The Swine Flu & Anti-H1N1 Soup

Prevention | Dr. Nishant Rao | April 27, 2009 at 11:54 pm

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If you turn on your TV it would appear that there is an apocalyptic event starting with swine in Mexico.  Swine flu itself is not an uncommon occurrence, people with direct contact to pigs often have antibodies to H1N1 (the specific strain of this swine influenza virus).

The big questions:  Why have there been deaths in Mexico and not the U.S.?Why did the strain kill young adults (as a pose to the more susceptible young and elderly).  This is what has the CDC on a code red along with the fact that they do not have a vaccine, and 2 out of the 4 commonly used anti viral drugs are not effective against this strain.

Cause for concern or not, here are some simple precautions which will only do you a lot of good anyway.

1.  Wash your hands frequently, don’t rub your eyes and have children especially avoid putting their hands in their mouths.  If you are accustomed to greeting with an exchange of kisses, and extensive handshaking – don’t.  CDC has recently confirmed human to human spread.

2. Pack, and I mean seriously pack your diet with these easy to get anti viral foods;  Garlic, thyme, shiitake mushrooms and ginger.  Not a sprinkle of thyme from a year old dried up jar.  Try a bushel of the stuff in a stew, don’t be shy.  Start now to give your immune system time to ramp up.

3.  Don’t panic.  There is no reason to at this time, and doing so will only lower your immune system, and stress you out – which will then really crash your immune system.  Remember, everyone in the U.S. who contracted this has recovered and only 1 person has been hospitalized.  Deep breath.

4.  Find a Naturopath near you , or acupuncturist and book an appointment to work on specific preventative medicine for your body using botanical herbs, homeopathy and a number of immune boosting treatments.  Anti-viral medicine is a realm where alternative medicine really shines as there are millions of complex biochemicals which when working synergistically with each other can knock influenza out cold (pun intended).

5.  Don’t fly to Mexico…

Here are a couple of recipe ideas for those anti-viral nutrients.

Anti H1N1 Soup for 2

1 handful dry shiitake mushrooms, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 4 cloves garlic thinly sliced, 1 onion thinly sliced, 1 small piece ginger thinly sliced, 3 cups pork stock (lol kidding, this is hard to find – any stock will do), 4 glugs of sake, 2 spring onions.

Soak the mushrooms in boiling water until tender.  Remove the soaking liquid.  Saute the mushrooms, onions and garlic in a tablespoon of oil until tender but not browned.  Add the stock and the ginger and simmer on low heat for about ten minutes. Season to taste and just before serving add the sake and spring onions.

Anti-H1N1 Raw Thyme Pasta

1 packet spaghetti, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, 2 cloves garlic sliced, half a bunch thyme washed and picked, 1 tablespoon Parmigiano

Boil the pasta (or gluten free variety) in salted water.  Meanwhile heat the oil in a pan and toast the breadcrumbs until golden brown.  Turn off the heat and add the garlic, thyme, salt and Parmigiano.  When the pasta is ready, toss with the mixture, saving a little extra mixture for the top.  You could easily add in shiitake mushrooms in this – loads and loads of them.

Happy immunity

Dr. Nishant Rao has a traveling medical practice through Six Senses Spas through South East Asia and The Maldives. His passion is in physical medicine treating chronic pain and sports injuries. He is a co-founder of WellWire.com.

Tags: antiviral, CDC, flu, H1N1, influenza, swine flu