The TRUTH provides the very best options in protecting yourself and your family from the very real threat of influenza.
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
Jan 7, 2011 (CIDRAP News) – US health officials today gave a mixed report on influenza activity for last week, saying overall activity decreased slightly but more states reported widespread flu than the week before.
In Europe, meanwhile, flu activity increased in several countries, and the United Kingdom and Denmark reported high flu circulation, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO's) European Regional Office.
In the United States, influenza-like illness (ILI) accounted for 2.6% of outpatient visits to sentinel healthcare providers in the week that ended Jan 1, down from 2.7% the week before but still above the national baseline of 2.5%, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in its weekly update. The CDC said the holidays might have reduced the number of routine medical visits last week, possibly making the proportion that were ILI-related higher than it would have been otherwise.
Eight states—Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia—reported geographically widespread flu activity, up from five states the week before, according to the CDC. Sixteen states and Puerto Rico reported regional flu activity, while the rest had only local or sporadic flu circulation
State reports on ILI activity differed slightly from the state reports on the geographic extent of flu outbreaks. New York City and six states—Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma—reported high ILI activity, meaning much above the average level of ILI visits for weeks when flu circulation is low. Nevada and New Jersey both reported moderate ILI activity, and the rest reported either low or minimal activity.
The CDC also said the proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and flu was below the epidemic threshold. Only one flu-related pediatric death was reported, with influenza B as the cause.
Of 4,911 respiratory specimens tested and reported to the CDC last week, 20.3% were positive for flu, compared with 21.0% the previous week. Of the 995 positive samples, 656 (65.9%) were type A and 339 (34.1%) were type B. Labs subtyped 313 of the influenza A isolates and found that 269 (86%) were H3N2 and 44 (14%) were 2009 H1N1.
The CDC said antigenic characterization of a sample of the isolates continued to show that they overwhelmingly matched the strains in this year's flu vaccine. Also, the CDC reported it has found no isolates resistant to oseltamivir or zanamivir so far this season, though the CDC data do not include diagnostic testing in cases of suspected resistance.
In Europe—where the United Kingdom's flu epidemic has been in the spotlight lately—12 of 32 reporting countries cited increased medical consultations for ILI or acute respiratory infection last week, according to the WHO's EuroFlu Weekly Electronic Bulletin. Most of the cases were in children under age 5, the WHO said.
England and Denmark reported "high intensity" flu circulation, the agency said. Of 10 countries that estimate baseline levels of flu, 5—France, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, and Ukraine—said activity exceeded the baseline.
However, only 11 of 38 countries that report on the geographic extent of flu circulation said they had widespread activity. Most of those countries are in Western Europe: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK (England and Wales). Five countries cited regional activity, 6 reported local activity, and the other 16 had only sporadic activity or none.
Unlike in the United States, most of the influenza A isolates in Europe so far have been 2009 H1N1, the WHO said. Out of 479 flu isolates, 77% were type A and 23% were type B. Labs reported that of 307 type A isolates that were subtyped, 85% were H1N1 and 15% were H3N2.
In Japan, flu cases have increased for 10 straight weeks, and there were 9,863 flu patients during the week that ended Dec 26, according to a report from the Japan Broadcasting Corp. today.
Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases said 62% of cases in December were due to the 2009 H1N1 virus, though other strains had predominated earlier in the season, according to the story.
Influenza cases on the rise in St. Louis County, Missouri, Illinois
St. Louis County, Mo (KSDK) - Cases of influenza doubled in St. Louis County and the state of Missouri in the last two weeks the numbers were reported. Cases are also on the rise in Illinois.
In St. Louis County for the week ending December 26, 32 cases were reported. For the week ending January 2, 64 cases were reported. In the state of Missouri, for the week ending December 25, 84 cases were reported. For the week ending January 1, 196 cases were reported.
The Centers for Disease Control's influenza website still lists Missouri as having "minimal" flu activity. Flu activity in the state of Illinois increased from "minimal" to "moderate" in the last two weeks of December, indicating flu activity is on the rise.
Three states in the southeast, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, are reporting high flu activity, as well as New York City.
St. Louis County health officials confirm numbers of influenza cases are up in the past few weeks. They tell Newschannel Five, the rise ns numbers confirms our region is likely headed into the heart of the flu season. January through March is typically the peak season for cases of influenza.
The Health Division yesterday said that the seasonal influenza that has hit the Maltese islands is of a strong strain and this could lead to complications for vulnerable people like the elderly and others who suffer from chronic conditions such as asthma and heart problems.
While insisting that there is no cause for alarm, the Health Division said that precautions should be taken to avoid the spreading of the illness.
The division said that people should avoid crowds, especially in enclosed places; should wash their hands regularly or use hand gel; eat healthy food, in particular fruit and vegetables; drink lots of water; dispose of used tissues in an adequate way so as not to allow the virus to spread; and in case of illness to contact the family general practitioner or health centre in the shortest time possible.
The Health Division said that it is the responsibility of the GP’s or doctors in health centres to refer patients to hospital.
It added that the Mater Dei Hospital Accident and Emergency Department treats patients according to the seriousness of their condition.
Arizona saw its first pediatric death related to influenza during the week ending Jan. 1, according to the state Department of Health Services website. The state also saw a spike in the number of lab-confirmed influenza cases, with the respiratory illness now being classified as "widespread" in the state.
There were 355 newly identified influenza cases in the state, bringing the seasonal total to 1,102. Maricopa and Pima counties have both reported 397 cases since the influenza season began in late September. The number only represents a small percentage of those who may be sickened with influenza since most people do not seek medical treatment, according to the state health department.
The pediatric death was in Cochise County.
The state also saw a jump in the number of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) cases statewide, with Maricopa County reporting 46 new cases.
RSV is the most common viral infection that involves the lungs. In most children and adults, RSV appears as a very bad cold, with a runny nose and cough, and sometimes - but not always - a fever.
Doctors say seaweed can be effective at beating swine flu as Tamiflu
SCIENTISTS believe they may have tracked down a vital weapon against killer swine flu - seaweed.
Research has shown that an extract of red seaweed - widely found around Scotland's coast - could be as effective at blocking the deadly H1N1 virus as current drug Tamiflu.
German doctor Andreas Grassauer said: "Influenza viruses still represent a substantial threat to public health on a global scale.
"And with increasing viral resistance to Tamiflu the need for alternatives has never been greater."
Researchers at Vienna University found that seaweed extract carrageenan helped create a barrier inside the nose and blocked cold and flu viruses, including swine flu.
Dr Grassauer said: "This confirms that carrageenan can be used as an alternative and should be further tested for prevention and treatment of influenza in clinical trials in humans."
News of the breakthrough came as mum Ashleigh Morrision continued to fight for her life in Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock. She is one of three pregnant woman battling swine flu at the Ayrshire hospital. The other two women were in the early stages of pregnancy when they were diagnosed with the virus and were treated with powerful antibiotics in a atempt to blitz it.
Swine flu killed 69 people in Scotland last year.
Sunday Mail doc Gareth Smith said: "Tamiflu can cause side effects which leaves people feeling pretty grotty.
"And viruses are smart and can evolve - one tiny change can be enough to make current treatments ineffective.
"Over the next two or three years, there will be more and more strains of flu virus which may be resistant to Tamiflu. "There have not been any new antibiotics for the last 15 years or so.
"But if you can snort something up your nose that stops the virus getting into the body, that is very effective."
IRELAND - The number of new swine flu cases in Ireland is rising significantly again. Swine flu - Has made up 90% of confirmed flu cases. The number of new swine flu cases in Ireland is rising significantly again. Latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) show that at 91, the number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus last week was three times higher than the number the previous week. The number of people presenting at GPs with flu-like symptoms has risen tenfold since November.
The HPSC says that swine flu has made up almost 90% of the 120 confirmed cases of influenza so far this season. 34 of the swine flu cases required hospitalisation, while five people required treatment in Intensive Care.
The HPSC says the overall number of flu cases is above baseline levels, with the highest rates per population size reported among 0-4 year-olds and 5-14 year-olds. 19 of the confirmed cases of flu were among pregnant women, and 18 of those had swine flu.
Seven pregnant women with swine flu required hospitalisation. During the last flu season, 24 people with H1N1 died.
Flu levels almost double among children under five
NHS hospitals struggling to cope with the flu outbreak were on "black alert" yesterday, as figures showed that the number of children under five seriously ill with the disease has doubled in a week. Doctors in hot spots around the country have warned services are being exhausted by demand for treatment and the pressures on hospitals are "not sustainable".
The problems are so severe in some areas that non-urgent operations have been cancelled.
The alarm bells have sounded as official figures show that there are now 738 people in intensive with the disease – almost double the figure of 460 last week. The critically ill include 42 children under five, up from 26 seven days ago. James Paget University Hospital in Great Yarmouth was among those forced to declare a "black alert" – an NHS hospital's most severe status level.
Many other hospitals are also known to be struggling to cope.
Geoff Martin, chairman of Health Emergency, claimed that Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was on "red alert" – one step lower than black. He said: "We warned that hospitals would be forced on to black alert as the flu cases fill the available beds – now it's happening and we do not believe that the chaos is restricted to East Anglia.
"The NHS is now on the brink of the worst winter crisis in over a decade as the harsh reality of cuts to beds and staffing numbers is exposed with lethal consequences."
On Thursday government advisers urged the vulnerable to be vaccinated against the virus and relaunched the £1 million "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it" advertising campaign. But critics said the move was the medical equivalent of "closing the barn door after the horse has bolted". "The fact that it is taking infants, pregnant women and the middle aged means that the NHS is not geared up for it," said John Lister of the Health Emergency, the NHS pressure group.
The latest figures compiled by the Health Protection Agency show that flu levels are at their highest for a decade. The death toll is currently 39 but is likely to increase as the we enter the traditional new year peak for infections.
The level of influenza infection – including the swine flu strain – in the population is now higher, and rising more sharply, than at this point in 1999, when the country was heading for an epidemic that led to an NHS crisis.
In England and Wales there were 87.1 cases per 100,000 of population, a rate which has tripled in seven days. In the run-up to Christmas 1999, levels were 60 per 100,000 population, yet by January the outbreak reached epidemic proportions, with more than 200 cases per 100,000. In England there were 125 GP consultations per 100,000 people in the week ending Boxing Day. An official epidemic is declared when GP consultations reach 200 per 100,000.
The critically ill patients have resulted in as many as one in four intensive care beds. Throughout the country there are 3,600 spaces in intensive care units – but this can be doubled in emergencies.
The Chief Medical Officer has issued clear advice to get the seasonal flu jab if you are in a vulnerable group, particularly pregnant women and people with underlying health condition, as well as those aged 65 and over. Last winter, all children under five were offered the swine flu vaccine on the NHS, but a government advisory committee did not recommend that this should be repeated this winter. The last time seasonal flu cases were this high was during the 1999-2000 flu epidemic, when an estimated 22,000 people died.
NHS Direct had its busiest day of the year on Monday after receiving more than 30,000 calls, almost one in seven of which were about symptoms of colds and flu. The current seasonal flu vaccine protects against the H1N1 swine flu virus along with two other strains of flu, whereas the pandemic vaccine, which was offered to all under-fives, only protected against H1N1.
A spokeswoman for The James Paget University Hospital confirmed: "The hospital continues on black alert, with the situation being reviewed regularly during the day.
"Activity remains very high, with an increase in attendances and admissions to the hospital. Elective surgery has been affected. Individual patients are being contacted when necessary and advised that their surgery will be rescheduled as soon as possible.
"In order to alleviate some of the pressures on our services, we would urge anyone who needs medical treatment for minor injuries and illness not to automatically go to A&E but consider all the other options." A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "These figures are in keeping with what we would expect during a winter flu season."
Thirty-nine people in the UK have now died with flu-like illnesses this winter, figures show.
All but three of them were infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus, while the remainder had influenza B, the Health Protection Agency data shows.
The figures were published as the government announced it is to re-launch an ad campaign to raise awareness of how to guard against flu. Earlier this week GPs said cases had risen to 124 per 100,000 people. The latest figures for Scotland, released on Thursday, showed 55 cases of flu per 100,000 - up from 45.8 per 100,000 in the previous week. The HPA figures show 12 people died in the UK last week. They also reveal that, out of the 38 cases for which information is available, 23 were people in "at risk" groups. All except one were aged under 65, and four were under the age of five. Only two are known to have had this season's flu vaccine.
The number of people in critical care beds in England with suspected or confirmed flu has risen to 738, up 60% on the previous figures published just before Christmas. There are around 3,500 critical care beds in England.
You Are Less Likely To Get Flu without the Vaccine
Commenting on the overload in B.C. emergency rooms, a BCTV reporter in Vancouver reported out of 32 people who were vaccinated against the flu, 30 got caught influenza. Dr. Hugh Fudenberg, MD, the world's leading immuno-geneticist says having five flu vaccinations between 1970 and 1980 makes you ten times more likely to develop Alzheimer's Disease, compared to those who only have one or two shots.
Fudenberg puts it down to the aluminum and mercury almost every flu vaccine contains, with the gradual accumulation of aluminum and mercury in the brain leading to cognitive dysfunction. He says flu vaccinations are of no value and highly avoidable for your own safety. Flu vaccines are not only loaded with toxic chemicals, but many catch flu after being vaccinated against it, as the vaccine weakens rather than strengthens their immune system.
As well, vaccines damage internal organs, most particularly the pancreas, including making one vulnerable to contracting severe autoimmune diseases like diabetes, Addison's disease, arthritis, asthma, Guillian-Barre syndrome, hepatitis, Lou Gehrig's disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, polio, and many others, some which can also kill you. While, others can disable you and result in a lifetime of pain, because autoimmune diseases when the body attacks itself or is attacked, due to unhealthy lifestyles, stress, and various harmful ingestible substances like toxins in drugs, food, air, water, and other liquids.
