Why is flu still a killer?

In a shocking and distressing article in UK newspaper The Guardian today, a headline announced:

"Three times more people dying from flu in UK than last winter"

Photo by Bistrian Iosip on Unsplash

Since October 2017, 155 people have died from flu. 

That's One Hundred and Fifty Five!!! I think that sounds like a lot.

 Especially when the figures for the same period last year were just 53 deaths, still a considerable figure, but just a third of this years total so far.

 Flu vaccination rates in the UK are at a level similar to those of last year, in some groups such as pregnant women and children 2-3, the rate is up by 2-3%. Data from Public Health England

So why then, is there such a huge surge in cases? What could be contributing? Is it just a particularly virulent strain?

This surely raises the question of the efficacy of the vaccine? The unpredictibility of the flu virus strains each year makes vaccination somewhat hit and miss, with rates of cover from the vaccine varying wildly from year to year, (source article here), so what else can be done to protect people from the flu?

If just a fraction of the funds spent by the NHS in the UK on the flu vaccine, were redirected to education on how to take care of ourselves in illness, and other methods of treating it when it occurs, I am certain lives would be saved.

Instead of the relentless drive to keep on going regardless of how unwell you feel, we need to accept that being unwell is your body's way of asking for a rest. If there is a chink in the armour of your immune system, your body needs energy to repair it, and that requires rest, good nutrition and medicine that actually works to boost the body rather than just hide and suppress symptoms (so you can get back to work asap!).

We need Medicine that works.

Medicine like homeopathy...a form of medicine with an excellent track record in treating epidemics and outbreaks of serious illness.

From the successful preventative treatment for leptospiroisis in Cuba, to trials of a the remedy Oscillococcinum for influenza, many studies have shown the efficacy of homeopathic medicines. See more at The Homeopathy Research Institute.

A colleagues' recent successes with the remedy Eupatorium Perfoliatum in the treatment of the current flu outbreak is another example of the effectiveness of this natural but powerful form of medicine. Learn more @sallylloyd

So what will it take to change the perception of alternative and complimentary forms of medicine? 

What we need, is for ordinary people to ask questions, and demand answers. Why do the medics insist on using a vaccine with such poor evidence of success? The answer for this question is a whole other blog, but suffice to say, it has to do with dollars, and not the steem kind!

What else can we do to protect our health? There are so many resources out there...

• diet
• lifestyle
• alternative therapies
•  yoga
• homeopathy

We need everyone to feel confident seeking the power that an understanding of our amazing body's, and the influence we have over them, can provide. 

And why should we not be able to access other forms of medicine freely on the NHS when they are, by so many measures, more effective? 

It is high time we were able to redress the balance.

Find me here to make a start

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash