Forgiveness is really more for ourselves than for the person we want to forgive. Lack of forgiveness is like a little cancer in our bodies that just simmers, grows and then makes us sick. The last 2-3 years has brought up many opportunities to forgive and practice patience due to various political and medical discrepancies. The issue is not just with society in general, but this polarization is being felt in families, friendships and even marriages. I have been on quite the spiritual journey during this time. Despite many painful experiences, like loss of friendships (and for some people alienated family members), my faith has led me on a journey of radical forgiveness by learning who I really am. I was struggling with a particular situation with a colleague and kept coming back to the hurt I felt when our ways parted related to the way the world has gone. I had a mix of hurt, anger, and a desire to forgive but also a desire to convince her of my “side”. I finally had that ‘aha’ moment. There was really nothing to forgive after all. Seemed obvious after all that prayer and meditation. The reality is that most people are only doing the best they know how during this time in history, so I shifted my perspective. Out of 8 billion people on this Earth, we have 8 billion different opinions with different cultures, faiths, and personalities. Ideally, we should be able to have a hearty discussion about politics, religion, and covid related subjects with disagreements and still be friends at the end of the day. It is human nature to want to be around like-minded and comfortable people but we grow more when we push those edges and talk to people with differing opinions. It is sad that not everyone wants to communicate with love or is able to at this moment. So let’s try to find those who do want to talk. We need human connection always. Back to my colleague, and finally realizing there is nothing to forgive. Again, it came down to feeling the need to be heard as opposed to someone doing wrong to me. That person is doing the best they know how with the information they are able or willing to see just like I am doing my best with the information I am able or willing to see. Sometimes the opposite “truth” (regardless of validity) is just too painful and I don’t claim to know the inner workings of that colleague to judge their reactions. It isn’t personal. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with their journey. Instead of forgiving, I just need to know who I really am and give myself some grace. I can also hold space and love for that colleague even though we aren’t friends in this season. I can give gratitude for the season of friendship I did have. For those suffering with the splitting of families, I recognize this is exquisitely painful. We have to trust that, although we may not be able to see it now, there will be beautiful things to rise out of the ashes. Time to trust the bigger plan and just surrender a little. We don’t have control over society and other people so let’s find the love within. Fall into the arms of our Creator and surrender. It is important to forgive when you can but also remember to show grace, not only to other people, but for yourself. See the love in each other and trust that this too shall pass. Sincerely, Dr. Benton

For arthritis, tendon issues, hair restoration and sexual dysfunction. We do all kinds of injections at Benton Integrative Medicine. We can do steroid injections for joints and tendons but there is concern that it accelerates needs for joint replacement if given too many times in the joints or tendon rupture for the tendons. The short term relief is awesome but ideally we don’t do things that worsen conditions. So we have a few other options to let you know about at BIM. One kind of injection is PRP- Platelet rich Plasma injections. The cool thing about this is that it uses your own blood which is really so safe but include mostly risks related to infection as with anything that we do when giving injections and local pain. PRP contains growth factors and have been used for quite a while for arthritis, tendon issues, and hair restoration. Our med spa, The Skin Center, offers the hair restoration with PRP with awesome success! For the joints and tendons, it is as easy as a blood draw and we inject that plasma where you need it. Low pain, low risk. We do P shots (for men) and O shots (for women) for sexual dysfunction as well. Don’t worry, we can do numbing cream. The O shots can help with urinary incontinence and orgasm. PRP can also help with conditions like lichen sclerosis. PRP though is only as good as the health of the person giving the blood. So those with more poor health or advanced age opt for cord blood or wharton’s jelly that has exosomes from a new born baby (not aborted products of course) that is voluntarily given and tested for safety. It is more expensive naturally but has been shown to be safe. Since it is a foreign product, that carries more risk of allergic reaction which is rare still. We can use those products for joints, tendons, skin, for hair loss, and some use it for “wellness” although studies for that are still being done. We can also use this in place of PRP for P shots and O shots. Now that we are living longer, we have these tools to help with regeneration of damaged tissue. What a luxury really but all this should be in conjunction with a low sugar and low processed food diet since those are destructive to our body. Isn’t it amazing to have such regenerative sources from our divinely created bodies!! Just give us a call in BIM to see if PRP or exosome injection may help you.

This has been a tough time for everyone regardless of which "side" you fall on. Each are coming with their strong feelings and experiences and there is enough judgement going around on all sides. Good news is that we can learn a lot about ourselves and others and we can choose love and tolerance even if we don't understand the other side. More good news is that we can use what we are learning to make things better. We know that education system is broken, and the political system, and the medical system etc etc. We all ultimately want the world to get back to "normal" and for us to not fear this virus, some more than others maybe but we do. This may be our opportunity to be part of the solution of creating better systems!! Change has never come from the top down but from the bottom up from grassroots efforts. We have to be squeezed to our discomfort sometimes before realizing that we have to make change. If we stayed comfortable, why would we bother to change anything at all? Exactly!! So we have some pretty amazing opportunities to create something totally new once we realize that it is US that needs to make it happen. This is why we are planning to create a new medical system called Compass Integrative Health. Our goal is to have a non-profit arm and a for profit arm to allow for investors to help us build this dream. Our goal is to create a truly integrative healing experience starting with an integrative urgent care. For instance, if you break an arm, you will still need a cast from an orthopedist but we can also use homeopathy and herbals that help heal fractures along with PEMF. Or kids with ear infections can pick up some garlic ear drops, some homeopathy and see the chiropractor. Those are just a few examples of how we can use many modalities for healing. We plan to expand into a 23 hour observation unit, a birthing center and ultimately an inpatient unit to help people receive the most loving care with all the modalities available for healing, including Western medicine. There is no need to throw the baby out with the bath water so let's use it all within reason. There are plans for a study arm so we can collect data to help build the scientific information to invite in the biggest skeptics into our loving profession! We are excited to build a platform that incorporates Western medicine with acupuncture, chiropractic, nutrition and herbal medicine, energy medicine and more. We will also be consulting with environmentalist to make the most environmentally friendly construction possible. In the meantime, how are you going to make lemonade out of lemons? You have the power to do so much!

First aid kit to have on hand when you call me for help Call for dosing for younger kids, pregnancy and Breast feeding.  There are so many variables when determining these doses or safety. Homeopathy, regardless of dose is safe for any age.  Usually higher doses of homeopathy is better for the little ones (backwards of what one would think) You don’t have to do ALL of these but pick and choose some so you have options.  IF you don’t get better, get help.  You could have the wrong diagnosis You can get these supplements on my website under Fullscript or Kaerwell at https://www.bentonintegrative.com/supplements  or Health Connections in Lincolnton or Amazon #supportlocalbusiness Flu, colds, viruses, strep etc Homeopathic Belladonna, aconitum, influenzinum, chamomilla, ledum, hypericum, arsenicum album, Rhus Tox, sulfur, influenzinum, kali muriaticum Acute dosing of homeopathy for sudden need like illness or injury- 3 pellets every 15 minutes up to 1-2 hours.  If better, continue as needed.  If not then stop and switch to another. Top Oils Peppermint, helichrysum, copaiba, frankincense, tea tree oil, lavender, RC. There are many more uses of these oils and homeopathy but these are super common ones. Essential oils- Thieves, peppermint , lavender, Frankincense, Helichrysum, RC,  ( I am fine with Young Living, Doterra or other good brands too) Teas Ginger, cayenne, lemon , chamomile Popular herbals/vitamins for acute illness Echinacea with Goldenseal, Vitamin C, vitamin D liquid, vitamin A liquid, Host Defense Comprehensive Immune support, Astragalus (super good for flu), elderberry syrup COLD, FLU & UPPER RESPIRATORY Cold and Sinusitis - Simply saline spray, cotton sock, dry wool socks (for colds and sinusitis) Sore Throat - Garlic bulbs. Do some saline irrigation to be sure it isn’t just postnasal drainage. If still painful, can start chewing and eating garlic bulbs until you stink or it is better.  Can do homeopathy as a above.  Some love colloidal silver Flu - Either oscillococcinum, influenzinum plus aconitum for sudden onset of flu symptoms.  Pick oscillo or the influenzinum and alterate every 15-30 minutes with aconitum until better,  Usually works if you catch it fast.  Also elderberry syrup and astragalus dose it every few hours, Works for prevention as well as treatment. Homeopathic Aconitum for flu like illness, sudden onset of fever Here are some of my other blogs related to colds and respiratory infections. Oh No Dreaded Flu Cold Migraines No Need to Fear Fever Fever Phobia Croup - Kali muriaticum for that barky cough, can do 3 pellets every 15-30 minutes when bad, humid air like the shower or cold air this winter (go for a ride), RC to the chest and feet, "magic socks" Pain/Fever, Flu or Sore Throat/Strep - homeopathic Belladonna Ear Pain/Infection - Ear pain blog https://bentonintegrative.blogspot.com/2016/12/ear-infections-self-care.html. Homeopathic Chamomilla is good for the whiney, clingy kid with ear infections, sore throat, etc. SKIN & MUSCLE Infected nail bed or ingrown toenail - Epsom salt soaks, blend of tea tree, frankincense, and lavender in a carrier oil and apply several times per day. Burns - Egg whites immediately, aloe vera plant gel, if you rinse with water, use warm not cold (like heals like).  After can use combo of one or more of frankincense, lavender, roman chamomile, calendula, neroli Contact dermatitis - Get Sulfur and Rhus Tox homeopathic remedies.  Pick one and take 3 pellets every 15 minutes up to two hours.  If better, then continue. If not then switch to the other and repeat.  If still not better then it isn't going to work and you need to try other remedies like calamine lotion, steroid creams or oral steroids if severe. Muscle Strains - Muscle strains- Epsom salt, peppermint oil or Panaway/Deep Blue Trauma/lacerations- arnica ( bruising, bleeding), staphysagria (cuts), helichrysum essential oil for bleeding, Finger and toe injuries or pain that is lancinating or nerve like, including shingles- Hypericum homeopathic for the nerve pain, ledum for the digit injuries. Food allergy rash/whole body itchy rash- Urtica Urens ( especially for food allergy)  and Histaminum homeopathic , or standard Benadryl Bee Stings. Homepathic SSSSting stop.  Lavender. Tobacco paste ( yes I know it is otherwise bad for you) Tick bites- Tick remover stick, frankincense topically, homeopathic Ledum 3 pellets every few hours for a few days and send the tick off to Tickreport.com for assessment for lyme etc. GASTRONTESTINAL Activated charcoal 1 capsule every few hours for possible bad food or early signs of gastroenteritis. Can put in applesauce for kids. SURGERY Oils- Copaiba, frankincense, helichrysum, homeopathy- arnica, staphysagria.  Alternate arnica 3 pellets and staphysagria 3 pellets once the night before, the morning off and then every 3 Hours after surgery/procedure.  For pain control- 5 drops of copaiba and frankincense in a gelatin capsule every few hours for pain, helichrysum topically for bruising.  Can use frankincense, neroli,  and lavender topically afterwards around the wound early on once bandages are removed and over the scar once closed to help with scarring. TRAVEL Travel- probiotics, arsenicum alba homeopathic (traveler’s diarrhea) , nux vomica homeopathic  ( nausea/hangovers), plus other remedies listed for nausea, colds, trauma Motion sickness nux vomica, suck on a lime, motion sickness bands “Relief Band” (like a tens unit for the wrist) , peppermint oil to the stomach, ginger tea or capsules SHINGLES Shingles blog-  need vitamins A, C, D and L-Lysine https://bentonintegrative.blogspot.com/2015/09/shingles-yikes-who-needs-valtrex.html SEIZURES This is a great post on febrile seizures from Ashley Everly - Get Calcium Lactate-  https://thinklovehealthy.com/2019/12/04/fevers-febrile-seizures/

