Health & Fitness

This article was previously published June 29, 2020, and has been updated with new information.

Breathing is universal, habitual and nearly always automatic. When you get stressed, your breathing pattern and rate change. This often results in more chest breathing in response to a "fight or flight" situation, a response triggered by the autonomic nervous system.¹

In April 2019, a headline in The New York Times announced, "Americans Are Among the Most Stressed People in the World …"² This was slightly less than one year before the COVID-19 pandemic raised stress levels even further.

Americans are no strangers to stress. A poll was conducted in 2007 by the American Psychological Association (APA). In a press release they noted that one-third reported they were living with "extreme stress" and 48% thought their stress had "increased over the past five years."³ Russ Newman, APA executive director for professional practice, commented:⁴

"Stress in America continues to escalate and is affecting every aspect of people's lives — from work to personal relationships to sleep patterns and eating habits, as well as their health.

We know that stress is a fact of life and some stress can have a positive impact, however, the high stress levels that many Americans report experiencing can have long-term health consequences, ranging from fatigue to obesity and heart disease."

Fortunately, your breathing is not completely automatic. Controlled breathing is one strategy that has proven effective in reducing physiological stress indicators and improving feelings of being calm.

This means you can control your breath to help manage stress, improve relaxation and make greater strides to take control of your health. Let's start with a short explanation of some of the different parts of the nervous system.

Functions of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Systems

Stress and your body's reactions to environmental stimuli that cause stress are survival mechanisms. However, chronic activation of the system causes the consistent release of hormones that produce harmful physiological changes.

While the fight-or-flight response is critical if you're facing down a bear or running from an assailant, ongoing exposure to societal stress can raise your risk of chronic disease and death.⁵ Your response to a stressful situation begins in the amygdala of your brain, which plays a role in how you handle the emotions associated with stress, joy and other scenarios.⁶

The amygdala sends a signal to the hypothalamus, which communicates to the body through the autonomic nervous system. This system controls functions in the body that happen automatically, such as your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.

The autonomic nervous system has two parts, one that raises the alarm and another that helps calm you down. The sympathetic nervous system signals the fight-or-flight response to begin. This gives you the energy and focus you need to flee from a risky situation. Once the danger has passed, the parasympathetic nervous system helps apply the brakes to the release of hormones so that the body can rest.

Each of these changes happens quickly and without any input from you. This is why you can jump out of the way of a snake in the grass before you fully recognize there's anything in your path.

Keeping the sympathetic nervous system revved up and ready has a detrimental effect on your health. By using controlled breathing, you can calm yourself and create real physiological changes, including:⁷

• Lowering your heart rate and blood pressure
• Lowering levels of stress hormones
• Balancing carbon dioxide and oxygen blood levels
• Improving immune functioning and energy levels
• Increasing feeling of being calm

Box Breathing Reduces Stress and Promotes Health

The technique of box breathing is what SEALS use. In this video, Mark Divine of SEALFIT demonstrates box breathing and tactical breathing. He explains tactical breathing is used during performance to calm the mind when you're under duress. For those of us not in combat situations, this might happen in the boardroom, during an athletic competition or while taking a test.

SEALS use box breathing as the practice technique, so tactical breathing is effective when it's needed. There are four steps and each is done for the same amount of time. Breathing affects how you think and feel.⁸ Lynne Everatt is an author, personal trainer and wellness expert from Toronto. She spoke to a reporter from Forbes, saying:⁹

"Stress and anxiety trigger neurocircuitry that was designed to be used sparingly to deal with life-or-death threats, not on a daily basis as a response to gnarled traffic, a toxic boss or work overload.

Chronic stress has a corrosive effect on the brain that has been linked to degeneration of the hippocampus (the brain's memory center) and impaired functioning of the prefrontal cortex that can manifest in our lives as depression, dementia and impaired executive function."

