Archive for October, 2009
Would you give your baby the flu vaccine?
October 21st, 2009 | 
Author: People keep asking me what I think about the annual flu vaccine and about the H1N1 flu vaccine.
More important than what I think is what you think.
Please ask yourself the below questions:
How many babies would need to be studied to convince you that the flu vaccine is safe enough to give to your baby?
How many children should be observed for side effects, and for how long would you want them observed, before you would trust that the vaccine was safe?
How many children would you want studied to feel confident that the flu vaccine was effective in reducing your baby’s chances of getting the flu?
How effective should the vaccine be to be worth the risks?
Lastly, if you (or your wife) were pregnant, what kind of research would you want to prove the safety and efficacy of the flu vaccine on you (your wife) and your unborn fetus?
Now read below and realize that all information was taken directly from the package insert on Fluzone, which is the seasonal flu vaccine used for children >6months through adulthood. This is the only vaccine that has been approved for children less than 4 years old in the US. Also note that the studies quoted are the only studies that the package insert refers to regarding these specific issues.
The information can be found at the below website:
http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/ucm112854.htm
How many babies would need to be studied for you to be convinced that the flu vaccine is safe enough to give to your baby?
8.4. Pediatric Use
Safety and effectiveness of Fluzone vaccine in children below the age of 6 months have not been established. The immune response and safety of Fluzone vaccine was evaluated in 31 children between the ages of 6-26 months. [See Adverse Reactions (6.1), Clinical Studies (14)]
As a pediatrician, I would have expected thousands to have been studied. I am shocked that they are basing any scientific data on only 31 children.
How many children would you want observed for side effects, and for how long would you want them observed, before you could trust that the flu vaccine was safe?
Children The 2003-2004 formulation of Fluzone vaccine was studied in 19 children 6 to 23 months of age and in 12 children 24 to 36 months of age, given in 2 doses one month apart. Local reactions and systemic events were solicited for 3 days after each dose. Most local and systemic reactions were mild. The proportions of local and systemic reactions in children were similar to the proportions in adults. No reported local or systemic reaction required a therapeutic intervention other than analgesics. (3)
19 children in this study were only observed for 3 days. What if 1 in 100 children have a bad reaction? What if the vaccine causes inflammation that affects the child in 1 week? Why were asthmatic children, who were given the flu vaccine, found to be three times more likely to need hospitalization than other children with asthma who were unvaccinated?
How many children would you want studied to feel confident that the flu vaccine was effective in reducing your baby’s chances of getting the flu?
14.2. Immunogenicity in Children
In a study using 2 doses of Fluzone vaccine (2003-2004) in 31 healthy children 6–36 months of age (3 Black, 23 Caucasian, 2 Hispanic, and 3 other; 15 were male and 16 were female), the following immunogenicity results were obtained on day 0 before vaccination and approximately 14 days after dose number 2. (See Table 2.)
Again, only 31 children studied!
How effective should the vaccine be to be worth the risks?
I couldn’t copy table 2 referred to above, however, it clearly shows that, after 2 vaccines, only 52% of babies, ages 6-36 months, had sufficiently elevated titers to Influenza A and only 27% had elevated titers to influenza B. What does this mean? It means that the vaccine will at best protect 52% of babies against the strains included in the vaccine, and only those 3 strains included in the vaccine.
In past years (for example, in 2008), the “experts” predicted the wrong vaccine strains and the flu vaccine offered virtually no protection at all. Furthermore, these are only titers – no actual data showing that these children did or did not get the flu. But, with only 31 kids studied, this data would mean nothing anyway.
Lastly, if you (or your wife) were pregnant, what kind of research would you want to prove the safety and efficacy of the flu vaccine on you (your wife) and your unborn fetus?
8.1. Pregnancy
Pregnancy Category C: Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with Fluzone vaccine. It is also not known whether Fluzone vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproduction capacity. Fluzone vaccine should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed.
They haven’t even tested pregnant animals! Either that or they have and don’t want to share the data. The unborn fetus is incredibly sensitive to toxins and stressors. How can the authorities tell us that the vaccine is safe for our unborn babies when they don’t know because they haven’t done ANY testing? Why are they using humans as guinea pigs?
8.3. Nursing Mothers
It is not known whether Fluzone vaccine is excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, caution should be exercised when Fluzone vaccine is administered to a nursing woman.
Note that all other flu vaccines inserts contain the same statement about cautioned use in pregnant women and nursing mothers.
All the above information was with regards to the commonly used ANNUAL flu vaccine currently given to babies, children and adults.
Realizing that the H1N1 vaccine is a newer vaccine, has been tested far LESS than the annual flu vaccine, and has been found to be associated with an increased risk of Guillian Barre, Bell’s Palsy and thrombocytopenia, would you give it to your family?
