Shingles Naturall Treatment Guide

Excerpts from chapter, "A FEW WORDS ABOUT VIRUSES"Perhaps first and foremost, viruses present a special problem in biology and medicine because they are too simple to be classified as living organisms, yet they are able to invade living cells and direct the genetic machinery of these cells to reproduce the viruses. Let me emphasize this point: viruses are not living organisms. This means that they cannot be killed. That’s why antibiotics are useless against viruses.Nevertheless, viruses are completely dependent upon living host cells and are detrimental to them - that is, viruses are parasites. The most obvious harm shows up when the host cells become full of viruses, upon which the cells stop being normal cells and can even burst and die. The bottom line is that, in spite of having an extremely simple structure and very few genes, viruses can alter host cells to such an extent that the result to the host is a deadly disease.Viruses are much smaller than cells, so small that we cannot see them with a regular microscope, nor can we remove them from drinking water with standard household filters. All they are is a small set of genes encased in one or two coats of protein. They can float in air or travel in water vapor, and they are virtually everywhere. Every breath you take in or let out contains viruses.Because viruses are completely parasitic, they are active only when they can invade a living host. Peter Medawar, Nobel prizewinner in medicine, aptly referred to viruses as, “...piece[s] of bad news wrapped in protein.” Each type of virus is suited to its own type of host cell. For example, hepatitis viruses prefer the cells of the liver, and shingles virus prefers nerve and skin cells. The host cell type will often determine which disease the virus will cause.At this point it may seem scary that viruses cannot be killed because they are not alive in the first place, and that they can invade our bodies and make our cells do their bidding. However, do not despair, because your immune system will usually come to the rescue. You will learn more about that later, but for now keep in mind that whatever you can do to enhance your immune system will be detrimental to shingles, and whatever you do that harms your immune system will increase your chances of a shingles outbreak.Since viruses depend on their host cell’s metabolism, chemicals that harm viruses are also harmful to the host cell. It is little wonder that very few virus-fighting drugs have been developed and that most of those are so potent biochemically that they are very toxic (for example, the supposed anti-HIV drug AZT).So, in spite of all of the sophisticated scientific tools of modern medicine, we are without cures for illnesses caused by viruses, including the common cold, herpes, infectious hepatitis, smallpox, chickenpox, measles, viral encephalitis, mononucleosis, mumps, shingles, influenza, yellow fever, polio, and rabies.Fortunately for us, we are not defenseless against viruses. We and every other living organism on Earth harbor viruses, usually without getting sick from them. We can do this because we have a powerful, virus-fighting immune system. Our immune system works by making virus-neutralizing proteins, called antibodies, which team up with two kinds of cells to destroy viruses: lymphocytes, which stop viral activities, and macrophages, which clear out the leftover debris of deactivated viruses and make room for healthy new cells.Our bodies are constantly battling viruses with our immunological weapons by making new antibodies for fighting each virus that we encounter. Often we win, and occasionally we lose, but it is always an uneasy balance between us and our tiny “live-in” parasites. Read more