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flu
IBM Creates A Molecule That Could Destroy All Viruses
One macromolecule to rule them all, from Ebola to Zika and the flu
The influenza virus.
CDC/ Dr. Erskine. L. Palmer; Dr. M. L. Martin via Flickr
Finding a cure for viruses like Ebola, Zika, or even the flu is a challenging task. Viruses are vastly different from one another, and even the same strain of a virus can mutate and change–that’s why doctors give out a different flu vaccine each year. But a group of researchers at IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore sought to understand what makes all viruses alike. Using that knowledge, they’ve come up with a macromolecule that may have the potential to treat multiple types of viruses and prevent them from infecting us. The work was published recently in the journal Macromolecules.
For their study, the researchers ignored the viruses’ RNA and DNA, which could be key areas to target, but because they change from virus to virus and also mutate, it’s very difficult to target them successfully.
Instead, the researchers focused on glycoproteins, which sit on the outside of all viruses and attach to cells in the body, allowing the viruses to do their dirty work by infecting cells and making us sick. Using that knowledge, the researchers created a macromolecule, which is basically one giant molecule made of smaller subunits. This macromolecule has key factors that are crucial in fighting viruses. First, it’s able to attract viruses towards itself using electrostatic charges. Once the virus is close, the macromolecule attaches to the virus and makes the virus unable to attach to healthy cells. Then it neutralizes the virus’ acidity levels, which makes it less able to replicate.
As an alternative way to fight, the macromolecule also contains a sugar called mannose. This sugar attaches to healthy immune cells and forces them closer to the virus so that the viral infection can be eradicated more easily.
The researchers tested out this treatment in the lab on a few viruses, including Ebola and dengue, and they found that the molecule did work as they thought it would: According to the paper, the molecules bound to the glycoproteins on the viruses’ surfaces and reduced the number of viruses. Further, the mannose successfully prevented the virus from infecting immune cells.
This all sounds promising, but the treatment still has a ways to go before it could be used as a disinfectant or even as a potential pill that we could take to prevent and treat viral infections. But it does represent a step in the right direction for treating viruses: figuring out what is similar about all viruses to create a broad spectrum antiviral treatment.
Top Reasons Why Flu Shots Are More Dangerous Than A Flu
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The following substances are found in flu vaccines: aluminum, antibiotics, egg protein, formaldehyde, human aborted fetal apparatus (dead human tissue), monosodium glutamate (MSG), and thimerosol (mercury).” Flu vaccines are directly linked to long-term health consequences.
Every year we get bombarded with posters and slogans to get flu vaccines. We are witnessing a powerful psychological attack under the title “the Vaccine is the best protection against the flu!”. You can’t help but come to a conclusion that a common flu is the most dangerous thing in the world and thus, there is nothing else left for you to do except to get this shot. But wait! You have to know that flu vaccines have been proved to be not only ineffective but also toxic for humans and animals. The official body count of this year’s flu shot victims continues to mount, as yet another previously healthy individual is reported to have died not long after getting the heavily pushed jab.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The following substances are found in flu vaccines: aluminum, antibiotics, egg protein, formaldehyde, human aborted fetal apparatus (dead human tissue), monosodium glutamate (MSG), and thimerosol (mercury).” Flu vaccines are directly linked to long-term health consequences.
Top Reasons Why Flu Shots are More Dangerous Than a Flu
Here are some of the conditions associated with flu vaccines:
- Facial edema.
- Immune system disorders
- Cardiovascular disorders
- Digestive disorders
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Abdominal pain
- Blood and lymphatic disorders
- Local lymphadenopathy
- Transient thrombocytopenia
- Metabolic and nutritional disorders
- Loss of appetite
- Nervous system disorders
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Neuralgia
- Paraesthesia
- Febrile convulsions
- Guillain-Barré Syndrome
- Neuropathy (including neuritis)
- Paralysis (including Bell’s Palsy)
- Respiratory disorders
- Chest pain
- Cough
- Urticaria
- Rash (including non-specific, maculopapular, and vesiculobulbous)
The invention of flu vaccines was associated with the notion that humans are unable to adapt to their environment on their own, thus, they ought to rely on modern technology to get through the seasons.
