Exploding Pyrex Hazard
| http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/pyrex.asp
About 5:30 PM there was a loud bang from the oven. Sylvia opened the oven door and the Pyrex dish had shattered into a million pieces. The roast beef (our first in many months) was peppered with small shards of very sharp glass. Normally, I am quick to inform Sylvia she did something stupid. However, this time she was nowhere near the stove when it blew. I shoveled the glass and the now mashed potatoes into a bucket with two putty knives. I then sucked the remains with the shop vac. I let everything cool down and then scrubbed the oven with Simple Green and some hot soapy water. It took over an hour to clean up the goo. Upon completion I ran the oven empty to see if the temperature controller was working OK. I suspected the oven got too hot and the dish simply blew. This was not the case however. The oven came up to temperature and cycled normally. We threw a disgusting frozen pizza in the oven and it cooked OK. I Googled exploding Pyrex dishes and got ten million hits. Exploding Pyrex is very common. Here is the story. A long, long time ago in a country we all know and love was a company named Corning . They made Pyrex dishes. The material they used is called borosilicate glass. This stuff is indestructible. But like everything else, the Bottom Liners had a great idea: sell the technology to another company. The Chinese discovered that using soda lime glass was almost as good as borosilicate glass and a lot cheaper. Today, Wal-Mart is the largest distributor of Pyrex products. Corning not only sold the technology to a company called World Kitchen, they also sold the rights to the original Pyrex logo. Seamless. The consumer will never know. Now it seems people are getting hurt using soda lime Pyrex. We were lucky because the dish broke while the oven was closed and the damage was limited to the oven cavity. Others have been less fortunate. Some dishes explode when they are lifted from the heating rack in the oven with devastating results. Some people are heavily scarred. World Kitchen is in denial. They say that the dishes are another brand, not theirs. Contrary to their denials the victims usually have more than one of these dishes and the Pyrex logo is clearly visible. If you buy a Pyrex dish beware. The label on the front says oven safe, freezer safe, microwave safe. The instructions on the back tell another story. You cannot move a soda lime Pyrex dish from the freezer to the oven and expect it to survive. The fine print goes on and on about what you are not allowed to do with the Pyrex dish. The fine print has prevented World Kitchen from being sued because they have warned the consumer that their Pyrex dishes are junk from the get go. And they are the same price as the original Corning dishes. What a bunch of losers we all are for buying this crap. What to do? If you own borosilicate Pyrex dishes no fear. They have to be more than 25 years old to be sure they are indeed Corning dishes. I am not sure if the old Pyrex dishes have anything stamped in them that indicates they are made by Corning . You may continue to use the soda lime dishes for holding stuff. Just do not attempt to roast or microwave with them as the hazard is very clear. The reason the soda lime dishes let go is that over time they develop micro-cracks. Once a few micro-cracks are present and once some liquid finds its way into the cracks you have the bomb situation. The liquid is like shoving a crowbar in the dish and pulling it apart. Super heated liquids expand rapidly and it is the super heated liquids that force the soda lime glass to shatter into tens of thousands of shards. Since Corning no longer makes Pyrex and Sylvia proudly holds a large collection of the soda lime Pyrex, we decided that one bomb in the kitchen is enough. The Pyrex dishes will go bye-bye in this week’s trash. I do not know what we will use for cake and pie dishes going forward. If you have some suggestions we are listening. I strongly urge you not to use the soda lime Pyrex for the oven, stove top or microwave. The slightest invisible crack is all it takes to have a mess and a possible injury. As to World Kitchen: avoid them and their cheap dishes. In case you are wondering: World Kitchen is not a USA company. [Corning still appears to be making some dishes in the USA - Corelle for instance. If anyone has a way to be SURE that their Pyrex is the old stuff made by Corning, please pass that info on to all. I have boiled water in a Pyrex 2 cup pitcher in the microwave, won't be doing that again.] I also boil water in my Pyrex 2 cup pitcher in the microwave, and I will continue to do so. I do not think we have any of the new stuff made in China. I just checked the side and my 2 cup was made in the USA by Corning. |
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Flu Vaccine Exposed
Flu Vaccine Exposed
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
September 26 2009 | 64,058 views
Studies show that flu vaccines are unsafe and ineffective. This presentation by the Thinktwice
Global Vaccine Institute includes a visual depiction of flu vaccine production — how the flu vaccine
is made and what it contains.
