(Herbal Treatment . . . )
Echinacea and Garlic: A One - Two Punch for the Common Cold O.K., so what do we know now? Echinacea will enhance, stimulate and strengthen your immune system to protect you from any attack. If you do get attacked, Garlic will destroy the invader on sight.
So, you may ask, why are almost all the Echinacea products in the health food stores mixed with Goldenseal? Why does the herbal world seem to prefer Goldenseal? All I can say is that there is a difference between what is popular in the herbal product sales world and what is effective in the clinic. A few years ago there were a couple of herbal tonics that mixed Echinacea with Goldenseal that got a lot of attention/hype and therefore a lot of popularity. When this happens, almost all of the other herbal product companies follow suit immediately, even if they know better, to catch the sales wave, like what is recently happening with St. John’s Wort.
In the clinic, fighting real disease in real patients is very different from the reality of marketing herbal products. Working in the clinical trenches for 20 years taught me to never lose sight of my primary focus: To Help My Patients Get Well. I used what worked and threw out the herbal theories, hypotheses and fads that didn’t.
There is one more reason to move over to Garlic: Goldenseal is in very short supply. It is on many endangered species lists. Most conscious herbalists have agreed not to use it until it is organically cultivated and available. That will be in a few more years.
Echinacea and Garlic: How to Use Them The Raw Herb: Echinacea root and Garlic bulb, fresh or dried, can be chewed and eaten raw.
Chew a one inch piece of Echinacea root every waking hour or two. This will make your mouth tingle a lot and take you awhile to pulverize it enough to swallow.
Herbal capsules made from dried and powdered herbs are considered by most clinical herbalists, myself included, to be the least effective way to treat patients. In fact, they often don’t work at all.
With Garlic, I don’t know if there is a limit. The only sign of overdose is gastric upset and maybe a loss of all your friends.
Don’t be a wimp! Last year I received a letter from an elderly woman who was dying from a viral lung infection. She’d had the condition for over a year and all the doctors and drugs had not helped her. The doctors gave her only weeks left to live. She read an article I wrote on Garlic and immediately consumed 47 cloves of raw garlic a day for three days. Shortly thereafter, her so-called incurable viral respiratory infection was gone. By the way, she was 83 years old.
Herbal Tea: Simmer a heaping tablespoon of fresh Echinacea root and a level teaspoon of fresh Garlic bulb in 20 ounces of distilled water. Cool and drink this amount three times daily.
Tinctures: These preparations are very popular amongst clinical herbalists and are, without exception, the strongest, most concentrated, fastest acting way to use herbs. Echinacea tincture is one of the easiest ways to treat a cold and flu. If you want to make your own tincture, just call the toll free number at the end of this article and I will send you free instructions. Be careful when purchasing tinctures: most on the market are of poor quality and will be of little benefit to you.
The tincture dosages I recommend are double what most armchair herbalists suggest, but these are the dosages that created successful healings in my clinic year after year. Echinacea must be taken steadily over a period of about one week for maximum immune protection. You must have a certain amount of the phytochemicals in your bloodstream every day to get maximum results and to supercharge your immune system.
- For preventive immune boosting with no current health problems—Use two dropperfuls, about 60 drops, five times daily until you have consumed two fluid ounces or 60 milliliters. This will take about seven days. Do this at the beginning of each month for the best prevention.
- You have that “uh-oh” feeling, “no specific symptoms but I think I’m coming down with something.”—Use four dropperfuls, about 120 drops, five times daily until you have consumed two fluid ounces or 60 milliliters. This will take three to four days. Start immediately.
- Onset of Fever, Chills or any of the symptoms of a Cold or Flu—Use four dropperfuls, about 120 drops, eight times daily (or every other waking hour) until you have consumed two fluid ounces or 60 milliliters. This will take about two days. You may continue this dosage for a week and then reduce it.
- High Fever, Sore Throat, Yellow Mucous, Coughing, Sneezing—Use four dropperfuls, about 120 drops, every hour you are awake (about 16 times a day) until you have consumed two fluid ounces or 60 milliliters. This will take about one day. You may do this for two to three days before you lower your dose.
Note: There are no toxic side effects with Echinacea and no known over dosage. Although health circle rumors abound that if you take too much Echinacea or for too long a period of time you could burn out your immune system, I don’t believe them. Over the years in my clinic I had many an Echinacea junkie and never saw one case of a depressed immunity because of their habit—but I did see patients not getting well from not taking enough.
On the other hand, Echinacea is a strong medicinal herb. All medicinal herbs are best used for a period of time and then stopped for a week or two. When a person needs to use an herb indefinitely because the symptoms persist, this is often a sign that the patient is hoping the herb will be a natural “magic bullet.” The person may not be correcting the underlying causes of their disease by changing their lifestyle, their food program, doing frequent elimination and detoxifying programs, engaging in movement programs and emotional healing. Remember, herbs are but one healing tool in a full spectrum healthy lifestyle.
Dr. Schulze is one of the foremost authorities on Alternative Healing and Herbal Medicine in the world today. He operated an Alternative Medical Clinic for 20 years. During the last decade of his practice, he worked almost exclusively with patients who had life threatening and so-called “incurable” diseases. To order audiotapes, videotapes and books from Dr. Schulze, call Toll Free (877) Teach Me - (877) 832-2463. Mention this article to receive a Free Patient Handbook.
