What's Good For Your Health?
The Truth and the Myth

COW'S MILK

Cows' Milk, Diabetes Connection Bolstered

By N. Seppa

Many studies have linked cows' milk consumed by babies to subsequent diabetes, but some researchers still doubt that it causes the disease. The association is based on animal experiments, they note, or indirect evidence such as studies in which parents of diabetic children try to recollect when their babies first started drinking milk-based formula. Now, Finnish researchers have avoided the vagaries of poor recall by studying children from birth. In so doing, they have added to the case against cows' milk.

By monitoring babies in diabetes-prone families, the scientists find that infants getting formula that includes cows' milk are more likely later to develop the immune reactions associated with juvenile-onset, or type I, diabetes than are babies getting a substitute. The researchers tracked, until age 8 months, 173 newborns in Finland who had a close relative with type I diabetes. To augment their mothers' milk, half of these babies received milk-based formula and the rest got a formula in which the cows' milk proteins had been broken into fragments called peptides. The two formulas taste and smell the same, so parents and researchers didn't know which one a baby was drinking.

Babies' immune systems largely ignore cows' milk proteins that have been chopped up. However, contact with one intact protein in cows' milk, bovine insulin, may set off a destructive process. The immune system would attack pancreas islet cells that make human insulin, which resembles bovine insulin, and would produce antibodies. At 2 years of age, 10 of 89 children getting cows' milk formula had formed antibodies associated with type I diabetes. However, only 3 of 84 babies receiving the treated milk showed these antibodies.

These autoimmune antibodies, or autoantibodies, are made by immune B cells and appear to dispose of damaged pancreatic islet cells. The antibodies indicate that bovine insulin might be spurring an immune system T-cell reaction against the child's own islet cells, he says. Insulin regulates sugar metabolism in the body. Research had already determined that having one type of autoantibody to insulin indicates that a baby has roughly a 4 in 10 chance of contracting type I diabetes within the next decade. Having more types of these autoantibodies is a sign of greater risk; having three imparts an 80 to 90 percent likelihood of getting type I diabetes. In this study, 3 of the 10 children in the cows' milk group who had diabetes-related autoantibodies showed one type of such antibody, and the rest had two or more.

The precise cause of diabetes remains unclear but the evidence against cows' milk is piling up. As an example, in Puerto Rico, fewer than 5 percent of mothers breast-feed their children. Instead, nearly all use formula made from cows' milk. Meanwhile, type I diabetes incidence in Puerto Rico is roughly 10 times the rate seen in Cuba, where breast-feeding is nearly universal. Such findings suggest that the problem may be cows' milk ingested in the first few months of life.

COMMENT: It seems that the evidence is fairly overwhelming and compelling to link milk ingestion early in life to insulin dependent diabetes. This is a horrible disease as I am unaware of any natural therapy that one can use to treat it. One is forced to rely on imprecise regulation of self-administered insulin or face a certain death in a matter of days by going into a hyperglycemic coma. It is interesting to note that predigested milk products do not seem to stimulate this reaction. On a practical basis, that means that formulas like Good Start and Follow Up for older infants from Carnation would likely not cause a problem. Most of the milk protein in these products are hydrolyzed and broken down into smaller fragments that would not be as likely to stimulate antibodies to the pancreas.

References:

Akerblom, H.K., S.M. Virtanen . . . O. Vaarala, et al. 1999. Emergence of diabetes associated autoantibodies in the nutritional prevention of IDDM (RIGR) project. 59th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association. June. San Diego.

Soy: Too Good to be True

by Brandon Finucan & Charlotte Gerson

While even in 1966 there was considerable research on the harmful substances within soybeans, you'll be hard pressed to find articles today that claim soy is anything short of a miracle-food. As soy gains more and more popularity through industry advertising, we are moved once again to raise our voice of concern.

The Soybean Industry in America

In 1924 soybean production in the U.S. was only at 1.8 million acres harvested, but by 1954, the harvested acres grew to 18.9 million. Today, the soybean is America's third largest crop (harvesting 72 million acres in 1998), supplying more than 50 percent of the world's soybean demand.

Most of these beans are made into animal feed and are manufactured into soy oil for use as vegetable oil, margarine and shortening. Of the traditional uses for soy as a food, only soy sauce enjoys widespread consumption in the American diet. Tofu, measuring 90 percent of Asia's use of the soybean, has gained more popularity in the U.S., but soy is still nowhere near a measurable component of the average American diet - or is it?

For more than 20 years now, the soy industry has concentrated on finding alternative uses and new markets for soybeans and soy byproducts. At your local supermarket, soy can now be found disguised as everything from soy cheese, milk, burgers and hot dogs, to ice cream, yogurt, vegetable oil, baby formula and flour (to name just a few). These are often marketed as low-fat, dairy-free, or as a high-protein, meat substitute for vegetarians. But soy isn’t always mentioned on the box cover. Today, an alarming 60% of the food on America's supermarket shelves contain soy derivatives (i.e. soy flour, textured vegetable protein, partially hydrogenated soy bean oil, soy protein isolate). When you look at the ingredients list, and really look at the contents of the "Average American Diet," from snack foods and fast foods to prepackaged frozen meals, soy plays a major role.

Where did soybeans go wrong?

Here at the Gerson Institute, we feel the positive aspects of the soybean are overshadowed by their potential for harm. Soybeans in fact contain a large number of dangerous substances. One among them is phytic acid, also called phytates. This organic acid is present in the bran or hulls of all seeds and legumes, but none have the high level of phytates that soybeans do. These acids block the body’s uptake of essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron and especially zinc. Adding to the high-phytate problem, soybeans are very resistant to phytate reducing techniques, such as long, slow cooking.

Soybeans also contain potent enzyme inhibitors. These inhibitors block uptake of trypsin and other enzymes that the body needs for protein digestion. Normal cooking does not deactivate these harmful "antinutrients," that can cause serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and can lead to chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake.

Beyond these, soybeans also contain hemagglutinin, a clot promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. These clustered blood cells are unable to properly absorb oxygen for distribution to the body's tissues, and cannot help in maintaining good cardiac health. Hemagglutinin and trypsin inhibitors are both "growth depressant" substances. Although the act of fermenting soybeans does deactivate both trypsin inhibitors and hemagglutinin, precipitation and cooking do not. Even though these enzyme inhibitors are reduced in levels within precipitated soy products like tofu, they are not altogether eliminated.

Only after a long period of fermentation (as in the creation of miso or tempeh) are the phytate and "antinutrient" levels of soybeans reduced, making their nourishment available to the human digestive system. The high levels of harmful substances remaining in precipitated soy products leave their nutritional value questionable at best, and in the least, potentially harmful.

What About the Studies?

In recent years, several studies have been made regarding the soybean’s effect on human health. The results of those studies, largely underwritten by various factions of the soy industry, were of course overwhelmingly in favor of soy. The primary claims about soy's health benefits are based purely on bad science. Although primary arguments for cancer patients to use soy focus on statistics showing low rates of breast, colon and prostate cancer among Asian people, there are obvious facts being utterly ignored. While the studies boast that Asian women suffer far fewer cases of breast cancer than American women do, the hype neglects to point out that these Asian women eat a diet that is dramatically different than their American counterparts.

The standard Asian diet consists of more natural products, far less fatty meat, greater amounts of vegetables and more fish. Their diets are also lower in chemicals and toxins, as they eat far fewer processed (canned, jarred, pickled, frozen) foods. It is likely these studies are influenced by the fact that cancer rates rise among Asian people who move to the U.S. and adopt American-ized diets. Of course, this change of diet goes hand-in-hand with a dramatic shift in lifestyle. Ignoring the remarkable diet and lifestyle changes, to assume only that reduced levels of soy in these Americanized Asian diets is a primary factor in greater cancer rates is poor judgment, and as stated above, bad science. The changes of diet and lifestyle must be considered to reach the correct conclusion.

A widely circulated article, written by Jane E. Allen, AP Science Writer, titled, "Scientists Suggest More Soy in Diet", cites in the course of a symposium, numerous speakers discussing the probable advantages of soy under the title, "Health Impact of Soy Protein." However, the article states that the $50,000 symposium "was underwritten by Protein Technologies International of St. Louis, a DuPont subsidiary that makes soy protein!" In the course of the same symposium, Thomas Clarkson, professor of comparative medicine at Wake Forest University, states "Current hormone replacement therapy has been a dismal failure from a public health point of view," not because Premarin® is known to cause uterine or other female organ cancers, but "because only 20 percent of the women who could benefit from it are taking it."

Other popular arguments in support of soy state that fermented products, like tempeh or natto, contain high levels of vitamin B-12. However, these supportive arguments fail to mention that soy's B-12 is an inactive B-12 analog, not utilized as a vitamin in the human body. Some researchers speculate this analog may actually serve to block the body's B-12 absorption. It has also been found that allergic reactions to soybeans are far more common than to all other legumes. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics admits that early exposure to soy through commercial infant formulas, may be a leading cause of soy allergies among older children and adults.

In his classic book, A Cancer Therapy - Results of 50 Cases (p. 237), Dr. Gerson put "Soy and Soy Products" on the "FORBIDDEN" list of foods for Gerson Therapy patients. At the time, his greatest concerns were two items: the high oil content of soy and soy products, and the rather high rate of allergic reactions to soy. Soybeans can add as much as 9 grams of fat per serving, typically adding an average of 5 grams of fat per serving when part of an average American diet.

The Extraction Process

The processes which render the soybean "edible" are also the processes which render it "inedible." In fermenting soybeans, the process entails that the beans be puréed and soaked in an alkaline solution. The puréed mixture is then heated to about 115°C (239°F) inside a pressure cooker. This heating and soaking process destroys most, but not all, of the anti-nutrients. At the same time, it has the unwelcome effect of denaturing the proteins of the beans so they become very difficult to digest and greatly reduced in effectiveness. Unfortunately, the alkaline solution also produces a carcinogen, lysinealine, while it reduces the already low cystine content within the soybean. Cystine plays an essential role in liver detoxification, allowing our bodies to filter and eliminate toxins. Without proper amounts of cystine, the protein complex of the soybean becomes useless, unless the diet is fortified with cystine-rich meat, egg, or dairy products - not an option for Gerson patients.

To the soybean’s credit, they do contain large amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, but these are particularly susceptible to rancidity when subjected to high pressures and temperatures. Unfortunately, high pressure and temperature are required to remove soybean oil from the soybean.

