Influenza does not follow the predicted patterns for infectious diseases. In fact, there are several conundrums associated with influenza epidemics, such as:
1. Why is influenza both seasonal and ubiquitous -- and where is the virus between epidemics?
2. Why are influenza epidemics so explosive?
3. Why do epidemics end so abruptly?
4. What explains the frequent coincidental timing of epidemics in countries of similar latitudes?
5. Why did epidemics in previous ages spread so rapidly, despite the lack of modern transport?
A theory gaining weight in the scientific community explains influenza epidemics as a result of a dormant disease, which become active in response to vitamin D deficiency. This theory provides answers for many of the above questions. A disease that remains dormant until vitamin D-producing sunlight exposure is reduced by a winter or rainy season would explain a widespread seasonal disease with a rapid onset and decline.
There is compelling epidemiological evidence that indicates vitamin D deficiency is just such a "seasonal stimulus." Recent evidence confirms that lower respiratory tract infections are more frequent, sometimes dramatically so, in those with low levels of vitamin D. Researchers have also found that 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day abolished the seasonality of influenza, and dramatically reduced its self-reported incidence.
Sources: Virology Journal 2008, 5: 29, CBCNews.ca October 22, 2008
With flu season in full swing here in there, you need to be aware that your vitamin D levels play a direct role in your risk of getting the flu.
The vitamin D levels in your blood fall to their lowest point during flu season, which generally coincide with low-sunlight seasons. Less than optimal vitamin D levels will significantly impair your immune response and make you far more susceptible to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.
Dr. John Cannell and colleagues introduced the hypothesis that influenza is merely a symptom of vitamin D deficiency in their paper Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D, published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection two years ago, which adds even more weight to this latest research in the Virology Journal.
Unfortunately, conventional medicine’s answer to preventing the flu is not to increase vitamin D levels, but rather to encourage, or even mandate, flu shots. What they don’t tell you is that flu shots, at best don’t work, and at worst, can make your health worse.
New Studies Show Flu Shots Don’t Even Work
A recent study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that vaccinating young children against the flu had no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons.
Additionally, no studies have conclusively proven that flu shots prevent flu-related deaths among the elderly, even though this is one of the key groups to which they’re pushed.
Yet despite these findings, physicians like Dr. Danuta Skowronski, epidemiologist at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, keep insisting that the benefits of the flu vaccine outweigh the risks for most people.
If you actually weigh the benefits found by these studies (no apparent benefits) against the reported risks (fever, malaise, the flu, allergic reactions and Guillain-Barré syndrome, just to name a few), you’d have to employ some fairly odd math to come to that conclusion.
In the CBC News article above, a man who contracted Guillain-Barré syndrome and was paralyzed for almost five months after receiving his flu shot wants to warn others of the risks inherent in this widely pushed vaccine.
Guillain-Barré syndrome is an autoimmune disease that attacks your nervous system – similar to muscular sclerosis. The B.C. Centre for Disease Control estimate your chances of developing that particular disease from the flu shot as one in a million. However, if you get it, the consequences can be severe.
Controversial Findings About Flu Vaccines for the ElderlyA yearly flu vaccine has not been proven to prevent flu-related deaths in people over the age of 65, according to a review in the Lancet medical journal.
Nonetheless, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the flu shot for this purpose, citing research about the 36,000 yearly deaths and 200,000 annual hospitalizations for flu-related illness in the United States.
No studies have conclusively proven that flu shots prevent flu-related deaths among the elderly, according to the review, and some of the support for this practice is based on flawed data.
While some studies have shown a benefit for flu shots in younger adults, only a small number of trials included people over the age of 70 -- even though about 75 percent of flu-related deaths occur among that age group.
There is also evidence, according to the researchers, that the flu vaccines are less effective in older people because the elderly have lower immune activity.
Flu shots do not always prevent infection with the flu, though they can make the illness less serious.
The Lancet Infectious Diseases October 2007, Volume 7, Issue 10, Pages 658-666,
Research Shows Optimal Vitamin D Levels Protect You From the Flu, Naturally
In the United States, the late winter average vitamin D is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a very serious deficiency state. It’s estimated that over 95 percent of U.S. senior citizens may be deficient, along with 85 percent of the American public. No wonder the flu runs rampant each year.
Remarkably, researchers have found that 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day abolished the seasonality of influenza!
Please note that this is far higher than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) spouted by public health agencies like the American Academy of Pediatrics, which just announced that they’re doubling the RDA of vitamin D for children to 400 IU. This new guidance still falls absurdly short of what’s needed to keep kids healthy, especially during flu season.
In order to prevent the flu, children need 2,000 IU a day of vitamin D, while adults need anywhere between 4,000 to 5,000 IU per day. The key is to make sure you monitor your vitamin D levels by blood testing, to make sure your levels are therapeutic and not toxic.
For more information about safe sun exposure and tanning, vitamin D testing, and the recommended forms of supplementation when sufficient sunlight is not available.
Vitamin D Can Also TREAT the Flu!
If you are taking the above doses of vitamin D the odds of you getting the flu are very remote. However, if you do come down with the flu, keep in mind that you can also use vitamin D therapeutically to TREAT the flu.
The therapeutic dose of vitamin D is 2,000 units per kilogram of body weight (one pound is 0.45 kg). The dose would be taken once a day for three days. (This could be a very large dose if you are very heavy – as high as 2-300,000 units per day).
This is the dose that Dr. John Cannell, founder of the Vitamin D Council, has been using very successfully for a number of years.
If you start this program early on in the illness, it should be able to completely wipe out the flu in short order.
Another useful supplement you could try, should you come down with a case of the flu, is olive leaf extract, which you can find in most any health food store. Olive leaf extract has been found to be a potent broad-spectrum antiviral agent, active against all viruses tested, including numerous strains of influenza and para-influenza viruses.
Flu Vaccine Now Officially Documented as Failure
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that this year’s flu vaccine had "no or low effectiveness" against influenza or influenza-like illness. Depending on how the data were analyzed, the vaccine protected from zero percent to 14 percent of study participants.
In the study, a questionnaire was sent out to 3,100 health care workers asking whether they had received the flu vaccine and whether they had contracted the flu or flu-like symptoms, and 1,886 people responded. The study was the first of its kind to be conducted by the CDC.
However, some say the study had limitations, for instance only 61 percent of the health care workers responded to the survey, and participants reported whether or not they had the flu based on their own observations, not lab testing.
Researchers say additional studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine against laboratory-confirmed flu and flu-related complications, including hospitalization and death, and they hope further studies will show more favorable results for the vaccine.
Please don't put your hopes and trust for preventing the flu in a vaccine that doesn't work.What you MUST understand is that people are dying from the flu because they are already sick and have compromised immune systems. The ultimate treatment for the flu is proactive prevention. Eat the right foods, avoid the junk, get plenty of rest and stay emotionally balanced and you and the flu symptoms will likely never meet.Start focusing NOW on eating properly. That means STOP with the junk foods and fast foods, STOP with the sugary foods, the processed grains, and the trans-fats. That means INCREASE the healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in cod liver oil, the good carbohydrates like those in vegetables, and the healthy proteins like those in clean, naturally raised meats (i.e., NOT the kind you typically find in grocery stores) like free-range chicken. This--and not vaccines and pills--is the answer. By developing a dietary program, and through natural respected clinic it has proven to help tens of thousands of people build their immunity, overcome disease (most far more serious than the flu), optimize their weight and increase their energy.Sources:New York Times , CDC
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