From Flu Vaccine: No Good Evidence : And on Vitamin D: Vitamin D is Now the Most Popular Vitamin Personally, I take at least one 50,000 IU capsule of D3 per week, and a few more if I feel a cold/flu coming on. Seems to have worked fairly well. I used to take 5 gm every 2 hours or so of vitamin C when a cold/flu struck. Haven't had to do that since I started the high D. Linus Pauling was so close - he was only off by one letter...
Rather than just reading your alternative health blog, you would be well served by reading at least some of the source. For your edification below is the medline (with my bolding) abstract. Kapisch ? TIV effectiveness in the young and old was not demonstrated because the authors rejected all the TIV studies. However, LAIV was studied by the methods the authored required and was clearly effective in the 6 month - 7 years old group. I'll leave as an exercise for you to look up studies that compared these two vaccination regimens. I'll also mention that PCR and culture diagnosis tend to be epidemiological tools, and are not routinely ordered tests by physicians during flu season.
Thanks for the links directing to a Orthomolecular Medicine website. I usually do a dance and repeat 3 times "hippity hoop hoop hoop" when I get sick. Seems to work well.
Yikes!! Here in MI, the flu went around something fierce. My facebook feed looked like a national emergency posting board there for a little while, lol. I was going to get a flu shot but never got around to it. I do have COPD and was hospitalized 4 years ago from an influenza strain that almost rendered me completely unable to breathe on my own (talk about scary), so flu outbreaks do scare me as they can kill people with breathing diseases. Somehow I managed to get a bunch of colds and flu all at once, in succession early fall. I swear I was sick with something constant from August-early December. It was non-stop and I began to think there was something wrong with me, but I found a few other people going through the same thing. I work in the public safety field so I encounter a good variety of the general public, at one point 2-3 weeks ago I was sure I came down with the flu that was going around that was leaving people in bed for 3-5 days . I felt a little crappy one day, and then got better. I think my immune system fought it off or because I was so sick early in the season, I was already immune! No complaints here, woo hoo! Im going to go knock on some wood right now for saying that because if not, tomorrow the flu will hit me like a ton of bricks now
Coworker of mine said there are two other strains not covered by the shot. I got it and one of the other strains took me out like a set of bowling pins.... it came on fast and sudden with all the symptoms and was gone in three days. Was working closely with another coworker who came in after testing positive for the flu... Feel better soon!
Early Estimates of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness — United States, January 2013 Notice in particular this sentence meaning not all that looks and acts like the flu is influenza. In fact, during the early part of the 'flu' season, *most* infections are not influenza.
Could be the case but whatever mimics the flu is doing a pretty good job. The fever/chills/cough/body aches like one has been hit by a train could have fooled me - coworkers did test positive at the doc's office.
Yep, I know what you mean, been fighting flu like issues for the last couple of days. I did get the flu shot in November. Been trying to be very careful at work, keeping other sneezing, hacking co-workers at a distance. Using the sanitizing hand cleaner, wiping down surfaces with disinfecting wipes does seem to help. Getting plenty of rest and sleep - to maintain resistance levels, and staying hydrated with fluids, has been my attack mode from trying not getting sick. It is like having a job within my full time job. The only thing i can't control at work is the heating, ventilation system recirculating the airborn grems from others seezing and not covering their cough. Also, people who are sick and need to be home in bed, are too scared to be out of the office and risking losing their job. Hopefully, this epicdemic will be peaking and on the deline within the next couple of weeks. Stay healthy! DBCassidy
They sure do. This is why unsubstantiated reports of vaccine 'failures' are not instructive. Specificity of the usual office test is about 90%. Since 2/3rds of infections early in the season are not influenza, the predictive value of a positive flu test is 80%, meaning 1/5 are wrong.
How true, also the virus can and does change so often and at a rapid pace. The reports of vacine failures would be interesting from a scientific point of view. But, if the public were to learn the amount of failures ( or how flu vacines are a gamble), there could be a panic amoung the general populace. The populace and our highly mobile society also shares some of the blame. Flu strickened individuals going to work or traveling in crowded buses, trains, buses, or aircraft are a breeding ground for viral spreads. Then you get the person that says "I never get the flu shot, because I never get the flu" . Then, the next week, they are flu strickened.Granted, some people can't take the flu vaccine due to other health conditions they have. Perhaps, hopefully, people will take future flu seasons more seriously, and leave nothing for granted. We all can only hope. DBCassidy
