With all the scare over the swine flu, I've been wondering what are the best things to do to boost our immune system. We eat well, etc., but I'm wondering are there herbal supplements or other vitamins we should consider? Thanks!!!
http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=406983 This thread is a sticky buried in the Vaccination archives. It discusses, in lengthy detail (but it's worth it, really) immune function and nutrition. Even if you just get through a few pages at a time, it's worth it. |
We eat well, etc., but I'm wondering are there herbal supplements or other vitamins we should consider? |
Originally Posted by Aquafina I am not so sure you want to really boost your immune system if this flu is anything like the 1918 one..Please read up on cytokine storms spelling might be off |
Role in pandemic deaths It is believed that cytokine storms were responsible for many of the deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed a disproportionate number of young adults.[1] In this case, a healthy immune system may have been a liability rather than an asset. Preliminary research results from Hong Kong also indicated this as the probable reason for many deaths during the SARS epidemic in 2003.[citation needed] Human deaths from the bird flu H5N1 usually involve cytokine storms as well.[citation needed] Recent reports of high mortality among healthy young adults in the 2009 swine flu outbreak point to cytokine storms as being responsible for these deaths.[4] |
Originally Posted by Miss Information I was wondering why healthy individuals were getting sick. from wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm |
What about just taking antivirals (garlic, oils etc.)? |
Kimchi is on the list of things to avoid, as is echinacea and spirulina. |
Originally Posted by FrannieP So is chocolate!!! Now I know it's a conspiracy! I always knew chocolate would be the death of me! |
Originally Posted by Rikki Jean I am by no means an expert, but I take it whenever I'm getting sick, regardless of what kind of sick...I'm interested in hearing what others have to say about it. |
Originally Posted by TanyaLopez I've always been wary of it because I'm not really sure how it's excreted. I mean--I don't want a lot of excess silver hanging around in my body. Anybody know? |
Originally Posted by Karenwith4 I'd start with Vitamin D - many (most?) people in North America have low levels. |
New research suggests that influenza is also a disease triggered by vitamin D deficiency. Influenza virus exists in the population year-round, but influenza epidemics are seasonal and occur only in the winter (in northern latitudes), when vitamin D blood levels are at their nadir. Vitamin D-expressed genes instruct macrophages, the front-line defenders in the innate immune system, to make antimicrobial peptides, which are like antibiotics (Science 2006;311:1770-1773). These peptides attack and destroy influenza virus particles, and in human carriers keep it at bay. (Neutrophils and natural killer cells in the innate immune system and epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract also synthesize these virucidal peptides.) Other vitamin D-expressed genes rein in macrophages fighting an infection to keep them from overreacting and releasing too many inflammatory agents (cytokines) that can damage infected tissue. In the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people, of which 500,000 were Americans, young healthy adults (as happened to my 22-year-old grandmother) would wake up in the morning feeling well, start drowning in their own inflammation as the day wore on, and be dead by midnight. Autopsies showed complete destruction of the epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract due, as researchers now know, to a macrophage-induced overly severe inflammatory reaction to the virus. These flu victims were attacked and killed by their own immune system, something researchers have found vitamin D can prevent (Epidemiol Infect 2006;134:1129-1140). |
Originally Posted by p1gg1e Sweet! thanks for the links and how to avoid the storms! Anyone know if colloidal silver should be used in this instance? |