Every year, millions of Americans come down with the common cold or the flu. While many are back on their feet within days, more than 100,000 are hospitalized with the flu each year, and many more experience cold complications that are severe enough to send them to the doctor’s office. While some drugs target these disorders, for the most part, sufferers must wait for the infection to run its course. Or do they?

Green Immunity Boosters will show you how to use safe and natural botanicals to heighten your body’s defenses so that you are more resistant to infection, and your immune system is prepared to respond as quickly as possible to any bacterial or viral threat. Whether you are actively fighting a cold, flu, or other virus, or you simply want to make your body stronger and more resilient, Green Immunity Boosters will show you the natural way to better health.

James B. LaValle, RPh, CCN, is a nationally recognized clinical pharmacist, nutritionist, and the founder of LaValle Metabolic Institute and Integrative Health Resources. Dr. LaValle has extensive experience in clinical practice, product design and formulation, and technology development. He is also an educator, media personality, and author who has written over eighteen books, including Cracking the Metabolic Code and Smart Medicine for Healthier Living.

1. Introduction: Battlefield Earth,

2. Understanding the Enemy,

3. Know Your Own Defenses,

4. Your Immune System Versus the Modern Lifestyle,

5. Olive Leaf, Arabinogalactan, and Andrographis,

6. Olive Leaf (Olea europaea),

7. Larch Arabinogalactan (Larix occidentalis)

(ARA-Larix),

8. Andrographis paniculata,

9. Considerations,

Conclusion,

About the Author,

Index, 

Earth is a battlefield where bacteria and viruses have been at war with higher organisms for millions of years. Pathogenic bacteria and viruses view plants and animals—and yes, you and me—as large storehouses, filled with all the essential resources they need for survival. Indeed, we are the one-stop-shopping supermarket for pathogens. They will stop at nothing to steal our resources; they will hide, change appearance, test our defenses, and exploit our weaknesses. And if they fail the first time around, they will adapt and try again. Take SARS, for example.

In early 2003, a mysterious virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) quickly spread to infect about 10,000 people across nearly 40 countries—but it was contained; proclaimed “eradicated” by the World Health Organization in 2004. While the lethality of SARS was below 1 percent for people under 25 years old, the prognosis was not so good for the rest of the population. Of the people who fell ill with the virus, it killed 6 percent of those aged 25 to 44, 15 percent of those 45 to 64, and more than 50 percent of those over 65. In 2006, a different mysterious virus, called H5N1, or, more commonly, “bird flu,” started to travel through bird populations the world over. Anxieties skyrocketed over bird flu’s devastating pandemic potential—and justifiably so. Science has concluded that many flu strains that infect humans are actually mutated viruses that originated in other animals, such as pigs and chickens. Health organizations around the world fear that if bird flu (H5N1) mutates into a human-transmissible variant, the death toll will be catastrophic.

 History gives us very sound reason to fear that a human variant will evolve. We need only look back at the 1918–1919 flu pandemic, known as the Spanish flu. This was arguably the worst influenza pandemic in history. It reached every corner of the globe, killing anywhere from 20 million to 100 million people in just two years. The genetic code of the Spanish flu, scientifically referred to as H1N1 virus, was recently found to be very closely related to that of the H5N1 bird flu virus of today. In fact, many researchers believe that Spanish flu started out as a bird flu virus before mutating into human transmissible form (transmitted from one human to another). So, as we see bird populations, both domestic and wild, falling victim to H5N1, we can watch it evolve closer and closer to a human-transmissible form, which would likely become a super flu. In fact, as I write this, I see news reports of a variant having recently killed a woman in China. Further evolution may have allowed this variant to move swiftly to other people.

 Meanwhile, the regular old seasonal flu wreaks havoc that is very real and often overlooked. In fact, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in the United States alone more than 100,000 people are hospitalized and more than 20,000 people die from the flu and its complications every year. Infants and the geriatric population are particularly at risk. The common cold adds another 100 million doctor’s visits into the mix every year—and that’s not including the countless millions who manage colds through home care alone. More frightening still, when the common cold has us down for the count, opportunistic infections such as bronchitis, strep throat, and pneumonia move in—exacerbating sickness from mere bedridden misery to a state of red-alert health danger. Keep in mind, antibiotics are entirely ineffective