’Tis the season for flu shots. This year students will have to decide whether or not to follow some doctors’ orders and brave the long lines for H1N1 immunization. Naturopaths weigh in.
Ottawa naturopathic doctor Tara Anchel said naturopathic medicine is more popular than ever in the capital. Nevertheless, you’d be hard-pressed to find a news story depicting Ottawans, fearful of contracting the H1N1 virus, waiting in absurdly long lines for preventative acupuncture session or herbal supplements.
Anchel said she believes the mass panic she’s seen over H1N1 is largely unwarranted, and media coverage has neglected what the public should be most concerned about: prevention.
Prevention is at the root of naturopathic doctrine. The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM) described this alternative to conventional healthcare as “a distinct system of primary health care that addresses the root causes of illness, and promotes health and healing using natural therapies.” According to the CCNM, these therapies include acupuncture, Asian medicine, physical medicine such as massage and hydrotherapy, clinical nutrition, homeopathic medicine and lifestyle counselling.
Anchel said the majority of those hit hardest by H1N1 had pre-existing conditions that made them more vulnerable than the general public. This should indicate that strengthening your immune system is the best way to prevent serious illness, she said.
A prevention regime should include monitoring stress levels, getting enough sleep, keeping hydrated and eating fruits, vegetables, grains and lean meats, said Anchel.
“The virus can actually detect the nutrient status of its host and become more virulent in a low nutrient environment,” she said. Although Health Canada has not listed young adults among the most vulnerable to the virus, Anchel said university students face a distinct set of challenges in terms of prevention.
Issues synonymous with the life of a student, such as academic stress, diets rich in processed foods and a chronic lack of sleep wreak havoc on the immune system, she said.
Anchel suggested taking green supplements and making fruit smoothies and shakes to help counteract the dietary problems.
Third-year Carleton student Chris Ralph said staying away from the virus poses a unique challenge to students.
“Most of us take transit to work or have roommates. Even worse, some of us live in residence. We’re constantly in contact with other people,” he said. For those looking to be immunized, the CCNM does not recommend everyone be vaccinated, but does advocate weighing your options. According to the CCNM website this strain of H1N1 is not mutating and may be of “tremendous benefit for preventing H1N1 influenza.” But Christine Nguyen, a naturopathic doctor at the Ottawa Integrative Health Centre, said it could still mutate at any moment.
“The vaccine itself is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Nguyen, urging people not to forget prevention.
Anchel said there is also cause for concern over the vaccine’s contents, which she said include mercury, formaldehyde and aluminium.
Calvin Dale Smith, an Oriental medicine practitioner at Ottawa’s Riverside Acupuncture & Wellness Centre, said he thinks the contents of the vaccine, or the “so-called cure,” as he described it, may be extremely dangerous for the physically vulnerable. Immunizing children — those under five years old are “high-priority groups” for the vaccine — “should be criminal,” he said. Despite public concern over H1N1, “most of the people getting sick with this virus are getting mild to moderate flu,” said Anchel. “This sort of terror really isn’t warranted.”
She said the conventional medical community has ignored immune-building as a priority. “Getting sick is the way your immune system exercises itself. . . . It’s actually good to get sick once and a while,” she said. Wellness Centre, says he thinks the contents of the vaccine, or the “so called cure,” as he describes it, may be extremely dangerous for the physically vulnerable. Immunizing children—those under five-years-old are listed among Health Canada’s “high priority groups” for the vaccine—he says, “should be criminal”
Despite public concern over H1N1, “most of the people getting sick with this virus are getting mild to moderate flu,” says Anchel. “This sort of terror really isn’t warranted.”
She says the conventional medical community has ignored immune building as a priority. “Getting sick is the way your immune system exercises itself. . . . It’s actually good to get sick once and a while.”