4allofyou

NO SHOTS, NO SCHOOL...NOT TRUE!!!

2011-08-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to 4allofyou.

This is an information resource for parents who are concerned about their children's health. It is also a resource to learn more about vaccinations, environmental toxins, special diets, autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.

I am not a physician. All information provided in this cite is for educational purposes.

If you are concerned about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, please visit the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).

To learn more about whether or not your child is healthy enough to be vaccinated click here.
To learn how to recognize an adverse vaccine reaction click here.

If you are seeking information about the laws regarding your child's attendance in public school in Indiana, please click here.

If you are seeking information about the laws regarding your child's attendance in public school in Illinois, please click here.

If you are seeking information about the laws regarding your child's attendance in public school in Kentucky, please click here.

For more information about your legal right to make decisions about vaccination of your children, please click here.

If you are visiting this blog because you saw a billboard advertisement and you want to know what this is all about, please read my blogpost: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX. HERE'S YOUR SIGN.

If you want to know our personal motivation behind this movement, please click here to read WE ARE ANTI-VACCINE WACKOS. IT'S JUST WHAT WE DO.

To read my post: VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM please click here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAX. HERE'S YOUR SIGN.

2011-08-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have ever been as nervous as I am at this moment. This whole thing started last week after I read a front page article in the Evansville Courier & Press Newspaper. The article was titled, "Sticking to the schedule" and was written for the purpose of informing parents what vaccines their children "have to have" in order to attend public school in Indiana. As I read the article, I was struck by the fact that there was no information about parents' legal right to religious exemption. There was some vague wording, "Waivers could be obtained in special circumstances," which to me seemed misleading, making it sound like these "waivers" are hard to get.

I have to back up a bit. I don't usually get the Courier & Press Newspaper and I didn't buy it on the day when I read the above-mentioned article. I didn't even see it the day it came out. I happened across it while sitting in the waiting room of the Trauma ICU at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. I was there with a dear friend whose brother was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident. If I hadn't been there with Donna, I would never have seen the newspaper in the first place. But I did. God works that way.

The article ran on the front page of the newspaper on Monday, July 25th. I was at the hospital on Tuesday, July 26th. Since it was already a day-old paper, I took it with me when I left, figuring no one there would miss it (or need it as much as I did). It was just one of those things where I knew I had to take it with me. When I got home I went to the Courier & Press online and looked up the article with the intention of commenting on it. That's when I saw the video of a nurse at the Vanderburgh County Health Department giving multiple vaccines to a young boy and proclaiming, "They all turn out just fine" and joking, "We haven't killed anyone yet!"

I really do try to live my life peacefully. I feel like I have been at war over the last several years and am suffering from combat fatigue. There are many times when I just want to crawl in my bed, pull the covers over my head and pretend I never even heard of autism or vaccine-injury. Sometimes I do just that. I take a vacation from reality and pretend that I am just a mother and a grandmother living in a small town in Southwestern Indiana. I pretend that my children are healthy and life will play out just the way it should. Then something happens to snap me back to reality and I realize that for me, this is life just as it was meant to be. There is a reason my daughter had to get sick. If she hadn't, I would never have become involved in this war in the first place. It's too late now. Just like the military, I can't quit. And whenever I begin to think I can, My SUPREME COMMANDER does something to remind me that quitting is not an option. That's what He did when he put that newspaper in front of me. It's sort of like when Bill Engvall says, "Here's your sign!" but on a different level entirely.

What has followed in the days after reading that article and watching that video has been a whirlwind of writing. I have written several blogposts and notes on facebook about what's been happening here. I won't go into that in this note. Let's just say that it's been enormously frustrating trying to get our local media to print anything about parents' concerns about vaccine safety or about the legal right to religious exemption. It AIN'T happening. Period.

At one point several days ago I was ready to give up. The comments section on the Courier & Press article had been disabled and the experiences shared by parents of vaccine-injured children were removed completely. Then our comments were removed from the Courier & Press facebook page. Then many of us were blocked from the page altogether. I was so frustrated I didn't know what to do. So I went to bed. But first, I prayed. And I asked my friends to pray for me. My standard prayer when I don't know what to do is, "God... if this is your will, please show me what I need to see."

When I got up the next morning I was still so tired and just plain weary, and I was beginning to get frustrated with God for not answering me in a timely fashion. I was hoping He would have sent the answer in a dream or given me some sort of miraculous vision. As I think back on it now, it seems like I must have been on the verge of crossing my arms, tapping my foot and looking at my watch. I'm glad now that I didn't do that. While I'm absolutely certain that God has a sense of humor (and I KNOW he has patience because he's still working with ME after all these years!), I am very thankful that I didn't test Him at that particular time. What I did instead is what I do almost every morning lately. I made a cup of green tea and sat down at the computer. After checking my email and scanning the Courier & Press online to make sure there were no more articles about back-to-school shots, I turned to facebook.

That's when I got it. Literally. "HERE'S YOUR SIGN!"

I don't remember at this moment who it was that had posted the photograph. It wasn't one of the facebook friends I regularly communicate with. But there it was. The photograph of a billboard that reads "No Shots, No School... NOT TRUE!!!" I think it was probably at this moment when I uttered what was one of the heaviest sighs of my life. If you've ever had that feeling of, "What have I done?" you know what I'm talking about. It's that sense of, "Oh, God. This is too much. I didn't really want to do THAT much." Too late. When you get orders from THE SUPREME COMMANDER, refusing is just not an option. Believe me, I've tried. I learned some time ago that if I don't do as I'm told, this is not going to go away, it's just going to get bigger. So, in the interest of compliance and to save myself the pain of paying the price for disobedience, I started a fundraiser. I posted on facebook that I was going to raise money to put up a billboard in Evansville, Indiana so that parents here could have the information they need to make informed decisions about vaccinating their kids. For the last few days I have been working like a crazy person (that's easy for me...), listing things on ebay and asking people for donations. My kids have been very patient (for the most part). They have let me do what they know by now I must do.

I have to tell you that I have never checked into renting a billboard before. I figured it would be expensive, but I had no idea just how MUCH it would cost. I played phone tag for a couple of days with the salesperson from the Evansville office of Lamar Outdoor Advertising, but finally she and I connected. When we started talking I prepared myself for the possibility that she would tell me, "We can't run something like that. It's too controversial." (Remember, this is Evansville, Indiana.) I started off by telling Nicole what had happened with the Courier & Press. I told her, "We are not telling people not to vaccinate. We are just asking the media to please report in an unbiased manner and let parents know the truth about their legal rights." I followed this with the disclaimer, "I'm really not just some nut-job. I'm the mother of a vaccine-injured child who almost died after receiving one shot. People need to know that the recommended childhood schedule has never been studied for safety." The response I got from Nicole was, "I don't think you're a nut-job." She then proceeded to tell me about a friend whose toddler was "perfectly healthy" until he got his shots for preschool and then decended into severe autism. Nicole also told me that she has been concerned about vaccines and stated her wish that I had called sooner, as she has just (last week) taken her own daughter in for her "well-baby visit" during which she received the standard multiple vaccinations as per the recommended schedule. This led to a fairly lengthy conversation about how to help protect her baby from the toxic effects of vaccines. I gave Nicole the web address of my blog and promised to send her some information from Russell Blaylock about protecting against vaccine damage. This is how God works. Every task He gives us leads to another opportunity. Each connection we make leads to more opportunities and the chance to save His children.

I sent Nicole the photo of the billboard I had seen on facebook. She said she would need to get it approved by her supervisor. (Uh-oh, I thought). She told me that he was very open-minded and she felt pretty sure he would approve it, which he did. The one caveat was that there has to be a contact listed at the bottom, "In case there are any complaints." (Heavy sigh.) Please God, I'm going to need a big shield and some armor. This is Indiana. Home of Ely Lily, the company that came up with the idea of putting thimerosal in vaccines so many decades ago.

As scary as the thought of being the target of backlash is, that was not my only concern. As I said, I've never rented a billboard before. I was prepared for the cost to be in the hundreds of dollars a month range. The quote I got was, "$3,438 to run the message for one week on all four digital billboards in Evansville." My heart sank. How in the world am I going to raise $3,500 in less than a week. The time crunch has to do with the fact that school starts here next week. My goal had been to raise enough money to get the message out prior to the first day of school, so that last-minute parents (like me) who have waited (either because they are too busy or because they are scared of what may happen as a result of vaccinating) would get the message in time to look further and learn about their rights and about vaccines before blindly obeying the message put out by the Courier & Press. My biggest fear is that so many families here are uninformed and feel they have no choice. We're all strapped financially. If people HAVE jobs they need to keep them. They can't afford to stay home and home-school and they can't afford to take off from work when the schools send their kids home (as happened last year) because they aren't "up-to-date" on their vaccinations. Talk about having a gun to your head.

Anyway, I told Nicole that I didn't think I could come up with the money. Then she said I could run the message on two billboards (one on the east side of town and one on the west side) for one week for $1,984. That's still a lot more than I was counting on, but it's much better. I told her I believed I could do it and stated firmly "I know this is going to happen." (The firmness was just as much for me as it was for Nicole.) Heavy sigh. Too late to back out. I've already got people contributing to the cause. Remember, this is like the military. Once you're in, you can't quit.

So this is where I was yesterday. I have several things listed on ebay and several things more to list. Suddenly, my camera battery won't charge. I start using Leah's camera and bought some rechargeable batteries for it. I'm back in business. Suddenly, those batteries won't charge, either. (Have I mentioned yet that when God wants my attention, He doesn't mess around. He just hits me right where it hurts. I guess that's because He knows how hard-headed I am. Subtlety would be lost on me when I'm on a mission, so He just doesn't bother with it.)

Okay. Now what? Like an intercom switched on in my head I hear, "You're thinking too small." As I sometimes do, I decide to ignore the intercom. How can I be thinking too small? I am working my ass off here. I don't need this right now.

Since I'm on a forced break at this time, I decide to check facebook. This is when I get the message from my friend, Marsha McLelland. I love Marsha. But I really did NOT want to hear what she had to say. The message she sent was something like this, "What a great idea! We need to take this to the next level and put these signs all over the country!" Now, don't get me wrong. Marsha is a Rock Star. She is so committed and works tirelessly to advocate for the safety of children. But, damn it! I'm just me. I'm just a mother and a grandmother living in Southwestern Indiana and at this point it looks like I'm NEVER going to get back to my bed and those covers. This is when I hear the voice in my head saying, "You asked me to show you what you need to see." This is also when I hear my mother in my head saying, "Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it." (Heavy sigh.)

So here's the deal... I know this is a long note and it's not over yet, so please... bear with me.

I have agreed to write this note, asking for help. We must do this. Trust me. Once you read this, if you turn your back, it's not going to be pretty. At this very moment I am reminded of a phrase from an old television sitcom (can't recall which), "God'll getcha for that!" Please don't take that as a threat. It's just the way my mind works.

Anyway, I have agreed to write this note with the intent of sharing it and getting the message out through facebook. Sort of like a cyber flash-mob thing, if that's an applicable analogy. That is a daunting task. If I mess it up, it's on me. I can't handle that kind of pressure alone, so once again, I called in THE EXPERT - THE SUPREME COMMANDER. I asked for help. I asked my facebook friends to pray for me and I asked God to give me what I need to know to make this happen, if it is His Will.

I posted my request for prayer on my profile page. I also posted it on the Vaccine Resistance Movement (VRM) facebook page. Almost immediately I got a response from a man named Steve. This is what he wrote, "Max would have been 2 today....he will guide you and give you strength!" I have never interacted with Steve before today and I had never heard of Max. I was immediately engulfed with such an overwelming feeling of sadness and the tears started flowing. Me crying is not an unusual thing, I am moved to tears very easily. This was different. I couldn't stop crying and I was filled with a profound sadness that I can't recall feeling in a long time, if ever. I sat and cried for a while. Then I went to Steve's facebook page and I saw the photos of Max. As I sat looking at this gorgeous child I started getting the message loud and clear, "Use me." I fought that for a while. I left the computer and washed the dishes. Then I cleaned up the countertops. Then I scooped out the litter box. The entire time I kept getting the same message: "Use me." As I walked out the door from the hall to the garage and back in again, I caught myself thinking, I need to hold his hand because he's so small. Finally, I sat back down at the computer and wrote this message to Steve:

Steve: Thank-you for introducing me to Max. He is with me.

I almost feel awkward writing this message to you and am having difficulty

making my fingers type this question, but I keep getting the clear message, "Ask" "Use me."

I have been to your profile page and seen the photos of your beautiful son.

I admit I had never heard of Max before today, though I had seen your posts on VRM.

I can only imagine how much your heart is breaking today.

When I read your comment I immediately felt such huge sorrow and am having trouble

stopping the tears from flowing - and I never even met Max until now.

I believe there is a reason for everything and Max's death will not be in vain.

I know that is such small comfort to you, but this is the message I am getting.

As I said, this is so hard for me to write.

My head is telling me "Do NOT take advantage of this father's grief..."

but Max is telling me (I know, I sound crazy) - but MAX is TELLING me, "Use me"

I'm so sorry.

I started to type, "I don't know what to say."

But then erased that because I do know what to say, I'm just having such a difficult time saying it.

May I tell Max's story?

There. I said it. I asked the father of a dead baby if I could use his story to raise money.

That feels so dirty to me. But it's not. Max can help.

He can do this so other parents don't have to go through what you and Mom have gone through.

Please tell me what happened.

Marci

After writing the message I did what for me is one of the hardest things in the world to do. I waited.

I felt as though I couldn't start writing this note until I heard back from Steve. So I sat here at the computer going through my facebook friends list and thinking about who to tag when the note was finished. Suddenly I knew it was time to start writing. So I started. I had no idea where this was going to go at the time, but I knew it was time to begin.

After a while, I got a message back from Steve. Here is what he wrote:

yes thats fine ....Joel Lord is putting together a small story of Max's life. might be best if we all work together to get this right

I thanked Steve and asked him to have Joel message me the information when it was complete. Then I went back to this note. A while later I got the message from Joel Lord. Here is an excerpt of what he wrote:

A family in the UK recently lost their baby boy, "22 months at death", following post vaccination adverse drug interactions. Up until that point their baby had received the full slate of injections typical for his age group. At 6 months he began to experience ongoing convulsions/seizures. His neurologist then chose to prescribe him a set of experimental drugs (none of which are officially licensed for use in infants): 'Sodium Valproate' or 'Valproic Acid' (Anticonvulsant, antipsychotic - anti-seizure medication),'Keppra' or 'Levetiracetam' (antiepileptic drug) & 'Clobazam' (benzodiazepine type anticonvulsant) - ostensibly to quell his seizures. Initially he was put on a combination of Sodium Valproate & Keppra. A decision was then made to switch Keppra for Clobazam, as, per the neurologist in charge, "It was clearly making him worse." There was speculation of possible Dravet's Syndrome (severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy). At no time during this phase were the parents ever consulted or briefed on the authorization of these drug combinations given to their child.

The parents, now estranged, marked the date of what would have been their child's 2nd birthday in solemn remembrance of their son; born 04 08 2009, died 21 06 2011. The father duly noted "Each time he was given shots he seemed to have seizures...overdose symptoms were heart block, coma, death."

...one glaring factor remains that we must consider - a family put their trust in an Industry sworn to protect the innocent. And yet they were not briefed on the synergistic nature of anti-seizure medications when combined. Nor were they prepared for the seizures which suddenly gripped their child at 6 months, the result of vaccine induced Encephalitis, inflammation of the brain & meninges (Meningoencephalitis) manifesting as ‘diffuse and/or focal neuropsychological dysfunction‘. Whose responsibility was this? Certainly most parents aren't versed in the hard science & reasoning behind vaccine methodology. Who can blame them given these hurried modern times? But if that is the case, then isn't it the obligation of doctors making these pivotal life-changing decisions to have all the facts straight beforehand? This child is unfortunately gone. But the message still resonates and his legacy will hopefully serve as a burning light of truth for parents throughout our communities, that it is now time to step back and rethink the entire concept of "herd immunity". - Excerpts from 'VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 4A - Primary Aspects of Vaccine Toxicity Affecting The Body' by Joel Lord, founder of Vaccine Resistance Movement

I am a firm believer that when someone dies a traumatic or wrongful death, the soul can be stuck hanging around trying to make sense of what happened. I believe this is the case with Max. I believe this is why I felt such an enormous feeling of grief immediately after reading his father's comment. I also believe this is part of my mission, and I believe we owe it to Max to allow him to rest in peace, knowing that his death will not be for nothing. So today, on what would have been Max's second birthday, I am asking all 1707 of my facebook friends to please contribute $1.00 to fund the billboard project. I am also asking all of my 1707 facebook friends to forward this note and ask your friends to do the same. Contributions can be made by paypal. Please put in the message section, "Happy Birthday Max. Here's Your Sign."

With God's love and blessings and my undying gratitude,

Marci

Max. A beautiful child who would have celebrated his 2nd birthday today, August 4, 2011. Max suffered and died on June 21, 2011. His death was the result of vaccine-injury.

This is the message that will be printed on billboards across America. The goal of this mission is to inform parents of their rights and to encourage parents to learn more about vaccinations before giving consent. Afterwards, it may be too late.

Since this note was written on August 4, 2001, we have received enough donations to fund four billboards: Two in Evansville, Indiana; one in Austin, Texas, and another in Denver, Colorado. We have incorporated and have filed the paperwork to establish a non-profit 501(c)3. Contributions are now being accepted online or by mail. Please visit www.vaxtruth.org for more information.

CENSORSHIP IS NOT JUST AN EVANSVILLE THING

2011-08-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

For anyone who has been following my battle with the Evansville Courier and Press Newspaper - and especially for those who have not... let me bring you up-to-date.

Last week I had a period of about three days when it seems I was constantly either on the phone with Tom Lovett, Metro Editor of the Courier & Press, or I was writing - either to him or about him. I was angry. I'm still angry, but I want to be fair to Mr. Lovett and to the Courier & Press, so I want to let you know what has happened since I last posted.

I have gotten some pretty critical comments from people (or a person?) who believes I have unfairly singled out Mr. Lovett and his actions. I believe I have defended my actions successfully. You will have to be the judge. I did write a letter to Mr. Lovett, offering to write for the Courier & Press for free, since Mr. Lovett claims the reason he will not publish any stories about vaccine-injured children or parents' right to religious exemption is because he does not have anyone with the expertise, or manpower to put toward the research. This was also used as a criticism by "Anonymous" who sides with the Courier & Press, letting me know that what I am asking (fair and unbiased reporting) is too much because they are so strapped at Evansville's major newspaper. For Anonymous, I am publishing the text of my letter to Mr. Lovett. Again, this is not to single out Mr. Lovett or the Courier and Press. I really had decided not to put this on the blog because I had come to the conclusion that it really wasn't necessary and I REALLY DON'T want to make this a personal witch-hunt. (That's the tactic of the other side and I have a huge aversion to being lumped with the likes of Brian Deer, James Murdoch and Matt Lauer.) However, what I have learned since last week is that this is not a personal thing between Tom Lovett and myself. Since the whole debacle only a few days ago, I have actually been allowed to comment on other online articles on the Courier & Press website, and those comments have been allowed to remain. (I'm still banned from the Courier & Press facebook page, as are many of my facebook friends who attempted to post their children's stories there.) So, it's not just me that's the issue - it's just vaccine safety and the stories of children who have been harmed or killed by vaccines. That's the issue. That's what the Courier & Press doesn't want concerned parents in Evansville and surrounding areas to know. Unfortunately, that's also what newspapers and television news stations don't want parents across this country to know.

Guess what? I am the parent of a vaccine-injured child and I am not going away.

No Vaccines, No School... NOT TRUE!!!

If the local media won't tell the truth about a parents right to choose what is best for his or her own child, we will have to take matters into our own hands. Be watching for the billboards. They're coming. Parents of vaccine-injured children from all across America and even as far away as Australia are banding together to help get the message out. If you would like to know how to help with this effort, please email me (marcellaterry@hotmail.com) or friend me on facebook (Marcella Piper-Terry).

Many blessings, 4allofyou.
Marci

OPEN LETTER TO TOM LOVETT, METRO EDITOR OF EVANSVILLE COURIER PRESS

2011-08-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

Dear Mr. Lovett:

I’m afraid we’ve gotten off to a rocky start. I would like to do what I can to amend this bumpy beginning. Until two days ago, you most likely had never heard of me. I know that I had not heard of you. So let me begin by properly introducing myself. My name is Marcella Piper-Terry. I am the mother of a vaccine-injured child. My daughter is 17, so she is soon to be a vaccine-injured adult.

For the last 17 years I have watched my daughter’s health evaporate as if into thin air. As an infant, she was slow to gain weight and was diagnosed with “failure-to-thrive.” She was intolerant of milk, had mysterious rashes and “fevers of unknown origin.” She was very prone to ear infections and had two sets of tubes placed in her ears. This is extremely common among vaccine-injured children.

Prior to the addition of the Hepatitis B vaccine into the CDC’s Recommended Childhood Vaccination Schedule, chronic ear infections in infants and children were far less common. The Hepatitis B vaccine was added in 1989 and by 1990-91 it was widely used in the U.S. The hepatitis B series is initiated when an infant is less than 24 hours old. The CDC initially recommended the Hepatitis B vaccine only for newborns whose mothers tested positive for Hepatitis B. Presumably, this has something to do with the fact that a newborn’s immune system is not fully developed and vaccination with a virus at such a young age involves the risk of damaging that process. It would make sense not to vaccinate ALL children, but to only undertake that risk if there are circumstances (such as a hepatitis B positive mother) that warrant such protection. That was how it started. However, within a year or two, the CDC changed its recommendation and added the Hepatitis B vaccine to the childhood schedule, in effect mandating ALL children be vaccinated against this sexually transmitted disease. What we know now (thanks to recently published studies) is that even in cases where the mother is positive for Hep B, the vaccine does not appear to confer immunity for more than 2-5 years, and the incidence of autism among boys vaccinated with Hep B at birth increases three-fold over their unvaccinated peers. Ahhh…. Hindsight is 20/20, right?

