How to Reduce Your Risk of Catching the Flu This Year

The Organic Prepper

We can all breathe a sigh of relief. The FDA has announced that the flu vaccine for the 2014-2015 flu season is ready.

This means you can drive down nearly any city street and see at least one flag or spinner, manically suggesting that you “Get your flu shot here!”

This means you can now saunter into your local pharmacy and be injected at low cost by a person with no real medical training, without a prescription.  

It means you could take a break from grocery shopping, get jabbed and receive 10% off your bill at check out.

If you’re super-duper lucky, you won’t even have to go anywhere – your school or workplace will hold a “clinic” to make it more convenient for you. (And it’ll help you keep from being fired if your workplace is one of the one that issues ultimatums like “flu shot or fired“.)

The CDC has already posted its annual ominous warnings that the best way to prevent this year’s flu is to receive your flu shot. Of course, they posted that last year and the year before also.  Nothing helps drum up business for Big Pharma like scaring people into  rolling up their sleeves.

CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of age and older as the first and most important step in protecting against this serious disease. While there are many different flu viruses, the seasonal flu vaccine is designed to protect against the top three or four flu viruses that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season. People should begin getting vaccinated soon after flu vaccine becomes available, ideally by October, to ensure that as many people as possible are protected before flu season begins. (source)

Despite the recommendations of the CDC, the FDA, Flu.gov, and the WHO, my family and I will not be getting a flu shot this year (or any other year).  (You can check out 5 Reasons Why I’ll Never Get a Flu Shot, for more details on each of these reasons.)

• It doesn’t work.
• There are horrible toxic ingredients in the vaccine.
• There is a risk of mild to horrific side effects.
• I don’t trust the FDA, the CDC, or the AMA – they work for the benefit of the government and Big Business – not for the benefit of the public.
• If the mainstream media is constantly endorsing it, I refuse to participate because they are known propagandists and mouthpieces for advertisers and political agendas.

Just like with any other sales pitch, the more insistent the salesman and the less information they want to give you about the product, the faster you should run the other direction.

So how do you reduce your risk of catching the flu this year?

Here’s a hint:

Reducing your risk has absolutely nothing to do with being injected with foreign substances that have not been proven to be effective and that have mild to severe side effects.  This is despite the fact that you’ll hear about 10,971 variations that “The best way to prevent catching the flu is to receive your annual flu shot.” Just because the media and the government mouthpieces repeats it verbatim every single day doesn’t make it true.

Reducing your risk of catching the flu has nothing to do with the flu shot and everything to do with personal hygiene, leading a healthy lifestyle, and boosting your body’s immune system.  Every year, I write about this topic, and every year, people respond by telling me that these ideas are fine for me but if you don’t pick-an-excuse then you just have to go and get the flu shot. I realize that all of these suggestions are not applicable to every family’s situation, but if one doesn’t work, there are still 29 more that might.

The absolute, number one way to avoid catching the flu is through the exercise of good personal hygiene.

1. Wash your hands frequently when you are out.
2. In public restrooms, use a paper towel to open bathroom doors and turn on taps.
3. Although I’m normally not a big fan of hand sanitizer, I always carry it with me in my purse during flu season. I use it generously when I’m out, before and after touching things that everyone else has been touching, like the handle of the shopping cart, door knobs, and debit machines.
4. Use sanitizing wipes or at least baby wipes) to wash your hands and wipe the steering wheel when you get back into your vehicle.
5. Avoid touching your face – this welcomes germs that are on your hands into your body.
6. During the height of flu season, consider taking a quick shower and changing clothes when you return home, particularly if you have been in a germ-ridden place like a doctor’s office or pharmacy. Or Wal-Mart – every time I go there, I see loads of sick people sneezing and coughing into their hands, then touching items on the shelves.
7. Make sure the kids change clothes and  thoroughly wash their hands when they return home from school.
8. I shouldn’t really have to say this, but….remember to wash your hands after using the bathroom and before preparing or eating food.

If your local area is being hit hard by the flu, practice avoidance to keep your family healthy.

9.  Stay home as much as possible. (Obviously, if you have work and school outside the home, this become more difficult, but you can still avoid malls, movie theaters, and sporting events for the duration of the epidemic.)
10.  Stay away from sick people if you can.
11.  Avoid eating at restaurants – you don’t know the health or hygiene habits of the kitchen staff.

If someone in your family gets sick, take steps to minimize the spread of the illness.

12.  If you or a family member become sick, stay home from work or school to prevent passing it on to others.

13.  If a family member is sick, keep them isolated from the rest of the family.

14.  Use disinfecting wipes to clean surfaces that the sick person touches – doorknobs, TV remotes, keyboards, toilet handles, and phones.

15. Immediately place dishes and flatware used by the sick person into hot, soapy dishwater with a drop of bleach in it.

16.  Teach children to cough into the crook of their arm instead of covering their mouth with their hands. This prevents their hands from being germ catchalls that transfer contagious matter to everything they touch.

17.  Have the sick person wash their hands frequently with soap and water to help prevent spreading germs through physical contact. If soap and water are unavailable, have them use hand sanitizer.