Before soybeans are sent to your table, they undergo a rigorous process to strip them of their oil. Hexane or other solvents are first applied to help separate the oil from the beans, leaving trace amounts of these toxins in the commercial product. Hexane by definition is; "any of five colorless, volatile, liquid hydrocarbons C6H14 of the paraffin series," and cannot be the least bit beneficial in anyone’s diet. After the oil is extracted, the defatted flakes are used to form the three basic soy protein products. With the exception of full-fat soy flour, all soybean products contain trace amounts of carcinogenic solvents.

Personal Experiences

The following letter was received in November 1998: "I have used soy milk for 12 years with no problems. About 9 months ago, I started to have heart palpitations. I thought maybe that I was in menopause, but I wasn’t. I added more potassium to my diet and magnesium and vitamin E. No change. I am already decaffeinated but I also took all sugar out of my diet. I lost 25 pounds and felt great except for the palpitations. I tried hawthorn and garlic but nothing was helping. Recently I came down with acute bronchitis and could only drink water because even the soy milk made me have horrendous bouts of coughing. I realized that after a few days my heart palpitations had stopped. I didn't think anything of it because it never occurred to me that soy was the culprit. As soon as I started drinking it again, my heart went crazy. I went off it for a week and then changed brands. Within 30 minutes of drinking only 4 ounces [of soy milk], my heart was all over the place. I've noticed that it takes about 24 to 36 hours for my heart to settle down. I wondered if your research turned up anything like this in regard to soy. I know it is not within the definition of an allergy, but something is definitely going on. I called the manufacturer of the soy milk, but they were of no help. I am very upset because I only drink soy milk and water. I also use the soy milk to make protein shakes (with what else…but soy protein)."

In our November/December 1996 issue of the Gerson Healing Newsletter we described another case: a pregnant lady who looked very ill and was terribly deficient! She also described her son, age five, who had many allergies and infections - both were using a good deal of soy in their diet. I recommended that they discontinue the use of all soy products. At the time, I had only just run across this situation. However, a year later, I was in the same area for a lecture, and the lady invited me to dinner. She had cut out all soy products: her skin was now rosy, her face filled out, her sunken eyes normal, her black circles gone and her little boy, now six, was in greatly improved health.

Just last week, another interesting story came to our attention. A patient at the Gerson Certified Hospital in Mexico told us of her son, now 25, who has total lack of hair (Alopecia) with the exception of eyebrows and eyelashes. She added that this started when he was just three years old. Since the mother asked me about this situation, I considered the problem for a moment. Then, looking at the parents who both have normal hair, I figured that the boy's problem was most probably not genetic. So, I asked the mother if he used a lot of soy. She said, no. But then, after thinking about the question for a moment, she said that at about one year of age, the boy had many allergies, so she regularly fed him soy milk! I explained to her that the enzyme and nutrient blocking ability of soy and the likelihood of the soy milk being the cause of his condition starting at age three. Since we had just witnessed the case of a patient whose hair grew back on his bald pate, (See "Practitioner Training" article in this issue) after being bald for some 20 years, I cautiously suggested that a complete change of diet accompanied by intensive detoxification, may be able to overcome the problem.

Gerson Institute Newsletter Volume 14 #3

This article is the first of two parts. Part Two will be next week

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/

“Soybean Products: A Recipe for Disaster?” Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Apr-May 1997), http://www.nexusmagazine.com/soya.html

New Century Nutrition, “A Great Bean - But No Panacea” by Charles R. Attwood, M.D., F.A.A.P., http://www.newcenturynutrition.com/public_html/webzine/archives/a_great_bean.shtml

Soy Protein Council, http://www.spcouncil.org

“Jeopardizing the Future? Genetic Engineering, Food and the Environment”, by Dr. Michael Hanson and Jean Halloran (Consumer Policy Institute /Consumers Union), http://www.pmac.net/jeopardy.html

“Monsanto Genetically Engineered Soya has Elevated Hormone Levels: Public Health Threat” (Oct. 1997), http://www.holisticmed.com/ge/warning.html

“Monsanto’s Toxic Roundup” (Nov. 1996), http://www.holisticmed.com/GE/roundup.html

“Toxicity from Genetically-Engineered Foods”, http://www.holisticmed.com/GE/toxicity.html

Eat the State!, “Nature & Politics” by Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn (Feb. 1999), http://www.eatthestate.org/03-22/NaturePolitics.htm

Soy: Too Good to be True (Part 2 of 2)

by Susan DeSimone & Brandon Finucan

Don't Believe the Hype!

The Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is one of the leading manufacturers of soy products. They are seeking "GRAS" (generally recognized as safe) status from the FDA for isoflavones, the estrogen-like compounds found in soy products. They have submitted a document entitled, " An information document reviewing the safety of soy isoflavones used in specific dietary applications."

Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, a biochemist and former Auckland University professor has carefully analyzed this material and presented his findings in an article entitled, "Soy Isoflavones: Panacea or Poison" published in the Journal of the Price-Pottinger Nutrition Foundation (vol. 22, no. 3). Dr. Fitzpatrick concluded that ADM's supporting document "contains factual errors, misrepresents cited authors and does not present the full body of scientific evidence."

ADM claims that "these isoflavones have been consumed by millions of humans for over two thousand years." In actuality, while they have been used in Asia for hundreds of years, they "did not form a significant part of [the Asian] diet." Furthermore, notes Fitzpatrick, "the traditional soybean was quite different from the soybean as we know it today ." The wild soybean, Glycine soja, "is the species that was consumed traditionally and is the ancestor of the modern cultivar, Glycine max, explains Fitzpatrick. The modern day species has been cultivated to breed much more protein than the traditional soybean.

The isoflavones serve as a "defense mechanism in response to pests. Increased disease resistance has been a consistent goal of soybean breeders and it is quite conceivable that this goal has served to increase the levels of isoflavones, and other naturally occurring toxins in the Glycine max." The levels of isoflavones in Glycine max vary considerably. "If this is so, then it is not implausible that the traditional Asian soybean, Glycine soja, contained quite low levels of isoflavones or perhaps none at all," states Fitzpatrick. Therefore, ADM's assertion that soybeans have been safely consumed for over two thousand years cannot be substantiated.

Soy and Infant Formula

What is particularly worrisome is the presence of soy in infant formulas. It is interesting to note that many infants cannot tolerate soy formulas, that they seem to be "allergic" to the soy.

Perhaps the body is instinctively rejecting the enzyme inhibitors found in the soy. In a letter addressed to Linda Kahl at the division of Product Policy of the Food and Drug Administration dated April 22, 1998, Daniel Sheehan, Ph.d and director of the Estrogen Base Program at the National Center for Toxicological Research wrote:

"There is abundant evidence that some of the isoflavones, including genistein and equal are toxicants... additionally, isoflavones are inhibitors of thyroid peroxidase which makes T3 and T4. Inhibition can be expected to generate thyroid abnormalities including goiter and autoimmune thyroiditis. In fact, infants consuming soy infant formula rich in isoflavones have about a two-fold risk of developing these diseases...While isoflavones may have beneficial effects at some ages or circumstances, this cannot be assumed to be true at all ages. Isoflavones are like other estrogens in that they are two-edged swords, conferring both benefits and risk.

Dr. Sheehan believes that "The addition of isoflavones to foods needs to be considered just as would the addition of estrogen to foods, which is a bad idea." Dr. Sheehan is very concerned about the high isoflavone content found in soy based formulas. He feels that infants fed these formulas have been placed at risk in a "large, uncontrolled, and basically unmonitored human infant experiment." Dr. Fitzpatrick raises another issue: he believes that soy may combine with other xenoestrogens (such as pesticides). Fitzpatrick writes that "because of the potential for synergistic effects, human exposure to all endocrine disrupters, such as the soy isoflavones urgently requires reduction."

Soy and the Western Diet

In part one of this article, we mentioned that assumptions have been made linking soy intake to the low incidence of certain cancers in Asia. "However, an epidemiological study in China has shown that high soy intake is not protective against breast cancer."1

The soy proponents have conveniently overlooked a study which has shown that high levels of genistein "may stimulate breast cells to enter the cell cycle" 2. These findings are "consistent with an earlier report by Petrakis et al. who expressed concern that women fed soy protein isolate have an increased incidence of epithelial hyperplasia."3

The U.K. government recently published their findings of the effects of soy in the diet, concluding that "there was almost no evidence linking health benefits from foods containing isoflavones to the isoflavones themselves."4

Another study concluded that "any benefits from soy products are not due to isoflavones specifically... [and] the combination of a high phytoestrogen intake with a western diet may not be beneficial.5

Adding to the natural trouble with soybeans, we are faced with a new Western phenomenon: genetically altered soy. Among other genetically altered, or transgenic foods like corn, apples, tomatoes, squash, strawberries, lettuce, potatoes, wheat and even walnuts (to name just a few), soy is one of the most controversial. MonsantoTM, the multi-million dollar biotechnology leader that brought us rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone), has been fighting to put genetically altered foods on your table for several years. So far, they are winning. The truth is, unless you've been eating ONLY organic foods, it is likely you've been tasting Monsanto's handiwork.

Monsanto has gained millions in profits from sales of its popular herbicide, Roundup®, and in turn has produced several transgenic crops that resist it. Soy is of course among those Roundup-Ready® crops. Being resistant to this powerful herbicide, farmers are able to spray more of it on their crops, resulting in higher levels of toxins in the harvested product. Recent studies have shown that sprayed soybean crops have an elevated estrogen level (much higher than the soybean's already high levels). As we mentioned earlier, the synergistic effect of these estrogens - especially on children ingesting soy based formula is unknown, but in a recent study reported in Pediatrics raised a few eyebrows. "

Investigators found that one percent of all girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair before the age of THREE; by age eight 14.7 percent of Caucasian girls and a whopping 48.3 percent of African-American girls had one or both of these characteristics" states Sally Fallon in the Price-Pottinger article on soy. (For a natural alternative to soy and milk based formula, see Nourishing Traditions, available through PPNF at 619-574-7763).

These higher estrogen levels have proven to increase amounts of fat produced in the milk of cows fed the altered altered and sprayed beans. Together with the use of rBGH, the elevated estrogen levels bring into question whether cows milk can really be called milk.

The European Union has fought desperately to keep genetically altered crops from entering Europe's food chain, but this June, both France and Ireland will be planting the first altered crops to be grown on European soil. In the United States, there are very few (if any) regulations placed on the biotechnology industry.

Soy and Protein Intake

Soybeans are not the basis of measurement for whether or not a vegetarian diet is supplying you with the protein and nutrients your body needs. In fact, a diet completely devoid of soy or meat products, but varied in vegetables and fruits, can supply your body with all the protein and nutrients it needs. The important factor in determining whether or not your soy-free, vegetarian diet is good enough for you is not careful food combining, it is calories. As long as you ar eating enough leafy greens, fruits and vegetables, your body will be supplied with everything it needs. This is why the Gerson Therapy, with its well-balanced, plant-based (soy-free) diet, rich in vitamins and enzymes, is able to effectively heal even the most difficult of ailments.

