DR. BLAYLOCK ON MITOCHONDRIA AND VACCINES
Thanks (again!) to Ginger at Adventures in Autism for this article.
Blaylock on Mitochondria and Vaccines
Mitochondria and Vaccines
From Russell L. Blaylock M.D.
As the person who first proposed the microglial/excitotoxin hypothesis (JANA 2003;6(4): 21-35 and J. Amer Phys Surg 2004; 9(2): 46-51) I feel I should explain the connection between microglia/excitotoxicity and mitochondrail dysfunction. My hypothesis was confirmed two years later by Vargis, et al in which they demonstrated chronic levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines as well as microglia and astrocytic activation in the brains of 11 autistics from age 5 years to 44 years, even though they never mentioned excitotoxicity as a final mechanism. I wish to address the mitochondrial issue, which has become of major interest with the appearance of the Hannah Poling’s case.
In my original hypothesis, later expanded in a number of other articles, I explained that when the systemic immune system is overactivated, the brain’s special immune system, consisting of microglia and astrocytes, also becomes activated.
The microglia normally remain in a quiescent state called ramified microglia. Upon activation, they swell, assume special immune receptors in their membranes and move within the extracellular space. In this activated state they act as immune presenting cells and can secrete a number of inflammatory chemicals, such as IL-1, IL-2, IL-6, IL-12 and IL-18, TNF-alpha, chemokines, complement and two excitotoxins called glutamate and quniolinic acid. They also generate a number of powerful free radicals and lipid peroxidation molecules.
A number of studies have shown that when you use powerful immune adjuvants, as used in vaccines (especially when combined), this inflammatory/excitotoxic reaction within the brain is maximized. With the first vaccine (or natural infection) the brain’s microglia are in a semi-activated stated called primed. If you re-vaccinate the animal or person within 1 to 2 months, these primed microglia overreact intensely, pouring out even higher levels of the excitotoxins, inflammatory cytokines and free radicals. Each subsequent set of vaccinations worsens this process.
These inflammatory/excitotoxic secretions damage the developing brain, which is undergoing its most active development at the very time the child is receiving 24 vaccines. This vaccine schedule exposes the child to a priming HepB vaccine at birth, 6 vaccines at age 2 months, then 5 vaccines at age 4 months, 7 vaccines at 6 months and finally 8 antigens at age one year. Each successive multi-dose barrage of vaccines intensely activates the brain’s microglial system and the microglia activate the astrocytes, which also secretes, inflammatory cytokines, free radicals and excitotoxins.
Experiments in which this pattern of immune stimulation is simulated using a vaccine adjuvant, demonstrate that it produces significant disruption of brain development. The greatest damage in these experiments is to the cerebellum and frontal lobes, which is also the primary sites of damage in autism. Further, food allergins also act as brain microglial activators, thereby worsening and prolonging the original immune/excitotoxic effect produced by the vaccines.
So, how does mercury play into all this. Mercury in extremely small concentrations (nanomolar concentrations) can activate microglia, trigger excitotoxicity and induce significant mitochondrial dysfunction. Blocking the glutamate receptors (that trigger excitotoxicity) also blocks most of the neurotoxic effect of mercury at these concentrations. That is, most of lower-dose effects of mercury in the brain are secondary to excitotoxicity. The mitochondria produce most of the energy used by neurons and a number of studies have shown that suppressing mitochondrial function by itself is not enough to alter brain function, but it is enough to magnify excitotoxic damage. That is, it is the excitotoxicity that is disrupting brain function and development.
A newer study has shown conclusively, that mitochondrial activation using a vaccine adjuvant not only suppresses mitochondrial function but that the damage cause by this mitochondrial suppression is actually produced by excitotoxicity. Blocking excitotoxicity completely blocks the microglial-induced neurotoxicity and mitochondrial damage cause by the vaccine.
A great number of studies have shown that activating the systemic immune system repetitively worsens neurological disorders caused by other things and can initiate neurodegeneration itself, that is prolonged. The inflammatory cytokines interact with glutamate receptors to dramatically increase excitotoxic damage. We know that autistic children have elevated CSF and blood levels of glutamate, which confirms the presence of the excitotoxic process.
Basically, what we see is a process triggered by sequential, massive vaccination that primes and then activates the brain microglial/astrocytic system, triggering the release of massive amounts of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and excitotoxins. This suppresses the mitochondria and the resulting energy loss further worsening the excitotoxic damage. Because of continued immune activation systemically, both by food allergies and natural infections, the brain’s immune system remains in an active state, leading to suppression of brain pathway development and neural function. This is why the change in the vaccine policy beginning in the mid-1980s, triggered the epidemic of autism. The mercury just aggravated the process.
I warned a number of people and published my warning, that removing the mercury from vaccines would not stop the high incidence of autism, because it was just part of the picture. We must also appreciate that there are a great number of sources of mercury besides vaccine-mainly environmental and from dental amalgam.
