prevention, treatment, natural cures and remedies,
nutritional therapy by Ray
March 20 2016
Depending on the virus and the person's state of health, various viruses can infect almost any type of body tissue, from the brain to the skin. Viral infections cannot be treated with antibiotics; in fact, in some cases the use of antibiotics makes the infection worse. The vast majority of human viral infections can be effectively fought by the body's own immune system, with a little help in the form of proper diet, hydration, and rest. As for the rest, treatment depends on the type and location of the virus, and may include anti-viral drugs. There are some supplements that may be helpful in dealing or preventing infections with a virus. See Immune web page.
Reduce virus infection with hand washing
Hand washing with just soap and water is a simple and effective way to stunt the spread of respiratory viruses, from everyday cold viruses to deadly pandemic strains. Physical barriers, such as regular hand washing and wearing masks, gloves and gowns are more effective than drugs to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses such as influenza and SARS.
spread virus infection
The mere act of breathing can spread viruses. While it is well known that coughing and sneezing generate droplets that spread respiratory viruses, Dr. Euan R. Tovey says breathing alone can also generate small particles carrying some airborne virus. One could be sitting next to someone with no apparent symptoms, for example, on the subway, and they -- at least in theory -- could give you a cold or flu. Journal of Medical Virology, 2009.
World Health Organization has said a new disease was first seen in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The Centers for Disease Control says that coronaviruses can affect people or animals and, in worst-case scenarios, cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). And it notes there's currently no vaccine to protect against human coronavirus infection. The disease acts like a cold and causes upper respiratory system problems. Symptoms include fever and cough and can lead to kidney failure and pneumonia.The WHO has not learned how the new virus spreads, making it difficult to prevent infections. The organization has named it, though: Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, according to CNN.
Here is a partial list of common human viruses.
Human bocavirus (HBoV) is associated with respiratory tract infections, especially in infants and young children. Human bocavirus is a recently discovered parvovirus that has been frequently detected among diagnostic respiratory samples.
Chikungunya fever virus
The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006 is reassuring tourists it was safe to travel to the Indian Ocean region, despite a crippling mosquito-borne virus that has infected some 150,000 people. The "Chikungunya" fever, for which there is no cure or vaccine, has been spreading through Reunion, Mauritius and Seychelles since January. The disease, first recognized in Tanzania in 1952, is marked by high fever and severe rashes and can be extremely painful.
Update, 2006 - People who've visited tropical areas -- particularly India and islands in the Indian Ocean -- and are suffering from fever and joint pain could have chikungunya virus infection. Chikungunya virus is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitoes. Starting in May 2004, a large outbreak of chikungunya fever has occurred on islands in the Indian Ocean. Other affected areas include Kenya, continental India, and areas in southeast Asia. Europe has reported 340 cases of imported chikungunya fever in 2006, and several cases have been seen in Canada, Martinique and French Guyana. Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, malaise, muscle pain, joint pain, and rash. The CDC warns travelers to chikungunya -endemic areas to avoid mosquitoes by staying in screened areas, wearing barrier clothing and using mosquito repellents. Some risk exists that chikungunya virus might be introduced into previously nonendemic areas by travelers ... in tropical or subtropical areas of the US," including the Gulf Coast, Hawaii, and territories in Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Chikungunya fever usually resolves on its own within 3 to 7 days, except for the joint pain, which can persist for months or even years. There is no specific therapy for the infection or vaccine against chikungunya. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 28, 2006.
2007 - Tourist arrivals at the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius have slowed on fears of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease. Many French visitors come to Mauritius via Reunion, which was hit hard by chikungunya.
Rheumatic problems plague chikungunya patients. Approximately one-third of chikungunya patients who acquire the disease during Caribbean travel reported postchikungunya muscle pain, joint pain, and joint swelling.
Coxsackie B virus is spread by contaminated food or water and gains access to
the body through the mouth by fecal or oral transmission or even by infected
J Cardiovascular Pharmacol Therapeutics. 2013. Curcumin protects mice from coxsackievirus B3-induced myocarditis by inhibiting the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/Akt/nuclear factor-κB pathway.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) causes considerable sickness and disability in infants who acquire the infection in utero. Despite potent antiviral therapies, CMV continues to be a major cause of disease in immunocompromised patients such as those with HIV. There are attempts being made to develop a CMV vaccine.
