According to a study published in The American Physiological Society, mice given quercetin - a natural compound in vegetables - are less likely to get the flu. The study also found that stressful exercise makes mice susceptible to flu, but quercetin is capable of eliminating that negative effect.
Quercetin, a chemical compound similar to resveratrol, is abundant in fruits and vegetables, including purple onions, grapes, blueberries, green tea, broccoli and red wine. Quercetin has been shown to have antiviral properties by cell culture experiments as well as through animal studies, but none of these studies investigated the ability of quercetin to specifically treat the disease. flu.
New research is also done on mice. If quercetin is similarly effective for humans, it will be of great benefit to enduring athletes, soldiers, who must abide by harsh training and those who suffer from stress. psychological straight.
New research is done based on previous studies
Davis, the author of the study, said: 'Quercetin has a wide range of well-known health benefits, including resistance to viruses, which are abundant in nutrition but have no effect. supplement when used as a dietary supplement or supplement. '
Previous studies conducted on rats showed that intense exercise may increase susceptibility to respiratory infections even though there is no clear evidence that this is true either. with people. We have only had preliminary information showing that mice are more sensitive to influenza when they are active until tired. The researchers hypothesize that exercise increases the likelihood of mice getting the flu, but quercetin loses the effect of increased disease risk.
Davis and his colleagues tested four groups of mice. Two groups of rats participated in the activity until they were tired for 3 consecutive days on a treadmill. This is the practice of stress for a short time. One of the two groups received quercetin, the other group did not.
The other two groups did not participate in the practice. One of them received quercetin. All four groups were then exposed to the common influenza virus, H1N1.
Researchers found:
Stressful exercise increases the chance of getting the flu. Mice that exercise stress for 3 days are more likely to get the flu than those who don't exercise (91% compared to 63%)
Mice that exercised flu infection were faster than those who did not exercise (6.9 days versus 12.4 days).
Mice that exercised and received quercetin had the same prevalence of influenza as those who did not exercise. In other words, quercetin eliminated the negative effects of stressful exercise.
The severity of symptoms in both exercise and non-exercising mice was the same.
Quercetin has a preventive effect on non-exercise mice.
Although the study was done on rats, a recent human study showed that people who received quercetin had less flu after 3 days of exhausting exercise than those who did not take quercetin. Unlike the study performed on mice, the participants of the following study did not vaccinate the virus.
Davis said: 'This is the first controlled trial to demonstrate the benefits of quercetin intake for a short period of time with the ability to infect respiratory infections after suffering episodes. training. Quercetin intake is an effective prevention strategy to compensate for increased infection associated with stressful exercise. '
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded research.
Refer:
Davis et al.Quercetin reductions susceptibility to influenza infection after stressful exercise.AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2008;295 (2): R505 DOI: 10.1152 / ajpregu.90319.2008