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Why What We Eat is So Important
Why what we eat is so important
By Katherine Erlich, M.D.
Everyone hears the news and knows that there is an obesity epidemic and a crisis in health care. We oversize, we overeat, we eat too much fast food, too much fat, too much sugar, blah, blah, blah. At a certain point, people stop hearing it, becoming numb, unsure of how to change, feeling helpless. But we are not helpless, especially with regards to ourselves and our children. The consequences of what we eat and how we live surround us. Obesity is merely one symptom of the underlying chronic disease state that our nation is in.
Looking at our children, who act as our canaries in the mine, we can see that we are in state of epidemic chronic illness:
- The U.S. has the third worst health profile in the world, while outspending every other country on health care.
- Almost 30% of US children are obese.
- The number of children with peanut allergies has doubled in the past 5 years.
- The rate of autism is increasing! The rate of autism in 2006 was documented by the AAP and CDC to be 1:110 children. In a later study done in 2007, this rate increased to 1:91 children. Since boys are 4x more likely to have the diagnosis of autism, even using the 2006 data, this translates to 1 in every 28 boys.
- In Michigan, we have seen almost a five-fold increase in autism in the last 10 years (www.fightingautism.org)
- Up to 1 in 10 children have learning disabilities.
- 12% of children have allergies.
- 10 to 15% of children have asthma.
- It is suspected that 1 in 100 people have celiac disease, with most cases starting in childhood, yet the majority of cases go undiagnosed.
- Type II diabetes and heart disease, formerly rare in childhood, are now being seen in children at surprising rates.
These problems cannot be attributed to genetics. Genetics does not cause epidemics.
Our children are malnourished, as are most US adults. Yes, you can be obese and still be malnourished. In fact, most obese people have vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which is partly why they become obese in the first place and find it virtually impossible to loose weight.
How can people be malnourished when they are consuming so much food?
Sadly, the foods that we are eating are devoid of minerals and vitamins. The chemically fertilized ground in which conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are grown are far less nutrient dense than they were when farmers rotated the crops. The animals are fed grain rather than grass and consequently the meat becomes less nutritious, high in toxic pesticides, and high in poor quality Omega 6 fatty acids. The foods we eat, such as refined sugar and refined salt, actually make it harder to absorb the nutrients even if they are there. Malnourishment, antibiotics, medication, infections, and imbalances make our guts ”leaky.”
Furthermore, with a high sugar diet, yeast can overgrow in our intestines, making our guts less healthy and even more “leaky.” A leaky gut allows inadequately broken down foods exposure to the bloodstream. Here, the immune system sees the food as foreign and attacks it, thus spurring the development of food allergies and food intolerances, increasing the potential for autoimmune disorders. Seeing these same foods again and again, keeps the body in attack mode, increasing overall inflammation and setting the body up to develop chronic illness.
Lastly, since processed foods are so devoid of nutrients, they bring in nothing to help our bodies process them. Thus, they effectively leach enzymes, minerals and vitamins from our body, leaving us far worse off after eating them than before. It’s like drinking sea water when you are thirsty – it will only kill you.
“Kid friendly” food isn’t friendly to our kids’ bodies
Look at any kids’ menu or even the school lunch menu and you’ll see a classic example of the problem. Start with chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, pizza, grilled cheese sandwich, hot dog, cheeseburger. Add fries, juice or a pop, and often a dessert. Clearly, the classic diet of children is full of sugar from candy, drinks, desserts, and white flour. It is high in sodium (obtained from refined salt which lacks minerals). It is virtually devoid of fresh vegetables and fruits, and imbalanced with regards to fatty acids. Kids eat the same limited repertoire of foods multiple times a day, recurrently exposing their guts to dairy and wheat. The processed foods that our children are eating are full of fillers such as soy and corn, which are almost universally genetically modified and coated in chemical toxins. Yes, they are “fortified,” but fortified with what -with synthetic vitamins that are very difficult for the body to utilize. Also, many of these foods are overcooked or microwaved destroying the limited nutrients and enzymes present in the food. In the end, our kids are left with unhealthy guts, challenged to heal without the appropriate tools, and open to further exposures; their bodies kept “under attack” and in a state of chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation leads to chronic illness, including environmental and food allergies, asthma, autoimmune disorders, abdominal pain, headaches, obesity, attention problems like ADD, autism, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, inflammatory bowel, and most other acquired chronic illnesses like heart disease, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, and arthritis.
Food as medicine
It is up to parents to get past all their own baggage regarding food and, instead begin to view food as a means to provide the necessary building blocks for our bodies to grow and to heal. Food really is medicine. You are partly what you eat, but really you are truly only what your body can absorb. Help your kids to heal and give them the gift of maximum potential and longevity.