To begin practicing box breathing, get in a quiet place where you can concentrate and maintain good posture. Ideally, you'll want to measure how many cycles or minutes you can do the technique and work up to five minutes.¹⁰

Do each step below with focus and intention on your actions. Most people who use this technique recommend inhaling and exhaling to a count of four or five. Either is acceptable as long as each phase takes same the length of time.

Nose Breathing Offers Many Advantages

Breathing through your nose offers specific health benefits. Researchers have found that people who usually breathe through their mouth have a higher risk of sleep problems and attention deficit disorders.¹¹ One theory for this is the difference in brain oxygenation.

Individuals who mouth breathe tend to hyperventilate or get more oxygen than is needed.¹² This lowers the level of CO2 in the body, which is important since you need a balance of oxygen and CO2 to function optimally. Nose breathing helps accomplish this.

Your vagus nerve is the major part of the parasympathetic nervous system.¹³ Diaphragmatic breathing, which you may have heard as slow abdominal breathing, triggers the vagus nerve and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. Since the 1970s, deep breathing has become a central part of helping reduce stress and anxiety, widely accepted by Western clinicians.¹⁴

By stimulating the vagus nerve and thus the parasympathetic nervous system, nose breathing can help reduce stress, anxiety and the release of stress hormones. Breathing through your nose helps you to breathe less.

This might sound like a bad recommendation, yet many people chronically over-breathe and deplete their carbon dioxide reserves. Chronic mouth breathing has been associated with several health problems, including:

• Sleep apnea¹⁵
• Bronchoconstriction with exercised-induced asthma^16,17
• Abnormal facial development^18,19
• Poor dental health²⁰
• Hyperventilation, which results in reduced oxygen to your brain and heart^21,22

More Breathing Techniques to Improve Health

As I've written before in "Top Breathing Techniques for Better Health," the function behind box breathing that reduces stress, raises your CO2 level and signals your parasympathetic system is diaphragmatic breathing. You can easily assess your body's tolerance for CO2 at home, using a technique developed by Dr. Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko.²³

This Russian physician discovered that the level of CO2 in your lungs correlates with your ability to hold your breath after a normal exhalation. Begin by sitting straight with your feet flat to the floor. Take a small breath in and out through your nose. After exhaling, pinch your nose to keep air from entering and then start your stopwatch. Hold your breath until you feel the first desire to breathe. When you feel that urge, resume breathing and note the time.

Your first breath should be calm and controlled through your nose. If you feel like you had to take a deep breath, then you held your breath too long. What you just measured is called the "control pause," or CP. This is a reflection of the tolerance your body has for carbon dioxide. Most people can hold it 20 to 40 seconds, but 40 to 60 is optimal. Anything lower than 40 may be reason for concern.

One strategy for improving your CP is to raise your fitness and endurance levels. Another is to improve your breathing technique by expanding your abdomen rather than lifting your shoulders. When your shoulders lift during inhalation, it's called vertical breathing.

This can make you feel taller and it does not involve extending your stomach. However, correct breathing causes your midsection to widen and is called horizontal breathing. This engages your diaphragm, which allows you to take a more complete breath and stimulate your vagus nerve.

Nose Breathing Nitric Oxide May Have Antiviral Properties

Another reason to breathe through your nose is to raise the production of nitric oxide (NO).²⁴ Your body produces NO in other places as well, including your endothelial cells. This is a soluble gas that has some exceptional health benefits, some of which I discuss in "The Importance of Healthy Bacteria in Nitric Oxide Production."

Many of those benefits may be a result of NO being a signaling molecule. Doctors use the gas in a number of clinical settings, including to help reverse pulmonary high blood pressure in newborns. NO produced by your endothelium helps to relax arteries and reduce blood pressure. This helps to promote oxygenation to all your organs.²⁵

Another benefit of inhaled nitric oxide has been in the treatment of viral infection. Clinical trials are currently underway for the treatment of people infected with SARS-CoV-2. The principal actions that could help combat COVID-19 include:²⁶

• Dilating pulmonary arteries to help the lungs get more blood
• Opening bronchial airways to increase oxygen delivery
• Directly eliciting antiviral activity against the virus

Louis J. Ignarro, Ph.D., author of the article in The Conversation, was one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1998. The group of pharmacologists discovered how nitric oxide was produced and how it functions in the body.²⁷ Nitric oxide is produced in the nasal cavity, but not in the mouth.

