Keeping Kids On Their Feet During Cold and Flu Season
Preventing children from getting sick and helping them get better quickly is a seemingly impossible task. However, researchers have identified powerful properties of blackcurrant extracts and several essential vitamins and minerals that can help kids resist and fight illness from bugs and germs. These help by strengthening the body’s natural defenses (the immune system) and by directly fighting against harmful pathogens.
Fighting Illness with the Power of Blackcurrants and Several Essential Vitamins and Minerals
By strengthening the natural immune system, children may not only recover faster from illnesses but may avoid catching illness in the first place! The immune boosting effects of Vitamins A, C, E, B6 and the essential mineral Zinc, have been well established through numerous studies. Blackcurrant extracts have also been shown to possess immune boosting properties. Japanese researchers at the Mercian Corporation have recently found blackcurrant extracts can activate macrophages , a key components of the human immune system. These macrophages are able to engulf and digest pathogens and signal other natural defenses to assist in fighting infection.
Blackcurrants extracts have also been found to possess powerful anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties that can help kill these microbes both during or before infection.
Dr. Tatsuo Suzutani, a microbiology professor at the National Japanese Medical University(Fukushima), has conducted numerous studies on the antiviral action of blackcurrant polyphenols and anthocyanins. Through these studies Dr. Suzutani identified that, even at 100 fold dilutions, blackcurrant polyphenols would stick to virion surfaces preventing attachment and infection of host cells. This potent anti-viral activity was useful against: adenovirus , RS virus, influenza virus, the herpes simplex virus; viruses that collectively are responsible for causing many types of cold, fever and flu.
Antiviral activity of different concentration New Zealand Blackcurrants against four strains of Influenza virus Concentration of Blackcurrant (%)