My daughter was born in 1994 and was vaccinated according to the schedule. We were a military family at the time. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in the military, but there is a pressure on parents to comply with military regulations, including the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule. In fact, did you know that the children of military parents are the most highly vaccinated children in the United States? “Coincidentally” (I just LOVE that word!), the incidence of autism among children of military parents is much higher than the rate of autism in the general population. (Now that IS an interesting coincidence!) In 2007, when the CDC announced that autism affected 1 in 150 U.S. children, the rate among children of military families was 1 in 82. (It must be something to do with stress, right? Children whose parents are deployed become so stressed out that they develop autism. Yeah. That must be it.)

Many military parents who are concerned about vaccines do not feel as if they CAN question or refuse vaccines. That was not the case with me. I didn’t question at all; at least not at first. I was concerned about my daughter, not only because I am a good parent and wanted what was best for her,but also because I wanted to do the right thing for other people’s children. I bought into the myth that Hepatitis B was something I needed to afraid of. I didn’t know any better. Now I do. I have researched Hepatitis B disease and I have researched the vaccine. I wish I had done it sooner. If I had, I would have most certainly been alerted that something was not right with the CDC’s recommendations, and I would have researched further before blindly allowing my daughter to be injected with other unnecessary and unsafe vaccines. You might say I’m a bit of a slow learner. However, you could also say that once I’ve learned my lesson, I don’t forget it. There are some lessons in life that are easier than others. The lessons that come with being the parent of a vaccine-injured child are by far the hardest I have ever had to learn. That’s because these lessons come directly as a result of my own mistakes. I know now that I should have researched first. I should have asked more questions. I should have said, “Wait. I don’t know enough about what’s in that needle you are about to stick into my child’s body. I need to learn a bit more before I sign that consent form.” If I had only known then even a tiny bit of what I know now, I never would have signed.

During our telephone conversations over the last few days you have mentioned several times that as we were talking, a crowd was gathering around your desk. You said others (presumably employees of the Courier & Press) were offering to give me advice about the safety of vaccines. Actually, I believe you said they were offering to help you in your attempts to convince me that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I must admit, I’m a bit envious. I have been researching and learning about vaccines for many years and it’s a very tiring job. It has required that I take graduate level courses in research design and statistics, just so I can really understand and look critically at the studies that have been published in medical journals. Graduate school is grueling as I’m sure you may know. If you haven’t been to graduate school, let me tell you, it’s tough. It’s more than a full-time job. It’s even tougher when you have a sick child to care for. There’s a lot of homework to do and a ton of reading, research, and writing. There are also presentations at regional and national conferences, and award ceremonies to attend, when one is fortunate enough to be recognized by national associations for excellence in research and writing. It’s also tough financially. I was fortunate enough to have been awarded a graduate research scholarship and an assistantship, so I did have a job at the university and I didn’t have to pay tuition. However, the $4,000 stipend I was paid each year didn’t go far, especially when we had to pay out-of-pocket for most of my daughter’s medical care. You see, insurance covered the vaccines that made her sick, but it doesn’t cover the treatments that are necessary to reverse even a small part of the damage that was done to her immune system, neurological system, gastrointestinal system, circulatory system and excretory system. The nutritional supplements, organic foods, digestive enzymes, probiotics, chiropractic care, and multiple other therapeutic interventions have all been paid out-of-pocket. What I’m trying to say is, I’m SO JEALOUS of you! How fortunate you are to have an entire newsroom full of people at the ready to help you in your research! I feel so deprived. It’s always been just me here.

Here’s what I don’t understand… During our conversations over the last few days you have repeatedly stated that you do not intend now or in the future to publish anything regarding the safety (or rather the concerns about the safety) of vaccines. You made it very clear that as far as you are concerned, this issue is closed. You stated to me that the CDC has said vaccines are safe, and it appears clear to me that for you, that’s the end of it. That’s fine - if you are speaking as an individual, or as a parent who has made this decision for your own child. However, you are not just an individual and you are not just a parent. You are the Metro Editor of the only major newspaper in Evansville, Indiana. The population of Evansville is somewhere around 150,000. As Metro Editor, you have a lot of power. You also have a lot of people who are apparently willing to help you, and they are paid to do so. Yet, during our telephone conversations you stated to me that you did not have the manpower to research vaccine safety. You said that you had not looked into it yourself, admitting that you are merely following what the CDC says. You don’t have the manpower to research vaccine safety, yet you have a newsroom full of
people just dying to tell me what I don’t know about it? That’s confusing to me. Please help me here. You admit knowing nothing about it and not having the manpower to research this issue. How is it you have people standing by, chomping at the bit to educate me? Perhaps I’m missing something, but that just doesn’t make sense. It could just be me, though. Remember, I’m a slow learner.

I tell you what, Mr. Lovett – I really do want to alter the course of this path that you and I are now on. (And make no mistake – this is a path, and we are on it together. You’d better get used to me.) I’ll make you an offer. I will teach you what I know about vaccines. I will write for the Courier & Press and I will tell your readers everything they need to know in order to make informed decisions about the health of their children. And I’ll do it for free. There you go! Manpower problem solved! What do you think?

I realize you still don’t know me well and you have a lot riding on this decision. I will be happy to send you my vitae (that’s a fancy name for “resume” – it’s used when someone has attended graduate school, been published in professional journals, and presented their research at professional conferences), and references if you like. You can look me up in the Who’s Who Among American Students, or at the American Psychological Foundation’s database under Graduate Research Scholarship Awards (1997). You would have been able to find me in the registry of Who’s Who Among American Women, but at the time I was nominated my daughter was too sick and it didn’t seem worth it to spend the time filling out and returning the form. Some things are just more important than seeing one’s name in print.

If you decide not to take me up on my offer, I understand. Sometimes, when a line is drawn in the sand, it costs too much in the way of pride to bend down and erase it. Make no mistake, though, you will be hearing from me again… a lot.

I am the parent of a vaccine-injured child… and I am not going away.

Sincerely yours,

Marcella Piper-Terry, M.S.

ASK EVANSVILLE COURIER PRESS WHAT WAS SO OBJECTIONABLE ABOUT THESE COMMENTS

2011-07-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Evansville Courier & Press has been very quick to squelch any information that may help parents make educated decisions about whether or not vaccines are safe or necessary for their children. The Evansville Courier & Press has also not been fully truthful or open regarding parents' rights to Religious and Medical Exemptions. Rather than publishing the full truth and acting as ethical journalists, the C&P looks more like an advertising rag for the pharmaceutical industry that manufactures vaccines. In the last few days, the Courier & Press has censored and removed comments from parents of vaccine-injured children, and disabled comments from an online article that contained a video of Vanderburgh County Health Department Nurse Kelly Kelley, in which she is simultaneously injecting a young boy with multiple vaccines that have never been tested for their safety when given together and joking flippanty, "We haven't killed anyone yet!"

When I asked Metro Editor Tom Lovett why he was censoring comments made by parents of vaccine-injured children, he responded, "The comments were off topic." I pointed out that the comments were directly related to the video, since Nurse Kelly Kelley had proclaimed "They all turn out just fine." The comments of those who responded to the article clearly are related to Nurse Kelly Kelley's statements. Mr. Lovett's response, when I pointed this out was, "It was an article about getting shots for school, which happened to contain a cute little piece..." I'm not sure how he was going to finish that sentence because I blurted out, "A CUTE LITTLE PIECE?" I went on to state my strong belief that a Public Health Nurse joking about vaccines killing children is anything but cute. I don't know how much of that Mr. Lovett heard because it was at this point he informed me he was hanging up, which he did.

It wasn't long after that conversation took place that the entire online article was removed. It was later reinstated, without the comments. Several of my facebook friends, most of whom are also parents of vaccine-injured children, went to the Courier & Press' facebook page and posted articles about vaccine safety (or lack thereof), and the laws in Indiana regarding parents' right to Religious Exemption. It wasn't long before those comments also started being removed. When I asked why, I was blocked from posting on the Courier & Press facebook page. At that point, I decided it was time to go to bed, but first to pray and ask God for devine intervention. I didn't know what to do, so I called in The Expert. I also asked for my facebook friends to say a prayer, asking God to help me know what to do next.

This morning, one of my facebook friends who has written a very eloquent letter to the Editor of the Courier & Press asked if it (or any of the other letters we have written) has been published. When I went to the online Letters to the Editor page, I found a letter that was written yesterday by my friend, John Blair, President of Valley Watch. John is a tireless advocate for the health of citizens of the lower Ohio River Valley, including Evansville. He is also not well-liked by many people here who believe, as Mitch Daniels believes, that coal is the equivalent of the Middle East's oil fields.

John and I have had many conversations about the effects of heavy metals from coal on the health of children. We have discussed at length the impact of metals from coal on the mitochonria, and how this places children in this area at greatly increased risk of vaccine-injury. (I tried to explain all of this to Tom Lovett, but his mind is made up. Vaccines are safe, according to the CDC and he is not going to print anything to the contrary, no matter how many parents he hears from.)

I left a couple of comments after John's letter. In those comments, I mentioned the issues I just highlighted in this post. We will see if those, too, are removed.

Okay, here's the really cool thing... As frustrated as I was with the Courier & Press denying parents of vaccine-injured children the opportunity to share their stories with other parents, I was also frustrated because I did not have the foresight to save my comments before they were removed. At this point it was just my word agains the Courier & Press that what I had posted was not objectionable, profane, or "off-topic," as Mr. Lovett has claimed. I had no way to prove it because the comments were removed. This morning, before I logged onto my computer, I again said a quick prayer. My basic daily prayer is this, "God, I believe I am here for this purpose and pray it is Your Will. Please help me to see what I need to see, and to always remember that this is not about me, but is about doing Your Work." When I finished leaving my comments on John Blair's letter, I noticed that there is a way to link my comments on the Courier & Press to my facebook profile. I hesitated for about a split second before pursuing this. It will save me a ton of time in cutting and pasting! When I had set up the link, guess what appeared? A history of all the comments I have previously posted on the Courier & Press. (Thank-you, God.)

Here are the comments I posted, which were removed by Mr. Lovett. You can decide for yourself if they are objectionable, profane, or "off-topic" to the issue of mass vaccination of children.

What follows is taken directly from the Evansville Courier & Press archive of comments made by Marcella Piper-Terry. Nothing has been edited or changed. It was all copied and pasted directly into this post.

Written on Clinics seeing upswing in vaccinations as start of school nears | VIDEO:

in response to CHoward (who wrote):

I am appalled by this article! The Nurse's joke was not funny and in fact it wasn't even accurate: children die world-wide from adverse reactions to vaccinations or complications from vaccinations and many more suffer permanent harm and disabilities (my child is one). It's my theory that Pediatricians and Pediatric Nurses do not thoughtfully read any serious scholarly research (and it exists!) on these matters because they could not live with themselves for their roles in contributing to childrens' illnesses and sometimes deaths. They would rather just believe what the AAP, CDC and Pharmaceutical companies preach. It's ignorant and shameful!

Marcella Piper-Terry: CHoward: Well said. It doesn't help that medical and nursing schools are funded in large part by the pharmaceutical industry, or that the CDC and AAP benefit financially (via "grants") from the vaccine manufacturers. The fox is truly guarding the henhouse.
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July 27, 2011
12:27 a.m.
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Written on Clinics seeing upswing in vaccinations as start of school nears | VIDEO:

in response to momof3 (who wrote):

I have a 18 year old daughter that receives her immunizations at the health department. We have health insurance and she also has medicaid it has never been an issue. We make an appointment prior to going and have never had to wait. The staff are experts at giving shots and it is finished before you know it. They can give 5 shots in the time our primary care doctor's nurse can give 1.

Marcella Piper-Terry: Five shots at once. Are you aware that this has never been studied for safety? or that the vaccines your daughter is being injected with have never been studied with regard to their effect on reproductive function? Educate before you vaccinate!
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July 27, 2011
12:24 a.m.
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Written on Clinics seeing upswing in vaccinations as start of school nears | VIDEO:

in response to justwondering (who wrote):

"Children who have health insurance which covers physicals and vaccinations are encouraged to receive those services from primary-care physicians, but Cory said the Health Department does not deny those children."

We are "underinsured" but have been denied vaccinations twice at the Vanderburgh Health Department. Apparently the administration is not aware of what line-level staff are doing.

Marcella Piper-Terry: Consider yourself fortunate. You have additional time to learn what's really in those vaccines and to decide if they are really necessary for your child. Contrary to what the newspaper prints or the 6:00 news reports, your child does not have to be vaccinated in order to attend school. If you believe God created your child perfectly (including his/her immune system), and if you believe injecting multiple viruses, bacteria, and toxins into your child's body simultaneously (a medical experiment that has never been tested for safety) is against God's will, then you have grounds for a Religious Exemption. That's the law in Indiana. Please educate before you vaccinate. If your child is injured by vaccines, as many thousands of children have been, you will be left holding the bag. You can't sue vaccine manufacturers; they are protected from liability by the U.S. Government.
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July 27, 2011
12:19 a.m.
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Written on Clinics seeing upswing in vaccinations as start of school nears | VIDEO:

in response to princeskayla#122383 (who wrote):

They make this sound so easy which it is not. My primary care doctor does not give immunizations any more. The doctors office suggested I contact the health dept to get the shots. I called the Warrick county health dept. I was asked if I had insurance. I said "yes" I did and I was told that they could not help me. They only give the immunizations to children with no insurance. I then contacted several different places and was told the same thing. I ran across a place that told me that I could pay out of pocket for the immunizations. But I would have to contact my insurance company to see if I could get reimbursed. That would have been nice but I didn't have almost $300.00 laying around for the shots. I felt like I was being punished because I have medical insurance. As a last resort I contacted my primary care doctor once again to see if they could help. Luckily they agreed to go ahead and order the shots that I needed. They also went ahead and billed my insurance for me. If they wouldn't have agreed to do this I have no idea what I would have done.

Marcella Piper-Terry: Wow! I would love to know the name of your primary care doctor! There are MANY physicians throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world who have done their own research and as a result have stopped administering vaccinations because they realize it is against the Hippocratic Oath - "First do no harm."
There are many parents who would consider themselves extremely fortunate to have a physician who listened to their concerns and who did not "fire them from the practice" for simply bringing up their concerns about vaccines. This happens all too frequently. There is no medical procedure that exists which can be applied to 100% of the population, without a certain percentage of that population suffering negative health effects. Why are vaccines considered safe for ALL children. This makes NO SENSE.
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July 27, 2011
12:12 a.m.
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Written on Clinics seeing upswing in vaccinations as start of school nears | VIDEO:

in response to openeyes (who posted this video):

http://www.youtube.com/user/one4eric

Marcella Piper-Terry: Thank-you for sharing Eric's story. Your son's suffering will not be in vain. God bless you.
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July 27, 2011
12:02 a.m.
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Written on Clinics seeing upswing in vaccinations as start of school nears | VIDEO:

Marcella Piper-Terry: It is astounding to see a medical professional make light of the concerns and very real experiences of parents whose children have been injured or killed by vaccines. As this C&P story reports, children are only required to stay for an hour "or less" after receiving multiple injections simultaneously. This has never even been studied for safety. Vaccines are studied in isolation, and a few have been studied for their effects in combination, but there has been no safety or efficacy study that replicates the actual vaccination schedule.
Children do die from vaccines. They also develop seizures, encephalitis, immune system disorders, allergies, asthma, chronic ear infections, upper respiratory infections, eczema, food allergies, and a host of other problems.
Vaccine manufacturers cannot be sued if your child has an adverse reaction; they are protected from liability lawsuits by the U.S. government. If your child dies or has a serious adverse reaction, leaving him or her disabled for life, YOU are going to be the one taking care of him or her 24/7. That's the reality of vaccine injury and it is NO LAUGHING MATTER.
Shame on you C&P for not telling your readers about their rights as parents to religious exemption. It's the law in Indiana and it's simple. If you believe God created your child's immune system perfectly, and if you believe artificial manipulation of God's creation by injecting multiple viruses, bacteria and toxins into your child is against God's will, then you have the basis for a Religious Exemption. All you have to do is write it out, sign it, and hand it to the school nurse. For the Courier & Press to deny parents that information shows a lack of journalistic integrity and smacks of bias toward the pharmaceutical industry, those that manufacture and sell vaccines. As a source of the news, the Courier & Press owes it to its readers to report the facts and not to censor those facts just because of the fears or biases of its own reporters or editors.
Parents: At a minimum, please educate yourself about the ingredients contained in vaccines before blindly handing your child over as a guinea pig for pharmaceutical companies. Remember, they don't have to worry about whether the vaccines are safe - you can't sue them if they kill your child.
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July 26, 2011
3:55 p.m.
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Written on Clinics seeing upswing in vaccinations as start of school nears | VIDEO:

Marcella Piper-Terry: I find it sickening that the nurse(?) in the video jokes, "We haven't killed anybody yet!"
That is no laughing matter. It happens all the time. My now 17 year-old daughter nearly died two years ago from a vaccine reaction. She had a grand-mal seizure 3 hours after she had a SINGLE DTaP vaccine. She stopped breathing and her eyes rolled back in her head while I was holding her trying to keep her from giving herself a concussion as her head repeatedly banged on the floor.
Since that vaccine, she has been diagnosed with a Primary Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Her immune system is shot, making her BY FAR more vulnerable to lymphoma and leukemia.
Vaccines DO kill children and there are many factors that parents need to understand before blindly following the advice of someone who obviously thinks this is one big joke.
Most parents don't know that if their child suffers an adverse reaction (seizures, encephalitis, immune system problems, meningitis, coma, death, life-long disability), there is NO RECOURSE legally. You can't sue the vaccine manufacturer because they are protected from liability by the U.S. Government. Therefore, they Don't HAVE to make their products safe. There are no consequences to them when something does happen. It's all on you, as a parent.
The Courier & Press also needs to be impartial and report the truth about parents' rights to Religious Exemptions. They are NOT Difficult to get, and they are THE LAW in the state of Indiana. Learn more and educate before you vaccinate.
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July 26, 2011
3:37 p.m.
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Thank-you to all of my wonderful friends on facebook who took the time to pray for me. God does answer prayer. The proof is that he sent me you.
Many blessings and God's love to you,
Marci

CENSORSHIP RULES EVANSVILLE COURIER PRESS AS PARENTS OF VACCINE INJURED CHILDREN DENIED RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH

2011-07-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

"Carrie Mominee, right, talks to her daughter Kaylyn, 5, center, while she gets her back to school shots from communicable disease nurse, Kelly Kelley, left, on Wednesday morning. Kaylyn received two shots, a Kinrix for DTaP and Polio, and a MMRV, for measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox." - caption from the Evansville Courier & Press article.

Actually, five year-old Kaylyn received EIGHT vaccines - not Two. She was vaccinated for Diphteria, Tetanus, Pertussis (whooping cough), Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella (chicken pox). I doubt her mother knows that there has been not ONE SINGLE STUDY performed to investigate the safety or efficacy of administering all of these vaccines simultaneously to a human child. Each vaccine is studied in isolation for its effect on the body, but there are not now and never have been ANY studies that actually replicate the real world scenario that is the CDC's Recommended Childhood Vaccine Schedule. I wonder if Kaylyn's mother realizes that her daughter has just become a guinea pig for the pharmaceutical industry.

Next, you can view the video of Vanderburgh County Health Department Nurse, Kelly Kelley, administering shots, assuring us "They all turn out fine" and joking, "We haven't killed one yet!"

Kelly Kelley - Communicable Disease Epidemiologist at Vanderburgh County Department of Health

The article associated with this photo and video was printed in the Evansville (Indiana) Courier & Press Newspaper on Monday, July 24, 2011. The headline reads, "Sticking to the schedule - Community adjusting to revised immunizations" - I would provide a link to the online version of the article, but I can't, since it's been taken down by the Metro Editor, Mr. Tom Lovett.

I first spoke with Mr. Lovett yesterday, when I called to ask him if the paper would do an article on vaccine-injured children or at the very minimun provide the whole store about religious and medical exemptions, which parents in Indiana are legally entitled to by law. Mr. Lovett made it perfectly clear that while he sympathizes with my own situation, "I can tell you are passionate about this, and I believe you believe your daughter was injured by vaccines..." he is completely unwilling to even consider publishing anything in the Courier & Press that may make parents believe there is ANYTHING dangerous about vaccines. "I'm not going to go there." He stated adamantly that the CDC has decided that vaccines are safe, telling me that "even the doctor who published the original artical backed away from this." (I assume he was talking about Andrew Wakefield, who has most certainly not backed away from anything. I also assume Mr. Lovett knows nothing about Brian Deer or the Murdoch scandal. He wasn't in the mood to be educated, so I wasn't going to go there with him, either.

I assured Mr. Lovett that I was not wanting to make this about autism, but was asking only for equal time to explain that there are some children who are more vulnerable to vaccine injury. At the very least, I begged, please tell parents about their rights to exemption. The article mentioned exemptions vaguely, though not by name: "Waivers could be obtained in special circumstances." As I pointed out, this is misleading and makes it sound like it's difficult to get an exemption. It's not. In the state of Indiana, all you (as a parent or guardian) have to do is write out your religious exemption and hand it to the school nurse. I did it. Mine reads, "My daughter does not receive vaccinations because we believe God created her immune system perfectly. We also believe that artificial manipulation of her immune system is against God's will." If you want to learn more about vaccines, how to find out what's in them, and if you may want to exercise your legal right to religious exemption, I suggest reading my blogpost VACCINE INGREDIENTS, CHILDREN AS GUINEA PIGS, & RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS.

At any rate, Mr. Lovett was helpful in suggesting I either write a letter to the editor or contact the editor of the opinions page and ask to be a guest commentator. I pointed out that there is a world of difference between a front page story and a letter to the editor, but I was wasting my breath by this time, so I let it go. I did, however, ask if the comments section of the online article would be censored. I was assured by Mr. Lovett that they would not. He stated that as long as people followed the Courier & Press' policy for comments and did not engage in profanity or personal attacks, there would be no censorship. Sadly, Mr. Lovett did not keep his word.

