Cold Care Immune Support

Cold Care Capsules Recipe

​My ideal approach to herbal medicine is to preventively strengthen our systems through nourishment, rather than take really strong herbs to "fight" a disease or sickness once it has really started. A really solid, good night of sleep is the most important thing for the immune system to heal, though that can be hard with young kids. When I’ve gotten sick in the past I was often sleep deprived and had a young baby waking me up to nurse several times a night. I took echinacea tincture numerous times a day (4 or 5 droppersful every 2 hrs in the daytime and maybe 6 to 8 droppersful just before bed and some if I woke up anytime in the night) and getting some real solid sleep as soon as I felt any possible cold coming on.

​For me, the first sign of a cold is a sore throat, a little funny feeling behind my ear, and often more earwax. If I take echinacea in a real consistent system I don't get any worse and sort of ward off the cold as long as I get some solid sleep and rest during the day. One of my teachers calls this period "the threshold," the time just before a cold sets in. Before I had children I used "Cold Care Capsules" to do the same thing, but they aren't safe while pregnant or breastfeeding. They also have two ingredients in them, Goldenseal Powder, which takes a really long time to grow, and Slippery Elm, which are both at risk for being overharvested and becoming extinct.*

I have included the recipe for them here, because it is an AMAZING recipe that has kept many colds at bay for me, before I had children. (And check out one of my other blog posts for a great echinacea tincture recipe if you are pregnant or breastfeeding!)

Cold Care Capsules
1pt Golden Seal Powder
1pt Myrrh
1pt Slippery Elm (Marshmallow pwd works similarly)
1pt Echinacea pwd
1/4pt Cayenne pwd

Note: When this recipe says 1pt it means weight, but if you don't have a kitchen scale to weigh the herbs, just eye it, the capsules will be good! And you don’t have to worry about safety so long as you don’t take too many and follow my protocol in the “to use” section.

Step by Step:

1. Put all of your powders into a bowl and mix together.
2. Then put them in capsules, which are easily purchased at coops and health food stores. You can hand fill them with a small scoop, or use a capsule maker. I LOVE my capsule maker, it makes it so much faster and costs less than $20 dollars on Mountain Rose Herbs website.

To Use: 
To ward off a cold at its "threshold" take 2 of these with water every 2 hrs (this is an adult dosage only). Consistency is really important as well as continuing to take them a little longer after the symptoms are gone (in my case my throat might feel better or the funny ear feeling is gone).

* The United Plant Savers has a list of "At Risk Species" (including Goldenseal and Slippery Elm