A new approach for the winter season
carolSIMONTACCHI csimontacchi@earthlink.net
Some of us get flu shots; some of us don't. I personally believe that much of staying healthy during the cold and flu season is preparing the host. That is you and me. I am always interested in "sensible medicine."

In other words, what sensible things can we do to stay healthy? When we support our immune systems by eating well, getting plenty of sleep, and toning down the stress, we are more capable of fighting off pathogens.

The flu is a big problem for us. Every year, 20 percent of the population gets it, 200,000 are hospitalized from complications, and 36,000 people die from the flu. These figures illustrate the fact that influenza is easily spread and caught. New strains of the virus arise through mutation. Therefore, every season, a new strain attacks, so targeted inoculations are not always effective because they are protecting against an already mutated viral strain.

The herb elderberry has been promoted for the use of dealing with viral infections. Elderberry extracts on the market today are standardized for rutin, and yet according to recent studies, rutin shows little or no antiviral activity. Therefore, these extracts show little or no viral blocking activity. These new studies demonstrate that critical proanthocyanidins block viral cell entry, and because they cannot get into the cell, replication is inhibited.

How do viruses replicate? Proteins on the surface of the virus bind to receptors on the surface of the cell. This binding triggers the cell to engulf the virus, carrying it into the interior of the cell. The engulfed virus replicates within the cell and new viral particles explode out of the cell and infect other surrounding healthy cells. This process repeats itself millions of times throughout the body and we get sick.

But when proanthocyanidins from elderberries bind with the protein on the surface of the virus, they block the virus from entering the cell and therefore, from replicating. This mode-of-action stops replication of a wide range of enveloped viruses such as the influenza virus.

Laboratory in-vitro studies show that an elderberry extract that provides this proanthocyanidin demonstrates up to a 100 percent success rate in inhibiting the entry of enveloped viruses. It begins working in the bloodstream within minutes because the delivery system is a lozenge that dissolves rapidly in the mouth and does not have to work its way through the GI tract.

COURTESY PHOTO Elderberry growing wild.

- Carol Simontacchi is the owner of

the Island Nutrition Center on Sanibel.

She can be reached at 472-4499 or

on the Web at www.islandnutritioncenter.

meta-ehealth.com.