“
Remember laughing? Laughter enhances the blood flow to the body’s extremities and improves cardiovascular function. Laughter releases endorphins and other natural mood elevating and pain-killing chemicals, improves the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to internal organs.
Laughter boosts the immune system and helps the body fight off disease, cancer cells as well as viral, bacterial and other infections. Being happy is the best cure of all diseases!
”
”
Patch Adams
“
Rumors had their own classic epidemiology. Each started with a single germinating event. Information spread from that point, mutating and interbreeding—a conical mass of threads, expanding into the future from the apex of their common birthplace. Eventually, of course, they'd wither and die; the cone would simply dissipate at its wide end, its permutations senescent and exhausted.
There were exceptions, of course. Every now and then a single thread persisted, grew thick and gnarled and unkillable: conspiracy theories and urban legends, the hooks embedded in popular songs, the comforting Easter-bunny lies of religious doctrine. These were the memes: viral concepts, infections of conscious thought. Some flared and died like mayflies. Others lasted a thousand years or more, tricked billions into the endless propagation of parasitic half-truths.
”
”
Peter Watts (Maelstrom (Rifters, #2))
“
Psychiatric epidemiologists are also finding that people born in winter months—during times of heightened flu and viral infections—may be more likely to develop serious mental illness (though people with more severe forms of the illnesses are more likely to be born in the summer months, so who knows).
”
”
Susannah Cahalan (The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness)
“
procalcitonin test, which indicates whether a cold is caused by a bacterial or viral infection. It
”
”
Giulia Enders (Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Under-Rated Organ)
“
COVID-19 is the third deadly human coronavirus to emerge since the turn of the century. Emerge from where? Where do new infectious diseases come from? All human viral infections are believed to originate in animals.9
”
”
Michael Greger (How to Survive a Pandemic)
“
Furthermore, some 52 studies—all available on NIH’s website—find that ordinary masking (using less than an N95 respirator) doesn’t reduce viral infection rates, even—surprisingly—in institutional settings like hospitals and surgical theaters.6,7 Moreover, some 25 additional studies attribute to masking a grim retinue of harms, including respiratory and immune system illnesses, as well as dermatological, dental, gastrointestinal, and psychological injuries.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
In the short term, adrenaline gives our immune function a boost to help fight bacterial and viral infections. But in the longer term, over-production of adrenaline and abnormal patterns of cortisol are linked with shorter life expectancy (Kumari et al., 2011). When adrenaline is repeatedly propping up our immune system through chronic stress and then we stop and the adrenaline goes down, so does the immune system. This is why you often hear of people who work incredibly hard around the clock for months on end and when they finally stop to take a holiday they almost immediately fall ill.
”
”
Julie Smith (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?)
“
You can use cordyceps or baikal skullcap or rhodiola infusions to stimulate the production of root tissues in plants—including the root brain—sida acuta infusions to fight bacterial infections, isatis infusions to fight viral infections, or even plants high in brassinosteroids to help a plant’s immune function.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth)
“
In addition to these physical problems, sexually transmitted diseases are rampant among the homosexual population. 75% of homosexual men carry one or more sexually transmitted diseases, wholly apart from AIDS. These include all sorts of non-viral infections like gonorrhea, syphilis, bacterial infections, and parasites. Also common among homosexuals are viral infections like herpes and hepatitis B (which afflicts 65% of homosexual men), both of which are incurable, as well as hepatitis A and anal warts, which afflict 40% of homosexual men. And I haven’t even included AIDS. Perhaps the most shocking and frightening statistic is that, leaving aside those who die from AIDS, the life expectancy for a homosexual male is about 45 years of age. That compares to a life expectancy of around 70 for men in general. If you include those who die of AIDS, which now infects 30% of homosexual men, the life expectancy drops to 39 years of age.
So I think a very good case can be made out on the basis of generally accepted moral principles that homosexual behavior is wrong. It is horribly self-destructive and injurious to another person. Thus, wholly apart from the Bible’s prohibition, there are sound, sensible reasons to regard homosexual activity as wrong.
”
”
William Lane Craig
“
R. imbricata is highly protective in mice against whole-body lethal radiation.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
The use of cordyceps during radiation and chemo has been found to counteract the negative immune effects of those procedures.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Cordyceps has a lot of effects on airway epithelial cells. It acts to normalize cellular function in airway epithelia by normalizing ion transport.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Rhodiola, various species, has been found effective in the treatment of breast cancer.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
The best herb for lowering seriously high fevers is coral root (Corallorhiza maculata), as either a tea or tincture.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Curiously enough, many of the strongest antibacterial and antiviral plants are invasives.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
It is specific for disease conditions accompanied by weakness and sweating,
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Doudna wrote in a scholarly publication back in 2013, researchers hoped to find ways to use RNA interference to protect humans from infections.6 Two papers published in Science that year gave strong evidence that it might work. The hope then was that drugs based on RNA interference might someday be a good option for treating severe viral infections, including those from new coronaviruses
”
”
Walter Isaacson (The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race)
“
Love is a viral vibration, infect others with it without regard, that it may spread epidemically, boosting the immunity of a humanity that could deafen the sound of hate, only the diseased soul makes.
”
”
Dr Tracey Bond
“
In the treatment of 92 patients suffering ischemic heart disease, astragalus was more successful than nifedipine. Patients were “markedly relived” from angina pectoris. EKG test results improved 82.6 percent.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
This is not a zombie outbreak. Get all those goddamn movies out of your mind. This is not an infection. It is not viral. Not in a COVID cough-cough kind of way. This is like some…some…I don’t know. Some sort of social plague.
”
”
Clay McLeod Chapman (Wake Up and Open Your Eyes)
“
the organism’s immune system or the replicating virus. If the virus is particularly strong or if the immune system is compromised in any way, the virus can really take hold and illness, sometimes severe illness, is inevitable.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Passing was purgatory. It was exhausting, always looking over your shoulder, waiting to get found out, always wondering if you’re not passing enough. Paranoia was like some viral disease that infected my whole body. Stress was oxygen.
”
”
Jose Antonio Vargas (Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen)
“
is not possible to get that precipitate back into solution. Most herbalists simply shake the bottle prior to dispensing and suggest the user do the same before ingesting it. I do it this way and it seems to work fine, medicinally speaking.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
allopathic medicine is very good at managing trauma, acute bacterial infections, medical and surgical emergencies, and other crises. It is very bad at managing viral infections, chronic degenerative disease, allergy and autoimmunity, many of the serious kinds of cancer, mental illness, “functional” illness (disturbances of function in the absence of major physical or chemical changes), and all those conditions in which the mind plays an active role in creating susceptibility to disease.
”
”
Andrew Weil (Natural Health, Natural Medicine)
“
Unfortunately, it turns out that the use of glucose during influenza infections significantly increases viral load and illness parameters. Insulin, on the other hand, reduces them considerably and also has the added benefit of lowering HMGB1 levels.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
With reference to viral infections,” the Librarian says, “if I may make a fairly blunt, spontaneous cross-reference—something I am coded to do at opportune moments—you may wish to examine herpes simplex, a virus that takes up residence in the nervous system and never leaves. It is capable of carrying new genes into existing neurons and genetically reengineering them. Modern gene therapists use it for this purpose. Lagos thought that herpes simplex might be a modern, benign descendant of Asherah.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
“
We have retinas that face backward, the stump of a tail, and way too many bones in our wrists. We must find vitamins and nutrients in our diets that other animals simply make for themselves. We are poorly equipped to survive in the climates in which we now live. We have nerves that take bizarre paths, muscles that attach to nothing, and lymph nodes that do more harm than good. Our genomes are filled with genes that don’t work, chromosomes that break, and viral carcasses from past infections. We have brains that play tricks on us, cognitive biases and prejudices, and a tendency to kill one another in large numbers. Millions of us can’t even reproduce successfully without a whole lot of help from modern science. Our flaws illuminate not only our evolutionary past but also our present and future. Everyone knows that it is impossible to understand current events in a specific country without understanding the history of that country and how the modern state came to be. The same is true for our bodies, our genes, and our minds.
