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Hi and welcome to another edition of, To The Point I showed very generously produced by the American Acupuncture Council, um, Virginia Duran of luminousbeauty.com. And I’m your host today, and we are speaking about boosting immunity to prevent colds and flus. So let’s get to it.
I just want to start with a little, um, reminder about the perspective that Chinese medicine has on boosting immunity, right. Um, because it is a little different and, uh, it, it adds another dimension of your understanding and your treatment strategy. So we have what something’s called [inaudible] it is that she, that is at the surface of the body. So it involves the skin in some cases, but also it comes out it’s your electromagnet or part of your electromagnetic field. So it’s protecting you physically as well as energetically. And, uh, you’ve probably all experienced that, you know, where you’re so run down that you can’t even really be around people that you feel like almost, you don’t have your skin on that’s severely depleted way cheap. So we want to keep that up for, for both reasons. And, um, of course there are different aspects to immunity, then more than what we’re going to talk about today in different categories of viruses.
But our focus today is for upper respiratory Lucent colds, and it’s, uh, you know, a timely subject in the Northern hemisphere. So there’s two main strategies. One is to boost your wig witchy, uh, you know, which is, you know, augmenting the immune system and also written the body of phlegm in advance of getting sick, because there’s a, um, it tests have shown that some people who have that, uh, symptom where they can’t breathe when they get a really bad upper respiratory condition, uh, there’s phlegm blocking the airways, usually old sticky Flint. So I’m going to talk about some formulas for both of those, um, as well as lifestyle tips, supplements, and, uh, points. So here we go, some lifestyle tips, you know, uh, I think that the two, the things that you can actively do are doing [inaudible] to generate your way and doing something like pranayama yoga breathing also has that effect of really building up the way she, um, of course, vigorous exercise is going to be very helpful acupuncture shown to have immune regulating effects, and you want to limit your exposure to EMS as much as possible because they’re going to affect things.
Uh, also you want to get adequate sunshine. Don’t worry so much about, you know, damaging the skin with a little sunshine. Really. We need that vitamin D. So, uh, in the winter, you could try to on a sunny day, get out and get maybe 15, 20 minutes of sunshine your face, if it’s possible, roll up your sleeves on your arms to get a little bit, um, but it’s absorbed through the skin. Um, of course getting adequate rest and good quality sleep. So you might want to think about turning off your devices and anything, uh, where you’re taking in blue, white, because it’s very stimulating and you’ll have a harder time falling asleep, or having a deep restful sleep. When you go immediately from being on your computer all night to, you know, trying to go to sleep, um, stress management, we know stress affects the immune system, right?
So many ways to do that. That’s the, you know, uh, we won’t get into that here, but I’m sure you all know ways to do that. Good nutrition. We’re going to talk about a few things specific for this, um, idea of boosting immunity with food. Uh, you want to have sufficient hydration. You think about when you, everything works better and you, your bells work better as well to eliminate things. Um, also sometimes when you get dehydrated, you start to get a sore throat, even if you’re not really sick, but it can create a little bit of heat and inflammation in the body. If you’re dehydrated and you want to avoid drafts, especially in the back of the neck, right. And, you know, for some dietary considerations, um, I really think it’s important to be dairy free or as much as possible. Um, and if you are going to have dairy stick to goat’s milk, rather than cows mark, because human mother’s milk has a very low levels of KC.
And that kissing is what they, you know, what Elmer’s glue is made of that white sticky phlegmy stuff, right? That you produce in the body when you eat a lot of dairy and cow’s milk has 200 times more cases than human mother’s milk. Goats milk only has about 20 times more cases than human mothers. Not so try to get used with, there are goat products that don’t taste as goatee. Uh, you know, you’ll, you can, you can make that adaptation if, if, uh, you really want to do this because in Chinese medicine, we’re very aware of the importance of phlegm, how much it’s a factor in creating some diseases and tumors and things like that. And disease is created along a continuum. That’s our understanding. That’s one of the great gifts of Chinese medicine. And so if you are always having dairy and you have a little drip and you have, you know, sinus things constantly and, or, you know, little residual phlegm in your lungs from something, uh, it it’s it’s has the potential of turning into more things, you know, more serious things.
