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A reader just asked if there was any truth to the report that’s flooded the internet under the heading “Study Verifies That There Is No Value In Any Flu Vaccine.”

In order to grab attention most headlines stretch the truth. This one does a bit, but the facts are still clear that flu vaccines don’t perform like the drug companies say they do.

The organization that did this review is The Cochrane Collaboration. It’s a group of over 10,000 volunteers in more than 90 countries who review the effects of health care interventions compiles data from research studies and tries to draw a conclusion based on the facts reported.

Here’s what they said. Take special note of the Warning that industry studies are biased in favor of vaccination, which, to my mind, invalidates all those studies.

Main Results
We included 50 reports. Forty (59 sub-studies) were clinical trials of over 70,000 people. Eight were comparative non-RCTs (randomized controlled trials) and assessed serious harms. Two were reports of harms which could not be introduced in the data analysis. In the relatively uncommon circumstance of vaccine matching the viral circulating strain and high circulation, 4% of unvaccinated people versus 1% of vaccinated people developed influenza symptoms. The corresponding figures for poor vaccine matching were 2% and 1%. These differences were not likely to be due to chance. Vaccination had a modest effect on time off work and had no effect on hospital admissions or complication rates. Inactivated vaccines caused local harms and an estimated 1.6 additional cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome per million vaccinations. The harms evidence base is limited.

Authors’ Conclusions
Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. There is no evidence that they affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission.

WARNING:
This review includes 15 out of 36 trials funded by industry (four had no funding declaration). An earlier systematic review of 274 influenza vaccine studies published up to 2007 found industry funded studies were published in more prestigious journals and cited more than other studies independently from methodological quality and size. Studies funded from public sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favorable to the vaccines. The review showed that reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies. The content and conclusions of this review should be interpreted in light of this finding.

My advice? Take Vitamin D this winter to prevent the flu. On Wednesday December 15, 2010 at 7pm PST. I’ll be doing my second hour-long webinar with Dr. Lani Simpson. This one is specifically on Vitamin D. To attend this free seminar, just sign up at www.lanisimpson.com. For those with a time challenge, I will be putting the audio portion of both webinars on my website soon.

P.S. My basic recommendations on the various types of magnesium to take are on my website under Resources. Under books you’ll find my eBooks: How to Change Your Life with Magnesium, Future Health Now Encyclopedia and Death by Modern Medicine. For Detoxing I recommend LL’s Magnetic Clay and Magnesium flakes. For treating yeast overgrowth, IBS and digestive disorders, I recommend Prescript Assist. For Coconut products, whey powder and green powders go to Tropical Traditions. For food-based supplements Grown by Nature offers my readers a 20% discount on your purchases. At checkout, just enter the code: gbn123.

NOTE: Only you can know if something is helping you. If you don’t feel well on a supposed beneficial product, listen to your body and stop taking it! Knowing when to Not take something is a big part of taking responsibility for your health!

P.P.S. I cannot answer personal health questions by email. However, please send general questions that I may be able to answer in my blog. But first, google my name with the condition you are inquiring about and see if I’ve already addressed it somewhere on the web.

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