This morning I heard from several friends that the comments on the online article had been disabled. They knew this because they, as parents of vaccine-injured children who care about the health of other children, went to the online article and tried to share their stories. A few of the posts were published before Mr. Lovett disabled comments and removed them. I called Mr. Lovett to ask why the comments were disabled and was informed that he had disabled them because they were not following C&P's policy. I reminded him that he had specifically stated that the comments would not be censored and I certainly had not seen any profanity or personal attacks. Mr. Lovett stated in today's telephone conversation (the first one today) that the comments were removed because they were "off topic." He went on to tell me that because the article was not about vaccine safety, but was about "getting shots for school," comments made by parents concerned about vaccine safety were "off topic."

After I thought about this for a while, I called Mr. Lovett back. I asked him to clarify the "off topic" thing for me. I reminded him that the online article did contain a video of Nurse Kelly Kelley giving vaccines and assuring parents "they always turn out fine" and then joking about how the vaccines she has administered have not killed any children yet. I stated my confusion as to how comments by parents whose children have been injured or killed could be off-topic? That's when Mr. Lovett hung up on me.

Since our last telephone conversation, not only have the comments been disabled, now the entire article is gone. Fortunately, I had already started this blog post and had saved the link to the video and downloaded the photo. I suggest you view it and share quickly. Censorship is king at the Evansville Courier & Press, and it may not be available for long.

VACCINE INGREDIENTS, CHILDREN AS GUINEA PIGS, & RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS

2011-07-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

I have an eleven year-old daughter who is about to start middle school in Indiana. She will not be vaccinated because we believe that God created her immune system perfectly and we also believe that to artificially manipulate the immune system that God created is against His will. This is exactly what is written on her Religious Exemption, which, thankfully, is part of the law in Indiana. If you do not live in Indiana, and you want to know your state's laws on vaccine exemptions, you can find that information at the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website. (link provided below)

A couple of years ago, Indiana (and many other states) changed their "mandated" vaccines to be in compliance with the CDC's recommended schedule. This means that all eleven year-old girls entering middle school (and who do not have either religious or medical exemptions) will receive three additional shots in order to attend the schools their parents pay for when they pay taxes. The three "mandated" shots are DTaP, Varicella, and Meningococcal. Many parents will also be talked into (or have been brainwashed by media lies) having their daughters vaccinated against HPV and the flu. These poor, unsuspecting girls may receive FIVE injections of SEVEN vaccines in a single day. As I write this, my stomach churns and my heart sinks. I can't wait to hug and kiss my daughter, knowing she will be ONE LESS - Thank God for religious exemption. I don't take it lightly and neither should you. This is a right that is being threatened and which we may lose if we do not take action to stop the corruption and collusion between the U.S. Government and the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Enough about politics. For now.

I wondered, for those girls (Leah's friends and classmates) who will be receiving those vaccines, just what will be injected into them in that one visit? Many of them will be going to the vaccine clinics that have been advertised all over town. That means they will be getting vaccines from multi-dose vials that contain mercury. I know they will get a lot of aluminum, and since aluminum causes the same kinds of damage as mercury, AND since aluminum greatly increases the toxicity of mercury, even at minute doses, this is very worrisome. What else will they be injected with? Thanks to Barbara Loe Fisher at NVIC, we can find out.

I keyed in Leah's age and weight (95#). She's not getting vaccinated, but many of her friends are approximately the same age and size, so I figured this was a good "standard" to use. The vaccines I chose (from the menu), are those that I know are used by my family doctor. The amounts will vary somewhat, depending on what manufacturer you choose. Here is a list of what will be injected directly into the bodies of Leah's classmates.

Aluminum: 555 micrograms (mcg.)

Bovine Protein: Unknown amount - the amount of bovine (cow) protein in the Varicella vaccine is not disclosed by the manufacturer, so there is no way to know how much these girls will be injected with. There is no data available regarding the safety of injecting cow protein directly into children.

Egg Protein: Unknown amount. The amount of egg protein (chicken) in the Fluvirin vaccine is not disclosed. There is no data available regarding the safety of injecting egg protein directly into children.

Formaldehyde: 5 mcg. There is no data regarding the safety of injecting formaldehyde directly into children.

Human DNA from fetal cell line MRC-5

Human protein from fetal cell line MRC-5

Human protein from WI-38 - There is no way to know how much human fetal DNA & human fetal protein will be injected (again, not disclosed). There is also no data available regarding the safety of injecting human fetal DNA or human fetal protein directly into children.

Mercury: 50 micrograms (25 mcg from the flu vaccine, and 25 mcg from Menomune - both are multi-dose vials). The EPA safety limit is 5 micrograms. So, children who are vaccinated simultaneously with Menomune and Fluvirin at vaccine clinics will receive 10 times the safety limit of mercury. In one day.

Phenoxyethanol: 3.3 milligrams (mg.). There is no data regarding the safety of injecting phenoxyethanol into children. According to the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on 2-Phenoxyethanol, it is "extremely hazardous" in case of ingestion, inhalation, skin contact or eye-contact. It is toxic to the nervous system, kidneys, and liver.

Polysorbate 80: 50 mcg. Again, there is no data available regarding the safety of injecting Polysorbate 80 directly into children.

Yeast Protein: Unknown amount, and no data regarding the safety of injecting directly into children.

My daughter will not be receiving these vaccinations. She is not a guinea pig; she's a child. And she's my child - and she is God's child. Therefore we are exercising our right to religious exemption. I hope you will, too. I also hope you will join the Canary Party, and help us fight to protect the rights of parents to choose whether or not their child should be used as a guinea pig, for the financial benefit of the medical community and big pharma.

Links:

The Canary Party

Vaccine Ingredients Calculator

NVIC's Information Regarding State Laws for Vaccine Exemption

MSDS for 2-phenoxyethanol (note: I tried to look for the MSDS for phenoxyethanol, and it redirected me to this. I don't know the difference, but am not taking any chances with my kid.)

MSDS for aluminum

MSDS for mercury

MSDS for formaldehyde

We Are Anti-Vaccine Wackos. It's Just What We Do.

2011-02-20T16:07:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of arguing between autism groups. Those who align with the ND side (neuro-diversity) often accuse those on the biomedical side of "hating" our children and refusing to accept them for who they are. Those of us whose children got very sick (physically) after receiving vaccines can be off-putting and may be guilty of the kind of over-zealous fanaticism frequently associated with ex-smokers and "Bible-thumpers." This post is my attempt to highlight some of the reasons why we do what we do.

There is a multitude of issues regarding vaccines. Probably the biggest issue, as it relates to autism and other neurodevelopmental, immunological, gastrointestinal disorders is the overwhelming number and concentration in the ever-growing childhood schedule.

In 1983, this was the childhood vaccine schedule: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/images/schedule1983s.jpg

In 1989, this was the childhood vaccine schedule: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/images/schedule1989s.jpg

In 1994, this was the childhood vaccine schedule: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/images/schedule1994s.jpg

The explosion of sick kids began in the early 1990s. Looking at the difference in the vaccine schedules, we can see that this time frame coincides with the addition of the Hepatitis B vaccine. Recent studies have shown that any immunity conferred by the hep B vaccine series is gone within 2-5 years. Another recent study found that boys who were vaccinated against Hepatitis B were three times more likely to develop autism than boys who were not vaccinated against Hepatitis B. Hep B is a sexually transmitted disease. Infants and toddlers usually aren't out running around having sex, so there is no justification in giving this vaccine.

The childhood vaccine schedule has continued to increase in size and complexity over the last 16 years. For parents who follow the schedule, which now includes yearly flu shots beginning at six months of age, their children receive 36 separate injections, which contain 50 vaccinations by the time they enter kindergarten.

Here is the 2010 childhood vaccination schedule: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/downloads/child/0-6yrs-schedule-pr.pdf

The second issue, albeit related to the first, is that current vaccination laws force parents into an "all-or-nothing" stance. In order to claim a religious exemption you have to refuse ALL vaccinations. You can't pick and choose which make sense for your child. Many physicians will not work with parents who want to exercise caution and spread out vaccinations. Some physicians "fire" parents from the practice if they even bring up the subject. So, if you ARE concerned about measles, diptheria, polio, etc. (the "childhood diseases" everyone cites when discussing their fears about death from going unvaccinated), you ALSO have to accept having your child injected with a whole bunch of stuff he or she does not need and which may cause adverse effects. This is a very important concept. We, as concerned parents who love our children and want what's best for them, are FORCED to given them MEDICATION (vaccines are medication - you can't get them without a prescription and they contain chemicals and things designed to alter the way your body functions) they DO NOT NEED and which carries significant risk of side-effects. We do not FORCE adults to take medication even when the HAVE an illness. There are laws to protect adults from government-mandated medication. You cannot legally force a person with schizophrenia to take anti-psychotic medication, even when that person has already displayed violent aggression to others. You can't legally force a cancer patient to take chemotherapy or radiation. If the government cannot force people to take medication when they HAVE an illness, how is it the government can force parents to consent for our infants and children to be injected with medications for illnesses they do not even have, and for which they have an extremely low risk (in many cases zero) of contracting?

Some will argue that nobody is "forcing" us to vaccinate. Thankfully, we do have some options, but we also give up a lot of our rights in the process. Many of us have to leave the workforce because our children are not allowed to attend daycare. Many of us lose our jobs because our children are so sick from vaccine-injury that we are FORCED to stay home full-time, whether that was our initial intent or not. Many of us are FORCED to become dependent on the government for financial assistance, especially if our marriages fail because the constant stress of caring for a sick child is overwhelming, financially, emotionally, and physically.

Many of us are lumped together in a big group and labeled "Anti-Vaxxers." Some of us ARE Anti-Vaxxers. Some of us have been forced into being "Anti-Vaxxers" because we have no other choice. This is not a position we have chosen for ourselves and for many of us it is not an easy stance to take. We are simply doing our own research and weighing the costs-vs-benefits for our own children. At least that's how it starts out. What happens in the process though, is we start to learn the truth about vaccines. We learn that they have not been studied for safety. We learn that they are implemented very quickly into the schedule without regard for their effects on "vulnerable populations." As we research, we start to see patterns and we realize more and more how our children are not so rare, and how more children are being harmed everyday by mass vaccination. That's when we become increasingly vocal. That's when it becomes not just about protecting our children but about trying to protect your children, too. We realize that in many cases our concern for your children is not something you welcome. We realize that you wish we would just shut-up and go away. Many of us realize these things because we used to be you.

The reason we keep doing what we do is because we wish, beyond anything you can possibly comprehend, that someone would have done for us what we are trying to do for you.

You don't have to agree with us. You don't have to think we are right. You don't have to be our friends.

We really do hope that you never know what it is like to be one of us. However, we also know that unless things change, our club is going to keep growing. If you become one of us, we will accept you unconditionally, and we will do everything we can to help you.

That's just what we do.

Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism

2011-02-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

Okay. I give up.
Vaccines do not cause autism.

Autism is a behavioral diagnosis. In order to receive the diagnosis of "Autism" a child must exhibit a certain number of behaviors over a certain time frame. If he or she does not do so, the diagnosis of "autism" is not warranted.

There is no blood test for "autism."

"Autism" can't be confirmed or "ruled-out" by laboratory analysis. It's strictly a behavioral diagnosis.

Therefore, anything that causes physiological damage cannot directly "cause" autism.

Ergo... vaccines cannot "cause" "autism."

Vaccines cause other stuff.

Vaccines cause encephalitis.
Vaccines cause seizures.
Vaccines cause immune system deficiencies.
Vaccines cause gastrointestinal problems.

Encephalitis causes mood swings.
Encephalitis causes extreme pain.
Encephalitis causes inattention and impulsivity.
Encephalitis causes aggression.
Encephalitis causes balance problems and difficulty relating to one's environment.

Seizures cause mood swings.
Seizures cause inattention and impulsivity.
Seizures cause alterations in conciousness.

Immune system deficiencies cause children to have more frequent bacterial infections, such as ear infections, upper respiratory infections (URIs), sinusutis, and strep infections.

Immune system deficiencies cause children to have more frequent viral infections, such as stomatitis, "fevers of unknown origin," "viral rashes," hives, conjunctivitis, and gastrointestinal viruses that cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Immune system deficiencies cause children to be more vulnerable to "everything that's going around" and to have a tougher time getting over things than their peers.

Gastrointestinal damage from vaccines causes diarrhea.
Gastrointestinal damage from vaccines causes nausea, reflux, vomiting, and the recently discovered "disease" now known as GERD (Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease).

Gatrointestinal damage from vaccines causes increased vulnerability to viruses and bacteria, which leads to increased administration of antibiotics, which leads to overgrowth of pathogenic yeast.

Pathogenic yeast overgrowth leads to intestinal hyperpermeability ("leaky gut syndrome").

Pathogenic yeast overgrowth leads to constipation.
Pathogenic yeast overgrowth leads to food allergies.
Pathogenic yeast overgrowth leads to skin eruptions, "drunken, silly behavior," inattention and impulsivity, and cravings for bread, sugar, ice cream, milk, and carbohydrates.

Technically, vaccines do not cause autism because techincally there is no such thing as autism.

Vaccines cause the underlying physical conditions that result in the pain, neurological damage, immune system disorders, gastrointestinal damage, and yeast overgrowth - all of which combine to produce the behavioral symptoms that result in the "autism" diagnosis.

Gastrointestinal damage is the most obvious result of vaccine damage.

When a previously healthy child suddenly starts having multiple episodes of watery and extremely stinky diarrhea every day, and this happens shortly after receiving vaccinations, it is notable as a "vaccine injury." What is not so obvious is that when the child's gut is permanently damaged, he or she is no longer able to absorb nutrients necessary to produce neurotransmitters necessary for proper brain function. So when the child develops mood swings, sleep difficulties, and learning disabilities several months later, these issues are not recognized as being related to the vaccine injury because the initial damage occurred many months earlier.

Please re-read the previous paragraph.

This is why Dr. Andrew Wakefield is such a threat to the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Wakefield NEVER said vaccines cause autism.
Dr. Wakefield is a gastroenterologist. He saw a number of children with gastrointestinal problems who also happened to be diagnosed with autism. Dr. Wakefield reported his observations. He never claimed that the MMR "caused" autism. He merely reported that a number of children he had seen had BOTH gastrointestinal problems AND autism, and according to parental report, these issues developed within a short time of when the children received the MMR vaccine.

Again... Why is Dr. Wakefield such a threat to the pharmaceutical industry?

Hint: Not because vaccines cause autism - they don't.

Vaccines cause gastrointestinal damage.

Gastrointestinal damage causes malabsorption of nutrients necessary for proper brain function.
Malabsorption of essential nutrients causes immune system disorders, seizures, encephalopathy, etc... and THAT's what leads to the ultimate diagnosis of "autism."

If Dr. Wakefield's obervations are correct, SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE will eventually draw the connection between vaccines and the domino-effect that leads to the "autism" diagnosis. From the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry, better to "nip it in the bud" now, which means discrediting Dr. Wakefield to the extent that no one will look further into the science.

Has this ploy worked?
Not for me. And not for many of the very intelligent parents I know.
Only time will tell if there are enough of us to make a difference.

Dear Alisyn Camerota: We ARE the Experts, and We are NOT Going Away.

2011-01-25T05:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Alisyn Camerota:

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.

Treating the Flu Naturally

2011-01-22T18:02:00.000-08:00

This post was written in Fall 2009 when my daughter had "Swine Flu." It's still relevant. I hope you find some information here that will help you feel confident in your ability to treat flu symptoms without resorting to injecting your kids with toxins.

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

Environmental Toxins and Autism - Epigenetics

2011-01-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning, January 21, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) I will be the guest on Cindy Walsh's Blogtalk Radio Show: Kitchen Sink Autism. I hope you will join us!

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.

FAREWELL TO ANDERSON COOPER

2011-01-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

NOTE: There are a lot of links in this post. When you click on a link, you will need to click the "back" arrow to return to this post.

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.

THE COST OF VACCINATING AGAINST SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED DISEASE

2010-12-21T01:22:00.000-08:00

Do you know how much money we are paying (as U.S. taxpayers) to vaccinate infants and children against sexually transmitted diseases?

I spent some time today looking at the numbers. Here is what I found:

In 2008, there were 4,247,695 births in the United States according to the National Vital Statistics report .

Nationally, in 2008, the percentage of children between the ages of 19-35 months of age who lived below the poverty level (and therefore qualified for government-funded vaccinations) was 28.7 (Source)

Assuming the percentage of children born in 2008 and living below the poverty level is similar to the percentage of other preschool children in the U.S. who are living in poverty, we can estimate the number of government-funded vaccinations for children born in 2008 by multiplying the total number of births (4,247,695) by the percentage rate (.287). This gives us an estimate of 1,219,088.

According to data gathered by the CDC, among those children whose vaccinations were funded through the Vaccinations For Children (VFC) program (government-funded vaccines), 95.1% received all three Hepatitis B Vaccinations.

This means that 1,159,353 American children were vaccinated in 2008 against Hepatitis B (three times each) at tax-payers’ expense.

What does this mean?

According to the CDC’s Vaccine Price List, the cost of the Hepatitis B Vaccine (CDC cost per dose) is $10.25.

Three doses (as recommended in the 2010 Childhood Schedule) would cost $30.75.

So, the United States’ taxpayers paid a total of approximately $35,650,105.00 to vaccinate infants against a sexually-transmitted disease. IN ONE YEAR!

Our government spent more than thirty-five million dollars (our tax dollars) vaccinating children against hepatitis B. IN ONE YEAR!

Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease. It is spread through sexual contact and sharing of infected needles, just like HIV/AIDS. Recent studies reveal that ANY immunity conferred through vaccination is GONE in 2-5 years. So, those children who have been vaccinated as infants will no longer have ANY immunity from vaccination by the time they become sexually active (unless they are crib-hopping in the hospital nursery!).

This is a complete waste of money. However, this is money that has already been spent. What we need to ask ourselves at this point is, what do we have to look forward to in the future?

The Hepatitis B vaccine is a vaccine that is designed and marketed as protection from a sexually-transmitted disease. Another vaccine that has been recently developed and heavily marketed as protection against a sexually-transmitted disease is the HPV vaccine, known as Gardasil or Cervarix. Assuming that our government will continue to fund vaccination according to the recommended schedule for all U.S. children living at or below the poverty level, we can expect our taxpayer dollars to fund the vaccination of these children against HPV in the future.

The current cost of Gardasil (CDC cost per dose) is $108.72.

The current cost of Cervarix (CDC cost per dose) is $96.08.

Splitting the difference, we can expect to pay AT LEAST $ 102.40 per injection. At three injections, that means we (the U.S. taxpayers) will spend approximately $307.00 per child to vaccinate against HPV.

At $307.00 per child, it will cost us (the United States’ Taxpayers) $374,260,016.00 to vaccinate the children born in 2008, and living at or below the poverty level, against HPV virus. Of course, by the time children who are born in 2008 reach the age where they are required to receive the HPV vaccination in order to attend school, the cost of the vaccine may be much higher than it is now.

This is nuts.

The only ones who are benefiting from this are the vaccine manufacturers and the government officials who support them. Meanwhile, more and more children are dying from the vaccines, which are not only expensive, but have never been proven to be safe or even effective.

WE ARE FOOTING THE BILL WHILE THE GOVERNMENT IS KILLING OUR CHILDREN!

Why are we allowing this to happen?

School Nurses and Parents' Right to Informed Consent

2010-10-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

I just responded to a facebook friend who commented on one of my Notes. This mother of a vaccine-injured child informed the school nurse of her Religious Exemption status. The nurse reportedly treated the mother "like a 3 year-old child" who was making a foolish decision by exercising her legal right to refrain from further vaccinating after her son had experienced serious complications from previous vaccines. This mother also reports the school nurse attempted to include her in a conspiracy to deny other parents their legal right to informed consent by advising her to keep quiet about the fact that parents are entitled to Religious Exemption. The school nurse reportedly told this mother not to tell anyone else about the fact that she was claiming religious exemption for her son, or that such a thing exists and others are entitled to do the same.

How many of us who are exercising our rights to Religious or Philosophical Exemptions from vaccination have experienced something similar?

My advise to my facebook friend is to write a letter to the nurse documenting her concerns about having been asked to with-hold information from other parents about their legal rights and about the dangers of vaccinating children who are at increased risk of having negative reactions. I advised this mother to copy the letter to the superintendent of the school district, making the episode a matter of public record. Thinking about it now, sending a copy to the local newspaper and to members of the school board wouldn't be a bad idea.

School nurses are in positions where they have a responsibility to exercise care and concern for the children who attend their schools. They also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have accurate information when it comes to the health and well-being of their children. At the very least, they should not be actively denying parents information they need to make informed decisions and they certainly should not be actively recruiting other parents to help assist them in denying parents information about their legal rights.

When something happens to a child who attends the school where this nurse is on staff, an investigation needs to be started to determine if the parents of that child were denied information about exemptions that may have prevented the injury or death of the child, and if this is the case, the school nurse needs to be held accountable. It seems to me a case could be made for conspiracy and criminal negligence, or even negligent homicide if a child dies.

My thoughts about this are that it is highly likely that other parents have encountered this kind of scenario, not only with school nurses, but with pharmacists and nurses who are administering vaccinations at drug stores, Walmart, and other public places. If this has happened to you, I urge you to document the episode, include the date and time of the incident, note where it took place, and the name of the "health professional" involved. Also note if others were present and witnessed the discussion. Then make it public.

This is serious. Children are being harmed and we cannot keep silent just because it may upset someone. As I noted in my message to my facebook friend, "There is a reason for everything. This conversation happened to you and it is your cue to take action." If for no other reason than to protect ourselves from the guilt and pain of knowing we could have done something and chose not to, we must not be silent.

Plea to the Media: PLEASE Provide Information About Vaccine Exemptions!

