Vinegar of the Four Thieves

During the Bubonic Plague, 4 Thieves ransacked the houses of plague victims, yet remained unscathed by the disease.  Upon appearance before the judges, they wondered how this was accomplished.  In exchange for the recipe for the Vinegar of the 4 Thieves, the thieves were pardoned.  At least that is the legend.

In a world still filled with so many terrible diseases, I am thankful the only ones that plague me are the occasional cold and rare stomach bug.  However, I do have a personal vendetta against the common cold.  I managed to make it through the entire autumn and winter without a cold.  As soon as I felt that warm tickle in the back of my throat, I downed a cocktail of herbs and supplements to stop it.  I successfully ceased at least 3 colds this past year.  But, this time, I thought my throat was dry from teaching a class and was late to start supplementing.  I came down with a full blown cold.  My methods have helped keep it on the milder side, but it was still a week long ordeal of sore throat, sniffles, watery eyes, toothaches, ear aches, post nasal drip.

I decided that I need to finally make and utilize a Vinegar of the 4 Thieves, adding it to my other methods of killing colds (listed below).  What is great about the Vinegar is that you can use it internally, externally and as a cleanser for your house!  I'm thinking great times to use it is after running errands (nothing like having your cashier hack and snot in your face because they don't get sick leave and have to pay the bills...I know, I've been there), being in a crowd (who knew if that baby in the church nursery's runny nose is from teething or a lingering cold), and especially when school begins.  Even though we homeschool, it seems that once school starts, the 1st World plagues begin and entire schools, neighborhoods, even cities are affected.  Several years ago a nasty stomach flu swept through our rural neighborhood.  Even with almost no contact with any of the neighbors, we still got it.  Some bugs really are that potent, and stomach bugs can remain contagious a week after symptoms have gone away.

Shoshanna at Bulk Herb Store has a great page on the Vinegar of the 4 Thieves.  Check it out!

My usual cold-killing-cocktail

Garlic or garlic supplements

Echinacea

Nature's Plus Animal Parade Immune Boosters

Grapefruit Seed Extract

Lemon oil

Local honey

Herbal teas (chamomile, pau d'arco, agrimony, nettles, alfalfa, St. John's Wort)