Immunity - the ever growing crisis

CASE STUDY: Immunity

SUBMITTED BY: Phil Rasmussen

PATIENT: Female, 39 years old

INITIAL PRESENTATION:

Patient presented having suffered from a bad cold for the past three and a half weeks, which was lingering and proving hard to resolve. She had experienced ongoing symptoms including a sore throat, mild paranasal sinus congestion and a low grade but chronic headache, and lately a dry cough that was affecting her sleep, and quite debilitating fatigue. She had seen her GP a couple of days ago, but apart from prescribing paracetamol and a drug-based cough syrup that she didn’t want to take, he’d told her to rest and there was no need for an antibiotic.

She had been working really hard as had recently been appointed to a full-time teacher role, having completed her teacher training a few months ago. As a first-year teacher she had been spending many evenings looking after her two children (aged 7 and 12) had gone to bed preparing course work and lessons. While she’d managed things OK during the first term, the entire family including her two children and husband had contracted Covid-19 and had to go into isolation a couple of weeks prior to the end of it, and she’d only returned to work a couple of days before the end of term. She herself had found it not too bad, though her 12 year old daughter had experienced ongoing fatigue and some cognitive decline, and had needed extra care.

While her husband did a few jobs around the home and helped out with children’s activities, she did all the cooking and most of the shopping and housework, and had been going to bed around 11-11.30pm, then getting up at 6am in order to get things done.

Having worked previously in an early childcare centre for several years and with two young children of her own, she was accustomed to dealing with frequent bouts of colds and flu, but this one was taking much longer to resolve than she’d experienced before.

While her current symptoms were slowly dissipating, she felt more very run down, and was concerned about the night time cough and being able to get through the rest of term, which was only half way through. She was also worried about her oldest daughter’s ongoing symptoms, and somewhat anxious about perhaps needing to take more time off work, as well as contracting further infections in the classroom. She had tried a couple of supermarket ‘natural immunity’ products, but they hadn’t helped, and she was wanting something to support her immune system that would help her get through the rest of the school year.

Her diet was fairly healthy, though didn’t include much fruit, and the family had eaten more takeaways lately. She normally did a reasonable amount of exercise, biking several days a week and jogging some mornings before work, but hadn’t lately due to feeling too tired.

She was taking Vitamin C 1 gram a day, zinc picolinate 22mg daily, and had previously taken Lemsip for several days during her initial symptoms, but apart from paracetamol, hadn’t taken any drug based medicines since.

 

HERBAL TREATMENT

Main Mix (300mL)

Echinacea purpurea std 1:2 120

Kawakawa (Piper excelsum) 1:2 60

Elderflower (Sambucus nigra) 1:2 90

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) 1:2 15

Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) 1:1 15

 

Total 300mL

Dosage

8mL three times daily, with water or juice. Shake well before dispensing.

 

Cough Mix: (200mL)

Elecampane (Inula helenicum) 1:2 60mL

White Horehound (Marrubium vulgare) 1:2 50mL

Kumerahou (Pomaderris kumerahou) 1:2 50mL

Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) 1:1 30mL

Peppermint (Mentha piperita) 1:2 10mL

 

Dosage:

5-10mLs with water or juice two to three times daily, as needed. Shake well before dispensing.

 

ADDITIONAL TREATMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Patient was encouraged to talk to her husband about him sharing some of the daily household chores such as the cooking and lunch preparations for the children, or at least cook one night a week.

Also recommended, that she incorporates more fruit into her diet, including kiwifruit, berries, and citrus. Making a ginger rhizome decoction and drinking it with honey every morning, was also suggested and the method for this explained.

I asked her to contact me within a few days if her cough hadn’t started to resolve, or she felt she wasn’t improving quickly enough.

Apart from the main herbal mixture and separate cough mixture, while explaining that I had included some Echinacea into her main formulation, I recommended she purchase some Kiwiherb Echinature that other members of her family could take every day, to help support their immunity as well, and hopefully prevent further unwanted infections. I also offered to treat her daughter with an individualised herbal mix, if she didn’t feel better soon.

 

FOLLOW-UP

• 1week later: She phoned to tell me she was feeling much better, and all symptoms had improved. She had been taking 10mL of the Cough Mix twice daily, and the main mixture as prescribed, and was sleeping better, with no more cough. She was still quite tired, but had managed to go on a couple of walks in the morning before school, and was making the ginger decoction most days. Her husband and oldest daughter had been taking the Kiwiherb Echinature daily, but not her youngest. Husband had helped with a one weekly cooked meal.

 

• Recommended Kiwiherb Children’s Echinacea for her younger child, and repeated the Adult Echinature for family use.
• Two weeks later, she was supplied a further main mixture with some small amendments, as below. She continued to take this mixture for the rest of the year, and reported back that she had no further infections.
•  

HERBAL TREATMENT

Main Mix (500mL)

Echinacea purpurea std 1:2 225

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) fruit 1:2 100

Elderflower (Sambucus nigra) 1:2 125

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) 1:2 25

Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) 1:1 25

 

Total 500mL

Dosage

8mL three times daily, with water or juice. Shake well before dispensing.