Ineffectiveness and Dangers of Flu Shots
One of the many problems connected with flu vaccines is the fact that it is virtually impossible to predict what strain of the virus will cause the epidemic in a given year. The flu virus is unpredictable since it changes its characteristics fast. Thus, last year’s flu vaccine may be completely ineffective against a flu strain this year. This predicament makes pharmaceutical companies work hard to produce sufficient pathogen material by establishing the best conditions in which different virus strains develop.
The World Health Organization (WHO) sends the three most common strains to vaccine manufacturers so that they are part of the vaccine for the new season. “The trick is to get viruses, which can reproduce in these cells, but which have not changed so much that they are no longer good for the vaccination,” says Rolf Hömke from Germany’s Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA). “The vaccines would not produce the desired immunity in the body”, he adds. “When you get the flu vaccine, your body produces antibodies to three specific strains of the virus”. This demonstrates that basically you have a 3 out of 300 chance of being vaccinated for the proper viral strain. Furthermore, by the time you get exposed, the viruses might adapt and change their form.
Additionally, if your body doesn’t produce enough reaction or responds with a damaging one due to weak immune coordination, the vaccine will be useless as well. The choice is yours, you can keep getting those shots and hope for a great outcome, or you can start by taking care of your body in order to strengthen your immune system.
5 SURE-FIRE WAYS TO BEAT THE FLU
With flu season rapidly approaching, recommendations for preventatives are everywhere but many are not backed up by science. Can you guess the top five? (Hint: vaccination is not one of them!)
With flu season rapidly approaching, many are looking to vaccination as a “preventive” approach. Those who abstain are often accused of being uneducated or even socially irresponsible, but nothing could be further from the truth. Vaccination cannot replace natural immunity. Vaccines derail your natural immunological processes, along with exposing you to wide-ranging adverse effects.
Your odds of falling prey to influenza are largely determined by your overall health and immune function. Anything that strengthens your immune system will lower your risk for colds and flu. Unfortunately, flu vaccines often do the opposite.
All data point to the ineffectiveness of flu vaccines. According to CDC, the 2014-2015 flu vaccine reduced the chances that a person would seek medical treatment for influenza by a mere 19 percent.[1] If wearing seatbelts produced such dismal statistics, drivers would be demanding a much better defense strategy—which is what you should do if you want to stay healthy this winter. The good news is, there are much safer and more effective strategies than vaccines.
Preventing influenza hinges upon building up your immune system while avoiding the things that wear it down. What factors are the most destructive? Stress, inadequate sleep, inactivity, environmental toxicants and nutritional issues are some of the big ones. Excess dietary sugar,gluten, artificial sweeteners and other chemical additives can wreak havoc on your immune system.
There are many effective flu-busting strategies that are evidence-based, accessible and economically feasible—but the following five deserve special mention.
1. Vitamin D3
Vitamin D3 tops my list due to its ability to produce antiviral peptides (e.g. cathelicidin), which directly destroy invading organisms. Vitamin D prevents macrophages from releasing as many inflammatory cytokines and chemokines.[2] One study[3] found supplementing schoolchildren with 1,200 IUs per day of D3 cut their risk of influenza A by 42 percent.
Traditionally, we received our vitamin D from the sun. In fact, it’s theorized the reason for influenza’s increased prevalence in the wintertime is our reduced sun exposure, with a resultant drop in our vitamin D levels. It’s best to get vitamin D3 from reasonable sun exposure, but if this is not practical, a D3 supplement can be used for just pennies a day.
