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- Oct 28, 2013
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So, I'm sure many of our Europeans might have some family history with this (since it was so widly used during the middle ages and remedies tend to get passed down), but when I had a cold a little while ago I found out about elderberry extract.
At first I thought it was just one of those fake-folk remedies, so my reaction was to hop onto the National Institute of Health's website and look up some scientific studies (yes, I am a nerd like that
). I was actually greatly surprised by what was discovered. In test tubes, the extract on its own was able to KILL the H1N1 virus. for that study, they said they were unsure how much of the effect it would have in the body. Another study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study in a rural area of Panama during a flu outbreak. Within 3 days, 90% of participants given elderberry extract were "cured" (no signs of flu symptoms), whereas it took 6 days to reach the same results in the placebo group.
With those results in mind, I went out and got some for my mom when shy was sick with the flu 2 days ago. Yesterday, she felt well enough to function. Today, I woke up with the flu (since I was the only one here taking care of her at the time, pretty predictable). I took some of the pastilles over the course of the day and now I don't feel like I was put through a meat grinder anymore.
While I can't say that it is a surefire "cure" of the flu, I'd say that this stuff works (and you don't have any of those nasty side effects that come from prescriptions either...unless you take too many within a day...then you'll need to stay on the toilet to put it the most polite way I can think of.
At first I thought it was just one of those fake-folk remedies, so my reaction was to hop onto the National Institute of Health's website and look up some scientific studies (yes, I am a nerd like that
). I was actually greatly surprised by what was discovered. In test tubes, the extract on its own was able to KILL the H1N1 virus. for that study, they said they were unsure how much of the effect it would have in the body. Another study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study in a rural area of Panama during a flu outbreak. Within 3 days, 90% of participants given elderberry extract were "cured" (no signs of flu symptoms), whereas it took 6 days to reach the same results in the placebo group.With those results in mind, I went out and got some for my mom when shy was sick with the flu 2 days ago. Yesterday, she felt well enough to function. Today, I woke up with the flu (since I was the only one here taking care of her at the time, pretty predictable). I took some of the pastilles over the course of the day and now I don't feel like I was put through a meat grinder anymore.
While I can't say that it is a surefire "cure" of the flu, I'd say that this stuff works (and you don't have any of those nasty side effects that come from prescriptions either...unless you take too many within a day...then you'll need to stay on the toilet to put it the most polite way I can think of.