Stop for a second and just admire the beauty of that flower. Wonderful, isn’t it? Such beauty in its own right, but Echinacea is much more than what meets the eye. Inside of that pretty packaging is a powerful immune booster and one remedy that I always have on hand.
Echinacea works wonderfully well on pumping up the immune system when you know you will be encountering less than optimal bugs. It is something you can take when you feel well to help you stay well. My son and I recently took a trip out of state for an extended weekend. For anyone who has taken a one and a half-year-old through an airport, I am sure you know that it is nearly impossible to keep them from touching everything. Despite it still being cold and flu season, spending time in an airport, and being in close proximity to illness, neither my son or I had so much as a sniffle from it. What was my secret? We were both taking high doses of the Echinacea extract I had brought with us during our adventure.
One of the interesting things about Echinacea is that part of the reason it works so well is that it tricks our bodies into thinking they are being poisoned. The immune system kicks into high gear to protect the body from what it thinks is a dire situation. Since Echinacea is not a poison, all of that immune action simply protects the body from whatever else is lurking around. An important note here, after six days your body will catch on to the fact that it is not being poisoned and shut off the extra defense. For this reason, it is good to cycle your use of Echinacea to six days on, six days off. After six days off, your body will have forgotten that Echinacea is not poisonous, and it will result in the same immune boost as it did the first time around.
Echinacea can definitely still be used once an illness hits with benefit to the whole body. It has also been used with great success in cases of poisonous snake bites and spider bites. Properties in Echinacea will work to keep cells intact by stimulating the body to create more of the acid that holds them together. This is all despite real poison in the body trying to break cells down and tear them apart. What a wonderful power from a simple, yet beautiful plant.
Echinacea will long be one of my favorite herbs for health. When I pack my travel bags, you can bet there is at least one tincture I have in my bag with me. How about you?
If you are interested in Echinacea, I make an organic extract called Immune Boost available for purchase. Immune Boost utilized the properties of two different kinds of Echinacea, and as always, it is hand crafted in small batches using organic ingredients and packaged in amber glass containers to preserve the product quality.