Potpourri

One of the scariest categories in Jeopardy!

Pat Ner has some great reading. If you aren't following the daily divulgence you are missing the scoop on the inner workings of 4Bux and why they are so messed up right now. And why they kicked ass back then.

If your are in the corporate world of franchising and marketing and pushing excess upon the cultures of the world (i should just call it "sales") that should be a must read.

The little green plug showed up. Kick ass idea. For all those people dumping $5-20/day on coffee drinks from 4bux or any of the mimics/copies of the original that green plug is a wicked cool idea. Buy one for everyone you know who has an addiction to some (not even gonna try and make a stupid complex coffee drink name) fancy coffee drink... they'll love you. And the car they are driving around in will too.

Now Something else.

It is the time of year when everyone is coming down with the flu and other viral related bugs.

You have a few options. #1 Flu Shot. Russian Roulette for the virus. The virus i would guess has a pretty equal chance at nailing you with or without it. I don't like that option. Not sure why. #2 Just stay healthy. Kinda hard in the self indulgent, stay up late cheering for a stupid team and stupid players who make 1000s times more money than you, then being tired... or worse, stay up all night drinking with your buddies watching said game and then spending the day tired, hung over, dehydrated and generally in bad shape. Or you could just race hard and not allow your body to recover. Kinda the same thing. #3 Try something kinda crazy. Use some Olive Leaf?

Woah. Wait a minute. Did GeWilli just suggest some hippie plant as a way to stay healthy?

Yup.

Ya see GeWilli used it all last fall. He got sick once. Why? He spent a whole day cooking for his greatly extended family after a long week, and drank a couple double bottles of wine while cooking (post prep). Not so good, 'course the wine was a result of trying to shake off some major stresses and pressure. Anyway.

That Olive Leaf stuff. Now all that plant hoopty stuff on the market ain't equal. I'd bought the line "this stuff really works" blindly. Why? Well a couple reasons, #1 Placebo, if i think it could be helping, well, "studies show..." ya get the point. It might not 'really' help but it won't hurt. #2 My mother had been swearing by it for a long time. And you should always listen to your mother. #3 Maybe there is actually something it does, something in the leaf that actually works.

Turns out. Well. It is #3. Best reason of all. Ya can google "how olive leaf works" and read about it yourself. Bottom line? There is an element in olive leaf extracts that wrecks havoc with viruses.

Couple excerpts:

Prevention of Virus Shedding
Virus shedding is the means by which viruses reproduce, d-elenolic acid attaches to the cell membrane to stop viruses from multiplying and spreading. In the case of retroviruses, d-elenolic acid neutralizes the production of reverse transcriptase and protease. These enzymes are essential for a retrovirus, to alter the RNA of a healthy cell. Without them, the retrovirus is rendered impotent.

That from this source.

And another list of benefits:

An effective interference with certain amino acids production procedures necessary for a specific virus, bacterium, or microbe to grow.

Interference with a viral infection and/or spread by inactivating viruses or by preventing virus shedding, budding, or assembly at the cell membrane.

Direct penetration into infected host cells and irreversible inhibition of microbial replication.

Neutralization of the retrovirus production of reverse transcriptase and protease. These particular enzymes are critical for a retrovirus such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to alter the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of a healthy cell.

Directly stimulating phagocytosis, an immune system response to microbes of all types.

From here.

Now - a quick (and i mean quick) search came up with one scientific paper about it, but damn if it doesn't soundly support the marketing "speak" in the herbal hippie pages!!

The stuff i'm using right now is made by Bluebonnet Nutrition. That 18% number is the big factor. Some companies have a much smaller %. If you know of one with more than 18% lemme know! Most of the % seem to fall in the 10-15% range. More is better. But hey. Some is better than none.

Stuff seems to work. The mechanism makes sense. The science even seems to support it. Generally assumed to have no side effects. Seems to be more conclusive data than the other "immune" herbs.

Oh here's a good bit of info. A bit more "clinically" oriented.

Time to eat. Good food is important. I ain't even gonna mention milk...

peace