Why the Flu Vaccine Doesn't Work

Two years ago a study in the British Medical Journal concluded that the effectiveness of annual flu shots has been exaggerated, and that in reality they have little or no effect on influenza campaign objectives, including reducing the number of hospital stays, time off work, and death from influenza and its complications. Other studies, done prior and subsequently, also confirm these findings.

However, preventing flu-related deaths in the elderly has been, and still is, the primary argument for recommending flu shots each year. And, according to the theory of “herd immunity,” a majority of the population must be vaccinated in order to protect the lives of the elderly and other categories of people susceptible to flu-related complications.

However, the flu prevention strategy set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been called into serious question time and again. Another study from 2005, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine also could not find support for the use of flu vaccine to prevent deaths in the elderly. The report highlights that although immunization rates in people over 65 have increased dramatically in the past 20 years, there has not been a consequent decline in flu-related deaths.

Do You Know What the Risks are?

Instead, there is emerging evidence that flu shots cause Alzheimer’s disease, most likely as a result of combining mercury with aluminum and formaldehyde. Mercury in vaccines has also been shown to be a contributing factor in autism. Other serious, and potentially deadly, adverse reactions to the flu vaccine include joint inflammation and arthritis, anaphylactic shock (and other life-threatening allergic reactions), and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralytic autoimmune disease.

And, in the case of Tamiflu, thousands of cases of abnormal behavior, neuropsychiatric problems like convulsions, delirium or delusions, and brain infections, have been reported. (Tamiflu is approved for treatment of uncomplicated influenza A and B in children 1 year of age or older. It is also approved for prevention of influenza in people 13 years or older.)

More Scientific Research Backing Up Recommendation to Avoid Flu Vaccines Like the Plague

For those of you who are still unconvinced, there’s plenty of scientific evidence available to back up the recommendation to avoid flu vaccines – if not for their potentially serious or deadly side effects, then for the simple reason that they don’t work, and don’t offer any real benefit to offset their potential health risks.

A sampling of these studies include:

• A recent study published in the October 2008 issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that vaccinating young children against the flu had no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons. The researchers concluded that "significant influenza vaccine effectiveness could not be demonstrated for any season, age, or setting" examined.
• A study published in the Lancet just two months ago found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people. Vaccination coverage among the elderly increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now, yet there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza or pneumonia.
• That Lancet study supports a similar study done five years ago, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, which concluded that vaccination against pneumonia does not reduce your risk of contracting the disease.
• Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine last month also confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia, despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now.
• Last year, researchers with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institutes of Health published this conclusion in the Lancet Infectious Diseases: “We conclude that frailty selection bias and use of non-specific endpoints such as all-cause mortality have led cohort studies to greatly exaggerate vaccine benefits.”
• A large-scale, systematic review of 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2006, found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo in children. The studies involved 260,000 children, age 6 to 23 months.

For most people, the flu shot does not prevent illness, but actually does the polar opposite--it weakens your immune system and makes you more predisposed to the illness. The people who actually die after contracting the flu do so because they are already sick and have compromised immune systems, and that certainly doesn't have to include you.

In addition to making sure your vitamin D levels are in the optimal range, the following tips are surefire ways to improve the function of your immune system and greatly reduce your chances of getting the flu this winter:

• Get checked by an Upper Cervical Doctor regularly.
• Eat nutritionally dense food and avoid sugar.
• Drink plenty of water and avoid soda.
• Get plenty of sleep.
• Exercise regularly.
• Support yourself during stressful times.

Information taken from Mercola.com

Upper Cervical Care and Your Immune
Our nervous systems are hardwired into our immune organs such as the spleen, thymus, lymph nodes, and bone marrow that produce the body's immune response. Growing evidence has shown that immune function is regulated in part by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. 

An upper cervical misalignment is stressful to the body and can cause changes that lead to a poorly coordinated immune response. Upper Cervical Care has been shown to boost the coordinated responses of the nervous and immune system.

In 1975, Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York's Preventive Medicine Institute and professor in Environmental Health at New York University, began developing scientifically valid ways to estimate individual susceptibility to various chronic diseases.

Pero and his colleagues found strong evidence that an individual's susceptibility to cancer could be determined by measuring the presence of various DNA-repairing enzymes following exposure to carcinogenic or "mutagenic" chemicals. Lack of those enzymes, Pero said, "definitely limits not only your lifespan, but also your ability to resist serious disease consequences."

Pero was also fascinated by the relationship of various hormones with cancer-inducing agents. Since the nervous system regulates hormone balances, he postulated that the nervous system also influences susceptibility to cancer. Along these lines, it is well documented that various kinds of spinal cord injury are associated with a high risk of developing cancer, particularly lymphomas and lymphatic leukemias. This connection led Pero to consider Chiropractic as a potential alternative for reducing the risk of immune breakdown and disease.

Measuring 107 individuals who had received long-term Chiropractic care, Pero's team turned up some surprising findings. The chiropractic patients had a 200 percent greater immune competence than people who had not received chiropractic care, and a 400 percent greater immune competence than people with cancer or serious diseases. Surprisingly, despite the wide range of ages in this study, the immune competence did not show any decline with age - it was uniform for the entire group. Pero concluded, "Chiropractic may optimize whatever genetic abilities you have so that you can fully resist serious disease. I am very excited to see that without chemical intervention this group of patients under chiropractic care did show a very improved response."  Dr. Ronald Pero has published over 160 papers in peer-reviewed journals.