Natural Remedies for Chronic Viruses

I also took 2 Quercetin and 2 Zinc 30mg each today, and I inhaled diluted food-grade hydrogen peroxide a few times a day throughout. But BHT was what seemed to pull me out of this.

I'm wondering how far apart I need to take milk thistle from BHT. Is several hours apart sufficient?

During the the Covid-19 issue, I was a frontline person with constant exposure to sick people. Being a strong proponent of self care, I researched all the info presented by many people and Dr. Bernstein has the most documented success. Along with Dr.Mercola, I felt the following was the best solution for me.

If I was exposed, I did the following,

• 1 drop food grade 3% h202
• 2 drops 2% Lugols iodine
• 3 ml normal saline solution

put above in a nebulizer cup

Nebulize with a table top nebulizer

frequency:

1. Use as needed once a day if minor cold like symptoms present. Start immediately

2. If symptoms get more pronounced, two times a day

3. If breathing problems begin, hourly until you begin to feel better, then back to 3 times a day, then back to 1 time a day

I never got to #3 because I caught anything early. The key is to CATCH it early. If my throat got scratchy or my sinus kicked in, this is what I did. Because there are so many unknowns, the Lugols seems to take it to the next level for me.

Folks - have everything you need for the coming Fall and Winter. Hugs to you all!

I was too tired to hunt down my netti pot, but I wanted to do what I could to kill any germs in my sinuses, throat and ears, primary points of germ introduction to the body and places where viruses replicate.

I put a teaspoon of salt into a mug with a cup of hot water. I snuffed it up into my sinuses and gargled with it a few times. I put hydrogen peroxide in my ears.

I repeated this before going to bed. I also drank a mug of vinegar tea (1 T. vinegar, 2-3 t. honey, hot water). I got a good night sleep (6.5 hours counts as good for me) and did feel much better when I woke up in the morning.

I continued my attack on viruses with my salt water and peroxide a few times during the day.

I felt fine by bedtime and have felt fine since.

I love cheap and easy remedies!

My mother was a strong advocate of salt water gargling, but I never saw the point. It just seemed too simple. I should have paid more attention to her wisdom!

[EC - We emailed Maria asking for more details we thought our readers would want to know. Below is her prompt response.]

Hi Deidre, I still have the original Colloidal Silver bottle and never used it again. It doesn't have a strength written on the bottle, and the brand happens to be Fullhealth Industries. (Someone asked me recently and we found it on Google. ) The Olive Leaf Extract I have at present is Comvita. I gave away the previous bottle when somebody wanted that on its own and was too poor to buy some. Have replaced it with this Comvita. (Any brand will do, it's the combination, the one dose only and the gargling which does the trick.) I always keep these two together in the first aid cupboard just in case. Not used to being sick and that was the worst experience ever. All the best, Maria

Around 2 in the afternoon yesterday, I suddenly started to feel a dull ache all over, with all muscles feeling increasingly stiff minute by minute. My brain started to feel very foggy. I immediately took 4 low dose aspirin with a glass of water. 2 hours later, symptoms gone. This morning, I feel totally fine. Aspirin works for me every time I catch a virus early on. Thought I would share.

Oxygen therapies can be delivered to the lungs (or through the lungs). But the lungs, sinuses and eyes live in an oxygen atmosphere to the highest degree of all tissues, so they are "closer to the edge" of being overwhelmed by oxidative stress. But they are also more highly adapted to oxygen and oxidative stress. And adaptable.

Oxygen therapies include oxygen gas (from a tank or oxygen concentrator), hyperbaric oxygen (pressurized air), negative ions (superoxide, from a negative ion generator), ozone (NOT good for the lungs, AT ALL), and hypochlorite (bleach, from Asea). I do not know an easy way to pick among these without some scientific, clinical or research expertise to guide you. But access to the scientific and medical literature is available through the internet, so you have a fighting chance. And it only took me one minute to find out that RSV is a lipid-enveloped virus and because of that, potentially susceptible to BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene, a food preservative and antiviral agent, and an antiviral therapy discussed elsewhere in Earth Clinic). Before you get too excited about BHT, I would caution you that it has liver toxicity in humans and lung toxicity in mice. So it would take significant medical supervision to use safely in a baby or infant.

