Slippery Elm:
the inner bark of the red elm tree. It was used for centuries by the Native Americans to prevent illness. It was also used by American Colonialists
to prevent flu, smallpox, typhus, etc.
It has been shown, that due to the rhamnose sugar it posesses, protein viral capsids of viruses are unable to remain intact. The rhamnose tears the
viral capsid apart and thus, a virus cannot enter a cell to infect it.
I will post a chemical description to support the post when I dig through my files.
It can be found at any health food or vitamin store- in capsule, lozenge, or tea form.
I cannot stress the importance of this enough- and I'm sorry can't find clinical trials on it- the FDA tends not to encouragethe use of natural
products, as they reduce the pharma's bottom lines...
as an example- the man who characterized Coenzyme Q10 and won the Nobel Prize for it was fired from Merck, as it was more effective than statins in
reducing cholesterol- but you can't patenet (and make money) from a natural protein or sugar.....NIH has suppressed trials that show CoQ10 cures
breast and prostate cancer, as well....
Article showing anti-retroviral activity of rhamnose (not flu, but, actually, HIV-)
www.patentstorm.us...
Rhamnose as an anti-retro-viral and anti-cancer agent:
www.freepatentsonline.com...
Rhamnose and related polysaccharides as antivirals:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...
Again, rhamnose and other similar sugars as anti-vrals and anti-cancer agents:
www.springerlink.com...
Rhamnose can also be found in spirulina and other plants sources. Slippery Elm is the most readily available, healthy and tolerable (low-allergenic
response, etc.) in people. It's also high in proteins and other plant polyphenols, etc., which make it a very healthy dietary addition.
[edit on 6-7-2009 by CultureD]
EDIT: If you Google Rhamnose, Slippery Elm and influenza, you'll get more PubMed articles than I could fit in a post- researchers everywhere have
been studying the plant and the sugar(s) as anti-viral agents, as they remove the protein capsid from viruses. They also degrade cell walls in
bacteria, and induce apoptosis in cancer cells. A good deal of the research is in the EU and Asia, as the US pharmas don't want a plant to replace
their Tamilfu (ironically, as Tamflu is derived from star anise- a plant---)
You can make star anise tea- just be careful of dosage- like Tamiflu it can have nasty side effects. BUT- a small amount in tea form is the same as
Tamiflu in essence, and you can go to Whole Foods or something to get it, rather than to the GP. Use Slippery Elm freely; use Star Anise with
CAUTION
[edit on 6-7-2009 by CultureD]