”
”
Nathan H. Lents (Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes)
“
Twenty-four men who had lived at high altitude for a year were tested to see the effects of rhodiola on blood oxygen saturation and sleep disorders; rhodiola was found to increase blood oxygen saturation significantly and increase both sleeping time and quality.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Any respiratory viral infection, any inflammation in the brain or CNS—especially encephalitis and meningitis, fatigue and weakness, especially after long illness or in chronic infections, poor mitochondrial function, chronic wasting, unproductive cough from no known cause, joint inflammation, mental fog and confusion, low libido, lung infections, kidney infections, thick mucus in the lungs that will not move, immune dysregulation, dizziness, tinnitus, nocturia, cancer. It is especially effective for mycoplasma infections.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
you should know about precipitation, a very neglected area of herbal medicine. The constituents that you have extracted from the herbs are held in suspension in a liquid medium. Over time, some of these constituents will precipitate out and settle on the bottom of the tincture bottle.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
phase three clinical trial found that rhodiola exerts an antifatigue effect that increases mental performance and concentration and decreases cortisol response in burnout patients with fatigue syndrome; other studies have found similar outcomes including the amelioration of depression and anxiety.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Rhodiola significantly reduced problems and infection after the treatment of acute lung injury caused by massive trauma/infection and thoracic-cardio operations. A combination formula of rhodiola, eleuthero, and schisandra significantly enhanced positive outcomes in the treatment of acute nonspecific pneumonia.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Unlike viral infections, which often left behind a large core of immune survivors to care for the ill and harvest the food the next time an epidemic struck, plague spared no one. Despite the findings about CCR5-D32, the best available current evidence is that Y. pestis does not produce permanent immunity in victims. During the Black Death, this biological quirk may have produced an enormous secondary mortality. As both Boccaccio and Stefani suggest, many people seem to have died not because they had particularly virulent cases of plague, but because the individuals who normally cared for them were either dead or ill themselves.
”
”
John Kelly (The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time)
“
Social media is the supreme triumph of the commonplace, the undiluted voice of the commonplace, the perfect means of viral transmission of the commonplace. All excellence is tracked down and exterminated. The commonplace infects everything. It grows like weeds everywhere and strangles all beautiful, exceptional flowers. All tall poppies are all cut down.
”
”
Joe Dixon (The Mandarin Effect: The Crisis of Meaning)
“
Other uses are: for tonifying the lungs, for shortness of breath, for frequent colds and flu infections; as a diuretic and for reduction of edema; for tonifying the blood and for blood loss, especially postpartum; for diabetes; for promoting the discharge of pus, for chronic ulcerations, including of the stomach, and for sores that have not drained or healed well.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Influenza is caused by three types of viruses, of which the most worrisome and widespread is influenza A. Viruses of that type all share certain genetic traits: a single-stranded RNA genome, which is partitioned into eight segments, which serve as templates for eleven different proteins. In other words, they have eight discrete stretches of RNA coding, linked together like eight railroad cars, with eleven different deliverable cargoes. The eleven deliverables are the molecules that comprise the structure and functional machinery of the virus. They are what the genes make. Two of those molecules become spiky protuberances from the outer surface of the viral envelope: hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Those two, recognizable by an immune system, and crucial for penetrating and exiting cells of a host, give the various subtypes of influenza A their definitive labels: H5N1, H1N1, and so on. The term “H5N1” indicates a virus featuring subtype 5 of the hemagglutinin protein combined with subtype 1 of the neuraminidase protein. Sixteen different kinds of hemagglutinin, plus nine kinds of neuraminidase, have been detected in the natural world. Hemagglutinin is the key that unlocks a cell membrane so that the virus can get in, and neuraminidase is the key for getting back out. Okay so far? Having absorbed this simple paragraph, you understand more about influenza than 99.9 percent of the people on Earth. Pat yourself on the back and get a flu shot in November. At
”
”
David Quammen (Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic)
“
Some herbalists will add 1 to 2 ounces of glycerine to every 16 ounces of tincture (10 to 15 percent of the total liquid) to help slow down or eliminate precipitation. It does help retard the precipitation of tannins; I am not sure how well it works for other constituents or over time but you might try it and see how it works if precipitation becomes a concern for you.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Children are most susceptible to ear infections from antibiotic-resistant strains of Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Branhamella catarrhalis. The following kinds of remedies have been found highly effective for treating them, individually or together. These kinds of ear infections often accompany flus and colds; this will help if they do. How
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Note: If you are going to make your own tincture from cordyceps powder, then use a 50 percent alcohol solution in a 1:5 herb:liquid ratio. Add the cordyceps powder to the water only. Starting with cold water, bring the mixture to a boil, then cover and let steep overnight. Then add the alcohol and let it steep for a few weeks. This will more efficiently extract the polysaccharides from the root. Some
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
To be effective for anything, cordyceps must be dosed appropriately. That means a minimum dose of 3 grams daily but the best results occur with 6 grams daily as the baseline, especially in acute conditions. The renal studies usually used from 3 to 4.5 grams. This dose range can also work for lung problems, except in truly acute conditions when it should be 6 to 9 grams (in mycoplasma treatment as well).
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Cordyceps sinensis (CS) was used in the long-term treatment of renal transplant patients. Long-term survival was no different in the treated and untreated groups, however the incidence of complication was significantly lower in the CS group. The CS group needed much lower doses of cyclosporine A and serum levels of IL-10 in the CS group were much higher. Another renal transplant study with 200 transplant patients showed the same outcomes.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Each time I met a parent struggling to come up with the money to get treatment for a sick child, I thought back to the night Michelle and I had to take a three-month-old Sasha to the emergency room for what turned out to be viral meningitis—the terror and helplessness we felt as the nurses whisked her away for a spinal tap, and the realization that we might never have caught the infection in time had the girls not had a regular pediatrician we felt comfortable calling in the middle of the night.
”
”
Barack Obama (A Promised Land)
“
Chronic long-term fatigue, recurrent infections, recovery from long-term illness and infections, nervous exhaustion, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic disease conditions with depression, low immune function, brain fog, and to accelerate recovery from debilitating conditions. Note: The plant is specific for the kinds of damage that occur during encephalitis infections. It is highly neuroprotective and strongly anti-inflammatory in the brain and CNS. It should be used in all encephalitis infections.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
The amount of alcohol in tinctures is incredibly tiny. Less than you will get from eating a few pieces of bread (yes, bread does have alcohol in it, enough to produce a breathalyzer reading of 0.05 just by itself). If you are taking 20 drops of a 60 percent alcohol tincture every hour for an acute condition, you will get about 1/17 of an ounce of alcohol over the course of a day (less than 2 ml). If you are taking a general dose (20 drops three times daily), you will be getting about 1/30 of an ounce over a day.
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
It's a toxic world out there folks, use caution when connecting online & offline. There's a darker side to going viral with success. My expert advice is that people innoculate their understanding with plenty of time-tested social research specifically regarding the authentic social, emotional intelligence and mature personality values of any circle. Look beyond their talk, uncover their stalk. If the mind is darkened with character disEASE, the behavior will symptomatically follow...those whose mentality becomes infected by their obvious blight, easily become the host targets of their contagion.
