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Baseball has long been America’s national pastime. As baseball has declined in popularity, football was poised to replace it. But the violence that seems to enshroud football has made the transition difficult. No worries. We’ve got a new national pastime, and it is fear mongering. 


The media frenzy over Ebola is the latest case in point.  The media keep reporting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control saying it’s nothing to worry about. Yet the media can’t stop obsessing on how worrisome the single U.S. case is. Putting guys in hazmat suits on board airliners is presumably meant as a calming device. 

 

In typical U.S. fashion, it’s all become a sports event. One of the media doctors they put on the national news proclaimed a few days ago: “We’ll win this. Ebola hasn’t yet come up against modern medicine.”  Right, we’ll win this one for the Gipper. 

 

The politicians, of course, can’t resist getting in on the act. According to today’s New York Times, “pundits and politicians play scientists speculating on whether Ebola will mutate into an airborne virus that kills millions.” (It’s all apparently part of a Republican political campaign completely committed to fear mongering, and the second guessing that is an inherent part of fear mongering….If only the health care workers had identified the Ebola victim’s symptoms sooner, if only Obama had gone after ISIS sooner, etc., etc.)

 

There is one health scare that seems genuinely worrisome—the Enterovirus D68. It is apparently the same type of virus as the one that caused widespread polio outbreaks during the first half of last century. This latest version is apparently causing polio-like symptoms in some children. Didn’t we wipe out polio half a century ago? 

 

Here is what one medical web site says: “Enterovirus D68 infection with severe respiratory complications/symptoms is very rare, generally occurring in children with compromised immune systems, asthma or respiratory conditions. Paralysis in cases of enterovirus D68 is even rarer. As the number of cases increase, the number of patients with rare symptoms will also increase – as we are seeing here with such a widespread swath of infection. As of October 2nd there were 514 confirmed cases spread across 43 states.” 


The focus in all these situations becomes how to come up with a vaccine, or call your doctor, who has no solutions. I saw where WebMD suggested that parents of children inclined toward asthma work with their doctors to develop an “active asthma plan.” Hmmm, that sounds reassuring. .


But shouldn’t the more immediate question be something about how we encourage parents to help their kids strengthen their immune systems? Not that this is a magical answer, but it is a way to potentially reduce the risk around the Enterovirus concerns.

 

There are any number of other things that parents can do to help their kids. The folks at Nourishing Ourselves web site put together a list of 14 suggestions.

 

Certainly one of the more obvious suggestions is to consider feeding raw milk to children who are inclined toward asthma. We have very good evidence that raw milk provides a “protective effect” for children who drink it regularly. 

 

Other suggestions: Consume lots of bone broth, pasture-raised eggs, healthy oils and fats, and fermented foods like sauerkraut and kefir. If there are shortfalls, consider adding probiotics and enzymes. 


All good suggestions, and all things you’ll never hear about from the CDC or most conventional medical practitioners.