“What do you do about the Flu?”

[4ever4Jesus]

It’s very common this time of year people can catch the flu. It’s really hard to believe at one time Influenza could be deadly. There are 24 hour flues or 48 and 72 and sometimes a bit longer.

Do you take shots or any kind of precautions to try to prevent the Winter Flu? What is your say on this?

 

[annsni]

Eat well, get a lot of rest, wash your hands regularly, do not rub your face, clean and disinfect surfaces that are shared regularly (toilet flush handle, door knobs, light switches, sink faucets, phones, computers, microwave controls, etc.). Getting sufficient vitamin D seems to have been a factor in the "swine flu" last year as well. Take 1000 mg. of vitamin D a day until you're not outside enough in the winter and then increase it to 2000 mg.

If you have no adverse reaction to the flu shot, it IS effective against the strains of flu that are included in it for that year.

 

[Jon-Marc]

The ONLY time I ever had the flu was AFTER getting a flu shot; I won't do that again. I don't get the flu or colds, but I do suffer from allergies year-round. I had bronchitis from 1975 to 1980; after that I never had it again.

 

[Alcott]

Nothing. And that includes all the disinfecting of doorknobs and junk, as well as never having had a flu shot. I still only get it about once every 3-5 years. The cost/benefit analysis of taking all these steps makes a steep ratio for me.

 

[rbell]

my kids get the flu shot. I'm not a huge fan of it--but it's not a hill I'll die on.

I think I've had the flu shot twice. I'm sure it's been 10 years or so. And in that time, I've had the flu once.

 

[Gina B]

I expose myself as much as possible to whoever has it so I can get it and get it over with. LOL Then I take osha root, raw honey, and garlic and it's pretty much over with before it starts. I usually skip the osha for the youngest ones and just go with steamed organic milk with honey and try to get 'em to swallow some garlic.

Hubby and I tend to skip those types of illness and go straight for the major things like heart valves leaking, kidneys spewing blood, major cases of strep, sudden full blown asthma attacks out of the blue...you know when you can make an ER doctor go "EEEEEEWWWWWW GRRRROOOOSSSSS!!!!!!" it's pretty bad. :laugh: (that actually happened a couple months ago)

But hey, when it comes to a cold or the flu, we can beat it!

 

[Tom Butler]

You know the old adage about colds. If you treat a cold with cough suppressants, decongestants and the like, it'll be over in a couple of weeks.

If you do nothing, it will be over in 14 days.

 

[SBCPreacher]

I avoid it - like the plague (which I have been vaccinated for, unlike the flu).

 

[God's Rainbowgal]

I don't get the flu shots they don't work for me.
If i did I would get the flu so there would be no use for me to get one.

If I were to get the flu it's mostly the 24 hour kind and that's very rare.

 

[annsni]

You cannot get the flu from the flu shot. You CAN get some similar symptoms that are very mild but you do not get the flu. In the distant past, it was a live virus (and I think the nasal vaccine is still the live virus) but now it's a dead virus and cannot infect you.

When I got my shot, I was VERY sore where I got the shot. I also had mild body aches the next day but certainly not anything like the flu.

Oh - but in the past with the live virus? I always got the flu. The hospital where I worked at stopped requiring I get the shot because 4 years in a row I was diagnosed (clinically - with testing) with the flu about a week after I got the vaccine. But this vaccine does nothing more than a little body aches.

 

[menageriekeeper]

I have my chronically ill children vaccinated, but only after experience taught me that they can't fight the flu off on their own. They always get a secondary infection and always take 3 or more weeks to recover and by that time either the flu or the infection has triggered off one or more of the chronic conditions so we spend a couple of more weeks getting that back under control. I'm not going through that again!

For myself, I have had the flu exactly once in my whole life and that was two or three years ago. I was in bed for about 3 days and then I was done. When swine came around last year, before the vaccine was released, the kids caught it (yep 2 months of misery) but I didn't even sneeze. I'm not going to tempt my immune system with the vaccine until it lets me down regularly.

 

[Cressa]

I've had asthma, so the flu can be dangerous for me. I always get a flu shot every year and haven't had the flu since I was in high school. I try to wash my hands often and stay away from people who are sick to avoid catching anything. If I do get the flu or a bad cold, I just try to get plenty of rest and stay hydrated and eat plenty of chicken noodle soup along with vitamin c.