Today’s rant is brought to you by the good little lemmings in the mainstream medical and mainstream news generation departments. The news article in question, interviews various pharmacists and pharmacy manufacturer and distributor outlets. They make no mention of mandated worker or delivery-hampered reasons. They refuse to connect any dots between sources of contagion or medicine, and start out with this rather erroneous “observation”:
“An earlier-than-usual surge in influenza and respiratory illnesses, combined with difficulties sourcing active ingredients like acetaminophen and ibuprofen, has made it difficult for manufacturers to keep up.”
Earlier? Really? From what I could see around me, the cold and flu season started quite normally at the usual time of year. Right on schedule, 2 weeks after halloween candy had been consumed, cases rose. This is normal. We should see another spike in colds and flues shortly due to all the Christmas partying that went on this year. Once that bout winds down we’ll be approaching Valentines, which will offer one more round of colds and flues before St. Patrick’s Day in March. The two week period following that date tends to land us squarely on Easter Weekend, usually spelling the last of the winter and spring cold/flu bouts around mid to late April.
The big commonalities across these various outbreaks, are usually
a) lots of sugar, preservatives, food colourings, and chemicals being consumed,
b) late nights where kids are often allowed to stay up far later past bedtime than usual, and
c) the stress of the planning, gathering, and socializing that kicks up several notches leading up to and then winding down from each sugary holiday.
To our spirit, mind and emotions, there is good stress and bad stress, and we encourage each other to focus on creating environments for good stress, and even teach that our bodies thrive off the good stress, that a certain level of stress is important for proper bodily functions. However, as my own body can attest and others out there as well who have suffered adrenal fatigue, chronic fatigue, or other endocrine maladies where the body can’t cope with stress as designed, any type of stress is treated the same way by the body. To the body, there is only low stress, or high stress, which is why it is important to know how to de-stress wisely. Sudden increases in sustained stress, even if its built around the excitement of the holidays, can have a damaging effect on various functions of the body, including the same effect as lack of sleep and too much sugar, namely – lowering the body’s immune response.
So no, this fiscal year’s cold and flu season was right on time. Next quote:
“Janda said the shortages can be traced to the early days of COVID-19 in 2020, when closures happened, following by reopenings and consumer stockpiling. Now rampant cases of flu and other illnesses are squeezing supplies.”
Yup, let’s blame it on the populace who dutifully succumbed to the massive fear-mongering in 2020 and tried to build up emergency stores, often overdoing the effort, resulting in temporary shortages of toilet paper that year, among other things.
The temporary shortages were due to factories and warehouses that still had their stockpiles, trying to send things out as fast as they could, but the fear-mongering had been at such a fever pitch that they couldn’t keep up. I still remember the toilet paper manufacturers trying to urge people to calm down, that they had plenty in their warehouses, just calm down!!! No, we can’t blame this shortage on conjured flight-or-fight syndrome! Sorry!
Now for a real head-clopper!
“The products are made in Canada, the U.S., Australia, India and Europe, but the ingredients are sourced in a variety of places, including China.”
“India is one of the world’s largest drug manufacturers, and China is one of the largest producers of raw ingredients, she said.”
Well, well, well now! Which country was deliberately shutting down their largest container sea ports for extended periods of time??? Which country was shutting down factories and locking down entire cities for extended periods of time??? Which country now has young people refusing to apply for jobs at those factories??? I’m scratching my head here. . . Could it be the same country claiming a new variant far more contagious than anything they’ve ever seen before, causing other countries to re-instate border testing??? Is no one awake yet??? Why on earth would you buy medication ingredients from a country exporting contagion??!! Particularly ingredients supposedly used in the making of acetaminophen and ibuprofen medications??!! Acetaminophen is now under suspicion of behaviour modification for crying out loud!
“She said some are turning to clove oil, which is used for teething babies, and other natural products.”
Interesting observation here. Clove oil is an anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and immune booster in addition to its more well-known uses as a pain killer and tooth treatment. Food as medicine can greatly assist a person’s health during cold and flu season, and there are common foods, herbs and spices available to do that with. Many have actually been studied to deal with these maladies! Common natural health remedies for colds and flues include Oil of Oregano, Elderberry Syrup, Echinacea, garlic caplets, etc. A simple salt gargle when you feel a teensy bit off is helpful. Unpasteurized honey and cinnamon works great to help with throat colds. (even if you only use cassia and local honey)
Others turn to netty pots for the humidifying delivery of these and other medicines through the sinuses, throat and into the lungs. Eucalyptus in a diffuser helps cleanse the air and make it easier to breathe for those of us with allergic asthma. But if your version of this malady is like mine, added moisture to the lungs will result in additional coughing you don’t want and that can sometimes be hard to clear up. Eucalyptus in the form of Fishernan’s Friend lozenges, chest rubs, etc, are easier to deal with. This is why I created my oro-nasal spray with salt, iodine and food-grade hydryogen peroxide as per guidelines by Dr. Brownstein, Dr. Mercola and a doctor in Bangladesh. I can spritz my throat and spray my nose to breathe in the droplets to kill bacteria and viruses right at the forefront of where colds and flues typically enter the body.
This mandate-manufactured shortage situation doesn’t have to affect your household. My lists of foods that are known to assist with colds and flues are quite long. We don’t have to rely on questionable medication from equally questionable sources!