”
”
Dr Tracey Bond
“
First, there are the live vaccines which contain an attenuated strain of a microorganism. The hope with these vaccines is that they will produce a subclinical infection. Viral vaccines may contain attenuated strains of a virus or an inactivated virus. They are prepared in tissue culture, which may contain antibiotics, or in chick embryos. These vaccines are, therefore, unsuitable for patients who are allergic to the antibiotics concerned or to egg protein. (Sadly, many doctors do not bother to ask their patients if they have any allergies which might make vaccination especially hazardous. And so
”
”
Vernon Coleman (Anyone Who Tells You Vaccines Are Safe And Effective Is Lying. Here's The Proof.)
“
The main medicinal species that most people use, Prefix-or-not-cordyceps sinensis, is a parasite on caterpillars, specifically the larvae of the ghost moth (which is why it is sometimes called the caterpillar fungus). The fungal spores invade the caterpillar (which lives underground), and they sprout into active mycelia (which spread throughout the caterpillar body via the circulatory system), eventually killing the caterpillar (which then mummifies). The mycelia ultimately fill the corpse, leaving the exoskeleton intact, and the mushroom sprouts from the body (via the head) the next summer, and, hey, we got medicine. (Yum!)
”
”
Stephen Harrod Buhner (Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections)
“
Herd immunity may never be achieved because high vaccination rates encourage the evolution of more severe disease-causing organisms “A partially effective immune response — enough to exert selective pressure but not effective enough to suppress escape viral mutants — is the most effective driving force of antigenic variation.” Rodpothong P, Auewarakul P. Viral evolution and transmission effectiveness. World J Virol 2012 Oct 12; 1(5): 131-34. In theory, if enough people are vaccinated, herd immunity will be achieved and chains of infection will be disrupted. In reality, a true herd immunity threshold may never be reached within normal heterogenous populations. If a true herd immunity threshold level is achieved, it will create a strong selective pressure that encourages the emergence of mutant viral strains.
”
”
Neil Z Miller (Miller's Review of Critical Vaccine Studies: 400 Important Scientific Papers Summarized for Parents and Researchers)
“
Al Hershey had sent me a long letter from Cold Spring Harbor summarizing the recently completed experiments by which he and Martha Chase established that a key feature of the infection of a bacterium by a phage was the injection of the viral DNA into the host bacterium. Most important, very little protein entered the bacterium. Their experiment was thus a powerful new proof that DNA is the primary genetic material. Nonetheless, almost no one in the audience of over four hundred microbiologists seemed interested as I read long sections of Hershey’s letter. Obvious exceptions were André Lwoff, Seymour Benzer, and Gunther Stent, all briefly over from Paris. They knew that Hershey’s experiments were not trivial and that from then on everyone was going to place more emphasis on DNA. To most of the spectators, however, Hershey’s name carried no weight.
”
”
James D. Watson (The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA)
“
It is not even remotely a matter of rehabilitating the Aboriginals, or finding them a place in the chorus of human rights, for their revenge lies elsewhere. It lies in their power to destabilize Western rule. It lies in their phantom presence, their viral, spectral presence in the synapses of our brains, in the circuitry of our rocketship, as 'Alien'; in the way in which the Whites have caught the virus of origins, of Indianness, of Aboriginality, of Patagonicity. We murdered all this, but now it infects our blood, into which it has been inexorably transfused and infiltrated. The revenge of the colonized is in no sense the reappropriation by Indians or Aboriginals of their lands, privileges or autonomy: that is our victory. Rather, that revenge may be seen in the way in which the Whites have been mysteriously made aware of the disarray of their own culture, the way in which they have been overwhelmed by an ancestral torpor and are now succumbing little by little to the grip of 'dreamtime'. This reversal is a worldwide phenomenon. It is now becoming clear that everything we once thought dead and buried, everything we thought left behind for ever by the ineluctable march of universal progress, is not dead at all, but on the contrary likely to return - not as some archaic or nostalgic vestige (all our indefatigable museumification notwithstanding), but with a vehemence and a virulence that are modern in every sense - and to reach the very heart of our ultrasophisticated but ultra-vulnerable systems, which it will easily convulse from within without mounting a frontal attack. Such is the destiny of radical otherness - a destiny that no homily of reconciliation and no apologia for difference is going to alter.
”
”
Jean Baudrillard (The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena)
“
The Company We Keep So now we have seen that our cells are in relationship with our thoughts, feelings, and each other. How do they factor into our relationships with others? Listening and communicating clearly play an important part in healthy relationships. Can relationships play an essential role in our own health? More than fifty years ago there was a seminal finding when the social and health habits of more than 4,500 men and women were followed for a period of ten years. This epidemiological study led researchers to a groundbreaking discovery: people who had few or no social contacts died earlier than those who lived richer social lives. Social connections, we learned, had a profound influence on physical health.9 Further evidence for this fascinating finding came from the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania. Epidemiologists were interested in Roseto because of its extremely low rate of coronary artery disease and death caused by heart disease compared to the rest of the United States. What were the town’s residents doing differently that protected them from the number one killer in the United States? On close examination, it seemed to defy common sense: health nuts, these townspeople were not. They didn’t get much exercise, many were overweight, they smoked, and they relished high-fat diets. They had all the risk factors for heart disease. Their health secret, effective despite questionable lifestyle choices, turned out to be strong communal, cultural, and familial ties. A few years later, as the younger generation started leaving town, they faced a rude awakening. Even when they had improved their health behaviors—stopped smoking, started exercising, changed their diets—their rate of heart disease rose dramatically. Why? Because they had lost the extraordinarily close connection they enjoyed with neighbors and family.10 From studies such as these, we learn that social isolation is almost as great a precursor of heart disease as elevated cholesterol or smoking. People connection is as important as cellular connections. Since the initial large population studies, scientists in the field of psychoneuroimmunology have demonstrated that having a support system helps in recovery from illness, prevention of viral infections, and maintaining healthier hearts.11 For example, in the 1990s researchers began laboratory studies with healthy volunteers to uncover biological links to social and psychological behavior. Infected experimentally with cold viruses, volunteers were kept in isolation and monitored for symptoms and evidence of infection. All showed immunological evidence of a viral infection, yet only some developed symptoms of a cold. Guess which ones got sick: those who reported the most stress and the fewest social interactions in their “real life” outside the lab setting.12 We Share the Single Cell’s Fate Community is part of our healing network, all the way down to the level of our cells. A single cell left alone in a petri dish will not survive. In fact, cells actually program themselves to die if they are isolated! Neurons in the developing brain that fail to connect to other cells also program themselves to die—more evidence of the life-saving need for connection; no cell thrives alone. What we see in the microcosm is reflected in the larger organism: just as our cells need to stay connected to stay alive, we, too, need regular contact with family, friends, and community. Personal relationships nourish our cells,
”
”
Sondra Barrett (Secrets of Your Cells: Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence)
“
We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep on humming all day until you spread
it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. Marxism. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information. But being physically infected with a virulent strain of the Asherah virus makes you a whole lot more
susceptible. The only thing that keeps these things from taking over the world is the Babel factor - the walls of mutual incomprehension that compartmentalize the human race and stop the spread of viruses.
