With the school year ending, and travel season approaching, here's a handy kit you can keep in your car or carry-on bag. Or maybe you're stressing out about swine flu -- this should help keep your immune system healthy.

You can keep preventive medicine in your desk drawers at work so that if you feel a cold or flu coming on, you don’t have to wait until you get home to treat it. When you travel, always plan ahead by bringing natural remedies for colds and flu, indigestion, insomnia, and tension or stress. It’s especially important to plan ahead during the holiday season, when we often combine extra-stressful travel, cold weather, too many immune-depressing sugary foods, and family tensions. Also remember to drink plenty of clean water and take a multivitamin every day. Here are suggestions for your travel kit:

• Melatonin, sublingual (under the tongue) tablets for insomnia and jet lag.
• Ginger capsules or ginger tea for nausea and gas.
• Chewable papaya tablets for indigestion after a big meal.
  
• Echinacea, astragalus, goldenseal capsules or tincture for cold and flu prevention.
  
• Zinc lozenges combined with vitamin C and propolis for cold prevention. Zinc has a direct effect in boosting the immune system and may have some antiviral properties as well.
  
• An herbal throat spray that includes Echinacea and goldenseal to prevent a sore throat from taking hold.
  
• White willow bark capsules or tincture to treat a headache or other types of pain.
  
• Kava or St. John’s wort capsules, tablets, or tincture for stress and anxiety.
  
• Chromium picolinate tablets (200mcg) to balance blood sugar.
  
• Oscillococcinum, a homeopathic remedy, to prevent the flu. Open one tube, pour it into your mouth, and suck on the contents until gone (they’re tiny sugar pellets). Since this is a homeopathic remedy, it is important not to consume caffeine, menthol, or peppermint within 30 minutes of taking it. Take every six hours. If it doesn’t work after three tubes, it probably isn’t going to. Oscillococcinum’s action is fast and dramatic when it works.
  
• Vitamin C in Emergen-C packets. Vitamin C supports the immune system on many levels. At the tissue level, it counteracts histamines, which cause inflammation and congestion, and is needed for tissue repair. At the cellular level, it acts as an antioxidant and is essential to the functioning of the white blood cells that fight disease. Take at least one packet every two hours when you feel a cold or flu coming on, for up to 12 hours.

 From: Mindell, Earl L., Virginia Hopkins. Prescription Alternatives. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.