Dr. Mercola”s Comments
Dr. Mercola’s Comments:
Dr. Mercola’s Live in Chicago
The video by Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute offers a good summary of what every person
should know about the seasonal flu vaccine; how it’s made, and its effectiveness.
Signs and Symptoms of Influenza
As most of you probably know, influenza is a contagious viral respiratory infection. Symptoms
include:
*
Fever
*
Chills
*
Runny nose
*
Sore throat
*
Cough
*
Muscle aches
*
Fatigue
*
Decreased appetite
Typically, the condition will improve after two to three days of bed rest, although some
symptoms may persist for about a week.
What many people do NOT know, however, is that death caused directly by the flu virus is very
rare. The vast majority of so-called “flu deaths” are in fact due to bacterial pneumonia – a potential
complication of the flu if your immune system is too weak.
Other complications can include ear- or sinus infections, dehydration, and worsening of chronic
health conditions.
The elderly and people with other pre existing medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or
heart disease, are at higher risk of developing pneumonia after a bout of the flu.
The Flu Vaccine Does Not Prevent the Flu, nor Protect Against the Vast Majority of Flu-Related
Deaths
The conventional treatment for bacterial pneumonia is an antibiotic, not a viral flu drug, so to
think that taking a flu vaccine will prevent death from pneumonia doesn’t really make sense.
“But the vaccine will prevent the flu, which will prevent the possibility of developing pneumonia,”
some might say.
That sounds good in theory, but the statistics simply do not support this assertion.
Because study after study, and master studies that compile the results from several studies to
get a more objective result, keep coming to the same conclusion: Flu vaccines DO NOT WORK, and
in many cases do more harm than good.
In fact, one shocking statistic brought to light in this video is that BEFORE the CDC advocated
vaccinating children under the age of five, the number of children dying from the flu was very low,
and on the decline.
Then, in 2003, just after children aged five and under started getting vaccinated, the number of
flu deaths SKYROCKETED. The death toll was enormous compared to the previous year, when the
flu vaccine was not administered en masse to that age group!
How anyone can consider a strategy that yields a higher death toll to be a “success” is a mystery
to me.
The Problem with Flu Death Statistics
However, as frightening as much of this may sound, it’s important to keep things in perspective.
According to the statistics shown in the video above, more Americans die from asthma, and even
malnutrition each year, than the flu.
Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grossly distort the facts
about flu deaths, making the flu virus seem far more dangerous than is warranted. On the CDC’s
main flu page, they state that about 36,000 people die from the flu in the United States each year.
But if you search a little harder, you can find the actual number of people who died from the flu in
2005 (this is the most recent data that’s available) was 1,806. The remainder was caused by
pneumonia. In 2004, there were just 1,100 actual flu deaths.
The statistics the CDC gives are skewed partly because they classify those dying from
pneumonia as dying from the flu, which is inaccurate.
How is the Flu Vaccine Made?
This is another area that many people do not understand or take into consideration before
getting a seasonal flu shot.
In January or February of each year, health authorities travel to Asia to determine which strains
of the flu are currently active. Based on their findings in Asia, they assume that the same strains of
viruses will spread to the U.S. by fall.
At this point, U.S. vaccine manufacturers start making that season’s flu vaccine, which will
contain the strains found in Asia. However, if the viral strains circulating in the U.S. that season are
not identical to those in Asia, the vaccine you receive is a complete dud.
And to add insult to injury, you’ve just been injected with a laundry list of harmful ingredients.
What’s in the Seasonal Flu Vaccine?
