Natural Flu Fighters

Natural Flu Fighters
If you've got the flu, these all-natural remedies can help to ease your sore throat, cough, fever and body aches, while also strengthening your immune system. We’ve all had it, and many of us will get it again this winter or spring. Body aches, fever, chills, headache, congestion—the flu. Influenza is a sudden, severe and, in some cases, deadly viral disease characterized by high fever, chills, muscle aches and pain, dry cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and fatigue. The virus has a short incubation time, so people usually show symptoms just one or two days after being infected. The flu typically lasts a few days, but can last as long as two weeks. Each year, approximately 20,000 people in the United States die from influenza or its complications, such as pneumonia—more than 90% of these people are age 65 or older. The peak incidence of the flu is in the late fall, winter and early spring. Nobody is really sure why the flu hits at these times of year. It is, of course, the time when we are indoors more, and kids are back in school. Heated indoor air tends to be drier, making our respiratory tissues more susceptible to the onslaught of the virus.
The flu virus is spread via respiratory secretions from infected individuals, who transmit it when they sneeze or cough. They can also pass it along by touching uninfected individuals, who then touch their eyes, nose or mouth. Many people get an annual flu shot, which is a vaccine designed to help your immune system ward off the flu bug. Since the virus affects Asians the year before it reaches America, the vaccine is prepared from current Asian epidemics in expectation that the same virus will strike Americans the following year. Actually, the vaccine is composed of three different killed viruses, two Type A and one Type B. After a flu shot, your immune system reacts to proteins on the dead virus and mounts an immune response, partly by making antibodies to the virus. These antibodies stay at a high level after a flu shot, and should fight off the virus easily if you come in contact with it.
Getting a flu shot, however, is not without risk. The vaccine is made by growing the virus in chicken eggs, and people allergic to eggs can react to the vaccine. Rarely, Guillian-Barré syndrome, a condition linked to nervous-system damage, can occur. Most people recover, although some do not and suffer permanent damage. Others can have flulike symptoms or redness and pain at the injection site.
Whether or not you decide to get the flu shot, there are other preventive measures that should be employed during cold-and-flu season, the first of which is hand washing. Be sure to wash your hands after having contact with others, and keep your hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth.
It’s also important to learn how to handle stress. Stress can lower your immune response to viruses. People who are chronically stressed suffer the worst. Stress causes our immune cells—in particular natural-killer (NK) cells, which are specifically involved in fighting off viruses—to function less effectively. There are three types of influenza viruses, called A, B and C. Types A and B are associated with severe, large-scale outbreaks. Type C can cause mild illness, and is not connected with epidemic outbreaks. When a widespread outbreak occurs, it actually is called a “pandemic.”
Pandemic influenza outbreaks usually begin in Asia. In the past, there have been some very severe outbreaks; the worst in modern times was the influenza pandemic of 1918. It is estimated that approximately 30 million people worldwide, including 500,000 people in the United States, died of the flu that year. The virus was particularly strong and caused pneumonia very quickly, often within a few days.Unfortunately, most of us will come in contact with an influenza virus this flu season. Preventive measures, such as hand washing, getting plenty of rest, reducing stress and optimizing immune function with nutrients and herbs can help your immune system resist the viral onslaught. If you do end up getting flu symptoms, the following four remedies can help to decrease symptoms, shorten the duration or even ward off the flu itself. If you are tempted to turn to some of the new flu drugs on the market (including Amantadine and Relenza), remember that natural therapies are, many times, safer, gentler, cheaper—and better for your body in the long run. These nutrients strengthen your immune system—something the flu drugs cannot claim to do.
Homeopathic medicines can have profound effects on the body. Once you come down with the flu, there are a few remedies that can help, but if you can cut the virus off before it gets a foothold, you can stop a flu attack. I have found one remedy to be very useful—it is called Oscillococcinum. It is made from goose liver and is taken in homeopathic pellet form. When it is taken at the first sign of the flu, I have seen it stop the virus from progressing any further. You may experience a few minor symptoms, or not get sick at all.
Dosage: Take at the very first sign of the flu. Follow label instructions for dosage.
Vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin, plays an essential role in immune function and the health of epithelial cells—the thin layer of cells lining your mouth, sinuses, lungs and gastrointestinal tract. Vitamin-A deficiency makes children more susceptible to respiratory tract infections and diarrhea. Numerous studies in India and Africa have shown vitamin-A supplementation to prevent respiratory and diarrheal diseases. Vitamin A’s effect is related to a number of factors, including increased NK-cell activity and repair of virus-damaged epithelial cells. One of the most important effects of vitamin-A deficiency is decreased secretory IgA response. Secretory IgA are immuno- globins secreted by epithelial cells. These immune helpers intercept bacteria and viruses before they can penetrate the respiratory and gastrointestinal lining, rendering them harmless. This is your first-line defense against the flu virus.
Dosage: Adults can take up to 50,000 IU daily during a flu outbreak, and kids can take up to 10,000 IU daily. Do not take this amount for longer than two weeks. Women who are pregnant or might become pregnant shouldn’t take more than 10,000 IU per day, as vitamin A can damage a fetus in higher doses. In this case, beta carotene, a nutritional precursor to vitamin A, can be taken instead, as it cannot harm a fetus—take 50,000 IU of beta carotene per day.
Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea or angustifolia), an often-used remedy for colds and flu, is a native American herb known as purple coneflower. Studies of echinacea have demonstrated that this flowering perennial is an immune stimulant that makes immune cells function better and probably will lessen the symptoms and shorten the duration of the flu.
One type of immune cell, the macrophage, engulfs and destroys viruses. One study showed that these cells, after being incubated in a solution containing echinacea juice, released higher levels of the chemicals responsible for attracting other immune cells that fight viruses. A recent animal study supported these findings. Mice given echinacea had higher numbers of NK cells and monocytes, both indicators of an anti-viral immune response.
Dosage: Take 1,000 mg three times a day. For extracts, take 1 to 2 teaspoons of the liquid two to three times daily. It is sometimes easier to give the liquid form to kids, if it doesn’t taste too bad. Kids are usually okay with echinacea, although the liquid often contains some alcohol. If you put it in a hot beverage and let it sit for five minutes, the alcohol evaporates. Glycerine-based extracts, which contain no alcohol, are also available.
Ginseng (Panax ginseng), also known as Asian or Korean ginseng, seems to be an effective herbal preventive for the flu. A recent double-blind study investigated ginseng for its ability to prevent the flu. Participants in the study (227 people) were given ginseng or a placebo. Everyone in the study was then given a flu shot. The group given ginseng developed a better antibody response to the injection than did the placebo group, and the ginseng group had significantly fewer incidences of colds and flu. Another study looked at ginseng’s effect on NK cells and found that, like echinacea, ginseng stimulates NK cells, which may partly explain its immune-enhancing activity.
Dosage: Take 100 to 200 mg of Panax ginseng daily; use a product that has 4 to 7% ginsenosides.




Elderberry: Nature's Flu Fixer By Jack Challem Don't get sidelined by the flu. Used with success for millenia, this ancient herb can help to alleviate your symptoms and get you back on track — FAST. Elderberry, an ancient herbal remedy—and the same berry used to make some types of wine—has re-emerged as a modern cold-and-flu fighter. Sound too good to be true? The truth is that herbs do work. They were the first medicines used by our ancestors—in fact, archeologists have found evidence of their use in 60,000-year-old settlements. Yet, despite the rich folklore surrounding herbs, American medicine has largely dismissed them, until recently, as unproved treatments.
“I’d like to think of elderberry as the West Virginia alternative to Relenza,” quips James A. Duke, Ph.D., a respected herbalist and author of The Green Pharmacy (Rodale, 1997), about the much-hyped anti-flu drug. “You can bet your bottom dollar I’d rather have my grandchildren take the herb rather than brand-new, expensive pharmaceuticals.”
Today, scientific researchers have started to take an interest in herbal remedies. Studies have found that herbs contain complex combinations of natural chemical compounds, including antioxidant vitamins, minerals, sterols and flavonoids. In particular, the flavonoids—some 5,000 have been identified so far—account for the lion’s share of antioxidants in fruits, vegetables and herbs.
