There's no brace ways about it; we...

There's no brace ways about it; we're all heading into war. frontage to cold and flu viruses is inevitable around this time of year. Now is the time to shore up your immune defense Nutritional continuations are a great way to foster you and your family against the armies of seed-bud young buds that besiege schools, offices, and familys during the winter months.

Number-one base soldier: vitamin

The "medal of honor" in the war against the biting and flu season should be awarded to vitamin C The late Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, PhD became single of vitamin C's leading champions when he, back in 1970 made claims for the immune-boosting, cold-fighting power of vitamin C It's been a protracted time in coming, but novel research now confirms Pauling's praise for this vitamin.

Harri Hemila from the University of Helsinki, Finland reviewed 20 double-blind studies and set that while vitamin C has and nothing else a small effect in preventing a cool it does reduce a cold's duration and severity. In fact, vitamin C given in therapeutic doses (i.e., 1000 to 8000 mg/day) at the attack of a cold reduces the duration of raw episodes by as much as 48 percent This result appears to be dose-dependent, that is, the greater the dose of vitamin C taken the stronger the effect

Zinc: another stalwart defender

Zinc is another nutrient with a lengthy history as an immune-supporter. fresh research with this mineral present to views that the common cold's number the same enemy may be zinc. In united study, 100 cold-afflicted men and women were provided with either zinc rhombs containing 13.3 mg of zinc gluconate or inactive diamonds These cold sufferers dissolved the diamonds (zinc or placebo) in their inlets every two waking hours for the duration of their devoid of warmth [i]or[/i] heat symptoms.

The form into groups taking the zinc lozenges reported fewer days of polar symptoms, such as coughing, headache, hoarse voice, close nose, nasal drainage, or sore throat. In fact, while the placebo arrange endured symptoms for 7.6 days, the zinc assemblage stopped experiencing cold symptoms after just 44 days. This allude tos that zinc lozenges (taken regularly from the beginning of a biting episode) can cut in half the time you use up out-of-commission with a cold. The single downside to zinc lozenges is that a certain people develop nausea, mouth irritation, or cannot tolerate the taste.

The herbal elite troops

Herbs, known for being mild healers, are vigilant defenders of health during the biting and flu season. Echinacea is the herb greatest in quantity closely associated with immune defense Extensive research, dating back to the 1970 demonstrates that echinacea stimulates the nonspecific immune body Echinacea is very effective when used preventively, however it also is useful one time symptoms of a cold or flu make known (see "4 Herbal `Bug' Repellants" feature).

Don Brown ND explains by what means to use echinacea in his useful herb guide Herbal Prescriptions for Better Health. "Take echinacea at the assault of a cold or flu for a period of 10 to 14 days, without interruption. For long-term use, ...use echinacea for six to eight weeks continuously. Breaks of several days should tread close upon these six- to eight-week stretches...."

The herb goldenseal, although widely used and considered effective, has les scientific research to back it up Nevertheless, it appears promising as a general booster for the immune scheme It is often used in combination with echinacea. Research underway is focused upon a possible synergy between these sum of two units herbs.

In the U each year, the average human frame comes down with two to four brumals (and children fare even worse). You don't have to be the "average person"

This year, head into the devoid of warmth [i]or[/i] heat and flu battle armed with dietary appendixs that will strengthen your immune system's impudence lines -- and win the war (before it on the same level begins).

REFERENCES

Brown Don, ND Herbal Prescriptions for Better Health. Rocklin, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 1996

Hemila H "Does vitamin C alleviate the symptoms of the for the use of all cold? A review of popular evidence," Scand J Infect Dis 26(1-4) 1994

Mossad SB Macknin ML Medendorp SV et al. "Zinc gluconate diamonds for treating the common cold" Ann Intern M 125:81-88 1996

Victoria Dolby, an Oregon-based nutrition writer, is the co-author of couple recent books: Homocysteine: The stealthy Killer (Keats, 1997) and The recent Tea Book (Avery, 1997).

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