Will you get the shingles vaccine?

jaminhealth said:
I don't have either of those eye diseases nor cataracts BUT I'm a firm believer in eye nutritional supplemnets and I know MOST of you folks are not. So they do pay off in my life...as I approach 81.

And we're not talking about polio but it's amazing how other issues creep into these vaccine posts.
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Not amazing at all, and nobody is creeping. With no medical qualifications whatsoever you often make blanket negative proclamations about vaccines and other medical issues. Respondents are simply addressing your personal experience and presenting facts to counter your opinions.
 

Sue777 said:
But when it comes to MY health, as a senior adult, I have some hesitations about some of the things they want me to take and I try to do research and intelligently debate with them before agreeing to take anything. For example, I have a slight degree of osteoporosis now and immediately the doctor insisted I get on medication for it. I did my research and said "No". I am doing many other things to improve or at least lessen my bone loss, but I'm not jumping on the osteo drug train just yet.

Will I get a flu shot next year? Probably not. Will I ever get the shingles vaccine? If my doc can give me a good reason to, I might, but since I've had it twice and both cases were mild, I seem to have built up a decent immunity already. I still LISTEN to the doctors and big-pharma and then decide what I want to risk and what I don't. There's gray area, just like with most everything.
Sue
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Years ago after a bone scan, they told me I had Osteopenia, they didn't want to prescribe meds to me, as it wasn't considered Osteoporosis yet. But the first thing they did was tell me to take large amount of a calcium supplement. After knowing what calcium can do if it builds up in your arteries, like cause major strokes, I decided on my own not to follow their advice.

Instead I began to take things like vitamin K2, magnesium, D3, bone broth, etc. and do some weight bearing exercises, which include just basic walking. I haven't had another x-ray since then, because I'm also not into getting excessive radiation from xrays, but I feel in my mid-60s that my bones are pretty strong.

You're smart Sue to listen to what they have to say and then make up your own mind on what you want to do with your body.
 
Thats what I do; seek medical attention, listen to the diagnosis and / or recommendations and make a decision from there. I’ve often gone against doctors recommendations and have no regrets in doing so.
 

applecruncher said:
Not amazing at all, and nobody is creeping. With no medical qualifications whatsoever you often make blanket negative proclamations about vaccines and other medical issues. Respondents are simply addressing your personal experience and presenting facts to counter your opinions.
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Well, we can expect that from a group of western medicine folks. I'm on another group and we have our share of more holistic healers and then the gang of pharma folks who attack attack attack. It's like they don't want others to have good health and can't believe their truths. It's universal in the U.S. pretty much. There are a good portion of holistic people but a major pharma crowd....pharma does a great job of brainwashing fear into people. More fear, more drugs.

I got rid of cable over a year ago but recall many hours to fear mongering tv ads about this drug for fibro pain, this drug for that pain and it went on and on, don't miss that. There are many avenues for fibro pain issues and fibro in general.
 
S.B. I did a bone density test about 20 yrs ago and I was about 60, as I'm going to be 81 and was told about the osteopenia and did nothing but also did not bump up calcium like many doctors push but more mag, K2, D3 and exercise as best I can. So far so good...I've fallen with this knee issue, another story, and broke nothing, knock wood....so I believe my bones are strong. I ended up with an infection in my knee from an injection and fell at home as a staph infection was brewing, it was a mess and I believe I figured it all out and how long it took the MD's to find the infection....not enough for a lawsuit, but the copays are not being paid. Docs were negligent. And this was a team of hospital docs.
 
Keesha said:
Thats what I do; seek medical attention, listen to the diagnosis and / or recommendations and make a decision from there. I’ve often gone against doctors recommendations and have no regrets in doing so.
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That's the best way to handle it Keesha, keep an open mind and listen, then follow what you think is best for you personally.
 
applecruncher said:
Not amazing at all, and nobody is creeping. With no medical qualifications whatsoever you often make blanket negative proclamations about vaccines and other medical issues. Respondents are simply addressing your personal experience and presenting facts to counter your opinions.
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Thinking about this issue on how one attends to their health issues. My mother who passed at 91 loved it when her Prevention subscription came each month, she was way ahead of many in her thinking on "healing herself" ... she didn't love running to the doctor for every issue and I got a lot of that from her. Then I went thru some drug side effects back in the 80's and everything was falling into it's place on how I wanted to do my healing.

I've been on enough health groups and they were all holistic in nature so there's that too. Plus I don't love to support too much of big greedy pharma ,,, they are so much about their stockholders.
 
It's not so much about vaccines but I do understand those who want to be more selective in what they get. Literally how many needle sticks can a person tolerate. If they invent a thousand vaccines do we get a thousand shots? If one followed all the recommendations the medical industry threw at us we'd be broke 'professional' patients.

