Well it’s the time of year when we seem to be particularly vulnerable to all kinds of illnesses that are caused by viruses including colds, flu and cold sores. A virus is not to be confused with bacteria, which causes infection. Viruses are tiny bits of nucleic acids that contain information and use your body’s cells tor create more copies of themselves.
There are very few treatments, allopathic or natural that can kill a virus outright, as usually a virus must run its course. However the list of natural remedies here come as close to stopping a virus in its tracks as Mother Nature can get. These are just a few of the things that Aimee and I have and use in our ” Wellness Box” at home.
Also if you scroll to the about 3/4 dow I have a FREE BOOK on Intermittent Fasting from one of the best sources in the world. Dr. John Berardi. No Email Required. Just enjoy the read below, then grab your copy and perhaps some of the products listed.
Silver has been utilized as a medicine since ancient times to treat scores of ailments, including the bubonic plague. Colloidal silver is a suspension of pure metallic silver in water, that is used to dramatically reduce the activity of the HIV virus in AIDS patients, slow down the ravages of the hepatitis C virus and combat other viruses in general. It works by interfering with the enzymes that allow a virus to utilize oxygen thus, in essence, suffocating it so it cannot do damage in the body. Alternate product if the one above is on backorder
The common black elderberry (Sambucus nigra) has long been used to reduce the length and severity of flu symptoms and studies. Taking 60 ml a day for adults and 30 ml for children helps to facilitate a complete recovery, often in three days. Elderberry extract binds to the tiny spikes on a virus protein that are used to pierce and invade healthy cells and destroys them so that the virus is ineffective. Elderberry may also be effective against the herpes simplex virus and some HIV strains.
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The herb Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) is supportive of the immune system and has a direct anti-viral action against colds and viral bronchitis. Preparations that include both the roots and the flowering tops are the most effective at helping the body resist the viruses.
Garlic has been prized for its medicinal properties for thousands of years. The compounds allicin and alliion are responsible for this common plant’s reputation as a triple threat. Garlic is anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and it is especially effective against viruses if chewed raw.
Green tea (Camellia sinensis) contains a group of flavonoids called catechins, which appear to inhibit viral infections by blocking the enzymes that allow it to reproduce. Green tea has been known to be effective in inhibiting HIV, herpes simplex and the hepatitis B virus.
Liquorice contains a substance called glycyrrhizin that reduces the replication of viruses and halts their ability to penetrate replicate inside healthy cells. It has been noted to be effective in the treatment of many viral illnesses including HIV strains and viral hepatitis.
The leaves of Olive trees (Olea europea) contain a substances called elenoic acid and calcium elonate has been identified as a powerful inhibitor of a wide range of viruses in laboratory tests., including influenza, herpes, polio and coxsackie viruses. These substances block the production of enzymes that allow viruses to replicate.
Pau d’arco (Tabebuia impetiginosa), also known as lapacho or ipe roxo, is an Amazon tree with healing inner bark that can treat colds, influenza, herpes and viral stomatis. It contains quinoids that inhibit virus replication by damaging the DNA and RNA inside the viral protein that would insert itself in a healthy human cell and replicate.
St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is ore well-known for its ability to treat depression and neuralgia but it also has potent antiviral chemicals called hypercin and pseudohypericin that proactively fight off viruses that thrive by imitating existing cells through “cloaking”. These viruses that masquerade as human cells include Herpes, HIV and Hepatitis C.
For the most effective results it is highly recommended that at least two or three of these remedies in conjunction in order to vanquish viruses. As always, consult your naturopathic doctor for advise that is tailored specifically to your body.
NOTE: DON”T FEED A VIRUS, Instead, STARVE IT, and KILL IT. As a suggestion you might want to consider implementing a Fasting Protocol (Autophagy) it’s natures way of doing surgery internally. Here is a Free Book from Dr. John Berardi on Fasting. It is really one of the best out there to help explain and understand IF. And the CHEAT SHEETS at the end of his book are invaluable.
