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Snake Oil Redux (aka the flu shot) plus Calcium & Friends

Snake Oil Redux: Even with all of the sturm und drang coming from the CDC about 2012-2013 being the "worst flu season ever" plus its infernal messing with numbers and statistics in a vain attempt to make things add up to "flu shot, woo who!", the CDC finally admitted that this year's flu shots were a bust. And, furthermore, said flu shots were especially bad for the elderly: The rate of protection for them was only 9%. This means that 91% of the elderly given a flu shot derived no benefit from the vaccine and "in reality, fewer than 2% of people who get flu shots derive any protection" (Natural News, March 10, 2012).

In my own practice I have been hearing the same thing over and over again - people know people who have had the flu shot and went on to get a bad case of flu. And here is a true story from an ultrasound technician at Kaiser: Because she had rheumatic fever as a child, she is not allowed to get the flu shot and she is the only person in her department who has not gotten the flu! My advice: Don't get the flu shot. Just keep washing your hands a lot, take immune boosters, don't eat sugar and drink plenty of water. And for you older folk? Think about this nasty little piece of information before you offer your arm - like a lamb to slaughter - at your doctor's office. There is a direct correlation between repeated flu shots and dementia.

The Importance of Calcium's Little Friends: In my last newsletter I mentioned that there has been a change in thinking regarding extra calcium and the increased risk of heart attacks in women, i.e. that there is no correlation. I wasn't specific enough and neglected to mention one big thing: As it is with most things, there is that all important fine balance factor: You must balance your calcium with magnesium, vitamin D and K2.

Magnesium deficiency is rampant. We can't get it easily from foods yet it is required for over 300 enzymatic processes in the body plus it is key to the proper electrical signaling within the heart muscle while helping to stabilize a normal rhythm as well. Low mag will give you many symptoms like muscle tension and cramping, fast heart beat and arrhythmias, increased blood pressure, calcification of soft tissues, excess cholesterol and hardening of the arteries. A lot of tartar on your teeth? Yes, that too is an imbalance of calcium, magnesium and vitamin D. My dental hygienist still clucks in amazement when she sees that the tartar that had always lived behind my two bottom front teeth has magically disappeared. This is since I started the fine balancing act of Calcium, Magnesium, D and K2 a few years ago. Magnesium is one of your most important minerals. So I would suggest a daily supplemental dose of magnesium between 300 and 500 mgs or to bowel tolerance and this is whether you take extra calcium or not. Mag is fine on its own.

And you know my feelings about vitamin D: I like your blood levels of D to be between 60 and 70. Even 80 is good. I just read that it might take as much as "8,000 iu's of D or more daily to raise low levels to a level of 40", which is still much too low to me. So don't freak out if I ask you to take 10,000 iu's of D or even more to increase your pitiful levels of D. I am on about 16,000 iu's of D daily in my eternally frustrating quest to raise my pitiful levels to optimum. There are people, and I am one, who has a very difficult time raising their D levels, and for no reason that I can find, except maybe poor digestion and absorption. So people like me are better off taking an oil-based liquid D and also more iu's of it to achieve that hallowed high number.

The latest study I have read on D is from the March Eur Jour of Epid, where they interpreted the results from a meta-analysis of 283,537 people. Researchers studied their D levels and the correlation with their risk for hypertension. They discovered that for every 10 (ng/ml) increase in blood levels of 25-hydoxyvitamin D there was a 12% reduction in the risk of developing future hypertension. This is just one of the many great things D will do for you.

Low D levels have approached epidemic levels. And that is both unnecessary and frustrating since it's a relatively easy, cheap and quick fix. More than 90% of the older population is deficient in vitamin D and a great many younger individuals as well. There is also an increased risk factor for people of color, like African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans who don't seem to absorb the D from the sun as well as Caucasians.

Google vitamin D and you will be amazed at its versatility and far reaching influence in promoting a healthy and long life.

Then there is K2. This is called a vitamin by many, but it is non-classifiable as far as I am concerned. I don't know what else to call it either so let's call it a fat soluble vitamin. At any rate, K2 is made by bacteria in your gut. Many of you test well for my liquid D/K2 and are taking it now. K2 helps both calcium and D to function properly: Instead of depositing the calcium in places it's not supposed to be like the inside of your arteries, your heart, in your joints and on your teeth as tartar, we need K2 (maybe 150 micrograms daily  no one seems to know for sure) to help move the calcium into the proper places, like bone. So, in a way, I guess if you don't have the proper balance of calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and K2 and have a preponderance of free calcium running around your body, then, yes, you may have an increased risk for heart attacks, just like the old study said.

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