Strategy to Prevent or Minimize Swine Flu Without Vaccinations or Drugs

by Heidi Stevenson

18 July 2009

With all the hype and fear mongering surrounding swine flu, you might be tempted to surrender to vaccinations or drugs. Have you considered whether it's possible to avoid it altogether, or in case of contracting flu, to minimize the severity? Does getting the flu seem like a crap shoot, spin the wheel and maybe you'll get lucky, but maybe you'll lose? That may not be true. Let's get to the bottom of the issue.

Right now, the World Health Organization and governments of the US and EU are hyping swine flu, raising the danger rating to the highest level of 6, and buying up vaccines and Tamiflu at historic rates. In the UK, 132 million doses of the vaccine have been ordered. It requires two jabs to achieve protection, according to the manufacturers. In a country of 65 million people, it looks very much like the plan is to innoculate every single person in the country with the defined double jab.

Because of the presumed severity of an upcoming pandemic, vaccine manufacturers are being allowed to do hypotesting—very short trials for both efficacy and safety. Keep in mind, too, that these trials are being done or financed by the manufacturers, which significantly undermines any trust that should be placed in them. Clearly, if one can avoid the new vaccines and feel reasonably sure of also avoiding the flu is the ideal position. So, who is at greatest risk from the flu?

Who Appears to Be At Risk?

Thus far, there appear to be two groups who are at risk from swine flu: people with health problems and people who are obese, which could certainly be defined as a serious health problem. Thus far, all deaths from swine flu have been attributed to one of these underlying issues. So far, initial claims of a seemingly healthy person dying have proven not to be true. The UK doctor who supposedly died of influenza was later found to have died of an unrelated cause. Of course, this detail tended to be buried in back pages. At this writing, though many cases of death from swine flu have occurred, none have been confirmed as being in people without an underlying health problem or obesity.

How to Avoid Swine Flu

Obviously, the best way to avoid serious problems from swine flu is to stay healthy. But what does that mean? In today's world, do most of us really know what good health feels like? Is it possible to quickly optimize your health?

Surprisingly, it may be possible. You likely know that influenza is more prevalent during the winter months. This isn't simply common knowledge; it's been studied and well documented. The latest months of winter consistently find the largest number of people coming down with the flu. Traditionally, the theory has been that more people spend time indoors then, coming into closer contact. While this may have made sense a hundred years ago, it certainly doesn't now. Far more people work inside, just as cramped and in contact with people during the summer as they are in the winter. That theory should be retired.

In 1981, Dr. R. Edgar Hope-Simpson, already famous for making the connection between shingles and the chicken pox virus, suggested that the seasonality of influenza is likely related to solar radiation. It's documented that children are significantly more likely to suffer from respiratory illnesses when deficient in Vitamin D. Of course, the primary source of Vitamin D is the sun. Could it be that influenza is a serious disease largely because of a Vitamin D deficiency?

The farther one lives from the equator, the more marked is the distinction in the number of influenza cases between summer and winter months. Let's examine the graph below (from J.J. Cannell's "Epidemic influenza and vitamin D" in Epidemiology and Infection, 2006, Cambridge University Press):

The graph shows a sine-like wave representing the seasonal path of the sun. In the center of the graph, where the sun is highest in the northern hemisphere, note that the incidence of influenza is minimal. This is when the sun is at its lowest in the southern hemisphere, when influenza is at its maximum there. The reverse is true for the northern hemisphere's winter and southern hemisphere's summer. Notice, though, that tropical regions don't follow such a distinct seasonal flu pattern. There has been some study on this, though not much. At this point, it appears that there may be a correlation between rainy-cloudy weather and higher flu rates, though it isn't yet definitively known to be true.

Vitamin D

During the last half century, people have spent less and less time in the sun. As a result, people's Vitamin D levels have gotten lower and lower. Recent studies have shown that a shortage of Vitamin D has tremendous ill effects on an enormous range of health issues. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other disorders.

Vitamin D levels are known to drop as we enter the winter season. It's not surprising, of course, since the bulk of our Vitamin D is the result of sun exposure. Ergo, less sun, less Vitamin D. We know, too, that Vitamin D has a significant beneficial effect on the immune system.

The coming winter does promise to produce a significantly large rate of influenza. On this point, I tend to agree with the World Health Organization. However, when it comes to how this information is implemented, I must strongly disagree with the WHO. Our medical system and society must stop looking for fixes and start looking for real solutions. In the US, deaths from influenza more than doubled between 1976 and 1999. If vaccinating were the solution, then the death rate should have gone down. But it doubled. Clearly, it's time to find another approach. We know that healthy people are less likely to succomb to disease. So, let's focus on improving people's health.

Who's at Risk Revisited

In light of this information, let's reconsider who's at risk from swine flu. If Vitamin D levels are an indicator of health—and all indications point to that—then nearly everyone in the modern world is at risk. And that risk is significantly increased the further north you live. The solution is quite simple: Take Vitamin D, lots of it.

How to Test for and Take Vitamin D

This information has been covered by Gaia Health^{(1 ,2)}. However, to summarize:

• Using suntanning booths is an effective method of boosting one's Vitamin D. Caution should be used to avoid burning, which damages the skin and may cause the virulent skin cancer, melanoma.
• Optimal levels of Vitamin D in the blood are between 50 and 64 ng/ml, and anything up to 100 ng/ml is safe.
• You can easily have your blood tested for Vitamin D levels. Be sure to read the actual result. Official standards of Vitamin D sufficiency are far too low.
• Though it is theoretically possible to overdose on Vitamin D, it is not a concern. Finding a doctor who has seen an overdose would be a challenge.
• If you take a Vitamin D supplement, be sure it is Vitamin D3, cholecalciferol.
• Initially, you can take 10,000 IUs a day for a month. Then have your blood tested. If still low, then continue. If adequate, then reduce the dose to 1,000-2,000 IUs per day.

If you still come down with influenza, or you believe you've recently come into contact with it, then you can take a single bolus dose of 50,000 IUs a day. A single dose of this level cannot harm you and may provide the boost needed to stay healthy.

The decision on whether to have the new influenza vaccinations or take Tamiflu is, of course, yours to make. There are certainly reasons for using them, but don't be railroaded into assuming that these are safe options. Many factors should be considered. Are you healthy? Thus far, all or nearly all deaths from the current swine flu have been in people with underlying health problems. Are you obese? There are strong indications that obesity is a significant factor in deaths. Do you take drugs for any reason? If so, then your liver is probably being stressed, which would put you at high risk for taking Tamiflu. Pregnant women are advised against taking live virus vaccines.