Some other ways to stay healthy are to use natural strategies to maximize your immune system.

18.  Drink lots of water to keep your system hydrated and efficient.

19.  Take a high quality, organic multi-vitamin. (I like this one)

20.  Take at least 3000-5000 IUs of Vitamin D3 daily – research has shown a link between a Vitamin D deficit and susceptibility to the flu. (This one has 5000 IUs)

21. Other important immune-boosting vitamins are Vitamin C and Zinc. Most vitamin C is genetically modified, so be especially carefully to find a non-GMO vitamin C. These Zinc Lozenges are good tasting and high quality.

21.  Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables (preferably organic and pesticide free).

22.  Get 7-9 hours of sleep per day – a tired body has a weaker immunity against viruses.

23.  Don’t smoke – this weakens your resistance against respiratory illnesses and worsens the effect on your body if you do become ill.

24.  Avoid or limit alcoholic beverages.

25.  Avoid or limit processed foods. Your body doesn’t recognize these as food and they do nothing to nourish you.

26. Get fresh air and sunshine as often as possible – your body absorbs Vitamin D from the sun’s rays.

27. Get at least 20 minutes of exercise a day. You don’t have to be training for a marathon – simply take the dog for a quick walk and you’ll improve your cardiac function, your circulation, and your respiratory function.

28. Choose personal care and cleaning products that don’t contain harmful chemicals. When you inhale the toxins into your lungs or absorb them through your skin, they can break down mucosal surfaces, making you more susceptible to germs and viruses.

29. Maintain a healthy body weight.

30. Try to reduce the stress in your life. When we are highly stressed,we’re far more likely to succumb to illness. This is because adrenaline and cortisol, in the long term, can drain your immune system, making it unable to fight off a cold or flu efficiently. Check out this natural product to help with stress and anxiety.

What if you still get sick?

The worst case scenario is that you do, indeed, contract the flu. Despite the hullabaloo, you are probably not going to die, be hospitalized, or suffer horrific permanent damage from a bout of the flu. People get sick, but death from the seasonal flu is rare.  This manufactured panic over flu prevention is agenda-based.  Big Pharma wants money and Big Government wants control. Last year, Jon Rappoport wrote:

It’s always interesting when official agencies’ statistics come back to bite them. Hard.

In December of 2005, the British Medical Journal (BMJ online) published a shocking report by Peter Dosh, which created tremors through the halls of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), where “the experts” used to tell the press that 36,000 people in the US die every year from the flu.

Here is a quote from Doshi’s report:

“[According to CDC statistics], ‘influenza and pneumonia’ took 62,034 lives in 2001—61,777 of which were attributable to pneumonia and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was the flu virus positively identified.”

You might want to chew on that sentence for a while.

You see, the CDC has created one overall category that combines both flu and pneumonia deaths. Why do they do this? Because they disingenuously assume that the pneumonia deaths are complications stemming from the flu.

This is an absurd assumption. Pneumonia has a number of causes.

But even worse, in all the 2001 flu and pneumonia deaths, only 18 revealed the presence of an influenza virus. (source)

18 deaths in a year. Does such a low risk truly warrant the much higher risk of having mercury, ammonia,aluminum, MSG, and formaldehyde jabbed into your body?

I don’t believe that all health care professionals and flu-shot advocates have ill-intent.  I think that many of them have just sipped the mainstream media Kool-aid – the tale-spinners of Big Pharma have slipped in just enough truth to make their theories believable.  Most people are deep-down decent and have difficulty believing that such a perverse money/power agenda could exist.

I’ll take the risk of illness that my healthy immune system can fight off over the risk of being forcibly inoculated with whatever toxins the creators of these vaccines choose to include.  I’ll use my little arsenal of home remedies like elderberry extract, and come through it without the risk of long-term side effects that have yet to be discovered (or at least, have yet to be made public).

Resources:

Sambucol Original Liquid Black Elderberry 7.8 fl.oz

Organic Multi Vitamin 60 Tablets

Nutrigold Vitamin D3 5000 IU, 360 Mini Softgels (GMO-free, Preservative-free, Soy-free, USP Grade Natural Vitamin D in Organic Olive Oil)

Clarocet® NRI: Fast-acting Clarocet® NRI Immediate Response CapsulesTM for nervous tension and occasional anxiety caused by everyday stress

Viva Labs Premium Non-GMO Vitamin-C with Bioflavonoids and Rose Hips, 1000 mg, 250 Vegetarian Capsules

Basic Organics Zinc Lozenges Cherry – 100 Tablets

Bath & Body Works Pocketbac Grab Bag Bundle Set of (18) Anti-Bacterial Hand Gels & (1) Pocketbac Holders

PURELL Sanitizing Hand Wipes Individually Wrapped 100-ct. Box

Lysol Disinfecting Wipes Value Pack, Lemon and Lime Blossom, 240 Count

Natural Alternative to Vaccination (Natural Health Guide) (Alive Natural Health Guides)

Vaccination Voodoo: What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines

Confessions of a Medical Heretic

Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children

 

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Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

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