The FLU vaccine and why I got it this year

Last week I walked into a medical facility and received an Influenza vaccine. Now I know how many of you will react, "A Chiropractor got a Flu shot?", and yes I indeed got my Flu vaccination along with my toddler. If you had asked me two years ago I would have defaulted to my education and said that they weren't necessary, as we are indoctrinated in school that they are unnecessary when the immune system is functioning properly. While I will agree that there is truth to this outlook, I am also married to a Primary Care Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner with a background of the Flu vaccine saves lives, in which there is much truth to as well. So by default my view tends to stay neutral when I'm asked about getting the vaccine and many times I will advise people to do their own research in making their decision. The problem with research these days is many times it is hard to find good solid research and that the public as a whole struggles in discerning what is a good structured scientific research model and what is not. What I mean by this is there are people and groups out there that will find ways or find the results that best match the hypothesis they want, and this can usually be found when dissecting the research itself. While I will not go into detail on what is in a solid structure of a valid research article in this post, I will advise people to find resources that you can easily read to show what kinds of studies are the best. I will say double blind clinical studies tend to be the best when the controls are in order and try to stay away from studies that show correlation without causation or simply articles that try to imply causation, as these tend to be very weak and structured to fit their hypothesis. Remember it is hard for people to remove their own bias in many subjects and this goes with scientific research as well.

For most people that are in the middle ages and healthy, simply supplementing with vitamins, drinking plenty of water, and getting adequate sleep can help prevent you from contracting the virus, but how many people can keep their system boosted like this? I feel as though I do a pretty adequate job of maintaining all of this and still contracted the Flu last year. It was terrible and I ended up missing 2 days of work because of it. I know for some people they have days for this and may welcome a few days off of work, but being a small business owner, missing days due to illness does not fit well into the equation, especially having a toddler in the house and a wife that works full time. So what do I do about this? Can I drink more than the gallon of water I normally drink? Can I take more Magnesium, Zinc, Vitamin C, and Vitamin D? Can I get more sleep? The answer to all of these is possibly, but how much more before I get sick from other reasons associated with too many vitamins? The one thing that I can control is taking a vaccine that helps boost my immune system to fight off any Flu strains and boost my immunity for the strains that may not be in this years vaccine. Simply having immunity to the Flu virus as a whole will boost immunity to all strains of the Flu meaning if your system is down even slightly, the immunity built from the virus should reduce the severity of symptoms if it is contracted.

Now many people will dispute the effectiveness of the vaccine and talk about how it isn't effective and that you should not get it as it has certain chemicals in it that can be harmful. Really boosting the immunity of the virus itself has an effectiveness that can ward off the illness to reduce those days of missing work, or allowing your body to fight it much quicker. As a small business owner it was an easy "business decision" for me to get the vaccine. The way that I perceive it is I would rather spend my time from work with my family doing fun things, not making up for missing days because I was sick and had to miss days from the office. I also want to do my part as to keep myself from getting the Flu so that I can do my part in the prevention of spreading the virus to those that it can be dangerous to, such as the elderly and the young ones. In the business of helping people to feel better, the last thing I want to do is to make someone more ill.

Much of my time is spent wiping snot and food from the face of my toddler, anyone with children will understand this small joy that while right now I feel will be hard to miss, but I'm sure eventually I will. With that being said children in daycare are exposed to a multitude of illnesses, so by vaccinating myself I am further reducing the chances of contracting something, which I am sure to come in contact with. I love my son dearly and I share many things with him, illness of any type is not something I really want to share with him. I feel I am also doing good for him by reducing my chances of even spreading it to him. This I feel is one of my parental duties in helping reduce my sons exposure, even though he is sure to come in contact with it at some point.

One of my final reasons for getting this vaccination is that in 2 weeks my family and I will be leaving the country on a cruise. Spending a week in close quarters with 10 thousand other people is a sure fire way to come in contact with something, and I definitely don't want to be contracting the Flu on vacation or missing days from the office because I fell ill on vacation. I am simply giving myself the best chances of fighting off the flu that I can in order to stay as healthy as possible on my vacation.

