Flu 101

The swine flu H1N1 is big big news, and big big money. There's a tremendous amount of fear being generated by the media, and that fear causes panic decisions. Let's get rational and talk about the flu virus and the immune system a little.

To make this understandable, I'll be using an analogy of the body as a country, with parts of the immune system as soldiers, and the flu virus as a terrorist/foriegn army.

The first thing that needs to happen before the immune system can do anything is that foreign organisms (in this case the flu virus) need to be recognized as being foreign. It's like showing your soldiers pictures of the bad guys. Once your body can recognize the bad guys, it can mount a defense and take care of them, shoot them dead.

All viruses, including H1N1, are really quite different from normal living things like bacteria or you and me. They're almost alien and not even alive by most definitions. When they 1st get into our bodies, it's very difficult to mount an immune response because the body does not recognize them as being foreign until they start multiplying and doing a lot of damage. At that point, your body can take a picture of the bad guy and pass it around.

Now here's the cool part. Once your body recognizes the bad guys, it can shut them down when they're first trying to sneak in, rather than having to wait until damage is done. This is called immunization. Your body can take care of the problem and you are now immune to the illness.

The flu virus changes a little every year. This is called a mutation (not the X-man kind). Say this time it has on a new hat and a big fluffy mustache. Your body can recognize last year's virus, but isn't sure about this year's virus. So the immune response is lower than it would be if the original virus came knocking. As a result, you might get a mild case of the flu. (your soldiers just harass the bad guy instead of killing him immediately). This is called partial immunity.

The really bad thing about the influenza virus is that about every 75-80 years or so, it undergoes a radical mutation and looks nothing like it used to. In other words the bad guy got plastic surgery and a sex change. It now resembles nothing your body has seen before. It can waltz right in and get a major domestic terrorist regime going before your soldier know anything is wrong. The last major flu mutation happened in 1918. We've actually been overdue for this outbreak for about 10-15 years.

Getting a shot of either dead or attenuated virus is called a vaccine. Vaccines attempt to teach the immune system about the bad guys before the bad guys show up. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. There are literally thousands of variables in the immune system and you can't assume that a vaccination will confer immunity. Most years, the flu vaccine is made of two strains of the previous 20 years in the hopes that one of those will resemble this year's flu virus and whatever disguise it has on. This make little sense for most people.

If you are older than 20, then you were already exposed to the strains picked and should already have some immunity. If living through that particular flu season didn't get your body to recognize the virus, how is getting more of it going to help?

Another problem with flu shots is that the influenza virus is an upper respiratory disease and as such gets into the body through the nose and nasal passages. It does not get into the body through the skin. Having a different route of infection may alter the immune response. Having other infections or illnesses at the time of vaccination can also cause serious side effects.

Now this doesn't apply to all vaccines. Some diseases are no longer in common circulation (like small pox and polio) and the only way you can even hope to build an immune database is to get a vaccine.

The flu virus is in common circulation, and the odds are you've already been exposed to it. If your immune system is so bad that you can't build immunity from regular exposure, how is getting an extra dose from the vaccination going to help?

Ultimately the best plan of action is to build a strong immune system so that it can deal with whatever nature throws at it. Staying active, eating a good diet high in vegetables and fruits, and supplementing with certain nutritional products like elderberry, echinacea , vitamin C and vitamin A are all ways to do this. Having a good attitude and being happy is critical to a properly functioning immune system.


As with all health care decisions, you need to weigh the costs and benefits.