Knowledge, attitudes and misconceptions of primary care physicians regarding fever in children: a cross sectional study. Ital J Pediatr. 2012 Sep 5;38:40. doi: 10.1186/1824-7288-38-40. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22950655 World J Clin Pediatr. 2012 Dec 8;1(4):29-33. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v1.i4.29. eCollection 2012. Fever management: Evidence vs current practice "..The practice of alternating antipyretics has become widespread at home and on pediatric wards without supporting scientific evidence. There is still a significant contrast between the current concept and practice, and the scientific evidence..." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25254165 Acetaminophen decreases intracellular glutathione levels and modulates cytokine production in human alveolar macrophages and type II pneumocytes in vitro. Dimova S, et al. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2005. Authors Dimova S1, Hoet PH, Dinsdale D, Nemery B. Author information 1Laboratory of Pneumology, Unit of Toxicology, K.U. Leuven, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Citation Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2005 Aug;37(8):1727-37. Epub 2005 Apr 26. J Family Med Prim Care. 2013 Apr;2(2):153-8. doi: 10.4103/2249-4863.117409. Comparison of cold water sponging and acetaminophen in control of Fever among children attending a tertiary hospital in South Nigeria http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24479070 ======= Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2002;(2):CD003676. Paracetamol for treating fever in children. Trial evidence that paracetamol has a superior antipyretic effect than placebo is inconclusive. There is limited evidence that there is no difference between the antipyretic effect of paracetamol and physical methods. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12076499 . ======== Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(2):CD004264. Physical methods for treating fever in children. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12804512 ==== When should I be worried? short video with the Paediatrician. -------- Good, balanced advice with humour, well done Doc! http://youtu.be/kUuBCy0lCJI ==== Tylenol lowers glutathione levels (Your body's most potent antioxidant) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15878691. ==== Antipyretic therapy may increase the risk of mortality with viral infections https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/read-the-journal/all-issues/2010-2019/2011/vol-124-no-1338/letter-eyers ==== Drugs R D. 2014 Jun; 14(2): 45–55. Published online 2014 Jun 12. doi: 10.1007/s40268-014-0052-x PMCID: PMC4070461 A Practical Approach to the Treatment of Low-Risk Childhood Fever http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4070461/ ==== Fever:  Suppress it or let it Ride? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703655/ ==== Control of Fever in Septic Shock: Should We Care or Intervene? fever may be beneficial because fever increases clearance of microorganisms, immune response, and the heat shock response (6–8). Furthermore, control of fever can worsen outcomes (9, 10), whereas increasing temperature after endotoxemia can improve outcomes in animal models (11). In a retrospective cohort study, use of corticosteroids for fever control in H1N1-infected patients was associated with increased mortality (12). Finally, patients with septic shock who have hypothermia have a higher mortality than patients with fever (13). https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.201202-0346ED?cookieSet=1 Fever is an important mechanism of intrinsic resistance against infectious disease. A variety of studies point to a potential detrimental effect of temperature lowering in infectious disorders, but high-quality evidence from randomised controlled trials is lacking. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2011/195/8/fever-and-antipyresis-infection An increasing amount of evidence is now suggesting that fever lowering in infections, and particularly sepsis, may not be as harmless as previously thought. A number of studies that will be discussed here have shown that fever improves the immune response and leads to better outcomes in infections.  https://www.escavo.com/2012/12/23/should-fever-reduced-septic-patients/

You can probably guess my answer being an Integrative Physician. I figure since pharmacists say “only 2 % “ of children have a risk of psychosis as a side effect I don’t want my kids to be one of those 2%.As a friend posted on my page, Siri says there are 73.9 million children ages 0-17 in the US.2% of that is 1,478,000.Um. No thanks! In my blog - Why I don't get a flu shot, I explain why I wouldn’t get a flu shot either but I digress. So since I have plenty of evidence as to why the flu shot is not effective, we all know that whether you get the flu vaccine or not, you can indeed get the flu, even if the same strain is found in the flu vaccine. “They say” that it won’t be as severe or you won’t have complications if you get the flu vaccine but the data does not support that either. So now you have a choice to do Tamiflu or go au natural and try some elderberry syrup. I personally go for elderberry syrup and think it is reasonable for your average healthy person to go for the natural route. Sweet’s Syrup is a local favorite but also having people reach out from other states for her special concoction! A lot of health minded mamas are making their own as well. I am not one of those so I buy mine. Not only is elderberry syrup delicious but it has anti- viral effects and can treat influenza A and B viruses. Since only about 14-26% of flu- like illness is actually flu , then it is nice to know that elderberry helps with other upper respiratory viral infections too! Elderberry syrup is appreciated around the world for their anti flu properties. Elderberry Syrup and Tamiflu Risks Risks for elderberry syrup? Most elderberry syrup contains honey which should not be given under age 1 for risk of botulism from the honey rather than the elderberry itself. Also one should not eat raw elderberries as you will have a major tummy ache. While there may be a few side effects, like allergic reactions and tummy aches, none are like that with Tamiflu. Some people may benefit if given Tamiflu very early on but the overall studies are not very appealing. Clearly this needs to be a decision between you and your doctor. I am not prepared to write a thesis on this but have found Tamiflu may have issues with psychosis. It is even contraindicated in Japan for that reason and in similar studies found it causes respiratory issues. There are issues with sudden death in sleep. There are reports of at the cause of flu related deaths, would we find more deaths that may have been precipitated by Tamiflu? Many stories making the news sound awfully fishy for this. Even the WHO (World Health Organization) downgrades Tamiflu on the drugs list after reviewing the evidence. I am sure there are some favorable studies for Tamiflu, but everything is a risk and benefit decision and I am clearly biased here. I have prescribed this medicine when patients choose that it is worth the risk. I do know people who swear it made them better faster. Yay! I want everyone to have the right to choose and I pray for good outcomes for everyone. However, they should know alternatives and that is the purpose of this article. Some studies show Tamiflu only reduces symptoms by one day! Elderberry has evidence to suggest it may help resolve symptoms 4 days earlier! The cost for these large jar of Sweet’s Syrup for around $30 that can be used for the whole family. Big difference in cost and time for symptom relief! If you get the flu, avoid Tylenol for reasons I post in this blog. More specifically related to the flu, is that fever decreases replication of the virus. We lower the temperature and the flu virus thrives and replicates. No Bueno! We also decrease glutathione that is our body’s most potent antioxidant. We want more of that when sick, not less. For alternatives to Tylenol check out my blog on this. How to stay well during the flu season Read blog here. Basically, Sweet’s Syrup is important here. What to do if it hits you or your family members? Read here. Again, Sweet’s syrup plus some homeopathy and vitamins. Can you see the pattern here? ;-) Just like the flu vaccine doesn’t often work, see the studies here, homeopathy doesn’t always work but is completely safe and may work. Regardless of choosing Tamiflu or elderberry syrup, it is important to recognize dangerous signs of deterioration or respiratory distress and seek medical care when appropriate. Eventually I truly believe the medicine will come around and realize that our bodies are divinely made with crazy cool mechanisms to heal. We need to learn to support our immune systems rather than suppress it automatically. There is a time and place for modern medicine Now to find a balance which will require the art of medicine in combination with evidence. and I am grateful for it. Ok as a disclaimer, you can see that I am partial to Sweet's Syrup because I know she uses the best ingredients and that is what I sell in my office!  It is all organic and made with love. However lots of mamas are making it homemade and I know some other awesome doc's who make some cool concoctions. There are really good variations out so there just get you some! Here are a few additional links related to the harms or lack of efficacy for Tamiflu. "Drug company Hoffmann-La Roche (OTCMKTS – RHHBY) bilked U.S. federal and state governments out of $1.5 billion by misrepresenting clinical studies and falsely claiming that its well-known influenza medicine Tamiflu was effective at containing potential pandemics, according to a recently unsealed whistleblower lawsuit". .https://www.lanierlawfirm.com/tamiflu-fraud-bilked-1-5-billion-from-government-alleges-whistleblower/?fbclid=IwAR1nKe-gJ_5bA0CGOMN4bBC_Ih4s7i1o1etJ-2SYE9jLxAJwc-I_blkQWDQ#utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social Tamiflu & Relenza (anti viral neuraminidase inhibitors, not vaccines) Cochrane Review ------------------ "... Dr David Tovey, Editor-in-Chief of The Cochrane Library, commenting on the release of the updated Cochrane Review, said: “We now have the most robust, comprehensive review on neuraminidase inhibitors that exists. Initially thought to reduce hospitalisations and serious complications from influenza, the review highlights that [NIs are] not proven to do this, and it also seems to lead to harmful effects that were not fully reported in the original publications. This shows the importance of ensuring that trial data are transparent and accessible.” The publication of this review has generated widespread attention from media worldwide, leading the health news agenda in the UK on the day of its release and receiving national coverage in Australia, Canada, the US, and various countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe. A selection of news stories is available here, with some key pieces highlighted in the ‘Related resources’ section below..." http://www.cochrane.org/news/tamiflu-and-relenza-getting-full-evidence-picture

For the Pro side, please visit the https://www.cdc.gov/flu/ It is important to review both sets of data to make an informed decision. 1. Jefferson T, Di Pietrantonj C, Rivetti A, Bawazeer GA, Al ... (n.d.). Retrieved from https://residenciadeclinica.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/influenza-vaccines-cochrane-review-20101.pdf Collaboration report included 40 clinical trial studies of more than 70,000 people a perfectly matched year, it showed up to 80% benefit. But since they don’t often match the flu strains perfectly, it listed 50% effectiveness, to as low as 30% effectiveness, with the flu vaccine. So just as many people theoretically benefited as didn’t on an average year. It showed modest days lost from work with the vaccine and NO evidence was found to decrease hospitalization or complication rates. Another analysis put it this way: When the vaccine matched the flu strain, 4 percent who weren’t vaccinated got the flu. One percent of vaccinated people got it. That’s a difference of 3 percent. When the vaccine didn’t match the strain, 2 percent of unvaccinated people got the flu, and 1 percent didn’t, for a difference of 1 percent. "The Cochrane Collaboration’s comprehensive 2010, 2014 and 2018 meta-analysis of published influenza vaccine studies found that the influenza vaccination has no effect on hospitalization, and that there is no evidence that flu vaccines prevent viral transmission or complications (see select highlighted text in systematic reviews attached). The Cochrane Researchers concluded that the scientific evidence seems to discourage the utilization of vaccination against influenza in healthy adults as a routine public health measure (see page 22 of attached review). The overwhelming body of scientific literature does not agree with the reasoning colleges/states have for mandating the flu vaccine. The premise of if there is a second wave of the coronavirus, if this seasonal influenza is of pandemic proportions and if as a result there is a hospital bed shortage (which the data do not support) is simply too conditional to remove the rights of hundreds of thousands of students. 2. Kelley NS, Manske JM, Ballering KS, Leighton TR, Moore KA.  The Compelling Need for Game-Changing Influenza Vaccines, An analysis of the influenza vaccine enterprise and recommendations for the future.  Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, October 2012. It removed more of the “flawed” studies and found that in a perfectly matched year, it was 59% effective in having the vaccine in the ages of 18-64. It showed no benefit in the elderly (over 65) or under 18 has been seen in other studies. Their paper suggests that the flu vaccine is not ideal but due to lack of financial incentive, more beneficial vaccines are not likely to be found. 3. Cowling, Fang, Kwok-Hung. Increased Non-Influenza Respiratory Virus Infections Associated with receipt of the Inactivated Influenza Vaccine. Clinical Infectious Diseases, Vol. 54, Issue 12, June 2012 pages 1778-1783, also in Clin Infect Dis 2012 June 15; 54(12): 1778-83 TIV (trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine) recipients had higher risk of confirmed non-influenza respiratory virus infection (RR, 3.46;95% Cl, 1.19-10.1) The majority of the non-influenzas respiratory virus detection were rhinoviruses and coxsackie/echoviruses, and the increased risk among TIV recipients was also statistically significant for these viruses. 4. Minn, Michael, McCullers, J., Klugman, K.  Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine Enhance Colonization of Steptococcus Pneumonia and Staphylococcus Aureus in Mice, mBio 5(1) doi:10.1128/mBio.01040-13 The potent and often lethal effects of an antecedent influenza virus infection on secondary bacterial disease have been reported. Viral replication induced epithelial and mucosal degradation, and the ensuing innate immune response yield diminished capacity to avert secondary bacterial infections. Recent clinical and experimental data suggest that influenza virus infection may exert its influence beginning in the URT by enhancing susceptibility to bacterial colonization. 5. Goldman GS Comparison of VAERS fetal-loss reports during three consecutive influenza seasons: Was there a synergistic fetal toxicity associated with the two- vaccine 2009-2019 season? Hum. Exp Toxicol. 