In honor of World Cancer Day, listen in for a few reminders on how to lessen your risk of cancer recurrence through easy to control lifestyle choices.

Hear 3 tips for supporting your immune system and/or your recovery from the flu using the most natural Ayurveda lifestyle choices. 

Learn about herbal remedies that are easy to find, and have been used in Ayurveda for thousands of years to reduce some of the uncomfortable symptoms of the flu, support your immune system, and restore health to your digestion.

Read the full transcript: 

0:01
This is Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm a healthy lifestyle coach, a clinical Ayurveda specialist, a personal trainer, and I'm also a breast cancer survivor. In this podcast, we talk about healthy thinking and mindfulness practices, eating well, moving your body for health and longevity. And we'll also hear from other breast cancer survivors who have reengaged with life, and have incredible stories to share. This podcast is your go to resource for getting back to life after breast cancer.

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Welcome to Episode 20 of the breast cancer recovery coach. I am Laura Lummer. And today we're going to be talking about managing the flu with Ayurveda. This flu is crazy everywhere I turn, people are sick everywhere I go, people are sick or out sick, or it's just terrible. And personally, I've been hit by the flu twice already. So I thought today was a great time to talk about some ways that you can incorporate incorporate your Vedic practices into your life to support either your recovery from the flu, supporting your immune system, or also just supporting your immune system to stay strong, if you've been lucky enough to avoid having had the flu at all. So before I get into all of this, I just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of those of you who've been downloading this podcast, listening to the shows, subscribing, leaving reviews, it means so much to me. And I really appreciate because I know it takes time for you as well. So I really, really appreciate that. And if you haven't done so and you get something out of this podcast, find it helpful in some way, it would be awesome. If you could take the time to go to the iTunes Store, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a review so that other people who may need to hear some of the information in this podcast can find it more easily as well. So thank you for that. And let's move on. Before we start talking about iron Veda and the flu. I want to acknowledge that today is not only Super Bowl Sunday, but it is also World Cancer Day. So I want to take just a moment to talk about some of the things that we can do to avoid having a cancer recurrence if you're a survivor, and to avoid ever having cancer, if you're not a survivor, and you've never had cancer before. Now, I think it's important that we say nothing is a guarantee that you will not get cancer. However, there are some things that evidence shows we can do in order to improve our odds and lessen our risk of getting cancer for the first time or ever again. So I'm going to talk about just a few of those just in honor of World Cancer Day to heighten that awareness. And maybe it'll even spark something for you or someone you love that makes you think, hey, you know what we may be check into that. Because as we all know, the earlier you can detect any kind of cancer, the better the outcome is most likely going to be. So the National Cancer Institute, there's a statistic on the Michigan medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center website. That's a mouthful. And they said that it's quite possible that more than half of cancer deaths could be prevented if no one used tobacco, and if everyone took steps to improve their health. So those are some really big ifs, right. But according to the American Cancer Society, there is a lot of evidence that your risk of developing cancer can be substantially reduced if you don't use tobacco and who doesn't know that right? If you get sufficient physical activity, if you eat healthy foods in moderation, if you participate in cancer screenings, which I'm going to talk a little bit about. And if you get vaccinated against HPV, the human papilloma virus, so that's important for certain categories of women, especially which I'll touch on here too. I thought this statistic was just mind blowing. 1/3 of all cancer deaths in the United States each year, are linked to diet and physical activity, including being overweight or obese, while another third is caused by tobacco products. So that's two thirds of cancer. That is a tremendous amount of prevention that we can still be accomplishing by controllable factors. So let's talk about a little bit what those are. For those of you who don't use tobacco. The most important cancer risk factors are bodyweight diet and physical activity, all of which we can do something about some diet and exercise recommendations from the The American Cancer Society's nutrition Physical Activity Guidelines are as follows. So to achieve and maintain healthy weight throughout life, be physically active. For adults, the recommendation is get 150 minutes of moderate intensity, that means you got to sweat. So if we're talking about five days a week, 150 minutes, 30 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day breaking