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Eat Your Veggies to Avoid the Flu

Fruits and vegetables contain a substance, quercetin, that has shown promise as an anti-viral agent in multiple studies. A new study, however, has isolated the effects of quercetin on the influenza virus and the results seem to be that it’s a delicious idea to eat your veggies to avoid the flu.

Even better is the fact that quercetin seems to cancel out the flu-inducing effects of stressful exercise. Prolonged physical and psychological stress leave a person more susceptible to the influenza virus but the research indicates no increased chance of getting the flu when strenuous exercise is coupled with quercetin.

Medical researchers at the University of South Carolina (USC) and Clemson University tested their theories on four groups of laboratory mice and have discovered that quercetin did reduce the number of mice getting the flu when quercetin was given in both physically stressful and more relaxed settings. Quercetin was an attractive test subject for the research team since it is easily abundant in a normal diet, has shown signs of producing antiviral activity, and there are no known negative side effects when quercetin is eaten as a routine part of daily diet or when ingested as a dietary supplement.

The research team divided their mice into two groups, one forced to exercise to the point of fatigue three days in a row and one that was not. The exercising group was further divided into two groups, one of which got quercetin while the other did not. The resting group was subdivided the same way. All mice, regardless of group, were exposed to the H1N1 strain of the common influenza virus.

Some of the findings of the study include:

- 91% of the mice exercising to the point of fatigue became ill with the flu while only 63% of the resting group became ill, a finding thought to prove that stressful exercise increases the likelihood of getting the flu when exposed to the flu virus.

- Exercising mice became ill in an average of 6.9 days after exposure to the virus, while the resting mice became sick later, 12.4 days on average.

- In the group of mice that got both the exercise and the quercetin, the rate of flu was statistically the same as in the group that did not exercise, thereby canceling out the flu-inducing effects of the strenuous exercise.

- This same group of mice, those getting both exercise and quercetin, experienced the same degree of severity of flu symptoms as the mice who did not exercise.

- In the two resting groups of mice, those getting quercetin also got protection from the full onslaught of flu symptoms.

The researchers stress the point that mice are not humans and the effects may differ for people. A separate recently conducted study of humans, however, revealed similar results and bolsters the findings of the USC/Clemson study. Although the human subjects were not exposed to the influenza virus, they did undergo three consecutive days of exercising to the point of exhaustion. The human study group taking quercetin along with their exercise experienced fewer illnesses in the days following the exertion than study participants not getting quercetin.

The study, which reveals quercetin, even when taken on a short-term basis, is effective in reducing the rate of illness that comes with prolonged physical stress. The research team suggests their findings may be particularly beneficial to athletes undergoing endurance training, military personnel, and other people experiencing similar physical stress. Because psychological stress also lowers one’s defense against the flu virus, people enduring extended periods of mental and emotional turmoil may benefit from quercetin’s antiviral effects, too.

Full details of the study are available in the current issue of the medical publication, American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

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