I have not been sick in over a year.

Many months ago I loaded up a bottle of brandy with Elderberry and let it sit for a month, then filtered out the herb.

This tincture's been sitting in the cabinet ever since. Until last night.

A really raunchy head cold has struck me...I feel all heavy, woozy, stuffy, nose dripping, I can barely hear, or taste, etc. It sucks.
I put a shot of elderberry brandy in some tea with some turkey tail mushrooms and some cayenne and it REALLY does the trick.
Keeps the runny nose at bay, calms and relaxes, relieves pressure. It's a great medicine.
The turkey tails are for antibiotics, and the cayenne is a natural immune system booster.

Just thought I'd relay the info...

Cheers man.
If i have a cold (and i did two weeks ago!) I knock up this majic brew.

Some ginger
Some garlic (proberbly too much)
Some chilli
Some honey
Some lemon juice.
Add hot water and steep for 5 minutes.

Tastes awefull... just the way i like it. No idea if it helped. But it sure was nice to taste something and unblock that sinus.

Coolness. Glad that it helped you. Maybe I should look into making an elderberry potion.

For chest congestion, smoked mullein works great! If you take something with guaifenesin (such as mucinex) with at least a full glass of liquid, and then smoke a few bowls of mullein (or roll it into a cigarette, or empty the tobacco and cancer paper out of a Black & Mild and stuff the mullein in there), it thins out all the gunk and helps you cough it up. It can be a bit harsh on the throat for non-smokers, and it tastes pretty bad for the first minute or two, but it works sooooo well. If I do this, no matter how bad my congestion is, it will have me cleared up for about a day or two. Frequent smokers do have to beware though, because their lungs are usually really full of gunk, and the lungs have given up on trying to clear it out. The mullein WILL make you bring that stuff up!

I only had to do that about 3 times (with the help of 2 Z-paks) to rapidly get rid of a respiratory infection that lasted for TWO MONTHS. Two months of constant hoarseness and coughing and breathing humidity and steam and vicks vaporub and eating cough drops and Mucinex DM all day... So yeah, mullein works great for the chest symptoms.

I don't know whether it was the mullein, my immune system, or the Z-paks that actually got rid of the infection. Maybe it was a combination of them. But next time I have a cold, I'm going to see if mullein alone helps, and if it does, I'll report it here.

I put mullein in my changa.
Yesterday was the first time I smoked it in months.
Today, I am stretching my lungs out and it feels SO GOOD! I LOVE mullein!