Antiviral Protocols
I used to belong to a presumably now defunct alternative med community called autism-mercury. (It was a Yahoo group and Yahoo groups were discontinued at some point, so I assume it no longer exists.)
It was, on the one hand, full of anti-vaxxers and people with tons of baggage from being mistreated, both medically and socially. The members of the group tended to frame conventional medicine in what often sounded like conspiracy theory nutter territory. On the other hand it was full of people who were sources of tremendously useful practical knowledge and I'm still alive because of it.
One of the things I got from that list was that it's really not hard to treat viral infections and there are myriad readily available NON DRUG antiviral protocols (and never mind standard conventional medical "wisdom" that "we just don't know anything about treating viral infections"). Here are some antiviral protocols I know of (this list is not intended to be comprehensive):
Capsaicin is the active ingredient in hot peppers and it actually gets used as an ingredient in some medicines, like, I think, topical pain killers for arthritis. Among other things, it is a very broad spectrum antimicrobial and kills "everything" -- bacteria, viruses and even fungal infections. It's readily available via diet without a prescription.
High acidity in the body generally fosters infection. An alkaline diet can help combat viral infections.
Tonic water contains subclinical levels of quinine, a powerful alkaloid and in larger quantities used as a drug to treat things like malaria. BUT: Overuse may overalkalinize the stomach and cause you to be unable to digest food and begin throwing up.
About 70 to 80 percent of the immune cells found in the body are located in the gut. Eating is apparently a primary means that we expose ourselves to the risk of infection and the gut is a study in how to keep nasty things out while letting other stuff in.
This includes the fact that it is coated in mucus, as is the respiratory tract. So that one reply to me in some internet discussion that you can clean your nasal passages with peroxide? Oh, god, please don't.
It will not only be torture, it will strip them of mucus and be actively counterproductive. It will disable the body's natural defenses.
It's like saying you can keep invaders out by setting the palisade fence on fire. Sure, sure, the ones currently climbing that wall of pointy sticks will all die BUT NOW you have no perimeter fence and the hordes of invaders not currently on the fence can now just come pouring in at will. Good job!
If you want to do a nasal wash, saline solution is the medically recommended way to go according to people like the pulmonologist who was my CF specialist years ago. I have a recipe for a gentler, more effective saline wash here.
Anyway, digestive enzymes that occur naturally in the stomach kill viruses. Last I checked such stats, about 85 percent of people with CF get prescribed digestive enzymes to help their defective gut digest food. At one time, I and my son were on such. When we no longer needed them, I took them on an EMPTY stomach to help clear viral infections instead of taking them before eating to help me digest food.
When I ran out of them I didn't bother to get a new prescription.
You can also buy some OTC digestive enzymes at places like GNC. We have used those at times too. It was a long time ago and I don't remember a lot of details. They were less effective in aiding digestion than prescription enzymes but they were not useless. I assume that they would work as a moderately effective antiviral protocol on an empty stomach.
This also implies that fasting may help kill viral infections because the digestive enzymes your body isn't currently using to digest food will be freed up for other purposes. Fasting has a general reputation as "good for helping with a lot of ailments, though we have no clue why."
I think a large part of that is that the immune functions of the digestive system that are normally put to use fighting the hordes of god-knows-what that we introduce via eating get freed up to be put to other uses. It's certainly been beneficial to me, though if you have CF you can't just skip straight to NOT EATING as a treatment protocol so please don't do that based on this particular post. If you have CF, you first need to do some repair work so your body can withstand fasting.
Reese's cups were very popular in my household, along with dark chocolate and various cheesy foods (pizza, cheese and crackers, cheetos) when we had what we believe to have been covid at the beginning of the pandemic. Zinc doesn't CURE it but it mitigates the exhaustion and speeds healing.
It was, on the one hand, full of anti-vaxxers and people with tons of baggage from being mistreated, both medically and socially. The members of the group tended to frame conventional medicine in what often sounded like conspiracy theory nutter territory. On the other hand it was full of people who were sources of tremendously useful practical knowledge and I'm still alive because of it.
One of the things I got from that list was that it's really not hard to treat viral infections and there are myriad readily available NON DRUG antiviral protocols (and never mind standard conventional medical "wisdom" that "we just don't know anything about treating viral infections"). Here are some antiviral protocols I know of (this list is not intended to be comprehensive):
- Lysine tablets
- Capsaicin
- Alkaline diet
- Tonic water
- Digestive enzymes
Capsaicin is the active ingredient in hot peppers and it actually gets used as an ingredient in some medicines, like, I think, topical pain killers for arthritis. Among other things, it is a very broad spectrum antimicrobial and kills "everything" -- bacteria, viruses and even fungal infections. It's readily available via diet without a prescription.
High acidity in the body generally fosters infection. An alkaline diet can help combat viral infections.
Tonic water contains subclinical levels of quinine, a powerful alkaloid and in larger quantities used as a drug to treat things like malaria. BUT: Overuse may overalkalinize the stomach and cause you to be unable to digest food and begin throwing up.
About 70 to 80 percent of the immune cells found in the body are located in the gut. Eating is apparently a primary means that we expose ourselves to the risk of infection and the gut is a study in how to keep nasty things out while letting other stuff in.
This includes the fact that it is coated in mucus, as is the respiratory tract. So that one reply to me in some internet discussion that you can clean your nasal passages with peroxide? Oh, god, please don't.
It will not only be torture, it will strip them of mucus and be actively counterproductive. It will disable the body's natural defenses.
It's like saying you can keep invaders out by setting the palisade fence on fire. Sure, sure, the ones currently climbing that wall of pointy sticks will all die BUT NOW you have no perimeter fence and the hordes of invaders not currently on the fence can now just come pouring in at will. Good job!
If you want to do a nasal wash, saline solution is the medically recommended way to go according to people like the pulmonologist who was my CF specialist years ago. I have a recipe for a gentler, more effective saline wash here.
Anyway, digestive enzymes that occur naturally in the stomach kill viruses. Last I checked such stats, about 85 percent of people with CF get prescribed digestive enzymes to help their defective gut digest food. At one time, I and my son were on such. When we no longer needed them, I took them on an EMPTY stomach to help clear viral infections instead of taking them before eating to help me digest food.
When I ran out of them I didn't bother to get a new prescription.
You can also buy some OTC digestive enzymes at places like GNC. We have used those at times too. It was a long time ago and I don't remember a lot of details. They were less effective in aiding digestion than prescription enzymes but they were not useless. I assume that they would work as a moderately effective antiviral protocol on an empty stomach.
This also implies that fasting may help kill viral infections because the digestive enzymes your body isn't currently using to digest food will be freed up for other purposes. Fasting has a general reputation as "good for helping with a lot of ailments, though we have no clue why."
I think a large part of that is that the immune functions of the digestive system that are normally put to use fighting the hordes of god-knows-what that we introduce via eating get freed up to be put to other uses. It's certainly been beneficial to me, though if you have CF you can't just skip straight to NOT EATING as a treatment protocol so please don't do that based on this particular post. If you have CF, you first need to do some repair work so your body can withstand fasting.
Footnote
The original version of this post (published elsewhere at the time) was a rant about a discussion about covid. If you get exposed to covid, I recommend throwing out the clothes you were wearing at the time, promptly showering and loading up on zinc-rich foods, like peanut products, chocolate and cheese.Reese's cups were very popular in my household, along with dark chocolate and various cheesy foods (pizza, cheese and crackers, cheetos) when we had what we believe to have been covid at the beginning of the pandemic. Zinc doesn't CURE it but it mitigates the exhaustion and speeds healing.