Uh, so there’s a lot of immune boosting and antiviral medicinal mushrooms, my talking mushroom, you know, which is foraged in the fall. Wonderful. If you, especially, if you can get it, um, local versus the store bought things, um, that, you know, aren’t grown in nature, um, blue oyster mushrooms, also very immune boosting and nature provide these remedies that at that time of year, um, you know, she talking mushrooms, uh, you know, are especially used with herpes because it generates stomach yen. It helps with, um, uh, a stomach in deficiency, heat type of herpes. So we’re not actually going to get into those kinds of viruses, but it still has immune boosting effects. So it’s nice to put into your food more often, especially in soups, because you’ll get more out of it than more benefit out of it than just saw Tamia, probably. So I’m including a homemade chicken soup for those that aren’t vegetarian, but even if you already, you can adopt it without the, the chicken part of it, um, really good to have in your freezer at all times, because you never know when you might need it.
And when you do need it, you’re probably not feeling well enough to go out and buy the ingredients or stand up and make it for a couple of hours. So, um, I always make, you know, big pot and freeze a whole bunch of it to have now not how is another thing that is immune boosting and have some properties I want to discuss, uh, you know, it’s a fermented Japanese soybean product, but it is a specific kind of soybean. And it’s, it’s a very traditional Japanese dish. It’s often served for breakfast. Uh, it’s not so popular here. You know, the taste, it’s not that strong of a taste, but there’s a texture to it. That is a little strange that people, um, can be, uh, I have an aversion to, but, you know, just close your eyes at that’s the case. It’s so good. It’s like a natural blood thinner, which, uh, you know, as we get older, we might need we’re, you know, it’s, it’s good for all the blood stagnation we’re seeing now from people with a certain virus or, um, you know, they they’ve been jabbed.
So I would start slowly with it though, if you see that you or your patient have sublingual stagnation, distended veins under the tongue, and, you know, just start with a half a teaspoon daily, if there’s a lot and go, go on for a couple of weeks, that way then work up to a teaspoon. Then you could go up to even more. Uh, but you don’t, you want to dissolve things slowly, not, um, you know, not too quickly now for the benefits of natto, as I said, it’s immune boosting, and that’s why we’re putting it in here. Um, but also, uh, you know, it has this unique probiotic and called bacillus Tillis, and the strain was tested in an elderly population and it was compared to people taking a placebo. And the outcome was that 55% like less likelihood to suffer from respiratory infections in the nacho group. It’s rich in vitamins minerals and protein high in vitamin C zinc, selenium, copper, and iron, all important in immune function.
It has K2 and K one, which has really benefited from that K two is, is kind of amazing because it helps the calcium from depositing in the arteries, right? And there was a study that showed 50, 70%, 57% lower risk of dying from heart disease when eating foods with K2. So this is a little bit, uh, unusual. And then the K one is a natural blood thinner, and that’s going to help them prevent and dissolve blood clots. And Stacey’s very important these days. Um, so there’s probiotics and fiber in it that can also be helpful with promote preventing weight gain and optimizing, optimizing weight loss and women. You have your weight manage, uh, you know, your immune system’s going to function better.
So just to remind you for anyone that doesn’t know, generally herbs are taken on an empty stomach and supplements are adjusted with food. There’s some exceptions, but as a general rule, this Chinese herbal formula for immune boosting is fantastic. It’s called Jade windscreen, or you ping fond song. And excuse me, if my accent is not perfect, but you can see what I’m talking about there by reading the slide, um, it boosts immunity and specifically for colds and flus. So I take this one, I’m going to be around crowds of people sometimes when I’m feeling run down or I’m going to be treating patients. Um, and when you’re at more higher risk situations like a, you know, air travel and, um, it’s unbelievable how effective it is. And in fact, in 2005, there was a study published with 3,160 people that were at risk hospital workers. And during the SARS of one epidemic, then in 2003, nobody that took the pink phone sign, contracting the virus.
