You may remember back in the spring of 2009, just when the swine flu hysteria was building, that a Canadian study revealed people who had received a regular, seasonal flu shot were twice as likely to catch swine flu.
Then again, you may not have heard this before, it wasn’t exactly shouted from the rooftops, and the United States pretty much ignored the findings and continued to recommend that vaccinations for both seasonal and H1N1 flu go ahead as previously planned.
This, of course, occurred despite the fact that administering two types of flu shots in a single season had never been done before.
In certain Canadian provinces however, the study was compelling enough for them to suspend seasonal flu shots for anyone under 65, and further studies were recommended to find out what was really going on. Well, several epidemiologic investigations were conducted over the summer of 2009, and the results are now in.
The finding? Seasonal flu shots DID increase the risk of catching swine flu.
Four additional studies all confirm the initial findings. The four studies, which were conducted by public health agencies in Canada, involved about 2,700 people in all, and each one had the same result: if you got the seasonal flu shot, you were more likely to get the swine flu. The researchers wrote in PLoS Medicine:
“ … Estimates from all four studies (which included about 1,200 laboratory-confirmed pH1N1 cases and 1,500 controls) showed that prior recipients of the 2008–09 TIV [seasonal flu shot] had approximately 1.4–2.5 times increased chances of developing pH1N1 illness that needed medical attention during the spring–summer of 2009 compared to people who had not received the TIV.”
The researchers stopped short of saying that a causal relationship had been established, saying instead that there could have been unidentified factors within the groups studied that accounted for the increase. They’ve recommended further studies to determine if the shot really was responsible, for instance, if the seasonal vaccine modified people’s immune systems in such a way that made them less able to fight off H1N1. This latter explanation makes perfect sense.
Why Getting a Vaccine for One Disease Could Make You More Likely to Catch Another
Remember that ALL vaccines are immune suppressing, meaning they lower your immune functions. The chemicals and adjuvants in the vaccines depress your immune system; the virus present depress immune function, and the foreign DNA/RNA from animal tissues depress immunity -- that is the trade-off you are risking.
The traditionally held belief is that it is acceptable to exchange a small overall immune depression for immunity to one disease. However, this trade is not at all in your favor when you consider the fact that you’re trading a TOTAL immune system depression, which is your main defense against ALL known disease -- including millions of pathogens -- for a temporary immunity against just one disease, which in most cases is a non issue for you and your family.
This may explain why people who had recently been vaccinated with the seasonal flu shot were therefore more likely to fall ill with swine flu. There are other theories circulating as well.
According to Deseret News:
“One hypothesis suggests seasonal flu vaccine preoccupies the cells that would otherwise produce antibodies against H1N1. But, according to Dr. Rubinstein, the research shows that people who received the seasonal shot during the 2007-08 flu season remained vulnerable to swine flu well into 2009, an interval that should provide most immune systems ample restoration time.”
CBC News Canada published another theory:
“Theoretically, antibodies created by the immune system after exposure to bacteria or a virus can facilitate the entry of another strain of the virus or disease. The effect has been seen for other viral vaccinations but never for influenza, said Dr. Donald Low, chief microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.”
Whatever the mechanism may turn out to be, waiting for science to figure it out seems foolish given the heightened risk. Nonetheless, the World Health Organization, who has admitted many times over that they made major mistakes in their handling of the H1N1 pandemic, has gone ahead and recommended that H1N1 be included in upcoming seasonal flu vaccinations.
So please keep this article handy to share with your friends and loved ones who are ready to get their “H1N1-enhanced” flu shot come October or November.
A Brief Reminder of How to Prevent the Flu Naturally
If you’re feeling skittish about going through flu season flu-shot-free, you should know that there are far safer, not to mention more effective, ways to prevent the flu.
Most people do not realize that vitamin D, unlike flu shots, is a proven method to keep yourself from catching an infectious disease.
According to the Irish Independent, R Edgar Hope Simpson was one of the first to discover the link between a deficiency in solar radiation and seasonal influenza. Then, in 2006, the journal Epidemiology and Infection published Dr. John Cannell’s paper Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D, which presents the hypothesis that influenza is merely a symptom of vitamin D deficiency.
