Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Dear Alisyn Camerota: We ARE the Experts, and We are NOT Going Away.
You don't know me.
Hold that thought.
I don't know you. I don't watch Fox "News" or anything else on Fox, except an occasional episode of American Idol. It took me a few years to get to the point where I would watch AI, mainly because I don't have time to waste watching people be insulted and belittled. I did, however, get to the point where I was able to look beyond Simon Cowell's nastiness because I was getting something good from watching some very talented young people as they received recognition and were able to achieve their dreams. That's what's called a cost-benefit analysis. I put up with Simon because the rags-to-riches journey was worth my time. I have always been a singer and if American Idol had been on when I was younger I would have been right there, standing in line.
I have never made the leap to Fox News. I've watched a couple of "News" shows on Fox, and have never felt there was anything there that was worth the time or worth putting up with the theatrics. So... I don't know you. I do know that there are some people who's opinions I value, who have been defending and promoting you over the last several months. They are parents of children diagnosed with "autism" - many of whom have received that diagnosis as a result of vaccine damage. From what I've heard, you have been the one journalist in the mainstream media who has been willing to give a voice to both sides of the vaccine-autism debate.
Your interview with Dr. Andrew Wakefield yesterday has caused quite a stir among the very people who have been singing your praises and increasing your viewership. Some are upset because you were "aggressive" with Dr. Wakefield. I watched a clip of the interview (courtesy of youtube) and I don't have a problem with your grilling of Dr. W. He's a big boy. He's very smart, and he has the truth on his side. Besides, compared to others who have "interviewed" him, you were by far more fair and at least provided him the opportunity to finish a sentence, even if he had to talk over you to do it.
What upset me (and many other parents of "autistic" children) was your attack on us.
YOU DON'T KNOW ME. You don't know my life. You don't know my child. You don't know what I have been through over the last 16 years.
How can you say, "Parents are not the experts?"
Do you know any parents of children who have regressed after vaccination? Have you interviewed any of them on your show? Let me tell you a little bit about our lives.
My daughter was born when I was 34 years old. The pregnancy with her was a miracle, following multiple miscarriages, a nearly fatal blood clot, and two back surgeries. I had been told not to even try to get pregnant because I most likely couldn't carry a child full-term, and I very well might not make it through the pregnancy alive. I wasn't trying to get pregnant but it happened. I won't bore you with all the details, but after many weeks in bed and giving myself heparin injections every 8 hours for months, my beautiful daughter was born.
I was obsessed with her. I took more photographs and videos of her than you can imagine. Every smile was caught on camera and every word was on video. When she started getting ear infections over-and-over-and-over again (something that is common among vaccine-injured children), I was the one who took her to the doctor's office and the emergency room, over-and-over-and-over again. I was the one who held her while she cried for hours in pain. I was the one who set the alarm and got up night-after-night alternating tylenol and motrin trying to get her extremely high fevers ("of unknown origin") to abate. I was the one researching for hours on end trying to figure out what the rashes meant, and why she was stuttering. I was the one who stamped my foot and went up the chain of command at Andrews Air Force Base Primary Care until I finally got the referrals I needed to have her evaluated for seizures and Central Auditory Processing Disorder at Johns Hopkins. I was the one who took her to Walter Reed for the Psychological Evaluation, and to Bethesda for the Developmental Pediatrics Evaluation. Later, I was the one who took her to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis when she was diagnosed with scoliosis - and I was the one who took her to Vanderbilt to be evaluated for Neurofibromatosis. I have also been the one to hold her when she was covered with hives and begging to die. And I have held her while she seized and stopped breathing, 3 hours after receiving a vaccine.
Over the last 16 years, my daugher and her health have been the most important focus in my life. I know her better than anyone. I also know more about vaccine injury, immune system damage, viruses, bacteria, autoimmune disease, yeast, parasites, food-allergies, eczema, seizures, visual and auditory processing disorders, ADHD, anxiety, frustration, and pain than any pediatrician on the planet. And I am not alone. I am just one parent. My daughter is just ONE child. If that were the end of the story, you could say it was anecdotal. But it's not the end of the story.
We are strong. We are intelligent. We are motivated, and we are connected. We talk, we share, we support each other, and we have become a force to be reckoned with. YOU may believe we are not the experts, but we know better. And so do the pharmaceutical companies. And THAT is precisely why mainstream media has consistently pursued Dr. Wakefield as its sacrificial lamb. This is not about Dr. Wakefield. It's about scrambling to discredit the entire autism-vaccine argument before the other half of American parents finally wake up and realize what's happening to our children.
This is not just about autism. It's not just about the MMR. And it's not just about Dr. Wakefield.
There are many of us, and our numbers are growing. And guess what?