Go To Part One

Gerson Institute Newsletter Volume 14 #4

1. Yuan JM et al. Diet and breast cancer in Shanghai and Yianjin. Br J Cancer 71:1353-1358 (1995).

2. Dees C et al. Dietary estrogens stimulate breast cells to enter the cell cycle. Eviron Health Perspect 105 (Suppl 3): 633-636 (1997).

3. Petrakis NL et al. Stimulatory influence of soy protein isolate on breast secretion in pre- and post-menopausal women. Cancer Epid Bio Prev 5: 785-794 (1996).

4. Assessment on phytoestrogens in the human diet. Institute for Environmental Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1997).

5. Adlecruetz H and Mazur W. Phytoestrogens and western diseases. Annals of Medicine 29: 95-120 (1997).

SUGAR

Killer Sugar! Suicide With A Spoon

by Bill Misner, Ph.D.

Sugar, an aldehyde or ketone derivative of polyhydric alcohol, mostly shows up as either disaccarhides(C12H22O11), or monosaccharides(C6H12O6) found in foods such as candy, fruit, salt, peanut butter, canned vegetables, bouillon cubes, medicines, toothpaste, vitamins, and almost all processed "fat-free" products. The health dangers ingested sugar creates when habitually imposed upon human physiology are certain. Simple sugars have been observed to aggravate asthma, muster mental illness, move mood swings, provoke personality changes, nourish nervous disorders, hurry heart disease, deliver diabetes, grow gallstones, hasten hypertension, add arthritis, and on top of all of that...It will kill you!

Certain harmful refined dietary sugars (which are specifically discussed below) almost always turn directly into fat! Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose, Galactose, Maltose, and Lactose are digested and absorbed with such speed that the body must convert them into saturated fats. Saturated Fatty Acids are "sticky" by nature, and, when introduced into the vascular system, clog arteries, increase the chance of stroke, diabetes, and definitively decrease athletic performance.

High Sugar Intake Corrupts Muscle Performance And Impedes Strength Development Dramatically!

Muscle mitochondrial cells (internal energy cell units that produce muscle movement) breakdown 6-carbon glucose molecules for all muscle energy. One of the byproducts of the energy cycle is a 2-carbon acetate, vinegar. Acetates form the building blocks for cholesterol. If Acetates are produced faster than they can be burned, enzymatic reactions within our cells "Join" Acetates end-to-end to make excess cholesterol and saturated fat, which makes red blood cells sluggish, sticky, and inefficient, deposits excess saturated fatty acids around organs and in subcutaneous skinfolds, or, deposits clogs of cholesterol within the vascular system, impeding blood transport of vital nutrients and oxygen to peripheral muscle cells.

Unfortunately for those of us who enjoy the moment of sweet taste, this process tends to go one way, i.e. sugar transforms to fat; but fat tenaciously tends to remain as fat deposits, and only severe starvation or extreme caloric expenditures will mobilize it as a burnable fuel source. Most of our organs burn off fat for their fuel needs, which is why master's aged athletes store more fat around organs than do younger athletes, simply from the passing of time and the nature of human physiology.

The brain, as an organ, commands a pre-eminent role in the sugar equation. Human survival and efficient maximal performance depends upon this organ's need for specific fuels such as glucose, glutamic acid, or ketones to be constantly supplied. If glucose is absent, low from a dietary insufficiency, or perhaps from high caloric expenditure during intense muscular exercise, the body must harvest or convert it from two tissue stores: amino acids found in lean muscle mass, or chemistry from the adrenal glands (activity/secretion) initiates a conversion process which transforms liver and/or muscle glycogen stores into glucose.

A diet high in refined carbohydrates stimulates an abnormal pancreatic insulin response in order to moderate blood sugar levels, while high sugar intake may also increase adrenal cortisone and cholesterol levels fourfold. Constant high intake of simple dietary sugar over-stimulates or "burns out" normal, healthy pancreas and adrenal function. Sub-normal or lackluster performance of these two important endocrine glands leads directly to adult-onset diabetes, cardiovascular complications, hypoglycemia, and chronic fatigue. The direct result of high sugar intake is a significant increase in blood serum saturated fatty acids, which depresses the oxygen transport system dramatically during athletic performance. Red blood cells stick together and move slower, delaying delivery of much needed oxygen to muscle cells. Cellular hypoxia is the constant companion of numerous degenerative diseases previously mentioned.

Because refined dietary sugars lack vitamins and minerals, they must draw upon the body tissue micronutrient stores in order to be metabolized into the system. When these storehouses are depleted, metabolization of fatty acid and cholesterol are impeded, contributing to higher blood serum triglycerides, cholesterol, promoting obesity due to higher fatty acid storage around organs and in subcutaneous tissue folds. Increased obesity contributes to increased cholesterol levels by lowering resting metabolism. A lower resting metabolic rate has been implicated directly to feelings of fatigue or lack of energy, increased rate of aging, arthritis, and coronary heart disease. Athletes need a high metabolic rate for a minimal body fat percentage and explosive energy expenditure upon demand.

Little Sugar Can Cause All Of That?

Dietary sugars feed harmful intestinal yeasts, fungi, toxic organisms, and all forms of cellular cancer. Sugar and Vitamin C utilize the same transport system, but not at the same time! If Vitamin C is disabled from reaching tissue folds where it is needed to control or eradicate the virus, fungi, or cancerous organisms that feast on sugar, they will multiply exponentially. It is very important that the first four steps during the hydrolysis process of Vitamin C are allowed transportation in maximum dose for tissue antioxidation and restoration of cells damaged by intense workouts or accumulated daily stress.

Dietary sugars have been observed to cross-link proteins, which leads to increased skin fold wrinkles and general aging of our largest vital organ, the skin. Because sugar is devoid of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and has such a deteriorating effect on the endocrine system, major researchers and major health organizations (American Dietetic Association and American Diabetic Association) agree that sugar consumption in America is one of the three major causes of degenerative disease.

In the last 20 years, we have increased sugar consumption in the USA 26 pounds to 135 lbs. of sugar per person per year! Prior to the turn of this century (1887-1890), the average consumption was only 5 lbs. per person per year! Cardiovascular disease and cancer was virtually unknown in the early 1900's. When one compares the rates of degenerative diseases to the rates of total fat consumption, sugar consumption and altered fat consumption during the past 100 years, altered fat is #1, sugar is #2, and total fat is #3.

Where It Comes From And How Dangerous It Is There are 5 classes of simple sugars which are regarded by most nutritionists as "Harmful" to ideal health and optimal athletic performance when prolonged consumption in amounts above 15% of the carbohydrate calories are ingested. Sucrose, fructose, honey, and malts are the classes reviewed in order of the real and present dangers they impose on our health and therefore physical performance.

Sucrose Class: Public Enemy #1!

Sucrose is found in almost all processed foods such as plain table sugar, dextrose, raw natural sugar, blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, or sorghum molasses. Taken from sugar beets or sugar cane, this disaccharide is composed of glucose and fructose. Because it contains NO vitamins or minerals it must rob them from the body in which it is assimilated, (like a parasite leaching the "life" from its victim).

Dextrose, D-glucose monohydrate, is a monosaccharide known as glucose, and comes from the hydrolysis of cornstarch, and is found as a prime ingredient in many processed foods. Dextrose is mentioned in the Sucrose Class because it acts very much like the vitamin-mineral parasite, sucrose; in order to be assimilated after digestion, it must rob the body of its valuable micronutrient stores. Raw or Natural Sugar is a white sugar that is also mostly sucrose. While it costs more than sucrose, raw/natural sugar is 96% less-processed sucrose, as compared to the purified/bleached table sugar's 99% sucrose content. The empty calories from this so-called natural product perform exactly the same as sucrose.

Blackstrap Molasses is made from the "liquid leftovers" of processed table sugar (sucrose). It does contain small amounts of iron, calcium and B vitamins, but this token "good" is offset with 65% sucrose content.

An extraction process performed on sorghum stalks makes sorghum Molasses. Unless this molasses produce is enzyme treated and heated, it will ferment very rapidly. However, this process "kills" the small amount of vitamins and minerals which pass through the initial extraction process, allowing only a small amount of dietary iron and pesticide spray to as a companions to its "sweet" 65% sucrose solution. Maple Sugar or Syrup also contains 65% sucrose content. Several processing techniques cause lead contaminates: such as boiling the maple sap in lead buckets, which allows lead to leach into the syrup or sugar-finished product for market.

Formaldehyde pellets placed in the sap holes in maple trees to keep the sap flowing often leach into the sap and the final product. Other "nasties" found in maple syrup/sugar products are chemical anti-foaming agents, polishing chemicals, and animal fats. Add cooking the sap over oil fires in lead buckets and your final product becomes a delectable sweet-tasting yummy laced with poisons!

Fructose Class: A Not-So-Distant #2...

Fructose is "natural" only when found in fresh fruits that contain all the enzymes, vitamins, and minerals to effectively assimilate it as a rich nutrient for human consumption. About 20 times sweeter than table sugar, processed fructose is used as an additive to sweeten all sorts of packaged foods. Without enzymes, vitamins, and minerals, it, like the sucrose class, robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use. As a sweetener additive, enzymes are added to corn syrup starch, which produces "High Fructose Corn Syrup"(always check ingredient lists on all labels).

Fructose does not raise blood sugars significantly, but does raise blood serum triglycerides significantly! As a left-handed sugar, fructose digestion is very low. For complete internal conversion of fructose into glucose and acetates, it must rob ATP energy stores from the liver. Processed, metabolized, and converted to small glycogen stores (by the liver for itself and the muscles) digestion is hindered, blood serum triglycerides are raised, body stores of vitamins, enzymes, minerals, and liver stores of ATP are scavenged from the body so that the "eater" my enjoy a moment of sweet taste.

Honey Class: A Surprise #3

Even "Natural Honey" May Only Befriend The Bees! It is no wonder that the honey bear is the only animal found in nature with a problem with tooth decay (Honey decays teeth faster than table sugar)! Honey has the highest calorie content of all sugars with 65 calories per tablespoon, compared to the 48 calories found in table sugar! The increased calories are bound to manifest increased blood serum fatty acids, and weight gain, on top of the likelihood of more cavities.

Pesticides (carcinogens) used on farm crops and residential flowers have been found in commercial honey. Honey can be fatal to an infant whose immature digestive tracts are unable to deal effectively with Botulinum Spore growth. What enzymes or nutrients raw honey contains are destroyed by manufacturers who heat it in order to give it a clear appearance for enhancing $ale$. Some beekeepers feed their bees sugar water for enhanced production and flavor, while others add sugar syrup to the product for the same ridiculous reason.