2013 May;32(5): 464-75 There were 77.8 fetal loss reports per 1 million pregnant women vaccinated during the 2009/2010 2 dose influenza season vs 6.8 fetal loss reports during the previous 1-dose influenza season. An 11.4-fold increase. The two multidose vials contain 25 mcg of mercury per dose those years. 6. Jefferson T, Rivetti A, et al.  Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev 2012 Aug 15; Issue 8: CD 004879 75 worldwide studies, Inc 17 randomized trials, in children older than 2, the inactivated influenza vaccine is about 36% effective. Under 2 it was equal to placebo, no evidence to show reduced mortality, hospital admissions, serious complications or community transmission of influenza. 7. Jefferson T, Smith S, et al. Assessment of the efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccines in healthy children: systematic review.  Lancet 2005 Feb 26; 365 (9461) : 773-80 No evidence of reduced mortality, admissions, complications, or decreased community transmission of influenza. 8. Joshi, AY, Iyer VN, et al. Effectiveness of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in influenza-related hospitalization in children: a case-control study.  Allergy Ashthma Proc 2012 Mar-Apr;33(2): e23-7 Study of kids 6 months to 18 years from 1999-2007. Children who were vaccinated against influenza were 3 times more likely to be hospitalized for influenza related complications than children who did not receive an influenza vaccine (OR=3.67). Asthmatic children who received the influenza vaccine were also more likely to be hospitalized than those who did not receive it.  The severity of asthma did not affect the outcome. 9. Seasonal Influenza and Vaccine Herd Effect https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4083064 Study 1968-2001-Observational study showed no decreased mortality rate with increasing vaccination from 15% to 65% 10.Thomas RE, Jefferson T, Lasserson TJ Influenza vaccination for health care workers who care for people aged 60 or older living in long-term care institutions.  Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2013 ; Issue 7: CD 005187 No evidence to support that vaccinating healthcare workers in long-term care facilities showed effect on laboratory proven influenza or complications (pneumonia, hospitalization, or death due to pneumonia) in those residence over age 60. 11. Doshi, P. (2013). Influenza: Marketing vaccine by marketing disease. Bmj, 346(May16 1). doi:10.1136/bmj.f3037 Too much to list or explain, but worth the read. 12.  Doshi, P. (2005). Are US flu death figures more PR than science? Bmj, 331(7529), 1412. doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7529.1412 A 2013 BMJ article documented that public health authorities’ aggressive promotion of the influenza vaccine is not supported by the medical literature and fails to acknowledge serious vaccine risks. eg, contrary to wildly mistaken claims, only 16% of tested respiratory specimens are positive for influenza, and serious vaccine adverse events are well documented internationally. 13. Carrat, F., Lavenu, A. et al, Repeated influenza vaccination of healthy children and adults borrow now, pay later? Epidemiol. Infect. (2006) 134, 63-70 Shows that repeated influenza vaccination at a younger age substantially increases the risk of influenza in older age 14. Skowronski DM, De Serres G, et al.  Association between 2008-2009 seasonal influenza vaccine and pandemic H1N1 illness during Spring-Summer 2009:four observational studies from Canada PLoS Med 2010 April 6; 7(4) e1000258 Recipients of the influenza vaccine had significantly increase influenza compared to those who didn’t. Recipients had increased need for requiring medical attention due to the H1N1 virus. 15. Link: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7137/S2-7137 seemed to go ... (1998). Bmj, 316(7149). doi:10.1136/bmj.316.7149.3a · “In adjusted models, we observed 6.3 (95% CI 1.9–21.5) times more aerosol shedding among cases with vaccination in the current and previous season compared with having no vaccination in those two seasons.” 16. Link: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2016/04/study-prior-year-vaccination-cut-flu-vaccine-effects-2014-15 Prior year vaccination cut the current year efficacy of the flu vaccine. 17. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2013/03/study-getting-flu-shot-2-years-row-may-lower-protection?fbclid=IwAR0NMTjud0txpye_dYnmvBVEGYnHgoepjhH3d4fwuRmaxct_uxUNXBmk9ok 2013 "The vaccine was found to be 62% effective in those who hadn't been vaccinated the previous year. That was similar to findings in the other observational studies and also to the results of a recent, rigorous meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. In contrast, those who had been vaccinated 2 years in a row (before both the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons) got no significant protection". 18. Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090519172045.htm Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests Date: May 20, 2009Source:American Thoracic Society Summary:The inactivated flu vaccine does not appear to be effective in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma. In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than their peers who do not get the vaccine, according to new research. While these findings do raise questions about the efficacy of the vaccine, they do not in fact implicate it as a cause of hospitalizations, according to researchers. 19. Vaccine-Induced Anti-HA2 Antibodies Promote Virus Fusion and Enhance Influenza Virus Respiratory Disease, Sci Transl Med 28 August 2013: Vol. 5, Issue 200, p. 200ra114 Sci. Transl. Med. Link: DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3006366 "A new study in the U.S. has shown that pigs vaccinated against one strain of influenza were worse off if subsequently infected by a related strain of the virus." 20. Effectiveness of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in influenza-related hospitalization in children: a case-control study. Joshi AY1, Iyer VN, Hartz MF, Patel AM, Li JT TIV (The inactivated flu vaccine) did not provide any protection against hospitalization in pediatric subjects, especially children with asthma. On the contrary, we found a threefold increased risk of hospitalization in subjects who did get the TIV vaccine. 21. Influenza vaccines seem to be modifying influenza into a dangerous dengue like disease. Link: www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k1378/rr-15 22. Death rates due to actual positive flu tests average under 1000 per year in over 300,000,000 patients according to the CDC National Vital Statistics Report. The number that you hear in the media of 30K to 50K deaths are due to flu AND pneumonia (all cause pneumonia including from HIV, COPD, elderly, cancer etc). The number is inflated to increase flu vaccination. Pediatric flu deaths are reportable and range from 60-120 annually. Adult flu deaths are not reportable but obtained via death certificates so that gives freedom for "estimation" to go from a 1000 to the 10's of thousands with no real proof. It is strange that if there are 30-50K deaths from flu and pneumonia, that 80% would be from flu when it only happens a few months out of the year. 23. Adverse reactions- flawed due to reporter bias. Our training is to say that any significant flu like illness is likely coincidence or would have been worse without the vaccine. We are not trained to recognize serum sickness and we are also too busy to report. Miller’s Review of Critical Vaccine Studies used as a resource 24. Nanri, A., Nakamoto, K., Sakamoto, N., Imai, T., Akter, S., Nonaka, D., & Mizoue, T. (2017). Association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D with influenza in case-control study nested in a cohort of Japanese employees. Clinical Nutrition, 36(5), 1288-1293. doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2016.08.016 Lower influenza risk associated with vitamin D sufficiency among unvaccinated participants warrants further investigation. Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/27595379/?i=20&from=influenza+vitamin+d 25. Roos R. Study: Prior-year vaccination cut flu vaccine effects in 2014-15. CIDRP News. In: Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy website. Available at: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2016/04/study-prior-year-vaccination-cut-flu-vaccine-effects-2014-15. Accessed 08Nov16 26. Smith DJ, Forrest S, Ackley DH, Perelson AS. Variable efficacy of repeated annual influenza vaccination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1999; 96:14001–6. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC24180/pdf/pq014001.pdf. 27. Skowronski, D. M., & Serres, G. D. (2018). Role of Egg-adaptation Mutations in Low Influenza A(H3N2) Vaccine Effectiveness During the 2012–2013 Season. Clinical Infectious Diseases. doi:10.1093/cid/ciy350 Using a case control study design and data from Canada's Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) for the 2014-2015 influenza season, Dr. Skowronski’s group reported that study participants who received the 2014–2015 vaccine without vaccination the year before had significant protection against influenza A(H3N2), but those who had received the identical 2013-2014 vaccine the previous year had no increased protection. Those who were vaccinated three years in a row actually had an increased risk of contracting influenza compared with unvaccinated participants. http://m.medsask.usask.ca/documents/newsletters/33.4%20annual_flu_immunization.pdf 28. Systemic autoimmunity appears to be the inevitable consequence of over-stimulating the host’s immune system by repeated immunization. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008382 29. The Autoimmune/Inflammatory Syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28741088 30. Subgroup analysis demonstrates that immunosuppressive therapies and the nonadjuvanted lead to less immunogenicity in humoral response in flu-vaccinated SLE (Lupus) patients. 31. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3209321/ J Virol. 2011 Nov; 85(22): 11995–12000.doi: 10.1128/JVI.05213-11PMCID: PMC3209321 PMID: 21880755 Annual Vaccination against Influenza Virus Hampers Development of Virus-Specific CD8+ T Cell Immunity in Children▿ Rogier Bodewes,1 Pieter L. A. Fraaij,1,2 Martina M. Geelhoed-Mieras,1 Carel A. van Baalen,3 Harm A. W. M. Tiddens,4 Annemarie M. C. van Rossum,5 Fiona R. van der Klis,6 Ron A. M. Fouchier,1 Albert D. M. E. Osterhaus,1,3 and Guus F. Rimmelzwaan1,3,* Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4902520/ Our results indicate that annual influenza vaccination is effective against seasonal influenza but hampers the development of virus-specific CD8+ T cell responses. The consequences of these findings are discussed in the light of the development of protective immunity to seasonal and future pandemic influenza viruses. 32. BMJ Open. 2011; 1(1): e000016.Published online 2011 May 30. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2010-000016PMCID: PMC3191393 PMID: 22021725 Epidemiological study of severe febrile reactions in young children in Western Australia caused by a 2010 trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine P K Armstrong,1 G K Dowse,1 P V Effler,2 D Carcione,1 C C Blyth,3 P C Richmond,3 G C Geelhoed,4 F Mascaro,5 M Scully,1 and T S Weeramanthri6 “...This study shows that children aged 4 years and under who had received TIV from one vaccine manufacturer (CSL Biotherapies) had a 200-fold higher rate of febrile convulsions than that of the only reliable published estimate...” Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3191393/ 33. “In order to prevent the spread of influenza (that you do not have!), you will be required to wear a mask while working.” “With universal vaccination, 97% of influenza cases will occur in vaccinated workers who will not be masked. Thus, masking unvaccinated workers is most likely punitive and coercive rather than a well-reasoned strategy for reducing transmission in the healthcare setting.”  (See reference in first comment.) https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/6/4/ofy214/5427979 34. The four cRCTs underpinning policies of enforced HCW influenza vaccination attribute implausibly large reductions in patient risk to HCW vaccination, casting serious doubts on their validity. The impression that unvaccinated HCWs place their patients at great influenza peril is exaggerated. Instead, the HCW-attributable risk and vaccine-preventable fraction both remain unknown and the NNV to achieve patient benefit still requires better understanding. Although current scientific data are inadequate to support the ethical implementation of enforced HCW influenza vaccination, they do not refute approaches to support voluntary vaccination or other more broadly protective practices, such as staying home or masking when acutely ill. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0163586 35. https://sciencenordic.com/denmark-diseases-genetics/study-explains-why-h1n1-flu-can-cause-narcolepsy/1394775 If a person’s immune system contains the cells that we have identified as the culprits behind narcolepsy and comes into contact with either H1N1 or the vaccine against H1N1, the immune system’s response can become activated and the narcolepsy disorder can develop 36. What, in Fact, Is the Evidence That Vaccinating Healthcare Workers against Seasonal Influenza Protects Their Patients? A Critical Review, Int J Family Med. 2012; 2012: 205464, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3502850/. In November of 2012, a critical review in The International Journal of Family Medicine concluded: “The arguments for uniform healthcare worker influenza vaccination are not supported by existing literature. The decision whether to get vaccinated should, except possibly in extreme situations, be that of the individual healthcare worker, without legal, institutional, or peer coercion.” 37. Assessment of temporally-related acute respiratory illness following influenza vaccination Rikin et al. Vaccine 36 (2018) 1958-1964 Conclusion: Among children there was an increase in the hazard of ARI caused by non-influenza respiratory pathogens post-influenza vaccination compared to unvaccinated children during the same period. Potential mechanisms for this association warrant further investigation. Future research could investigate whether medical decision-making surrounding influenza vaccination may be improved by acknowledging patient experiences, counseling regarding different types of ARI, and correcting the misperception that all ARI occurring after vaccination are caused by influenza.
