Bolster your cold-and-flu defenses with immune-boosting tonic herbs

Better Nutrition, Oct, 1996 by Daniel Mowrey

Here we are once again heading into that part of the year when cold and flu-causing germs are present everywhere, virtually swarming about our bodies, poking and prodding, trying to find someplace to infect. We breathe them in by the millions; our skin is covered with them, they are in our food and water by the trillions. Fortunately we cannot see them ....

But they are there, patiently waiting for the first opportunity to take us down. So what can we do this year that we may not have done enough of in previous years Here's some advice: Select and consume, on a daily basis, vitamins, minerals, and herbs that will optimize your chances of avoiding the millions of daily skirmishes you will experience with the invading microorganisms.

Most of us could follow this basic

supplement plan

Depending on your current health, you will want to consume this basic daily regimen: from 100 to 500 mg of vitamin C; a good B-50 complex; 5,000 to 25,000 IU/day of beta-carotene (carotenoid complex) (or 5,000 IU/day of performed vitamin A); about 400 IU/day of vitamin D; 200 mg of vitamin E; 25-50 mg of pantothenic acid (vitamin B-12); and a good citrus-based bioflavonoid complex. You can obtain virtually all of these, and more, in any of several excellent multivitamin tablets, capsules, and powders available in your local health food store. Add to this a good multimineral, and you are on your way to good immune system health.

In addition, you can make use of your body's ability to avoid most infectious diseases associated with any season by including in your diet certain herbs known to boost immunity in a notice able and dramatic manner, especially when taken in combination.

However, you need to understand these most critical points: 1) there are right and wrong methods for choosing herbs; 2) there are good and bad herbs to choose from; and 3) as a result of 1 & 2 you may make appropriate and inappropriate choices.

If you are like most people, you don't want to be an herbalist, you just want to take advantage of what herbs have to offer. Fortunately, there are several herbs for the immune system that are ideally suited for novice and expert alike. There are certain special herbs that you should use on an on going basis.

These world-renowned herbs are known as "tonic" herbs. They are herbs of choice for most consumers because they are all easy to use, free of side effects and contraindications, appropriate for long-term use, and are all synergistic with one an other.

Immunotonic herbs (as they are commonly known) will help keep your immune system healthy, in a constant state of readiness, quickly able to replenish itself when under attack, and in a constant state of repair when damaged by the occasional infection. Tonic herbs balance cellular processes, biochemical reactions, and physiological systems.

The idea of balancing is unique to tonic herbs. Drugs and most herbs do not balance they push in one direction or another by either stimulating or depressing, raising or lowering, increasing or decreasing. Tonic herbs are different because they can do both! For example, certain immunotonic herbs can both raise or lower white blood cell count, which action occurs depends on the current needs of the body. This is what is meant by balancing. Think of a teeter-totter; it is balanced when forces on both ends are equal. Tonic herbs for the immune system keep both ends of the teeter-totter of the immune system equalized.

Here is a list of some of the best tonic herbs

for the immune system

Astragalus root (Astragalus membranaceous). Hailing from China, this important immunotonic has been used for thousands of years to balance immune system function. It is one of the most important herbs in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, and has even been investigated by university scientists in the United States, where it was found to possess significant immune-enhancing action. Strengthening the natural defenses of the body can involve not only the immune system, but also the cardio-vascular system and the glands from all of the other body systems. Astragalus is involved in toning all of those systems and glands. The Chinese almost always combine astragalus with other tonic herbs, including ginseng, licorice, and schizandra, because they want to take advantage of the tremendous synergy that arises when certain tonic herbs are combined together.

Siberian Ginseng root and leaf (Eleutherococcus senticosis). This is another herb that has enjoyed thousands of years of use. Like astragalus, it is a multi-system tonic. Siberian Ginseng acts through the pituitary-adrenal axis to offset the effects of stress on the body, especially the immune system. Because of this ability to help the body adapt to stress, Siberian Ginseng was labeled an "adaptogen" by the Russians: this nomenclature has been adopted by Western cultures. With the resurgence of interest in herbal tonics, we now consider adaptogens as a specific subset of tonics.

Schizandra berry (Schizandra chinenis). Another Asian herb of great potential for helping the body withstand the stubborn invasions of germs is schizandra, which is regarded by the Chinese and Japanese as the quintessence of the five elemental energies. Schizandra works through the liver to detoxify and purify the blood. As a case in point, 102 patients with hepatitis were successfully treated with schizandra; a full 76 percent experienced complete recovery within about a month. Schizandra not only improves the health of a damaged liver, but it also prevents infection from occurring in the first place. Beyond its liver tonic action, schizandra also acts much like Siberian Ginseng as an adaptogen, and also possesses significant free radical scavenging action.