Amongst reports that this year’s flu season started out earlier and was harsher than normal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced 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.

Some are saying the results may be unreliable due to several of the study’s limitations, for instance only 61 percent of study participants responded to the survey, and participants reported whether or not they had the flu based on their own observations, not lab testing, but the numbers seem to speak for themselves.

Now it’s been officially documented that the flu vaccine does not work. But this is just one of the problems with this vaccine, as they are also loaded with toxic chemicals including mercury and aluminum, and many people come down with the flu shortly after receiving the shot. This is because it actually weakens the immune system, making the person more predisposed to the illness.

People are dying from the flu not because they didn’t get their annual flu shot, but because they are already sick and have compromised immune systems. Therefore, the ultimate treatment for the flu is straightforward: proactive prevention.

You’re probably wondering what exactly "proactive prevention" entails. The bottom line is to lead a healthy lifestyle year round, which includes:

• Eating right
• Exercising
• Getting adequate sleep
• Addressing stressors

If you do this, your immune system will be strong and functioning where it is naturally supposed to. Eating a junk food diet and burdening yourself with little sleep and unresolved emotional stress will only serve to bring your immune system down, where it will be of little use to your body.

So, now, if you truly want to learn how to avoid the flu--and not just this year’s "new" strain of the flu (there will always be new and newer strains of the flu)--I highly suggest you consider reading my new book, Dr. Mercola’s Total Health Program, and implementing my diet and health program into your life (the book is guaranteed for life or your money back!) If you do, chances are you'll never have to worry about coming down with the flu.

Some of the things you’ll learn (and once you learn them you can use them for the rest of your life to not only fight the flu but protect yourself from a myriad of illnesses and disease) include:

• Six factors that will teach you how to fine-tune your diet with the perfect food combinations to make and keep you healthy
• The single most important modification of your diet that will rapidly improve your health
• One fat that can actually help to improve your immune system

So please don't put your hopes and trust in a vaccine that doesn't work. Apply the principles above and you’ll stay flu-free this winter and for winters to come.

Flu Vaccine Now Officially Documented as Failure

Flu Vaccine Not Working--CDC Admits. What are Your Options?

Alternatives to the Flu Vaccine

Six Ways to Avoid the Winter Flu--and a Flu Shot Isn’t One of Them

Why I Never Get Flu Shots

Hydrogen Peroxide For Colds and Flu