Are you one of those that blindly follow half the population down to the local clinic for your flu shot this time every year? I don't blame you, why wouldn't you with all the headlines telling you how many people will die from swine flu this year and how there's not enough vaccine to go around. There was a headline the other day claiming there'd only be 30 million vaccines available to the whole country this year! Better get yours fast!
But before you do, let's think about it a little bit. First off, do you know what they put in the flu vaccine? Most people don't know any of the ingredients while others at least know there's inactivated flu virus in it, which in most cases doesn't scare them off.. Here's a quick, but entertaining look, at what the flu virus consists of.. While given in a tongue-in-cheek manner, it is accurate as to the ingredients contained in the flu shot...
Still psyched about running down to the clinic for your shot? OK, you go on ahead without me. I would argue that if you are among the physical culturists that make up the legion of the Tragically Fit, then you don't need the flu shot. People that catch the flu or any kind of cold are typically not very healthy to begin with. They eat diets high in sugar and processed carbs, don't get much, if any, exercise. They don't manage their stress well. As a result they end up with a depressed immune system. Joseph Greenstein, aka the Mighty Atom and October's physical culturist of the month, would lecture crowds on the streets of NYC in the early 1900's explaining how a diet high in mucus producing foods loaded with sugar and bleached flours would essentially guarantee that you would come down with the flu or a cold. "Colds are not caught, they are cultivated" he would say.
Look at the list from the CDC of people who should not get a flu vaccine and there's one that really stands out, "People who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks of getting an influenza vaccine.". This is a disease where the body damages its own nerve cells resulting in muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. Vaccination with the swine flu vaccine has been associated with GBS and it is estimated that one person in a million receiving the vaccination will contract GBS.. So thankfully there's a shortage of flu vaccines this year and only 30 people out of the 30 million receiving shots in the US this year will contract this debilitating nervous system disease. Why would you take a chance at being one of them when all you really need to do is take care of yourself?
Why not live the life of a physical culturist? Make a commitment to total body health and wellness. Eat natural foods, exercise every day. Stay active. Eating right and exercising will also help you manage your stress level which is also key to a healthy immune system. Get enough sleep, 7-8 hours a night. Don't make excuses that you don't have time to take care of yourself properly. Like George Hackenschmidt said, "If you don't take the time to take care of yourself, you will be obliged to find the time to be ill.". You don't need the flu shot, there's not one ingredient in there that you would choose to put in your body. Be healthy and the rest will take care of itself.
