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What's the real story? & Why all the Hype?

May 4, 2009

This is a great example of how to drive fear into the public. I am astounded at how efficient our media is in terms of keeping us bouncing from one fear item to the next. I am not implying that we should kick up our heels and ignore the potential for contracting a serious illness but I am an advocate for solid facts supported by data that is not put through the media's emotionally driven spin machine.

So much has been made in the media these past weeks of the Mexican influenza outbreak (swine flu/H1N1 virus). At this point in time we truly do not know how virulent this influenza strain is but from all indicators it appears to be less virulent than what we normally deal with.

We do know that as of May 5th, 2009 there have been approximately 880 cases WORLD WIDE with a fraction of those cases ending in death (one of which was a child in Texas that came from Mexico seeking medical care due to being infected).

Now when you consider that in the USA ALONE we average between 36,000 - 63,000 deaths annually from the flu or complications from the flu (bacterial infections, worsening of underlying illness). We really are not in a situation that warrants the kind of fear and stress that is being propagated by the media.

Here are some actual statistics on Incidence of Flu in the USA annually as well as Deaths due to Flu in the USA annually. This data was taken from multiple sources including the CDC, NIAID, and WrongDiagnosis.com:

Incidence (annual) of Flu: 36 per 100 (NHIS96); 35 million annually up to 50 million annually (NIAID/CDC); 10-20% yearly (NIAID)

Incidence Rate: approx 1 in 3 or 36.00% or 97.9 million people in USA

Incidence extrapolations for USA for Flu: 97,920,000 per year, 8,160,000 per month, 1,883,076 per week, 268,273 per day, 11,178 per hour, 186 per minute, 3 per second. Note: this extrapolation calculation uses the incidence statistic: 36 per 100 (NHIS96); 35 million annually up to 50 million annually (NIAID/CDC); 10-20% yearly (NIAID)

Deaths from Flu: 63,730 annual deaths for influenza and pneumonia(NVSR Sep 2001); estimated 20,000 deaths from flu (NIAID)

Cause of death rank: 7th leading cause of death in 1999 and 2000 is "pneumonia/influenza" (CDC)

Death rate extrapolations for USA for Flu: 63,729 per year, 5,310 per month, 1,225 per week, 174 per day, 7 per hour, 0 per minute, 0 per second. Note: this extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 63,730 annual deaths for influenza and pneumonia since this is the major complication for flu infected individuals. (NVSR Sep 2001); estimated 20,000 deaths from flu (NIAID)

Looking at the sheer numbers of typical flu cases and seeing that "typically" 174 people die everyday from the flu or secondary causes, it puts us in a real good place health wise to have had 1 death in the past week due to the swine flu here in the USA.

Now I certainly do not mean to minimize the death of anyone as we are all equal in importance but the statistics are what they are and this flu "Pandemic" does not appear to be affecting us anymore than we would be otherwise.

One more point I would like to bring up is the improper use the media has made of their repeated comparison and reference to the 1918 Flu Pandemic that claimed anywhere from 20-40 million people. The problem with this reference is that current and reliable research now concludes that the massive death count was not related to the flu but occurred due to SECONDARY INFECTION.

This type of secondary bacterial infection is treatable now and is the reason we do not see the massive numbers of deaths when new viral variants come around. In fact it has been stated that if these people had access to antibiotics or even high dose Vitamin D these numbers would not have happened.

I have my own theories on why we are being beat over the head by the media and they mostly go back to various conspiracy theories so I will leave it at that and get on with some practical info on how to beat the flu no matter if it comes from your family, your bird, or your pig!!!

For the best defense on keeping our immune system strong and capable of fighting infection whether that comes from the flu, common cold, or any other virus or bacteria see the bullet points below.

In a nutshell these are the things you want to do and have on hand to best empower your immune defense regardless of the cause of disease.

• Wash your hands- at least 20 seconds each time
• Keep your hands out of your mouth and nose
• Hydrate
• Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily
• Check serum 25-OH-vitamin D levels – low levels hamper antiviral immunity
• Exercise
• Get enough sleep

Supplements to have on hand:

• Gan Mao Ling
• Pinnelia Root
• Argentyn Silver
• Vitamin D

Regarding the Vitamin D I strongly advocate knowing what your Blood Serum levels of D are on an annual basis. For the purposes of fighting an infection you will need to take substantially higher doses than you would for day to day use. In fact you may need up to 50,000 iu/day for 4 days to get ahead of the infection but IT WORKS.

For little bodies I recommend dosing as follows:

2000 IU/kg body weight for 4days So if you have a 50 pound chlid that would be roughly 23 kg. That means you would use 46,000 to 60,000 IU over a 4 day period or about 12,000 to 15,000 IU/day for 4 days.

Here is a link to an article that I sent out a few months back on a comparison between the flu vaccine and Vitamin D. If you did not read it at that time take a few moments to do so now. Please read all the way to the end as much of the historical data is in the latter half of the article. This is great information that we all need to understand clearly due to the incredible health implications.

Best of Health to You,

Dr. Dave Marquis, DC, DACBN
Oak Park Wellness Clinic
860 Oak Park Blvd. #202
Arroyo Grande, CA 93420
805-481-3499

email: davidmarquis@charter.net