I am sure that you have all heard about that wonderful, aromatic kitchen spice that is a must add to any Italian dish!! BUT did you know that Oregano is also a powerful immune system booster?? Read on and find out everything you need to know, but were afraid to ask about Oregano!

A Brief Background on Infections

There was a time in history when antibiotics were hailed as miracle drugs. With the introduction of penicillin in the 1940’s, and the subsequent discovery of streptomycin, the world saw a dramatic reduction in illness and death from infectious diseases. However, the battle of the bugs was far from over. Pathogens that are rapidly developing resistance to available treatments include the bacteria that cause pneumonia, ear infections, meningitis and sinusitis. Skin, heart, bone, lung and blood infections as well as food born infections like Salmonella and E. coli are becoming more common.

According to health authorities, they were predicting the likelihood of a global pandemic as being inevitable as recently as 2013. This due to the rapidly evolving new drug-resistant strains of bacteria and viruses emerging every year. The last global pandemic was the Spanish Flu of 1918 which killed upwards of 50 million people worldwide. Many felt that the West Nile Virus, SARS, Bird Flu and Swine Flu could have been a pandemic, and the media did do its part to overplay the importance of these outbreaks. In the end, 1,144 died of West Nile, 774 died of SARS, 282 died of Bird Flu and 18,000 died of Swine Flu. While tragic, these were not pandemics. To put it in to perspective, according to WHO (World Health Organization) the seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people every year.

Yes we are currently in the midst of the “inevitable” pandemic, CoVid-19. And keeping your immune system strong is your number one defense. Every little bit helps!

Getting to know OREGANO!

Oregano is a member of the Mint Family along with Rosemary, Thyme, Basil and Sage. Oregano has a strong aroma and unique flavor. It has long been used as an ingredient in dishes native to the Mediterranean region. However, it is important to note that most oregano available in grocery stores for cooking is not Mediterranean oregano. It is a variety of marjoram, a close relative of Oregano. Mediterranean oregano is actually quite bitter when picked fresh and it may even leave your tongue quite numb. It is this bitter and hot taste that contains a higher amount of the active ingredients responsible for oregano’s antiseptic strength.

Oregano has been used for 1000’s of years by the Egyptians and Babylonians along with the Greeks and Italians in Rome. The Greek physician Hippocrates used it for respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders, wounds , venomous snake bites and insect bites. It was also used for cough and lung congestion, earache, inflamed tonsils, thrush, stomach ache, heartburn, and intestinal gas.

Use of Oregano oil quickly spread around the world. In China, oregano was used to treat colds, fever, nausea, diarrhea, itchy skin and jaundice as well as bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma. Truly one of Mother Nature’s gifts to us!

Every living plant contains natural compounds called phytochemicals. These all have different effects in our body. For example, if you eat straight ginseng you may feel a boost of energy and your body temperature may rise a bit. This is because of the effect of a particular group of phytochemicals in ginseng called ginsenosides. This increases adrenaline production thus boosting energy and causing a warming effect. Two of Oregano’s main constituents are carvacrol, responsible for Oregano’s infection fighting power. And thymol which has been shown in laboratory studies to significantly increase Oregano’s overall effectiveness as a powerful antioxidant.

Oregano Attributes

Antibacterial, Anti-fungal, Antiviral, Antimicrobial, Anti-parasitic, Anti-inflammatory, and Analgesic. A true natural powerhouse!

Now if you have never tasted Oregano oil before, I do suggest caution for the first time. It has quite a strong flavor and water will not wash the flavor away quickly! The best method is 2 to 3 drops under the tongue to allow for direct absorption into the blood stream. If the flavor becomes too strong, you can follow with water. Repeat this 3 to 5 times per day, depending on what your body is fighting off.

For chicken pox, measles and mumps, again, drops under the tongue. And you can increase the number of drops based on tolerance. You can also apply topically, blended with cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. 1 drop Oregano oil to 3 drops of olive oil. For mumps, can also be applied topically to swollen glands on the neck. You can also apply to the soles of your feet. Rub in 5 to 7 drops vigorously and then put on socks. I used to do this for my kids when they were young because they would not put it in their mouths. 9 times out of 10, I was able to lower fever using this method.

Antibiotics are completely ineffective against viruses like the flu. The antiviral drugs and flu vaccines that are offered by doctors are largely ineffective. Furthermore, there is much controversy over the safety of these pharmaceuticals. The truth is, modern medicine has little to offer when it comes to cold and flu viruses. Thank goodness for Oil of Oregano! Start stocking up for the coming flu season as it will be coupled with the continuing threat of CoVid-19.