For more information on this mechanism you can read my original articles on my website –www.russellblaylockmd.com. Also I have written more papers on my website under the heading -Information. All the information is free. I have several newer articles appearing in Medical Veritas and the Journal of Alternative Therapeutics in Health and Medicine.
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
My son is 3 years old and he has autism. It literally makes me sick to my stomach that I could have prevented it. What's worse than that is not being able to help him. How do they check for heavy metals in the body and would it be reasonable to ask a doctor to check for them? Would our government see to it that he got treated for an injury to his body such as this?
Posted by: Leigha Miller | May 07, 2013 at 09:27 PM
I appreciate those who have made my short comments on the link between mitochondrial dysfunction and microglial/excitotoxic involvement available. For a more in-depth discussion I would suggest your readers see my article linking excess vaccination and autism that will appear in a upcoming edition of the journal Medical Veritas. The interaction between excessive immune stimulation and excitotoxicity also links mercury, aluminum, testosterone, food intolerance, Candida infections and glutathione deficiency to neurodevelopmental maldevelopment as well. The debate as to which vaccine is causing the problem is less important than the repeated, high-intensity immune stimulation by vaccines would be. The exception to this would be the vaccines containing live viruses (either as contaminants or as MMR), since these viruses and viral fragments enter the brain for prolonged periods resulting in intense microglial activation and subsequent release of high concentrations of inflammatory cytokines and excitotoxins (glutamate and quinolinic acid). The fact that chronic (decades long) microglial activation and high levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines occurs in autism is beyond dispute with the findings of Vargas et al. That the mechanism I discuss can cause these findings is also beyond dispute. As to individual sensitivity, we know that genetics plays a role and that the involved genes control glutamate receptor subtype sensitivity, which is also no longer disputed. This would make some children more likely to develop one of the autism spectrum disorders. There are also a wide assortment of nutritional, as well as environmental toxins, that can alter individual sensitivities. Mercury is known to produce most of its neurodevelopmental and neurotoxic effects by triggering excitotoxicity and is a major trigger for prolonged microglial activation at incredibly small concentrations. Individual exposures for pregnant women can come from a number of sources-fish, coal burning plants, dental amalgam and vaccines. Likewise, protection against mercury toxicity is highly dependent on selenium status as well as other glutamate receptor blockers and antioxidants.
Russell L. Blaylock, MD, CCN
Posted by: Russell L. Blaylock, MD, CCN | April 24, 2008 at 02:39 PM
Stan and Sandy,
It is a strange time right now since there are actually debates on TV about autism and vaccines, something that I personally did not expect for years. It seems to be a good time to have a more focused strategy that attacks the weakness of the CDC argument from the flank instead of just fighting it directly (since this really is a fight after all). It is possible that targeting the CDC employees would just result in them forgoing vaccination and not trying to change things, but that would assume that those folks have no moral compass at all, and I can't see that as being true. Julie G. maybe, but not the parents who work under her. It doesn't have to be the CDC also. Just informing doctors, lawyers and even politicians (yes, we can hope they may be intellectuals) that their family history may potentially increase the risk of autism, and then showing them the science of exactly how it would happen, is also useful.
Another interesting part of the strategy is that is is a chance to use the CDC's own Grinker work against them. Grinker's argument was essentially that scientific families have increased rates of autism and asperger's resulting in absent-minded professors, although in the same rates throughout history. Hmm, that sounds pretty familiar, except for the rates. It may be tough to convince Grinker but probably not other academics who see a real increase in autism right now that they may have more than just absent-minded dreamer kids if they stick to the shot schedule.
As for trying to reach the general public...Well, the CDC has the propaganda thing down pretty well but most of the public understand the basic concept of genetic diversity and familiy history, so framing things along those lines may reach their "gut" feelings more than trying to combat CDC statistics. Nothing hits the gut of a parent harder than hearing that the 1 in 150 number that was on Oprah or CNN may be overly optimistic, and may be 1 in 80 or 1 in 50 (1 in 20 for boys) if you have kids who end up with quick wits. It will be good to make some nice figures or cartoons to illustrate the science though, since most of the chemistry will fly over their heads.
Stan, Microsoft with their ABA coverage. http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2002/05/13/focus6.html
What has been interesting to me at leasts, is many of these new story about genetic research or EMF seem to link in with glutamate in some way that ties in with mercury. Maybe it's just coincidence that genetic studies focus on glutamate since it is such a core piece of neurotransmission but the Bernard et al. paper from 2001 that mentions it with autism and mercury never seems to lose relevance. A pretty seminal piece of work that was. The more genetic research that targets glutamate/glutathione function can only help strengthen our position.
