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American researchers have conducted a long term study on the Chinese herb astragalus root (黃芪) and found that it contains a chemical substance called TAT2 that can effectively suppress the cell division of the aids virus.

The immune system undergoes a great deal of cell division as part of its function. When a virus enters the body, the killer CD8 T-cells reacts by dividing itself to create a replica to fight off the enemy. However with HIV, the T-cells cannot replicate itself forever to totally clean the HIV from the body immune system.

The traditional method of treating HIV used HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy), which includes a combination of three to four drugs taken to lower the level of HIV in the body and allow the immune system to recover from the damage. But HAART is not easily tolerated by some patients and the cost of the drugs are expensive.

The UCLA AIDS Institute recently published the results of a study that identified the chemical called TAT2 in plants such as astragalus used in traditional Chinese medicine therapy which has the effect of enhancing the replication ability for the T-cells. The tests also found that TAT2 produces substances called chemokines and cytokines that inhibits HIV replication.

The astragalus herb has the potential to act as a complimentary or even replacement therapy for HAART to become the primary method of curing HIV. In addition, the researchers pointed out that because TAT2 enhances cell replication, it has the added benefit of strengthening the immune system and defending against other viral infections associated with chronic diseases and aging.

Herbal Medicine antiretroviral, astragalus, chemkines, hiv, immunity, medicine, tat2, tcm, ucla, virus

Catching a cold is a very disturbing sickness for most people. Some people say that you can increase the healing process from a cold by eating spicy food that speeds up the removal of nasal discharge and phlegm. On the other hand, the opposing argument thinks that you should avoid spicy food that increases heat (火氣) in the body system. So with these two different ideals, which one is correct?

Nasal discharge and phlegm is not really a bad thing

During a cold, the respiratory passage forms small amounts of nasal discharge and phlegm that can cause an unpleasant feeling. Most people probably think that those are "bad" for the body and tries to clear them as soon as possible.

The common believe is that spicy food increases the healing process by increasing the production of excretions in the respiratory passage. As such, the rumours spreading around Internet forums claims that pungent foods such as vinegar, ginger, chilli pepper, onion, can help relieve cold symptoms. But in FACT, nasal discharge and phlegm are not enemies of the body. Without them, our life span will be much shorter.

When the walls of the respiratory passage touches a foreign object, it produces a sticky substance which wraps around the object and then increases the movement in the passage to discharge the foreign object.

Getting a cold or flu often results in inflammation in the respiratory passage. Nasal discharge and phlegm in this case helps to clear the virus, bacteria, waste and dead cells arising from the inflammation.

Of course, eating spicy food can also stimulate the body to produce excretions and increase passage movement. However, there is no scientific evidence suggesting that doing so can increase the healing process from a cold.

Inhaling steam cannot kill off viruses

Cold and flu is caused by virus infections, and viruses infections are occuring in body cells. Flu virus does not exist in the walls of the respiratory passage, but rather they attack the cell tissues underneath the passage to infect the body.

The intake of steam or spicy food can probably promote the production of sticky substances, but it will not have an affect on the flu virus that have already invaded deep inside the body. We can only rely on the body immune system to eliminate the virus; increasing the movement of only one organ in the body has little impact on how the body reacts to the virus infection.

Inhaling steam has been a folk remedy in the western culture. Researchers have studied patients who inhale steam to increase the temperature of the nostril to 43 degrees celsius. They concluded that the virus density in the respiratory passage did not decrease, and so inhaling steam cannot kill off virus infections.

There exists numerous rumours such as these that brought many misunderstandings regarding the cause and effect of remedies.

Some have recognized the behaviour of the body to sweat when recovering from a fever during a flu infection. And they have hastily concluded that exercising and sweating helps to promote healing from a flu.

These misconceptions often neglect to note that sweating is an effect of fever recovery, and not the cause of healing from fever and/or flu.

Related herbal products

• Andrographis-400
• Bi Min Qing Wan (Nasal Allergy Pill)

Medical News cold, flu, inflammation, nasal, phlegm, pungent, spicy, vinegar, virus