Doctor claims she beat swine flu with vitamin D, elderberry

From the Vancouver Sun:
Dr. Gillian Arsenault admits she's probably raised more than a few eyebrows with her belief that she "beat" swine flu with large doses of vitamin D, along with elderberry syrup.

Arsenault is a former family doctor now working in public health as a medical health officer in the Fraser Health region, the area of the province that has been hardest hit by H1N1(360 hospitalizations and 17 deaths as of Tuesday).

Arsenault got H1N1 before she could get vaccinated against it. Though she had a prescription for an antiviral medication on standby, she never had to resort to it because although the flu hit her "like a truck," she was all but better by the fourth day, except for a lingering cough.

Now she's sharing what she believes may have done the trick: a combination of vitamin D and elderberry.

"Medicine is my job and my hobby. I spend a lot of time after work looking things up," she said in an interview, referring to her research on complementary health care for prevention of illness and treatment.

But she says she's not using her position in public health to advocate for complementary therapies. ...more