Posted by: doodle | April 19, 2008 at 12:14 AM
doodle, You may be right about targeting the message to the CDC personnel. But I wonder if that would be all that effective since they can just get out of the vaccines, just like those in the Simpsonwood discussion remarked they would be doing.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | April 18, 2008 at 08:44 PM
Excellent points, doodle, how all kids are NOT the same, and not only do we need to allow for that, but we can do studies to identify them. As Haley and etc. have highlighted for identifying children who have an adverse predisposition regarding glutathione levels. (Mercury and Autism: Accelerating Evidence?, J Mutter et al incl B Haley, Neuroendicrinology Letters Vol. 26 No. 5 Oct. 2005) (As to that, a helpful finding from John Neustadt, ND & Steve Proczenik, MD, PhD, in a paper entitled 'Heavy-Metal Toxicity with Emphasis on Mercury': "Metal toxicity creates multisystem dysfunction, which appears to be mediated primarily through MITOCHONDRIAL DAMAGE FROM GLUTATHIONE DEPLETION [emphasis mine]. Accurate screening can increase the likelihood that patients with potential metal toxicity are identified.") And there are the biomarkers for mito dysfunction, of high lactic acid, high ammonia, low carnitine. We CAN do this screening; it won't be that difficult. It's scientific nonsense to say/think indiscriminately that 'the individual needs to be sacrificed for the good of the whole'. We need to narrow that pool of sacrificial lambs down dramatically. No thanks to the white coats and their pharma friends.
Incidentally, you speak of "high autism rates in the Silicon Valley and Microsoft employees": intriguing that "A groundbreaking scientific study published this week [this is 9 Nov. 2007] in the peer-reviewed Australasian Journal of Clinical Environmental Medicine warns that wireless communication technology may be responsible for accelerating the rise in autism among the world's children." JACN&EM 2007, Vol.26, No.2, pp 3-7. The study, by Tamara Mariea, a certified clinical nutritionist, and Dr George Carlo, an expert on the dangers of EMR, revealed a link with heavy metal toxicity: "These findings tie in with other studies showing adverse cell-membrane responses and disruptions of normal cell physiology. The EMR apparently causes the metals to be trapped in cells, slowing clearance and accelerating the onset of symptoms." If you're right that there may a genetic factor regarding high intelligence individuals, all the more reason that they should be having some chelation going on - and in an EM-free environment, to help the release. And that's a note to ALL parents: be careful of the mobile phone and WiFi factor. ("The researchers found that with protocols administered in the mitigated environment, heavy metals were cleared from the children's bodies in a pattern dependent on time and molecular weight. the heaviest metals, such as mercury and uranium, cleared last. in many of the children, the decrease in metals was concomitant with symptom amelioration...")
Posted by: Stan | April 18, 2008 at 05:22 PM
Paola in Italy,
Thank you so much for the update regarding the AAP working with DAN. This is extremely important, as it provides legitimacy to parents who want to bring this information to their pediatricians.
I've got a mom right now who wants to see this, and to show it to her husband, as support for the treatments she's already using! Maybe her doctor and her husband will see this and believe.
Thank you so much.
Terri L.
Posted by: Terri Lewis | April 18, 2008 at 04:17 PM
Furthermore, the AAP has now removed the paragraph from its April 1 release, that little part about working with DAN doctors. Gone. Out of there. Go check in at www.adventuresinautism.com. Ginger Taylor is calling it "two steps forward, one step back." I'm calling it "a phony step forward, business as usual." April Fool after all.
I search the aap website and the release is there.
http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/autism.cfm
It is under "In the News".
Posted by: Paola in Italy | April 18, 2008 at 04:02 PM
Sandy,
Here is your angle, from the meeting Mr. Kirby discussed a little while back.
"One belief is that a particular mutated gene may have become prevalent over the centuries, because of selective advantage. Mild mitochondrial dysfunction reportedly has been associated with intelligence, because it can increase activity of the brain's NMDA receptors. A large number of receptors can produce increased intelligence, but it can also increase risk of brain disease, one doctor explained to me. It's possible that increased receptor activity acts in same way."
They key is not try and sway the general public that they are *all* in danger, since that allows the CDC to trot out any old statistics for battle. The key is to press to those running the CDC or working in it theat their kids are more in danger. So Julie G. was bringing up the parents working at the CDC in her interviews. Why would she do this? Maybe because those parents (scientists) know this already and are giving her heat. Target those people and you get a fire in the belly of the beast.
What the general public should know is that continual increase in vaccinations will affect those with more minor variations in mitochondria and glutamate systems, until eventually, you are right that everyone will be affected. At that point though, there won't be any scientists left who can figure out the basic biochemistry that caused the problem in the first place.
