As the start of the federal government's most ambitious vaccination program approaches, it is worth taking a second look at the history of similar campaigns in the past. Since most of the media and government health officials constantly laud vaccine successes, this article will dwell more on the stories that are not as widely disseminated.
The results of many past mass inoculation efforts have been severely criticized, and are cited by some health experts as another reason for - at the very least - exercising extreme caution. In addition to outright catastrophes that are attributed to vaccines and government mandates, some medical experts say the benefits are dubious at best.
Health & Wellness
Imagine three items in your grocery cart: Peppercorn Ranch SunChips, Cocoa Krispies and Country Crock margarine.
The first is stamped with a red heart, indicating that it's a good source of whole grains. The second has a banner saying that the vitamin-enriched rice cereal will boost your immunity. The third bears a green label deeming it a "Smart Choice," a green seal of approval on the front of food packaging to indicate healthier fare.
If you are like the typical hurried consumer, chances are you don't spend much time considering how such messages end up there. Here's one way to look at it: The chips have no trans fat and contain 18 grams of whole grains; the cereal boasts one-quarter of one's recommended daily vitamin intake; the margarine has fewer calories and less cholesterol than butter.
Same preservative used in H1N1 Shots Puts Children at Risk for Brainstem Injury
A new study in the leading scientific journal NeuroToxicology lends further credence to parents and scientists concerned about an increasingly aggressive childhood vaccine schedule and toxic vaccine components. A team led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that infant macaque monkeys receiving a single Hepatitis B vaccine containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal underwent significant delays in developing critical reflexes controlled by the brainstem. The infant macaques that did not receive vaccines developed normally.
A new study in the leading scientific journal NeuroToxicology lends further credence to parents and scientists concerned about an increasingly aggressive childhood vaccine schedule and toxic vaccine components. A team led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that infant macaque monkeys receiving a single Hepatitis B vaccine containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal underwent significant delays in developing critical reflexes controlled by the brainstem. The infant macaques that did not receive vaccines developed normally.
Large numbers of senior citizens need to spend more time outdoors to boost their levels of vitamin D and lower their risk of chronic disease, researchers from Warwick University have warned.
"As we get older our skin is less efficient at forming vitamin D and our diet may also become less varied, with a lower natural vitamin D content," said lead researcher Oscar Franco. "When we are older we may need to spend more time outdoors to stimulate the same levels of vitamin D we had when we were younger."
In a study published in the journal Diabetes Care, the researchers measured vitamin D levels in 3,000 residents of China between the ages of 50 and 70. They found that a full 94 percent had insufficient blood levels of the vitamin.
"Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a condition that is causing a large burden of disease across the globe with particular deleterious impact among the elderly," Franco said.
"As we get older our skin is less efficient at forming vitamin D and our diet may also become less varied, with a lower natural vitamin D content," said lead researcher Oscar Franco. "When we are older we may need to spend more time outdoors to stimulate the same levels of vitamin D we had when we were younger."
In a study published in the journal Diabetes Care, the researchers measured vitamin D levels in 3,000 residents of China between the ages of 50 and 70. They found that a full 94 percent had insufficient blood levels of the vitamin.
"Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a condition that is causing a large burden of disease across the globe with particular deleterious impact among the elderly," Franco said.
Natalie Morton is dead. One week ago, she was an energetic and lively 14-year-old student who was just following doctor's orders. Like all her other classmates, she believed she was dutifully protecting her health by submitting to a cervical cancer vaccine jab. But a few minutes after receiving her vaccine shot, things began to go wrong.
As one of her classmates said in a report published in the Daily Mail:
As one of her classmates said in a report published in the Daily Mail:
"About an hour after having the jab Natalie went really pale and wasn't breathing. I think it was around lunchtime. She fainted in the corridor. I saw ambulance men pumping her chest then the teachers told us to go outside. A lot of people were crying afterwards and we were all very worried."Not surprisingly, some of Natalie's classmates are now concerned about the safety of the vaccine:
"We have to have three of the jabs in all and a lot of us don't want to take the rest, but they're telling us we have to because there will be side effects if we don't have them all."Did you catch that? Even after killing one of their classmates, medical doctors are still lying to these girls, telling them that if they don't continue with all three vaccines, they will have more side effects. This, of course, is an outright lie. But it's par for the course when it comes to vaccines.
Have you been influenced by modern allopathic medicine's obsession with lowering fever? Has this been a concern of yours? Ever since the turn of the 20th century, using drugs to lower fevers has been standard operating procedure for most allopathic medicine practitioners. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning was a common medical humor gag throughout the 1950's.
Aspirin type medications may be needed for pain reduction, but when it comes to reducing fever from influenza of any type, taking an over the counter drug to reduce fever is not the way to go. Suppressing fevers can increase rapid viral replication, resulting in a berserk effort by an overwhelmed immune system to fight back. This is known as a cytokine storm, which can have disastrous results.
