How motivated are you to spend your money and health on something which has minimal potential of helping you, while at the same time, has the potential of seriously damaging your health?
Influenza vaccines have one of the lowest effectiveness ratings of any vaccines. This is primarily due to the antigenic nature of the vaccines themselves. The true identity of the actual strain isn’t known until flu season begins, long after the vaccines were created.
Since these vaccines rarely contain the present strain of influenza, they aren’t effective in all groups, and are actually least effective in the group most at risk.
According to the CDC, vaccines are effective in protecting up to 60% of those younger than 65 from illness when the vaccine strain is similar to the circulating strain. Vaccines are only 30 to 40% effective in those over 65 when the strain is similar to the circulating strain. But how often does it contain the correct strain?
Vaccine efficacy is lower in adults than in children. Those factors influencing efficacy in adults includes: age over 40, overweight with BMI over 25 due to poor distribution of the vaccine, smoking, concomitant diseases, and in men more than women.
There’s been no randomized placebo controlled studies showing any benefit to patients 70 and older. This age group just happens to be the population targeted for these immunizations, because they’re at the greatest risk of death related to influenza. Most statistics of influenza death in the elderly isn’t due to influenza, but concomitant diseases like pneumonia.
In general, flu vaccines provide very poor defense against the H3N2 virus. The elderly are hardest hit by this strain of virus, and become sicker with greatest risk of hospitalization and death. Usually in the hospital setting, pneumonia is secondary, and becomes the primary cause of mortality. Influenza has been quoted as being the eighth leading cause of death in Canada and ninth in the United States. These figures are extremely misleading as only a small portion are actually due to influenza, but actually due to many preexisting diseases like COPD, heart disease, Diabetes and other co-morbid diseases.
The question of why vaccines are less effective against the H3N2 virus is due to genetic drift. This means that by the time the vaccine hits the market, there’s a greater potential of the vaccine being different from the original viral strain. Those vaccines grown in eggs show the greatest amount of genetic drift, and are far less effective. Unfortunately, this is the primary source of vaccines as opposed to cell based vaccines.
Besides the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine, the widespread use of multi-dose as opposed to single dose vaccines presents the issue of Thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, which increases risk of dementia and many other health challenges. This preservative has been suspect of neurologic damage seen in autism related disorders. In receiving any immunization it’s important to request and examine the vial which is being injected and reject any multi-dose vaccine. It’s your health and you need to be informed and proactive.
So, what’s a person to do during what has been labeled the flu season? First, we see that the flu primarily affects people during the winter months where there is less sunlight. For this, we need to insure adequate vitamin D. This can assist in calcium availability to assist white blood cells for immune surveillance. Add to this a good calcium source along with the poly-unsaturated fatty acids, like flax seed oil. Maintaining proper elimination is critical. Nothing will mess with your immunity like chronic constipation. Fiber and fluid are fundamental in this area. Diet is huge! Leave the sugar alone. This one thing can help you avoid the flu.
The use of immune enhancing herbs can prevent or cut short any immune challenge like the flu. My favorites are Echinacea Premium and Andrographis from MediHerb. I also created an herbal combination which has been a mainstay here for the last 32 years.
Influenza vaccines have one of the lowest effectiveness ratings of any vaccines. This is primarily due to the antigenic nature of the vaccines themselves. The true identity of the actual strain isn’t known until flu season begins, long after the vaccines were created.
Since these vaccines rarely contain the present strain of influenza, they aren’t effective in all groups, and are actually least effective in the group most at risk.
According to the CDC, vaccines are effective in protecting up to 60% of those younger than 65 from illness when the vaccine strain is similar to the circulating strain. Vaccines are only 30 to 40% effective in those over 65 when the strain is similar to the circulating strain. But how often does it contain the correct strain?
Vaccine efficacy is lower in adults than in children. Those factors influencing efficacy in adults includes: age over 40, overweight with BMI over 25 due to poor distribution of the vaccine, smoking, concomitant diseases, and in men more than women.
There’s been no randomized placebo controlled studies showing any benefit to patients 70 and older. This age group just happens to be the population targeted for these immunizations, because they’re at the greatest risk of death related to influenza. Most statistics of influenza death in the elderly isn’t due to influenza, but concomitant diseases like pneumonia.
In general, flu vaccines provide very poor defense against the H3N2 virus. The elderly are hardest hit by this strain of virus, and become sicker with greatest risk of hospitalization and death. Usually in the hospital setting, pneumonia is secondary, and becomes the primary cause of mortality. Influenza has been quoted as being the eighth leading cause of death in Canada and ninth in the United States. These figures are extremely misleading as only a small portion are actually due to influenza, but actually due to many preexisting diseases like COPD, heart disease, Diabetes and other co-morbid diseases.
The question of why vaccines are less effective against the H3N2 virus is due to genetic drift. This means that by the time the vaccine hits the market, there’s a greater potential of the vaccine being different from the original viral strain. Those vaccines grown in eggs show the greatest amount of genetic drift, and are far less effective. Unfortunately, this is the primary source of vaccines as opposed to cell based vaccines.
Besides the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine, the widespread use of multi-dose as opposed to single dose vaccines presents the issue of Thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, which increases risk of dementia and many other health challenges. This preservative has been suspect of neurologic damage seen in autism related disorders. In receiving any immunization it’s important to request and examine the vial which is being injected and reject any multi-dose vaccine. It’s your health and you need to be informed and proactive.
So, what’s a person to do during what has been labeled the flu season? First, we see that the flu primarily affects people during the winter months where there is less sunlight. For this, we need to insure adequate vitamin D. This can assist in calcium availability to assist white blood cells for immune surveillance. Add to this a good calcium source along with the poly-unsaturated fatty acids, like flax seed oil. Maintaining proper elimination is critical. Nothing will mess with your immunity like chronic constipation. Fiber and fluid are fundamental in this area. Diet is huge! Leave the sugar alone. This one thing can help you avoid the flu.
The use of immune enhancing herbs can prevent or cut short any immune challenge like the flu. My favorites are Echinacea Premium and Andrographis from MediHerb. I also created an herbal combination which has been a mainstay here for the last 32 years.
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