Flu prevention: safe, effective strategies

placebo (inert 'dummy pill') had asthma attacks. The dose given to these children was only 1200 iu per day. Vitamin D experts recommend an intake of 1000 iu per 11 kg of body weight per day for children (3), so in my opinion, giving a higher dose than that used in the study would decrease your child's risk of getting the flu even more dramatically - especially if combined with...

High intake of fresh fruit & vegetables

When the cold weather hits, most people reduce their intake of fresh fruit and vegetables in favour of stodgy, starchy 'comfort foods'. Bad idea! Fresh produce is by far our richest source of dietary antioxidants. Antioxidants combat free radicals - rogue molecules formed in our bodies every day from normal processes of metabolism, as well as by consumption of heat-damaged fats, smog and a wide range of other chemicals. If your dietary intake of antioxidants is less than is required to neutralise the free radicals you produce, you experience oxidative stress.

If a virus invades your body while you are in this state, the oxidative stress will alter its genome (genetic sequnce), causing it to mutate into a more virulent form - that is, the virus becomes capable of causing more serious and prolonged infection, because of the oxidative stress in your body (4). 

Eating a nutrient-dense diet with a very high proportion of green and other non-starchy vegetables; along with fruits (particularly the high-antioxidant fruits such as berries, red grapes, pomegranate and kiwifruit); legumes  (lentils, dried peas and beans), nuts, seeds and whole grains, will ensure you meet all your needs for the nutrients crucial for normal immune function. Deficiences in virtually any known vitamin or mineral reduce the effectiveness of your immune system. And if you're eating the Standard Australian Diet (the SAD) you can guarantee you're deficient in at least some of these nutrients, and woefully deficient in immune-boosting carotenoids and other phytochemicals.

Sleep

Sleep enhances your immune system’s efficiency, and sleep deprivation impairs immune function. A 2009 study found that people who sleep less than seven hours per night are about three times more likely to develop respiratory illness following exposure to a cold virus than those who sleep eight hours or more. Reduced sleep efficiency (spending less than 92% of time in bed asleep) was also associated with a 5 1/2 times greater likelihood of becoming ill than good sleep efficiency (spending 98% or more time in bed asleep). Fascinatingly, people who were efficient sleepers were just as likely as the inefficient sleepers to have cold viruses in their blood and mucus samples, but they did not actually ‘get a cold’ nearly as often. How could you be infected but not feel sick? The researchers commented that “sleep disturbance influences the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, histamines and other symptom mediators that are released in response to infection.” In other words, it’s the body’s response to viral infection that determines how sick you feel, and well-slept people’s bodies respond in ways that make them feel less sick (5).

What about influenza vaccination?

The recent spate of deaths and hospitalisations of young children who received seasonal flu vaccine has brought the issue of vaccine safety to the forefront. It's not only children who are at risk of serious adverse reactions. I received an email from a very health-conscious and normally robust client of nearly 80, describing the disastrous consequences of receiving an influenza vaccination advised by her GP:

The product insert for CSL's Panvax H1N1 vaccine (6) lists the following potential side-effects: reaction around the injection site such as tenderness, bruising, redness, pain, swelling or hard lumpsflu-like symptoms, such as headache, tiredness, fever, sore throat, runny or blocked nose, sneezing, cough, chillsvomiting, nausea, diarrhoea irritability / loss of appetitetoothacheaching muscles or joints, back paintingling or numbness (a serious side-effect requiring urgent medical attention)
and the following very serious side effects requiring urgent medical attention or hospitalisation: allergic reactions involving rash, itching or hives, swelling of the face, lips, tongue or other body partsshortness of breath, wheezing or trouble breathingfit, convulsion or seizurebleeding or bruising more easily than normalreduced or absent urinationsevere stabbing or throbbing nerve pain, neck stiffness

Influenza vaccines also contain thiomersal, a mercury compound, as a preservative in multi-use vials. While the amount of mercury per dose is small, if a person gets a 'flu shot, and perhaps other mercury-containing vaccines, year after year, the cumulative burden of mercury in their bodies, in addition to the mercury from fish and seafood consumption and amalgam fillings, may cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's (7).

On top of these dangers, these vaccines don't really work very well anyway! A US study showed that, over 8 consecutive flu seasons, children who received the inactivated influenza vaccine were three times as likely to be hospitalised with the flu as children who weren't vaccinated. Asthmatic children who received the vaccine were particularly at risk of hospitalisation for flu (8).

And a Canadian study found that adults who received the seasonal flu vaccine in autumn 2008, were up to nearly 3 times more likely to contract swine flu in 2009 (9).

Overall, according to a well-referenced Wikipedia article (10),