Dr. Mercola October 21 2008 385,794 views
Another influenza season is beginning, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will strongly urge Americans to get a flu shot. In fact, the CDC mounts a well-orchestrated campaign each season to generate interest and demand for flu shots.
But a recent study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that vaccinating young children against the flu appeared to have no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons.At first glance, the data did suggest that children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years derived some protection from vaccination in these years. But after adjusting for potentially relevant variables, the researchers concluded that "significant influenza vaccine effectiveness could not be demonstrated for any season, age, or setting" examined.
Additionally, a Group Health study found that flu shots do not protect elderly people against developing pneumonia -- the primary cause of death resulting as a complication of the flu. Others have questioned whether there is any mortality benefit with influenza vaccination. Vaccination coverage among the elderly increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now, but there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza or pneumonia.
There is some evidence that flu shots cause Alzheimer’s disease, most likely as a result of combining mercury with aluminum and formaldehyde. Mercury in vaccines has also been implicated as a cause of autism.
Three other serious adverse reactions to the flu vaccine are joint inflammation and arthritis, anaphylactic shock (and other life-threatening allergic reactions), and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralytic autoimmune disease.
One credible hypothesis that explains the seasonal nature of flu is that influenza is a vitamin D deficiency disease. Vitamin D levels in your blood fall to their lowest point during flu seasons. Unable to be protected by the body’s own antibiotics (antimicrobial peptides) that are released by vitamin D, a person with a low vitamin D blood level is more vulnerable to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.
Studies show that children with rickets, a vitamin D-deficient skeletal disorder, suffer from frequent respiratory infections, and children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get a cold. The increased number of deaths that occur in winter, largely from pneumonia and cardiovascular diseases, are most likely due to vitamin D deficiency.Unfortunately, now, for the first time, flu vaccination is also being pushed for virtually all children -- not just those under 5.
This is a huge change. Previously, flu vaccine was recommended only for youngsters under 5, who can become dangerously ill from influenza. This year, the government is recommending that children from age 6 months to 18 years be vaccinated, expanding inoculations to 30 million more school-age children.
The government argues that while older children seldom get as sick as the younger ones, it's a bigger population that catches flu at higher rates, so the change should cut missed school, and parents' missed work when they catch the illness from their children.
Of course, this policy ignores the fact that a systematic review of 51 studies involving 260,000 children age 6 to 23 months found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo.
Back in 2005, The Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that all children between 6 months and 5 years old receive flu shots each year. Now they have expanded their guidelines to include children up to 18 years, which means everyone except those between the ages of 19-49, who are in good health, are urged to get a flu shot.
It should come as no surprise to find out that a majority of the ACIP members who came up with these guidelines have financial ties to the vaccine industry, and stand to gain personally for every additional person getting a yearly injection. It’s actually the only explanation that makes any sense for recommendations as insane as these.
Three Reasons to Reconsider Flu Shots
There are three major reasons why this government push to vaccinate 84 percent of the U.S. population with a yearly flu vaccine is so incomprehensible:
1. The majority of flu shots contain 25 micrograms of mercury; an amount considered unsafe for anyone weighing less than 550 pounds! And which groups are most sensitive to the neurological damage that has been associated with mercury? Infants, children, and the elderly.2. No studies have conclusively proven that flu shots prevent flu-related deaths among the elderly, yet this is one of the key groups to which they’re pushed.3. If you get a flu shot, you can still get the flu (or flu-like symptoms). This is because it only protects against certain strains, and it’s anyone’s guess which flu viruses will be in your area.
So why would you take a flu shot – EVERY YEAR -- that has NEVER been proven to be effective, that can give you the very illness you’re trying to prevent, and has potential long-term side effects that are far worse than the flu itself?
The powers that be have done an excellent job of instilling fear into the population so they believe that they must get a shot to stay healthy, but the simple reality is it’s doing you more harm than good.
