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Welcome to the website for Jim Chialtas, L.Ac., and Laurel Acupuncture Clinic of Functional Medicine, located in San Diego.

Click on the tabs above to learn more about what Functional Medicine is, and about many of the health concerns I specialize in. Or scroll down for my blog. You might find it helpful to use the labels in the lower right column to find topics that interest you.

In addition to seeing clients privately in my clinic, I also offer many of the same services remotely to US residents. Please feel free to contact me to set up a consultation or appointment. Thank you!

9/9/09

Swine Flu: Is it really worth the worry? Or is it just a cool name?

Well another flu season is coming and we get a whole new opportunity to be told how this will be the year that thousands of people are going to come down with Swine Flu and potentially die from its deleterious effects. It is therefore vital to go and get immunized! Or is it? Haven’t we heard this one before? Could there be better alternatives to this extremely new and untested vaccine? This health care professional thinks so.

If you really look at the numbers of people who are coming down with Swine Flu and how many of those are actually dieing from it, it is all rather unimpressive. The normal flu still kills many more people than the Swine Flu variety of virus. But of course it is new and sounds cool, and makes good news that we could potentially be killed by something that makes pigs sick for heavens sake! But the reality is that Swine Flu is just the flu. And Chinese Medicine has had safe and effective remedies for things like the flu for millennia. These remedies are tried and true and come without the potentially life threatening side effects of the flu vaccines.

New developments have surfaced recently in the UK from their government Health Protection Agency that has strongly link the new Swine Flue Vaccine to a deadly nerve disease called Guillian-Barre Syndrome (GBS). GBS attacks the lining of nerve cells causing problems like paralysis, inability to breathe and death. In fact in 1976 there was a similar Swine Flu scare which resulted in the mass vaccination of the American population. This resulted in more people dying from the vaccine itself than the Swine Flu “epidemic.” There was also an eight fold increase in contracting GBS in those who were vaccinated than in those people who did not get the vaccine.

So what can you do to avoid the Swine Flu? Or any other flu strain for that matter? Follow these simple steps and you will be way ahead of the dangers people are so worried about:

1)Get good rest. Sleep is when we heal ourselves. Poor sleep can lead to many different health concerns including a lowered immune system.


2)Eat well. Stay away from excess sugar. It has been shown that a diet high in sugar and simple carbohydrates results in a lowered immune system.


3)Wash your hands often! This is one of the most important concepts for avoiding infectious diseases. I wash mine at least ten times per day.

4)Take immune building herbs and nutrients. The Chinese Herbal Pharmacopia has a lot of herbs for building the immune system during times of wellness. This is where the preventative medicine concept comes in. We know it is the flu season coming so build your immune system up before the flu season arrives! I carry herbal formulas for this purpose in my clinic and would be happy to ship them to where ever in the country you are located.

The bottom line here is that the media will definitely want to chase this Swine Flu story as long as they can. It is sensational! There are people getting infected by it all the time now, but in general people are not suffering any major health concerns as a result. The people who are actually dying are the very young and very old, and even then they usually have some sort of debilitating condition already. They certainly do not represent the general population. Really, the vast majority of us are going to be just fine even if we do catch the dreaded H1N1 virus. And if taking the basic precautions that I described above the chances of contracting any flu will be minimal.

And when in doubt, please consider me a valuable resource. I am happy to help you in what ever way that I can. Do not hesitate to call or write with your questions or concerns.

2 comments:

  1. Jim,

    Not to mention -- look at how much industry has to gain from fear around this issue. Swine flu has sold tremendous amounts of tamiflu, hand sanitizer, magazines, newspapers, and so on. Fear is the greatest sales engine. But, like you said, take away "swine" from the equation and all you have is "flu".

    Ethan

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  2. Hi Ethan,

    Thanks for your comment! Couldn't agree more. It really is a scary world out there, but not usually for the reasons that we all think of.

    Glad to see that you too can see through the wool... Keep it up brother!

    Jim Chialtas, L.Ac.

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