Treating the Flu Naturally

Okay, folks. It’s November.  I hope you are well, and I hope you stay that way!

I feel fairly safe in saying that by now, all of us have been offered a flu shot; many of us have been pressured, and hopefully few of us have succumbed to that pressure.  If you have been reading the articles here on the VaxTruth website, you will know that we do not believe getting a flu shot is a good thing.  If you haven’t read the articles, I invite you to do so. My colleague Megan Pond has done a wonderful job of researching and reporting the facts about flu vaccines.  Here are a couple of articles I recommend:  The Flu Vaccine:  What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You (Or Probably Doesn’t Even Know), and Vaccine Ingredients:  A Comprehensive Guide.

The fact remains that every year a high percentage of people will get the flu.  For most people that means a few days in bed with some pretty miserable symptoms:  coughing, sneezing, runny nose, headache, fever, and generally feeling yucky.  Obviously, getting the flu is not a pleasant thing, and if you can take steps to minimize the chances of getting sick, you would most likely want to do so, right?

A couple of years ago we had what was the worst case of media hype regarding the flu that I have ever seen.  It was the fall of 2009 and “Swine Flu” or H1N1 was predicted to be a huge killer of millions of people across the globe.  People were literally walking around wearing face masks and panicking over the thought of vaccine shortages.  What we were hearing, especially in the early stages of the media blitz was that H1N1 was a much more virulent strain of flu than what we are used to.  There were predictions that the death toll from the 2009 H1N1 outbreak could rival or even exceed the flu pandemic of 1918, which is estimated to have killed between 50 and 100 million people across the globe.

Generally, those people who are most at risk of serious complications from the flu are the elderly; folks over the age of 65.  What made H1N1 so scary was that this flu was a killer of young adults and children. It seemed that the healthier a person was, the more at risk they were of dying from the dreaded “Swine flu.”  The result of the dire warnings we received was that vaccine rates increased drastically, with much greater numbers of people getting the flu vaccine.  Call me cynical, but I believe this was exactly the reason for the entire media scare.  However, that is not the point of this article.  The point of this is to help you to know what you can do to prevent the flu, and what you can do to lessen your symptoms, if you do get sick.  Now, since I am not a doctor, I have to tell you that this is not medical advice.  You will need to contact your physician for that.  I am a mother, and I am a researcher. I am also a biomedical consultant and have been reading and researching not only about vaccines, but about natural remedies and ways to improve overall health for many years.  I had the opportunity to put what I have learned into action in the fall of 2009, when my youngest child contracted H1N1.  The rest of this article is actually a reposting of my experience when Leah got sick.  Again, this is not medical advice.  This is our family’s personal experience.  I hope you find some information here that will help you feel confident in your ability to treat flu symptoms without resorting to injecting your kids with toxins.

Here’s the post, originally written in the fall of 2009:

My nine year-old has been sick with the flu.

Leah came home on Tuesday with a cough and fever. She spent Tuesday night and Wednesday in bed – sleeping, watching TV, eating popsicles and crackers, and occasionally blowing her nose and coughing.  I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday checking her fever every 30 – 60 minutes (round the clock), administering supplements, running up and down the stairs with 7-up, popsicles, crackers, books, paper and colored pencils.  I also spent every waking moment in fear, hoping I was right about what I was doing, and praying that her fever wouldn’t spike and we wouldn’t have to go to the hospital.

Thankfully, Leah has had a mild case of the flu (which is what most people experience), and today her fever is gone.  It never got above 102 degrees, so I never gave anything to reduce the fever (which probably has something to do with why she is doing so well now).  I did give her several things to help modulate her immune system, and to help her fight off the infection.  Call me conceited (please don’t) but I believe the steps I have taken with Leah have really made a difference, and I would like to share them with others.

As a side note, yesterday afternoon I made a quick trip to the health food store to pick up some Turmeric (curcumin) and Colloidal Silver.  I think my friend, the owner of the store, was surprised to see me.  A few weeks ago I received an email from her asking if I had fallen off the face of the planet.  I explained to my friend the reason I haven’t been in is because when I first heard about the “Swine Flu” in the spring of this year, I spent more than $400 stocking up on everything I thought I might possibly need to fend of the virus.   Because I wanted to be sure I was prepared for any and all outcomes, I overspent.  The things I bought, we have since used for other purposes, so the money wasn’t wasted, but as it turned out, we didn’t really need it all for the “horrific flu.”  A partial list of what I bought includes Red Marine Algae, Turmeric, Olive Leaf Extract, Kyolic Garlic, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Oscillococcinum, Zinc, D3, Vitamin C, Colloidal Silver, ViraStop, Ibuprofen, and Fish Oil.  For those who are well-versed in the language of supplements, you will see some overlap here.  Many of these things are natural anti-biotics and anti-virals.  Others are anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatories and fever-reducing agents.  One thing I didn’t buy in preparation for the 2009 H1N1 flu was black elderberry.  Rest assured, I have it on hand now and will have it on hand from now on.

I am well aware that not everyone can afford to shell out $400 on supplements to fight the flu.  I can’t afford it either, but at the time, I was scared.  I overspent out of fear.  As it turned out, we only needed a fraction of the things I purchased to sucessfully fight the dreaded H1N1 flu that Leah caught (from her classmates who received the flu-mist and then came to school, shedding the live virus).

The things we actually used were Fish Oil (anti-inflammatory for aches and pains), Vitamin C (anti-oxidant), Vitamin D3 (acts as a hormone to balance the immune system), Virastop (an enzyme product high in protease to break down the outer protein shell of the virus), Colloidal Silver (excellent anti-viral & anti-bacterial agent), and Oscillococcinum (homeopathic flu remedy).

I have been giving (and taking) vitamin D3 for prevention (2,500 iu daily for my kids and 5,000 iu daily for me).  We also take fish oil daily (1-2 grams).  When Leah got sick, I increased her D3 to 20,000 iu/day (for adults, the recommendation is up to 50,000 iu/day for 3 days).  I gave 2 grams (2,000 mg.) of fish oil and 2 grams (2,000 mg.) of vitamin C, in divided doses (morning and night).  I gave 1 capsule of Virastop (from Enzymedica) 3x/day on an empty stomach.  I gave Oscillococcinum (available at Walmart or CVS) 3x/day, and a squirt of colloidal silver 2x/day.

On a shoestring budget, the first thing I would buy is Vitamin D3.  If you don’t have a shoestring budget but know someone who does, buy a bottle and give it to them.  We’re all in this together.

Final words:
Purchasing enough supplements to cover every possible scenario during the flu season: $400.
Cost of Vitamin D3, Fish Oil, Vitamin C, Oscillococcinum, ViraStop, and Colloidal Silver: $95.
Cost of buying a bottle of D3 for your neighbor who can’t afford it: $10.
Treating the flu without worrying about Mercury or Squalene from vaccinations:  Priceless.