And, even if the flu vaccine could effectively prevent the flu, there have been several examples in past years where government health officials have chosen the incorrect influenza strains for that year’s vaccine. In 2004, the National Vaccine Information Center described how CDC officials told everyone to line up for a flu shot that didn't even contain the influenza strain causing most of the flu that year.
Two-Thirds of This Year’s Flu Vaccines Contain a Full-Dose of Mercury
According to Dr. Donald Miller, MD, two-thirds of this year’s flu vaccines contain 25 micrograms of thimerosal. Thimerosal is 49 percent mercury by weight.
Each dose of these flu vaccines contains more than 250 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for mercury.
By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year.
In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other toxic or hazardous ingredients like:
The Evidence Against Flu Vaccines
For those of you who are still unconvinced, know that there’s plenty of scientific evidence available to back up the recommendation to avoid flu vaccines – if nothing else, then for the simple reason that they don’t work, and don’t offer any real benefit to offset their inherent health risks. For example:
Might Influenza be Little More Than a Symptom of Vitamin D Deficiency?
Vitamin D, “the sunshine vitamin,” may very well be one of the most beneficial vitamins there is for disease prevention. Unfortunately it’s also one of the vitamins that a vast majority of people across the world are deficient in due to lack of regular exposure to sunshine.
Published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection in 2006, the hypothesis presented by Dr. John Cannell and colleagues in the paper Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D actually makes a lot of sense.
They raise the possibility that influenza is a symptom of vitamin D deficiency!
The vitamin D formed when your skin is exposed to sunlight regulates the expression of more than 2,000 genes throughout your body, including ones that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. Hence, being overwhelmed by the “flu bug” could signal that your vitamin D levels are too low, allowing the flu virus to overtake your immune system.
How to Prepare For Flu Season Without Getting a Flu Shot
I often find that some of the simplest explanations are the truest, and this sounds about as simple as it gets. And, getting appropriate amounts of sunshine (or taking a vitamin D supplement when you can’t get healthy amounts of sun exposure) is one of my KEY preventive strategies against the cold and flu, as it has such a strengthening effect on your immune system.
Interestingly, last week the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled its recommended dose of vitamin D. Unfortunately this is still a woefully inadequate recommendation as the dose should be TEN times larger. Rather than going from 200 to 400 units per day, it should have increased to about 2,000 units per day.
For most of you reading this it is “vitamin D winter,” which means there simply isn’t enough sunshine to make significant amounts of vitamin D, so you will need to use a tanning bed or take oral supplements.
Although supplements are clearly inferior to sunlight or safe tanning beds, I am becoming more convinced of the value of vitamin D supplements as they are less potentially toxic than my initial impression, and they are certainly more convenient and less expensive than a tanning bed.
For those in the winter with no or very limited exposure to sunshine, 4,000-5,000 units per day would seem appropriate for most adults. If you are very heavy you may need to double that dose, and for children the dose can be half that.
The key though is to make sure you monitor your vitamin D levels by blood testing, to make sure your levels are therapeutic and not toxic.
I advocate getting your vitamin D levels tested regularly, but as I reported recently, you now need to beware of where you’re getting your test done. For an in-depth explanation of what you MUST know before you get tested, please read my updated article Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.
You can also use vitamin D therapeutically to TREAT the flu. But please understand that if you are taking the above doses of vitamin D the odds of you getting the flu are VERY remote. The dose of vitamin D you can use would be 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 were very heavy (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.
I have not received a flu shot nor had the flu in over 20 years. Here are the other “secrets” I use to keep the flu (and other illnesses) at bay:
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.
Interesting article and comments. I am an RN working in cardiac critical care at
a major hospital. When health services pass around the flu or pneumonia vaccines to nurses and doctors, I noticed a very few accepted it.
Absolutely NO doctors accepted these! They told me my bodies immunity process would have a better chance of fighting off the flu, than fighting off the consequences of the dangers that these vaccines may cause.