2010-10-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night (October 19, 2010) I sent an email to News25 (Evansville, IN) reporter Kimberly Barbour after watching her reporting of all the kids sent home from EVSC because they don't have up-to-date vaccinations.
Here is my original message:

From: Marci Terry Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 10:29 PM
To: Kimberly Barbour
Subject: EVSC and vaccines

I just saw the story on the 10:00 news about students in the EVSC not being allowed to attend school unless they have received the "recommended" vaccinations.

Are you aware that "recommendations" are not the same as "Law?"

Indiana DOES provide parents with the option of exemptions. You are incorrectly telling parents that their children must receive vaccinations, which puts you in the position of assuming the role of a medical professional.

You may be held liable if children have adverse affects - including death - as a result of being vaccinated when they already have established immunity.

You may want to retract this story.

Marcella Piper-Terry, M.S.

Yesterday afternoon I received the following email response from Ms. Barbour:
Subject: RE: EVSC and vaccines Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:50:23 -0500

From: kbarbour@news25.us
To: marcellaterry@hotmail.com

Ms. Piper-Terry,

Thank you for your response. It is state law for schools to have shot records for all students. Indiana, thankfully, is a state that allows medical exemptions, but there still has to be documentation provided for them to include in their shot records. I have explained the state law in several previous stories on this topic. The schools have also explained this in their many notices to parents.

Kimberly Barbour
Reporter
WEHT-TV News 25
(812)483-3841

Here is my reply to Ms. Barbour's email:

Ms. Barbour:

Thank-you for your email.
Indiana does provide for medical exemption, as do ALL states in the U.S.
Forty-eight states, including Indiana, also provide for Religious exemptions; Mississippi and West Virginia are the only two states that do not allow this exemption.

Many people realize that they do have a religious exemption to vaccinations when they understand how the vaccines are made and how they do or do not work. Most people do not realize that vaccines contain mercury and aluminum, and that there have never been safety studies to examine the effects of vaccinating children with multiple antigens and additives simultaneously.

I have religious exemptions for myself and my children, based on my belief that God made our bodies perfectly and His design ensured that we were able to fight off illnesses if our immune system is allowed to rally itself naturally in the face of diseases such as the flu or chicken pox. Because I believe God made our bodies perfectly, I believe it is against His will for me to allow anyone to inject viruses, bacteria, mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, polysorbate 80, neomyacin, or anything that has been cultured in non-human DNA or aborted fetal tissue into their bodies - or mine.

Religious exemption is a very easy thing to do, and it is the legal right of parents to choose this if it is consistent with their beliefs.

All a parent has to do is write down on a piece of paper that they are not vaccinating because it is against their religious beliefs, sign it, and give it to the school nurse.

People need to know that this in an option and it is their legal right.

People need to know that there are many conditions that are contraindicated for vaccination. For example, if a child has had a previous reaction to vaccines, such as having a seizure or running a high fever, it is contraindicated for them to be vaccinated again with that vaccine. It is also a contraindication for many vaccines if a FAMILY member has a seizure disorder or has had a reaction to vaccines.

If you think I'm making this up, you need to look at the vaccine inserts that contain the information directly from the manufacturers.

Here is a link from Johns Hopkins that will take you to a table where you can look at the vaccine inserts for yourself.

People also need to know that there are many children who should NOT receive vaccinations because they have underlying mitochondrial disorders that make them exponentially more vulnerable to vaccine damage. Children in Evansville are more likely to have mitochondrial disorders because of the very high rates of heavy metals here from the coal burning power plants. The amount of manganese in this area has gone up by more than 1 million pounds per year over the last four years, and manganese CAUSES mitochondrial disorders. These are alterations in DNA that damage the body's energy system, including the ability to produce and utilize ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate). This changes the way the immune system responds to challenge and results in systemic damage rather than the child responding with increased immunity.

Here is a link where you can get information about mitochondrial disorder and what people should look for when considering if they may want to get their child tested for this before getting vaccinated:

Please note that mitochondrial disorder is passed from mother to child - OR - can happen at any time during the lifespan as a result of exposure to toxic levels of certain substances, among them manganese, lead, mercury, arsenic and antimony - all of which are extremely high in the Evansville area because of the amount of coal that is burned here. This is one reason why we have such high rates of diabetes, thyroid disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and autism. ANYONE who has these issues needs to be tested for mitochondrial disorder before being vaccinated, and any Mother who has these issues needs to know that her child is at increased risk of vaccine injury if he or she has an underlying mitochondrial disorder that has not been diagnosed. This was the case for Hannah Poling, whose family was awarded millions of dollars (correction: $1.5 Million) recently in vaccine court for her vaccine injuries - not because she has autism, but because she regressed into autism after vaccination DUE TO underlying mitochondrial disorder. To hear more about Hannah Poling's story and her parents' research into what happened to their daughter, click this link.

(Note: Please understand that thimerosal has not been removed from childhood vaccines. It is still present in flu shots which are being given routinely to pregnant women, so infants are actually now receiving mercury at an even more vulnerable stage of brain development. For more on thimerosal in flu vaccinations and the overall issues related to giving flu shots to pregnant women and children, click this link.

You should also understand that even in the absence of thimerosal altogether, infants and children are receiving toxic levels of aluminum, etc. in vaccines. For more on aluminum in vaccines, please review the article written by Dr. Bob Sears: "Is Aluminum the New Thimerosal?"

Back to my email to Ms. Barbour:
It is not too much to ask for people to be told the truth about the risks they are taking. The consequences of vaccine injury are lifelong.

Please help to set the record straight by informing parents of "the rest of the story."

Thanks so much,
Marcella Piper-Terry

Additional note: People also need to know that if an infant or child was fed soy formula there is increased risk of mitochondrial disorder because of high levels of manganese in the formula. These children should be checked to see if they have mitochondrial disorder before even considering vaccinating as the risk for vaccine injury increases to 1 in 50 for those with mito d/o.
Here are a couple of links for information about issues related to soy formula, mitochondrial damage, and manganese from environmental exposures (power plants):

Journal of NeuroToxicology

Journal of the American College of Nutrion

Soy Formula and Manganese Studies from the Violence Research Foundation

Toxicology information on Manganese. See section 11.

Scholarly articles on Manganese and Mitochondrial Damage

Environmental Health Article, Manganese, Particulate Matter, and Mitochondrial Damage

It's Flu Season. Let the Fear-Mongering Begin!

2010-10-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning a pediatrician left a comment on my critique of the MMR study, asking pointedly why I chose to critique such a small study. The doctor stated that the study in question was the smallest one he's ever seen. He asserted that there are many more vaccine studies, "some with over a million subjects." He wanted to know why I don't critique them. I asked him to please provide the links because I have not been able to find any such studies. The fact is, it is standard operating procedure for the vaccine makers to conduct studies with very small sample sizes and to then make sweeping declarations of the safety of their products. This is particularly true for the flu vaccine.

Last week I walked into the local CVS pharmacy and asked for the package insert for the flu vaccine they will be using this Saturday at their "vaccine clinic." The girl behind the pharmacy counter didn't know what I was talking about. So I asked if they have the vials on hand. She said yes. I asked to see the box. She retrieved it from the refrigerator. I wrote down the name - "Fluvirin" and noted that it is the multi-dose variety.

Here is the manufacturer's insert:

Each .5 ml dose contains 25 mcg. of thimerosal (ethyl mercury), which means if your child gets two doses, he or she will be getting 50 mcg. of thimerosal.

If you ask your doctor if this is safe, you will most likely be told "Yes." If you ask if the research has been done to prove safety of this particular vaccine, you will most likely be told "yes." I suggest you don't stop there.

On page 10 of the package insert (link above), you will find the information about the clinical studies in the pediatric population. Here it is:

In 1987 a clinical study was carried out in 38 ‘at risk’ children aged between 4 and 12 years (17 females and 21 males). To record the safety of FLUVIRIN, participants recorded their symptoms on a diary card during the three days after vaccination and noted any further symptoms they thought were attributable to the vaccine. The only reactions recorded were tenderness at the site of vaccination in 21% of the participants on day 1, which was still present in 16% on day 2 and 5% on day 3. In one child, the tenderness was also accompanied by redness at the site of injection for two days. The reactions were not age-dependent and there was no bias towards the younger children.

Three clinical studies were carried out between 1995 and 2004 in a total of 520 pediatric subjects (age range 6 - 47 months). Of these, 285 healthy subjects plus 41 ‘at risk’ subjects received FLUVIRN. No serious adverse events were reported.

FLUVIRIN should only be used for the immunization of persons aged 4 years and over.

That's it. The 2010-2011 Fluvirin Vaccine has been deemed safe to administer to ALL U.S. children 4 years and older, and this decision is based on studies of 38 children that were done in 1987, and 326 children studied between 1995 and 2004.

That's not a lot of kids to base the decision that the vaccine is safe for ALL children.

What's even more troubling is that this year's vaccine contains two strains of seasonal flu (A & B) AND it also contains H1N1.

H1N1 did not resurface until 2009. The vaccines that were studied in 1987, 1995, and 2004 did not contain H1N1.

This flu vaccine has NEVER been studied in children. But it has been deemed "Safe for all U.S. children aged 4 years and above."

Yesterday morning I contacted the USI Student Health Clinic to find out what flu vaccine they are giving and to what groups. I spoke with a nurse who told me they are using Fluzone multi-dose vials and they are giving it to "all ages" including pregnant women. The nurse added, "We gave it to them last year."

Here is the package insert for Fluzone:

Page 1: "Safety and effectiveness of Fluzone have not been established in pregnant women, nursing mothers, or children <6 months of age."

Page 3: "6.1. Clinical Trial Experience - Fluzone - Pediatric Studies: The 2003-2004 formulation of Fluzone was studied in 19 children 6 to 23 months of age and in 12 children 24 to 36 months of age, given in 2 doses one month apart. Local reactions and systemic events were solicited for 3 days after each dose. Most local and systemic reactions were mild. The proportions of local and systemic reactions in children were simliar to the proportions in adults."

This vaccine, which contains mercury, is being recommended for ALL children 6 months and older. It has been deemed "safe" on the basis of clinical trials that included a total of 31 children between the ages of 6-36 months.

THe formulation that was studied in 2003-2004 is different from the formulation this year, so this year's flu vaccine has not been studied AT ALL for its effect in infants and young children.

Page 4: "8. Use in specific populations - 8.1 pregnancy: Pregnancy Category C.: Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with Fluzone. It is also not known whether Fluzone can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproduction capacity. Fluzone should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed."

WHY WOULD ANYONE ASSUME IT IS OKAY TO GIVE THIS VACCINE TO PREGNANT WOMEN?
WHY WOULD PREGNANT WOMEN BE LINING UP TO RECEIVE IT?
WHY WOULD PARENTS OF INFANTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN BE LINING UP TO HAVE THEIR KIDS VACCINATED WITH SOMETHING THAT CONTAINS MERCURY AND WHICH HAS NOT BEEN TESTED FOR SAFETY?

People are afraid of the flu. They are afraid because the CDC tells them to be afraid.

This is the lnk to the CDC's own report of the 2009-2010 flu season:

On pg. 3: "A dramatic increase in hospitalizations in the younger age groups was indicative of the influenza pandemic's impact on children." If you look at the numbers and do the math, the "dramatic increase" in children 4 and under was 83 hospitalizations per 100,000 as compared with 34/100,000 (avg. from the previous 3 flu seasons).

The "dramatic increase" in hospitalizations in kids 4 yrs and under amounts to 6.83 kids per month in a city of 100,000 people, as compared to between 2.62-4.25 kids per month in the same city during each of the previous 3 flu seasons.

Breaking it down by week... during last years "pandemic" flu season, in a city of 100,000 people there was an average of 1.63 hospitalizations for flu (confirmed by laboratory analysis) in children four years and younger.

In the previous three flu seasons, in the same city of 100,000 people, hospitalizations for kids 4 and under were between .63 and 1.01 kids per week.

So, according to the CDC's own document, the "dramatic increase" on the pediatric population (kids four and under, in this case), as measured by hospitalizations for laboratory confirmed flu, amounted to less than one child per week in cities of 100,000 people.

Who is "fear-mongering" now?

Scaring the public with terminology like "dramatic increase" in order to sell more vaccines to pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers when the vaccines have not been tested for safety in these groups is unethical and unconscionable.

NANCY SNYDERMAN IS CONCERNED ABOUT CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN RESEARCH STUDIES

2010-09-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

Dr. Nancy Snyderman is concerned about conflict of interest and possible bias in study outcomes. She has finally admitted that "Science is a moving target." She came out this morning on the Today Show and announced, "Critics are saying that this is in fact a flawed study." Yes! Nancy Snyderman is questioning the validity of published, peer-reviewed medical research! Finally!

She talks about the difference in groups of subjects who are diagnosed with the same illness but have variations of the disease, saying, "We can't throw them all in the same waste basket." Yes, Nancy! Children who are ill from birth are DIFFERENT from children who regressed after vaccination!

Dr. Snyderman goes on... "The American Cancer Society and the American Academy of Radiology have both come out in support of this study. I caution people there is a conflict of interest for both of those organizations. There's big money behind mammography."

What? The American Cancer Society? The American Academy of Radiology? Shit. I thought she was talking about autism. I thought she was talking about the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, and the big money in vaccinations. Silly me. What was I thinking?

Here is the link to this morning's segment.

Dr. Snyderman continues, "That means 21,800,000 women have to be screened every year to find the (2,000) tumors. Mammography is not without its consequences. It means the chest is getting radiated every year and the cumulative effects we don't know for years. I would ask everyone to stand back and pause and remember medicine is individualized. And for those women who don't have risk factors perhaps you don't need to start at 40...I wouldn't undo what our task force said last year based on this study... [the task force] said, "Remember to individualize and talk to your doctor because so much of this screening comes down to individual risk factors, your own concern, and frankly, the need not to overdiagnose, and not to overtreat in society today."

Amazing.
Let me edit the above paragraph and see how it sounds...

"That means 21,000,000 children (U.S. census data, 2008: 21 million children under age five) have to be vaccinated every year against seasonal flu in order to prevent somewhere between five and 200 deaths in this population. (source: CDC data) (Note: I was not immediately able to find the exact number of children under the age of five who died from the flu last year. If someone has that information handy, I will be glad to amend this post with that number. The CDC link provided is an average of flu deaths per year and the numbers given are for children and adolescents under age 19. The number of children under five who die from the flu would be expected to be much lower than 200.) This means children, beginning at six months of age, are receiving 25 micrograms of thimerosal (mercury) every year, and the cumulative effects we don't know for years. I would ask everyone to stand back and pause, and remember medicine is individualized."

Or, how about this...
"That means 4,317,119 infants (U.S. Census data, 2007) have to be vaccinated on the first day of life against the sexually transmitted disease, Hepatitis B, in order to prevent the approximately 300 cases of Hepatitis B (infection, not deaths in children under 14 years of age, CDC MMWR, October 31, 1997). Vaccination against Hepatitis B is not without risk. Click here to view a package insert from the vaccine manufacturer. I would ask everyone to stand back and pause and remember medicine is individualized. And for those infants who don't have risk factors perhaps you don't need to be vaccinated within 24 hours of birth. For example, if you are not sneaking out of your bassinet to have sex with the kid next to you in the nursery, and you are not using IV drugs, and your mother is not infected with Hepatitis B (or you are not going to be cared for by someone who is infected) then you can probably safely skip this vaccination. Remember to individualize and talk to your doctor because so much of this screening comes down to individual risk factors, your own concern, and frankly, the need not to overdiagnose, and not to overtreat in society today."

Or, one more...
"That means 21,000,000 children under the age of five have to receive a second dose of the MMR vaccine in order to catch to 5-10% of children who do not establish immunity after the first dose. MMR vaccination is not without its consequences. Click this link to view the package insert from the MMR vaccine manufacturer. Click this link to read about the severe consequences for one family. I would ask everyone to stand back and pause and remember medicine is individualized. Remember to individualize and talk to your doctor because so much of this screening comes down to individual risk factors, your own concern, and frankly, the need not to overdiagnose, and not to overtreat in society today."

Come on, Nancy. That's not so hard, is it?
Why the double-standard? Why exercise so much caution when it comes to women and not with children? Is it because you have breasts? Or is the reason because of your own conflicts of interest and biases? Where do your loyalties lie? With your "colleague," Paul Offit?
Your fawning praise of Dr. Offit in this Today Show segment would certainly suggest this may be the case.

Why argue for caution and advise people to question results of studies where there are conflicts of interest when it comes to mammograms, but not when it comes to vaccinations and your "colleagues?"
In case you don't know what I'm talking about, let me enlighten you, or rather, let Sheryl Atkisson enlighten you with her article, "How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?"

Dr. Snyderman, you have lost all credibility. I suggest you shut the #$@% up and do not open your mouth further regarding the safety of vaccines, unless it is to offer a retraction and an apology to those parents whose children have been harmed because they followed your "advice."

Suicide and Heavy Metals in Vanderburgh County, Who's Responsible for the Death of DeTwain Barnett?

2010-09-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended a talk at USI given by Vanderburgh County Coroner, Annie Groves. Coroner Groves has had the unenviable job over the last five years of trying to figure out why Vanderburgh County has one of the highest rates of suicide in the United States.

I have emailed Annie Groves a few times in the last couple of years, asking her to please consider testing for heavy metals in the bodies of victims of suicide. I have not heard anything in response, but I do not know for sure if she has ever received my emails. Last night I had an opportunity to speak with her face-to-face, and to express to her my concerns about the heavy metals in the environment here, and the possible connection with our high rate of suicide.

The suicides in Vanderburgh County really hit home for me a few years ago when DeTwain Barnett (age 10) hung himself. At that time, DeTwain was the youngest victim of suicide Vanderburgh County had seen. At last night's presentation, Coroner Groves informed us that 10 year-old DeTwain no longer holds that record. The youngest child to have committed suicide in Vanderburgh County is now seven - 7 Years Old.

I was outraged when DeTwain died. I am outraged now.

I am repeating my original post, written after DeTwain's death. I am doing this because it is so important, and because I hope that if enough people join me in my outrage, something will be done.

ORIGINAL POST FROM MAY 2007:

The following is in regards to the suicide of 10 year-old De-Twain Barnett, who hung himself in his mother’s apartment in Evansville, Indiana on May 12, 2007. If you are unfamiliar with the story of De-Twain, please read the article by accessing the link provided.

Note: It appears the original article published in the Courier and Press Newspaper is no longer accessible. There are a couple of follow-up pieces you may wish to read by clicking here and here

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a therapist in Evansville, working with children and adults. I have never worked at Cross Pointe, Mulberry Center, or South Western Indiana Mental Health Center. I share many of the concerns others have voiced in the online forum in response to the death of De-Twain. From the descriptions provided by those who knew him best, he sounds like an intelligent, spontaneous, creative boy who wanted to do well but had trouble complying with expectations of teachers in the classroom. The article in the Courier & Press indicated that De-Twain was frequently in trouble at school. His mother recalled he was beginning to feel that nobody liked him. After reading some of the comments written by his young friends as well as adults who knew him outside the classroom, it appears to me (as a strictly outside observer) that De-Twain’s "behavioral problems" may have been due to a number of separate issues, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, learning disabilities, auditory or visual processing disorders, fine-motor problems, food allergies, or the result of his body’s response to environmental toxins. In short, there are many things we, the general public, do not know about this child. Regarding the question of whom to blame, I believe we all need to take a few deep breaths, examine our own priorities and ask ourselves if we could have done anything to prevent this from happening.

What DO we know about De-Twain? We know that he had a great smile. We know his mother believed he was smart, even though his report cards did not reflect his intelligence. We have been told that he was funny, could be silly, and loved to draw. His mother talked about how he would check out DVDs from the library and study the cartoons, honing his own artistic skills. In my experience, when a child is intelligent but unable to demonstrate success in reading, math, or writing, he or she is often quite talented musically or artistically - the intelligence finds a way to come out. Unfortunately, we have focused so heavily on test scores and "academic achievement," with budget cuts in our public schools reflecting our collective disdain for the importance of the arts in education. As a result, our creative children (who are often highly intelligent and our most sensitive & intuitive) frequently are left without an outlet for their gifts or an avenue of expression for their pain. When a child is bright and wants to succeed, but struggles due to unaddressed health problems or learning disabilities, he or she may be especially vulnerable to depression, social isolation, and suicidal ideation. These are the children who need art and music the most! If we are so focused on competition that we devalue the child who is not a “Straight A” student, then we are at least partly responsible for the ones we lose.

In the article about DeTwain’s death, his mother revealed that her son really struggled in school, to the point where she was hearing from his teachers on an almost daily basis. When a child exhibits such a high level of difficulty, something serious is going on. Children who exhibit behavior problems are not “bad children.” They are children who need help. I encourage anyone who cares about our children to learn about the many issues that can affect behavior, attention, and the ability to learn in the classroom environment. A child with allergies or asthma is likely to have increased behavior issues in spring and fall when environmental allergens and air-borne toxins increase. If a child is allergic or sensitive to casein and gluten (dairy products and grains), he or she will OFTEN exhibit behaviors that are indistinguishable from ADHD and can even look psychotic. Anyone who doubts the ability of milk to make you crazy is encouraged to rent the DVD of The Aviator - the story of Howard Hughes. The more milk he drank, the crazier he became. In addition to milk, parents should pay attention to the amount of ice cream and milkshakes their behaviorally volatile children are eating and drinking.

Stomach problems (diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux) affect school performance. Children who have had multiple ear infections, upper respiratory infections, or strep throat are especially likely to have trouble in school as a result of problems with their digestive systems. Many of our kids have had so many antibiotics that their intestinal tracts are shot from yeast overgrowth. They are constipated, gassy, have foul-smelling breath, and skin problems. They crave sugar and carbohydrates. When you have a constipated child and a gut full of yeast and sugar, that's not a child, it's a STILL! Sugar, yeast, and fermentation equals alcohol. No wonder our kids can't pay attention in class and act like they're drunk - they are! Parents of children who struggle MUST do their own research and educate themselves. Sadly, if you ask your physician about food allergies or yeast problems, you may well be told there is nothing to those rumors. This is a point where parents have a responsibility to pursue the issue further, and professionals have a responsibility to admit they may not have all the answers.

