By Caitlin Rivett-Carnac, St. Francis Herb Farm

Almost everyone experiences a common virus or two throughout the long months of cold & flu season, but a preventative, proactive approach can help to protect your health and well-being.

Achieving balanced immunity means supporting whole-body health holistically. This includes healthy lifestyle choices like eating a diverse, clean diet of organic whole foods, stress management practices and quality sleep habits – all important routines that establish the foundation of good health year-round.

Herbs also offer powerful, targeted support in fortifying crucial immune responses against illness to better protect yourself – and your family – from these infections.

For benefits and results using therapeutic herbs, quality is essential. Just like foods, herbs grown using organic principles are of higher quality than herbs from conventional farms and are more effective in treating specific health concerns as well as supporting overall wellbeing – including immune defences.

How Herbs Can Strengthen Immunity 

A balanced immune system is your strongest immune system. If the immune system is sensitized and/or overactive, there can be excess inflammation and strong reactions (e.g. to some allergens), while if it is underactive, one is vulnerable to infections, including cold and flu viruses.

Often the terms “boosting” and “building” are used in advertisements for immune products, but it is actually maintaining and optimizing one’s immune functioning that results in the strongest natural defences.

This is what makes a family of plant medicines known as adaptogens so effective in immune support. They have the unique ability to increase the body’s general resistance to threats by adapting their function to what the body needs. Like a thermostat, adaptogens work to bring the body into a balanced physiological state so its systems and processes can function optimally – including immunity!

Immune-specific herbs and plant medicines can be taken as a daily tonic to help maintain and restore immune system balance. Some examples of immune-supportive adaptogens include astragalus, codonopsis, Siberian ginseng, reishi mushroom and schisandra.

Incorporating these plant medicines into your daily routine is a simple way to support your natural defences. Using herbal products that are made with ingredients cultivated and harvested according to organic standards, leads to their efficacy during cold & flu season, and throughout the year.

Working with certified organic suppliers around the globe, that take care and pride in their products is a foundation to quality and efficiency.

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