Posted by: doodle | April 18, 2008 at 08:34 AM
Hi Terri, You ask the 64 thousand dollar question, how to get people to listen before it's too late. Gosh, if you or anyone else can figure it out, I would be so grateful. My purpose in starting Vaccination News was to try and get the word out, but it doesn't seem to have been all that effective. It has certainly helped others get the word out, like David Kirby, and helping him and other writers and researchers makes all the trials and tribulations worth it. But it still begs the question, how can we get people to listen before they are personally harmed by vaccines? Because if we can't, eventually everyone may end up being clearly harmed by them. And then it may really be too late.
All the best, Sandy
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | April 17, 2008 at 10:22 PM
Stan,
The prepoderance of autism in educated familes may not just be linked by mercury expose, even though it was shown to be for at least some of the first families by Mr. Olmstead. The anecdotal evidece is just too strong now that the "signal" is not lost in the general public, with high autism rates in the silicon valley and in Microsoft employees, and constant discussions of kids with autism having high intelligence, even after recovery. One can especially not assume that the chance of kids getting autism is the same for all - since the new research is pointing just the opposite, that some kids are more succeptible. Which kids are they then? Well, as you mentioned, looking at glutamine and glutamate are key, since they are used in detoxification (glutamine --> glutathione) and in neurotransmission (glutamate). It may just be the case that intelligent kids (from educated families) naturally have some genetic variance in their glutamate pathways that allows for an increased, yet controlled, firing of neurons, and sharper minds (essentially). Mitochondrial genetic variance may play a part in this also, and could lead the way to being more succeptible to damage by inflammation and cytokine amplification..taking a bit above from Dr. Blaylock.
"The inflammatory cytokines interact with glutamate receptors to dramatically increase excitotoxic damage. We know that autistic children have elevated CSF and blood levels of glutamate, which confirms the presence of the excitotoxic process."
But really, why does this matter? It seems like quibbiling over fine points, right? Nobody likes to appear arrogant about their own neuron firing rate but there is a real need to stay on point here.
The main thrust of the safe-vaccines position is that *some* kids are not able to handle the schedule, that one size does not fit all. The CDC counters with epidemilogical studies, which are designed specifically with the assumption that *all kids are the same*. The message needs to be clear in any argument against the CDC or any doctor then, that no, not all kids are the same, and that we can likely predict which kids are more at risk by their biochemistry and family history. Further, there is a very real possiblity that these CDC assumptions are bascially cutting off the top end of the intelligence bell curve in the US and Britain.
All the statistics, all the numbers (1 in 150), are just some average value over the entire population that drastically underestimates the chance of kids with certain genetic variations to become damaged by mercury and all the rest of the things we know cause autism. It's just something to keep in mind. When going into a fight with people who wield statistics, one needs to not play by their rules and assume anything is an average value.
Posted by: doodle | April 17, 2008 at 05:27 PM
Terri,
You asked about me.
I have been trying for years to keep an eye on what all is going on in the world, particularly of a 'political' nature - ie more specifically the machinations of a power elite. And my reading has taken me to many ports on my travels. One has been this matter of vaccines. My attention was particularly triggered by a chance pickup of a book in a chiro's waiting room in Australia in the mid-'90s (I'm an American, now living in the UK, but lived Down Under for most of the '90s). Its intriguing title was 'Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality: The Medical Assault on the American Brain' by one Harris L Coulter, PhD, whom I was to discover was one of the foremost medical historians in the US. The book was an appalling eye-opener to this whole matter (publ. in '90).
(A propos the specific matter of autism: In it he refers to "a puzzling feature" about autism on its initial appearance, as observed by Leo Kanner, being its "curious frequency" in well-educated families, esp. professionals. The early surveys failed to pick up the high incidence of parents working specifically in medicine. Longish story short: They were the first ones to 'protect' their children with the wonderful new medical tool of vaccines - & had the income to afford them. With the advent of the govt's mass vacc programs, the incidences of autism began to spread out into the populace at large; hence the early signal was obscured. This is the same signal, incidentally, that Dan O picked up on in his excellent research on the early Kanner studies - that of a link with mercury (in agriculture). He has done good detective work in bringing this initial lead to light. Thanks, Dan; & keep up the good work.)
That book led me to more & more articles & books on the general subject, incl. his & B.L. Fisher's '85 seminal work 'DPT: A Shot In the Dark'. (How great of BLF to keep so well engaged in the battle all these years - the battle for true informed consent.) Being at a semi-retired stage of my life, I had and have the time to continue my research in this field. It goes to the core of my beliefs: that the people have a right to information about things; that our western form of govt is govt of, by & for The People - not the Powers That Be. Too often such power corrupts; as we have seen in so many areas of life. We need to take back our power. That's why I'm so supportive of, & touched by, the battle that parents are waging for their children in this ASD matter - to be considered as individuals, not mere collateral damage.
And incidentally, Terri, in your researching, take a good look at the role of glutamate in all this - in the diet (hence the value for some in a GF/CF diet) and also, unfortunately, also in vaccines (MSG). According to Blaylock & others, thimerosal/mercury inhibits the regulation of brain glutamate levels, which is not only an excitotoxin but interferes with the ability of glutathione to do its primary job of eliminating heavy metals. Many ASD children have low levels of glutathione, in part from a predisposition, but also from this interfering action of glutamate.