As parents, we all need to examine what our children are eating – at home and at school. Improving a child’s diet can go a long way toward improving his or her behavior and functioning. Simple steps like cutting out artificial dyes and preservatives can make a big difference in some children. Give filtered water, fresh fruits and vegetables. Do a little research on the connection between intake of fried foods in early life and breast cancer later on. If we as parents abdicate our responsibility for feeding and fueling our children because it's easier to "drive through," then we must accept part of the responsibility for their health problems, now and in the future.

Finally, we have to face the facts that in this area, we are all being poisoned by the toxins in the air. Alcoa and Sigeco are both among the top 10 polluters in the entire nation when it comes to the toxins they put into the air, including sulfur-dioxide, nitrogen-dioxide, lead, mercury, aluminum, cadmium, and arsenic. These poisons don't just cause cancer - they destroy our children's central nervous systems and contribute to increases in learning disabilities, Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and bipolar disorder. Alcoa and Sigeco are not the only culprits. If you want to learn more about what's in our air, you can do the research yourself on the EPA website. The question is, how many people are willing to risk the monetary losses associated with doing what's right for our children and our environment? If we are not willing to give up a little in the wallet, then we must share in the blame for what is happening to our children (and to ourselves).
(Please read the accompanying article, “What’s Going On in Indiana” for more information about toxins that may be associated with the rise in suicides.)

When we lose a child like this, it is a sad thing for all of us because we as a society will never benefit from DeTwain's gifts. When I counsel clients who have lost loved ones, one thing we work toward is trying to find some meaning out of the loss. My hope is that DeTwain's death will not be completely in vain, but will serve as a wake-up call to those of us who remain. We are all responsible for OUR children. Please, let's start working together to heal their world and make it one from which they are not so desperate to escape.

Marci

Rampant Virus or Lead Poisoning?

2010-09-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

This evening I was washing dishes when I noticed outside my kitchen window a huge cloud of dust.

When I looked further, I could see that the cloud was coming from the tractor across the street. The farmer was plowing his field. The corn that grew there this summer was harvested a couple of weeks ago, as was the corn that grew in the field directly behind my house. There is nothing left to harvest. I'm not sure what he was trying to do, but the result for my family was a whopping dose of dust and heavy metals. This happens every year. Coincidentally (NOT!) my daughter gets very sick every year at this same time.

Here is a post I wrote two years ago on this same subject:

Guess what? Today is an Ozone and Particulate Alert Day in Evansville and surrounding areas! If you live anywhere in the tri-state this should not come as a surprise. As one person commented in the online forum, "It's like Groundhog Day!" - we live the same thing over and over again.

Here is my take on what's really going on:

My daughter is home from school today with a "stomach virus." I called the school and was told that the vomiting and diarrhea stuff is rampant right now. Because I know that gastrointestinal problems (vomiting and diarrhea) are among the first signs of lead poisoning, I'm wondering how much of this has to do with the fact that it's harvest time? The harvesting equipment has been kicking up all kinds of dust for the last few weeks. With all the problems in the air, and everything being washed back into the ground when it rains, I question whether we are experiencing a virus or lead poisoning? According to the information at one interactive periodic table, lead isotopes are extremely stable with a half-life of up to 53,000 years! Another site lists the half-life of one lead isotope at 3x10 to the 7th power - that computes to 300,000,000 years.

Click here to view the information on lead.

In a nutshell, everything that has been spewed into the air here since the beginning of the 20th century and the Industrial Age is still here. This is why it is SO important to stop it now. It's not just about what's in the air today. What's in the air today goes back into the ground with the next rain. Then it eventually goes back into the air through evaporation or, as it is right now, by being stirred up with the harvesting.

And guess what else? What's in the ground goes in the food. It's not a coincidence that so many people have developed so many food allergies and gluten sensitivities. Toxins stay in wheat and other crops and when something is that stable, it is not degraded by cooking.

People here get so upset about the "liberal tree huggers" because they are worried about losing their jobs if we force the polluters to be responsible. Well, guess what. It's not just the manufacturing jobs that are at risk. When the food grown in this region is too toxic to eat, our economy is really going to shut down.

Wake up.

And by the way. I'm not a liberal tree hugger. I am a liberal child hugger. This stuff is killing our children.
Marci Terry

Mitch Daniels, the Coal Industry, and Indiana's Autism Epidemic

2010-09-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmstead's newly released book Age of Autism is ground-breaking. Their research into the histories of the earliest known cases of autism reveals what I have suspected since moving to Indiana nearly 8 years ago.

The difference in the children here is striking; these are the sickest kids I have ever seen. My suspicion that the coal industry has a lot to do with this fact was only strengthened by my involvement with Defeat Autism Now, and in my work with families of children who carry an autism spectrum disorders (ASD) diagnosis.

A highly disproportionate number of the children here who are so ill are children and grandchildren of coal miners. Those who do not have family histories of exposure to heavy metals through occupational exposure have been exposed through intergenerational accumulations of lead, mercury, and other heavy metals by virtue of the fact that they live in the lower Ohio Valley, which is "The Coal Burning Power-Plant Capital of the World."

I hope you will take the time to go through the information contained in this post. I hope you will share it widely with others who care about children with autism. I hope you will come to believe, as I do, that this situation is important and we must do something to change it.

Mitch Daniels is the former Vice President of Marketing Strategy for Eli Lilly. If you have read David Kirby's book Evidence of Harm you may recall that Mitch Daniels was a prime suspect when the Lilly Rider was secretly tacked onto the Homeland Security Act within hours of that bill going up for passage. The purpose of the Lilly Rider was to protect vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits filed by families of children who have been injured by vaccines. Mitch Daniels has denied being involved in the insertion of the Lilly Rider. He has denied knowing anything about it, and has denied ever even hearing about Thimerosal until after the insertion of the Lilly Rider became the source of public outcry. You will have to decide for yourself what your beliefs are on this issue. The present concern is not with what he did or did not do in the past. It is with what he is doing currently and what he is likely to do in the future.

Mitch Daniels is the current governor of Indiana. It is becoming increasingly clear that he intends to seek the presidency in 2012.

I am asking you to please view the information presented here and decide if you believe this would be a good move for America, or for the world.

Since taking office in January 2005, Mitch Daniels has improved the economic status in Indiana. The question is, "At what cost to Indiana's children?"

In 2007 Indiana ranked 6th in the U.S. for the number of children with an autism diagnosis in the public schools. At that time the rate was 1 in 106. And that number doesn't count children who are home-schooled, or children who are not yet identified by the school system.

Since taking office, Mitch Daniels has consistently pushed for more and bigger coal burning power plants in the state of Indiana, comparing Indiana's coal reserves to Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.

This graphic depiction shows the results of a study that was conducted in Texas, comparing the rates of autism with proximity to sources of environmental mercury from coal plants. The box at the upper right shows the results. For every 1,000 pounds of mercury released into the environment from coal burning power plants, there was a 61% increase in the rate of autism....AND, the closer in proximity, the higher the autism rate.

In southwestern Indiana, we are surrounded.

It's not just mercury we have to worry about. The effects of toxins are not only additive and cumulative over time, they are synergistic. That means they interact with each other in such a way that the effect of two different toxins in small amounts is much more damaging than the effects of either one in larger amounts. It's like drinking alcohol and taking prescription drugs. Either one will hurt you if you take enough of it, but if you take them together, they will hurt you in much smaller amounts.

Vanderburgh County is where Evansville is located. This county has for the last few years, had the highest suicide rate in the United States. An article in the local newspaper from September 21, 2010 documents the latest death by suicide and confirms what I have suspected: The drastic increase coincides with Mitch Daniels' ownership of the governor's office in the state and the resulting increases in heavy metals in the environment here.

The rate of suicides in Vanderburgh County is 4 times the national average - AND it's also 4 times the rate of the state of Indiana. WHY?

What role does the environment, and specifically heavy metals in the environment, play in the high rate of suicide? Could the high rates of suicide and the high incidence of autism be linked to a common factor?
Note: Use this link to go the the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website’s database for the Toxic Release Inventory (2008) information for the state of Indiana.

Note: I have been told that there are 17 coal-fired power plants within a 50-mile radius of Evansville. I was only able to find information for 15, using the EPA TRI data, so that is the number I am using.

The information at the top in blue includes all 15 sites. When I separated the totals for Indiana and Kentucky, the Kentucky numbers went down considerably, which resulted in the decrease in the overall total.
The number in red at the bottom is Indiana's performance with the impact of Kentucky plants factored out.

The information at the top in blue includes all 15 sites.
The number in red at the bottom is Indiana's performance with the impact of Kentucky plants factored out.

Total for Indiana and Kentucky combined is at the top.
Indiana's total is at the bottom, with Kentucky factored out.

Total for Indiana and Kentucky at the top.
Indiana without Kentucky in red at the bottom.

Indiana and Kentucky at the top.
Indiana alone at the bottom.

Indiana and Kentucky combined at the top.
Indiana alone at the bottom.

Remember way back at the beginning of this post when I asked if the environmental heavy metals may be a common factor related to the high suicide rate and the high rate of autism? Vanadium excess, in particular, bears further examination.

• Vanadium depletes Lithium.
• Lithium (the prescription drug) has been the drug of choice for the treatment of bipolar disorder for decades.
• Bipolar disorder is THE psychiatric disorder with the highest incidence of suicide.
• Officials in Vanderburgh County will tell you that a large percentage of the suicide victims were also abusing drugs and alcohol.
• Patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder have a very high rate of comorbid (co-existing) substance abuse and addictions.

VANADIUM EXCESS DEPLETES LITHIUM.

With regard to autism…
• Lithium deficiency (the mineral) is extremely common among children diagnosed with autism.
• Elemental lithium (the mineral, in very small doses) is a natural anti-viral with specific action against herpes viruses.
• Children with a diagnosis of autism frequently have viral infections in the herpes family, especially HHV-6.
• Research has revealed a subset of children with autism who have high viral titers for HHV-6 and Measles. Research also indicates that this combination of factors appears to result in the formation of auto-antibodies to specific brain proteins (myelin basic protein and neuron-axon filament protein).

Follow this link to read the full text
of my letter to Governor Daniels.

For more on Mitch Daniels, Eli Lily, and the 2012 presidential election, you may want to check out this recent article from Steven Higgs of The Bloomington Alternative.

The coal-burning power plants in Indiana are not only situated extremely close to schools, where our children run around on the playgrounds, increasing the uptake of heavy metals into their bodies. As this photo depicts, the heavy metals are also going into the environment where a substantial amount of food is being grown. This impacts everyone because these crops are exported to other states and other countries.

For more about the toxic air and the impact on school children, check out these articles from USA Today and The Bloomington Alternative.

This is an actual hair analysis performed on a four year-old boy diagnosed with ASD, and living in SW Indiana.

The top part of this report shows elevations in toxic metals that are present in coal and released into the environment by coal-fired power plants.

The bottom of this graph shows the dysregulation of essential minerals. This is the signature of heavy metals poisoning.

Mercury is not elevated, which is very common for children with autism, ADHD, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Research has shown that children with autism often have lower levels of mercury in their hair when compared to children who do not have an autism diagnosis. Researchers believe the reason is because in order for it to show up in the hair, the children have to be able to excrete it. Children with autism frequently have trouble with the excretion of mercury. Instead of excreting it, mercury is stored in the brain, liver and kidneys.

Exposure to mercury depletes metallothioneine, which is necessary for detoxification of metals. This sets the stage for extreme toxicity for children who live in areas that are polluted with heavy metals (like Southwestern Indiana).

As long as the amount of heavy metals in the environment continues to increase, the rates of autism will also increase, even if we stop vaccinating. Our children are being poisoned. If we continue to vaccinate them at the current rate, the damage will be worse for children who live in environments like Southwestern Indiana. The effect is synergistic and cumulative.

Mitch Daniels wants to be president.
With a 70% approval rating and being tagged as a "rising star" in the Republican Party, it could happen.

Dear doctor: I can't sleep.

2010-09-22T01:20:00.000-07:00

Dear doctor:

I can't sleep.

Before you reach for your prescription pad and write me a script for Ambien, please... just take a few moments to listen to what's bothering me. I have a feeling that if you just focus for a bit on what I am trying to tell you, the beneficial effects will be much more lasting than anything you could possibly prescribe to ameliorate the symptoms of insomnia associated with my underlying frustration.
I really just need to be heard.

You have seen me in your office many times. Over the years, I have gained weight, acquired wrinkles, and my hair has turned gray. I have come to you on occasion asking for bloodwork because I have been concerned about my own health, but it has been much more likely for you to see me when I bring my daughter in because she is sick with strep, or because we need a referral for the neurologist, or for the endocrinologist, or immunologist, or dermatologist, or neuropsychologist, speech pathologist, gastroenterologist, audiologist, ENT or orthopedic surgeon.

I am 50 years old. My daughter is 16. Her medical file is bigger than mine. Much bigger. I have finally realized that this is a good thing, since I will most likely be the one taking care of her for the rest of her life, and I need to be healthy. Without me, she has no one.

So, here it is... 3:38 a.m.

I have a class at 8:00. The alarm will go off at 6:20. That gives me roughly 2.5 hours to tell you why I can't sleep.

I am tired.
I am tired of being talked down to.
I am tired of the way you roll your eyes when I express my concerns about mercury and aluminum in vaccinations.
I am tired of worrying about whether or not you are going to give me a hard time when I ask for a note for school so my daughter is not forced to drink milk at lunch.
I am tired of trying to explain to you why she needs to take enzymes at school so she doesn't spend the second half of the day in the bathroom or in the nurse's office.
I am tired of riding to the hospital in an ambulance.
I am tired of holding her head up off the floor so she doesn't get a concussion when she seizes after getting a tetanus shot you insisted she had to have.
I am tired of enduring your disdain and the dirty looks of the nurses in your office when I, once again, refuse to give consent for her to get the flu shot.

After all of the time and money I have spent in your office over the years, I deserve your attention, if not your respect. I know you are the one with the initials M.D. behind your name. What you don't know is that if not for the last 16 years spent caring for my sick child, I would also have some pretty impressive initials behind my name. As it is, the initials I have are M.S. (Master of Science). When my daughter got sick, I was on my way to obtaining my Ph.D. That didn't happen. She needed me more and I couldn't do both.

So here I am, 16 years later, and I'm working on my MSW (Master of Social Work) because I finally realized that if I'm ever going to be able to pay off my student loans I need to figure out a way to make a living at something I can do while caring for my daughter for the rest of her life. The best way I know is to do something that benefits not only her, but other children who are struggling with the same issues she struggles with. I had hoped to go on and finish the Ph.D., but at this point, it's probably not going to happen.

What I need you to understand is that just because I don't have the proper initials behind my name does not mean I have lost my ability to think critically or to do excellent research. If anything, my skills in this area have improved, being strengthened not only by 16 years of experience, but by the motivation that comes from being the Parent of a sick Child (Ps.C).

When you were studying medicine, you learned about a lot of things in a span of six or eight years. You have worked hard and there are a lot of people who respect you and who depend on you to help them feel better. You deserve the respect that comes with the initials "M.D."

Over the last 16 years I have learned a lot, too. The difference is, I have been specializing in a very narrowly focused area. I am now THE expert on MY child. I may not have the same initials as you, but I deserve the respect that comes from sacrificing and working hard to heal my daughter. I will no longer tolerate your rolling eyes or heavy sighs when I ask for a moment of your time. And I will not lose one more minute of sleep worrying about whether or not you will work with me to help my daughter. If you don't, I will find someone who will. I hope it doesn't come to that, because there are times when I really do need your help and expertise, and I do not want to have to start over, building that relationship with someone new. But if I have to, I will.

So here are the rules:

1. Do not try to push any more vaccines on my family. You know how I feel about this, and you know I have done my research. If you want to know WHY I will not give consent, please ask. I will be more than happy to spend as long as it takes to share the information I have learned with you because I fully believe it will help you to become a better physician.

Actually, that's pretty much it.
I am asking for your respect.
I am demanding it.
I deserve it.

Thank-you. I feel so much better. I think I can actually grab a couple of hours sleep before the alarm goes off.

I am looking forward to building our new relationship; one that is focused on the common goal of healing my child.

With the highest regard,
Marcella Piper-Terry, Ps.C.
(Parent of a sick Child)

Follow-up to My Critique of Pediatric Article Proclaiming No Link Between Thimerosal and Autism

2010-09-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to respond to a critique of my comments regarding the study published in the journal Pediatrics, which was used earlier this week to proclaim (once again) that there is no link between thimerosal and autism. I do not know the identity of the person who responded to my comments, so I do not have a name or title to use to help delineate my responses from his or her responses. The person did self-identify as a one of the "shills," so I will use that term to indicate his/her statements, and MPT (my initials) to indicate mine.

If you haven't read my comments from which this discussion stems, here is a link to the previous blog post: http://4allofyou.blogspot.com/2010/09/cdcs-latest-study-finds-no-link-between.html

SHILL: Let's look at Ms. Piper-Terry's complaints:

"1. Lower functioning children were excluded because their problems were so severe that it made it tough to assess them."

She makes this complaint based on an interview that the author did:

http://www.wellsphere.com/autism-autism-spectrum-article/questions-and-answers-with-the-thimerosal-autism-study-author/1220904

She manages to quote the author's explanation as to why they did a subgroup analysis excluding the more serious cases, but, like any good quote miner, she managed to leave out a key quote from Dr. Price:
Therefore, an outcome category for AD with low cognitive functioning excluded was created and its relationship to exposure was estimated. The results for this subgroup were very similar to those for the overall analysis"

The reason the low-functioning children were excluded was because there was the concern that it could mask a true association. She also seemed to miss the point that the results for this subgroup are no different than the overall analysis (i.e. that thimerosal was not associated with development of autism even in this severe group). This data can all be found in the technical reports that are publically available, but I doubt she or T4TN has read them.

MPT RESPONSE:
It is true that I took the quote from an interview of one of the authors. It is also true that I did not include the entire explanation and omitted the information about the establishment of an "outcome category for AD with low cognitive functioning excluded..." My reason for leaving out this information is simple. I do not know how to quantify or interpret the author's statements that "exposure was estimated" or "results for this subgroup were very similar..." There is no statistical information provided in the article to either back up this statement, or to assist in further analysis of the author's assertion. Apparently, we are just supposed to take his word for it.

As for the exclusion of children with low cognitive functioning "because there was the concern that it could mask a true association," I would like to know more about the specific concerns that led to this exclusion criteria. Since it appears from the article that the researchers employed the ADOS as their sole method of criteria in their direct assessment of case-children, the possibility for over-inclusion could be considered a valid concern for children who were higher-functioning and whose scores may be closer to the neurotypical range of functioning on the domains this instrument adresses. For that reason, Best Practices dictates that assessment of children suspected of having an autism diagnosis must also include review of the developmental history, interview with parents (and teachers, if applicable), and review of previous medical history, including pre-existing diagnoses. The ADOS itself has demonstrated high reliability and validity in the standardization process, including demonstrating very high inter-relator reliability coefficients. At the risk of being accused of "quote-mining" the following may provide further clarification:

"The authors reported good inter-rater reliability estimates on the Communication, Reciprocal Social Interaction, Total, and Stereotyped Behaviors and Restricted Interests domains, with intraclass correlations ranging from .82 to .93 (Lord,
Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 2001). Test-retest reliability was also good, with intraclass correlations ranging from .73 to .82 on the Communication and Reciprocal Social Interaction domains, and .59 to .86 on the Stereotyped Behaviors and restricted Interests domain. Published validity studies also suggest good predictive validity, with sensitivities ranging from 90% to 97%, and specificities ranging from
87% to 94% for autism/ASD versus other clinical diagnoses" (Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 2001).
For additional information about the ADOS, follow this link: http://www.casrc.org/People/Internal_Investigators/Akshoomoff%20CASP%202.pdf

I have not read the technical report. When I looked at the study and wrote out my observations, it was not yet available for review. Whether or not I will take the time to read them remains to be seen. I really don't know what they could possible reveal that would change my mind about the validity of the study. If there is something in the technical report that is significant enough to negate the impact of the design flaws in the published article, then the authors should have included that information in the article.

SHILL: The technical reports are located here:

http://abtassociates.com/reports/Aut_Tech_Report_Vol1_090310.pdf http://abtassociates.com/reports/Aut_Tech_Report_Vol2_090310.pdf

They also include some other interesting information as well including:

1. Mother's who took prenatal vitamins with folic acid had an approximately 2-fold higher risk (p value 0.0176) of having an autistic child. So, a possible non-vaccine related environmental factor right there it would seem.

MPT RESPONSE: First of all... (and this is a pet-peeve of mine), it is difficult for me to take seriously the comments of someone who is attempting to debate such a highly technical and complex issue as thimerosal and autism, when that person does not understand the basic rules of punctuation. For future reference, "Mothers" is a plural word, indicating that there is more than one "Mother" involved. "Mother's" is the possessive term, to be properly used when you are referring to an object or possibly a trait that belongs to a single (1) "Mother."

Now that that is out of the way... The finding that mothers who took prenatal vitamins with folic acid had a higher risk of having an autistic child is very interesting. Without knowing anything further about this, I would hypothesize that it is possible that these women may have had deficiencies of other B-vitamins (folic acid is one of the family of B-vitamins, which work together in concert), and if they were given folic acid without assessing the levels of B-12 and B-6, in particular, they may have problems in their methylation pathways. They methylation pathway is one of two major detoxification pathways in the body (the other being the sulfation pathway). The methylation pathway is responsible for detoxifying heavy metals, including thimerosal from the body. If the methlyation pathway is not working, thimerosal will not clear from the body as it is supposed to, and as vaccine-makers insist it does. When it does not clear the body because the pathways are not working properly (for example, because of a B-12 or B-6 deficiency), thimerosal deposits in soft tissues, including the kidneys and brain. Thimerosal has an especially strong affinity for the brain because it is very attracted to lipids, and the brain is the most lipid-dense organ in the human body. With regard to the folic acid, it is possible that by elevating folic acid in a group of women who have unknown deficiencies of the other nutrients necessary for methylation to take place, the tendency of the body to increase retention of thimersosal was facilitated. This is, of course, all hypthetical, as I am sure none of these women had their B-12 or B-6 levels checked during their pregnancies. This is, however a very important area of future research, that should not be overlooked as a possible contributor to the increase in autism, especially since oral contraceptives, antibiotics, and steroids ALL deplete B-6. Perhaps we could start looking at WHICH subgroups of women might be more prone to have infants that are at an increased risk of autism from thimerosal and other toxins in vaccines, rather than assuming that if it doesn't happen to everyone, it couldn't possibly happen to some.

