536: Your Natural Medicine Chest: Immune Support

In this empowering episode of the Learn True Health podcast, Ashley James sits down with Dr. Ellen Kamhi, also known as the Natural Nurse, who brings over five decades of experience in holistic and herbal medicine. From healing her own debilitating back injury without surgery to teaching thousands how to build their own natural medicine chests, Dr. Kamhi shares powerful, practical tools for addressing pain, boosting immunity, and living in vibrant health. Whether you're looking to support your family naturally through cold and flu season or take charge of your own healing journey, this interview is packed with must-know insights and remedies you’ll want to keep in your back pocket—literally.

Highlights: 

• Dr. Ellen Kamhi healed a severe back injury using herbs instead of surgery, sparking her lifelong passion for natural medicine.
• She’s been practicing and teaching holistic medicine since 1964 and has written 18 books.
• Vitamin C (especially in powder form) and elderberry syrup are top immune-boosting tools she recommends having on hand.
• Oscillococcinum is a must-have homeopathic remedy for early flu symptoms—take at the very first sign.
• Oil of oregano is a powerful natural antimicrobial but can be too strong for children and some adults.
• Garlic also acts as a natural antibiotic but should be followed with probiotics like sauerkraut to rebuild gut flora.
• Food should be whole and unlabeled; eliminating wheat helps reduce inflammation and pain.
• Homeopathy and herbs work best when used at the first sign of illness, not once symptoms become severe.
• She recommends building a natural medicine chest at home so you're ready when symptoms arise.
• Joy, spirituality, and lifestyle habits like rest and connection are vital components of true health.

Intro:

Hello True Health Seeker and welcome to another exciting episode of the Learn True Health podcast. Today we have with us Dr. Ellen Kamhi. She has been teaching natural, holistic, and herbal medicine for 52 years. It's amazing. Since the 70s she's been helping people to get so healthy that they're no longer in pain, they're no longer sick and suffering and just a wonderful wealth of knowledge. We have such a great interview for you today.

This is going to be definitely one of those interviews that you're going to want to share with so many of your friends. So many of your friends maybe just  copy the link to it and store it somewhere in your phone. I use them. I have an Android, my husband has an iPhone, so I understand there's two totally different types of phones out there, but both types of phones have somewhere where you can store notes. I use the Keep App and I love it. I keep tons of notes and then you can pin them to the top if they're really important.

As I was interviewing her, I jotted down all the really important points and, of course, I'm going to make sure that this is in the show notes of today's podcast at LearnTrueHealth.com, along with all the links to everything she does. I've stored those in my little Keep App where you can keep notes. If you have never done that, it is a game changer. So definitely check out a note-keeping app on your phone. Whether you have an Android or an Apple, you will find that you can be able to store some notes and quickly access them.

It's been so helpful because I can't tell you how many listeners in our Facebook group, Learn True Health Facebook group, and also friends and family, have come to me saying, oh, I've got a sore throat or I'm starting to have a cold, what should I do? Oh no, my kid is spiking a fever, or my kid's feeling sick, or I'm feeling sick, my husband's feeling sick, which I do. I grabbed the notes that I wrote down during my interview with Dr. Kamhi and they have been such a game changer.

My family has also had quite the experience. I interviewed her a few weeks ago, several weeks ago, so we've had this experience. Since interviewing her, I ordered everything that she recommended and I've had it in my little medicine cabinet, or how she phrases it, the natural medicine chest. I definitely have a big natural medicine chest with a lot of cool herbs and homeopathy and phototherapy patches and now the vibe which I run to. Anytime someone in my family or a close friend who's visiting feels any symptom under the weather, we run to those and just blow it out of our system quickly. Get rid of pain, get rid of a headache, get rid of a little sore throat or a cough. It's just been amazing.

My life, the last over 10 years. My first instinct is to go to natural medicine before going to a pharmaceutical and now myself and my family so rarely need a pharmaceutical, and I just love that.

It was such a 180 that there was a time in my life where I was on constant medication, 20 years ago, and now it is so wonderful to have this reversal where it is so odd and weird and rare to even think of having a pharmaceutical either over the counter or prescribed. But of course these are tools. We have to be pragmatic. So have the tools in your tool belt so that when you get a scratchy throat in the middle of the night you can go to them instead of waiting to get super sick.

This is what happened to us. We used her recommendations, several of us. One of us would have a little sore throat or the other one would kind of start feeling fluish, and we use them. The moment we started feeling that and we were able to blow stuff out of our system so fast. It was really cool, instead of having it take hold.

Of course, eating healthy and all the lifestyle things you can do, but even super healthy people get sick. What I love is this concept that it's not that you don't get sick, it's how quickly your body can bounce back, and that is the true testament to health. How quickly can you blow it out of your system? How quickly can you bounce back? Are you still feeling sick weeks after a cold or flu, or do you just, within 24 hours, blow it out of your system and then you're moving on to the next thing and feeling great? We can always improve. No matter where we are, we can always improve.

Today is one of those interviews that you're going to want to take the link to this interview, store it in the little notebook app on your phone, whichever one you use like I said, I use the Keep one, and I love that. You're going to share this episode. I bet you're going to share this episode at least 10 times this winter. This is the episode that is going to help so many of your friends and family.

Before we get to this episode, I want to let you know of a few other things that have been so, so, so helpful for pain and for immune, because this episode is about helping with natural ways to reverse pain and also, really important, how to blow out a cold or flu out of your system and get healthier and get back to life faster than if you just, I don't know, waited, just stayed at home and waited to get better.

These interventions are super helpful, the things that I have turned to that have really helped—the phototherapy patches. If you want to learn more about them, you can listen to my two interviews, episodes 496 and 517, and you can also book a free phone call with me where I can talk to you about them. I can help you order them and order the right ones for you, and I can teach you how to use them. They are a real game changer.

One thing that I accomplished by using them is I used them for an adrenal and kidney tonification protocol that gave me the energy that I had back when I was a kid. I don't know if you ever have thought, like what happened to me? I used to be able to get up and get on my bicycle on a Saturday morning and just go, go, go, go, go, and then not come home until the streetlights came on. I was full of energy when I was a kid and then something happened in my 30s or 40s or 50s and now I'm just super tired.

If you're thinking, when did I lose that youthful, unlimited energy? You're going to love the phototherapy patches. I use them specifically with that protocol and we have over 80 protocols.

I did it for about six weeks and I noticed that I was able to get a lot more out in the gym, like I went from five minutes on the rower to twenty-three minutes on the rower, virtually overnight, having a lot more endurance. There are a lot of athletes. There are a ton of pictures we have of all the Olympic athletes wearing the phototherapy patches. RFK Jr—we have pictures of him. We see him in the gym wearing them and that's because there's results. There are over 80 studies showing that it increases muscle output and recovery time, but it also increases healthy bone tissue, so bone density. We've had great experiences with that, where people go back and get their DEXA scans and show that they have healthier bones. There's increased muscle mass and increased output and recovery for athletes.

For me, I got that energy back. I used to watch my child—he's nine now, almost 10—but right around when he was about six or seven I had this aha moment where I lost that. I lost that ability to just go, go, go, go, go at some point in my life and I couldn't keep up with him. I did this protocol for about six weeks. Somewhere around the second month, I just realized it was maybe seven at night and I was, go, go, go all day with my son. We do activities all day. We homeschool, so we just do activity after activity and I hadn't sat the whole day and I wasn't tired. I'm like, oh, I got it back. It's really cool because I did that protocol about two years ago and I only needed to do it for just around two months or just under two months, and I still have it. It helped me. It corrected something and it's so intriguing.

So listen to those two episodes, 496 and 517, and then book a free phone call with me because I'd love to chat with you. I absolutely love helping the listeners, helping you guys. I have the most amazing experiences chatting with you guys. If you're a little intimidated or shy, please don't be. I love talking to you. I'd be so honored and so excited to be part of your healing journey and to talk to you. You just share with me what's going on and I have so many resources that I can point you to.

If you're suffering in any way, I'm offering you something for free. Just please talk to me for free. It's a free phone call and I'll point you to a bunch of resources. If you want to try the patches, you can absolutely try. They have an amazing money-back guarantee. I have over 200 clients using them successfully, having great results, and the good news is that there's no risk. If you don't like it, you can get your money back. I don't have any experience with returns because people get results with them, but it's good to know that there's no risk. Just try it.

Go ahead and go to learntruehealth.com and click on “Work With Ashley James” in the menu, and then the very first option is scheduling a free phone call with me. It can be about 20 minutes long, but if you have a ton of questions it'll go longer. I'm just there with you to help you and I can point you to a lot of great resources.

So that's the phototherapy patches. They're amazing, especially for if a cold or flu is coming on. We have a protocol for that and it really does work. At the height of a head cold, when you're all stuffed up, we put patches, these specific patches, on the sinuses and they will drain them within minutes. I had a friend kind of yelp because I put them on her and then she goes, oh my gosh, it worked. I'm like, of course it worked. She's like, I didn't think it would work. I'm like, well, what did you think I was doing putting these things on you? She's like, I can't believe that works. 

At the height of a head cold, you will be able to breathe through your nose while you're sleeping. Even if you just use them as part of your medicine cabinet, your medicine chest. It's an amazing tool to have something that's drug free, that's all natural, that's not going to hurt you, that's even safe for children and babies. It's so neat.

The other thing I wanted to share with you is the Vibe. You can listen to episode 532 with Mark Fox. He's amazing. He invented a machine that is a pocket PEMF and frequency-specific microcurrent machine. My family and I have been using it for several months. We've shared it with several of our friends and we are getting outstanding results. It is one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. It's right up there with the phototherapy patches. It's so neat. It's turned off headaches. It has turned off EMS pain. It actually helped me have an emotional mental breakthrough. It helped me significantly with my PTSD. There's a PTSD setting and it is virtually gone. I've just had such great emotional healing from it. It helps with sleep. I think I spent the first hour of the interview talking to him about all the results that everyone has been getting, that I was sharing it with and it just keeps going and going. It's really neat.