38. Vaccine Effectiveness Against Laboratory-confirmed Influenza in Healthy Young Children: A Case–Control Study Kelly, Heath MPH*†; Jacoby, Peter MSc‡; Dixon, Gabriela A. MB BS‡; Carcione, Dale PhD§; Williams, Simon BSc¶; Moore, Hannah C. BSc(Hons), GradDipClinEpi‡; Smith, David W. MB BS¶∥**; Keil, Anthony D. MB BS††; Van Buynder, Paul MPH§‡‡; Richmond, Peter C. MB BS‡§§;the WAIVE Study Team Author InformationThe Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal: February 2011 - Volume 30 - Issue 2 - p 107-111 doi: 10.1097/INF.0b013e318201811c VE estimates were higher when controls included only those children with another respiratory virus detected. Testing for other common respiratory viruses enables the control group to be restricted to those for whom an adequate sample is likely. When you look into the actual study, they actually show that children with influenza vaccination has a higher rate of non influenza viral lung infections by 55%! 39. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181477/pdf/irv0008-0293.pdf Epidemiology of respiratory viral infections in children enrolled in a study of influenza vaccine effectiveness Alexa Dierig,a,b Leon G. Heron,a,c,d Stephen B. Lambert,e,f Jiehui Kevin Yin,a,c Julie Leask,a,c,d Maria Yui Kwan Chow,a,c Theo P. Sloots,e Michael D. Nissen,e Iman Ridda,c Robert Booya, “We did, however, unexpectedly find that non-influenza ILI (influenza-like illness) occurred about 1.6 times more commonly in children vaccinated with one or two doses of the influenza vaccine than in unvaccinated children.These results support the findings of a recent RCT (randomized controlled trial) reported by Cowling et al 40. Inflammatory Responses to Trivalent Influenza Virus Vaccine Among Pregnant Women Lisa M. Christian, PhD Trivalent influenza virus vaccination elicits a measurable inflammatory response among pregnant women. There is sufficient variability in response for testing associations with clinical outcomes. As adverse perinatal health outcomes including preeclampsia and preterm birth have an inflammatory component, a tendency toward greater inflammatory responding to immune triggers may predict risk of adverse outcomes, providing insight into biological mechanisms underlying risk. 41. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20964738/ Inflammation-related effects of adjuvant influenza A vaccination on platelet activation and cardiac autonomic function Gaetano A Lanza 1, Lucy Barone, Giancarla Scalone, Dario Pitocco, Gregory A Sgueglia, Roberto Mollo, Roberto Nerla, Francesco Zaccardi, Giovanni Ghirlanda, Filippo Crea Affiliations expand PMID: 20964738 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2796.2010.02285.x Together with an inflammatory reaction, influenza A vaccine induced platelet activation and sympathovagal imbalance towards adrenergic predominance. Significant correlations were found between CRP levels and HRV parameters, suggesting a pathophysiological link between inflammation and cardiac autonomic regulation. The vaccine-related platelet activation and cardiac autonomic dysfunction may transiently increase the risk of cardiovascular events. Together with an inflammatory reaction, Influenza A vaccine induced platelet activation and sympathovagal imbalance towards adrenergic predominance...The vaccine-related platelet activation and cardiac autonomic dysfunction may transiently increase the risk of cardiovascular events. 42. https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/200/200ra114.editor-summary Vaccine-Induced Anti-HA2 Antibodies Promote Virus Fusion and Enhance Influenza Virus Respiratory Disease Surender Khurana1, * Science Translational Medicine  28 Aug 2013: Vol. 5, Issue 200, pp. 200ra114DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3006366 Even the most beneficial things—like vaccines—sometimes have a downside. Learning what causes the downside is critical for avoiding it. In the case of viral vaccines, there have been some reports of rare vaccine-induced disease enhancement—for example, vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD) for influenza. Khurana et al. now report that mismatched strains of the same subtype of influenza may lead to VAERD in pigs. The authors vaccinated pigs with whole inactivated H1N2 influenza virus. These pigs had enhanced pneumonia and disease after infection with another strain—pH1N1. Looking more closely, the authors found that the immune sera from the H1N2-vaccinated pigs contained high titers of cross-reactive hemagglutinin antibodies. These antibodies actually enhanced pH1N1 infection in cell culture by promoting virus membrane fusion activity, and this enhanced fusion correlated with lung pathology. This mechanism of VAERD should be considered when devising strategies to devise a universal flu vaccine. 43. BMJ. 2014; 348: g3361.Published online 2014 May 29. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g3361PMCID: PMC4038133 PMID: 24874845 Evaluation of safety of A/H1N1 pandemic vaccination during pregnancy: cohort study Francesco Trotta, et al. "whereas a limited increase in the prevalence of gestational diabetes (1.26, 1.04 to 1.53) and eclampsia (1.19, 1.04 to 1.39) was seen in vaccinated women" Both gestational diabetes and eclampsia are related to inflammation and immune dysregulation, making the connection to the immune stimulation of the flu vaccine very plausible 44. Mol Psychiatry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 Aug 1. Mol Psychiatry. 2014 Feb; 19(2): 259–264.Published online 2013 Jan 22.doi: 10.1038/mp.2012.197PMCID: PMC3633612NIHMSID: NIHMS426250 PMID: 23337946 Elevated Maternal C-Reactive Protein and Autism in a National Birth Cohort Alan S. Brown, M.D. over 1.2 million pregnant women found that elevations in CRP, the same marker of inflammation that increases after flu vaccination, are associated with a 43% greater risk of having a child with autism. 45. Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccine during Pregnancy in Preventing Hospitalizations and Outpatient Visits for Respiratory Illness in Pregnant Women and Their Infants,” American Journal of Perinatology 21, no. 6 (August 2004): 333–339.) nearly 50,000 pregnant women over five flu seasons, found that the rate of influenza-like illness in vaccinated women was identical to the rate of illness in women who were not vaccinated we also found no difference in the risk of outpatient visits for vaccinated and unvaccinated women. Hospital admissions for influenza or pneumonia for women in the study population were quite rare and no women died of respiratory illness during pregnancy. Infants born to women who received influenza vaccination had the same risks for influenza or pneumonia admissions compared with infants born to unvaccinated women, adjusting for infant's gender, gestational age, week of birth, and birth facility we were unable to demonstrate the effectiveness of influenza vaccination with data for hospital admissions and physician visits 46. December 2006 Impact of Maternal Influenza Vaccination During Pregnancy on the Incidence of Acute Respiratory Illness Visits Among Infants Eric K. France, MD, MSPH et al. We were unable to demonstrate that maternal influenza vaccination reduces respiratory illness visit rates among their infants. 47. from the Vaccine papers. http://vaccinepapers.org/influenza-vaccine-immune-suppression/ Original Antigenic Sin A poorly-matched influenza vaccine may cause illness (and increase risk of influenza illness) by a phenomenon in immunology known as “original antigenic sin” (OAS). First discovered in 1960, OAS is well known and firmly established. Its described in any immunology textbook. OAS occurs in this scenario: There is an illness with pathogen strain #1. The immune system learns and remembers how to make antibodies for strain #1. Pathogen can be virus, bacteria etc. There is a second illness with strain #2, of the same pathogen. For example dengue virus is well known to cause OAS (dengue has 4 strains). During the second illness, the immune system responds as if strain #1 is attacking, because it “remembers” strain #1. The problem is that the antibodies for strain #1 are not effective against strain #2 (the antibodies are not a good fit). The result is a defective (and delayed) immune response. The illness from strain #2 is therefore much worse. In fact, it can be life threatening (this happens with dengue). OAS is why a first dengue illness is mild, but a second case of dengue (involving a different dengue strain) can be very severe and long lasting. A second dengue infection can be fatal due to OAS. By receiving an influenza vaccine that is poorly matched to circulating strains, the immune system is improperly trained. Improper immune training is worse than no training at all. The OAS phenomenon may explain the results of the Bridges study. 48. The December 11, 2015 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report (MMWR) reports that only 1.2% of 102,675 respiratory specimens from Oct 4 to Nov 28 tested positive for influenza viruses.[2] Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report, CDC, December 11, 2015. https://www.jstor.org/stable/e24805824 49. Cumulative data to date (April 2, 2016) shows a range around the country from 15.1% – 22%.[3] Of the $282 million that The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) paid out in FY 2017 for vaccine injuries and death, roughly $188 million was for influenza vaccine injuries and deaths. Influenza vaccines make up about 42% of administered vaccines, but 57% of compensated vaccine petitions (2006 – 2016). National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, Data & Statistics. https://www.hrsa.gov/.../data-statistics-september-2019.pdf Note: This data is updated monthly. 50. Interim estimates of 2014/15 vaccine effectiveness against influenza A(H3N2) from Canada’s Sentinel Physician Surveillance Network, January 2015 D M Skowronski1, et al https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2015.20.4.21022?fbclid=IwAR2TAY1lsxZh-ycH7vUbiYIhEab2hJFggVxs2ydzaZXq4cXBzvQUpATwihA A 2015 study found that influenza vaccines in Canada had a -8% effectiveness rate (that’s minus/negative eight percent) and recommended “adjunct protective measures . . . to minimize morbidity and mortality.” 51. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2014 Feb;33(2):e63-6. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000000064. Characteristics of vaccine failures in a randomized placebo-controlled trial of inactivated influenza vaccine in children Sophia Ng et al TIV was not observed to ameliorate clinical symptoms or viral shedding among vaccine failures compared with infected placebo recipients. Lower antibody response might have explained vaccine failure and also lack of effect in reducing clinical symptoms and viral shedding upon infection. Cochrane 1 February 2018Authors:  Demicheli V, Jefferson T, Ferroni E, Rivetti A, Di Pietrantonj C We found 52 clinical trials of over 80,000 adults. We were unable to determine the impact of bias on about 70% of the included studies due to insufficient reporting of details. Around 15% of the included studies were well designed and conducted. We focused on reporting of results from 25 studies that looked at inactivated vaccines. Injected influenza vaccines probably have a small protective effect against influenza and ILI (moderate-certainty evidence), as 71 people would need to be vaccinated to avoid one influenza case, and 29 would need to be vaccinated to avoid one case of ILI. Vaccination may have little or no appreciable effect on hospitalizations (low-certainty evidence) or number of working days lost. 52. Ann Intern Med 2020 Apr 7;172(7):445-452. doi: 10.7326/M19-3075. Epub 2020 Mar 3. The Effect of Influenza Vaccination for the Elderly on Hospitalization and Mortality: An Observational Study With a Regression Discontinuity Design Michael L Anderson 1, Carlos Dobkin 2, Devon Gorry 3 Affiliations expand PMID: 32120383 DOI: 10.7326/M19-3075 "However, no evidence indicated that vaccination reduced hospitalizations or mortality among elderly persons. The estimates were precise enough to rule out results from many previous studies." 53. Phone conversation with (protected name now), MD, MPH, CAPT, USPHS Medical Officer Epidemiology and Prevention Branch Influenza Division, NCIRD Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Agreed with all information here and says this is the best we can do.  Due to lack of evidence, they do not officially endorse flu vaccine mandates. Also, she admits that we will never have good studies due to changing viral strains and vaccines that may not match. 54. Flu vaccine efficacy ranges from 10-60% but usually mostly lower. