Manuka Honey, the Best Anti-influenza Functional Food

By Kyle J. Norton

Honey may have a profound effect in reducing the risk and treatment of influenza, some scientists suggested.

Influenza, also known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by an influenza virus.

There are 3 types of flu influenza: A, B, and C. the influenza virus  A and B are considered seasonal flu that causes sniffling, aching, coughing, and running and stuffy nose and fever to over 20% of general population.

Influenza virus types C tends to cause mild upper respiratory infections, similar to those of cold.

Healthy individuals who have influenza are usually recovered within one week.

However, people with immature and weakened immune system such as young children under age 5, adults older than age 65 residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, chronic illnesses, such as asthma, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease and diabetes are not only  associated with the risk of influenza but also increase the risk of influenza deadly complication.

Pregnant women and women up to two weeks postpartum due to change of immune system and other organs have been found to make a woman more prone to influenza and influenza complications.

Some researchers also suggested that obese people are also at a higher risk of the onset of influenza.

Dr. Green WD, the lead author at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggested that obese individual associated with the impairment of the adaptive immune response at substantial risk of influenza.

The doctor team in the study " Obesity Impairs the Adaptive Immune Response to Influenza Virus" wrote, "Given the dramatic rise in obesity over the past few decades, this increased risk for influenza infection poses a serious public health threat because nearly 500 million adults and children worldwide are classified as obese".

"Obesity impairs the immune response to influenza and influenza vaccination through alterations of the cellular immune system. Compared with vaccinated healthy-weight adults, vaccinated obese adults have twice the risk of influenza or influenza-like illness despite equal serological response to vaccination".

Most common symptoms of influenza are high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains, headache, coughing, sneezing, and persistent fatigue.

Honey is the miraculous product made by bees using nectar from flowers.

The rich golden liquid It is considered one of healthy sweet food for replacing the use of white sugar and artificial sweetener by many people.

On finding a natural ingredient and whole food for the prevention and treatment of influenza, researchers at the joint study led by the Nagasaki University the antiviral activities of honey samples were evaluated using MDCK cells.

Application of Manuka honey efficiently inhibited influenza virus replication which is related to its virucidal effects.

Manuka honey at the dose of 3.13 mg/mL also improved the function of zanamivir or oseltamivir by reducing the maximum concentration of effectiveness to nearly 1/1000th  for their single use.

Dr.Watanabe K, the lead scientist said, "honey, in general, and particularly Manuka honey, has potent inhibitory activity against the influenza virus, demonstrating a potential medicinal value.

Moreover, by the re-examining the anti-influenza effect of Luatang honey, researchers suspected that the efficacy may be associated with the presence of the methylglyoxal (MGO), a key component of Manuka honey.

By evaluating the anti-influenza viral activity of MGO and its potential in combination treatments with neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors, researchers found that
* Injection of MGO inhibited influenza virus A/WSN/33 replication 50% inhibitory concentration = 240 ± 190 μM; 50% cytotoxic concentration = 1.4 ± 0.4 mM; selective index (SI) = 5.8, which is related to its virucidal effects.

* MGO exerted a promising activity against various influenza strains.

* MGO increases the effect of NA inhibitors by decreasing the to the ∼1/100(th) of their single usage.

* MGO also demonstrates a synergistic effect with NA inhibitor against the oseltamivir-resistant virus.

Taken altogether, Luatang honey processed bioactive compound methylglyoxal (MGO) may be considered a functional food for the prevention and combined with primary therapy for the treatment of influenza with no side effects, pending to a larger and multi=centers human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Anti-influenza viral effects of honey in vitro: potent high activity of manuka honey by Watanabe K1, Rahmasari R1, Matsunaga A1, Haruyama T2, Kobayashi N3.(PubMed)
(2) In vitro evaluation of synergistic inhibitory effects of neuraminidase inhibitors and methylglyoxal against influenza virus infection by Charyasriwong S1, Watanabe K1, Rahmasari R1, Matsunaga A1, Haruyama T2, Kobayashi N3. (PubMed)
(3) Obesity Impairs the Adaptive Immune Response to Influenza Virus by Green WD1, Beck MA. (PubMed).