The flu strains selected are cultivated in chick embryos for several weeks before being
inactivated with formaldehyde, which is a known cancer-causing agent. Then they’re preserved
with thimerosal, which is 49 percent mercury by weight.
Even many health care professionals are confused about this and are not aware that the
preservative thimerosal is mercury. As a quick side note, one of my chief writers told me that, “the
doctor’s office told me the vaccine does not contain mercury, just something called thimerosal.”
Please, don’t be fooled by this incredible ignorance. If you have carefully studied this issue there
is a great possibility you may know more than your physician about this topic. Don’t back down if
they tell you something you otherwise know to be true.
According to the CDC, the majority of flu vaccines contain thimerosal. Some contain as much as
25 mcg of mercury per dose. This means that it may contain more than 250 times the
Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for mercury.
By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from
this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children
over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year.
In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other toxic or hazardous ingredients like:
*
Aluminum — a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease
*
Triton X-100 — a detergent
*
Phenol (carbolic acid)
*
Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
*
Betapropiolactone – a disinfectant
*
Nonoxynol – used to kill or stop growth of STDs
*
Octoxinol 9 – a vaginal spermicide
*
Sodium phosphate
How Safe is the Flu Vaccine?
Serious reactions to the flu vaccine include, but are not limited to:
*
Life-threatening allergies to various ingredients
*
Guillain-Barre Syndrome (a severe paralytic disease that is fatal in about 1 in 20 cases)
*
Encephalitis (brain inflammation)
*
Neurological disorders
*
Thrombocytopenia (a serious blood disorder)
How Effective is the Flu Vaccine?
Remember that the potential effectiveness of a flu vaccine is dependent on the ASSUMPTION,
made nearly a year in advance, that Asia’s viral strains will be the ones hitting the U.S. When they
guess wrong, the vaccine is worthless from the very start.
But does that mean they withdraw the flu vaccine when they discover it contains the wrong
strains? NO! They just keep giving it out anyway.
But even if they were to overcome that hurdle and actually select the correct strains, there’s still
no evidence that it does anyone any good to get a flu vaccine.
Study after study comes back showing the same dismal results: the flu vaccines are not an
effective method of prevention of the flu, and they do not save lives. As mentioned earlier, they may
even be responsible for an increased death rate in some groups.
Sometimes determining efficacy is as easy as reading the information coming straight from the
vaccine manufacturer.
How about this quote taken directly from the flu vaccine FLULAVAL’s package insert (which you
likely never see when getting the flu shot) for the 2009-2010 formula:
” FLULAVAL is an influenza virus vaccine indicated for active immunization of adults 18 years
of age and older against influenza disease caused by influenza virus subtypes A and type B
contained in the vaccine. This indication is based on immune response elicited by FLULAVAL, and
there have been no controlled trials demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after
vaccination with FLULAVAL.”
That’s right, NO controlled trials demonstrating ANY decrease in your risk of contracting the flu
at all after vaccination! (It also states that each dose contains a total of 25 mcg of mercury.)
For those of you who are still unconvinced, know that there’s plenty of scientific evidence
available to back up the recommendation to avoid flu vaccines. In addition to studies mentioned in
the video, here are several other examples showing that flu vaccines do not work for any age
group:
*
A 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 2008 study published in the Lancet found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated
with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people.
This supports an earlier study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
*
Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine also
confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia in the elderly,
despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in
1980 to 65 percent now.
*
In 2007, 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.
Last but not least, I think it says a lot that 70 percent of doctors and nurses, and 62 percent of
other health care workers do NOT get the yearly flu shot.
The reasons why they opted to not get vaccinated were:
*
They didn’t believe the vaccine would work
*
They believed their immune systems were strong enough to withstand exposure to the flu
*
They were concerned about side effects
Might Influenza be Little More Than a Symptom of Vitamin D Deficiency?
Vitamin D, “the sunshine vitamin,” may very well be one of the most beneficial vitamins there is
for disease prevention. Unfortunately it’s also one of the vitamins that a vast majority of people
across the world are deficient in due to lack of regular exposure to sunshine.
