Sanitized Hands

Hand washing is the key to survival this flu season.

So what do you wash your hands with? Soap and water is said to be the best. Hand sanitizers are hanging on walls in the hospitals, stores, even the gym.

The hand sanitizer business is so good and selling so well that store shelves are sometimes empty.

So what is the best product? What are the chemicals in them and what bacteria and virus do they actually kill. There are literally hundreds of scientific articles describing the killing actions of essential oils against bacteria, virus and mold.

The herbs and essential oils are the most natural RX since they contain the phytomolecules that plants make to protect themselves.

So I prefer the essential oils, especially because they work well and partially they do not leave a bad taste in my mouth. Have you ever noticed the metallic taste in your mouth after your hands absorb the chemicals from a hand sanitizer. Hand to tongue circulation time is about 90 seconds. Check it out.

Keep washing both hands.

BMC Complement Altern Med. 2010 Nov 15;10:69.

Protective essential oil attenuates influenza virus infection: an in vitro study in MDCK cells.       (AKA Swine Flu virus).

Wu S, Patel KB, Booth LJ, Metcalf JP, Lin HK, Wu W.

Source

Department of Respiratory Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215006, PR China.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Influenza is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The recent pandemic of a novel H1N1 influenza virus has stressed the importance of the search for effective treatments for this disease. Essential oils from aromatic plants have been used for a wide variety of applications, such as personal hygiene, therapeutic massage and even medical practice. In this paper, we investigate the potential role of an essential oil in antiviral activity.

METHODS:

We studied a commercial essential oil blend, On Guard™, and evaluated its ability in modulating influenza virus, A/PR8/34 (PR8), infection in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. Influenza virus was first incubated with the essential oil and infectivity in MDCK cells was quantified by fluorescent focus assay (FFA). In order to determine the mechanism of effects of essential oil in viral infection inhibition, we measured hemagglutination (HA) activity, binding and internalization of untreated and oil-treated virus in MDCK cells by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy. In addition, the effect of oil treatment on viral transcription and translation were assayed by relative end-point RT-PCR and western blot analysis.

RESULTS:

Influenza virus infectivity was suppressed by essential oil treatment in a dose-dependent manner; the number of nascent viral particles released from MDCK cells was reduced by 90% and by 40% when virus was treated with 1:4,000 and 1:6,000 dilutions of the oil, respectively. Oil treatment of the virus also decreased direct infection of the cells as the number of infected MDCK cells decreased by 90% and 45% when virus was treated with 1:2,000 and 1:3,000 dilutions of the oil, respectively. This was not due to a decrease in HA activity, as HA was preserved despite oil treatment. In addition, oil treatment did not affect virus binding or internalization in MDCK cells. These effects did not appear to be due to cytotoxicity of the oil as MDCK cell viability was only seen with concentrations of oil that were 2 to 6 times greater than the doses that inhibited viral infectivity. RT-PCR and western blotting demonstrated that oil treatment of the virus inhibited viral NP and NS1 protein, but not mRNA expression.

CONCLUSIONS:

An essential oil blend significantly attenuates influenza virus PR8 infectivity in vitro without affecting viral binding or cellular internalization in MDCK cells. Oil treated virus continued to express viral mRNAs but had minimal expression of viral proteins, suggesting that the antiviral effect may be due to inhibition of viral protein translation.

 Buy On Guard from DoTERRA

James Geiger MD

www.oilmd.com

PS

My book The Sweet Smell of Success documents the scientific references for essential oils.

Get an autographed copy here.