OCTOBER 7, 2010 ISSUE
Flu Shot or Not?
One Local Doctor Says No
With doctors’ offices, pharmacies and major retail outlets offering instant flu prevention for the approaching winter, getting the shot has almost become a rite of fall everyone’s expected to participate in, and there’s an impression of irresponsibility if you don’t.
But one doctor in Boone is suggesting his patients shouldn’t get the shot. In an email before flu promotions began, local physician Dr. Matt Brown said he does not recommend taking this year’s flu vaccine, and in a telephone interview with High Country Press said that over the years he has “been gradually reducing the number of flu shots” he administers.
“My patients know I am not a big fan of immunization. [I tell them that] if they take the right things, like Vitamin D, [that is] a better way to prevent infections,” he said.
Brown’s practice is called High Country Proactive Health. He’s a traditional medical doctor certified as a lifestyle medicine practitioner by the Ohio-based Wellness Forum, a group of health care professionals promoting the use of the best of conventional medicine while helping patients face the underlying causes of their ills instead of automatically using drugs.
Brown recommends that his patients take matters into their own hands to avoid the flu. Being proactive means healthy habits such as eating high-quality food, taking nutritional supplements, getting regular exercise, practicing rules of hygiene, reducing stress, getting fresh air, enough sleep and getting to bed at the first sign of symptoms to help the body cure itself, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that everyone six months and older get the flu vaccine.
“While flu is unpredictable, it’s likely that 2009 H1N1 viruses and regular seasonal viruses will cause illness in the U.S. this flu season,” the CDC website states. “The 2010-2011 flu vaccine will protect against three different flu viruses: an H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the H1N1 virus that caused so much illness last season.”
The CDC’s information, available in a printout in places like Walgreen’s, outlines who is at risk from flu, the reasons, the benefits and risks of taking the shot.
But, Brown said, “There is too much risk involved and not enough benefit. There is clearly a risk of…post-vaccine side effects.”
He cited the potential of contracting the Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can lead to paralysis of the diaphragm and the need for a ventilator.
“Some viruses are more associated with this syndrome [than others],” Brown said, “but it has happened this past season…it happens every year.”
In his email to his 1,600 patients on August 31, Dr. Brown said he doesn’t recommend this year’s vaccine specifically because “all manufacturers are incorporating the H1N1 strain...I am very concerned about the safety of H1N1 vaccine. [I] didn’t recommend [it] last year and certainly don’t recommend combining it with any other vaccine.”
The H1N1 vaccine “was not thoroughly researched. It underwent a clinical trial [of 230 people] and was then released to the public,” Brown said. He believes this was inadequate.
Brown acknowledged that his position may be unique for a medical doctor in the High Country and that his responsibility is to his own patients.
“I am making sure that my patients know I don’t want them taking this vaccine,” he said, adding that “the model that’s done for flu assumes that [people] are eating the standard American diet…[and are] not careful with hygiene.
“The patients in my practice are much more conscious of their diet,” he said, and by informing them, the decision “becomes their personal choice. They understand the risks they are incurring.”
“Quite a few” of his patients have taken the vaccine, but “most have not,” he said.
Apart from proper eating, the simplest, cheapest, safest thing to do is to take Vitamin D, he said, which he described as “critical” to immunity.
“Vitamin D…protects against…bacterial and viral pathogens. If you are eating right and taking Vitamin D, then your risk of getting the flu is much lower,” Brown said. “And avoid a lot of sugar. It screws up the white blood cell function which fights infections.”
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