Virus, Chronic - Editor's Choice

I believe that iron is much more likely to be a pro-viral influence than an anti-viral influence. This would depend on (1) whether the iron is affecting your hemoglobin levels in your red blood cells (an aerobic, antiviral mechanism) or (2) whether it is merely storing in your serum ferritin (a neutral mechanism), or (3) whether some of the iron is escaping your ferritin and "leaking" into your serum (an anaerobic, proviral mechanism).

Simple blood tests for serum ferritin, TIBC (total iron-binding capacity) and hemoglobin-iron level would tell you what is what. Low hemoglobin defines anemia. But low hemoglobin with normal ferritin and normal TIBC in NOT iron-deficiency anemia. Taking iron does not help in that case. You are more likely to need a B12 and/or folate-related supplement, or B6 or B3, or a methyl-donor supplement.

Menstruating women are at highest risk for iron-deficiency anemia, which is why most doctors prescribe iron supplementation without checking their female client's iron status. But if you have some other kind of health problem that might be unrelated to anemia, getting a total-body iron assessment.

Estrogen-dominant women have told me that their PMS symptoms ease greatly when they get their estrogen balanced.

In following people with chronic viral problems for four decades, I have found three lifestyle factors which I believe put many people at increased risk of viral problems. These are in the BHT Book, but I will list them here: (1) estrogen dominance, affecting young women and old men, (2) veganism and vegetarianism (vegetable foods are alkaline forming foods, and milk and egg proteins are more alkalinizing than flesh proteins), and hypothyroidism / hypometabolism (low body temperature, low pulse rate, ease of getting chilled, borderline depression, slow wound healing, a tendency towards constipation, low blood pressure (until it becomes high blood pressure), and on and on). These are all tied together in that they create an anabolic-alkaline-anaerobic metabolic imbalance that viruses like. See the book for details.

The popular view is that viral problems are caused by exposure to viruses, and that chronic viral conditions are from virulent strains. Let me suggest a different view that should give you hope: viruses become (a) more virulent in people with alkaline-anabolic-anaerobic imbalances and (b) less virulent in people with acidic-aerobic-catabolic imbalances. In other words, it's the SAME virus expressing itself differently in people of different metabolic types. This is why child-vectored viruses and bacteria tend to be more debilitating; children are more anabolic-anaerobic-alkaline than adults.

So are the elderly and the chronically ill.

Low basal metabolic rate (hypometabolism, or hypothyroidism) is made worse by estrogen dominance. Same with an overly alkalinizing diet. Any anti-metabolic factor adds to the synergy between these kinds of influences. Heavy metal toxicity, fluoride toxicity, mycotoxin sensitivity, pesticide exposure, adverse drug effects, positive ion pollution, aldehyde exposure, food hypersensitivities, chronic inflammation--the list goes on and on. But the good news is that drugs like BHT (see elsewhere in Earth Clinic) and nutrients like vitamin D3, A (not beta-carotene), magnesium, B12, B6, selenium, copper, oxygen, superoxide, strontium, manganese, glutathione, cysteine (and NAC), fat (especially PUFAs), liver and other organ meats, all have antiviral activities--some subtle, some dramatic.

Good luck to you.

Tuesday the fever was gone but the headache and sore throat continued. I was able to at least start my "go to's" for sickness. I gargled cayenne pepper and salt water several times a day, used the neti pot with hydrogen peroxide, sea salt and warm water, tons of vitamin C, peroxide in the ears, nebulizing colloidal silver...No holds barred - I didn't have time to be sick.

This virus has been around the community for weeks. Most of my kids had it a month ago but I was somehow spared at that time.

Wednesday I still didn't feel as well as I thought I ought to feel and I was a bit indignant. I have never needed to repeat the cayenne for a sore throat that many times...then a neighbor mentioned that she had found colloidal silver to help the throat a lot with the sore throat with this sickness. So, I switched tactics.

Every few hours I put a few Tablespoons of colloidal silver (30ppm, homemade) in a mug and gargled it and swallowed it. That DID make my throat feel better quickly and also helped the swollen lymph nodes in my neck.

At bedtime, I had to do something for my terrible headache and the pressure in my head. I decided to try castor oil. I poured castor oil on a clean white cloth and covered my eyes and forehead. I covered that with plastic and attached it to my head with a bandana. I put a towel on my pillow and went to bed. At that time I was congested and breathing through my mouth (which was making my mouth so dry...)

Four hours later I woke up and realized I was breathing through my mouth! I took the castor oil pack off of my head and went back to sleep.

I woke up a few hours later feeling shockingly improved. The relief in my head was amazing. Ear pressure was gone. Eye pain/pressure was much less. Sinus congestion and pressure was much less.

I continued the colloidal sliver gargling and guzzling through the day and was even well enough to run errands all day with little kids in tow. And at bedtime I was sweeping the floor because I wasn't even exhausted yet!

One interesting thing to note is that I knew a bad cough was coming along with this virus, so I started the colloidal silver in the nebulizer in the beginning. And the cough never did get bad and never woke me at night. I should have gotten the hint that colloidal silver was the key to killing this virus!

I have loved colloidal silver and castor oil for a long time, and my respect for each has increased a lot this week!

~Mama to Many~

At the beginning of a virus: take 3000 mg of Vitamin C along with one 400 I. U. softgel of Vitamin E.

I'm an R.N. And had not heard of this before until a friend of mine in healthcare mentioned a couple of years ago. Apparently Vitamin E has a synergistic effect on Vitamin C. 3000 mg of Vitamin might sound like a lot; but remember C is water soluble, so what your body doesn't use, you'll pee the rest out. Granted Vitamin E is not water soluble, but I only take this concoction when I begin to feel sick. I'll take it as soon as the symptoms begin, then when I go to bed, when I wake up the next morning, and usually one more dose several hours later. I typically don't need to take it more than that as my symptoms disappear and whatever it was that was starting never culminated into a cold or anything else. You can buy Vitamin C where each tablet is 1000 mg; so you only need to take three of them. They're large and granted Vitamin C is kind of bitter, even if they're flavored tablets and the larger ones tend to be more expensive; but I prefer to do that as opposed to taking several of the smaller ones that are a smaller dose per tablet.

Anyone I've mentioned this to by the way, has eventually gotten back with me telling me that this worked for them.

I've only recently returned to nursing full-time as I had been a FT CSI while working PT as an R.N. For 13 years... So I'm still in the process of building up my immunity level. Most people in healthcare, after working full-time for 6 months, will have never been sicker those first 6 months, and then suddenly, it seems you just don't get anything. In the meantime, I'll stick with C & E regimen. It's worked every time without fail so there has to be something to it. I've been using it for about two years now since my friend told me about it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this works for anyone else who may try it.