Swine Flu - What to do?
The latest scare of Swine Flu has definitely hit households on a global scale.
In South Africa, National Television advertises that we should not just go out and buy Tamiflu (Swine Flu medication of preference) at the sight of the first cough, as this means the bug becomes resistant to the medication. We are told to test ourselves and our children to ensure a positive result before giving Tamiflu. However, the labs are flooded with tests and take about 7 working days to come up with results.
Seems like we're once again caught between a rock and a hard place.
Or are we? Despite the fearmongering on a global scale, most cases of swine flu are about as potent as any of the normal flu bugs swirling around. Nobody provides us with reasons and investigations of the victims of the N1H1 bug so far. It does sell Newspapers very well though, so a thick fat headline means more sales. We are told that although swine flu spreads at a rapid rate (apparently 4 times faster than the normal seasonal flu bugs) depending on the sources of information, the swine flu does not kill more people than the normal seasonal flu. Who to believe?
Why not go the natural route?
I had a preemie baby boy (10 weeks prem) at the beginning of March. He was doing so well, that despite the prognosis that he will have to stay in the preemie neonate icu for 10 weeks, he was discharged after only four weeks.
You can imagine that apart from antibiotics to last him for the next 10 years, the paediatrician did everything his traditional training has taught him, to ensure that nothing can happen to this preemie as preemies are much more vulnerable to bugs, viruses and bacterias that float around due to their immature immune system.
Why am I bringing this up? Because the one thing that the paediatrician did is prescribe that my preemie baby boy must get 1 drop of vitamin D3 (1 drop = 400 iu, RDA [recommended daily allowance] is 200 iu). I was not questioning this and did everything I was told. In fact, still today Nicolas receives his daily drop of vitamin D3.
My family has since his birth been ravaged by 2 very tough flu's. The first one brought hubby, daughter and oma down. Nikki and I stayed healthy while the family coughed and was lying flat with a high fever. At the time I wrote it off to the benefits of breast feeding.
I stopped breast feeding when Nikki was 5 months old. A week later, I was lying flat with fever, headcold, a nasty cough in short a flu. Miraculously, despite handling Nikki on a daily base, he did not catch my nasty bug. Since I was no longer breast feeding, it could not have been that.
The penny only dropped when I got Dr. Mercola's latest edition on swine flu. His recommendation: Keep your vitamin D levels up as it is your number 1 choice for a healthy immune system which allows the body to fight any viral or bacterial infections effectively on their own.
So maybe we're not as powerless as it seems. As prevention is always better than cure, why not boosting your immune system with a drop of vitamin D3 daily? Even if you have caught a flu of whatever sort, take 10 drops of Vitamin D3 for 3 days and boost your immune system to fight it. While you're waiting for your test result, it can't harm you in any case.
For the full newsletter from Dr. Mercola re. swine flu
In the meantime, stay well
blessings
Carmen M. Schnider-Kemp
Dear Parent, 
