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The West Virginia Bureau for Public Health has reported an outbreak of HSV-1 in the form of herpes called herpes gladiatorum among several young wrestlers who took part in high school wrestling tournaments during February 2011.
This strain of herpes takes its name from the fact that it is common among wrestlers and participants in contact sports such as judo and rugby football. Authorities in West Virginia are urging schools to take extra precautions to limit the spread of the disease, but symptoms, which generally comprise lesions on the head and neck but can also include fever and headache, may not manifest themselves for fourteen days or so and as with other forms of herpes, an infected person may remain symptom free.
The disease was reported in High School wrestling as long ago as 1989, when 60 wrestlers from a group of 175 (34%) were found to be infected with the virus.
Precautionary measures are much the same as for oral herpes, and clearly people manifesting symptoms should not engage in contact sports whilst displaying lesions. However the very nature of contact sports can mean that herpes lesions are not recognised as such and are dismissed as ‘normal’ minor sporting injuries.
School wrestling coach Richard Harper from Charleston, West Virginia says that trying to deal with the disease is a constant battle. He told WSAZ.com, “There are so many different things out there, so many different ways of catching it, that I’m not sure what the safest way is to prevent it.”
Paris based Cellectis therapeutics announced last January that a team of scientists had successfully used its Meganucleases to block an HSV-1 herpes infection. This is the first proof that meganucleses can be used to prevent viral infection.
The implication of this new technique for preventing the spread of virus has the potential to revolutionize research into a herpes vaccine.
Dr Marc Labetoulle of CNRS (French National Center for Medical Research) a participating partner, said: “The results published in Molecular Therapy are very exciting since they open new fields of research for fighting HSV recurrent infections.”
Celletics seems to be faced with some patent disputes regarding Meganucleases with another company, Precison though. I hope this will not hinder their progress in this very interesting and promising treatment research.
 Image via Wikipedia
The Journal of Biological chemistry reports that recent research into lectins found in natural foodstuffs has discovered that these natural proteins that bind to sugars can also bind to infected cells in the body. Lectins extracted from bananas have been found to bind to cells infected with HIV, for example. This is also true of pine cone seed lectins, which additionally appear to have the effect of inhibiting HIV transmission.
Research carried out as long as fifteen years* earlier by an Italian team of scientists from a Rome university had concluded that no less than eleven lectins extracted from natural foodstuffs such as wheat germ and soybean appeared to be effective against the HSV-1 herpes virus as well as other diseases such as rubella and rabies.
*Research in Virology, May-June 1995
In terms of medical research, a fifteen year interval may not be too long, but that’s not quite how it seems when you’re waiting for that elusive herpes cure. You could wait patiently for another fifteen years hoping for a breakthrough – or you could help yourself to keep you and your partner free from herpes by reading Herpes Antidote.
Why is food so much cheaper today than it was in our grandparents’ time? Is it because agriculture is automated and less labor intensive? Or because lots of food is purchased and sold by supermarkets with big purchasing power to keep prices low while remaining competitive?
All the above is true. But there is another, very important factor and that is chemicals.
Pesticides, antibiotics, fungicides and such may have their place in food production. But for me that place is certainly not inside my body!
Toxic pesticides and other chemicals in food can hinder your body’s natural fight against disease and may cause hormonal imbalance. That could lead to more herpes outbreaks over time.
That’s why I recommend you consider switching to organically produced food. It’s a little more expensive, but what price good health?
Chickens are often kept in inhumane conditions, with no room to move. That is a recipe for breeding disease into the birds and into hens’ eggs. So chicken food is treated with antibiotic to minimize disease.
Such chickens and their eggs are often heavily infected with salmonella and the meat and eggs can also carry residual traces of antibiotic. By switching to organic, free-range produce you are not only potentially improving your own health, but you’re helping to make the chickens’ lives better, too.
Much of the meat product we eat comes from animals treated in much the same way as chickens; kept in close proximity, bred for weight and meat yield and therefore not given enough exercise and fed with antibiotics, traces of which can stay in the meat after the animal is slaughtered and the meat cooked.
