Jun 30, 2009
Bad Chemistry
I do not believe that vaccinations cause autism. I do believe that autism, along with a host of other modern illnesses, including diabetes, asthma, auto-immune dysfunction, and cancer, can result from exposure to some mix of the 100,000 synthetic chemicals that have been released into the environment in the past 70 years.
Dr. Harvey Karp spells out the growing danger from just one group of chemicals, a “ubiquitous family of hormone twisting compounds, known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)“:
These substances are the focus of intense scrutiny because: 1) they’re found in every home in America 2) they’re increasingly linked to human disease 3) our exposure to them has risen in parallel with the surge in autism diagnoses and 4) they may theoretically affect the developing fetal brain.
In recent years, research has mounted against a virtual police lineup of EDCs, like BPA (in food cans, hard plastic water bottles), phthlates (in soft plastics, cosmetics) and fire retardants (in sofas, computers, flame-resistant clothing). Multiple animal and human studies have linked EDC exposure (during or after fetal development) with a host of hormone-related disorders, like low sperm count, cancer (breast, ovarian, prostate, testicular), congenital malformation of the genitals and even obesity.
In 1996, pediatricians and other concerned scientists convinced Congress to order the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test hundreds of chemicals for endocrine disrupting effects. The Clinton administration began the process of designing these tests, but the Bush administration defied the law. It ignored this mandate to protect the public health…and organized medicine watched impotently from the sidelines. Today, ten years and tens of millions of dollars later, not a single chemical has been evaluated for endocrine disrupting effects!Our exposure to EDCs is no mere theoretical concern. In 2000, a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study found detectable phthalates in 99.9% of adults including women of childbearing age. The CDC also discovered detectable levels of BPA in 93% of thousands of Americans tested (6 years of age and older).
The presence of EDCs in women of child-bearing age is especially worrisome. That is because there is evidence that even minuscule amounts of these chemicals — levels commonly present in a woman’s body — may disturb fetal brain development during highly sensitive periods of neural development known as windows of vulnerability.
Ironically, Dr Karp offers the above as part of his argument for the safety of vaccines, while it is really a powerful caution against the whole chemical/pharmaceutical industry. We are engaged in a decades-long chemistry experiment in which the natural environment and the human body serve as testing mediums. In the process, we are altering our blood and fluids, affecting brain chemistry, impacting fetal development, and causing a host of unintended consequences, most with negative implications for the environment, including the human organism.
The whole miracle of modern chemistry is that small amounts of specific compounds can have powerful, often positive, effects. Digitalis for heart problems, insulin for diabetics, aspirin for headaches, antibiotics for bacterial infections, anesthetics for surgical procedures, vaccinations for smallpox, polio, and other serious illnesses: the tiniest quantities of these and other chemical formulations have greatly reduced human suffering and added countless benefits to our daily lives.
Yet even as we’ve extolled the many virtues of the chemical/pharmaceutical industry, we’ve turned a blind eye to its dark side: every chemical compound with the potency to create positive effects can as easily cause negative effects. The only way to guard against this is to thoroughly test every synthetic chemical before it is released into the world and/or into human bodies.
In fact, the vast majority of industrial chemicals undergo no environmental testing, much less human trials. The Bush administration’s conniving to prevent any testing of EDCs is just the latest example in a long history of political and corporate avoidance of an examination of the dangers of synthetic chemicals in our environment.
Though pharmaceuticals do have to pass through some government testing and approval, they cannot possibly be tested for the wide range of psycho-emotional realities and bio-chemical interactions they will encounter from one body to the next. Still, we do test enough that most all pharmaceuticals now come with long lists of possible side effects and contraindications, including fatalities. (A 1996 study estimated that aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs caused 7600 deaths per year in the U.S.).
A recent FDA ruling against Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, illustrates the problem:
The panel’s 20-17 vote to recommend a ban on the combination drugs was one of 11 it took at a meeting called to advise the F.D.A. on problems arising from the extraordinary popularity of acetaminophen. In 2005, American consumers bought 28 billion doses of products containing the ingredient.
While the medicine is effective in treating headaches and reducing fevers, even recommended doses can cause liver damage in some people. And more than 400 people die and 42,000 are hospitalized every year in the United States from overdoses.
Americans have been consuming these very ordinary over-the-counter drugs for years. Now we learn that even recommended doses can cause liver damage serious enough that it is reported to medical professionals. And acetaminophen is just one of thousands of similar chemicals that our bodies must deal with on a daily basis.
Which brings us to vaccinations. We are told that all vaccinations are thoroughly tested and proven safe before injected into our children, some into our newborn babies. But do they test for babies who, via their mothers, already have synthetic chemicals in their systems, such as alcohol, nicotine, or any of dozens of other medications? Do they test for babies who had especially traumatic births? Do they test for babies who receive formula versus those who breast feed?
For older children receiving shots, have they tested for those on Ritalin, antibiotics, and other now-common kid drugs? Have they tested for those who are being physically or sexually abused at home? Have they tested for those sick with worry over their parent’s divorce or economic woes?
Of course, we cannot possibly test for all circumstances. So the ultimate test is to go ahead and mass-vaccinate a large population and then see what happens.
What has happened over the past seventy years is that, while we have virtually eliminated several serious illnesses, we have seen the emergence and growing danger of many others, especially cancer. The synthetic chemicals in our environment, including vaccinations, are the prime cause. The first step in really eliminating childhood illness is reducing the amount of synthetic chemicals in our children’s bodies.
Michael Sky | CommonHealth
I think you would find the writings of Dr. Russell Blaylock MD to be very illuminating. He is a former neurosurgeon and practicing physician who focused especially on nutrition and the brain. Now he spends his time doing research, lecturing, writing, and teaching about the wide ranging effects of nutrition on health, behavior and the brain. He is very knowledgeable about the science of vaccination and side effects, and especially the neurological damage that comes with it…often which it appears is diagnosed as ADD, ADHD, Asperger’s, autism and the like. That whole spectrum of disorders might turn out to fall under the category of vaccine and environmental poisoning. I’d suggest you read his books, including ‘Excitotoxins,’ and “Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients, and peruse the articles on his web site. He also has a free short book on brain health that you can request there.
Thanks for the tips, I’ll definitely check him out, and add his books to the store. Let me recommend back: “The Sanctity of Human Blood” by Tim O’Shea……..