<p>Is looking at mortality rate really the right way to do it? How lethal is the typical flu for the majority of the population?</p>
<p>Edit: MiamiDAP, I imagine most life guards are also somewhat in shape and healthy, so that could help out with their anti-cancer properties.</p>
<p>^Most but not all and they eat all kind of crap that is for sure, all of them are HS and college swimmers, and swimming as a sport is OK if you are a bit chubby and many of them are. Actually there are lots of very fast swimmers at this age group who are not lean at all. I have been very involved with swimming for over 10 years, wathced many meets.
Many MDs ar checking vitamin D level as it widely recognized as very important factor in your health. The only natural way to get it in your body is from sunshine.<br>
I am for everybody having their personal program developed thru their own experiences. I do not believe that there is a general rule. Some people might not be able to be outside for one reason or another.</p>
<p>intparent-- yes, that’s why the first tdap booster is given at age 11, which is five years after the completion of the initial series. After that, the boosters seem to last ten years. Trying to get the booster period shorter, which might be helpful will be a hard sell. It’s hard enough to get adults to boost every ten years. </p>
<p>The immune system isn’t “weakened” by exposure to antigens! The immune system is exposed to many antigens all the time, everyday. Thinking that a vaccine somehow crashes it drives me crazy.</p>
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<p>Still too early to tell for 2011-2012, according to the CDC. However:</p>
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<p>[CDC</a> - Seasonal Influenza (Flu) - Q & A about the 2010—2011 Flu Season](<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pastseasons/1011season.htm]CDC”>http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pastseasons/1011season.htm)</p>
<p>I used to work in infectious disease reserach in big pharma. Influenza is a scary disease. I get my vaccine every year.</p>
<p>I highly doubt that any of us will change our ways based on sharing experiences here. So, please, do not have a heart attack over other’s opinions, experiences and completely outrageous statements. They are theirs, you have yours, be happy, it is Friady after all.</p>
<p>I think it’s felt that last year was a good match with the vaccine and also a not so bad flu season (it goes in cycles, kind of).</p>
<p>I am curious though about attenuated vaccines (not so much the flu one)…is the viral dna still a component of the vaccine? Because if chicken pox virus can be dormant in the nervous system and cause shingles decades later, can’t other viruses? (and if virus can, could a vaccine?)</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID X2 using CC</p>
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<p>This doesn’t PROVE anything. You have no idea if vitamin D causes a decreased rate of cancer. All you know is that there is an association between increased vitamin D and cancer. Maybe the lifeguards are reducing their risk of cancer because they swim more than the average person. Your assumption is unscientific. </p>
<p>It’s like saying " There was a study that shows that as the worldwide number of pirates have decreased, global warming has increased. This Proves that high rates of pirates will reduce global warming."</p>
<p>Killed or attenuated virus vaccine preserve the part of the virus that induces your immune system to make antibodies to that part of the vaccine. The other parts of the virus are gone, so the vaccine’s “virus” can’t actually cause disease or multiply. The immune system gets primed to the part of the virus that matters. The next time the (real) virus tries to get into your system, the B-cells that were primed recognize that virus part, and make antibodies like crazy, which then grab onto the viruses and kill them.</p>
<p>The cpox virus is uniquely able to sequester itself in nerve roots. That can lead to shingles. The incidence of shingles in people vaccinated against cpox is lower than for people who get “natural” cpox, so the vaccine appears to be protective for shingles too. No vaccine has been known to be able cause a similar sequestration/reactivation of disease.</p>
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<p>You do not know that this is what is responsible for you not getting the flu. If it were true then all healthy people who eat tons of fruit,…would also never get the flu. It would also indicate that if people didn’t eat tons of fruit,…they would get the flu. This is not true.</p>
<p>You can’t qualify your “cure” with “well everyone is different.”</p>
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<p>The problem with this is that you don’t get to have your own facts! I recall from other threads that you also discourage your children from taking humanities classes in college because they might be exposed to ideas that differ from your view of the world. The safety and efficacy of vaccines is studied ad-nausuem, yet people continue to spout anectodal evidence that is not supported by the scientific evidence. It just wears me out sometimes… </p>
