Flu shot – worth it?
Lots of questions as to whether or not the flu shot is the best choice for you. Chiropractic focuses on getting your body working at 100%, safely and effectively.
While millions of people chose not to vaccinate, you have to decide what you feel is best.
Here’s some information I recently found:
Like other vaccines, the flu vaccine contains a deactivated version of the virus it intends to protect you from. Once the vaccine is inside you, it stimulates your immune system into thinking it’s been infected by the flu and produces antibodies that will target the real virus for destruction when the real virus hits. Interestingly, there does not appear to be a change in annual deaths due to flu despite increased vaccination rates. Also, despite the shift in emphasis to the H1N1 vaccination last year, there was no increase in flu-related illnesses.
What are the side effects of the flu vaccine?
Side effects may begin six to 12 hours after receiving the vaccine. The most common ones are injection site swelling and tenderness, body ache, fever, headache and fatigue.
Rare side effects include thrombocytopenia -low platelet count in the blood -and Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can lead to paralysis.
While more than 75 studies have looked at this question, only five of those were randomized trials; the rest were observational studies whose findings are less reliable.
The high-quality studies suggested the vaccine can reduce the likelihood of getting the flu during the subsequent flu season. However, only one study looked at whether or not there was a reduction in pneumonia or death, and that study was too small to detect an effect.