So out of all the Christmas gifts you could get someone. If you're getting a Hanukkah or Christmas gift or just a holiday gift or a birthday gift, I know we always have these family members who are like, I don't know what to get them. They have everything they need. I don't know what I could get them that would add to their life because we just have so much clutter. We don't want to just give nonsense, just another knickknack, another candle, just something that is going to collect dust. It's not going to really add value to their life. This will add value. This is the gift you give people that you think have everything. They don't have this and it will add quality to their life and it will add health to their life. It's so easy to use, especially men. I've noticed husbands or boyfriends or whatever—men or brothers, dads—are not necessarily going to sit down and eat healthy and take a supplement, but they have the aches and pains and they're not necessarily going to make these big health changes. You want to help them in some way. They just press a button on this machine, they select one of the different programs, and they put it in their pocket. The programs are about a half an hour to 45 minutes to an hour, just depending on the program. It makes a difference. People notice a difference. They also have a money-back guarantee. They're a great company. Mark Fox is amazing, so listen to episode 532.

What you want to do to purchase it is go to learntruehealth.com/vibe. That's V-I-B-E. Learntruehealth.com/vibe. That's V-I-B-E. Learntruehealth.com/vibe. Mark so graciously gave us a wonderful discount for ordering the Vibe. Get it now, because it will ship and get on time to your house for Christmas. If you are international, even Canada, for Canada, because the Canadian Post is on strike, he is shipping FedEx and he is not charging extra for that, he's amazing. He's like, yes, I'm eating the costs and I'm just shipping the fastest way I can so that it can get to my Canadian listeners. If you are in Canada, order it. If you're anywhere around the world, he says he ships worldwide, he will ship quickly. I'm not sure if he'll get to you by Christmas, but I know that in the US you absolutely can get it by Christmas if you order now because he does ship fast. So that's learntruehealth.com/vibe. That is the Christmas gift to get people. It is amazing. Tell your friend, hey, you use this, you've got to use it. But if you don't, just give me that gift back, because I'll use it for myself. Maybe that'll motivate them to use it. Have them listen to my interview, episode 532 with Mark Fox, where he shares the technology and why it works and it does. There are studies. He's been conducting studies—amazing studies on PTSD and sleep. He's in the middle of conducting a study with blood sugar and with diabetics. 

Diabetics are noticing a significant shift in their blood sugar regulation, which is so cool. We also have really good results with people with Lyme. Lyme and the co-infections and also MS. Just amazing. There are so many, so many applications for this thing because it's frequency medicine, just like homeopathy is frequency medicine and the phototherapy patches are frequency medicine. This is where we're going. This is where we're heading: frequency medicine.

Thank you so much for being a listener and, more importantly, thank you so much for sharing this podcast with those you care about. You want to help your friends and family and those you love and care about to get healthy and that's why you share. I do this podcast because I want to end the needless suffering of millions. So, with your help—and I can only do it with your help—please share it with as many people as possible, because we are helping to change the quality of people's lives. You don't know who you know that last night went to bed crying themselves to sleep because they're suffering. You don't know. A lot of times when we find out a loved one has ended their life, we were unaware of how desperate they were and how much pain they were in and how much they were hurting. You just don't know the people who are closest to you. You don't know if they're suffering. So, first of all, love them, hug them, ask them how they're doing, then ask them how they're really doing. If they're suffering from physical issues, mental, emotional issues, any aspect of health—because true health is mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, and energetic—then, sharing this episode and our other episodes. We have a lot of episodes on mental, emotional health and healing that you can use the search function on learntruehealth.com.

I was that person. I was that person sick and suffering. I was that person lying in bed in my 20s feeling I was dying, having these just horrible episodes, where I was gripping the bed, feeling I was about to just disintegrate into the world. I remember feeling so sick and crying, literally crying myself to sleep, begging God to help me. There's too many people out there that are going through that right now, and you could be. You don't even know that you could be the person that is delivering the answer to their prayers. God works through us.

If you feel any inkling to share an episode, maybe it's with your boss and you're like, this is awkward, I don't. Ashley says to share with your loved ones. I don't want my boss to think I love them. Or this is awkward because this is so personal and I know they're going through health stuff, and we got to keep it professional.

Listen, come from a place of caring, come from a place just of heartfelt caring and wanting to end suffering, and it will be delivered in a beautiful way. Say hey, I don't know why I thought of you, but when I was listening to this I thought of you and I just wanted to share. Maybe it's for you, maybe you, maybe my intuition is for you, maybe it's for someone you know. Just have a listen to this because it really is impactful and just share it. If you feel any inkling to share this episode or one of the episodes with someone you care about, if there's any intuition to share, do it, because you could actually be creating a ripple effect, changing one person's life and that one person. Then it changes their family's life and their family goes on to change multiple generations and all the friends and family they know. It just takes that bravery, that deep level of caring and bravery, which I think we need more than ever right now to reach out because we're so disconnected from each other.

To reach out and say, hey, I listened to this, I care and I want to share this with you. This episode is going to make a profound difference in so many people's lives. I'm so excited that you're sharing it. Let's reach over a million people. Actually, we've had well over many millions of downloads, but let's really reach millions of people. Let's get this to where we're actually making a difference. If you reach 10% of the population, it's a tipping point. So that's my next goal—10% of the world's population. Let's get to that tipping point and share it with as many people as possible to learn true health. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays.

Welcome to the Learn True Health Podcast. I'm your host, Ashley James. This is Episode 536.

Ashley James (0:19:03.829)

I am so excited for today's guest and I know you're just going to love that I'm introducing you to Dr. Ellen Kamhi. Thank you so much for coming on the show. You are naturalnurse.com. You have two podcasts and you've been teaching holistic and herbal medicine and you've been practicing since 1964. You are a wealth of knowledge and I love that you've published 18 books. You teach regular courses, including, and I understand that you also teach a continued education eligible certification for practitioners in the holistic health space.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:19:43.641)

Well, actually, any practitioners, they don't have to be in the holistic health space. Anyone with a license who needs ongoing CE units, so that might be nurses, massage therapists, naturopathic physicians, acupuncturists, anyone with one of those licenses where they need CE units can take classes which have a natural focus, because that's what I teach, and use them towards their regular licensure, but people can take it just for their own knowledge. They don't have to need CEUs to take our classes.

Ashley James (0:20:17.585)

Love it. I've watched videos of you and I definitely recommend listeners go and check out. There's so many videos on YouTube. When I look at you, you're who I want to be when I grow up. You look so vibrant and so healthy and you walk the walk, you talk the talk. That's what we really want to see in our practitioners, in our mentors, we want to see that they're teaching us the path, but they're also walking the path.

Now you have a PhD and you're also an RN and then there's this alphabet soup after your name. It's wonderful. I love it. You specialize in herbal medicine and also homeopathy, energy medicine, essential oils, which to me essential oils are herbal medicine, but it's that wonderful branch all into itself. I love that you teach in such an eloquent way how we can support our body's ability to heal itself and to maintain optimal health. I'm really excited today because in doing our pre-interview talk, we're like, okay, what do you want to talk about today? There's so many things you can talk about. You started listing off some things that I'm like, yes, I want to talk about that. I want to talk about that. So we nailed it down to three things, although we could dig into each one of these for hours. 

You have really effective herbs for pain which I think is really important, especially because a lot of times pain is exacerbated by inflammation. So as we know, herbs are so wonderful at helping the body regulate that inflammation. Then you have an amazing immune protocol that you've dialed in in the last four years when people were really up against it. I don't have to say what happened in the last four years. Everyone knows the last four years, but you've had over 5,000 people successfully do this herbal protocol. When they were struck with a cold or flu and had great results. 

Then I love that you also teach how we can nourish the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis and really help our body to get into that healing mode and out of that constant stress mode, which then helps regulate so many of our functions of our body. I believe women, we suffer because we drag our bodies through the mud and we believe the lies the MD tells us, those symptoms are just because of your age. I rebel against that because you can be super healthy at any age and don't tell me I'm unhealthy because of my age. That's just total cop out BS. So I'm really excited to dive in, but I'd love for you to share a bit about yourself so the listener can start to learn how you came about loving herbal medicine and loving to share it with the world.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:23:10.300)

Sure, well yes, going back to years ago, I really was loving just nature in general. I was teaching horseback riding at a camp. Then what happened was I fell off the horse during teaching horseback riding.

It was very, very severe. I was told by, again, the doctor, and I don't think they were lying, and I don't think the doctors are lying to you either. I think that's just the best knowledge they have, which is incorrect. I was told that I would not walk again unless I had surgery. That's what I was told. That's the only way out of this, and I'm going to have to have surgery in order to walk again. However, I just was always into, some people might call it talking to God, but basically, doing deep dives spiritually. I actually got a very clear message that no, that's not the case and you can use various plant medicines and natural medicines to be able to walk again.

So I started looking around and what I did was go to the library and at the time we had something which some people may not remember. It's called the card catalog. Do you even know what a card catalog is?

Ashley James (0:24:43.852)

Is it the Dewey Decimal System?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:24:45.458)

Well, I'd say it's related to that. Basically, it's in the libraries. That's the only place they were. They actually had a drawer. You pulled out the drawer. There was, you could look up things. So in fact, I was looking up natural remedies for an injury, a back injury, which is what I had. There was so much information. Right away, I was taken aback.

I said, how is it possible that there's so much information that the doctor did not recommend any of these things? How is that even possible? Nonetheless, what I did was I dug into it and I got in touch with a lot of the people who wrote books that were in the library about what to do, for instance, a castor oil pack.