a sweat, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity each day. And that vigorous intensity is that you really can't comfortably hold a conversation and talk while you're exercising is pretty intense, or any combination of these. And you should really spread this activity out throughout the week, a little bit every day is actually much better for you, then just glamping all of your exercise into Saturday and Sunday or Friday and Saturday. And I've definitely met some women who say, Oh, well, you know, I, I have walk, however, X amount of miles, two days a week, and that makes up for the 30 minutes a day. But just like meditation, if you can fit in five minutes a day, every day, it's actually much more effective than 30 minutes, twice a day, or twice a week, sorry. So try to get that activity in daily because it trains the body. And it just does so many things causing healthy chemical reactions. And a lot of feel good sensations, a lot of science goes into everything that is created and stimulated in our bodies through exercise. This is also important for our children and our teens. for kids and teens. The recommendation is one hour of moderate or vigorous intensity activity every single day, with at least two and a half hours of moderate intensity aerobic activity each week. And so if you are a survivor as I N, you really need to think about these statistics for our children and for our grandchildren. Because if cancer is in the family, then our loved ones are at higher risk. And it's really important to get them moving, the activities, the food, the lifestyle habits that children have, and are modeled even as children and as teens will have a huge impact on their adult lives. Limit sedentary behavior. And a lot of times this is not important. If you just listen to what I said about activity and wish. That's way too much to think about 30 minutes a day of sweating. That's too much. All right, let's start here. Limit sedentary behavior. Don't sit down as much, don't lay down as much don't watch TV as much, or any other forms of screen based entertainment, you know, so sitting around playing video games or anything like that. So just try not to sit, stay vertical, Keep walking, keep moving. Another recommendation, doing some physical activity above your usual activities, no matter what level of activity that is, will still benefit your health. So if you're not ready to get out and you know, break a sweat, walking around the block or doing high intensity interval training, that's okay. Just do a little something more than what you normally do. Eat a healthy diet with an emphasis on plant based foods, choosing foods and drinks in amounts that help you get to stay at a healthy weight. So limiting those sugary high caloric beverages juices sodas, and limit how much processed meat you eat like deli hotdogs, bacon, red meat, these things are known to cause inflammation and inflammation is known to be the root of many diseases, and especially cancer. Eat at least two and a half cups of fruit and vegetables each day. And I'm gonna say in my opinion, that is a low, low low end, that if you don't have fruits and vegetables in your diet, then maybe start with two and a half cups. But bump that baby up until you're at least at eight cups of vegetables a day. And think about it you may think eight cups is huge. But you know, pick a salad spinach those things are fluffy, right? They take up a lot of space. So if you have a nice big salad every day, you could easily get in five cups of vegetables just in a lovely salad. If you drink alcohol, limit your intake try no more than one drink a day for women or two drinks a day for men. And when I heard that statistic, I was like, oh, cool, I can bump up the drinking. Just kidding. You want to make sure, again, alcohol can have detrimental effects that we know alcohol is a toxin right. That's why it has the effect that it does and it can cause inflammation as well. Get routine medical care, get your mammograms, women 40 and older should have a screening mammogram every year and continue to do so up to the age of 70 or until there are no risk factors present. And this is the American Cancer Society recommendation get a colonoscopy beginning at 50 men and women. All right average risk for developing colorectal cancer and you should get a flexible suit sigmoidoscopy every five years colonoscopy every 10 years. Double contrast barium enema every five years, a CT colonography every five years, and pap smears

10:15
all women with cervical cancer testing, or they should be screened at 21 Women 21 to 29 should have a pap smear every three years, HPV testing should be done also in that age group. And beginning at 30, the preferred way to screen is a Pap test combined with an HPV test every five years. So this is code testing and should continue until 65. And I just want to touch on that. Because I was under the impression that once you're in menopause, you didn't need to go and have these tests done. And I have a great friend who's a physician. And fortunately, we were talking one day and she said, You know no way, it doesn't matter. As long as you're sexually active, you should be having these screenings, the HPV, if you're changing sexual partners and the Pap test, even if you're not. Another reasonable option for women from 30 to 65, is to get tested every three years with just a Pap