I am ready to take any bets that the world will not end.

If you think the world will end due to any cause at all please contact me to name your odds.

Of course if you win you might have a bit of trouble collecting.

More seriously, this is a highly improbably problem as no simple human to human spread has happened.

Until and unless the virus happens to mutuate in that way this is a non issue ... unless you are a chicken farmer.

You could always try this. Although for those who can't stomach it, perhaps a vaccine would be preferable.


Is Sauerkraut a New Weapon Against Bird Flu?
By Karen Herzog

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel


MILWAUKEE — While President Bush scrambles to ward off an avian-flu pandemic, the world's largest sauerkraut producer, tucked amid the glacial lakebeds of rural Wisconsin, is sitting atop a bumper crop of one possible preventative.

That's right: sauerkraut.

An international buzz is surrounding the unassuming fermented cabbage. Scientists at Seoul National University in South Korea fed an extract of kimchi, a spicy Korean variant of sauerkraut, to 13 chickens infected with avian flu, and a week later, 11 of the birds started to recover, according to a report by the BBC Network.

"Unlike the government, we've got the preventative, and 115,000 tons of it in Wisconsin alone," said Ryan Downs, owner and general manager of Great Lakes Kraut Co., which has sauerkraut factories in Bear Creek and Shiocton, Wis., and in Shortsville, N.Y.

Downs said more extensive scientific research is needed to prove any curative link to avian flu, but he's more than happy to tout kraut as a healthful part of any diet.

"People are starting to realize kraut is a pretty doggone good food," Downs said when contacted about the South Korean study. "We're ready to help keep the world healthy."

Several television and radio stations across the United States have picked up the BBC story, said Steve Lundin, spokesman for Frank's Sauerkraut, based in Fremont, Ohio.

After a Minneapolis CBS affiliate did its own story on sauerkraut's potential in the battle against avian flu, Frank's checked 54 Twin City area stores it supplies, and found an 850 percent spike in overall sauerkraut sales, Lundin said.

"People will do whatever they can if they can't rely on the government to provide them with a vaccine or other preventative," Lundin said.

South Koreans reportedly are eating more kimchi since news of the study came out. But Korean researchers acknowledged that if kimchi actually caused the effects they observed, it was unclear why.

Men's Health magazine fed the sauerkraut buzz in its November issue, suggesting Americans put together pandemic kits containing a few cans of sauerkraut, among other nonperishable foods, because — like kimchi — it is packed with lactic-acid bacteria "shown by Korean researchers to speed recovery of chickens infected with avian flu."

Another recently released study at the University of New Mexico indicates that sauerkraut may reduce the risk of breast cancer by up to 74 percent. That study set out to determine why the risk of breast cancer nearly triples in Polish women who immigrate to the United States.

Of the hundreds of Polish women and Polish-born U.S. immigrants observed in the study, those who ate four or more servings of sauerkraut and cabbage per week during adolescence were 74 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate 1.5 or fewer servings per week.

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

This is a bet IM not ready to place, the house always wins.

How ever if any major human to human spread of H5N1 begins as a result of this virus, Ill put $100.00 on it. I can only imagine you would say, No more bets.

Now thats food for thought.

Now this is interesting. I love sauerkraut, I think, I will serve it up for dinner tonight. Thanks for the heads up.

Indeed I can. Especially if its the eighty percent of a certain part of the population.

Quote:

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Although for those who can't stomach it, perhaps a vaccine would be preferable.

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Your right, the vaccine would be preferable.

See...Now THAT is why I eat the stuff for breakfast.

I call this tactic of the media "Fear for Sale.” They do it all the time and what is really amazing, is it works and works well!

If you think the world will end due to any cause at all please contact me to name your odds.

According to the "news" on Southern California TeeVee, the four horsemen of the apocalyse will be pitbull terriers who smoke cigarettes outdoors whilst stealing our identities from our garbage.

I heard on morning radio that officials in South Korea are encouraging evryone in South Korea, that Kim chi kills all airborne strains of "The Bird Flu."
Here is a link for those who do not know the dish. http://www.pyongyang-metro.com/kimchi/

So now Koreans are puting Kim chi in their air systems. As reported on morning radio.
"Hail Satan!"
"Hail Satan!"

As a medical provider, I have been offered the flu-shot every year. I'm not too crazy about getting it, but it beats bringing germs to a medical facility where people can die if they get the flu. In the ten years that I have been getting it, not once did i get the flu. It must be a great placebo.
However, personally I wouldn't take the shots if it wasn't for the above situation. I believe that it is good for the imune system once in awhile to get a good work out fighting something off. Also the flu shot does not contain a live virus, so one is not injected with the virus that makes them sick. The immune system is "Fooled" into thinking that the live virus is in the body, and it creates antibodies, so when the real virus enters the body, it is ready with the antibodies to fight it off, instead of having to wait three weeks for the body to get the defense ready, delaying healing.
Or something like that.

OK Chess, you earned Checkmate with that one.
"Hail Satan!"

Well if this virus does sweep the world killing millions, it will stop people whining about over population, thats for sure.

In the news here in Australia, we've been hearing good things about a vaccine.
Link