Rather than work on all these diseases or conditions one by one perhaps some resources should be spent on boosting the immune system in general. The human body fights off stuff every day. The immune system or mechanisms should get as much attention as individual diseases.

If one wants to get the vaccine I don't care. I'm not going to ask why or say many think they're dangerous. I don't even inquire about their health/care detail unsolicited. Yet I get frequently get asked did you get the flu or this vaccine. Why not?!, How come?!
 
WhatInThe said:
It's not so much about vaccines but I do understand those who want to be more selective in what they get. Literally how many needle sticks can a person tolerate. If they invent a thousand vaccines do we get a thousand shots? If one followed all the recommendations the medical industry threw at us we'd be broke 'professional' patients.

Rather than work on all these diseases or conditions one by one perhaps some resources should be spent on boosting the immune system in general. The human body fights off stuff every day. The immune system or mechanisms should get as much attention as individual diseases.

If one wants to get the vaccine I don't care. I'm not going to ask why or say many think they're dangerous. I don't even inquire about their health/care detail unsolicited. Yet I get frequently get asked did you get the flu or this vaccine. Why not?!, How come?!
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It all boils down to get one's immune system in tip top shape. I've been working with antioxidants just for this reason and more for going on 24 yrs... Getting a vaccine does not even enter my mind, but prevention more naturally does...
 
Perhaps this is yet another area of life where "Moderation is key" . I've always tried to manage my life through a combination of medical doctors/nutritionists/therapists/holistic healers, etc. I find the ones that I think are credible and that I get along with, I listen to them all, then I come up with a plan for my care pretty much using a combination of the input.

When medical doctors failed my 2 year old son with his issues, I found a nutritionist who gave me my son back. But nutrition and supplements can't "fix" everything so thank God for pharmaceuticals. Back to my "moderation" comment: 6 months ago I started seeing a nutritionist who practiced NRT (Nutritional Response Therapy), and even though it often seemed "quacky", I promised myself that I would give it a full 3 months of compliance, which consisted of seeing him once a week and adding more and more supplements to the mix as the weeks went on. At the end of the 3 months I was swallowing over 30 tablets a day. All natural, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should be taking them together, taking them in excess, taking them with my daily meds, etc. Regardless of whether I felt better or worse, I complied for the full 3 months because he kept stressing that feeling worse before feeling better was a part of the body's healing process.

Anyway, after giving it the full 3 months, I decided it was hurting me more than helping me and weaned myself off the supplements. He, of course, said that I was going to set myself back and should give it another 6 months but I declined. Supplements in excess can cause harm and be dangerous.

Anyway, sorry for rambling, but basically I think there are times when we need nutritional/holistic care and times when we need our doctors and pharmacists. All in MODERATION.
Sue
 
One of the natural tendencies of humans' relatively short lifespans is that our consciousness is often limited to a small window. Out of sight, out of mind. Experiences that were once common but became rare tend to recede from our consciousness, almost as if they'd never occurred at all. Case in point - how much focus do most Americans have on HIV/AIDS these days?

Most on this forum can surely recall when healthy children were felled by polio. In the late 50s I went to school with children whose atrophied legs were buttressed by braces. Their losses to that terrible virus weren't due to failures by their parents, had nothing to do with how healthy the kids were before the virus struck, and polio was unaffected by whether its victim's immune system had been beefed up by vitamins. Getting polio was the luck of the draw - a parent's worst nightmare.

Up through the late 60s and beyond, babies were born with birth defects when their mothers contracted German Measles during pregnancy. Remember that? (When applying for a marriage license 1980, California required a blood test to advise whether I had antibodies in my system for Rubella. If I didn't - meaning I hadn't had the German Measles - that was the time to get inoculated.)

In the US, vaccines have all but eliminated German Measles, Polio, and other diseases along with the heartache they brought many families. If a vaccine can prevent me from dealing with shingles, pneumonia, the flu, or other painful or life-threatening diseases, I'll gladly roll up my sleeve.

My elementary school BFF lost a 22 month old healthy younger sister to whooping cough. These illnesses were very real and very deadly before vaccinations were created. Our parents flocked to the doctor for these shots in hopes of protecting their children - they'd seen what they were up against.
 
Did we need a history lesson due to the shingles vaccine? I had my childhood shots which I had to have to go into first grade...and I've gotten thru life with not all the shots that CDC recommends for their population. And I guess I had the polio vaccine way back. Had the chicken pox, measles and one side mumps. That was it. Maybe I do come from healthy strong stock too.

I had a tetnus shot when rusty nail entered my foot. ouch and bad.