test. So other healthy tips include getting checked on your skin checking for moles, new large, irregularly shaped or changing color, or moles that have more than one color. And making sure that you have open dialogue with your family doctor and asking about any tests that the doctor might recommend for possible cancer. I know most survivors have regular contact with their physicians and if you don't, at least annually, but of course, based on your physicians recommendations, then you know, follow up on that and make sure that's happening. And then women in their 20s and 30 should have a clinical breast exam as a part of their regular health exam, at least every three years. After age 40 women should have an exam every year. And of course, if you have cancer in the family, or if you have had cancer and still have breast tissue or even breast skin, you know, even if we've had a mastectomy, depending on if it was nipple sparing or skin sparing, we can still end up having breast cancer again in the skin in the tissues and the lymph nodes have, they're still remaining. So just always be checking. That's the safest way to do it. And of course, avoid things that can cause cancer like smoking, secondhand smoke, get those smokers away from you. Don't expose yourself to carcinogens Be very careful looking at you know what, even as the doesn't just mean radioactive chemicals that are radioactive places that you may go through or people that use really toxic agents and cleaning agents and things like that. But everything that's even in our house, our skincare products, our haircare products, our cleaning products, make sure you're aware of what you're using, and the impacts that it might have. And even though I know it's difficult, if not impossible to eliminate all of the toxins from our environment and just from our regular routines, lessening them as much as possible and keeping them as safe as possible is really in your best interest. Okay, so that's just our a couple minutes of awareness here. I know as cancer survivors, obviously we are aware, but even like I said about having the pap smears or looking at the HPV test was something I wasn't aware of. And so it never hurts to put out more information and maybe create a little more awareness about what we can do to keep ourselves safe. All right, here we go. Moving on to the good stuff. So we're gonna talk about managing the fluid Ayurveda. And in doing so, I am going to talk about some herbs that iron VEDA recommends to support your recovery from the flu and to support your overall health. So because I am going to talk about herbs, I have to give you this disclaimer, and remind you I am not a medical doctor. So check with your physician prior to taking any herbs, especially if you're on other medications. And then follow the directions given by your doctor or the dosages on your bottles unless you're personally being evaluated and treated by a medical expert. So remember, herbs are medicine, and herbs can have some very powerful effects. So you always have to approach them with caution. And if you are taking prescription drugs, it's very, very important that you're checking with your physician to make sure that using any kind of herbs with them is going to be safe for you. So when I talk about herbs, it's important to know even though a lot of studies are being done now on herbs, many many herbs and the statements about what they do according to ancient traditions such as our VEDA have not been evaluated by the FDA. And anything that I tell you is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. This information is just for educational purposes, it is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. So please contact your health practitioner if you want to use them. And be safe, always better to be safe than sorry. All right. Let's get into this then. So in Episode 17, I introduced the concepts of doshas, and how are you better considers different types of qualities in a person's body. And from the assessment of those qualities, a plan is created to support healing and balance with food, herbs and lifestyle practices. So this approach is consistent when we're talking about dealing with the flu as well. Even though we all may be coming down with the same strain, let's say a flu virus, it's out there, our bodies might react to this virus differently, and therefore need different types of support. So in addition to that, our Aveda follows pathways of illnesses, meaning that when an illness begins, it's caught and it's treated at its early stage, it's in the most superficial tissue levels. And it can be most easily treated and health most easily restored at that point. But the longer the imbalance goes without being treated, the deeper it moves into the tissues, and the more dangerous the illness becomes, as well as the more difficult it becomes it becomes to treat. So an example of this would be a severe form of flu is something that's migrated to the lungs, and it's manifested as pneumonia and becomes a life threatening circumstance. And we're as if you just are in to fill a scratchy throat and some body aches and filling a little fatigue, this is at the more superficial level. So again, it's very important when you're dealing with the flu that we understand people lose their lives to flus every year, and we're seeing that this year as well. So supporting yourself and