Fall is the time to consider whether you and your loved ones should get a flu shot. I see the advertisements in the pharmacies stating, “Flu shots given here.” So, let me present some data for you to decide if you should get a flu shot. Some of this article comes from my newsletter, “Dr. Brownstein’s Natural Way to Health.” More information about this newsletter can be found on my website homepage.
The CDC recommends that all children aged six months and older should get the flu vaccine. However, a review of over 51 studies involving 290,000 children reported, “…no evidence that injecting children 6-24 months of age with a flu shot was any more effective than a placebo. In children over two years, it was effective only 33% of the time in preventing the flu. Stated another way, the flu vaccine was useless for two-thirds of the children that received it. Another study found that the Flumist vaccine “…did not provide any protection against hospitalizations in pediatric subjects, especially children with asthma. On the contrary, we found a {300%} increased risk of hospitalization in subjects who did get the Flumist vaccine.”
You would think that the flu vaccine would be effective in preventing the elderly from getting the flu. A review of 75 studies found that vaccinating the elderly was ineffective at preventing the complications from the flu. In fact, the researchers commented that the available evidence supporting the use of the flu vaccine in the elderly is of such poor quality the studies provide no guidance on the safety of the flu vaccine.
David Brownstein, M.D. is a Board-Certified family physician and is one of the foremost practitioners of holistic medicine. He is the Medical Director of the Center for Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, MI. Dr. Brownstein has lectured internationally to physicians and others about his success in using natural hormones and nutritional therapies in his practice.