But as is increasingly being identified, vaccines are just plain dangerous by their very nature. ADD/ADHD etc (including a glut of autoimmune diseases) all started at the same time as the mass vacc programs; etc. The lowering of childhood disease levels has been bought at a high price. Some vaccs are clearly worth the risk; but that risk needs to be acknowledged fully, not brushed off by our erstwhile masters in their white coats & cozy connections with the industry that makes big money off the vaccines & then off the drugs they supply to treat the side effects of their other products. But don't get me going THERE...
I was a premed in university; but a spiritual experience led me on another path in life. But I could easily have been one of 'them', so sure of myself/my information that I too may have looked at parents like yourself as being massive troublemakers who don't have a clue about the Big Picture. There but for the grace of God.....
Blessings
Posted by: Stan | April 17, 2008 at 03:44 PM
Stan,
Thank you for the kind words. But I am in fact way out of my league here, and that's important to know: When you know that, you realize how much crucial truth has been suppressed and for how VERY long a time.
You realize that--as a society--we have chosen to not see and to not know about the absolutely reckless, even criminal, use of toxins in drugs and other "health care" products, including vaccines. And there is the additional issue of the safety of vaccines in and of themselves.
Barbara Loe Fisher has been working for 26 years to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and by defending the right to informed consent to vaccination. A year ago, I had never even heard of her. And I wonder, "Why not?"
I am only right now beginning to be familiar with the work of Hilary Butler. Just to give a tiny snapshot, I've tracked down a paper from 1996, credited to "New Zealand researcher Hilary Butler." The paper discusses "a disturbing trend following the widespread use of the combined haemophilus Influenza B conjugate vaccine and DPTP vaccine." For fun, we may compare and contrast what I was doing in 1996: In December of that year, I found out I was pregnant with my first child. Not at that point, nor 9 months later, nor when faced with any number of vaccines for my baby in the next two years did I research vaccines or even ask a single, intelligent question of my pediatrician.
I do recall just nominally challenging the necessity or value of the chicken pox vaccine, but went along with it, feeling that "it couldn't hurt."
All of this would be drivel, except that I think my story is common--I know my story is common--someone who was college educated, pregnant with a very wanted baby, careful with everything I touched, drank, or ate while pregnant, and yet--at the crucial moment--turned my child over to a series of vaccinations I knew nothing about.
So now I wonder, "How to get through to people like that? How to get through to people. . .like me? Like I was?"
Sorsha, regarding your comment, "I have been told that my son might have been pushed over the edge with a natural case of measles. . .but I don't buy it. If a natural infection can push the vulnerable to autism--where are all of the autistic chicken-pox survivors from my generation?"
Actually, Sorsha, it's my current understanding that the measles virus specifically (I don't know about other viruses) can cause autism, whether the virus is acquired naturally or through a vaccine. I need to learn more about this; I can't place my hands tonight on my original source of this information; I know I've read this once or twice, and it does seem intuitive to me.
It also calls to mind the other conditions that need to be present for a child to descend into autism--I'm thinking of the "toxic tipping point"--an otherwise healthy child who gets a bad case of the measles will most likely not suffer complications. But complications (and I am not yet familiar with all of the potential, serious complications of the measles) can happen in a child who is "on the brink."
I once had the immune system explained to me as being like a large bucket that holds lots of water. Our bodies can actually withstand a great deal--toxins, viruses, bacteria--but we can become "suddenly" sick when a few more drops of water are added, and our bucket overflows; i.e., the straw that breaks the camel's back.
I also understand that autism can result from untreated PKU, but need to learn more about that.
But mercury, aluminum, and other synergistic factors (including antibiotics) work together in almost all the cases of autism we're seeing today--the man-made epidemic.
It's not all vaccines. Generation Rescue actually did a study of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children, and the results were just what you'd expect: the vaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder. (www.generationrescue.com)
But it was puzzling to me that the difference wasn't greater still, with a much, much larger percentage of the vaccinated children being affected. Then I went full circle back to the mercury as the cause of autism. And even with all this extremely important focus on vaccines, I still think mercury may be the single greatest cause of autism today, even outweighing vaccines (which of course have other dangers themselves):
1. Some vaccines contain mercury; some don't. Some children get considerably more mercury per lb. of body weight per vaccine. The comparison needed is between children who receive a great deal of mercury from their shots, and those who receive none. This study has also been done: google "27 times more likely" and "mercury" to see how children receiving all of their mercury-laden shots were 27 times more likely to get autism than children not receiving shots. (It actually makes for better reading to do it this way, though if I weren't so tired, I should try to get back to the actual study.)
