This time of year, the changing seasons most certainly bring tidings of good cheer, however it also brings sneezes, sniffles, and sore throats. Holiday season brings social gatherings, crowded shopping malls, and free-flowing cold viruses for all to share.
While we can do our best to boost our immune systems, and take precautions like washing our hands, picking up the common cold is inevitable for most of us. When it does happen, cannabis can help reduce the duration and intensity of your cold.
Cannabis for the Common Cold
The symptoms of a cold, runny nose, sore throats, etc happen because the immune system has launched an all-out war on the infecting virus causing inflammation. Controlling this inflammation is key to controlling the symptoms of a cold.
Multiple reports show the potential for cannabis is more than snake oil when it comes to treating the common cold. Besides being a natural anti-bacterial, CBD, can help control the inflammation response, as well as, stimulate the immune system to help provide protection from the virus. In fact, regular use of CBD may help boost your immune system to reduce your risk of getting a cold all-together.
THC helps to reduce pain and joint inflammation. Plus, when all your body wants to do is rest and heal, THC can help your body get all the healing sleep you need for speedy recovery. Headaches and sinus pressure can also be alleviated with cannabinoid therapy.
In addition, the other cannabinoids and terpenes in cannabis also have shown incredible potential. Cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabichromene (CBC) are found in trace amounts in cannabis and in hemp, and both are known to possess antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-fungal properties. In fact, in a study done in Italy, all cannabinoids, THC, CBD, CBD, CBC and CBN were all shown to have potent antibacterial activity. Ahh… Science!
Other Healing Herbs
Besides just cannabis, this recipe includes other healing herbs to help combat the symptoms of your cold. While you can use whatever herbs you’d like to use in making the original tea, here are the herbs I recommend.
- Chamomile – also a natural anti-inflammatory, Chamomile has been shown to have antibacterial qualities to help fight infection.
- Elderberries – well known for their ability to fight colds, these berries may have anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anti-influenza, and anticancer properties.
- Marshmallow Root – reduces pain, swelling and congestion. In addition, it can also reduce swelling in the lymph nodes, speed up healing, and act as a cough remedy.
- Slippery Elm – one of the best natural remedies for soothing a sore throat.
Smoking, Not Required
Now, I don’t know about you, but smoking when I’m sick or have a sore throat is the furthest thing from my mind. Inhaling smoke on an already irritated throat is probably not the best approach to promote healing.
In addition, keeping the throat moist is important, so these delicious cannabis honey lozenges help with saliva production, too.
Herbal Cannabis Cough Drops
Combining throat soothing herbs with that other soothing herb makes a potent herbal cold remedy. This recipe begins by making a strong tea out of whatever herbs you’d like to use. Then reduce the tea to create an herbal concentrate. You’ll likely have some herbal concentrate left over after making these lozenges. You can mix it with honey tincture or plain honey to make a comforting cough syrup, too.
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine:
- 1 Tablespoons Chamomile
- 2 Tablespoons Elderberries
- 1 Tablespoons Marshmallow Root
- 1 Tablespoon Slippery Elm
2. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over herbs and stir. Cover the bowl with a plate and steep for at least 20 minutes. Strain herbs.
3. Pour the resulting tea into a small saucepan on medium high heat. Reduce by at least half to make an herbal concentrate. Pour into a jar.
4. In a small saucepan, over medium-high heat combine:
- 1/2 Cup Infused Honey
- 1/4 Cup Infused Herbal Concentrate
5. Place a candy thermometer into the saucepan and wait until your lozenge mixture reaches the “hard crack” stage (If you’re at sea level, this is probably right at 300°. At 6000 feet, hard crack stage is around 280°. Calibrate your thermometer using the boiling water method and adjust the temperature as needed.)
6. Quickly pour into molds. I like these for lozenges.
7. Allow to cool at room temperature.
8. These will stick together if not coated. Toss with either 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar or 1 Tablespoon CALM Calcium Magnesium powder to skip the extra sugar and get some bioavailable magnesium.
These little gems are delicious, great for your immune system, and will provide comfort when your throat is screaming for relief.
Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Won’t 300 degrees kill off the THC in the honey?
It shouldn’t, THC’s boiling point is 314.6 degrees (F), so as long as you stay under that, you should be good.
If I am doing Keto and no sugar no honey do you have a recommendation on what to use as a sub that will work ? Thank you
Usually, to be knocked out of ketosis, you need around 60g or carbs or more. So if you are only eating protein and fat, and having a teaspoon of Honey, you won’t be kicked out of ketosis.
Using the data provided here, one tablespoon (28g) has 17g of carbs. So you could actually sweeten your coffee with a tablespoon, if you wanted.
Raw honey has so many added health benefits… as long as you’re using it in moderation, you should be fine!
When I steep the herbal mix for the 20 mins it turns into a goop am I doing something wrong ?
Are you using raw honey? Aren’t raw honey’s benefits lost when heated?
About how many servings does this recipe make? I’m trying to figure out dosing.
Hi Corrine, thank you for such a great inspiration during this difficult time.. I made the recepies yesterday, I used organic lemongrass and ginger tea(as its all I had) and also added pure echinacea liquid to the initial mix with some lorrann lemon oil.
At 300 it was smelling like it could burn any min, I poured it onto a tray to cool and indented into portions,
I put in the fridge to harden, and they did.. To a perfect crack in my indents?
But if they warm up, in your pocket or mouth.. It turns to a sticky toffee texture..
So appears to not have cracked?
Any suggestions on what I did wrong?
I’d love to perfect this to give out to help people chill during isolation.
Also raw honey heated in the MBM2 (yes I want to make that much!)
Does it keep its goodness?
Virtual hugs with love from Melbourne Australia.
This seems to be the trick with honey in my experiments so far. It does melt to that toffee kind of texture. You can try heating it to a higher temp and let me know if it gets it to that crack stage without getting scorched. I’ll give it another shot as well 🙂
xoxo,
Corinne
Hi Corrine,
I tried a higher temp and sadly.. Just burned it.. (and probably the cannabinoids). I asked my mate who’s a pretty amazing chef.. He said you can’t crack honey alone, it would need to be mixed with sugar to create the hard crack..
I’m going to borrow some sweets/candy books from my on-line library… And try to get to the technical bottom of this recepies..
I would heed a warning about honey toffee… Tastes so damn good!! But, It will pull your crown out! ?
Yeah… that was my experience with testing, but I didn’t add sugar because I didn’t have any in the house ?Thank you so much for sharing and please report back with what you learn about making a harder cannabis cough drop.