SHILL: 2. There were COMPLETELY unvaccinated children both in the ASD group and the control group. That would seem to blow the "unvaccinated children can't get autism" hypothesis out of the water, now wouldn't it?

MPT RESPONSE: If this is a reference to my critique of the article, it is out of place. I never said unvaccinated children cannot get autism. (This tactic is called a "red herring" and is often used to steer a discussion off-topic.)

SHILL: 3. They examine the ASD prevalence as a function of HMO and year of birth.

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ABT-prevalence.png

What they find is that the rate of autism per 1000 is pretty flat and quite near the current estimated CDC values (~1.1%). That would certainly argue against any massive increase in overall incidence or an "autism epidemic".

MPT RESPONSE: No, that wouldn't argue against anything, since the explosion of the autism epidemic began in the 1980s and increased exponentially with the addition of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, all of which happened prior to the time frame that included the birth dates of the subjects in the study (1994-1999).

SHILL: Ms. Piper-Terry's other complaint is rather perplexing:

"2. The participants were pre-selected by virtue of mandatory physician's consent before they could be recruited into the study."

Yes, the evils of requiring consent. Only a very small number of potential subjects were removed via this mechanism (3.9%). Hardly suspicious of anything, except to the conspiratorial. I find it interesting though that Ms. Piper-Terry failed to castigate all of the parents who refused participation. This was a far larger proportion (32%) and some survey results are included as to why they refused to participate. Where is the conspiracy suggesting that those parents are involved in covering up the "truth"? But why expect consistency, right?

MPT RESPONSE: My criticism is regarding the mandate that the child's PHYSICIAN had to give consent for the family to be contacted about potentially participating in the study. This is very different from the absolutely necessary practice of obtaining informed consent from study participants, and in the case of children and vulnerable populations, obtaining consent from parents or guardians. There is NO established precident in research supporting the mandate that the physician pick and choose which parents of his patients deserve the right to participate in research. There may well be some reason as to WHY phsyicians were given this power to censor who participates and who doesn't, but the article does not elaborate, and as noted above, the technical report was not available when I wrote out my comments. I would still like to know what the rationale was, and may actually have to invest the time to go through the technical reports after-all. At any rate, the fact that physicians were given the power to pre-select which patients were allowed to consider whether or not to participate presents a HUGE problem with the study design because it means that the cases who were contacted and given the opportunity to participate do not represent a random sample. That fact alone is enough to invalidate the study results.

SHILL: Ms. Piper-Terry also complains about some children not meeting the requirements for the study. The authors are quite clear as to why those children were removed. Eligibility required that a child lived with it's mother since birth, the family spoke fluent English, and that the child did not already have a condition to which autism has been causally linked (in order to reduce the signal to noise ratio and provide a clearly observable signal).

MPT RESPONSE: Actually, the authors are quite clear about the fact that many of the issues raised in the above paragraph were considered before the children were classified as cases. I have no problem with the exclusion criteria listed here. Similarly, I was quite clear in my objections about children who were excluded, either by virtue of low-cognitive functioning or by the denial of access to them at all, by virtue of their physicians' denial of consent to even contact the families. The exclusion of children by either of these means is problematic because in doing so integrity of the study design is compromised, resulting in a lack of validity regarding any results reported.

SHILL: And last, thank goodness

Her final criticism:

"When comparing groups of 49 and 652, there is just a tad of inequality in the number of subjects."

Perhaps Ms. Piper-Terry should stick to being a biomedical consultant since her knowledge of statistical analysis is quite poor. One does not need the number of subjects in two groups to be equal in order to define a statstical difference in the analysis.

MPT RESPONSE: It is true that one does not need the number of subjects in two groups to be equal. However, the closer the groups are to being equal in number, the more power there is in the analysis. Inequality of subject groups influences which statistical analysis can be performed, for example when considering whether to use parametric or non-parametric analysis for comparing differences between groups. This is not a small issue and goes directly to the question of whether or not your results will reveal significance. I'm sure the researchers know this, even if "Shill" does not.

SHILL: Overall, Ms. Piper-Terry's arguments show some good quote mining, poor understanding of statistics, and overall lack of understanding in complex study design. I highly doubt she has read the 400 pages of technical reports detailing the intricacies of the study yet feels confident to comment on all of the details involved. Somehow I think the general acceptance of this study will not be much affected by Ms. Piper-Terry's rather poor commentary.

There you go Time4TruthNow. I guess one of the shills wasn't quite stumped, now was I?

MPT RESPONSE: I don't know this person (who self-identifies as a "shill") and I do not know the extent of his or her education, qualifications, experience, or associations. I am not going to comment on his or her personal strengths or weaknesses. The fact that he or she felt it necessary to attack me personally rather than confining his/her comments to the study design is another tactic often employed as a method of distracting readers from the issue at hand. It's called Ad Hominem and it is the practice of attempting to discredit the message by attacking the messenger. Watch out for this. It's a tactic frequently employed by those who know their arguments cannot withstand the scrutiny of close inspection by unbiased observers.

CDC's Latest Study Finds No Link Between Vaccines and Autism! What a Relief! (What a bunch of crap!)

2010-09-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

The big news yesterday... "There is no link found between vaccines and autism."
Wow. What a relief that is. We can all get back to our lives.

Don't celebrate too soon.

Here's the link to the article put out all over the place yesterday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/13/no-link-found-between-vac_n_715090.html

Here's a link where you can download the full-text article for free:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/peds.2010-0309v1

Here are my comments about this "study" after looking at it for about an hour:

Two problems right off the bat:

1. Lower functioning children were excluded because their problems were so severe that it made it tough to assess them.

2. The participants were pre-selected by virtue of mandatory physician's consent before they could be recruited into the study. Their doctors were the gate-keepers. So, if the doctor didn't want a particular kid in the study, he or she denied consent and that child was never recruited. With doctors not reporting vaccine reactions in the first place, and with the serious objections many physicians have to the mere suggestion that there is a link between vaccines and autism, this is a major design flaw. This is not a random sample.

Of 802 potential cases (children with autism diagnoses), physician's consent was refused in 31 cases (3.87%). With recent autism rates at 1 in 100 children (1%), this certainly raises more suspicion about WHY these physicians automatically refused consent for these families to even be contacted about potentially participating in the study.

Of 777 cases (autism diagnoses) whose physicians gave consent, 103 (13.26%) were deemed ineligible for participation. In the Opposing Views article (http://www.opposingviews.com/i/q-a-with-cristofer-price-thimerosal-autism-study-author) the following information provides insight about why these children were deemed "ineligible":

Question: "As to the paper, I see that the results are the same for autism with and without regression. Are there any other issues of severity which were checked (e.g. level of intellectual disability, seizures) which were also monitored?"

Response: "We did do a sub-analysis where AD cases with low cognitive functioning were excluded (see technical report on Monday for full details and results) Analysis of the subgroup of AD cases where children with low cognitive functioning were excluded was motivated by the following concern. Because children who are non-responsive during the assessment process are more difficult to assess, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether children with severe developmental delay actually have autistic disorder."

MPT: SO... they eliminated a sizable portion of the cases of children with autism on the basis that they were too severely impaired to participate in the assessment. This would DEFINITELY present at least a POTENTIAL for skewed results by eliminating the population of children with the most severe symptoms of mercury poisoning.

In the final analysis, after all of the physicians’ refusals and elimination of children who were "too severe to be assessed" there were only 49 cases (children with autism) that carried the Regressive Autism diagnosis. This represents 19% of the "Case Group" and 6.11% of the original group of 802 children who were potential "Cases" for the study. Ultimately, the exposures to thimerosal of this group of children (n=49) were compared statistically with the exposures of the "Control" group (children who did not have autism diagnoses; n=652), and "no significant differences" were found between groups.

No Shit.

As anyone who has looked at my previous analysis of the MMR study should know by now... The closer your groups are in number, the more powerful your analysis is. When comparing groups of 49 and 652, there is just a tad of inequality in the number of subjects.

This study is bunk.
Try again, CDC.

VACCINATION DOES NOT PROTECT AGAINST WHOOPING COUGH

2010-09-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

News flash! If you haven't heard by now... California is having it's largest outbreak of whooping cough in years. It's a serious situation and very tragically, 8 babies have died. This post is not making light of the problem, but encouraging you to learn the truth about what's going on.

After examining the data from the San Diego health department, authors of the news article below report, "Of the 332 confirmed cases of whooping cough in the county so far this year, 197 of the people who got sick were up-to-date on their immunizations. That's nearly 2 out of 3 cases."

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/07/vaccinated-people-getting-whooping-cough-sd/

The pertussis bacterium appears to be mutating. It appears this is happening in response to vaccination. When you consider the long list of side-effects associated with vaccinations (that don't work); things like seizures, encephalitis (brain inflammation), ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, and death, holding your infant down while he or she is injected with vaccines that don't even work makes NO SENSE.

Educate before you vaccinate.

If you want to know more about this issue, here are a couple of other posts that I recommend reading and sharing:

http://4allofyou.blogspot.com/2009/05/vaccines-and-autism-your-child-and.html

http://4allofyou.blogspot.com/2008/10/flu-vaccine-is-it-worth-it-cost-benefit.html

And here's one I just came across today, which follows up on the whooping cough article above:

http://thehamblogggerman.blogspot.com/2010/09/whooping-cough.html

If you choose to have your child vaccinated, AND you have done your own research about vaccinations, then you are making an informed decision. While it is not the one I would make or advocate for, it is your right as a parent. It is also my right, and I believe fully, my responsibility, to do what is best for my child and to do what I can to inform parents who do not have the research experience or resources at their disposal to find the information they need.

Keep learning.
Educate before you vaccinate.

Note: In my original post I erroneously referred to pertussis as being caused by a virus, instead of by a bacteria.
Thank-you to the individual who commented to let me know of my error.

IT'S IN THE AIR IN SOUTHWESTERN INDIANA, reposted from 2008

2010-07-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

The emissions of heavy metals and other toxins from coal-burning power plants in Southwestern Indiana have increased exponentially since Mitch Daniels took office as governor. Things are not getting better, they are getting worse, and people are dying as a result.

I'm reposting this because it is so important. Please help me to bring attention to this issue.God bless you.

Original post:

Today is August 14, 2008. The air today is unhealthy for sensitive individuals to breathe due to high levels of particulate matter. The forecast indicates we will have another PPM alert tomorrow, too. Unlike forecasting the weather, predicting the air quality here is no challenge. If it’s hot enough, don’t go outside if you are “sensitive.” This includes children, the elderly, and anyone who has asthma, allergies, or cardiopulmonary problems.

A major component of our particulate matter is sulfur-dioxide. It has been my belief for the last few years, that the high level of SO2 plays a major part in the incidence of learning disabilities, ADHD, and Autism in the children of the tri-state. In April 2007 I attended my second DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conference, which was held in Washington D.C. One of the questions I asked was if anyone is doing research to determine if SO2 is a contributing factor in the increase of autism and other developmental disabilities. Dr. John Pangborn, who is a brilliant man and has contributed SO much in the way of research, especially regarding the role of mercury in autism, responded to my question by stating, "Sulfur-dioxide is a noxious, toxic, poison. You can see it in the air, you can smell it, and you can taste it... If you believe sulfur-dioxide is contributing to your child's problems, my suggestion to you is MOVE!"

I was so taken aback by Dr. Pangborn's response that I spent most of that night writing a letter to him. That letter is the bulk of today's post.

Having had time to reflect on this situation, I must now thank Dr. Pangborn for his candor. The message we must internalize is this:

There is no cavalry coming to save us. We, the citizens of Indiana, have to do this ourselves.

LETTER TO DR. JOHN PANGBORN
FROM: MARCELLA PIPER-TERRY, M.S.
DATE: APRIL 23, 2007

Dear Dr. Pangborn:

My heart sank when you advised me to move. Then I got angry. Then I felt sick to my stomach and the tears came.

I know sulfur-dioxide is part of why there are so many sick children (and adults) in Indiana. My daughter is not the only one. Your statement, “…I suggest you move,” cut me to my soul. It’s the very same thing I have been fighting the urge to do since realizing, three years ago, that if I didn’t, I would be continuing to put my daughter’s health in peril – as well as my own – and that of my grand-daughter/adopted daughter.

My husband spent 24 years in the United States’ Air Force and now works managing the prototype Doppler Radar – which he has worked to build – from the ground-up, in a cornfield in rural Gibson County, Indiana. In November 2005, our community of Evansville lost 23 of our neighbors when a tornado hit at 2:00 a.m. We are still recovering and counting our blessings that thanks to the Doppler Radar, many thousands were able to prepare because we were informed and could take action against the threat. If not for the data provided by the radar, many more lives may well have been lost.

Before our move to Indiana my husband and our family lived here in Washington, D.C. Steve was the “Senior Non-Commissioned Officer In-Charge” of the “Ground Radar Maintenance Shop” at Andrews Air Force Base, and traveled worldwide to maintain the Air Force Radar Systems. I stayed at home, raising our daughter and working 3 days-a- week doing neuropsychological evaluations of children with ADHD, LD, ASD, and PDD.

In 2000, I was preparing to enter the doctoral program in Social/Health Psychology at George Washington University, where I had been offered full funding and a teaching assistantship. My studies and assistantship duties were set to begin in September 2000. In May 2000, I learned that the five month-old daughter of my 18 year-old bipolar/ADHD and (I now know) severely gluten/casein allergic son had been exposed to multiple toxins in utero through her 20 year-old mother’s drug and alcohol abuse. My grand-daughter was in an environment of ongoing and worsening neglect, which I could not ignore. She was floppy, exhibited tremors, screamed suddenly and for no reason, and had very poor eye-contact. Her mother was involved in an abusive relationship and her drug use was ongoing. (My son was also using drugs heavily and had been out of the picture since before the birth.)

When information came to light about the baby’s current situation, I could not sit by. I went to the Prince George’s County Courthouse (sans attorney), filed an ex-parte (had no idea what it was) and somehow was able to obtain emergency custody of my granddaughter. One week later the ex-parte was extended for one year. At that point it dawned on me that I needed a clone because there was no way I would be able to raise this baby and do full-time doctoral psychology load and teach and raise my five year-old.

With my husband’s retirement zooming at us in two years’ time and no job lined up for him, he agreed to embark on this commitment with me (after an initial, “You DID WHAT???!!!!”). I think I forgot to mention that he was TDY (Temporary Duty assignment) to Germany and Italy for 30 days when I got the emergency custody order. Anyway, I promised Steve that if he would do this with me, I would go wherever he needed to go, and do whatever I had to do, but I could not turn my back on Leah. The Ph.D. could wait. She couldn’t. It wasn’t even hard to walk into the psych department at George Washington University and tell Dr. Paul Poppen that I was not going to be working with him after-all. It would have been much more difficult if I had not had Rachel by the hand and Leah in my arms, but I knew without a doubt, that I was doing the right thing and I have never regretted it.

We got permanent custody of Leah in August 2001 after her mother deserted her and moved to Utah with the abusive boyfriend. We haven’t heard from her since and formally adopted Leah in May 2005.

On September 11, 2001 I took Rachel to school at Francis T. Evans Elementary, just outside the the gate and then dropped Leah off at the babysitter’s at 9:00 a.m. I heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center when I got back in my car and turned on NPR. When I pulled into the gas station on Andrews’, I heard about the second plane. As I was leaving the base, thinking, “This is NOT good…We’re next…” I saw the military guards with M-16s running toward the gate, beginning to close off the base – as I was driving through – leaving my children and getting onto the beltway to drive to Silver Springs, where I worked. Within minutes, I could see smoke downtown, and my brain just kept playing, over and over, “This is not good…This Is NOT Good…This is NOT GOOD…”

I am thankful to God and all the guardian angels in the cosmos that NPR did not announce, “The Pentagon has been hit” until I had pulled to the curb in front of my office – 45 minutes from Andrews Air Force Base. I don’t know how long I sat – holding my breath – with my hands covering my mouth – trying to keep the first giant sob from coming out. I think it must have been at least 30 minutes before I finally was able to turn off the car and stumble to the door. I don’t remember walking – only falling to my knees as soon as I got inside. Then the shaking started – and the real tears – as it hit me that I didn’t know if Steve was on Base that Tuesday – or if he was at the Pentagon. – My Girls – Leah is on base --- Rachel is at school just outside the gate – and BUSH’s Plane – THE TARGET – is on its way back to Andrews’…

It was four hours before I knew if my husband was alive, and it was 7:30 that night before I could get home because the beltway was gridlocked and people were panicking and running over each other. We were told, “If you’re safe, stay put!”

When I finally got back to the base, it took nearly 3 hours to drive and get through security – every car had to be searched. There were dogs to detect explosives and after that, I drove through what seemed like an endless gauntlet of soldiers lining both sides of the single-lane path, each with his or her M-16 at the shoulder.

Sadly, we got used to the searches and guns every time we took our daughter to school or brought her home – or left the base and returned for other reasons.

Shortly after 9/11, Rachel developed tic behaviors. She was always spacey and “zoned out” but things got a lot worse. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, after ruling out seizures and Central Auditory Processing Disorder at Johns’ Hopkins – I don’t mess around – I insisted Rachel be seen by John Freeman at Johns’ Hopkins Neurology and by Dana Boatman at JHU Cognitive Neurology for Central Auditory Processing testing. Then I took her to Walter Reed where she was evaluated by Stacey Williams, Chief of Behavioral Psychology. Rachel saw Dr. Lowry Shropshire, Head of Developmental Pediatrics at Bethesda – and after he put her on Dexedrine we saw a little improvement in attention – but worsening of tics and emotionality --- and so it goes.

Meanwhile, Leah continues to grow and with daily interventions (e.g., music, reading, pictures, touch, smell, etc…) her Developmental Quotients went from 100 (receptive) and 80 (expressive) at 11 months to 132 (expressive) and 134 (receptive) at 17 months – what can be done with neuronal plasticity!!! Behavior and fears were still issues, but she was (and is) doing great!In

October of 2002, we were preparing for our move to Indiana. I was still working in Silver Springs 3 days/week and was on my way to work on October 3rd – the first day of the Sniper Shootings. For the next 3 weeks I, along with everyone else in this area, lived in a CONSTANT state of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Hyper-arousal as we waited to see who was going to be killed next and where it would happen.

My family and I finally left for Indiana on October 25, 2002 – the day after “John Allen Muhammed” and “Lee Boyd Malvo” were arrested. Since moving to Indiana we have had a lot of adjustments, but life has definitely been quieter – in some respects. I have built a practice through networking and word of mouth. I am now attending my second Defeat Autism Now! conference, with plans to further educate and collaborate with physicians and families in our region so we can help our children heal. I live in Evansville and the closest Defeat Autism Now! practitioner that I know of is four hours away.

The incidence of Autism, ADHD, and PDD in our area is staggering – just as it is in Texas, or California, or New Jersey. My child is not the only one. Rachel has definitely gotten worse with each successive assault on her immune system – Trauma, Viral Infections, and Toxic Overload are hurting MY CHILD – and thousands of other children in the mid-west. (Note: At last night’s dinner and tribute to Bernie Rimland, the Midwest contingent consisted of ONE TABLE. My friend and I – traveling together – were the only two people from Indiana – and neither of us is an M. D.)

There have been MANY times in the last three years when I have told myself – and my husband, “We HAVE TO MOVE away from Indiana! This place is a toxic pit! It’s a cancer cell and the kids here are being poisoned! We are ALL being poisoned!”

My question to you is WHERE SHOULD WE GO?

I spent the first 12 years of my life in Orange, California, where the playground of my elementary school was located on a hill directly adjacent to the 55 freeway – before gasoline was unleaded and before catalytic converters. This was the source of a significant body burden of lead which no doubt contributed to my son’s extreme ADHD and bipolar diagnosis.

In 1972, my parents moved us to Mississippi, where they bought a big white house with pillars, azaleas, a veranda, and a one-acre pecan orchard. The “Big-House” was built in 1875 and my mother absolutely LOVED it. After it was nearly destroyed by fire several years later, my well-meaning but very uninformed sisters and brothers-in-law tried to save my mother some money by doing much of the repairs and renovations themselves. The paint-sanding went on for months, intermittently. None of them wore masks. My mother, who was still living in the house, got sicker and sicker and nobody knew why. She finally got over the “blow-out diarrhea” and constant “stomach virus that just won’t go away,” but she almost never felt well enough to get out of bed for more than a couple of hours at a time.

My mother was a classical pianist. At age 64 she obtained her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance. She was hoping to get her doctorate and conduct. Six months after she got her masters’ degree, she fell and broke her hand when she put it out to catch herself. After several months of rehabilitation therapy, she was finally able to move her fingers well enough to start playing again. That’s when she discovered she could no longer sight-read – something she had been doing since she was five years-old. I will never forget the pain in her voice when I stopped by to see her one afternoon and found her sitting at the piano, fingers on the keyboard, just sitting there – staring at the music. I asked what was wrong and she looked at me and said, “I can’t make my hands do what my eyes see.” (This was the first observable manifestation of the lead that flooded her body once again when she broke her hand, releasing it from bone marrow where it had been stored since shortly after the initial exposure.)