Babel led to an explosion in the number of languages. That was part of Enki's plan. Monocultures, like a field of corn, are susceptible to infections, but genetically diverse cultures, like a prairie, are extremely robust.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
“
To summarise, an outbreak of mysterious pneumonia in a copper mine, more than 1,800 kilometres by road from Wuhan, led to patient samples being sent to Wuhan for analysis. A 2013 medical thesis concluded, after incorporating results shared by the WIV, that these miners had likely been infected by a SARS-like coronavirus from bats in the mine. An expedition by Wuhan virologists to seek the viral cause brought back hundreds of samples from bats. Their repeated visits to the mine turned up a bat-borne coronavirus in 2013, which was recognised to be a novel SARS-like coronavirus. The WIV team partly sequenced this new virus in 2017 and then fully sequenced it in 2018. When its sequence was found to closely match the sequence of the virus causing Covid-19, the Wuhan scientists published it under a new name and failed to cite their own paper detailing its discovery or to reveal that they had been studying the virus over the past few years or to mention that it had come from a mine where there had been a fatal outbreak of pneumonia.
”
”
Alina Chan (Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19)
“
McCullough points out that early treatment does not just prevent hospitalization; it quickly starves pandemics to death by stopping their spread. “Early treatment reduces the infectivity period from 14 days to about four days,” he explains. “It also allows someone to stay in the home so they don’t contaminate people outside the home. And then it has this remarkable effect in reducing the intensity and duration of symptoms so patients don’t get so short of breath, they don’t get into this panic where they feel they have to break containment and go to the hospital.” McCullough says that those hospital trips are tinder for pandemics, especially since, at that point, the patient is at the height of infectivity, with teeming viral loads. “Every hospitalization in America—and there’s been millions of them—has been a super-spreader event. Sick patients contaminate their loved ones, paramedics, Uber drivers, people in the clinic and offices. It becomes a total mess.” McCullough says that by treating COVID-19 at home, doctors actually can extinguish the pandemic.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
Sumerian culture -- the society based on me -- was another
manifestation of the metavirus. Except that in this case, it was in a
linguistic form rather than DNA."
"Excuse me," Mr. Lee says. "You are saying that civilization started out as an
infection?"
"Civilization in its primitive form, yes. Each me was a sort of virus, kicked
out by the metavirus principle. Take the example of the bread-baking me. Once
that me got into society, it was a self-sustaining piece of information. It's a
simple question of natural selection: people who know how to bake bread will
live better and be more apt to reproduce than people who don't know how.
Naturally, they will spread the me, acting as hosts for this self-replicating
piece of information. That makes it a virus. Sumerian culture -- with its
temples full of me -- was just a collection of successful viruses that had
accumulated over the millennia. It was a franchise operation, except it had
ziggurats instead of golden arches, and clay tablets instead of three-ring
binders.
"The Sumerian word for 'mind,' or 'wisdom,' is identical to the word for 'ear.'
That's all those people were: ears with bodies attached. Passive receivers of
information. But Enki was different. Enki was an en who just happened to be
especially good at his job. He had the unusual ability to write new me -- he
was a hacker. He was, actually, the first modern man, a fully conscious human
being, just like us.
"At some point, Enki realized that Sumer was stuck in a rut. People were
carrying out the same old me all the time, not coming up with new ones, not
thinking for themselves. I suspect that he was lonely, being one of the few --
perhaps the only -- conscious human being in the world. He realized that in
order for the human race to advance, they had to be delivered from the grip of
this viral civilization.
"So he created the nam-shub of Enki, a countervirus that spread along the same
routes as the me and the metavirus. It went into the deep structures of the
brain and reprogrammed them. Henceforth, no one could understand the Sumerian
language, or any other deep structure-based language. Cut off from our common
deep structures, we began to develop new languages that had nothing in common
with each other. The me no longer worked and it was not possible to write new
me. Further transmission of the metavirus was blocked."
"Why didn't everyone starve from lack of bread, having lost the bread-making
me?" Uncle Enzo says.
"Some probably did. Everyone else had to use their higher brains and figure it
out. So you might say that the nam-shub of Enki was the beginnings of human
consciousness -- when we first had to think for ourselves. It was the beginning
of rational religion, too, the first time that people began to think about
abstract issues like God and Good and Evil. That's where the name Babel comes
from. Literally it means 'Gate of God.' It was the gate that allowed God to
reach the human race. Babel is a gateway in our minds, a gateway that was
opened by the nam-shub of Enki that broke us free from the metavirus and gave us
the ability to think -- moved us from a materialistic world to a dualistic world
-- a binary world -- with both a physical and a spiritual component.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
“
Babel led to an explosion in the number of languages. That was part of Enki's plan. Monocultures, like a field of corn, are susceptible to infections, but genetically diverse cultures, like a prairie, are extremely robust. After a few thousand years, one new language developed - Hebrew - that possessed exceptional flexibility and power. The deuteronomists, a group of radical monotheists in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., were the first to take advantage of it. They lived in a time of extreme nationalism and xenophobia, which made it easier for them to reject foreign ideas like Asherah worship. They formalized their old stories into the Torah and implanted within it a law that insured its propagation throughout history - a law that said, in effect, 'make an exact copy of me and read it every day.' And they encouraged a sort of
informational hygiene, a belief in copying things strictly and taking great care with information, which as they understood, is potentially dangerous. They made data a controlled substance... [and] gone beyond that. There is evidence of carefully planned biological warfare against the army of Sennacherib when he tried to conquer Jerusalem. So the deuteronomists may have had an en of their very own. Or maybe they just understood viruses well enough that they knew how to take
advantage of naturally occurring strains. The skills cultivated by these people were passed down in secret from one generation to the next and manifested themselves two thousand years later, in Europe, among the Kabbalistic sorcerers, ba'al shems, masters of the divine name.
In any case, this was the birth of rational religion. All of the subsequent monotheistic religions - known by Muslims, appropriately, as religions of the
Book - incorporated those ideas to some extent. For example, the Koran states over and over again that it is a transcript, an exact copy, of a book in Heaven. Naturally, anyone who believes that will not dare to alter the text in any way! Ideas such as these were so effective in preventing the spread of Asherah that, eventually, every square inch of the territory where the viral cult had once thrived was under the sway of Islam, Christianity, or Judaism.
But because of its latency - coiled about the brainstem of those it infects, passed from one generation to the next - it always finds ways to resurface. In the case of Judaism, it came in the form of the Pharisees, who imposed a rigid
legalistic theocracy on the Hebrews. With its rigid adherence to laws stored in a temple, administered by priestly types vested with civil authority, it
resembled the old Sumerian system, and was just as stifling.
The ministry of Jesus Christ was an effort to break Judaism out of this condition... an echo of what Enki did. Christ's gospel is a new namshub,
an attempt to take religion out of the temple, out of the hands of the priesthood, and bring the Kingdom of God to everyone. That is the message
explicitly spelled out by his sermons, and it is the message symbolically embodied in the empty tomb. After the crucifixion, the apostles went to his
tomb hoping to find his body and instead found nothing. The message was clear enough; We are not to idolize Jesus, because his ideas stand alone, his church is no longer centralized in one person but dispersed among all the people.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
“
It is their job to read our blood pressure, change our sheets, wash our clothes, clean our toilets, take our blood, change our diapers, clean our asses, cover our wounds, deliver our meds, serve our food, forge our prescriptions (there are no permanent doctors on staff), turn on our TV, take our temperatures, and diagnose viral versus bacterial infections in order to determine antibiotic needs.
