildup in the nose, throat, and bronchial tubes A cold can be treated successfully in just one day with the right care and treatment. Eliminate all toxins in the body, and thoroughly cleanse the digestive tract, and rid the body of phlegm.	Symptoms: Chilly feeling, backache, headache, ringing in ears, dizziness, cough, stuffiness, sore throat, cough, “all over sick feeling”, muscle aches and pains, pain in joints Complications such as pneumonia are most common among heart and lung disease patients, as well as women during pregnancy.
Herbs for Colds: Garlic, elderflower tea, organic acacia honey, lemon, echinacea, sage, thyme, rosemary, basil, red sage, hyssop, yarrow, black cohosh, peppermint, chamomile, bayberry bark, catnip, wood betony, angelica, blue violet, butternut bark, ginseng, lungwort, nettles, white pine, pleurisy root, prickly ash, rosemary, saffron summer savory, sweet balm, tansy, valerian, vervain, water pepper, wood sage, masterwort, pennyroyal (not during pregnancy or breast feeding!), wild cherry bark, horehound, spikenard, sarsaparilla, ginger, gentian, goldenseal, saw palmetto berries Foods for Colds: Protein (Such as chicken, fish, or vegetable – not dairy), fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh juices	Herbs for the Flu Sage, horehound, marshmallow, echinacea, yarrow, pleurisy, cayenne, peppermint, white pine, poplar, butternut bark, lungwort, nettles, saffron, sweet balm, tansy, ginger, goldenseal, cinnamon, bay leaves, wild cherry bark, skullcap, lady’s slipper, valerian, vervain, feverfew, boneset, Culver’s root, saw palmetto berries, wood betony, angelica, hyssop Foods for the Flu: Fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh juices, Hot vegetable or chicken broth.
Fresh orange juice will provide strength. Lemon juice will reduce fever. Avoid all sugar and sugar substitutes, other than what naturally occurs in fruits.