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/past-seasons-estimates.html Informed Consent and discussion from a Dental student Eric Mastanduono that I thought was well done. "Informed consent requires a formal opting in, never a formal opting out. Opting in must always be voluntary, and without any university or government interference, coercion, cost, or penalty. No one, including the government, has the right to insist that another person, be injected with anything. The Nuremberg Code, the Helsinki Declaration, and the 2005 Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights support the position that we do indeed have the well-established right to informed consent. Vaccine mandates ignore our right to informed consent, security of the person, self-autonomy and bodily integrity, which includes the fundamental human right to decide what one allows, or doesn’t allow, into ones’ own body. The right to bodily autonomy is arguably the most meaningful right we have, and vaccine mandates flagrantly violate these rights. Vaccinations are not benign. Vaccination is an invasive medical procedure that delivers complex biochemical drugs and known toxins by injection (as documented in package inserts). Without the right to refuse vaccinations, one cannot protect oneself from the known, and yet to be known, harm from vaccinations, including death. Vaccine mandates result in universities, workplaces and the government restricting and prohibiting law-abiding citizens from participating in society due to their refusal to submit to one, some, or scores of invasive, risk-laden, potentially-fatal, improperly-tested, unethically-approved medical procedures, for which no one who makes or administers them is held legally, financially, or criminally liable. Each and every vaccine has the potential to injure, make chronically ill, permanently disable, and kill and each and everyday vaccines do in fact injure and kill, as witnessed by the over $4 Billion paid out by the US vaccine injury compensation program (1/4th of which are attributable to the influenza vaccination); that sum being paid out to a tiny fraction of the mere 1% of injuries and death captured by the vaccine adverse events reporting system VAERS (as documented by the CDC). Vaccine injuries are not rare and according to data from the HHS and NCHS occur at a rate of 1/39. Exercising this fundamental human right should involve nothing other than a simple “no thank you” when one wants to refuse one, some, or all vaccinations for oneself. No exceptions. 55. https://peerj.com/articles/10112/?fbclid=IwAR0VqukcmrG7IIf42tVT6q3mzTbsi-i_eCrKOqRDxty_8IsuR88nZ0N1_ns The results showed a positive association between COVID-19 deaths and IVR of people ≥65 years-old. There is a significant increase in COVID-19 deaths from eastern to western regions in the world. Further exploration is needed to explain these findings, and additional work on this line of research may lead to prevention of deaths associated with COVID-19. 56. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31607599/ Vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus and human metapneumovirus; 57. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0531513104001694?fbclid=IwAR0ZO8_uKWmBOjz1FfiHWoVY7BP84AGk0WjG3qUHOJJyyy1CimC0CVacDJ4 Although elderly influenza vaccination coverage increased from ∼15% to ∼65% during 1980–1999 in the US, estimates of influenza-related mortality also increased during this period.In conclusion, the increase in elderly influenza vaccination coverage in the US after 1980 was not accompanied by a decline in influenza-related mortality. How many people die of the flu? CDC’s estimates of overall flu deaths have ranged in recent years from 36,000 for the 1990-1991 flu season to 80,000 for the 2017-2018 flu season. The HHS’s (Health and Human Services) mortality and morbidity data, available on the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) website show that CDC’s annual estimates are off by orders of magnitude. NCHS data report the average number of mortalities attributable to influenza on death certificates is little more than 1,000. CDC devises its inflated estimate by deliberately conflating flu deaths with pneumonia deaths. This device is deceitful since most of these fatalities are unrelated to the flu (and therefore, impervious to flu vaccines). Subtracting pneumonia, the true number of influenza-associated deaths from 1979 to 2002 averaged 1,348, according to the NCHS data. Media routinely reports figures forty times this number. By arbitrarily linking flu with pneumonia, current data are statistically biased. By faithfully parroting CDC inflated numbers with no due diligence the media has made itself complicit in this annual charade, making it difficult now to accurately assess the relative risk of the coronavirus as compared to the flu. What is the best way to prevent the flu? There is absolutely no scientific basis for the CDC’s assertion that the influenza vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the flu. The Cochrane Collaboration’s comprehensive 2010 meta-analysis of published influenza vaccine studies found that the influenza vaccination has no effect on hospitalization, and that there is no evidence that vaccines prevent viral transmission or complications. The Cochrane Researchers concluded in 2010 that the scientific evidence seems to discourage the utilization of vaccination against influenza in healthy adults as a routine public health measure. Four years later, Cochrane published a follow-up meta-review including dozens of more recent peer reviewed scientific studies and again concluded bluntly that the body of scientific data provides no evidence for the utilization of vaccination against influenza in healthy adults as a routine public health measure, again in 2018 their conclusions remain. Can the flu shot transmit the flu? Worrisome, a study from January 18, 2018, in the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PNAS, found that influenza vaccination actually increased transmission of the virus, with vaccinated individuals shedding more than six times as much aerosolized virus in their breath than unvaccinated individuals. The researchers were not surprised by this finding explaining that certain types of prior immunity in this case, the kind of immunity conferred by the vaccine as opposed to naturally acquired immunity promote lung inflammation, airway closure, and aerosol generation. They conclude that, if confirmed, this observation, together with recent literature suggesting reduced protection with annual vaccination, would have implications for influenza vaccination recommendations and policies. Should you get the flu shot if you are concerned about the coronavirus? Some universities and institutions fervently urge or mandate faculty, staff and students to get the flu shot as the best way to keep healthy during the coronavirus pandemic. According to even some medical doctors, “If you are concerned about coronavirus, you should get a flu shot”. However, there are limited studies assessing flu shots and coronavirus. One such study is a January 2020 US Pentagon study that found that the flu shot actually increases the risks from coronavirus by 36%. Receiving influenza vaccination may increase the risk of other respiratory viruses, a phenomenon known as virus interference, vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with the coronavirus. Many doctors assure the public that getting the flu shot cannot increase one’s chances of getting the flu. While that assertion has some meager support from a very small number of studies, the overwhelming weight of published science suggests that getting an annual flu shot can actually increase your risk of both flu and flu-like illnesses. Only about 7 percent to 15 percent of what are called “influenza-like illnesses” are actually caused by influenza viruses. Many studies suggest the flu vaccine increases vulnerability to both flu infections and the remaining 85% -93% of non-flu respiratory infections. A 2011 study of healthy Australian children published in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal found that seasonal flu shots increase the risk of flu by 73% and doubled the risk of non-flu respiratory infections. Similarly, another 2012 randomized controlled trial published in Clinical Infectious Diseases found that influenza vaccinated children had no significantly lessened risk from influenza and also a higher risk of infection from non-influenza viruses. Furthermore, the flu vaccine depletes the capacity to fight off future flu infections. In April 2010, a study published in the journal PLoS Medicine reported the unexpected finding from four epidemiologic studies in Canada that receipt of the influenza vaccine for the 2008-2009 season, while apparently effective in reducing the risk of illness due to the seasonal flu, was associated with an increased risk of illness due to the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) swine flu virus during the spring and summer of 2009. The scientists suggested that this finding could be due to the difference in the way the vaccine affects the immune system compared with natural infection. Under this hypothesis, repeated vaccination effectively blocks the more robust, complex, and cross-protective immunity afforded by prior infection. When unvaccinated people are infected with the seasonal influenza virus, they often develop a robust cell-mediated immunity that not only protects against that strain of the virus but is also cross-protective against other strains. People who have annually received the influenza vaccine, on the other hand, may have lost multiple opportunities for infection-induced cross-immunity. This is because the vaccine is designed to stimulate a strong antibody response, or humoral immunity, but does not confer the same kind of robust cell-mediated immunity as natural infection. Another study published in 2011 in the Journal of Virology confirmed that annual influenza vaccination indeed hampers the development of a robust cell-mediated immunity. Annual vaccination for influenza, the authors concluded, may render young children who have not previously been infected with an influenza virus more susceptible to infection with a pandemic influenza virus of a novel subtype. A 2018 CDC study found there was an increase of acute respiratory infections caused by non-influenza respiratory pathogens following influenza vaccination compared to unvaccinated children during the same period. The authors recommended that potential mechanisms for this association warrant further investigation. While most studies have looked at only one or two flu seasons, a CDC-funded study published in September 2014 in Clinical Infectious Diseases considered the long-term effects of repeated annual vaccination by looking at five years of vaccination data. The CDC researchers found that the more that people had been vaccinated in prior years, the less effective the vaccine is at preventing the most recent season’s dominant H3N2 virus. As they put it, vaccine-induced protection was greatest for individuals not vaccinated during the prior 5 years. Essentially, the immune system remembers the original infection and puts out a rapid defense against it, at the expense of developing a new but more appropriate response specifically to the currently infecting strain. The CDC scientists warned that their data raises relevant questions about the potential interference of repeated annual influenza vaccination and possible residual protection from previous season vaccination; the authors called for further studies. Conclusion In their 2010 meta-analysis, the Cochrane researchers accused the CDC of deliberately misrepresenting the science in order to support their universal influenza vaccination recommendation. The CDC holds multiple vaccine patents and generates substantial revenue from vaccines, insinuating conflict of interest by nature. Nevertheless, media continually broadcasts CDC pronouncements as gospel and, ironically, ridicules those of us who actually read the science as purveyors of vaccine misinformation. When in actuality, multiple comprehensive federal investigations and whistleblower declarations have documented the corrupt relationship between the CDC’s Vaccine Branch and the four vaccine makers: Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, and GSK. These include a 2000 report by the US Congress Government Oversight Committee, a 2009 report by the Federal HHS Inspector General, a 2014 letter by David Wright, Director of HHS Office of Research Integrity, and a 2011 letter to Carmen S. Villar, chief of staff for Tom Frieden, from an organization of CDC scientists. Medicolegal Disclaimer The above constitutes an opinion for educational purposes only and is in no way to be interpreted as medical advice.

