Herbs and Fever - Part 1

"His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea;

and she gave a dose of it to Peter!

One dose to be taken at bedtime."

-Beatrix Potter



Fierce Bad Rabbit woke up with a fever today, so I thought it was a good opportunity to discuss herbs for fevers.You should not try to artificially reduce a fever with any type of over-the-counter drug, as the fever is an important defense mechanism. Those high temperatures are what is needed to kill those germs and speed your way back to health. What we really want to do is support the body during a cold or flu with appropriate herbs - but what are appropriate herbs? Glad you asked!

all pictures via google images

The first thing we need to do in order to pick the right herb is to decide broadly what class of herb we need. Do we need a relaxing herb or a stimlating herb? Today we will just talk about relaxing herbs. Relaxing herbs are called for when the patient shows restlessness, irratibility, or they are agitated. If the feverish person is laying like a lump of dough on the couch, curled up in a fetal position - this would be your candidate for relaxing herbs. Also, a person with red cheeks who has a lot of heat coming off them would need this type as well. Herbs in this catagory include elder flower, catnip, vervain, boneset and pleurisy root. At this point we can look at the symptoms of our patient and match those to the qualities of the individual herb.

boneset

If the person is curled up in a ball and is nauseous -  pick catnip.
For a patient that feels like they just got ran over by a mack truck and has achy bones, your best pick is boneset.
If you are dealing with a person who can't be sick because they don't have time -  choose vervain.
Pleurisy root is your choice for a person has has a respiratory condition with their fever.
Finally, elder flower is good for almost anyone and is gentle enough for even an infant. It will help with fever as well as keep mucus clear and flowing.


elder flower


 You can order most of these herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs.  I would suggest ordering some to have on hand for when fevers arise. If you only want to start with one, pick elder. Once you have the herbs and someone in your house comes down with a fever, all you have to do is add a teaspoon or two to a mug of hot water, cover it and let it sit for about 10 minutes and then give some to your patient through out the day. Small sips every 10 or 15 minutes are fine.

Tomorrow we will talk about the stimulating herbs!