Do you ever wonder if all the anti-aging resveratrol mania is out of hand? Well, it is. Here are some red flags to watch out for.

If you have about 10 minutes right now, watch this video to prep yourself for my comments on this topic. It is a phenomenal video about resveratrol research. Just don’t believe any of it.

RESVERATROL! ABC News!

Resveratrol is a Great Antioxidant

Just to keep the record straight, I am all for the benefits of plant natural products for human health. My professional background has been in plant natural products chemistry for more than 35 years, so I am automatically biased in favor of them. However, the hysteria over different substances makes my whole field look bad.

The Problem with Reductionist Thinking

The video above, and all the commentary about resveratrol for that matter, comes from looking at small, single variable explanations for scientific results. This is called reductionist thinking. The long-running joke about reductionist scientists is that they (we!) study smaller and smaller details until we finally know everything about nothing. The whole field of molecular genetics is built around reductionist thinking. That is the nature of the beast.

Goals of Resveratrol Research

If you watched the video you may have noticed that resveratrol was repeatedly referred to as a drug. This is great news in some ways. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that this non-patentable natural product will not be the final product of this research.

What we have here is a high-powered Harvard research lab with financial backing by a high-powered vulture capitalist, er, venture capitalist. The primary goal of this team is to develop something that will be profitable, pay the investment back, and make a lot more money to boot.

These are the very same goals of pharmaceutical drug research. Notice that human health is just a side issue here. The purpose of drug research is to make money, not to make people healthier. Ditto for resveratrol research.

Leap of Faith

When I was doing research with brain cancer, one of my colleagues once said, “Applying results from studies of laboratory animals to humans is like taking a leap of faith the size of the Grand Canyon.” Virtually all of the research on resveratrol that has generated so much excitement is based on lab animals and yeast. Equivalent studies on humans would take a lifetime. Let’s get real real!

By the way, humans have about 30,000 or so genes. The impact of one substance on one gene does not possibly explain how anything works in a whole person.

A complete critique of resveratrol mania could occupy a whole book. I hope my brief comments at least get you started thinking a little more clearly on this issue. It will serve you well for judging all kinds of wild science in the headlines.

My Recommendations

I see nothing wrong with taking resveratrol supplements. Indeed, I encourage it. I encourage you to take antioxidant supplements in general, even including red wine itself. However, if the issue that you want to address is anti-aging or any other health-related concern, I suggest that you find out what the whole-person scientific research says about getting healthy, staying healthy, and living a full and long life.

Sorry to say that I don’t have any recommendations that I can make any money on. Well, I could make some fake recommendations for the purpose of selling you my book, if I had one, or of selling you some supplements. However, I think it is much more important to tell you something that will truly benefit your health. It is this:

Get and read the following two books (cheap used copies at Amazon, I am sure):

“Healthy at 100″ by John Robbins

“The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell

Better yet, if you are looking for instant information on these books, you can visit the following two websites:

Healthy at 100

T. Colin Campbell Foundation

All the best in natural health,
Dr. D

Although the chances of your catching swine flu are relatively low, it is still possible you could become infected. But if it does happen, don’t lose hope. The virus can be fought with natural immune system boosters and antiviral substances. During this pandemic, natural remedies can help you recover from even a deadly disease.

Furthermore, proper natural remedies can help prevent you from catching this disease, or any disease, in the first place. By strengthening your immune system, you increase your body’s ability to fight disease, viruses, and bacteria.

One way to boost your immune system is to take large amounts of Vitamin C. This antiviral vitamin can block the enzyme known as neuraminidase, which is needed by a virus in order to reproduce. There are anecdotes of people surviving the Spanish Flu by drinking large doses of Vitamin C. The elderly should take Vitamin E along with Vitamin C, to enhance the effects of the vitamin.

Garlic is common in most kitchens and it can also be used in the fight against the swine flu epidemic. It is an efficient natural antiviral herb. It is most potent when freshly crushed. Garlic must be consumed within one hour of crushing. Recommended dosage is two to three cloves per day. Organic garlic is more potent and effective than non-organic garlic. But remember that it can burn the stomach when taken in large amounts, so its a good idea to eat it with bread or yogurt.

My favorite way of taking large amounts of garlic, to fight normal colds and flues, is by spreading butter on toast and then adding garlic slices, or crushed garlic.

Possibly the best alternative to the medical drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, is Green Tea. This is a highly effective antiviral. It decreases the production of the cytokine TNF-a, and inhibits the reproduction of neuraminidase as well. Best of all, it is natural, and therefore it doesn’t have any of the harsh side effects that synthetic drugs have. If you want to use Green Tea for this purpose, remember that what you find on the shelves of a grocery store will probably be relatively ineffective. Organic varieties, particularly those grown for health or medicinal purposes, are the best.

Another antiviral you can get is Resveratrol. It comes from the Japanese Knotwood root, from red grapes, and from raisins. It causes your cells to stop manufacturing viruses. There are supplements available in liquid form, for better absorption, and it has no toxic effects.

