Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS researched by Mary-Ann Shearer
Right now there is a lot of panic over the SARS virus and people are running around in a state canceling flights and generally just feeling frightened.
Firstly there is nothing to be frightened of once you know the facts.
As far as virologists have established, you need to literally be face to face with someone who is obviously ill – sweating coughing and running a fever. The virus will not just jump on you while walking down the road. The fatality rate is only 3.7% much the same as normal flu and to date, out of billions of people world wide only 2700 have been infected of which only about 100 have died. (Sunday Times April 13 2003)
“For individuals who think they might have SARS:
People with symptoms of SARS (fever greater than 100.4°F [>38.0°C] accompanied by a cough and/or difficulty breathing) should consult a health-care provider. To help the health-care provider make a diagnosis, tell them about any recent travel to places where SARS has been reported or whether there was contact with someone who had these symptoms
How SARS spreads
The primary way that SARS appears to spread is by close person-to-person contact. Most cases of SARS have involved people who cared for or lived with someone with SARS, or had direct contact with infectious material (for example, respiratory secretions) from a person who has SARS. Potential ways in which SARS can be spread include touching the skin of other people or objects that are contaminated with infectious droplets and then touching your eye(s), nose, or mouth. This can happen when someone who is sick with SARS coughs or sneezes droplets onto themselves, other people, or nearby surfaces.
Who is at risk for SARS
Cases of SARS continue to be reported mainly among people who have had direct close contact with an infected person, such as those sharing a household with a SARS patient and health-care workers who did not use infection control procedures while taking care of a SARS patient. In the United States, there is no indication of community spread at this time. CDC continues to monitor this situation very closely.
Treatment
Because the etiology of these illnesses has not yet been determined, no specific treatment recommendations can be made at this time. Empiric therapy should include coverage for organisms associated with any community-acquired pneumonia of unclear etiology, including agents with activity against both typical and atypical respiratory pathogens (2). Treatment choices may be influenced by severity of the illness. Infectious disease consultation is recommended.” Center For Disease Control USA
Secondly, just as healthy plants do not succumb to disease so healthy people who have a healthy immune system, will avoid almost any infectious disease and if they do get a disease of some type it will be extremely mild and hardly noticeable.
Thirdly even if you are run down, there is plenty you can do see below
The Natural Way to maintain a healthy Immune system
By Mary-Ann Shearer
I believe that one of the best ways to build your Immune system is through a natural diet. Lets take a look at what some researchers say about diet and the Immune system.
DIET AND YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEMS
1. The same symptoms that are evident in malnourished people closely resemble symptoms of immuno deficiency. This means that malnourished people and those with Immuno deficiency should be approached the same way. Finding a ‘cure’ in the form of a drug or vaccine, for Aids (the foremost Immune deficiency disease) is as ridiculous and finding a cure in these forms for malnutrition!
2. Malnutrition predisposes one to: Tuberculosis
Bacterial Diarrhoea
Bacterial Pneumonia
Septicaemia
Leprosy
Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
3. In malnutrition, viral infections are severe.
Viruses implicated include: Measles
Herpes
Hepatitis.
4. "Pneumocystis Carinii” observed in people suffering from AIDS is seen more frequently in malnourished people.
5. On a global scale, malnutrition is the most frequent cause of immuno deficiency.
6. Malnutrition results in an abnormally small thymus. Autopsies on AIDS patients show the same results.
7. Malnutrition results in a lowered T-cell count and a poor allergy response - just as for Aids.
8. The "allergy" response is lower following immunization.
9. Immune system dysfunction can occur as a result of deficiency or excess of a single nutrient (reason enough not to take supplements).
10. Immunology effects are seen when the anti-oxidants are deficient, namely
Vitamins A, C, E and Selenium. (All found freely in fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds and very high in Barleylife).
11. Excess polyunsaturated fats suppress the immune system. Margarine is high in the processed variety as are all processed foods that contain fats and most fast food.
12. Cholesterol in the diet (these are found in animal products only, including marine shortening found in chocolates and baked goods) lower the immune response. If you have any Immune or autoimmune problems, you would do well to cut all animal products out of your diet.
13. Malnutrition in pregnancy results in immuno-suppression for a prolonged period from a couple of months from birth to beyond the babies offspring.
14. Diseases associated with immune deficiency are:
Cancer
Arthritis
Lupus
Amyloidosis and other autoimmune diseases.
15. T-cells (fighter cells) can increase within 5 - 15 days of changing your diet.
Extracted from "Nutrition, Immunity and Resistance to Infection" by Dr B A Chowdhury and Dr R K Chandra.
“ Malnutrition is usually taken to mean not eating enough food…. Malnutrition, however, is the result of not eating the foods and nutrients adequate and necessary for healthy cell & tissue development and of loading the body’s metabolism with items it is not equipped to process. We can be feasting on an abundance of food and yet suffer from malnutrition if our diet lacks the nutrients required for healthy cell development or contains artificial ingredients which cannot be processed by ourselves”
(‘A Beginners Introduction to NUTRITION’ By Albrecht A. Heyer: - Executive Director of the Huxley Institute for Biosocial Research in New York City. - edited by Richard Passwater & Earl Mindell)
According to the above author, the following foods & beverages are harmful to a healthy Immune system.
Foods high in processed & heated fats such fast foods, margarine etc
Refined sugar & carbohydrates and the foods that contain them such as sweets, chocolates cold drinks cakes etc. Refined sugar upsets the blood sugar, which is needed by the body to be stable so that white blood cells can destroy virus’ & bacteria.