This means that those who chronically breathe through their mouth are bypassing production that can be inhaled into the lungs.²⁸ This direct delivery helps increase air flow and blood flow within the lung tissue, and it inhibits the growth and replication of viruses and other microorganisms. There is a clinical trial currently underway to:²⁹

"… determine whether inhaled NO improves short term respiratory status, prevents future hospitalization, and improves the clinical course in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 specifically in the emergency department."

You can help boost your NO production at home using a simple, four-minute exercise three times a day. Dr. Zach Bush, whose triple-board certification includes expertise in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism, named the exercise the Nitric Oxide Dump. He says it is anaerobically efficient and the more you do it, the better it works.

The exercise can be done at home with no equipment and can accommodate every fitness level. It works by stimulating the release of nitric oxide. You'll find more about the exercise, how to do it and why it's so beneficial at "Fitness Checkup: Why You Need to Try the Nitric Oxide Dump Workout."

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December 30, 2021, Joe Rogan interviewed Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of the mRNA gene transfer technology. YouTube and Twitter promptly deleted the interview and mainstream media published a rash of articles attacking Malone and Rogan in the most disparaging terms possible.¹

In addition to censoring Malone, Google has also been caught red-handed manipulating search results such that Malone’s Rogan interview won’t show up when searching for “mass formation psychosis.”² That search term also won’t give you any of the interviews given by psychologist Mattias Desmet, who was the first to use that term as a diagnosis for why so many are buying an obviously flawed, if not ridiculous, COVID narrative.

In response to the obvious Big Tech censorship, Congressman Troy Nehls, R-Texas, entered the transcript of the podcast (the Joe Rogan Experience #1757³) into the Congressional Record with the following statement:⁴

“By deplatforming Dr. Robert Malone for voicing opposition and removing the interview, Twitter and YouTube are once again proving that they don’t work for their users but for big Pharma, big media, and the elites.

When we stray away from our core principles of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of debate, democracy is lost. Today, I entered the transcript of the Joe Rogan Experience #1757 into the Congressional Record to preserve the podcast forever. Big Tech may be able to censor information on their own platforms, but they cannot censor the Congressional Record.”

Malone Permanently Banned From Twitter

Malone had been permanently banned from Twitter the day before, December 29, 2021. He suspects his ban was triggered by one of the two last posts he made. One was a link to the Canadian COVID Care Alliance’s website,⁵ with the comment:⁶

“Pfizer 6 month data which shows that Pfizer's Covid-19 inoculations cause more illness than they prevent. Plus, an overview of the Pfizer trial flaws in both design and execution.”

The video, featured on the Canadian COVID Care Alliance’s website, reviews that Pfizer data. We will feature this excellent video later and go into far more details of how they exposed the fraud of Pfizer’s clinical COVID jab trial.

The other tweet that might have triggered the ban was a post about how the World Economic Forum manages global media in a lockstep fashion. Either way, Malone was permanently banned from the social media platform either for highlighting Pfizer’s own science — the very science we’re told to “trust” — or highlighting the WEF’s central role in the global censorship campaign.

Mainstream Media Are Losing the Information War

Interestingly, Rogan has become something of a key workaround to the universal mainstream media censorship. While Malone lost 512,000 followers on Twitter when they suspended his account, it’s rumored his interview with Rogan has garnered some 50 MILLION views across alternative free-speech platforms.⁷ As noted in a January 3, 2022, ZeroHedge article:⁸

“... nowadays when you make it on JRE, you’ve officially ‘made it.’ Putting aside the obvious irony of Twitter attempting to ban somebody and the person in question going viral as a result, I also thought about how, despite the fact that Malone’s opinions put him at odds with the mainstream media ... Joe Rogan launched him past the usual media suspects and into the real ‘mainstream’ ...

