Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Tuesday Ten - vaccinations & health care

1. We took Layla to her 2 mos check up today. She is 9 lbs 12 1/2 oz. and 22 inches long.

2. Those idiots have a list of five shots and one oral vaccination that they want to give babies at that appointment. Are they insane? Obviously medical professionals are often in the back pocket of the drug companies. Combining too many vaccinations over too short a period of time can compromise the child's immune system. (A recent court case was won regarding a child who became autistic due to the vaccines).

Dr. Russell Blaylock, a prominent neurosurgeon in the United States is one of the first to warn against the dangers of too many vaccines given simultaneously. He says, “Vaccine complications increase dramatically when given close together. To give the immune system time to settle down, vaccines should be separated by six months in children and perhaps longer in adults.” He continues, “The number of vaccinations that can be given safely in a lifetime is not unlimited. Many of these vaccinations need to be abandoned.”

Autoimmune diseases, asthma and chronic allergies are rising at alarming rates with the increase of the number of childhood vaccinations given. Put two and two together: it's not about the children's health, it's about the money trail.


This is the two month old list: DTP, Polio, HiB, HepB, Pneomoccal, and Rotavirus. Layla's mommy only agreed to the DTP & Polio. The doctor wasn't pushy about it, but he did ask why. He actually has not heard of the horrible reports about the Rotavirus vaccination. We did a little bit of talking about how Merck was using that vaccination and Gardasil to refill their pockets after the lawsuits against them for Fosamax and Vioxx. A good website to check out: NVIC - Vaccination Decisions.

Pushing the rotavirus vaccination is ridiculous in Western civilization where infant diarhhea is readily treated with rehydration therapy and the virus dos not cause widespread death. The vaccine's efficacy is only between 41 - 91%. There is a good chance that you will give your child the vaccination only to have it have little positive effect.

In 1998
Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC co-founder and president, said, "Yesterday’s announcement concerning rotavirus vaccine and bowel obstruction is a sobering reminder of the need to apply very high standards to licensing new vaccines and making policy for mass vaccination of our children. It also highlights the importance of paying close attention to data coming out of The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). The data from VAERS shows persistent reports of vomiting and diarrhea following receipt of rotavirus vaccine and there has been at least one death reported in a premature infant who received rotavirus in combination with other vaccines.

What is the biological mechanism at work to induce the bowel to fold in on itself? Could it be associated with the fact that this vaccine is introducing a newly created monkey-human hybrid live virus into young infants or that there is a negative effect when the vaccine is given in combination with other vaccines to infants with immature immune systems? And what is the justification for universal vaccination for a common infection which most children get and recover from in the US without permanent injury or death?"


3. Don't get me started on the Hep B vaccination. It's not highly contagious. It's not common in childhood. It's low in the US and it's not a killer disease for the most part. The efficacy has been questioned as well - 30 - 50% of the people who develop adequate antibodies after the 3rd dose will lose detectable antibody within 7 years.


4. Shall I mention HiB? Look it up. Too few studies have ever been done on the vaccination to say whether it is carcinogenic, whether it may cause infertility or not. It's efficacy rate isn't great either. In a 1995 study of HiB cases, 41 - 55% of the cases were immunized individuals.


5. People just don't think. They say, "Oh my doctor said we need this shot" or "I read in a pamphlet at the doctor's office that these were the required immunizations at this age." (Yeah, and those are supplied by the pharmaceutical company). And then they just do it.


It's mindless. Mind-numbingly mindless. Why would you inject a potential pathogen into your innocent little child without doing your homework??? Why would you not make certain that there is actually a darned good reason for doing it? Why would you not weigh the potential risks against the potential (or often overrated) benefits?

6. Why do people do anything just because they were told to?

7. It also bugs me when people just take any old pill their doctor prescribes without asking a lot of questions first. Why am I receiving this medication? What led you to prescribe it for me? What will it do in my body (i.e. how does it actually work)? What side effects might there be? Are there alternatives, i.e. lifestyle changes, which would provide similar positive results? How can I proactively work to improve my health?


8. Generally it's because A) people are lazy and B) people like to pass the buck and assume that doctors are god-like. Let the gods make the decisions.

A) Laziness - people just don't like to have to DO anything. Popping a pill seems easy, complaining about the side effects is even easier still because people love, LOVE to complain. We have a society that despises the thought of personal effort.

B) Guess what? Doctors are human. Doctors can be "bought" by pharmaceutical gifts and perks. Doctors don't all read up on everything. I can't even count how many doctors I have met who knew NOTHING about the new TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) guidelines issued by the AACE in 2003. Nor did they know that the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (governing body over all labs in the US) suggested those guidelines be tightened even further. Nope, these doctors were still looking at lab results and under-diagnosing and under treating patients.

9. Recent situation related to the humanity of doctors and the ease in which they are able to overlook things and treat a symptom or two, but not look at the "whole": My poor niece was recently diagnosed with Graves' Disease. Apparently, she has been sick for a long, long time. (I've been saying for years and years that she needed her thyroid checked, but alas, no one was listening to me). The endocrinologist who saw her was quite stunned by the size of her goiter and the fact that no one had noticed and checked her sooner. She had a whole bunch of symptoms that practically sang and danced "Graves' Disease." Instead, guess what? She was being treated for Bipolar. All that racing heart, excess energy, the mood swings...she was given a big honking dose of Seroquel. Bigger and bigger because it wasn't taking care of the situation. Well, now that she's being treated for Graves', she won't need it. But did anyone tell her clearly that you can't go off of that cold turkey...it can kill you? NO. She's in the hospital right now and thank God she didn't die.

I don't want to dis all doctors here. It's just that these men/women are regular people to. They breath, they eat, they have stress, romance, hunger pangs, headaches, lousy relationships, etc, etc... in short, distractions. They have differing personalities. Some are go-getters, some are laid-back. Some are just like the other lazy people who come to see them and choose the easiest and most convenient treatment.

10. All I can say is "Don't be stupid. Be aggressive about your health." It's your health, your body. Take care of it. Ask questions. Don't be a fool and blindly accept any old direction the media, the drug companies or a doctor tells you. Make certain it is the BEST you can do for yourself.

And if you are the caretaker of another human being - your child, your aged parent - then exercise all caution and all earnestness in any health decisions you make for them. Take that responsibility very seriously.

~o~

I've got to get in some cardio and some yoga today. I slept in which felt wonderful. I guess right now I should be eating lunch and thinking about exercising after I have some fuel to run on.

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