Air travel can be stressful, especially when it’s over long distances. Intercontinental flights especially can lower your immune system and trigger jet lag, fatigue, and upper respiratory issues. Research presented this July at the 21st Annual International Integrative Medicine Conference in Melbourne, Australia provides a possible solution to air travel stress. Elderberry for air travel may help reduce the severity and duration of colds and flus.
Traveling? Take Some Elderberry Extract with You!
On the heels of a recent European study published in Current Therapeutic Research that indicates that a cold-busting cocktail of Echinacea and elderberry extract can work just as well as the popular antiviral medicine Tamiflu, Australian researchers decided to analyze just the elderberry with a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial made up of 312 economy class passengers flying internationally from Australia. Participants took surveys before, during, and after flying, and recorded any cold episodes, symptoms, and durations in a daily diary. Half the participants took 300 mg of standardized proprietary membrane-filtered elderberry extract previously shown to be effective against respiratory bacteria and influenza viruses, and half took a placebo as a control.
The placebo group contracted more colds than the elderberry extract group, although the difference was not enough to claim statistical significance. However, the duration of colds and the degree of symptoms was much less in people supplementing with elderberry extract.
Experts believe that elderberry helps fight colds and flus by reducing congestion and helping you sweat more. Previous research attests to the cold-busting power of elderberry for air travel. When mixed with other herbs and vitamin C in a proprietary blend called Sambucol, elderberry extract helped shorten the duration of a cold by three days.