I know right now there are some reading this post saying to themselves and effectively wanting to strangle me, thinking to themselves, "Does he have any idea what is in those vaccines?". The answer to this question is yes, I have researched this topic in depth so I could make the best decision for my family and for myself. I am aware that there is Formaldehyde in the vaccine in order to kill other viruses and reduce the effect of toxins during the manufacturing process, I am also aware that your body produces small amounts of Formaldehyde as defense mechanisms and I probably shouldn't mention there are a long list of foods that also contain Formaldehyde at a higher quantity than the flu vaccine. (I'm sure I just opened multiple web browsers and a whole new can of worms with that one). My point being that the quantity in the vaccine is going to be a very small dose and one that will be eliminated quickly.

Yes I know about the Thimerosal, which is only in multi-dose vaccines so if you are worried about this then maybe doing get a multi-dose vaccine, but this is a compound also in a tiny dose and this is a version of a mercury compound that is more easily removed from the body than other versions of mercury. This particular version of ethylmercury is much more easily removed from the body than methyl mercury, the one that you get from eating fish or drinking your well water in West Virginia. (I'm afraid another can was opened). The main point being made here is Thimerosal is a small dose of a mercury your body can dispose of.

The last major ingredient that usually raises concern is the Aluminum salts that are used to increase your body's natural immune response to the virus. Without this the vaccine would be useless and would not render a very good response from your body decreasing the effectiveness of the vaccine. Aluminum is also the most abundant metal found in the earths crust and is widely used in foods, deodorants, as well as the packing of foods. Oh yea, its also in your drinking water, good luck avoiding that one. Some people will argue that it is found in certain tumors, but there are also an aggregation of other vitamins and minerals found in those tumors as well (correlation without causation data). Simply put aluminum is every where and if you are trying to avoid it good luck! I have taken steps to reduce it in my life such as not using certain deodorants, cooking on paper and not foil, and using reverse osmosis water filtration in my house, but the damning evidence is still not out yet on aluminum in our systems. Aluminum is also excreted by the kidneys. Some people are trying to tie Aluminum into Alzheimer's Disease, but the overwhelming evidence of this disease still points to inflammation and other factors more so.

Some people may be saying, "The last time I got the flu shot I got the flu." and this is not true. The injected flu vaccine is actually an inactivated vaccine meaning that the virus is dead, so you are not getting the flu after the flu shot. It is usually a coincidence or you caught a different strain of the virus, but you were still likely not as sick as you could have been. The most common theme is that you likely contracted the Rhinovirus and may have mistaken it for the flu. The nasal spray vaccine is an attenuated or live version of the virus, but is not given as frequently. So if you are assuming you could get the flu after receiving the vaccine you are likely mistaken or you just had a run of bad luck.

The truth is there will be many people get the Flu this year, there will be deaths from the virus and there will be lives saved, there will also be people who will go unaffected by it, as this goes on every year. It is important that you make your own decisions that are best for you and the people in your life. As I stated before this was never an issue in my life until my son was born and I became a business owner, now my life has changed and my circumstances are vastly different. If you decide that the Flu shot is not for you, I will suggest that you take other preventative measures in protecting yourself. I too will be taking part in other preventative measures that include:

-- Drinking a minimum of 128oz of water per day

-- Taking approximately 5K IU of vitamin d per day

-- Getting an appropriate amount of sleep 6-9 hrs

-- Regular exercise 15-30mins per day or at least 5 days/week

-- Staying away from large amounts of sugar

Writing this post was not an easy choice and is sure to raise the eyebrows of many people in my profession as well as in the surrounding communities. This is just my opinion of why I chose to get it this year, when in the years past I have not. It feels as if this will be a yearly decision for me to make. This post was not written as medical advice and should not be taken as such, it is simply an article written on my own choice that I made to get the vaccine this year. I am in support of what each and every person chooses to do and in no way will cast any judgement on your independent decisions. I also do not want to start a discussion on this topic and have no real desire to argue these points with anyone.