”
”
Scott Stambach (The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko)
“
All scientists, regardless of discipline, need to be prepared to confront the broadest consequences of our work—but we need to communicate its more detailed aspects as well. I was reminded of this at a recent lunch I attended with some of Silicon Valley’s greatest technology gurus. One of them said, “Give me ten to twenty million dollars and a team of smart people, and we can solve virtually any engineering challenge.” This person obviously knew a thing or two about solving technological problems—a long string of successes attested to that—but ironically, such an approach would not have produced the CRISPR-based gene-editing technology, which was inspired by curiosity-driven research into natural phenomena. The technology we ended up creating did not take anywhere near ten to twenty million dollars to develop, but it did require a thorough understanding of the chemistry and biology of bacterial adaptive immunity, a topic that may seem wholly unrelated to gene editing. This is but one example of the importance of fundamental research—the pursuit of science for the sake of understanding our natural world—and its relevance to developing new technologies. Nature, after all, has had a lot more time than humans to conduct experiments! If there’s one overarching point I hope you will take away from this book, it’s that humans need to keep exploring the world around us through open-ended scientific research. The wonders of penicillin would never have been discovered had Alexander Fleming not been conducting simple experiments with Staphylococci bacteria. Recombinant DNA research—the foundation for modern molecular biology—became possible only with the isolation of DNA-cutting and DNA-copying enzymes from gut- and heat-loving bacteria. Rapid DNA sequencing required experiments on the remarkable properties of bacteria from hot springs. And my colleagues and I would never have created a powerful gene-editing tool if we hadn’t tackled the much more fundamental question of how bacteria fight off viral infections.
”
”
Jennifer A. Doudna (A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution)
“
A few infected were able to slip past the quarantine, leading to outbreaks in Astoria and East Elmhurst.
”
”
Jason Medina (The Manhattanville Incident: An Undead Novel)
“
The city was starting to resemble a ghost town. If you saw anyone out on the streets, chances are they were probably infected. The majority of fast infected had spread out to the south and north, which happened to be where they were heading. In between, it was mainly the slower zombies that ruled.
”
”
Jason Medina (The Manhattanville Incident: An Undead Novel)
“
Collectively, the veritable zoo of mobile genetic elements comprises a remarkable 40 percent of our genome. The retroviral sequences littered across all vertebrate genomes are termed endogenous retroviral elements (ERVs). Endogenous retroviral sequences themselves are so plentiful that they take up more space in our genomes than genes encoding human proteins. Their existence is evidence of waves of retroviral infection and germline infiltration throughout vertebrate evolution. We have only recently begun to realize the powerful influence that retroviruses wielded over the evolution of vertebrate genomes and the identity of our species. They were catalysts of genetic instability that fueled evolutionary change; today they are vestiges of their former selves, fossils of viruses that once preyed on vertebrate hosts. Their remains are evidence of pyrrhic victories of sorts in many wars and arms races that have taken place between retroviruses and hosts. Most endogenous retroviruses have long been silenced by host cell restriction mechanisms. Associated with no phenotype, and under no selective pressure they become nonviable after millions of years of mutational drift, resulting in the accumulation of mutations and deletions in their coding sequences and control elements.
”
”
Michael G. Cordingley (Viruses: Agents of Evolutionary Invention)
“
The basis for the potential of all virolytic therapeutics resides in the exquisite selectivity they exhibit for infecting and killing cancer cells. The very nature of cancer cells makes them extremely susceptible to virus infection: they divide in an uncontrolled fashion and are metabolically hyperactive, thus they exhibit greatly diminished capacity for apoptosis and innate immune defense against virus infection. While normal cells reduce metabolic activity, activate apoptotic signaling pathways, and block cell cycle progression in response to virus infection, cancer cells remain oblivious. These are perfect conditions for the growth of viruses, particularly those that are attenuated for growth in normal cells. Consequently, oncolytic viruses are specific reagents that target cancer cells and spread from cell to cell within tumors. It has become apparent that the direct lytic effects of viruses on cancer cells is just one element of their therapeutic effects, the cytolisis of infected cells releases viral and cellular antigens that can provoke anti-tumor immune responses, and some cancer therapeutic viruses are engineered to deliver additional genes such as immune activators to augment these effects.
”
”
Michael G. Cordingley (Viruses: Agents of Evolutionary Invention)
“
Happiness is viral... Go infect someone!!
”
”
Nitya Prakash
“
Human error leads to viral terror in this Covid-19 Pandemic. That is, the infection rate has become more due to man-made mistakes.
”
”
Dr Sivakumar Gowder
“
In July 2021, the CDC found that fully vaccinated individuals who contract the infection have as high a viral load in their nasal passages as unvaccinated individuals who get infected. This means the vaccinated are just as infectious as the unvaccinated.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
Turmeric – a healing product that, for centuries, has been used to fight viral and bacterial infections. It has proven anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties.
”
”
Mary Jones (Herbal Antibiotics: What BIG Pharma Doesn’t Want You to Know - How to Pick and Use the 45 Most Powerful Herbal Antibiotics for Overcoming Any Ailment)
“
antibiotics have become a routine part of animal care, and the microbes in the animals’ guts become resistant to them. We have been worrying about family doctors ‘overprescribing’, or giving antibiotics for viral infections (when they’re needed only for bacterial infections) for a long time. But this accounts for a trivially small amount of antibiotic use.
”
”
Chris van Tulleken (Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food)
“
Perhaps most astonishing, in 2017, researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine showed that they could use physical inflammatory markers to predict suicide attempts. Simply activating an individual’s inflammatory immune response—as if they’re fighting off a viral infection—can trigger feelings of deep despair, and even suicidal thoughts.*
”
”
Donna Jackson Nakazawa (The Angel and the Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine)
“
serves to kill virally infected cells
”
”
Clett Erridge (Undergraduate Immunology: A textbook for tablets and other mobile devices)
“
almost universally recognized as a developmental disorder, multiply caused: genetic predisposition, pre- or postnatal viral infection, chromosomal damage, biological agents still unknown.
”
”
Clara Claiborne Park (Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter's Life with Autism)
“
When antigenic shift occurs, strains crop up bearing a totally new hemagglutinin spike, and sometimes also a new neuraminidase molecule, that most people have never encountered. As a result the virus may evade the antibody repertoire carried by all populations around the globe and trigger a pandemic. In today’s jet-linked world, people can spread a dangerous new virus from one part of the earth to another in a day. Such a drastic metamorphosis cannot occur through simple genetic mutation. The best-studied process leading to antigenic shift involves the mixing of two viral strains in one host cell, so that the genes packaged in new viral particles (and their corresponding proteins) come partly from one strain and partly from the other. This reassortment can take place because the genome, or genetic complement, of the influenza virus consists of eight discrete strands of RNA (each of which codes for one or two proteins). These strands are easily mixed and matched when new influenza A particles form in a dually infected cell. For instance, some influenza viruses infect both people and pigs. If a pig were somehow invaded by a human virus and by a strain that typically infected only birds, the pig might end up producing a hybrid strain that was like the human virus in every way except for displaying, say, a hemagglutinin molecule from the bird virus.
”
”
Scientific American (The Influenza Threat: Pandemic in the Making)
“
What specially excited him when his graduate student Daniel Linzer, who did the original experiments, showed him his results was that the rogue protein occurred in large quantities in the SV40-infected cells, suggesting it must be doing something important, and that it was interacting specifically with the viral oncogene, large T antigen. What’s more, his team had found exactly the same protein also in uninfected fetal cells.