The only way to accurately determine your D3 level is with a blood test. In one study, adults with vitamin D3 blood levels of 38 ng/ml or greater enjoyed a two-fold reduction in acute viral respiratory infections. The Vitamin D Council recommends keeping your levels between 40 and 80 ng/ml year-round.[4]
2. Probiotics
The billions of microorganisms that reside in your digestive tract comprise 80 to 90 percent of your immune system. Practices such as antibiotic overuse, the standard American diet and today’s “germophobic” attitude have taken a heavy toll on the human microbiome. Therefore, probiotics can give a powerful boost to your immune function.
Chinese researchers found probiotics reduced the incidence and duration of respiratory tract infections in young children.[5] In another study, daily probiotic supplementation was shown to reduce fever, rhinorrhea, cough, and missed school days for children age three to five. Adults show similar benefits—those taking probiotic-containing supplements demonstrate fewer and less severe colds.
The most abundant and active probiotics come from whole foods, such as raw sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, kefir, kvass and other traditionally fermented foods. Although less powerful, probiotic supplements are another option. On a side note, a yeast-based fermentation byproduct called beta glucan has also been shown to reduce the incidence and severity of colds and flu.
3. Green Tea
If you feel a bug coming on, brew yourself a nice cup of green tea. Green tea is rich in catechins and is shown to enhance T cell function, as well as interfering with the replication of the influenza virus by inhibiting neuraminidase and hemagglutinin. A 2011 Japanese studyfound children who consume one to five cups of green tea per day have lower susceptibility to influenza. The EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) in green tea is a potent antioxidant offering numerous health benefits for your brain, heart, bones, eyes and other body parts. It is advisable to source your green tea from Japan instead of China in order to minimize levels of industrial pollutants, such as lead.
4. Elderberry
The next celebrity in natural flu prevention is elderberry, or Sambucus nigra. (Black elderberry extract is also known as Sambucol.) A Norwegian study showed flu sufferers who took 15 ml of elderberry extract four times a day for five days recovered four days sooner and required less “rescue medication” than placebo. Elderberry extract has also been shown to inhibit several strains of influenza virus, in vitro. Besides antiviral properties, Sambucol activates your immune system by increasing cytokine production.[6]
5. Echinacea
Last but not least, echinacea purpurea has a long history of use with respiratory infections. Research supports its ability to reduce both the severity and duration of flu symptoms. The roots of echinacea have cytokine-modulating properties.
Czech researchers [7] compared an echinacea beverage to the antiviral drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and found the two agents equally effective against flu—however, echinacea produced fewer complications and adverse events. Echinacea has been proven effective against avian flu (H5N1, H7N7) and swine-origin H1N1 (S-OIV). A combination of echinacea and elderberry were proven effective in killing avian flu virus (H9N2) in an infected chicken embryo.[8]
There are numerous other natural agents shown to be safe and effective against influenza—too many to discuss here—but if you’re armed with the fabulous five discussed above, influenza won’t stand a chance! For more evidence-based cold and flu remedies, click here. If you desire more information about flu-fighting medicinal herbs, please refer to this article.
A unique vaccine for lifetime protection against flu
Scientists are now investigating a vaccination that offers lifelong protection against the infectious disease.
Recent research from an Australian university has unveiled that flu-killing immunity cells memorise different virus strains, a clue which could help develop a unique vaccine for lifetime protection against the flu
Recent research from an Australian university has unveiled that flu-killing immunity cells memorise different virus strains, a clue which could help develop a unique vaccine for lifetime protection against the flu, press reported on Thursday.
These Lymphocyte T CD8+ cells “are like hit men of our immune system and they can efficiently eliminate the virus-infected cells,” Katherine Kedzierska, research team-leader from Melbourne University, said.
“This is the first time we’ve shown that those killer T-cells are important in protecting against very serious disease very early on in the infection,” Kedzierska told ABC channel.
In collaboration with Shanghai Public Health Centre and Fudan University in China, the research was based on observations that some patients who contracted the H7N9 bird flu in 2013 were able to recover more quickly than others.
