Goldenseal

Well, since the family has its first cold I thought I'd share some info on my favorite herbs. Last year, when I started working with preschoolers, I battled sinus infections during May. Blech. I visited my local herb store, Garden of Eden, and told the "practitioner" that I could feel a sinus infection...like someone had punched me in the cheek. She told me to use my neti-pot with herbal tea - thyme, oregano, echinacea are some good ones...anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Then, she sold me some goldenseal powder. I mixed 1/16 of a tsp with very little water and stuck it up my nose with a q-tip. No joke. :) I started at lunch time - neti-pot and goldenseal - , again after school, and by dinner time the pain was gone. I was also taking an herbal tincture she had for allergies. This goldenseal works wonders.
This time round with the cold, I did the goldenseal, but would stop when I started to feel better. However, it is important to keep doing it until you actually are better because it will come back. Kind of like taking your entire bottle of antibiotics even though you feel better. You just gotta wipe out those suckers!
Some good preventative herbs are astragalus root and echinacea. I alternate these with my kids. We just started yesterday with astragalus, and will alternate every month with echinacea.
A great website is: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/ I check this site before giving any herbs to my kids.
Will has entered into the germ pool of Kindergarten. This year will be a good test for our new healthy eating habits and preventative herbs. Here's to our health!