What many mainstream doctors and health officials refer to as “the anti-vaccine movement” has been growing in recent years. Many parents come to this questionable reality through personal experience, others through a mere distrust from what they see as conflicts of interest within the medical profession through its often demonstrated untoward relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. No matter how they seem to come to the realization that vaccination should be a personal choice and possibly avoided altogether, most are ardent defenders of their stance on this issue.

This movement, while present in one form or another since the first inoculations in the 1700s, gained prominence in the mid 1980s with the publication of Shot in the Dark, a book co-written by Barbara Loe Fisher. Ms. Fisher is the mother of a son injured by the DTP vaccine and founder of The National Vaccine Information center. Members of the “anti-vaccine” movement have become far more organized and determined in recent years primarily due to the epidemic numbers of autism spectrum and neurological disorders that many parents associate with their children’s vaccines.

Recent peer reviewed studies that the main stream media doesn’t seem to want to publicize, have further energized this controversial group of parents and advocates.  A recently published study From Kobe University in Japan (1) concluded “systemic autoimmunity appears to be the inevitable consequences of over-stimulating the host’s immune ‘system’ by repeated immunization with antigen, to the levels that surpass system’s self organized criticality.” Basically, over vaccination causes auto immune diseases. A Canadian study out of the University of Manitoba (2) shows a 54% increase in asthma diagnoses in children fully vaccinated with the DTP vaccine. Asthma kills 6000 Americans a year, the majority of them children.

Concerned parents researching this issue wonder why the media hasn’t reported on, and their doctors seem unaware of, the September 2008 study printed in the journal Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry (3) that showed a nine fold increase in boys receiving special education assistance in school if they were fully vaccinated with the triple series Hepatitis B vaccine. These and scores of other examples seem to be yet another catalyst behind this growing distrust in our mandated vaccine schedule.

While letters to the editor, blogs and websites continue to warn parents about the apparent dangers of vaccines, few offer those concerned, the strategies necessary to ensure their children’s health should they choose not to vaccinate. If parents choose an alternate or selective vaccine schedule or choose to forgo vaccination altogether, it is imperative that precautions are taken. Natural health leaders and physicians all clearly concur that simply deciding not to vaccinate your children without these precautions would be irresponsible.

First and foremost in this strategy is of course, a diet rich in nutrients. With today’s processed and genetically modified foods, this is more difficult that it seems.  According to Dr. George J. Georgiou, Ph.D. D Sc (AM), N.D., parents should never simply make the decision to not vaccinate without a plan to ensure their children’s health with alternative means. Nutrients from healthy organic foods should be the first step taken. Today’s processed foods found in our local grocery stores are full of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated fats, bleaches and Aspartame to name just a few. These should be avoided at all times.

Our meats our injected with growth hormones, antibiotics and fed genetically modified feed corn that has come under scrutiny since the early 90s. While the FDA has consistently stated that GMO grains are considered as safe as their natural counterparts, this is not a policy decision that has gone uncontested. In fact, most FDA scientists in the nineties, at the height of the safety testing procedures for GMOs, felt that these foods would be dangerous and stated this publically. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats at the FDA overruled these scientists. Recent studies, to include one entitled: A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health, released in 2009 in the International Journal of Biological Studies, (4) have suggested that our immune systems are becoming incredibly compromised as we ingest more genetically modified foods. Corn, wheat and soy are the predominant GMOs today and finding foods made from USDA certified organic products is paramount.

A vitamin rich diet is essential, but given our processed foods that are so predominant in our western diets and amazingly the cheapest foods available, supplementation is also essential.  Dr. Mayer Eisenstein of Chicago’s Home First Clinics states that 70% of young children are Vitamin D3 deficient and 75% of adults need supplementation. Vitamin D3 is essential in boosting the immune system, preventing childhood illness and ensuring less severe cases if these illnesses are contracted. Studies also suggest that this hormone (not actually a vitamin at all) reduces the risk of heart attacks, MS, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, colds, seasonal flu and the H1N1 (5). Dr. Eisenstein explains: “viruses do not hibernate in the summer months, so why is it that we have the seasonal flu? This is because our bodies make Vitamin D3 through sun contact and we are limited to this contact when our days shorten and we spend most of our time inside, sheltered from the elements.” A simple blood test will tell you if you or your children have a Vitamin D deficiency.

