One of our most popular cold-pressed juices at Journey Juice is the Flu Shot. We originally sold it only in the winter months, but we had so many requests to bring it back in the summer, we now sell it year-round. The Flu Shot packs a powerful combination of greens, celery, broccoli, lemon/lime, peppers, garlic, ginger and turmeric. Each one of those ingredients helps your body fight colds and flu, but the combination is an amazing boost to your immune system without the nasty side effects of over-the-counter medicines.
Many customers ask us health-related questions, and, of course, we never give medical advice, because we are not doctors. But we do share with customers our opinions about health, fitness and nutrition. Ultimately, everyone should do their own health research and not just accept as truth what you hear on TV and read in the popular press. The conventional wisdom on nutrition and health does not have a good track record. This time of year we get asked all the time, if we take an annual flu shot. And, if not, why not?
We do not take the flu shot, and have never taken one. The reasons are simple:
- We don’t get the flu.
- The flu shot is not very effective.
- Several studies have shown a negative effect on your natural immune system from taking the flu shot.*
Do not mistake our view on the flu shot as being anti-vaccine. Vaccines have successfully eradicated many terrible diseases over the years like smallpox and polio. While there are still a few stubborn areas of world — mostly in Africa — where a few polio cases are still reported, this debilitating disease has been 99 percent eradicated because of world-wide vaccine use. And no smallpox cases have been seen since 1977.
The flu shot does not work like a traditional vaccine, because the virus changes every year. That is what all those H’s and N’s are (e.g., H3N2), describing the particular virus that the CDC et al are guessing will be the most prevalent in a given year. The Haemagglutinin (H) proteins target your cells then reproduce themselves and multiply. Then the Neuraminidase (N) proteins help the new virus particles break out of your cells to go invade the next host (bird, chicken, pig or human). The problem is, every year flu shot takers get ingested with a different type (e.g., H1N1, etc.) of flu strain.
If you have been taking a flu shot for the last 20 years, you’ve had 20 different combinations (multiple strains) of the flu introduced to your immune system. So even if the scientists guess right on this year’s strain and you take the new shot, when the flu comes along your immune system has 20 years’ worth of antibodies to choose from to combat this year’s particular strain. There is mounting evidence (see references below) that when this phenomenon happens — your immune system trying to decide which of its 20 years’ worth of flu antibodies to use to combat this year’s flu — it resorts back to the original flu strain antibody it developed when your body first confronted the flu. Unless your first encounter with the flu happens to be the same exact strain as this year’s flu, which is highly unlikely, you end up getting the flu anyway. That’s why the success rate of each year’s flu shot is almost always less than fifty (50%) percent, and often less than thirty (30%) percent.
So How Do You Avoid the Flu?
There is plenty of evidence that a deficiency of vitamins C & D — and many other vitamins, minerals and other nutrients — can weaken your immune system. And a weakened immune system certainly makes you more susceptible to the flu. So our best advice is to avoid fast foods, bad seed oils, added sugars and anything that turns into sugar once eaten (e.g., wheat and corn). Consume lots of green veggies, and if you eat meat, make sure it is grass-fed and not full of antibiotics and other bad stuff fed to mass-produced animals. Of course, the best way to make sure you are getting plenty of vitamins is to drink Journey Juice. And if you feel like you are getting sick, come get the Journey Juice Flu Shot. It will cure what ails you!
* References:
● https://www.statnews.com/2015/11/11/flu-shots-reduce-effectiveness/
● Clinical Infectious Diseases 2014; 59 (10): 1375-1385
● Clinical Infectious Diseases February 20, 2018, ciy097
● Newswise February 15, 2018