2. Mercury in RhoGam shots during pregnancy. Mercury in the mother's dental fillings. Mercury in the child's dental fillings. Mercury in fish. Mercury in the air. Mercury in the water. Mercury made more toxic in the presence of aluminum. Which is also toxic.
Also--hi, Linda! I'm so happy to see you here! ;)
Blackie, I hope to see more of you, too! And Stan--you say, "I am not one of you. But I am one of you." So what's your story? What brings you here to AOA, if you wouldn't mind sharing?
Terri L.
Posted by: Terri Lewis | April 16, 2008 at 10:49 PM
I want to thank scientists - true scientists - like Dr Blaylock and Dr Jill James & others for their interests in pursuing truth in this matter of autism & its connection with vaccines - or with whatever all the results of their efforts uncovers. But most of all I want to thank and appreciate the parents. Thank you, Terri et al, for probing and digging and not giving up - for your children, and for all children. The scientific information that you have helped uncover in this matter is immense, and will serve us well in the future. I have found a tremendous amount of info from such posters. (Hilary, thank you in particular for your contribution to this thread. What a great contribution to the picture.) I am not one of you. But I am one of you.
Keep on keeping on, Terri. It's worth it.
My heart goes out to all of you. What a challenge you have been given. But what an opportunity, too. Well done, the way you have risen to the occasion. We all owe you.
Posted by: Stan | April 16, 2008 at 04:49 PM
Teri, I think one of the most important things we can do right now is to organize and lobby to get that never-vaccinated study passed in Congress. The reason it hasn't happened is we haven't gotten involved in a big way, or really any way at all, other than to talk about it. Congress is going to do what the medical profession and the drug companies want them to do, UNLESS the voters make it clear they will vote them out if they don't represent them. We haven't made it clear, however a) that there are enough of us to matter and b) that we want this bill passed. I'm ready to do what is needed.
And Sorsha, thank you for making the point in such an important and personal way. I am so sorry that it happened to you. We all need to do what we can to at least give parents the kind of information they need to make informed decisions, and decide for themselves what to do. We can't stop all the injury and death, but we can at least give parents back their power.
Also, if you haven't read my column "The Power of Fear" (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2008/Feb_11_08/Scandal85.htm ), please consider doing so. We have to educate ourselves about the diseases as well, so that we are not easily manipulated. The great thing is that with the Internet, all the information is available to us. And I have tried, with Vaccination News, to make it easier to keep up with the issue, although, sadly for all of us, not enough people avail themselves of the resource.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | April 16, 2008 at 12:56 AM
"It's time for all the acute and chronic dots to be connected by paediatricians at the cutting face."
Sure, but first they have to draw the dots. There ain't no dots in their schema. What the heck are they going to connect?
You must not have heard - "vaccines are 100% safe and you can inject 10,000 of them into a child's body and nothing will happen."
Pediatricians connecting dots, not for another millenium. If not more.
Posted by: Blackie | April 15, 2008 at 11:13 PM
Terri, I thought your post was courageous and I agree with both you and Sandy. I am concerned by the recent narrow focus to 'clean up' vaccines and 'delay' the schedule. My son recieved NO vaccines in the first year of life, no live vaccines until after the age of 4, and then didn't begin his long, slow decent into autism until after the MMR at 5 years, 3 months. There was no 'safe' delayed schedule for, or 'safe' age to vaccinate my son. I have been told that my son might have been pushed over the edge with a natural case of measles..but I don't buy it. If a natural infection can push the vulnerable to autism - where are all of the autistic chicken-pox survivors from my generation? Where are all the autistic measles survivors from my parents' generation? The science behind vaccinations as a whole is flawed - vaccines do not activate the immune system in a balanced, healthy way; when the vaccinated vs. never-vaccinated study is finally done this will become irrefutable.
Posted by: Sorsha Anderson | April 15, 2008 at 10:56 PM
Sandy G.,
Thank you for the additional information; I've read much of it already, and I'm trying to absorb and compare this with what I already know.
I've been thinking a couple of things:
1. It's really not hard to see why "they" hate us. Once you look to see what's been swept under the rug, even if you just take a peek at first, you can never really go back.
2. Have I been "them"? Would any of this matter to me if my child hadn't been affected? I try not to think about it.
3. How can we help people the most in the quickest time possible? What things are in our power here, and what things are not?
Terri
Posted by: Terri Lewis | April 15, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Hi Teri,
You and I are in almost complete agreement (I think the situation re: rubella is also questionable - see, for instance, "Is Rubella Vaccination Playing A Role In The Rise In Autism?" in "past scandals' at the link to Vaccination News on the right side of this website page. (Sorry, but I'm limited in the number of links I can have in one post....) In fact my most recent Scandals column addressed the very issue you raise, "Is Changing the Vaccine Schedule Enough?" at http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2008/Apr_11_08/Scandal89.htm .
