Viral Hospitality

Okay, so swine flu inevitably leads to discussions of things like anti-viral agents, which inspires me to drag up an old thing like this,

Extreme Sensitivity of Enveloped Viruses, Including Herpes Simplex, to Long-Chain Unsaturated Monoglycerides and Alcohols.

This suggests cheap alternatives to prescription anti-virals via products like BHT and monolaurin.

This also suggests that the low-fat diet movement created an extremely hospitable environment for increased viral activity. Obviously, I don't know if people ingested enough of these fatty acids to maintain a defence in all places and everywhere before the low-fat mythology began, but it is logical to assume that once the low-fat craze began levels of these fatty acids in people dropped, increasing the risk of outbreaks.

This is either a very informative post on recent medical history, or it's an informative post on the way my mind works. Or both.