[In] 2022, the mainstream media as we know it today (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc.) is going to be forced to change its narrative on COVID. The idea of the media being forced to change its tune on Covid is something I touched upon a couple of days ago when I wrote about the Omicron variant and how the media is creating a mass hysteria mountain out of a mole hill.

But after listening to Dr. Robert Malone‘s well reasoned arguments, delivered for three straight hours, concisely and calmly, it became clear to me that the entire mainstream media machine could wind up falling at the hands of content creators like Joe Rogan.

Rogan generates so many views and has grown so quickly — strictly because he allows open dialogue, civil discourse and approaches things with honest intent ... One issue for media and political elites to consider is the fact that Rogan has supporters on both sides of the aisle.

These supporters watch him because he routinely touches on topics that are considered faux pas or irreverent ... Rogan has thrived, whether intentionally (bringing on people specifically because they are being censored) or unintentionally (shooting the shit with people he finds interesting), from the start, by shining light in the dark areas that the mainstream media refuses to discuss.”

While Malone’s Twitter feed has been erased, you can still follow him on Gab, GETTR and Substack. A Gab mirror with the last 400 tweets from Malone’s Twitter feed is also available. January 2, 2022, when Rogan joined GETTR, he urged his 7.8 million Twitter followers to join him there “in case s**t over at Twitter gets even dumber.”^9,10

Cliff Notes From the Rogan Interview

Many Rogan fans agree that Malone’s interview is among the best interviews Rogan has ever done. I know, many of you are saying to yourself, I don’t have three hours to watch this interview. Well, let me encourage you to find the time. If 50 million people have watched this video, it is likely you could find the time.

Trust me on this one. You won’t regret it. It is such a pure joy and pleasure to listen to Malone’s relaxed, eloquent, masterfully precise language as he destroys the mainstream COVID narrative. You can watch it in bits and pieces, but this is clearly the best interview Malone has done and is on par with the Peter McCullough interview with Rogan a few weeks ago.

As explained by Malone, he has been involved in vaccine development and distribution for more than three decades, and played a crucial role in the development of the very technology that the Pfizer and Moderna COVID shots are based upon, so “If it’s not OK for me to be part of the conversation ... who can be allowed?” Malone asked.

Indeed, as noted by Rogan, with its ban of Malone, Twitter basically banned “one of the most qualified people in the world to talk about vaccines.” Malone said he has attorneys looking at potentially filing some sort of lawsuit over the ban.

Of course, mainstream media and “fact checkers” (now legally defined by recent Facebook litigation as opinion promoters) call him a liar for saying he invented the mRNA technology currently used, but his name on 10 patents proves otherwise.

"No one can dispute that I played a major role in this tech," Malone said. "And virtually all other voices that have that background have financial conflicts of interest. I think I'm the only one that doesn't. I'm not getting any money out of this."

Some of the cliff notes from Malone’s interview include the following:¹¹

Government responses — Malone believes the U.S. government is “out of control” and “lawless” in their COVID response and that their actions have resulted in, probably, half a million excess deaths. COVID jab mandates are “explicitly illegal” as the shots are experimental. What’s more, people are not getting the information they need to be able to make an informed decision about the risks they’re taking by participating in this experiment.

Social psychology of the times — Malone believes the irrational behavior we’re witnessing is the result of “mass formation psychosis,” a societal diagnosis first presented by Desmet at the end of 2021.

Natural immunity — Natural immunity is more robust than “vaccine” induced immunity, and people with natural immunity also have a higher risk of adverse events from the COVID jab.

