Olive Leaf Extract. Antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antioxidant, are just some of the labels that identify this herb and its many healing powers. Olive trees have been cultivated for over 3,000 years. The Egyptians regarded the olive leaf as a symbol of heavenly power. The winners of the original Greek Olympics were crowned with a wreath of olive leaves as their reward. The first formal medical mention of the olive leaf was an account describing its ability to cure severe cases of fever and malaria some 150 years ago.
In 1854, Hanbury published an article in the Pharmaceutical Journal of Provincial Transactions relating that a “decoction of the leaves” of the olive tree had been found to be extremely effective in reducing fevers due to a severe, and otherwise often fatal, disease malaria that had swept the island of Mytelene in 1843. The olive leaf extract was reported subsequently to be more effective in its fever-lowering properties than quinine.
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Late in the 19th century, scientists working with olive leaf’s medicinal properties isolated a phenolic compound they assigned the name “oleuropein”. Most researchers at this time considered oleuropein most responsible for olive leaf’s therapeutic abilities. In the 1960s Italian researchers reported that oleuropein lowered blood pressure in animals.
Upjohn in the late 1960s was able to isolate linoleic acid (an isolate of oleuropein) and found that it was so powerful that it stopped every virus that it was tested against including the common cold in humans. Here are some of the viruses that Upjohn found olive leaf extract is effective against herpes, vaccinia, pseudorabies, Newcastle, Coxsacloe A21, encephalomyocarditis, polio 1,2, and 3, vesicular stomatitis, sindbis, retrovirus, Moloney Murine leukemia, Rauscher Murine leukemia, Moloney sarcoma, and many influenza and parainfluenza types.
Olive Leaf Extract Liquid – Get Yours Here.
Back to oleuropein, three studies using this isolate. The first study at the University of Granada discovered that oleuropein from the olive leaf can promote relaxation of arterial walls thereby reducing hypertension. The second study determined that oleuropein may be able to inactivate bacteria by dissolving the outer lining of individual cells. The third study from the University of Milan found that oleuropein inhibited the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins, the “bad cholesterol” involved in the formation of various types of heart disease.
Effective Against What?
Effective against fever and helpful for nervous tension; great immune booster and viral/bacterial killer. Researchers credit a number of unique properties possessed by the olive leaf compound for the broad killing power: An ability to interfere with critical amino acid production essential for viruses. An ability to contain viral infection and/or spread by inactivating viruses or by preventing virus shedding, budding, or assembly at the cell membrane.
The ability to directly penetrate infected cells and stop viral replication in the case of retroviruses, it is able to neutralize the production of reverse transcriptase and protease (An enzyme found in retroviruses that enable the virus to make DNA from viral RNA). These enzymes are essential for a retrovirus, such as HIV, to alter the RNA of a healthy cell. It can stimulate phagocytosis, an immune system response in which immune cells ingest harmful microorganisms and foreign matter. Also increases blood flow in the coronary arteries, relieves arrhythmias, and prevents intestinal muscle spasms.
Summary of conditions for which olive leaf extract acts as a microbial and anti-viral agent:
AIDS Amoebiasis Anthrax Athlete”s Foot Bladder Infection Campylobacter Chicken Pox Chlamydia Cholera Common Cold Cold Sore (herpes simplex) Cryptosporidiosis Cytomegalovirus Diarrheal Disease Diphtheria Ear Infection Ebola Sudan Virus E. Coli Epstein-Barr Virus Flu (influenza) Gastric Ulcers (from H. Pylori) Genital Herpes/Warts Giardia Gonorrhea Group B Strep Hantavirus Hepatitis A, B, C Herpes Zoster (shingles) Lyme Disease Malaria Measles Meningitis (bacterial) Meningitis (viral) Mononucleosis Pinworms Pneumonia (bacterial) Pneumonia (viral) Polio Pork Tapeworm Rabies Rheumatic Fever Ringworm Retrovirus infection Roundworm Rotavirus Infection RSV Staphylococcal Food Poisoning Strep Throat Syphilis Tuberculosis Thrush Toxic Shock Syndrome Trichinosis Typhoid Fever Urinary Tract Infections Vaginal Yeast Infections
Die-Off Syndrome:
There are no negative side effects with Olive leaf extract but it does have a healthy side effect called the Herxheimer or “Die-Off” effect. Here is what takes place in a die-off effect. In the body, there are microbes that somehow manage to evade the body’s immune system. Upon exposure to olive leaf extract these microbes are destroyed which is a good thing for the person. After the microbe’s death, their cell wall proteins are absorbed through the weakened mucous membrane, which surrounds them.
The body recognizes these as toxins and begins its natural processes to get rid of them. If present in too large of numbers for the eliminative system to handle, the individual may develop symptoms that include headaches, swelling in the mouth, throat, sinuses, lymphatics, rashes, fatigue, diarrhea, muscle/joint achiness, or other flu-like symptoms. The severity will vary from person to person, depending on the extent of their condition, the state of their immune and eliminatory systems, and how much olive leaf extract is being consumed.
The Die-Off Effect
The die-off effect is desirable as it indicates that the body is being cleared of these hazardous microbes. Anyone who experiences these unpleasant effects generally feels fabulously well. Afterward many times better than ever before.
If you feel the effects and you would like to minimize them, there are some easy things you can do. Many physicians recommend that an individual consume plenty of water in between usages of the product. Water keeps the lymphatic system and the kidneys functioning properly and more capable of handling excess toxins. Another way to reduce the effects is to cut back on the dose of extract that you are taking or go off it completely for a day or two before slowly increasing the dose once again. It can take anywhere from a couple of days to a week to completely rid the body of excess toxins.
Dosage:
There is no official dose for taking olive leaf extract though it has been around for thousands of years of use and testing. The most popular amount for a maintenance dose is 2 droppers full twice daily on an empty stomach before meals. For conditions such as the common cold, flu, sinus infections, and basic respiratory tract infections. The dose is 2 droppers full every 2 hours. For acute infections such as sore throat, swollen glands, fever, etc. The recommendation is 3 droppers full every 2 hours.
From all indications over the thousands of years of use by professional and nonprofessional people; Olive Leaf Extract appears to be an extremely safe supplement that can effectively aid the body in improving immune function and fighting infection by various microbes.
Caution:
Don’t take olive leaf with antibiotics as they can be inactivated by olive leaf.
Don’t take an olive leaf with Warfarin (Coumadin) this drug can cause internal bleeding. Olive leaf naturally relaxes blood vessels and capillaries which could increase this bleeding.
References:
Little Herb Encyclopedia, by Jack Ritchason; N.D., Woodland Publishing Incorporated, 1995
The Ultimate Healing System, Course Manual, Copyright 1985, Don Lepore
Planetary Herbology, Michael Tierra, C.A., N.D., Lotus Press, 1988
Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, by James A. Duke, Pub. CRP Second Edition 2007
The Complete Medicinal Herbal, by Penelope Ody, Published by Dorling Kindersley