That was 10 years ago,and I have refused the flu or pneumonia vaccine since. I also have never been ill. I take vit. C, calcium and vit. D on a regular basis as well as zinc, which can reduce severity of colds or other respiratory ailments.
A few patients who got the vaccine did develop Guillain-Barré syndrome or became very ill from flu symptoms. Legally, I have to offer the flu/pneumonia vaccine to my patients and have them sign an acknowledgement of the dangers of same.
Yet, they still sign it! I think its because they trust that their doctor knows whats best. As much as I want to discourage it, I can be sued if it isn't offered, and the patient gets the flu or pneumonia. Maybe I will pass out Dr. Mercola's website address so that they may learn to make an educated decision regarding what is best for them.
See - that is just WRONG. That the patients trust their health care providers, but their providers have their hands tied legally to recommend something that is NOT good for them. Ugh - I just don't know what to say about that.
Hope you are close to retirement. 'The noose' swings.
You should be able to easily avoid this issue by making what you're offering incongruent with how you say it. Sound as if you wouldn't do it yourself, even if the words remain the same.
Your statement "They told me my bodies immunity process would have a better chance of fighting off the flu, than fighting off the consequences of the dangers that these vaccines may cause." is very convincing to me.
My 82-year-old dad told me and my sister this past weekend that he needed to and get his flu shot and when I tried to tell him about the mercury in vaccinations--I got shot down by both my dad and sis. I forwarded this e-mail to them...however, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
History says that people treated homeopathically for the pandemic flu had a superb survival rate (97 % I recall) vs those treated in 1919 allopathically (3% survival rate). The oscillococcinum is made with guts of ducks or chickens, and hence the apparent success against 'bird' flus. I'm remembering these stats and am subject to correction, but I did want to bring out the point that homeopathy can be used preventatively against the flu and that it is very successful at treating it as well. love the Vit D idea too. And handwashing, oh yes!
Mercury? Had quite enough thanks!
Homeopathic: 99%
Allopathic: 60-70%
ahhh maybe we see where the ole chicken soup for a cold comes in :)
A word of caution to individuals with Chronic health condtions, check out www.curemyth1.com and www.bacteriality.com for more current research information.
I am a Microbiologist and am very skeptical about the flu vaccine. I decided to stop getting them and take the steps Dr. Mercola has listed for staying healthy. I have not had a shot in about 5 years and I also have not had the flu. My officemate, who is also a Microbiologist does not get flu shots either. We
are exposed to sick students regularly, but we don't get the flu. With that said, I have to make a comment about the number of people dying from the flu being smaller than what is actually reported. Even though, as was stated, more people die from pneumonia, I think it should be stated that pneumonia is usually a secondary illness. In other words, pneumonia usually accompanies or is caused by another illness. Influenza can make a person more susceptible to coming down with pneumonia and therefore that might account for the number of deaths due to the flu that get reported. I am not sure if this is why the numbers seem skewed , but I felt that the fact that pneumonia is usually a secondary illness that could and does accompany the flu should be mentioned in this article.
Micro,
A quick question. Would you agree that someone over 65 (54,000 of the 63,000 deaths from the influenza/pneumonia group) could have come down with pneumonia as a result of the common cold (I know my grandfather did) or someone visiting them who had any other number of resp illnesses?
I'm not being critical of your analysis just looking for a professional's view.
CPO,
Good point...Yes, I think so...the cold is a respiratory infection, so yes, I think an immunocompromised person (such as an elderly person) could get pneumonia as a secondary infection to the cold or even bronchitis. So of course it could account for some of those numbers. I did not think about that way. However, I am not sure about pneumonia not being a secondary infection, as would be the case of just being exposed to a visitor with various respiratory infections. However, I think anything is possible when a person is immunocompromised and exposed to bacteria and/or viruses. I sure wish my elderly parents would listen to me and NOT get vaccinated every year!