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Anonymous said...
One of the primary benefits of a mask is that it reminds you not to touch your mouth, nose, and eyes. Any mask will do *that*, and is better than none. Remember to only remove the mask w/gloved or cleaned hands and clean hands after touching it. One can spend a weekend wearing throw-away masks around the house to build the habit of not touching mouth/nose/eyes; practice removing mask w/o contaminating underlying skin.
I bought a colloidal silver travel kit w/nose rinse, throat spray, and drops for the stomach. If I become desperate, I will pour the nose rinse (the one that's just colloidal water) into a spray bottle and try to inhale it into my lungs, along w/using the nose spray. If already coughing, what's a little more fluids? That is my plan D. I am too lazy to make a colloidal silver generator, but w/pure silver & distilled water plus minor electronics supplies, one can generate colloidal silver for emergencies.
My dog requires steroids for an inflammatory condition. If hospitalization is unavailable and desperation requires it, my family may take prednisone to try to tamp down immune response to a flu (odd choice, but it is possibly an immune over-response causing the deaths - although another theory holds that the virus replicates asymptomatically until it reaches a lethal quantity, and then attacks). I am also looking into red rice yeast as an OTC statin that can reduce inflammation and possibly reduce the immune response creating cytochine storm. Not w/o its dangers and I hope to never need home remedies.
Fer, you said you don't know why the flu was milder in No. America - we were not in flu season. It's likely that winter weather - temp. changes, dry indoor air, etc. - makes bodies more susceptible. Our winter solstic, the lowest point in natural Vitamin d production, is 12/21. Yours is June 21. There is evidence that flu peaks around the solstice.
Google why flu peaks in winter for interesting reading. An animal study found that low humidity raised the risk of flu transmission, too. A humidifier might be a reasonable precaution if anyone in your home/office is contagious.
November 4, 2009 7:53 PM
Thanks for bringing Swine flu up again, though careful of some of those self treatments you have in mind. I'd check with a doctor, which most likely will give you Tamiflu if you have flu symphtoms .
People, please check the older Swine Flu posts. As always, its better to learn from the mistakes others make. ( in htis case, your's truly :-) )
Just be well informed, avoid concentrations of people, keep hands sanitized (as in using lots of alcohol gel) Dont be shy about using the respirator if you can't avoid masses of people where swine flu is spreading. No person with guts cares about what others think about the way he looks anyway, so make it a personal challenge if nothing else. Sill, read the older posts regarding the care required when using respirators (it gets hard to breathe after a while!)
Extra care when traveling on public transportation like subways or buses. You touch dirty surfaces and bring that along with you, so keep that hand sanitizer handy.
One thing I did and still do even now is to just use one hand to touch the dirty public transportation surfaces. I use the other one to open that sanitizer and touch other personal items ( if I have to answer my cell phone, for example)
Its just another thing to keep in mind and help avoid catching diseases as much as possible.
FerFAL
6 comments:
This guy is doing SO many things wrong it's not even funny. The only thing he got right is about the masks & humidifier. Colloidal silver kit? A fool was just parted from his money. Steroids for treating a virus? You NEED your immune system active, not suppressed - that's a recipe for a quick death. Rice yeast? Gonna bake rice bread?
People, listening to alternative therapy crackpots can kill you. These people usually have something to sell you and they don't care if you live or die so long as they get your cash. If they're not selling you something they're probably internet attention hounds out to inflate their own egos.
There is no secret worldwide conspiracy to keep you sick. Drug companies are not paying off every doctor in the world. Remember that three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.
Find a doctor you like and follow their advice. It's what they're trained to do.
If you're really worried, wear a mask, use hand sanitizer liberally and remember that everything you touch can harbor virus. Basic hygiene goes a long way. Other than that, just make sure you eat right and get enough rest so your body is prepared & ready.
And find a nice hobby to keep from obsessing about the flu.
Colloidal silver is a scam and is actually very dangerous to your health when taken internally.
The most important thing to remember is most illnesses are facilitated if not caused outright by vitamin deficiency.
The most vital vitamins are vitamin D and C. Your body produces vitamin D naturally, 30 minutes of sun a day can do wonders to ward off the flu. Forget the skin cancer naysayers, you NEED the sun. Get some everyday, because that Vitamin D is critical for your immune system.
Vitamin C will not prevent you from catching the FLU but will help prevent you from dying from it. One of the problems with aspirin when you catch the flu is that it saps your vitamin C reserves which causes scurvy, and increases mortality of the flu. Avoid aspirin, concentrate on limes, grapefruits and other foods rich in absorbic acid (vitamin C).
Finally, yes there IS a conspiracy to keep you sick. Profit drives the medical industry, and that comes from people being sick. I would be very wary of vaccines, know exactly what is in them and what they can do to your body. This is serious folks, educate before you vaccinate. Even if you believe vaccines prevent illnesses, it is in your interest to know exactly what is in them.
As for collodial silver, I don't know much about this, people swear by it. I am suspicious because my general hunch is putting ANY heavy metal in your body can't be good for you (part of why vaccines should be avoided due to the mercury content which is 1000 times more toxic than lead). Same rule applies, educate yourself before you jump.
Ha - Listening to mainstream western medicine crackpots can kill you. These people along with big Pharma usually have something to sell you and they don't care if you live or die so long as they get your cash.
Ever hear of The Love Canal? Cover ups, lies, the whole ugly truth!