COVID jab risks — Malone actually took the Moderna shot, thinking it might help with some long-COVID symptoms he was having after getting seriously ill with COVID-19 in February 2020. He says he suffered some side effects from the shot, but that those effects have since resolved. Malone expresses concern about post-jab myocarditis rates and the possibility of fertility problems. When it comes to reproductive health, he warns that the lipid nanoparticles in the COVID shots can have adverse effects on the ovaries. He also reviews how the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can cause blood clots, regardless of whether they come from natural infection or the COVID jab, and how the spike protein can disrupt the blood-brain-barrier. Malone believes the reason some experience no or few adverse effects from the COVID shot has to do with phenotypic or genetic differences. He points out that diabetics and those with high blood sugar levels tend to be more affected by spike protein effects, for example.

Suppression of early treatment — Early treatment with drugs such as hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin is very effective and both drugs have also been safely administered for several decades. The Chinese anti-COVID protocol, obtained by Malone in February 2020, actually included hydroxychloroquine. When he got COVID-19, Malone also self-treated with femotadine (Pepsid). He’s now leading a clinical trial to assess its usefulness in the treatment of COVID.

Narrative management and global coordination of censorship — The Trusted News Initiative led by the BBC is central to the censorship campaign, according to Malone. It labels anyone who disagrees with the official narrative on vaccines as an “anti-vaxxer,” and suppresses anything that goes against “approved” sources such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and the World Health Organization. He also points out that Thomson-Reuters, which has ties to Pfizer, is a primary fact checker of Twitter. Since they in part decide what’s allowed to be discussed on Twitter, Pfizer has this hidden influence as well (not to mention that James C. Smith, chairman of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, also has been a director at Pfizer and chair of their compensation committee since 201412).

COVID jab efficacy — Malone notes the window of effectiveness is ever shrinking, with some studies, such as one from Denmark,13 showing negative effectiveness against Omicron. According to Malone, we’re administering a “mismatched vaccine” and driving the B and T memory cells toward a virus that is no longer in circulation. His hypothesis for why the shots stop working so quickly is because of this original antigenic sin. He explains: “We've got a new pathogen [Omicron] but it's got a series of overlaps with the old ones that we've seen before, and our immune system is biased to respond as if it's the old one. Now, to make matters worse, we're taking the spike protein — only one of the proteins the dominant immunologically dominant protein — and we're jabbing everybody multiple times, and driving memory cells and effector cells to a virus that is not the one we're encountering. So it could very well be that as you're taking more jabs, you're further skewing your immune response in a way that's dysfunctional for infection to Omicron ... When you see a signal this strong, it's saying something's going on you ought to pay attention to it in my opinion.”

Malone Also on InfoWars After Rogan Interview

Malone also sat down with InfoWars reporter Kristi Leigh within days of his Twitter ban.¹⁴ A highlight reel¹⁵ from the 80-minute interview is embedded above. In it, Malone described being “multidimensionally red-pilled” by the current censorship. He also discusses his journey of “coming to terms with what the World Economic Forum represents.”

Initially he resisted the idea that there was a global agenda underway aimed at stripping us of our rights and freedoms. He thought The Great Reset was fantasy — until he started looking into claims for himself and found this supposed “conspiracy theory” is fully documented and laid out for the world to see on the WEF’s own website. “And then you see [the plan] deployed,” he says.

Malone’s Warning to Parents

In another recent interview with the WND,¹⁶ Malone discussed two grassroots projects that he’s gotten involved with. The first is the Unity Project, which opposes vaccine mandates, and the second is the International Alliance of Physicians and Medical Scientists, launched by the Global COVID Summit.¹⁷

Malone also highlighted the second Physicians Declaration¹⁸ by the International Alliance of Physicians and Medical Scientists, dated October 29, 2021, in an article for The Defender.¹⁹

The declaration has been signed by more than 16,000 doctors and scientists, and states that “healthy children shall not be subjected to forced vaccination” as their clinical risk from SARS-CoV-2 infection is negligible and long term safety of the shots cannot be determined prior to such policies being enacted.

