As a healthcare provider, during cough and flu season, I guarantee you'll be inundated with patients who are sneezing and hacking, coughing, chills, fever, you name it. It's a miserable feeling, we all know that. We've all had a cold that is just miserable and you just want something, anything to help you feel better. While there is no magic here in the botanical world, we will be discussing some botanicals that have some actions that may just help you not feel so miserable. Symptoms of the common cold like I just mentioned are miserable for everybody and nobody is happy to hear that there is nothing available to cure their symptoms. But a certain type of botanical may help boost the immune system if taken proactively, immune modulators. Let's explore a variety of botanical actions that can help support the immune and the nervous system of the body; hepatics, immune modulators, nerve ions, and vulneraries. First up are hepatics, which are a really fascinating class of botanical that help protect and strengthen the liver. Botanical with these properties help decrease inflammation in the liver and provide protection from toxins such as certain medications that can damage the liver. For example, some types of chemotherapy can be very damaging to the liver and using a botanical with hepatic properties such as milk thistle, can help protect the liver. We'll be discussing hepatic botanicals in more detail in future lessons. As I previously mentioned, immune modulating botanicals are yet another highly unique function of botanicals and are thought to combat common viruses either by revving up the immune system response or having direct antiviral activity. Some immune modulators are used to prevent viral infection. Others are started immediately within 24 to 48 hours of symptom onset. Common examples include, echinacea, astragalus and Alva Berry. We'll look at a variety of immune modulating botanicals later in the course. Chances are, you may have already had an nervine botanical this morning. Nervines can either stimulate or relax the nervous system. If you poured yourself a cup of coffee or tea this morning to help wake yourself up, I know I did. Guess what? You have consumed nervine stimuli. These types of nervine contain caffeine and have a stimulating effect on the autonomic nervous system. In addition to coffee and tea, common Nervine stimulates include Yerba mate, guarana and kola nuts. You may find nervine stimulants as ingredients in popular energy drinks that are laden with caffeine and sugar. I do not recommend these energy drinks in any form, because more stimulation is something rarely needed in our highly active society. I rarely recommend taking nervine stimulants other than a simple cup of coffee or tea in the morning. Contrary to stimulating nervines, relaxing nervines are a type of botanical I frequently recommend due to their potential to promote relaxation, and who doesn't love that? These types of botanicals can be helpful to relieve mild anxiety or insomnia, and may help promote an overall sense of well being. Interestingly, many types of nervines relaxants, also have secondary actions, such as carminative or analgesic properties. A perfect example of this is Chamomile, a nervine relaxant that many people drink, the tea of to help sleep. Yet, it's also used to help soothe upset stomachs. Other types of nervine relaxants include lemon balm, lavender, valerian, hops, passion flower, and skullcap. We'll be going through these in more detail in future parts of this course. Vulnerary botanicals help promote wound healing through effects on fibroblasts or collagen deposition, both of which are very important in the process of wound healing. These types of botanicals also help with infection prevention. Another key factor to promote the proper and efficient healing of a wound. Vulnerary botanicals typically refer to topical skin wounds. But technically can be applied to internal woulds such as a stomach ulcer. One of the most common Vulnerary botanicals is aloe vera. Not only does aloe vera help promote proper wound healing, but due to its demulcent properties, it also helps form a protective barrier to prevent infection of wounds. You just learned about a variety of botanical actions that may support the immune and nervous system, which of the following statements are true? Now that we've covered all actions except lactagogue from the botanical actions reference sheet, you should review and download that reading if you've not done so already. Preparations are the means through which a botanical is made ready for medicinal use. The other lesson for this week focuses on different types of herbal preparations and gives you the chance to try making some simple preparations in your very own kitchen.
