The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predict a terrible flu season, affecting up to 40% of all Americans and causing up to a few hundred thousand deaths. What can you do to protect yourself?

Don’t count on the flu vaccine

The sad truth is that flu vaccines do not work. That is why tens of thousands of people become infected every year, with over 30,000 dying from complications despite widespread vaccination.

Flu vaccine is a medical myth. It is promoted as a way to prevent flu, but as every doctor knows, it is not effective for children, young people, and healthy adults. The only people that seem to benefit from flu vaccination are nursing home residents, and even they have a very minor benefit.

As for the swine flu vaccine, nobody knows how effective it will be, but there are already many reports that suggest that this vaccine can be dangerous to your health.

In 1976, the last year we had a swine flu epidemic, only one person actually died from the swine flu and 25 died from the vaccine’s side effects. The vaccine had to be withdrawn from the market because hundreds of people developed a serious neurological complication called Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

Don’t count on anti-viral drugs

There are four antiviral drugs that are approved by FDA to treat flu. They are Symmetrel (amantadine), Flumadine (rimantadine), Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir). The last 2 are supposed to be the best.

A recent review published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases (September, 2009) examined 26 scientific studies to see how well Tamiflu and Relenza fight the flu.

In a group of over 4,000 people, these drugs reduced the duration of the flu symptoms by an average of half a day. Not exactly a major accomplishment.

The authors of the study conclude, “For controlling seasonal influenza in healthy adults the use of antiviral drugs is unlikely to be the most appropriate course of action.”

In other words, don’t count on antiviral drugs to help you fight the flu.

What is the answer?

Your best hope is to have such a strong immune system that neither the regular flu nor the swine flu will have any chance of infecting you. This is accomplished through a good diet and special nutritional supplements.

Your body uses the materials that you provide to build cells, organs, and the immune system. If you eat wholesome foods, full of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, your body will have plenty of good materials. But if you eat man-made processed foods (white bread, pasta, white rice, cookies, pastry, cold cuts and other processed meats, egg beaters, etc.), your body will not have the resources with which to build strong immunity.

So the first step is to clean up your diet and get rid of unnatural “foods” that do not grow on trees, but are made in a factory.

But even if you eat a good diet, there is still a chance that you might be missing some important nutrients. That is why I take and recommend to my patients a supplement called Catalyn from Standard Process.

It is not your usual multivitamin, because it is made from food. It contains 12 foods, some of plant origin (carrot, wheat germ, nutritional yeast, etc.) and some of animal origin (bovine liver, bovine spleen, etc.). All foods are selected because they contain all known and unknown vitamins and trace minerals that your body needs for optimal health.

The foods are dehydrated using a patented technique that uses low heat, because high heat can destroy some nutrients. It is sort of like turning grapes into raisins. A raisin has all the nutrients of a grape, except for water.

All 12 foods are then mixed together and formed into pills. But since the pills are really made from food, you can actually chew them. One bottle of Catalyn will last you 2 months.

Look at the ingredients of the multivitamin you are using now. If the ingredients are carrot, wheat germ, bovine liver, and other foods, this is a good product. But if the ingredients are ascorbic acid, d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, thiamine, and other synthetic substances, your supplement is not food-based, but was made in a laboratory. It is inferior because it does not provide all the vitamins and minerals that are naturally present in food.

Other nutritional supplements

There are many supplements that can boost the immune system, but at the very least I recommend these four: Cataplex C, Echinacea Premium, Immuplex and Cataplex D.

Cataplex C is the natural form of vitamin C. You probably already know how important vitamin C is for the immune system. What you may not know is that most vitamin C supplements are not real, but synthetic. They are made in a laboratory from petrochemicals or genetically modified corn syrup.

Cataplex C provides real vitamin C complex from a variety of food sources, which is why I recommend it to build up your immunity.

Echinacea

Most people think that Echinacea is an herb that should be taken for a few days when you get a cold or flu. This is wrong.

For best results, Echinacea should be used daily to support general immune response, make your white cells stronger and improve production of interferon, which fights viruses and activates white cells. But it has to be the right type of Echinacea – angustopholia. And it has to be the right part – the root.

Most Echinacea supplement on the market today are made from Echinacea purpurea flowers. This is the wrong plant and the wrong part.

Immuplex

This is a product that supports the tissues and organs of the immune system, particularly the thymus gland, spleen, liver, bone marrow (where the white cells are made), and the white cells themselves.

It is loaded with natural vitamins and minerals, plus the extracts of liver, thymus, bone, and the spleen, which improve the same organs and glands in your body. This type of treatment is called glandular and has been used by naturopathic physicians for many centuries with great results.

Cataplex D

Natural vitamin D is made from many different substances, one of which is cholecalciferol, also called vitamin D3. Cholecalciferol is not the whole vitamin D, only a small part of it, just like ascorbic acid is only a small part of the vitamin C complex.

Many studies have shown that vitamin D complex is very important for normal immune function. Some experts think that low vitamin D is the reason for the winter epidemics of flu, colds, and other infections.

A good level of vitamin D is 50 ng/ml or more. Most people I see have levels well below 30 or even below 20, even in the summer. This is only going to get worse in the fall and the winter, because the sun is too weak to produce vitamin D.

Many people take supplements of vitamin D3, but as I said, it does not provide the entire vitamin D. A better supplement is Cataplex D from Standard Process. It gives you the whole vitamin D complex, not just one component.

Start your immune program now!

Do not wait until winter to start your immune-building program. The time to start is right now. If you begin taking these supplements now, you will have enough time to improve your immune system, so it will be ready for the flu when the season starts.

Do not become a flu victim. The predicted severe flu epidemic does not have to affect you if your immune system is strong. And it is up to you to build up your defenses, so you can fight off the regular flu and the swine flu. With a strong immunity you will also be protected against the colds and other infections.

Be prepared for the coming flu epidemic by building up your immune system. A strong immune system is the best protection from colds, flu, swine flu, and other infections. To boost your immune system you need a good diet and several important nutritional supplements.

For more common sense information on improving your immune system please click on the link below.

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