Twenty four hours after our initial report on the swine flu, not a whole lot’s changed on the swine flu front – more panic promotion. No better example was the World Health Organization’s raising the pandemic threat level flag to five (six being the highest).

Meanwhile, the vice president is calling on people to avoid “confined places,” certainly not the voice of calm one looks to Washington for in times like these.

Instead, you have to look to lesser publicized arenas for voices of calm, as members of the scientific community told the LA Times that the symptoms of the swine flu are believed to be no worse than the regular flu people get in the wintertime.

So with this cacophony of information spouting from scientists and politicians, what should the average person do? Be concerned or be calm? Be troubled or be at ease? Well, if we put things into proper perspective, the best way to react lies somewhere in the middle.

There are less than 240 cases of swine flu worldwide, one death resulting from it inside the United States (a 22-month-old who was visiting from Mexico City). In a world of over six billion people, that’s a shockingly low number of people who’ve been infected. You add to the fact that 200,000 people are hospitalized from the regular flu each year, and you get a better perspective of just how small these numbers are.

However, as I said in the initial swine flu piece, being sick sucks. So instead of worrying or carping about the panicky press (as I’m doing, I grant you) use this “outbreak” as a catalyst in which to start arming your immune system with what it needs to avoid infection – any infection.

As I said yesterday, some of the best antivirals are Garlic and Echinacea & Golden Seal. Allow me to elaborate:

Garlic

Garlic is probably the best defense mechanism for the body’s immune system in protecting it from viruses. With antibiotics, viruses work around them and eventually infect a person once it mutates (this is how viruses last as long as they do). This can’t be done when garlic acts as a shield. Studies have shown that the allicin in garlic helps protect the body from viruses and deadly diseases like botulism. It also has anti-bacterial benefits, as demonstrated by a 2003 study that was published in the journal Nutrition.

Echinacea/Goldenseal

This perfect pairing has been used for generations, mainly for the promotion of digestive health. But when put under the investigatory eye of scientists, it’s also believed to promote immune system health, primarily due to two compounds found within goldenseal: berberine and hydrastine.

Echinacea has similar flu-fighting properties, as 500 studies over the past several decades have confirmed. One of them, conducted in 1989 by German researchers, found that taking Echinacea boosted immune system function between 50 and 120 percent over a five-day period! This is because of the increase in white blood cell production that Echinacea supplementation generates.

There are several other natural antivirals you can take that will really put the fritz on the flu – swine or otherwise – like horseradish, ginger, and olive leaf. You can read about more antivirals here.

I stand behind my belief that this swine flu is misplaced panic, but as I said in the last article, use this panic as the springboard you need to start supplying your immune system with the armor it needs to fend off sickness: today, tomorrow and years from now.

>> Click Here for Swine Flu Part 1

Sources
latimes.com
msnbc.msn.com
whfoods.com
feel21.com