The 'Swine 'Flu' Vaccine

Influenza is an acute illness, one that is usually relatively short lived; as opposed to a chronic illness like arthritis which implies longer term symptoms. I feel unsure why there is such great fear of acute illness, apart from the way it is promoted in the media and by the medical profession and drug companies!

Naturopathically speaking, acutes are viewed as necessary, positive events as they allow the body to clear waste; for example, through the skin in the case of fever in the form of sweat or as mucous from nose, lungs etc. After an acute - and that includes the childhood illnesses - we can proceed from a healthier stance, having lightened the body's 'toxic load'. There is a lot of attention in the media at the moment about the 'swine 'flu'.

Recent news is also reporting the imminent arrival of a 'swine flu' vaccine. It is doubtful that vaccine programmes have ever contributed to lowering the incidence of any acute illness. Just to cite measles as a case in point the rate of illness incidence had dropped by 95% by the time the vaccine program of MMR began. There are several disturbing things about the 'swine flu' vaccine.

• Firstly, WHO (World Health Organisation) have declared a global pandemic emergency at level six the highest level which invokes global martial law allowing the enforcement of the 'swine flu' vaccine.
• All 194 member countries have signed up to this and the UK government has allowed it to be agreed by Health Ministers rather than taking it as a motion to be decided by the House of Commons.
• Mysteriously, the Health and Protection Agency are now referring to this 'flu on their website as "pandemic influenza"!
• The information that 800 people have died of the 'swine 'flu' worldwide so far contrasts with the statistics of lower respiratory tract infections including 'flu claiming the lives of 4,170,000 people worldwide in 2004. We seem a long way off those levels at which a pandemic was not declared.
• The last bout of 'swine 'flu' in the 1970's saw the introduction of a vaccine. More people died of the vaccine than of the 'flu. Additionally more than 500 people were left with Guillaine Barre syndrome, the symptoms of which include paralysis.

From a nutrition perspective, if we eat an optimal diet, high in fruit and vegetables laden in anti-oxidants, with adequate amounts of clean protein and some wholegrain carbohydrate we offer our immune system the best chance of negating the need to have a 'flu or cold or some other acute. Add to that, the avoidance of anti nutrients such as alcohol, caffeinated beverages, cigarettes, sugar and salt and our body has an even better chance of maintaining good health, even without the need of an acute.