thanks for all the information!
(I remember hearing that the reason cranberry juice prevented bladder infections is that the Vitamin C created a hostile environment for the bacteria so they couldn’t establish themselves and grow. In theory blueberries have the same effect. Interestingly I never heard the claim for orange juice which is full of vitamin C.)
Vitamins and minerals are a completely different paradigm, but an important one.
To start off, the most important immune system vitamin is actually not a vitamin, but a hormone, vitamin D. It has several direct actions against pathogens, such as a slightly acidic breakdown product that erodes the viral coat in the bloodstream. But it also opens up several immune system pathways which makes the response to pathogens more effective, *and* it is also an “ACE inhibitor”, which moderates the immune system to keep it from overreacting. Amazing stuff.
Importantly, a small number of people are sensitive to as little as 3,000 IU supplements, and another small number of people cannot absorb supplements to increase their serum Vitamin D levels. Typically, people can consume as much as 15,000 IU for two to three weeks before even the first indication of too much (which is fixing too much calcium.)
Some are now recommending 2-3 days of 15,000 IU at the first indication of colds and flu, reduced to 5,000 IU for the rest of the duration.
A 15 minute whole body sunlight exposure can provide a whopping 30,000 IU, produced in the skin, but it can take 2-3 days to get into the blood to do its work, whereas supplements are much faster.
Ironically, and with no clear explanation, people who live in Arizona have unusually *low* serum vitamin D levels. So living in a normally sunny climate may not be enough.
Next up is Vitamin C, which was puzzling for a long time because it should help more than it does, but it has some problems, for which work-arounds have been developed.
To start with, typically Vitamin C is acidic, and a large dose may cause diarrhea. The work around to this was a version of Vitamin C that was buffered. But the next problem is that Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin, which means absorbed quickly and excreted quickly, likely too quickly to do as much good as it should in the body.
So the work around for this was to create a fat soluble Vitamin C, that would stay in the body much longer, and get into the body fat where it can do its work. Here is a video on how to make homemade fat soluble Vitamin C:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeU—wadrMY
Next up are the anti-pathogenic minerals: usually Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Silver, Potassium, Sodium, and Selenium.
These either directly kill pathogens, or inhibit their reproduction. They do take some finesse, however.
For example, Selenium under many circumstances can be very deadly. But at the same time, a small amount can both protect the body from some potentially serious side effects from Vitamin E. It can also provide an as yet unexplained but potent protection to the lungs, from pathogens, toxins, and even cancer.
Sodium, in the form of common table salt, sodium chloride, is superb as a treatment for most oral problems and mucous membranes, as a warm, salty gargle. Sodium bicarbonate, baking soda (pH 9), is deadly to many oral bacteria within seconds, so should be used on alternate days instead of toothpaste.
Silver and Zinc, when uptaken by the mucous membranes, strongly inhibits pathogenic reproduction, but ordinary supplements are not readily absorbed by the mucous membranes. In the case of Zinc, Cold-Eeze lozenges and Zicam oral spray have patented versions of forms of zinc that are readily absorbed, so have the valued FDA authority to say “proven to reduce severity and duration of the common cold.”
Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium all inhibit pathogens by interfering with their osmotic processes, either sucking moisture out of them or forcing too much into them.