Does all this warrant going and getting yourself vaccinated, when there are better ways of preventing yourself from catching flu!
(NewsCore) - The number of flu cases in the US is on the rise and the proportion of deaths that have resulted from influenza and pneumonia have reached epidemic levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday in its weekly report.
The data is not unusual for this time of year, with the number of cases typically peaking in January and February, the report said.
Influenza cases were reported to be widespread throughout the US, with 13 states and Puerto Rico reporting regional activity, nine states reporting local activity and Washington, D.C., the US Virgin Islands and 23 states reporting sporadic activity.
Flu activity up globally, in US, and notably in UK
Dec 30, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – The winter flu season is now officially under way in the Northern Hemisphere, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today in releasing its most recent influenza data.
Meanwhile, US data also released today show influenza activity again rising, and a third report says flu activity is increasing dramatically in the United Kingdom.
The WHO update says cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) are now above baseline in parts of Canada and the United States and are primarily associated with influenza A (H3N2) and influenza B.
The United Kingdom is seeing a surge in mild and severe cases for the last 3 weeks, according to the WHO, primarily associated with pandemic 2009 H1N1 and, to a lesser extent, influenza B. The illness pattern among those with H1N1 is similar to that seen during the pandemic last year, primarily affecting young adults, especially those with underlying conditions.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and north Asia, ILI rates are low, but recent increases have been reported in some regions, the WHO report added.
Tropical regions are seeing little activity, but Sri Lanka has reported a "marked increase" of pandemic 2009 H1N1 cases, including 22 deaths.
CDC surveillance data
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that for the week ending Dec 25 influenza activity continues to increase, with the proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza reaching the epidemic threshold.
Most recent surveillance data show that flu is widespread in five states: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, New York, and Virginia. Puerto Rico and 13 states reported regional activity; 9 states are experiencing local activity; 23 states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands reported sporadic activity; and Guam has seen no flu activity.
The proportion of outpatient visits for ILI was 2.7%, which is above the national baseline of 2.5%. Of the 3,284 US respiratory specimens tested, 689 (21.0%) were positive for influenza; specimens from the southeast had the highest rate, with 23.4% testing positive for flu. Of the 689 specimens that were found positive for flu, 479 (69.5%) were influenza A, and 210 (30.5%) were influenza B. Of the 202 influenza A samples that were subtyped, only 15 (7.4%) were pandemic 2009 H1N1, while 187 (92.6%) were H3 subtypes, presumably H3N2, which can cause more severe disease.
One influenza-related death in a child was reported and was associated with the H3 strain. There were no reports of antiviral-resistant strains, and the subtypes identified to be circulating in the community matched the three strains in the vaccine well.
UK weekly report
In the United Kingdom, ILI consultation rates in general practitioners' (GPs') offices are now above baseline levels in all four countries (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), according to data released today by the country's Health Protection Agency (HPA). However, pandemic 2009 H1N1 and influenza B are the predominant strains, with only a few cases of H3N2 reported. UK strains are also well matched to the vaccine.
In the past week, England's ILI consultation rate to GP offices for England rose 43%, from 87.1 to 124.4 per 100,000. The rates per 100,000 for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland were 58.4, 92.1, and 99.4, respectively.
One hundred and twenty-six of 189 (66.7%) specimens from patients with ILI presenting to sentinel GPs in England for the week ending Dec 26 tested positive for influenza. Over the last 4 months 39 flu-related UK deaths have been confirmed, the majority in people who were not vaccinated.
As of 2 weeks ago, 68.5% of those in England over 65 years old had received the flu vaccine. For those in a high-risk group and age 65 or under, it was 43.0%.
UNITED KINGDOM - A FLU epidemic could claim hundreds of young lives this winter, an expert has warned. Nine of the 27 flu fatalities this year have been children and the figures are set to rise, influenza expert Professor John Oxford has predicted. Figures show that in the run-up to Christmas the infection rate among those aged five to 14 rose from 58 to 160 per 100,000 people – close to the epidemic threshold of 200 per 100,000.
Professor Oxford, of Bart’s and the Royal London Hospital, said that within a week rising infections in all age groups could bring the first flu epidemic since 2000, when thousands of elderly people died. This time, he warned, many of the victims are likely to be children, who are particularly vulnerable to swine flu, the most dominant strain of the virus.
Prof Oxford said: “The infection rates in the five to 14-year-old age group have almost reached epidemic levels already, and I think they will go up.
“If the trend continues I would not be surprised if we get to epidemic levels within one week. The over-60 age group has got immunity because they have probably seen this virus before.
“Younger people are vulnerable because they haven’t seen this virus before – but they are more resilient. The worst case scenario would be a couple of hundred deaths. That’s more than enough, but we’re not talking thousands.”
The number of all age groups infected with flu has nearly tripled within a week to 87.1 per 100,000 people. So far 27 deaths from flu have been confirmed, including 24 from swine flu, but the real toll is believed to be much higher. Nearly 2,000 more deaths occurred during the week ending December 12 than in the previous week in England and Wales – an increase in the death rate of 21 per cent.
The Health Protection Agency said the number was higher than expected, and that “circulating respiratory viruses” were to blame. Vital cancer operations have been cancelled because flu patients, mostly suffering swine flu, are occupying 460 intensive care beds. Dr Robert Winter, president of the Intensive Care Society, said operations were being cancelled due to a lack of beds for cancer patients to recover in.
He said: “Our own hospital [in Nottingham] has cancelled elective surgery that involves the need of critical care beds. Other areas in the country I know are doing the same.”
LONDON //Britain appears to be heading towards its first full-blown influenza epidemic - including the deadly swine flu strain - in more than a decade.
With the number of cases requiring intensive care treatment in hospital more than doubling last week to 460, the levels of influenza are now rising more sharply than they did in 1999, when an epidemic produced a crisis over beds for the National Health Service.
Other European countries have reported a surge in cases over the Christmas holidays, prompting a warning from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control that countries anywhere in the northern hemisphere could expect a rise in flu infection.
A resurgent H1N1 swine flu virus has killed 56 and infected 1,172 people in Egypt since October 8, a Ministry of Health official said yesterday. In Sri Lanka, acurrent outbreak of swine flu has infected more than 300 people and 22 have died in the past two months, the island nation's health ministry said yesterday.
Syria has reported three deaths so far this month, according to a health ministry official. Those who died were hospitalised in December seriously ill with the disease, Hala al Khayer, the director of communicable diseases at the Syrian ministry of health told AFP, adding a fourth person was cured.
But Britain remains one of the worst affected, with the flu rate in England and Wales having tripled last week to 87.1 cases per 100,000 people in a population of 53 million.
A total of 27 Britons have died this month, 24 of them from the swine flu strain. Nine of them were children.
"The numbers now are worse than they were in winter of 1999 and the curve is steeper. When you look at the graph, the line for this year, it is incredibly unsettling - it looks like scaling Everest," said Prof John Oxford, a virologist and influenza expert at the London Hospital.
"If that trend continues I would not be surprised if we get to epidemic levels within one week."
The situation prompted Prof Dame Sally Davies, the UK government's chief medical officer, to change the advice to doctors on prescribing Tamiflu, the main anti-viral drug used to fight swine flu. Instead of restricting the drug to high-risk groups, such as the elderly and infirm, she said that doctors should prescribe it to anyone who might benefit. However, the surge in demand has led to pharmacists complaining that they cannot get sufficient supplies fast enough from wholesalers.
Another problem is being caused by the sudden increase in the number of flu patients requiring intensive care beds, which has led to other, major operations being cancelled. Dr Bob Winter, the president of the Intensive Care Society, told yesterday's Daily Mail that to preserve space in intensive care, hospitals have begun postponing elective surgical procedures and serious cancer surgery.
"My own hospital [Nottingham University Hospital] has cancelled elective surgery that involves the need of critical care beds," he said. "This includes oesophagectomies and non-urgent cardiac surgery. Other areas in the country, I know, are doing the same."
The government has been criticised for cancelling its annual advertising campaign this winter, urging vulnerable people to have a flu vaccination. But Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has defended the government's decision, saying it was much more effective for local doctors' surgeries to contact vulnerable patients and call them in for a jab. "There is no additional merit in a vaccination advertising campaign for the general population when there is already a targeted approach for those who need to be called," he said.
The H1N1 swine flu was first identified in Mexico in April 2009 and was quickly declared a world pandemic, causing more than 17,800 deaths in more than 200 countries, according too the World Health Organisation.
Swine flu pandemic outbreak sweeping Britain - 70% were vaccinated last year
(NaturalNews) A swine flu pandemic is sweeping through Britain despite the fact that 70 percent of Britain's over-65 population was vaccinated against swine flu last year. This year, that number is nearly the same -- 68.5% -- but flu vaccine proponents insist that until everyone is vaccinated, the flu will continue to infect people.
What these vaccine advocates absolutely will not admit, however, is how many of those who are sick with the flu this year also got vaccinated last year. This little detail is left out of every mainstream media report on vaccines and the flu. They simply refuse to mention this all-important number, leaving readers to leap to the incorrect conclusion that only those who were not vaccinated get sick with the flu.
Most infected patients were previously vaccinated
That assumption is false. In fact, of the 450 critical care beds in England that are now occupied by flu patients, I have no doubt that most of those infected patients are people who received flu vaccines in the past.
Such statistics are never made available to the public or the press, of course. To release such statistics would expose the Great Lie of the vaccine industry: That flu vaccines simply don't work on 99 percent of people!
In fact, the people who are most susceptible to catching the flu are precisely the very same people who get vaccinated. Why is that? Because vaccines weaken the immune system in the long run, leaving you more vulnerable to future infections. They deny your immune system the opportunity to practice its own adaptive response to invading microorganisms or viruses, thereby causing your immune system to atrophy in the same way that a wheelchair-bound person will experience leg muscle atrophy.
The immune system is a lot like a muscle: Use it or lose it!
But flu vaccines provide weakened viruses to the immune system (along with other preservative chemicals that can be extremely dangerous to neurological health). It's sort of like working out your muscles at the gym but having your trainer do all the heavy lifting for you. Obviously you're not going to have very strong muscles in the end because your body won't need to invoke a very strong adaptive response.
The same is true with vaccines and the flu: If your body is exposed to weakened flu viruses year after year, it gets lazy and weak, and when it one day comes into contact with a full-strength virus circulating in the wild, it's not in good enough shape to handle the challenge.
Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in Britain
At the same time this is going on, a person who is vitamin D deficient will also have an alarmingly weak immune system response because vitamin D activates the immune system to do its job. In people with extremely low vitamin D levels, even vaccines containing weakened viruses won't solicit an antibody response. But instead of testing patients for vitamin D deficiency and prescribing that with the vaccine, conventional medical doctors and contagious disease authorities robotically urge everyone to just "get multiple vaccine shots" as if following one failed vaccine with yet another failed vaccine will somehow make them both work.
That's idiotic, of course. And the other idiotic thing about all this is that if people had sufficient levels of vitamin D circulating in their blood, they wouldn't need seasonal flu vaccines in the first place! That's because a strong, healthy immune system with lots of circulating vitamin D is universally effective at halting ALL seasonal flu strains, with near 100% success in those with vitamin D levels between 50 - 70 (ng/dL).
The three main reasons behind Britain's flu pandemic
So the real reason Britain is suffering a swine flu pandemic right now is actually three-fold:
#1) It's winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and Britain is so far north (of the equator) that the people living there aren't currently generating any vitamin D whatsoever. This makes virtually the entire British population ridiculously vitamin D deficient throughout the winter.
#2) The majority of the British population has been subjected to flu vaccines in previous years, weakening their immune systems and making them more vulnerable to this year's flu strains.
#3) The flu strain itself is so successful in the wild precisely because so many Britons walk around in chronic states of immune suppression (from vitamin D deficiency, chronic stress, poor dietary habits and so on). This creates a "viral breeding ground" which encourages more rapid virus mutations that make vaccines obsolete anyway.
The question you are not allowed to ask vaccine quacks
The vaccine-pushing quack medical community believes that if they could magically convince 100 percent of the people to get vaccinated, they would have this problem licked. In their own minds, they have unscientifically convinced themselves that a vaccine equals automatic and full protection against a flu virus.
And yet even they won't dare ask this simple question: Of all the people sick from the flu who are right now lying in Britain's hospital beds, what percentage were vaccinated against the flu last year or this year?
The answer to that question will expose the outright fraud of the vaccine industry because the answer is a very large number. No one in the medical industry dares ask that question, of course, because they realize that delving into the actual re-infection rate of flu vaccine recipients would expose their quackery and fraud, causing yet more people to lose faith in vaccines which are, after all, sold based entirely on misplaced faith and clever propaganda.
The flu vaccine propaganda, of course, demands that people never be allowed to collide with the scientific facts about how many people who are vaccinated against the flu still catch the flu anyway. (The flu re-infection rate.) That's why you will NEVER see an honest answer to this question released by hospitals, vaccine companies or vaccine-pushing doctors.
Keep taking your flu jabs, everybody. But don't ask whether they actually work, because that question isn't allowed to be asked in the cult of medicine that dominates the sick-care landscape around the world today.
We wouldn't want actual science to interfere with a really profitable con job now, would we?
BRITAIN - Fears of a swine flu epidemic have grown after figures revealed the number of seriously ill patients being treated in hospital for influenza has surged by 250 per cent in a week in the worst outbreak for 20 years.
Eighteen adults and nine children have died from flu this winter. Some hospital trusts are starting to cancel operations to leave beds empty to make way for a surge in flu cases, with one leading Department of Health official warning of potential shortages in the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
The Department of Health figures reveal the extent of the worsening crisis and show that the number of critical care beds being used by flu patients has risen by more than
half in three days.