The virus called CMV, for cytomegalovirus, is a very common cause of uterus infections, but its impact on pregnancy outcomes is not fully understood. Miscarriage rates in healthy women with vaginal shedding of CMV -- indicating they have the infection -- are significantly higher than those in comparable women without CMV. CMV-positive women are much more likely to have a miscarriage than CMV-negative women.
CMV is a virus that affects some 60 to 99 percent of adults globally, and
appears to increase inflammation in blood vessels, causing high blood pressure.
And when combined with a fatty diet, CMV may also cause hardening of the
arteries, a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease.
Dr. Clyde Crumpacker of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center in Boston, says the virus causes persistent infection in blood vessels.
Doctors typically use drugs such as beta blockers and ACE inhibitors to control
blood pressure. Clyde Crumpacker thinks vaccines and antiviral drugs may offer a
new approach at treating hypertension. As of May 2009, there is no vaccine, but
several companies, including Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Vical, are working on them. Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG makes an antiviral
drug called Valcyte to prevent CMV infections in transplant recipients.
By age 40, most adults will have been exposed to CMV, although many never experience any symptoms.
Dr. George C. Wang, an instructor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that among 635 women in their 70s, those with the highest levels of CMV antibodies were more likely to become frail or die over the next several years than women who were negative for CMV antibodies. The findings point only to a relationship between CMV and frailty and mortality, and do not prove cause-and-effect. However, two factors bolster the case that CMV may be a direct contributor. American Journal of Epidemiology, online April 16, 2010.
A drug derived from a Chinese medicinal herb is showing promise for combating Ebola infection, effectively imprisoning the virus inside cells so it cannot do its usual damage. Tetrandrine is derived from the root of a medicinal herb, Stephania tetrandra. It also lowers blood pressure.
Epstein-Barr virus is associated with Burkitt's lymphoma. Infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), resulting in infectious mononucleosis, which primarily effects adolescents and young adults, more than doubles the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) later in life.
Herpes virus infection occurs mostly in the mouth or genital region
Herpes Virus Family
There are eight
members of the herpesviridae family: herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), HSV-2,
varicella-zoster virus, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, human herpes
virus-6, human herpes virus-7 and human herpes virus-8. The diseases caused by
viruses of the herpesviridae family are treated with and managed by systemic and
topical antiviral therapies and immunomodulating drugs. Because these viruses
establish a latent state in hosts, antiherpetic agents, such as nucleoside
analogues, only control symptoms of disease or prevent outbreaks, and cannot
cure the infections.
Common drugs used for oral and genital herpes virus infections include acyclovir and valacyclovir.
Infection in tip of finger
Herpetic whitlow cause: The organism is the herpes simplex virus type I or II. This is the same virus that causes oral or genital herpes infections. People in certain occupations are more at risk for this infection. These include dentists, hygienists, physicians, nurses, or any other person who may have contact with saliva or body fluids that contain the virus. People with oral or genital herpes may also infect their own fingers. Herpetic whitlow is a self-limited disease. Treatment most often is directed toward symptomatic relief. People develop herpetic whitlow when they come into contact with areas already infected with HSV, either on their own bodies or on someone else's body. Usually, there is a break in the skin, especially a torn cuticle at the base of the fingernail, which allows the virus to enter the finger tissue and establish an infection.
recurrent HSV infections include:
Fever or illness
Lack of deep sleep
Use of drugs that interfere with the immune system
Sun exposure that is excessive
Hormonal changes, such as those due to menstruation or pregnancy
Stress, financial, emotional, physical
Hantaviruses are tri-segmented negative sense single stranded RNA viruses that belong to the family Bunyaviridae. In nature, hantaviruses are exclusively maintained in the populations of their specific rodent hosts. In their natural host species, hantaviruses usually develop a persistent infection with prolonged virus shedding in excreta. Humans become infected by inhaling virus contaminated aerosol. Unlike asymptomatic infection in rodents, hantaviruses cause two acute febrile diseases in humans: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The mortality rate varies from 0.1% to 40% depending on the virus involved. Hantaviruses are distributed world wide, with over 150,000 HFRS and HPS cases being registered annually.