It's interesting that I learned about a castor oil pack from Edgar Casey's Institute, which is still there in Virginia Beach. He taught all about how to use a castor oil pack. Just recently, over the last year or so, it's become all the rage. It's tik-toking on TikTok and various places. Everybody has to have a castor oil pack. Truthfully, I do think that it's an excellent idea.

To have castor oil packs available, to learn how to use them correctly, and they are extremely, extremely useful and helpful. So that's one of the things I did. Then I also learned about various really well-known herbalists at the time, such as Dr. Bernard Jensen. I started getting all his books and writing away for many of the herbal therapeutics that he discussed, such as White Willow Bark would be one.

Each and everything I did, thank God I had a dad. He didn't believe in any of this, but more or less I knew how to kind of manipulate him, how kids do that with their parents. I wasn't going to leave him alone unless he helped me out. Because at the time, there was no internet. There were no credit cards. Okay, this is another world. A lot of people don't remember.

So the only way I could access any of these things was to call them on the phone. Then my father, God bless him, went along with me, not so happily, but he did it. He had to actually write checks and mail the checks to these various places. There were no health food stores yet. Then I got all those things mailed to me. I used them. With each thing I used, I felt better.

I felt a little less pain after a while. I was able to stand up. After a while, I was able to walk. When you're going to get surgery, you cannot schedule it right away. There has to be a cooling off period. So by the time I went back to the doctor, I walked into his office. I also wrote down all the whole entire protocol that I had developed on my own to get rid of this issue that was supposedly going to need surgery, which was a very severely injured back from a horseback riding accident. I thought he would be so happy, so happy that I walked in so I wouldn't need surgery. He was not at all happy, quite the contrary.

He looked very upset to see me walk in. Of course, I didn't know anything about how much you get paid to perform surgery or any of these things. I think that's how he was looking at it. That's not good. We can't schedule her. Then I showed him this whole list of everything I had developed that really helped. I thought he'd be so excited to see it so he could tell all his patients how they can get out of doing surgery.

Truthfully, that was not the case. He was rather upset, I would say. Then he held that paper where I wrote the protocol far away from his eyes and sort of looked at it. This is really awful. He just dismissed me, basically dismissed me. It was what set me on the path that I am on to this day, every day, all day, and what I have done my whole entire life.

Which is to learn about natural remedies. It's taken me all over the world. I've lived with indigenous cultures in many different places in the world. Then, since I am also scientifically oriented, I have taken those natural therapeutics into the laboratory to not prove that they work. I know they do. Anything that is really a herbal remedy, an old-fashioned herbal remedy, it wouldn't get to be that if it didn't work. So I don't question if it works, but I do want to show through science the mechanism of action of exactly where the various receptors fit in, let's say, to that inflammatory response and lower it. Where does it bring it down? Is it reducing one of the immunomodulatory cytokines that cause pain, or is it just turning off receptors? How does it work? So I've done a lot of work in various universities around the world with that. So I've been very, very busy with herbal medicine for really my entire life.

Ashley James (0:30:43.369)

I love that. I love that so much. You do eco tours for cures. That would be amazing to travel with you where you take participants to indigenous areas to experience the ancient healing arts of the traditional cultures. How do we find out about the eco tours for cures? Would that be on your website, naturalnurse.com?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:31:05.375)

Well, a good place to go is naturalnurse.com and then look at classes and events. Under that, we have the Eco-Tours for Cures listed where you could click on that and find out all about them. We've been doing that. Maybe this is perhaps our 40th year of taking people into live actually in indigenous areas around the world for a week and study with not only ourselves, but indigenous healers. We also do local tours like that, for instance, in Long Island, we do many walks in the summer where we take a walk. This is only a one-day event. We gather wild, edible, and medicinal plants and then make them into medicine. We also do eco-tours right in Chinatown in New York City to learn about Chinese medicine. So we have a vast array of ways people can work with us to learn more.

Ashley James (0:32:02.647)

My gosh. That would be the best for me. That's an ideal vacation. It does. I now put that on my bucket list. If anyone wants to send me a gift, send me on one of these eco tours because that sounds so much fun. I love that. I've had a few walks with naturopathic doctors here, there's forests around Bastyr then certain forests locally to where I am in the greater Seattle area up in Snohomish County. I've had some experiences walking with naturopaths and they'll pick herbs and tell me about it. I just think it looks, they all look like plants to me. They're just, it's a big green mess of weeds. They're, no, this is so good for you and try this and eat that. Yes.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:32:48.325)

Well, they are plants. They certainly are plants. Weed really, that's an interesting word, because weed really kind of means a plant that you don't know what to do with it. It's interesting, because last year Bastyr actually had our event through them. So we did it in coordination with Bastyr, and we took a lot of people on that trip, and they got course credits through Bastyr for attending our Eco-Tours for Cures.

Ashley James (0:33:18.861)

Nice. That's so cool. It's so empowering to learn about your local foliage and learn that you can go outside, go walk in a forest close by, and you can start finding your own cures, finding your own medicinals, wildcrafting obviously being best. If you don't live in an area that close, you can start growing your own herbs. I know there's a naturopath here. I had her on my show and her name is escaping me for a moment. I'll remember, but I had her on my show years ago and she has a huge garden in her clinic, beside her clinic, and her patients grow their own therapeutics. They talk together about what they need. They go out into the garden and she shows them how to plant their own herbs and tend to them and then come and pick them and harvest them and make their own medicine. 

I love that, getting right back to the earth because God gave us the therapies that we need. God gave us the nutrition we need. We, when we go back and look at the way modern medicine came about, they really did this wonderful 100 year, wonderful meaning, horrific, a hundred year PR campaign to make us forget, to make us lose touch with, so that they could just sell us drugs and tell us that that's the only answer when we know our great grandparents, our great great grandparents had more of a grasp of natural healing than we did. Because they've made us forget, we've all fallen asleep. So we have to wake up and start remembering and start learning before this is lost.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:35:11.413)

That's true. That's one of the assignments that everyone gets. I do teach a class called Natural Nurse Herbal Certification Course, and that's one of my favorite courses. It has 18 CEUs for anyone who needs CEUs, but anyone can take it. Once you complete that, you are on your way to be an herbalist. By the time you complete that course, you can actually know the right way to use herbal remedies for yourself and your family.

As well as being apprised of our herbal language, what's a collar gargle and what's a demulcent and what do those words mean that herbalists would use to discuss a variety of things about plant medicine. It's super affordable and super accessible. So that's a good class to take if you want to start on a path of knowing herbal medicine. That I teach once a year.

You can find that at naturalnurse.com under Classes and Events as well.

Ashley James (0:36:14.549)

Love it. Love it so much. Okay. So let's dive in because I want to just squeeze your brain out and get as much out of you as possible. 

I'm really excited for us to start talking about herbs for pain. We're going to talk about that immune stuff later and also get into the HPA stuff. So touching on something that everyone needs to know. 

What I love is where it all started for you was healing your back, but also I'm sure managing the pain that came from your injury. So these are some of the herbs you've been using and improved work to yourself first. Then you see how much they've helped thousands of people to get out of pain. Of course, when we're talking about pain, we're also wanting from a holistic standpoint, we're wanting to help the body heal itself. 

So it's not just taking an Advil or taking a Tylenol just to suppress it. Herbs aren't just a bandaid. We want to help the body come back into balance. Of course, we want to take people out of suffering. So I'm excited to hear what you have to say about herbs for pain.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:37:19.609)

Well, certainly that became a very large focus because that's what really brought me into studying all of this. So two of the main books that I wrote about that, one is called Arthritis, the Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide. It's reversing underlying causes of arthritis with clinically proven natural therapies. Of course, that involves relieved pain naturally without drug side effects, as well as actually rebuilding joints that are damaged from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme disease, and other problems, as well as regaining an active lifestyle. 

So those are all very important things, and this book is a best seller called Arthritis. Then what we did is just to make an easier, quicker reference journal, we also wrote a shorter book called Supplements for Pain, and that's also available as an e-book. That's really comprehensive natural help for all these inflammatory processes.

What's so amazing and wonderful about all these natural therapies is the amount of scientific inquiry, because I am very active now with the NIH. The NIH is the National Institute of Health, and they have an office for complementary and integrative therapy. Every month, by the way, people can join this for free. You can actually listen in on these amazing presentations that are done by top doctors at major universities throughout the United States and the world about these topics. They are recommending that because the evidence shows that natural therapeutics are not only just as efficacious, they often work better, but equally or perhaps more importantly, with a much higher level of safety. While the pharmaceuticals really can be very helpful in the short-term situation, but often bring your overall health and wellness down and sometimes are deadly. So there really should not be the first and only choice which conventional medicine seems limited to.

Ashley James (0:39:47.627)

I think some people have a significant mistrust. There's mistrust for doctors, there's mistrust for organizations, even the NIH has increased in the last four years, just given what we've seen, and it's really frustrating because so many doctors suppressed or poo-pooed the natural remedies or even there were some long standing drug-based therapeutics that were helping people get over COVID in the last four years. There's a lot of misinformation. 

What I would say for those listeners who feel they have a distrust of doctors and of organizations, there's a coalition of holistic healers, yourself, who are educators, and they're just taking the word doctor, which the root word is doserian, that means teacher.

Our doctor is supposed to teach us, we're supposed to learn how to support our body's ability to heal itself. The modern MD is not living up to that. They're not living up to even their Hippocratic oath. There are people, like you, even in these organizations, that are doing good. So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, find these amazing healers and listen to them, especially you, because it's all integrated. It's just this big clump of different therapeutics. The more we can get the mainstream people to start listening to this and going, hey, don't just run to the drugs. This is actually quite dangerous to only go to drug-based medicine. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:41:35.612)

It's fast and easy. If only it really worked. The vision is to do whatever I want, not eat healthy, not exercise, not pay attention to any of that. Do whatever I want and when something starts to break down, take yet another pill and it'll all be fine. That would be great if it worked, but it doesn't, unfortunately.

