Work Smarter, not Harder, this Flu Season

It’s that time of year, ladies and gentlemen. When families get together for good food, subpar football (depending on who you’re rooting for), and family fun. The big question is: Will you be too sick to enjoy the holidays?

What are you doing to protect yourself and your family this flu season? Are you lining up like everyone else for flu shots (aka: working hard)? Or are you doing something to truly protect your family this year (aka: working smart)?

Now, before we dig into this, let me just say, as a practicing chiropractor with more than 25-years of experience, that every single year, here is what I see time and time again. Patients get a flu shot. And then days or weeks later, they still get the flu.

Still … get … the … flu!

What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Getting Flu Shots is Insane

Here are some numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the 2018/19 flu season, the CDC reports that the flu shot (last year) was only 29 percent effective. What does that literally mean? It means that for every 100 folks, like yourself, who got a flu shot just last year, 71 of those folks still … got … the … flu!

Wow! Well, maybe this was just an outlier, an aberration, the ghost of flu shots past. Nope!

The year before, in 2017/18, the CDC reports that the flu shot was 38 percent effective. And a few years earlier, in 2014/15, they report that the flu shot was 19 percent effective.

Think about that for a minute. Let it really sink in. Imagine your child came home and said, Mom, Dad I just got a 19 percent on my math test. Yikes! That grade isn’t just failing, it’s failing in a way that cannot be logically explained.

But who needs logic when you have a flu shot? After all, aren’t two of the reasons people get flu shots is because they’re typically free and easy. However, free or not, easy or not … they’re not effective! You might as well just bang your head against a wall. That’s also free and easy.

Planet Earth, We Have a Problem!

OK, it’s hard to look at the above statistics and come away thinking that the flu shot is the answer for protecting yourself and your family from illness this winter. Not only that but taking a closer look at the Flu shot ingredients may also make you ponder if that’s the right thing to do. Did you know that formaldehyde is one of those ingredients?   So, what is the answer?

Well, there’s a lot that goes into improving immune function, and your immune system is the exact biological system that’s tasked with this sort of protection. Now, this may surprise you, but did you know that regular chiropractic adjustments are one amazingly effective strategy for boosting immune function?

I know what you’re thinking. Chiropractors only work on bad necks and low back pain. Maybe, back when we thought that the world was still flat. But that concept is just as outdated as the idea that ships would sail right off the face of the earth if they went too far.

The truth is this: When your spine isn’t properly aligned, it places undue stress on your nervous system, and there are countless studies to back this up. The other truth is that, when there is interference in your nervous system (subluxation), it prevents your brain from communicating with all the systems in your body, including every single cell, tissue, muscle and organ and that’s when illness and disease begin to set in. One of those systems is the immune system.

Now, the word communication doesn’t really do this process the justice it deserves. This communication consists of your brain sending messages down your spine out through your nervous system to every single cell, tissue, muscle and organ in your entire body with specific information on how to function properly and stay well.  Think about that for a minute. Your health is dependent on how well your nervous system is functioning.

There was a study done awhile back at New York University by Dr. Ronald Pero, Ph.D. the chief of cancer prevention research at New York’s preventative medicine institute and professor of medicine at New York University, studied the effects of regular chiropractic adjustments on the immune system.  He studied 107 cancer patients over a five-year period who received regular chiropractic care, and do you know what he found?

If you’re not already sitting down, now would be a good time to do that. Dr. Pero found that those 107 individuals who got regular chiropractic adjustments had   200% better immune function than people who didn’t get adjusted and 400% greater immune function than people with cancer or other serious diseases.

For those of you keeping score at home, let’s quickly recap:

• Flu shot’s effectiveness – between 19 and 38 percent
• Chiropractic adjustment effectiveness – 200 -400 percent

If regular chiropractic adjustments can have that kind of effect on an immune system, and provide a safer alternative for warding off the flu then the flu shot, shouldn’t it be a no brainer?

There are 3 things that cause nerve interference in the nervous system which can lead to a compromised immune system, illness and disease. Chiropractors refer to them as the 3 T’s. Trauma (minor or major), Toxins and Thoughts (stress). Everyone is exposed to these things on a daily basis, everyone!

There are some chiropractors out there that only focus on neck and back pain and not the nervous system. However, there are other chiropractors known as TRUCHIRO’s that focus on treating the nervous system, so that the body can do what it is supposed to do, heal itself!

Your body is a remarkable machine. Your immune system, when functioning properly, can fight off whatever stress and toxins the world hurls its way. It can fight the cold. It can fight the flu. It can even fight cancer.

But it must be operating properly, which means having a nervous system that’s functioning at its optimal level.

So, the moral of the story today is this: work smarter, not harder. Give your body the help it needs to fight off the flu this season. Which will allow you to truly enjoy the holidays this year.

Here’s the point in our story where you think to yourself, how can I find a TRUCHIRO that will help me and my family stay healthy?

Simply go to TRUCHIRO.org, click on Find a Truchiro, and enter your location or zip code into the box on the left-hand side of the page and voila, if there is one near you he/she will come up. If there isn’t, call some chiropractors near you, check out their website and facebook page and ask them directly…do you focus on treating the nervous system?  If he/she is a TRUCHIRO then the answer to that question will be yes.

Work smarter this flu season. Just say no to flu shots. And say yes to finding a TRUCHIRO near you!

Happy holidays everyone!