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Tackling the Flu the Healthy Way: Podcast Series

This winter, learn how to better navigate you and your family through the annual flu outbreak. Start by exploring how homeopathic medicines empower everyone from moms and busy professionals to health care practitioners to relieve acute conditions like coughs, colds, and flu. Learn the principle, benefits, limitations, history, and how to best use these options as your first line of defense.

Next, understand how the flu virus works in the body and why having a strong immune system is so important. The best flu-fighting foods and simple recipes used by other cultures to treat flu are shared, since 70 percent of your immune system lies in your digestive tract.

Look at how flu spreads through schools. Find out when children should stay home from school and how to involve children in their own health beyond just taking a pill.

There’s much more in this four-part series hosted by Peggy O’Mara. Formerly the editor and publisher of Mothering magazine, she is now with PeggyOMara.com, an online resource for natural family living. Interviews with experts include Gary Kracoff, NMD, R.Ph.; Lauren Feder, MD; Anna Keene-Windsor, RN; Vincent Pedre, MD; Bonnie Ward, registered school nurse; Nancy Peplinsky, founder and executive director of Holistic Moms Network; and Christophe Merville, D.Pharm.

Learn More About Each Podcast in the Series

Homeopathic medicines empower everyone from moms and busy professionals to healthcare practitioners to relieve acute conditions like coughs, colds and flu. In this first of four episodes of “Tackling the Flu, Naturally,” learn how homeopathy can be useful for a healthy life.

Gary Kracoff, NMD, R.Ph., explains why becoming a parent was the turning point for him to explore more naturally-working solutions. And even though the parents of her little patients weren’t against antihistamines, decongestants, etc., Lauren Feder, MD, describes why they valued homeopathic medicines as a first line defense for self-treatable conditions. Dr. Feder shares how she used the homeopathic preparation of the red onion to relieve runny noses since chopping a red onion can cause a nose to run.

Practical basics for you and your family are provided in this 12-minute podcast, including the principle and benefits, what types of conditions can and cannot be relieved by homeopathy, and how the medicines are best used at the onset of symptoms. Learn about common misconceptions, like how these over-the-counter drugs are produced and regulated differently than supplements. The episode wraps up with a look at homeopathy’s roots dating back to 1790 in Germany.

Delve into the history of the most famous flu — the 1918 Spanish flu — and its social impact before learning how today’s flu affects our bodies. The biggest change related to flu throughout the past 100 years is our knowledge. Anna Keene-Windsor, RN, explains the virus’ effect on cells and why a strong immune system can help your body fight off the virus replicating itself.

Despite its many names over the years, flu is known to every country. Learn simple recipes used by other cultures to treat flu naturally and why they work. Examples include hot green tea over a crushed pickled plum from Japan; an onion-garlic-honey paste from the Dominican Republic; a warmed pear covered by the honey of the fritillaria bulb plant from China, and more. These top homespun solutions contain beneficial ingredients such as antioxidants, iron and potassium to strengthen the immune system.

Last, Vincent Pedre, MD, talks about the importance of keeping the body healthy to handle all the different things that come at it — or what he calls “sustainable health.” With his expanded toolkit that includes Western and Eastern therapies, Dr. Pedre shares what he uses for his patients and his family.

Did you know the CDC’s main tool for tracking flu is called the ILINet? It stands for Influenza-like-Illnesses because it includes other viruses that can cause symptoms similar to flu. Regardless, a spike in influenza-like symptoms happens every winter. When this happens, any mom knows germs spread like wildfire at school and then through the home.

Bonnie Ward, a registered school nurse of 33 years, has seen it all. She knows classrooms are the perfect place to explain how flu is spread. Hear how Bonnie teaches kids how to wash their hands, why it’s important to them, and the guidelines for parent to determine if a child should be at home instead of school.

And since 70 percent of your body’s immune system lies in your digestive tract, Gary Kracoff, NMD, R.Ph., reviews helpful foods for fighting flu.

Nancy Peplinsky, a mother of two boys and founder of the Holistic Moms Network, explains how educating children about their own immune system and the consequences of what they eat puts them on a path to healthy living. Her goal is for her children to be involved in their own health beyond just taking a pill when something hurts.

One homeopathic flu medicine is used most often around the world — Oscillococcinum. Learn what symptoms it addresses, when to take it, and why people like it.

Used in more than 50 countries around the world, Oscillo is the best-selling over-the-counter product in the cough/cold/flu category and a top 10 selling brand in French pharmacies. French native Christophe Merville, D.Pharm, the director of education and pharmacy development at Boiron USA, explains how living through the 1918 Spanish flu led Dr. Joseph Roy to study how flu originates and spreads. Dr. Roy’s Oscillococcinum was first sold on the French market in 1944 and was eventually purchased by Boiron in 1967. Oscillo was introduced in the U.S. in 1984, shortly before it underwent a double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in a British scientific journal in 1989.

Gary Kracoff, NMD, R.Ph., and physicians Vincent Pedre and Lauren Feder share results they’ve seen using Oscillo and how taking action against crucial early symptoms can help get you back to what’s important. Nancy Peplinsky, a mother of two boys and founder of the Holistic Moms Network, shares how discovering Oscillo inspired her to learn more about using homeopathy to care for her family.

About the Host

Peggy O’Mara is the former editor and publisher of Mothering magazine and is now with PeggyOMara.com, an online resource for natural family living.

Guests

Throughout the years, Dr. Gary Kracoff and Dr. Lauren Feder have been compensated for their time on various Boiron promotions.