It’s very, very, very, very, very, very helpful. Um, now Jade windscreen, or you can find song also Astro C, which is a, um, a modified formula. This just, I think just has a little bit tiny bit of zinc and vitamin C added. Uh, but you could use any of them, but these should not be taken with auto-immune conditions. So if you have your patient have that, then you might have to find an alternative because it has a struggle, isn’t it? And that’s one of the herbs that shouldn’t be taken with auto-immune. Um, but it is a great herb. It’s also called milk vetch in English, common name or wonky. And the studies show that astragalus is a powerful immune regulator by enhancing the production of T helper and regulatory B cells. It also acts to reduce inflammation by regulating the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. So we don’t want any cytokine storms.
Uh, so you want to have your body in a, what you would take. If you have one, that’s a different story, but this is to make you less likely to. So there’s a couple of links there where you can see research on it, if you’re interested. Okay. Now this is a, a really time tested, great phlegm, resolving herbal formula for Chen, Tom, Tom, meaning tea, or could say urchin PR, meaning pill or one. And when we say resolving phlegm, we mean getting it out of the body, but not purging it all out through your nose and not suppressing it and letting it dry up and congeal further as something, you know, some of the over the counter things for, uh, de congestions and to histamines, um, it helps your body to thin the phlegm and process it. Now it’s more for wet type Flum, but it can help when there’s some dry as well.
Some old fun, it’s a very benign it’s like citrus peel and ginger Pinella it’s neutral in nature, neither warming or cooling. So if you actually were sick, you would have to take some, you know, herbs with anti-microbial or antiviral effect. And, um, you know, maybe something that was warming or cooling. Um, so you want to have the phlegm out of the lungs in advance, cause your body does tend to produce phlegm when it gets sick in excess. And that way you’ll be, um, you know, avoiding that because that, that’s what kind of puts people on ventilators. And some people, you know, often they don’t survive the ventilator. So prevention is the best cure. All right. Now some supplements for boosting the immune system would be zinc. And we are hearing a lot about zinc. There’s a, um, holistic doctor of, you know, probably 40, 50 years named Dr.
Dietrich Klinghardt. And he talks about with his, any trans practitioners, um, all over the world. Very interesting guy. He said that he was giving his patients think supplementation and testing before and after, and it wasn’t changing their zinc levels. And then he learned, you have to give it with an eye on a four. So course atten is a wonderful Ayana for, um, when they say that hydroxy chloroquine works it’s because it acts as an eye on the Ford to get the zinc into the cell wall for the zinc to eradicate the virus. But for those of us that like to approach things, naturally, they may not want to take, um, a medication for it. They may want to take something natural, like course attend. Um, now with the course of maybe 500 milligrams, one to two times daily, and the zinc for prevention, like 15 to 30 milligrams a day, uh, and you can probably double that if somebody was sick, D three, it’s like liquid sunshine in the bottle. So it helps immunity. It also helps to lift your mood. Um, you know, there’s people who get depression, uh, seasonal affect disorder from a vitamin D deficiency. Also, of course, a multivitamin and mineral formula would be useful.
And, uh, if you’re going to have vitamin C, it should, if you can get it in a liposomal form, it’s much more bioavailable that way. And it can be used for the prevention and the treatment, um, of these things, especially with wind heat, vitamin C is classified as cold in nature. I’ve seen someone in the field talking otherwise, but I think most people agree it’s cold in nature. And, um, that is, uh, how I learned about it, uh, from Jeffrey Ewen. Now, colostrum is a wonderful immune boosting thing is the component in mother’s milk that transfers immunity to the infant. And so if you were not breastfed, this is a great thing for you to supplement with, to boost your immune system. It can be taken with, or without food, but, you know, without food, you’re probably going to get a little bit more effect, but it’s easy on the stomach.
