Natural products to help for colds and flu (influenza) and similar ailments

On this site you will find natural aupplements based on herbs, vitamins, minerals and anti-oxydants to help for colds and flu.

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HELP FOR COLDS AND FLU -  Seasonal Change -  Many people catch easily colds or flus, and experience colds and flus lasting long each time or being very sick from colds or flus when attacked. The common cold and flu are caused by viruses that attack the upper respiratory system. Natural supplements are almost always recommended before OTC drugs. Seaonal Change strengthens your immune system. Thus it reduces the risk of cathing colds or flus and let you recover faster.

Click here to buy or learn more - Seaonal Change

 

Ingredients;  Each Serving (2 capsules) contains:

• Vitamin C 350 mg (Daily Value: 583%)

• Zinc 2 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Bromelain 100 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Spirulina 500 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Inositol 100 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Astragulus 140 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Beta Glucan 1.3 and 1.6 3 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Echinacea Purpurea 50 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Golden Seal 30 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Immune Enhancer AG 150 mg (Daily Value: *)

• Elderberry 70 mg (Daily Value: *)

Other Ingredients: Gelatin, Rice Powder, Magnesium Stearate.
 

 

 

CRONIC COUGH and throat inflammation - Esotyne - The reason behind chronic cough should always be investigated by a physician. Furthermore, if you cough up a lot of sputum or secretions, the cough is necessary, and should not be supressed. However, if you are experiencing respiratory inflammation and irritation that cause unneccessary cough, then this product can help.

Please click here to learn more or buy - Esotyne

 

 

 

TO SUPPORT THE IMMUNE SYSTEM -Echinacea angustifolia extract - To help prevent and treat common cold and influenza and generally strengthen the immune system.

Nature's Science Echinacea, 400mg/180 Capsules Natural And Potent Immune Supporting Herb!

 

CRONIC BRONCHITIS and bronchiolitis - Airzene:  Recent estimates indicate that 11.2 million Americans have received a diagnosis of chronic bronchitis, which have the following symptoms: A noticeable cough, Coughing up mucous in the morning, noises such as wheezing may be heard while breathing, nn increase in the size of your rib cage, a bluish color in the fingernails and lips  Airzene has antihistaminic ingredients that may allow the body to metabolize and detoxify histamines, which may healp against chronic respiratory infection and the mensioned symptoms.

Click here to buy or learn more - Airzene

 

 

 

Other natural health supplements

NATURAL HELP FOR PREVENTION, CURE OR SUPPORT BY A LOT OF OTHER DISEASES - Medicines to be taken by mouth: Acne, aging symptoms, AIDS, allergies, Alzheimers disease/dementia, angina, arthritis (osteoarthritis), arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis), asthma, attention deficit disorder (ADD), breast cancer, burns, carpal tunnel syndrome, cholesterol, cronic bronchitis, chronic cough, chronic fatigue sydrom, cognitive problems, colds and flue, congestive heart failure (CHF), Crohn`s disease, depression, diabetes mellitus type 1, diabetes mellitus type 2, eczema, edema, endometriosis, fatigue, fibromyalgia, hair loss, herpes simplex, hyperlipidemia, hypertention, obesity, otitis media

Please click here to find the right product

PRODUCTS FOR PREVENTION, CURE OR SUPPORT - Many topical medicines: - Many diseases respond to topical treatment, as well as to medicines taken by mouth, especially skin conditions and rheumatic ailments. Sometimes there is a need to combine systemic and topical treatment. Here you find many good topical remedies and also some systemic ones.

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Create your T-shirts, underwear, sportswear and other clothes as you want them yourself with SpreadShirt designer - By clicking at the banners here, you will find a flash-based tool that you can use to design your own clothes. You can give them the background colors and patterns you want, choose drawings and place them where you want on the clothes, and create texts to place on strategic sites on the clothes. You can then purchase the clothes of your own design and get them sent to you within 48 hours.

What are colds and flu - ( influenza )

About the viruses causing colds

CORONAVIRUSES: Coronavirus is a genus of animal virus belonging to the family Coronaviridae. Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a helical symmetry. The genomic size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 16 to 31 kilobases, extraordinarily large for an RNA virus. The name "coronavirus" is derived from the Latin corona, meaning crown, as the virus envelope appears under electron microscopy (E.M.) to be crowned by a characteristic ring of small bulbous structures. This morphology is actually formed by the viral spike (S) peplomers, which are proteins that populate the surface of the virus and determine host tropism. Coronaviruses are grouped in the order Nidovirales, named for the Latin nidus, meaning nest, as all viruses in this order produce a 3' co-terminal nested set of subgenomic mRNA's during infection.