Vegetables and fruit, too, can carry traces of pesticides and other chemicals. Better to obtain good organic produce whenever possible, but at least fruit and vegetables can be thoroughly washed and peeled before eating.
A wholly organic diet is best for your health, but if your budget is limited, consider switching to organic meat, poultry and eggs as a starting point.
In today’s consumer society it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that much of the food we eat is processed, artificially preserved and convenience packaged using man-made materials.
It may be good to know that your food is ‘hygienically’ packaged and because of treatment with pesticides and other chemicals will last a long time and not contain any nasty bugs…..can you feel a ‘but’ coming on?
The ‘but’ concerns the use of chemicals which firstly can contaminate our food and secondly, via waste, can end up in our waterways further contaminating our diet. In Britain, for example, it has been found that up to half of all river fish are producing both sperm and eggs due to the ingestion of hormonally supercharged waste products.
The list of potentially harmful chemical products is a long one. For example, chemicals such as phthalates, found in detergents, deodorants and much food packaging are capable of reducing sperm count in males and disrupting the normal testicular descent of male fetuses. Fluoride, found in the US water supply can itself cause hormonal disruption, lower fertility rates and low sperm count.
If you are a woman who suffers from herpes, your immune system, compromised during outbreaks, may be further susceptible to unwanted hormonal interference from these unwanted intruders. You can’t avoid all food and all packaging, but you can take a few steps to minimize the risk of hormonal imbalance.
Try to eat as much organically produced food as possible.
Eat as much raw, fresh food as you can.
Use natural soaps, antiperspirants and cosmetics
Replace Teflon coated kitchenware with natural ceramic or glass cookware.
Eat healthy. Stay safe!
In today’s consumer society it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that much of the food we eat is processed, artificially preserved and convenience packaged using man-made materials.
It may be good to know that your food is ‘hygienically’ packaged and because of treatment with pesticides and other chemicals will last a long time and not contain any nasty bugs…..can you feel a ‘but’ coming on?
The ‘but’ concerns the use of chemicals which firstly can contaminate our food and secondly, via waste, can end up in our waterways further contaminating our diet. In Britain, for example, it has been found that up to half of all river fish are producing both sperm and eggs due to the ingestion of hormonally supercharged waste products.
The list of potentially harmful chemical products is a long one. For example, chemicals such as phthalates, found in detergents, deodorants and much food packaging are capable of reducing sperm count in males and disrupting the normal testicular descent of male fetuses. Fluoride, found in the US water supply can itself cause hormonal disruption, lower fertility rates and low sperm count.
If you are a woman who suffers from herpes, your immune system, compromised during outbreaks, may be further susceptible to unwanted hormonal interference from these unwanted intruders. You can’t avoid all food and all packaging, but you can take a few steps to minimize the risk of hormonal imbalance.
Try to eat as much organically produced food as possible.
Eat as much raw, fresh food as you can.
Use natural soaps, antiperspirants and cosmetics
Replace Teflon coated kitchenware with natural ceramic or glass cookware.
Eat healthy. Stay safe!
I want to say something about cytomegalovirus, more commonly known as CMV. It’s a common virus, part of the herpes family. Once it is in your body it is there for life.
In healthy adults and children, the virus has no harmful effects. If you have it you probably don’t know anything about it and never will. So should you be concerned? Maybe and maybe not, but you should most certainly be aware.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says the virus affects about one in every 150 children born in the USA. Of those, one in five will have permanent health problems.
How so, if the virus has no effect on healthy children? Because what the CDC doesn’t mention is that when the virus infects a woman during pregnancy, her child runs a risk of severe disability.
A simple blood test could establish whether a pregnant woman is infected with CMV, yet the procedure is not standard and most women are unaware of any danger and have not heard of the virus.
Dr Tom Bass, neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, Norfolk, VA sees between six and eight cases each year. He says: “part of the impetus for not having universal screening is that the treatment is very poor. You’re not going to reverse the devastating brain effects even if you clear the virus.”
Polly Lynne Matthews is regional president of a virtual support group, trying to get the message to mothers about the potential dangers of CMV infection via social media such as Facebook.
