Photo by Pensiero

Don’t you hate getting sick from long flights? Feeling completely helpless and unprotected as those around you cough and sneeze knowing you are breathing that? Next holiday season, be prepared!

I’ve developed a system that kept me healthy from a grueling trip spanning over 20 hrs flying and 3 climate zones while all those around me were sick and I thought I’d share my secret.

What you need to buy

Go to the health food store or Amazon and buy a box of either chewable tablets or a gel capsule of some herbal concoction with Echinacea.

from wikipedia:

Echinacea is popularly believed to be an immunostimulator, stimulating the body’s non-specific immune system and warding off infections. A study commonly used to support that belief is a 2007 meta-analysis in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.[13] The studies pooled in the meta-analysis used different types of echinacea, different parts of the plant, and various dosages. This review cannot inform recommendations on the efficacy of any particular type of echinacea, dosage, or treatment regimen. The safety of echinacea under long-term use is also unknown.

I found a box of gel capsules that was a blend of Echinacea, Goldenseal and Cat’s Claw but I can’t find a picture of it online to share. A widely available such supplement (that I also used this when I ran out of the first) is “Enzymatic Therapy Esberitox Chewables”– Start taking these as prescribed on box a few days before you travel.

Note: Echinacea is something that works better if you haven’t taken it in awhile. If you’ve been taking a lot of it already consider these other options.

Other items to buy at the same time are:

• Vitamin C- I pick a time released 1,000 mg type that is “buffered” so it doesn’t make me nauseous. Here is what the bottle says: “Vitamin C provides antioxidant activity and is intended to proved nutritive support for normal, healthy collagen synthesis, cartilage and bone development, immune function, capillary and blood vessel integrity and nerve impulse transmission. “
• Vitamin D- The Sunshine Vitamin!
• Vitamin E

3 days before you travel

Start taking all of the vitamins and echinacea as written on packages regularly.

The day you travel

Take a double dose of all of your vitamins and echinacea the day of your flight. Bring along your vitamins to continue your regular dosage / schedule on the airplane (if your flight is long). Don’t drag all the bottles in your carry on, separate your doses to a ziploc bag or small container.

When you arrive

When you arrive to your destination, take a shower as soon as you can!
The next day take a double dose of all your vitamins again!

More Tips

• drink a lot of water- ask stewardess for a large bottle to yourself and buy it if you have to (sit in aisle seat to make multiple bathroom trips easier).
• wash your hands and use anti-bacterial gel at least three times during your flight if it’s longer than 6 hours
• keep your nasal passages moist- either wet your nostrils with CLEAN hands or bring a natural nasal / saline spray

I hope this advice helps someone be prepared for their next long flight and changing climate zones. I felt I was about to catch a cold about three times in my grueling travel through different climates but just doubled my vitamin doses on those days and bounced right back to health. I know it was the vitamins that pulled me through and kept me protected while flying on the plane with a bunch of sick people!

photo by ** Maurice **

The breaking news about the Swine Flu Virus at first glance instilled much fear into me. It feels close to me as I recently had the flu and was home sick for 4 days eating the BRAT diet. I fell sick just two days after attending a Bar-B-Q where I couldn’t finish eating a chicken leg because I felt it wasn’t cooked properly. I re-thought my omnivore diet, felt disgusted with how poorly we treat our animals in factory farms and figured I’d go meat free this summer. Upon healing from the flu, I went and picked up a herbal tincture of boldo and curcum which is a known folk remedy for infections and parasites of the stomach and the intestines (a three week treatment). Now as this treatment comes to a close, Swine Flu is making headlines.

My first reaction was that this is something very real and threatening to mankind. Our society tends to think the world is getting closer to destruction every day, so it doesn’t seem surprising that a new virus would wipe a good chunk of us out. Plus if you believe in karma, it certainly seems in order that this would be our re-payment for factory farming.

Upon my first google search on the topic I came across an animal activist site, “SuperWeed” that states:

The bird flu and new swine flu viruses are so dangerous because they are mutations that bring together DNA from avian, swine, and human influenza viruses. Factory farming, in which thousands of animals of the same species are crowded together in unsanitary circumstances, allows viruses to mutate madly. But it is animal agriculture itself — including those small-scale organic farms and dairies so beloved by ostensibly ethical omnivores — that creates the conditions in which pig, chicken, and human viruses come into the sustained contact required for gene swapping to occur. As long as we continue to keep and kill animals for food, we will be at risk for pandemics of virulent mutant flus and other zoonoses.

Ok, this sure makes sense! FYI: if you are wondering what a zoonose is, it is also called zoonotic disease and refers to diseases that can be passed from animals, whether wild or domesticated, to humans.

Then I received an email newsletter from Dr.Mercola’s newsletter with the featured article, Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction? (AA), that eased my worries a bit. He mentions how The Swine Flu Outbreak in 1976 was chalked up to be more of a conspiracy than a real threat (his comforting message below):

Folks, you can expect to see a lot of panic over this in the near future. But I wouldn’t be too hasty — this isn’t the first time the public has been warned about swine flu. The last time was in 1976, right before I entered medical school and I remember it very clearly. It resulted in the massive swine flu vaccine campaign.

Do you happen to recall the result of this massive campaign?

Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths.

However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics.

And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized.

More People Died From the Swine Flu Vaccine than Swine Flu!

You can receive his wonderful newsletters as well by subscribing from this link.

On the other hand the fact is there is very real evidence on Google maps of outbreaks which you can monitor: click here for the map and outbreak reports

Furthering the case of writing this whole Swine Flu off as a conspiracy is an article by Mike Adams:

He mentions what all global media coverage certainly is not mentioning:

H1N1 influenza is not a hoax. But the way it’s being reported by health authorities and the mainstream media certainly is. The scam in all this is what they leave out of the stories — the fact that human beings live among a huge natural medicine chest of anti-viral drugs found in every city park, every forest, every swamp and every open field.

He goes on to mention how the precious vaccine Tamiflu that the media often mentions as being in low supply, thus propelling the desire of wanting Tamiflu stock piled in case of an emergency, is really extracted from a Traditional Chinese medicine herb, Star Anise.

Full article here.

So my dear readers, what are your thoughts on the Swine Flu Outbreak?