Flu Shot Anyone?
Most medical doctors have long promoted the flu shot’s importance and deprecated natural and alternative ways to boost your immune system. MD’s and specialists prompt you to wince through the needle every year touting that it is basically your only choice if you want to effectively prevent the flu. But a new analysis has cast doubt on the effectiveness of that annual ritual. Serious doubt.
And, where most people somehow think that I’m anti-flu vaccine – certainly may sound so by the introduction above – they are often surprised to hear that I’m not!
While vaccines provide only a moderate shield against the flu according to a recent report published in The Lancet – the most robust of its kind going back to 1967 – this protection can get weaker or disappear entirely during some seasons.
The analysis found that the most widely-used flu vaccine in the United States was only 59 per cent effective in healthy adults. The report focuses particularly on vaccines used in the United States, but it also reviews vaccines circulating in other parts of the world including the 2009 global pandemic vaccine.
The report’s lead author Michael T. Osterholm points out that “While the vaccine does work and we still recommend that it be used, it does not demonstrate the kinds of efficacy levels we have reported”.
Quite alarming was the finding that the medical community lacks evidence of how effective the flu shot is for some of the most vulnerable members of society. But, this is where I’m actually NOT a doubter for the use of the shot – in those who are immune compromised or perhaps have upper respiratory complications like asthma or COPD or are very elderly and can’t fight off the flu effectively, then whatever extra advantage the vaccine may provide might be worth it. A strong word of advice if your choice is to get the shot: it should be mercury free. Please ask your doctor for that available option!
In the end nobody should be afraid of conventional medicine approaches – it saves lives – but you should be aware of effective and evidence based integrative options and alternatives to stay healthy this flu season.