The Swine Flu: Where Does It Come From?

The last two articles of this two-week old series on meat discussed the rampant use of drugs with livestock, both antibiotics and steroids.

It is not a good thing for your health when you eat meat laden with these drugs. Nor will it help you in your quest to live a Low Density Lifestyle.

Another detrimental thing about eating meat to consider is the conditions livestock live in on feeding lots, as these conditions can affect both personal and public health.

One case in point is the swine flu. Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last year, or been out in space exploring the peripheral ends of the universe, you’ve been inundated with news and information about the swine flu.

Yet things may not be as they seem, or at least as reported by the media.

In the above video interview, noted journalist, best-selling author, and food industry critic Michael Pollan discusses the origins of the swine flu, saying that the genesis of it is from industrial pork operations, where pigs live in tight and unsanitary confined quarters, which creates a perfect environment for the swine flu to incubate.

As Pollan points out in the above interview, “we’ve created these petri dishes for these new diseases.”

Unfortunately, as Michael Pollan states, as pressure has built on American agricultural concerns to be more regulated, these companies have moved major parts of their operations to Mexico in order to get past regulations.

Pig farms are “pretty hellish places,” Pollan states, and because the pigs are kept too close together their tails have to be snipped off in order that pigs don’t scratch and bite off other pig’s tails.

Pollan also talks about sugar and high fructose corn syrup, and how companies are saying their foods are healthy if it contains sugar and not corn syrup.

Sugar and high fructose corn syrup is something I discussed on the website a few months ago. You can also read about how companies are promoting sugar as the natural choice with the article “And so now guess who is being hyped as the natural choice.”

The Swine Flu: For Better or Worse, the Vaccine Race is On

The last article, on Herbal Approaches to the Swine Flu, was to be the last article in this series on Herbal Medicine.

But before I end the series, I want to present you with one more article.

This article is actually not about herbal medicine, but about the swine flu and the push to get a vaccine for it.

One of the things I discussed in the last article on Herbal Approaches to the Swine Flu was the nature of viruses.

I said how because viruses can mutate, sometimes at whim, it’s not always the best thing to try and eradicate it with drugs, and that by trying to destroy it with potent medications, the virus strain can mutate into something stronger and uglier.

And yet, many countries are racing to create a swine flu vaccine, and hoping to inoculate as many people as possible.

There is so much fear tied into the swine flu, what with it being labeled a pandemic, that people will accept what they are told and be willing to be vaccinated, if a vaccine is found.

All we have to do is look back in history, to 1976. That was the last time a swine flu pandemic occurred, and fear over what it could do then was rampant.

Vaccines were pushed and 46 million people in the U.S. got inoculated.

A significant percentage of people who had shots had adverse reactions, and many of those reactions were neurologically severe.

Here’s the deal: when you try and manipulate viruses and try and contain them, you are playing with fire, because they have the intelligence to rise up and mutate into something toxic.

And a vaccine is an injection into the body of the virus that is being combated, in an attempt to get the person being inoculated to develop an immunity to it.

And that’s why I said, in the Herbal Approaches to Swine Flu article, that an herbal approach to the swine flu is the wise thing to do.

When an herbal remedy meets a virus, it doesn’t try to eradicate the virus as much as it tries to harmonize with it and help the virus to settle down, stop mutating, and ease off on its manifestation of symptoms.

And so, I present to you the above two-part video, from 1979. The videos are from the CBS news show Sixty Minutes, and is a look at the 1976 swine flu vaccination campaign, and the adverse reactions from it.

The point of showing the video is for us to learn from the lessons of recent history.

And to help guide us to a more gentle, healthier way of living, that of a Low Density Lifestyle.

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Herbal Approaches to the Swine Flu

I’ve been talking about herbal medicine for the last two weeks, and to close the series I want to take a look at if there could there be herbal remedies for the swine flu.

The swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus has been getting a lot of press in 2009, ever since an outbreak began in Mexico in the wintertime.

This is not the first appearance of the H1N1 swine flu virus. Swine flu was first identified in the flu pandemic of 1918, and since then it has remained a strain that rears up from time to time.

There have been swine flu outbreaks in the U.S. in 1976 and 1998, and in 2007 there was an outbreak in the Phillipines.

The influenza virus is actually quite common in pigs.

So, in other words, the swine flu is nothing new. It’s just a different strain of the influenza virus.

And because viruses can mutate, sometimes at whim, it’s not always the best thing to try and eradicate it with drugs. Because by trying to destroy it with potent medications, the virus strain can mutate into something stronger and uglier.

That’s where the herbal approach could be the wise thing to do. When an herbal remedy meets a virus, it doesn’t try to eradicate the virus as much as it tries to harmonize with it and help the virus to settle down, stop mutating, and ease off on its manifestation of symptoms.

To that end, there have been a couple of herbal approaches in the works to deal with the swine flu.

One is occurring In Mexico, where the Mexican higher education body the National Polytechnic Institute

(IPN) has reached an agreement with the Beijing-based China Medical University to cooperate in medicinal plants research as part of the efforts to contain the H1N1 flu outbreak.

Guillermo Perez Ishiwara, the IPN’s head of postgraduate studies and research, said Monday that herbal therapy could work to fight the flu strain that has killed 83 and infected 4,541 people in Mexico.

IPN is already seeking plant-based anti-viral medicine in a bid to tackle the H1N1 flu virus, Perez said.

“We are seeking to find in the two herbal traditions plants that serve as anti-virals. Some of the components of the herbal formulas may stimulate the immune response, which mean they could become an alternative in preventing any outbreak that may come in winter,” he said.

“This is a virus that will emerge in a recurring manner and not just in the next winter season,” Perez said, urging researchers and scientists from several institutions to work harder and join hands to fight the virus.

Javier Grandini Gonzalez, director of the IPN’s National Medicine and Homeopathy School, said both Mexico and China are excellent in herbal medicine study.

And the second development is from a pharmaceutical company, Vanguard Pharmaceutical Corporation, that has recently produced a naturally derived product formulated to aid against strains of influenza by strengthening the immune system.

Called Swine Guard, the formula combines traditional Chinese medicine with many extracts that have proven to boost the immune system as well as offer many other benefits in the fight against influenza.

Swine Guard is formulated with:

Shikimic Acid, a traditional Chinese medicine to treat influenza and colds by strengthening the immune system and by functioning as an anti- inflammatory.

Echinacea Extract, which stimulates the immune system, prevents upper respiratory tract infections, is a mild antibiotic that fights strep and staph infections, and produces interferon which increases antiviral activity by improving the migration of white blood cells to attack foreign microorganisms and toxins in the bloodstream.

Microcrystalline Cellulose, which fortifies blood vessels, aids in the repair and maintenance of vital lungs, and improves the lymphatic system.

Ascorbic Acid, which is an antioxidant that enhances the immune system, helps regenerate wounds, protects against effects of stress, and helps prevent certain cancers.

Goldenseal Root Extract, which enhances the immune function, relieves stress, and is an energy booster.

Burdock Root, which purifies the liver, neutralizes most poisons, and detoxifies the system.

Licorice Root Extract, which treats sore throats and rejuvenates cells of the digestive system and liver.

And Shaitake Mushroom, Astragulus Root Extract, and Pau D’Arce Extract, all of which work to enhance the immune function.

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