It’s time for Thanksgiving and I must say I’m grateful for Canada’s Healthcare system. There’s however much room for improvement…
One area which is -too slowly as with everything in our medical system- on its way to change is the push for flu shots. It is completely irrational for a medical system that prides itself on ‘evidence’ to have ignored conclusions such as this:
“Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. There is no evidence that they affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission”(Jefferson et al., 2010).
And author’s WARNINGS such as this:
“The review showed that reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies” (Jefferson et al., 2010).
Trouble is, although it’s a great security blanket for some, the false sense of security it provides can be very dangerous also! What studies have found is that during mismatched seasons, your body is actually less capable of fighting that seasons flu when you’ve been vaccinated against another strain! So, no matter how you slice you, not only is there no guarantee that the flu vaccine can protect you against the flu, you are actually worse off having had the flu vaccine during a mismatch season -and of course there’s no knowing we’re having a ‘mismatch’ season until after the passing of the flu season!
Naturopathic Medicine is about making informed decisions. As your medical adviser it is my duty to give you all the information required for you to make the decisions that affect your health and well-being. It’s about your health being in YOUR control. Unless of course you prefer others making decisions regarding your health in which case Naturopathic Medicine clearly is not your cup of tea anyways.
Respectfully Yours in Health,
Dr. Negin Misaghi, ND
Reference:
Jefferson T, Di Pietrantonj C, Rivetti A, et al. Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010(7):001269
[…] Taking all this into consideration, are the elderly and immune compromised individuals in a better position overall having had the flu vaccine? Firstly, the vaccine doesn’t work as well in immune compromised individuals and so for an immune compromised individual to get the vaccine during a mis-match season, I believe they are much worse off than not having received the vaccine since their immune system is now less capable of dealing with any virus not contained in the vaccine. I don’t believe we need a PhD in actuarial science to tell us which risk is worth taking. I’d rather have my system deal with the flu with its full strength than to take the chance of having the flu and a less capable immune system. For more information on the true protection of the flu shot, visit my blog here. […]