| Most Dying From Flu-Related Illness
Likely To Exhibit Nutritional Deficiencies
While the mortality rate for the now prevalent late-2009 season
novel H1N1 flu strain is far lower than seasonal-flu death rates
in prior years, needless death is always regrettable. According
to published medical reports, most Americans dying of flu-related
illness need to be immediately tested for nutritional deficiencies
upon hospitalization or physician examination as they are likely
to exhibit shortages of vitamins and trace minerals.
Despite strong evidence that nutrient adequacy is important in
producing antibodies following vaccination and in favorably controlling
the immune response, it is not yet common practice in American
hospitals or doctors' offices to test for nutrient deficiencies.
The Centers for Disease Control reports 29% of patients who succumbed
to the flu developed secondary infections in their lungs resulting
in pneumonia. [Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Reports September
29, 2009/58(Early Release); 1–4]
Public health authorities are calling for more vaccines, in this
case, pneumococcal vaccine (Prevnar®), while ignoring published
data showing life-threatening influenza is likely triggered by
nutritional deficiencies, particularly vitamin E, vitamin D and
the trace mineral selenium.
More recently researchers at the Department of Preventive Medicine
and Community Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry–New
Jersey Medical School, Newark, said "undernutrition or malnutrition
adversely affects host defenses against many invading microorganisms,
thereby increasing the severity of infection." These researchers
call attention to adequate levels of selenium and vitamin E in
reducing the severity of infectious disease as well as inhibiting
human-to-human transmission. [Clinical Infectious Disease 2007
Aug 15; 45(4):470–4]
Over reliance upon vaccines, antibiotics, anti-viral drugs
It goes unexplained why health authorities, in an age of antibiotic,
vaccine and anti-viral drug resistance, continue to ignore what
University of North Carolina researchers call the "the neglected
virulence factor: host nutritional status." The nutritional
status of the individual not only controls immunity but also the
genetic makeup of the attacking virus, say these researchers,
who wrote in 2004 that "the nutritional status of the host,
until recently, has not been considered a contributing factor
to the emergence of infectious disease." [Trends Microbiology
2004 Sep; 12(9):417–23].
Spanish flu deaths reexamined
A review conducted by Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, examined autopsy
records, lung tissue sections and bacteriologic data from subjects
who succumbed to the Spanish flu of 1918–19 and conclude
that they largely died of bacterial pneumonia. [Journal Infectious
Disease 2008 Oct 1; 198(7):962–70] While modern medicine
does have access to antibiotics, their overuse could imperil the
world. Widespread use of antibiotics during a flu pandemic would
certainly spark an increase in germ resistance. Modern medicine
is walking out on the end of a limb here.
The 1918 Spanish flu occurred prior to the discovery of the first
penicillin, the first antibiotic. Flu outbreaks since the availability
of antibiotics have not been so deadly. But it also needs to be
said the Spanish flu occurred before the 1930s, the decade when
most vitamins were discovered, and this may explain why, with
widespread food fortification, there has never been another flu
epidemic in America quite so deadly.
While antibiotics like erythromycin and chloramphenicol do suppress
the growth of bacteria like Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus
aureus, which are known to secondarily result in flu-related pneumonia,
these antibiotics diminish the production of natural antimicrobial
peptides such a cathelicidin, a molecule dependent upon vitamin
D for synthesis. [FASEB J. 2007 Apr; 21(4):1107–16] Natural
immunity is suppressed when antibiotics are used.
An attempt to make flu vaccines work
The call this year for the public to require two rather than
just one flu shot is admission that adequate immunity was never
achieved in prior vaccination campaigns.
Not only does nutritional supplementation help avert flu-related
death, but it also improves antibody production following vaccination.
Inoculation against the flu is typically not very effective in
generating antibodies among senior adult populations, the greatest
at-risk group to develop flu-related pneumonia and to die. Flu
vaccination among retirees is only about 20–35% effective
in producing adequate antibody response. Well-made multivitamins
that include vitamins C, E and E, folic acid and selenium are
likely to serve well here. [J Gerontology A Biol Sci Med Sci.
2002 Sep; 57(9):M563–6; Vaccine. 2005 Feb 10; 23(12):1457–63;
J Parenteral Enteral Nutrition 2004 Sep–Oct; 28(5):348–54]
Calming an over-responsive immune system
Old animals subjected to infectious diseases develop more pronounced
inflammation (as evidenced by increased markers of inflammation
– COX-2 and TNF-alpha). Vitamin E calms an over-responsive
immune reaction. [J Leukocyte Biology 2008 Oct; 84(4):900–14]
This is important because the arrival of armies of white blood
cells at the site of infection, such as the lungs, can induce
inflammation and result in the lungs rapidly filling up with fluid,
literally drowning the patient. One experiment shows that vitamin
E enhances protective T-cells (white blood cells made in the thymus
gland) and inhibits inflammation that results from an over-responsive
immune system. [Immunology Review 2005 Jun; 205:269–84]
Prevent infection altogether
Of course, the best approach is to prevent flu infection altogether.
Vitamin E is particularly helpful here because it works in the
most vulnerable subjects – the aged. Vitamin E has been shown
to reduce viral counts in old, but no6 young animals. [Proceedings
Nutrition Society 1999 Aug; 58(3):697–705] Human studies
show vitamin E-sufficient nursing home patients are far more resistant
to respiratory infections. [Immunology Review 2005 Jun; 205:269–84]
Sulfur compound to the rescue
Another underutilized remedy is N-acetylcysteine (NAC), available
in most health food stores. NAC is a sulfur compound and precursor
to glutathione, a universal antioxidant produced in all living
cells. NAC has been in use for more than 50 years for its ability
resolve respiratory troubles via dissolution of thick mucus in
the lungs and bronchial tree.
In a study conducted at 20 centers in Italy under the direction
of the Institute of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University
of Genoa, Italy, involving 262 subjects, 78% of whom were age
65 years or older who either received 600 milligrams NAC or a
placebo tablet twice a day (1200 mg NAC total per day) for 6 months,
the effects of NAC were profound. Subjects given NAC experienced
a significant reduction in the frequency of flu-like episodes
as well as reduced severity of symptoms. While about the same
percentage of subjects in both groups exhibited antibodies to
the H1N1 Singapore flu strain, only 25% of those in the NAC group
developed flu symptoms compared to 79% in the group that received
in inactive placebo tablet. [European Respiratory J. 1997 Jul;
10(7):1535–41] NAC even exhibits strong anti-viral and anti-inflammatory
properties against the dreaded H5N1 bird flu, a viral strain that
is not easily transmitted to others, but has a 60% mortality rate
(6 in 10 infected die). [Biochemical Pharmacology 2009 Sept 2]
Vitamin D
Long ago when medical researchers were making a connection between
vitamin D deficiency and rickets (bone softening in growing children),
they noticed that children with rickets also experienced a lot
of infections. A study in 1981 showed that vitamin D–deficient
mice exhibit sluggish white blood cells called macrophages which
literally digest roaming viruses and bacteria. When given vitamin
D, the macrophages vigorously pursue germs while normalizing inflammation.
[Calcified Tissue International 1981; 33: 673–76] Neutrophils
that comprise 70% of the white blood cells that rapidly respond
to infection also are very sluggish without vitamin D. [Acta Paediatrica
Scandinavia. 1976 Nov; 65(6):695–9]
Reference Source: lewrockwell.com
October 7, 2009
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