After taking samples, the researchers noted that the patients who managed to recover seemed to have a prior immunity thanks to T-cells, while those who lacked these cells suffered severely or died, ABC added.
Scientists are now investigating a vaccination that offers lifelong protection against the infectious disease, which affects humans, birds and other animals like pigs.
“We can provide universal immunity that will recognize a vast array of influenza strains and subtypes including new influenza viruses emerging and infecting humans,” Kedzierska explained.
Similarly, the scientists considered that the findings, published in weekly magazine Nature Communications, will help early diagnosis and gathering information about how a patient’s immune system responds to attacks from a variety of viruses.
How hugs can help fight the flu
WE know that hugs make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. And this feeling, it turns out, could actually ward off stress and protect the immune system, according to new research from Carnegie Mellon University. It’s a well-known fact that stress can weaken the immune system. In this study, the researchers sought to determine whether hugs — like social support more broadly — could protect individuals from the increased susceptibility to illness brought on by the particular stress that comes with interpersonal conflict. “We know that people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off cold viruses. We also know that people who report having social support are partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as depression and anxiety,” the study’s lead author, psychologist Dr Sheldon Cohen, said in a statement. “We tested whether perceptions of social support are equally effective in protecting us from stress-induced susceptibility to infection and also whether receiving hugs might partially account for those feelings of support and themselves protect a person against infection.” In the experiment, over 400 healthy adults who filled out a questionnaire about their perceived social support and also participated in a nightly phone interview for two weeks. They were asked about the frequency that they engaged in interpersonal conflict and received hugs that day. Then, the researchers exposed the participants to a common cold virus, and monitored them to assess signs of infection. They found that both perceived social support and more frequent hugs reduced the risk of infection associated with experiencing interpersonal conflict. Regardless of whether or not they experienced social conflicts, infected participants with greater perceived social support and more frequent hugs had less severe illness symptoms. “This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress,” Cohen said. “The apparent protective effect of hugs may be attributable to the physical contact itself or to hugging being a behavioural indicator of support and intimacy … Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection.” If you needed any more reason to go wrap your arms around someone special, consider this: Hugs also lower blood pressure, alleviate fears around death and dying, improve heart health and decrease feelings of loneliness.
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How long do cold and flu germs stay alive after infected people cough and sneeze all over everything?
It varies, depending partly on where the germ-laden droplets fall. Experiments with specific cold and flu germs have shown potential survival times ranging from a few minutes to 48 hours or more. How long such germs remain capable of infecting you in day-to-day life is harder to say.
Germs generally remain active longer on stainless steel, plastic and similar hard surfaces than on fabric and other soft surfaces. Other factors, such as the amount of virus deposited on a surface and the temperature and humidity of the environment, also have effects on how long cold and flu germs stay active outside the body.
It’s easy to catch the flu or a cold from rubbing your nose after handling an object an infected person sneezed on a few moments ago. But personal contact with an infected person — a handshake, for example — is the most common way these germs spread.
The best way to avoid becoming infected with a cold or flu virus is to wash your hands frequently with soap and water or with an alcohol-based sanitizer. Also avoid rubbing your eyes or biting your nails. Most importantly — get a flu vaccine every year.
Millions of people around the world are bracing themselves for their annual battle with flu.
Could new crowdsourcing software be the answer to their prayers?
There doesn’t seem to be any way out of it.
As the person next to you on the bus sneezes and you visualise tiny droplets of the virus spiralling towards you, you just know that, sooner or later, it will get you.
It seems unlikely that a smartphone application, as opposed to more tried-and-tested methods like vaccination or a face mask, could help you avoid going down with a dose of the flu this winter.
But that is what the creators of the website Sickweather, which launched this week in the US, claim.