Between January and March of 2006, health departments from Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, and Washington State reported an increased incidence of a respiratory viral infection, called human hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). Human hantavirus infection follows exposure to the virus in rodent saliva or feces. The years 1994 and 1999 were also characterized by a higher incidence of HPS during the first quarter, and subsequent increases in human human hantavirus cases. During those years, increased rainfall during the previous year had caused increased vegetative biomass, which in turn promoted increased rodent populations susceptible to Hantavirus. So far, the only treatment for HPS is supportive care, and survival depends on early recognition, hospitalization, and intensive support. Even with treatment, human HPS has a mortality rate of 30 to 40 percent. Transmission of hantavirus to humans can be prevented with comprehensive rodent-control measures, including sealing holes in buildings, trapping rodents, cleaning up potential rodent food sources and nesting areas, and avoiding contamination when cleaning. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, June 9, 2006.
Hepatitis B Virus
Hepatitis B virus currently infects more than 400 million people worldwide. Despite the availability of hepatitis B vaccine, the overall prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection has declined little in recent years. Four drugs (interferon alpha, lamivudine, adefovir, and entecavir) have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of hepatitis B virus; they effectively decrease replication and reduce inflammation and fibrosis. Treatment of hepatitis B virus in complex situations such as co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus or immunosuppressive therapy remains challenging. The use of hepatitis B vaccine has been shown to reduce the incidence of new infection in many regions. A decline in the prevalence of hepatitis B infection worldwide will require changes in high-risk behavior and the wider use of vaccination.
Platycodon grandiflorum Inhibit Hepatitis C Virus Replication
Hepatitis E Virus
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major cause of outbreaks and sporadic cases of viral hepatitis in tropical and subtropical countries but is infrequent in industrialized countries. The virus is transmitted by the fecal-oral route with fecally contaminated drinking water being the usual vehicle. Hepatitis resulting from hepatitis E virus infection is a moderately severe jaundice that is self-limiting in most patients. Young adults, 15 to 30 years of age, are the main targets of infection, and the overall death rate is 0.5 to 3.0%. However, the death rate during pregnancy approaches 15 to 25%. Death of the mother and fetus, abortion, premature delivery, or death of a live-born baby soon after birth are common complications of hepatitis E infection during pregnancy. Hepatitis E virus is found in both wild and domestic animals; thus, HEV is a zoonotic virus.
The HIV virus causes AIDS.
Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi. 2013. Effect of shufeng xuanfei recipe and jiebiao qingli recipe on mRNA and protein expressions of TLR7, MyDB8, end NF-kappaB in mice infected with influenza virus.
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) was among the first human pathogenic viruses to be isolated. In the mid-1930s, a filterable agent was obtained thought to be from the brain of a man who died during an epidemic of St. Louis encephalitis, Later, a virus was discovered from a chronic infection in a mouse colony, and researchers isolated a virus from the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with aseptic meningitis. All three of these viruses were shown to have the same properties and serologic features, and LCMV became the type species characterizing the virus family Arenaviridae, established in 1970.
Marburg virus, which was first identified in 1967, belongs to the filovirus group, which includes Ebola virus. No effective agents currently exist for the marburg virus, which experts fear could be used in a bioterrorism attack.
A new vaccine,
which uses recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vectors, appears to
offer postexposure protection against Marburg hemorrhagic fever, an often fatal
disease, according to the results of an animal study.
Fruit bats that roost in caves In certain parts of Africa are apparently the source of Marburg virus.
Measles, also known as rubeola, is a disease caused by a virus of the genus Morbillivirus.
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
Camels are the most likely intermediary in the transmission from bats to humans of the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
Morbilliviruses are a group of viruses that belong to the family Paramyxoviridae. The most instantly recognizable member is measles virus and individuals acutely infected with the virus exhibit a wide range of clinical symptoms ranging from a characteristic mild self-limiting infection to death. Canine distemper virus and rinderpest virus cause a similar but distinctive pathology in dogs and cattle, respectively.
Mumps is a viral infection of the salivary glands. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches and swelling of the glands close to the jaw. It can cause serious complications, including meningitis, damage to the testicles and deafness. A mumps vaccine was introduced in 1967.
A mumps epidemic swept across Iowa in March, 2006 with 245 confirmed, probable or suspected cases. Iowa normally has had about five cases of mumps a year in recent years. The virus infection may have come over from England because the mumps strain seen in Iowa has been identified by the CDC as the same one that has caused tens of thousands of cases of the mumps virus in a major outbreak in Britain over the past two years.
