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Herbal help for flu viruses?
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Rhodiola rosea
Rhodiola is investigated as possible tool in the box against flu viruses
I was strolling through Facebook and found a link that looked rather interesting. It took me to an article about the plant Rhodiola rosea. This plant, known popularly as Rhodiola or golden root, is native to Scandinavia and Russia. Some sources say it was used for year to allow users to cope with the cold weather and stressful life in Siberia.
The research that I have seen about this plant have mostly focused on its abilities as an adaptogen. The word adaptogen just refers to the ability of the plant's chemical compounds to aid the body to effectively deal with stress. Now I come across this article and I am really excited!
This article talks about how the flavonoids in Rhodiola can possibly inhibit the release of the flu virus from a host cell. See viruses need host cells to reproduce. They are kind of like the aliens in that Sigourney Weaver movie. They "land" on the host cell, inject parts of their DNA in the host cell, then they let the host cell do the replication work for them, and when the new baby viruses are ready to go on out into the cellular world the cell ruptures for their release. So in lab studies of H1N1 and H9N2 influenzas, these flavonoids from Rhodiola inhibit the release of the replicated, new viruses.
Definitely some interesting stuff!!
**please do not confuse 'in vitro' for 'in vivo'! In vitro means in a labor a petri dish.....in vivo means in real life. So while Rhodiola shows promise and will not harm anyone using it to beef up their defenses, it is by no means a substitution for general hygiene and other common sense methods of avoiding infection by a flu virus.
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