On Friday, the Government confirmed there were 460 patients with suspected or confirmed flu in hos¬pitals across England, compared with 302 on Tuesday and 182 at the end of last week. Normally the worst cases of flu are seen in those over the age of 65. But the vast majority this year, 366, are patients aged between 16 and 64, while 43 are children, with 26 below the age of five.
It is not known how many of these cases are swine flu, but the virus is the dominant flu strain this winter and it is expected that most will have the H1N1 virus.
The Health Protection Agency has said that so far this winter, nine children and 18 adults have died of flu. However, the official figures represent a small proportion of cases being treated in hospital because data is not collected on the number of flu patients on ordinary wards.
Doctors have described the stark increase in cases as unprecedented, with some calling it the worst flu outbreak for more than two decades.
Experts have warned the situation will get worse. The country’s leading virologist, Professor John Oxford, said: ‘I wish I could be optimistic about this outbreak, but I have an uneasy, restless feeling.
'Swine flu is the biggest virus on the block and there are plenty of people still to infect.’
Shadow Health Secretary John Healey blamed Health Secretary Andrew Lansley for worsening the crisis by failing to advertise the seasonal flu vaccine, which offers protection against swine flu.
‘The Health Secretary made the wrong judgment, which has left many people without the flu pro¬tection they should have,’ said Mr Healey.
‘He should authorise an immediate campaign to encourage those most at risk to get the jab.’
Some intensive care wards, and particularly those for children, are already reaching full capacity.
The NHS in England has about 3,500 critical care beds and some trusts are cancelling operations to make way for a surge in flu cases.
Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon Richard Firmin, of Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital, said: ‘If the numbers in intensive care keep going up, we’ll need further capacity and we’re running very close to the edge.’
Meanwhile, the Department of Health’s chief pharmaceutical officer, Dr Keith Ridge, has warned of potential shortages in the antiviral drug Tamiflu because of the Government’s decision to allow GPs to prescribe the drug to all people with flu-like symptoms, rather than those only in at-risk groups.
In a letter to pharmacists, Dr Ridge said wholesalers were rationing supplies and urged pharmacists not to over-order.
Andrew Lansley described the rise in cases as a ‘significant increase’ but insisted the NHS was responding well to the crisis.
He said: ‘We will continue to monitor the situation and respond as necessary.’
*Pregnant mother Fallon Devaney, 25, who was fighting for her life after being struck by swine flu, has been taken out of intensive care.
Staff at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, where the mother of four is recovering, said last night that her condition was stable and her unborn baby was out of danger.
Mrs Devaney’s mother Linda, 45, said: ‘It’s the best Christmas present we’ve ever had.’
Fraudulent herbal immune supplement fails to reduce flu symptoms for 99 percent of people
(NaturalNews) In an independent review published in a peer-reviewed medical journal (see below), a popular herbal immune supplement called "ImmunoFlu Remedy" was found to fraudulently marketed as a "flu prevention supplement." Its makers claim that if you take the supplement, you won't get the flu and won't miss a day of work during the flu season (a silly claim, eh?). But clinical testing recently revealed that ImmunoFlu Remedy only works to reduce flu symptoms on 1 out of every 100 people who take the supplement, meaning it is 99 percent ineffective. An FTC spokesperson, commenting on the study results, characterized the marketing of ImmunoFlu Remedy as "obviously fraudulent" and a top FDA official has publicly promised to launch a criminal investigation into the makers of ImmunoFlu Remedy in order to "protect the public from misleading health claims." Evidence has also surfaced that ImmunoFlu Remedy may contain trace levels of heavy metals linked to neurological disorders. Over a dozen children admitted to emergency rooms at hospitals across the country have been identified as consumers of ImmunoFlu Remedy, and two of those children died. The makers of ImmunoFlu Remedy are being ordered to remove the product from their website and recall the product from distributors and retailers. As shocking as all this sounds, there's something you need to know as you continue reading this story here on NaturalNews. There is no such thing as ImmunoFlu Remedy. This story is actually about seasonal flu vaccines. Most of the details mentioned above, you see, are actually the true story about seasonal flu vaccines. Flu vaccines don't work on 99 out of 100 people Seasonal flu vaccines have been scientifically shown to reduce flu symptoms in only 1 out of every 100 people (they are ineffective on 99% of those receiving the shots) (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_v...). Flu vaccines also contain chemical ingredients linked to neurological disorders, which is why so many children in Australia and around the world have been admitted to hospital emergency rooms suffering from seizures and convulsions following flu shot injections (http://www.naturalnews.com/029586_A...). Seasonal flu vaccines are also fraudulently marketed with blatantly false claims that they prevent the flu in everyone who receives a shot. "Get the shot and you won't miss work" is one of the common claims made in flu shot promotions. Or, as Walgreens implies, "Get the shot and you won't infect your family members." That claim is blatantly misleading and scientifically false. And yet, despite this fraudulent marketing of a product that doesn't work on 99% of those who take it, neither the FTC nor the FDA has taken any action against it. Marketers of flu vaccines, it turns out, can make any claims they wish, even if such claims are laughable in the face of scientific scrutiny. Forget the science... we've got vaccines to sell! Flu vaccines, you see, are immune from any real scientific scrutiny -- even by the scientific community. The mythology of season flu vaccines has been so pervasive and so widely described as "scientific" that the truth of whether it's really scientific no longer matters. Flu vaccines are simply assumed to work even without testing; without scientific evidence and without any legitimate application of skeptical thinking. There's a word for that, of course. It's the word used to describe a system of belief that requires no evidence... a system in which truths are materialized out of lies through the mere act of enough authoritative people uttering falsehoods until they all begin to believe each other. That word, of course, is a four-letter word: Cult. A cult need not answer to statistical scrutiny. It need not subject its own internal beliefs to outside review because everyone inside the cult already agrees on the answer -- and why ask questions when we already know the truth, right? Such is the nature of the cult of flu vaccines. It's a large cult, of course, but the sheer size of the cult in no way detracts from the fact that it is a cult nonetheless. In other words, just because millions of doctors believe the propaganda of a cult does not make it any less of a cult. Even if all the doctors, pharmacists and drug pushers in the world fall for a fictitious belief and put their faith and professional reputations on the line in order to back that belief, it's still fiction. And it's still a cult. Doctors once prescribed mercury and other poisons There was a time in western medicine when doctors routinely prescribed mercury as a remedy to treat various afflictions. For example, mercury was frequently prescribed to treat syphilis. In fact, one study describing the treatment of syphilis with "mercury inhalations" was presented at the Forty-Fourth Annual Session of the American Dermatological Association in Swampscott, Mass., June 2-4 in the year 1921. That study was entitled: THE TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS BY MERCURY INHALATIONS by H. N. COLE, M.D.; A. J. GERICKE, M.D.; TORALD SOLLMANN, M.D. Arch Derm Syphilol. 1922;5(1):18-33. Notice that the three authors were all MDs? That's because doctors have historically been some of the most persistent promoters of poisonous concoctions that today we would call "quackery." They even sought to destroy the careers and reputations of their own colleagues who pointed out that perhaps mercury should not be used as a medicine -- or even the idea that surgeons should wash their hands! It is an historical fact that western doctors promoted the heavy metal mercury, highly addictive heroin, and other extremely toxic substances as "miracle cures" for all sorts of diseases and conditions. They also advocated cigarettes as being good for your health and even improving your teeth!
In fact, the term "quack" comes from the use of mercury by western doctors. Mercury, of course, was once called "quicksilver," and the term was bastardized into the derogatory "quack" to refer to physicians who continued to use dangerous substances that harmed patients. Under that definition, today's quacks are not homeopaths or herbalists but rather oncologists who poison their patients with chemotherapy in almost exactly the same way the quack doctors once poisoned their patients with mercury. Flu vaccines are modern medicine's form of quackery Based nothing more than wishful thinking and physicians quoting each other as reliable sources of expert opinion, the whole of evidence supporting flu vaccines today amounts to little more than an intellectual circle jerk of truly bad science. Today's flu vaccine-pushing physicians, you see, are no smarter than their colleagues from the 1800's who prescribed mercury inhalations for patients. And they are arguably less wise, too. The only real difference is that today there are more of them and so their voices seem to take on the illusion of authority and consensus. Consensus is not always fact. More often than not, it is merely the mass infection of many minds with official foolishness. At one time, after all, it was an established, consensus "fact" that the Earth was flat. More recently, even in 1847, a Hungarian obstetrician named Ignaz Semmelweis was viciously attacked by his colleagues for insisting that doctors should wash their hands before delivering babies.
What Semmelweis discovered then is what every person who speaks out against the insanities of western medicine knows today: Western medicine is an arrogant, misinformed and dangerously ignorant system of control in which truth-tellers are routinely exterminated in order to maintain the mythologies upon which the medical industrial complex is based. The truth about flu vaccines would destroy much of western medicine Semmelweis was much like the Wikileaks of the 1840's in the sense that he revealed "uncomfortable truths" that challenged the status quo and made a whole lot of really important-sounding people look like fools. Since really important-sounding people don't enjoy looking like fools, they simply attack the messenger and increase their resolve to defend their ridiculous falsehoods and mythologies... even in the face of clear evidence that shows them to be wrong. Such is precisely the situation happening today with flu vaccines. To challenge the sanctity of seasonal flu vaccines and the regimen of annual shots (which just happen to coincide with steady profits for the drug companies) is to question the very foundation of western medicine. Without the mythology of vaccines firmly imprinted in the minds of the people, western medicine would no longer appear to have authority over the flu. If flu vaccines were halted for just one year -- forcing people to turn to vitamin D instead -- the illusion of flu vaccines would be forever shattered and the people would realize that taking seasonal flu vaccine shots is just as ludicrous as inhaling mercury vapor. That's why flu vaccines have to be incessantly pushed, each and every year, without any gaps in the "treatment." The real quackery of vaccines The evil genius in all this is that people have been tricked into believing in vaccines whether they work or not. When someone receives a vaccine shot, they consider themselves "protected" from the flu. So what happens if they get the flu anyway? They simply reason in their own heads that if they hadn't been vaccinated, they might have experienced far worse flu symptoms. And if they don't get the flu at all? Then they reason that the vaccine prevented the flu! Thus, with the right programming, flu vaccines can be thought of as useful and effective regardless of the actual health outcome. This is a classic red flag for a system of quackery. It's one of the most common complaints leveled against energy medicine by conventional scientists, in fact. They rightly point out that determining whether energy medicine really works for you is a guessing game: If you still get sick, you might think the energy medicine worked a little bit but not enough. If you don't get sick, then you might think the energy medicine worked like a miracle. Such a logic matrix is prone to misinterpretation by patients and doctors alike. In both cases -- energy medicine as well as flu vaccines -- patients are likely to convince themselves that it's working, even if there is no real evidence that their belief is accurate. Belief itself, of course, is perhaps the best medicine of all, and it is a distinct possibility that the small number of patients who seem to be helped by flu vaccines (one percent) may be experiencing the benefit of the placebo effect. Nevertheless, the way out of this puzzle is to subject flu vaccines (or energy medicine, similarly) to rigorous clinical trials in which a serious attempt is made to tease out some statistically significant answers such as "what percentage of people are actually helped by this treatment?" What's really amazing about all this is that such clinical trials have already been done on flu vaccines, and the results are in: Seasonal flu vaccines prevent flu symptoms in about one percent of the people who receive vaccine jabs. And that's if you believe the more optimistic conclusions of the vaccine manufacturers themselves, by the way (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_v...). How would this quackery be viewed if it were an herbal remedy? From a scientific perspective, then, seasonal flu vaccines have roughly a one percent effectiveness rate, which means they have no apparent effect on 99 out of 100 people. What's interesting about this is that if homeopathy, or energy medicine, or an herbal formula produced such poor results, it would be widely ridiculed as a quack remedy promoted via fraudulent marketing. A one percent effectiveness rate proves any "natural" remedy to be quackery, you see, and yet the same one percent effectiveness rate is more than sufficient to support the mythology of vaccines to those who believe the vaccine cult. What it all comes down to is really this: Seasonal flu vaccines are really 1% science and 99% wishful thinking. And yet, apparently, that's more than enough reason for virtually the entire medical and scientific establishments to back seasonal flu vaccines as if they were scientifically proven while touting highly exaggerated marketing claims that imply one hundred percent effectiveness. In any other industry, marketing a product that didn't work 99 percent of the time would be considered fraud. But in the vaccine industry? It's just business as usual. How to make money selling a product that almost never works as advertised The seasonal flu vaccine is a great money-making con, too. Imagine how much money you could make if you could convince hundreds of millions of people to buy a product that didn't work on 99 percent of your customers, and yet 100 percent of them were convinced that they were receiving benefits from it! It's a pretty clever con, and it all depends on promoting the mythology -- or "catapulting the propaganda" as President George Bush famously said -- in order to make sure that 99 percent of the wishful thinking that powers the flu vaccine industry remains in place. Because, let's face it: If flu vaccines actually worked, the industry really wouldn't need to advertise them so heavily, would they? If these vaccines really stopped flu infections with 100 percent effectiveness, word of mouth about flu vaccines would spread even faster than the flu itself, and virtually everyone would line up to get their "flu protection" shots out of sheer necessity. The only reason the industry needs to engage in such aggressive flu vaccine promotion is because flu vaccines are only based on 1% science, and the other 99% of the marketing formula depends on keeping people brainwashed into believing the false mythology of flu vaccines. Flu shots as placebo Flu vaccines, in effect, are largely just placebo shots. If you think they're going to work for you, then you'll remain convinced of that regardless of whether you get sick or not. There wouldn't really be any harm in that except for the inconvenient fact that vaccine shots contain harmful chemical ingredients that pose a health risk to those who take them. Thus, even while a flu vaccine may be providing as much as a 1% protection against the flu, it may simultaneously subject a person to a significantly smaller risk of a far more serious detrimental outcome: Neurological damage, convulsions, learning disabilities or even the accelerated development of Alzheimer's disease. Are these risks really worth a 1-in-100 chance of preventing the flu? A rational answer seems to be no, they aren't. Especially when the available evidence says that vitamin D supplements work far better at preventing flu infections. And vitamin D can be taken with virtually no health risks whatsoever. Even better, vitamin D supplements are not formulated with mercury preservatives, chemical adjuvants or other questionable chemicals that are typically added to vaccines. But don't expect this sort of rational, clear-thinking discussion of flu vaccines and vitamin D to be undertaken by your physician. Doctors have already drank the flu vaccine Kool-Aid, and as a result the science no longer matters to them. Even if Wikileaks released definitive documents showing the entire flu vaccine industry to be a complete scam based on fraudulent science, most doctors would no doubt continue to push flu vaccines anyway because that's what they've always done. Doctors don't change course very often... especially not if they've participated as active members of the vaccine cult for several years (or decades). The likelihood of a doctor actually changing his mind on this issue of flu vaccines is even less than the likelihood of a flu vaccine preventing you from getting the flu this winter. And that likelihood is ridiculously low to begin with. So don't hold your breath. And don't hold out any faith for the idea that doctors will suddenly embrace scientific thinking, either. Because there's no room for truly scientific thought in the membership ranks of the vaccine cult. Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com
How Much Vitamin D? What's Missing From the New Recommendations
One day, vitamin D seems like the cure for everything, and the next, we are inundated with warnings about dangers and lack of science. Confusion is rampant about the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI's) for Calcium and Vitamin D recently released from the Institute of Medicine.
