Flu Season Is Here: Can Resveratrol Help?

The dreaded flu season is here, let's talk about protecting ourselves from two weeks of sore backs, fevers, and dry coughs. Flu Prevention Tips Below!

The CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provided the following staggering flu facts:

• More than 200,000 people are hospitalized from the flu each year.
• 20,000 of those hospitalized are children under the age of 5.
• 36,000 people die from flu.

So the flu isn't just an achy back and fever, it's also potentially life threatening!

So what is the flu?

Many people confuse the flu with just another type of cold, but it's not, the flu can be much more serious.  The flu is caused by the influenza virus and begins in our respiratory tract.  The respiratory tract is where the virus begins to replicate and build in strength.  It is then passed along into our bloodstreams which is when you will start to feel flu like symptoms such as body aches, fever, coughing, and sneezing.

The flu can become even more dangerous due to the weakening of your immune system caused by the virus.  This leaves you susceptible to more serious illnesses such as pneumonia and the worsening of preexisting conditions.

Resveratrol and the Flu

I was surprised to learn there haven't been any recently published studies using resveratrol to prevent the flu.  After a promising study was completed in May 2005, by the Institute of Microbiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, it seems a follow up study has not been published.  In the report Dr. Anna Teresa Palamara was quoted as saying, "Resveratrol merits further investigation as a potential weapon for combating the growing threat of influenza."

After both in-vivo and in-vitro studies positive findings were found.  In mice treated with resveratrol after inoculation of the influenza A virus there was a 40% increase in survival rate compared to the placebo group.  Further, after 6 days the amount of infection present was 98% lower then non-resveratrol treated mice.