We almost crashed our server this summer with our blog about why no doctor should ever recommend acetaminophen or prescribe a Tylenol-containing pain reliever again (colleagues, are you listening? FDA, how ’bout you?). Since then, I’ve fielded hundreds of inquiries from families—especially worried parents—asking WHAT to use instead of Tylenol? Dr. Benton, what do I do for a fever? Dr. Benton, what do I do for a headache? What about for aches and pains? What about for migraines? Glad you asked. There are safe, effective, natural alternatives to Tylenol that will get your pain in check. How to Treat a Fever Without Tylenol Fever is actually a positive sign that your immune system is paying attention and fighting disease. Fever is one of our body’s natural defenses against infection. Having a fever forces us to stay in bed—which gives our bodies time to heal. Several studies have found that treating a fever can actually have a negative effect, prolonging the length of time you’re sick. Don’t be afraid of a fever. That said, if you’re concerned that the fever is too high or if your fever is making you or your child miserable, a wet washcloth with a drop or two of lavender oil on it applied to the forehead will bring relief. As will a sponge bath, as the water evaporating from your skin will cool down the body. If you are really worried, get checked out. Peace of mind is worth it but soon enough you will know how your child responds to fever. For the body aches that come with fever, try homeopathic arnica- 3 pellets as needed for pain. Then there’s my favorite home remedy for fever, which I call the Wet Sock Trick. The Wet Sock Trick Run cotton socks under cold water and wring them out Put them on your feet and cover with a larger pair of wool socks In the morning the socks will be dry and the fever will be gone Babies with fever will also benefit from skin-to-skin. Take off your shirt (and bra) and hold your baby to your chest in nothing but their birthday suit. Your body temperature will help them regulate theirs. A baby under three months old who has a high fever and is acting lethargic should be seen by a doctor or taken to the emergency room right away! How to Treat a Headache Without Tylenol The best natural alternative to Tylenol is turmeric, a root used in Indian and African cooking known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Turmeric: Usually a quarter of a teaspoon of ground turmeric in 8 ounces of water or juice will do the trick for children, a half teaspoon for teens, and a teaspoon for adults. But you have to experiment a bit to get the dose right for you. Peppermint oil: Mix a drop or two of peppermint essential oil into a quarter of a cup of coconut oil. Massage this on your temples and neck, carefully avoiding your eyes. Some migraine sufferers report washing their hair with peppermint shampoo can also help. Epsom salt bath: An Epsom salt bath relieves aches and pains and can often cure headaches. Headaches are sometimes caused by a lack of magnesium. When you take an Epsom salt bath, magnesium sulfate is absorbed through your skin. Put 2 cups of Epsom salts and half a cup of apple cider vinegar in a bath as hot as you can stand it. Add a drop or two of lavender essential oil to the bath. Soak for 40 minutes or until the water gets cold. Magnesium citrate: Use as directed on the label. I recommend you take this at night, before bed. Magnesium citrate is a natural muscle relaxant (it also helps you have more regular bowel movements. My mama swears headaches are caused by constipation. Who knows, she may have been right all these years.) What if you’re pregnant? My colleague, Aviva Romm, M.D., also has good advice for any moms experiencing headaches during pregnancy. How to Treat a Migraine If you suffer from them, you know migraines can cause debilitating pain. You look like ten miles of bad road. Feel like it too. When you sense a migraine starting, don’t ignore it. Use the headache techniques above: Take turmeric (up to 2 Tablespoons every 3-4 hours until the pain goes away) Soak in an Epsom salt bath Try some magnesium citrate Caffeine often helps. Brew yourself a strong cup of coffee. If you are able, lie quietly in a darkened, cool room. My other suggestions for treating migraines can be found here. How to Help An Ear Ache Without Tylenol or Antibiotics In Europe doctors usually take a wait and see approach to ear infections, and do not jump to prescribe antibiotics. Wait and see and call me tomorrow. Patience. Something we Type A Americans have in short supply! Unfortunately, America doctors are quick to treat earaches with antibiotics, whether or not your child actually has an ear infection. Turns out ear infections are often misdiagnosed—inside the ear can look red for a number of reasons, including simply if your baby’s been crying. Instead of antibiotics, try an onion earmuff. I know it seems weird. But it works. Plus it will make your little sick one laugh his head off and laughter is good for the soul. I recommend Kula Mama’s recipe for onion earmuffs, which can clear up an infection in hours. I also recommend garlic-mullein drops, which you can buy at any food co-op or health food store, as long as the eardrum has not burst. If you’re child is getting ear infections often, it’s time to look for root causes. If you’ve got a sinus infection along with aching ears, you can find more advice here. Integrative medicine looks at root causes I know when you have pain you want immediate relief, not a long blah, blah, blah about why you’re in pain in the first place. Fair enough. But I’m an integrative physician and I believe it’s important not only to treat the symptoms but to find out what is causing them in the first place. I used to be a conventional gal, just like all y’all. And guess what? I was sick all the time. So were my kids. I opened my mind to a holistic, integrative approach in the first place because it helped me radically improve my own and my family’s health. So if you’re suffering from chronic pain, I’m here to tell you that it’s time for a nutrition and lifestyle overhaul. You may be eating foods that are pro-inflammatory and making you sick, you may be stressed out in ways that are putting your body into fight-or-flight mode, and you may not be getting enough exercise, a proven prescription to help fix your mood, jumpstart your libido, and lose weight. If your pain is constant, get both oars into the water. Find an awesome integrative or functional doctor and figure out why! What natural alternatives to Tylenol have you found helpful? What’s your best most effective home remedy to treat pain? We’d love for you to share your tips and tricks in the comment section below.

Smart doctors don’t get flu shots. Smart patients don’t either. Does that mean you’re not smart if you got a flu shot. No. .... It means the pharmaceutical industry has you and your wallet right where they want you. .... It means you believed the hype instead of looking at the science. Smart doctors don’t get flu shots. BUT I’m a doctor and not only did I get them, I insisted my mom and my siblings get their flu shot too. But I do judge an industry that tries to terrify and deceive people into getting a flu vaccine they do not want or need. I made my mom and siblings get the flu vaccine too. My Flu Story Growing up, I never had a flu shot and I also never had the flu. But as a young adult thinking about starting a family, I listened to my doctor. I was told getting a flu shot was not only good for me and my family, it was essential. Life-saving. And not getting a flu shot? Only irresponsible, unintelligent patients and crackpot parents refused the flu vaccine. How could there be a problem with the flu vaccine? Everyone was getting one. You could get them at the supermarket. Besides, my doctor couldn’t be wrong. Since my husband and I were starting a family, I made my mom and siblings get the flu shot too. I didn’t want my family spending time around my children if they were not fully vaccinated. That was just good common sense. We had three children in five years and I insisted every year that family members get the flu shot. Every year. Guess what happened? Sick from the shot My mom, who had not had the flu since childhood, my brother, and my sister all got high fevers, body aches, and upper respiratory infections, all within 24 hours of the flu vaccine. All lasting a week or two. For three years in a row. I am a conventionally trained medical doctor. I saw my family get sick within a week of the flu vaccine. Three years straight. But I dismissed it. An unfortunate coincidence. Nothing to do with the flu vaccine. You can’t get sick from a vaccine. That’s what I had been taught. And that’s what I believed. Besides, I was fine after my first flu vaccine. Initially. True, I started getting almost constant colds that lasted four or five months following the flu vaccine. Before, when I didn’t get the vaccine, I was usually healthy and cold-free in the winter. It took me awhile to connect the dots. It took me awhile before I stopped ignoring the clinical evidence in front of me, in my own body, and in my mom and siblings. It’s hard for doctors to realize our education is incomplete. It’s hard to become aware that the whole medical establishment is caught up in a belief system that is simply untrue. It’s hard to admit that we are wrong. It took me three years but I figured it out. Every year the flu vaccine was making me and my family sick. My colleagues keep telling their patients you can’t get sick from the flu shot. And they say it “would have been so much worse without the shot.” Can you hear the BS meter going off? I couldn’t back then but I can now. The sound is deafening. Look at the science. We now know, from both animal and epidemiology studies in humans, that the flu vaccine can and does make you sick. Mandatory Flu Vaccines for Doctors and Nurses I used to work for a group practice. Our practice decided to mandate the flu vaccine. They did not mandate that we eat vegetables with every meal, get optimal amounts of sleep, have our vitamin D levels checked and supplement with sunbathing or supplements if they were below optimal levels, or adopt other health strategies proven to support the immune system. Why mandate the flu vaccine? That dictate started wheels turning. How important is it really to get the flu shot? What are the real risks and benefits? In medical school we did not look critically at vaccines. We did not study the risk of adverse events, discuss vaccine ingredients, or talk in any detail about efficacy rates. We were not told that the government compensates families with loved ones who have died from a vaccination or suffered other extreme health problems. Instead, we were taught what amounts to little more than propaganda about vaccines. An infectious disease specialist spends an hour or two with students showing us pictures of miserable children suffering acute side effects from infectious diseases. She says angrily, “C’mon. We can do better than that. No child should ever have to suffer like this!” You are supposed to accept it without question and, of course, you do. No one wants a child to die. We become doctors in order to heal people, and keep them alive. So of course we don’t question the Holy Grail. Which means never looking critically at the necessity, efficacy, and safety of any given vaccine. The flu vaccine works and saves thousands of lives every year. End of conversation. Government-advertised death rates from the flu are grossly inflated We are told that between 30,000-50,000 die annually of the flu, a dangerous and sometimes lethal illness that affects infants and the elderly the most. “…in the United States alone, over 36,000 people die and 200,000 are hospitalized each year because of the flu,” according to Harvard University. Flu death statistics are usually tallied from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report database. But deaths from the flu and from pneumonia are lumped together in one category in the MMWR. This greatly inflates the number of “flu” deaths. And is a nonsensical way to capture statistics, as the majority of pneumonia cases have nothing to do with the flu! Yep. It is true. The death rates from the flu that we are told year after year, repeated ad nauseam in medical training and in the media, are, as Bob Sears, M.D., puts it, “grossly inflated” (The Vaccine Book, p.121), and what this country doctor would say more plainly, are simply made up. The scientific evidence does not support having a yearly flu vaccine I contacted the chair of the committee that was recommending flu vaccine mandates at my work and asked him to share the scientific evidence that mandating flu vaccines for health care workers actually reduces death rates from the flu. He could not offer me a single article to read. I don’t know, he told me, adding that all the major health organizations recommend the flu vaccine and, “I trust them.” Then he rattled off several major medical organizations recommending the flu vaccine, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Heart Association. So what does this bulldog do? I write them all, asking for a list of scientific studies supporting flu vaccine mandates and requesting the information that proves that mandating the vaccine for doctors and nurses contributes to better outcomes. Some ignored me but some responded. They all said the same thing: That they didn’t have the information I’d requested! One prominent organization recommended I contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes for Health (NIH), as they based their recommendations off the CDC’s and the NIH’s. So none of the leading health organizations shaping public health policy has scientific information to support the policy to mandate the flu vaccine? How can this be? I had three young children and worked full time. But I wanted to read the science for myself to find out if what I was noticing clinically—with my own health, my family’s, as well as with my patients’—was valid. As helpful and important as vaccines may be, the flu vaccine recommendation left me with more questions than answers. Since none of the organizations insisting on the necessity of the flu vaccine could provide me with direct information, I went searching for it myself. I will put it to you that any conventionally trained medical doctor who is willing to impartially research the science behind the influenza vaccine safety, efficacy, and necessity is in for a surprise. The best place to start a search for accurate medical information is usually the Cochrane database. Cochrane is a non-profit research organization based in the United Kingdom and they tend to be considered the gold standard in scientific medical research. Their reviews of the medical literature are comprehensive and carefully peer-reviewed. As my colleague, Mark Hyman, M.D., explains in an article, Flu Shot: Harmful or Helpful?: “One very reliable way to determine the effectiveness of the flu shot is to look at the database analysis presented by The Cochrane Collaboration, an independent group of scientists who have no link to any industry or government agencies.” So what does Cochrane have to say about the flu vaccine? It’s not effective for children under age 18 or for adults over 65. Between ages 18 to 65, it is only 30-50% effective in an average year (which means it fails between 50-70% of the time) and up to 80% in a perfectly matched year (a much lower number than most vaccines). There is no decrease in flu transmission rate or hospitalization rate for people who have gotten the flu vaccine. Ut oh. Here is the Cochrane review’s results and conclusions so you can read them yourself: MAIN RESULTS: We included 50 reports. Forty (59 sub-studies) were clinical trials of over 70,000 people. Eight were comparative non-RCTs and assessed serious harms. Two were reports of harms which could not be introduced in the data analysis. In the relatively uncommon circumstance of vaccine matching the viral circulating strain and high circulation, 4% of unvaccinated people versus 1% of vaccinated people developed influenza symptoms (risk difference (RD) 3%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2% to 5%). The corresponding figures for poor vaccine matching were 2% and 1% (RD 1, 95% CI 0% to 3%). These differences were not likely to be due to chance. Vaccination had a modest effect on time off work and had no effect on hospital admissions or complication rates. Inactivated vaccines caused local harms and an estimated 1.6 additional cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome per million vaccinations. The harms evidence base is limited. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. There is no evidence that they affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission. WARNING: This review includes 15 out of 36 trials funded by industry (four had no funding declaration). An earlier systematic review of 274 influenza vaccine studies published up to 2007 found industry funded studies were published in more prestigious journals and cited more than other studies independently from methodological quality and size. Studies funded from public sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favorable to the vaccines. The review showed that reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies. The content and conclusions of this review should be interpreted in light of this finding. In Dr. Hyman’s words: “After analyzing all of the data on the flu shot, they have concluded that it really doesn’t work well. It doesn’t even cover most of the influenza infections that people get.” Dr. Hyman concludes that the majority of Americans do not need a flu vaccine. He explains the science behind his conclusion here. I also found a 126-page analysis by researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP). Among the key findings of this 2012 analysis (in the researchers’ own words): Influenza vaccine protection is markedly lower than for most routinely recommended vaccines and is suboptimal. CDC recommendations about the flu vaccine over the past 30 years have not been based on scientifically sound data. I shared the results of my research with colleagues. They were stunned. Just stunned. I also wrote back to the committee member who wasn’t aware of this data to let him know that there is no scientific data to support mandating flu vaccines. And since those studies have been published, flu vaccine efficacy rates have hit new lows. In 2014-2015 the flu vaccine was only 19% effective. This year FluMist, the nasal spray influenza vaccine, is no longer recommended. Why? Because it doesn’t work at all. In the words of the CDC, “no protective benefit could be measured.” The CDC tells me personally that the flu vaccine doesn’t work Dr. Mark Hyman practices functional medicine. Like integrative medicine, functional medicine seeks to individualize medical treatment, identify and treat the root causes of illness and disease, and help the body heal itself through lifestyle and nutritional intervention, not just pharmaceutical products. At a functional medicine conference, I happened to be seated at lunch beside a lovely CDC senior medical official. She was there to learn more about functional medicine. She was super nice and, of course, I couldn’t help but be excited that I was sitting next to gold. Or so I thought. Our conversation went like this: Dr. Benton: So, what do you think about the flu vaccine? Dr. CDC: It’s a good thing. A wonderful intervention. Everyone needs one. Absolutely. Dr. Benton: Have you looked into the recent science? Dr. CDC: Of course. So good to see our ideas confirmed—it’s a safe, efficacious vaccination that seems to cause few, if any, side effects. Dr. Benton: So you’ve read these studies yourself? Dr. CDC: [Hesitating. Silent. Long pause.] Well, actually, I haven’t… So I jumped in. I told her all about the Cochrane review. Her. Jaw. Dropped. Yep. She, a senior CDC medical official, did not have a clue. In all fairness, just because you work at the CDC, should you really know all the most recently published studies about all vaccines? I don’t think so. And to her credit, she was interested and engaged and listened with an open mind. She told me I needed to talk directly to the influenza division of the CDC. So this small town country doctor made an appointment with the medical director of the influenza division of the CDC.  With sweaty palms and racing heart, I made the phone call at the appointed time. I introduced myself and proceeded to go over the data about the flu vaccine, including that per the national vital statistics on the CDC website, that there are only about 1,000 deaths out of over 300 million people from the flu. After each factoid I mentioned, the CDC director just said, “Yep.” Befuddled, I got to the end of my list of concerns, wiped my palms on my skirt, and asked, “Rebuttal?” She said she didn’t have one! In fact, she said, there will never be a good flu vaccine because there are over 200 different viruses that cause influenza and influenza-like symptoms and vaccine manufacturers have to guess a year in advance for the strain of flu that might be in circulation that coming year. Like meteorologists predicting the weather, sometimes vaccine scientists are pretty accurate, sometimes they are dead wrong. So I asked her why our government is pushing flu mandates across the country? She denied that the CDC was recommending mandates, and admitted there is simply not enough science to justify mandating the flu vaccine. All of these hospital, school, and company policies, she insisted, were outside of the purview of the CDC. I reminded her the CDC shapes public policy by recommending vaccines and that medical professionals were being fired across the country for refusing the flu vaccine. She said she disagreed with that practice. And there you have it. The smart doctors who work inside the CDC know the flu shot isn’t working. And they probably don’t get flu shots either. Big Pharma Pushes Flu Mandates, Smart Doctors Push Back Why this ridiculous push for a vaccine that doesn’t work, that prompted more government pay-outs because of adverse events, including death, than any other vaccine in 2017 so far, and that also contains ingredients analyzed by CDC scientists and found, in a recent peer-reviewed paper, to be highly neurotoxic? Could it be the bonuses that insurance companies pay to medical groups for flu vaccine compliance among their staff and their patients? Could it be the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to politicians by the powerful pharmaceutical lobby? In an 8-year period donations by pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines given to the American Academy of Pediatricians exceeded 9.4 million dollars (The Business of Baby, p. 223). Smart doctors tell their patients the truth. Smart doctors give their patients all the information they need to make an informed decision about what is in the best interests of their health. Smart doctors tell their patients the risks of the vaccine, the benefits of the vaccine, and the alternatives to vaccination. The best alternative, in this doctor’s assessment, is not to get a flu vaccine. What I would do...Get some Elderberry Syrup!  https://www.sweetssyrup.com https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetsSyrup

We all want our children to be healthy—which is my main concern as an integrative family physician—right? But we also want our children to thrive. We want them to feel good about themselves without having inflated egos. We want them to feel confident and competent and have good self-esteem. We want them to be kind. We adults want that too, don’t we? Good health, a good sense of self, competence in our jobs, compassion towards others? So far so good. But imagine you’re only three feet three inches tall. You talk, but not always in a way others can understand. You have very strong ideas about the world but very little experience in it. When you try to drink water from a cup, you spill half all over yourself. When you want to climb the outside of the staircase (one of my daughter’s favorite activity), you get intercepted. When you leave the house in nothing but your birthday suit to tow your little red wagon down the sidewalk, your mom freaks out. (These aren’t real-life examples or anything…) It can be frustrating being a little kid. Wonderful. Fun. Funny. But also frustrating as heck. As you undoubtedly know because you’re reading this blog, it can also be frustrating being the parent of a little kid. Wonderful. Fun. Funny. But also frustrating as heck. Parents model self-esteem for their kids How we act around our kids is a model for them. Our actions affect theirs even when we aren’t aware of it. We are their first teachers. So we need to try to model good self-esteem, patience, and kindness if we want our children to have these qualities. Easy to advise! But not always so easy to do. What does this mean? If you don’t want your baby girl to have weight issues, don’t look in the mirror and say, “I’m so fat.” If you don’t want your son to be a bully, don’t scream at him when you’re mad. If you want your children to be gentle and kind, don’t harm them physically or emotionally That’s the whole concept idea. But there are also concrete hands-on things that we can do to set our toddlers and small children up for success. It turns out that even really little kids like to do things for themselves. And when they are able to do things for themselves, they feel more self-confident and have better self-esteem. A win-win for everyone. 3 Tips to build your toddler’s self-confidence and boost his self-esteem TIP #1: Give Kids Their Own Drawer In The Kitchen My friend Jennifer calls it a “stash.” Create a place in the kitchen—preferable an easy-to-open drawer (but a basket or a box on the ground will work too)—where your kids can keep plates and cups and other things they use regularly. Once you set it up for them, your kids can arrange their “stash” of glasses, plates, cups, and silverware any way they like. TIP #2: Give Kids Jobs They Can Do and Have Them Do Chores Writer Christine Gross-Loh, Ph.D., explains in the introduction to her book, Parenting Without Borders: Surprising Lessons Parents Around the World Can Teach Us, that “…the keys to raising resilient, compassionate, competent children can be found in the simplest practices. Often it means doing less, like giving kids time to play away from adult eyes, even if that means they will have disagreements with their friends that an adult won’t help them solve. Sometimes it means doing more, like requiring them to do regular chores so they feel competent and needed.” Children as young as three years old run errands in Japan, according to Gross-Loh! She and her family lived in Japan and used to watch a popular Japanese TV show called My First Errand that featured kids as young as three years old taking lunch to a parent, buying something at the corner store by themselves, bringing a gift to a neighbor! Okay, so that’s Japan. But, still, we Americans sometimes forget that kids can do more and are way more capable than we think. Even toddlers are able to … Empty (some of) the dishwasher: They can take the stuff that belongs in their stash out of the dishwasher and put it directly into their drawer/stash. This makes your job easier too! Set the table: Since they can easily reach what’s in their stash, children as young as two or three can help set the table, at least for their own place setting. When they get old enough to reach the regular dishes, have it be their job to set the whole table for the family. Help you cook: When they’re old enough to cut with a scissors, you can give them a blunt pair and some lettuce or scallions. Have them stand on a chair next to you and cut the vegetables into a bowl for salad. Check out this blog by Jennifer Margulis, author of Your Baby, Your Way, for more good ideas. TIP #3: Don't Praise The Outcome, Notice The Effort This is a hard one for me. And for a lot of parents, I think. But it turns out that we should NOT be telling our kids “good job,” or “well done.” Empty praise like this has actually been found to harm, not help, their self-esteem! So, instead of saying to my daughter, “Awesome drawing” (she really is an awesome artist), I should notice something about the painting: “Wow, I like how you used a swirl of colors over here.” That way I am pointing out something concrete and showing her that I’m actually paying attention. Experts also recommend that parents praise the effort a child has put into a task (only possible if the child was actually making an effort). “You worked really hard on that drawing,” I could say to my daughter. Or, “I noticed you were really concentrating for a long time.” Praising the results actually makes children only want to do things they are good at. But praising the process or the effort itself sets them up for a lifetime of doing interesting things, whether those things come easily to them or not. We’d love to hear your thoughts. What are your best tips for raising self-confident kids? You can share your ideas here or find us on Facebook.