I have reviewed the report carefully and gathered input from international experts on vitamin D and the clinical team at my medical center -- which includes four master's degrees in nutrition, authors of textbooks on nutrition, and international leaders in nutrition education for physicians and dietitians. Collectively we have 100 years of reviewing nutrition research and applying it with thousands of patients. Here is what I think about the new vitamin D recommendations based on a synthesis of all this information.
New Vitamin D Recommendations: Are They Enough?
Although I agree with an increase in the DRI's for vitamin D, I feel the new DRIs are overly cautious, and I am disappointed that the panel failed to address a large volume of compelling research showing the benefits of optimal vitamin D intake in so many conditions. These go well beyond bone health and include cancer, depression, imbalances in the immune system, heart disease and many others. Vitamin D is a very complex and fascinating nutrient that has multiple roles and effects in the body beyond bone health.
An important distinction to keep in mind is that the DRI's are intended as general population based guidelines. They do not differentiate or take into account a person's unique medical history, genetics, dietary intake, clinical symptomatology, environmental conditions including sunlight exposure or biochemical and nutritional assessment.
My own practice-based clinical evidence from testing thousands of individuals with the goal of optimizing vitamin D status, correlated with other biomarkers, show very positive effects on both skeletal and extra skeletal conditions. At the UltraWellness Center we routinely check vitamin D levels, monitor clinical symptoms, evaluate our patient's health status and tailor medical nutritional therapy accordingly.
Here are some of the highlights from the report and my own conclusions and responses based on my clinical experience with vitamin D:
1. The report recommended a 300 percent increase in vitamin D for most Americans and doubled the acceptable upper safe limit to 4,000 IU a day which means they consider it completely safe to take 4,000 IU a day.
2. They appropriately conclude that most Americans are overdosing on calcium, which has been added to many foods. Countries with low calcium intake, a plant-based, low-acid diet and plenty of sun exposure have very low rates of osteoporosis. I support the intake of adequate calcium from food, especially dark green leafy vegetables, tahini and nuts.
3. The Institute of Medicine's (IOM) conclusions and DRI's focus on the minimum amounts of nutrients needed to prevent deficiency diseases, not create optimal health.
4. The report's conclusions are based on proving the absence of something (like heart disease or cancer over decades), which is harder to prove than the presence of something. Spending decades of research looking for something not to happen is a tough game. Pharmaceutical agents are meant to alter pathology. Nutrients restore normal function, and they do so by optimizing normal biological functions, mostly by their action as coenzymes in thousands of biochemical reactions.
5. The conclusions are deliberately very conservative based on requirements for absolute proof, not implications from all the collective research. The IOM places the burden of proof on those who would suggest that higher levels are effective or safe. However, given the evolutionary human experience of sun exposure and the high doses of vitamin D we used to get from fatty fish -- equivalent to up to 10,000 IU a day -- perhaps, the burden of proof should be on scientists to prove that lower intakes of vitamin D are, in fact, safe over long-term. Nutrients are not drugs and cannot be studied or evaluated as drugs. They are multifunctional substances each responsible for hundreds of chemical reactions in the body necessary for life.
6. The conclusions are based on meeting the gold standard of research for evidence-based medicine -- namely the randomized controlled trial. While useful for evaluating drug therapy, randomized control trials are extraordinarily expensive and difficult to perform for compounds such as nutrients that have their benefits over decades, not weeks.
7. Instead, conclusions should be based on the collective knowledge from paleobiology, basic science, gene expression data, and large population studies. In other words, synthesizing all the data, not simply judging the evidence based on a gold standard. This is simply not the appropriate lens for assessing complex nutritional data. Vitamin D, for example, regulates over 150 genes. Facts like these are not taken into account in the new DRIs.
8. The conclusion that the normal ranges for vitamin D blood levels have been inappropriately increased from 20 to 30 ng/dl is based on flawed reasoning. If everyone has a low level, that doesn't make normal -- much less optimal. The report seems to suggest that since 80 percent of Americans are considered deficient in vitamin D we should adjust the "normal" range down so that all those people walking around who don't appear to have health problems won't be considered deficient. One could ask: Should we adjust the "normal weight" of Americans to include a BMI of over 25, since nearly three-fourths of our population is in that range? However, a better question may be: What are the evolutionary or ideal conditions for health?
9. Why are the 14 expert opinions of scientists who reviewed the report including Dr. Robert Heaney (one of the world experts on vitamin D who showed that 20 weeks of 10,000 IU a day of vitamin D3 had no adverse effects on healthy young men with normal vitamin D levels) and Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard the most respected nutritionist in the world, (who recommends 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day), kept secret? When is open scientific discourse a national security issue? Or does the IOM think we will be confused?
10. Why did the IOM leave Dr. Michael Holick, the discoverer of vitamin D3 (the active thyroid hormone) whose data show that blood levels up to 100 ng/dl are perfectly safe, off the panel despite the fact that his research and reviews have appeared in every major medical journal?
11. Here are some other compelling facts to consider:
* 70-80 percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient (this means 25 ng/dl or less for Caucasians and 16 ng/dl or less for African Americans.)
* Attaining optimal blood levels level of 45 ng/dl typically requires about 3,000-4,000 IU a day of vitamin D3 (6 times current recommendations).
* Achieving blood levels of 45 ng/dl (toxic is considered 250 ng/dl) would result in 400,000 fewer premature deaths per year including a reduction of cancer by 35 percent, type 2 diabetes by 33 percent, and all cause mortality by 7 percent.
* Studies show that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of influenza 11-fold (1,100 percent)(v) and taking vitamin D reduces the risk by 42 percent.
* The economic burden due to vitamin D insufficiency in the United States is40-53 billion per year from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, influenza, autoimmune disease, depression, fibromyalgia and other disorders.
There is no question that in some cases, care is needed when taking vitamin D. For example, patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases must have their vitamin D status monitored carefully. But the bottom line is that taking supplemental vitamin D is safe and may be beneficial for a great majority of the population. Here is what I recommend in the face of the absence of evidence of harm and the plethora of evidence of potential benefit for taking supplemental vitamin D:
1. The average child can conservatively and safely take 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day, and the average adults should take 2,000 IU a day. Some may need significantly more to raise and maintain vitamin D at adequate levels.
2. For all of my adult patients, who are taking > 4,000 IU per day I monitor blood levels carefully over the long-term. I recommend you do the same if you are taking large doses.
3. Blood levels should be at least 30 ng/dl, and, for most, optimal levels are between 45 ng/dl to 60 ng/dl.
4. I recommend you get most of your calcium from your diet. Don't take more than 800 mg of calcium from supplements per day.
To learn more about vitamin D, see the article "The Sunshine Vitamin: A Closer Look at Vitamin D" on drhyman.com.
In the meantime, I'd like to ask you a few questions:
What do you think of the new DRIs for vitamin D?
Do you think supplements can be used not only to cure deficiency diseases, but to optimize health?
What has your experience been with taking supplemental vitamin D? Have you experienced any health benefits? If so, what are they?
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
References
(i) Heaney, R. 2003. Long-latency deficiency disease: insights from calcium and vitamin D. Am J Clin Nutr. 78:912-9
(ii) Holick, M.F. 2007. Vitamin D deficiency. N Engl J Med. 357(3): 266-81. Review.
(iii) Grant, W. 2009. In defense of the sun. Dermato-endocrinology. 1(4): 207-214.
(iv) Grant, W.B., Holick, M.F. 2005. Benefits and requirements of vitamin D for optimal health: A review. Altern Med Rev. 10(2): 94-111. Review.
(v) Wayse, V., Yousafzai, A., Mogale, K., Filteau, S. 2004. Association of subclinical vitamin D deficiency with severe acute lower respiratory infection in Indian children under 5 y. Eur J Clin Nutr. 58(4): 563-7.
(vi) Cannell, J.J., Zasloff, M., Garland, C.F. et al. 2008. On the epidemiology of influenza. Virol J. 5: 29.
Mark Hyman, M.D. is a practicing physician, founder of The UltraWellness Center, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in the field of Functional Medicine. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on YouTube, become a fan on Facebook, and subscribe to his newsletter.
Flu crisis fears – elderly and pregnant most at risk
UNITED KINGDOM - Senior doctors are "deeply concerned" about the prospect of a major flu crisis this winter because the people who are most at risk are not coming forward for seasonal flu jabs.
An estimated 67 per cent of patients aged 65 or older, and 41.5 per cent of those aged 65 or under in the at-risk groups have received the vaccine so far this year – compared to nearly 70 per cent and 47 per cent last year. It is not clear why there has been a fall in take-up, but some doctors have blamed unfounded reports about the side effects of the swine flu vaccine. This year's vaccine protects against swine flu, which is circulating again, and other strains including flu type B.
The British Medical Association
(BMA) wrote to the Government yesterday, urging it to step up its publicity campaign and warning that lower immunisation rates could mean the normal seasonal flu outbreak is much more serious. "Doctors are seeing high rates of influenza and have been telling us they are also seeing a lower uptake than usual for seasonal flu immunisation," said Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs committee. "We strongly urge patients to make an appointment with their GP and get vaccinated."
Earlier this week, The Independent reported that 17 people had died from flu this winter. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said 14 deaths were caused by swine flu and another three by type B flu. Of those who died, all were under 65, with six deaths among children under 18. At least eight of the 17 people were in an "at-risk" group, and none had been vaccinated.
Data also showed that the number of people seeking treatment from family doctors for flu-like illness has risen to 35 cases per 100,000, up from 13 in the previous week. The highest rates are among babies aged one to four and children aged five to 14.
The groups most at risk include people over 65, those with chronic heart or chest complaints, people with asthma, chronic kidney disease, diabetes or lowered immunity caused by cancer.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for England, said yesterday: "It is particularly important for all pregnant women, no matter what stage they have reached in their pregnancy, to get the flu vaccine as soon as possible. This year, pregnant women are being offered the vaccine free of charge.
"Pregnant women are more likely to become seriously ill if they catch flu, which is why it is particularly important for them to get their jabs."
Dr Katie Laird, a senior lecturer in pharmaceutical microbiology at De Montfort University in Leicestershire, added: "Due to the nature of the flu virus – where mutations occur readily – it is difficult for the body's immune system to recognise the infection and can leave individuals such as the young, elderly, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems without much natural immunity against the virus."
All but two bird flu quarantines lifted in Manitoba
Three farms found to have had "contact" with an nearby avian flu-infected turkey farm in Manitoba's southern Interlake region are all now in the clear.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Thursday announced it had lifted the Dec. 2 quarantines on the three farms, as test results all came up negative for reportable avian influenza.
That leaves just two related quarantines in place: the originally infected turkey breeding operation in the RM of Rockwood, and a nearby hatchery operation that's now been "depopulated" of its eggs and poults.
The hatchery is now being cleaned and disinfected, CFIA said in a statement Thursday. The original infected farm's birds were all destroyed as of Nov. 29 and disposal of those animals is now "underway."
The infected farm will remain under quarantine for 21 days following agency approval of the cleaning and disinfecting of the premises and equipment, CFIA said.
The virus in the birds at the Rockwood farm was confirmed Nov. 25 as a low-severity ("low-path") strain of avian influenza H5N2, but still the province's first-ever on-farm case of notifiable avian flu.
Last month's confirmation allowed Canada to keep its World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) status as free of "high-path" bird flu, which it regained in April 2008 after cleanup of an outbreak of high-path H7N3 on a poultry farm near Regina Beach, Sask.
Bird flu can be devastating on an affected commercial poultry farm, but human health experts' concern is that a "high-path" strain such as the infamous H5N1 could mutate or combine with another flu virus such as H1N1 that could spread more easily between people.
Avian flu is not a food safety risk when poultry and poultry products are properly handled and cooked.
All that said, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday from Beijing that the Chinese government, citing the OIE's reports on the case, has banned imports of poultry and poultry products from Manitoba.
Swine flu surge leaves 15 dead and 100 in intensive care
UNITED KINGDOM - Fifteen patients have died and more than 100 patients are in intensive care with suspected swine flu as doctors warned that the disease is turning out to be more severe than last year.