Proteins that contribute to the overall structure of all coronaviruses are the spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M) and nucleocapsid (N). In the specific case of SARS (see below), a defined receptor-binding domain on S mediates the attachment of the virus to its cellular receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

DISEASES OF CORONAVIRUSES: Coronaviruses primarily infect the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. Four to five different currently known strains of coronaviruses infect humans. The most publicized human coronavirus, SARS-CoV which causes SARS, has a unique pathogenesis because it causes both upper and lower respiratory tract infections and can also cause gastroenteritis. Coronaviruses are believed to cause a significant percentage of all common colds in human adults. Coronaviruses cause colds in humans primarily in the winter and early spring seasons. The significance and economic impact of coronaviruses as causative agents of the common cold are hard to assess because, unlike rhinoviruses (another common cold virus), human coronaviruses are difficult to grow in the laboratory.

Coronaviruses also cause a range of diseases in farm animals and domesticated pets, some of which can be serious and are a threat to the farming industry. Economically significant coronaviruses of farm animals include porcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis, TGE) and bovine coronavirus, which both result in diarrhea in young animals. Feline enteric coronavirus is a pathogen of minor clinical significance, but spontaneous mutation of this virus can result in feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a disease associated with high mortality. There are two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV), one that causes mild gastrointestinal disease and one that has been found to cause respiratory disease. Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a coronavirus that causes an epidemic murine illness with high mortality, especially among colonies of laboratory mice. Prior to the discovery of SARS-CoV, MHV had been the best-studied coronavirus both in vivo and in vitro as well as at the molecular level. Some strains of MHV cause a progressive demyelinating encephalitis in mice which has been used as a murine model for multiple sclerosis. Significant research efforts have been focused on elucidating the viral pathogenesis of these animal coronaviruses, especially by virologists interested in veterinary and zoonotic diseases.

HUMAN PARAINFLUENZA VIRUSES: These (HPIVs) are a group of four distinct serotypes of single-stranded RNA viruses belonging to the paramyxovirus family. They are the second most common cause of lower respiratory tract infection in younger children. Repeated infection throughout the life of the host is not uncommon. Symptoms of later breakouts include upper respiratory tract illness as in a cold and sore throat. The incubation period of all four serotypes is 1 to 7 days. Parainfluenza viruses can be detected via cell culture, immunofluorescent microscopy, and PCR. Though no vaccines currently exist, research into vaccines for HPIV-1, -2, and -3 is underway. Parainfluenza viruses last only a few hours in the environment and are inactivated by soap and water.

HUMAN RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUSES (RSV):  RSV is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus of the family Paramyxoviridae, which includes common respiratory viruses such as those causing measles and mumps. RSV is a member of the paramyxovirus subfamily Pneumovirinae.

RSV causes respiratory tract infections in patients of all ages. It is the major cause of lower respiratory tract infection during infancy and childhood. In temperate climates there is an annual epidemic during the winter months. In tropical climates, infection is most common during the rainy season. In the United States, 60% of infants are infected during their first RSV season, and nearly all children will have been infected with the virus by 2-3 years of age. Natural infection with RSV does not induce protective immunity, and thus people can be infected multiple times. Sometimes an infant can become symptomatically infected more than once even within a single RSV season. More recently, severe RSV infections have increasingly been found among elderly patients as well.

For most people, RSV produces only mild symptoms, often indistinguishable from common colds and minor illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control consider RSV to be the "most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among infants and children under 1 year of age."[1] For some children, RSV can cause bronchiolitis, leading to severe respiratory illness requiring hospitalization and, rarely, causing death. This is more likely to occur in patients that are immunocompromised or infants born prematurely. Other RSV symptoms common among infants include listlessness, poor or diminished appetite, and a possible fever.[1].

Recurrent wheezing and asthma are more common among individuals who suffered severe RSV infection during the first few months of life than among controls; whether RSV infection sets up a process that leads to recurrent wheezing or whether those already predisposed to asthma are more likely to become severely ill with RSV is a matter of considerable debate.

(This text is mostly based on materials from wikipedia.org, and it is therefore free to use for others)

About viruses causing influenza

The influenza virus is an RNA virus of the family Orthomyxoviridae, which comprises the influenzaviruses, Isavirus, and Thogotovirus. There are three types of influenza virus: Influenzavirus A, Influenzavirus B, or Influenzavirus C. Influenza A and C infect multiple species, while influenza B almost exclusively infects humans.[25] The type A viruses are the most virulent human pathogens among the three influenza types and cause the most severe disease. The Influenza A virus can be subdivided into different serotypes based on the antibody response to these viruses.[25] The serotypes that have been confirmed in humans, ordered by the number of known human pandemic deaths, are:

- H1N1 caused "Spanish Flu."
- H2N2 caused "Asian Flu."
- H3N2 caused "Hong Kong Flu."
- H5N1 is a pandemic threat in 2006–7 flu season.
- H7N7 has unusual zoonotic potential.[26]
- H1N2 is endemic in humans and pigs.
- H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7.
 