You don’t have to worry about taking it on an empty stomach without anything. Um, and it’s okay for vegetarians. Um, there are also some good tasting colostrum lozenges, if you or your children prefer it that way. Now this last thing like the Soma glutathione, this is to open up the detoxification pathways so that they’re clear and functioning so that you will handle whatever you come across. Um, you could also use N a C capital N a C it’s stands for N acetol C-spine is a precursor to glutathione. It has an affinity to the lungs and then helps with like proteins.
Okay. Now I made up this medicinal chicken soup recipe because some of the people ask me because not only does this soup tastes really good, but you’re really getting a medicinal effect from it, which you don’t get with most store-bought, uh, chicken stew, uh, products. So in a multi gallon pot, I don’t know what size, but you know, whether it’s like a five gallon or something, we’re talking something big, something that you do corn on the cob with or something. Um, and you use the whole chicken. And I think organic’s important, um, including the skin, because that’s the part that’s actually, you know, it’s the chicken’s representation of way G so that’s, what’s gonna, um, actually convey more immune boosting effects. And the bones, uh, are very deeply tonifying, you know, even more of a DJing level. And if there are organs included in the chicken you’d buy, you could add them because, you know, they always have, uh, different properties, um, and well for about two hours or more, and depending on how big and, and, uh, your, you know, how powerful your stove is, but, you know, when it’s fully cooked, then, um, we’re going to add these other things.
But while the chicken is cooking, you want to start cutting up your ingredients to be added because, um, it could take a while to do all these things. And, uh, so after the chicken is cooked, I let it cool. Then remove it, remove the meat from the bones, which you can use or not, and you can, reboil the bones and the skin, and et cetera, to make more broth and, you know, have that frozen for when you need it. Um, so I strained the chicken broth and then add the following in a large pot. And I would, well, these for 10, 20 minutes, um, could be longer. But, um, I do these before I add the shorter cooking vegetables later. So three to four heads of garlic, yes. Heads not close. And, you know, it has antibiotic properties. It’s warming in nature tastes great. Um, a bunch of scallions GYNs are especially warming in nature, so good for very early stage flus and colds.
Um, and you know, if you’re, if your body tends to get more wind cold than when heat, or, you know, you’re in a cold climate, your body runs a little cold having, uh, you know, these alliums than garlic and scallions evenly will be helpful. So leaks are a little bit neutral to warming and they have a little bit more tonifying effects. So they’re good in general, recovering from debilitating illness or just, uh, you know, a general tonic two to three onions, good for the sinuses in particular, and having a large piece of ginger, you know, it could be the size of the small hand before you cut it up. Um, depending on, you know, again, how much you’re doing, but you want them to do this little effects of the ginger, and of course, it’s going to make you great. Uh, so with the ginger, you want to remove the peel and cut into, I do medium sized chunks. Not only is a little quicker, but it’s kind of nice to get a little chunk in your soup when you have it. Uh, so we know that ginger is quite warming in nature and it’s, uh, typically, you know, used for warming the digestion great for vegetarians and vegans. Um, but it also helps warm the lungs a little bit fresh tumeric group, because it’s so highly anti-inflammatory, but, you know, just bare mine tumor, it can stay in your clothes and it can stain your skin temporarily.
So I like to add cilantro leaves, not just for the taste, but, um, I’ll do some of the beginning and then some as a garnish, but also they are, um, medicinal and that they help the body detox heavy metals. So, you know, the, the less toxic you are, the better your immune system’s to be, but that that’s not necessary to add that, but it’s nice. Uh, I should talk you mushrooms. We talked about before being antiviral, my talking immune boosting and, you know, using fresh and locally for if possible, because the, the store-bought ones that are, you know, prepackaged. And so things are not nearly as medicinal as the real thing. So having your check-in meat is optional in the soup, but if you are vegan, you know, if you could do the chicken or, or regiment, if you could do the chicken broth as a medicinal thing, I, you know, I know some people won’t, but at least use these other ingredients for their medicinal effect and then adding towards the end.