”
”
Sue Armstrong (p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code)
“
An example of how a viral transmission is different than normal information transmission can be illustrated thusly: if information were spread in a memetic fashion, it would infect a subject, and, were the information's traits conducive to the information's survival, then the subject would accept the idea. This is strongly contrasted with information theory, in which the information is accepted based on how useful it is to an individual, e.g. the idea is accepted because it helps the subject survive if they accept it. Viruses, being obligate parasites, do not always help their host (in this case, the subject) survive.
”
”
Idav Kelly (The Leprechaun Delusion)
“
The infected human hosts were not producing viral material as much as before. The cells were wearing out and some had stopped manufacturing the virus. Newer victims were needed to continue the reproductive cycle of the virus.
”
”
Steven Ohliger (Influenza: Viral Virulence)
“
DENGUE FEVER (BREAKBONE FEVER) Dengue fever is a viral infection found throughout Central America. In Costa Rica outbreaks involving thousands of people occur every year. Dengue is transmitted by aedes mosquitoes, which often bite during the daytime and are usually found close to human habitations, often indoors. They breed primarily in artificial water containers such as jars, barrels, cans, plastic containers and discarded tires. Dengue is especially common in densely populated, urban environments. Dengue usually causes flulike symptoms including fever, muscle aches, joint pains, headaches, nausea and vomiting, often followed by a rash. Most cases resolve uneventfully in a few days. Severe cases usually occur in children under the age of 15 who are experiencing their second dengue infection. There is no treatment for dengue fever except taking analgesics such as acetaminophen/paracetamol (Tylenol) and drinking plenty of fluids. Severe cases may require hospitalization for intravenous fluids and supportive care. There is no vaccine. The key to prevention is taking insect-protection measures. HEPATITIS A Hepatitis A is the second-most-common travel-related infection (after traveler’s diarrhea). It’s a viral infection of the liver that is usually acquired by ingestion of contaminated water, food or ice, though it may also be acquired by direct contact with infected persons. Symptoms may include fever, malaise, jaundice, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Most cases resolve without complications, though hepatitis A occasionally causes severe liver damage. There is no treatment. The vaccine for hepatitis A is extremely safe and highly effective. You should get vaccinated before you go to Costa Rica. Because the safety of hepatitis A vaccine has not been established for pregnant women or children under the age of two, they should instead be given a gammaglobulin injection. LEISHMANIASIS Leishmaniasis occurs in the mountains and jungles of all Central American countries. The infection is transmitted by sand flies, which are about one-third the size of mosquitoes. Most cases occur in newly cleared forest or areas of secondary growth. The highest incidence is in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. It causes slow-growing ulcers over exposed parts of the body There is no vaccine. RABIES Rabies is a viral infection of the brain and spinal cord that is almost always fatal. The rabies virus is carried in the saliva of infected animals and is typically transmitted through an animal bite, though contamination of any break in the skin with infected saliva may result in rabies. Rabies occurs in all Central American countries. However, in Costa Rica only two cases have been reported over the last 30 years. TYPHOID Typhoid fever is caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated by a species of salmonella known as Salmonella typhi . Fever occurs in virtually all cases. Other symptoms may include headache, malaise, muscle aches, dizziness, loss of appetite, nausea and abdominal pain. A pretrip vaccination for typoid is recommended, but not required. It’s usually given orally, and is also available as an injection. TRAVELER’S DIARRHEA Tap water is safe and of a high quality in Costa Rica, but when you’re far off the beaten path it’s best to avoid tap water unless it has been boiled, filtered or chemically disinfected (iodine tablets). To prevent diarrhea, be wary of dairy products that might contain unpasteurized milk; and be highly selective when eating food from street vendors.
”
”
Lonely Planet (Discover Costa Rica (Lonely Planet Discover))
“
I start to see all the warning signs with a stinging sort of clarity. There were countless incidents that should have rung big, booming alarm bells in my head, and suddenly I’m furious with myself for being so blind, and for staying so long. I was just going through the motions like some broken automaton with a plastered-on smile. I would see friends and family enough that they didn’t worry, but behind the scenes I was spending days, sometimes weeks, unable to get out of bed, go to work, or live my life at all. I would convince myself I was ill, a viral infection perhaps, and tell myself, and Zak, that all I needed was rest.
”
”
Hazel Hayes (Out of Love)
“
Furthermore, some 52 studies—all available on NIH’s website—find that ordinary masking (using less than an N95 respirator) doesn’t reduce viral infection rates, even—surprisingly—in institutional settings like hospitals and surgical theaters.6,7 Moreover, some 25 additional studies attribute to masking a grim retinue of harms, including respiratory and immune system illnesses, as well as dermatological, dental, gastrointestinal, and psychological injuries.8 Fourteen of these studies are randomized, peer-reviewed placebo studies. There is no well-constructed study that persuasively suggests masks have convincing efficacy against COVID-19 that would justify accepting the harms associated with masks. Finally, retrospective studies on Dr. Fauci’s mask mandates confirm that they were bootless. “Regional analysis in the United States does not show that [mask] mandates had any effect on case rates, despite 93 percent compliance. Moreover, according to CDC data, 85 percent of people who contracted COVID-19 reported wearing a mask,”9 according to Gutentag.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
Dr. Fauci continued to insist that fully vaccinating the entire population was the only path to ending the pandemic. This assertion ignored the fact that COVID vaccines prevent neither transmission nor infection, nor reductions in viral loads. Overwhelming science has proven that vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are equally likely to spread disease. A September 2021 Israeli study demonstrating that natural immunity provides 27x better protection against COVID than the Pfizer vaccine is just one of 29 recently published peer-reviewed studies that vouch for the superiority of natural immunity.29,30 What, then, is motivating the fierce campaign to nevertheless coercively vaccinate the vaccine-resistant 25 percent, other than a strategy to eliminate the control group to hide the deaths and injuries?
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
Moreover, his detailed explanations to the public and to high-level health regulators indicate he genuinely believed that ordinary masks had little to no efficacy against viral infection. In a February 5, 2020 email, for example, he advised his putative former boss, President Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Sylvia Burwell, on the futility of masking the healthy.2 On February 17, he invoked the same rationale in an interview with USA Today: A mask is much more appropriate for someone who is infected and you’re trying to prevent them from infecting other people than it is in protecting you against infection. If you look at the masks that you buy in a drug store, the leakage around that doesn’t really do much to protect you. Now, in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask.3
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
Anton had tested negative for oral HPV, a viral infection linked to roughly seventy percent of cancers of the head and neck. He was only an occasional smoker. He was not an alcoholic. There was no history of cancer in his immediate family. Ergo, tannins.