Ashley James (0:41:58.548)

Yes. It's the Jetsons. You think back to the jet. It's just like the Jetsons, you live in your little spaceship houses and you have robots do things for you and you get to be super lazy and then just pop a pill for your nutrition and pop a pill for if your back hurts and you're good. That's just not how it works. It's not how health works. We've been really fed this PR campaign of lies and medical myths. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:42:21.381)

However, it's also true with natural therapeutics. Since I've been in this field, as mentioned, since 1964, and I was also the head nurse at a major integrative medical center in Manhattan on the corner of 57th and 7th, right next to Carnegie Hall, a big fancy place. I was the head nurse there for 23 years. The doctor was Serafina Corcello. We actually literally saw many thousands of patients. Everyone who came in got a lot of testing. I think that there's under testing done in mainstream medicine. Everybody should really have a complete analysis of their nutritional status, every nutrient, because that's where you can then actually put together an excellent diet that supports those things that you're low in, as well as using targeted supplements when needed, which is a very different approach than do whatever you want and then take a drug.

Ashley James (0:43:21.923)

Right. The amount of micronutrients that we get in those phytochemicals that we get from herbs, you can measure in labs, but you see the results. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:43:32.017)

You can measure it in labs. That's why it's so good. You have to get the right kind of laboratory that does a full micronutrient assessment. A regular laboratory will often not do that. Truthfully, it costs money to do it because it's not going to be the kind of test that's under health insurance. You can get quite an intense view even down to what micronutrients are missing from your Krebs cycle from a lot of these modern laboratories. So it's really worth looking into because sometimes you can find, wow, that's the missing link. I'm low on this micronutrient, which is not found in a conventional drug, not drug test, but blood test. Then you can use herbs, foods, et cetera, that actually fill in those missing links.

Ashley James (0:44:25.693)

Love it. Let's get into the specifics of using herbs for pain.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:44:31.899)

Great, there's so many and I know people know some of them, but I'll let you know some information about ones that might be a little bit more obscure, but that I have actually done case studies on how well they work. So one I would talk about is the green lipped mussel. Actually it's an edible shellfish that's native to New Zealand and it's very high in a very unique kind of fatty acid known to reduce inflammation. 

It's a previously unidentified omega-3 fatty acid. So a lot of people have not heard about it. Green lip mussels also contain amino acids, trace minerals, glucose amino glycans, which are all things that fill in joint tissue because it's a component of cartilage. It's a really, really good thing to incorporate if you're looking for pain reduction. People don't know about that one too much. That's a really interesting one.

Ashley James (0:45:32.775)

So how would they take it? Is that encapsulated?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:45:36.251)

Yes, nowadays, yes, absolutely. If you have a kind of area that has traditional Chinese medicine nearby, which I know Seattle does, as well as New York City, we have a very in-depth Chinatown area, as well as in Flushing. So that's an easy thing to get in those kinds of areas because they're familiar with it, green lip mussel. Nowadays, as you said before we went on, you can get anything on the internet. It's actually a very easy thing to find.

Ashley James (0:45:36.251)

Really interesting. So I'm surprised because I think of herbal medicine and being only plant-based or vegan and your first thing is an animal, is a crustacean. That's just looking for our nutrients in our food and supporting our body's ability to heal itself by finding whole foods that contain the healing properties our body needs.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:46:37.063)

Well, certainly, lots of plant-based nutrients are. For instance, bitter melon, which is also called memortica torrentia. It's also known as sericea. A very interesting thing, because sericea, the leaves on that plant, bring down blood sugar. So it's often used for things like diabetes and also arthritis. So it's helpful for psoriatic arthritis in particular.

When we dig into that mechanism of action that I mentioned before, we find out that it slows the rapid cellular proliferation that causes that buildup of scaly skin that people have when they have psoriatic conditions, such as psoriatic arthritis. I would combine that with homeopathics too, because I always use in my protocols homeopathics, foods, exercise, herbal remedies all together.

Some people just use herbs, or some people like to use just food, et cetera. I'm someone who really looks across the board. Also, I don't develop protocols for individuals at this point. I've done so many thousands, and I find my time is better used to teach other holistic or just conventional people who are already using remedies for people. How to integrate natural therapeutics, which are so much better, so much safer, and actually better outcomes.

So you have a happier client, and then you have a happier professional who feels really good about the information that they're sharing, as well as seeing people get better, which is very exciting. I would say almost every doctor and nurse went into that field because they wanted to help people.

But because of mostly the influence of the pharmaceutical companies, and this, by the way, in my book, The Natural Medicine Chest, I have a full chapter on the history of natural medicine, and it's very focused on the politics of natural medicine. It didn't just happen, happenstance, that doctors do not know about natural remedies, other than, of course, naturopathic physicians at Bastyr and others at naturopathic colleges are highly trained in natural remedies.

It's not a mistake. It was actually a specific coup and takeover of even medical schools so that the only thing doctors learn about really is very little. They just mostly learn about pharmaceuticals and surgery, of course. So those two things are great. I wouldn't say we should throw them out, but I would say they should be used very little. My own parents, my mom's alive, 96, never took a pharmaceutical. My father lived to 95, never took a pharmaceutical. So it's not that he didn't die. He died in 95 one day after running around all day, which he always ran around all day, after going out and drinking, out to eat and drinking and driving, which I kept telling him you shouldn't do. He told me when I get older than him, that's when I can tell him what to do.

Then he did have a sudden stroke and passed away, so it's not natural things will make you live forever. The thing is it extends your wellness, because he was well till that day. Then, bye, good way to go. So the thing is there's so much overuse. Almost every individual I know is on five or six pharmaceuticals, and they all interact together and make you overall less well and do very little other than cover up whatever symptom you're taking it for. So I'm not a big fan.

Ashley James (0:50:33.269)

In the last few years, a lot of people participated in the mass medical experiment known as the COVID vaccine. It was an experiment and you shouldn't even call it a vaccine. It manipulated our own RNA. I'm close friends with several people who dropped dead. I know several children whose parents just thought they were doing the best they could with the information they had and now their children are permanently damaged or so far permanently damaged.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:51:07.099)

It is sad. If we're going to go there, my own children who are in their 50s were never vaccinated.

Ashley James (0:51:13.035)

They, I'm guessing, stayed away from the medical experiment?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:51:18.519)

Yes, I'm saying they were never vaccinated, even as children. 

Ashley James (0:51:22.942)

And they are healthy and happy?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:51:22.942)

So the thing is not necessarily. It doesn't assure health and happiness. It's just that I never actually was too thrilled about those vaccines. Now, there's so much information about why it's a really bad idea, in particular, the new varieties that they are developing.

Ashley James (0:51:47.148)

I just think we need to really take it slow and use critical thinking and not be so trusting with the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:51:54.554)

That's true. Well, it can be helpful sometimes. 

Ashley James (0:52:00.690)

No, of course not, not throw it out. You said, don't throw it out, but don't be so trusting, especially when they want to provide something that they think is a prophylactic, when what we have is a rich range of natural medicine and herbal medicine that we can use to support our body's ability to heal itself and protect itself. 

Going back to pain, because I want to get into the immune. I know we're easing into that immune topic and I want to talk about it, but I just want to make sure for anyone listening that's in pain.

You've talked about bitter melon, you've talked about the green lip mussels, which is super interesting. I hadn't heard about them before.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:52:33.896)

Well, know what is funny? There are some of these things on TV that say it's going to get rid of all pain. When you look into it, they're super expensive. Then when you actually read the supplement facts box about what's in there, they'll call it something super pain away or whatever they call it, a lot of illegal names and facts. Then when you look in there, it's a green mussel. Then you can get just that from a much more reputable source, much less expensive as well. So it's always good to read those supplement facts boxes to find out. Then there's so many things, Boswellia, which is a tree sap. That's one of the most effective natural remedies to bring down inflammation.

Ashley James (0:53:21.464)

How do people take that?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:53:24.740)

So, Boswellia is the same thing, if you've ever heard of frankincense and myrrh, that's what it is. What it is is a tree sap. So, they have to have you gather it, unless you have a Boswellia tree, you're not going to be gathering it by your house, because how you do it is you actually slice the tree, and then this white sticky exudate comes out, and then that is scraped off and dried. That is frankincense that was used thousands of years ago.

Boswellia contains high levels of gum resins and they are really, really useful, and have been used for Ayurvedic medicine, which is a wonderful system from India, specifically for arthritis. It contains Boswellic acid, which is a very powerful anti-inflammatory and analgesic. So that really brings down that whole experience of pain while it's healing the joints or whatever irritated area that you may have. So that's another really, really good one.

Ashley James (0:54:27.152)

So how do they take it? Do they chew it or make tea out of it? How do they take that?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:54:32.181)

So, Boswellia is widely available and now they just ground that resin and they either make it into a liquid herbal extract or in a capsule. So, it's a very, very easy thing to find.

Ashley James (0:54:44.787)

Okay. Got it. Before we move on to the immune, because I'm excited to get there, is there anything else you want to make sure that you mention about taking these remedies for pain?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:54:55.793)

Well, one thing is it's really better to work with a holistic provider, which if you can find a naturopathic physician and be sure they actually went to a naturopathic college or someone else who you get good news about them, that they are very knowledgeable. Because if you're already on a lot of medication, particularly drugs, and you just start popping all these other pills, albeit that they're natural, it's really not a good idea because these things can interact with each other as well.