Influenza B virus is almost exclusively a human pathogen and is less common than influenza A. The only other animal known to be susceptible to influenza B infection is the seal.[27] This type of influenza mutates at a rate 2–3 times lower than type A[28] and consequently is less genetically diverse, with only one influenza B serotype.[25] As a result of this lack of antigenic diversity, a degree of immunity to influenza B is usually acquired at an early age. However, influenza B mutates enough that lasting immunity is not possible.[29] This reduced rate of antigenic change, combined with its limited host range (inhibiting cross species antigenic shift), ensures that pandemics of influenza B do not occur.[30]

The influenza C virus infects humans and pigs, and can cause severe illness and local epidemics.[31] However, influenza C is less common than the other types and usually seems to cause mild disease in children.[32][33]


STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES: The following applies for Influenza A viruses, although other strains are very similar in structure:[34]

The influenza A virus particle or virion is 80–120 nm in diameter and usually roughly spherical, although filamentous forms can occur.[35] Unusually for a virus, the influenza A genome is not a single piece of nucleic acid; instead, it contains eight pieces of segmented negative-sense RNA (13.5 kilobases total), which encode 11 proteins (HA, NA, NP, M1, M2, NS1, NEP, PA, PB1, PB1-F2, PB2).[36] The best-characterised of these viral proteins are hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, two large glycoproteins found on the outside of the viral particles. Neuraminidase is an enzyme involved in the release of progeny virus from infected cells, by cleaving sugars that bind the mature viral particles. By contrast, hemagglutinin is a lectin that mediates binding of the virus to target cells and entry of the viral genome into the target cell.[37] The hemagglutinin (HA or H) and neuraminidase (NA or N) proteins are targets for antiviral drugs.[38] These proteins are also recognised by antibodies, i.e. they are antigens.[20] The responses of antibodies to these proteins are used to classify the different serotypes of influenza A viruses, hence the H and N in H5N1.


INFECTION AND REPLICATION: Host cell invasion and replication by the influenza virus. The steps in this process are discussed in the text.Influenza viruses bind through hemagglutinin onto sialic acid sugars on the surfaces of epithelial cells; typically in the nose, throat and lungs of mammals and intestines of birds (Stage 1 in infection figure).[39] The cell imports the virus by endocytosis. In the acidic endosome, part of the haemagglutinin protein fuses the viral envelope with the vacuole's membrane, releasing the viral RNA (vRNA) molecules, accessory proteins and RNA-dependent RNA transcriptase into the cytoplasm (Stage 2).[40] These proteins and vRNA form a complex that is transported into the cell nucleus, where the RNA-dependent RNA transcriptase begins transcribing complementary positive-sense vRNA (Steps 3a and b).[41] The vRNA is either exported into the cytoplasm and translated (step 4), or remains in the nucleus. Newly-synthesised viral proteins are either secreted through the Golgi apparatus onto the cell surface (in the case of neuraminidase and hemagglutinin, step 5b) or transported back into the nucleus to bind vRNA and form new viral genome particles (step 5a). Other viral proteins have multiple actions in the host cell, including degrading cellular mRNA and using the released nucleotides for vRNA synthesis and also inhibiting translation of host-cell mRNAs.[42]

Negative-sense vRNAs that form the genomes of future viruses, RNA-dependent RNA transcriptase, and other viral proteins are assembled into a virion. Hemagglutinin and neuraminidase molecules cluster into a bulge in the cell membrane. The vRNA and viral core proteins leave the nucleus and enter this membrane protrusion (step 6). The mature virus buds off from the cell in a sphere of host phospholipid membrane, acquiring hemagglutinin and neuraminidase with this membrane coat (step 7).[43] As before, the viruses adhere to the cell through hemagglutinin; the mature viruses detach once their neuraminidase has cleaved sialic acid residues from the host cell.[39] After the release of new influenza virus, the host cell dies.

Because of the absence of RNA proofreading enzymes, the RNA-dependent RNA transcriptase makes a single nucleotide insertion error roughly every 10 thousand nucleotides, which is the approximate length of the influenza vRNA. Hence, nearly every newly-manufactured influenza virus is a mutant.[44] The separation of the genome into eight separate segments of vRNA allows mixing or reassortment of vRNAs if more than one viral line has infected a single cell. The resulting rapid change in viral genetics produces antigenic shifts and allow the virus to infect new host species and quickly overcome protective immunity.[20] This is important in the emergence of pandemics, as discussed in Epidemiology.

(This text is mostly based on materials from wikipedia.org, and it is therefore free to use for others)