Intensive care specialists said that the NHS was under greater pressure than 12 months ago. There has been a surge of cases admitted to hospital in the last 10 days and in the North-west the numbers are above those at the peak of last year's pandemic.
Five deaths were reported in the North-west yesterday, including that of Kay Burdett, a 32-year-old mother-of-two from Liverpool, who had received hospital treatment for asthma.
In the North-east, the situation is "as bad as or worse than" at the peak last year, according to public health specialists. Most of those affected are aged 18-35, including pregnant women, the obese and those with chronic health problems.
Ten of the worst affected patients whose lungs have given out, including three pregnant women, are being treated on Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machines. A further six critically ill patients are waiting for spaces on the machines to become available. Extra beds have been opened in four hospitals at Papworth in Huntingdonshire, the Royal Brompton in London, Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS trust and University Hospitals of South Manchester, in addition to the existing unit at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.
Last year only Papworth and the Royal Brompton were opened.
The numbers of severely ill patients have taken specialists by surprise because monitoring suggests low levels of swine flu in the community.
There have been an unconfirmed reports of 17 flu deaths in the UK not including Scotland – 15 of which are associated with H1N1 swine flu.
Bob Winter, president of the Intensive Care Society and a consultant in Nottingham, said: "Something different is happening this year. The last 10 days have seen a sudden surge of activity. The numbers in intensive care are increasing across the UK. In the north west they are more than at the peak of the pandemic.
"We have told the Department of Health that this is emerging as a serious issue. We suggested the groups convened last year for swine flu critical care planning should be reconvened. The disease seems disproportionately severe."
Richard Firmin, director of the the UK's main ECMO centre at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, with five beds, said: "It is very busy, even busier than last year. The way we are headed we are not sure we will have enough capacity. We have 15 beds open altogether – we didn't need more than 12 last year. We have pretty much activated all those who can do it.
"No one was expecting it to be worse this year than last year."
ECMO is a highly-skilled technique requiring twice the number of nurses of an intensive care bed. Nurses must be specially trained and that "cannot be done in a week", Dr Firmin said.
"We have already had to escalate [provision of ECMO beds] two steps beyond what we had last year. Things are at least as bad as they were last year in intensive care generally, as well as ECMO. What we don't know is whether this is the peak or there is worse to come. Our feeling is it is probably going to get worse. If it gets a lot worse we could be in a lot of difficulty."
Last year the NHS had narrowly avoided having to restrict hospitals to emergency-only surgery in order to keep enough intensive care beds open for swine flu patients, but that may be unavoidable this year, Mr Firmin said. "The signs are that we are heading that way – keeping emergency ITU beds available when needed [for swine flu patients]. No one has declared so far but it is having an impact."
NHS Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson said: "There is always more pressure at this time of year. But the NHS is well-prepared."
A spokesperson for the Health Protection Agency said it was updating the number of deaths on a weekly basis and was monitoring the situation carefully.
Dec 16, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – The United Kingdom is on the leading edge of an increase in influenza activity in Europe, with 57 respiratory disease outbreaks and an increase in critically ill patients and deaths reported in the country last week, according to the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA).
In its weekly flu update, the HPA said the rate of medical visits for flu-like illness exceeded baseline levels, reaching 34.6 per 100,000 population. The 2009 H1N1 and influenza B viruses are predominating so far this season, with only a few H3N2 viruses identified, the agency reported.
Flu activity is also rising across Europe, with increasing transmission in 11 countries, the European Centre For Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a Eurosurveillance report today.
In the United Kingdom, of 17 people who have died of flu-related causes in the past 3 months, 7 deaths were reported last week, the two latest HPA reports show. Fourteen of the deaths were attributed to the 2009 H1N1 virus. All those who died were younger than 65, and 8 were in high-risk groups, though none were pregnant.
Seventeen critically ill patients have received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) (the use of an artificial lung), out of 22 patients referred for it, the HPA reported. Four of the 17 were pregnant women.
Meanwhile, press reports suggested that flu activity in parts of Britain now is worse than at the peak of the 2009 pandemic, but a health official said the flu situation is no worse than in past years.
The Independent newspaper reported today that northwestern England has seen a surge of hospitalized flu patients in the past 10 days and that the numbers are higher than at the peak of the pandemic. It said five deaths were reported in the region yesterday. The story also quoted intensive care specialists as saying that the National Health Service is under more pressure than it was a year ago.
In addition, the newspaper said public health specialists called the flu situation in northeastern England as bad as or worse than at the peak of the pandemic. The number of severely ill patients has surprised specialists, because monitoring has indicated low levels of H1N1 flu in the community, the story said.
Bob Winter, president of the UK Intensive Care Society, told the newspaper, "Something different is happening this year. The last 10 days have seen a sudden surge of activity. The numbers in intensive care are increasing across the UK. . . . We have told the Department of Health that this is emerging as a serious issue."
However, Dame Sally Davies, interim chief medical officer for England, told the BBC that flu is not more prevalent now than at the same time in previous years, according to a UK Press Association report today.
Davies added that the 35 medical visits for flu-like illness per 100,000 people in the past week is up from 13 per 100,000 the week before, and said, "The issue I'm very concerned about is we're not getting everyone at risk—including pregnant women—vaccinated."
The HPA report said flu vaccine uptake in England as of about 2 weeks ago was 67.2% for people older than 65 and 41.6% for high-risk people younger than 65.
Of 355 respiratory samples that tested positive for flu last week, 271 (76.3%) were the 2009 H1N1 virus, 77 (21.7%) were type B, and 7 (2.0%) were type A strains that were not subtyped, the HPA reported.
Similarly, today's Eurosurveillance report from the ECDC said that most of the flu viruses circulating in Europe are H1N1 and influenza B.
"Although the majority of cases in the UK are mild, a significant number of severe hospitalized cases and several deaths have occurred," the report said.
"In the past epidemics have most often progressed from west to east in Europe," the statement said, adding that limited time remains for public health and clinical interventions to reduce the impact of flu this winter. It said there is strong evidence that this year's vaccine will be "highly effective" against the H1N1 virus.
Hundreds of pupils stay at home as flu hits Leicestershire schools
Swine flu is among several strains of influenza to have hit Leicestershire schools.
Hundreds of children have been forced to stay at home after suffering high temperatures, vomiting and breathing problems.
But health officials say parents should not be worried and are advising them to keep their children off school if they feel unwell to avoid spreading germs.
Head teachers have also received advice from the Health Protection Agency (HPA), including making sure children wash their hands regularly.
Dr Philip Monk, from the HPA, said: "We ask head teachers to contact us if large numbers are ill.
"We've been into two city schools and a county school as a matter of course to take swabs so we know there are four different strains causing problems.
"This is a bad winter as far as respiratory viruses are concerned.
"Whereas we vaccinated against swine flu during the pandemic last year, that was the only viral infection we were dealing with.
"There's no point vaccinating now as it wouldn't tackle all the strains out there.
"It's difficult to say what's causing it. Colder weather tends to cause a drier atmosphere and that can aid transmission."
Christ Church and St Peters Church of England Primary School, in Loughborough, had more than 100 of its 411 pupils off sick in one day last week because of flu.
Head teacher Sandy Gourlay said: "We've had a lot of children off ill but are returning to normal levels.
"Some staff have also been off but we've carried on and our nativity is still going ahead over the next few days.
"Advice from the HPA was very helpful."
Woodland Grange Primary, in Oadby, had up to 60 children off in one day out of 364 pupils.
Head teacher Kirk Hayles said: "It's quite unusual to have so many children off ill but sometimes one year is worse than others.
"Parents have responded well to requests to keep children at home if possible."
St Thomas More Catholic Primary, in Knighton, Leicester, had 66 children out of 282 off ill last week.
GPs' surgeries and chemists have reported a rise in patient numbers over the last two weeks and say they are happy to give advice to worried parents.
Dr Andy Ward, from South Wigston Health Centre, said: "We've seen a big increase since Friday when we saw about 90 patients between four doctors.
"A lot of children have come in with respiratory influenza viruses with high temperatures and, in some cases, vomiting.
"Any child that's still eating and drinking normally should be fine, but for those who aren't Paracetamol and Calpol will help bring temperatures down and it's important to make sure they have fluids.
"Anyone with a persistent temperature and vomiting should go and see a doctor or call NHS Direct out of hours."
Jeremy Laurance: The real danger of flu is a failure to be vigilant
There is only one certainty about flu – there are no certainties.
No virus in human history has sprung more surprises with deadlier effect. Three pandemics in the past century caused millions of deaths around the globe. Constant vigilance is our only defence.
Related articles
The fear among flu experts is that the novel H1N1 influenza virus that caused the 2009 pandemic, the first of the 21st century, could mutate. We got off lightly last year when swine flu turned out to be a pussy cat not a tiger.
Plans to cope with up to 65,000 deaths in the UK laid in May 2009 were later scaled back to 1,000 deaths, as it emerged people over 55 had some immunity to the virus, owing to previous exposure to a similar strain decades earlier. In the end, there were 494 deaths in the year to April 2010.
A mutation that increased its severity or its virulence among the elderly could cause the death rate to soar. No significant mutation has been observed so far and public health experts are cautiously optimistic that there will be no widespread epidemic this year.
But pregnant women, younger adults, and those with chronic conditions, such as asthma, remain vulnerable to the virus.
Last year's pandemic was the first for 40 years and emerged from Mexico after virus strains in pigs and humans combined to create a new H1N1 influenza virus.
H1N1 swine flu has now become the dominant seasonal virus, driving out the previous seasonal H3N2 virus, and is likely to remain so, recurring each year, for years to come. The expectation now is that the virus will change slightly each year in a process known as "antigenic drift" to infect a new generation. In response, flu experts will gather annually to agree a modified vaccine to protect against the new strain – and any others that may be circulating – until the next major mutation occurs, an antigenic "shift", triggering a new pandemic. This year's vaccine in the UK protects against three strains, including the H1N1 swine flu strain.
But with flu, all bets are off. Predicting the future is a dangerous game. The feature that sets the virus apart is its capacity to surprise. The challenge for global public health is to avoid being caught unawares.
Avoid colds and flu by eliminating sugar and enlisting the natural duo
(NaturalNews) When given the opportunity our body has the amazing capacity to thwart many diseases and illnesses including the common cold and influenza. When we provide our immune system with the necessary tools to fight bacteria and viruses, vibrant health will always be the natural result. The typical processed food diet is void of the nutrients we require to fuel our immune system, and we become a magnet for a host of circulating pathogens that cause suffering for millions each year. Proper diet and targeted natural immune nutrients will help you and your family prevent cold and flu by boosting your innate immune responses.
Eat Natural Foods, Avoid Sugar to Boost Immunity
Diet is the single most important lifestyle process that is within your control to help your immune system. Simply put, sugar suppresses our immune system by inhibiting the ability of white blood cells to engulf bacterial and viral invaders.
The results of a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) demonstrates that the amount of sugar in two sweetened beverages lowers immune response by 50% for up to five hours after drinking or eating. A diet filled with complex carbohydrates has no detrimental effect on immunity and the high nutritional content of fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds provide the building blocks required to mount a healthy attack as needed.
Vitamin D Activates Killer T Cells
Health conscious individuals who ensure proper blood levels of vitamin D appear to have the ultimate defense against the cold and flu. The journal Nature Immunology provides details of the synergy between the sunshine vitamin and our adaptive immune killer T cells. Vitamin D is shown to provide the activation key that stimulates T cells into action when invaders are detected.
Virtually every cell in our body has a vitamin D receptor that is only filled when sufficient amounts are circulating in the blood. A deficiency in this essential compound leaves the cellular receptor open and available for viral hijacking. A separate AJCN study shows that vitamin D is far superior to vaccines at preventing the flu. Maintain your vitamin D blood levels between 50 and 70 ng/ml for optimal protection.
Vitamin C Prepares Immune Cells for Action
Vitamin C has been shown to increase the number of infection-fighting white blood cells and to stimulate the production of interferon. Interferon provides a protective coating to the surface of cells that prevents penetration by viruses. Research published in the Journal of Immunology explains that up to 5 grams of vitamin C are needed daily to activate the production of interferon for general health and up to 1 gram every hour should be used when fighting a cold or the flu.
The importance of a strong immune response cannot be underestimated. Elimination of sugar and processed carbohydrates from your diet should be the first step in boosting your front line response. Adding natural nutrients including vitamins C and D have proven effective in providing top notch protection against the common cold and flu virus.
About the author: John Phillip is a Health Researcher and Author who writes regularly on the cutting edge use of diet, lifestyle modifications and targeted supplementation to enhance and improve the quality and length of life. John is the author of 'Your Healthy Weight Loss Plan', a comprehensive EBook explaining how to use Diet, Exercise, Mind and Targeted Supplementation to achieve your weight loss goal. Visit My Optimal Health Resource to continue reading the latest health news updates, and to download your Free 48 page copy of 'Your Healthy Weight Loss Plan'.
MESA, Ariz. (AP) - Arizona health officials say the number of lab-confirmed influenza cases in the Maricopa County nearly doubled last week.
The state Department of Health Services says there are now 33 lab-confirmed cases in the county, with 13 of them diagnosed last week.
Across the state, 103 influenza cases have been confirmed. Fifty-two percent of the cases involve patients 18 and younger and health officials say most of the flu cases are influenza-A strain.
Meanwhile, the number of Respiratory Syncytial Virus cases in Maricopa County also rose last week. There are now 32 lab-confirmed RSV cases in the county, with 11 of them diagnosed last week.
The East Valley Tribune says RSV is the most common viral infection that involves the lungs.
Information from: East Valley Tribune, http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases is raising red flags in the medical community. The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that resistance to the two drugs commonly used to combat influenza virus has been on the rise for 3 years. The CDC study analyzed 28 seasonal H1N1 viruses from 2008 to 2010 from 5 countries. The researchers say that resistance to both drugs is still rare, but is on the rise. New drugs will likely be needed in the future, CDC said.