Do not administer antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. Antibiotics not only kill the damaging bacteria associated with illness, but also kill the beneficial bacterium that inhabits our guts. There are many reliable studies that clearly illustrate the direct association between good gut health and an optimally working immune system.  Most childhood illnesses that our children are inoculated against are relatively benign and the vast majority of children will recover with bed rest, liquids and closely monitoring fever if their immune systems are working properly.

Allow a fever to do the job for which it is intended. Many parents will run for the Tylenol or Motrin at the first signs of a slight fever just over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is a big mistake that many naturopathic and allopathic doctors say parents make frequently. Fevers are the body’s way of killing illness inducing viruses. When we reduce a fever too soon, we allow the virus to grow and become more virulent. Close monitoring is essential and you should talk to a naturopath or your physician for more information regarding what’s considered safe. Many doctors I have interviewed state that Tylenol (acetaminophen) should never be utilized. Glutathione, an important immune system function made up of three amino acids, can be depleted for up to 21 days after just one dose of acetaminophen.

This is a very important topic relative to acetaminophen use: NEVER give Tylenol before or after giving a child a vaccination. All childhood inoculations currently mandated by the CDC have heavy metals (aluminum, mercury etc.), and toxins, (formaldehyde, Polysorbate 80, etc.) that our children’s immune systems need to be able to excrete. Our glutathione is one of the means our immune systems use to cleanse our bodies and depleting our levels directly before or after vaccination is insanity.

Decongestants and antihistamines suppress the body’s immune system and add more harmful chemicals to your child’s body, causing more recurrent infections. Search for homeopathic and natural remedies to replace your child’s need for these medicines.

Should you decide to forego your child’s vaccines, you need to know how to treat these diseases once contracted.  Dr. Randell Neustaedter, OMD, Lac, CCH, a world renowned homeopathic physician states: “Give Vitamin C, (500-1,000 mg. per day), Vitamin A (10,000-20,000 units in the form of Beta Carotene or mixed carotenoids) and Echinacea (non-alcoholic, 10-20 drops three times a day).”  There are plenty of books and websites that will give homeopathic and naturopathic remedies for each childhood disease.

Dr. Neustaedter also claims that if your child has recurrent ear infections or frequent colds, give him or her, a supplement of organic bovine colostrum (powdered in capsules and added to foods), one capsule twice a day. Breast feeding is also essential in the first year of an infant’s life but a mother’s diet must be closely monitored before, during and after pregnancy. Remember, many of the toxins in your processed diets easily pass the placental barriers while carrying the child and will be passed on to your child through breast feeding after.

Should you decide to vaccinate your child, either fully, using the recommended schedule or using an alternative one, there are a number of important things to remember: Never give a child a vaccine if they have recently been ill or been on antibiotics. Once again, NEVER give Tylenol (acetaminophen) prior to, or post-vaccination. If your child developed eczema or other skin rashes after previous vaccines, consult a homeopath or naturopath for alternatives for future inoculations, these could very well be manifestations of adverse reactions to the previous vaccines. High fevers, high pitched screaming, loss of vocal skills, constipation and diarrhea are also symptoms of possible adverse reactions. These symptoms are clearly marked on the adverse reaction section in the vaccine inserts.

Read the inserts available in each box that the vaccines are shipped to the doctor’s office in, prior to vaccinating. While many doctors seem unwilling to explain the more serious problems associated with vaccines to the parents of their patients, these are available in the cautionary inserts or online. You question the car seat that you buy for your child, the crib that you allow them to sleep in. You replace or remove the dangerous mini blinds that pose strangling hazards and even trade in that sports car for a safer car, minivan or SUV that will protect your child should you have an accident, yet many of us walk into a pediatrician’s office and allow our children to be injected with multiple vaccines in one visit with no idea what is in them or the possible adverse reactions that can arise.