Hi, I'm the original commenter. First, my hope is to have a good relationship with a PCP, but, right now, my medical practice kind of rewards useless doctors (i.e., an appointment is 5 minutes, if that's not enough, come back for another $150 waste of time). So far this flu season, we've had about 3,500 flu deaths attributed to swine flu. We're barely into flu season. Doctors won't see you until you're really sick - 100% of flu cases tested are swine flu - and 10% of flu cases that get hospitalized end up dead. And swine flu is nothing so far.
Colloidal silver and prednisone are plan D. Plan A, don't get sick. Plan B, get good medical care.
I've found two interesting theories on killer flu - one is the cytochine storm, which presumes that the body overreacts to a germ, and it's the overreaction that kills you. Plausible, when you consider allergies and asthma - both immune over-reactions. If immune over-reaction is the cause of flu deaths, if professional care is not available, I will treat my family with substances that slow immune response. Prednisone slows immune response without killing it. It's totally counter-intuitive, but slowing the immune system could prevent the tissue damage that goes with a cytochine storm. Prednisone can also cause some nasty long-term adverse effects, so it's plan D. If immune over-response kills, slowing immune response w/prednisone isn't as crazy as it looks at first blush.
A second theory on pandemic flu (the less popular theory) is that pandemic flus multiply quickly, before showing symptoms and generating an immune response. So, when the body sees the flu and responds, it's too late. In this case, an immune assault would be appropriate, even if the body feels okay. This is where, in the absence of medical care, I would go as crazy as inhaling colloidal silver.
These are my last-ditch efforts, and the reason I contemplate them is that the flu has potential to be pretty ugly. If swine flu is mild, then we'll still be due for a recession pandemic (read some history). So far, we're shaping up for a virulent flu season. If you have a doctor who will prescribe by phone, good for you. Seriously. Excellent.
Inflammation is under-studied and under-understood. Inflammation may be a factor in flu deaths (my instinct is that it's a minor factor), but red rice yeast or anti-cholesterol statins can reduce inflammation. The evidence is sketchy, but it all is, and it's interesting reading, if nothing else - google it and make fun of me after some reading, folks.
I don't have a great doctor available by phone. So plan A is lots of hand sanitizer and vigilence, masks if necessary, flu vaccine if it looks safe when it becomes available to me and my family, and vitamin D through flu season.
Bones had some great advice, which could be really dangerous if a cytochine storm is really an auto-immune disorder. If the body is too agressive in countering a foe, it can literally kill you. I don't believe, based on my observations and gut instinct, that nature is trying to kill us. But it is a viable theory for why the cytochine storm happens.
I'm sure I sound like a crackpot when I contemplate therapies based on what is available to me. But my doctor's system is based on profit instead of care, and I can't count on getting a return phone call, let alone an rx, if my family falls ill. We're increasing vitamin D and preparing for the possibility of a desperate, last-ditch effort involving prednisone or colliodal silver. I would not undertake either one if I had a more medically-plausible alternative (and I would call my doctor first, but past experience says I'll get an appointment in 6 weeks).
Yes, we're watching flu statistics. We're carrying hand sanitizer. We're avoiding unnecessary contact. Bones, if I had a good doctor at my disposal, I might follow a different plan D. But I don't have a good doctor in my filofax right now.
There is anecdotal evidence that people who were on statins for cholesterol when hospitalized for bird/swine flu, had a higher survival rate.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-408483/Cholesterol-drugs-beat-bird-flu.html
Red rice yeast is used to make one of the prescription statins on the market. As an OTC food, it's easier to get, but purity/potency isn't guaranteed.
Because bird flu has been around a while and kills in a similar manner to swine flu, I have been researching bird flu along with swine flu.
Scientists have been studying bird flu in case it becomes a pandemic, and bird flu is similar to swine flu in the cytokine storm mechanism. We don't know enough yet, but some folks believe that a strong immune system is a liability in surviving bird/swine flu. That's why these flus kill the healthy young people who usually do well surviving flus. Reducing immune response MIGHT keep the cytokine storm from killing a patient.
Basic hygiene isn't enough to assure immunity - a mask won't protect the eyes, and flu can enter through the eyes as well as mouth and nose. If an infected person sneezes towards you within transmission range, they are basically bombing you with hig-velocity virus. The eyes are an exposed target unless you wear medical-grade goggles.
WRT colloidal silver, yes, it can be dangerous when taken internally on a regular basis, and it may be dangerous if used as a vitamin supplement for immune enhancement. But it is useful as a surface "disinfectant." It's plan D, but if the immune system can't kill the flu w/o damaging the lung tissue, too, then a nasal rinse w/colloidal silver may help wash out some of the virus to give the body a better chance of winning the fight against the flu. Same thing with inhaling it. A sick person coughs a lot and the nose runs - these would tend to eject the colloidal silver before it is absorbed. My idea (plan D) is to use it for surface disinfection on the sinuses and lungs.
Right now, I am focusing on having the things that may become difficult to get but might help w/survival if the flu turns ugly. There just aren't enough hospital beds, antivirals, doctors, breathing machines, etc., to take care of everyone who gets very, very sick if the swine flu gets as bad as the 1918 Spanish flu. Hopefully it won't. But I believe we should be prepared for the slim chance that medical care won't be available if we need it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091012/hl_nm/us_swineflu_sick_1/
If I can get a phone call w/my doctor and the doctor recommends something else, that's what I'll do. But if doctors/nurses get sick and some die, or if some stay home to avoid infection, we'll add a doctor/nurse shortage to potential ICU capacity and respiratory equipment shortage.
http://allnurses.com/pandemic-flu-forum/ecmo-will-we-410682-page9.html
It is paranoia at this point, but the risk - death - is severe enough for me to justify the actions I've taken. I'm not obsessing about the flu, just preparing to protect my family the best I can if the SHTF medically.
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