There are a number of us, Hilary Butler included, who have been challenging the notion of vaccines, period, for a long time. You can read some of her writings at http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Authors/HilaryButler/hilary_butler.htm . You will see that her work is outstanding.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | April 15, 2008 at 06:52 PM
This article from Russell Blaylock says it all. It is not just mercury. It is not just the MMR. And this, FINALLY describes my child with autism. She didnt decline over night, but rather got worse and worse as time went on until she was finally gone between 12 to 18 months. Even her MRI at two years old showed LESIONS on her brain. She barely had a chance.
Posted by: Linda Girard | April 15, 2008 at 06:24 PM
There is also a second way in which immune activation suppresses mitochondrial basic function, and that is that activation pulls vitamin C out of the system, and can disrupt the glucose transporters which pull vitamin C into mitochondria. Vitamin C in mitochondria and the body is crucial because vitamin C is involved in the biosynthesis of carnitine. If you disrupt that, then mitochondria suffer, because carnitine also has to be pulled into mitochondria. vitamin C and carnitine are the foundation then, for pulling into mitochondria long chain fatty acids, which the mitochondria then burn to produce energy for the body to function.
Children who are chronically ill are well known to be chronically vitamin C, folic acid, iron, and to have other micronutrient deficits as well. All these vitamin and mineral deficits are crucial in maintaining biochemistry and general immune function, but acute vitamin C deficiency is critical to the action of mitochondria.
The RDA for vitamin C is a total misnomer. It is based on the amount (with one month's leeway) which prevents a person suffering a premorbid condition called "scurvy", but there is now literally stacks of information in medical journals to show that the RDA for avoiding death by scurvy is totally irrelevant to the RDA needed in situations of strees, infection, and exposure to toxins.
Vitamin C is the foundational platform for the body; mitochondrial function, the phagocyte system ~ and potentially, the more they look at the more they will find.
There will come a day when doctors will look back at the current recommendations for vitamin C with horror and dismay, and perhaps might realise that any child with any sickness, or who is vaccinated, must be supplemented with vitamin C at realistic levels.
The literature on mitochondrial dysfunction has existed for a long time. The literature of the role of vitamin C in carnitine function and mitochondrial energy creation has existed for at least two decades.
It's time for all the acute and chronic dots to be connected by paediatricians at the cutting face.
Posted by: Hilary Butler | April 15, 2008 at 04:57 PM
Terri, you are right. We need to demand 100% safe vaccines. Vaccines that will not injure some children are impossible. I'm sick and tired of this child sacrifice culture we've been sucked into. In the ancient world, the Carthaginians sacrificed babies to their gods. In the modern world we sacrifice babies to the god of herd immunity and the fear of disease. Enough already.
Posted by: Deborah | April 15, 2008 at 11:20 AM
"I'm going to tell anyone who comes to me that if you vaccinate your child faithfully according to the current schedule, you have a 1% to 2% chance of your child becoming autistic (and then I explain how very nasty that can be); a 10% chance of somewhat lesser brain/immune damage; a 10% chance of asthma; and additional risks of life-threatening food allergies, seizures, or death. And I tell them everything I know, and then I learn more."
If those parents work in the sciences, with computers or in any kinds of logical-driven field, you better tell them to multiply those percentages by some unknown amount. The CDC would like for autism to be a 1-2% chance for everyone, but we all know that is not how things work. The danger is not equally distributed.
Posted by: doodle | April 15, 2008 at 10:15 AM
I read this completely. Then I went to Dr. Blaylock's web site. I vaguely remembered stumbling upon it before. I would have dismissed it (at that time) something like this: "Vaccines are mostly good. If we get the mercury and aluminum out, and give them one at a time, all will be well."
But all is not well.
Our kids continue to go down: 1% to 2% into autism; 10% into lesser brain/immune damage (ADHD); 10% into asthma; still others develop seizures, life-threatening food allergies, diabetes. Some die.
The more I learn about vaccines, the more I realize that even our radical attempts to Green Our Vaccines and "revise the schedule" are just tiny pebbles thrown at a raging monster.
I say that with apologies to Jenny McCarthy, who is truly a hero for organizing the rally in Washington this June, and who is a hero for all the work she has done regarding autism and vaccines. But it won't be enough.
I say this with apologies to David Kirby, another hero, who has been in Washington, D.C. this past week asking questions about delaying the Hep B shot that's given at birth, and asking if repeated exposure to the MMR is necessary. But it won't help to delay the Hep B, because you don't want to give that shot to children at all, and it will only help a little to give just a single MMR, or to split the shot into the M, the M, and the R. Kids are still going to go down like flies. And I say this, and I say that David Kirby is a hero, and pursues the truth tirelessly.