Educating yourself is the ultimate key to understanding your concerns and making an informed decision. Most doctors will welcome a concerned and educated parent. Should you happen to have a doctor that does not take your concerns seriously or perhaps tends to make light of the very real possibilities of an adverse reaction, most doctors I have spoken with would tell you to quickly find another. There is no doubt that many children have very real and sometimes fatal reactions to vaccinations, our government created, NVICP (National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) is proof that this is a very real problem with sometimes dire consequences.

Allowing a child to possibly be injured by a vaccine for the “benefit of the herd” is a very noble theory, until it happens to your child. Parents I have spoken with that claim unequivocally their child was hurt by a vaccine or a combination of vaccines do not feel that telling others about their child’s injury is a fear mongering tactic. All of them would trade that day for anything. Educating yourself after the fact is most defiantly not the way to go. “Hindsight may be 20/20 but only foresight will protect those you love from 100% preventable harm.” David Anderson, Bronx, NY.

References:

1 http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0008382

2 http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(07)02379-2/abstract

3 http://www.14studies.org/pdf/hep_b.pdf

4 http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11

5 http://www.vrp.com/articles.aspx?ProdID=2130

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THIS IS THE REPLY FROM A REPORTER ON THE NEWSPAPER’S STAFF:

Mike Kroll:

Anti-Vaccine Dogma

I have read with growing alarm the many letters and articles contributed to the Zephyr by Curt Liinderman regarding the topic of autism and the (alleged) link to vaccinations. Without exception Linderman has repeatedly urged parents not to have their children vaccinated and even discouraged adults from seeking vaccines for the various strains of the flu. He bases his beliefs on his faith in questionable science that has never been broadly accepted within either the medical or broader scientific fields and writes with fanatical zeal that we must accept his explanatioons with the same faith that he himself has done.

When it is noted that nearly all reputable physicians and medical scientists dismiss the so-called “research” that is the foundation of Linderman’s religious-like opposition to vaccines, he in turn dismisses this critisism as a grand conspiracy to hide the awful truth from parents such as himself. The mainstream medical establishment, especially including epidemiologists and pediatricians who strongly advocate continued universal vaccination of young children, are part of a conspiracy to put the world’s children at risk for autism. And, furthermore, media who do not blindly accept Linderman’s link of vaccinations with autism are also part of this huge conspiracy.

What Linderman and his fellow anti-vaccine travelers fail to recognize is the huge success vaccinations have had on virtually eliminating many once prevalent childhood diseases like polio and rubella that are now reappearing not just in third-world nations but even in Western Europe and the United States. Many physicians suspect that this in an unintended consequence of Linderman and his fellow believers ceasing to have their children vaccinated, which in turn puts other children needlessly at risk. Additionally, Linderman’s letters and articles frequently reference dubious “research” (as if it could stand the science of serious scientists) in a way that could mislead unsophisticated but well intentioned parents to his viewpoint.

As tiresome and dangerous as Linderman’s redundant anti-vaccine dogma is, what prompted this letter was the Zephyr’s editorial descriptioon of Linderman at the end of his most recent anti-vaccine article, “Alternative Vaccine Schedules: Self-Education is the Key” (January 28, 2010). (incidentally, while I agree that education is the key to responsible parents discounting Linderman’s anti-vacinne poroganda, I don’t think that was the article’s intent.) An italicized paragraph at the article’s conclusion describes Linderman as ‘…the father of four young children. Hi youngest was vaccine injured at 20 months .”

