About Viral Infections
By Steven Horne (Sunshine Sharing) - Extracts

When most people think of treating infections, they think of antibiotics. But antibiotics only work against bacterial infections. Most common infections, like colds and flu, are viral and antibiotics have no effect on viruses. Most coughs, sinus problems, ear infections, sore throats and other common contagious diseases are viral in nature, so it's a waste of time and money to treat them with antibiotics.

Viruses don't just cause colds and flu. Chicken pox, mumps and measles are also acute viral infections. There are also chronic viral infections like herpes and more serious and dangerous viral infections, such as smallpox, hepatitis C, Epstein Barr, SARS, AIDS. The reason serious viral infections raise concerns is because modern medicine has very few effective antiviral drugs. Most drugs only relieve the symptoms of viral infections. So, when it comes to viral infections modern medicine focuses its efforts primarily on trying to create immunity to them through vaccines. There are problems with this approach, however, which we will discuss shortly.

Fortunately, the plant kingdom does have remedies that help the body deal with viral infections.These remedies primarily work by enhancing your body's immune responses. And, what's great is that immune enhancing herbs are often helpful for other types of infections as well. So, this issue is devoted to understanding viruses and how to combat viral infections naturally. We'll also discuss how you can use nutrients to build immunity and make yourself more resistant to viral infections.

How the Body Deals with Viruses
Your body combats viruses in several ways. First, the innate immune system, found primarily in the membranes of the digestive and respiratory system is designed to destroy foreign material (like viruses) to prevent them from ever entering the body. So, a healthy intestinal and respiratory system forms a protective barrier against most viral infections. If a virus is able to get past the innate immune system, then the adaptive immune system takes over. It produces substances called antibodies that attach themselves to a virus and render it inert so it can't enter cells and disrupt their normal functions. The adaptive immune system also recognizes cells that are infected with viruses because some of the viral proteins can show up on the surface of the cell membrane. If a specialized cell, called T cell, recognizes a suspicious viral fragment on a another cell, it can destroy the host cell and stimulate the production of more T cells to look for that specific virus.

Viruses,Vaccines and Antiviral Drugs
The ability of the immune system to create antibodies that bind specific viruses is the basis for vaccines. A vaccine contains viral proteins or viruses that have been weakened or live-attenuated. A healthy immune system recognizes these viruses or viral fragments and produces antibodies so that whenever the person encounters that virus the antibodies to render it inert are already present.
One of the problems with vaccines that contain attenuated or weakened viruses is that they can backfire if the immune system is compromised. In other words, they can actually cause a viral infection that doesn't produce the same symptoms as a normal viral infection. This is because the infection bypasses the innate immune system, which helps to regulate the adaptive immune system. Just as shingles can arise from smallpox viruses that were never eliminated from the body, some researchers believe that these low grade viral infections can flare up and cause autoimmune reactions and other forms of chronic disease.
For this reason, it is best not to vaccinate anyone with a compromised immune system. And, because there are many toxic chemicals in the vaccine used to weaken the virus, some people choose to avoid vaccines altogether.

Natural Antiviral Remedies
Because you can't "kill" viruses, there are no broad spectrum antiviral drugs or herbs. Herbs that have broad acting activity against viral infections are those that support natural immune function. They boost production of white blood cells and antibodies, strengthen mucus membranes and increase white blood cell activity. This helps the body fight infections of all kinds viral, bacterial and fungal. This is one way herbal remedies have a huge advantage over pharmaceutical drugs.
There are also herbs that work against specific types of viral infections, probably by inhibiting replication or entry into the cell of certain viruses. Even though an antiviral remedy is effective against the cold or flu doesn't mean it will work against smallpox or hepatitis C.

Antiviral Herbs and Supplements
There are many great antiviral remedies one can use to combat viral infections. These remedies have different modes of action and work on different types of viruses. So read about each one and pick the one that fits your needs and situation the best.