~ honest. sincere. embarrassing. funny. with a healthy dose of sarcasm. ~
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Wednesday, February 9

A Fluish Dilemma

I have been always been avidly against the flu shot. In the years past I have had people tell me to get it just because I have asthma and a risk for Flu compications. I have never even considered getting it - arguing that there has not been enough research or time to know if it's actually benificial. But I never really researched it myself - I was just going on the gut instinct that I wasn't going to put something into my body that could potentially harm me, more than what it was suppposed to protect me from.

This year however, my weak back bone - accompanied with last year's harsh memory of Garnet, Tim and I in bed for two weeks - caved miserably. I got the flu shot and I dragged my son in with me as well. I figured whatever complications or whatever I was doing to my body must be better then the flu. Boy, was I ever wrong. I find it no mere coincidence that within weeks of receiving the flu shot Tim suddenly developed a rash and an allergy to advil (which he had taken before) and still has the red, dry itchy skin from his rash. I have been sick 4 times since I got the flu shot, so it might not be called 'the flu' but alteast last year I was only sick once!

So the other night my mom told me about how they are forcing health care workers to receive the flu shot or they can't come to work in the case of a flu outbreak. How weird. Now, maybe it's just me but last time I checked we did live in a free country and it was our decision what to put in our own bodies! No one tells a restaurant worker that they must like all the food on the menu or they are not able to work there! I can understand the risk of not having the flu shot - if you're working around a bunch of flu patients...and the uneducated me might have said 'sure, it makes sense for nurses to have the flu shot' but then I read up on the flu shot. Here are a few exerpts of the scary things I read;

- only 10-15% of the flu like illnesses that people experience are actually caused by the flu virus that they are vaccinated against.
- only 1 in 4 people vaccinated are actually protected (doesn't work in everyone)
- the results are even lower than 1 in 4 in the elderly (highest risk age group for flu complications)

Just those numbers alone make me think is all the time and money put into these flu vaccinations really worth it? Then the more I read the worse I felt;

- Flu vaccines contain 'thimerosal' as a perservative which contains mercury. Which is why they've linked long term flu shots to high cases of Alzeimer's! (ie; the more flu shots you have over the years the higher chance you have of developing Alzeimer's)
- To find the vaccination for the next year Scientists kill migrating ducks in Asia, culture the viruses and put those in next year's vaccine. (because they have seen an association between bird and pig viruses and the following year's human flu epidemics.) Perhaps this desperate guesswork is responsible for so many years when the flu vaccines viruses had nothing in common with circulating viruses.

I understand that any site I read is going to be one sided. The sites against the flu shot have some horrible things to say and the sites in favour have some great things to say. But the fact that my gut instinct before was against it, I found enough information to back me up on mydecision - I am never going to let myself be swayed again.
My conclusion is this;

I feel that the flu shot is a form of experiment, grounded in society's fear of dying. And since we no longer test on animals - they have taken to testing on humans. (Although they are so good in reassuring us that this is not what they are doing.)

We have all had some horrible flu experiences, no one enjoys it, and no one wants to get it again. But our bodies are strong and need to experience germs and sickness in order to build the immune system. There are over 200 different (known) cold viruses that we may experience in our lives. We can never have the same one twice but think about it -- if we only get 2 colds per year....we 'd be a hundred before we experience them all! Parents that come into the Y are always worried saying 'my baby is sick again!' but I always reassure them that it's part of the body's way of building up antibodies. It's not fun - but they need to experience it.

I think that there is a reason that Cancer, ADD, Autism, Allergies, Diabetes, Asthma and many other horrible diseases are on the rise in our society in our children. We are so worried about them getting, meningitis, chicken pox, colds and the flu - no one is stopping to ask why all these others are ravaging our children! I think that our diet and lifestyle do not allow children to build up the antibodies that they need to have a strong immune system! I am no scientist - and I wouldn't even know where to begin to prove my point but I do believe that in years from now people will be shaking their heads at us and calling us stupid for trying to find a vaccine for every little thing...especially the FLU!

The chicken pox vaccine (which I will never give to Tim) is wiping out the wild virus - but they don't know how long it immunizes a person against the virus! Which means that in years to come we will have a whole lot of adults with Shingles - because they never experienced Chicken Pox as a child. Shingles has many more serious complications than Chicken Pox which means that right now as I write this Scientists are scrambling trying to find a 'shingles vaccine'. Where does it end??? And worst of all as they discover new and different vaccines and medications - there is less and less thought of long term effect/complications.

A perfect example is the COX-2 Inhibitors (Vioxx and Celebrex) which are pain medications taken for Arthritis pain. After these medications were approved in Canada and the US they found that 'oops, they cause patients to have severe heart attacks'....where does it end?? I wonder how much this medication was actually tested before they decided to test on humans???

So, as this conclusion is my opinion, I am not looking for anybody to get offended. I realize that everyone has different opinions and I am more than open to hear others -- I was very angry at myself for giving in to people's opinions before researching it thoroughly on my own.

My warning is; whatever your opinion - just make sure you are grounded, firm and educated in your opinion!!

xo J


PS: some of my research involved;
VRAN website http://64.41.99.118/vran/vaccines/flu/flu_facts.htm
Dr. Mercola; http://www.mercola.com/2003/dec/13/flu_vaccine.htm
La Leva; http://www.laleva.org/eng/
NNii; http://www.immunizationinfo.org/influenza_detail.cfv?id=80

3 comments:

Michelle said...

thermisol in vaccines is just one reason why we don't vaccinate.

Anonymous said...

hmm...interesting! I didn't even realize you and Tim got the vaccine! But I agree with your conclusion! It's a scary thing to vaccinate for everything. And I really agree that its b/c people are so afraid of dieing...sad...there is a better way to rid the fear...
anyway, hope you all are feeling ok!?...and make sure Garnet eats enough! lol :)
talk to you later babe...Love you!
Hilsy

derek salmon said...

derek and i don't get the flu shot either. we haven't for years (at least since we've been together). i think the last time i got it was probably in High School.

as simple as it may seem, my reasoning is why put sickness in me to prevent me from getting sick...

i don't think getting sick is such a big deal anyway. the gov't grants us sick days when we're working and if we are going to get sick from the flu shot, why not just get sick naturally, sometimes thats our bodies way of forcing us to get some rest.