The Three "Tols": Xyli, Sorbi, & Manni, #4.

Xylitol is extracted from birch cellulose and is considered to be a carbohydrate alcohol. While it has the same amount of calories as sucrose, it metabolizes in a dissimilar manner and may be used safely for diabetics and hypoglycemics. Bacterial salivary organisms do not feed, grow or ferment on xylitol as they do on other simple aforementioned sugars. "Sugar-Free" chewing gum contains xylitol because it does not produce the bacterial support for increase of cavity causing acids. Studies show that prolonged use or large intake may produce the following side effects: weight gain similar to that associated with high/prolonged sucrose intake, diarrhea, tumor growth, and liver/kidney/brain dysfunction. Many manufacturers have withdrawn xylitol from their product formulation!

Sorbitol and Mannitol are industrial sweet alcohols made from hydrogen and commercial glucose, extracted from corn sugar. Slow absorption makes them attractive for use in "sugar-free" gums and candies. Both are known to nourish and increase the count of mouth bacteria, namely Streptococcus Mutans that tend to stick to the teeth. When other sugars are eaten, these bacteria proliferate, manifesting the perfect chemistry for increasing the rate of tooth decay beyond the normal rate. While research has not documented this conjecture, some believe that carcinogenic or mutagenic properties may be consistent with the behavior of this altered nutrient. Perhaps the stomach has already testified to this: gastric distress, diarrhea, or laxative effects, as each 1-2-3 will result with prolonged or high dietary intake.

Malt Syrup Class: Last And Least, #5.

Most Malt Syrups added for sweetening flavor do elevate blood sugar/triglycerides response. Many rice syrups, rice honey, and other malt sugars have significant amounts of glucose, maltose, and corn syrup ADDED to heighten their sweetness index. Unfortunately, such formulation creates a blood serum response similar to sucrose and "robs" vital enzymes, minerals, and vitamins from the body for digestive assimilation. Only 100% Barley Malt Syrup has a minimal effect on internal healthy physiology, but its expense may be prohibitive for most at just under $1.00 per ounce!

Simple sugars in reasonably lenient amounts are safe sugars IF they have enough fiber, enzymes, and vitamins/minerals to moderate their effect on absorption, blood chemistry, and viable assimilation into the energy cycle in order to support both health and dynamic muscular development.

Bill Misner, Ph.D. E-CAPS Inc. & Hammer Nutrition Ltd. 1-800-336-1977

VACCINE

The following articles are quoted from Dr. Mercola's "Health News You Can Use" August 15, 1999::

Vaccine Compensation Fund May Be Cut

The nation's top health officials are contemplating gutting a federal trust fund that compensates the families of children who are injured or killed by reactions to vaccines, a House committee was told August 10. Surgeon General David Satcher revealed that Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala may recommend to the White House that a large portion of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program's $1.4 billion trust be turned over to vaccine research. She also is contemplating reducing how much is paid into the fund by cutting the current 75 cent-per-dose assessments on vaccines - a premium used to build up the compensation fund - to 25 cents. Parents usually end up paying most of the surcharge.

Satcher's revelation came during a hearing before the House Government Reform Committee, whose chairman said mandatory anthrax vaccinations of U.S. military personnel should be halted. Vaccine safety advocates vehemently oppose the plan to cut the vaccine trust fund and shift some of its dollars to another use. They say the money eventually might end up back in the hands of the pharmaceutical companies they blame for reactive vaccines in the first place. Barbara Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, a private advocacy group for parents of vaccine-injured children, said in written testimony that the federal compensation system, which started out as “simple justice for children” has turned into “a cruel joke.” Fisher said the program has grown fat because it reimburses only one-quarter of the families that apply for damages. “There is more than $1 billion languishing in the trust fund because HHS and the Justice Department pay expert witnesses and lawyers to fight every vaccine injury claim,” she said.

The government has 17 full-time, veteran Justice Department lawyers on staff to fight claims and that only 1,300 families of the 5,300-plus petitioners have been awarded about $920 million so far.

COMMENT: Please reread the above sentence three times as it is a wonderful summary of this federal nightmare. I do not believe I have EVER been so angry about any news article as this one, once I started to reflect on its significance and history. I am so angry that I am having a difficult time putting my thoughts together on this one. My guess is that once you fully appreciate the significance of what I am about to describe, your blood may also be boiling. First of all, the government essentially forces everyone to get these ineffective and harmful vaccines by threats of not letting children into school without them. Few people understand that in 48 of the 50 states a religious exemption is allowed and one can enter school if the appropriate forms are completed. (These forms are in the article section on my web site at www.mercola.com). Secondly, the government forces parents to pay a tax on these vaccines, which is supposed to provide a trust fund to pay for injuries to the vaccine. The doctors pay the tax initially when they purchase the vaccines, but this is passed right down to the parents of the child. PLEASE recognize that once this program was instituted the drug companies that make the vaccines are not liable for ANY DAMAGES that result from their vaccines. Then to add insult to injury, OVER 80% of the injured children who apply for vaccine compensation are turned down. The government employs 17 FULL TIME lawyers to defend these cases. I imagine out of the 5300 cases that have applied there MIGHT be a handful of people who would not qualify, but my guess is that nearly each and every one of them deserves compensation for their injuries. My guess is that there really should be much closer to 530,000 children who should apply to this program for appropriate compensation. NOW, the government wants to deny the 18% of children who make it through the Justice Department attorneys and win their case and fund the trust fund money back straight to the vaccine manufacturers. We really need to seriously consider renaming that division of our government to the Department of Injustice. I would encourage you to pass this information on to those who may not be aware of this desperately unjust state of affairs.

ABC World News Tonight Reporter Questions Vaccines

By Nicholas Regush ABCNEWS.com

Beware old files.

They may hold the ingredients for gastrointestinal upset. The file that I just had to stick my nose in was slugged, “Vaccine advocates with ties to vaccine makers.” I like to keep tabs on what might be considered conflicts of interest in medicine. At the least, it diminishes the chance that I’ll embarrass myself by putting someone on a national TV network news show who is involved in public health policy but whose voice, eyes, ears and perhaps other anatomical components are leased, if not wholly owned, by industry.

Flipping through the contents of the file, I noticed a letter that had been sent to ABCNEWS from a well-known vaccine advocate. It partly had to do with a story I had produced for World News Tonight. The story was a rather soft warning, based on preliminary scientific information, that certain vaccines given in infancy could potentially cause long-term harm, primarily because the body’s immune function could be altered in some way.

As far as news stories go, it was fairly low-key and in no way condemned vaccines, but rather suggested that more research on long- term effects was imperative. In fact, the story made clear that vaccines have contributed enormously to warding off many diseases, a view I continue to hold strongly today.

Inexpert Analysis?

What caused a burning sensation in my gut in reviewing the letter was the writer’s criticism of Barbara Loe Fisher, who, as co-founder and president of the nonprofit National Vaccine Information Center, has spoken out on vaccine issues affecting health-care professionals and tens of thousands of families affected by vaccine-related side effects. The letter-writer suggested that since she wasn’t an “immunization authority,” Fisher shouldn’t have appeared in the World News Tonight story.

In any case, we had checked out Fisher’s credentials, as we do with others. She had served on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, chaired the Subcommittee on Adverse Vaccine Events and written a highly touted book on vaccine safety issues, particularly those surrounding the whole cell pertussis or whooping cough vaccine. But what really caught our attention at World News Tonight, and what separated Fisher from the pool of academics, including the letter- writer, who advocates vaccine policy, is that she had a history of asking straightforward, pertinent questions about safety.

Questions such as:

Why are there no studies on the long-term effects of vaccination?

Why are there so few studies that have examined what happens in the body at a cellular/molecular level after vaccination?

Why are we vaccinating children in a vacuum of scientific knowledge?

Why are there no long-term studies to assess illness and deaths related to vaccination?

These are the kind of fundamental questions that anyone involved in vaccine policy should be addressing, but that is hardly the case. People like Fisher are badly needed on TV and radio news programs and in newspaper stories to raise these questions again and again — until the academics wake up and do some real research. These days, children can get as many as 21 vaccines before they start first grade. There are about 200 more vaccines in the pipeline. Scenarios for the future even include consuming vaccines in nose sprays, ointments and fruits and vegetables.

I call it vaccine mania. It has gone beyond what anyone can possibly defend on scientific grounds. Pumping more vaccines into the body without understanding such basics as how they’ll affect immune system function over time borders on the criminal.

It’s OK to Ask Questions, Right?

What it all boils down to is that the vaccine makers, their advocates and the government institutions that promote vaccines, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have long ago abdicated their responsibilities to the public. They aren’t even bothering to acknowledge the types of questions Fisher routinely raises. And when someone like Fisher goes on television for a few seconds to raise fundamental questions about vaccine safety, one of the good soldiers of the vaccine movement tries to turn off a little heat by stabbing her in the back. I had planned this week to list some people and institutions heavily tied to the vaccine industry but I first had to get this piece of foul history out of my gut. Tune in next week.

Congressional Vaccine Testimony

By Philip Incao, M.D.

Dear Representative Van Vyven:

Kristine M. Severyn has asked me for testimony regarding hepatitis B vaccination. Dr. Severyn is doing excellent work on behalf of the children of Ohio and of our nation and I am honored to add my voice to hers in a plea for reason and objectivity regarding vaccination policy in the U.S.

I am a physician in private general practice, having received my M.D. degree in 1966 from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

For 29 years, I have privately and independently pursued a study of vaccinations and vaccine policy. I have served as an expert witness in court trials concerning vaccinations and have submitted medical opinions in cases of vaccine-damaged children adjudicated under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. I was an invited speaker at the First International Public Conference on Vaccinations sponsored by the National Vaccine Information Center in Alexandria, Virginia in September 1997.

I am one of the two physician-signers of the cover letter to the 16-page special report "Hepatitis B Vaccine: The Untold Story" which the National Vaccine Information Center sent out recently to 55,000 U.S. pediatricians. The report was also sent to 8,000 state and federal legislators and to 1500 media outlets in the United States.

In October 1998, I was invited to speak at a special workshop on vaccinations in Manchester, New Hampshire where a citizens’ initiative to roll back the hepatitis B vaccine mandate is under way.

As a private physician with no ties to any academic or government institution, I am free to give voice to my conscience without the usual constraints that group affiliation confers. In what follows, I am motivated simply to express the truth as I see it, by a deep concern for the long-term health of our nation’s children.

The present growing distrust of vaccinations by concerned parents nationwide is a grassroots movement that will not go away because it springs from a very real source: from a frequency of acute and chronic adverse effects of vaccinations far greater than is being officially acknowledged. This grassroots movement is only bound to increase until its concerns are acknowledged and dealt with in a scientifically objective and forthright manner.

