The Skinny on The Flu Shot

A lot of information is floating around out there about whether or not you should get a flu shot, hopefully we can shed some light on what is the best choice for you to make. Today we're going to take a look at some of the research that's out there and hopefully provide you with a fair look at the flu shot debate!

As a chiropractic office, we tend to push people towards more natural care. That is, we would like to give the body a chance to do what it has evolved to do, which is use its own innate ability to fight off infection and build immunity as a defense against intruding pathogens. One of the ways the body does this is by exposure to offending viruses in a natural manner. We need to trust that our body has this ability and provide it with all the tools we can to make that battle as easy as possible. As you know the immune system, like every system in the body, is controlled by the nervous system (here is a basic article on the interaction of the two, from a neuroimmunological point of view), and any impact on it will have an effect on the body's ability to handle and fight off disease. So keeping the spine and nervous system free of interference and misalignment while reducing stress should be paramount in your seasonal battle with the flu.

But why should you avoid the flu shot? Doesn't it help your body fight off the flu?

The short answer is yes, the flu shot injects inactive (dead) viruses into your system, which your body will react to and produce antibodies towards. The long answer is much more complicated, as these things often tend to be. While they are injecting you with a virus, there is no clear indication that the virus you are receiving will be the major strain of virus during that year's flu season. The CDC bases their projections for that year's flu season on their best educated guesses by looking at prevalent strains in different areas of the world that have their flu season before the USA. So at best, it's a guess, and at worst, you're protected against a strain that won't be around that year. On top of that, the flu virus mutates so rapidly, and there are so many different varieties of it that any immunity you happen to build will be useless come the next flu season, which is why doctors insist on you receiving a flu shot every year. The only way to get natural AND PERMANENT immunity is to recover naturally from the flu. Also, to inactivate the virus, the manufacturers kill it with formaldehyde and preserve it with a mercury-based preservative known as thimerosal (although you can request thimerosal-free vaccines now).

Here is a link to a study on vaccination and pregnancy.
Here are the CDC guidelines and a Q & A on the flu shot

So what about the medical model? For those of you that choose to go this route, I encourage you to do all the research you can and not just blindly go with whatever your family doctor tells you to do, which applies to all people that choose to follow the natural route too! You have to make the best decision for your family and your body, and if that means you wish to have a vaccine then by all means do what you feel is right, just make the best decision you can and I'm sure it will be the right one for you.