I would contend that there is absolutely no solid evidence of what caused Linderman’s son to be autistic other than Linderman’s personal beliefs. A statement such as this lends unwarrented credibility to Linderman’s otherwise highly questionable arguments in direct opposition to generally accepted medical scientific thought, as if The Zephry  itself accepts Linderman’s fanciful thesis.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MY RESPONSE:

I have spoken with a number of people regarding the article that I recently wrote for the Zephyr and the following ignorance that Mike Kroll wrote in response. Now, as usual, I was hoping for a real doctor to counter the article (as if they could) but all I get is an incomprehensible attack with absolutely no science to back up his stance. This was the consensus with everyone I spoke to as well.

As Kroll described, I have told parents on more than one occasion not to vaccinate and this was one of the points of contention that he had with the article. Another was the flu vaccine for adults. What this sadly misinformed individual doesn’t bring up, are the number of VICP (Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) court cases that have been conceded by the Department of Health and Human Services that clearly state that vaccines caused the defendant’s autism. But then, I’m sure that this is just “dubious research” that allowed these cases to win. And the studies that occur every year showing the absolute ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine have certain have not crossed this man’s desk.

As usual, this ignorant attack also claims that epidemiologists and pediatricians support universal vaccinations (a tired and worthless argument) and that the science that I bring to the table is “dubious”. All this, despite the fact that much of the science that I discuss comes from Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, etc and I guess that is why I never seem to get a doctor to counter or an intelligent response to my articles. I must however, deal with even these ignorant statements because parents need to have this information to make a responsible decision regarding their children’s healthcare.

I could get into the whole, “universal vaccination” crap but really don’t have the space it requires. Suffice it to say, the entire herd immunity theory as the Kroll’s of this world would try to work into this argument is ridiculous and doesn’t deserve a response. If parents are worried about those that choose not to vaccinate their children this entire argument would be a moot point. Why worry about our decision not to vaccinate if your children are? You have placed your faith in the vaccine, so stop sniveling and assume it’s going to work. Just remember that your faith is placed in a corporate entity that has a board of directors that worries far more about shareholders than they do about your child (this is evident in the Vioxx scandal and many others).

As far as Polio and other childhood diseases, I have gone over this many times and the proof that Kroll is lying about this is evident in the MMWR and other CDC documents. ALL childhood illnesses aside from Polio that have an applicable vaccine were down a minimum of 70% by the time the vaccine became available and I addressed the polio issue in a recent Box One letter as well.  To be honest with you, I really don’t know why someone who knows so little decides to get involved in this debate.

The main item that Kroll decides he wants to attack me for is the seeming credibility issue that comes with stating that my son was vaccine inured at 20 months of age. Now, even if Kroll was a decent investigative journalist, he would not be able to get my son’s medical records because of recent HIPPA regulations and this makes his statement wanting at best and nothing but an outright lie and personal attack at worst. His contention that I have “no solid medical evidence of what caused (my son’s) autism” is moronic and unwarranted. My son has been examined by many of the most acknowledged doctors, naturopaths and homeopaths on the planet. He has had laboratory testing from all over the world that clearly shows his vaccine injury and is similar to many of the VICP cases that have been conceded.

So, armed with the proof that my son was indeed vaccine damaged, the almost unlimited access to the newest studies and research being done because of my connections within the scientific community through my radio show and advocacy,  my knowledge of the vast majority of past studies (both for and against vaccines) and my commitment to this cause, I contend that this is precisely why I never hear from a doctor or health department official regarding my articles and am instead forced to deal with insufferable, know nothings that simply rely on personal attacks and conjecture as opposed to science and reason. My credibility regarding this issue is impeccable and I will bring it to the table with any physician that’s willing to seriously look at this issue.

Add to this, the fact that the doctor that gave my son his vaccines on the day he was injured and regressed into autism, has recognized the injury and has been to a Defeat Autism Now clinicians seminar to learn how these injuries happen and how to treat them, I would say that Kroll’s arguments are unfounded, unwarranted and woefully lacking in any understanding of the topic which he is addressing. I stand by this article in question and feel that there is not one single doctor that would dare to even attempt to dispute anything written within.