In 1979, the Centers for Disease Control stated: “Vaccinations are recommended and administered to millions of children and other individuals each year on the presumption (emphasis mine) that the benefits far outweigh the risks. The benefit side of the equation is straightforward: vaccinations can prevent serious disease. The risk side is not as straightforward since it includes factors that are known and others that may exist but have not yet been discovered. It is necessary, therefore, to maintain surveillance of potential risks of vaccination to continually reevaluate whether individual vaccinations are, on balance, good for people.”

The above clear statement of purpose to monitor vaccine safety has unfortunately been totally eclipsed by our nations’ enormous intellectual, bureaucratic and economic commitment to vaccination as the method to eradicate illness.

This commitment has made it virtually impossible to achieve an open, fair and unbiased risk-benefit evaluation of any vaccination in use today. With a conflict of interest of this magnitude, the pressures that exist to maintain the momentum of our national vaccine initiative and to avoid "alarming the public" overshadow by far those voices that might question the wisdom of such a one-sided and politicized health agenda.

In addition, severe constraints are placed on the media in the name of “responsible journalism” with the result that the American public very seldom hears both sides of the vaccination story, and comes to have an unquestioning faith in vaccinations as our greatest hope against future imagined disease plagues. In this fear-based scenario, the questioning voice of reason is drowned out amid the hysteria surrounding the emerging “killer infections” which are such a favorite media topic.

This propagation of fear by the media and by its sources in the public health industry has resulted in a growth of power of this industry far beyond the usual checks and balances of our democracy. One aspect of this power is the ability of many state health departments to legally mandate a new vaccination for all children completely bypassing any discussion or deliberation in that state’s legislature. In a democracy this cannot and must not be.

Practicing physicians and the general public rely on the monitoring capacity and the scientific objectivity of the C.D.C., the F.D.A. and the health departments of our 50 states to alert us to the very real risks of vaccinations in use today, and to provide us with as accurate an assessment of that risk, both acute and chronic, as is scientifically possible. In fact, the C.D.C. has retreated utterly from its 1979 statement quoted above emphasizing the importance of vaccine safety monitoring.

It is with extreme regret, but no exaggeration, to say that with regard to informing physicians and the public on vaccine safety, the responsible agencies have failed the American people.

In support of this assertion, I cite the following facts:

1. In 1994, a special committee of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences published a comprehensive review of vaccine safety that had been commissioned by federal law. Of five possible and plausible adverse effects of the hepatitis B vaccination that the committee investigated, they were unable to come to any conclusion for four of them because they found to their dismay that the relevant research had not been done!

Why aren’t the agencies responsible for vaccine safety commissioning such research? For the fifth adverse effect, anaphylactic shock, the committee concluded that the evidence positively established a causal relation to the hepatitis B vaccination.

2. In contrast to the lack of research on the adverse effects of hepatitis B vaccination found by the Institute of Medicine, the National Vaccine Information Center in its recent special report on hepatitis B vaccination sites 38 reports in the international medical literature, some dating back to 1987, that hepatitis B vaccination is causing chronic autoimmune and neurological disease in children and adults.

3. In July 1998, 15,000 French citizens filed a class action lawsuit against the French government accusing it of understating the risks of hepatitis B vaccine and of exaggerating its benefits for the average person. In October 1998 the French government declared a moratorium on hepatitis B vaccination in public schools while it evaluates more carefully the true risk-benefit profile of the vaccine.

4. Since July 1990, 17,497 cases of hospitalizations, injuries and deaths in America following hepatitis B vaccination have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) of the U.S. government. This figure includes 146 deaths in individuals after receiving only hepatitis B vaccine without any other vaccines, including 73 deaths in children under 14 years old.

In 1996, alone there were 872 serious adverse events in children under 14 years old reported to VAERS. 658 of those injuries were following hepatitis B vaccination in combination with other vaccinations and 214 of these injuries were after hepatitis B vaccination alone. In these children under 14 years old, there were 35 deaths after hepatitis B vaccination in combination and 13 deaths after hepatitis B vaccination alone, for a total of 48 deaths. Compare these statistics with the total number of hepatitis B cases nationwide reported that same year (1996) in children under 14, just 279, and the conclusion is obvious that the risks of hepatitis B vaccination far outweigh its benefits.

In those infants who died under one month of age, most of the deaths are classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). However, in the past this syndrome has never struck infants so young, and SIDS is officially defined as beginning only after one month of age.

With 6,000 children dying of SIDS every year, we have no idea how many of these deaths are actually caused by hepatitis B vaccination. Though federal law to permit a more accurate assessment of the risks of vaccination created the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system, and although the raw data it generates is analyzed, the individual reports of injury or death are rarely, if ever, investigated. If one factors in that fewer than 10% of physicians report adverse reactions to vaccines because we are taught to regard them as merely “temporally related”, as only a coincidence, it would be quite plausible to say that the risks of hepatitis B vaccination clearly outweigh its benefits for 99% of the children who receive it.

5. The best way to determine the risk-benefit profile of any vaccination is well known and in theory is quite simple: Take a group of vaccinated children and compare them with a matched group of unvaccinated children. If the groups are well-matched and large enough and the length of time the children are observed following vaccination long enough, then such a study is deemed the “gold standard” of vaccine research because its data is as accurate a reflection as medical research is capable of achieving of how vaccinations are actually affecting our nation’s children.

Incredible as it sounds, such a common-sense controlled study comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated children has never been done in America for any vaccination.

This means that mass vaccination is essentially a large-scale experiment on our nation’s children.

6. A critical point, which is never mentioned by those advocating mandatory vaccination of children, is that children’s health has declined significantly since 1960 when vaccines began to be widely used. According to the National Health Interview Survey conducted annually by the National Center for Health Statistics since 1957, a shocking 31% of U.S. children today have a chronic health problem, 18% of children require special health care or related services and 6.7% of children have a significant disability due to a chronic physical or mental condition. Respiratory allergies, asthma and learning disabilities are the most common of these.

Three controlled studies comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated children in England and New Zealand have shown that the vaccinated children have significantly more asthma, ear infections, hospitalizations and inflammatory bowel disease than their unvaccinated cohorts.

Since vaccinations have a lasting effect on the immune system, and since it is known that many vaccines shift the balance of the immune system away from its acutely-reacting “Th1” side and toward its chronically-reacting “Th2” side, it is a very plausible scenario that vaccines are contributing greatly to the large-scale and unprecedented increase in chronic conditions such as allergies, asthma, diabetes and a wide range of neurological dysfunctions including learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, seizures and autism in U.S. children today.

The shocking facts that 31% of U.S. children today suffer from a chronic condition and that the rate of disability from such chronic conditions in children has seen nearly a fourfold increase since 1960 ought to seriously challenge our medical research establishment.

But, far from taking a proactive approach toward these disturbing facts, our medical establishment remains curiously uninterested in children’s chronic diseases and instead continues to pursue its narrow focus of using vaccines to eradicate every possible acute childhood illness, even those like hepatitis B and chicken pox that pose no threat to 99% of children.

The idea that illnesses exist in an ecological balance like everything else in nature and that eradicating acute diseases could very likely upset the balance and cause chronic disease to increase is not seriously considered or pursued in medical science today. Whenever any evidence pointing in this direction is published, usually in the international medical literature, it is usually dismissed out of hand by American physicians or angrily repudiated with the implication that such research is “irresponsible” because it might cause the American public to lose trust in our vaccination program.

With such a total commitment of our medical community to a policy of universal vaccination, is it any wonder that new and potentially upsetting discoveries relating to the role of vaccinations in the alarming prevalence of chronic illness in our children are never seriously considered much less pursued? When the Institute of Medicine published its Federally mandated reports on vaccine safety in 1991 and 1994, their disturbing conclusion was that there is very little data on vaccine safety because the necessary research is simply not being done.

7. Eugene Robin, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Medicine from Stanford Medical School is one of the world’s leading experts on risk/benefit analysis in medicine. He authored the definitive book on the subject, Matters of Life and Death: Risks vs. Benefits of Medical Care.

In a statement at the First International Public Conference on Vaccination in September, 1997, Dr. Robin said the following:

"…The scientists who develop vaccines should be given great credit and respect for their pioneering work. But it must be recognized that once a promising vaccine is available, that should be the beginning and not the end of the process.

Accurate assessment of the risk/benefit ratio of the vaccine by means of a … controlled clinical trial should be obligatory. An educational process involving the public should be mandatory in which the risks and uncertainties are described as well as the potential benefits.

So, what can we ‘teach’ the public if we ourselves, the medical scientific community, have not done the proper and required studies? A true process of informed choice would, for example, raise grave questions about the vaccination of young children for hepatitis B. We must be honest and admit that we do not know the impact of administering multiple, different vaccines on very young children or, indeed, on anyone."

8. My final comments are drawn from my 27 years of experience as a general practitioner of medicine. Twenty-three of those years were in a rural farming community in upstate New York where as many as 50% of my pediatric patients were unvaccinated due to their parents’ conscientious personal choice.

When I started my practice I believed, as I had been taught in medical school, that the benefits of vaccinations outweighed the risks. I also believed that the right of parental choice in vaccinations ought to be respected.

For 23 years, I had the opportunity to observe my young patients grow from infancy to young adulthood and to appraise their overall health and vitality. It was out of this experience that my present views took shape. I observed that my unvaccinated children were healthier, hardier and more robust than their vaccinated peers. Allergies, asthma and pallor and behavioral and attentional disturbances were clearly more common in my young patients who were vaccinated.

My unvaccinated patients, on the other hand, did not suffer from infectious diseases with any greater frequency or severity than their vaccinated peers: their immune systems generally handled these challenges very well. Conclusion: Like all science, medicine has radically changed many of its views over time. What seems wise and prudent today may be totally repudiated a decade or two later. Vaccinations are powerful medical tools, which impact human immune systems to achieve the desired effect of preventing certain infectious disease manifestations.

In the early 1900’s when diphtheria and whooping cough were life threatening, the uncritical acceptance and implementation of vaccination was understandable and perhaps unavoidable. Today, when far more children suffer from allergies and other chronic immune system disorders than from life-threatening infectious diseases, it is neither reasonable nor prudent to persist in presuming that the benefit of any vaccination outweighs its risk.

When the medical scientific community makes a total and one-sided commitment to any public policy, no matter how noble its intentions, then vigorous debate and fact-finding tend to be neglected.

The facts on hepatitis B brought out by Dr. Severyn and by the special 16-page report of the National Vaccine Information Center deserve our very careful consideration. They indicate that the risk of hepatitis B vaccination outweighs its benefit for the vast majority of American children today.

