Flu Shot

[Kerry F]

I am curious how many of you get the flu shot and how much you think it helps to keep you from catching the flu.  I have never gotten them and I do seem to catch the flu, although knock on wood, I seem to get lighter cases of it.  I have just always been of the opinion that immunizations, while they have certainly protected against awful diseases back in history, they ultimately weaken the immune system. 

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

And the counterpoint!  Excellent info, Kerry.  Will save that and maybe even try the coconut milk, too!

[Kellie Zollars]

Kerry, your store may be different, but many health food stores have products that don't belong there.  About 15 years ago I had to go on a "mold prevention diet" (such a lovely name, but no yeast, no cheese, no cured meat) and read all sorts of product labels.  I ended up at all the local health food stores trying to find things I could eat.   Obviously things have gotten better 15 years later, but I still check labels now.  Whole Foods is not really as wholesome as they'd like you to believe when you start looking at the labels.  

I found many generic grocery store items have fewer additives.  You do have to try different ones to find the best quality though. We get Safeway brand (either O organic or regular) pinto, black, refried beans, etc., because they have the shortest list of additives - beans and usually only one other ingredient as a preservative.  Yes, I could buy a bag of beans and cook them as needed, but I have to have realistic expectations about what I can and cannot do on a court reporter's schedule.  I also have to qualify that we do have many items in the pantry that have a load of ingredients I try not to look at because they just taste so good.  There are still trans fats in so many of the packaged things my family likes to eat, but we are trying harder to find healthier alternatives.

  

[Emily Erickson-Sandstrom]

Putting grapefruit seed extract in liquid soap kills virus, yeast, mold, fungus and anaerobic bacteria, as well as bacteria, is cheaper, microbes don't become immune.  Brushing your teeth with it (Bottle tells you not to put it undiluted on gums.) will slowly, over time, leach infection out of gums.  Did for me, anyway. 

Yes, I handle ginger that way too.  Garlic loses efficacy from the time it is peeled, and gains it as it is beaten up.  (Kid you not.  Years ago Scientific American whacked garlic, and ran each new whacked sample through a spectrophometer to come up with a diagram of the molecule showing the ratio of allicin.  Each whack, more allicin.)  Don't know whether freezing would preserve the active ingredient's ratio.

[Judy]

Even though Kaiser keeps trying to push that darn shot on me, I refuse.  I'd probably be in the minority of cases that gets the flu from the flu shot.

[Patricia Babits]

I'm gotten the shot a few times and not gotten it all the other years.  I've never had the flu and the kids haven't either.

I'm trying to get the shot this year because I'm scared to not get it for some reason. I can't find one for my six year old, though, so none of us have gotten one. My doctor doesn't have any, all of the pharmacies require kids to be at least 9, and none of the pediatricians I've called are willing to share.  So frustrating, but maybe it's a sign we're not supposed to get the shot this year.

[Kellie Zollars]

Just a warning this year's flu is particularly nasty.  My healthy 13 year old son got it the week before Thanksgiving and ended up with walking pneumonia.  My husband and I got it the day after Thanksgiving, spent two days in bed, then felt really lousy for at least two weeks after that.  We all ended up at the doctors' offices with a course of antibiotics or other medications, and follow-up appointments a week later.  The cough lasted another month!  Wash your hands a lot is the best advice the doctors could give.   And the worst part is I made my daughter get a flu shot two weeks before she got sick.  My husband got the flu shot at work quite a few weeks before.  It really spread through our area because at least one person was sick at every depo I went to in December.   

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

I carry face masks for that scenario.  Haven't encountered it since I bought the masks but I'm ready.

[Laurie H.]

I really have to question if the flu is more nasty this year, or if this is just a sign that the general public's immunity is starting to fail.  I mean, look at all the people who run to the doc for every little sniffle, ache, or possible problem and demand a medication to treat it.  Not to mention the group who has a bottle of hand cleaner in their purse, their car, every room in the house.  It's going to catch up with them eventually, either in weakened immunity because the immune system is not allowed to work, ever, or in stronger "bugs."

[Kerry F]

I do think the flu shot is necessary for young kids in school, maybe, depending on their overall health/immune system and definitely for the elderly at risk for pneumonia.  I never do get colds and flus in the chest, just bad headaches with it.

[Kellie Zollars]

Laurie, you may be right.  My mom stuck my youngest sister in the bathtub with my other sister and I when we had the measles, etc., so she would get whatever it was so she wouldn't get it as an adult.  Of course she still didn't get it - and never gets sick as an adult either.  (Yes, all three of us fit in the bathtub because we are very close in age)   

I have had the flu this bad before, but the cough never lasted a month afterward.  And it has been many years since I've had to take a week off of work for a cold/flu virus. 

Years ago I stopped drinking from the law firms' ceramic coffee cups and glasses (used disposable if available) and noticed a huge difference in how many colds I got each year.  I have a terrible immune system and get almost everything that goes around.   I went to the doctor with my son after he'd been sick for two weeks because although he was running around as usual he had a horrible hacking cough that would not go away and he would cough constantly when trying to sleep.  I made an appointment for me a week after that because I was still coughing way too much at depos, couldn't sleep, and was worried I might have walking pneumonia too - no time for that right before Christmas ;).  Husband has asthma - he went to the doctor after a week because anything he gets goes straight to his lungs, poor guy.  My daughter ended up with some kind of bronchitis.  

We have a great cone shaped microwave dish that my husband had before we got married.  You just pour in the popcorn, put on the ventilated lid, and it air pops it.  No oil necessary.  Sorry, can't pass on the brand name because it's not on the dish. 

[Kerry F]

Jeez, you'd think the coffee cups at law offices would be fresh out of the dishwasher.  But I guess whoever puts them out could contaminate them.

[Kellie Zollars]

In the larger firms that is true, and I don't worry about it so much there; but a lot of the smaller firms don't have dishwashers.