Flu related deaths are expected to rise if health care facilities are ignored in the remote regions. The leaders from Manitoba have asked the federal and provincial Governments to provide assistance in improving the condition before it's too late.
"You can't just be sitting there tracking the system saying 'OK, how many deaths have we had today?", said Grand Chief David Harper, head of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents Manitoba's northern first nations. "There are still people coughing up blood. Something has to be done today".
He added that if the deaths are not controlled and prevented on time with better health facilities, flu related deaths are estimated to rise. Almost 20 people are being treated at the reserve.
Recently a man and a woman, both in their mid-30s lost their lives on November 25 after they were found to be infected with a strain of the flu called H3N2. Both resided on Garden Hill First Nation, in the Island Lake area of northeastern Manitoba, at the time.
Joel Kettner, Manitoba's chief public health officer said that he is still investigating the role of influenza in those deaths, as he is sure about the fact that both of them tested positive for the flu.
Health Minister Theresa Oswald said that unless and until proper health standards are maintained, including hygiene and cleanliness, the area is expected to suffer illness.
Northern Manitoba chief calls for help with killer flu
WINNIPEG — Aboriginal leaders say the federal and provincial governments must step up efforts to battle a flu outbreak in Garden Hill First Nation that has already left two people dead and a third fighting for her life.
Northern Manitoba Grand Chief David Harper said the reserve has only one doctor for its 4,000 residents and ongoing problems with overcrowded housing and lack of running water are making a bad situation worse.
Harper said more than 20 people are being treated for flu at the reserve — including a three-year-old and five-year-old.
"(Provincial officials) are saying this is just a common flu, but when people are coughing up blood, this is not a regular flu," Harper said.
Chief provincial public health officer, Dr. Joel Kettner, said he believes the community has been hit by an outbreak of the seasonal flu — not the more serious H1N1 virus.
"That doesn't mean that it's not a serious illness or one that we can dismiss, but it does mean it's not a reason for panic or a feeling that this isn't something that we can prepare for, manage and deal with as we do with seasonal influenza," Kettner said.
The outbreak is the only one in the province, he said.
Kettner said both people who died had underlying medical problems. He said in a normal year, about 50 to 100 Manitobans die of an flu-related illness. Many are in poor health to begin with, including the elderly or those with chronic health conditions.
In remote communities with crowded housing and poor sanitation, such health problems as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, lung disease, substance abuse, kidney disease and poor nutrition are also prevalent.
Harper said a 35-year-old woman was the first victim about a week ago, while a man, also about 35, died Thursday. Another woman, whose age is not known, was airlifted to Winnipeg last week, where she is fighting for her life.
Kettner said additional physician services, provided through the Northern Medical Unit, have been sent to the community. "They're watching the situation very closely and will do everything they can to provide appropriate additional services as needed."
Kettner said he spoke to a physician in Island Lake who told him the situation was under "reasonable control" and that staff was able to deal with patient needs and demands. Jeff Solmundson, a spokesman for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, said the federal government has been spending money at all Manitoba First Nations for water and waste-water systems, and housing. More than $29 million was spent in Garden Hill on water and waste-water systems from April 2006 to March 2010, putting running water in some neighbourhoods.
"There's more work to be done, but progress and real commitments have been made to improve housing and water conditions at reserves, including in Manitoba," Solmundson said.
David Thomas, a spokesman for Health Canada, said the department has been in regular contact with First Nation leaders since the flu outbreak in Island.
A new, still unknown to the medical fraternity flu virus has been found in Mongolia. The symptoms of this influenza are similar to the so-called ‘bird’ and ‘swine’ flu viruses. The virus is classified as H3N2 strain. In Ulan Bator, already 17 cases of this influenza have been registered. Young children are considered to be at greatest risk.
Chief Public Relations Officer at National Research Center for Infectious Diseases in Mongolia Chuluunbat Urtnasan explained that doctors currently do not know how to protect themselves from the virus H3N2. According to him, the main attention should be paid to protecting the body from cold. Body weakened by cold body can be prone to be infected by this new type of virus, report agencies.
Chuluunbat Urtnasan has asked people to contact doctors for medical help at the very first symptoms of infection. He recommends to often ventilate and do wet cleaning at at work and at home. In the absence of fever, the patients have been recommended to take heat procedures, and baths.
TOKYO, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Japanese health officials say they've killed 21,500 chickens at a farm in Shimane Prefecture after confirming five cases of the H5 bird flu virus.
It is the first bird flu outbreak since February 2009 when a quail farm in Aichi Prefecture was infected by another strain of the industry-threatening influenza, Kyodo News reported Friday.
The killed birds would be incinerated, officials said.
All chickens raised within a 6-mile radius of the farm will undergo flu checks for at least three weeks, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said.
If no new infections are found during that period, restrictions on transporting the birds will be lifted, health officials said.
Prefecture officials said they suspect the virus was brought to the farm by a wild bird from a nearby lake where migratory birds gather.
South Korea Bans Japanese Poultry After Outbreak Of Avian Influenza
SEOUL, Dec 3 (Bernama) -- South Korea imposed an import ban on Japanese poultry and poultry products on Friday, as an outbreak of highly contagious H5 strain of avian influenza was confirmed in Japan, according to Yonhap news agency.
The country halted customs inspection of Japanese poultry late last month after a suspected case was reported in Japan's Shimane Prefecture, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
"The ministry switched the temporary suspension into an import ban as Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza," Yonhap quoted the ministry as saying in a press release.
South Korea imported 334 tonnes of poultry products from Japan in the first 10 months of the year, only 0.4 percent of its entire poultry product imports during the period.
South Korea has been clear of highly pathogenic avian influenza since August 2008.
It’s official: cold season is upon us. There’s a lot of sneezing and wheezing going on in the ConsumerSearch.com offices and it makes this editor wonder if her colleagues should be getting more of the superstar vitamin — D. For the last four years, the sunshine vitamin has been hogging the nutritional research limelight and as we embark on Cold and Flu Watch 2010/2011, it’s continuing to be the scene-stealer. On Tuesday of this week, the U.S. government panel responsible for setting the recommended daily intake levels for vitamins announced that the daily recommended intakes (DRIs) for vitamin D were increased.
Specifically, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) increased the DRIs from 400 IU to 600 IU for persons between the ages of 1 and 70, and to 800 IU for those over 70 years of age. This action is causing quite a stir, as the recommendation is not nearly as far as the vitamin D research community wanted.
Defining D
First of all, it's important to understand the unique nature of vitamin D: You don’t consume the working form of D, your body makes it. Your cells convert the two forms of D — D2 (found in plant sources) and D3 (produced by the body through sun exposure or consumed from animal products or supplementation) — into its active form, the steroid hormone 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Sounds like we’re vitamin D factories, doesn’t it? The truth is we’re not.
It has been reported that three-quarters of all Americans are vitamin D deficient. Specifically, a study in the September 2009 issue of the journal, Pediatrics, found that 70 percent of children had insufficient levels of vitamin D. And this is a big deal because being D deficient has been linked to cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension and heart disease; cancer; fibromyalgia; chronic muscle pain; diabetes; and depression.
Another thing to consider during this germ-festive season: not getting enough D may inhibit your immune system and set you up for more colds. A study published in the May 2010 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that daily supplementation with 1200 IU of vitamin D3 reduced the incidence of seasonal flu (influenza A) by over 40 percent in school-age children. The Japanese scientists from Jikei University School of Medicine concluded that there is “a cause and effect relationship…between the dietary intake of vitamin D and contribution to the normal function of the immune system and healthy inflammatory response, ...”
Making D
So why aren’t we producing as much D as we need? For one, we’re protecting ourselves from skin cancer. By wearing sunscreen of an SPF 8 or higher, we inhibit the photosynthesis of ultraviolent B rays that our bodies use to produce 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Also, if you live in northern climates, sunshine is weak for about half the year. Finally, there are relatively few foods that provide us with vitamin D — fatty wild fish like mackerel, herring and cod liver oil and porcini mushrooms. Therefore, supplementation can make up the difference. And this is where the confusion begins.
New Daily Recommended Intakes of D
On November 30, the IOM released its report stating the new DRIs for vitamin D and calcium after reviewing 1,000 scientific studies. The end result is that the 400 IU DRI of years past was increased to 600 IU. However, there's a lot of confusion with this number. First, it is difficult to compare it with suggestions of yore — those were adequate intake recommendations versus the daily recommended intakes that were released this week. The new report states that 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily is sufficient for most people (this is the old adequate intake amount), but the recommended intake (known as the DRI) is 600 IU for people from ages 9 to 70 and 800 IU for people over 70.
Either way that you slice it, this isn’t in line with the recommends made by researchers who specialize in studying vitamin D. (None of whom sat on the IOM’s “Committee to Review Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium”.) In a paper published in the September 2010 issue of Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (now known as Experimental Biology and Medicine), well-known vitamin D researchers Anthony W. Norman, PhD, of the University of California, Riverside, and Roger Bouillon, PhD, at the Universite Leuven in Belgium, call for an increase in the amount of vitamin D recommended to 2,000 IU daily. The authors state this amount would reduce disease frequency as well as cut medical costs. The IOM Committee didn’t agree.
So now what?
The one thing that both the IOM committee and Norman and Bouillon agree on is that vitamin D dosing is individual. For instance, someone in sunny California who isn’t diligent about sunscreen will most likely need to supplement their diet with less vitamin D than a Portland, Maine, resident — especially during the winter months.
The best thing to do is have your blood serum vitamin D levels checked at your next physical. (The test is called 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D. Levels should be above 50 ng/ml (125 nmol/L) year-round, in both children and adults.) More physicians are aware of the importance of D on health so this shouldn’t be an odd request. Armed with the results from that blood test, your doctor and you can determine the best course of action for getting enough D to keep you healthy.
Today, the Food and Nutrition Board has Failed Millions
After 13 years of silence, the quasi governmental agency, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), yesterday recommended that a three - pound premature infant can take virtually the same amount of vitamin D as a 300 pound pregnant woman. While that 400 IU/day dose is close to adequate for infants, 600 IU/day in pregnant women will do nothing to help the three childhood epidemics most closely associated with gestational and early childhood vitamin D deficiencies: asthma, auto-immune disorders, and, as recently reported in the largest pediatric journal in the world, autism (1). Professor Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina has shown pregnant and lactating women need at least 5,000 IU/day, not 600.
The FNB also reported that vitamin D toxicity might occur at an intake of 10,000 IU/day (250 micrograms), although they could produce no reproducible evidence that 10,000 IU/day has ever caused toxicity in humans and only one poorly conducted study indicating 20,000 IU/day may cause mild elevations in serum calcium but not clinical toxicity.
Viewed with different measure, this FNB report recommends that an infant should take 10 micrograms/day (400 IU) and the pregnant women 15 micrograms/day (600 IU). As a single 30 minutes dose of summer sunshine gives adults more than 10,000 IU (250 micrograms), the FNB is apparently also warning that natural vitamin D input – as occurred from the sun before the widespread use of sunscreen – is dangerous. That is, the FNB is implying that God does not know what she is doing.
Disturbingly, this FNB committee focused on bone health, just like they did 14 years ago. They ignored the thousands of studies from the last ten years that showed higher doses of vitamin D helps: heart health, brain health, breast health, prostate health, pancreatic health, muscle health, nerve health, eye health, immune health, colon health, liver health, mood health, skin health, and especially fetal health. Tens of millions of pregnant women and their breast-feeding infants are severely vitamin D deficient, resulting in a great increase in the medieval disease, rickets. The FNB report seems to reason that if so many pregnant women have low vitamin D blood levels then it must be OK because such low levels are so common. However, such circular logic simply represents the cave man existence of most modern day pregnant women.
Hence, if you want to optimize your vitamin D levels – not just optimize the bone effect – supplementing is crucial. But it is almost impossible to significantly raise your vitamin D levels when supplementing at only 600 IU/day (15 micrograms). Pregnant women taking 400 IU/day have the same blood levels as pregnant women not taking vitamin D; that is, 400 IU is a meaninglessly small dose for pregnant women. Even taking 2,000 IU/day of vitamin D will only increase the vitamin D levels of most pregnant women by about 10 points, depending mainly on their weight. Professor Bruce Hollis has shown that 2,000 IU/day does not raise vitamin D to healthy or natural levels in either pregnant or lactating women. Therefore supplementing with higher amounts -- like 5000 IU/day -- is crucial for those women who want their fetus to enjoy optimal vitamin D levels, and the future health benefits that go along with it.
For example, taking only two of the hundreds of recently published studies, Professor Urashima and colleagues in Japan gave 1,200 IU/day of vitamin D3 for six months to Japanese 10 year-olds in a randomized controlled trial. They found vitamin D dramatically reduced the incidence of influenza A as well as the episodes of asthma attacks in the treated kids while the placebo group was not so fortunate. If Dr. Urashima had followed the newest FNB recommendations, it is unlikely that 400 IU/day treatment arm would have done much of anything and some of the treated young teenagers may have come to serious harm without the vitamin D. Likewise, a randomized controlled prevention trial of adults by Professor Joan Lappe and colleagues at Creighton University, which showed dramatic improvements in the health of internal organs, used more than twice the FNB's new adult recommendations.
Finally, the FNB committee consulted with 14 vitamin D experts and – after reading these 14 different reports – the FNB decided to suppress their reports. Many of these 14 consultants are either famous vitamin D researchers, like Professor Robert Heaney at Creighton, or in the case of Professor Walter Willett at Harvard, the single best-known nutritionist in the world. So, the FNB will not tell us what Professors Heaney and Willett thought of their new report? Why not? Yesterday, the Vitamin D Council directed our attorney to file a federal Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the IOM's FNB for the release of these 14 reports.