When these facts are ignored, and when vital medical research on the safety and adverse effects of hepatitis B vaccine is left undone, then the truth suffers, our children suffer and we all suffer.

Vaccine Induced Autism

Rick Rollens is a parent advocate who presented this testimony last week in Washington D.C. to a packed hearing room. The immediate reaction in the room at the end of his speech was stunned silence, reports Rick.

Mr. Chairman and Members:

My name is Rick Rollens. I currently reside in Granite Bay, California which is located 30 miles east of Sacramento with my wife of 23 years, Janna, and my two sons, Matthew, 13 and Russell, 8. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. For me, this is somewhat of a homecoming. In 1973, I had the privilege of serving on the Washington staff of former Representative Jerome Waldie of California. Following my service in the House, I embarked upon a 23-year career of public service with the California State Senate. Working through the ranks, I was elected by the Members of the Senate to serve as the Secretary of the Senate until I chose to resign my position in 1996, in order to dedicate myself to the pursuit of effective treatments and a cure for my son, Russell.

I am here today to share with you the story of my son's case of vaccine induced autism, and to report on the growing autism epidemic in California, and the pandemic of autism sweeping across this country. Russell began his life as a normal, healthy, and robust child, meeting all his age appropriate milestones. At seven months old, within 72 hours after receiving his third DPT and his first HIB vaccinations, Russell developed a high fever and shrieked with a high wailing scream for days. After these vaccinations, he started losing eye contact, smiling less, losing interest in people, developed constant croup and was chronically sick. At seven months old, Russell's life had begun to change along with the lives of all who know and love him. Within days after his first MMR vaccination at 18 months old, Russell began his final journey into the abyss of what my wife and I now know as autism -- losing most of his remaining skills, developing severe sleep irregularities, chronic gastrointestinal problems, and expressing constant pain exhibited by harrowing days of endless crying.

Russell was officially diagnosed at two and a half years old with autism. After many months of medical investigation of Russell's condition, including state-of-the-art brain scans, immunological, neurological and genetic work-ups, we consulted a noted pediatric neurologist who thoroughly examined Russell and reviewed all of Russell's medical history. He advised us that, in part, Russell's brain dysfunction had very likely occurred as a result of some form of encephalitis, resulting in bilateral damage to the temporal lobes of his brain. Based on the facts that we have absolutely no family history of autism or any other type of brain disorders in our family, that he was born a normal, healthy child. That there exists the strong temporal relationship between the timing of the DPT vaccination he received at seven months and the onset of his autistic condition, his classic DPT vaccine reactions, coupled with the 18 month old hit from the MMR and the subsequent deterioration of his condition, as well as the scientific evidence that one of the many serious adverse effects of DPT vaccine is encephalitis and brain damage, I believe that Russell is a victim of vaccine-induced autism.

My story is far from unique. Mr. Chairman and members, next week when you return home to your districts, talk to your constituents, many of whom are among the growing number of parents who have children with autism. I can assure you that you will hear first-hand accounts from those parents about their normally developing children, about the introduction and reaction to a vaccine or multiple complications that accompany the acquired autistic condition. The first rule of medicine is to listen to the patient. A child born today in California will have received his first vaccination between six to eight hours old. By the time that child is 6 months old he will have received 15 doses of vaccines and by the age of five years old, 33 doses of vaccines.

Vaccine contains numerous active agents such as live viruses, killed bacteria and toxic chemicals including aluminum, mercury and formaldehyde. Where are the safety studies on the short or long term effects of the interaction of these numerous multiple vaccines and their agents on the developing brain and immune systems of our children? Where is the science? Many safety studies of individual vaccines only include a few days follow-up period for reactions, but the CDC tells parents and the news media that the onset of autism after vaccination could only be an "unrelated chance occurrence." Show me - CDC - the science. Show me the studies Dr. Satchir.

Is it appropriate to continue to entrust the CDC and the indemnified vaccine manufacturers with the responsibility of guaranteeing parents of this country that these vaccines do not cause autism or other brain disorders when these same groups are the most aggressive promoters of vaccine use? The situation can easily be likened to charging the tobacco industry to undertake independent scientific studies to find out if there is any relationship between lung cancer and smoking. This science on the safety of vaccines and their relationship to the development of autism is not there. Not there because the pleas of parents have been ignored. I suffered the ultimate betrayal of trust by blindly allowing my child to be injected with a multitude of vaccines . . .trusting my government had made sure that my child would not become autistic after his vaccinations.

Responding to the outcry of parents, professionals, and educators over the concern of the rapidly increasing number of children with autism and autism spectrum disorders, the California Legislature and two Governors of different political parties responded within the past 12 months by requiring a study on whether autism was increasing in the State and, after finding that there was a huge, unexpected increase, appropriated several million dollars for independent research as well as an independent follow-up study into the real factors causing the increase. Under the leadership of former State Senator, now U.S. Representative Mike Thompson, last year the Legislature required the Department of Development Services to report on the increase of autism in California from 1987-1998. The report was released earlier this year and documents a very conservative 237% increase in the number of new children with autism entering the developmental services system; 1685 new children last year alone when incidence projection would have predicted 105 - 263 new children.

The report led the Los Angeles Times to declare that the state has an epidemic of autistic children. We all know there is no such thing as a genetic disease epidemic, so clearly other factors are involved. According to the Department, from January 6 to July 7 of this year, 1,027 new children were added to the system; which means that California alone added on average six new autistic children a day, seven days a week . . .or one new child every four hours! Besides the immeasurable human cost on child and family, the thousands of autistic children already in our system along with these 1,027 new children are, according to the Department, going to cost the taxpayers of California and the country a minimum of $2 million each for their lifetime of care. Surely any intelligent, thoughtful person cannot with a straight face suggest that the huge increase in one of the most easily recognizable of all childhood disorders is all due to genetics, better recognition, or to minor changes in the diagnostic criteria that occurred 10 years after the massive increase in autism had already begun over two decades ago.

Earlier this year, the national and local news media extensively covered the story of the observations by parents in Brick Township, New Jersey that there were a lot of kids with autism in their community. In fact, the CDC publicly announced that they had discovered a cluster of autism in Brick was 1 in 150 children. 1 in 150 children with autism represents a prevalence rate 12 times higher than the published prevalence rate. My family and I reside in a community approximately three thousand miles from Brick Township, a community that is almost in every way as different from Brick as two communities in America can be. Where we live, our children are served by a single public elementary school district. The prevalence of autism in our elementary school district is 1 in 132 children. Mr. Chairman and Members, Brick Township, New Jersey and Granite Bay California are not "clusters" of autism, but snapshots of what is occurring everywhere.

Numerous parent organizations around the world, including the Autism Research Institute, the National Vaccine Information Center, Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT), Autoimmunity Research Project, Cure Autism Now, and Allergy Induced Autism are all constantly hearing from scores of parents reporting vaccine-related autism. You will find these children throughout the neighborhoods of your own districts. Vaccine policy has always been a cost-benefit proposition. I am here to tell you today that the once numerically rare sacrificial lambs that society has been willing to tolerate for the good of the whole could now, very likely before our eyes, be turning into herds of casualties of the most precious resource we have - our children and grandchildren. We must act quickly, by investing in good, independent research and science to pursue the truth about the link between vaccines and autism. If we don't discover all the causes, we will never find a cure. Thank you.

Rick Rollens RRollens@aol.com

More On Anthrax Vaccines

Anthrax disease inoculations have already given about 320,000 troops in fear of future biological warfare from enemies like Iraq, known to possess the bioweapon. Scores of pilots and Marines have already been court-martialed or mustered out for refusing to take the shots, which opponents say are highly reactive. The anthrax shots don't work against the inhaled version of the disease that enemies would likely spread by aerosol devices. - The shots don't work against at least four genetically engineered strains of anthrax developed by Russian scientists who are thought to have provided the new strains to several potential enemies of the United States. The Defense Department stockpiled vials of anthrax vaccine that are likely adulterated or unsafe because the military is still using vaccine produced before the Food and Drug Administration suspended production at the Lansing, Mich., plant in 1996 for safety violations. - Chronic illness reactions are much higher among the troops than the government admits. The adverse event rate is much higher than previously indicated and the Pentagon knows it. The Defense Department insists the anthrax shots are safe and effective.

COMMENT: The insanity continues. I really admire the courage of those in the military who have stood up to this and received a court-martial rather than take this dangerous and ineffective vaccine.

Autoimmune or Viral Disease? Consider Vaccine Contamination

Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, Asthma, Lupus, Lymes, Depression, Colitis and Diabetes. Chances are good that you, or some one in your family may be suffering from one of these diseases. The incidence of chronic and degenerative disorders has been steadily on the increase in this country over the last several decades. Our society has been somewhat complacent, accepting these conditions as the inevitable consequence of progress and the resulting pollution of our environment.

"Clinical Management" has taken priority in efforts to treat these diseases, with little or no importance placed on finding the cause. Instead, medical Specialists have segregated various groups of symptoms into a wide array of seemingly distinct clinical entities. Each becoming a separate disease and the exclusive territory of the specialist that treats it. There has been growing evidence, however, in the last number of years implicating chronic viral infections as a root cause for many neuropsychiatric and inflammatory diseases. This evidence however continues to be viewed an “unconvincing” by the Center for Disease Control.

Dr. John Martin, currently at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, detected a herpesvirus-related DNA sequence in several people suffering from Chronic Fatigue syndrome. Electron micrographs of these viruses suggested a type of herpesvirus, but the growth characteristics and reactivity pattern were not those of any known herpesvirus. He named this virus "stealth" virus, because of its apparent ability to occur in the absence of inflammation. By 1994, Martin advanced the idea of a spectrum of neurological illness potentially attributed to stealth virus. He had isolated the virus from patients suffering from, depression, dementia, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, and autism.

In 1994, a group of over forty patients in Trinity County California, previously diagnosed with a wide range of inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, were all found to test positive for Parvo, a virus known to be devastating to dogs, but considered benign in humans, making this one of the largest groups of patients with seemingly unrelated diseases to be identified as having a common underlying viral infection. This group led by a Sharre Tommisc, made pleas to the state and the CDC for further study of this virus and were met with disbelief, resistance and out-right criticism from the medical hierarchy. Frustrated and disgusted, Tommisc continued to study the virus on her own, finding what appeared to be a limitless number of patients that fit the criteria. Many, already diagnosed with any number of “autoimmune” or “inflammatory” diseases were receiving chemotherapy and steroids as treatment. Tommisc too, began to suspect that the growing number of “autoimmune” diseases could in fact be attributed to an underlying viral infection. That many new forms of viruses often go unrecognized, because of this country's history of rejecting the notion that animals and humans may share the same virus via parasites or soil.