I've talked with MDs, and I continue to research this. Just last week I had a doctor ask me, "Do you know who should be immunized against measles?" No, I said. Because I still didn't know, or didn't want to. "No one," he told me. The risks of that live-virus vaccine outweigh the potential benefits--saving your child from the dangerous (but very rare) complications of measles. (The complications are rare in a first-world country where sanitation and hand washing are taken for granted; third-world countries are another story.)
We'd actually be better off letting our children take the chance of catching the measles, supporting them through it (if they get it) with vitamins, rest and TLC, than risking the dangerous complications of the shot. Some of you already know this, some will refuse to believe it, some will research and bring relevant comments here.
Parents are out there taking baby steps. As a Rescue Angel, I get comments and questions about the MMR. Some decide to delay the shot; some decide not to booster the shot (they might check titers, rather than booster) but, for the most part, parents are still more afraid to skip this shot than to get it! Even knowing how dangerous it is, and how especially dangerous it is if you've been following the rest of the schedule.
"Can you get the components separately?" I'm asked. And as a practical matter (I don't know if this is universally true) the answer is, "No."
That's been the doctor's answer on shots in general for the last twenty or thirty years. Or ever since we've had shots and the sickeningly stupid concept of "herd immunity." Which doesn't even work!
Basically, they (the CDC, the FDA, even the AAP) feel confident that they have us in a corner. They don't have to work with us, but we have to work with them. They don't have to see our truth, but we sure as heck better see theirs, because it's the only game in town. Take it--all at once; five, seven, ten shots in a day--or leave it.
"Your kid's sick? So sorry," they say. "It's a mystery to me, BUT IT ISN'T THE SHOTS!"
"I've never seen a vaccine reaction in my practice," they say.
Furthermore, the AAP has now removed the paragraph from its April 1 release, that little part about working with DAN doctors. Gone. Out of there. Go check in at www.adventuresinautism.com. Ginger Taylor is calling it "two steps forward, one step back." I'm calling it "a phony step forward, business as usual." April Fool after all.
Because it isn't just the Hep B. And it isn't just the flu shots. And it isn't just the MMR. And it isn't just the chicken pox shot. All of those vaccinations are clearly worse than the diseases they protect against. (With the exception of rubella, which is very harmful to the fetus in pregnancy; young women who may become pregnant and have any chance of exposure to rubella should usually get the rubella only shot.)
It's the whole system of mass vaccination. Period.
It is rotten, through and through. It is rotten to the core.
Does that take me even further out of the mainstream? We all need to go where the truth is going to take us. And I'm not happy to have to go here. "Congratulations," indeed. "Look at what you've won!"
I'm sure I'd rather keep living in La La Land, where even mild disease never happens, if you're willing to shut your eyes to all the little bodies on the floor. It's like that nightmare scenario, that crummy old movie, "Logan's Run," where everyone lives in perfect health and prosperity, except they have to kill you when you're 30 years old! Ha, ha, right? Right?
Vaccination is bread-and-butter for most pediatricians. If we start to question the shots, if we really educate ourselves, it all comes tumbling down.
But we better do it--and I'm still in the process of learning about all the different vaccinations--or we destroy our kids in our attempts to save them.
I'm getting bolder and more educated all the time, because I'm sick of parents coming to me with their sick, autistic kids, and they can't turn back the clock, and they know it was the shots. I want it to stop. I want to have a life! I want to live! I want to spend more time on something else! I don't want this to happen anymore.
So I've stopped telling parents, "Oh, you need to educate yourself about vaccination." That little line didn't work on me, or I wouldn't be here.
Instead, I'm going to educate them.
I'm going to tell anyone who comes to me that if you vaccinate your child faithfully according to the current schedule, you have a 1% to 2% chance of your child becoming autistic (and then I explain how very nasty that can be); a 10% chance of somewhat lesser brain/immune damage; a 10% chance of asthma; and additional risks of life-threatening food allergies, seizures, or death. And I tell them everything I know, and then I learn more.
We are all alone in this, together.
Help from Washington, from the CDC, the FDA, and even--God help us--even help from our own "trusted" pediatricians IS NOT COMING.
It is not coming now, and it is not coming soon.
It is not coming until parents reject most of their dangerous shots most of the time.
I don't know how long that will take.
But until parents literally bring their whole rotten "system" COMPLETELY DOWN, until we bring it down to the ground and kick it into rubble, help is not coming.
Terri Lewis
Posted by: Terri Lewis | April 15, 2008 at 09:58 AM
I would just like to mention in this context that in NE London the autism rate more than doubled in association with the accelerated DPT schedule in 1990. The three doses were moved from 3, 5 and 10 months to 2, 3 and 4 months, each dose containing 25 micrograms on mercury.
http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/88/8/666#2773
Posted by: John Stone | April 15, 2008 at 09:38 AM
This why our kids got sicker and sicker with every round of vaccination until their little bodies shut down. I need to go hug my kids-our poor babies.
Posted by: Holly | April 15, 2008 at 08:20 AM