Medicinal Foods and Beverages Protect Against Coronavirus, Research Suggests
Sayer Ji, GreenMedinfo
Waking Times
The good news is that there have been a number of studies performed over the years on natural substances, which are relatively easy to access, are exceptionally affordable, have thousands of years of history among many cultures of safe use, and include culinary spices that may support your immunity while nourishing you deeply in these stressful times.
We’ve created a Coronavirus Disease Database on GreenMedInfo.com, which collates these studies and makes it easy to view the abstracts and share them with others. You can also see our report about this research here: Studies Find Natural Treatments for Coronavirus. This not the first time I have reported on this type of research for a “deadly virus.” We also have SARS and Ebola virus sections, which includes a report I did on Natural Treatments for Ebola Virus Exist, Research Suggests, also including articles titled, Can Vitamin C Cure Ebola?, and Licorice Shown to Kill SARS and Other Lethal Viruses.
While there is a significiant contigent that argue COVID-19 is uniquely resistant to the same compounds (pharmaceutical or natural) that “normal” Coronavirus infections are inhibited by, these statements are in equal need of scientific validation as those claiming the opposite is true. Until we know for certain, there can be no harm in using the scientific evidence at hand, and using the precautionary principle by defaulting to the world’s oldest, safest, and most widely used medical system, which even the founder of Western medicine Hippocrates himself long ago exhorted his followers to use when he said, “let food be your medicine.”
Also, consider that so-called “confirmed cases” of COVID-19 have not properly been validated by the CDC’s own tests. In fact, according to a March 6th Politico report, “..once the CDC finally began its national testing regime, it faltered in almost every way imaginable. The initial tests didn’t work, and officials are probing whether there was possible contamination.” Moreover, upper respiratory tract infections may be provoked by a wide range of viruses (as well as bacterial overgrowth). The following excerpt from a 2018 meta-analysis on high dose vitamin C and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) sheds light on this important topic:
“The common cold, known simply as a cold, is defined as an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) caused by various viruses, characterized by symptoms like coughing or sneezing, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, headache, fever, muscle aches or aching limbs, and so on [1, 2]. However, because of similar symptoms, there is no way of distinguishing among the different types of common cold, other URTIs, and influenza in most cases.
With regard to virology and pathophysiology, URTIs are a group of diseases in the broad sense, including common cold, viral pharyngitis, laryngitis, herpangina, pharyngoconjunctival fever, and bacterial pharyngotonsillitis, rather than a single diagnosable disease [3]. About 70–80% of URTIs are caused by viruses, like rhinovirus, coronavirus, adenovirus, influenza and parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza A virus, and Coxsackie virus, and the other 20–30% are caused by bacteria [2, 4, 5]. Influenza is caused by the influenza virus, three subtypes of which affect humans (influenza viruses A, B, and C [6]); 30–80% of the cases of common cold have been attributed to over 200 strains of rhinoviruses [7, 8].” [emphasis added]
Given the significant number of question marks regarding whether or not we actually have a COVID-19 outbreak in this country, in the absence of third-party validated testing, the least we can do is to not do any harm using food-based support.
Natural substances which have been studied for Coronavirus infections include:
Black Tea
Cinnamon
Resveratrol
Garlic
Interestingly, we already know that drinking green and black tea has hundreds of evidence-based potential health benefits, including slashing MRSA infection risk in half. It is doubtful that anything of pharmaceutical origin (patented chemical or synthetic biological agents) could reproduce the efficacy, and certainly not the safety, of something as simple as this daily, lifestyle-based intervention.
So, what happens when you add in other immune-supportive agents? What about vitamin C, which we covered in multiple previous posts, which appears to be so effective that the Chinese government and medical authorities are using it to treat Coronavirus infected patients, and in early reports, saving lives? (This information is so threatening to the medical establishment that they are banning Dr. Andrew Saul’s attempts to let people know about the life-saving potential of vitamin C therapy. Video below for more details).
http://youtu.be/g6HCrzGY2kM
Clearly, the concept that deadly, invisible germs “out there” are out to get us, and that exposure equates infection equates possible death, is a concept so frightening that arguably it is causing the very immune-crashing conditions required to contract an actual deadly infection! In fact, I almost decided to write an article titled, ‘What Should We Care Most About: Weaponized Germs or Weaponized Germ Theory?”, in order to address the psychobiological implications of the Old versus New Biology viewpoints, focusing on the implications of the the microbiome, and how waging a war on germs is equivalent to attacking the very microbial infrastructure of our own health and well-being (i.e. the virome is an important part of why we don’t succumb to deadly infection). I decided to focus my attention and energy on getting out potential solutions, but if you are interested in learning more on the topic of why “germ theory” is misleading us, and being used to control the masses, you can watch or listen in on my latest discussion with Charles Eisenstein here, or read the following articles:
Back to immediate solutions. Garlic, of course, has many other potentially life-saving applications, which inspired me to write an article on the topic titled, “The Live Saving Properties of Garlic Revealed,” with a relevant excerpt here:
“As far as the research goes, garlic has immensely powerful anti-infective (i.e. suppressing dysbiosis and opportunistic overgrowth of microbes) properties, experimentally confirmed to kill the following:
Thrush (Fungal overgrowth in oral cavity)[3]
Pseudomonas Aerigonosima, including drug-resistant strains.[4][5][6]
Helicobacter Pylori infection[13]
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, multi-drug resistant[23]
Clostridium infections[24]
Viral Infections: Herpes Simplex 1 and 2, Parainfluenza virus type 3, vaccinia virus, vesicular stomatitis virus and human rhinovirus type 2.
This is an impressive smattering of research, but it is likely only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to garlic’s ability to fight infection. Of course, if you wish to view the study references directly, you can find a total of 433 of them here, relevant to garlic’s potential therapeutic role in over 250 different conditions: Garlic Research Database.
Garlic has been specifically studied for Coronavirus infection. In 2016 in Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine, researchers used the pathogen free embryonic egg model to ascertain the anti-Coronavirus potential of garlic extract, with the intention of finding a pharmaceutical alternative to Coronavirus-associated infectious bronchitis “IBV,” which affects the poultry industry, but which the researchers suggested may be an appropriate model for other coronavirus diseases like SARS and MERS. The study concluded: “The garlic extract had inhibitory effects on IBV in the chickens embryo.”
Even if garlic were only used to prevent bacterial infections, secondary to Coronavirus immunosuppression, or as an expectorant, given it has mucous-dissolving properties, it may provide significant value in those stricken with the condition. This is why I describe the immense therapeutic value of chicken soup in my upcoming book REGENERATE, which I believe puts the pharmaceutical antiviral drug Tamiflu to shame — primarily because it does not have life-threatening side effects like the drug.
All that said, it is important to remember that finding specific “magic bullets” for specific conditions, is the whack-a-mole approach that isn’t necessarily going to address the root-cause reasons why some people become sick after exposure, and many more do not. We must remember that immune status determines susceptibility to infection, and just like exposure does not equate to infection, nor does vaccination equate to bona fide immunity. Nothing — even natural interventions — is going to guarantee complete protection. That said, immune supportive foods and lifestyle practices, are going to have a generally protective effect that is also going to increase your baseline happiness, resilience, and sense of well-being. The key here is not to try to fight fire with fire, but remain as relaxed and equanimous as possible, because as I recently posted in the meme below, global, nebulous, global-media driven fear is arguably one of the most immunotoxic forces on the planet.
About the Author
Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of WakingTimes or its staff.
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