Published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection in 2006, the hypothesis presented by Dr.
John Cannell and colleagues in the paper Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D raises the possibility
that influenza is a symptom of vitamin D deficiency.
The vitamin D formed when your skin is exposed to sunlight regulates the expression of more
than 2,000 genes throughout your body, including ones that influence your immune system to
attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. Hence, being overwhelmed by the “flu bug” could signal
that your vitamin D levels are too low, allowing the flu virus to overtake your immune system.
At least five studies show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and
25(OH)D levels. That is, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu,
and other respiratory tract infections:
1.
A 2007 study suggests higher vitamin D status enhances your immunity to microbial
infections. They found that subjects with vitamin D deficiency had significantly more days of
absence from work due to respiratory infection than did control subjects.
2.
A 2009 study on vitamin D deficiency in newborns with acute lower respiratory infection
(ALRI) confirmed a strong, positive correlation between newborns’ and mother’s vitamin D levels.
Over 87 percent of all newborns and over 67 percent of all mothers had vitamin D levels lower than
20 ng/ml, which is a severe deficiency state.
Newborns with vitamin D deficiency appear to have an increased risk of developing ALRI, and
since the child’s vitamin D level strongly correlates with its mother’s, the researchers recommend
that all mothers’ optimize their vitamin D levels during pregnancy, especially in the winter months,
to safeguard their baby’s health.
3.
A similar Indian study published in 2004 also reported that vitamin D deficiency in infants
significantly raised their odds ratio for having severe ALRI.
4.
A 2009 analysis of the Third National Health andNutrition Examination Survey examined the
association between vitamin D levelsand recent upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in nearly
19,000 subjects over the age of 12.
Recent URTI was reported by:
*
17 percent of participants with vitamin D levels of 30ng/ml or higher
*
20 percent of participants with vitamin D levels between 10-30 ng/ml.
*
24 percent of participants with vitamin D levels below 10ng/ml
The positive correlation between lower vitamin D levels and increased risk of URTI was
even stronger in individuals with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
5.
Another 2009 report in the journal Pediatric Research stated that infants and children appear
more susceptible to viral rather than bacterial infections when deficient in vitamin D. And that,
based on the available evidence showing a strong connection between vitamin D, infections, and
immune function in children, vitamin D supplementation may be a valuable therapy in pediatric
medicine.
How to Prevent the Flu without Getting a Flu Shot
For most people the flu shot does not make you healthy; it does just the opposite and weakens
your immune system.
If you follow a healthy lifestyle, you will not have to worry about getting the flu. Take it from
me — I’ve never received a flu shot, and I haven’t missed a day of work due to illness in over 20
years. The key steps that I follow to stay flu-free, which I suggest you follow too, include:
*
Get plenty of sunshine, safe tanning bed exposure or supplemental vitamin D3
*
Eat right for your nutritional type, including avoiding sugar
*
Exercise
*
Get adequate sleep
*
Address emotional stress
*
Wash your hands regularly
Related Links:
Do Flu Shots Work? Ask A Vaccine Manufacturer
Prominent Physician Advises Against Flu Shots
U.S. Government Ignores Flu Vaccine DeathFlu Vaccine Exposed
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
September 26 2009 | 64,058 views
Studies show that flu vaccines are unsafe and ineffective. This presentation by the Thinktwice
Global Vaccine Institute includes a visual depiction of flu vaccine production — how the flu vaccine
is made and what it contains.
Dr. Mercola”s Comments
Dr. Mercola’s Comments:
Dr. Mercola’s Live in Chicago
The video by Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute offers a good summary of what every person
should know about the seasonal flu vaccine; how it’s made, and its effectiveness.
Signs and Symptoms of Influenza
As most of you probably know, influenza is a contagious viral respiratory infection. Symptoms
include:
*
Fever
*
Chills
*
Runny nose
*
Sore throat
*
Cough
*
Muscle aches
*
Fatigue
*
Decreased appetite
Typically, the condition will improve after two to three days of bed rest, although some
symptoms may persist for about a week.
