Can anyone tell me where I can get Black Elderberry Extract for flu, in Kent?

Answer 1

Don't take this stuff. It is the equivalent of eating trash out of your dumpster(which I'm not saying to do). It's a total quackery product, all the way. Try resting well and drinking lots of fluids, with the occasional saltine cracker, that will fix you up just fine.

Answer 2

The extract is called Sambucol, and I think it might be on the market as its been used against 'normal' flu for a long time. Even if you can't find it, eating elderberries should help as you'll be eating the extract in with the fruit.

The research report in January 06 (still ongong) sounds very promising but the problem is that for some strange reason mainstream medicals (more particularly in the US) tend to dismiss anything as 'quackery' that proves to be effective but isn't a 'drug' manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry.

While a lot of quackery exists in natural substances, the same exists in medicines, some of which are touted as safe, after which when reports are sent in of serious adverse effects (sometimes leading to death), then they get warnings attached, then finally they get banned, but usually only after a lot of people have been disabled or died. Vioxx is one of many examples of this. From the choice of pharmaceutical quackery and natural quackery, pharmaceutical quackery causes thousands of deaths, so is by far the more harmful of the two options.

However, there are some genuinely beneficial drugs and some genuinely beneficial natural products - which tend to have side effects far less often than drugs anyway :)

A bit about Sambucol:

"26/01/2006 - Sambucol, a standardized extract of black elderberry, has been found to fight the avian flu virus H5N1, revealed British researchers last week.

A team at Retroscreen Virology, an institute associated with the University of London, said that the extract was at least 99 per cent effective against the H5N1 virus and significantly neutralized the infectivity of the virus in cell cultures..."

"...the work was done by Dr John Oxford, a reputable specialist in flu..."

"...The double blind, placebo-controlled studies – the first done in Israel, and the second in Norway – both found that people who took the elderberry supplement got rid of [ORDINARY] flu in half the time of the placebo group, or after two to three days compared to about six.."

"...The new laboratory results were presented at a press conference held in the Royal Society of Medicine, London last week. Another trial is now underway at Hadassah ... "

Or read the whole thing here, as the article gives more information:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/182310/message/1138310889

So bottom line, if you can't get Sambucol - then have plenty of elderberries, in many places Elderberry bushes grow wild and so long as you can get to them before the birds (which seem to know exactly what day they become edible and strip the bushes LOL) then you can get them free of charge :)

Answer 3

Sorry this is totally worthless.Ever since the dawn of time both the sick and the worried well have rushed to pour their money into the hands of quacks and quack remedy producers. There is nothing new under the sun, the fad is just for some new quackery or other. Doctor's may not be right all the time, but at least their motives are generally not purely financial.