<p>By the way, I do agree with you that there are some studies showing some pretty compelling evidence that vitamin D deficiencies may be at the root of some serious health problems; working with my doctor on some health problems I had a few years ago, we settled on a supplemental dose for me and I also try to get some sun every day (takes some extra effort when you have a desk job instead of a lifeguard job, and live in a northern climate). And it did help with my problems. But I have seen no scientific studies linking vitamin D with influenza incidence (apples and oranges).</p>
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What I’ve read is that by vaccinating all kids for chicken pox, it removes the constant re-exposure that adults gets, which acts as a booster that protects from shingles later in life.</p>
<p>Without the booster effect from being exposed to kids with chicken pox, shingles incidence is actually increasing, and the increased number of deaths from shingles is completely offsetting or exceeding the number of deaths prevented by the chicken pox vaccine.</p>
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<p>The wikipedia article on this has plenty of them:</p>
<p>[Vitamin</a> D and influenza - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_and_influenza]Vitamin”>Vitamin D and respiratory tract infections - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>notrichenough-- the data re shingles is intriguing and in the pediatric field it is not believed that there is a clear correlation. The incidence of shingles increased in the 45-64 year olds, who would not have gotten the cpox vaccine (those kids/young adults are about 19-20 at the oldest) and presumably would not have been affected by less exposure, that is, they are by and large immune because of their own infection with cpox during their childhoods, that is, it’s not felt that pediatric vaccination would have affected this age group. I think a lot of data is being looked at and it will be interesting to see what is found. Also, the herpes-zoster vaccine can also reduce risk of shingles in the older population. That will have to be factored in there, too.</p>
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The theory is that you get a “natural” booster effect by being exposed to kids who have chicken pox. And 45-64 is the age group of the first group of parents whose kids got the chicken pox vaccine, which has eliminated the booster effect.</p>
<p>I’ve seen recommendations that people get the herpes-zoster vaccine at 50 instead of 60 because the natural immunity is wearing off sooner than it used to.</p>
<p>But wouldn’t you just get exposed to your own kids who had cpox and then they’re done with it, thereby reducing greatly your chances of exposure to more kids with cpox? And I’ve never heard during my training that exposure to varicella (cpox) helps with resistance to zoster (shingles). I was always taught that once you had varicella you’re immune to varicella, but the end of dormancy of the virus in nerve roots is triggered by events (pregnancy, stress, age) rather than suppressed by something else . Is that a new theory? It’s an interesting theory though; maybe that’s why the shingles vaccine will become more important.</p>
<p>I was taught the same theory as Jaylynn. Maybe they have changed the thinking.</p>
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<p>Even after your own kids have had cpox, you are (were) likely still constantly exposed other kids with infections as you are in the schools, taking them to sports, going in stores, the movies, whatever. If all kids are vaccinated, you never get that exposure.</p>
<p>Yes, it is just a theory to try to explain the rising incidence of shingles. And in fairness, many who espouse this theory have their own agenda, which is usually rabidly anti-vaccine.</p>
<p>Here’s an article that claims to report on research in the “International Journal of Toxicology”. I have no idea if this is a legitimate journal or not, but it is interesting:</p>
<p>[Chicken</a> Pox Vaccine Associated with Shingles Epidemic – re> PEARBLOSSOM, Calif., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ --](<a href=“http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chicken-pox-vaccine-associated-with-shingles-epidemic-54648017.html]Chicken”>http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chicken-pox-vaccine-associated-with-shingles-epidemic-54648017.html)</p>
<p>Right, you’re exposed, but I never heard any science that ever linked exposure to varicella to suppression of zoster. There’s no science there, just speculation. The guy’s credentials are suspect. If the epidemiology is true, “real” sources will pick it up and look at it. Could be interesting. I have to say that reading a “medical” research report from Pearlblossom, California, was kind of funny!</p>
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Sure, considering his PhD is apparently in Computer Science.</p>
<p>The “International Journal of Toxicology” claims to be a peer-reviewed journal. Does that mean anything any more?</p>
<p>I don’t think increases in pregancy or compromised immune systems or whatever would seem to explain why shingles is increasing in the 45-64 bracket, so the conventional theory seems suspect, too.</p>