What many people do NOT know, however, is that death caused directly by the flu virus is very
rare. The vast majority of so-called “flu deaths” are in fact due to bacterial pneumonia – a potential
complication of the flu if your immune system is too weak.
Other complications can include ear- or sinus infections, dehydration, and worsening of chronic
health conditions.
The elderly and people with other pre existing medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or
heart disease, are at higher risk of developing pneumonia after a bout of the flu.
The Flu Vaccine Does Not Prevent the Flu, nor Protect Against the Vast Majority of Flu-Related
Deaths
The conventional treatment for bacterial pneumonia is an antibiotic, not a viral flu drug, so to
think that taking a flu vaccine will prevent death from pneumonia doesn’t really make sense.
“But the vaccine will prevent the flu, which will prevent the possibility of developing pneumonia,”
some might say.
That sounds good in theory, but the statistics simply do not support this assertion.
Because study after study, and master studies that compile the results from several studies to
get a more objective result, keep coming to the same conclusion: Flu vaccines DO NOT WORK, and
in many cases do more harm than good.
In fact, one shocking statistic brought to light in this video is that BEFORE the CDC advocated
vaccinating children under the age of five, the number of children dying from the flu was very low,
and on the decline.
Then, in 2003, just after children aged five and under started getting vaccinated, the number of
flu deaths SKYROCKETED. The death toll was enormous compared to the previous year, when the
flu vaccine was not administered en masse to that age group!
How anyone can consider a strategy that yields a higher death toll to be a “success” is a mystery
to me.
The Problem with Flu Death Statistics
However, as frightening as much of this may sound, it’s important to keep things in perspective.
According to the statistics shown in the video above, more Americans die from asthma, and even
malnutrition each year, than the flu.
Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grossly distort the facts
about flu deaths, making the flu virus seem far more dangerous than is warranted. On the CDC’s
main flu page, they state that about 36,000 people die from the flu in the United States each year.
But if you search a little harder, you can find the actual number of people who died from the flu in
2005 (this is the most recent data that’s available) was 1,806. The remainder was caused by
pneumonia. In 2004, there were just 1,100 actual flu deaths.
The statistics the CDC gives are skewed partly because they classify those dying from
pneumonia as dying from the flu, which is inaccurate.
How is the Flu Vaccine Made?
This is another area that many people do not understand or take into consideration before
getting a seasonal flu shot.
In January or February of each year, health authorities travel to Asia to determine which strains
of the flu are currently active. Based on their findings in Asia, they assume that the same strains of
viruses will spread to the U.S. by fall.
At this point, U.S. vaccine manufacturers start making that season’s flu vaccine, which will
contain the strains found in Asia. However, if the viral strains circulating in the U.S. that season are
not identical to those in Asia, the vaccine you receive is a complete dud.
And to add insult to injury, you’ve just been injected with a laundry list of harmful ingredients.
What’s in the Seasonal Flu Vaccine?
The flu strains selected are cultivated in chick embryos for several weeks before being
inactivated with formaldehyde, which is a known cancer-causing agent. Then they’re preserved
with thimerosal, which is 49 percent mercury by weight.
Even many health care professionals are confused about this and are not aware that the
preservative thimerosal is mercury. As a quick side note, one of my chief writers told me that, “the
doctor’s office told me the vaccine does not contain mercury, just something called thimerosal.”
Please, don’t be fooled by this incredible ignorance. If you have carefully studied this issue there
is a great possibility you may know more than your physician about this topic. Don’t back down if
they tell you something you otherwise know to be true.
According to the CDC, the majority of flu vaccines contain thimerosal. Some contain as much as
25 mcg of mercury per dose. This means that it may contain more than 250 times the
Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for mercury.
By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from
this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children
over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year.