Nipah and Hendra Viruses
Australian scientists are testing a vaccine to fight two deadly animal viruses that can infect and kill humans.
One of the pathogens, the Nipah virus -- a new genus of viruses related to the mysterious Hendra virus -- is considered a potential biological weapon. It killed more than 100 people and a million pigs in Malaysia in 1999, while the Hendra virus killed two Australians and 16 horses in Australia's northern state of Queensland in 1994-95. Both viruses are carried by fruit bats and have alarmed scientists with the ease in which they jump from animals to humans.
NoroVirus - Cruise ship passengers and diarrhea disease
Noroviruses are the most common cause of stomach illness. They almost always cause vomiting and diarrhea, as well as other symptoms. They are easily passed on by people who do not wash their hands properly and can cause outbreaks in restaurants, cruise ships and other large gatherings. Norovirus infections send about 1.6 million people to the doctor every year in the United States.
The expected incidence of gastroenteritis per seven-day cruise has increased from two cases between 1990 and 2000 to three cases in between 2001 and 200. The increase seen at sea is paralleled by an increase in the prevalence of norovirus -associated gastroenteritis on land. The illness is common in Scandinavia, the UK, Europe and North America. Norovirus is a frequent cause of gastroenteritis and its symptoms -- including diarrhea and vomiting -- are unpleasant but rarely dangerous. The virus is transmitted through person-to-person contact, contaminated food or water, or by touching a contaminated surface, such as elevator buttons and stair handrails.
April 2006 - A single employee of a sandwich chain who came back to work too early after suffering from a stomach virus infected more than 100 office workers who ate party-sized submarine sandwiches last year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the man passed a norovirus on to three separate office parties in Kent County, Michigan in May 2005.
November 2006 - More than 700 people on a trans-Atlantic cruise from Italy to Florida have been hit by a stomach virus producing flu-like symptoms. The gastrointestinal illness, most likely caused by a strain of highly contagious Norovirus, has affected 556 passengers and 154 crew members aboard the Carnival Liberty, the ship's operator, Miami-based Carnival Corp.. Most of those affected have recovered and that the ship, which departed from Civitavecchia outside Rome on Nov. 3, is scheduled to make port in Ft. Lauderdale.
December 2006 - More than 380 passengers and crew aboard the world’s largest cruise ship were sickened by a virus during a seven-day Caribbean cruise. Norovirus sickened 338 passengers and 46 crew members about the Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, and they were treated with over-the-counter medication, the Miami-based company said. The ship, which had roughly 3,800 passengers and 1,300 crew members, returned as scheduled to the Port of Miami. Crew members sanitized frequently touched surfaces such as railings, door handles and elevator buttons after the short-lived outbreak began, officials said. A guest previously exposed to norovirus likely brought it on board Nov. 26, the company said. Noroviruses, characterized by stomach flu-like symptoms, affect about 23 million Americans annually.
The norovirus, best known for causing diarrhea and vomiting on board cruise ships, can cause problems on airplanes as well. Clinical Infectious Diseases, May 1, 2010.
Noroviruses -- stomach bugs that have infected scores of people and ruined countless cruise ship vacations -- can spread through the air and infect people several feet away,
Most shellfish-associated illness is infectious in nature (bacterial or viral), with the Norwalk virus accounting for most cases of gastroenteritis.
People who come in close contact with sheep and goats risk contracting orf virus from infected animals. Orf is a virus that leads to skin infection. Orf is not a prion.
Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, globally one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, is associated with cancers, genital warts, and other epithelial lesions. Most genital HPV infections in men are symptomless and unapparent, and that HPV16 is probably the most frequently detected type.
The same genital wart virus that causes the common form of cervical cancer also leads to a more unusual type of the disease. In an analysis of eight international studies, researchers found that women who carried the human papilloma virus were 80 times more likely to develop cervical adenocarcinoma -- an uncommon form of cervical cancer -- than women who were HPV -negative. Most cases of cervical cancer are a type known as squamous cell carcinoma, and human papilloma virus is known to be the primary cause of this form of the disease. Only certain, "high risk" strains of human papilloma virus, however, can lead to cervical cancer. The two strains most often linked to the common form of the cancer -- HPV 16 and 18 -- were also tied to most cases of cervical adenocarcinoma in the new study. Importantly, the study authors say, this means that the two HPV vaccines expected to arrive on the market in the near future could prevent a large majority of cervical adenocarcinomas worldwide. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 1, 2006.
supplements do you recommend for HPV and HSV treatment?
