Thinking of having a flu jab?

Before deciding to to have the flu vaccination I recommend you read this thoughtful article, written by a medical doctor whose careful evaluations of the evidence I respect. I think you may then decide against having it. Speaking for myself, I haven't had a flu jab for many years - nor any other vaccination, come to that...

A good, natural, non-drug way to protect yourself from infections like colds and flu is to eat plenty of good food (i.e. not processed food) and optimise your nutrition, especially by ensuring you are not deficient in Vitamin D and other important nutrients. And hand hygiene/hand washing is very important because flu microbes can be passed from nose to hand and from hand to another person's hand or from hand to eye by rubbing your eyes, etc.

Avoid 'slimming', because insufficient food/inadequate nutrition lowers your immunity to infection and leaves you less able to fight it and to recover from it. If you want to lose weight, do it the safe, sure, rapid, natural way by avoiding salty and salty food and avoiding diet junk and weight loss drugs.

Surely feeding chicken faeces to cattle must risk spread of infection?

FDA urged to ban feeding of chicken feces to cattle
Food and consumer groups say the practice increases the risk of cattle becoming infected with mad cow disease.
A fight is brewing over the practice of feeding chicken feces and other poultry farm waste to cattle. A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice.
Read article in the Los Angeles Times (USA)

Personally, I don't see how anyone could ever come up with the idea of considering a bacteria-laden waste product a suitable feed for animals.

Today is Global Handwashing Day: Have YOU washed your hands properly today - using soap?

The Telegraph reports on poor hand-washing hygiene after using the lavatory, especially by men.

"Washing hands with soap reduces the risk of passing on infections like norovirus, influenza and C.diff."

Additionally, swine flu is among many illnesses from pneumonia to intestinal worms that can be prevented by conscientiously washing hands.

E. coli outbreak - Professor Pennington makes it clear: Children under five should not be allowed to touch animals at petting farms

BBC News reports Professor Hugh Pennington, the microbiologist, as saying that children under five should not be allowed to touch animals at petting farms because they are the "most likely to touch the animals" and "the most difficult part of the population to get to wash their hands".

This is his recommendation following the recent cases of E. coli infections in young children who have visited petting farms (i.e. farms where touching and stroking the animals is allowed). E. coli is a very nasty infection, especially in young children, some of whom have had to be hospitalised. Kidney damage is one of the serious consequences of this illness.

Extract from the BBC report: "Nine children are among those with Godstone Farm-linked infections; one is due to be allowed home later on Saturday, with the others remaining in a stable condition, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Earlier this week, the HPA apologised for delays in its handling of the Godstone Farm outbreak and announced that an external investigation would be carried out."

Yuck! - Dirty hands!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7667499.stm

Up to 75,000 people in Britain will die as influenza or a similar disease sweeps the world in an "inevitable" pandemic, according to a Lords Committee

Disease pandemic 'inevitable' in Britain warns House of Lords
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Changes in lifestyle are leading to new infections and providing them with opportunities to spread rapidly, the report warns.

An outbreak in Britain will cause "massive" disruption, it concludes. More should be done to provide early warnings.

The Lords intergovernmental organisations committee says the "dysfunctional" World Health Organisation needs to be better organised to cope with the threat. The peers describe the Government's evidence to it as "sobering".

They were told by ministers: "While there has not been a pandemic since 1968, another one is inevitable.

"Estimates are that the next pandemic will kill between two million and 50 million people worldwide and between 50,000 and 75,000 in the UK. Socio-economic disruption will be massive." The committee says that with three quarters of newly emerging human infections originating from animals, more stringent ways of detecting diseases are needed.

Lord Soley, the chairman of the committee, said: "The last 100 years have seen great advances in public health and disease control through the world, but globalisation and changes in lifestyles are giving rise to new infections and providing opportunities for them to spread rapidly."

You can strengthen your immunity to infections by reducing your intake of salt and salty food.

Chief vet warns against allowing your dog to sleep on your bed.

Don't sleep with dogs, warns chief vet

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Fred Landeg, who is acting Chief Veterinary Officer, has urged people to be more vigilant about their household pets as they can transmit illnesses just as easy as farm animals.

Among diseases thought to be carried by dogs are common food poisoning bugs such as campylobacter and salmonella as well as exotic diseases.

Dr Landeg said: “When you look at new and emerging diseases many are zootic and passable from animals to man. We can think recently of Sars, which came from animals and another disease, the Hendra virus, from bats.

“As a veterinary surgeon I would never advise people to keep dogs in their bedroom.”"

Kissing, shaking hands and infection transmission...

Cheeky kiss is healthier than a handshake

Extract from the Sunday Telegraph:

"People who greet each other with handshakes are much more likely to pass on germs such as flu, cold and stomach bugs, than those who settle for a peck on the cheek, a scientific study has concluded.

More than three million Britons called in sick last week as flu and norovirus outbreaks swept through the country.

The majority will have been infected after touching someone else's hands and might have been better off kissing friends and relatives instead.

"The hands are critical in the chain of infection as they transmit infections from surfaces to people and between people," said Prof Sally Bloomfield, from the London School of Hygiene and chairman of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene, which carried out the research.

"Shaking hands is the main form of physical contact with each other but you don't know what the other person has been touching before you greet them. People avoid kissing each other when they have a cold, but in fact they are more likely to pass on an infection by shaking someone's hand.""

This information fits in with what I was told many years ago when I went as a volunteer to the Common Cold Research Centre at Harvard Hospital, near Salisbury, Wiltshire. - The virologists said the most common way of catching a cold was by shaking hands with someone who had the germs on their hands and then later, rubbing your eyes - and the germs entered your body by way of the eyes... - Ever since then I have tried to avoid rubbing my eyes...

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

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vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

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Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

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