Help from Nature

[Andestine]

I'm ill. I'm going crazy cooped up at home. I need to get down to the sea again

I've been ill for nine days. My orthodox treatment is over; Augmentin (2-in-1 antibiotic) and large amounts of Prednisolone (steroids). I'm still ill and don't want to be in this state when swine flu catches up with me So I'm looking for any home remedies, herbal remedies and good plain advice for bringing this thing to an end as soon as possible. Anything that's worked in practice for WAB members is particularly welcome. And all suggestions will be approved by my physician before I take them.

Formal diagnosis: Acute tracheo-bronchitis caused by an initial respiratory infection and complicated by infection-induced asthma.

Symptoms: Went straight for my larynx (still can't speak) Thick deeply-coloured mucus - very hard to expel. Deep cough. Sore throat on fifth day, went after three. Nothing else - not like flu.

Worst symptom: One sudden asthmatic attack. Everything seized up. Couldn't breathe. Went blue. Very scary. Never had that before. Otherwise, I'm very healthy. This is the first time I've been ill in any way for the last decade.

My doc will offer a different antibiotic as the next step, but the last time that happened, it led to a month of pneumonia that nearly killed me. I don't want to tread that path again.

My decision is made using logic (I know a great deal about orthodox medicine, through both work and education, and I do use it, so my decision to go natural isn't an emotional response). I'd be eternally grateful if you could advise me as to whatever you think might help me get better

I don't smoke, by the way, so advice to stop would be wise but redundant

Cheers,

Andestine

[PMG]

My advice (despite having a box full of homoeopathic remedies!) and a good working knowledge of homoeopathy (but I'm not a qualified practioner) would be to find yourself a working homoeopath and have a spell of regular treatment as you might need to 'undo' something underlying this last illness or at the least undo this last illness' damage so that it doesn't set up camp in your body!

Pauline

[Beekeeper]

Andestine,

One thing i will say is Steroids are damned dangerous, keep well away from them if you can, i took some once for a swollen knee and my hair fell out, some of it never did grow back, recently a good friend was prescribed them for an illness he is still suffering today and he went totally barmy, thankfully he is now back to his usual self after ignoring doctors advice and ditching the things.

Do a Google on the ones you are taking and see what side effects you may experience, also check the dosage as doctors always seem to advise a larger dose than recommended by the manufacturers.

Ian

[rangersarah2]

Try to avoid antibiotics too. I recommend chicken soup, and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

[Hedera]

Sorry to hear of your illness. Have you tried honey? It was our family standby for all sorts, and is also a good food easily digested. Manuka honey has anti-biotic properties to a greater degree although expensive. A friend of mine with chronic bronchitis has found it helpful. Best wishes for your recovery.

[ron1863]

I'm asthmatic and only ever get prescribed a weekly course of Prednisilone when I have a really bad attack and they have never did me any harm, though I have always refused long term steroid treatments because of the side effects.
Have you been prescribed Salbutamol inhaler, this works wonders for me when my chest feels tight.
Hope you feel better soon

[Andestine]

Originally Posted by Beekeeper

Andestine,

One thing i will say is Steroids are damned dangerous, keep well away from them if you can, i took some once for a swollen knee and my hair fell out, some of it never did grow back, recently a good friend was prescribed them for an illness he is still suffering today and he went totally barmy, thankfully he is now back to his usual self after ignoring doctors advice and ditching the things.

Do a Google on the ones you are taking and see what side effects you may experience, also check the dosage as doctors always seem to advise a larger dose than recommended by the manufacturers.

Ian

Ian,

Thank you so much for your advice . Luckily I was only prescribed a short course to treat a bit of an emergency.

I can empathise with your friend who suffered psychological side effects from steroids. I was prescribed a relatively high dose for six days, and by the second, I was as high as a kite (not good for someone who’s not exactly somnolent in the first place ).

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that steroids treat the symptoms but don’t work on the causes.

I do try to avoid steroids whenever possible, but this time I’d had a real scare. Trying to breathe through what felt like thick syrup, and through a hole the bore of a hypodermic needle until I was turning blue – that really gave me a fright, so by the time a friend had rushed me up to the docs I was ready to agree to take anything, and they did seem to work, so I would say that I’d only take them for very serious conditions, and for as short a time as possible.

Over the years, I, too, have heard various accounts of negative side-effects, and some quite alarming ones too, but biochemical individuality comes into play here, and some people do very well on them.

I would imagine that you and I will probably be giving them a wide berth in general from now on.

Thanks again,

Andestine

[Andestine]

Originally Posted by rangersarah2

Try to avoid antibiotics too. I recommend chicken soup, and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

(After saying sleepy goodnights to everyone, I’m set for another sleepless night sitting up on the couch. Now the steroid course is over, I’m back to wheezing and coughing non-stop whenever I lie down).

It’s a funny thing, but antibiotics never seem to do much for me anyway. I took loads of different ones when I last had pneumonia and they didn’t do a bit of good. I nearly died that time too. Just more slowly

But Sarah, thank you *so* much for mentioning chicken soup. I had a vague memory about some scientists somewhere discovering that chicken soup has proven antibacterial properties and went searching for a reference, which led to finding this:

Complete Chicken Soup information from Drugs.com

My daughter and I were in tears of laughter reading this apparently serious clinical overview of Chicken Soup. Please. Read it. If you have the same sense of humour as we do, you’ll see exactly what we mean.

And chicken soup is now on the menu for tomorrow

But as for the chocolate……..I adore it, but milk chocolate has a dairy component which I have to avoid if I have any respiratory illness. And after recovering from the elevating effects of the steroids, I’d better avoid ingesting all the stimulants found in the darker kind

Cheers,

Andestine

[Andestine]

Originally Posted by Hedera

Sorry to hear of your illness. Have you tried honey? It was our family standby for all sorts, and is also a good food easily digested. Manuka honey has anti-biotic properties to a greater degree although expensive. A friend of mine with chronic bronchitis has found it helpful. Best wishes for your recovery.

Hello Hedera

Yes, I'm ashamed to say I have used Manuka honey all the way through this present illness. The shame is generated from the fact that it was only yesterday that I discovered that I had been cheerfully killing off all the active principles by using it in a boiling hot lemon and clove toddy

And at £12 a jar too

I'll be honest and say that I've not seen a lot of scientific evidence on it, but if something works for me, I'll use it anyway , and it seems to work well on sore throats, and, I believe, on wounds.

But I use it in the home because it's the best-tasting honey I've found (not that I've tried that many).

Will start again tomorrow sipping it by the spoonful.

Thank you Hedera,

Cheers,

Andestine

[Beekeeper]

Originally Posted by ron1863

I'm asthmatic and only ever get prescribed a weekly course of Prednisilone when I have a really bad attack and they have never did me any harm, though I have always refused long term steroid treatments because of the side effects.
Have you been prescribed Salbutamol inhaler, this works wonders for me when my chest feels tight.
Hope you feel better soon

Ron, just out of interest my daughter is also severly asthmatic (she is 28 now) in her younger days there were several scares which resulted in stays in hospital, she had various inhalers including Salbutamol and none of them were much good but they did help, she has one now that i believe she only uses once a day or once a week, not sure but i haven't seen her suffering at all for the last year or so, when she returns from France at the end of the week i will try to remember to ask her what it is.

Ian