We are not going away.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Treating the Flu Naturally
Here's the post:
My nine year-0ld has been sick with the flu.
Leah came home on Tuesday with a cough and fever. She spent Tuesday night and Wednesday in bed - sleeping, watching TV, eating popsicles and crackers, and occasionally blowing her nose and coughing.
I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday checking her fever every 30 - 60 minutes (round the clock), administering supplements, running up and down the stairs with 7-up, popsicles, crackers, books, paper and colored pencils. I also spent every waking moment in fear, hoping I was right about what I was doing, and praying that her fever wouldn't spike and we wouldn't have to go to the hospital.
Thankfully, Leah has had a mild case of the flu (which is what most people experience), and today her fever is gone. It never got above 102 degrees, so I never gave anything to reduce the fever (which probably has something to do with why she is doing so well now). I did give her several things to help modulate her immune system, and to help her fight off the infection. Call me conceited (please don't) but I believe the steps I have taken with Leah have really made a difference, and I would like to share them with others.
As a side note, yesterday afternoon I made a quick trip to the health food store to pick up some Turmeric (curcumin) and Colloidal Silver. I think my friend, the owner of the store, was surprised to see me. A few weeks ago I received an email from her asking if I had fallen off the face of the planet. I explained to my friend the reason I haven't been in is because when I first heard about the "Swine Flu" in the spring of this year, I spent more than $400 stocking up on everything I thought I might possibly need to fend of the virus. The photo below shows what I purchased for my own family's use in anticipation of this year's flu season.
I am well aware that not everyone can afford to shell out $400 on supplements to fight the flu. I can't really afford it either, but if I'm going to recommend things to others, I want to make sure they work. Therefore, I use these things myself (and I give them to my guinea pigs...I mean my kids).
So, for those who cannot shell out the money to cover every possible scenario (or for those whose OCD is not as severe as mine) - what are the most important things to buy, if you want to protect your family from the flu this year? The next photo shows what I actually used to treat Leah's flu.
I have been giving (and taking) vitamin D3 for prevention (2,500 iu daily for my kids and 5,000 iu daily for me). We also take fish oil daily (1-2 grams). When Leah got sick, I increased her D3 to 20,000 iu/day (for adults, the recommendation is up to 50,000 iu/day for 3 days). I gave 2 grams (2,000 mg.) of fish oil and 2 grams (2,000 mg.) of Vitamin C, in divided doses (morning and night). I gave 1 capsule of Virastop (from Enzymedica) 3x/day on an empty stomach. I gave Oscillococcinum (available at Walmart or CVS) 3x/day, and a squirt of colloidal silver 2x/day.
On a shoestring budget, the first thing I would buy is Vitamin D3. If you don't have a shoestring budget but know someone who does, buy a bottle and give it to them. We're all in this together.
Final words:
Purchasing enough supplements to cover every possible scenario during the flu season: $400.
Cost of Vitamin D3, Fish Oil, Vitamin C, Oscillococcinum, ViraStop, and Colloidal Silver: $95.
Cost of buying a bottle of D3 for your neighbor who can't afford it: $10.
Treating the flu without worrying about Mercury or Squalene from vaccinations: Priceless.
Blessings,
Marci
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Environmental Toxins and Autism - Epigenetics
Cindy and I will be talking about the epigenetics of autism - how certain groups of children are at increased risk of vaccine-injury because their parents and grandparents have been exposed to high levels of environmental toxins that alter DNA. Certain toxins cause mitochondrial disorder, which increases the risk of vaccine injury to 1 in 50! If you live in an area where these toxins are prevalent (from coal-burning power plants, farming, or manufacturing) you need to know how to protect your child.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
FAREWELL TO ANDERSON COOPER
FAREWELL TO ANDERSON COOPER
It started last night with a comment made by a facebook friend that she is "through with Anderson Cooper." I did not see A.C. 360 last night but that comment got my attention so I read a little more and learned that Dr. Andrew Wakefield and A.C.'s treatment of him was the reason for my fb friends' (actually hundreds of them) upset with Mr. Blue Eyes. This is nothing new. Andrew Wakefield has been skewered in the media for the last few years. I wrote a blogpost after Matt Lauer's first "interview" of Dr. Wakefield. For anyone who chooses to learn more about this ongoing saga you may want to start here:
Dateline NBC: A Dose of Controversy and A Dash of Conflict of Interest
If you really want to learn the truth about Brian Deer and his conflicts of interest, you need to invest the time and watch the video, Selective Hearing.
Brian Deer, Rupert Murdock, and Matt Lauer are not the only media personalities who are capitalizing on Dr. Wakefield. Nancy Snyderman has also been a very loud bullhorn of misinformation, taking every opportunity to proclaim that "Vaccines are safe!" and parents who are wary of them are basically idiots who need to follow doctors' orders and "Just get your damn vaccine!"