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What You Eat When You’re Sick Could Affect Your Recovery Speeds
Chicken soup, veggie juice, dry toast, ginger ale, or fluids only: everyone has their own advice for what you should eat – or not eat – when you’re dealing with a nasty cold or stomach bug.
But now scientists have found evidence to suggest that a link really does exist between dietary changes and recovery time – and whether you should eat or fast could be determined by the kind of infection you’re battling.
The findings, which have so far only been demonstrated in mice, suggest that eating more while combating a viral infection like the flu could help you get better faster, but if you’ve got a bacterial infection like food poisoning, eating might actually make things worse.
“When animals are infected, they stop eating, and they switch to a fasting metabolic mode,” team leader Ruslan Medzhitov from Yale University told Ziba Kashef of YaleNews. “The question was whether fasting metabolism is protective or detrimental [in humans].”
Before jumping into the latest research, we should first go over how our bodies respond to different infections.There are two types of infections that many of us succumb to every now and then: bacterial and viral.
Bacterial infections, which include ailments like bronchitis and pneumonia, are caused by single-celled organisms that can invade and thrive inside our bodies, reproducing on their own. Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics that stop the colonies from growing larger.
Viral infections, such as the flu (influenza) and the common cold (rhinovirus), on the other hand, do not replicate on their own like bacteria does. Instead, viruses take over our cells and hijack them to get them pumping out more copies of the virus, so it spreads through our bodies like a hostile takeover.
These type of infections also do not respond to antibiotics, though certain anti-viral medications can block their spread to new cells.
When we get infected with harmful bacteria or a virus, our immune systems kick into gear, and their initial response usually involves increasing inflammation to various parts of the body. This – rather counterintuitively – puts a lot of extra stress on our already beleaguered bodies.
So although the immune system is generally great at killing off an invasion, it can sometimes go a little overboard.
And as Debora MacKenzie explains for New Scientist, recent research suggests that surviving infections can often have more to do with our ability to survive our own body’s response to an infection, and not the infection itself.
Besides causing inflammation, both bacterial and viral infections can cause us to lose our appetites, but our hunger appears to return more quickly during viral infections than bacterial ones.
With this in mind, Medzhitov’s team decided to investigate how eating during both types of infection could change recovery times.
The team performed a series of experiments on mice, which they injected with bacterial and viral molecules that are specially designed to trigger the same inflammatory responses that the infections do.
The then either administered or blocked the sugar glucose in the mice, to simulate one eating group and one fasting group.
They researchers found that both types of infections caused the mice to lose their appetites initially, but found that the mice that ate with viral infections recovered faster than those that ate with bacterial infections.
This suggests that the glucose helped protect the brains of the mice and other systems from inflammation.
On the other hand, all of the mice that ate with the bacterial infections actually ended up dying because the increased glucose levels led to brain damage, causing them to have seizures and eventual death.
So why are the results so dramatically different? The team says that this is likely because fasting triggers the liver to produce ketones – the molecules the body produces when it starts to burn fat for energy instead of sugars.
This is important, the team suggests, because bacterial infections cause free radicals – a type of highly reactive atom that can cause oxidative damage in other cells – to skyrocket in the brain, blocking neurons from taking in glucose, which, in turn, triggers seizures. Eating glucose during this time seems to make these free radical levels increase even higher, increasing seizure risk.
In other words, the mice didn’t want to eat when they were battling a bacterial infection because it can be damaging. Instead, their bodies wanted to use fat reserves for fuel, which allows neurons to do their thing without causing further damage.
Interestingly, eating with the flu helped the mice recover because viral infections do not cause free radical increases in the brain. Instead, eating was just a normal process, allowing the mice to regain their strength.
Wrapping everything up, the team concludes that, based on their experiments, our bodies could be telling us what to do when we have an infection and we might want to listen to them.
It’s important to note, though, that the team only used mice for their trials, and as we’ve seen in the past, similar research on human subjects can often yield vastly different results. It will take human trials to verify if the findings hold up or not.
Despite that, understanding how our bodies react to certain infections might help doctors better diagnose disease and prescribe proper treatments earlier, possibly saving lives down the road.
The team’s findings were published in Cell.
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