Ashley James (0:55:30.469)

Right, so if someone's not on any medication and they're in pain or they had an injury, they could try one or more of these things, but better to connect with a holistic practitioner that can help them navigate this.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:55:47.405)

Yes, it's always better to do that because then you have somebody on your side who's knowledgeable. Whether you are on medication or not on medication, you don't have to worry so much. But truthfully, natural remedies, although they're not free of side effects, have a much lower incidence. For instance, pharmaceutical drugs used as indicated, and this is right from the New England Journal of Medicine, is the fourth leading cause of death, I mean, of death in the United States. That's pharmaceutical drugs used as indicated. 

Ashley James (0:56:27.617)

It's worth saying again, that the doctor tells you how to use it, you use it, and it's the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. I'm sure around the world has similar results, because many countries follow the quote unquote modern medical system that the United States started. It is not off script. It is not off-label. I've seen doctors regularly prescribe off-label. 

I had a neighbor once, with this was years ago. Young woman had Lyme disease or sorry had lupus and her doctor was giving her chemotherapy off script chemotherapy to try to get her lupus under control. I just wept for her, she was 21 years old.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:57:07.530)

Yes, that's usually methotrexate is used that way quite a bit. Yes, and it has this huge litany of side effects. It's amazing. It's worse than the disease that it's treating.

Ashley James (0:57:16.072)

Right. We're not even talking about off script. How many times doctors use off script. We're talking about as prescribed. These are drugs that are approved and every drug that's been taken off the market for killing too many people, including my mom, was once approved. So we have to remember that all drugs that have been horrific at hurting people were all approved and then they eventually get taken off. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:57:42.478)

Anyone can just get it if they have it at their house while they're listening to our podcast today. They just go if they have Tylenol, or any other over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on the label now, there's a horrendous black label warning about liver damage and dropping dead from taking it once. This is on the labels. That's how bad it is. So it's not something to play with.

Ashley James (0:58:16.48)

I love that you're pointing this out because it's so important to recognize. I feel as adults, we have a very child, almost nursery rhyme relationship with the medical system. It's the big protector that when I get sick, it's like having parents when we're kids, I'm just going to go to them and they're going to make me all better. They're just going to give me the right drug. I'm having an infection. I just need to get some antibiotics and I'm going to be good. Yes. The medical system, the emergency medicine, drug-based medicine has its place, but to trust it blindly is where we really lose our health, is where we really go downhill. So to recognize that it is the fourth leading cause of death when it's used appropriately.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (0:59:02.960)

So I just want to read this. Anybody can look it up. I'm looking it up right now. Black label warning. This is for any kind of NSAID, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory. Causes an increased risk of serious gastrointestinal adverse events, including bleeding, ulceration, and perforation of the stomach or intestines, which can be fatal. These events can occur at any time during use and without warning symptoms. This is from the NIH. I told you the NIH is doing quite a bit. So, hey, do we really want to pop those or do we want to take some Boswellia, which is super safe that we just spoke about, or white willow bark is another one that you actually can get yourself, which is a great pain medicine, or making a ginger tea and then also using it as a ginger compress. These are all things we talk about both in our book Arthritis and in our book Supplements for Pain and how to use them and how to use them safely. Because, not that you maybe want to never use drugs, maybe you want to as a last ditch, not as a first choice.

Ashley James (1:00:16.228)

Exactly. I love that. Thank you for pointing that out. Before you went into that library and took the catalog card and started looking through it and before you had that big revelation, why didn't the doctors tell me about these remedies? Why didn't they even know that this world existed? It's like pulling back the curtain.

I think about that moment in The Wizard of Oz when it goes from gray to color, when it goes from black and white to color. It's this whole world that we don't know about because we're never taught. It's not taught in mainstream. It's not taught in movies, TV shows. It is always about drug-based medicine in movies and TV shows. Not to get super into conspiracy, which I will.

The pharmaceutical industry funds Hollywood, funds all the media you consume, unless it's independent media like this podcast. What you've read, what you've seen on TV, what you've seen in newspapers, your entire life has been shaped by this giant PR campaign. It is Orwellian. It is like big brother. There's this whole world and luckily we don't live in a country where it's banned and it's hidden from us. I feel we're constantly fighting for our right to continue keeping this information available. There's this whole world you're pulling back the curtain and showing that we could have in our medicine cabinet these herbs and tinctures. If you have a headache or you have a bruise, a bump, an injury that you could reach into the medicine cabinet and find your natural remedies and support your body's ability to come back into balance. Then reserve those over-the-counter pharmaceuticals for your last ditch, I'm sick of being in pain and this isn't working. So many times I've seen that these natural remedies work so well and then you don't have the very scary side effects of sudden death.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:02:27.992)

How about that? It's true.

Ashley James (1:02:30.998)

Get into the immune. I'm very, very excited. I hate to feed into the propaganda, but we're coming into flu season as they call it. I just want to point out that people get the flu all year round. This isn't just because we're indoors a bit more and have less sunlight. That doesn't mean you have to get sick for sure. Please don't buy into the mass hypnosis that you will get sick.

I'm just using the term flu season, but I'm not buying into it. I believe that we can all be healthy and maintain our health all year, all winter long. I'd love for you to share what can we do first preventively? What herbs should we want to take starting now and all through the winter? What are the most important things to do to prevent, to keep the immune system very healthy and keep ourselves healthy. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:03:28.734)

I actually believe that everyone should create for their home, I have a book by this name, the name of the book is The Natural Medicine Chest. I actually think everyone should have in their home a natural medicine chest already set up. Because many of the remedies we're about to discuss in terms of offsetting things like colds and flus, you have to use them at first sign. So it's not like if any of us have ever experienced that little sore throat at night and you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning, now you're coughing and sneezing. When you have that first little tickle, that's when you have to start this stuff. By the time you get up the next day and get in the car and drive to the health food store or the store is closed or you have to ship it from Amazon, it's not going to get there. I guess they're pretty fast by Amazon. I might get there the next minute, is what I find. Nonetheless, you're better off having this in your house. That's when it works best at the very first sign. So we will talk about some of those things that people should have in their natural medicine chest. This was actually the protocol I put together during that very challenging time. Thousands of people used it and actually had basically no problems at all, which is great.

So the first thing is a very easy remedy to have around, and that's vitamin C. Vitamin C is super easy to get. I would actually recommend that people get powdered vitamin C, because then it has no additives, it doesn't have the capsuling agents, it's just pure vitamin C. There are vitamin Cs around that you can get that are sourced from natural things, such as rose hips.

In fact, you can make your own vitamin C by collecting rose hips. Rose hips are the fruit that's on roses. After the flower falls off, there's a round ball there. That's the rose hip. So you collect the rose hips, let them dry completely till they're really dry. Then you can just pound them with a mortar and pestle. All herbalists have to have a mortar and pestle. Use that powder. Just mix it into a little water or any other kind of drink. You also, of course, can very easily just buy vitamin C. That's usually going to be ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is usually sourced from corn. It might be GMO corn or it might be non-GMO corn. Some of the brands will list that it's non-GMO, which would be a better choice. Nonetheless, vitamin C. Now, taking about 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily is a great idea. But when you think that you're starting to come down with something, you can take up to 10,000 milligrams a day. In fact, you can check yourself how high you have to go by seeing when you get to bowel tolerance. Bowel tolerance means you've taken so much vitamin C that you're starting to have loose stools. Then you back off a little bit. That's not something you do ongoingly all the time. That's only for when you feel you're being challenged.

You need to have it around. So that's one of the best remedies to have around all the time, vitamin C. It's a great place to start. Now another remedy that I would never be without is sometimes called elderberry syrup, but it's from a particular plant. The genus and species of the plant is Sambucas nigra, which is black elderberry and grows in many areas. If it grows by you, you should actually collect it, but you have to collect it when the berries are there. Because if you go to collect it in the middle of the winter and there's no more berries there, you're out of luck. So that's not the time to get it. It's so widely available now. So many brands. I definitely have my favorite brands. I don't like to name favorite brands when we're on a non-commercial podcast, but if anybody wants to know.

You can just email me through Natural Nurse, all one word, naturalnurse.com, and I'll tell you some of my favorite brands. There are several excellent Sambucas on the market, and they're just called Sambucas Liquid. Sometimes they're called Sambucas Immune. They have various names. Something to determine which ones are best is read the supplement facts box, because you can get Sambucas, which has tons of sugar in it. 

You can find Sambucas that have artificial sweeteners in it that I don't recommend. You can get Sambucas that are very thick and black with no negative additives and where you get a very high level of concentrated berry in every teaspoon. Normally you don't take this every day. At that first sign, you take about a teaspoon of this. It's actually delicious. So it's great to use for kids too. Every two hours or so.

You don't have to wake up at night to take it, but for every couple hours and then you could go to sleep and if you wake up at night, you throw it, store it, you take it again and that can really stop you from ever getting sick ever.

Ashley James (1:08:55.916)

Love that. When we look at the supplement facts, sometimes it'll say how many milligrams of it, a concentration of the Sambucas. What would you say, 500 or is there a number we're kind of looking for?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:09:13.922)

Well, it's really widespread out over the commercially available products. So in general, when you need it, high is better, because you can't just get a few milligrams of this. This has to be concentrated. Some of them have up to 12,000 milligrams per dose. Those are some of the better ones. You see the difference, because instead of being a watery liquid with preservatives and sugar in it, it will be a thick, black, herbal liquid. That's what you actually want. 

So also, as I mentioned, I'm very into herbs, we can get back to other really special herbs specifically for this, but I also want to recommend homeopathics, because in this case, nobody should not have right now within our listening audience, everyone should have this in their house, in their purse if they're a woman or a guy who carries a purse.

In your glove compartment if you're a driver who goes places in your car, and this is called Oscillococcinum. Oscillococcinum is one of the most important remedies to have on hand when you need it. It literally stops the development of any kind of flu infection in its tracks but the trick is you must take it at the very first sign.