I am not aware of any natural herbs that have been consistently proven effective in human studies for infection with these viruses, but future research could shed further light.
Polio, caused by a viral infection involving the brain and spinal cord, can paralyze a child within hours. The polio virus enters the body through the mouth when people eat food or drink water contaminated with feces. Polio, which is incurable, leads to irreversible paralysis. Death occurs in about 5-10 percent of paralyzed patients when their breathing muscles are immobilized. Since the WHO eradication drive, cases have dropped from 350,000 in more than 125 endemic countries in 1951 to about 1,500 cases so far by November 2006 -- the lowest number ever. But as long as reservoirs of the polio virus exist, there is a danger of transmission to other countries. Twenty-five previously polio -free countries were reinfected between 2003-2005, according to the WHO.
New vaccine strategies could wipe out lingering reservoirs of polio virus infection in northern India and lead to global eradication of the crippling disease by the end of 2010. Polio virus infection has been eliminated in developed nations but persists in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India and in parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Aylward, Dr. Nicholas Grassly and Dr. Christophe Fraser of Imperial College London say that switching to a monovalent polio vaccine against the dominant strain in India from the standard trivalent polio vaccine that protects against three types of polio virus is the key. In a study published in the journal Science they said the virus has been so persistent, despite good immunization coverage in northern India, because of overcrowded living conditions and poor sanitation. The three strains in the trivalent vaccine can interfere with each other inside the body, producing immunity to one strain but not another.
Viral infections appear to be the primary cause of pneumonia that results in hospitalization.
After someone is exposed to the rabies virus, they have to be treated quickly with anti-rabies serum, or immune globulin - a scarce commodity. Anti-rabies immune globulin is derived from the blood of horses or people who have been infected with the rabies virus, producing antibodies that can be used to neutralize rabies in newly infected people. Experiments in hamsters show that a combination of two monoclonal antibodies or MAbs, which can be produced consistently and in relatively large quantities, may be as effective and safe as anti-rabies immune globulin for post-exposure prevention.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among children aged less than one year. The majority of children hospitalized for RSV infection are younger than 6 months of age. Respiratory syncytial virus also causes repeated infections including severe lower respiratory tract disease, which may occur at any age, especially among the elderly or those with compromised cardiac, pulmonary, or immune systems.
Rift Valley Fever virus
January 2007 - Rift valley fever, due to a highly contagious virus, has killed 74 people in Kenya and infected hundreds more after spreading from the northeastern region to the coast. The fever, which is spread through mosquito bites or movement of contaminated animals, causes flu-like symptoms and can lead to death through bleeding.
Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children and kills roughly 500,000 children a year globally. In the US, it affects 2.7 million children in an average year and 75 percent of children get diarrhea from rotavirus by their 5th birthday.
Merck & Co. will donate an oral vaccine to all infants in Nicaragua to prevent severe diarrhea from a virus that annually kills 600,000 children worldwide under age 5. Diarrhea and dehydration caused by the rotavirus are particularly deadly in developing countries, which have higher malnutrition rates and limited access to intravenous fluids. Merck said the three-year supply of its Rotateq vaccine is worth about $75 million and that the company will also provide technical assistance over the period, including educating parents about the vaccine. Should the vaccine save lives and prevent hospitalizations in Nicaragua, Merck said that success could encourage other nations to ensure their infants are likewise immunized against the virus.
Repeated rotavirus infection may raise the risk for celiac disease. Fewer older children and adults were hospitalized for severe diarrhea once the U.S. started vaccinating babies against rotavirus in 2006.
Virol J. 2012. An evaluation of the inhibitory effects against rotavirus infection of edible plant extracts. Results indicate that nutritional intervention with extracts of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., Aspalathus linearis R.Dahlgren, Urtica dioica, Glycyrrhiza glabra and Olea europaea might be useful in the treatment of diarrhea caused by rotavirus infection.
Hospitalizations for acute gastroenteritis in children aged 5 years and younger plummeted after routine rotavirus vaccination was implemented in 2006, with rotavirus-specific hospitalizations plunging as reported in 2015.
