As winter starts to roll in so does cold and flu season. Now, many of you are probably going to go to the doctors to get your annual flu shot. BUT,  how much do you really know about what the nurses or doctors are injecting into you? I’m guessing you would probably want to know saying they’re the ones with the needle.

If you don’t know much about them I’m here to tell you why you shouldn’t get one this winter season. Bare with me…

First off, there are many other  things that you can do to stay healthy this winter and that does not include any kind of needle being injected into your arm. Some of the things that you can do to stay healthy are little adjustments to your everyday life, such as avoiding simple sugars, because they are proven to suppress your immune system hours after digestion, according to Dr.Hyman.

Dr.Hyman also suggests that drinking  a lot of fluids, especially warm ones(they’re  key in the winter). It is very hard to do this for some because winter is very dry for the most part.

Simple things such as regular exercise and a good amount of sleep every night and taking daily vitamins can go a long way.

Secondly, in multi-dose vials of the flu shot, there is a mercury-based preservative; thimerosal, which is a known toxin and can potentially tear your liver apart and kill you according to Physics Forums.

Many flu shots also include formaldehyde; a known carcinogen. What’s a carcinogen? I’m glad you asked. It is a substance or agent causing cancer, according to Merriam Webster.

What else you ask? Triton X100 which is a detergent, and last but not least, aluminum! Which is known to be a neurotoxin according to Dr.Hyman. What’s a neurotoxin? Ah yes, it is a wonderful poisonous complex especially of protein that acts on your nervous system according to Merriam Webster. Doesn’t that sound great? No.

The main reason I am highly against the flu shot is because of what had happened to a very close friend of mine. This person received a flu shot like he did every year but a few days later he became seriously ill due to a high level of thimerosal or mercury. He wasn’t sure what was happening to him until he got to the hospital.

Once in the hospital  doctors discovered he also had  pneumonia, which was not directly caused by the flu shot, but because his immune system was being destroyed by thimerosal he got sick and could barely walk or breathe.

Children who are younger than 6 months and adults who are over 65 are not even  able to get flu shots either because of the effects they can have on them, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gelatin and antibiotics are also in flu shots so if someone who was allergic to either of those and didn’t know it, they would have some issues down the road, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another thing to watch out for is if you are allergic to eggs because flu shots contain eggs, according to Health.howstuffworks. When someone is allergic to eggs it is because their body doesn’t properly recognize the protein in the egg. Their body sees it as a threat and  tries to fight it with chemicals which causes the reaction. This is mainly caused by the histamine that is released, according to Health.howstuffworks.

So if you are still considering getting a flu shot, make sure you think twice about what is really being put into your body.