I want to tell you how I helped my daughter get well, using natural immune boosters, and avoided the negative effects of antibiotics.
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I want you to have these on hand already, for when you get sick. They’re just what I found worked best, in raising 4 kids for 25 years.
But you DON’T want to wait until you’re sick.
Then you’ll just climb in bed. You won’t want to wait till Amazon delivers, and you won’t want to drive to the health food store to shop.
Have them on hand, and all in the same place--for peace of mind, and your key to getting well, quickly, and without the negative health impacts of taking pharmaceuticals.
Supplements are a dime a dozen, aren’t they? And so many of them claim to strengthen the immune system.
Let’s look at the mechanism for how they do that, though. Let’s take a look at which supplements to take regularly, and which to use ONLY when you’re sick.
After all, you don’t want to constantly “stimulate” extra immune activity, any more than you want to run on a treadmill 16 hours a day.
Helping My College Kid When She Got Sick
Recently, after raising 4 kids for 25 years, with not a single dose of antibiotic taken by any of us….
…..my daughter Emma, a few hours away at college, got very sick.
I feel confident about my ability to use my natural toolbox to knock down just about any virus or infection–if I get ON IT, in the first day symptoms come on.
But Emma didn’t reach out to me until Day 4. The text she sent me said:
Emma and her boyfriend, Arturo
“Mom. I’m dying. I can barely swallow. Fevers and chills.”
College Students, Stress, And Sleep Deprivation
Emma goes hard. College student. ‘Nuff said? (All night studying! Boyfriend! Two jobs! Parties!) Emma cares a lot about academic performance, but she also never wants to miss anything fun. Consequently, sleep suffers. And that’s the #1 thing that affects our immune function: whether we’re getting enough sleep or not.
I wish I’d sent an arsenal of my natural, immune-supporting, virus- and bacteria-killing natural remedies, with her to school.
I won’t make this mistake again. That’s why I’m writing this–for your sake. I had taken her good health for granted. Now she’s stocked up. And I’ve gotten my other kids who live away from home stocked up, too.
By the time you’re done reading this post, I want you to know how to prepare, too. Well before flu season. (Emma got sick during the summer!)
Quick Strep Test And Antibiotics
The next morning, I had her at the Instacare. She had passed out in the shower, and I became seriously alarmed. I prepped her for what I knew would happen:
“Now, even if it’s viral, they’re going to try to prescribe you an antibiotic. Please know that I’ve protected you kids from antibiotics your whole lives, and there are good reasons for that. Please have the doctor call me before he writes you any prescription.”
They did that bogus “quick strep test.” I’d warned Emma that there are far too many false positives, and I don’t consider that test valid. I’ve tested positive every time I’ve taken it, sore throat or not!
(I even tested positive, with a vaginal swab, 15 minutes before I pushed my third baby out. They tried to talk me into taking an antibiotic, and I said no. Baby and I were both fine. I think I’m just permanently positive for strep, after having it many times as a kid.)
But, Emma actually tested negative, even with the quick test. And she tested negative for several other bacteria.
Sure enough, the doc gave her an antibiotic scrip anyway. Then he called me, per my request.
Mama Bear came out.
Tennyson, Emma and me
How To Talk To A Doctor About Antibiotics
Listen, those “standard of care” doctors are on the lookout for holistic weirdos, like you and me. They may think we know nothing about medicine, or the human body, and may be gearing up for an argument, the minute you start asking questions. So let me give you some tips to totally defuse that potential situation:
1. Set The Stage And Give The Benefit Of The Doubt
I very politely but thoroughly explained that I’ve worked very hard to avoid antibiotics for my children and me, for 25 years now. That I would absolutely agree to it, for meningitis or probably even for strep, since my daughter let this bug go for quite a while, before intervention.
(I wanted him to know I’m a reasonable person. Educated, rather than a doctor-hater, or someone who would let my child die rather than give her a drug. I did this to set the stage for what I would say next. This is important. Those of us committed to holism come up against the medical folks’ recommendations sometimes. It’s good not to take up arms, assuming from past experience that the “standard of care” practitioner will be arrogant or combative.)
In this case, he was friendly and pretty educated and open to what I was saying, as he would prove, the next couple of days. He also listened patiently. I’m very glad I gave him benefit of the doubt and treated him like a partner in caring for my daughter. Rather than an enemy I needed to scold or argue with.
2. Firmly Explain Your Position On Antibiotic Risks
I then explained that if she takes the antibiotic, it will destroy years’ worth of healthy colonization of the healthy bacteria in 30 feet of her gut–an antibiotic would would comprise 85 percent of her immune system.
And, she’d likely get a yeast infection and probably repetitively get sick with whatever viral and bacterial things are going around.
Depending on her genetic expression, she might even be fighting the effects of pharmaceutical use, and trying to rehab her gut, for years. Worst case scenario, an autoimmune condition, C-Diff, or even cancer could result. (A great deal of evidence points to these risks, from taking antibiotics.)
(What I did here is tell the doctor precisely what the very real risks I was concerned about, for my daughter, whom he was treating. I want him to know that I’m watching, and that I don’t consider what he was telling her to do to be without risk, and I would hold him responsible for jumping the gun. At this point, I did not believe her illness was bacterial.)
