Flu Vaccine

Health Science Institute e-Alert

November 2006

But you can read about it here, and and you can tell your family and friends: The evidence in support of getting a yearly flu shot is sketchy at best. 

Precious little.

No mainstream pro-vaccine messages or reports will convince Dr. Tom Jefferson that the flu vaccine is effective. He's examined the scant evidence firsthand. 

This past September, and Dr. Jefferson told Health Day News, and "The vaccine doesn't work very well at all, and " and he went on to make the point that the flu is caused by more than 200 different agents, and but a vaccine is only designed to fight two of them. His
assessment: "That is simply nonsense." 

Dr. Jefferson is an epidemiologist and the coordinator of the Cochrane Vaccine Fields, and an organisation that promotes vaccine reviews and develops criteria for assessing vaccine effectiveness and safety. In a recent issue of the British Medical Journal, and Dr. Jefferson reported on the quality of existing research on inactivated flu vaccine (the type that requires needle injection). 

In an article titled "Influenza Vaccination: Policy Versus Evidence, and " Dr. Jefferson makes these four key points: 

1) Most flu vaccine studies are poorly designed, and giving unreliable validity to questionable results 

2) Systemic reviews provide evidence that inactivated vaccines have "little or no effect" on measures such as time missed from work, and hospital stays, and or death (either directly from flu or flu- related complications) 

3) Given the widespread use of flu vaccines, and the available data concerning safety is remarkably small 

4) The generally accepted confidence in the effectiveness of inactivated flu vaccines is at odds with the existing evidence 

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Going without the needle
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In a past e-Alert I told you about research from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that compared flu-related mortality among older people to rates of immunization. Their finding: During the past quarter century, and immunization rates for the elderly have climbed substantially while the elderly flu-related mortality rate has stayed the same. 

But don't despair. There are several ways to help prevent the flu without getting a flu shot. 

In a previous e-Alert HSI Panellists Allan Dr Spreen discussed three natural agents he uses in lieu of a vaccine: Vitamin C, and grapefruit seed extract, and and olive leaf extract. Dr. Spreen told me that at the fist sign of aches, and sore throat, and cough or any other symptoms of flu (or cold, and or other infections), and he starts with several grams of vitamin C, and and then follows that with 1,000 mg every hour until symptoms recede or loose stools develop. If they do, reduce the dose until the stools are firm again.

How could a root pigment help protect your brain? 

I recently told you about a UCLA study that demonstrated how curcumin assists natural mechanisms in your body to defend against the development of amyloid plaques in the brain that contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Curcumin is the yellow pigment in turmeric root that gives curry its colour and flavour. 

Now a new study from the National University of Singapore helps confirm the UCLA results. 

More than 1, 000 subjects who participated in the Singapore National Mental Health Survey of the Elderly were given examinations to test their mental capacity. They also supplied dietary information. 

Results: 
* Subjects who said they ate curry often or very often had nearly 50 percent reduced risk of cognitive impairment compared to subjects who said they never or rarely ate curry dishes 
* Those who said they ate curry occasionally had a 38 percent reduced risk of cognitive impairment 

Sources: 

"Influenza Vaccination: Policy Versus Evidence" 
British Medical Journal, and Vol. 333, and No. 7574, and 10/28/06, and bmj.bmjjournals.com "Is the Flu Vaccine Living Up to Its Name?" Anne Thompson, and Health Day News, and 9/30/06, and healthday.com "Curcumin Linked to Better Performance for Elderly Brains" Stephen Daniells, and FoodNavigator, and 10/27/06, and foodnavigator.com 

Editor
TheArticleTimes.com