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Treating the flu and Pneumonia with Herbs - Page 2

© Andrea Ellis

The third involved my nervousness in teaching 'The Matrix' at my next herb class. This one would be easily solved. I'd teach, get it over with and all would be well. The other two... I wasn't so sure.

Yet, I was sick and tired of the @#$% cough and was willing to do whatever it would take. I bit the bullet. Spoke what I needed to say and promptly started coughing.

So the cough remained. Granted for a few days it I did see hope on the horizon that I would be rid of this cough by summer. But no dice, I got slowly worse and worse unable to sleep at night because my lungs were trying to empty mucus that just wasn't there.

Four weeks have now passed. The dreaded thought of going to the doctor and getting chemical antibiotics loomed before me. "Let's just give the Coltsfoot another couple days," I said.

This past weekend I had a class picnic at my house to celebrate the completion of my course. (YIPPEE!!! FOR ME!!!) I sat with a gaggle of herbalists and we talked about this cough. Through an in-depth Q&A it became very apparent that I was suffering from what is often referred to as 'walking pneumonia'. The difference between it and regular pneumonia is that in pneumonia fluid collects IN your lungs. With walking pneumonia the fluid builds up around the sacs of your lungs.

This build up causes inflammation, which causes the tightness in the chest. Your body recognizes that there is fluid impeding your breathing and attempts to get it our through coughing. However the fluid is not in a space that opens to your throat so the cough remains non-productive.

When I learned that this was probably what was wrong I realized that my treatment method was off. Coltsfoot and Sage are the best herbal treatment options for a cough that is in the throat. For something such as pneumonia (walking or no) a different set of herbs is needed.

Pneumonia is caused by a bacterial, viral, fungal infection, or from aspiration of stomach contents into the lungs. The infection causes inflammation and fluid to build up in the lungs impeding breathing. This is not a disease to be trifled with, especially with young, weak or debilitated, or elderly people.

Since I am none of those I decided to give herbal treatment another good go. The deal I made with my boyfriend was that if I wasn't noticeably better in two days (from Sunday until today Tuesday March 19th) I would go see my doctor and get the antibiotics.

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