Other News How to prevent flu?
By A reader
Nov 12, 2008 - 5:33:35 PM
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Editor’s note: What can we do to prevent flu?
Should we count on flu vaccine?
We publish below an article from a
reader.
It’s a translation work and
statements are opinions of the original writer.
How to prevent flu?
The weather is getting cold and the flu season is near.
What can we do to prevent influenza? Get flu
shots?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says
the only way to prevent flu is to get flu vaccine.
And it says all children age 6 months and 19
years need to receive flu shots every year.
There are some speculations:
1) Vaccines are useless.
Many experiments showed inoculation of flu vaccine is not so effective
in preventing influenza. I received flu vaccine in the past and the efficacy
varied from one year to another. Flu vaccine is based on three most possible
viruses (two strains of virus A and one strain of type B).
But if the outbreak is triggered by a strain
that is not contained in the vaccine, the vaccine is useless.
2) Side effects of flu vaccine: I felt bad a few times
after I got flu shots.
Read
http://www.jktd.org/Article/128.html for information on side effects of flu
vaccine.
3) Flu vaccine is toxic.
Flu vaccine is grown on eggs.
Formaldehyde,
a cancer causing agent, is used to eliminate viruses.
Aluminum compounds are used to boost the
activity of antigen.
Aluminum is a neurotoxin
and can cause aging-related brain disease.
Some other substances used to make the vaccine can also cause allergy in
some people.
From 2008 to 2009, two
thirds of flu vaccine contained thimerosal, a chemical that contains 49 percent
mercury. This preservative has been suspected by many to cause autism in
children because it is a neurotoxin.
Research showed formaldehyde, aluminum and mercury in combination can
result in brain disease like Alzheimer's in elderly people.
Avoid flu vaccine!
Then what can you do to prevent flu?
The answer is "take high doses of vitamin
D".
Vitamin D plays an important role in calcium absorption.
But it plays many other roles.
After
all, it is a hormone.
Vitamin D can help calcium balance and absorption and
help normalize the cellular proliferation and prevent carcinogenesis.
It boots immunity against bacteria and
viruses, preventing seasonal flu.
It can
also affect the secretion of insulin and has something to do with autoimmune
disease.
It can also lower blood
pressure.
Let us take a look at its preventative effect against flu
viruses.
The flu outbreaks occur often in the winter or the
raining seasons when exposure to sunlight is limited.
Ultraviolet rays are blocked from shining on
human skin and production of vitamin D declines.
Vitamin D regulates more than 1,000 genes including
macrophages in the immune system, which kill viruses.
Vitamin D can also lead to production antibiotics,
which differ from artificially made antibiotics in that the antibiotics made in
the body can kill viruses while the artificial antibiotics cannot.
Flu viruses exist in all seasons. But only when exposure
to sunlight is restricted do they cause flu. The biggest reason for this is
lack of vitamin D.
But is a high dose of vitamin D toxic?
Harvard Health Newsletter suggests that people should
take 1,000 international units of vitamin D daily.
The Academy of Science recommends 2,000 IU
per day is the upper limit.
Some doctors
suggest that people need 10,000 IUs a day.
People with light skin may make 20,000 IU a day when they
expose themselves to sunlight for 20 minutes a day, but not anymore.
People with dark skin may need 6 to 10 times longer
time to get the same amount of vitamin D. That is why people with dark skin are
more likely to die from flu and vitamin D related diseases.
Can we just drink milk to have enough vitamin D?
One needs to drink 200 glasses of milk to get the amount
of vitamin D obtained by 20-minute exposure to sunlight.
If you want to get 2000 IU, you need to drink
20 glasses.
In comparison, four ounces of salmon may provide the amount
of vitamin D a person needs for a day.
Vitamin D in foods is limited and the best way is to take
oral vitamin D supplements.
Other things that need to be considered:
Eat less sugar, which suppresses the immune system.
Avoid omega-6 vegetable oils, which strongly
suppress immunity.
Daily multivitamins
may help, so does garlic.
Stress
management an exercise and plenty of sleep all help boost immune responses.
Also wash hands often to avoid viruses.