About that Swine Flu “National Emergency”

The 0! has declared that we have a swine flu emergency. How sincere is he about the dangers of swine flu?

October 8, 2009
First Daughters Not Vaccinated Against H1N1

President Obama’s school age daughters have not been vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the vaccine is not available to them based on their risk.

The Centers for Disease Control recommend that children ages 6 months through 18 years of age receive a vaccination against the H1N1 flu virus. At this time only children with chronic medical conditions are receiving the vaccination because their immune system is not strong enough to fight off the strain. The CDC also says a regular seasonal flu shot does not protect against the virus.

How about a more common sense approach to H1N1 than running around crying that the sky is falling?

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps not fully highlighted in most official communications – can be practiced:

*Frequent hand-washing.
*“Hands-off-the-face” approach except to eat, bathe, etc.
*Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected person. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
*Clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water, swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.
*Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C, or Vitamin C tablets that contain Zinc to boost absorption.
*Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive.
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Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee Hospital, Tata Memorial etc. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

Nah. All that is just too much work. Better to stand in line for a few hours waiting to (maybe) get a flu shot that has a chance of suffering Guillain-Barre syndrome or other side effects, right?

I’ll go with the salt water and Vitamin C, thank you. (Add D3 and even crock-fermented saurkraut for even more protection).