Her son, Liam was born deaf and with cerebral palsy after she contracted the virus during pregnancy. She says: “When health professionals say it’s rare, I want to scream it from the rooftops.” She adds: “If someone had only told me. They take enough blood – just ask for one more test. People are suffering because they don’t know about it.”
Who to trust on vaccines?
In 2009, The Federal Drug Advisory board (FDA) issued an advisory update on the H1N1 influenza virus in which it clearly identified five groups most at risk from death from swine flu. Leading those five groups was pregnant women.
The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) advised: “A pregnant woman who gets any type of flu has a greater chance for serious health problems.” …”pregnant women with 2009 H1N1 flu are more likely to be admitted to hospitals.” “Flu shots have not been shown to cause harm to pregnant women or their babies.”
In spite of the advice given by the FDA and CDC, many pregnant women chose not to risk having the inoculation, not trusting official advice.
Writing in Natural News, Tony Isaacs implies that the CDC is blatantly lying about the inoculation. He cites the results of a survey commissioned by the National Coalition of Organized Women (NCOW) which estimates that the H1N1 shot may have contributed to as many as 3,587 cases of miscarriage and still births.
NCOW claims that data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) back up their claim, but a search of the database gives vastly different results.
It’s time someone came clean and published reliable and accurate figures before we’re threatened again with a possible flu pandemic. Either we’re more likely to suffer because of the complaint or we’re more likely to suffer because of the vaccine. We need to know the unvarnished truth.
Let us all hope this dilemma is well and truly solved once a herpes vaccine is found.
If you’re aged over sixteen, you may well remember having chickenpox as a child. Or maybe you remember an older sibling having the disease.
Before 1995, chickenpox was considered a minor, if somewhat distressing disease. Most children caught it at some stage and made a full and lasting recovery.
Then, in 1995, a vaccine created by Merck was licensed by the FDA. This vaccine is now given to most children, with the result that they are not infected with chickenpox, part of the herpes family of diseases, and do not suffer the unsightly blisters and incessant itching you may recall.
So that’s good news, right? Well maybe not. Chickenpox has a very nasty relative called shingles, which tends to affect adults. The relationship between chickenpox and shingles (herpes zoster) is important.
When you contract chickenpox as a child, your immune system is fortified against both chickenpox (it is very unusual to contract the disease twice) and shingles. So when you later come into contact with a child who has chickenpox, your immune system tends to be boosted – giving you better protection against shingles.
But wait. With most children now receiving the chickenpox vaccine, there is less and less chance of older children and adults coming into contact with chickenpox and so protecting themselves against shingles.
As the chickenpox vaccination does not last for ever, older people are contracting chickenpox and the incidence of shingles is increasing year on year and threatening to reach epidemic proportions.
Shingles is a more serious, more painful disease than chickenpox, and can kill elderly patients. What is more, shingles is becoming more common in young people who have not had chickenpox. And adults are more likely to contract chickenpox (once their immunization fades) which can be far more serious in adults than in children.
So what appeared to be a great idea now seems the opposite.
Just how keen are we to develop vaccines to immunize against HSV-1 and HSV-2 and have we really thought it through? Food for thought.
Research from Florida State University has hailed the watermelon as the latest “super fruit” by showing how selected amino acids contained in the fruit can improve the body’s arterial flow and ward off hypertension.
Watermelon, it seems, is rich in L-citrulline which, when processed by the body, produces L-arginine, known to produce nitric oxide in the blood. Nitric oxide, in turn, maintains healthy blood pressure without producing unwanted side-effects.
According to Arturo Figueroa, co-author of the study, watermelon is the richest edible source of L-citrulline.
Lysine is commonly used in the treatment of herpes. Opinions differ, but certain nutritional scientists argue that lysine and arginine taken together may result in mutually competing properties canceling out the possible benefit produced by either substance.
It follows, therefore, that if prolonged use of Lysine in the treatment of herpes negates the effect of arginine, then it could possibly have the reverse effect on blood pressure.
Water melon may then offset long-term lysine intake side-effects.
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