He followed this up with another study published in the Virology Journal in 2008.
His findings were again confirmed by another recent study -- the largest and most nationally representative of its kind to date -- that involved about 19,000 Americans. It found that people with the lowest blood vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu. In conclusion, lead author Dr. Adit Ginde stated:
"The findings of our study support an important role for vitamin D in prevention of common respiratory infections, such as colds and the flu. Individuals with common lung diseases, such as asthma or emphysema, may be particularly susceptible to respiratory infections from vitamin D deficiency."
Add to this the fact that vitamin D has been shown to have a dramatic impact on nearly all chronic diseases, and you begin to see why optimizing your vitamin D levels may indeed be crucial for avoiding the flu in the first place, and/or avoiding serious and potentially deadly complications from the flu.
My Comment:
As I have suggested several times in Real Health, everyone should make sure they are getting an adequate supply of Vitamin D. Because we live in the NW it is almost impossible to get enough direct sunshine for your body to manufacture enough vitamin D. Add to that the fact that most so called experts and doctors recommend that everyone use sun block and avoid the sun as much as possible, so even when people do get some direct sun exposure, their body is unable to create vitamin D because of the sun block that is used.
Unless you are taking a high quality Cod Liver Oil that contains natural Vitamin D (such as Blue Ice Fermented Cod Liver Oil) then you will need to supplement your diet with Vitamin D3 capsuals. They are a cheap and easy way to protect your family's health and even help prevent osteoporosis. A good daily dosage is 2,000 to 5,000 IU per day.
Full Spectrum Salt Is Always Best
NaturalNews publication recently talked about the importance of switching from processed table salt to a "full spectrum" salt. Table salt -- or "white salt" -- is to real salt as table sugar is to dehydrated cane juice. Both white table salt and white sugar are devoid of the full spectrum of minerals and other nutrients that protect and enhance your health.
Many people regularly drink fresh, raw sugar cane juice but would never think of eating refined white sugar. I don't use refined white table salt, either. Instead, I use sea salt or Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt because it contains the full spectrum of 84 minerals and trace elements just like Mother Earth intended. It is an unrefined, unprocessed "raw" salt that's gathered from the sea or hand-mined from abundant salt caves that were formed 250 million years ago as ocean salt settled in certain geologic pockets around the earth.
Most of the western world thinks of salt as sodium chloride -- a highly refined, processed white substance that's devoid of nutrients. Salt is so devoid of nutrients, in fact, that in the early 20th century, doctors noticed that people who ate white table salt started to suffer chronic degenerative diseases such as goiter. This was caused by the lack of iodine in the salt.
Iodine deficiency, by the way, is the No. 1 most preventable cause of mental retardation. Eating processed salt that lacks iodine, in other words, can cause your offspring to be retarded.
Now what's really interesting about processed table salt is that it's missing over 80 minerals. But they only put ONE mineral back in -- iodine. That's because iodine is the one mineral that causes the most obvious disease (goiter is sort of hard to not notice). Iodine is a naturally occurring mineral in the ocean. It's abundant in seafood and in real sea salt, but it's completely missing from refined white table salt.
So they started adding iodine to table salt, creating "iodized salt."But why would you want to eat salt that's been artificially enriched with ONE mineral when you could be eating salt that naturally contains eighty-four minerals?
Note: Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt is a little expensive, but you can now find it locally in a hand grinder container at Trader Joe's stores for about $2. That is a great price and worth the trip both for the cost savings and your health. Avoiding table salt (sodium chloride) as much as possible is highly recommended because it is used so heavily in all of the foods we buy. So there is no way to avoid consuming high levels of sodium chloride even if you try to eat healthy and use a full-spectrum salt. Anything you can do to lower your intake of table salt is a big step in the right direction.
As always, if you need any additional information or have any questions just send me an email at jroma@nwlink.com and I will do my best to help.
Until next time, stay healthy and happy
JD Roma
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment