In late April, when the swine flu virus from Mexico dominated the headlines of the media, the US Government jumped in and spent $ 200 million to buy the Roche antiviral drug Tamiflu and an additional $ 51 million in April, for the similar drug Relenza from GlaxoSmithKline to stockpile defense for the swine flu virus treatment. Although these drugs do not prevent the onset of the disease and are of no immune system protection value, the public is made to believe that these drugs are the only effective remedy for the patient.

However,drugs don’t effectively prevent disease and they create health, all they do is reduce or eliminate the symptoms – and that at the price of unpleasant side effects. In contrast, Nature provided mankind with a variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables that have been proven effective for thousands of years, such as the potent Okinawa Goyah (Bitter Melon), or the Japanese Shiso (Perilla Leaf or Seed) . Both are widely used in Asian cuisine and their anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties are well known. The Shiso leaves are staple at every Sushi Bar, Americans’ think they are for decoration, while they are purposely used for keeping raw fish safe from e-coli and salmonella. Also sea vegetables, namely brown seaweed (kelp) is a rich source of Fucoidan, a substance which is effective in halting cancer cells from proliferation. There are even home grown familiar produce with anti-viral properties, including plums, red grapes, apples, cranberries, ginger, garlic, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, dandelion, onion and many more. The needles of the Pacific Yew pine tree (Alaska to Northern California) are highly effective in treating tumors and respiratory disease, seems like natures answer to swine flu virus fears.

Interestingly but not surprising is the fact that the active ingredient in Tamiflu is derived from shikimic acid, a compound naturally occurring in the Chinese herb star anise and ginkgo, but Tamiflu is synthetic and laced with cancer causing excipients such as saccharin and sodium benzoate, and the drugs side effects include bizarre behavior.

It follows that the best protection for any viral infection is healthy eating, that is a diet including clean, fresh, live produce, instead of ingesting dead food calories and then rely on the governments Tamiflu or Relenza stockpiles.

Read more: http://www.vitalityconcepts.com

"In Foodture We Trust", Heinz R. Gisel; Xulon Press, March 2009. ISBN 978-1-60791-265-1

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In late April, when the swine flu virus from Mexico dominated the headlines of the media, the US Government jumped in and spent $ 200 million to buy the Roche antiviral drug Tamiflu and an additional $ 51 million in April, for the similar drug Relenza from GlaxoSmithKline to stockpile defense for the swine flu virus treatment. Although these drugs do not prevent the onset of the disease and are of no immune system protection value, the public is made to believe that these drugs are the only effective remedy for the patient.

However,drugs don’t effectively prevent disease and they create health, all they do is reduce or eliminate the symptoms – and that at the price of unpleasant side effects. In contrast, Nature provided mankind with a variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables that have been proven effective for thousands of years, such as the potent Okinawa Goyah (Bitter Melon), or the Japanese Shiso (Perilla Leaf or Seed) . Both are widely used in Asian cuisine and their anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties are well known. The Shiso leaves are staple at every Sushi Bar, Americans’ think they are for decoration, while they are purposely used for keeping raw fish safe from e-coli and salmonella. Also sea vegetables, namely brown seaweed (kelp) is a rich source of Fucoidan, a substance which is effective in halting cancer cells from proliferation. There are even home grown familiar produce with anti-viral properties, including plums, red grapes, apples, cranberries, ginger, garlic, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, dandelion, onion and many more. The needles of the Pacific Yew pine tree (Alaska to Northern California) are highly effective in treating tumors and respiratory disease, seems like natures answer to swine flu virus fears.

Interestingly but not surprising is the fact that the active ingredient in Tamiflu is derived from shikimic acid, a compound naturally occurring in the Chinese herb star anise and ginkgo, but Tamiflu is synthetic and laced with cancer causing excipients such as saccharin and sodium benzoate, and the drugs side effects include bizarre behavior.

It follows that the best protection for any viral infection is healthy eating, that is a diet including clean, fresh, live produce, instead of ingesting dead food calories and then rely on the governments Tamiflu or Relenza stockpiles.

Read more: http://www.vitalityconcepts.com

"In Foodture We Trust", Heinz R. Gisel; Xulon Press, March 2009. ISBN 978-1-60791-265-1

http://www.google.com

“It could be much, much worse,” Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s chief public health officer told a gathering Thursday at the Solana Beach Presbyterian Church. “While it is killing people, it’s lacking the virulent gene of the flu pandemic of 1918.”

The vaccine supply, now put at about 42 million doses nationwide, continues to trickle into local health care offices but is not yet widely available, prompting concern that some who had planned to get it may decide to skip it, Wooten said.

