Resveratrol and Flu Viruses
Flu viruses are big news right now. The outbreak of the deadly swine flu virus has seen the whole world start to pay attention to how dangerous flu viruses can be. And with swine flu spreading to now reach pandemic proportions that is not going to change.
Indeed swine flu cases have now been reported in such countries and the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, with the Mexican Government fearing that it could be responsible for 200 deaths so far.
Flu viruses are dangerous for a number of reasons, but the main two is their ability to share genetic material with other flu viruses, and therefore mutate beyond the ability of medicines to help very quickly, and also because of how quickly and easily they spread – because of the speed and which they replicate.
Resveratrol can help here
The University of Rome has been testing the effect of resveratrol on mice. The reason for this is that many people remarked that red wine drinkers, in which resveratrol can be found, seemed to suffer from flu like viruses far less than those who didn't drink red wine.
The university were surprised by the findings however. It was true, resveratrol really can help stop the flu virus in its tracks.
The reason for this is two fold. Firstly resveratrol is a very strong source of antioxidants. These antioxidants help support and boost the bodies immune system, allowing you to fight off illnesses far more easily.
The second reason that resveratrol is able to help fight off flu viruses is the way that it deals with the virus. It does not directly attack the virus – to do so would leave it vulnerable to the same problem conventional medicine has with dealing with flu viruses – that they can mutate beyond the ability to attack it.
Instead resveratrol inhibits the flu viruses ability to replicate. Flu spreads both within the body and to other people by replicating at great speed. It is in this way that it is able to make you feel ill, by spreading through out your body. By limiting its ability to replicate, by up to 90% in some mice cultures tested, the spread of flu can be greatly reduced, and therefore the effectiveness of the virus severely diminished, making it easier to fight off.
When you consider the use of some of the other health benefits of resveratrol – anti inflammatory, increased metabolism, etc, you realize that it can also help with the symptoms of the flu, as well as just the virus itself.
So whilst resveratrol is not the 'cure to flu' that many people seem to be seeking, it certainly can stop just how effective flu viruses, including the deadly swine flu, can be in the body – by stopping the multiplying of the virus and reducing the symptoms.
At a time when flu is spreading the globe like wildfire, and regrettably deaths being caused by the dangerous virus, such research results from the University of Rome couldn't have come at a better time.
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