That’s right…you heard it. Starting last week, I started seeing cases of the stomach flu.
It started in the kids and like every other flu that has come by this year, this flu is in it to win it. So, hang on for the vomiting and diarrhea.
It sounds like the kids are getting over it pretty easily – probably due to their young, nubile immune systems. Those resilient immune system that most of us left down the road a couple decades ago.
Older adults are having more difficulty getting over this. You can come in and get Chinese Medicinals to address this flu. You’ll have a shorter period of illness than doing nothing.
Here’s the thing, this whole season has been one flu tumbling into a completely different flu. Unlike prior seasons where there were contained timeframes where flus came then paused, this flu season is continuous.
I still have people getting over the influenza that has run epidemic (1) in the Northwest and now we have the stomach flu. Here in Washington, the South Sound health officials activated a “Disaster Medial Control Center” for the first time in 10 years (4).
Everyone knows that the swine flu is in play with the flus this season. Doctors are just not consistent on which strain it is. At Seattle-King County Public Health Department, they report seeing the H1N1 (2). Yet, I question whether that is it. H1N1, we can survive. The CDC, on the other hand, is reporting widespread H3N2 in the flu strains this year (3). Now, H3N2, not as easy as H1N1.
Treating the stomach flu hasn’t been as problematic as treating the influenza and Chinese Medicine is a good option if you don’t like being flat on your back with diarrhea and vomiting.
My recommendation is that if these flus give us any type of break, I would work with your alternative medical provider to strengthen your immune system or “wei qi” as it is known in Chinese Medicine. Over the last three years our flus have gotten more and more difficult. This year has been very unsettling for me as a practitioner due to how fast, furious, and relentless our flus and colds have been.
1. Flu Epidemic in Pacific Northwest
2. Seattle-King County see H1N1
3. CDC sees H3N2
South Sound declares emergency