I would suggest that you read The BHT Book (a free PDF download from the steve page at Project Wellbeing (dot com). It will give you two things: (1) an understanding of the context of BHT, and (2) a view of the pro-viral and anti-viral side of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, amino acids, and other components of diet and lifestyle. I think a nutritional strategy is fundamentally safer than using a drug.

For any respiratory viral condition, I would use a nebulizer as my first tool of choice. I do this myself because of my own constitutional susceptibility to sinus and respiratory infection. I have administered vitamin C, colloidal silver and tincture of iodine by this method. Traditionally, nebulizers are used to deliver drugs for asthma and other lung/airway conditions. But they can be used to deliver nutrients. I have not done it, but others have used nebulizers to deliver glutathione to the body through the lungs. The lungs have an immense surface area for nutrient absorption, much greater than the surface skin of the entire body. It's a good strategic back-up plan for situations where swallowing a capsule or tablet is not viable.

Nebulizer costs are now well under $100.

There is also a brief mention of antiviral therapy through vitamin A for measles in children, which I will quote here. "To provide a counterexample to these two liabilities, I offer the following special message regarding measles infections in children. This message deals with the known beneficial effects of vitamin A—one of the antiviral nutrients discussed in the book—on the clinical course of measles infections. When very high doses (approximately 300 times the RDA) of vitamin A were administered in routine clinical practice, the hospital stay was decreased by 20%, the need for intensive care was reduced by 60% and deaths were cut by 68% (Hussey and Klein, 1993). No adverse effects were observed. A previous double-blind study of 189 children hospitalized with severe measles found comparable results (Hussey and Klein, 1990). Of the twelve children who died, ten were in the placebo group and two were in the high vitamin A group."

Best wishes.

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.

The book is a free PDF download. To get the latest version, go to the steve page at Project Wellbeing (dot com) and click on the book. Then "save to disk" to archive it on your computer.

Just a note regarding ebola and other hemorrhagic fever viruses: they are not only lipid-enveloped to make them difficult to treat and very virulent, they also have a special anti-selenium mechanism in their genome, which causes massive depletion of selenium as the virus replicates. It appears that ALL of the hemorrhagic fevers have this selenomethionine-coding sequence. So in my opinion, BHT is fundamentally insufficient as a mono-therapy for hemorrhagic fevers. Selenium supplementation to prevent acute selenium depletion is also needed. As far as I know, this anti-selenium aspect of such viruses is well known, but nobody has yet allowed selenium therapy to be used.

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~

Since early December, I have had two viruses but was able to nip them in the bud with the homeopathic remedy Oscillococcinum (3 doses, spaced 6 hours apart), several doses of medicinal mushrooms called Host Defense My Community (one of my favorite daily supplements) and 1 turmeric capsule taken 3 times a day with plenty of water. Remarkably, no mucus, no cough, no nothing. My mild symptoms completely gone within 48 hours.

Please add the turmeric to your arsenal of remedies when you get a virus or tend to get a cough. Quite amazing.

I ran out of my iron supplement about a month ago and didn't bother to buy more. Sure enough 2 days after I finished my period, I got a nasty virus. Finally I put two and two together and realized how important iron is to the immune system. The only time I EVER get sick is right after my period finishes! I'd be curious to know if this happens to other women at the end of their periods. Anyways, my message is for women - if you are anemic or borderline anemic, don't forget to take iron!

You're welcome!

