Sunday, July 11, 2004

In a Flap over "Bird Flu"...    Thailand Reports New Bird Flu Outbreaks    It seems we are continually being given something new to worry about. Despite the wholesale slaughter of millions of commercially raised chickens both in Asia and in North America, the pesky virus, know by the scientific name of H5N1 and the more scary moniker of "Bird Flu," is stubbornly resurfacing in Thailand. Authorities are now setting their sights on wild birds - ducks, and storks, and other species who are know to carry a form of the virus (from which they rarely become sick). It seems that it is our much-modified, weakened, antibiotic, hormone and steroid-riddled domestic birds that have little resistance are the ones "catching" Bird Flu. The government of Thailand has even ordered the killing of wild storks in a panicked knee-jerk reaction to these outbreaks. The Center For Disease Control and even the World Health Organization are running about squawking that the sky is falling and warning of the potential lethality of this dread virus which they fear will mutate into something that can be spread from human to human. This, they worry, could result in an outbreak the like of the "Spanish Flu" of 1918 and 1919 that was blamed for the deaths of 500,000 in the U.S.    I'll bet that the drug companies are scrambling to develop some sort of vaccine - which they can then sell to terrified consumers at hugely inflated prices, after having driven up the value by announcing shortages...    Let's look at some alternatives. First, why not make sure that we are all as fit and healthy as possible - with our immune systems in good working order. How to accomplish this you ask? Good diet, good sleep, good exercise, good fresh air, and, because our diets are so S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) and stripped of real nutrients by processing, then filled with over-processed sugars and white flours, we need to be supplementing with quality multivitamins, plant nutrients and essential fatty acids (Maxi-Multi's, Maxi-Greens, and Max-EPA come to mind). A well-fed body is much more capable of dealing with life's little viruses...    Next, perhaps we should be looking at what we have done to the lowly domestic chicken. When most chickens came from the back yard where they ranged free to scratch and peck and eat bugs to their hearts content we never heard of "bird flu." They were a bit tougher bird, I'm guessing. Now we grow these poor creatures by the tens of thousands in huge factories, feeding them all manner of scientifically designed "grow formulas" and antibiotics and steroids in a vain attempt to get them to market faster and fatter. Many of these birds have never seen a real, live, bug. Nor perhaps have they seen real, live, sunshine. No wonder they are sickly and prone to picking up and getting deathly ill with viruses that barely make wild birds sneeze.    Let's look at just how "deadly" this "Bird Flu" really is to humans: The CDC tells us that human symptoms of "Bird Flu" range from typical (you guessed it!) influenza symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches, to eye infections, pneumonia, respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, and other "severe and life-threatening complications." Kinda like the regular ol' flu that hits North America every winter, huh? So far, in this most recent outbreak, some 20 or so deaths have been blamed on H5N1. It seems that these have been people who were messing with sick chickens in some way or another. In the same time period, how many people died from, say, complications of overweight? How many died from complications of , say, diabetes? Or malnutrition? Or Cardiovascular disease? Or cancer? Or AIDS/HIV? Or from drowning in swimming pools or being struck by lightning?    The bottom line here, in my opinion, is that instead of running around like (groan - I've been waiting for a chance to use this line!) chickens with our heads cut of, all in a flap and a panic about a virus that has been implicated in a few scores of deaths in foreign countries, maybe we should be doing everything we can to keep ourselves healthy and resistant to this and the thousands of other little nasties out there that our immune systems should be dealing with every day.    Mama had it right - take your vities, eat your veggies, and swallow your cod-liver oil like good boys and girls. And a nice bowl of chicken soup would be good too...    Cheers,  Nurse Mark 10:26:51 AM

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