This term was new to me so I’ve spent hours tracking down and ingesting credible (if it exists) information as it’s seems to be a relatively untapped area of research. I’m steering clear of product pitches and looking to read only scientific/medical findings. Thus far, colloidal silver, elderberry, and hydrogen peroxide (via manuka honey) are the most cited.
Has anyone taken time to look into this? If so, care to share your findings?
I really like colloidal silver. Have treated everything from warts to a tootache to a rattlesnake bite (cat) with it. Only side effect I have ever read about is that if you ingest large amounts for extended periods it will turn your skin an irreversible blue.
It is my understanding though that it is not biased. It will kill the good bacteria along with bad so some form of probiotics is a good idea after using it.
Food grade hydrogen peroxide is some bad ass stuff. It must diluted for medicinal purposes. I have never taken it internally but have used it externally. Just fyi… Nothing kills mold better.
Never used elderberry.
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Seems colloidal silver was used to treat bubonic plague… unsure of success rate but it is steeped with good results in other medicinal uses.
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Of a friend of mine who was 92 and had diabetes had a skin ulcer on her foot. They couldn’t get it cleared up for months. I told her to put silver on it and she and her daughter thought is was just witch doctor stuff.
When she finally went to another doctor they cleaned the wound a guess what, give her silver to put on it. She was blown away. It healed up fine in a matter of weeks.
I believe some of the medical professionals are coming g back to some of the old things that worked before, we had all the options we do today.
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It depends on the application.
I used silvadene sulfadiazine to treat bed sores among other things for my brother, but only as a topical wound treatment.
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Vitamin D and curcumin have copious literature supporting a bunch of different benefits, anti-viral being among them. Those two are must-haves for immune support/stay-healthy supps.
Regarding silver, I’ve only ever heard it used topically, not taken internally, but yep, it’s supposed to be seriously effective.
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Zinc lozenges seems to have good evidence behind them given a deficiency- even taken when symptomatic
Garlic extract also seems to help
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@Chris_Colucci, I’ve been drawn to turmeric but always read of its poor bioavailability. What say you?
The bioavailability issue is legit. Cooking turmeric with black pepper/having a curcumin supp with piperine is an efficient way to get around the problem because piperine (found in black pepper) enhances absorption.
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Oil of oregano. My whole family takes it at the onset of a cold, cold sore, flu - and then don’t come down with said illness. It also has antibacterial properties similar to tea tree oil when used topically.
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As for wounds, depends on the type but colloidal silver, Silvadene, medihoney, and lanolin are my top pics for wound care. Silvadene is best on burns.
Interesting. Chinese ppl swear by tea tree oil. I’m pretty sure it’s more anti microbial than anti viral, but by the way that stuff burns, I certainly wouldn’t want to be a virus
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In microbiology class I brought in tea tree oil for our culture and sensitivity tests. Out of all the strains of bacteria including gonnorhea, tea trea oil had the best bacterial inhibition rate by far when compared to typical antibiotics.
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Tea tree oil is great. I just usually save that for thè last resort because of the smell.
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@ChickenLittle
@theBeth
Thank you. I have both of your suggestions on hand as I was already familiar with them. Probably should have said so in the initial post. Oops.
@Chris_Colucci I’ve read that too, about piperine, and have read it on many labels but turmeric seems particularly difficult to assimilate. I’ve even seen suggestions of a liposomal carrier. I’d like to reap its maximum benefits but not sure if supplement companies have it quite figured out. Thanks, though.
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Not sure why you think that. There’s a bunch of research on piperine’s benefits for turmeric/curcumin.
Biotest, for example, uses the same ratio of piperine:curcumin as found in many of the studies.
@Chris_Colucci
From the first Pub Med reference:
On the other hand in humans after a dose of 2 g (Biotest is 500 mg) curcumin alone, serum levels were either undetectable or very low. Concomitant administration of piperine 20 mg (Biotest is 5 mg) produced much higher concentrations from 0.25 to 1 h post drug (P < 0.01 at 0.25 and 0.5 h; P < 0.001 at 1 h), the increase in bioavailability was 2000%
So the curcumin alone yielded undetectable serum levels. Piperine increased it to 2000%. Last I looked 2000% of zero is still zero.
Reminds me of DAA. Touted as raising testosterone 42% but if you’re running at 300ng/dc, a 42% increase brings you to a paltry 426. Not a significant physiological improvement.
The full text explained it in more detail: [PDF] Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers. | Semantic Scholar
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This right here should tell you that something is off (most likely that you do not fully understand the paper). If they found that levels increased by a certain factor (in this case, by 2000%), then a known quantity must have been determined prior to that point.
“Undetectable” does not always mean that it was completely undetected, it can mean that the level was below the established limit of detection (which is based on a signal-to-noise ratio, usually 3:1 for LoD).
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