In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other toxic or hazardous ingredients like:
*
Aluminum — a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease
*
Triton X-100 — a detergent
*
Phenol (carbolic acid)
*
Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
*
Betapropiolactone – a disinfectant
*
Nonoxynol – used to kill or stop growth of STDs
*
Octoxinol 9 – a vaginal spermicide
*
Sodium phosphate
How Safe is the Flu Vaccine?
Serious reactions to the flu vaccine include, but are not limited to:
*
Life-threatening allergies to various ingredients
*
Guillain-Barre Syndrome (a severe paralytic disease that is fatal in about 1 in 20 cases)
*
Encephalitis (brain inflammation)
*
Neurological disorders
*
Thrombocytopenia (a serious blood disorder)
How Effective is the Flu Vaccine?
Remember that the potential effectiveness of a flu vaccine is dependent on the ASSUMPTION,
made nearly a year in advance, that Asia’s viral strains will be the ones hitting the U.S. When they
guess wrong, the vaccine is worthless from the very start.
But does that mean they withdraw the flu vaccine when they discover it contains the wrong
strains? NO! They just keep giving it out anyway.
But even if they were to overcome that hurdle and actually select the correct strains, there’s still
no evidence that it does anyone any good to get a flu vaccine.
Study after study comes back showing the same dismal results: the flu vaccines are not an
effective method of prevention of the flu, and they do not save lives. As mentioned earlier, they may
even be responsible for an increased death rate in some groups.
Sometimes determining efficacy is as easy as reading the information coming straight from the
vaccine manufacturer.
How about this quote taken directly from the flu vaccine FLULAVAL’s package insert (which you
likely never see when getting the flu shot) for the 2009-2010 formula:
” FLULAVAL is an influenza virus vaccine indicated for active immunization of adults 18 years
of age and older against influenza disease caused by influenza virus subtypes A and type B
contained in the vaccine. This indication is based on immune response elicited by FLULAVAL, and
there have been no controlled trials demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after
vaccination with FLULAVAL.”
That’s right, NO controlled trials demonstrating ANY decrease in your risk of contracting the flu
at all after vaccination! (It also states that each dose contains a total of 25 mcg of mercury.)
For those of you who are still unconvinced, know that there’s plenty of scientific evidence
available to back up the recommendation to avoid flu vaccines. In addition to studies mentioned in
the video, here are several other examples showing that flu vaccines do not work for any age
group:
*
A 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 2008 study published in the Lancet found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated
with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people.
This supports an earlier study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
*
Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine also
confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia in the elderly,
despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in
1980 to 65 percent now.
*
In 2007, 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.
Last but not least, I think it says a lot that 70 percent of doctors and nurses, and 62 percent of
other health care workers do NOT get the yearly flu shot.
The reasons why they opted to not get vaccinated were:
*
They didn’t believe the vaccine would work
*
They believed their immune systems were strong enough to withstand exposure to the flu
*
They were concerned about side effects
Might Influenza be Little More Than a Symptom of Vitamin D Deficiency?
Vitamin D, “the sunshine vitamin,” may very well be one of the most beneficial vitamins there is
for disease prevention. Unfortunately it’s also one of the vitamins that a vast majority of people
across the world are deficient in due to lack of regular exposure to sunshine.
Published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection in 2006, the hypothesis presented by Dr.
John Cannell and colleagues in the paper Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D raises the possibility
that influenza is a symptom of vitamin D deficiency.
The vitamin D formed when your skin is exposed to sunlight regulates the expression of more
than 2,000 genes throughout your body, including ones that influence your immune system to
attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. Hence, being overwhelmed by the “flu bug” could signal
that your vitamin D levels are too low, allowing the flu virus to overtake your immune system.
At least five studies show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and
25(OH)D levels. That is, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu,
and other respiratory tract infections:
1.
A 2007 study suggests higher vitamin D status enhances your immunity to microbial
infections. They found that subjects with vitamin D deficiency had significantly more days of
absence from work due to respiratory infection than did control subjects.
2.