Here is a quote from Ted which is pretty much to the point regarding aspirin:

It should also be noted that acetyl salicylic acid or a more common name, aspirin, tends to destroy the fungus and the protein of the viruses. Therefore the aspirin also help kill them.While a student of microbiology, I observed that adding micromolar concentrations of aspirin to prevented the growth of fungus, virus, and bacteria in culture dishes because the salicylic acid tends to dissolve the protein protecting these organism. What is so surprising is that most people don't know this fact. Even simple mineral salts in micromolar concentrations in general does a great job killing it also with no toxicity to the healthy cells.

Art

Wow, thank you for taking the time to put all of those links together and also for sharing the stories. It is all helpful and I have some studying to do! :)

Thanks again!

~Mama to Many~

It is partially based on my experience and partially what I have read about aspirin. The literature on this aspect of aspirin is minimal as I'm sure you have found. I think a few other nsaids like ibuprofen and indomethacin may have antiviral activity also. Here are a few links that suggest as much.

http://circres.ahajournals.org/content/83/2/210.full

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198809223191218

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-10-05/news/8802040794_1_aspirin-flu-virus-cells

I think Ted suggests dissolving the aspirin in water and then drinking it to help avoid stomach issues and I have had fairly good effects that way. I mentioned the topical pain reliever formulation to a friend who had shingles and told her that it may help with pain as well as the virus itself. She tried it as a spray and it started to alleviate her symptoms within an hour and she told me she felt normal again after three days of use.

In another person with shingles, who I had mentioned the topical pain reliever to, they decided to mix aspirin with gold listerine because that what they had in their medicine cabinet and said that it helped relieve their symptoms and shorten the duration of the outbreak.

Here is a recent study suggesting that ibuprofen may have potent antiviral activity toward the Ebola Virus:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4482208/

...... indomethacin:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25856684

It seems clear that there is plenty to still be learned about nsaids and their full potential.

With some nsaids , when they are combined with a No donor and or hydrogen sulfide, their potency and effects increase very significantly as described here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26094902

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4492749/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25636606

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22222427

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23918470

Art

You recently shared a recipe to Oscar for a topical treatment for pain. That was quite fascinating! In your post, you also mentioned that aspirin had some anti-viral properties. I believe Ted has said the same thing.

I have tried to look this up and am not finding much information about it. I am not doubting it, because it seems to me that when I would take Alka Seltzer back in college, that it seemed to do more than just temporarily relieve symptoms. So I am wondering if you know any more about the anti-viral properties of aspirin or if this is something you have learned through experience?

I am always on the lookout for effective and inexpensive remedies!

If anyone else has thoughts or experience on this topic, I would love to hear.

Thanks so much!

~Mama to Many~

To Alcalize the body, I tried successfully the following: eat potatoes twice a day plus other vegetables. If PH very low (ie 5), add two half glasses of Raw Potatoes Juce a day (to be bought in organic shop, a bit dear but it is worth it). This is very efficient and in a very short delay (2 or 3 days). Of course, as you have a virus, it will be necessary to continue this "treatment" for several weeks, even months depending on the evolution of the PH and of your illness.

Potatoes are the most alcaline food, it is so easy to consume and not too expensive, and so efficient. At the same time, avoid the Acidic food (mainly the animal products, the cereals, oranges, grapefruit...), and keep eating as much Alcaline food as possible : mainly vegetables and fruits, nuts, buckwheat, corn, brown rice, a little bit of white fish two or three times a week, sometimes oily fish (no sea food). I hope this will help you to get better.

Thank you for your testimony. Have a good day. God bless you and all Earthclinic friends.

Yours friendly, Nelly

Eat fruits with the supplements. Increases the effectiveness.

Few people understand the crippling effects to the immune system by toxic refined sugars, processed vegetable oils, junk foods, chemicals in processed foods, all soft drinks, soy, soy milk, microwave, deep fried foods and artificial sweeteners. The excess sugars in the body are used by fungus, yeasts, parasites, diseases to grow and replicate. Cause allergies, bipolar, depression, obesity. B 3 has a positive effect on depression, nerve damage and bipolar. Research???

