Flu shots with enough vitamin D3 are over 95% effective....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 10-10-2013

Are you someone who hasn't gotten your flu shot yet or believe them ineffective? 

If so, check this out!

1.  In the Health section of yesterday’s, Wednesday, 10-9-2013, San Francisco Chronicle, Dr Steven Bratman said several things you should know:

“Influenza is far worse than a cold—it’s a powerful disease, once called the grippe because it can feel like a giant squeezing one’s life out.”  He also says it lasts 10 days. Yikes!

“….the vaccine is approximately 95% effective against the strains of influenza it is engineered to prevent….”

He does note that other strains of the flu and flu-like bad colds are not prevented but says just with the flu shot for the strains that ARE likely to show up, getting the flu shot gives you a total of about 50% protection. 

So people who get flu shots cut their risk of being that sick this flu season in HALF!

He saw the people on TV who said otherwise and was surprised given what he knows.

He is willing to check what he knows.  Good doctor!

“Here’s what he said:  “I have a background in medical research, and am fully onboard with the need for skepticism toward claims by pharmaceutical companies. So I researched the evidence on flu vaccine, and….”

It does not prevent other strains of the flu at all well and does not prevent flu-like colds. And in people over 65 who have lowered immune systems it is far less effective than 95%.

However he notes that this year there is a high dose flu shot that is expected to make the flu shot more effective for people over 65 who have lowered immune systems

He also found the 95% rate for strains covered by the shot for everyone else was accurate.

2.  And, there is even better news!

The true optimum intake of vitamin D3 for best health results is consistently 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day according to the research on many health conditions.  And, if you take vitamin D3 and NOT D2, taking up to 10,000 a day of vitamin D3 on a daily basis has tested to be harm free.  (Life guards in the summer make over 15 to 20,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 from sun exposure with no reported side effects.)

Why is that important?

Taking 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 has been found to increase the chances your immune system is working well enough that you get these several key benefits.

a)  Any vaccine you get including the flu vaccine is much more likely to work!

So, getting the flu shot and taking 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 really makes it likely to protect you.

b) Your immune system is boosted enough you may be as much as 50% less likely to get the other strains of the flu and flu-like bad colds!

c)  Research from Scandinavia found that in a dangerous flu epidemic there the people who died from it directly were uniformly very low in their blood levels of vitamin D3.

Thus, it looks very, very likely that people who are taking 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 are both less likely to get that kind of flu and far less likely to die from it.

d)  Most people who die during the flu season after getting the flu do NOT die from the flu.  Hardly any do in fact.  The people who do die do so from the pneumonia they got as a complication.

And, taking 3,000 to 5,000 iu of vitamin D3 a day and getting the pneumonia vaccine makes getting that kind of flu quite unlikely.

Getting the vaccine is more likely to cause the protection if you also take the vitamin D3.  The protection is more likely to be effective.  And, you are far less likely to get the kinds of pneumonia not covered by the vaccine or to die from any pneumonia you get.

We posted on this early in the fall when it looked like the flu season was early this year.

Now is the time most places that give the flu shots are finally open for business and the flu season begins to be higher and higher risk.

So if you haven’t gotten this year’s flu shot or ever gotten the pneumonia vaccine and haven’t yet been protecting your health with 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3, you likely will be far less likely to be sick and even more less likely to die if you do those things!