Table salt and foods that contain it
Processed foods 60-70 years ago only 10 % of our food was processed. Today 80 % of the foods most people eat are processed.
Caffeine containing foods & beverages, such as colas, tea, coffee & chocolates. Caffeine causes a loss of water-soluble vitamins (C & B) Caffeine upsets the Endocrine system, which works together with the Immune system.
Alcohol – destroys vitamins & minerals, and upsets the Endocrine system & in turn the Immune system.
Jennifer Meak (an Immunologist & Nutritionist) says that the best way to avoid the common cold to cancer & Aids is to boost your Immune system through nutrition. To quote,
“ Raw whole foods provide many other factors (some of which are probably unknown) like natural antibiotics, essential oils, pigments and enzymes, which are of benefit to health. Raw, whole foods increase the oxygen content of our cells especially important for the prevention of cancer, where cells have switched to live without oxygen. Fresh fruit and vegetables are high in potassium, which is essential for maintaining a healthy Immune System and for avoiding cancer………..
All processed foods (and this even includes cooked whole foods here) require you immune army to defend your gut and many white blood cells are lost. Raw foods, however, do not cause destruction of the white defenders. It would appear that some raw food, taken before cooked food, reduces or even eliminates battle fatalities, so saving you the energy used in fighting, repair and replacement.”
Gluten
Celiac disease is a classic example of food sensitivity. It is caused by an immune response to gluten (the protein portion), found in WHEAT, OATS, RYE AND BARLEY.
The classic symptoms have always been severe diarrhea, growth failure and malabsorption of nutrients resulting in growth failure.
New research indicates that dermatitis, anemia, loss of bone density, arthritis, joint symptoms, dental defects, infertility and neurological symptoms such as intellectual deterioration and seizures and possibly multiple sclerosis are other manifestations of celiac disease or gluten intolerance.
It is estimated that as many as 1 in 300 people suffer from any of these symptoms.
With anaemia being one of the most common deficiency diseases among woman and children in westernized countries, where bread is considered the staff of life, this could cause considerable upheaval. Throw in arthritis, osteoporosis and infertility and we’ve got a major problem on our hands.
”Clinicians need to consider the possibility of celiac disease when treating patients with any of these symptoms, even if the classic symptoms of diarrhoea and weight loss are not present. It is also important for physicians to be aware that the prevalence of celiac disease is increased in certain high risk groups, such as insulin dependent diabetics, people with either Down’s syndrome, IgA deficiency or autoimmune thyroid diseases, Alzheimer’s or autism and children with juvenile arthritis.”
References from :Lancet 14/7/97 & 10/2/96 & 22/1/94, Archives Internal Medicine 12/5/97,J Clinical Gastroenterology 3/97, J Family Practice, American 1/95, J Gastroenterology 10/96,& 8/97 & vol 89/94, Scandinavian J Gastroenterology 2/95, New England J Medicine 2/5/96, J Pediatrics 4/96, Medical J Australia 17/3/97, etc.
Fluoride
Research from both Britain and America shows that fluoride confuses the immune system, causing it to attack the body's own tissues resulting in one of many symptoms such as skin rashes, gastro-intestinal disorders, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Amalgam
The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) in Canada has advised that mercury amalgam fillings should be discontinued until such time as primary pathological evidence of amalgam safety is produced. They add that although we’ve been led to believe that these fillings are stable and harmless when combined with other components of silver dental amalgam, this is not the case.
They further add that mercury vapour is released into the body from these fillings. As it takes approximately 70 days for mercury to pass out of the body, this continuous exposure to mercury vapour accumulates in the body over years, resulting in numerous health problems related to the central nervous system (such as headaches, weakness, sleeplessness, loss of appetite and weight, gastrointestinal problems, joint and muscle aches, metallic taste, sore gums and tongue, increased or decreased salivation, black lines on teeth, increased risk of infection, enlarged thyroid, liver and kidney problems, breathlessness, vertigo, irregular heartbeat, irritability, nervousness, timidity, loss of memory, depression, tremors, manic depression, psychosis, double vision, involuntary eye movements, and slight to severe skin changes).
Furthermore, experiments conducted by the IAOMT show conclusively that through the acts of chewing, grinding or brushing the teeth, mercury is released from the fillings and that this release is increased in the presence of heat (when eating hot foods, for example).
In support of findings such as these, the World Health Organization has concluded that the average person has more to fear from dental mercury than from possible mercury poisoning from food sources (fish, for example, living in polluted waters, are contaminated by the mercury from the pesticides and factory waste that are flushed into rivers and the sea).
So…what can you do? Give up the good life and live on an island?
I suggest that rather than focusing on giving up, you focus on what you can do. Most people can start their cooked meals with a raw salad or any raw vegetables. Follow the 5 Steps (then move onto option 1, 2 or 3 in chapter 3 of The Natural Way) and take Aim’s Garden Trio, both will increase the amount of free radicals and natural oxygen bearing plant food to your cells. Both have a high alkaline effect on the blood stream and this has a very profound and positive effect on the Immune system. Try to remove or drastically reduce the offending foods above, exercise, get natural sunlight and balance your life by focusing on all the areas of well being such as emotional, spiritual, stress, diet, exercise, sunlight etc. (See more in The Natural Way)
Most people find it easy to eat some naturally sweet foods such as fresh & dried fruit before they eat a chocolate or sweet.
Most people find it easy to eat one meal a day, made up of entirely fresh fruit.
How about you? If you can do these three things, your intake of whole raw food will increase by 50-75%! That in it self will help your Immune system work efficiently. Then relax and enjoy your journey of life and stop focusing on the destination.