Not only are children at high risk for severe adverse events, but having healthy, unvaccinated children in the population is crucial to achieving herd immunity. The declaration also demands that health agencies and institutions “cease interfering with physicians treating individual patients.”

In the article, Malone also warned parents that the decision to inject their children is "irreversible," and that they need to be aware of "the scientific facts about this genetic vaccine, which is based on the mRNA vaccine technology I created." Here’s an excerpt from that written warning:²⁰

“Before you inject your child — a decision that is irreversible — I wanted to let you know the scientific facts about this genetic vaccine, which is based on the mRNA vaccine technology I created.

There are three issues parents need to understand: The first is that a viral gene will be injected into your children’s cells. This gene forces your child’s body to make toxic spike proteins. These proteins often cause permanent damage in children’s critical organs, including:

The most alarming point about this is that once these damages have occurred, they are irreparable:

The second thing you need to know about is the fact that this novel technology has not been adequately tested. We need at least 5 years of testing/research before we can really understand the risks. Harms and risks from new medicines often become revealed many years later.”

Again, I urge you to listen to Malone’s interview with Rogan, embedded at the top of this article, in its entirety. He covers a lot of ground, and does so in his calm and well-reasoned way. I can confidently assure you that you won’t have any regrets for making the time investment.

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Although you can get a cold throughout the year, most people have a higher risk of the common cold in the winter and spring months.¹ One of the most common symptoms is a sore throat. The Guardian characterizes the common cold as having “the twin distinction of being both the world’s most widespread infectious disease and one of the most elusive.”²

According to data collected from 142,377 participants in the Rochester Epidemiology Project, upper respiratory disease, excluding asthma, was one of the top five reasons this population sought medical care.³

Sore throats, also called pharyngitis,⁴ are often triggered by a viral infection, including flu, the common cold and COVID-19. Since these are viruses, antibiotics are not effective against the infection.⁵ However, there are natural remedies you can use to help shorten the length of a viral infection, as well as alleviate the symptoms of pharyngitis.

Many of the pharmaceutical drugs sold today are the result of isolating plant compounds and replicating them in the lab.⁶ Through many years of fighting illness and disease, people from all over the world have learned to rely on medicinal plants for healing. They have been a part of human history since the beginning of recorded time.

The World Health Organization reports that many nations continue to rely on herbal treatments to provide for health care needs.⁷ In a survey of 133 nations, 110 reported using herbal medicines. Another 2007 survey⁸ in the U.S., found nearly 4 in 10 adults used complementary and alternative medicine therapies, including herbal treatments.

The resurgence of herbal medicine treatments may be driven in part by the significant death rate from all viruses, including influenza⁹ and SARS-CoV-2.¹⁰ Two pleasing ingredients in herbal tea may help soothe your sore throat, making it easier to swallow, stay hydrated and eat.

Should You Drink Your Herbal Remedy Hot or Cold?

While some health experts advise you to drink fluid at a temperature that feels best for you,¹¹ others have studied the effect of a hot drink on the common cold. Ron Eccles, Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University, for example, has spent his professional life analyzing and investigating human diseases of the upper airways.¹²

His research includes a published study on the effects of hot drinks on the symptoms of the common cold and flu. His objective was to obtain subjective and objective measurements on airflow. In his 30 subjects the data showed that while there was no objective change in the measurement of nasal airflow, the participants reported that a hot drink:¹³

“… provided immediate and sustained relief from symptoms of runny nose, cough, sneezing, sore throat, chilliness and tiredness, whereas the same drink at room temperature only provided relief from symptoms of runny nose, cough and sneezing … In conclusion the results support the folklore that a hot tasty drink is a beneficial treatment for relief of most symptoms of common cold and flu.”