The World Health Organization has the target by the year 2010 of reducing congenital rubella syndrome to less than 1/100,000 live births, being necessary the control of the virus circulation. Rubella is currently a low-incidence disease, that affected to children in the pre-vaccine era. The excellent measles-mumps-rubella vaccine coverage in children, together with the vaccination campaigns in childbearing age women, leads to get very high protection.
the marine virus genus Vesivirus may be behind some otherwise unexplained human
illnesses. Vesiviruses are extremely versatile pathogens. Among the conditions
for which there is at least preliminary evidence implicating Vesivirus are
vesicular dermatitis resembling Herpes type 1 and hand-foot-and-mouth disease,
spontaneous abortion, encephalitis, and such other diverse conditions as
hemorrhagic/disseminated intravascular coagulation, myocarditis, pneumonia,
pancreatic infection, newborn thymic involution, and diarrhea.
J Med Virol 2006;78:693-701.
Varicella - Zoster
Shingles is a disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. Shingles is characterized by clusters of blisters, which develop on one side of the body and can cause severe pain that may last for weeks, months or years after the virus reappears.
July 2007 - An epidemic caused by zika virus has broken out on a group of islands in the western Pacific Ocean, as warmer weather and heavy rain fuel the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in many parts of the world. The outbreak of Zika, carried by mosquitoes, has made 60 people ill in the Yap islands in Micronesia since April and experts are trying to confirm a further 65 probable cases.
Viruses and Lymphoma
The Epstein-Barr virus is associated with Burkitt's lymphoma, lymphomas in immunosuppressed people, and Hodgkin lymphoma. The discovery of human herpes virus type 8 has led to the identification of a rare and unusual group of virus-associated lymphoproliferative diseases. Individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus are at greatly increased risk of developing lymphoma but here the mechanism of lymphoma genesis is indirect. Recent data suggest that hepatitis C virus infection is also associated with an increased incidence of lymphoma.
Viruses in Dentistry
Oral viral infections encountered in the dental practice include herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2; Epstein-Barr virus; varicella-zoster virus; Coxsackie virus; human papilloma virus; and human immunodeficiency virus.
Virus and Memory
A family of viruses that cause a range of ills from the common cold to polio may be able to infect the brain and cause steady damage, inlcuding memory loss. Virus -induced memory loss could accumulate over the lifetime of an individual and eventually lead to clinical cognitive memory deficits. The viruses are called picornaviruses and infect more than 1 billion people worldwide each year. They include the virus that causes polio, as well as colds and diarrhea. People contract two or three such infections a year on average. The picornavirus family members cross into the brain and cause a variety of brain injuries. For example, the polio virus can cause paralysis. The Mayo Clinic infected mice with a virus called Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus, which is similar to human poliovirus. Infected mice later had difficulty learning to navigate a maze. Some were barely affected, while others were completely unable to manage, and when the mice were killed and their brains examined, a correlating amount of damage was seen in the hippocampus region, related to learning and memory. One virus particularly likely to cause brain damage is enterovirus 71, which is common in Asia. It can cross over into the brain and cause encephalitis, a brain inflammation that can lead to coma and death. Mild memory and cognitive impairments of unknown etiology may, in fact, be due to accumulative loss of hippocampus function caused by repeated infection with common and widespread neurovirulent picornaviruses. Other viruses are known to kill brain cells, including the herpes virus and human immunodeficiency virus or HIV.
Q. Do tongkat ali herb or yohimbe bark or saw palmetto have antiviral activity?
A. I have not seen such studies at this time to know for sure.
Q. Does the
antibiotic penicillin help treat viruses?
A. Infections with bacteria are treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics can't kill a virus.
Q. Does an
ahcc supplement influence a
A. We have not seen any ahcc studies examining this issue, so it is difficult to say for sure.
There is much on your website about viruses that
infect the body and skin and in various places you discuss potential natural
remedies. Because of your expertise in this area, could you either: Develop a
proprietary blend of agents for both oral and topical anti virus use? Or, Put
together a more comprehensive discussion of viral infections, replication and
potential agents and blends that one could purchase. In particular, I am
concerned about HPV virus but certainly HSV virus sufferers, as well, would like
something like this. For example, there seems to be a lot of good literature
that beta glucan has anti-viral activities. Would it help? Is it better ingested
or applied as a cream?
Although we would like to have a natural anti viral product, it is very difficult to do so and involves a significant amount of expense and testing which we don't have the capability at this time.