Could you "inoculate" yourself against the flu?

alfaniner

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alfaniner
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Since flu shots consist of injections of dead flu viruses, and there's such a shortage this year, is there a way that you could get the same effect on your own?

For instance, say you know someone with the flu. You shut them in a room for a few hours, allowing for millions of the little bugs to get airborne. Remove the person and wait a bit (a few hours? How long does it take for flu viruses to die in the air anyway?). Then you enter the room and inhale as much as you can. Would this be sufficient for your body to produce the proper antibodies? How about making nose drops out of the sick persons dried um, mucus? (I know, ewww, but hey, this is medical research I'm talking about here).

Just a dumb thought I had. I am doing a Marathon in two months and can't really afford a two-week downtime from the flu. I'm especially concerned about getting it on the plane three days before the event.
 
Well, you could try passaging it several times through embryonated duck eggs, it might work better like that....

Rolfe.
 
Don't worry just take this and you'll be fine.

It must work, after all they wouldn't be allowed to advertise and make claims that weren't true would they?
 
alfaniner said:
Since flu shots consist of injections of dead flu viruses, and there's such a shortage this year, is there a way that you could get the same effect on your own?
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Seeing as viruses aren't really alive, they don't really die. I'm sure someone medical will be along in a bit with more details, but I'd guess the vaccine is somehow denatured so as to be ineffective. For this to happen naturally, it would take probably so long that the viruses would have settled out of the air onto the surfaces. You'd have to lick the walls to get a dose...
 
I'm not sure how long influenza virus can survive in an aerosol, but that is one of the virus's routes of transmission. The flaw in your proposal though is that you want the virus to not cause you illness yet still immunise you. For that to happen the virus would have to be either attenuated (as Rolfe suggests by passage on eggs) or dead and then injected in a high enough dose to trigger an immune response.

By entering a room previously occupied by an infected individual, you would either get infected/ill through aerosol transmission of the live virus or if the virus is no longer viable then it would not be able to infect you and therefore not immunise you. The dose of the virus would be just too low to trigger a response, IMO. Might be an interesting experiment to do though.
 
I once made out with a hot chick who was sick with a bad cold. I never got what ever she had, which was amazing because we did about everything nasty possible that a romantic couple can do.
 
American said:
I once made out with a hot chick who was sick with a bad cold. I never got what ever she had, which was amazing because we did about everything nasty possible that a romantic couple can do.
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did you trepan her, insert a straw, and suck up her delicious brain juice?
 
EdipisReks said:
did you trepan her, insert a straw, and suck up her delicious brain juice?
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Only a bible-thumping prude would turn that down. By the way, do you ask first?
 
EdipisReks said:
did you trepan her, insert a straw, and suck up her delicious brain juice?
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Probably.

Come to think of it, there was another hot chick who I once made out with, and I got a cold right after that. It's possible that the first hot chick made me immune to the second one, possibly.
 
Since 1925, Oscillococcinum has been prepared as follows. Into a one litre bottle, a mixture of pancreatic juice and glucose is poured. Next a Canard de Barbarie is decapitated and 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart are put into the bottle. Why liver? Doctor Roy writes: "The Ancients considered the liver as the seat of suffering, even more important than the heart, which is a very profound insight, because it is on the level of the liver that the pathological modifications of the blood happen, and also there the quality of the energy of our heart muscle changes in a durable manner." Maybe the French tendency to call any form of not well-being a "crise de foie" ("bilious attack") had also something to do with it. After 40 days in the sterile bottle, liver and heart autolyse (disintegrate) into a kind of goo, which is then "potentized" with the Korsakov method.
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And here I thought all that "eye of newt" and "toe of frog" stuff was just for fun.

~~ Paul
 
Benguin said:
Only a bible-thumping prude would turn that down. By the way, do you ask first?
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it depends. some women merely imply with body language that they want the old trepan and slurp.
 
Barbrae said:
Actually you can take homeopathic influenzinum 2004/2005 virus.
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What is this, precisely? I'm assuming you don't mean diluting the actual virus, that would be isopathy, wouldn't it?
 
Barbrae said:
Actually you can take homeopathic influenzinum 2004/2005 virus.
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Sure you can take it. Any evidence that it works? Pubmed threw up nothing.
 
Zombified said:
What is this, precisely? I'm assuming you don't mean diluting the actual virus, that would be isopathy, wouldn't it?
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from Dolisos:
"Flu remedy, Influenzinum, homeopathic medicine formulated to treat exposure to influenza viruses 2004-2005 season. Dolisos is the only homeopathic company that updates Influenzinum each year based on the flu strains by the World Health Organization. Stimulates the body's own defense system to resist the onset of the season's flu strains. Shown year after year to be highly effective to treat flu symptoms, treat lingering flu symptoms and better yet to prevent the flu. Safe and natural, this helps your immune system, not depress it as other methods to prevent the flu. Use for all family members over 2. Avoid the dangers of the flu shot. Unlike vaccine, there are no contradictions to prevent safe use of Influenzinum. This remedy is very effective to prevent the flu; for treating flu symptoms; and for treating lingering symptoms if you have never fully recovered from flu. Avoid sore throat, flu, chills and fever. Our customers have found this remedy effective at preventing and stopping flu symptoms after exposure to others with the flu. Protect your bloodstream from harmful vaccines. Homeopathy is safe and works!
The 2004-2005 flu strains as determined by the World Health Organization for the northern hemisphere. These flu strains are prepared by manufacturing practices found in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the U.S. as safe and effective nosode.
Research and studies have shown the effectiveness of Influenzinum, with 97% of the cases experiencing no side effects, 3% experienced nasal discharge with taking the remedy in the prevention protocol. 98% of the subjects were interested in repeating the prevention protocol the following year. Following 10 years of preventive use, the manufacturer reports 90% effectiveness in preventing the flu. Isn't is worth trying for your family? Also see Thymulin for additional immune support.
Contains 75 pellets. General dosage: 3 pellets a week as a preventative. 3 pellets 3 times a day for treating flu symptoms.


Youare absolutely correct in that it is isopathy. During epidemics isopathy is fairly common in use among homeopaths.
"
 
Barbrae said:

Research and studies have shown the effectiveness of Influenzinum, with 97% of the cases experiencing no side effects, 3% experienced nasal discharge with taking the remedy in the prevention protocol. 98% of the subjects were interested in repeating the prevention protocol the following year. Following 10 years of preventive use, the manufacturer reports 90% effectiveness in preventing the flu.
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None of this "research" appears in medline indexed journals.
 
American said:
I once made out with a hot chick who was sick with a bad cold. I never got what ever she had, which was amazing because we did about everything nasty possible that a romantic couple can do.
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Planted rice? Cleaned a Portaloo? Watched Jay Leno?
 
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