Oil of Oregano is helpful for the following:

• Fights bacterial and Viral infections
• Boosts immunity
• Loosens congestion in the sinuses and lungs
• Alleviates coughing and sore throat
• Helps with headache and fever
• Helps protect you when other are sick

This is THE book to have on hand on Oil of Oregano.

Stay Healthy!!

The best way to deal with a problem – in business, personal lives, engineering, etc. – is to identify the cause, address the cause and solve the problem. Unfortunately, modern medicine does not focus on identifying the cause. Traditional medicine suppresses symptoms, usually by poisoning patients with toxic drugs, removing essential body parts (tonsils, appendix, gall bladder, thyroid, etc.) or exposing the patient to cancer causing radiation, sometimes all three tactics. Meanwhile, diseases remain chronic, and disease-care costs continue to escalate to unsustainable levels. Diseases are healed with nutrients and the removal of toxins, not with drugs and surgical scalpels.

Most people wait until they get sick, then go to a doctor and hope to get well. This practice negates our own responsibility for health. Do we really think we can eat an unhealthy diet and live an unhealthy lifestyle and that our doctor will make us well after we have worked so hard for so long, to make ourselves sick?

Make A Choice

Health and disease are choices. We, as a society and as individuals, are the ones making those choices. Today, health is compromised on so many levels. If we want to improve our health, prevent or reverse disease and extend life, we have to make special choices in order to compensate. We cannot rely on physicians to “fix” us after we have spent decades making ourselves sick-almost all physicians are stuck in the old disease-care paradigm and have no idea how to restore cells to health, unless they have moved to Functional Medicine. (More on this field in a later post). The responsibility for health is ours and we must teach this to our children, so they and their children, can claim their birthright to lifelong good health. We must also ask our governments and society at large, to make changes. Why do we allow soft drink and candy vending machines in our schools? Why is it that medical insurance covers antiquated traditional treatments, such as mammography (which spreads cancer cells by squishing tumors), but does not cover safer, more effective alternatives like Thermography (which can detect tumours YEARS before a mammogram). Why do we allow the government to subsidize the dairy and sugar industries? Why do we allow genetically modified foods to be sold without labeling and without adequate testing for safety? Why do we continue to allow the use of fluoride in our drinking water?

Germs Vs. the True Cause of Disease

The popular misconception is that micro-organisms cause infections. But to be a true case, the micro-organisms would have to produce the same effect all the time, which is not the case. Not everyone who is exposed to a particular organism (bacteria or virus) gets sick and not everyone who gets sick, does so to the same degree. In truth, whether or not someone develops an infection depends on the balance between several factors, namely the virulence of the organism, the number of organisms and most importantly, the strength of the immune system. We live in a sea of micro-organisms, but they do not make us sick until we alter the natural balance between them and us. Our normal co-existence with germs rather than a germ-free environment ensures our health. Over sanitizing, over washing and cleaning everything with rubbing alcohol will only weaken the immune system and make it easier for bacteria and virus to enter the body. Keep this in mind as you continue to spray down everything in our homes. Our immune systems need germs to practice on or it becomes weak.

When we eat sugar and nutrient deficient diets, expose ourselves to toxins, lose sleep, fail to exercise and fail to adapt to stress, our immunity becomes depressed and we open the door to infection. Then we blame the germ, when really, we are to blame. Rather than being obsessed with germs and rushing for flu shots (and this new Corona mRNA shot, of which long term effects are not known) and scrubbing every inch of our bodies with anti-bacterial soaps, optimizing our immunity would be a far better AND safer approach.

The idea that germs cause disease is so ingrained in us, many have difficulty making the shift to the new way of thinking, but to avoid infections, we must do exactly that. People such as the Hunzas lived well into their hundreds without ever having so much as cold, not because they took flu shots but because they were healthy, and their immune systems were strong. In truth, only sick people get sick. The problem is we spend decades making ourselves sick, all the while thinking we are healthy.

Time to take control back of your health and stop over sanitizing your world. When I was a kid, I lived on a farm, walking in manure in my bare feet, swam in ponds with tadpoles, same ponds our ducks and geese pooped in. I drank raw milk and ate fruit off the trees and vegetables from our garden. My mother did not run me to the emergency room whenever I got a cut, She just cleaned it and put a bandage on it. We did not get a flu shot every year and in all the years growing up on that farm, we did not even do tetanus shots. Now, I would not recommend that last one, however, a doctor told me years ago that only 20% of the population needs a booster every 10 years of the tetanus shot, only they have no way of knowing which 20%, so they just boost everyone. REALLY??? Not a brilliant medical system if you ask me!!!

Is this what our world is coming to????? THE CHOICE IS YOURS!