by Disinvestment Supporter

Created on: December 08, 2011

This winter is going to be different. No months of sniffling, no week of suffering with the flu, and no winter blues. A good start would be replacing the central heating unit with portable space heaters, avoiding the viral palaces of door handles and shopping carts (or at least carrying sanitizing wipes), washing your hands regularly, and adopting a few indoor plants.

Other helpful tools for warding off the winter miseries are readily available, easy-to-use, and cheap. Instead of loading up on cold medications and cranking the heat, choose from the variety of herbs that have kept past generations warm and dry during the cold dampness of the season. While all of the following 10 best winter herbs will provide your body with micronutrients, some of them are also proven immune-boosters and cold-symptom relievers.

In culinary quantities, these herbs are completely safe, and most will cause no problems in medicinal doses. Introduce yourself to the valuable effects of these winter herbs on human health and well-being. Pay close attention to the way each makes you feel.

5. Cardamom can be found as a powder or dried as seedpods. No matter its preparation, cardamom is useful for relaxing muscles, which has two main effects. Blood flows more easily through relaxed muscles, and the relaxing warmth of the herb helps relieve joint pain and stiffness.

As a powder, cardamom can be used in teas or added to soup broths. The Chinese remove seeds from the pods and stir-fry them, but the classic Yogi Tea in Ayurvedic medicine uses 4 whole seedpods per 8-ounce cup. In my experience, cardamom in every preparation has the same great effect of relieving common winter backaches.

4. Cinnamon is one of the most used and highly regarded herbs in numerous herbal traditions. It's drying and warming properties, when used daily for less than a week, will prevent the sweating that comes from wearing heavy winter gear. Cinnamon is a proven anti-inflammatory herb, and the volatile oils work to promote circulation by preventing unwanted clumping of platelets in the bloodstream.

Ever wonder why cinnamon is so popular on sugary pastries? Diabetes studies carried out around the world have shown that cinnamon moderates changes in blood sugar levels and prevents the insulin resistance associated with Type II diabetes. It also lowers cholesterol in the blood. The thing to remember about cinnamon is that most benefits are found in volatile oils. To prevent these from "cooking off", only steep cinnamon

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