Less than a year later my mother’s thyroid disease was progressing so rapidly she was told she had to drink radio-active iodine. (Lead destroys the thyroid.) The next year, her heart stopped during a cardiac catheterization and she was taken by ambulance to University of Alabama at Birmingham where she underwent emergency open-heart surgery. After they cracked and spread her ribs, the neurological deterioration was very rapid. She could no longer speak and look at me simultaneously because what she saw interfered with her ability to formulate expressive language. When she spoke, it didn’t make sense.

The worst thing was, she was still able to realize that she wasn’t making sense. The last complete sentence my mother ever said to me was excruciatingly difficult for her to get out – and for me to hear. I can still see her face – eyes squeezed shut tightly, forehead and brows furrowed and wrinkled, and her teeth clenched so hard I thought they would break… “I wish…I could…finish…one…thought.”

There was no doubt in my mind that my mother was disintegrating because of lead poisoning. NOBODY would listen. They said her cognitive decline was due to the effects of oxygen deprivation during her surgery, and would get better with time. It wasn't, and it didn't.
“The Big House” is still standing and another family lives there now. Many houses in the Mississippi Gulf Coast town where my husband and I bought after our daughter was born did not survive hurricane Katrina. To our knowledge, no one we knew personally was killed in the storm or as a result of the aftermath. I have not been able to bring myself to visit the Gulf Coast yet. It still feels too raw…like my history has been erased.

My mother died three years ago, at the age of seventy-one. She got her Masters’ Degree at 64. She broke her hand at 65. She had her ribs cracked and spread for 2 open-heart surgeries at 66 and 67. The last word she ever spoke to me was “Dignity” – which she was finally able to say after several minutes of struggling to get it out. I knew what she was asking but I couldn’t help her. She was pleading with me to help her die. That was seven months before she finally stopped suffering.

I begged for someone to please listen to me. No one ever did.

My mother had arranged years prior to donate her body to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, in hopes that from the study of her system, others would benefit. I asked the doctors, when the final arrangements were made, if they would PLEASE test her lead levels and let me know the results. Even that request was denied. We are still waiting for her ashes to be returned to us.

My question about sulfur-dioxide is based on clinical observation and objective data. Over the last four years I have evaluated more than 60 children in Indiana. Between 1999 and 2002 I assisted Dr. Susan Van Ost in evaluating hundreds of children here in the D.C. area. The children are different.

The incidence of visual processing disorders is MUCH higher in Indiana. I believe the Sulfur-dioxide in the air is at least partly to blame and I believe it is also interfering with the sulfation pathway and contributing to the presentation of autism in OUR children. We can’t just move. We have to figure out how to fix it. If we ignore it and run away, who is going to help all the other children? And even if I COULD “just move” – Where do you suggest I GO?

PLEASE LISTEN.

Marcella Piper-Terry, M.S.

Final note: There is no real "safe place." In order to survive, we must assess the situation, do what we can to improve our ability to survive, and work together to begin addressing the things we cannot immediately control. Our children with autism and other biologically based “developmental disabilities” are the canaries in the coalmines. If we don’t learn from them, we will all pay the price.

P.S.: Dear Mom:Today, August 14, 2008 is the five-year anniversary of your death. I miss you terribly but I feel you with me. I love you always.
Marci

IT'S MINDBODY, NOT MIND-BODY

2009-12-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

Last week I was interviewed by Steve Higgs of The Bloomington Alternative. We met for about three hours and talked about Biomedical Interventions for Autism, and about environmental toxins. Mr. Higgs is especially interested in the role of toxins here in the state of Indiana, and how our unique environment impacts the children in this state (and those beyond our borders).

Last night I couldn't sleep. So I got up and fired off a few emails to Mr. Higgs, including copies of some PowerPoint Presentations I gave in April of this year. Among them was a presentation I put together in which I researched some of the specific toxins we have in abundance, here in Southwestern Indiana.

This morning I received an email from Mr. Higgs, with a few questions. Among them was the question of what to call those who seek out my services. Patients? Clients? and how to refer to their diagnoses: ASD?

The result of that email turned into a lengthy response, which I think makes a good blog post, so here it is:

As far as what to call those who seek my services...clients is more appropriate, I think. I wish I had given you one of my business cards. The tag I use on them (and my "letterhead") is "Family Coaching for Fragile Children." I work with kids (and adults) who have received any number of diagnoses, from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia in adults to autism, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and Learning Disabilities in kids.

I was thinking about this a lot last night/this morning, and feeling so discouraged because there is SO MUCH to do and often feels like only me to do it.

I had another parent email and call yesterday, with questions about how to get her physician to order the labs we need. This is a 17 year-old with chronic GI pain, upper respiratory infections, strep, bronchitis, etc. (immune system dysfunction) since infancy. At 17, he now has pre-cancerous lesions in his gastroinstinal tract and the parents have been told that things will probably not ever get better for him; he'll just have to learn to live with the pain. The primary care physician has seen this kid probably 100 times in the last 12-13 years and has made numerous referrals to other specialists (GI docs, allergists, therapists, etc.). He has also collected many thousands of dollars from the family and their insurance company over that time. I saw this kid and spent more than 50 hours going over his medical records, abstracting them, putting everything in chronological order, researching and documenting everything that had happened to him since conception. I also spent about 5 hours with the family (and drove almost four hours round-trip to do so). When I wrote up the report, I did it in such a way that everything flowed and made sense. It was this kid's life story. The reason I did this was to be sure to make the case for the doctor, so he would understand the rationale behind what I was asking him to do. He had no problem with it. Said he would order the tests. However, he will not take the time to pick up the phone and call (or have his staff call) the labs to request the test kits. I even provided interactive links and telephone numbers at the end of the report, to make things as simple as possible. All it would take is five minutes and unfortunately, that's something he or his staff has to do. I can't order the kits and neither can the parents. (There are some labs - Great Plains, for example, that make this process much easier by allowing parents to order kits and take them to the doctor for his/her signature. Others are not as user-friendly, but the information provided by the labs is worth the effort, in my opinion.)

This is the most frustrating thing for me. Even when they finally begin to see why this makes sense, it's like pulling teeth to get physicians to change the way they do things. I don't think I explained this blatantly in my powerpoint about Biomedical Interventions, but this is why I talked about the two doctors (Marshall & Warren) who discovered H. pylori bacteria and its role in ulcers. They made the discovery in 1982 and it wasn't until 1995 that "Standard Medical Practice" finally changed from the mantra of "stress causes ulcers" to recognizing that if a bacterial infection was the cause, then it makes sense to treat with an antibiotic. As a result of the extremely slow awakening of the medical community, hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people suffered with ulcers that could have easily been treated. It took 13 years for them to wake up. How many children will we lose in 13 years? (This may be a good time to read the first post on my blog: AUTISM IS TREATABLE)

When we talk about biomedical interventions for autism and other "spectrum disorders" like ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, bipolar disorder, etc., we are talking about a "whole-body" affliction. That's the major problem with why the medical community is not "on-board." This is completely the opposite of what medical schools have taught for the last few generations, at least. The medical system has moved almost exclusively to specialty care, where you see one doctor for your feet, another doctor for your gut, another doctor for your ears, another doctor for the fungus under your nails, and another doctor for your "mental" or "cognitive" difficulties. Each one sees only a part of the patient, rather than looking at the entire person. The biomedical approach to autism (and other whole-body afflictions) is a systems approach that emphasizes the fact that there is no such thing as mind-body. It's mindbody. All one child; all one word. There is nothing physicially separating the mind from the rest of the body and we need to stop treating our children as if they have been decapitated. What happens in the body affects the brain and vice-versa. This is another reason why the impact of environmental toxins is so important to consider. Lead, mercury, and other heavy metals negatively impact the entire body by damaging enzymatic processes. They cause disruption everywhere. Until we start assessing and addressing the damage caused by environmental toxins, everything else we do is just bandaids.

Marci

MY CAUTION ABOUT SAMBUCOL HAS INCITED ITS OWN STORM

2009-10-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

I am following up on a post from a couple of weeks ago, in which I cautioned about using Sambucol (Black Elderberry) for treatment of H1N1 virus.

I have gotten more comments about this post than any other previous post, including the one in which I cautioned about getting the seasonal flu vaccine because of concerns about mercury.

As I noted in my post, Sambucol has been shown to produce a 44.9 FOLD increase in TNF-Alpha, which is usually a very good thing in fighting the flu, but concerned me because TNF-Alpha increases have also been associated with "Cytokine Storm."
Here are the two articles I referenced in the previous post:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518

http://immunology.suite101.com/article.cfm/h1n1_influenza_and_the_cytokine_storm

The above article on Influenza and the Cytokine Storm was written by Stephen Allen Christensen, M.D. For more information on Dr. Christensen, here is a link:

http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/docsteve53

I am not a doctor and have never claimed to be one. I care very much about the people I work with and about those I have never met but who may read this blog. I would never want anything I write to be the cause of harm coming to anyone.

I have published all of the comments that I have received about the Sambucol post, including those that accuse me of possibly being responsible for deaths if someone does not use Sambucol for treating the flu.

I have been tempted to remove the post and even take down the blog, because as I said, I definitely do not want to be responsible for misinformation - mainstream media, the AAP, and the AMA are already doing a good job of that.

Please read the original post, and follow the links to the articles I have provided, as well as those that have been provided by folks who have commented. I have no idea of the extent of the education or experience of those who have commented as they have, for the most part, chosen to remain Anonymous.

I do know that there is at least one physician in my area, whose opinion I respect greatly, who disagrees with my concerns regarding Sambucol. That is why I am posting this update.

I hope you are well, and I hope you stay that way.
Blessings,
Marci

Treating the Flu Naturally - Priceless

2009-10-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

Blessings,
Marci

Sambucol Good for Prevention BUT NOT Treatment of H1N1 Flu

2009-10-14T16:43:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone:

I just had to send out a warning about Sambucol (black elderberry). This is a very good anti-viral for use with many strains of the flu. It works to prevent infection (including with H1N1) by preventing the virus from attaching to cells. It also works in reducing the duration of illness and severity of symptoms IN SEASONAL FLU because it stimulates the production of inflammatory cytokines.

The increase in inflammatory cytokines is usually a good thing for treating the flu because it "kicks in" your immune system to fight the virus.

Here is a link to a PubMed article about the benefit of Sambucol (black elderberry) for treating the flu:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518

Here's the gist of the abstract: "Adherent monocytes were separated from PBL and incubated with different Sambucol preparations i.e., Sambucol Elderberry Extract, Sambucol Black Elderberry Syrup, Sambucol Immune System and Sambucol for Kids. Production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8) was significantly increased, mostly by the Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract (2-45 fold), as compared to LPS, a known monocyte activator (3.6-10.7 fold). The most striking increase was noted in TNF-alpha production (44.9 fold). We conclude from this study that, in addition to its antiviral properties, Sambucol Elderberry Extract and its formulations activate the healthy immune system by increasing inflammatory cytokine production."

HOWEVER, THE H1N1 VIRUS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE SEASONAL FLU BECAUSE IT CAUSES A CYTOKINE STORM.

http://immunology.suite101.com/article.cfm/h1n1_influenza_and_the_cytokine_storm

This is what is making kids SO sick so fast. With H1N1, the kid generally gets a mild form of flu, with fever, cough, and other "flu-like symptoms." Then, they start to get better and seem like they are getting over it, when suddenly their fever shoots up and they get VERY SICK VERY FAST. This is the cytokine storm happening. The immune system has done it's job by reacting to the virus and sending out the troops! Unfortunately, in some people, with H1N1 the immune system goes into Hyper-Drive and it doesn't know when to stop. This is why so much mucus is produced and pneumonia results. Mucus is the body's shield - it's trying to protect itself from the invasion. In cytokine storm, there is actually too much protection from too many cytokines, including IL-6 and TNF-a.

So, you definitely do not want to use a treatment that INCREASES those cytokines any further. (Remember, the above study found that black elderberry (Sambucol) increased TNF-a by 44.9-fold - THAT's a HUGE increase!) If you (or your child) has H1N1, you want to give things that DECREASE inflammation (fish oil, curcumin, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, including aspirin [adults] and motrin/ibuprofen in kids).

Sambucol is still great for PREVENTING H1N1 and for treating seasonal flu, but once someone has symptoms, they should not use Sambucol unless they are sure it's not H1N1.

Finally, I always encourage others to do their own research before simply taking anyone's word (including mine), especially when it comes to the health of your children. Please check out the things you are giving to your kids - and that includes anything you allow others to inject into their bodies or spray up their noses. And when it comes to researching treatments for H1N1, remember that this IS NOT the same as the seasonal flu. You cannot make generalizations about things that we know work for seasonal flu. This is different.

So go to PubMed, and do your research, but be sure to check the date on the publication and remember that nothing in the literature about "influenza" or seasonal flu applies to H1N1 if the study was published before 2009.

Please spread this around to anyone you believe may benefit.
Blessings and stay well!
Marci

Dateline NBC: A Dose of Controversy and a Dash of Conflict of Interest

2009-08-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

For those of you who took the time to watch last night's Dateline NBC program (as I did), you may have come away from the show (as I did) saying to yourself, "That seemed one-sided."

You may be asking yourself the following questions:
1. Did they present the whole story?
2. Was important information edited out?

The answers to these questions are (1) NO. and (2) YES.

My own impressions of the show were that it was grossly biased in favor of Brian Deem and Paul Offit. For example, Brian Deem has made a big point of accusing Dr. Wakefield of being guilty of "conflict of interest" because he was paid "a quarter of a million dollars" for his work as a paid expert in a court case. Mr. Deem said nothing of his own conflicts of interest or those of his employer on behalf of Glaxo Smith-Kline (Big Pharma).

As for Dr. Offit (a.k.a. "Dr. Profit"), while Matt Lauer did mention that Dr. Offit was involved in vaccine development, nothing was said about the $182 Million dollars that was paid in royalties for the Rotavirus Vaccine, of which Dr. Offit received "an undisclosed amount." I'm just speculating, but I'm sure it was more than "a quarter of a million dollars."

There was also no mention of the fact that while Dr. Offit was developing and selling vaccines, he was also sitting on the board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) - the very same group that was charged with "reviewing the research" on vaccine safety, and ultimately pronounced there was No Connection between vaccines and autism. I think that's a conflict of interest that bears mentioning.

To learn more about Dr. Offit and his conflict of interest issues, as well as COI issues involving the American Academy of Pediatrics, click the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Hw-Q23S_s

To learn more about Dr. Offit and the licensing of his Rotavirus Vaccine, click the following link:
http://www.nvic.org/nvic-archives/pressrelease/licensingpolicy.aspx

It is also worth mentioning that the increased incidence of measles infection in the last few years consists of a majority (more than 50%) of cases that developed in children as a result of vaccination. (This was part of the increase in "vaccine-preventable illnesses" Dr. Offit spoke about during last night's program - he just failed to mention that most of the measles infections were BECAUSE the kids were vaccinated, or came into contact with a child who had been vaccinated within five days and was shedding the virus.)

As far as the voice of reason, NBC did a hatchet job on their interview with Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former Head of the National Institutes of Health. To their credit, NBC has posted more of the interview with Dr. Healy on their website. I urge you to watch it by clicking the following link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32584905#32584905

After watching what Dr. Healy REALLY said to NBC in preparation for last night's program, PLEASE go to the following link and listen to what the former Director of NIH had to say on this subject in May 2008: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/12/cbsnews_investigates/main4086809.shtml

Thoughtful House has posted their response to last night's program. You can read it here:
http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/newsletters/2009-08a.pdf

Here is Dr. Wakefield's response to the program: http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/newsletters/2009-08b.pdf

Finally, regarding the link between autism and gastrointestinal disease: Dr. Wakefield is not the first, nor is he the only researcher to observe this association. While I would never presume to count myself as worthy of keeping company with a researcher of his caliber, in April 2009 I put together and delivered several PowerPoint presentations about Autism. One of those presentations was entitled, "Gastrointestinal Illness in Autism" and involved my own literature review and observations from the last several years of working with families of children with Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, and other Developmental Disabilities. If you would like a copy of the presentation, email me at marcellaterry@hotmail.com and I'll send you a copy.

In closing, I hope you watched the show last night. It was an excellent lesson in whether or not to believe everything we see or read from the media. I also hope you will take the time to check out the links in this post and educate yourself and those you care about.

The truth is out there, we just have to work a bit harder to find it. We cannot rely on clicking the remote to give us the information we need.

Blessings 4 all of you!
Marci Terry

Vaccines and Autism: Your Child and "The Greater Good"

2009-08-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in a while, and I apologize for that.
I am not going to offer anything new today, but instead will repost a very long, detailed article I wrote in May 2009. I am reposting this because I believe it is exceptionally pertinent and needed. If it helps save one child, it is worth it.

There are several links in this post, please take the time to view the videos as they are essential to the message as a whole. After viewing the videos, please click the "back" arrow to return to the post.

Blessings for all of you.
Marci

This article originally posted May 7, 2009:
Yesterday's episode of "The Doctors" was worth watching, if only because it is sure to stir more debate and controversy about the link between vaccines and autism. Hopefully, this will help to keep the vaccine/autism connection from fading away as the AAP and "99.9 % of pediatricians" (according to Dr. Stork) would like. For anyone who did not see the show, let me set the stage.

Jenny McCarthy, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, J.B. Handley, and Stan Kurtz were guests. Probably everyone knows by know that Jenny McCarthy is the mother of Evan, a little boy who was diagnosed with autism and who is now recovered. He no longer has autism. Dr. Jerry Kartzinel is the Defeat Autism Now! Pediatrician who helped Jenny McCarthy and Evan by utilizing the Biomedical Approach to address the underlying medical problems that led to the autism diagnosis. Jenny Documented Evan's recovery in her book, "Louder Than Words." Jenny and Dr. Kartzinel have recently written a book together, "Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide." J.B. Handley and his wife Lisa founded Generation Rescue, a non-profit organization that provides information and support to families who are working to recover their children from an autism diagnosis.

I don't usually watch "The Doctors" and wouldn't have seen it yesterday if I had not been given a heads' up via email from a friend who is also the parent of a child diagnosed with autism. I don't know anything about "The Doctors" other than the two who were most involved in the debate were Dr. Stork and Dr. Sears.

At the beginning of the show, Dr. Stork introduced the topic by saying, "Some of the theories you’re about to hear we may not agree with, but we know as doctors, this is an important issue to discuss."

As the discussion began, Dr. Lisa Masterson was supportive of Jenny McCarthy's work and gave her kudos for standing up, not only for her own kid but for so many other kids in this country and beyond. However, as the discussion heated up, Dr. Masterson disappeared from the stage and we were left with Dr. Sears and Dr. Stork. Dr. Sears, a pediatrician and member of the AAP, was reasonable and asked thoughtful questions about the science behind the GF/CF diet, specifically questioning, "Why doesn't it work for ALL kids?" Dr. Kartzinel responded that while the GF/CF diet does not work for ALL kids, it DOES work well for a significant percentage, and we CAN test to see if children have allergic reactions to certain foods and we CAN TEST to see if an individual child is making opiates from gluten and casein proteins. This is what medicine is supposed to be about. You base the treatment on the results of laboratory tests.

Dr. Sears then asked Dr. Kartzinel about his opinion with regard to whether or not there is a genetic component to autism. As Dr. Kartzinel responded, we talk about a "genetic predisposition" - something that makes an individual child more vulnerable to having a bad reaction to particular environmental insults - including toxins, and including toxins that are injected into the child's body via vaccinations.

Dr. Kartzinel: "What thing can we do in medicine to an entire population, and not expect a certain small group not to do well with? There is nothing in medicine that we do…lidocane, anesthesia, certain surgical procedures...Why would we think that we can give every child in the nation not one vaccine, but multiple vaccines and not suspect anything to go wrong with them. So, genetically, whether it be penicillin, or vaccines we have to understand there are going to be some children who will not do well with it…That’s probably one big reason we have a problem with this…we don’t look at the children as individuals…we look at them as a population."

As Dr. Kartzinel pointed out, in medicine, nothing works for everyone, so why would we expect that a universal vaccine schedule would work for ALL kids, without a certain percentage of them having problems as a result? Jenny joined in to say that the message is, there are too many, too soon and that the increase in the number of vaccines from 10 in 1983 to 36 in 2009 is unwarranted and IS related to the increase in autism. This is when things turned ugly. Here is a link to a discussion you may want to see (or see again): http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/procedure_list/269

What I noticed is that when J.B. Handley stated that he is tired of physicians telling parents that vaccines are safe when the physician has not personally looked at the science, Dr. Stork blew a gasket. Dr. Stork began yelling at J.B. Handley and accusing him of "antagonizing me" and "personally attacking me on MY stage." Dr. Stork then switched the topic away from vaccines and started talking about environmental toxins and dietary changes that may be contributing to autism. He was willing to entertain the idea that there are other toxins and seemingly benign things that may be problematic for our kids, but to question vaccines? That is out of bounds. Wait...I thought he wanted to have an open debate...

Here is a link to the next segment of the show: http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/procedure_list/271

Again, let's have an open discussion, but not about vaccines, since we "Know the Truth" that "Vaccines have been studied and scrutinized" so let's stop talking about that. Did anyone else hear Jenny McCarthy, Jerry Kartzinel, and J.B. Handley saying over and over again "They've looked at 2 vaccines and only one ingredient (mercury)." Drs. Sears and Stork continued to talk over their guests as if they could not hear what they were saying. They just continued to tow the party-line, from the AAP and the CDC. During the break, after the above "discussion," Dr. Stork stated that they contacted the AAP and had recieved a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is the official party-line:

“It is upsetting for families not to know what caused their child’s autism. While it is likely that there are many environmental factors that influence the development of autism, because of very careful and repeated studies we know that vaccines do not cause autism. We share the concern that additional research is needed to investigate genetic and environmental factors that may affect the developing brain.”

J.B. Handley: "It’s maddening for them to put out a statement like that…scientific dishonesty."

Who are you supposed to believe?

To boost The Doctors' position that vaccines have been proven safe, Dr. Stork showed a clip from a previous episode where the expert, Harvey Karp, M.D. declared: "A dozen or so large studies that have shown zero association between vaccines and autism."