You can't wait, not three days later, and then you're coughing and sneezing and a runny nose. It's not that helpful at that time. If you catch it right at the beginning, Oscillococcinum, that's a homeopathic, not an herb. Super to have on hand. It has become so popular. When it first came out, we were importing it into my clinic directly from Germany, where it was being made.

Now you can get it at Walgreens, CVS, anywhere. It's not an odd thing to get. It's super easy to get, super inexpensive, and super effective. No one should be without that.

Ashley James (1:11:14.264)

I love that. So they take it, they put some of the pellets under their tongue. We should never touch homeopathy. Just put it on your tongue away from food. You can drink water, but it can get a few minutes away from food and let it dissolve under your tongue. How many times would you want them to take it? Is it every 15 minutes? Is it every hour?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:11:33.800)

Okay, so with that particular thing with Oscillococcinum, if you purchase it or if you have it, you will see the directions for use printed on the box will say, take a whole tube, and it'll say something every few hours, but you don't need to do that. All you have to do is it comes in little tubes. You can unscrew the plastic top off the tube and just pour from the tube.

However many of those little teeny balls, which is what they are, tiny pellets, fit in the top. Then you dump that under your tongue. You pick up your tongue and you dump it in the well under your tongue and just let it dissolve. I would say you could do that every two or three hours until you forget to do it. Because after a while you go, was I getting a cold or flu? I guess not.

Because it just goes away. Then, I would not again say, it's two hours and I have to wake myself up at two in the morning to take it again. No. Just while you're up and then go to sleep and then in the morning if you're still having issues or if you do wake up in the middle of the night, you do it again. In most cases, that's going to be the end. You won't get the cold or flu. That's how phenomenal Oscillococcinum is.

Ashley James (1:12:55.206)

I love it. I love homeopathy so much. Obviously you want to talk to your own pediatrician, hopefully a holistic one. My son only sees naturopathic pediatricians unless he's in an emergency situation, you're going to a children's hospital. Other than that, he's only seeing naturopaths and we've used homeopathy since he was an infant, since he was a baby. That's what I love.

There's no placebo effect there because I have a colic baby crying from gas pain and I put something, a little homeopathy under his tongue and he just smiles.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:13:35.316)

Homeopathy is definitely one of the best interventions and it works very well along with herbs and it is currently being massively attacked by the FDA and FTC. So if you think that you might want to learn about homeopathy in the future, I suggest you purchase. I'm not selling them, I'm just saying, find one, buy a homeopathic first aid kit today because they're really aggressively making it not available anymore. Why? Why not? Because they're saying if you take apart a homeopathic remedy and it says, let's say, from chamomile flowers, which might have been the original mother tincture, and if they take apart the homeopathy, there's no chamomile in that pill. That's right, because that's the definition of homeopathy. It's not a substance. It's beyond substance. It's within the realm of energy medicine. It's just being not allowed and it is so inexpensive, so super effective and excellent for children. 

I don't know that I could have raised my kids who are getting to be 50 year old age now without homeopathics. It's really great and not only that, children take them more easily because it's little teeny sweet sugar pills rather than herbs. Sometimes it's hard to get them down. Thinking of my kids running under the table when I was trying to give them herbs. They wound up getting them anyway because my house was a benevolent dictatorship, not that the kids get their way. I got my way and they had to do what I wanted. When they were teenagers, I put a sign on the refrigerator saying, move out now while you still know everything. Nonetheless, they managed to grow up somehow.

Ashley James (1:15:24.123)

I love that. I love that you mentioned homeopathy. It's not molecular medicine, it's energetic medicine. That is pooh-poohed by the mainstream medical system. First of all, you can see that it works, you just see that homeopathy works. There's around the world so many, so many studies, but I've personally seen it in my own life. 

What is so great is that it is so gentle on the body. Talk about side effects, very, very minimal, if any. There's something called proofing, in which you can prove that that wasn't the right remedy. You might experience some discomfort temporarily. It's very rare. I actually have never seen it personally.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:16:08.935)

Very rare, not with the dosing that you would get in a homeopathic first aid kit. When you start to get into, and we're not going to talk about what this means, but maybe you'll know. When you start going up into the 200C range of things, and you're going after very deep genetic issues, then that's where those proofing often come out. You don't have to worry about it. Just get simple homeopathics that are widely available. Of course, one amazing, amazing thing, how old is your son?

Ashley James (1:16:35.565)

He's nine and a half now.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:16:37.371)

So he might be the right age, because if you're a soccer mom at all, you should never go to any sport without arnica cream. Because I can't tell you on the soccer field, as not only my son, but all the kids would run over every time they twisted or bumped something and they had black and blue whatever, you put arnica cream on it and everybody's amazed to watch it disappear in front of your eyes.

Ashley James (1:17:00.707)

Yes. When I played softball, I got a softball to the eye. I feel really fortunate that my mom was into natural medicine and I grew up seeing a chiropractor and a naturopathic doctor. My chiropractor had given me arnica cream and I put the arnica cream on and I got a softball in the eye. It was a fly ball. I should have had the world's biggest black eye. I put arnica cream on that and you wouldn't have known that I got hit in the face with the softball.

It was so amazing. It's so amazing. Attached to my purse is a little first aid kit and I have Arnica pellets in there and a few other homeopathics. I definitely have the cream at home. My son runs up to me and gets the Arnica pellets if he ever bumps himself. It's so wonderful and so easy to use. It's so cheap. It's so effective.

The thing with homeopathy is if you didn't get a result, go to a practitioner, get them to help you. Because sometimes it just takes a little bit of knowledge, just a little bit of diving in and learning. Then you really start to get results with it. I have a friend who has a family and three kids, none of them are vaccinated. She was never vaccinated. Her mother was never vaccinated. Her mother who passed away a few years ago, very, very old, had a wonderful healthy life, helped bring homeopathy to Washington state and the entire family. That's the first thing they go to. They just, they blow any time a little cold comes on, they just blow it right out. Take, take their homeopathy, blow it right out. Any bumps, bruises, take some homeopathy. Just it brings the body back in about so that it comes back to frequency medicine. We have to acknowledge that we're not just physical matter. We're not just meat sacks, that we are more energy and that we are more vibration and more frequency than we are molecules, than we are solid. 

Homeopathy works on that plane. So I think it's brilliant. I think it's more brilliant than the pharmaceutical industry, than those synthetic drugs. I think it's more brilliant.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:19:09.578)

So do I, it really should be just commonly available, commonly used. Every physician, this is what the NIH is now saying. By the way, the first line of intervention for every single patient should be food, exercise, some kind of relaxation technique to support healthy sleep, and the use of botanical medicine first before any pharmaceuticals are prescribed.

That would make everybody feel so much better. It would really bring down the cost of healthcare as well as much more positive outcomes for everyone.

Ashley James (1:19:50.184)

Let's say someone didn't reach for their elderberry or their homeopathy and they feel they've got a full on flu. What do we do?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:20:05.526)

Well, there's other things where we go with that. First of all, besides those, there's some very good herbs that actually are antibiotics, okay? Yet, it is illegal to say herbs are antibiotics.

Ashley James (1:20:19.893

Isn't that wild? Isn't that kind of gross? That's why I say it's so Orwellian. It's such a manipulation. We've been using herbs for thousands of years, that they're natural antimicrobial agents in them, that they help us to kill bad bacteria in our body. Yet a synthetic man made patented product can only be called a cure.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:20:43.029)

That is true. Then comes another thing that I do a lot besides teaching other practitioners how to incorporate natural remedies into their protocol. I work a lot with natural product companies because they are so regulated by the FDA and FTC about what they can say. Especially when somebody might make their own herbal remedy and it works really well and they get excited so they decide to offer it to others, let's say on Etsy. Before you know it, the FDA and FTC are pounding on their door with a $3 million fine, taking their computer, all the herbs they made. They really wind up in terrible trouble. I suggest you do not do that. We might not agree with this overregulation, but you better believe it's there. The thing is, you can say something—oil of oregano, echinacea, and goldenseal—we're going to talk about now. 

I can tell you right here on our podcast today that these actually kill microorganisms as well as increase the speed that our white blood cells move through our system, recognizing and gobbling up any kind of invading bacteria or viruses. I can tell you that in an educational way. I can write about it in my book. I can have it on my website because I do not sell it.

As soon as you are selling it as a product, let's say Echinacea or Goldenseal, or an Echinacea-Goldenseal combination, you have a nice little bottle of it, and there you say on your website that it's antimicrobial, that's when it becomes illegal to say it. If you're not selling anything, you have a lot more latitude in terms of sharing this information.

So that's one that's really good to have in your house that does what you just mentioned, actually kill microorganisms once you're already having something that's beyond that first issue. So echinacea and goldenseal are excellent. Another one is oil of oregano. Oil of oregano is a very strong antibiotic. Now, as an herb company, people can't say that on their label. So they say, it supports immune function, even though it doesn't do one single thing for the immune system. It kills microorganisms, but you cannot say that. So that's why so many things will say immune support on them, because that's a fairy dance. We find that the FDA does not go after that immune support word, so they just slam dunk it on everything, even though that's not what it does.

Ashley James (1:23:32.324)

I'd love to understand. Is it kind of a nuclear bomb that just kills indiscriminately all the bacteria inside us, wherever it touches or so? 

So our good bacteria is also harmed. Okay.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:23:49.530)

Yes, yes, it does. Will also be destroyed. That is right. You can go ahead and then replenish with different kinds of microorganisms that are more healthy. You certainly can do that. Yes, that's one that really does actually kill microorganisms, as does garlic, as a matter of fact. Garlic doesn't make a decision about whether this is good bacteria or bad bacteria, it kills all the bacteria. So if you overdo it, while it's good to do heavy amounts while you have a cold or flu, you may also want to do something with probiotics or prebiotics. A good way to do that, I think the best way to do that is sauerkraut.

