Immune health depends on eating right, getting enough sleep and exercise, and avoiding environmental toxins and stress. It's almost impossible to avoid environmental toxins because of plastics, automobile emissions, and the overuse of insecticides and pesticides—just to name a few. Sugar and alcohol consumption inhibit proper immune function. And obesity has been linked to decreased immune function, as well.

About 60 years ago, researcher Weston Price, D.D.S., observed a high degree of immunity among native cultures as he traveled to places like Africa, New Zealand, and the Andes Mountains. The indigenous cultures were virtually free of tuberculosis, cancer, dental disease, and arthritis. Price also noticed that the two things these peoples had in common were a diet of whole, unprocessed foods and an active lifestyle.¹

Scientific research has since confirmed Price's observations. Proper immune function relies on good nutrition,² physical activity,³ and emotional health.⁴

Daily nutritional supplementation is your best bet for making sure your nutritional needs are met, as well as supporting your immune health. And during cold and flu season, it's important to take more aggressive measures.

Western medicine promotes vaccines, which contain dead or weakened bacteria, viruses or other materials such as inactive toxins, to stimulate the production of antibodies against a specific pathogen. But as we well know, these vaccines can upset the immune system's balance and produce side effects—which can sometimes be uncomfortable and dangerous.

Fortunately there are a number of safe herbs that enhance overall immunity by stimulating or strengthening the body's own defense mechanisms, without adding stress to your system.

Daily nutritional supplementation is your best bet for making sure your nutritional needs are met, as well as supporting your immune health.

The truth behind flu vaccines

Vaccine sales are increasing and it seems the sky is the limit as to how high sales will go. Global revenues from the sale of vaccines, which was once primarily a commodity market, are expected to reach nearly $10 billion in 2006, up from $5.4 billion in 2001.

Recently, the U.S. government agreed to stockpile $100 million worth of a still-experimental vaccine against the deadly avian flu virus. But are flu vaccines safe … and do they work?

Here are some of the toxins that are typically used in vaccines⁵:

• Thimerosal (a mercury disinfectant/preservative) has been implicated as a possible cause of the rising epidemic of autism in American children. Although it has been eliminated from most vaccinations in the US, it is still included in the flu shot. And according to the World Health organization, it is still widely used in developing countries.
• Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
• Phenol, also known as carbolic acid (this is used as a disinfectant, and/or dye)
• Formaldehyde, a known carcinogenic
• Aluminum, which is associated with seizures and is a carcinogenic in laboratory mice. (It is used as an additive to promote antibody response.) Although it has been linked to Alzheimer's disease, there is no reason to believe it is a direct cause.

Vaccines are also grown and strained through animal or human tissues like monkey kidney tissue, chicken embryo, embryonic guinea pig cells, calf serum, and human diploid cells (the dissected organs of aborted human fetuses as in the case of rubella, hepatitis A, and chickenpox vaccines).

Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 21 shots before age 2, the first—for hepatitis B—coming within hours of birth. Boyd Haley, a professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky contends that if a child in the 1990s got all of the shots, he or she would be exposed to mercury levels of more than 100 times those deemed safe by the EPA.

Drug resistance

According to a report published in the online version of the British journal The Lancet, (Sept. 22) worldwide resistance to drugs used to treat influenza has increased to 12 percent since the mid-1990s. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) in Atlanta screened 7,000 influenza A samples for gene mutations known to build drug resistance. They found that drug resistance increased from 0.4 percent in 1994-1995 to 12.3 percent in 2003-2004. They also found that 61 percent of resistant viruses isolated since 2003 were from people in Asia. Some Asian countries had drug resistance frequencies exceeding 70 percent.

The authors of the study express concern that rising rates of resistance will cause Amantadine and Rimantadine—the drugs typically used to prevent and treat influenza type A—to be ineffective in the event of an influenza pandemic. That, in turn, would make government stockpiles useless. The Lancet also warns that circulating human flu bugs are very quickly becoming resistant to two older-type flu drugs: Symmetrel and Flumadine. The findings "raise concerns" about the widespread use of these drugs, notes Rick Bright, PhD, research scientist at the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, and colleagues.⁶

Tom Jefferson, MD, and colleagues at Cochrane Vaccines Field in Alessandria, Italy, conducted a second study published in the same issue of The Lancet and concluded that flu vaccines are only mildly effective in the elderly, and at best, they help prevent onset of complications.

"In fact, the vaccine doesn't work very well at all," said study author Dr. Jefferson. "Vaccines are being used as an ideological weapon. What you see every year as the flu is caused by 200 or 300 different agents with a vaccine against two of them. That is simply nonsense."⁷

In addition to the bad news about the inefficiency of vaccines, it is likely there is going to be another shortage. During the 2004-05 influenza vaccination campaign, manufacturers distributed approximately 57.1 million doses of vaccine, substantially less than the estimated 83.1 million during the 2003-04 season.

Although drug manufacturers are working hard to produce a vaccine to ward off an avian flu pandemic, we can only guess as to whether the experimental new vaccines will work … and whether there will be enough of them.

Your best bet is to take control of your own health. Don't leave it in the hands of the government and Big Pharma. Do everything you can NOW to strengthen your immune system with potent, yet gentle, proven herbs that have a proven track record and scientific studies to back them up.

Conclusion

The good news is that you now have the information you need to protect yourself and your family from getting sick this winter. Stock up on the immune-enhancing herbs, cut down on sugar consumption, get plenty of rest, and use common sense. If there's a flu epidemic in your neck of the woods, go to the grocery store when there's less likely to be a crowd. Don't go to the movies. Instead, rent videos, etc.

And most importantly, wash your hands frequently!

References

Articles of Interest from Smart Publications Health & Wellness Update

• Kill Germs Fast with Olive Leaf Extract!
• Don’t Catch That Cold or Flu!
• The Many Health Benefits of DHEA Supplementation!