What to do when you've got the flu

What to do when you've got the flu October 15, 2009 Jacob Schor ND, FABNO

Well this flu thing is sure getting around. Up to now we've been focusing on what to do to prevent the flu. But for those of you sitting in bed sick, prevention doesn’t help.

Naturopathic Medicine has much to offer in the way of reducing symptoms and shortening duration of flu like illness. Kim Nearpass, ND sent out an interesting newsletter about the flu from her clinic up in Frisco earlier this week that I’ve been pondering.

She dug up some interesting statistics about the 1918 flu epidemic that I hadn’t read before. Quoting: “During the 1918 flu epidemic, "naturopathic sanitariums" in Chicago reported treating 300 cases of Spanish flu without a single mortality. Chicago's Cook County hospital two blocks away, lost 54 of every 300 cases. In 1918 New York City, "drugless doctors" using naturopathic methods reported managing 14,841 cases with only 18 deaths. That's 12 deaths per 10,000 infections using naturopathy, compared to 640 deaths per 10,000 using medical methods of the time. (Dr. Clements report, 1926)”

I wouldn’t rush to believe these statistics can be extrapolated to this year’s flu, but they are interesting for sure. Every season's flu is a new virus.

There are a vast array of herbal extracts that are typically custom formulated for patients that are ill and an even larger selection of homeopathic remedies that employed to reduce discomfort. The problem with either of these therapeutics is that we choose what to use based on symptom presentation and not the name of the illness. Treating cookbook like that yields relatively poor results.

Jacob Schor ND FABNO Rena Bloom ND