Sunday, November 15, 2009

Seven Ways to Avoid the Flu

The symptoms of flu, or influenza, that sets it apart from an ordinary cold are fever and body aches. You can also have the normal cold symptoms of discharge, headaches, cough, and sore throat as these can relate to any upper respiratory tract problem. You also might have gastrointestinal problems.

Most people suffer from the occasional cold during autumn, winter or spring. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Discharges can be a toxic clearing, so should never be suppressed.

However, most people would prefer to avoid the debilitating types of flu. Here are seven ways that you can start now, to remain healthy next season.

  1. Make sure you eat well. This means lots of fresh fruit and vegetables that should make up at least 50% of your diet. Raw is best. Eat lots of green, leafy vegetables. Avoid or limit processed food (white sugar, artificial sweeteners, white flour, white rice). Limit dairy and meat.
  2. Get plenty of sun. These days, the sun has an unfounded bad reputation. If you’re not getting enough sun, it’s likely you’ll never be well. How much is enough sun? That depends on you, your location and the season. But I suggest one hour is the minimum daily exposure (not necessarily in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the day).
  3. Make sure you keep your liquids up. Drink when you’re thirsty. Avoid or limit soft drinks.
  4. Adequate rest is essential to keeping your body healthy. If you are burning the candle at both ends, don’t expect to avoid any illness.
  5. Taking a whole food (as opposed to the common synthetic) supplement can be hugely beneficial in topping up any nutritional deficiencies that may be caused either by your diet or by the way food is produced. Blue green algae are the best whole food supplements.
  6. Be a happy, optimistic person. If you’re not that sort of person, work on it, or get professional help. Optimistic people are much healthier than pessimistic ones.
  7. Take the homeopathic flu preventer, Oscillococcinum, also called Anas barb. This is available from homeopathic pharmacies, online,  and from some homeopaths, naturopaths, pharmacies, health shops.

These measures are going to do you a great deal more good than remaining in bad living habits and relying on medication or vaccination to provide you with protection against the flu, or a particular strain.

All medication does is to suppress the symptoms, not cure the flu. All vaccination does is to prevent that particular strain, at best. But they can cause neurological damage, or even kill you, at worst.

And the vaccination doesn’t prevent the sequelae, or the spin off. These symptoms go undetected by everyone except the patient and homeopaths.