Of the many medicinal herbs, elderberry (Sambucus nigra) has one of the longest recorded histories. Hippocrates, regarded as the father of medicine, wrote about elderberry in the fourth century B.C. Shakespeare mentioned it in his play The Merry Wives of Windsor. During the 1600s, when illnesses were often attributed to the spells of witches, many people hung elderberry branches and leaves by their doors to keep out evil spirits.
For centuries, in Europe and North America, elderberry extracts have been used to treat colds and flus, as well as reduce fever and rheumatism. But it took an Israeli virologist, Madeleine Mumcuoglu, Ph.D., and her colleagues to document the herb’s anti-viral properties.
Mumcuoglu tested an extract of elderberry using the “gold standard” of medical research. She organized a double-blind, placebo-controlled study to determine whether the herb could protect against the flu. Her study group ultimately consisted of 27 men, women and children living on a farming settlement. Fifteen of them took the elderberry extract for three days after first noticing flu symptoms. (The adults took 4 teaspoons of elderberry extract daily, and the children took 2 tablespoons daily). Twelve other subjects took a placebo that looked and tasted the same.
The differences were striking. Within one to two days, nearly everyone taking elderberry felt better. They had fewer headaches, less achiness, fatigue and nasal discharge. Mumcuoglu reported that 90% of the subjects taking elderberry reported a “complete cure” of their flu symptoms in just two to three days. In contrast, it took six days for 90% of people taking the placebo to feel cured.
Not content to look at just symptoms, Mumcuoglu and her colleagues also studied how flu-infected cells responded in test tubes to elderberry extract. They found that the herb inhibited the activity of several types of flu viruses, including influenza types A and B. Although elderberry’s reputation is chiefly related to its anti-infection properties, a recent study strongly suggests that it might also reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
Kuresh A. Youdim, Ph.D., of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, investigated the effect of elderberry extract on vascular endothelial cells. These cells line the heart and blood vessels and, when they function normally, allow blood vessels to remain flexible. In contrast, “endothelial dysfunction” refers to a lack of blood vessel flexibility, which increases the risk of cardiovasculardisease.
Youdim exposed endothelial cells to a flavonoid-rich elderberry extract, and what he found was a surprise: The flavonoids were actually incorporated into the cells’ membranes and cytosol, where they protected the cells against free radicals.
The implications are significant. Youdim noted that researchers are in general agreement that endothelial dysfunction is related to an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants. Increasing antioxidant levels in endothelial cells may help reduce the risk of heart and other cardiovascular diseases. Cold-and-flu remedies are legion, so why should you turn to herbs?
“Herbs have passed the test of time,” explains Duke. He points out that most drugs contain a “mono ingredient,” a single active ingredient. Often, they have side effects. In contrast, herbs contain hundreds of compounds, some nutritional, and they have a long history of safe use.
“Remember that about half of the drugs approved by the FDA turn out to have unanticipated side effects after they have been approved for a while,” says Duke.
Recently, well-known brands of cold remedies were pulled from store shelves after the FDA warned that they contain a substance (phenylpropanolamine) linked to “very rare” cases of stroke.
“Elderberry has been with us for a few millennia,” says Duke. “Relenza has been with us a year.” Elderberry is widely available at health food stores. The most common dosages are as follows: In capsules (berries), take 500 mg of a standardized extract three times daily. In liquid (berries) extract, take 15 ml three times daily for three days. When using flower extracts, take 500 mg of a standardized extract three times daily. No toxicity is recorded at these dosages.Vitamin C Recommended by the late Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, Ph.D., high doses of vitamin C are often controversial, but they do have benefits. An analysis of 21 studies by Harri Hemila, Ph.D., of the University of Helsinki, Finland, found that 2 to 6 gm of vitamin C daily reduced cold symptoms and duration by about one-third.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) In a study of 262 elderly subjects, Silvio De Flora, M.D., of the University of Genoa, Italy, found that supplements of NAC (1,200 mg daily) greatly reduced flu symptoms. Only 25% of the people with laboratory-confirmed flus developed symptoms. In contrast, 79% of the men and women taking placebos had flu symptoms.
Zinc A recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that the use of zinc lozenges (12.8 mg zinc every two to three hours) reduced cold symptoms and duration by about half.

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