I, my family, most of my friends, hundreds of patients, and thousands of readers of the Vitamin D Council newsletter, have been taking 5,000 IU/day for up to eight years. Not only have they reported no significant side-effects, indeed, they have reported greatly improved health in multiple organ systems. My advice: especially for pregnant women, continue taking 5,000 IU/day until your (OH)D] is between 50 ng/ml and 80 ng/ml (the vitamin D blood levels obtained by humans who live and work in the sun and the mid-point of the current reference ranges at all American laboratories). Gestational vitamin D deficiency is not only associated with rickets, but a significantly increased risk of neonatal pneumonia (2), a doubled risk for preeclampsia (3), a tripled risk for gestational diabetes (4), and a quadrupled risk for primary cesarean section (5).
Yesterday, the FNB failed millions of pregnant women whose as yet unborn babies will pay the price. Let us hope the FNB will comply with the spirit of "transparency" by quickly responding to our freedom of Information requests.
John Cannell, MD
Vitamin C Mega Dosing - Big Pharma suppresses an inexpensive powerful cure
(NaturalNews) A recently publicized dramatic recovery from virtual death using IV high dose vitamin C created a strong impression in New Zealand and Australia. The highly publicized event down under brought to light a marginalized existing therapy that is inexpensive, safe, and effective.
Despite the abundance of stubborn medical naysayers, there is a growing group of MDs who are practicing orthomolecular medicine and psychiatry. Orthomolecular medicine and psychiatry specialize in mega-dose supplementation for a variety of conditions.
Alan Smith: Rescued from Death by Vitamin C
This story was featured in New Zealand/Australia TV`s version of "60 Minutes". Alan Smith was lying near death in a coma and on life support in a New Zealand hospital with complications from last year`s Swine Flu. The doctors had decided to pull the plug on his life support system since there was no hope for Alan`s survival. Alan`s family disagreed and insisted on the hospital`s administering IV high dose vitamin C as a last resort.
Despite having nothing to lose with a hopeless patient for whom they were about to take off life support, every hospital MD refused to administer IV mega dose C. The family had to enlist an attorney to coerce the hospital into following their request. It took several weeks of urging and referrals for available practitioners from American MD Thomas Levy before vitamin C therapy was reluctantly administered.
After 13 days of mega dose IV vitamin C administration, Alan Smith walked out of the hospital. He had been in a coma for nine weeks! The scurvy condition that exacerbated his Swine Flu may have been part of his leukemia. Less publicized but even more impressive is that he is now leukemia-free a year after his coma recovery.
Mega dose IV vitamin C has been used to cure cancer before, although the orthomolecular physicians prefer to keep a low profile about this. They prefer to promote it as a useful adjunct to other forms of cancer treatments. This appears to be partly a strategy for keeping the Medical Mafia off their backs.
Beyond Anecdotal
Mainstream medicine tends to dismiss this type of incident as anecdotal. But orthodox medicine also dismisses reams of research papers and case studies of other successful vitamin C recovery cases from orthomolecular physicians. Instead, medical profession authorities focus on poorly conducted or biased studies by mainstream institutions.
Dr. Levy is among several doctors in the USA and Australia who have used IV high dose vitamin C to cure extreme cases of infectious disease in thousands of cases. And there are cancer cases that have benefited as well. Thousands of successful orthomolecular case studies exist, yet the Medical Mafia claims there is no documentation proving vitamin C`s efficacy.
Important Caveats
The mega doses of vitamin C are well beyond bowel tolerance of ingested vitamin C. So they have to be administered by IV to bypass the digestive system. The resultant high blood levels of vitamin C flips this antioxidant into an oxidizing mode. Cellular oxidation eliminates bacteria, viruses, and even cancer cells.
Dr. Riordon`s protocol requires a check for G6PD enzyme deficiencies. Though this deficiency is very rare, ensuring it`s not there is important. This enzyme is needed to maintain membrane blood cell integrity. If lacking, the high oxidation from mega dose C can cause hemolysis, which ruptures blood cells and empties their contents.
It is also important to maintain sufficient blood levels of copper while mega dosing IV vitamin C. Mega doses of IV Vitamin C depletes this mineral, which may lead to serious complications for someone already in bad shape.
-Paul Fassa has managed to survive the Standard American Diet (SAD) and his youthful folly by deprogramming gradually from mainstream health ideology and studying holistic health matters informally with his wife while incorporating them into his lifestyle as a vegetarian. He also practices Chi-Lel Chi Gong, and he is trained as a polarity therapy practitioner. He is dedicated to warning others about the current corruption of food and medicine and guiding others toward a better direction for health. You can visit his blog at http://healthmaven.blogspot.com
Canadians turn to natural supplements instead of flu shots
It’s that time of year again, when anyone coughing in the subway sparks a round of dirty looks.
As Canadians get ready to fight the cold and flu season, more people are turning to vitamins and minerals, instead of flu shots, to banish a runny nose.
In fact, two thirds of us are taking natural supplements, while only 12 per cent opt for the jab, according to an Ipsos Reid poll.
Natural supplements are a $3.5 billion industry in Canada, with some natural health retailers reporting spikes of 25 per cent in supplement sales when the cold weather hits.
Catherine Deslippe of Nutrition House says she has noticed more customers requesting products that boost overall immunity this flu season instead of cures for those already spluttering on their morning commute.
The most popular selling products include vitamin C, Boiron Oscillococcinum (a.k.a Oscillo), oil of oregano, Echinacea, and Golden seal, according to the Canadian Health Food Association.
So, why are more Canadians turning towards purported natural cures?
“Some of my clients say that even when they got the flu shot they still got the flu,” says naturopathic doctor Natasha Turner of the Clear Medicine clinic and author of The Hormone Diet. “Other people are worried about adverse reactions or preservatives,” she adds.
Over the last two years Dr. Turner has noticed a growing number of emails in her inbox asking about alternatives to the flu shot. She attributes them to a heightened awareness surrounding flu prevention after last year’s H1N1 outbreak and the growing amount of research on the immune boosting powers of vitamin D.
To ward off colds Dr. Turner recommends taking daily doses of 2,000-5,000 iu of vitamin D and probiotics in the morning. As soon as you feel flu symptoms coming on she suggests boosting your vitamin intake to 10,000 iu for three days and adding the Indian herb andrographis to your routine.
Ipsos Reid poll attributes the one third of Canadians who avoid natural supplements to their high cost. Despite this they expect a 17 per cent increase in the number of Canadians using vitamins, minerals and supplements over the next year.
As the numbers of Canadians taking natural products climbs, the Health Canada website warns that “natural health products, like drugs, may have potentially serious side effects. Any substance, whether natural or synthetic, that has an effect on the body, has the potential to be a risk to health.”
The website suggests keeping your doctor informed of any natural supplements you might be taking, using products that are Health Canada approved (you can tell by the DIN, NPN or DIN-HM on the label), being skeptical of any health-related claims for potentially serious conditions and staying aware of any reaction or interactions with other drugs you are taking.
This year 106 natural health products have been recalled from the Canadian market by Health Canada.
It’s easy for parents to get obsessed with keeping their kids away from bacteria, especially in cold and flu season. But not all bacteria are bad for children. The same probiotic bacteria that have become a popular adult remedy for stomach and digestive concerns may have limited benefits for certain illnesses in children according to new studies.
The data isn’t strong enough yet for anyone to be advocating adding probiotics to infant formulas or giving them to seriously ill children or pregnant women, but, they do seem to be helpful in preventing diarrhea due to viral infections and may shorten the illness in healthy kids.
This finding is outlined in a new American Academy of Pediatrics report that summarizes the findings from several scientific studies on the active ingredients in the various probiotic pills, yogurts, milks and juices that have hit the market of late. The report was published Monday in the journal, Pediatrics.
Probiotics may also help prevent diarrhea in kids who are taking antibiotics, great news for parents with infection prone kids. The AAP says, however, that they need more evidence before they can recommend the treatment for more serious conditions like constipation, irritable bowel syndrome or Crohn’s disease.
They also warn that children with compromised immune systems or who use intravenous catheters should not receive probiotics because serious infections have been reported.
Japanese ministry: Bird flu virus is ‘highly pathogenic’
Genetic tests have confirmed that the case of avian flu recently discovered at a farm in Shimane Prefecture was caused by a highly pathogenic virus, the farm ministry said Thursday.
The virus is also quite similar to that detected from the feces of a wild duck in Hokkaido in October this year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries added.
The finding could corroborate the assumption that the ministry made from early on that the chickens in Shimane probably got infected by wild birds.
Earlier in the day, the Shimane prefectural government said it had killed all 21,500 chickens and began incinerating their bodies at the farm where five birds were confirmed to be infected with a highly virulent bird flu the previous day.
Efforts to disinfect the farm in the city of Yasuki are to be completed by early next week.
After the disinfection, chickens raised within a 10-kilometer radius from the farm will be checked regularly for at least three weeks, the farm ministry said.
If safety is ensured in the area during that period, restrictions on the movement of birds there will be lifted.
The case in Shimane represents the first bird flu infection since February 2009 when a quail farm in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, was found to be infected by another strain of avian flu virus.
NEW diseases will cross from animals into humans, with the danger expected to arise from bats, rodents, farm animals - and possibly even Australia's wildlife.
In the latest MedicSA, US evolutionary biologist Dr Eddie Holmes, from the National Institutes of Health, warns there's no doubt zoonoses - diseases that jump between animals and humans - are out there.
And he says as the way we live changes, we will be more likely to catch these emerging diseases which mutate easily, making them hard to vaccinate against. He says lifestyle changes are converging to create opportunities for viral pathogens to dramatically expand the range of hosts they infect, which poses "one of the great health challenges of the 21st century".
"The larger and denser the populations we live in, the more we travel, and the more we impinge on animal habitats through such processes as deforestation and intensive agriculture, then the more new viruses will appear in our species," he said.
"This is a certainty. The largest source of human emerging viruses are ... other mammalian species, either those very closely related to us (i.e. non-human primates), for which only a few mutations (if any) are usually required for the virus to adapt to human transmission, or those that live in close proximity to humans, and often in large aggregations, so there is a greatly increased chance of exposure.
"Animals such as rodents and bats obviously fall into the latter category, as do those that we farm in large numbers."
Dr Holmes also points out that Australia is particularly at risk both because of our proximity to South-East Asia where dense populations of humans and animals live cheek-by-jowl, and because we have unique fauna that could be harbouring potential new zoonoses.
University of Adelaide's Michael Reichel is a Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health, and an expert in zoonoses.
He said history proved that swine flu could spread quickly and the Hendra virus - passed from bats to horses to humans - proved deadly.
He said there were classes of viruses, bacteria, or fungi among Australian wildlife that could infect humans that "no one knows of yet".
"I think there's probably a lot of untapped, unresearched potential (for research into diseases)," he said.
Three Hundred Influenza Patients Report at CNMI over Past three Weeks
The past three week have witnessed an inflow of 300 patients into the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Health Center. The patients have come to the hospital with influenza-like symptoms. The Department of Public Health has informed that most of the people coming into the medical facility were children and that the incidents had started from the last week of October.
In order to control the growing problem of the flu, the medical facility has been provided with 18,000 vaccines against the flu by the Department of Health. The department still happens to have the availability of 16,000 shots with it.
Meanwhile, doctors have advised that pregnant women should seriously consider of getting themselves vaccinated, in order to protect themselves and their baby from the virus
Health Director, David Trump stated that babies had reduced chances of contracting influenza in the first 6 months of their life, if their mother got themselves vaccinated during pregnancy. He added that as youngsters below the age of 6 months, could not be vaccinated; the best way to protect them against the prevailing flu was by getting a jab during pregnancy.
The pregnant woman resultantly passes on the immunization against the flu to the baby. The statements have been supported by two recently conducted studies, said Dr. Trump.
23,000 Chickens Killed to Contain Spread of A New Outbreak of The Deadly Bird Flu
The Japanese Government has gone into overdrive to prevent another outbreak of Bird Flu. Fears are mounting since a 57 year old woman was confirmed to have been infected by the virus, the first bird to human transfer since 2003.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has ordered government officials to revert to a crisis management plan to contain the virus to the Shimane Prefecture.
The virus was traced to a farm in Yasugi which is a major producer of eggs. As a first response 23,000 chickens are to be destroyed over the next few days.
There is little doubt that this is where the virus re-emerged with several chickens, who died, being confirmed to have been infected by the H1N5 virus.
As the birds are destroyed government representatives are swarming farms in the area to test other birds for the virus. In the immediate vicinity 4 million birds are kept on local farms.
While the first case of bird flu was recorded in 1997 it wasn't until 2003 that world governments were forced to mount a coordinated campaign as human fatalities were recorded from Indonesia, China to South Korea.
The action lead to the widespread killing of domesticated birds and the isolation of any person suspected of being invested with the virus.
A primary school in Swindon has closed and another four have been affected by a flu outbreak in the town.
Grange Junior School is closed and is due to reopen on Friday. It said out of a school roll of 323 children, 160 were off with the bug.
High levels of absence were also reported at Colebrook Junior and Infant Schools, Sevenfields Primary and Catherine Wayte School.
The Health Protection Agency confirmed an outbreak of influenza type B.
'Spread rapidly'
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said it had been working with NHS Swindon, Swindon Borough Council and the five schools to limit the spread of the virus.
Dr Mark Evans, from the HPA, said: "Influenza can spread rapidly in places like schools, where there is regular contact between lots of youngsters.
"Some of the schools affected by the flu have been found to have the less common B strain of the virus, which is usually the milder form, fortunately."
The HPA has sent letters to all parents with children at the schools with advice on how to deal with the illness.
Symptoms of influenza B include fever, sore throat, runny nose and muscle pain.