Well, a couple of my little ones have chicken pox. So far it is pretty mild but I am trying to be pro-active with Elderberry Syrup to help their immune systems and extra virgin coconut oil as a natural anti-viral. I became convinced of what a powerful antiviral coconut oil is when my son had mono and coconut oil caused him to turn the corner in 36 hours, after weeks of sickness. However, one of my little ones doesn't like coconut oil. So, I made some "anti-viral candy" to get it into little ones. And, of course, you don't have to be sick to enjoy this! Here is the recipe:

Antiviral Chocolate-Peppermint Candy Recipe

(or, How to get Coconut Oil into the reluctant consumer.)

1 cup extra virgin coconut oil (the stuff that smells like coconut oil)

3 - 4 Tablespoons Raw Honey

1/3 - 1/2 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 drops peppermint essential oil

Melt coconut oil, if it is not already melted. (Not in the microwave.) Mix in remaining ingredients. Stir in remaining ingredients. Line an 8x8 pan with wax paper. Pour mixture in. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours. Remove from refrigerator. Carefully remove wax paper. Cut into 32 squares. Store in the refrigerator.

Each square will be 1 and 1 half teaspoons of coconut oil. For an adult, I try to give 3 Tablespoons of coconut oil a day, if I am using it for its antiviral properties. For a child, I am giving 1 and a half teaspoons three times a day.

A bonus is that raw honey also has anti-viral properties and cacao powder is nutritious, too.

You can skip the peppermint if you do not care for it.

Enjoy!

~Mama to Many~

I've gone through what you are experiencing...three times and all three times had to resort to:

THE REMEDY

Don't spread this around because as a Baptist Tea-toddler.... well, you'll see.

First, I assume the infection is lingering in the lungs. That is typical for lasting infection.

I learned this when I was 35 years old in Vicksburg Mississippi when my wife and I were at an ANCIENT B and B and the owners just as ancient as the B and B.

It was there that I was told the "secret" of ....

THE REMEDY

(Imagine you self being told this information under swaying River Oaks, sitting yards from the flowing Mississippi...submitted in hushed sentences as the honey suckle blossoms gave away their aroma ... just as the "secret" was being given away to me. "You will keep this to yo self, won't you Mista Dave?" "Oh, yes ma'am ... not a soul.")

Get the following:

One bottle of ROCK and RYE with lemon already inserted.

Add a teaspoon of raw sugar to each half glass of the R and R.

Close yourself off in a room that has access to a lot of heat.

Wrap in a blanket. Start this process when room is about 90 degrees.

Begin sipping the liquid. One sip every three or four minutes.

My first use of THE REMEDY resulted in a general condemnation of all things "Vicksburg Mississippi"....I though, "No wonder we lost the war."

But I digress.

After 15 minutes of this...this sweating, terrible discomfort, I began gradually to feel a little more relaxed.

I continued to sip and in about an hour was not tipsy at all but rather comfortable. I was surprised. After about four hours the bottle had been consumed and I, well, had just gone to sleep and slept through the rest of the night.

The next morning I had no more cough or lingering tickle in my bronchial passages or lungs. And I had a new energy back.

Two other times I've repeated when a left over flu bug is lingering.

Now for THE REMEDY number 2.

This remedy for the same ailment but an alternate given to me by a lady who is a prosecutor in South Carolina. We were sharing remedies when she gave me this formula that she said worked on her children and that she learned as a girl growing up.

First take two fresh cloves of garlic. Clean and mince very fine. Place on toast and eat and swallow with juice (helps to get it down).

Next take two thousand mg of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in water and sip down over an hour. If swallowing pills, spread out over an hour.

Your are going to do this five times during the day or 5, 000 mg of Vitamin C. Take another two cloves of garlic in the same way described above but eight hours later.

So in one day you'd take 4 cloves of garlic and 5, 000 mg of Vitamin C.
(Adjust the dosage for younger children. Use common sense in how much.) Do this for at least 3 days.

I have used both methods in getting rid of lingering flu problems.