Ashley James (1:24:31.436)

Yes. Live culture though, fermented live culture. Got to look on the label, make sure there's no vinegar in there. That's not the real stuff. You want the real probiotic, just water and salt. So brine, usually a refrigerated section. You can make your own. So easy.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:24:50.642)

Yes, making your own is pretty easy. They have these really good makers of it that you can get again anywhere. They're just a heavy, old-fashioned ceramic. Then there's a heavy weight that you put on top of your cabbage if you're making it out of cabbage. It's really not a big deal to do that. Sauerkraut really, I think, is really one of the best ways, rather than buying all these very expensive dried probiotics or prebiotics, that might be okay, too, but I think it's really preferable. Another thing I really love is BioStraft, which is an old-fashioned Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It's been on the market since 1962, and that really acts as a postbiotic as well as a prebiotic. So, reestablishing that healthy microbe is important, but that's not our first consideration when we're dealing with an immediate cold or flu. That's going to be the plan later.

Ashley James (1:25:49.400)

Right, the rebuilding. Yes, so the rebuilding. I think it's really important to talk about that there's a rebuilding after you're sick, whether it's a little bug, a little head cold or something greater, a virus or a bacteria, that there's a period of time where you're focusing on the acute issue. You're kind of throwing everything at it, supporting the body, but also taking some natural killers, garlic and oregano, natural killers.

Then we have to acknowledge that when you start to feel better, just when you start to feel better, you have to be your mom telling yourself, no, you have to still go to bed early. I know everyone listening has had this, you start to feel better, you go back to your regular routine and then it relapses and you start to feel tired again. You're not done. Just because the acute symptoms have diminished does not mean this isn't again, we're not in the Jetsons. You didn't just take a pill and all of a sudden you're better again. So there's that rebuilding phase. So actually, I feel it's three phases. It's the acute and then it's the okay, you feel better, but actually you're still, your body's still fighting it. You might not have these massive acute symptoms, your body's still fighting it. So give yourself a few more days of grace, just give yourself permission to be more restful. Maybe go for gentle walks or something, but rest. Don't eat sugar. Don't eat dairy. Eat whole foods. Nourish your body.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:27:10.352)

Well, here's some great food. Another one that we haven't mentioned, which is really helpful to have in the house, is colloidal silver. Colloidal silver is strongly antimicrobial. It's not something you really want to take lots of every day, some of them recommend. No. Have it in the house because it really is a very effective antimicrobial.

Then, you said, food is so important. In my protocol that I gave to so many people, homemade soup is really important. If you're vegan, you can just make a vegetarian soup. If you're not, you can use organic chicken in the soup, which of course has actually been scientifically studied, to reduce the length of colds and flus. You can limit solid foods, especially dairy and wheat. In fact, it's a good idea to not eat much of that ever, as a matter of fact. The less you eat of it, the less aggressive the infections are to begin with.

Always have lemon around because you squeeze about a half a lemon into a cup and then you can add garlic to that as well, just crush some garlic in it and a pinch of cayenne pepper and honey to taste and you have about a cup of that every two to three hours and it gets rid of that entire infection super fast. You can feel your sinuses opening up and your throat not being as sore.

So there's a lot that we can do with self-care and these natural remedies that really make a huge difference, much better than anything they have, pharmaceutically.

Ashley James (1:28:45.628)

My mom, she wasn't much of a cook, but whenever I had a sore throat, she would boil water with fresh ginger, crush the fresh ginger, chop it up, put it in there and boil it, boil the ginger for a while, put in a few sprinkles of cayenne. I was a kid, so I couldn't take that much cayenne, but she'd put some in and then she'd turn the heat off and then she'd squeeze lemon in there and stir some honey in.

I would drink that all day and it would just blow that sore throat right out. I just loved it. More recently in the last few years, I think the last 10 years, I was turned on to thyme. I started getting fresh thyme from the grocery store, but I take a whole handful of fresh thyme and take hot water, have it boil, but then take it off the stove, put it in four cups of water, put it in and leave the lid on for 10 minutes. Then just drink that with a little bit of honey when you're congested.

Because of how congested you are, I can't believe it. Just all of a sudden you are draining. It's amazing. One thing I learned the hard way, don't do it too late at night because it would cause me to cough because it was draining so well, but I'm lying down because I'm sleeping. So that's more of a do it during the day, but not late at night. It's amazing. It was better than, I really do not do over-the-counter drugs, but I have in the past a long time ago and it worked for me, better than any over-the-counter pharmaceutical decongestant. It worked faster.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:30:20.046)

Right, well there's a difference, like you said Ashley, sometimes when we're dealing with coughs, we need to know even in terms of herbs, which we teach in our course, of course the Natural Nurse Herbal Certification course, is this a decongestant or is it an expectorant or is it a cough suppressant? Even herbs have different actions along those lines. Sometimes you take something that is natural and has something to do with coughs.

When you take it, it's actually an expectorant, something like a horehound. That's going to make you cough more because you're coughing up that congested solidifying mucus, which is great, but maybe not overnight when you're trying to sleep. You're so right about that.

Ashley James (1:31:03.382)

So at night, what would you want? You want to help sleep, but you want to kind of almost dry out a bit. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:31:11.394)

Yes, you want to take something that's not going to be an expectorant. You want to take something that's going to be a relaxant, even chamomile or some herb that relaxes all the muscles so you don't cough as much overnight.

Ashley James (1:31:26.400)

Thinking magnesium.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:31:28.806)

Well, magnesium's a great, a very, very good relaxant, even when people have muscle cramps or, almost everybody could use some magnesium. Of those, I really prefer magnesium glycinate if you're going to take a form of magnesium as a supplement.

Ashley James (1:31:45.155)

You mentioned, so the echinacea and goldenseal. Do you like that better in a tincture, pill form, dry form, or tea form?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:31:54.231)

My favorite kind is a liquid extract, which is very different from a tincture. The only people who would know that difference are herbalists, because the word tincture has to do with extracting out using alcohol as what's called the menstruum, which is the soaking agent that you put the herbs in. That will make a tincture. A tincture will usually give you a certain milligram amount per drop or full if it is one of those little liquid bottles.

If you get an extract, a liquid herbal extract, that means every dropperful has 1,000 milligrams of concentrated herb. So I would prefer a liquid extract in terms of Echinacea and Goldenseal.

Ashley James (1:32:37.707)

Wonderful. How often would they take that thousand milligram dropper while they're sick?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:32:43.319)

So if you're well, not at all. It's not something that you want to do daily. If you start to come down with something, you can take that much, maybe three, four times a day. If you're already in the midst of it, a dropperful an hour ongoing all day. You don't wake up and do it again, just while you're up.

Ashley James (1:33:04.255)

Got it, love it. Any side of, sort of overdose or negative effects? If you take too much, you get diarrhea, that kind of thing? There anything we should know?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:33:16.191)

Yes, that's the main of most of these specific things that we're talking about today in terms of using it for an acute cold or flu. Yes, if you overdo it, a common effect of that, which we'll call an unwanted effect, would be loose stools. On the other hand, sometimes that's exactly what you want because you get rid of the infection more quickly. You can determine, well, I don't want to go that much. Then all you have to do is back off and that reaction will be gone.

Ashley James (1:33:45.667)

Got it, so don't be afraid of it. If you get loose stools, tone it down a bit.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:33:50.473)

Exactly. Then you definitely do decrease the amount as you're getting better and then there'll be a certain day you kind of forget to take it and that's when you're done.

Ashley James (1:34:02.071)

I love it. I love it. We talked about oregano oil of oregano, but we didn't really talk about how much that is that nuclear bomb that we should have when we're done taking it and we're in that recovery phase of building back. My thing is no matter how long you were sick, take a few weeks, even though you feel good, take a few weeks after you've recovered to just be more gentle with yourself and rebuild. So eat that prebiotic, wonderful prebiotic foods, eat some probiotic-rich live culture fermented foods. It doesn't have to be a lot, just a spoonful with each meal. It doesn't have to be a huge amount. I know some people don't like the taste of sauerkraut. It's okay. There's other foods you can ferment also, but the variety, the better the variety. I've been told that there's more prebiotic probiotic culture in one spoonful of sauerkraut than there is in a whole $50 bottle of probiotics.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:34:52.714)

Yes, not just more, but much more bioavailable. It's so far better than taking anyone a pill, truthfully.

Ashley James (1:35:01.590)

So good. I interviewed an amazing man a few years ago who has had HIV since I think the '80s. He says that because he eats fermented food every day, because his gut is so rich and so diverse, the microbiome, he knows his immune system is so much better off than all his other friends who unfortunately have passed away from it. He says it's, when we support ourselves with this food, we're supporting our immune system as well. I love that. We can see it. We can clearly see it in his health and in others. How do we take the oil of oregano?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:35:40.746)

So oil of oregano, you have to get a really good brand. Again, then you're not going to be just getting oregano and distilling it yourself unless you are. That's another whole distillation process. Most people will be purchasing already available oil of oregano. They vary greatly in terms of quality. So that's another one. If you want to give me a call or text me or email me through naturalnurse.com, I'll give you some really good brands.

But it's usually a little teeny bottle with a dropper top. It's often a liquid. Much better to take that as a liquid than a capsule or a tablet. Then you just turn the bottle upside down and let two drops fall out onto your tongue. I would say around every two hours when you're ill, not all the time, because this is something that's aggressive against good probiotic type bacteria as well as negative.

But it's a really good thing to use for that cold or flu season.

Ashley James (1:36:41.688)

Love it. Is there anything else that is really important that we are aware of? I think if we did all of this, we'd be really good. Everything you just mentioned, I think we're set. Is there anything else that you want to make sure we know about?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:36:58.295)

Wonderful Chinese herb that I have found amazingly reverse any of these things, especially if used early on. That's a Chinese medicine called Gan Mao Ling. It's G-A-N-M-A-O-L-I-N-G. It is an herbal, and it is a mixture of several different Chinese herbs, including Isitis which is strongly antimicrobial as well as supporting the immune system. So I would say those are a very, very good thing to use.

