Should you use colloidal sliver to prevent or treat the flu – especially the H1N1 virus?

The simple answer is no...because like antibiotics, colloidal silver fights bacterial infections, not viral infections.

But there's a little more to it than that.

This summer, Americans across the country lined up in droves to become the first human guinea pigs to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine. I don‘t believe for a second that the vaccine will effectively protect you or anyone else against H1N1.

On the contrary, I‘m more concerned about how much harm the vaccine may cause when millions more men, women, and children get it this fall...

If I read the tea leaves correctly, soda taxes are on their way.  Kelly Brownell and Tom Friedan broached the idea earlier this year.  York state tried and failed to implement them.

Since then, as we learn more about the role of sugary drinks as a factor in obesity, public health support for the idea is growing.  Last week, Jim Knickman, President of NYSHealth wrote an op-ed in the New York Post in favor of the taxes.  Now the New England Journal of Medicine – as prestigious a journal as they come – is publishing another article from Brownell, Frieden, et al on the public health and economic benefits of taxing sugary soft drinks.

Parents are starting to realize how dangerous ADHD drugs can be—Adderall may cause a pounding or uneven heartbeat and hallucinations, and Ritalin (which may be habit- forming) may cause aggressive behavior and dangerously high blood pressure. And that's just the tip of the iceberg on both drugs.

So, increasingly, parents have been turning to alternative treatments for their children. Which is great.

But it left Big Pharma scrambling for a new target.

The H1N1 virus (swine flu) has had a relatively mild run in the U.S. so far, with about 550 virus-related deaths reported to the CDC. Worldwide, it‘s caused about 2,000 deaths.

Unfortunately, we haven‘t seen the end of H1N1. Government officials say as many as 60 million Americans could get hit with the virus this winter.

But don‘t worry. The CDC has it under control. The new H1N1 vaccine will protect you from this deadly pandemic!

Have you ever been hungry? Not just “skipped a meal” hungry, but really hungry. I am talking about the kind of hunger that won’t go away because the cupboard is bare. If you have, you will understand the need to store food. If you haven’t, this is your chance to learn from the experience of others before it happens to you.  Because if you run into hard times, or the store shelves run dry, you will need to have a backup supply of tasty, nutritious food.

Many people assume that the vaccinations they receive are backed up by many months of extensive clinical trials and medical evaluation.

But regulators at the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) in the UK are about to distribute a new swine flu vaccine that's had a whopping FIVE DAYS of testing.

Dear Pharmacist,

Two people in my neighborhood have pancreatic cancer, and my favorite actor Patrick Swayze died of it.  What is going on?  What do you know about this and how can we protect ourself? 

--E.D. New York City

For years I’ve been saying that many medical procedures are far less "proven" and far more dangerous than most people think. And now we can add another one to the list — one so commonly used, in fact, that its very commonness may be its biggest problem. 

I’m talking about medical imaging procedures, which doctors annually prescribe to about four million people under the age of 65.

Dear Pharmacist,

I am hearing more about the Swine Flu and I’m getting nervous.  I wasn’t going to get the vaccine, but I’m reconsidering it. Can you help me make this decision?

--E.B. Boston, Massachusetts