A 2009 study on vitamin D deficiency in newborns with acute lower respiratory infection
(ALRI) confirmed a strong, positive correlation between newborns’ and mother’s vitamin D levels.
Over 87 percent of all newborns and over 67 percent of all mothers had vitamin D levels lower than
20 ng/ml, which is a severe deficiency state.
Newborns with vitamin D deficiency appear to have an increased risk of developing ALRI, and
since the child’s vitamin D level strongly correlates with its mother’s, the researchers recommend
that all mothers’ optimize their vitamin D levels during pregnancy, especially in the winter months,
to safeguard their baby’s health.
3.
A similar Indian study published in 2004 also reported that vitamin D deficiency in infants
significantly raised their odds ratio for having severe ALRI.
4.
A 2009 analysis of the Third National Health andNutrition Examination Survey examined the
association between vitamin D levelsand recent upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in nearly
19,000 subjects over the age of 12.
Recent URTI was reported by:
*
17 percent of participants with vitamin D levels of 30ng/ml or higher
*
20 percent of participants with vitamin D levels between 10-30 ng/ml.
*
24 percent of participants with vitamin D levels below 10ng/ml
The positive correlation between lower vitamin D levels and increased risk of URTI was
even stronger in individuals with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
5.
Another 2009 report in the journal Pediatric Research stated that infants and children appear
more susceptible to viral rather than bacterial infections when deficient in vitamin D. And that,
based on the available evidence showing a strong connection between vitamin D, infections, and
immune function in children, vitamin D supplementation may be a valuable therapy in pediatric
medicine.
How to Prevent the Flu without Getting a Flu Shot
For most people the flu shot does not make you healthy; it does just the opposite and weakens
your immune system.
If you follow a healthy lifestyle, you will not have to worry about getting the flu. Take it from
me — I’ve never received a flu shot, and I haven’t missed a day of work due to illness in over 20
years. The key steps that I follow to stay flu-free, which I suggest you follow too, include:
*
Get plenty of sunshine, safe tanning bed exposure or supplemental vitamin D3
*
Eat right for your nutritional type, including avoiding sugar
*
Exercise
*
Get adequate sleep
*
Address emotional stress
*
Wash your hands regularly
Related Links:
Do Flu Shots Work? Ask A Vaccine Manufacturer
Prominent Physician Advises Against Flu Shots
U.S. Government Ignores Flu Vaccine Death
The Kiss of Life
THE KISS of LIFE
She is pregnant and trapped in her burning home;
The firefighter bravely entered the home and saved her from her fire engulfed home.
He carried her out of the house into her front yard, and returned to fight the fire.
When he finally finished putting out the fire, he sat down to catch his breath and rest.
A photographer from a Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper noticed her in the distance staring at the fireman.
She stood up and began walking straight toward the fireman and the photographer wondered what she was going to do.
As he raised his camera she came up to the exhausted fireman and kissed him just as the photographer snapped this photo.
Scroll down for photograph.
And, people say dogs are dumb!!
Random Thoughts and Insights
The following is a guest essay from Morton H. Goldberg, DMD, MD:
To strike…violently or often, to beat out of shape. The dictionary definition of battery doesn’t even begin to describe the effects of fists or metal or missiles on the fragile bones of human face or the soft tissues overlying them. The jaws and face can be easily battered out of shape or beaten into a mass of shapeless pulp. The bones of the mid-face, the upper jaw, cheek, nose and lower edge of the orbits are eggshell thin in places, and when struck violently or repeatedly will shatter, much like Humpty-Dumpty — and they can be just as difficult to put back together again. The skin and muscles of the face, when crushed, will heal by scarring, which may be amenable to repair or revision, but often with a result which, while acceptable elsewhere on the body forever changes the facial appearance or self-image of the patient. Once damanged, nerves, both sensory and motor types, may never fully recover.
In my experience, battered men are commonly those who are assaulted by other men during arguments, muggings, and barroom brawls or drug deals gone awry. Read more
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