your health in any way you can is important, but also having an awareness of when this the symptoms, or this disease has become so severe that you really need professional medical help to keep yourself safe and healthy. Okay, so we're going to talk about just these herbs. And these practices we're talking about are going to be when this flu is at its superficial stage, right, you're just starting not to feel good. The flu is just starting to settle in. And if it's any worse than that, then you're gonna go see a doctor. Okay, so first, I'm going to give two tips that are super important in dealing with the flu. And then we're going to talk about some herbal support. Okay, the number one rule is get plenty of sleep. Now, I'm going to go into this a little bit because I know that many people listening to this, they get sick, and you don't want to stay in bed, you don't want to sleep, you want to keep pushing yourself and get the laundry done and go to work and don't miss that meeting. But here's the newsflash, no one wants you at work when you're sick, because they're gonna end up getting sick too. So, you know, there was a time when people showed up to work with one foot in the grave, and everyone else was like, wow, kudos to them, boy, they push through anything. But those days are over. Alright, so if you're sick, stay home. And while you stay home sleep. So let's talk about why sleep is so important. Sleeping is one of the most underrated things that we do as people and we just don't understand how much our bodies need sleep in order to heal. When we sleep, we detoxify we rebuild tissues that have been broken down all throughout this course of our just normal, stressful day of life. So even if your life isn't Uber stressful, just the normal wear and tear of living breaks down tissue. And sleep is this restorative state that your body really needs to stay strong and to regain health or to heal. So according to an article titled sleep helps healing which was published in the British Medical Journal, our stress hormones like cortisol are not only low when we're sleeping, but sleep actually inhibits the production of those hormones. At the same time, that it's promoting the production of hormones that rebuild tissue. So additionally, when we're awake, some stress hormones prevent the mechanisms that are necessary for healing. While we are asleep, the rate of that healing increases. So sleep is super important. It's important for our well being and many studies have shown that people with sleep apnea this is really interesting, because people with sleep apnea have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease if the sleep apnea goes untreated, and lots of new studies are showing that sleep apnea can be related to things such as depression and anxiety. So as if that's not enough, studies are also showing that women who are put into menopause prematurely through surgery or chemically induced menopause, I'm familiar have a higher risk of suffering from obstructive sleep apnea.

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So sleep apnea if you're snoring a lot, if you are feeling tired during the day, it can be these little bouts during the night where it's affecting your sleep because you're actually stopping breathing for a short period of time. And then maybe that snoring brings you back a little bit. And you don't even know why your sleep is disturbed. You just wake up frequently throughout the night. And sometimes it's not completely related to being overweight or obesity, skinny people can have sleep apnea as well. So even though that's a deviation from the main topic of treating flu, if you are feeling tired during the day, if you're low on energy, if you're suffering from depression, or you have a loved one that complains about your snoring, you might want to look into getting a sleep test because sleep is so important. In fact, I'm going to give you one more little bit of info here Dr. Richard Leung in a 2015 article on the Huffington Post said that when he treats his patients with depression for sleep apnea, they either say that my depression got better when my sleep apnea got treated, or others choose to frame it as I never had depression at all. It was sleep apnea. So interesting thing, think about that. If you're tired all the time, get that checked out. Okay, so back to the flu. Step one to stay healthy and support your healing, rest and sleep. No more Wonderwoman complex, we've moved on to honoring our body and giving ourselves rest. When we need it. Give yourself the permission to do that. Just sleep and don't push yourself further than you need to based on your own expectations. Number two, food and drink. So according to our VEDA, the best food for the flu is no food or very little food. So fasting for one to three days, while you're taking in lots of fluid in the forms of teas or water is important to allow the energy of your body to be directed toward healing. So we're instead of dragging it to digesting, we're just letting that little energy we have worked to heal our bodies. So if that sounds appealing at first, think about it. Because you really don't have much of an appetite when you start to come down with the flu, especially in the first couple of days. And then as you begin to heal, you slowly, just rebuild that diet with appropriate foods for your constitution. Meaning if the foods