”
”
Karin Slaughter (The Good Daughter (The Good Daughter, #1))
“
An infection or inflammation of the larynx is known as laryngitis (lar-in-JI .-tis). It commonly affects the vibrational qualities of the vocal folds. Hoarseness is the most familiar result. Mild cases are temporary and seldom serious. However, bacterial or viral infections of the epiglottis can be very dangerous. The resulting swelling may close the glottis and cause suffocation. This condition, acute epiglottitis (ep-ih-glot-TI .-tis), can develop rapidly after a bacterial infection of the throat. Young children are most likely to be affected. The Trachea The trachea (TRA .-ke.-uh), or windpipe, is a tough, flexible tube with a diameter of about 2.5 cm (1 in.) and a length of about 11 cm (4.33 in.) (Figure 23–6). The trachea begins anterior to vertebra C6 in a ligamentous attachment to the cricoid cartilage. It ends in the mediastinum, at the level of vertebra T5, where it branches to form the right and left main bronchi. The epithelium of the trachea is continuous with that of the larynx. The mucosa of the trachea resembles that of the nasal cavity and nasopharynx (look back at Figure 23–2a). The submucosa (sub-mu.-KO .-suh), a thick layer of connective tissue, surrounds the mucosa. The submucosa contains tracheal glands whose mucous secretions reach the tracheal lumen through a number of short ducts. The trachea contains 15–20 tracheal cartilages that stiffen the tracheal walls and protect the airway (see Figure 23–6a). They also prevent it from collapsing or overexpanding as pressure changes in the respiratory system. Each tracheal cartilage is C-shaped. The closed portion of the C protects the anterior and lateral surfaces of the trachea. The open portion of the C faces posteriorly, toward the esophagus (see Figure 23–6b). Because these cartilages are not continuous, the posterior tracheal wall can easily distort when you swallow, allowing large masses of food to pass through the esophagus. An elastic anular ligament and the trachealis, a band of smooth muscle, connect the ends of each tracheal cartilage (see Figure 23–6b). Contraction of the trachealis reduces the diameter of the trachea. This narrowing increases the tube’s resistance to airflow. The normal diameter of the trachea changes from moment to moment, primarily under the control of the sympathetic division of the ANS. Sympathetic stimulation increases the diameter of the trachea and makes it easier to move large volumes of air along the respiratory passageways.
”
”
Frederic H. Martini (Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology)
“
Viral capsid antigen (VCA)-IgM. The presence of these IgM antibodies indicates a recent infection with EBV. VCA-IgG. The presence of these IgG antibodies indicates a past infection. Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen (EBNA). These antibodies will develop 6 to 8 weeks after being infected initially with EBV, and will remain detectable for life.
”
”
Eric Osansky (Hashimoto's Triggers: Eliminate Your Thyroid Symptoms By Finding And Removing Your Specific Autoimmune Triggers)
“
Newer antivirals, termed neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs), include zanamivir (Relenza) and oseltamivir (Tamiflu). These drugs impair the release of newly formed viral particles from infected cells. When first introduced, the NAIs were trumpeted as the treatment of choice for the flu. Experience suggests this was an overstatement. Studies show that NAIs shorten the duration of flu by about one day only. Alongside vaccination, they do appear to help prevent complications in those at risk, but they also have drawbacks. Zanamivir is associated with bronchospasm (wheezing) in individuals with chronic lung problems, while oseltamivir is known to cause dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.
”
”
Andrew Weil (Mind Over Meds: Know When Drugs Are Necessary, When Alternatives Are Better and When to Let Your Body Heal on Its Own)
“
Stress has positive effects in the short term. The release of adrenaline in the stress response helps to fight both bacterial and viral infection in the body. It increases heart rate, sharpens cognitive function and dilates the pupils.
”
”
Julie Smith (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?)
“
I was struck, during COVID-19’s early months, that America’s Doctor, apparently preoccupied with his single vaccine solution, did little in the way of telling Americans how to bolster their immune response. He never took time during his daily White House briefings from March to May 2020 to instruct Americans to avoid tobacco (smoking and e-cigarettes/vaping double death rates from COVID); to get plenty of sunlight and to maintain adequate vitamin D levels (“Nearly 60 percent of patients with COVID-19 were vitamin D deficient upon hospitalization, with men in the advanced stages of COVID-19 pneumonia showing the greatest deficit”); or to diet, exercise, and lose weight (78 percent of Americans hospitalized for COVID-19 were overweight or obese). Quite the contrary, Dr. Fauci’s lockdowns caused Americans to gain an average of two pounds per month and to reduce their daily steps by 27 percent. He didn’t recommend avoiding sugar and soft drinks, processed foods, and chemical residues, all of which amplify inflammation, compromise immune response, and disrupt the gut biome which governs the immune system. During the centuries that science has fruitlessly sought remedies against coronavirus (aka the common cold), only zinc has repeatedly proven its efficacy in peer-reviewed studies. Zinc impedes viral replication, prophylaxing against colds and abbreviating their duration. The groaning shelves that commercial pharmacies devote to zinc-based cold remedies attest to its extraordinary efficacy. Yet Anthony Fauci never advised Americans to increase zinc uptake following exposure to infection.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
For example, a March 2021 study18 by Choudhury et al., found that “Ivermectin was found as a blocker of viral replicase, protease and human TMPRSS2, which could be the biophysical basis behind its antiviral efficiency.” The drug also reduces inflammation via multiple pathways, thereby protecting against organ damage. Ivermectin furthermore impairs the spike protein’s ability to attach to the ACE2 receptor on human cell membranes, preventing viral entry. Moreover, the drug prevents blood clots through binding to spike protein, and also deters the spike protein from binding to CD147 on red blood cells, which would otherwise trigger clumping. When patients take IVM before exposure, the drug prevents infection, which halts onward transmission, and helps protect the entire community.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
As the Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins observed, the lab leak theory might appear, at first blush, less plausible than a natural origin, unless you were to assemble the world’s largest repository of dangerous coronaviruses in a lab that’s located in a densely populated city, experiment with them in a lower-security facility with weak biological controls, and start infecting transgenic mammals as a way to evaluate the pathogenicity of the viral collection in the human immune system, all of which the Chinese did.
”
”
Scott Gottlieb (Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic)
“
Folic acid deficiency is associated with viral infection vulnerability.
”
”
Steven Magee (COVID Supplements)
“
They needed me only in misfortune,
To conjure heavenly powers.
So they could come and be saved
From a tumor in the lungs or a viral infection.
”
”
Czesław Miłosz (Second Space: New Poems)
“
When Mom says “bong,” she means her nebulizer. It turns water into vapor, and she huffs it all day like a singer breathing hot mist before a performance. Except Mom’s machine is handheld. I’m surprised she doesn’t carry it in a gun sling. But my mom is not just inhaling water. “Let’s get some colloidal silver in those lungs,” she says. Second to prayer, colloidal silver is Mom’s insurance policy on life. She makes her own, soaking two silver rods in a glass vat of water that sits next to her kitchen sink. I’ll let her explain it. This is from one of her emails telling me how to live forever: “I use distilled water and 99% pure silver rods. The rods are connected to a positive and negative charge (think of a jumper cable for your car) and they are immersed in the distilled water. Some people leave the rods in the water 2–4 hours. I leave mine in for 8–12 hours so my silver water is extra strength and powerful…I drink ¼ cup colloidal silver in a glass of water before bed, and have for years and years. RARELY am I ever sick. I take a bottle of colloidal silver on every trip (especially overseas) in case I pick up a stomach bug or am around anyone who is sick. I use it on wounds, use it for pink eye, ear infections, the flu, and more because it kills over 600 viruses and most bacteria, including MRSA. There are also studies that show the benefits of colloidal silver against cancer.” Every time I’m home, she gives me a bottle of the stuff to take back to Los Angeles. I, like a good millennial, googled its effectiveness. The scientific establishment seems to believe that colloidal silver does approximately nothing good, and in large quantities, some bad. Perhaps you’ve seen the viral meme of the old blue man? He consumed so much colloidal silver that his skin dyed blue from the inside. He looks like a Smurf with a white beard. Well, he looked like a Smurf. He’s dead. Maybe from something common like heart failure, but… When I told my mother this, she wouldn’t hear it. “I know it works. I’ve been using it for years. I don’t care what those articles say. I’ve read hundreds of articles about it.
