The Swine Flu and Sweet Potatoes

will have problems. if we eat too much fiber….well you know what happens when you eat too much fiber! Don’t eat sugar. Wait! You need to eat some sugar, just make sure it’s the not the white processed kind. Don’t eat fat. Oops you need to have a some fat.

Now we are hearing about swine flu. H1N1 or the hinney flu or, as someone brilliantly dubbed it, the government flu. I am not going to say that it doesn’t exist. But the more I read and hear about it, the more I get skeptical. Now number one, I am not fond of vaccinations. Born in 1953, I had most of the things that kids get shots for. I even survived the polio epidemic of the summer of 1954. Any time I have blood drawn, the labs always come back with the question ‘Have you recently been vaccinated?’ The antibodies in my blood are exceptionally strong.

The first time I heard of the Swine flu was in 1976. I was one of the first to get the experimental flu vaccine developed just for the H1N1. President Gerald Ford even went on television and was given the shot so I thought why not. I wasn’t allergic to eggs and it was produced in the US at the time. I took the shot and was violently ill within 12 hours.
I was later diagnosed with Swine Flu.

I am not going to tell you that I breezed through it. It was probably one of the roughest things I have ever had to deal with. And you must bear in mind that I don’t let many things stop me from going. Since 1976, I have had one other case of the flu and I didn’t even try to find out what the strain of it was. But I felt like the newspaper in the bottom of a bird cage! (just think about that one for a few minutes)

So now we are hearing about the H1N1 virus and the word Pandemic is being bandied about. IF and when the purported vaccine is available, I will not take it for several reasons. Mainly, the last time I took a flu shot, I had a reaction. I don’t like reactions and neither did the doctor. On his advice, I will not take another one. Secondly, since no one seems to want to tell exactly where in the world this vaccine is being produced, I am suspicious. It’s apparently not being made in the USA. I don’t like that. And last but not least I want to see all of congress and the president himself line up and be the first to take the shots. It’s only fair that the people that were elected by the people should be the first to lay their lives on the line for the rest of us.

As for me and my household, we will be going the natural way for now since this flu seems to not be seasonal and so many people are walking around in public with no regard for others and are coughing and wheezing and touching things. I take lots of vitamins and supplements and wash my hands obsessively and use hand sanitizer. As a disclaimer, I am not in the medical profession, I don’t profess to be a medical guru. But I believe in taking a common sense approach to this swine flu brouhaha.

To ramp up your immune system, take 2000-5000 mg a day of Vitamin D. The best form of Vitamin D to use is D3 if you can’t get out in the sunshine. Exposure to the sun is the best way to produce Vitamin D.

Take Vitamin C as it not only boosts levels of infection fighting white blood cells, but it also increases the number of interferon antibodies which work to keep the swine flu from even entering cells. Aim for 200 mg ingested over the course of day either in food or supplements. I love orange juice and eating the fruit! Sweet potatoes also have Vitamin C!

Take Vitamin E which fosters production of natural killer cells that seek out and destroy swine flu germs. It’s hard to eat enough food to reach therapeutic levels of Vitamin E, so consider a supplemental dose between 100-400 mg.

Eat foods rich in Vitamin A to boost immune response, however, avoid supplements and eat your carrots and sweet potatoes.

Eat foods rich in bioflavonoids because they fill up cell receptor sites so H1N1 flu germs can’t get into your cells and cause infection. Bioflavonoids are found in white and green teas, wine, dark chocolate, peppers, garlic, blueberries, and citrus fruits.

Take a zinc supplement. Zinc doesn’t just increase immune response, it makes it fight the swine flu more aggressively. Supplement with 15 to 25 mg a day and don’t go over 75 mg as that can actually weaken your immune system.

I have my order in for some sweet potatoes a surgical mask and a 55 gallon drum of hand sanitizer. How about you?