are heating or warming or soothing, depending on the different diabetic energies that we've talked about. So if you need to eat during the first few days of the flu, that's totally fine. You know, especially if you have some kind of metabolic condition, or you're taking medication that requires food, but just keep the diet light in general, like eating broths. And cooked vegetables is something that's totally fine. But do stay clear of processed foods, keep those crappy foods out of your diet, especially foods that are high in sugar, which again, we know, contributes to inflammation. So I want to touch on foods for a second because I can remember when I was a kid, and we would get I would get sick and or you my siblings, we would all get sick at the same time usually, and my mom would spoil us right and she'd make comforting foods and we'd get to have treats. Maybe we'd even get to have ice cream if we had a really sore throat. And we loved it. So now even as an adult, oftentimes, if your mom's boil do when you were a kid, when you were a sick kid, you just feel like you want your mom or you want that comfort food. And that's perfectly natural, because love in itself is healing. And we're yearning for that love Mom gave us through food, right? But there was a difference between the wholesome food that mom cooked and made for us when we were sick that she gave for us and the junk food we buy in boxes that we might think of as come from food these days. So just be aware of that little bit of differentiation and try to stay away from those foods that create inflammation in your body that are just super easy to eat because they're packaged. And they just know that they just make your immune system work that much harder. So turning to food for comfort is really more of a social habit than a natural tendency when we're sick. And if you think about it, or if you look around in nature, you'll see that when an animal is not feeling well what do they do? They stop eating, right. So if you come home and you find your pet, just kind of laying around and lethargic and they haven't touched their food all day. You're immediately on alert. Oh this animal is sick, and they sleep more than usual because they have this natural instinct that says you know something isn't right, get rest, and don't eat, just let the body begin to focus on healing. So our Veda is kind of turning us back to that natural way of being. And that's the whole essence of why Aveda is falling back in line with the cycles of nature and with our natural tendencies, not the things we've been programmed to do. So even though food is not super critical at this time at the beginning of a flu according to Ayurveda, unless, of course, again, you have a medical situation, then definitely do what you need to do. But hydration is extremely important. A lot of people think about dehydration, and something comes to mind about maybe exercise or being out in the heat and having heatstroke. But in fact, it just doesn't take a lot of a decrease in the amount of water in our body to have an impact on how we feel. In fact, about 1% of the loss of your body mass due to fluid loss is defined as dehydration. So that's just a tiny, tiny bit of fluid loss 1%. Right, our body is made up 60 to 70% of our bodies made up of water. So we need water to keep things moving. It helps to keep nutrients moving through our system, water has been shown to have a protective effect on our kidneys. Higher water intake lessens our risks of having kidney stones. And mentally Staying hydrated is really important because things like fatigue, and anxiety, those can really be related back to hydration in some cases. So when you're feeling sick, and you're in a bad mood, and you're feeling really irritable, not to say that drinking water is going to completely change that. But it can absolutely have an effect on it. When we're very dehydrated, we can feel achy, we can feel confused, we can feel very, very fatigued. In fact, when my husband travels and he gets home after a long time of traveling and he's just wiped out. Hydration is one of the first things that we turn to just really getting him to drink as much water as possible. And here I live in Southern California, there are a couple of really cool places that are hydration rooms or hydration, places where you can go and get IV hydration. And it is amazing when I'm sick or even have migraine headaches, I often go to these places. And it's absolutely incredible how much that intravenous hydration can change the way you feel so quickly. So when you're sick, and you're laying there in bed, and you just feel awful, and you don't feel you maybe you're thirsty that their signal is going off, but you just don't have the energy to get up and get another glass of water. It's really important that you push yourself to do that. And maybe keep a pitcher of water by your bedside so that you don't have to keep getting up and down. But you do have some water there to keep refilling that glass and really focus on hydration to keep yourself supported and feeling better, a little bit faster. All right. So now the good stuff. We're going to talk a little bit about herbal support. So again, going back to Episode 17, where we talked about the doshas, there are three different doshas that are recognized by Ayurveda. And each of those three doshas has different qualities. So, when