The Mayo Clinic adds that warm liquids may help ease congestion by stimulating mucus flow.¹⁴ ENT and allergy expert Dr. Shawn Nasseri, agrees, telling Well and Good, "Warm teas cause the vessels of the throat and the muscles to open and relax more, thereby soothing the sore throat. Icy drinks can sometimes cause throat spasms which definitely don't feel comforting.”¹⁵

This may explain how January 11 became National Hot Toddy Day.¹⁶ According to one source, in the 1700s, Scottish doctors created the drink as a treatment for their patients who suffered from sore throats and congestion.

A traditional hot toddy contains a shot of whiskey, honey, fresh lemon and boiling water. Personal preference dictates whether you add fresh ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks or cloves.¹⁷ While the hot drink is effective, it isn’t the alcohol that confers the benefits since it has adverse effects on your immune system.¹⁸ As Eccles explained:

“A hot toddy is equivalent to any sort of hot drink. The more it promotes salivation, the more it promotes mucus secretion, and mucus is our first line of defense against bacteria and viruses. That's why it contains honey and lemon — it stimulates both sweet and sour."

Slippery Elm and Licorice Root Tea Soothe a Sore Throat

Herbal teas may help reduce the pain of pharyngitis as they have a soothing effect on the mucous membranes. In a double-blind, randomized controlled study,¹⁹ researchers evaluated the effectiveness of herbal tea containing marshmallow root, licorice root and elm inner bark.

They engaged 60 outpatients with acute pharyngitis and randomly selected them to consume herbal tea or placebo tea with the same taste and smell. The participants drank the tea four to six times daily for as long as they had symptoms. The scientists requested the individuals use no other treatment for their sore throat.

Pain relief was rated after one minute and then every five minutes for the first 30 minutes after drinking the tea. Participants then rated their pain at three hours and 24 hours after the initial dose. The data revealed that the herbal tea was more effective than the placebo in short-term relief, but the effect lasted less than 30 minutes.²⁰

Other Health Benefits of Licorice Root and Slippery Elm

The study evaluated the soothing effect the tea may have on acute pharyngitis but did not address other health benefits associated with the herbs. According to Mount Sinai Hospital,²¹ slippery elm has been used in North America for centuries in the treatment of wounds, ulcers, burns and boils. Native Americans took it internally to relieve cough and sore throats.

The herb has antioxidant activities and causes stimulation in the gastrointestinal tract to increase mucus secretion, which may help protect against ulcers and excess acid. It is often suggested in the treatment of sore throat and cough.²²

One of the major active ingredients in licorice root is glycyrrhizin.²³ Much like anything else, excessive intake can result in negative health effects, including primary pseudo hyperaldosteronism,²⁴ triggering high blood pressure, muscle weakness and headaches.

It suppresses plasma renin activity and aldosterone levels through prolonged and excessive consumption of licorice. If you enjoy the taste of licorice, you may be getting it in candy, beverages and extracts. One of the side effects is a significant fall in plasma potassium levels, which one paper suggests may have clinical application in those on chronic dialysis and at risk of hyperkalemia.

Licorice is a widely prescribed herb in Chinese medicine for the treatment of several disorders, including gastric ulcers²⁵ and peptic ulcers. In Japan, physicians administer glycyrrhizin intravenously to patients with chronic hepatitis B to improve liver function and suppress the secretion of hepatitis B surface antigen.²⁶

Licorice has been used in combination with spironolactone to treat polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).²⁷ One study has suggested that licorice root can reduce body fat²⁸ and was shown to reduce testosterone in healthy women,²⁹ which may be one way it helps women with PCOS.³⁰

Studies have also demonstrated a dose-dependent action in animal studies on cell and tumor proliferation and apoptosis.³¹ One study³² published in the Lancet found the compound also demonstrates an antiviral effect against SARS-CoV-1 by stopping reproduction of the virus.

Another study³³ showed glycyrrhizin had antiviral activity against coxsackievirus A16 and enterovirus 71 responsible for hand, foot and mouth disease, a contagious childhood viral infection.