Are you trying to conceive? Are you obsessively checking the hashtag #TTC, charting your ovulation, and buying pregnancy tests in bulk? If you’re reading this article, chances you’ve been having a lot of horizontal time with your partner (eh hem), because you are trying to conceive a baby.  I’m a family physician, which means I see patients at every age and stage of their lives. I give advice to 20-year-olds with painful menstrual cramps, help 70-year-olds who are having trouble sleeping, and counsel women who are trying to conceive.  I’m also an integrative physician, which means I take a whole-person, natural-minded approach to health issues, which can really help when women are trying to conceive. Integrative Say What? If you’re new here, you might never have heard the term “integrative medicine” (also called “functional medicine”) before. Integrative medicine combines the best of conventional western medicine with the best of other health practices, including nutritional counseling, acupuncture, and chiropractic. So instead of prescribing a pharmaceutical drug to a woman who is trying to conceive, an integrative family physician or an integrative obstetrician- gynecologist will first try to uncover the root causes of infertility. Once we know what those root causes of infertility are, we can heal the body without medication that may have harmful side effects. Serophene, also known as Clomid, is an oral medication that stimulates ovulation and is what most conventional medical doctors immediately prescribe. But for integrative doctors our first go-to is to solve the problem of trying to conceive with natural methods. The conventional approach: costly and increasingly expensive and invasive treatments, starting with pharmaceuticals and moving on to IVF (in vitro fertilization). The integrative approach: The healthier you and your partner are pre-conception, the more likely you will be able to conceive, carry to term, have a healthy birth, and have a healthy baby. Start with nutritional and lifestyle changes. If those don’t work, then turn to pharmaceutical help. The Problem With Infertility In America If the popularity of fairytale princess movies is any indication, a girl waits her whole life to grow up, marry her Prince Charming, and start a royal family of her very own. But unfortunately, for many Cinderellas, conception doesn’t actually happen right away, if at all. No matter how many times we stand on our head, how long we’ve charted our cycle, or how hard we stare at that life-changing stick, our princess powers fail us month after month. Infertility, defined by the CDC as not being able to conceive a baby after one year of trying, affects about 10% of American women ages 15-44. When you are trying to conceive and not able to, you feel like the world is full of smiling moms holding babies in their arms. But think of this statistic another way: Over six million women in America are having difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant at any given time. You feel like a failure, you’re devastated every time a pregnancy test comes back negative, but you are not alone. So what can you do to be healthier while you are trying to conceive? You’ve already been told not to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or eat fish high in mercury, but chances are your doctor has not told you about the other toxins you need to avoid. Avoid these 5 toxins when you're trying to conceive 1. GMO-Food free. Ditch the genetically modified foods. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have not been properly tested for human consumption and studies show they decrease sperm count, and may cause sterility, infertility, miscarriages, and spontaneous abortions. The herbicides and pesticides sprayed on these plants cannot be washed off and may also cause sterility, infertility, sexual dysfunction and hormone disruption. Studies done by the Italians, Austrians, and Russians confirm that GMOs act as birth control, cause DNA incompatibility between mates, and impair DNA function between a mother and fetus.The easiest way to (almost entirely) avoid GMO food is to eat organically grown fruits and vegetables and skip processed and package junk food. 2. No Fat/Low Fat Say YES to healthy fats.If you’re trying to conceive, now is NOT the time to go on a “No Fat/Low Fat” diet. Eating a low fat diet has been linked to decreased fertility. Fat gets a bad rap but don’t be fooled: the truth is that good fats are essential for making and baking a healthy baby.Pass on the daily helpings of fried foods and the potato chips, for sure, but add coconuts, avocados, walnuts, and organic, pastured butter to your diet. 3. Stress Skip the stress. Reading this article right now may be stressing you out. Research shows that stress can lower a man’s sperm count and disrupt the hormones needed to make his equipment function properly. It’s worse for women: Women who work more than 32 hours a week are less likely to conceive and 30% of women who visit infertility clinics have some form of anxiety or depression. To increase your chances of conception, avoid stress like a bad hair day. 4. Chemicals like 1,4-Dioxane and Quarternium-15 Kick the chemicals out of your life.This is much harder than it sounds. Chances are your bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room are teaming with chemicals you don’t realize are toxic: conventional cleaning products (which will poison you or your baby if they are accidentally swallowed); cosmetics that contain quarternium-15, a preservative that actually off-gasses formaldehyde; and hair relaxers and baby soaps tainted with1,4-Dioxane, a petroleum-derived carcinogen found in over 90% of hair relaxers and 57% of baby soaps even though it’s not listed on the ingredients.There are over 80,000 chemicals used in everyday products that have never been tested for safety in humans; many of the chemicals that have been tested are known endocrine disruptors, which can directly interfere with the hormone magic needed to get and stay pregnant. Read the labels on everything in your home, including soaps, shampoos, laundry detergents, toothpaste (yes, toothpaste!), personal skin care products, and cleaners. If you can’t pronounce or recognize the ingredients, they are likely to be poisonous. Toss them in the trash, which will make you feel less stressed (See #3). Then enjoy some horizontal time with your partner to celebrate. 5. Antibiotics Abandon the antibiotics. Antibiotics can alter the friendly flora of the vagina and increase a woman’s chance of getting bacterial vaginosis or a vaginal candida infection. Just like fresh water fish can’t swim in a salt-filled ocean, your man’s sperm can’t swim in a hostile vagina. Most antibiotics have not been shown to be safe for a developing baby. As my colleague Aviva Romm, M.D., explains in this post, don’t take em’ if you don’t need em’ and look for alternatives if you’re trying to conceive. It’s hard. It can be discouraging. It may seem like every one of your friends (and her sister) is getting pregnant when a guy so much as looks in her direction.  But these lifestyle improvements won’t just help you conceive, they’ll help you feel happier, healthier, and more grounded. Your turn will come, mama-to-be. Soon you’ll be holding your own little prince or princess in your arms.

Years ago, I was struggling working 55+ hours per week with two toddlers at home and I thought I was going to lose my mind! I was not enjoying the gifts God had given me like I knew I should.  I was short tempered and impatient and simply not happy.  I went to my first holistic conference where they discussed stress management and I was convinced I didn't have time to do it. After realizing I was the debbie downer, I decided I needed to make a change.  The world was going to go on with or without me so how could I change my perception of the world around me so I could be more present and enjoy it and not let life bring me down.  After I followed the following steps, within two short weeks, I was no longer waking at 2-3 am wide awake.  Bedtime was spent reading and enjoying my girls instead of griping at them to go to sleep.  That meant they went to sleep easier since I wasn't stressing them out which meant I was able to go work downstairs more efficiently because I was less stressed out.  That meant, I finished my work earlier and I went to sleep more peacefully.  By just changing my perception of the world around me, my sleep responded, my work was more efficient, I was calmer and more importantly, my girls were happier and bedtime was more fun. Stress Management Rx Yoga/tai chi/stretching - You cannot have a flexible mind when your body is tense.  My favorite yoga video is "Kundalini Yoga Ultimate Stretch Workout"-Ana Brett and Ravi Singh.  It is very Americanized and you can do it in portions.  Start slow and easy and try 20 minutes to start. Deep breathing- there are so many techniques-it stimulates the "chill out" nervous system to lower stress hormones which helps lower your blood pressure, pulse, weight loss.  One technique-sit straight, legs down, eyes closed and breathe in the nose 4 seconds, 7 seconds out of the mouth.  Do that 2-4 times when stressed, to start the day, before work, during lunch etc.  It takes less than a minute.  Another one is to hold your thumb to one nostril and breathe in, then let go of the thumb and put the pinky finger to the other nostril and breathe out.  Alternate and do several breaths like that. Daily Gratitude Journal - 3 one-liner blessings for the day.  No repeats allowed making you really figure out your blessings.  Before you know it, you will be looking for those blessings and turn the cup is half empty to the cup is half full.  Life is full of blessings, hidden and in plain view. Guided Meditation - If you have Insomnia and need help falling asleep, consider a guided meditation CD. Check out CD's on Amazon.com or apps on smart phones.  You can find one that suits your needs including Christian based ones.  It will help you reign in those wandering or racing thoughts that I call monkey brain. Daily Exercise - All of the above will take 30 minutes or less a day but if you can, also add in aerobic exercise which has been proven efficacious for depression.  A study showed that exercise alone was superior to an antidepressant or antidepressant plus exercise!! (not saying there is never use for medicines).  Aerobic exercise increases your feel good hormones. I hope these techniques can help you on your health journey just like they helped me! Peace and love, Dr. Benton