It's Getting To Be That Time Again

This time of the year I get asked quite frequently, during my patient's visits, my thoughts about getting "flu shots".  I always respond that whether to get one or not is a personal decision but that I will give them my personal opinion.

Personally, my wife and I have never taken a "flu shot" simply because I have never seen convincing evidence that the benefits out weight the potential side effects.  It now seems that The Cochrane Collaboration, an international network of people from over 100 countries that reveiw studies and public policies to help healthcare providers, policy-makers, patients, their advocates and carers, make well-informed decisions about health care, may have taken a similar view.

An online summary published in July of 2010 reviewed 40 influenza vaccine trials of over 70,000 people and found that they are statistically much less effective than we are generally told.  Their findings indicate that in ideal situations (where the vaccine exactly matches the infecting viral strain) that 33 healthy adults would need to be vaccinated to see a prevention of 1 case of influenza.   More typically, in average conditions (only a partial match of virus and vaccine) 100 healthy adults would need to be vaccinated to see a prevention of 1 case of influenza.  The summary also reported that immunization did not affect the number of people hospitalized or working days lost.  The summary did find that there was about 1 in 1 million doses occurrence of Guillian-Barré syndrome (a major neurological condition leading to paralysis).  Is that an acceptable trade off?   

The problem with flu vaccine effectiveness is that there are over 200 viruses that can cause influenza and influenza-like illness.  At best, vaccines might be effective against only influenza A and B, which represent only about 10% of all circulating viruses. Each year, the World Health Organization, out of a shear guesstimation,  recommends which viral strains should be included in vaccinations for the forthcoming season.

 The summary notes that the reported "results may be an optimistic estimate because company-sponsored influenza vaccines trials tend to produce results favorable to their products and some of the evidence comes from trials carried out in ideal viral circulation and matching conditions and because the harms (adverse reaction) evidence base is limited."  It also stated that studies funded from public sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favorable to the vaccines.   From my point of view the ineffectiveness of vaccines is a small concern.  The majority of my objection is the unknown, long term effects of introducing all the foreign, often otherwise toxic chemicals and particulates into the body by way of the vaccine.  One of my favorite, satirical videos on the subject is this one.

So, what does all this mean?  What should a person do if they want to avoid unnecessary vaccines?  We recommend to our patients that they do what they can to destress the systems and enhance the functions of the body.  By utilizing chiropractic adjustments, healthy eating, and sufficient rest you can help fortify the body's immune response to help ward off viral and bacterial infections and if you do develop symptoms typically they will tend to be shorter lived in a well adjusted individual.   If you should develop a full blown episode of flu-like symptoms my family and many of our patients utilize natural homeopathic formulas, nutritional and herbal preparations to build up the body's immune response.

Interested in improving your health status?  Contact our office at drheller@dcbetterhealth.com.

For your better health,

Dr. Heller