Vitamins

Question: Besides getting my rest and exercise and eating well, what else can I do to prevent flu and colds?

Take some advice from Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, naturalist, and philosopher who also commanded the Roman navy and army. Pliny called elderberry the “medicine chest of the people.” In the 1600s, clusters of these black berries hung from doorways because people believed this fruit warded off evil spirits and the illness they brought with them. You can take elderberry to help prevent flu and colds.

Elderberries contain chemicals called anthocyanidins. These flavonoid pigments (yes, this is why elderberries are black) help balance your immune system. In laboratories, anthocyanidins prevent several strains of flu viruses, including the swine flu, from entering cells.

Question: I am going to get a flu shot this season. How can I boost my results?

One way a flu shot helps to protect your body is by boosting the number of antibodies in your blood. These antibodies kill viruses. Another way to increase the production of your blood’s antibodies is to take Panax ginseng, otherwise known as Chinese ginseng.

A well done study published in 1996 included 227 participants who received a flu shot. Some of the participants took 100 milligrams of ginseng panax for 12 weeks. The antibody count for people who took ginseng panax went up to 272 while the people who only received a flu shot had 171 units of antibodies in their blood. In other words, the immune cell activity of people taking ginseng panax was 2 times higher than the people who only had the flu shot. The people taking ginseng panax had 15 cases of the flu, while the people taking the placebo suffered 42 cases of the flu.

Q: I’ve heard about using Coenzyme Q10 for Parkinson’s disease. Is there any research on it? Does it help prevent disability?

A: Parkinson’s disease can be a challenging problem because so far, in western medicine, we have not found a treatment that prevents progression – only medications that treat the symptoms. Thus, the study I mention below is exciting because, even if it is preliminary, it is interesting to consider that there may be something we can do to prevent the progression of Parkinson’s, rather than just treating it symptomatically.

Question: I thought pomegranate juice was old news, but I keep seeing it on display at the supermarket. Why should I think about adding this drink to my grocery cart?

Answer: Pomegranate has been around so long that it was featured in the Eber’s Papyrus for its healing properties in approximately 1500 BC – so it is definitely old news.  In fact, it has been displayed throughout the ages on several royal and medical coats of arms. But what’s new is that it has been shown to actually help reverse blockage from cholesterol plaque in the arteries going to the heart and brain in several scientific studies – which is quite unusual for a plant based medicine.

Q: What's the big deal about probiotics? Do they do anything besides just helping my digestion?

A: Some people think that the human intestine is just a passive “thing” that processes food. But it is actually an amazing ecological system. So many outside influences can disturb your digestive tract including stress, oral contraceptives, antibiotics, alcohol, drugs, and prescription medications such as steroids. When any one of these influences affects your intestine, it disturbs the ecology of your colon, which can then result not only in abdominal symptoms - like gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation and abdominal pain – but also have widespread effects on your whole system. This fact is astonishing for Western medicine because previously, the bacteria in our colons was just thought to “exist” without really having much direct benefit outside of the intestine.