we're trying to support our health or our healing with herbs, it's important to think about the qualities of what we're experiencing, as well as the quality of the herbs that we're going to use to support our system. So for example, the flu in Ayurveda is considered to have vata energy at its root. And vata energy is that frenetic, moving fast, cool, light, crisp, cold, nothing moves without vata. So typically the flu season occurs during a transition of seasons, right? So from fall to winter, and those seasons are high in that vata energy as well. So giving you a little insight into the RU Vedic perspective on the qualities of the flu here, when you have the flu, oftentimes, you also get a fever and the fever is more related to pitta, that hot, sharp, pungent type of dosha having those energies, and you might also have mucus in your head or in your chest, which is more of the Kapha type of symptoms. So really, all three of these doshas are disturbed when we have the flu and that's why the flu is considered to be triad oceanic involving all three doshas and imbalance of everything great, right. That's why we feel so crummy. So like many imbalances in our Aveda, we start to go out of whack as I said a little earlier in these superficial levels. And then if we don't nip it in the bud As we progress deeper and deeper and deeper, and we get sicker and sicker and sicker. So let's talk about some of the things we can do based on some of the symptoms that you may experience. And again, I'm talking about the flu. But if you feel like wow, I kind of experienced some of these types of symptoms on a regular basis, you might want to look into some of these herbal preparations as well. So if you're high in vata energy, if you're experiencing things like aching, dry joints, constipation, dry scratchy throat and cough, headache, dry sinuses, and a low grade fever, here's a few herbs that might help you. Triphala. So Triphala is probably one of the most common herbal preparations used in Ayurveda. It's a combination of three fruits that are native to India, there are Malachy Haritaki and vivid Taki. And Triphala is not a laxative, but it's actually a bowel tone of fire. So it supports the regularity without causing gripping that cramping sensation in your gut, because it doesn't irritate the bowels to cause movement like laxatives do, but actually nourishes the tissues in our colon, and it supports healthy digestion and in our small intestine as well supports healthy digestion and absorption. So Triphala is considered a tri doshic herb, it supports many areas of the body according to Ayurveda, including your immune system, your liver function, and your respiratory health. So Triphala is not something that you only use when you have the flu, but many people use triphala on a daily basis, just to support having very healthy digestion and healthy elimination. So if you're experiencing a dry cough, try some demulcent herbs. So demulcent herbs are those herbs that reduce irritation and inflammation in the tissue. Some very common ones are slippery elm, licorice and marshmallow and teas are a great way to get these herbs into your body to have my favorite teas that contain actually I think all three of those herbs are throat coat, and I think the other one is called throat comfort. And these are common teas something you can find in your grocery store easily or find them on Amazon. And do be careful with one of the ingredients if you're drinking teas that have licorice or if you're taking the herb licorice, if you have high blood pressure, some studies have shown that certain amounts of licorice could contribute to increasing that blood pressure. So do be aware of that and check with your physician if you have high blood pressure before you use the herb licorice. So for stiff aching joints, here's a wonderful preparation Yogiraj Guggulu and I will put this on the show notes page. But Yogiraj Guggulu is a wonderful preparation. It has very warming energetics, and it has an affinity for removing and Iveta what's referred to as armor. And armor is basically toxins. It's that stuff that gunks up our body and causes imbalances and how's that for a scientific explanation. If you are experiencing more Pitta type symptoms heated symptoms, such as loose stools, burning mucous membranes, red Vashi scam, some really effective cooling herbs are for the digestive tract, and the mucous membranes are licorice again, but use it with caution Shatavari, cardamom and phenol. And these are again easily found in lots of teas. So look up these ingredients, and their agenda and teas are always just a very generally safe way to consume herbs. Neem and burdock are good choices for red Raschi skin and if you immediately think of neem in the form of essential oil when I say that, be really careful with the application of this unless you're very familiar with the safe use of essential oils. The rule of thumb for skin application of neem is one part name to 10 parts carrier oil. So it's always best to test your skin in a very small spot to make sure you don't have a sensitivity or allergic reaction before you just slather it all over you. So again, thinking be safe, better safe than sorry, but you can find Nieman teas also. And at the end I'll give you a really great resource for herbs and you'll be able to find that on this website as well. And so finally, if you're