Health, Herbs and Hints from The Philadelphia Village Grasshopper: Beat The Winter Blues

Anecdotes and Antidotes from our natural health specialist.

Beat the Winter Blues

The beauty of winter is in being able to snuggle up to the one you love and enjoy the warmth of each other and that of your home. Cold nights together with the extended darkness generally help promote deep sleep and if, like me you enjoy winter then you will spend time outside at play or work. Others, not as fortunate as to be blessed with my lust for life, may become stricken by the ‘winter blues’ as this time of the year places heavy demands on our immune system. Temperature changes from indoors to outdoors; vehicle, building ventilation and heating systems all foster a breeding ground for those intrepid germs and viruses. As a young man, I was a chef in the SANDF and whenever I felt a cold coming on, I would walk into the freezer room at a temperature of -17 degrees and I would breathe so deeply my lungs would burn from the cold. Then I would run to the oven and breathe the hot air and after doing this for most of the day, my fellow comrades would insist I was quite loopy. I never did establish if this was an effective treatment of the common cold but it made me feel quite resilient to colds or just full of hot air. As Pooh Bear said to Piglet one cold winter morning: “Sneeze on me and you’re dead”. It’s never more appropriate than now to practice preventative health and to build your immunity with supplementation to combat viral infections naturally. One point of view is that God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and not in a pharmacy, to be healthy and prosper, and it will serve us well to remember that the body needs good nutrition to heal and maintain good health.

Avoiding the Winter Blues is easier than you think if we just take the time to enjoy herbal tea made from simple home grown or acquired produce every morning or whenever it suits us. Here is an easy tea recipe that works for me:

Immune tea

· 1 Fresh slice of lemon 2mm thick.

· 1 tsp raw honey . See footnote (1)

· 4 Pelargonium pieces4 fresh mint leaves. See footnote (2)

· 10 drops of olive leaf tincture. See footnote (2)

Make this tea and drink it whenever you like and reap the benefit of good health. Then there is the more conventional but natural approach which involves taking supplements that are designed and bought over the counter at your favorite health store, SoWell, of course. Visit us and we will be able to advise you on products that not only suit your budget but also deliver great results.

Until next time, be healthy and stay So Well. Tel: 021 5566200 or 021 9818035

Grasshopper

Footnotes:

(1) Get the best raw honey on the planet right here in Philadelphia from the Dehning Apiary, Ou Pastorie, 0836986306, dehningc@gmail.com or from So Well, see (2) below.

(2) So Well Health Shop- Quality, owner-run health shop. Table View or CapeGate Centre. Tel: 021 5566200 or 021 9818035, juicer@telkomsa.net