Colds and Influenza

Shortage of Influenza Vaccine

Are you concerned about the ramifications of the flu vaccine shortage for you and your family? If so, read on.Influenza viruses (strains A, B and C) are members of the Orthomyxovirus family. They are encapsulated viruses; i.e., they are covered with a lipid (fatty) coating.

This is exciting, because it means the virus is accessible to treatment utilizing high quality St. John’s Wort (SJW). Several studies have been done on a variety of encapsulated viruses, including herpes simples virus types 1 and 2, parainfluenza virus, vaccinia virus, cytomegalovirus and several retroviruses, including HIV (see the St John’s Wort article on my blog for references). Non-encapsulated viruses or “naked” viruses were also studied for comparison purposes. SJW was a potent anti-viral agent across a variety of encapsulated virus families, but showed no activity against naked viruses.

As you may be aware, a vaccine must be specific to each organism. With influenza virus this represents quite a challenge, because there is no way to know which strain will circulate in the coming year. Since it takes many months to cultivate the vaccine, authorities make an “educated guess” each year as to which strains to grow to produce the vaccine.

By contrast, SJW is active against all encapsulated viruses by a variety of biochemical mechanisms. Since it is active against ALL encapsulated viruses, the added plus is that you and your family will find it valuable for West Nile Virus, the ENTIRE Herpes family (including shingles, chickenpox, Epstein Barr and oral and genital herpes), hepatitis B (but not A), Rubella (i.e., German measles), respiratory syncytial disease, measles, parainfluenza, and rabies. That’s a lot of bang for your buck!! And, without any of the potential side effects of the flu vaccine.

Side effects, you say? What might those be? Well, they include Guillan-Barre` Syndrome, which is a demylinating disease (it strips your nerves of their coating, making them non-functional) of the peripheral nervous system. This means you only become paralyzed and stop breathing! If diagnosed in time, you can survive with respiratory support until your nerves recover. This can take several months to more than a year. Merck Manual

To me, of more concern is the study that analyzed a decade of influenza vaccine recipients and found that a person who had received 5 consecutive flu shots between 1970 and 1980 had a ten-fold increase in the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease, compared to those getting no shots. (National Vaccine Information Center, Sept 1997). This statistic is frightening, because of its implications for quality of life. And, the target population for flu vaccine is the very young and the elderly! If you choose to use SJW, the prophylactic dose is 2 per day. If for some reason, you develop a mild case of the illness, the dose increases to 2, three times per day. (These are adult doses; children’s doses need to be adjusted based upon body weight.)

The only SJW I recommend is high quality, pharmaceutical grade SJW produced by Medi-Herb (an Australian company which is regulated under pharmaceutical manufacturing requirements). Quality is critical, since the level of hypericin and pseudohypericin are key, and maintaining the phytochemical integrity of the whole plant is a necessity. These active ingredients degrade on store shelves. In an independent analysis of 3 products (all of which were certified to contain 0.3% hypericin}, the products were shown to be widely variant with one product 25% below label claims.

Medi-Herb St. John’s Wort can be obtained from health care practitioners who stock Standard Process products, including chiropractors, accupuncturists and veterinarians. You can contact my clinic, and we can ship it to you with a credit card order.

Does this apply to you? If so, see our information on Consultations.

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