Health professionals around the world already use online tools, such asGoogle Flu Trends, Health Map or Global Public Health Intelligence Network to track the spread of infectious diseases.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have also launched The Flu Survey, which has recruited volunteers from 10 European countries to report symptoms and provide weekly updates of the spread of flu across the continent.
Sickweather claims to be different because it operates in real time using data from social networks, rather than news reports or internet search terms, and is designed for use by individuals, rather than public health officials. It has already been dubbed “Facebook for hypochondriacs”.
People who sign up are able to look at a map of the US or the UK and see areas where others have self-reported “symptoms” marked in orange. Soon after the website launched, much of the east coast of the US appeared to be a swathe of orange, although you can burrow down to street level to see who is sick in your neighbourhood.
Co-founder Graham Dodge says it is early days and the site will become more useful as more people sign up to it – but he insists it is not just about allowing people to avoid catching illnesses.
“For people trying to avoid sickness, whether they have compromised immune systems, or simply have a timely engagement that they want to stay healthy for, Sickweather can be used to see where illness is being reported all the way down to the street level, so that the user can be prepared or avoid if they choose.
“Other users may simply want validation and confirmation that they aren’t alone with the symptoms they are experiencing.”
Another smartphone application, Influ, launched earlier this year in the US, asks users to rate the strength of their symptoms on a red dial, before plotting their position on the map so that other app users can avoid them. It has yet to really take off.
Sickweather’s chief operating officer and co-founder James Sajor says their site is different because it has developed “robust” algorithms to scan Twitter and Facebook for relevant data to add to that generated by members of its own community.
The company – which is hoping to attract advertising dollars from pharmaceutical companies – is currently talking to health officials in other countries with a view to going global.
On his Twitter feed, Mr Dodge encourages fans of Stephen Soderbergh’s latest film Contagion, one of a string of recent Hollywood pictures about deadly pandemics, to sign up to the site.
But Columbia University Professor Ian Lipkin, of the Mailman School of Public Health’s Centre for Infection and Immunity, a scientific adviser on Contagion, is not convinced that crowdsourcing is an effective way to combat the spread of contagious diseases.
“I don’t think this particular vehicle is going to be helpful,” he tells BBC News.
Tales of runny noses and fever on Twitter do not offer a reliable way to track disease, he argues, as there is no way of testing their accuracy.
It is not, in any case, that hard to protect yourself from infection, he adds, particularly in the United States, where an estimated 35% of adults get vaccinated for flu every year.
In the UK, only people aged over 65 or in at-risk categories are advised to get a flu jab, with take-up in the elderly category averaging between 72% and 75%.
Professor Lipkin is one of the leading advocates of a global early warning system for contagious disease to reduce the risk of the sort of pandemic seen in Contagion.
Contagion is the latest Hollywood film about a deadly global pandemic“Right now we are in the early days. We are excited about it and we think it’s going to be very important,” he tells BBC News.
He believes the system should rely on a range of official sources, such as hospital admissions, prescriptions for anti-viral drug Tamiflu and sales of over-the-counter medicines, rather than anecdotal evidence culled from social media.
But has he been too quick to write off the potential of Twitter as a way of tracking the spread of viruses?
Researchers at the University of Iowa, studying the 2009 swine flu pandemic, compared fluctuations in the use of certain phrases on Twitter with flu cases reported through the US Centre for Disease Control, which has its own sophisticated flu surveillance system.
They were able to spot signs of flu in a geographical area one to two weeks faster than the CDC, which relies on reports of hospital admissions, mortality rates and other official data.
Researchers in Brazil have also used Twitter to track the spread of dengue fever, which they hope could speed up the response of the medical authorities to the disease.
The problem is that not everyone uses social media – it tends to be concentrated in major cities – and there is no guarantee people laid up in bed with a high fever will feel like broadcasting their symptoms to the world unless they are caught up in a media panic like the one around the H1N1 virus.
“What is the incentive for people to report? One does wonder why people do this,” says one of the authors of the Iowa University Report, computer science professor Alberto Maria Segre.
