Viruses

A couple of years ago I was told by a friend who suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that she probably got it because her immune system had been overwhelmed by trying to combat so many viruses.

Many people wonder why there hasn’t been a drug invented that could kill viruses. The answer to that is simple – you can’t kill viruses because they are not alive! A striking demonstration of this was given some years ago when the tobacco mosaic virus was purified and its crystals stored in a jar. One crystal was taken out years later and put on a moist tobacco leaf and the virus began to attack the plant’s cells and multiply. Click on the video and see the remarkable way a virus does that.

There are now drugs called ‘antivirals’ that can’t kill viruses but can inhibit a targeted virus's development. Some of these drugs are well known like those for HIV, hepatitis B or herpes. No antivirals have been developed for the common cold yet and because viruses go through mutations and new viruses can develop for various kinds of ‘flu', the best means of attack developed so far are vaccines.

A vaccine contains something that resembles the virus or the dead or weakened form of the virus itself that, when injected, causes your immune system to get busy developing antigens to kill it. So if you do catch the viral disease, your immune system can respond so quickly it can stop it in its tracks.

Linus Pauling, who won the Nobel Prize twice, gave convincing reasons why ingesting enough vitamin C could prevent a virus from multiplying and making you sick, but those claims have not ever been shown to be true in scientific trials. Still there are persistent stories of people who were dying of polio or swine flu being revived to live again after being given injections of vitamin C.

Obviously, having a healthy immune system is the best defense against any form of viral attack and how can you build a really healthy immune system is no secret - have a healthy intestinal tract full of trillions of probiotic bacteria. Eating a daily dose of good yogurt [tests should show it has at least a billion probiotics per serving] is a good start but if you really want to have a super healthy system working in your ‘gut’ you can try kefir.

Kefir has been around since ancient times and a single serving can contain over 30 billion of the best probiotic bacteria! Those famous Bulgarians who lived in the northern slopes of the Caucasian mountains and all lived well into their 100’s discovered how to make kefir, which is just another form of fermented milk like yogurt. Health food stores are a good source and if you want to live to be 100, it's the best advice I can give you.

Here’s to your good health and a long life! Rie