Terrible article. To realize how flus affect us, the phrase “the immune system” needs to be replaced. “A network of organs,” they define it once. They might as well use “the watchamacallit.”
There is no round pink pulsating organ called The Immune System, located under the pancreas and next to the carburetor. It is a system and it is our biome of bacteria which influences the reaction to invading harmful creatures. One can have a huge effect upon this complex system using only diet and lifestyle.
For instance, I’d guess that poor 20 year old girl who died in AZ last month was undernourished. Her vitamin D levels were low. Her bacterial biome was suboptimal. Key minerals (missing from our American diet, poor soil) were not at therapeutic levels.
There is a reason she died when the person she caught the flu from didn’t. I don’t know what that is, but nutrition and lifestyle is the best way to beat the flu. Keep your nutritional intake strong and nourishing for you and your helpful bacteria. Keep your helpful bacteria population high and your harmful population low enough. Get sleep and mental rest.
Yep. And to add to your post, work at a job you love. Have a puppy dog or two. Walk. Sleep. Eat some oranges. Learn to cook with curry.
the most recent research in medicine fascinates me - parasites and probiotics are the future.
I have horrid hayfever so I got a probiotic all the way from New Zealand that the literature claims reduces it almost completely. And it seemed to be much better this last fall. I know, self-reporting, but the literature supports my experience. IGE levels dropping like flies with this probiotic convinced me.