”
”
Jedidiah Jenkins (Mother, Nature: A 5,000-Mile Journey to Discover if a Mother and Son Can Survive Their Differences)
“
Cole and others have found that a similar set of inflammation genes are expressed more strongly among people who experience chronic threat, regardless of whether those feelings emerge from feeling lonely or dealing with the stress of poverty or the diagnoses of disease. This happens because our cells interpret the experience of chronic psychological threat as a viscerally hostile situation akin to being physically attacked. When our internal conversations activate our threat system frequently over time, they send messages to our cells that trigger the expression of inflammation genes, which are meant to protect us in the short term but cause harm in the long term. At the same time, the cells carrying out normal daily functions, like warding off viral pathogens, are suppressed, opening the way for illnesses and infections. Cole calls this effect of chatter “death at the molecular level.
”
”
Ethan Kross (Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It)
“
However, binding of the S1 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 to β-amyloid also accelerates viral infection or virus entry into somatic cells, increasing the release of proinflammatory messengers, which could also be a reason for hippocampal damage and increased Alzheimer’s risk.
”
”
Michael Nehls (The Indoctrinated Brain: How to Successfully Fend Off the Global Attack on Your Mental Freedom)
“
Eye Flu in Children- How to Prevent and Treat
Conjunctivitis, eye flu or pink eye, is an inflammation of the conjunctiva. The conjunctiva is a transparent membrane covering the eyelid and a part of the eye. Usually, eye flu is caused in the monsoon season by viruses, bacteria, allergies, or other irritants. According to Dr Neeraj Kumar, MBBS, DCH, MD, Consultant-Paediatrician, eye flu is very common in children during the monsoon. Moreover, in the past few weeks, there has also been a spike in the eye flu cases. Hence, you must take necessary precautions to prevent this from spreading. If you notice any symptoms, visit the best child specialistdoctor in Chandigarh at the earliest.
What are the Symptoms of Eye Flu?
The most common symptom of eye flu is redness or inflammation of the eye. Other symptoms include:
Itching or burning sensation in the eye.
Watering of the eyes.
Sensitivity to light.
Discharge from eyes.
Sticking of eyelids together.
What are the Types of Conjunctivitis?
The best child specialist doctor in Chandigarh tells us that there are 3 main types of conjunctivitis:
Viral Conjunctivitis This type is caused by a viral infection including cold or flu. It is highly contagious and lasts up to 2 weeks.
Bacterial Conjunctivitis This type is caused by a bacterial infection. Bacterial conjunctivitis can also cause yellowishgreen discharge from the eye.
Allergic Conjunctivitis This type is caused by allergens including pollen or pet dander. It can occur any time of the year and is usually less contagious.
”
”
Dr Neeraj Kumar
“
The first signs would generally show up only on a blood test for the liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase (ALT for short). Rising levels of ALT are often the first clue that something is wrong with the liver, although they could also be a symptom of something else, such as a recent viral infection or a reaction to a medication.
”
”
Peter Attia (Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity)
“
Conjunctivitis: Types, Symptoms, Prevention & Treatment
Conjunctivitis, eye flu or pink eye, is an inflammation of the conjunctiva. The conjunctiva is a transparent membrane covering the eyelid and a part of the eye. Usually, eye flu is caused in the monsoon season by viruses, bacteria, allergies, or other irritants. According to Dr Sunny Narula, MBBS, MD, Consultant- Paediatrician and Neonatologist, eye flu is very common in children during the monsoon. Moreover, in the past few weeks, there has also been a spike in the eye flu cases. Hence, you must take necessary precautions to prevent this from spreading. If you notice any symptoms, visit the best pediatricians in Chandigarh for consultation at the earliest.
What are the Symptoms of Eye Flu?
The most common symptom of eye flu is redness or inflammation of the eye. Other symptoms include:
Itching or burning sensation in the eye.
Watering of the eyes.
Sensitivity to light.
Discharge from eyes.
Sticking of eyelids together.
What are the Types of Conjunctivitis?
The best child specialist doctor in Mohali tells us that there are 3 main types of conjunctivitis:
1.Viral Conjunctivitis
This type is caused by a viral infection including cold or flu. It is highly contagious and lasts up to 2 weeks.
2.Bacterial Conjunctivitis
This type is caused by a bacterial infection. Bacterial conjunctivitis can also cause yellowish-green discharge from the eye.
3.Allergic Conjunctivitis
This type is caused by allergens including pollen or pet dander. It can occur any time of the year and is usually less contagious.
How to Prevent Conjunctivitis?
Conjunctivitis can be prevented by taking the following measures:
Wash your hands frequently, especially before touching your eyes.
Avoid sharing pillows, towels, or other personal items.
Avoid touching your eyes with your hands.
Practice good hygiene, especially during cold or flu season.
Use protective eyewear when swimming or doing any activity with the potential risk of eye exposure.
How to Treat Conjunctivitis?
If you suspect eye flu, the best paediatrician in Mohali recommends the following at-home care tips:
1.Practice Good Hand Hygiene:
The hands of your children can be a potential carrier of viruses or bacteria. Inculcate good hand hygiene habits in them. Wash their hands frequently. Avoid sharing towels, eye drops, or any other item that can spread infection.
2.Warm or Cold Compress:
Apply a clean, warm compress or ice packs to closed eyes as it helps in soothing eyes and reducing swelling. You can use a soft, lint-free cloth soaked in warm water and place it gently over the closed eyelids for a few minutes. Repeat as needed throughout the day.
3.Clean Eyeglasses:
If your child wears glasses, make sure to clean them with mild soap and water to remove any potential contamination.
4.Artificial Tears:
Over-the-counter lubricating eye drops called artificial teas in general can keep eyes moist and prevent irritation. Discuss this with your pediatrician and do not self-medicate.
5.Avoid Eye Touching or Rubbing:
Children can be easily frustrated with the constant eye irritation. They might find comfort in rubbing their eyes. This, however, can further irritate the conjunctiva and spread the infection to the other eye or other people around. Hence, make sure that your child does not touch the infected eye at all.
”
”
Dr. Sunny Narula
“
Long term malnutrition can be the outcome of a viral infection.
”
”
Steven Magee (Long COVID Supplements)
“
Sleeping less than 7 hours a night triples your risk of viral infection. On the other hand, if you get extra rest when you’re sick, you’ll recuperate more quickly. Sleeping for just 5 hours per night
”
”
Maria Noel Groves (Body into Balance: An Herbal Guide to Holistic Self-Care)
“
Calm down.” Trying to do so myself. “Chance doesn’t have all the pieces yet. He knows Coop was infected with XPB-19, and he knows we have the wolfdog. But that’s it.” “You said yet,” Hi pointed out. “That implies he’ll put it together eventually.” Deep breath. “Chance suspects we caught the supervirus. And given what he’s witnessed over the last year, I think he believes it affected us somehow. But he has no idea how,” I added quickly. “He doesn’t know the whole truth. And, most importantly, he can’t prove anything, or tell anyone. Not without exposing Candela’s involvement with illegal experiments. Which he obviously won’t do.” “We’re supposed to trust Chance freaking Claybourne
”
”
Kathy Reichs (Exposure: A Virals Novel)
“
Helen was suffering from the early stages of cerebral atrophy, a degenerative shrinkage of the brain tissues that can be symptomatic of a variety of ills, including the viral infection that had caused her to be rushed home from Korea and led to full-blown syphilis. Alcohol and depressants such as tranquilizers only aggravate symptoms,
”
”
Joe Sharkey (Death Sentence: The Inside Story of the John List Murders)
“
Almost like a viral infection that rewires a brain, changes emotions, even alters the lens through which a person sees the world.
”
”
A.G. Riddle (Genome (The Extinction Files, #2))