Martin points the finger at contaminated vaccine lots found in early years of the Polio vaccination programs and suggest that animal viruses may have been inadvertently introduced into humans. “If a vaccine program were to be initiated today,” says Dr. Martin “One surely would not import wild monkeys from Africa, create short term primary kidney cultures, add a human virus and administer the crude batch derived from virally infected cells to virtually every child in the country.” Monkey kidney cells are used for Polio and Adeno vaccines, while dog and duck kidney cells have been used for rubella vaccines and chicken cells used for measles and mumps vaccines. Martin and Tommisc both suspect these animals viruses, possibly now co-mingled with human herpes-virus, to be the cause of many of the diseases they are seeing today.

There is growing sense of frustration with the federal public health system and its limited response to increasing evidence of unrecognized viral infections, and with what appears to be a resistance on the part of those in authority, to face the issue of prior, if not present, vaccine contamination and the possibility that animal viruses have been introduced into human beings. This paper was written to assist the patient suffering from chronic neurological, degenerative or inflammatory disease. It is our hope that you will be tested for an underlying causative agent, and in doing so will be able to avoid inappropriate treatment that may result in further complications of the disease. The broad range of symptoms are limited only by the complexities of the body.

What your doctor will tell you: Your doctor may tell you what you have may have started with a virus but now it has become something else. That the virus set off an autoimmune response evidenced by autoantibodies that are now attacking your body. They may tell you that you are suffering from the aftermath of a viral infection that will eventually go away. They may tell you that you have a genetic predisposition or weakness, or you have allergies to your environment. They may tell you the only way to control this “new” disease is with chemotherapy and prednisone.

What the people in Trinity County Found: In 1994-95, over one hundred adults and juveniles in a small town in Trinity County, California were identified as testing positive for Parvo virus. Most of the people in the group had been previously diagnosed with the following diseases; Lupus, Lymes, Wegener's granulomatosis, encephalitis, Bell's palsy, Chronic fatigue, arthritis, fibromyalgia, thyroiditis, vasculitis, heart disease, pneumonia, carpel tunnel, asthma, depression, hepatitis, colitis, Crohn's, menopause, pneumonia, migraines, gall stones, and more.

What you may be experiencing and why: Most symptoms find their origin in the epithelium. The broad range of symptoms is only limited by the complex capabilities of these cells. This means if the fastest growing cells in your body are affected, whether by damage or inflammation, the resulting array of symptoms remains the same. These fast growing cells are the very life of your body. They line your arteries, your stomach, and your joints. They create the barriers that keep pressures and balances in your body and help protect from outside infection. >From your skin to your heart valves, the production and health of these cells is vastly important to the condition of your body.

The following is a list of symptoms experienced by the Trinity group. Some attempt has been made to give a small amount of order to the vast number of possible symptoms. The following are the most common, suffered by the largest number of people.

Initial symptoms can include: a flat rash on the legs and or arms that comes and goes with exposure to heat, followed by a moderate to severe bronchial infection. Within a week, you may begin to experience joint pains. Some people experience chronic moderate pains that can last for many months. For some, the pain so acute, getting out of bed seems an impossible task. The most difficult movements are sitting down or standing up. The pain in the hips and knees can be so excruciating that help is required. The pain is described as sharp stabbing pain attacking your joints. Your feet may feel bruised and it can be very painful to walk on them. Even the small joints of the fingers can be affected. Shoulders, particularly the left shoulder, can also be very painful. Severe headaches that may have your doctor treating you for migraines, Encephalitis, or even ruptured discs in the neck, have been experienced. People have reported that it is sometime difficult to focus or read. Many experience sleep problems. Memory loss, difficulty putting thoughts together, or executing simple problem solving, are common complaints. Few people can clearly remember the acute period of the disease. They appear to be stupid and listless. They may begin having anxiety attacks, and/or depression can be severe. Coupled with the overwhelming level of fatigue and pain, a person can be reduced to not caring whether they live or die.

Other issues include digestive problems, bloating and tenderness of the abdomen, making it difficult, if not impossible, to button pants or skirts. Vomiting, nausea, and chronic diarrhea have been reported and a person may appear to have many new food allergies. Numbness has been reported in the eyelids, cheeks, lips, fingers, thighs, and lower arms, along with shaking, weakness and faintness. Swelling, or water retention is most commonly seen in the ankles, feet, fingers, eyelids, and lips. Many can no longer fit into their shoes and anklebones disappear. It can be difficult to clench your fist in the morning from the swelling of the fingers. Extreme changes in blood pressure have been experienced, also several case of increased cerebral pressure. As the truly acute phase of the disease begins to pass, petechiae (small blood spots) may appear around the joints most severely affected. They have also been found around the cuticles and on the soles of the feet. Anemia may begin at this time and may be anywhere from mild to severe and may last indefinitely. Bleeding into the lungs, bladder, intestine, and stomach has been reported along with spontaneous bruising, change in menstrual cycle, or onset of menopause. Significant weight gain or loss, at the onset of the infection may result from inflammation of the thyroid.

Thinning of the hair, changes in skin texture, heart murmur and palpitations. Pneumonia. Asthma, fibroid lesions, lung infiltrates and chronic bronchitis. Symptoms may shift from one group to another over a period of time, with each new group the risk of misdiagnosis increases. Chronic infections can last from months to years. If animal viruses have been inadvertently introduced in humans, the sooner we find out, the better

Vaccine Safety Study Request
A House committee chairman says too many American children are experiencing reactions to vaccines for the problem to be ignored by the government. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the House committee on government reform, said at a hearing Tuesday that his grandchildren are among those who have suffered. He said there were reports last year of more than 11,000 cases of children getting sick after inoculations. Many of their ailments were minor, yet some required hospitalization, he said. Burton said most American children are required to get 22 shots by the time they start school and "some have described the current mandating of an increasing number of vaccines to children to be a good intention gone too far." Burton said his granddaughter had to be hospitalized within hours of receiving a Hepatitis B vaccine, and his grandson became autistic after getting the shots. "You can call that a coincidence, but I think it is more," said Burton.

Mississippi and West Virginia are the only two states where children are absolutely required to get vaccinations before school. The other 48 states, allow exemptions for religious or philosophical reasons. However, less than 1 percent takes the religious exemption.

ABC NEWS Commentary On Vaccine Debate
Written by Nicholas Regush

The vaccine debate continues its breakthrough into the mainstream media. I hope the latest congressional hearing on childhood vaccines doesn't turn out to be yet another flash-in-the-pan noisemaker that fizzles into a lame, embarrassing (and to some communities, X-rated) genuflection to the status quo. These lawmaker health issue "hearings" typically end up pimping to the interests of high-flyer doctors and scientists and the pharmaceutical industry that adores and nurses them.

I'm sure the goal - exploring the vaccine safety issue - was well intentioned. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, became concerned after two of his grandchildren developed side effects and a child known to his family died following vaccination. Skeptical that the three events could simply be coincidence, Burton wondered how often this actually occurs.

Dig Deep, Dan. So along comes U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher to inform the committee about the benefits of mass childhood vaccination, in particular that vaccines have protected us from once rampaging diseases such as polio, measles, tetanus and meningitis. Sure, serious side effects can occur, Satcher said, but they're rare, and the benefits far outweigh any risks. In fact, vaccines are thought by the many to be safest, most effective medicines we have. Well, maybe so. I'm sure it would feel terrific to be as hopeful as Satcher about the risk-benefit ratio. But I trust Burton is not moved by knee-jerk propaganda any more than I am and is interested in real science. The problem, if he checks, is he'll probably end up asking, "What science?"

And that's when he should get some serious hearings in gear. I know, it's tough to brush up against motherhood and apple pie, but if he's truly interested in digging into vaccine safety, then I suggest he buy himself a very big, strong shovel. If Burton really wants to know how many vaccine side effects occur in this country, he will be hard-pressed to arrive at a satisfying answer. Studies to monitor reactions to new vaccines are very short-term, sometimes lasting only weeks after vaccination. And then it's up to doctors to report reactions to the FDA, which they do, of course, but this is voluntary and assumes physicians can actually make the connection between an illness and a vaccine.

Each year, the FDA handles about 12,000 vaccine-related reports, but readily admits that this represents only a fraction of actual side effects. Burton would also be strapped to find much research exploring how multiple vaccinations might affect the body's immune system, possibly leading to a variety of diseases, including diabetes and asthma. Where are the long-term clinical trials and laboratory research to probe this potentially hellish connection?

I presume Burton is aware that often when researchers suggest a link between vaccines and disease, they are attacked as less than scientific and portrayed as mavericks that are only frightening the public. Take the situation of Bart Classen, a Maryland physician who published data showing that diabetes rates rose significantly in New Zealand following a massive hepatitis B vaccine campaign in young children, and that diabetes rates also went up sharply in Finland after three new childhood vaccines were introduced. Classen took a poke from a vaccine advocacy group who put the word out to some of us at ABCNEWS that he was a lone wolf who had misinterpreted the data. Classen would be the first to recommend more research. But why bother promoting further research or debating the science when it's easier to protect your interests by smearing someone?

And then there were the British doctors who published data on 12 children showing a possible link between a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and two illnesses, a new bowel disease and autism. They took nasty hits from both sides of the Atlantic from vaccine researchers who claimed they were needlessly frightening the public with information that was only preliminary. This happened despite the fact that the British researchers made it clear that they had not proven an association between the diseases and the vaccine, but that they felt it was important to raise a red flag and generate more research. I hope Burton also digs deeply enough with to find out how vaccine science and policy are orchestrated in this country - and by whom. It's not pretty.

Abcnews.Com To Congress On Vaccines: "Dig Deep, Dan" Thursday, August 05, 1999 "The Risk-Reward Ratio For Childhood Vaccines Seems Small, But Politics And A Dearth Of Long-Term Research May Keep Us From Getting Clear Answers About Side Effects." (A.Shepherd/ABCNEWS.Com)

Vaccine Scene 2000 --- Review and Update

Harold E. Buttram, MD

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths. Philosophy of Science: A Personal Report," in C. A. Mace (ed.), British Philosophy in the Mid-Century. Sir Karl Popper

In early August of last year congressional hearings were held in Washington D.C. on the question of vaccine safety. Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman of the U. S. House Government Reform Committee, called the hearings.

On the weekend of October 2-3, 1999, an autism conference was held at Cherry Hill, New Jersey, sponsored by the Autism Research Institute of San Diego, California. Over 1,000 people were in attendance, the great majority of whom were parents of autistic children. At one point in the meeting, when those parents who thought their child's autism was caused by vaccines were asked to stand, a large majority of the audience stood. With these and other indications of growing public concerns about current childhood immunization programs, it is hoped that this review will be of timely interest.

