In addition to the various flu permutations, there is a nasty upper respiratory illness going around this winter. Many friends and family members have experienced it over the holidays in November and December. Luckily, I’ve kept the flu at bay AND missed all the sinus hoopla with my regular herbal regimen keeping me healthy through all the germ-sharing, cousin-kissing and close-proximity hugging events of the season. Then we had a warm week at the end of January here in northwest NJ, and I let my usual herbal protocols slide… big mistake! That gave this sinus/upper respiratory ‘bug’ a chance to get stronger – so by the time it caught me in mid-February, it was not to be contained. I first thought it was allergies because the cough started after two particularly blustery days – when all the wet leaves, mold and debris left from Super-storm Sandy was airborne again.
Apparently, I was quite mistaken! After seven days of medicinal botanicals, including herbal steams, essential oil steams, elderberry elixir, yin qiao formula, a proprietary medicinal mushroom/fu zheng formula, chuan xin lian formula, Vitamin D3 supplementation, onion honey, using a neti-pot, and even Dr. Gwen Scott’s ‘vinegar-cayenne-lemon-garlic-star anise’ tea – I went to the Dr because the coughing was just too forceful having broken a blood vessel in my eye and my ribs / intercostal muscles were just too painful to touch. A 5-day round of Zythromax, bolstered with the above listed herbal regimen finally knocked out the sinus condition and reduced the post-nasal drip to tolerable levels. I haven’t been this sick since November 2010, and hadn't needed a Dr. for winter-related ills since 2006. A lingering cough still taunts me, and I am told it could last for several more weeks.
Why mention all this? Because – as the Universe would have it – I missed the “Master Tonic Party” with one of my herbal FB groups back in December, and now fresh from experiencing the worst sinus condition in many, many years, I just created my Master Tonic today, on the New Moon, and it will steep until the Full Moon on March 27.
And I wanted to share this with all of you so that you don’t get this sick either. Ever!
So what is a “Master Tonic”?
