PODCAST #21 2-1-08
WELCOME TO THE 21st EDITION OF THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST
Tidbits and Flu
Age related changes in certain nerves may cause the brains of older people to underestimate how much water they need to stay hydrated.
Children with night time coughing given a dark variety of honey, had less frequent and less severe hacking then children who took the OTC cough suppressant dextromethorphan.
Ginger and turmeric are natural anti-inflammatory agents.
The desire for intercourse in some elderly might decrease over time. A desire for intimate touch does not decrease and might increase. Humans have a lifelong need to be hugged, held, and cuddled by their partners.
Research suggests people over the age of 60 make only one-third of the amount of vitamin D from sun exposure as they did in their 20s.
The latest evidence comes from research that followed more than 1,000 postmenopausal women in Nebraska over four years. Scientists concluded that those taking 1,100 IU of Vitamin D daily had a 60 to 77 percent lower incidence of cancer then women taking a placebo (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 07)
New Findings: Spending just 10 minutes socializing may help you stay as mentally sharp as doing a daily crossword puzzle.
In 2007 the Cochrane Collaboration, a well respected nonprofit organization that provides accurate reviews of various therapies. They evaluated the efficacy of influenza vaccines. After looking at hundreds of clinical trials, involving hundreds of thousands of study subjects, the research team came up with some unsettling conclusions. First, they found that the majority of the studies, including those the government bases its recommendations on, were flawed.
Second, they concluded that flu shots just do not work very well. For people over age 65 living in nursing homes, the vaccine was fairly effective in protecting against flu’s complications such as pneumonia. However for people over 65 living on their own, the effects of the vaccine were negligible. Flu shots were even less effective for children, particularly those under the age of 2 (the group required to be vaccinated). The Cochrane group found them to be no more effective than a placebo!
Healthy younger adults were afforded some protection by the flu vaccine, but only when the shots matched the actual flu strains going around. Guessing which strain will appear is an informed guess. When they don’t match, as is often the case, protection is minimal. Getting a flu shot was found to lower the number of days of work missed in the healthy young adult group by less than a day.
Epidemiologist Tom Jefferson who coordinated the review said,” There is a big gap between policies promoting annual influenza vaccines for most children and adults, and supporting scientific evidence. “
To make matters worse, flu shots are not benign. Very few clinical trials have been conducted on the safety of these vaccines, which are a hodgepodge of possibly dangerous chemical and biological agents.
According to the Cochrane research team, only one safety study of inactivated vaccines has been carried out on kids younger than age 2, and that was done 30 years ago with only 35 children.
I personally use 2000 IU of vitamin D in place of the flu vaccine.
That’s all for PODCAST #21. I hope you found it interesting and informative. The next PODCAST will be the week of March 1
IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED ON THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS IS
health@lencolabs.com.
For more information on this subject and other subjects go to www.lencolabs.com, thank you for listening to the health and happiness podcast with--Leonard Austin
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