As we enter the early fall it begins, the repeated ads and signage posted at pharmacies about flu shots and flu shot clinics. Many of you have probably heard the controversy too. The controversy about vaccines generally and the flu shot specifically.

I could run through all the lists of who should and who should not get the flu shot, of why to or why not. I could tell you how they design flu shots and dispel myths about certain risks, but that would be reiterating. All that information is nicely and clearly laid out on Health Canada’s website just follow this link: It's Your Health - Influenza (the "flu"). Or I could tell you about those who argue against the flu shot, but again, they have very good material already out there, just follow this link: Vaccination Risk Awareness Network. Following the above links will give you two contrasting view about the flu shot, both quite rational and well presented. I am not going to restate all of those facts here.

What am I going to offer you? I am going to look at some of the options you could pursue if you don’t want to get the flu shot. I want to be clear - I do not feel that the flu shot in intrinsically evil or bad. I simply believe that there are risks associated and that there are other options to improve your resistance to the flu.

But what are your options? You do not want the flu, so what can you do? In fact, there are lots of thing you can do to minimize your likelihood of getting the flu this winter. The easiest is to keep clean. Wash your hands often and thoroughly. Be sure to get between your fingers, under your nails and along the edges of your hands. This simple habit has been repeatedly shown to reduce the incidence of flu. Hand washing is one of the most important things we can stress with our children to reduce the spread of influenza. Children tend to touch everything, including their eyes, noses and faces, which make them excellent vectors, transmitters, of pathogens. If you have small beings in your life I highly recommend increased hand washing for you and them.

The other obvious thing you can do for yourself is a bit more complicated – stay healthy. Eating well, drinking lots of water, exercising and getting enough quality rest are things we all mean to do all the time, but during the flu season these steps can hugely reduce risk of flu by ensuring you have a healthy immune system (the exercise, the food and the sleep) and nice moist mucus membranes (the water).

Why would you want moist mucus membranes you ask? Mucus membranes (i.e. the lining of you nose) are one of the first lines of defense your immune system has. When your mucus membrane is moist they act as physical barriers to pathogens, and all those nose hairs help too. The hair acts as a physical filter that traps viruses and bacteria. The moist membranes act kind of like those brown sticky fly strips. The pathogen gets past the hair and then gets trapped where the cellular immune function can go to work on destroying them. This is one of the reasons air travel can often lead to illness. Not only is the air re-circulated, it is also dry and dries out the mucus membranes. Keeping well hydrated can help maintain moisture in your mucus membranes. Some doctors also suggest a saline or baking soda solution be used to flush the sinuses to help maintain moisture levels, especially during plane travel. The nasal decongestant sprays do not serve this function as they are actually designed to dry the membranes out to reduce the stuffiness that occurs when your body is fighting a pathogen.

As to improving your diet, exercise and sleep I am not going to tell you it is easy. If it were easy none of us would be overweight, out-of-shape or tired all the time. I am just trying to reinforce the importance of trying to incorporate these factors into you flu-season routine. And incorporation is the key. For lots of people they just can not imagine taking an hour three days a week to exercise, or giving up dining out/taking in. So don’t do either. Just walk somewhere you might rather drive or that moldy oldie – take the stairs not the elevator. As for food, if you are eating in a restaurant try to choose the salad with your burger, and maybe make it a chicken burger. These are not novel suggestions, but they are sound. Give yourself credit to, don’t decry if you ate out four of seven nights, as usual, be happy if you chose the salad three times, the chicken twice and a wrap some other time. It all counts and it all helps!

Assuming you are doing your best with these, what can you do to add a bit of insurance? There are a variety of other options, most of them take you into the realm of complementary medicine and like the lifestyle advice above involve ways to keep yourself healthy, improve your immune system, and maybe make incorporating some of the lifestyle steps a bit easier.

Vitamin supplements, especially A, B-complex, C and E are useful for improving your immune system. There is a homeopathic remedy, oscillococcinum, which can be taken preventatively. A visit to a naturopathic doctor can often provide you with the best options with regard to these options as they are well versed in vitamin supplementation and homeopathy. Some naturopaths are also certified to practice acupuncture, which flows into the next set of options.

This is my option of choice. I first tried it because I knew from a friend who was a registered practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine that acupuncture and herbal remedies could help the immune system. I have stuck with it because it has worked. In the early fall I get an acupuncture treatment that is designed to support and increase my immune function. My TCM Practitioner usually gives me herbs to drink as a tea to reinforce the acupuncture. I am very closely exposed to a large number of people through my work so I know that this option is good protection.

You could also add Massage Therapy and or reflexology to your life. Both of these disciplines have been shown to help immune system function. These options also offer opportunities to just stop, and get some rest. My reflexologist regularly puts me to sleep and from both on and off the table I know that massage can put recipients to sleep, or ensure a better sleep that night.

So give some thought to your alternatives and do some research. You may decide that the shot is for you, or you might not. I just encourage you to make an informed choice and understand that there are other active measures you can take to decrease you risk of the flu.