Above: Vitamin C, PC, Echinacea, StJohnsWort, Eleuthero, OnGuard and hiding in back... elderberry tea (notice how dark it is!)
Let's be honest. You are going to get the flu at some point. Even the best research points to a 50% reduction in risk with the flu vaccine, which is not a 100% risk reduction. Case in point, 2014-2015 when the flu variant drifted. To understand more about antigenic drift and antigenic shift, read this. What this means is that if you had 100 lives to live, each year your baseline risk of flu is about 10 out of 100. With a flu vaccine you cut this to 5 out of 100. It is also important to note that the flu vaccine takes several weeks to display protection.
So to me the first idea is to accept that no matter what you do, there is always a risk of getting the flu. The real question is, are there herbs, supplements, and practices that can enhance recover? Remember influenza is accompanied with a significant amount of fatigue which can last 3-4 weeks to fully recover from. 3 to 4 week? 1/12 of a year? Are you kidding me? This is not acceptable to me. One reason is that I value and appreciate every day that I have on this planet and prefer not to spend anymore days being in a lower energy state than is absolutely required. The second is that as a Doctor, I want to be there for my patients and when I am sick I can't help them get strong and healthy. Sick Doctors can't help sick people.
So what's in my tool bag to fight of influenza and the related fatigue? Before we get to the list, I want to acknowledge that there are many herbs, supplements etc. which can fight off influenza and the related fatigue associated with it. What I don't like doing is giving the false illusion that I am doing EVERY SINGLE THING in the world and if you don't do every herb, supplement etc to fight the flu than you are not trying hard enough. That's silly and not productive. Therefore I like to keep my list concise and honest.
Here's what I am using and here is a review article that hits on a few of the mechanisms
Liposomal vitamin C - 8- 16 grams per day
AlliMAX- 3 (180mg caps) 2x per day
MediHerb Echinacea - 1tsp 6x per day #notatypo
MediHerb St. Johns Wort 1tsp TID
MediHerb Eleuthro- 1 tsp TID
OnGuard by Doterra 5 drops TID
Elderberry, green tea, or marsala chai
Low Carb, high fat, moderate protein diet.
Sleep, Rest and non-stressful environment
Obviously there are other things I could be using like Chinese skullcap etc. But this is what I am currently using.