Oh and I believe due to shots from the govt when Aids first hit the population, I believe those shots killed my gay cousin. Much of the gay population was being vaccinated. That was early 80's. That's the time when I found a book by a Canadian MD: The Medical Mafia. That book opened my eyes and mind.
 
jaminhealth said:
Well, we can expect that from a group of western medicine folks. I'm on another group and we have our share of more holistic healers and then the gang of pharma folks who attack attack attack. It's like they don't want others to have good health and can't believe their truths. It's universal in the U.S. pretty much.
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Most folks in our generation were raised seeing regular MDs and getting recommended vaccinations. There are a lot of people I know who may take a couple of vitamins, but generally follow all the advice of their doctors.

Some of them are healthy, some not so much due to various reasons including lifestyle, genes, and personal care, including mental aspects like stress. I can say the same for friends who are open to alternative options.

Although I decided myself years ago to use more supplements for health, I had no expectation that family and friends would do as I was doing. Some people do both, and some can't afford to buy expensive supplements.

IMO, neither the pharma community or the alternative, should be "attacking" each other on the personal choices they make for their own bodies and health. It would benefit us all just to share our practices and experiences, then let others decide what works best for them.
 
I apologize if my comments were heavy handed. To be clear, I'm not a champion of big pharma, vitamin and supplement pushers, fitness centers, and others whose advertising mantras about health serve as cloaks for their true primary motivation - separating people from their money. Independent scientific and consumer-based research and the caveats of "Let the buyer beware" and "Follow the money" are at least as applicable when it comes to making decisions about food, exercise, vitamins, supplements, vaccinations, and other health choices as when deciding on a new refrigerator.

I have been blessed with a healthy body and eat a plant based diet (though I get lots of blowback on that about "needing" to eat meat). Like others here, I've opted against meds for osteopenia, and decline certain "standard" medical tests when there's no family history or personal symptoms indicating I'm at risk. This is often to the irritation and consternation of the experts who are trying to convince me otherwise.

When weighing the risks/benefits offered by most vaccinations, I research the heck out of them and usually decide in favor of the vaccine. Despite my best efforts to maintain my health I am aware that viruses can sneak their way in. To quote Dirty Harry, when a virus says to me, "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, Punk?" My answer often comes up as a "No, I actually don't feel lucky - or at least not lucky enough to see what's left in the chamber of that virus's version of Harry's 357 Magnum.

Others obviously will decide differently for themselves based on how they assess their luck/risk/benefits/likelihood of exposure.
 
I'm dealing with a bout of the shingles right now. I got the tingly numb feeling on the left side of my neck, head and face last Wed at work and noticed a small rash on the base of my neck Wed night before going to bed. I originally thought it was just a side affect of my stopping my arthritis meds in order to help my calf muscle heal, but when I woke Thursday morning I had the full blown shingles rash all over the left side of my neck, head, cheek and onto my left ear. Luckily it didn't spread to the front of my face. The pain was pretty bad especially when the nerves fired up to full tilt and it felt like someone was holding a match to the side of my neck. Thursday thru Sunday were the worst, but it got better yesterday and appears to be retreating now.

The ironic thing about my getting shingles right after stopping my arthritis meds is that I was going to get the shingles vaccine in a couple weeks. My R/A Dr told me I'd need to stop my R/A meds for at least two weeks before getting the shingles vaccine. Guess I don't need that vaccine any more. It's always somethin!
 
So sorry you are dealing with this Jim. Your foot hasn’t yet fully healed yet either. That’s rough.
I hope it clears up quickly for you.
 
Keesha said:
So sorry you are dealing with this Jim. Your foot hasn’t yet fully healed yet either. That’s rough.
I hope it clears up quickly for you.
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Thanks Keesha! The foot itself is doing great, it's this damn calf muscle that doesn't want to heal. I've torn it 4 times now in 4 months just walking around. I go for an MRI on it tomorrow to make sure there isn't anything weird going on. In the meantime I made the decision to stop my R/A meds for a while to see if that helps the healing process. It's feeling better now, but time will tell.
 
Good comments from many of us and all valid. BUT remember too, pharma does pretty damn well with the bottom line --- profits. The prices of their new drugs when they come out...ouch....but sure we have insurance, so it's OK, right? No...

Why shouldn't other types of protocols be OK as I see many here won't even go to alternatives.

I truly believe my nutritional supplements have kept me from shingles and the vaccine for sure.

Peace out everyone and do what you do.
 
After I came down with shingles, I went to the doctor and he told me he would give me a shot, but I probably would never have them again. So NO shot for me and that was a few years ago. Oh yes they are painfully no fun.:bowknot:
 
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