They're calling the H1N1 virus (the Swine Flu) an "imminent pandemic". We hear a mounting body count of new cases at the top of the news all day long. Three states to date have more than two cases – New York, California and Texas. Of the ninety one cases in the US as of today, one, a two year old who had recently spent time in a Mexican border town, has died. Hopefully this means the virus is getting less lethal as it distances from its debut in a pigsty in Mexico. Let's revisit strategies to deal with it.
My thinking is that we have some time to prepare, and going into fear mode is a bad idea. Fear has terrible effects on the immune system: reducing resistance to disease, reducing ability to fight and recover from the flu. Fear interferes with rational thinking. So get proactive instead. This is one more opportunity to remodel yourself if you are less than satisfied with your state of health.
Start by getting a really good multivitamin from a health food store. Get fish oil (distilled or pharmaceutical grade) and a bottle of Vitamin C (with bioflavenoids). Start taking them immediately. Follow the directions on the bottle. This is your health maintenance dose. If you start feeling sick, start taking 1000mg Vitamin C every 4-6 hours, depending how your stomach stomachs it. Loosened stool is the sign you've taken enough C for one day.
Relax more. Take a hot bath, drink a nice cup of ginger tea or chamomile or your favorite herbal blend. Drink a hot toddy. Walk in nature. However you need to do it, get some time for yourself every day. Your life may depend on it, since stress in a killer and 90% of us are in it all the time.
Public health measures are effective and inexpensive. They represent the best ways to contain the spread of influenza. Here are the ones recommended by the Hillsborough County Department of Health:
The Florida State Surgeon General provides these recommendations:
1. As always, people with respiratory illness should stay home from work or school to avoid spreading infections, including influenza, to others in the community.
2. Avoid close contact with people who are coughing or otherwise appear ill.
3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
4. Wash hands frequently to lessen the spread of respiratory illness.
5. People experiencing cough, fever and fatigue, possibly along with diarrhea and vomiting, should contact their physician.
6. If you think you have influenza, please call your health care provider and discuss whether you need to be seen in their office or emergency department or stay home.
There is no vaccine yet for this strain of flu so the issue of whether to take it, whether it works, and so on, can be looked at later when the choice is available. My guess is we'll have a vaccine in a very short time and we may be "required" to take it. That's a topic for another post.
While you're in the health food store (and don't waste any time doing this) get the flu remedy Oscillococcinum, or any homeopathic remedy labeled for that use. Classical homeopathy had wonderful success in the 1918 pandemic swine flu event, compared to the orthodox treatments of the time. The remedy most used in that pandemic was Gelsemium. Aconite is another remedy that works. It's okay to take all three of them, there are no interactions. These are remedies to take at the very onset of an illness. Take them if you have been exposed or at the very start – a tickle, a sneeze, a cough. Check out the 45,900 citations in the database http://pubmed.gov under "homeopathy". In India, Germany, France, England and other countries homeopathy is routinely used, even by medical doctors. The pharmaceutical industry has less of a stranglehold there, so far.
As a preventative, you can also use a tablespoon of colloidal silver a day for an adult, a teaspoon for a child seven and younger. Infants up to one year may have a half teaspoon in their water each day. Side effects (bluish skin discoloration) may occur with 8 times the recommended dose, if taken every day for four years! This is a very safe and effective germ fighter.
Remember, if you do get the flu anyway, – if you spike a fever, develop a severe cough, aches and pains, and/or serious fatigue, see your doctor or go to an emergency facility. Call the Health Department in your county if you don't know where to go.
Oh, and don't kiss any people! Or any pigs!
Dr. Carol Roberts is the Medical Director of Wellness Works, a holistic medical practice. She co-hosts a radio show on alternative medicine with Rob Lorei every other Monday from 1-2PM on WMNF 88.5FM, Tampa.
Her book, Good Medicine: A Return to Common Sense will be available on Amazon by summer, 2009.
www.wmnf.org
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2009.