One more disclaimer here: this is my blog. I can write whatever I want on it and if anyone reading it experiences a feeling of being offended by anything I write, then you should be aware that it is your own sensitivity to the subject that is causing you to feel offended. My personal thoughts and points of view are just that - personal. If you agree - awesome! If you don't - equally awesome! We're not here to be clones of one another, we're here to engage in dialogue and learn from everyone.
I know vaccines are a sensitive issue, and I'm hoping that you will comment and share your thoughts and findings with me.
Let's start with what I know.
- I know that the Creator gave us perfectly functioning bodies with an intricate system to process and eliminate toxins from the body. (In other words, our bodies are fully equipped to get rid of the crap we put into it - literally!) But I also know that in today's world, the amount of toxic materials we are exposed to is enormous! I believe that it's more than we were created to handle. And there's a limit to what we can protect ourselves from. (I feel another post coming on about that!)
- I know I'm not vaccinating my kids for flu or chicken pox. In families that are generally healthy, those vaccines are very useful to parents who are unable to stay home and care for a sick kid. We are a generally healthy family who focus on immune building diets and practices, and if my kid gets the flu, I am grateful to be able to stay home and tend to them until they recover. And although I'm all about irradicating illnesses, the chicken-pox vaccine doesn't provide better immunity against infection than actually having and fighting chicken-pox. So for our family, if my kids don't get chicken-pox on their own by the time they're 11, then I'll start the vaccine, b/c that's when the benefits begin to outweigh the risks.
Now let's talk about the risks of vaccines in general:
The concept is brilliant. Use the body's own excellent mechanism of immunity to build antibodies for illnesses without actually being sick. It's the delivery method that's the problem.
Those of us who are "label-readers" are probably careful not to buy products that have lots of preservatives - or any for that matter. It's one of those things we can do to reduce the tax on our kidneys and liver. So think about this. We're careful not to eat preservatives - the stuff we ingest goes through a lot of processing before it reaches our blood. And yet we don't think twice before injecting a syringe-full of preservatives directly into our blood stream! (or muscle which is also more directly absorbed into the blood than food) - actually, not even our own, our tiny children's blood!
Even if the pharmaceutical companies in the US don't use mercury anymore, they are using some other preservative to keep those little germies safe till they get into baby's body! I know my language is a little alarmist right now. I admit it. So let me restate that in a more factual, non-emotional way: The vaccine is includes various chemicals in order to effectively administer to the body. The chemicals that are most often used are thimerasol (which is mercury, is not used in the US anymore, but if you're not in the US then ask!!) , formaldahyde, aluminum, ammonium sulfate (yes, as in ammonia that's found in urine and cleaning products), 2-phenoxythenol (a preservative with known toxicity levels - this is present in almost every vaccine your child will receive!), and more. I found a list of ingredients from the CDC website, and then went and looked up the specific ingredients. Here are the links for your enjoyment:
Center for Disease Control
List of Vaccine Ingredients
some sources for what the ingredients actually are:
www.3dchem.com
http://science.jrank.org/
http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-2_Phenoxyethanol-9926486
http://environmentalchemistry.com/
http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/ingredients.html
Just like everything in life - and especially in health care - we have to weigh the benefits against the risks.
So then we get into looking at each individual vaccine and asking, "is it worth injecting all this poison into my child's body?"
Well, unvaccinated kids put the vaccinated public at risk. Did you know that?
It's true. Our vaccinated immunity sort of assumes that we're not actually coming into contact with the real thing, and when unvaccinated people are actually exposed to a disease, they can cause complications for other people. Freaky.
There was recently a mumps outbreak in Jerusalem. It seems it was brought over from the US, from a Jewish sect that feels that vaccination is against the Torah. The majority of infected people were actually vaccinated for mumps which is cause to question the effectiveness of the mumps vaccine. Although it's only given together w/ the measles and rubella vaccine (MMR) and the evidence shows that the immunity for those two are pretty high. Original article.
So I'm still not sold on vaccinating. I don't want my kids to get sick, I don't want them to be the cause of other people getting sick, but I also don't like the idea of bombarding their tiny little systems with known toxins.
This comment may become a blog post of my own since you are stirring my thoughts. My oldest received vaccines until 12 months when I began to re-think things. (More accurately, I began to think about vaccines at all.) I didn't consider risks because our doctors didn't discuss them.
ReplyDeleteMy little one has had none. My thoughts are similar to yours re: chicken pox. I'm hoping they catch them and don't have to worry about the shot, but I may consider it at 10 or 11.
My biggest concerns are about the safety of adjuvants in vaccines. These are ingredients that have low safety limits for ingestion or topical exposure that are used in higher doses specifically to get the body worked into a frenzy so it will react to either a killed or simulated virus. These can cause auto-immune reactions, where the body no longer knows what to fight and fights everything, including natural healthy cells. And also these increase the toxic load to our kids (and our) systems.
Regarding the mumps outbreak and the idea that unvaccinated populations put the vaccinated population at risk: I say this is untrue. What puts the vaccinated population at risk is natural mutation of viruses and the ineffectiveness of certain vaccines. You can read more about primary and secondary vaccine failure and mumps here http://insidevaccines.wordpress/2009/10/12/mumps-vaccine-perceptions-and-emerging-realities/#more-492
If illnesses contracted by unvaccinated populations cause illness in vaccinated populations for the same strain, the vaccine simply failed. Or the theory behind it has failed. Either a vaccine protects against disease or it does not. The presence of disease is the reason for the vaccine. It's presence in other people cannot then be the reason it doesn't work.
Lastly, for those who choose not to vaccinate, there is still a responsibility to promote wellness for our children through healthy food choices, activity levels, prayer and meditation time, proper rest, and promoting to our children how valuable and wonderful their body is.
We have an incredible responsibility to help our children be as healthy as possble. And I'm grateful to have the freedom to choose the way I think is best for our family and allow others to follow their own path as well.
(fyi: NVIC.org has recently launched a fund to independently research the effect of vaccines on health- effectiveness & overall health of vaccinated vs unvaccinated populations.)
如果擬任為輸贏是最重要的事，那你輸了..................................................
ReplyDeleteKaren - I've actually been bothered by that statement since I posted it - about unvaxed pple putting the vaxed population at risk.
ReplyDeleteit seems that it should be as simple as you say. They're either effective or they're not.
Also, the link that I posted that is a pdf is an extensive resource for the ingredients of each vaccine.
I've been looking up the DTap b/c I'm considering giving that one, and pertussis has actually beenknown to rear it's head here in the Golan, but I am really uncomfortable with the fact that the immunity wears off by age 11!
"Lastly, for those who choose not to vaccinate, there is still a responsibility to promote wellness for our children through healthy food choices, activity levels, prayer and meditation time, proper rest, and promoting to our children how valuable and wonderful their body is."
I think that is the true heart of the matter, and thank you for stating it so beautifully.