Last night as I was flipping around the channels I ran across Larry King on CNN talking to Dr Andrew Weil about health and specifically about the Swine Flu.

For anyone that has not seen or heard Dr Weil, he is a very interesting guy. He is not a big fan of drug companies, is really interested in alternative medicines and therapies and has the research to prove his point. And he really has the hippy look to him.

Anyway Dr Weil mentioned that Astragalus is available in health food stores as a capsule and that he would be taking it starting soon to avoid the Swine Flu (H1N1). Also he was very clear that to avoid any flu that you should do the following:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after using it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• If you do get the flu (or any contagious illness, for that matter), stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Well the flu season is about to get started and this year we have a swine flu (also known as H1N1) instead of just regular flu to deal with. A recent story that hit that news is that less than half of Canadians say that the care about getting a swine flu shot and this kind of lack of interest is making the Center for Disease Control and other groups nervous about the uptake of the flu shot this year.

Will you be getting a flu shot?

The other story that hit the news in support of this is the head of the CDC, Thomas Frieden, saying that he will be getting his kids immunized this year (no info as to whether he has done this in the past) and is telling people on the news shows this morning that he is very nervous in the amount of swine flu with many cases of flu showing up already.

The stats over that last year seem to show that Swine Flu is most deadly to youngsters. We always look at kids and teens being most susceptible to getting the flu and dying from it. In the past 5 years between 40 and 60% of flu deaths were kids between 5 and 17 years old but this past year the number grew to 80%

Human Swine Flu Vaccine Testing?

I have been hearing rumors lately that the swine flu vaccine has not been tested on humans but this is absolutely not true GlaxoSmithKline which is the creator of the vaccine being used has started and continues to test the vaccine starting in August (last month)

This is a very serious health issue that will be coming at us fast. I know that the school that my kids go to has already been telling parents that they have a plan for if and when there is an outbreak of swine flu so please add your comments to this post and email this post to anyone that you know that may be interested or needs info on Swine Flu (H1N1) this fall

Well I am not sure how big a sample group they had but it seems that the survivors of the Spanish flu of 1918 are immune to this years Swine Flu Pandemic.

University of Wisconsin researcher Yoshihiro Kawaok has discovered that survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic are immune to the current swine flu pandemic, although they are not necessarily immune to seasonal flu (Associated Press).

This seems to confirm further that the 1918 pandemic and the current swine flu are both anomalies; they are more similar in presentation to each other than either one is to seasonal flu. Read the rest of this entry »

So a few weeks ago there was the whole swinde flu story where we were getting updates hour by hour of the srpead of the flu. Two things happened that bumped it off the newspapers and TV. First not many people died, and secondly there was no new news about the Swine Flu.

This changed this week but only in the background. There are two new stories. First the World Health Organization announced that the spread of Swine Flu has forced the call of this to be a world wide pandemic. This is big news because many countries will now begin to mobilize their central health organizations to start and combat and tighten restirctions to stop the spread of the flu.

Also, there is as you may imagine a race by all of the pharmaceutical companies to come up with a flu vaccine to be tested and of course make that company big bucks as the vaccine gets rolled out around the world. Novartis is apparently first and is ready to test swine flu vaccine. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant has a swine flu vaccine ready for trial as governments step up precautions following the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic.

The nation’s epidemic of new H1N1 flu may have peaked except in New York, New Jersey and New England, a leading federal health expert said Tuesday.

“In the country as a whole, influenza is starting to decrease,” says Ann Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency has tallied 6,764 confirmed or probable cases and 10 deaths nationwide, Schuchat says, more than half of the global total of 12,954 cases reported Tuesday by the World Health Organization. Laboratory testing indicates that the new H1N1 virus — commonly referred to as swine flu— accounts for almost all of the flu virus now circulating nationwide.

Federal health officials haven’t dismissed the possibility that the worst is yet to come. Far from it, Schuchat says, noting that the horrific 1918 flu epidemic, which killed 20 million people in the United States alone, was preceded by a mild “herald” wave of cases in the spring, followed by devastating waves of illness in the fall. Read the rest of this entry »

In these days of Swine Flu and all sorts of other human to human viruses is seems like a lack of physical human contact would be the healthfully responsible thing to do.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has an article today urging people to stop shaking hands.

What do you think?

I heard rumblings about the Swine Flu last week but nothing really to worry about. Yesterday everything changed. I think that weekends create a lot of backlog of news and yesterday all the news was about the flu. My wife is following everything to do with the swine flu and says that she is very thankful that we did not go to Mexico for Spring break (I couldn’t afford to take the whole family anyway). The CDC is reporting today that people should not be going to Mexico City, I am not sure about Mexico resorts but expect we will hear more about that today.

Apparently 40 people have the swine flu in the US and to date no one has died. All the dead I believe are in Mexico

This morning I have heard of some news reports that most of the flu dead in Mexico are between 20 and 50 years old, which if it is true is a staggering number. Most people will recover from a common flu within a couple of weeks but the people most in danger are the very young and very old not people between 20 to 50. Did you know that up to 250,000 people every year worldwide die from the flu? This is not to say that swine flu is not important but the flu itself is a huge health issue worldwide.

That stat aside, one of the big reasons that I have for staying in shape and being fit is to have a strong immune system and to be in top form and healthy all of the time. I may occasionally get sick but I miss most of the colds and flus going on around me. The CDC though has some good info on how to avoid the flu, especially the swine flu. And Med News Today tells us about the treatment of the swine flu.

So in looking around I found a few links to swine flu info and with all the hype right now I am hoping we get a grounding today on how bad this may be and how many people may be affected by it.

I am sure I will be writing more about this but in any case keep yourself safe and out of situations that could get you in contact with the swine flu and make sure that you stay clean and follow the above tips for avoidance.