The Manitoba turkey breeding operation that played unwilling host to the province's first cases of notifiable avian flu is, for now, bird-free.
All birds at the farm in the Rural Municipality of Rockwood, just northwest of Winnipeg, have been "humanely destroyed," the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement Monday.
Disposal is now in the preparation stage and "will be consistent with provincial environmental regulations and internationally accepted disease-control guidelines," CFIA said.
The farm was confirmed last week to have birds infected with a low-severity ("low-path") strain of avian influenza H5N2.
Two other poultry farms that had contact with the breeder operation are still under precautionary quarantine and close monitoring for signs of illness, the agency said.
Once the disposal process is complete, CFIA said, the agency will oversee the cleaning and disinfecting of barns, vehicles, equipment and tools.
While bird flu can be devastating on an affected commercial poultry farm, human health experts' concern is that a "high-path" strain such as the infamous H5N1 could mutate or combine with another flu virus such as H1N1 that could spread more easily between people.
H5N1 since 2003 has killed a few hundred people overseas, generally through direct contact with infected birds or their fluids.
Avian flu is not a food safety risk when poultry and poultry products are properly handled and cooked.
Bird flu discovered on a Canadian turkey farm, your first reaction is probably: "So what? Just cook it, and cook it good, and there is no problem!" If that is your gut reaction, then congratulations, as you concur with the Canadian experts who immediately stressed to the public:
"It's OK to eat turkey, it's OK to work in places where turkey and other poultry in Manitoba may exist and this does not pose an increased risk for influenza spread in public settings," declared Joel Kettner, Chief Public Health Officer of Manitoba.
The odd thing is, authorities plan to "humanely euthanize" more than 8,000 birds. Instead of euthanizing the birds, why not put them through the usual process. The process? Killing the turkeys, cooking the turkeys, and eating the turkeys. If it is perfectly safe to eat the cooked turkeys, then why not do just that? Eat them? Go on, eat them!
So why the disconnect between what the "health authorities" say, and what the "health authorities" do?
While the Canadian media might be a little more honest than the American media (can you imagine honest reporting in the good ole U.S.A. when the truth might hurt sale of turkeys, especially between the time period of Thanksgiving and Christmas?), that same disconnect between what they say and what they do is evident, at least if you concentrate, and look hard enough.
The fact is, Canadian "health authorities" are terrified. To distract Canadians from sharing their terror, they yank out the top hats, walking canes, and tuxedo tails, and they start a pretty good tap dance. Canada should relate their good news to Asia. Don't destroy all those birds, those valuable bits of commerce. Just cook'em!
Imagine spreading the good news to Hong Kong and all of Asia: "Avian influenza has been shown to be fully destroyed by cooking and therefore normal handling practices render it safe for human consumption!"
There is the answer. Why get vaccinated? Why spend all the money on vaccination public relations campaigns, when all you need to do is cook the flu, and cook it good?
When pig flu burst the seams and killed more than a hundred people in Mexico, like a bomb detonating, the U.S. tap dancers went to work: "Pork is safe! Pork is good! Eat it, and cook it, and eat it!" When pork prices dropped, pork-barrel lobbyists quickly snapped their fingers for their health-care industrial servants to publically refer to the influenza pandemic as "h1n1" instead of the very apt "Swine Flu."
Money talks. Can you hear me? Probably not. But folks be hearin' the money. Can you hear the money? Look to Canada. Money is talking right this moment.
More than likely, the bird flu has already visited all of North America, but you will never hear the truth from U.S. media, but why in the world do we need the truth, anyway? Just cook that Christmas turkey, and sizzle that Christmas ham, and be happy, and don't worry, the bird flu is absolutely nothing to fear, if you have a working stove, or oven. by Douglas Christian Larsen
BACTERIA generally get bad press. After all, aren't they the cause of many diseases? But like most things in life, bacteria can be divided into the good and the bad. As a matter of fact, did you know that the number of bacterial cells in our body outnumber our cells by about 10 to one?
Most of these bacteria are obviously not harmful to us, and indeed, some actually help our body to function better. One example of this would be the bacteria in our digestive system, which forms the largest bacterial community within our body.
These microorganisms help our body to resist invasion by other foreign, potentially harmful microorganisms, regulate the immune system, and perform metabolic activities, among others. And it is these functions that are the basis behind probiotics.
Probiotics, as defined by the World Health Organisation, are "live microorganisms, which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host".
After all, if some bacteria are good for our body, wouldn't more of the same be better?
Dr Sampo Lahtinen would probably say yes. The Health and Nutrition R & D (research and development) group manager for Danisco Finland - an international Danish company that specialises in food ingredients, enzymes and bio-based solutions - was in Kuala Lumpur this week in conjunction with the launch of the company's latest probiotic product, Kordel's Protect.
"When we think of the immune system, one of the major systems is the gut. Many immune defences are in the gut. And they are doing this together with the bacteria in the gut," he told reporters at a group interview. Probiotics, he said, have different effects on the immune system.
"In some cases when the immune system is low, probiotics can help boost it. In some cases, the immune system is too high and overreacting.
"In these cases, we can use probiotics to suppress the immune system - for example, in the case of allergies.
"So, in this way, we can use probiotics to maintain the balance of the immune system," he said.
According to Dr Lahtinen, our gut bacteria (and also the bacteria in probiotics) does this through a combination of various mechanisms that are still being researched.
"The bacteria can stop pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) from attaching to the gut wall because they are already attached there.
"They also trigger production of anti-bacterial defence cells from the body's immune system," he said, explaining that the presence of these non-harmful bacteria puts the immune system on "alert", but does not trigger the full-on defence system of the body.
A study on children
Dr Lahtinen said that a prospective, randomised, double-blind study involving 326 children aged three to five years old from a day-care centre in Shanghai, China, was conducted by his colleague from Danisco US.
The study, which was published in the print version of the Pediatric journal last August, was conducted during the winter and flu season from Nov 2005 to May 2006.
The children were randomly divided into three groups. One group took a placebo, another group took just Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, and the last group took a combination of L. acidophilus NCFM and Bifidobacterium animalis (subspecies lactis Bi-07). Both groups taking the bacteria products showed a significant decrease in the number of times they had fevers, coughs and were prescribed antibiotics as compared to the group on placebos. This was particularly obvious for antibiotic prescription, which showed a 77% significant risk reduction for children taking the combination of bacteria, as compared to those on the placebo.
The same group also showed a significant decrease in the number of times the children had runny noses, compared to the placebo group. However, while the group on the product showed a larger decrease than those taking just L. acidophilus NCFM for all the symptoms, statistically speaking, both groups did not show any significant difference when compared to one another. This means that taking just L. acidophilus NCFM seemed to work just as well as taking both bacteria.
The same results were seen when the researchers compared the number of days the children experienced their symptoms. There was a significant decrease in the number of sick days the children in both bacteria groups had, as compared to the placebo group, but no significant difference between the two bacteria groups.
Dr Lahtinen said: "The study showed that we do get good effects with Lactobacillus, but better with the combination." He added that the probiotics can also be taken by adults, especially the elderly, who need the boost to their immune system.
"It is taken in a single dose a day, and the first effects will happen quite soon. You will see a reaction within a couple of weeks," he said. On the duration of the effects, he said that "the benefit is as long as you take it". He added that people tend to take probiotics at certain times, like when it is flu season or if they are going to travel a lot, and also during potentially stressful periods, like exam time.
(NaturalNews) Using natural remedies, foods and exercise to strengthen one's immune system is far better than reaching for a chemical based product from the local pharmacy. These products merely suppress the symptoms of colds and flu, instead of allowing the body to heal naturally.
Diet plays a huge role in building up one's immune system because we derive essential nutrients from what we eat, as well as from supplements that we may use. If we give our bodies less than the best by pumping them full of chemical medications and processed foods, they will respond by malfunctioning and eventually shutting down. They were not designed to deal with non-natural items.
Keeping your immune system in good condition also helps prevent fatigue. Daily exercise is also a proven immune system booster. Even taking a walk with Fido around a few blocks will benefit you as well as your furry friend, as it promotes oxygen flow and blood circulation throughout the body.
Sugar is one of our biggest enemies, as it suppresses the immune system drastically. All processed foods and drinks should be avoided, as nearly all of them contain sugar, as well as a host of other artificial ingredients which do no good whatsoever. Incorporate fresh, whole foods such as organic fruit and vegetables, free range meats, organic fish and raw unsalted nuts into your diet and avoid processed dairy products and factory farmed meats at all costs.
A daily dose of Echinacea has been shown to strengthen the immune system drastically. A few other herbs and supplements which may help in this regard are chamomile, Siberian ginseng, wild indigo, goldenseal, stinging nettle, rosehip, rosemary, peppermint and thuja. A lot of these herbs and supplements are used to help the body to cope with stress, which is also known to greatly suppress the immune system. Vitamin D3, vitamin C and zinc are also extremely powerful immune system boosters. Onions, horseradish and garlic are also excellent in this regard.
If you are a smoker, you will by now know that this suppresses your immune system severely, so the best remedy for this is to stop this habit, as it offers no health benefits whatsoever.
A yummy way to boost your immune system is to take 3 carrots, an apple, an orange and half a beet (beetroot) and put them through a juicer, and enjoy this drink with your breakfast each day. Adding some mint to your hot bath will also help stimulate antibodies and kill any bacteria that may have accumulated in the mucous membranes.
This is "News Earlier" - Continue with Earlier News2
“No one knows for sure where the 1918 flu came from or how it turned into such a killer strain. All that is known is that it began as an ordinary flu but then it changed. It infected people in the spring of 1918, sickening its victims for about three days with chills and fever, but rarely killing them. Then it disappeared, returning in the fall with the power of a juggernaut."
“Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the adult afraid of the light?”
- Maurice Freehill
“I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much.”
- Mother Teresa
“A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.”
- James Madison
“The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control — 'indoctrination,' we might say — 'exercised through the mass media.'”
- Noam Chomsky
“Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. ”
- Leo Tolstoy
“A newspaper, as I'm sure you know, is a collection of supposedly true stories written down by writers who either saw them happen or talked to people who did. These writers are called journalists, and like telephone operators, butchers, ballerinas, and people who clean up after horses, journalists can sometimes make mistakes.”
- Lemony Snicket
“Knowledge is the antidote to fear.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
- Richard Bach
“Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.”
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus
“The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings.”
- Hannah Arendt
“If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as: 'Candle making industry threatened.'”
- Newt Gingrich
“Truth has no fear; Untruth shivers at every shadow.”
- Sri Sathya Sai Baba
“In spite of your fear, do what you have to do.”
- Chin-Ning Chu
“Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light.”
- Dorothy Thompson
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.”
- Francis Bacon
“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps.”
- Carlos Castaneda
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort 'em as much as you please.”
- Mark Twain
“Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently.”
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
- Nelson Mandela
“We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action despite our fears.”
- John McCain
“You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.”
- Dale Carnegie
“Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought no to be feared.”
- David Ben-Gurion
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
- Yoda
“The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
“How very little can be done under the spirit of fear. ”
- Florence Nightingale
“Listen to what you know instead of what you fear. ”
- Richard Bach
“To fear to face an issue is to believe the worst is true.”
- Ayn Rand
“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
- John F. Kennedy
“It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment.”
- Elie Wiesel
“It would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched.”
- Aung San Suu Kyi
“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life.”
- Bertrand Russell
“If it's called the USA Today, why is all the news from yesterday? BAM. Busted!”
- Stephen Colbert
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
- Marie Curie
“When even one American - who has done nothing wrong -- is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all of Americans are in peril.”
- Harry S. Truman
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
- Winston Churchill
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“I do not mean to be the slightest bit critical of TV newspeople, who do a superb job, considering that they operate under severe time constraints and have the intellectual depth of hamsters. But TV news can only present the 'bare bones' of a story; it takes a newspaper, with its capability to present vast amounts of information, to render the story truly boring.”
- Dave Barry
“The truth is more important than the facts.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright
“Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch, nay, you may kick it all about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
“For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.”
- Patrick Henry
“It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
- Robert M. Pirsig
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“When I tell any truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.”
- William Blake
“If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.”
- William Tecumseh Sherman
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
- Edward R. Murrow
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
- Joseph Goebbels
“Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation.”
- George Bernard Shaw
“The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.”
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“A wave of panic passed over the vessel, and these rough and hardy men, who feared no mortal foe, shook with terror at the shadows of their own minds.”
- Arthur Conan Doyle
“Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.”
- Vannevar Bush
“Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.”
- Ernest Hemingway
“Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to carry on with dignity in spite of it.”
- Scott Turow
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
- Malcom X
“If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”
- Aesop
“Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism.”
- Graham Greene
“By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.”
- Albert Camus
“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.”
- Barry Goldwater
“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
- John F. Kennedy
“I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.”
- Agatha Christie
“Love all, trust a few.”
- William Shakespeare
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
- Carl Sagan
“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgerize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”
- William Bernbach
“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
“If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.'”
- Lyndon B. Johnson
“Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear.”
- Hannah Arendt
“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.”
- Oscar Wilde
“When in doubt, tell the truth.”
- Mark Twain
“When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute.”
- Walter Lippmann
“If such a plague came today, killing a similar fraction of the U.S. population, 1.5 million Americans would die, which is more than the number felled in a single year by heart disease, cancers, strokes, chronic pulmonary disease, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s disease combined.”
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“If you ever catch on fire, try to avoid seeing yourself in the mirror, because I bet that's what REALLY throws you into a panic.”
- Jack Handy
“Knowledge — that is, education in its true sense — is our best protection against unreasoning prejudice and panic-making fear, whether engendered by special interest, illiberal minorities, or panic-stricken leaders.”
In Europe, meanwhile, flu activity increased in several countries, and the United Kingdom and Denmark reported high flu circulation, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO's) European Regional Office.