Since the H1N1 virus first emerged in the spring, Wooten said, 583 county residents have been hospitalized.

The average age of those who have contracted it is 26, and the average age of those admitted to hospitals is 31, Wooten said.

Among those who have succumbed locally and nationally, the vast majority have had serious underlying medical conditions such as cancer, obesity or diabetes, Wooten said.

Many of those who came out to hear the update sponsored by the Del Mar-Solana Beach Community Response Team wanted to know what symptoms to be aware of, how the virus is affecting children and what the major risk factors are.

A fever of more than 100 degrees along with a persistent cough, headaches and sinus congestion are common hallmarks.

Wooten said children under age 5 who exhibit symptoms should be taken to a doctor immediately.

For those that get sick, Tamiflu, a pill, remains the primary medication. The drug lessens the symptoms but will not cure the illness.

Her presentation came the same day that California health officials said the virus has hospitalized 5,380 state residents, and the same day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said swine flu has sickened about 22 million Americans.

The federal agency also said that nearly 4,000 people have died, most of them about 12 days after getting sick.

The major issue that continues to confront public health officials and private physicians is the vaccine supply.

The federal government had estimated that a sufficient stock would have been available by now, but additional time required to produce it has delayed widespread distribution.

“We created an expectation in the summer that there would be enough vaccine,” Wooten said. “The vaccine will get here, but this issue that worries us now is will people still be interested?”

They should be, she said, because health officials anticipate a third wave of the virus to hit in the spring of next year.

The first wave occurred this spring and the second wave is occurring now.

One bright spot on the flu front is a lack of seasonal flu being seen locally and nationwide, Wooten said.

“It’s flu season now, and we’ve had very little seasonal flu,” she said. “That’s a good thing because we know that what is circulating now is H1N1.”

Wooten also reminded the 45 people attending the briefing that the seasonal flu kills about 36,000 people nationwide each year and that H1N1 isn’t approaching that number.

Solana Beach Presbyterian Church Pastor Tom Theriault said the message Wooten delivered was helpful for him to understand the dynamics of the swine flu.

“It’s also useful to me because I have grandkids and we have about 200 children that attend our preschool,” he said.

While there hasn’t been any outbreak at the preschool, Wooten said the county has had 19 school outbreaks to date.

An outbreak is when any school reports six or more cases occurring simultaneously.

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What’s the worst-case scenario? It could be a continuing vaccine shortage. It might be a mutation in the swine flu virus that suddenly makes the strain resistant to Tamiflu, as some seasonal flu strains already are. Or it could be that hospital ICUs become so overwhelmed that people who could have been saved die.

These are all unnerving possibilities. Yet many flu specialists say their real nightmare is that swine flu could meet up and swap genetic material — or reassort, as these scientists say — with another, deadlier flu strain, breeding a new virus that is as contagious as but far more savage.

Such a strain is already circulating in Asia and Africa, and it could be ready for a chance encounter with swine flu. It is called bird flu. Unlike swine flu, which is no worse than a seasonal flu bug for most people, bird flu kills more than half of those who contract it: Of 460 confirmed human cases of bird flu, 268 of those people died. Bird flu preys on the young and healthy, ravaging their lungs — reminiscent of the 1918 flu that killed up to 50 million people.

So far, scientists haven’t found proof that swine and bird flu will merge and spawn a deadlier virus. But the prospect is so chilling that health officials have been warning about it since earlier this year. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, urged public health experts not to take their eyes off H5N1 bird flu even as H1N1 swine flu was sweeping the globe this spring.

“No one can say how this avian virus will behave when pressured by large numbers of people infected with the new H1N1 virus,” she told an assembly of the world’s top health officials in May. Separately, she appealed to Asian health ministers: “Do not drop the ball on monitoring H5N1.”

Influenza is a cruel wonder of nature, one of the most promiscuous microbes. Its viruses have a rare gift for swapping genetic material with one another: The genetic material in a flu virus, unlike in nearly all other viruses, is composed of segments that can be individually replaced. If two different strains invade the same cell, they can trade attributes, then dispatch that progeny back into the world. So the WHO and other health agencies are watching closely as swine flu spreads to countries where bird flu is well established, particularly Egypt and Vietnam.

As a correspondent, I tracked bird flu for several years starting in 2004 in nine Asian countries, from jungle villages to squalid urban quarters, run-down hospitals and cutting-edge labs. I discovered how economic, political and cultural realities were conspiring to imperil us. In a single generation, East Asia’s surging demand for protein has led to an explosion in poultry farming, and these flocks have become perfect breeding grounds for a pandemic strain. Meanwhile, age-old customs facilitated the virus’s spread.

In Thailand, I went to cockfights at makeshift arenas where fans crowded around birds that may be carrying the disease. I visited breeders, witnessing how they cradle the birds, wiping down their bloodied feathers and even ******* mucus from their beaks. At live poultry markets in Indonesia, China and Vietnam, where the air was rank with the odor of chickens and ducks, and the floors slick with their blood, I saw how people and livestock were

crammed together, a crucial nexus in the spread of the virus.

Several Asian countries (notably China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam) covered up their bird flu outbreaks, sometimes until it was too late to contain the virus’s spread — then later claimed to have cornered the virus. But it keeps coming back, and each time it gets another chance to reassort with another virus.

And now, along comes swine flu. Although its mortality rate is well below 1 percent, there have already been tens of millions of cases worldwide. Is this more-contagious virus the key that might unlock bird flu’s terrible full potential? Swine flu is so new that researchers have yet to plumb its secrets. How exactly is it transmitted, how does it attack the body, and why, in very few cases, is it catastrophic? Could it reassort with another flu strain?

Last summer, scientists from the University of Maryland, the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and the National University of Colombia published the results of their swine flu research on ferrets (ferrets are susceptible to human flu viruses and display some of the same symptoms as people). The study suggested that swine flu is unlikely to reassort with ordinary seasonal strains and instead is more apt to crowd them out. We can only hope that it will be equally chaste when it comes to bird flu.

But another study, also published this summer, showed that bird flu has the ability to reassort with at least some other strains of flu. A team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed this by infecting ferrets with bird flu and ordinary seasonal flu simultaneously. Testing secretions from the ferrets’ noses, researchers found that they carried new flu strains that contained genetic material from both of the parent strains.

We cannot predict the twists and turns of the flu virus, which has repeatedly confounded some of the world’s brightest scientists. No one expected bird flu would leap from birds to humans — until it did. Its initial, withering attack on a boy in Hong Kong 12 years ago was like a “visitation from outer space,” according to flu specialist Keiji Fukuda, who investigated the initial occurrences.

He recalled how the Hong Kong outbreak eluded understanding, even as it spread and began resembling the 1918 Spanish flu. “You feel like: ‘I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know what is going on. But what is going on is not good, and it reminds me of the worst not-good of the century,’” he said.

Fukuda, now WHO’s top flu official, says he remains humbled by the flu’s stubborn unpredictability.

Already, the swine flu epidemic has chastened us by revealing the sorry state of our antiquated technology for producing vaccines and the limits of our brittle, under-funded system for emergency medical care. But swine flu is not merely a warning shot. The virus itself could be the catalyst for a new flu — and an even deadlier pandemic.

Sipress, The Washington Post’s economics editor, is the author of “The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic.”

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Swine flu is one of the biggest medical concerns on the minds of many these days, and health insurance companies have been trying to explain to customers what inoculations and other services are available based on their plan’s coverage.

Some, like AvMed based in Florida, are offering immunizations for all fully insured members, in spite of normal coverage issues that would include co-pays or deductibles. Many insurers are following the lead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in distributing information about the H1N1 virus.

Doctors and health insurance companies are focusing on several groups for the first rounds of administrations, chiefly pregnant women, people who provide care for young children, as well as health care and EMS personnel. After that, children and young adults up to age 24, and those who are at risk for complications from influenza, will be prioritized for one of the 150 million vaccinations available I n the U.S.

“AvMed is committed to the health and well-being of our members and we want to ensure that the H1N1 national emergency vaccination effort goes as smoothly as possible,” adds Dr Kirk Cianciolo, AvMed senior vice president and chief medical officer.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia is also following a similar plan, offering to cover administration costs for covered customers, as well. They are also working to develop channels with places where vaccinations are likely to be given, though, including pharmacies and public health clinics.

Health insurance companies don’t always have relationships with so-called non-traditional providers, which could make payments for services provided at those locations more difficult to make.

“Our goal is to keep our members as healthy as possible. We are committed to working with the CDC and HHS on an information campaign to ensure that members and the public are vaccinated to prevent H1N1, and if they develop H1N1 flu, they are treated effectively and appropriately,” says Dr Bob McCormack, BCBSGA medical director.

Other efforts include changing the formulary for prescription drugs, which assigns different co-pays to drugs based on their cost to purchase and the efficacy in treating a condition. Tamiflu and Relenza are being moved to more affordable tiers on BCBSGA’s formulary for those who may contract the H1N1 virus.

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