Deadly 2014 California Flu Season: Vaccines & Sugar the Culprit?

The article linked below explains a lot about the flu season this year.  Several weeks ago when I was sick I felt really weak.  I don't remember ever feeling so weak. I did not vomit.  My flu seemed mostly in my head and respiratory system. I noticed that when I covered my head with a towel while positioning it over a pot of boiling water that the steam worked well to clear up my sinuses and lungs.  But on two occasions I felt so weak that I felt like I was going to pass out.  Though I might get the occasional colds, I rarely get the flu. Some colds I have had have lasted for weeks.  Last year I had a cold that lasted the entire month of January. So when I got the flu I thought that this was a very bad flu season, particularly since the symptoms crushed me. The article linked ahead explains that the flu in California this season has been particularly deadly. According to the article, there has been a 4 to 5-fold increase in deaths in California due to the flu this season. But why?  According to the article, it's the increase in vaccines given.  I have never had a flu vaccine or any other vaccine. Don't want one. Won't ever get one.  But I think that because they are promoted so heavily everywhere--at local pharmacies, drug stores, and clinics--that it is creating low immunity in a lot of people.  Here's how.  If someone is feeling sick or feeling like their system is fighting a virus, it means that their Vitamin C stores in their bodies are low either because of stress, poor diet, or exhaustion. Vaccines, like so many other medical treatments today, are sold as quick fixes.  So people go get a shot, more often now at pharmacies and clinics, thinking that a vaccine is a kind of out-patient treatment.  While people are in pharmacies, they're more likely to pick up candies like Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Muskateers, or Hershey's bar.  Sugar depletes Vitamin C.  Lots of sugar in the form of candy bars at the check out stand at pharmacies depletes Vitamin C. Finally, there's the factor of over-the-counter medication at pharmacies.  And what do people take when they're sick? Aspirin or Tylenol.  Both deplete Vitamin C stores in the body. In fact, one statement from the above article that I linked to said this, "Flu shots administered from retail pharmacies rather than a doctor's office and clinics is a relatively new practice and it places three mortal flu factors under the same roof--acetaminophen (which depletes vitamin C stores in the body), sugar (candy at the check out), and the flu virus itself." Through the years I have always relied on Vitamin C to keep me healthy.  But since I've been in transition the last few months with all of my things in storage, I kind of got away from taking Vitamin C.  I rarely, rarely, rarely get the flu.  There was a flu epidemic in the US in 1918. Bayer introduced its aspirin shortly before.  During the flu epidemic, doctors prescribed it as a remedy for that epidemic. More people died as a result because the aspirin depleted the Vitamin C stores in people's bodies.  Medical history is interesting.  It reads like the history of war.  

Then there is this article on sugar.  It has been known for a very long time that sugar is bad for one's health.  Sugary foods were rarely given in families.  Sugar's history is also very interesting.  Its demand soared after WWII when the low-fat craze started by Ancel Keys from Minnesota.  It is fat that gives food its flavor; and we've learned since how important fat is for signaling between organs in the body.  "This was not what the food industry wanted to hear.  When devising their low-fat products, manufacturers had needed a fat substitute to stop the food tasting like cardboard, and they had plumped for sugar. They knew "healthy" foods were low-fat but had sugar by the spoonful and Yudkin's findings threatened to disrupt a very profitable business."  A friend of mine who grew up in another country asked me several months ago "Why do Americans appear so unhealthy?"  I answered that sugar seems to be one reason.  Because of the nutritional findings published by Ansel Keys, sugar became a standard of WWII military rations.  Think of all those men who came home from the war craving sugar?  And what do you think their children craved?  Candy.  Look at all of the holidays.  Each one involves candy.  My parents loved candy bars and sodas.  In addition to the excesses of sugar in sodas, the acids in the sodas wreak havoc on your over all health as well as your teeth.  Anyway, both parents enjoyed candy bars and sodas.  Symbols of innocence I suppose.  Part of re-living their youth. My sisters to this day pride themselves on their ability to create fantastic desserts.  And fantastic they are!!!  But they have lots of sugar.  So I think sugar when consumed in such large and daily amounts is unhealthy.  Not only does sugar destroy teeth, but no one knew or understood how sugar destroyed metabolism, leading in some cases to diabetes.  Though my dad or mom did not have diabetes, they certainly did suffer from metabolic complications, I believe, by a regularly ingesting sugary or sweetened foods.  Sugar was not treated as a toxin or as something bad people.  It was considered a treat, something special.  The article on sugar at the top of this paragraph explains that fructose, which is one of the two main carbohydrates belonging to refined sugar, is primarily metabolized by the liver; while glucose, found in starchy foods like bread and potatoes, is metabolized by ALL cells.  This means that consuming excessive amounts of fructose puts extra strain on the liver which then converts fructose to fat. Few people make the connection from sugar to being fat. Instead, they believe that fatty foods, like butter and cream and ice cream make us fat.  It's not the fat; it's the sugar. 

UPDATE

I was talking with a nurse friend of mine about vaccines after he'd read my comments on vaccines.  I asked him what drug manufacturers and retailers, who market flu shots each winter, mean by "there's a particular virulent strain of virus going around this season." He helped to clear things up a little.  First, the whole concept of viruses being more prevalent during one season over another is a marketing spin.  Viruses are with us all year round and are not seasonal.  What is seasonal are flu shots and our immunity.  As to flu shots, retailers and manufacturers sell more flu shots during the winter.  And they've got people believing that viruses go on vacation to Palm Springs from March to October. They don't of course.  But during the winter months it is our immunity that seems to retreat.  What makes people vulnerable to getting sick during the winter months is not new strains of viruses but our lack of sunlight and Vitamin D3 and activity. Since most people are indoors and the fact that there are fewer warm days during the winter, fewer days of glorious sunlight, our Vitamin D3 stores get depleted and our immunity is lessened.  Though I take Vitamin D3 throughout the year, it makes particularly good sense to be taking it during the winter months.  Vitamin D3 is found in foods like fish and eggs and milk, but it doesn't hurt to supplement during the months when we're indoors for so many days of the month and so many hours of the day. 

When drug manufacturers, retailers, and health organizations talk about flu season, it is false advertising.  It's a lie.  The flu does not come around ONLY or during the winter months as a sinister bandit and then fly south to Mexico from March to October.  Viruses are in circulation all year round. But because we're outdoors and active during the other parts of the year our immunity is stronger and vital.  If we get a flu, it means that in years past our bodies were not exposed to that particular virus.  And if we are exposed to specific viruses we've had in the past, we won't get sick from it because our immunity has already dealt with that virus.  And after we heal and recover from the flu, it's not like the virus finally leaves our system like an unwanted household guest.  The virus stays with us for life.  It's our immunity that keeps it in check, hopefully never to raise its ugly head again.  

Here are a few comments from my nurse friend:  

"The fact is that viruses do not have a "season."  They do not take a vacation after March and return in October.  They are around all year. There are no new strains, just people who have no immunity to the strains that are around all the time.  To isolate the predominant and infectious viral strains that are going around at any one time of the year scientists figure what vaccine strain was used 10-20 years ago under the assumption that there are many (people) alive now, not alive then, that have never had that strain and therefore no immunity response developed.  That is the best guess that can be made.  Those of us who were alive 20 years ago had the strain being pimped now so therefore, will probably not get it with or without a flu shot. I defy the true believers to take a  flu shot a day for 30 days and still tell me that they are "safe" and indeed good for you. I think their tone will change or some other sophisticated "spin" will be offered as to the alleged safety."