Below is a rant. Please accept any opinions are mine alone and may not be popular and I'm okay with that. I just ask you respect them. I read something today which sparked 'something' inside that caused said rant and I couldn't seem to shut up about it. It may or may not make sense........
There was an article today in The Globe and Mail discrediting vaccines as a reason for autism. It states they found no connection between the additive thermerisol and autism. At the end of the article, they mention Dr. Andrew Wakefield had done a study connecting autism and bowel disease to the measles vaccine*. The mention of 'IBD' caught my attention.
Did you know you were vaccinated just under 25 times, by the age of 15 months? 30 times, now with the H1N1 influenza vaccine. Your first shot is at 2-3 months! It turns my stomach. The body hasn't even *begun* to develop yet and already we're sticking chemicals and manufactured synthetic medications in it. We haven't even won the right to learn to fight diseases, illnesses, colds off ourselves (actually, we have, but that's another argument for another time). If I keep relating it to IBD, our intestines haven't even had the change to develop themselves and stabilize their unique intestinal flora that helps us fight off illness (a healthy bowel has proven to protect us against the common cold, etc, but again - an argument for a later time). We're manipulating nature.
I Googled Dr. Wakefield and came across a slew of articles. His main argument was to isolate the MMR into separate vaccinations. He wanted to hold off the measles vaccination until further research could be done and wanted the mumps and rubella vaccinations separate, a year apart (a patent was started for this but never completed), thinking the MMR was too much stress for the body to handle at one time. His paper in The Lancet (a British paper) was discredited and pulled for numerous reasons (allegations against how (by process) he obtained his information. He's opposed as often as he is supported). But I kept reading. I found a couple of pages worth checking out (I was hoping to find a copy of his paper, but no one seems to have record of it, post-retraction). I'm still not finding a lot of correlation between the vaccination and IBD except here (they keep referring to the mental connections) but I did find a great paper written by him and his colleagues here, in their research defense (I think it's a good read if you have the time). You can find an abridged version here.
I don't know if all these articles are correct. They're theories. Everything's a theory, everyone's got an opinion. Group A thinks there's a link between vaccinations and autism, Group B thinks there's no correlation and Group C thinks something entirely different (i.e environmental factors). And you know what? No one's wrong. It just makes me think because MY interest is in the G.I tract; what caused my IBS? No, I don't have autism, though I was never 'quick' or bright as a child, but I do have minor learning disabilities. And you know what, I'll have to accept it's a cause I'll never find the answer to. Everything's a theory.
I can't read anymore. My brain is going to start seeping out of my ears. Science is a field/career I never got into for a reason - and I respect those who did. I doff my hat to you.
*The measles vaccine was introduced in 1967.
6 comments:
I think my IBS began because I caught dysentery when I was 4 and spent a month in hospital. I haven't heard of a link between vaccinations/immunisations and IBS (or IBD) but it's an interesting theory and I'm going to read up on it.
IBS: Have you felt any difference when taking probiotics? There are many different strains. I know some people have felt better on them.
Hydra - Be forewarned; once you start reading it's hard to stop. There's a lot out there.
Bix - Yes, they've made a difference, albeit small. I noticed a difference with the different strains. Such as, I don't notice anything with i.e 7 or 10/11 billion (it's not enough), but when I took 50 billion, *that's* when I noticed a difference. I take half a Bio-K bottle every day. I thought I was getting better that I could slow down my IBS meds, so I started taking them every-other day, but the pain meds messed that up, so I have to wait for this to pass to try again.
I heard a theory that for every year you have an illness/disease, it takes a month to cure it. I'm looking at almost a year, if I keep up with a good regiment.
Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad to hear you had some relief. I'll have to continue reading about them, how they work, which particular species. I guess back before we rinsed everything with chlorine we took more bacteria in naturally ... the friendly kind!
Yeah, there's also 70 billion, but I don't have the money for that :) I do well to afford the 50 b. I wonder if I can take 'too much'. Is there 'too much'?
Heh.. you're right. I never thought of that. And days before antibacterial soaps where we wouldn't wash ALL the germs off our hands *gasp*. Sacrilege, isn't it all? ;)
When I was writing this post, I got thinking: my parents (in their 60's) and especially my grandparents were never vaccinated as much as I was (or could continue to be) and they lived! The body has to fight some things off naturally.
Oh, and as a sub-note, I found I got sick less (i.e - colds, flu) when I'm up on the probiotics. I don't catch everything that's going around the hospital - and that was a relief for once!
Post a Comment