Cause I don’t want to over cook. I might put in asparagus, you know, it has a great diuretic effect. Uh, some, some cooking green could be, you know, kale, green chard, if you had red chart is going to affect the color, um, or colors. But the last amount of kale is a really nice texture and it, it’s not too strong of a, um, cruciferous tastes in the soup. So I chop that up into medium sizes and then optionally, you could add something like green beans, uh, which are great for blood sugar, um, and doing medium-sized pieces. Um, I probably do them a little bigger than small pieces because you don’t want them to over cook. And if generally I try to do it without starch, I do it without, you know, regular potatoes, but sometimes I’ll put some sweet potatoes in to give it a little more body and a little bit of sweetness, but it’s not always necessary.
You could also use a delicate squash as a nice addition, and that’s not too starchy. So you can garnish with rush cilantro leaves and serve hot immediately before the volatile oils of the ginger evaporate. It’s really nice and then allow it to cool and freeze it. Um, and as I said, you can make a, uh, not, oh, I didn’t mention, you can make a non-conforming version of this skipping, the scallions, ginger and garlic, uh, to have, so then if you’ve got wind heat, it would be inappropriate thing. So just be sure to, you know, indicate on the containers in the freezer, which version it is.
And I wanted to get into some points for boosting the immune system. Um, certainly you may know some others, uh, I’m not going to take the time to mention the location since you can see that in that, you know, in the PowerPoints. Um, but I just wanted to quickly mention, you know, how these can be applied for boosting the immune system. So large intestine for, we all know that now there’s different locations for it. So you find it however you find it. Um, but it’s a classic point for immunity. Um, it helps remove heat. It regulates large intestine, whether there’s constipation or diarrhea, uh, it can be used. It can be needle or pressed on the opposite side where you can do both sides. You know, most people in acupuncture school learn about, you know, pressing it or kneeling on the opposite side of like a, a stuffed up sinus. Um, it’ll even if you do it the same side, it’ll, it’ll eventually clear it, but they have found in cadavers where the meridians are still alive for a few days after people pass that the large intestine Meridian and about 80% of people, probably right-handed people. Um, I’m just guessing making that assumption. The large intestine Meridian goes up one side and ends at the opposite. [inaudible]
now large lung seven is, um, also a great immune booster. We talk about it resolving the exterior dispelling when, and it’s, um, it’s just, you know, it has such a powerful effect on the head and the neck. So very, very beneficial stomach, 36 does everything, but your laundry, right, uh, strengthens the whole body, including the immune system tones, the muscles it’s digestion helps with fatigue. Um, just a good general immune point, large intestine 11 is, uh, you know, benefits immune system, but especially for clearing heat. Now this triple intestine point is a special Japanese immune point that I learned from Kiko Matsumoto. And, um, it’s also really, really good. Like most of her things are really exceptionally useful. Kidney 16 is another thing used, especially in Japanese acupuncture. So you’re palpating around the navel to find two positions on each, you know, a position on each side that, um, is perhaps sensitive. Um, you can feel if there’s something that you’re is, it feels a little tight or if something is a little bit, um, yielding and, and deficient, um, but this is very strong and deep infer, deep immune boosting. You don’t always need it for a cold and flu.
Um, and kidney 27, you know, is another great one for, uh, immune boosting deep. I mean, boosting now Sandra five, triple and triple heater, five, five, triple warmer, five, however you referred to it. Um, this helps resistance to colds and flus and can be used for heat conditions and Ren 17, right? It’s really great for so many emotional things, anxiety, anguish, depression, and we know that depression really affects the immune system. Uh, in, in fact, when you have a strong emotional reaction, like you get angry at someone or you get quite depressed, um, it really brings your immune system down and you’re prone to, especially with and getting a cold or flu in about 48 hours time. Uh, so, uh, want to keep our hearts open and that’s going to help boost our immune system also regulates the finest. So, uh, if you want to reach me for anything, you can contact me through my website, luminous beauty.com and there’s links for Facebook and Instagram. And, um, I wanted to, again, thank the American Acupuncture Council for producing the show. And next week we have Sam Collins. Uh, so, uh, until then have a good week stay calm because your immune system by.