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Immunity – What We Know about This Year’s Flu Vaccine & What We Don’t

Every year, as flu season approaches, clinics across the nation begin vaccinating against influenza viruses they ‘suspect’ will have the most common outbreaks. However, even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admit that these are just the viruses they believe will be the most prevalent. In other words, an epidemic could crop up due to another virus not in this year’s vaccination and could take the medical community off guard. Here is what we do know about this year’s flu vaccine even though we don’t know if other ‘bugs’ might be strong enough to cause a global epidemic.

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Influenza Is Worse for Those with Weakened Immune Systems

Although this is not new to this year’s flu season, it is common knowledge that mortality is directly related to people whose immune systems are compromised. This would necessarily include the elderly and very young children. Also, the mortality rate is higher in those who have some sort of major or chronic illness, perhaps because their entire body is on the attack against that disease or condition they are dealing with. Many doctors are advocating that their patients with a weakened immune system should work to bolster their immunity with vitamins and minerals, get plenty of rest and take precautions to avoid being exposed to anyone carrying a flu virus.

Natural Remedies to Reduce Inflammation

There are also natural homeopathic remedies that have proven to improve immunity because they are natural anti-inflammatories. CBD oil is one natural anti-inflammatory known to treat inflammation that is related to Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. It is thought that by improving the body’s response to inflammation the severity of influenza can be reduced if it is contracted. You can find more information on how CBD oil works to reduce inflammation here.

A Direct Correlation between Inflammation and Influenza Mortality Rates

So then, why is a reduction in the body’s inflammatory response significant when staving off the effects of influenza? According to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, inflammation is the main cause of deaths related to influenza. This logically leads to the conclusion that if inflammation can be controlled, the incidences of deaths attributed to flu just might be reduced as well. In the words of the ncbi.nlm.nih.gov website, there is a direct relationship between controlled inflammation in those diagnosed with influenza and survival. In simpler terms, if you can keep inflammation under control you stand a better chance of surviving the flu, even with compromised immunity.

A Summary of What Is Known

What we do know is that this year the CDC expects certain strains to be prevalent such as A/California/7/2009 (H1N1) pdm09-like virus, B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus and the A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus. We also know these are just projections based on what they’ve observed globally in terms of what is present and how those viruses have been mutating, but we don’t know if there are any other potentially deadly bugs out there waiting to strike.

We also know that immunity and inflammatory response are interrelated so it would be wise to safeguard your body from inflammation, and that natural remedies are available which are known to prevent and/or reduce inflammation in the human body. We know that current vaccines are proven to be safe and effective in the prevention of influenza, so together with natural anti-inflammatories they can reduce influenza mortality rates. Flu season is here so take precautions to avoid exposure. Together these things can help protect you and your family from a potentially deadly illness.

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