Monthly Archives: March 2010

And Pigs Will Fly Out of My B***?

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In early September, 2009 headlines read that 90,000 people could die in the US this flu season.  Get your flu shot!!!  Like this CNN reports that sites this number as well as the worn out typical of 40,000 deaths per year from the seasonal flu.

The swine has truly flown.  We had a very unusual flu season this year.  The peak for the seasonal flu usually occurs sometime between the last of January through the middle of March.  However, this year with the 2009 H1N1 we had a peak that occurred in October and then by the first of January the incidence of all influenza like illness dropped to below the baseline.  You can check out the graph of the hospitalizations for the US here.  http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/us/#iligraph There is more detailed information and graphs on this page: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ for week 11/2010.

The question arises what happened to the normal spike for the regular flu.  I can see the spike occurring for the H1N1 for people who were susceptible to the virus and it occurring early in the winter.  However, how did that affect the seasonal flu that should have peaked in late February?  Every year up until now the spike has typically occurred in late winter.  What is different?

Perhaps what happened was the fear of people dying from the H1N1 motivated more people to get the regular flu vaccination.  Also if you think about it the H1N1 vaccine was not readily available until November.  People got vaccinated and the flu stopped?  I wonder when President Obama will make a speech taking credit for getting more people taking the flu vaccine and this is what caused the significant reduction and how as you read the following.

More confusion!?  The really interesting thing is that the table for total influenza like illness for hospitalizations shows 41, 551 with 2, 077 deaths. (table below the graph: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/us/#iligraph).  How do you rationalize these numbers with the totals of what the CDC claims as typical at over 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths.  The insurance companies should really be happy this year as they had to pay significantly less to providers because of the low incidence of illness or have we just been lied to by the CDC.  It is truly confusing.  Do hospitals not report death?  I do not believe the federal guidelines would allow this.  Here is what the CDC has been telling you: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm

Since the drug companies or Obama have not taken credit, I think that I will just jump right in.  It is my hope that what really happened was that there was enough in the press about the antiviral affects of vitamin D that people in general took more.  It would not take a lot to make a huge impact in the population.  The one thing that did change this year is that for the first time, CVS, Walgreens, and the local Kerr Drug all carried vitamin D3 in 5,000 IU capsules.  Thank you Dr. Cannell!

I tried to find the percent of the population that took the vaccination for the H1N1 and for the seasonal flu without success.  This seems to be a closely held number.  I know that there are some reports that more than half of the H1N1 vaccines that the US ordered were not used but I cannot confirm.

Taking my D3 and getting a tan in the winter and the blues and flu just fly away.  I just love flying pigs  – Pandemic Survivor

Surviving Prostate Cancer

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Prostate cancer is a very serious disease but may be preventable and treatable with vitamin D.  This of course is true of all cancers.

We have a friend that discovered my knowledge of vitamin D and we were asked how he should consider its use for his problem of stage four prostate cancer (moved to the bladder and other distant organs).  It seems that he had pretty much given up hope because the treatment he was receiving was not working.  I suggested to him that he should find a clinic that would be willing to monitor his serum 25(OH)D and keep it at the level of a sunny country or between 60 to 90 ng/ml by using D3 while continuing his conventional treatments.  He accomplished this with the oncology clinic at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.  Within six months the cancer was completely contained within his prostate and more importantly after four years he is still alive.

Would this have happened if he had not tried the vitamin D?  I suspect there would have been a funeral by now.

It seems there is a law that says you cannot offer any cancer treatment that is not chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery.  I think that treating cancer with nutrition could be considered chemotherapy because the effect of getting whole foods with enzymes that have not been destroyed and proper minerals and vitamins is more effective than something pumped into your body through a drip.

If you have cancer eat as much whole foods as possible that are raw (vegetables and fruits that have had no processing) so as not to destroy the enzymes and be sure that you are getting enough of the proper minerals like calcium, magnesium, iodine, and potassium.  Do not die of cancer while you are vitamin D and iodine deficient!

Here is a review of prostate cancer and the impact of vitamin D by Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council.

Iodine is extremely important as it is the trigger for apoptosis or cellular death (causing tumors to shrink).  The body rids itself of excess iodine through the urine.  What if the supply to the renal system of iodine was cut off because of iodine deficiency and this in combination with vitamin D deficiency was the cause of prostate cancer?  If I had prostate cancer, I believe that I would ask my treating physician for an iodine challenge test to assure that I had enough iodine in my body.  I would not take no for an answer.  Resource articles for iodine

Living easy in the sun while eating raw fresh fruits and vegetables seems like the life that we should have.  –  Pandemic Survivor

Tanning Tax

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The new health care reform act has in it the provision for a ten percent tax on the indoor tanning industry.  This revenue stream was originally placed on Botox treatments and was called botax.

“We suggested that the tanning tax would be a better alternative to the cosmetic tax and hopefully will reduce the incidence of skin cancer down the road,” said David M. Pariser, president of the American Academy of Dermatology Association.  WSJ Online

How is it that the AADA has such power over the practice of medicine?  They like every other institution try to protect its own interest in business.  Intended consequence or unintended result?  Usually when the government places a ‘sin tax’ on some specific article the intent is to discourage people from using that particular thing with the justification that it is a burden on society like the taxes on tobacco and alcohol.

Now what was in the ‘Sick care’ Bill originally was a 5% tax on using Botox which would have raised twice as much money as the 10% tax on tanning beds.  I am sure that the AADA was not happy with the ‘Botax’ because it would have discouraged people from using cosmetic enhancements that could only be delivered by the dermatology industry, thus cutting into their total revenues.  The other interesting thing about changing to tanning beds from cosmetic items is that it put the tax on the middle income people instead of placing the tax on higher income people which has been the goal of the Obama administration.

I guess you know where I am going next.  The amount of disease created by people making less vitamin D when not using tanning beds is going to put a greater burden on our sick care system.  Intended or unintended consequence?  Ah, institutional manipulation for the interest of making money and not for truly serving people’s health.  Over the last 40 years the AADA has done its best to keep people out of the sun or to use sunscreen.  This has really caused a very serious epidemic of chronic disease under the guise that spending more time in the sun increases your opportunity for skin cancer.  Take the facts and manipulate them for profit.  What a great country!

Now if they really wanted to do something that would create a significant revenue stream and reduce the burden of disease they could put a ten percent tax on the use of high fructose corn syrup.  Who knows, maybe it would even improve our relationship with Cuba as we used more cane sugar.

Have you missed me?  Been spending too much time in the sun!  –  Pandemic Survivor