More Remedies to Ease a Sore Throat and Shorten a Cold

Although there are several reasons you may experience a sore throat, the most common cause is a cold. Following are some natural remedies to help ease the discomfort of a sore throat. After these are natural strategies that may shorten the length of your cold and subsequently shorten the time you have a sore throat.

• Herbal remedies — Herbal teas made with eucalyptus, peppermint or licorice may help relieve cold symptoms and soothe your sore throat.³⁴
• Gargle with salt water — Gargling with one-fourth to one-half teaspoon of salt in 8 ounces of warm water may help relieve the pain and discomfort from a sore throat.³⁵
• Steam — Adding humidity³⁶ to the air using a cool-mist vaporizer or humidifier may help loosen congestion and reduce post-nasal drip, which irritates your pharyngeal tissue.

Zinc lozenges — Zinc is an effective natural remedy. As far back as 1984 results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial37 showed that zinc lozenges shortened the common cold and further study demonstrated it could reduce the length of your cold by an average of 33%.38 Zinc lozenges are most effective when started in the first 24 hours you experience symptoms.39 Citric acid, tartaric acid and mannitol/sorbitol sweeteners should not be taken with zinc as they interfere with the release of the nutrient in your body.40 More recent research demonstrated that both zinc acetate and zinc gluconate are effective.41

Hydrogen peroxide — One of my favorite treatments for upper respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, is nebulized hydrogen peroxide. The treatment is simple and effectively helps kill the virus in your respiratory tract. This video demonstrates how to administer the treatment, which must use food-grade hydrogen peroxide and not the product you purchase in the grocery store.

Apple cider vinegar — This has antibacterial properties and is highly acidic, so it can be used to make an inhospitable environment for a virus. Consider gargling with a glass of warm water and 2 tablespoons of salt to help fight a sore throat.42 Do not use it full strength as it may damage your esophagus and stomach lining.

Garlic — Although there is mixed evidence,43 the allicin in raw garlic is antimicrobial and may influence the length or severity of your cold. Crush the clove before eating it to release the active properties.

Raw honey — While raw honey has antibacterial and antiviral properties, they aren’t strong enough in reasonable amounts to fight your virus. However, raw honey is as effective as cough syrup or cough drops for your cough.44 Remember that honey is a natural sugar, so in large amounts of it may adversely impact your immune system and will affect your insulin and leptin levels.

Chicken Soup — Homemade chicken soup is soothing when you’re sick, and it contains the amino acid cysteine45 that may thin the mucus in your lungs, so it clears more easily.46

Vitamin C — Eating foods high in vitamin C may shorten the duration of your cold.47 Food high in vitamin C includes red bell peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, kiwi and citrus fruits.

Echinacea tea — Echinacea is one of the more popular Native American medicinal plants that may help shorten your cold when you start drinking the tea on the first or second day. Researchers have found it will reduce the recurrence of a viral infection.48 Drinking two or three cups of hot tea a day may also help soothe your sore throat.

Propolis — This material is collected from trees by bees to maintain the hive. One study showed a propolis nasal spray improved children’s recovery from the common cold.49

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The controversy between Djokovic and the Australian government continues as the athlete petitions the courts to let him play.

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A team of researchers has revealed some of the mechanisms by which polyps develop into colorectal cancer, setting the framework for improved surveillance for the cancer utilizing precision medicine. Their study describes findings from a single-cell transcriptomic and imaging atlas of the two most common colorectal polyps found in humans: conventional adenomas and serrated polyps.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3r4ajp9

The vocal sounds of humans -- laughing, crying, and the babbling of babies -- have the same rhythmic quality as the sounds made by many mammals, songbirds, and even some species of fish. Researchers have discovered that a small cluster of neurons in the brain stem not only regulates tempo but also coordinates vocalization with breathing.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/34tpznX