3. Ask The Doctor To Back You Up On Appropriate Antibiotic Use
I told him, I consider antibiotics to be very invasive. I realize that sometimes you give them because the patient just wants to take something. Some folks want anything, whatever you’ve got, if there’s even a chance it might make them feel better fast.
Emma isn’t that kind of patient, I said–we don’t want an antibiotic unless it’s appropriate.
And, I said, you and I both know, doc, it won’t do her a bit of good if this is a viral infection. Then she gets all the devastation of the drug, without any of the benefits.
I asked him to support me by taking the scrip away from Emma, and explaining to her why.
I said, “Please back me up and don’t make me be the bad guy here. She’s an adult, and she will do whatever she wants–so I’d really love it if you’d educate her about all the ‘good guys’ that live in her gut, and why she needs them, and what the consequences are if she fills this prescription.”
Then I asked Emma to use the natural immune-supportive and natural bacterial- and viral-killing items I would buy her immediately.
Emma and me in Switzerland – 2015
I sent her boyfriend to the health food store, to have the clerk call me for my credit card.
Emma was furious for a minute, and raged at me.
I told her, “That’s okay, you can be mad. I wish someone had educated me, when I was your age taking antibiotics, not knowing any better.”
(Then I smiled: this is a good sign, that Emma’s still being Emma–flashing white hot! Luckily, like me, she doesn’t stay mad more than 5 minutes.)
I’m sharing with you now. Bookmark the page, but even more importantly, get some or all of the supplements now, so you’re ready in a crisis.
The doctor had taken blood, and the tests would come back in 24 hours, showing whether there was anything bacterial going on.
The next morning she texted, “Mom, I’ve had it. I need to get well so I can go back to work–I’m going to take the antibiotic.” It had been just 12 hours since she’d gotten the supplements.
She went back to the clinic where, to my surprise, the doc refused to give her the prescription! He said, give your supplements time to work, and let’s get this blood test back first, to see if it may be bacterial.
Later that day she texted, “I’m feeling somewhat better.”
Emma and me at The Festival of Colors
I was thrilled! We’d dodged a bullet.
Why Natural Alternatives To Antibiotics? Gut Health And Immunity Function
In my 20’s, I thought antibiotics were a wonderful silver bullet. I took them every time I got anything at all, and was so excited I didn’t have to get strep tests like I did, growing up, in military hospitals an hour away, where you wait in hospital lobbies for hours.
(I was on many courses of antibiotics for serious strep infections, through my childhood. My mom had no other tools.) I was so thrilled in my 20’s that the doc would just prescribe over the phone, with no testing. My, how times have changed!
Finally, I learned the truth about antibiotics. When I got strep for the last time when I was 27, I beat it with a Goldenseal and Echinacea combo supplement.
After having flu and other illnesses countless times in my 20’s, I rebuilt my gut and virtually never get sick anymore, in my 50’s–despite this past decade being one with a lot of life stressors in it. I have not been ill from strep since I was 27, half my life ago.
May I share this impression with you:
Your body is miraculous. It has fought off 1,000 invaders. You never even knew you were in danger. It keeps cancer cells, strep, staph, candida, and many other bad guys in control, every day. Some experts estimate that you develop detectable cancer four times in a lifetime, on average–but you don’t know, because your immune system takes care of it.
Your immune system is a complex, finely balanced thing of beauty, involving many biochemical processes and organs.
No one really understands how it works, entirely. But as we learn more and more, we identify the players. Macrophages, killer T cells, gut permeability–so many factors keep you well, or make you vulnerable.
To rapidly dividing aberrant cells (cancer). Or to overgrowth of yeast (candida). Or to takeover by a viral or bacterial infection.
I love the body and worship the forces that created it.
That a baby takes root and grows, and is born perfect and healthy, millions of times every year, just blows my mind. A thousand things have to go right. The Universe is simply perfection, sometimes. Consider that, in the wake of so much man-made tragedy these days.
Love and nurture your body, okay? Make sure YOUR kids (and you!) have these 7 Natural Immune-Boosters and Viral-Killers on hand. Tell them to begin taking them the moment they feel symptoms coming on, so they’re most effective:
7 Natural Immune-Boosters and Viral-Killers
These are the supplements I use, with links to my favorite source:
(I put them all in a gallon freezer Ziploc bag with their name and “IF YOU GET SICK” written on it, with a Sharpie.)
Buy them the whole collection of 7 for a holiday or birthday gift, and write them a letter telling them how this can be their first line of defense to get healthy.
You could even get the Genius Guides (currently 50% off) as part of the care package--with these anti-viral supplements on a laminated wallet card, plus 9 other guides that help you get well safely and eat healthy, in 10 different, very important ways.
It’s such a thoughtful, health-promoting gift, and you can quote me as the expert if it serves. (You’re never a prophet in your own land, right?)
Then, when you feel first symptoms coming on, you don’t have to go shopping while you feel sick. Just take it out of the freezer and put it in a pot of hot tap water. (Do not microwave or heat on the stove.)
I take a large mouthful every two hours, till the pint jar of LemonAid is gone–feel free to add water to it, as well. Even kids like this “LemonAid”--add some water and get them hydrated at the same time! The vast majority of the time I or my family use my grandmother’s tonic, we end up not even getting significantly ill.
