By David Liu and editing by Rachel Stockton

Editor’s note:

New York Times reported just minutes ago that President Barack Obama’s daughters, Malia, 11 and Sasha, 8 have just been vaccinated against H1N1 or swine flu. The White House released the news to show the public that H1N1 vaccine is safe.

There should be no doubt the vaccine is safe for healthy people as trials have demonstrated. The majority of the citizens do not want H1N1 largely because they believe the drug is not safe. Their concern is in a sense justified because it actually remains unknown whether the h1n1 flu vaccine is safe for those who have medical conditions and pregnant women because trial conducted thus far involved only healthy individuals.

The efficacy of the vaccine is another issue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the h1n1 vaccine is made in the same way other seasonal flu vaccines are made each year. Because of this, CDC health officials said the safety and efficacy should be the similar if not the same to that of seasonal flu. But seasonal flu often does not match the circulating virus strain and thus the efficacy is often not as high as thought.

In any case, no matter you have received flu vaccines for seasonal flu and or H1N1, make sure that you take high doses of vitamin C and vitamin D because these health supplements have proved effective in preventing and treating colds and flu.

The following is an article about a study showing that high doses of vitamin C help colds and flu.

One study suggests that you may be better off taking mega doses of vitamin C during the winter to prevent and even treat flu, including h1n1 flu regardless of your immunization status.

The study published in Oct 1999 in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, found that taking 1000 milligrams of vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, reduced flu and cold symptoms compared to use of pain relievers and decongestants.

Gorton HC and Jarvis K, whose affiliation was unknown (from the abstract of the report) enlisted 463 students, aged 18 and 30, as controls and 252 students in the same age group as test subjects.

They tracked the number of reports of cold and flu symptoms among the test subjects in 1991 and reports of similar symptoms among the controls in 1990. The controls were treated with pain relievers and decongestants while the test subjects were given 1000 mg each hour for the first six hours of reporting symptoms; then three times each day for the next three days.

The researchers found that reported flu and cold symptoms in the test group decreased 85 percent, compared with the control group.

They concluded that mega doses of vitamin C administered before and after the appearance of cold and flu symptoms relieved and prevented said symptoms.

This is not the only study that has concluded that taking high doses of vitamin C prevents and helps victims of the flu and colds. Vitamin C has been known to boost one’s immunity against these illnesses.

Those who bet their winter on the seasonal flu and or h1n1 flu vaccine need to remember that these vaccines are often not as effective as thought. Chances are very good that if you get the vaccine you will still get the flu. So do not forget to take high doses of vitamin C in the winter. Another, possibly more effective, supplement you can enlist to protect against flu is Vitamin D, in high doses.