Flu Shot Pros and Cons
November 20, 2008
I haven’t got a flu shot yet. Until this year, I have always received one–in part because I worked amongst health care professionals.
According to the Government of Canada website, the benefits of the flu shot outweigh the risks:
The flu shot does not contain any live virus;
The flu shot has minimal (if any) negative side effects (soreness at injection site, fever, fatigue, ache);
Getting the flu shot reduces the spread of infection thereby easing the burden on our healthcare system;
Severe allergic reactions to flu shots are rare, but a possible side effect is Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS): An autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system and results in weakness and abnormal sensations. Most patients recover fully and my chance of developing GBS (as a healthy adult with no pre-existing conditions) are about one in a million.
My mother is not happy that I have not yet received the shot. She remembers the 1957 flu epidemic in Britain vividly because a classmate of hers died from the illness. Additionally, she argued, it would do me no harm, it’s free and submitting to an injection helps to protect others.
I’m no expert–any advice?
Photo courtesy of RohitP on Flickr
Entry Filed under: 12 Grain Program, Diet Rehab, Grain of the Week, Health, Uncategorized. Tags: 1957 Flu Epidemic, Canada, Flu Shot, Flu Vaccine, GBS, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, Healthcare, Influenza, Ontario.
5 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
epimetheus | November 20, 2008 at 10:25 pm
If you are a healthy adult, passing up the flu shot isn’t going to put you in mortal danger, but I figure on the chance your immunization protects a more vulnerable person from the flu it’s probably a good idea.
Practically speaking, it won’t do any harm and doesn’t cost anything, and you might even save yourself a few days of misery in February. Unless you like taking genuine sick days… there is some appeal to spending all day in bed during the depths of winter.
2.
Heather @ SGF | November 20, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I haven’t had one in years. I had the flu once back in 2002. I was very sick, but I wasn’t exactly close to death or anything. I thought it was more important for children and elderly. I’m not sure.
3.
Meghan Telpner | November 20, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Every year, laboratory tests conducted across Canada and compiled by Health Canada’s FluWatch, consistently show that the majority of cases of “influenza like illnesses” (ILI) involve pathogens other than the influenza virus. In other words, the influenza virus is NOT the cause of most of the flu like illnesses commonly occurring during flu season.
When it all comes down to it- it is not the germ, it is the terrain. What does that mean? It means that getting sick has absolutely nothing to do with the bug that makes you sick. If you keep your body (the terrain) strong, your immune system strong- you will not get sick.
“Just prior to the time that Pasteur began promoting the “monomorphic” germ theory, a contemporary by the name of Claude Bernard (1813-1878) was developing the theory that the body’s ability to heal was dependent on its general condition or internal environment. Thus disease occurred only when the terrain or internal environment of the body became favorable to disease. ” http://www.thehealthadvantage.com/biologicalterrain.html
And what does the flu vaccine do? It compromises your immune system not only making you susceptible to various flu-like viruses, but also bacterial infections- such as those that cause strep throat for example.
So how do you keep the terrain strong? Healthy diet (whole foods, limited alcohol and sugar, lots of fruits and veggies, regular exercise, proper stress management, and a good amount of sleep. And I will help you do just that!
4.
epimetheus | November 22, 2008 at 1:44 pm
What Meghan says is largely true.
To generalize, there are a trinity of factors which affect the transmission of infectious diseases: a susceptible host, a vector (which in this case is ourselves), and a pathogen. If you can remove any one of those, you will not have disease, but I hasten to say it is more difficult than proper diet and exercise alone.
Keeping yourself healthy is of course a good way to avoid other health problems. People who don’t get enough sleep, lead sedentary lives, or are malnourished are definitely at greater risk off all kinds of bad things. (There is a hypothesis, interestingly, that the lack of vitamin D in winter is responsible for the seasonality of the flu.) A healthy host is a less susceptible host, but not an invincible one.
I want to share this because I think it is neat: The reason we feel sick with the flu is because our bodies marshal the entire fire department to put out a candle. We do quite a lot of damage to ourselves in the process of clearing influenza from the lungs (this might be how the 1918 pandemic was so deadly).
The flu shot gives you antibodies to stop the influenza virus before it can infect your lungs and before your body can go haywire trying to get it out. Once you are infected, you need to go through the misery cause by cytokines (signalling proteins that orchestrate immune response) like muscle ache and fever, before you can get better.
As far as I am aware, no modern vaccines directly increase your risk of other infections. We aren’t talking about ancient polio vaccines manufactured in monkey kidneys.
The flu shot is a special case because influenza isn’t deadly for many people and the vaccine is sometimes manufactured for the wrong strain of flu. For more serious diseases like measles or Hepatitis B you should absolutely be vaccinated. No amount of healthy living can protect you from all infectious diseases and sometimes it isn’t worth the risk.
5.
Marnie | November 28, 2008 at 4:30 pm
If you do not have young children or elderly people in your family, by all means skip the flu shot. If you are perfectly healthy all the time, perhaps you will not get the flu. If you do, it will probably be mild. Unfortunately it will probably not be mild for the young and elderly that you pass it to when you are infectious – can you tell when you are infectious? It’s not always when you have the most severe symptoms. Are you willing to stay home?
Last year they got their predictions wrong and missed one of the major strains of influenza. My husband, who is very healthy, contracted it. It is nasty and lasts a long time and there are after effects. The flu shot is not perfect (no immunization program is), and I really really wish it was thimerosal free, but we’ll be getting it again this year. Kudos to you for taking all info in and trying to make an informed decision.
peace