Aspirin type medications may be needed for pain reduction, but when it comes to reducing fever from influenza of any type, taking an over the counter drug to reduce fever is not the way to go. Suppressing fevers can increase rapid viral replication, resulting in a berserk effort by an overwhelmed immune system to fight back. This is known as a cytokine storm, which can have disastrous results.
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Benzodiazepines may not be the answer for soldiers suffering stress from the horrors of war
Benzodiazepines may not be the answer for soldiers suffering stress from the horrors of war
The US Department of Veterans Affairs says it will consider this and other studies when preparing new guidelines on treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If their results are strong enough, it may recommend withholding sedatives in the aftermath of traumatic events. The findings are also throwing up new possibilities for preventing PTSD.
PTSD arises after a person has had a traumatic experience: symptoms include involuntary, often debilitating, flashbacks of the experience, which can keep happening for years. Not everyone develops it, though, and it seems that what happens directly after the event, as the brain lays down the memory, helps determine whether they do.
Benzodiazepines, a class of sedative that includes diazepam (Valium), are prescribed following a traumatic event because they reduce anxiety and aid sleep. However, some studies have suggested that they may hamper long-term recovery.
A study in the Oct.1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that elderly women sleep better than elderly men even though women consistently report that their sleep is shorter and poorer.
Women reported less and poorer sleep than men on all of the subjective measures, including a 13.2 minute shorter total sleep time (TST), 10.1 minute longer sleep onset latency (SOL), and a 4.2 percent lower sleep efficiency. When sleep was measured objectively, however, women slept 16 minutes longer than men, had a 1.2 percent higher sleep efficiency, and had less fragmented sleep. Multivariate regression analysis showed that these discrepancies were partly explained by determinants of sleep duration such as sleep medication use and alcohol consumption.
Principal investigator Henning Tiemeier, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, said he was surprised that women slept longer and better, and reported their sleep duration more accurately, than men.
Women reported less and poorer sleep than men on all of the subjective measures, including a 13.2 minute shorter total sleep time (TST), 10.1 minute longer sleep onset latency (SOL), and a 4.2 percent lower sleep efficiency. When sleep was measured objectively, however, women slept 16 minutes longer than men, had a 1.2 percent higher sleep efficiency, and had less fragmented sleep. Multivariate regression analysis showed that these discrepancies were partly explained by determinants of sleep duration such as sleep medication use and alcohol consumption.
Principal investigator Henning Tiemeier, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, said he was surprised that women slept longer and better, and reported their sleep duration more accurately, than men.
Fewer than half of men and women in Ontario who may be suffering from depression see a doctor to treat their potentially debilitating condition, according to a new women's health study by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). What's more, many hospitalized for severe depression fail to see a doctor for follow-up care within 30 days of being discharged, and many head to hospital emergency departments for care.
The findings suggest the need for a comprehensive care model involving a multidisciplinary team of health-care professionals, including family doctors and mental health specialists, to help women and men and better manage depression and improve their quality of life.
"As a leading cause of disease-related disability among women and men, depression puts a tremendous emotional and financial burden on people, their families and our health-care system," says Dr. Arlene Bierman, a physician at St. Michael's Hospital and principal investigator of the study Project for an Ontario Women's Health Evidence-Based Report (POWER). "Many Ontarians with depression are not treated for their condition and those who are often receive less than desired care. While there is a lot that is known about how to improve depression, we need to apply this to our work with patients if we want to improve the diagnosis and management of depression. "This involves better co-ordination among primary care and mental health-care professionals in both community and hospital settings," added Dr. Bierman, a researcher at ICES.
The findings suggest the need for a comprehensive care model involving a multidisciplinary team of health-care professionals, including family doctors and mental health specialists, to help women and men and better manage depression and improve their quality of life.
"As a leading cause of disease-related disability among women and men, depression puts a tremendous emotional and financial burden on people, their families and our health-care system," says Dr. Arlene Bierman, a physician at St. Michael's Hospital and principal investigator of the study Project for an Ontario Women's Health Evidence-Based Report (POWER). "Many Ontarians with depression are not treated for their condition and those who are often receive less than desired care. While there is a lot that is known about how to improve depression, we need to apply this to our work with patients if we want to improve the diagnosis and management of depression. "This involves better co-ordination among primary care and mental health-care professionals in both community and hospital settings," added Dr. Bierman, a researcher at ICES.
Many patients urgently admitted to hospital with cerebral infarction state that they were under great stress over a prolonged period prior to suffering their stroke, is shown in a unique patient study conducted in cooperation between the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden.
"There appears to be a correlation between stress and stroke, but this needs to be interpreted with great caution. We asked about self-perceived stress among the stroke patients, and there is, of course, a risk of patients who have just had a cerebral infarction remembering incorrectly or over-interpreting with regard to their level of stress, says Katarina Jood, who is a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy and a neurologist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
"There appears to be a correlation between stress and stroke, but this needs to be interpreted with great caution. We asked about self-perceived stress among the stroke patients, and there is, of course, a risk of patients who have just had a cerebral infarction remembering incorrectly or over-interpreting with regard to their level of stress, says Katarina Jood, who is a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy and a neurologist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