Apple juice is an antiviral which is available just about everywhere. But if you want to have the best results, try making your own, in a juicer. You should include the skin and pulp. This is more powerful than simply using commercially-available apple juice.

Scuttellaria, better known as Skullcap, is an herb that can be taken as tea. It is an effective antiviral that is also used as a mild tranquilizer. Just like other natural antivirals, it inhibits the reproduction of neuraminidase.

Cat’s Claw, or Uncaria Tomentosa, boosts one’s immune system as well as decreasing the production of cytokine TNF-a. Your white blood cell count can be increased with this treatment. Although no toxicity is noted, however, it should not be used by children and pregnant women. This is due to its damaging effect on the DNA of growing cells.

There are still plenty of other natural treatments for the swine flu that you can find in your cupboard. You don’t necessarily need to drink synthetic medicines, or get vaccinations that can be harmful to your body.

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute medical advice. If you are ill, you should consult your doctor.

When I was researching information for my post on the flu cure, I gathered more examples for my hot list of botanical research for antiviral activity. I mentioned that antiviral research has yielded some excellent herbs for everything from flu to HIV, herpes, and the common cold. Just thought I’d point out what this kind of research looks like, in a post on my shingles blog: Great new antiviral herb: Chilean soapbark tree.

This is what good research looks like. And this is the kind of study that will eventually help us a lot more than drugs will, in the face of whatever disease outbreaks pop up on our increasingly overpopulated planet.

All the best in natural health,
Dr. D

Flu Cure is a Legal Issue

I say this because the U.S. Foolish Drug Administration has a monopoly on defining diseases and the drugs for them. (That is why we have so many more diseases now than all of prior human history.) The FDA also does not allow the use of the word ‘cure’ for anything. Example: Saying that vitamin C is a cure for scurvy is illegal according to federal regulations, even though the truth of this statement has been known since at least 1936.

In light of this scenario, I am going to be  careful and never claim the existence of a cure for anything. However, I will point to activities of certain natural products on viruses, in this case flu viruses.

Important Biological Principles for Treating Infections

As you already know, use of a single drug for any kind of microbial infection leads to the development of resistant forms of the offending  microbe. What you may not know is that drug cocktails – mixtures of multiple drugs – do not have the same effect. As scary as it might seem, drug cocktails do better. This is not a common strategy for infectious diseases because the side effects from drug mixtures are too deadly.

Fortunately, this principle holds true for natural products, which is why whole herbs and extracts do not lead to the development of resistant microbes. Moreover, side effects of natural treatments are generally minimal or nonexistent.

A second principle that is supported by excellent research is the synergy among mixed natural products. Mixtures of flavonoids in particular have a boosted effect against flu viruses. This means that the antiviral activity of several flavonoids together is more powerful than any single compound.

The Abundance of Antiviral Herbs

Even a cursory check for the topic, “antiviral,” at CAM on PubMed comes up with 2,477 articles. “Antiviral” and “plants” shows 976 articles. Many of these are reports of antiviral activities of plant chemicals against human viruses. Indeed, 282 of them involve antiviral flavonoids from a wide variety of plants. Not too long ago, I did a comprehensive search for the best antiviral plants and came with a list of 6 outstanding candidates. A new research study at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine is underway to further explore the antiviral potential in several plants.

Larrea tridentata

The Top Antiviral Herb

Out of all of the research that I have done myself, and that I have found in the scientific literature, the top antiviral herb in my view is still the creosote bush, Larrea tridentata. This species produces an abundance of compounds that show activity against HIV, herpes (including shingles and cold sores), influenza, and other viruses.

Antiviral activities of extracts and compounds from Larrea have already led  to a handful of patents, on some of  which I am a co-holder (for example, U.S. Patent No. 5,837,252). And I have commented on its importance in my book, “Shingles Natural Treatment Guide,” at NaturalShinglesTreatment.com.

Yes, I am biased in favor of this plant as one of Mother Nature’s top herbal medicine chests. However, I am following in the footsteps of Native Americans who discovered dozens and dozens of uses for it in their herbal pharmacopeia. One of these uses was for treating stomach flu. If you live in any desert in the southwestern U.S., from Texas to California, you can collect this plant on your own. A more convenient form is currently available as a supplement under the name of LarreaRx.

Other Antiviral Herbs in the Scientific Literature

As I mentioned above, this is a long list. Almost  every plant that has ever been evaluated for antiviral activity shows positive results. Some are even active against flu. The key, however, is to know which ones show the most potent anti-influenza action. To keep this post from being too long, I’ll just say that, besides Larrea, the best ones that I have found, based on published research, include the following: Baikal skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis), black elderberry (Sambucus nigra), garlic (Allium sativum), green tea (Thea sinensis), and American cranberry (Oxycoccus macrocarpus). If you find yourself in the predicament of looking for a good anti-influenza herb mix, this list would be a great start. And current research will certainly be expanding on these.

All the best in natural health,

Dr. D