Inadequate Proof of Benefit of Vaccines

It is true that there may be situations where extreme measures may be justified, as the lesser of two evils, to preserve life and health. The basic question, therefore, is whether the benefits of current childhood vaccines outweigh the harm, or whether the reverse is true.

As to the benefits of vaccines, polio has been eliminated from the Western Hemisphere, and smallpox may have been eliminated worldwide, although there are disturbing reports it is still to be found in parts of the Far East. However, vaccine proponents would have us believe that vaccines have been largely responsible for controlling virtually all of the former epidemics of killer diseases in the U.S. With the exceptions cited above, the facts do not bear this out. According to the records of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, from 1911 to 1935 the four leading causes of childhood deaths from infectious diseases in the U.S. were diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), scarlet fever, and measles.

However, by 1945 the combined death rates from these causes had declined by 95 percent, before the implementation of mass immunization programs.(1) By far the greatest factors in this decline were sanitation through public health measures, improved nutrition, better housing with less crowded conditions and the introduction of antibiotics. Also, the virulence of microorganisms tends to become weakened or attenuated with the passage of time and serial passages through human hosts.(2)

Safety Not Proven

It should be pointed out that today's children receive 22 or more vaccines before school age, whereas today's senior citizens received only one vaccine in their youth, the smallpox vaccine. Some of these vaccines contain mercury. Although the impact of this potentially toxic metal remains unknown as concerns the vaccines.

With growing public concerns about potential adverse reactions of these heavy burdens of foreign immunologic materials on the immature immune systems of children, it is reasonable to ask ourselves what is known about these reactions.

A small but growing minority of physicians and scientists are becoming aware that safety testing for the various vaccines has been woefully inadequate. As one of many examples, a 1994 special committee of the National Academy of Sciences published a comprehensive review of the safety of the hepatitis B vaccine. When the committee, which carried the responsibility for determining the safety of vaccines by congressional mandate, investigated five possible and plausible adverse effects, they were unable to come to a conclusion for four of them because they found that relevant research had not been done.(3)

The clear implication of this and other revelations(4) concerning a general deficiency of safety testing in the vaccine field, especially as concerns possible long-term side effects, is that adverse reactions may be taking place on a large scale without being recognized as to their true nature.

There is a school of thought that the so-called minor childhood illnesses of former times, including measles, mumps, rubella [German measles] and chickenpox, which entered the body through the mucous membranes, served a necessary and positive purpose in challenging and strengthening the immune system of these membranes.(5) In contrast, so the theory goes, the respective vaccines of these diseases are injected by needle directly into the system of the child, thereby bypassing the mucosal immune system. As a result, mucosal immunity remains relatively weak and stunted in many children, complications of which may be the rapid increase in asthma and eczema now being seen, both in terms of frequency and severity.(6)

This concept tends to be confirmed by four controlled studies, widely separated geographically, in which vaccinated children were found to have significantly more atopic disorders than controls.(7-10) In commenting on the increased incidence of asthma and other atopic disorders in the United Kingdom in the article, "Measles and atopy in Guinea-Bissau," cited above, the authors made the following comment:

The rise of allergic disease among children in the UK over the past 30 years remains unexplained. One hypothesis is that infections in early childhood prevent allergic sensitization, and that successive generations of children have lost his protection as their exposure to infectious disease in early life has declined. Consequently the prevalence of atopy and concomitant allergic disease has risen.

Threat of Brain Damage From the Vaccines

Perhaps the greatest concern with vaccines today rests with their possible causal relation to the growing epidemic of childhood autism, developmental delay, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Regarding the latter, recent news item stated that ADHD has increased from 900,000 in 1991 to nearly 5 million today.(11) Parenthetically, statistics may be open to question, but one cannot question the observations of veteran elementary school teachers who, in our experience, unanimously and emphatically report a marked increase in this disorder in recent years. Regarding autism, a recent survey mandated by the California state legislature found an increase of 273 percent in California in the past eleven years.(12) Reports from education departments of several states and reports to the U.S. Congress on the rapidly increasing needs of classrooms for developmentally delayed children reflect comparable changes throughout the nation.(13)

At present primary suspicion for this epidemic of neurobehavioral disorders rests with the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine. Although scientific evidence has not yet reached the standards of scientific proof, one pioneer researcher in this area, Dr. Vijendra Singh, during his tenure with the Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan, published the report of a study in which he found that a large majority (84%) of autistic children tested had antibodies to brain tissue in the form of antibodies to myelin basic protein. He also found a strong correlation between myelin basic protein antibodies and antibodies to the MMR vaccine. Using an immunoblotting technique, MMR antibody was found in 16 out of 27 (59%) autistic sera in contrast to 2 out of 20 (10%) normal sera, which represents a 6-fold higher incidence of MMR antibody in autistic children.(14)*

Working from another approach, Dr. Andrew Wakefield and coworkers of the Royal Free Hospital in London found a possible link between MMR vaccine, Crohn's disease of the bowel, and autism.(16)

If the MMR vaccine is causing an autoimmune reaction involving the brains of autistic children, what would be the mechanism? It has already been pointed out that one of the differences between the vaccine and the respective wild virus infections is that of entry into the body (injections versus mucosal entry). There is another difference: whereas with the wild viruses there is serial passage through human hosts, in the case of the vaccine, the measles virus is incubated in animal culture tissue (chick embryo). Are these fundamental differences responsible for the rapidly increasing incidence of childhood autism and possibly other autoimmune disorders now being seen?

Although research in this area is in its infancy, we do know some things. As purely genetic material, viruses are highly susceptible to the process of "jumping genes," in which they may incorporate genetic material from tissue in which they are cultured.(17) The process may be further affected by the fact that protein sequences in the measles virus have been found to be similar to those found in brain tissues.(18) With the exception of the pioneering work of Dr. Singh, these are questions which remain unexplored and unanswered.

Stealth Virus

A similar process may have taken place with the oral (Sabin) polio vaccine, which is cultured in monkey kidney tissue. Years ago, Dr. John Martin, then serving as director of the viral oncology branch within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, found foreign DNA in contemporary polio vaccines. He later learned that a simian (monkey) cytomegalic virus had been found in all of the eleven African green monkeys imported for production of the polio vaccine.(19)

After leaving the FDA, Dr. Martin took a position as professor of pathology with the University of Southern California. There he tested blood samples from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, autism and other nervous system disorders. This work led to his discovery of unique cell-destroying viruses that were not recognized by the immune system. Termed "stealth viruses," some of which he thought had clearly originated from the simian cytomegalic virus, these viruses were missing specific genes, which, if expressed, would induce immune responses from the host.(20,21) It should be admitted that this work is preliminary, and no definitive conclusions can be drawn from it, but the need for further intensive investigation should be apparent.

Overdue in the opinion of many, on June 17, 1999, U.S. government officials voted to withdraw their recommendation for the use of the live oral polio vaccine and to recommend exclusive use of the inactive (Salk) polio vaccine, because the former has been the only remaining source of polio cases, though rare, in the U.S. since 1979.

In summary, it is possible that either the MMR or the oral polio vaccines, by mechanisms described above, may induce a process of encephalitis or brain inflammation, which may be highly prevalent but as yet rarely recognized for its true nature.

Genetic Implications of "Live Virus" Vaccines

In an October 1967 letter to the editor of Science magazine, Joshua Lederberg, Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, warned about live-virus vaccines: In point of fact, we (are practicing) biological engineering on a rather large scale by use of live viruses in mass immunization campaigns...Crude virus preparations, such as some in common use at the present time, are also vulnerable to frightful mishaps of contamination and misidentification.(22)

With this sobering warning, made over 3 decades ago, it may sadly prove to be prophetic for what we are seeing today.

Damage May Yet Escalate

As another concept, it is highly pertinent that many of today's children are second-generation vaccines; that is, they are born to mothers previously vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and/or rubella vaccines. It is possible the reaction rates in the second-generation vaccines may be happening on a much larger scale due to previous sensitization of mothers from their vaccines, this sensitization being transmitted in turn to the fetus during pregnancy.(23) If this process is taking place, something we cannot know until appropriate research is done, there predictably will be additional increases in autism beyond that already taking place, should the process be continued into yet another third generation.

Time may prove that vaccine programs went awry when they deviated from the most basic of all medical ethics, the right of parents to accept or reject vaccines for their children. Freedom of choice provides a system of checks and balances now lacking. At the very least, this would provide the parents the power to compel better safety screening of vaccines. The remedy? The government should stop violating the right of informed consent, or the parents' right to accept or reject vaccines for their children based on full and uncensored disclosure of pros and cons.

Today, we have a system in which vaccine production by the pharmaceutical companies is largely self-regulated. Naturally these companies are interested in profits from their products which, in itself, is not wrong. However, when arbitrary decisions in the mandating of vaccines are made by government bureaucracies, which frequently work hand-in-glove with the pharmaceutical industry, with no recourse open to parents, we have all the potential ingredients for a tragedy of historic proportions.

Conclusion

In closing, it may be appropriate to cite an item which, though seemingly small in itself, may be indicative of the problems with which we are faced. In January 1993, a scientific journal published the results of a study of 89 children with adverse clinical reactions, following administrations of various combinations of vaccines.(24) Detailed case histories were taken and blood tests were done to examine various parameters of cellular and humoral immunity. It was found that children with adverse reactions had marked increases in abnormal blood parameters as compared with children who had had no reactions.

The first study of its kind as far as we are aware, perhaps the most striking and significant feature of the report is not the results of the tests, which might have been anticipated, so much as the fact that it came from a foreign country, Czechoslovakia. American science has been foremost in the development and promotion of vaccines. That it should be laggard in basic safety testing, of which this study may represent one of the modest beginnings, is a sad reflection on the American scientific community. We expect and should demand more from American science and medicine.

Footnote *

This does not detract from the fact that these diseases, such as measles, may have complications resulting in brain injury. Measles can precipitate subacute sclerosing panencephalitis and encephalomyelitis. The latter illness may follow not only measles, but rubella, varicella, mumps, influenza, and other childhood diseases, just as smallpox and rabies vaccinations may be complicated by postvaccinal encephalomyelitis. In these cases, the vaccine itself could cause similar sequelae through molecular mimicking.(15)

References/Notes

1. Dublin L. Health Progress, 1936-1945. New York, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 1948, p. 12.

2. Biodati CJM. Immunization: History, Ethics Law and Health. Integral Aspects Inc., Windson, Ontario, 1999, pp. 104-106.

3. Stratton KR, Howe CJ, Johnston RB, Jr. (Eds). Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1994, pp. 211-236.

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