Ashley James (1:37:32.307)

Is this  a compressed herb pill? 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:37:35.843)

Yes. They have it in Chinatown. You can get them with no coating. Sometimes they have a coating, but they often don't. It would just be a black combination of herbs. That really works amazingly well if you catch it at the beginning.

Ashley James (1:37:51.179)

How much and how often will we take it?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:37:54.715)

So usually those come in little pellets or tablets. So you actually take five per dose for an adult, and you would take five every two hours or so. Again, you don't wake up at night and do it until, basically the symptoms go away. Now if you're already in the raging state, that's not too helpful a remedy.

Ashley James (1:38:16.372)

Got it, got it. So yes, a lot of this is catching it early and I love that. You had mentioned colloidal silver. I interviewed Dr. Keith Moeller, who's a naturopath that talks about nano silver and the difference between colloidal silver and nano silver, which is really interesting. A good, good interview to go back on. There's over 400 studies on nano silver and supporting immune function and also just how wonderful it is at killing even MRSA. They have great results with it.

So I love that. then you'd mentioned vitamin C powder. What do you think about acerola cherry powder? 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:38:50.001)

Great, good choice. You have to check the brand because some people might have acerola cherry powder but then they're adding in maltodextrin and all these other additives that you may not want. That is a good choice. I said, if you make it yourself, because acerola cherries, we can gather them here in Florida. They remind me a lot of rose hips, which are also very high in vitamin C.

Ashley James (1:39:12.386)

Nice, love it. So, a lot of this is safe for children. Are there any warnings or what wouldn't we do for kids? 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:39:26.965)

Well, oil of oregano is a little rough. I wouldn't necessarily drop oil of oregano into a child's mouth. I mean, in fact, a lot of people, even an adult, once you're going to try good quality concentrated oil of oregano, I would just use one drop and put it in water first. It's very intense. It does kill microorganisms. I have seen more than one person have to be hospitalized because they had a sensitivity or an allergic reaction to it in which their entire mouth blew up, very serious. So it's not something to play with and I would not use that for children.

Ashley James (1:40:03.292)

What's up with the elderberry? Usually that's all I have to pull out for my son. That thick elderberry, not the gummies, not the little candies that they call, the things you suck on. Why am I forgetting the word for that? Lozenges. Not those. Give them the syrup. Just go straight for the good stuff. Yes, it's expensive, but that's just it. You want to get the good stuff. Usually shoving that in my kid's mouth a few times a day when he's first starting to have flu symptoms. That's usually what kills it, what brings us right back.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:40:45.939)

Well, we know why, again, that mechanism of action. What elderberry does is it is not an antibiotic, like oil of oregano and some of the other things we discussed, goldenseal. How elderberry works is it interferes with viruses having a mechanism of reproduction. Because why do you feel a little not so okay first, and by the next morning if you don't do none of these things we talked about. The next day you're all swollen in your throat, it’s because overnight, in particular viruses, reproduce a lot. So now there's millions of them instead of a little of them but it's amazing, the research has shown that elderberry specifically interferes with viral duplication. That's how it works.

Ashley James (1:41:36.577)

I love that. I think that's how zinc works also. They talk about increasing zinc. It does something. It interferes with the virus in some way, whether it's getting into the cell or replication. Can't remember which one.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:41:48.274)

Zinc is amazing and there's actually been so many studies on it now that you actually can claim that zinc is antiviral, which is amazing, but it has been so well documented.

Ashley James (1:42:00.750)

I love that. This is my frustration. The doctor, as in the lie we've been told, not your doctor specifically, but the lie we've been told is, wait to get sick and then come get a drug or let's give you a shot of a bunch of chemicals and that's going to train your immune system to be healthy.

Both take away your power and both train you to believe that your body cannot heal itself, you cannot trust your body. It's almost anti-God. God gave us the ability to heal and He gave us everything on this planet to support our body's ability to heal itself. I'm not saying never go to drug-based medicine, but learn about what you can do and then you will almost never, if not never need that type of medicine, the drug-based medicine, because almost all the time, everything you need in this natural world, which is so much more diverse and supportive. So I'm on my soapbox. I get excited because I suffered for so many years. I was sick for so many years. I was on constant antibiotics for so many years and it was food.

Then it was natural medicine that got my health back. That's why I do the podcast, because I suffered for so long and I reversed all these health issues. I want to help those who are suffering needlessly to know that this information is out there. 

Also I'm really excited about your courses. I think my listeners will be as well. I'm very interested in taking your herbal medicine course. I've just been self-taught for the most part. I like to pick people's brains, as you can tell.

I just think that this is something we all should dedicate time and energy to learning, especially moms, because we're the head of the household, especially when it comes to everyone's health. I was just reminded this week, as a wife, I am kind of in charge of my husband's health. I know I cook, I cook healthy for him, but I also kind of have to check in on him, a mom does a child. That's what we do. We have to take care of each other. So it's good for us to know, to know this information.

Do you have anything else you want to say about the immune before we go to the next topic? 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:44:35.492)

No, other than that, I have no more time today.

Ashley James (1:44:37.262)

Okay. Well, we can wrap it up then. That's no problem. I would love to have you back on the show. I would love to dive in deeper. Thank you so much for spending all the time you did with us. I know we had some internet issues that we had to overcome, which cut into our time, unfortunately, but we did go through some great information. Some of these things you talked about are those that we take temporarily, just while we're sick. Then there's certain things we could take all the time. You said, you could take vitamin C, you could drink acerola cherry powder every day, 500 milligrams every day just for overall health. 

To wrap up today's interview, is there anything you would want us to know about what is good for us to look into for general overall everyday health? What are some things that are just really important to have kicking around that we use every day?

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:45:33.014)

Yes, I would say a very simple thing is first of all, eat whole food. For instance, in my refrigerator, there's nothing with a label on it. So what's there? Food. Not packaged food, not processed food, not ultra-processed food, none of that. Cut down on wheat. Almost everybody, they eliminate wheat, except maybe once a week as a little treat or even not at all, will feel better. Because it reduces inflammation. Remember, we started our conversation with pain. Pain is usually due to some kind of inflammatory process. So that would be a really good place to start, as well as looking at your spiritual life.  How are you connected to joy? What supports your overall healthy brain in a way that just makes you happy? Do more of that, even if you have to not do some of the other things that you think you have to do. So those would be good places to start.

Ashley James (1:46:34.750)

I love it. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. I would absolutely love to have you back. 

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:46:42.626)

Thank you for inviting me, Ashley. The best place for people to find me is just naturalnurse.com.

Ashley James (1:46:48.432)

Wonderful. I'm very excited. I'm definitely going to dive in and check out your courses because I am always looking to learn more as my listeners are as well. I'd love to have you back on the show. This has been wonderful.

Dr. Ellen Kamhi (1:47:01.768)

Thank you. Have a great rest of the day.

Outro: 

I hope you enjoyed today's interview. It was just so mind-blowing. I absolutely love Dr. Kamhi and we're going to have her back on the show for part two. In this episode we got to talk about pain. We got to talk about helping the body to repair from injury and, of course, cold and flu. The next time we have her on we're going to dive into helping the body to get out of fight or flight and to go deeper in healing mode through stimulating the HPA axis and the vagal nerve and all the things that I don't even know because we haven't done the interview yet, but we're going to go. We're going to dive down those rabbit holes and see where we land, and I know I definitely want to talk to her more about her courses that she teaches and I'm so excited for her upcoming course. Definitely check it out. I want to let you know that if you haven't already made an appointment it's a free consultation with Jennifer Saltzman.

Go to TakeYourSupplements.com. Jennifer Saltzman is absolutely phenomenal and the supplements that she works with are the same ones that helped me get my health back 13 years ago. Coming on 14 years, they're the reason why I was able to conceive. I was told I'd never be able to have kids. They're the reason why I don't have type 2 diabetes, chronic adrenal fatigue, why I don't have infertility, why I don't have PCOS and just got my life back. So go to TakeYourSupplements.com. She has a wonderful program and she works with you. It's an individualized system. Now they do have wonderful protocols for immune support for people who are suffering with more chronic immune issues and chronic digestion issues—anything from hair loss, from skin, hair, and nails, to supporting your heart health, your brain health, your liver health. They have wonderful programs, wonderful supplement programs and also recommendations with how to adjust your diet to best support your health. I really like their immune support stuff and especially bigger immune things that you're facing. They have some pretty cool, pretty cool things. So check her out.

I know if you thought that this episode was interesting, you would think talking to Jennifer Saltzman would be very interesting. So go to LearnTrueHealth.com. It's wild that she gives a free session and it doesn't cost any more to buy the supplements than if you bought them on your own. But these aren't in the stores directly. She helps you order the right ones for you based on your needs, based on your budget, based on your weight. It's all measured by body weight and dosed by body weight, and she gives you a wealth of resources as well. So it's a really great rabbit hole to go down. So I highly recommend going to TakeYourSupplements.com and chatting with Jennifer Saltzman. She's absolutely phenomenal.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of 2024. Of course, you might be listening to this eight years or ten years in the future. I've been doing this podcast. We're coming up on ten years and I still have people listening to episodes I did ten years ago and this is evergreen. This content, this is true health content. So wherever you are in your life, whatever year it is, I hope you're having a wonderful, wonderful, blessed, amazing experience, and thank you so much for being a listener and thank you so much for sharing my podcast so we can end needless suffering of millions and millions of people, and you are a part of that by sharing. Thank you.

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The Natural Medicine Chest

Arthritis

Supplements For Pain

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