But, he adds, these obvious drawbacks could be outweighed by one major advantage: “What’s so cool about this is that we can do it in real time.”
And, he stresses, the volume of often useless data generated by social media users during outbreaks of contagious diseases should not be viewed as a problem.
“The information is there. The real trick is how do you check it, how do you make it reliable. How do you make sure somebody is not playing with you for their own benefit? But the potential is there.”
Are men unfairly castigated for having “man flu” and running to their sick beds at the merest sign of a sniffle?
He will be in bed soon with a damp towel on his brow…Research suggests that women are at greater risk of getting flu than men because they tend to spend more time around children, who are more likely to have a flu-like illness in the first place.
A nationwide flu survey carried out by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during last winter found that women were 16% more likely to say they had flu symptoms.
So is it really women who are making all the fuss about being unwell?
This winter, the online flu survey is up and running again and aiming to find out the answer.
The survey needs people of all ages around the country to report any flu-like symptoms by filling in an online questionnaire.
This data will be used to map the spread of flu across the country during the winter.
Researchers can then analyse how the virus spreads and who it affects.
How ill?
Dr Alma Adler, who runs the project, says they wanted to find out more about gender differences and flu in this year’s survey.
“We haven’t found any evidence of ‘man flu’ yet.
“The biggest risk factor is having children under the age of 18 and for this reason women are more at risk of flu.
“This year we have included some new questions, such as ‘How bad do you feel?’
“People can answer on a number scale of one to 10.”
This is the crucial part, asking people how they feel when they have flu, by delving into the psychology of illness – not just the science.
‘More sensitive’
And that could help scientists discover if men and women experience flu differently.
John Oxford, professor of virology at Queen Mary, University of London, says there is no scientific evidence for “man flu” but there is a difference in behaviour.
“We know that women react differently to infection. They are more sensitive to their health. Men bluster around a bit.
“So there are differences in how men and women perceive illness and then differences in behaviour.
“Men think they are going to die when they are unwell, so they go to bed and expect women to look after them.”
Dr Douglas Fleming, from the Royal College of GPs’ flu research unit, says there is no rule when it comes to how flu viruses affect people.
“Every flu virus is different. It depends on the strain. We don’t know ahead of time how it will affect people.
“Different viruses affect men, women and children differently.”
Weaker sex
Previous research from the University of Cambridge came to a different conclusion.
It found evidence that women were better at fighting infections than men.
The over-65s are among those entitled to a free flu jabEvolutionary factors and hormonal differences were thought to make males more susceptible to infection than females.
In the animal world too, across a range of species, males tend to be the “weaker sex” in terms of immune defences, the Cambridge research team said.
This would back up the argument that “man flu” exists because men would be more susceptible to viruses and therefore more likely to be unwell.
But if children are the main sufferers and harbourers of influenza, spreading it to their parents and grandparents, then won’t mothers automatically be in the firing line?
Prof Oxford says men will still be infected just as much.
“If the parents are sleeping together in the same bed, spending at least eight hours in the same room sharing pillows, then the flu virus will soon move on to the husband.”
Unpredictable
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) started its weekly monitoring of flu activity in the UK population in October.
So far this winter, the number of people with flu symptoms going to see their GP is low (6.9 per 100,000 in England).
This could explain why just 65% of those aged over 65 and 32% of pregnant women have taken up the offer of a flu vaccine.
Dr Richard Pebody, head of seasonal flu surveillance at the HPA, said they are hoping this winter will mirror last winter’s trend.
“The 2011/2012 flu season was one of the lowest on record – following two years of high flu activity, including the 2009 flu pandemic. This demonstrates how unpredictable the flu season can be.”
Whether you are a man or a woman, there is a chance you could be infected by the flu virus in the coming months.
If you are in any of the “at risk” groups, the key is to be protected in advance by getting the flu jab.
Then keep a box of tissues and a hot water bottle handy.
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