Reading wikipedia definition for Spanish Flu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu), I’ve found very strange data:
“By July of 1919, 257,363 deaths in Japan were attributed to influenza, giving an estimated Japanese mortality rate of 0.425%, much lower than nearly all other Asian countries for which data are available.”
This is worth-noting also considering this other:
“Global mortality rate from the influenza was estimated at 2.5%–5% of the population”.
So, why this difference? The Japanese virus was different? (milder?) Or somethnig in their diet helped? Any drugs? And… I don’t really know history, so I completely ignore if Japan was in WWI or not… but maybe war was part of the problem? (and no-war part of solution?)
Only guessing…
Japan was involved in world war one, Like italy they were on the allie side during the conflict. I do think your point about diet is interesting, As tamiflu a drug which is used at least to some affect is made from star anise. Star anise is also used as a seasoning for duck dishes in china as well in traditional chinese medicine for colic. This does make me wonder if other seasoning may in fact have medicenial properties that have been forgotten. Or were implored to an affect that has long been forgotten. There is a reason that peppers are so widely used in central american cooking. It has a positive affect against amoebic dysentary. However i believe this reason has long been forgotten by the people there. people in times past may have been ignorant about many things. But should be given credit for being pragmatic, In most instances they could not afford to be otherwise.
I’m glad you posted this! I was just wondering a few days ago if there was a country or ethnic group that had a significantly less loss of life in the 1918 pandemic.
Green tea maybe?
I started drinking green tea when I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and I have not caught anything my kids have brought home from school since.
Of course, I wash my hands like a maniac when they’re sick too. lol
About Star Anise, I know it is used widely in Chinese cooking, and also in Vietnamese cooking (for Pho), but I can’t think of any Japanese recipes with star anise in it.
Maybe because japenese star anise is not the same as Chinese star anise. I can cause problems.
That’s what I was thinking too. Since the japanese star anise is not edible, it was never something that made it into their cuisine.
Marco- I think that this is a very important thread that you have started. We are trying to figure out a how to respond to the h5n1- and til now it has been mostly speculation- and knowledge of what doesn’t work. The Japanese eat alot of fish and would have a high intake of DHA fish oil- DHA is meant to inhibit the cytokine storm which is how the h5n1 virus has been killing its victims- it is not the virus that kills, but the body’s immune response- Does anyone else have info about what groups of people died and who lived during 1918? This is positive informormation that could help us all. The big drug companies are not thinking like this- so it is up to us and others like us to explore non drug alternatives. The trouble with drugs and vaccines is that they don’t exist and if they do, they are unavailable or unaffordable to most.
Clarky or others - Besides DHA, there are other Essential Fatty Acids which work in the suppression of Prostaglandins and Cytokines. Flaxseed Oil comes to mind as a potential source of these EFAs. Does anyone know whether it is the DHA specifically, or the entire group of EFAs which could be of benefit?
Omega 3 EFAs - of which DHA is one - can be interconverted from one form to the other in most people, as needed. However higher levels of dietary forms ALA, EPA and DHA do bring about slightly different health benefits as the body wont covert one form to a high level of another - excessive amounts get burnt off as energy. So if your diet is high in ALA, an amount of it will be converted to DHA and EPA, but only up to a certain point. Then the rest gets burned off as energy.
From the data all can be of benefit, but I can’t tell if one form or another would be more beneficial than others. If this one aspect of diet - i.e a diet high in fish were responsible for the japanese data - then it would imply that DHA has a greater protective effect than ALA - the omega 3 type that is found in flaxseed. We need to compare some 1918 incidence data from Japan with a central area or land mass (China?) that traditionally eats little fish but uses a lot of flaxseed or perilla oil - both rich in ALA - in thier cooking to get closer to an answer.
Hope this helps
All this EFA and DHA and ALA got me confused so I did a little digging. Thinking some others might feel the same way, here is a link for some info on Omega 3 fatty acids:
need to close thread due to volume on servers