Dr. Snyderman has repeatedly proclaimed the safety of vaccines and demands that we, as responsible citizens should "trust your government!" and "Get your damn vaccine!"
When Nancy Snyderman and others like her (pro-vaccine pundits) talk about vaccine safety, they often state that thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines has been proven to be unrelated to autism. As proof, they will frequently state that thimerosal has been removed from childhood vaccines and the autism rate continues to rise so therefore mercury in vaccines couldn't be responsible for autism. It is very important to understand that mercury is still in the childhood vaccine schedule and infants are now being exposed to it even earlier when their mothers receive the flu shot while pregnant. Mercury causes cell death in the brain (and elsewhere) and the earlier the fetus is exposed the more damaging the results are. When infants exposed in utero receive additional vaccines containing mercury (as they do if their parents follow the recommended schedule which now includes yearly flu shots) the amount of mercury in the child's body increases over time, particularly in children who have gastrointestinal problems (diarrhea or constipation) and in children who have frequent infections and are given multiple rounds of antibiotics.
Here is a good video that explains what mercury does to the brain.
It is important to understand that mercury is not the only issue with vaccines and the MMR vaccine is not the only vaccine that has been linked to neurological damage. Aluminum also causes neurological damage and has been linked to Alzheimer's disease. Excessive exposure to aluminum causes damage to the kidneys and liver, making it more difficult for the body to detoxify, which increases the likelihood of damage from mercury and other poisons. The problem with Dr. Snyderman and others who are proclaiming that vaccines are safe is they don't know what they are talking about. It must be that. The only other explanation is they simply don't care about the harm vaccines cause to some children. They are more concerned with protecting the financial health of the pharmaceutical industry than the physical health of America's children. Unfortunately, in Dr. Snyderman's case, the latter explanation does seem to fit. As Snyderman explains in this video clip, parents whose children have been harmed by vaccines have little legal recourse because laws have been passed to protect the pharmaceutical industry from liability.
Dr. Snyderman confidently states "2 big studies show no link between autism and vaccines" and again proclaims, "Now we can say, 'Vaccines are Safe,' 'Get vaccinated.' We have to put this behind us." Dr. Snyderman is misrepresenting the facts. I want to know how "Two big studies" that looked at ONE VACCINE (MMR) and ONE VACCINE INGREDIENT (thimerosal) can yield enough scientific evidence to proclaim that vaccines are safe. It is statistically impossible and she either knows that or she's an idiot. More likely, she just doesn't care.
Here is a link to the current (2010) Childhood Vaccine Schedule. A child who is vaccinated according to the recommended schedule receives 36 injections of 50 vaccine antigens by the time he or she is six years old. How is it possible that TWO STUDIES, no matter how large, looking at ONE VACCINE and ONE VACCINE INGREDIENT could be held up as "proof" that "vaccines are safe" and we should "put this behind us?"
The studies have not even begun to address the issues of safety. There has never been a single study that has evaluated the safety of aluminum in vaccines, or the combined effects of vaccinating with multiple viruses and bacteria simultaneously. When a parent takes his or her child in for a "well-baby visit" and that child receives multiple vaccines on the same day, it is a complete experiment that has never been studied for safety.
Finally, Dr. Snyderman's claim that parents concerned about vaccine safety are to blame for the deaths of children in California from whooping cough is outrageous. She has accused parents who refuse vaccination due to their religious beliefs of "lying" and has called them "morally repugnant." Get real. What is "morally repugnant" is Dr. Snyderman using scare tactics to turn neighbors against each other, and pediatricians against parents by blaming the unvaccinated for outbreaks of measles and whooping cough, while concealing the facts that in both instances, the majority of cases have originated in children and adults who were FULLY VACCINATED.
Let me point out that Dr. Snyderman makes no apologies for her pro-vaccine stance. Let me also point out that she is open about her judgement that the health and lives of individual children are "trumped" by "the greater good." Dr. Snyderman admits that she does not care about your child and if your child happens to die or is seriously and irrevocably injured as a result of vaccination, well that's just the price we pay as a "responsible" society. Dr. Snyderman's double-standard regarding over-treating is evident when you review her stance on mammograms. Clearly, she values her breasts more than she values the lives of our children.
As for Anderson Cooper... It's over between us. He is no longer welcome in my bedroom and I will no longer be drifting off to sleep with his voice in my head as he proclaims to be "Keepin' 'em honest." All I can figure is he must be suffering from the effects of all the Corexit and heavy metals he has ingested in his valiant attempts to get us all to visit New Orleans and partake of the seafood. The combination of environmental toxins and that yearly flu shot is taking its toll. The descent from here will not be pretty and it's too much for me to watch. I've already been through it too many times before with others I love.