experiencing Kapha type flu symptoms, these are things are like sluggish digestion and elimination. Lots of congestion in the chest or in the sinuses. fluid retention and lethargy. Warming diuretic herbs are a great go to support trigger to which means three pungens is a combination of ginger pippali and black pepper. And in our event a true cockatoos used to get the digestive system moving and to support a healthy metabolism. Now ginger is also used as a support to healthy expectations and to calm nausea which I'm sure you've probably heard the use for right to drink used to be ginger ale. Remember when I was a kid before it was just all sugary it was a ginger ale if you had an upset tummy, and saltine crackers, right? But ginger is a great digestive aid and so when you're filling that sluggishness, that slow sluggishness, ginger and heating herbs are something that's really good to get you moving. For fluid retention herbs like dandelion leaf, Ooba Ursi. These are used in ru VEDA along with what's called a diaphragmatic, a more heating herb that might help promote sweating. And again, Trica to is one of these ginger is one of these, and also basil and Bayberry. So I don't know about you, but for me, when I'm sick, I always know I'm turning the corner on feeling sick, when I start sweating, I get to that point where I start sweating. And I think, okay, there's something about it, that just gets me moving and kind of gives me a little energy boost. I think it's that extra heat that just makes everything feel like that credit is coming out of my system. And that's why these herbs are used when you're feeling lethargic, they can have that effect of making you just kind of want to get up and take a shower or move around, start that sweating. So finally, there are two other remedies that I'll share with you that I learned while studying Are you better and that I use for myself and for my kids. One is a mixture of hot water with honey and black pepper. And that's really great to use if you're feeling mucousy so that can help warm things up and help act as a little bit of an expectorant. I personally prefer using licorice tea in that. But there are some times licorice tea can have little sweetness or if you're someone who shouldn't be using licorice tea, hot water is absolutely just as effective. And then the second one is something that I heard about when I was attending a lecture by the sont LOD. Now Dr. Lud is an Ayurvedic physician. He is the author of many books on our Veda and on herbs. And he's the founder of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And during his lecture, he passed on an old family remedy that now I've used for years whenever my children or I get a sore throat or a cough. And that remedy was to put 10 drops of Mahana Ryan oil into a cup of hot water or tea and then drink it. So Mahana Ryan oil is an herb infused oil that's used in our VEDA to relieve sore muscles and joints. So when I heard Dr. Lord say that I would drink it. At first, I was a little bit leery. But I have so much respect and admiration of him. And I trust his advice and his opinion that I was definitely willing to try it. And what he said was that this was going to relieve a sore throat, and then it would relieve a cough almost immediately. And especially, I have a couple of children with asthma and he said especially helps asthmatic people. So it made sense to me since the the oil Mahana. And oil is actually used to sue that soreness and muscle and joints, because it has anti inflammatory effects. So it made sense. And I tried it and it was very effective. I know I always keep a bottle of this oil in my medicine cabinet. My kids asked for it when they're not feeling well, they know that it works for them too. It's soothing. And it has just kind of like a sweet, kind, not sweet as in sugary like candy, but a sweet kind of flavor to it. And it's not overpowering, or really strong. It's actually quite pleasant. So I hope you find these tips helpful. But even more than that, I hope you avoid getting the flu bug altogether. Now if you have remedies that you find helpful when you or your loved ones have the flu, and you're willing to share them, please find me Laura Lummer on Facebook or the breast cancer recovery coach on Instagram and post your insights I'd love to hear them. So as always a list a the resources and references on the show notes page for the things I talked about here today. So please check them out on my website, Laura lummer.com under the podcast tab. And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to download my book The six habits of healthy happy breast cancer survivors. It's free on my website, just click shop and then click on Books and follow that link. And I hope you make it a great day. Again, being World Cancer Day if there's something near and dear to your heart and you want to make a contribution to that cause today, this is a great time to do it. And I hope you have a wonderful Superbowl Sunday and a great rest of The week and like always, I'll talk to you in two weeks and remember let your lifestyle be your medicine you've

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voices in your head you've put your courage to the test laid all your doubts your mind is clearer than before your heart is full and wanting more your futures given all you know you've been waiting on your this is your