Stress and Immunity

    
 

CASE STUDY: Immunity and stress

SUBMITTED BY: Phil Rasmussen

PATIENT: Female, 67 years old

INITIAL PRESENTATION:

Patient was concerned and presented with low immunity, after having had several upper respiratory tract infections in recent months. Four months previously she returned from Australia where she developed a terrible infection. Since returning and over the subsequent 3-4 months, she had experienced several chest infections and bad colds or flu. This was more frequently than ever before over such a short period of time. She’d also lost her voice twice during these, and in one bout had to take ibuprofen for a few days, as her ribs were painful from coughing. While feeling better lately, her lungs felt like they still weren’t back to normal.

Her life had been busier and more stressful in the past five months. She had been worrying about and supporting her daughter, who had had her second child and, with the pressure of a high mortgage, returned to work as a nurse three months later. She’d also been spending a significant amount of time looking after her two other grandchildren, aged 8 months and 4 years. This meant quite a lot of driving, and two long days each week of being a nanny. While she enjoyed this, she found it tiring, after being retired for the previous three years.

Her biggest worry though, was feeling ill for long periods of time, and this meant she was unable to pursue her usual regular swimming and exercise regimen or see her usual community of friends. She was also quite worried about her chest.

While she attributed her frequent colds and flu with bugs, often being brought home from daycare by her 4-year-old granddaughter, the recent trip to Australia had really concerned her.

In early September she had a week’s holiday with a friend at a seaside resort in Australia, but two days into this, developed a fever then generalised body aches and pains, and a cough. They’d hired a rental car and driven for five hours after arriving in Sydney, and she felt very tired and washed out upon arrival at their holiday destination. The next morning, she woke with a fever and stomach pains.

From there, she felt very ill, and for the next three days could hardly eat and drink, and holding down fluid was difficult. She had bouts of nausea and intermittent stomach cramps, a persistent and productive cough, and found it difficult to sleep. She spent most of the holiday in bed and found it challenging even to get back on the plane to fly home, she felt so unwell.

A few days after her return and upon her daughter’s insistence, despite feeling better, she saw her GP, who listened to her chest and checked her temperature and pulse. She had a high temperature, rapid pulse and high blood pressure, and was prescribed a 7-day course of amoxycillin, 500mg three times daily for a bacterial chest infection. Things seemed to improve after this, and a week later she had a long weekend away with some friends, which ended up being hectic.

While she felt relatively OK at first, she started to feel tired. Upon returning home, she noticed a start of a cough and cold symptoms again, though the cough was not as bad as previous. She saw the GP again, who listened to her chest and told her it was clear, but recommended she goes home and rests, and consider taking some dietary supplements for her immune system.

The GP also sent her for a chest x-ray, which showed NAD. By this stage, it had been around eight weeks during which she’d not done her usual daily walks or twice weekly swimming sessions, due to the recurrent infections.

She was taking a multivitamin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, zinc and magnesium tablets daily. While she lived by herself, her diet was largely vegetarian and reasonably healthy, with a good range of fruit and veges.

Despite being worried about her lungs and an occasional residual cough and her overall immune system, the ongoing fatigue these infections produced was her biggest concern.

HERBAL TREATMENT

Main Mixture 

Echinacea purpurea 1:2, NLT 1.5mg/mL alkylamides 105mL

Ginger root (Zingiber officinale) 1:2 30mL

Elecampane (Inula helenium) 1:2 75mL

Kumerahou (Pomaderris kumerahou) 1:2 45mL

Glycyrrhiza glabra 1:1 45mL

Total: 300mL

Dosage: Shake the bottle and take 10mL two times daily, in a small amount of water or juice.

Kiwiherb ImmuneBerry:

Total: 200mL

Dosage: Shake the bottle and take 10mL, 1-3 times daily during high-risk times, in a small amount of water or juice.

This was was prescribed to give her additional antioxidant and immune system support when needed, due to the Echinacea, olive and the various berry extracts it contains.

ADDITIONAL TREATMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Until she felt her health was back to its usual more robust self, I recommended she make a fresh whole lemon and honey hot drink daily.

I listened to her concerns about her fitness and lungs and recommended she gently and stepwise tried to restart her exercise regimen, starting with a short walk every day, then if she felt up to it, perhaps some swimming again.

The Main Mix was to be taken twice daily on a regular basis, and the Kiwiherb ImmuneBerry taken 1-3 times daily on top of this, if she felt vulnerable or her daughter or grandchildren were sick. Kiwiherb Echinature and Kiwiherb Children’s Echinature, were recommended for her daughter and daughter’s children respectively, to take a single dose daily, for the rest of the winter.

FOLLOW-UP

2 weeks later:

The patient returned for a short consultation, and had taken the main mix daily as prescribed, and the Kiwiherb ImmuneBerry also for the first few days, but not since.

She had returned to swimming twice a week soon after the first visit, and felt her chest seemed to improve after this, and undertaken some walking.

The cough had gone a week after taking the herbal mix, and she no longer worried about this.

She had also reverted to looking after her grandchildren twice weekly this week and had found this quite tiring. She was determined to try and maintain a good balance between her own time and social time, and commitments to her daughter and family, but asked for herbal support, to help her stay calm and not overdo things.

Main Mixture 

Echinacea purpurea 1:2, NLT 1.5mg/mL alkylamides 140mL

Ginger root (Zingiber officinale) 1:2 40mL

Elecampane (Inula helenium) 1:2 80mL

Withania (Withania somnifera) 3:2, NLT 4.5mg/mL withanolides 120mL

Glycyrrhiza glabra 1:1 20mL

Total: 400mL

Dosage: Shake the bottle and take 8mL two times daily, in a small amount of water or juice.

6 weeks later:

She was doing very well. Her daughter had brought a bug home from work, and one of the two grandchildren contracted it, but it was short-lived for both, and she herself managed to avoid it. She had topped up her treatment with an additional 5mL daily of Kiwiherb Echinature, during this time.

The mix was repeated.