That might be pretty convincing, IF any of those studies had included children with autism as part of the subject pool. But wait...this "expert" is declaring that 36 vaccines have been "proven" safe and to have "zero association" with autism, and ALL of that information has been gleaned from "A dozen or so" studies. In order for that to be true, each study would have had to cover 3 different vaccines, since "a dozen" goes into 36 (the number of childhood vaccines) 3 times. I would like to see those studies because I've looked at PubMed and they aren't there.

If you have never researched this issue for yourself, let me give you a few suggestions on where to look for more information. I suggest you begin by asking, "Has the vaccine-autism question been answered?"

Why don't we ask Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Click here to see what Dr. Healy has to say. Please be patient and wait for the advertisement at the beginning to play through. Dr. Healy's interview is well worth the wait.

According to the former director of NIH, not only has the question NOT been answered, it has not even been addressed. Injured children have not been studied because the government is afraid of what they will find. “The public health officials have been too quick to dismiss…”

Aha! you may say...Dr. Healy is only ONE physician and she is no longer the director of NIH anyway. Why should we believe her?

The problems with mercury have been known for decades, and it's not just mercury. Aluminum does many of the same things that mercury does. If you want to learn more about this read the article by Dr. Russell Blaylock, reporting on the cover-up at the Simpsonwood Conference.

If you have read much about vaccine safety, you may be familiar with Dr. Paul Offit; the biggest proponent of vaccines, and member of the Institute Of Medicine (IOM), which has declared with a great degree of certainty that vaccines are safe. I encourage you to watch this video clip of Dr. Offit, promoting his latest book about the subject.

Dr. Offit is pretty impressive. Unfortunately he doesn't understand neuroscience. If he did, he would realize that his argument about problems with the synapse being the cause of autism, he is actually MAKING the CASE for vaccine injury, since mercury and aluminum (both vaccine additives) are both NEUROTOXINS and damage the ability of one neuron to communicate with another by way of the SYNAPSE.

Dr. Offit makes a big point of the fact that in the last year there has been the largest oubreak of measles in decades. 135 cases of measles, and 10% of those children had serious complications. For clarification: 10% of 135 is 13.5, meaning that when Dr. Offit is cautioning about the impact of measles, he is talking about complications that impacted less than 14 children in the United States in the last year - which was "the largest measles outbreak in years." What Dr. Offit doesn't tell you is that more than 50% of the measles cases he talks about have been determined to be from the vaccine strain of measles, meaning the children who got measles either got them from the vaccine, or from being exposed to someone who was shedding the virus after being vaccinated. This is the same thing that happens with many of the polio cases, but Dr. Offit is not going to tell you that. Why would he want to be...less than honest about these facts? Watch this video clip and draw your own conclusions.

Remember the American Academy of Pediatrics' statement on "The Doctors?" Why would they declare 36 vaccines "safe" when only "a dozen or so" studies have been done and none of them have included children with autism? Follow the money.

Fifty-five doses of vaccines by age six. Wait, you might say...I thought it was 36! Thirty-six vaccinations or shots, but because so many are multi-dose shots (DTaP, MMR) when you add them all up, it's actually 55 doses of vaccines.

Remember, it's not just mercury that is neurotoxic, aluminum is a huge problem that most people haven't even considered at this point. Here is a link to a very informative article about aluminum, and why we should be concerned. This article is written by Dr. Robert Sears. Dr. Robert Sears happens to be the brother of Dr. James (Jim) Sears of "The Doctors." Both are pediatricians, but they apparently have some different views on the issue of vaccine safety. If you saw the episode of "The Doctors," you may have noticed that at one point after being asked by Dr. Jim Sears about "the scientific studies" showing that diet is effective in treating autism, Dr. Kartzinel spoke about how so many doctors are questioning if diet works, but they are not coming to his clinic and actually talking to parents of kids who are improving. He also made reference to Dr. Robert Sears, saying something along the lines of, "Those who are saying there are no studies are not talking to your brother about what he sees at the clinic." My hunch is that the reason Dr. Jim Sears appeared more rational and reasonable than Dr. Stork on the subject of vaccine safety is because he has had this conversation many times within his own family. Unlike Dr. Stork, who seems to be married to his position of "Devil's Advocate." Interesting choice of terminology.

Dr. Stork is okay with talking about ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS as a possible contributing factor in autism, but he adamantly denies that toxins in vaccines (which are injected directly into the bloodstream of a tiny infant) could have anything to do with autism. Let's ask another pediatrician (one of the .1% who disagrees with Dr. Stork, according to his own estimate) about her experience with autism. Dr. Stephanie Cave is a Defeat Autism Now! pediatrician in Louisiana. She is also author of the book, "What Your Pediatrician May Not Tell You About Vaccinations." In an interview with Mothering Magazine, Dr. Cave stated:

We started testing hair, urine and blood samples…we found low levels of mercury in the hair and high levels of several other metals like aluminum, antimony, arsenic, and tin in the blood and urine. These children retain mercury, which is toxic to them.

…these children don’t have to be around a high exposure to metal – they just have to be around metal, per se, because they do not have the biochemistry to aid them in the removal of metals. I believe that’s because we have overloaded them with metal through the vaccines. We give them so much metal early in life, specifically through the hepatitis B vaccine given at birth, that their bodies keep producing metallothionein, which is what helps us to remove metals from the body. After their biochemistry is depleted, they end up with an inability to handle any metal at all.

Biochemist Bill Walsh of the Pfeiffer Treatment Center tested 503 autistic children…91% had deficiency of metallothionein. Neurotypical children did not.

To read the interview with Dr. Cave in its entirety, click here.

So, what is the source of the mercury and aluminum? There are many environmental sources of mercury and aluminum, especially here in the midwest. We have a lot of coal-burning power plants, and they put a lot of heavy metals into our environment. When it's in the air, water, and soil, it's hard to avoid it, which is exactly why it is so important to be able to detoxify. If your metallothionein is depleted, that's not going to happen and metals are going to build up in your system. As a side-trip, this might be a good time to mention that when we talk about genetic predisposition and considering which children might be most at risk, we need to consider where the parents live and how many toxins are built up in the mother before she gets pregnant. The message is, "It's all ADDITIVE." It's not JUST the vaccines, but if the mercury and aluminum that is injected into an infant on the first day of his or her life shuts down the baby's ability to detoxify AND that infant lives in an area with a lot of toxins, ENVIRONMENTAL toxins are going to pose more of a problem for that child.

The problem is, Dr. Stork is thinking just like a traditionally trained physician who practices traditional western medicine and is not open to considering any other points of view because that would be inconsistent with the party-line. He does not see the cumulative effect of toxins, but only wants to attribute the effects of poisons to those he is not involved in administering. This is the same kind of thought process behind his statement that there are increases in autoimmune diseases and all kinds of other diseases, and using that argument to establish as "truth" the "fact" that there is no connection between vaccines and autism. As Jenny McCarthy and Jerry Kartzinel pointed out, those other diseases are ALSO related to vaccines.

I found it interesting that nobody on the show brought up aluminum, or the increase in Alzheimer's disease since the administration of yearly flu vaccination (which not only has a lot of aluminum, they also contain mercury). On this subject I encourage you to go to PubMed and search for "aluminum with alzheimer's" - I just did and I got 775 studies.

Do you know anyone with Alzheimer's Disease? or "Alzheimer's type dementia?" If you do, I would ask you to envision that older person as a young child with the same problems: memory problems, communication problems, disturbed sleep and wake cycles, anxiety and irrational fears, behavior problems, etc... Sounds like autism, doesn't it?

Many pediatricians will tell you there is "No mercury in the childhood vaccines" anymore. This is not true. For a list of childhood vaccines that still have mercury (thimerosal) click here. When you are evaluating how much poison is safe for your infant to have injected into his or her body, the following information may be helpful: 12.5 mcg. of ethyl mercury (thimerosal) is 25 times the EPA "safe level" for an adult. When Dr. Cave gave her interview in 2002 she talked about the vaccine schedule at that time, pointing out that at 2 months of age, children were receiving 62.5 micrograms of ethyl mercury from just two vaccinations (Hep B & Hib). 62.5 micrograms in a 10 pound infant is up to 125 times the EPA "safe level." Dr. Cave went on to explain that mercury is a neurotoxin and as such, inhibits brain function. It also suppresses the immune system.

Dr. Cave relates, "When Hepatitis B began to be administered at birth during the 1990s, we started seeing ear infections beginning around two weeks of age, which was almost unheard of before that…they have antibodies to the basic myelin protein in brain tissue. These antibodies disappear after the children are treated and the mercury is eliminated.”

As noted, this interview was given in 2002, and according to the current information from the FDA and AAFP (American Academy of Family Practitioners) there is no longer 62.5 mcg. of ethyl mercury in the Hep B and HiB vaccine combination. However, as you will see if you check the information for yourself, there is still plenty of mercury to damage your child's brain, particularly if you follow the newest "guidelines" and get the flu shot every year, beginning in utero. If 62.5 mcg is 125 times the "safe limit" for a 10 pound infant, I wonder how many times the "safe limit" 25 mcg is to a 1 or 2 pound fetus.

Okay, so you now know that mercury is a neurotoxin and it also damages the immune system. If you watched "The Doctors" show yesterday, you will recall that the first thing Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Kartzinel talked about was dietary changes - specifically the Gluten Free/Casein Free Diet. Jenny stated that when she removed casein from Evan's diet "his eye-contact returned."

You also heard Dr. Kartzinel talk about how some children produce opiates from certain foods (gluten and casein) and how removing those foods from their diet often leads to improvement in the "symptoms" associated with autism. Here is an explanation of how all of this is related to mercury:

Mercury and other heavy metals deactivate DPPIV
DPPIV is an enzyme that breaks down gliadomorphin and casomorphin peptides in the body.
Casomorphin comes from casein, the protein in milk and dairy products.
Gliadomorphin comes from gluten, the protein in wheat, oats, barley, and rye
Casomorphin & gliadomorphin are endogenous opiates – morphines – that make children spacy & irritable
Children with autism are spacy & irritable

This is why the GF/CF diet works. It is also why it is necessary. Mercury and other heavy metals deactivate the enzyme that breaks down the peptides that are formed from gluten and casein. When they are not broken down, the kid is making his or her own opiates and is therefore spaced out and irritable - just like any other drug addict. This is also why so many kids on "the spectrum" are such picky eaters - they will often ONLY eat things that contain gluten and casein (bread, pizza, pasta, cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.). The reason is because they are not seeking food for nourishment, they are drug-seeking. Just like any other drug addict, they are not interested in eating, they are only interested in obtaining their fix - and they get it from foods that supply gluten and casein. BUT, the important thing to remember, in this conversation, is that mercury inactivates the enzyme that breaks down those two proteins, so if it weren't for the mercury, would these kids be addicted in the first place? Probably not.

The explosion of autism cases coincided with the doubling and then tripling of the number of childhood vaccines during the 1990s. Mercury was finally removed from the "childhood" vaccine schedule in 2002-2004, although there were still stockpiles of vaccines in doctors' offices after that time. The only way to know if your child was given vaccines containing mercury is to review the vaccine insert information. But, remember, if you are giving the "recommended" annual flu vaccine, your child is still getting 25 mcg. of mercury each year, unless you specifically request a mercury-free vaccine. And there is still mercury in a number of other vaccines, but you have to really look to find it. The language has been changed. Sometimes it is referred to as "a trace" amount that is used in the manufacturing process, but NOT as a preservative. What does that mean? It's still there - it's just not labeled as a preservative. So, get the vaccine insert and read it BEFORE you allow anyone to inject anything into your child.

Back to aluminum:

Remember Dr. Offit said that delaying or altering the vaccine schedule would expose more infants to disease...Of particular concern is the Hepatitis B vaccine given at birth. This has whopping amounts of aluminum, which hyperstimulates the immune system and shifts the balance from TH1 to TH2 - towards hyper-responsiveness (allergies, asthma, RSV, ear infections, and autoimmunity). One primary way to avoid this is by not giving the Hepatitis B vaccines unless Mom is positive for Hep B.

But you just heard on "The Doctors" that delaying vaccinations during the first year will expose millions of babies to diseases that are preventable by vaccines. What to do????!!!!

What to do is research for yourself and not buy into the hysteria promoted by those who have so much to gain, monetarily, from vaccinating your children.

Remember, mercury and other metals (including aluminum) damage the immune system and impair the body's ability to detoxify, making it more vulnerable to damage from environmental toxins and viral and bacterial infections.

The Hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for ALL children on the FIRST day of life. Does your child REALLY NEED to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B as an infant? If you (mother or father) are positive for Hepatitis B, then the answer is "Yes." If someone in your immediate family, or someone who will be caring for your child on a consistent basis and from whom your child might be exposed to infected blood, then the answer is "possibly - your child is at increased risk." Otherwise, the answer is "No."

INFANTS ARE NOT AT RISK FOR HEPATITIS B! In 1991, there were 18,003 cases of hepatitis B reported in the U.S. out of a total U.S. population of 248 million. According to the October 31, 1997 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the CDC, in 1996 there were 10,637 cases of hepatitis B reported in the U.S. with 279 cases reported in children under the age of 14 and the CDC stated that "Hepatitis B continues to decline in most states, primarily because of a decrease in the number of cases among injecting drug users and, to a lesser extent, among both homosexuals and heterosexuals of both sexes."

But Dr. Offit wants ALL babies vaccinated for Hepatitis B, not once but three times. I wonder if that's because if they are going in for their Hep. B shots, they are also more likely to receive the Rotavirus Vaccine, for which HE developed the patent, which sold for 182 MILLION dollars. Hmmmnnn....

If you think babies should be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease at birth, with a vaccine that contains up to 125 times the "safe" limit of aluminum (according to the EPA regulations), watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNy5VmeaGNw

and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b1rFJgyXI

Wow! That's some scary stuff. It must be the media exaggerating things, right? Yes. And No.

Remember when Dr. Kartzinel talked about how there is nothing in medicine that can be utilized universally without some percent of the population having problems? This is an example of what he was talking about. Aluminum is a neurotoxin and it damages the immune system.

So just how much aluminum is in vaccines that are "recommended" for ALL infants living in the United States? And what is the "safe level" of aluminum?

According to the FDA, the "safe level" of aluminum for full-term babies with healthy kidneys is 5 micrograms per kilogram per day. As Dr. Robert Sears points out, using this "safe level" determined by the FDA, a 12 pound, 2 month-old infant should be able to handle "at least" 30 mcg. of aluminum in one day. A 22 pound one year-old infant should be able to handle "at least" 50 mcg. of aluminum in one day. As Dr. Robert Sears states, the FDA "safe level" was determined from studies of premature infants with immature kidneys, so full-term infants with healthy kidneys should theoretically be able to handle more than the "safe level." However, we don't know because there haven't been any studies done - at least none Dr. Sears (or I) could find.

Okay, so how much aluminum is really in the childhood vaccines?

DTaP (for Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis): 170-625 mcg, depending on manufacturer
Hepatitis A: 250 mcg
Hepatitis B: 250 mcg
HIB (for meningitis; PedVaxHib brand only): 225 mcg
HPV: 225 mcg
Pediarix (DTaP/Hepatitis B/Polio combination): 850 mcg
Pentacel (DTaP/HIB/Polio combination): 1500 mcg
Pneumococcus: 125 mcg

The above information is from Dr. Robert Sears' article, "Is Aluminum the New Thimerosal?"

So what does this mean for your child, living in the United States and complying with the "recommended" childhood vaccine schedule?

Dr. Robert Sears does the math:

Newborn gets Hepatitis B injection on day one of life would get 250 micrograms of aluminum.
Repeated at one month of age with the next Hep B shot.
When a baby gets the first big round of shots at 2 months, the total dose of aluminum can vary from 295 micrograms (if a non-aluminum HIB and the lowest aluminum brand of DTaP is used) to a whopping 1225 micrograms if the highest aluminum brands are used and Hep B vaccine is also given.
These doses are repeated at 4 and 6 months.
A child would continue to get some aluminum throughout the first 2 years with most rounds of shots.

Okay, so going back to the issue of metals depleting metallothionein, and basically shutting down the body's ability to detoxify other environmental toxins, you may want to ask yourself, is the Hepatitis B vaccine really something my child needs, if I do not have Hepatitis B?

Is your child really at risk for Hepatitis B? And is the risk worth the consequences of injecting aluminum (a neurotoxin and immunotoxin) into your child at levels that are exponentially higher than the "safe level" determined by the FDA?

Question: Is your child really at risk for Hepatitis B?

Hepatitis B

Is not common in childhood and is not highly contagious.
Is primarily an adult disease transmitted through infected body fluids, most frequently infected blood
Is prevalent in high risk populations such as: needle using drug addicts; sexually promiscuous heterosexual and homosexual adults; residents and staff of custodial institutions such as prisons; health care workers exposed to blood; persons who require repeated blood transfusions; babies born to infected mothers.

According to the CDC Guide to Action publication on Hepatitis B (1997):

"the sources of [hepatitis B] infection for most cases include intravenous drug use (28%), heterosexual contact with infected persons or multiple partners (22%) and homosexual activity (9%).”

Although CDC officials have made statements that hepatitis B is easy to catch through sharing toothbrushes or razors, Eric Mast, M.D., Chief of the Surveillance Section, Hepatitis Branch of the CDC, stated in a 1997 public hearing that: " although [the hepatitis B virus] is present in moderate concentrations in saliva, it's not transmitted commonly by casual contact." (National Vaccine Information Center)

Once again, you as a parent are faced with a difficult question: "Who am I supposed to believe?"

Another question you need to ask yourself is "Just how serious is Hepatitis B?" You need to ask this question in order to make an informed decision about whether the risks associated with vaccination outweigh the risks of actually contracting the disease. The following information comes from the National Vaccine Information Center.

Hepatitis B is not a killer disease for most people.

Symptoms of Hepatitis B infection include nausea, vomiting, fatigue, low grade fever, pain and swelling in joints, headache and cough that may occur one to two weeks before the onset of jaundice (yellowing of the skin) and enlargement and tenderness of the liver, which can last for three to four weeks. (YUCK)

Fatigue can last up to a year. (Again, YUCK)

Translation: You will feel REALLY YUCKY for 6-8 weeks, and it may take you a year to recover your energy level to pre-illness status.

According to Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (1994): in cases of acute hepatitis B most patients do not require hospital care; 95 percent of patients have a favorable course and recover completely; case-fatality ratio is “very low (approximately 0.1 percent).” (1/10th of 1% or 1 out of 1,000); and Those (95%) who recover completely from hepatitis B infection acquire life-long immunity (this is a good thing).

According to Robbins Pathological Basis of Disease (a medical textbook published in 1994), of those who do not recover completely, fewer than 5 percent become chronic carriers of the virus with just one quarter of these in danger of developing life threatening liver disease later in life.

Translation: Of the 5% of people who do not recover completely from hepatitis B infection, 5% will become chronic carriers and ¼ of them will eventually die from Hep B related liver disease.

What does this mean? It depends on which statistics you look at. Let's take the worst-case scenario and go with the "200,000 new cases yearly" cited in the 1999 video from ABC's 20/20 show.

200,000 x .95 = 190,000 will recover completely (95% will recover completely)

Of the 5% of people who do not recover completely from hepatitis B infection, 5% will become chronic carriers and ¼ of them will eventually die from Hep B related liver disease.

10,000 will not recover completely
10,000 x .05 = 500 will become chronic carriers
500 x .25 = 125 will die in later life due to liver disease

Are we over-reacting and over-vaccinating as a result? Remember, it's not just the Hepatitis B we have to worry about, it's the aluminum. We, as parents, have to weigh the actual threat of disease against the cost of "protection." Given the amount of Aluminum contained in Hepatitis B vaccinations, AND the very low risk of young children becoming infected (if Mom is not infected), this particular vaccine does not seem worth the risk.

If Hepatitis B is not worth the risks associated with injecting aluminum directly into the bloodstream, AND if those who adamantly state that by delaying the Hepatitis B vaccines we, as parents are putting our children's health at risk, maybe we should start questioning further the advise we are getting from those who rigidly follow the party-line put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Despite the declarations of the AAP and the CDC that the huge amount of money they recieve from the vaccine manufacturers does not influence the advice they give to parents, delving further into the facts about Hepatitis B (one vaccine out of MANY the AAP and CDC have declared as "safe") leads me to believe that these sources may not be completely vested in the best interest of my child - or yours.

PLEASE - do not follow blindly everything you are told by your pediatrician or family physician. Ask first if he or she has actually looked at the science, or if your trusted health advisor is simply following the party-line. And remember - ultimately you, as the parents, are the ones who are responsible (and who will live with the consequences) for the decisions you make about your child's health. The pediatrician may order the shots, but he or she is not the one who will be raising your child for the rest of his or her life.

Educate before you vaccinate.

Marci

Biomedical Treatment was Too Expensive and Too Late

2009-06-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

This post is in memory of Isaac. This little boy died on Saturday when his heart finally gave out. He was waiting for his third heart surgery, which would have taken place in September. Unfortunately, the strep and staph infections in his blood were too much for him to fight off and the attack of multiple infections was ovewhelming.

I met Isaac and his parents only once; it was a few months ago when they came to Cady Wellness Institute to meet with a colleague. Because Isaac was a child who had received an Autism Spectrum Diagnosis, I was asked if I had time to talk with the parents about what might be done to help improve their son's overall state of wellness by implementing biomedical interventions. As best I can recall, I spent about an hour with Isaac and his parents. This was not an official appointment and they were not charged anything, since they were not patients and we were simply having a "chat." While I talked with his mom and dad, Isaac played on the rug in my office. Like many of the children I see, he liked the cars best and like many of the children I see, he especially liked lining them up in rows. Isaac was similar in other ways to the children I see professionally, in that he was a beautiful little boy. He was small for his age, with very blonde hair and extraordinary eyes that were the bluest of blue.

I talked with Isaac's parents about biomedical interventions for autism, and made several recommendations regarding steps they could take on their own, to improve his body's ability to fight off the multiple environmental and immune system assaults that are common in children on the spectrum. Unfortunately this family, like so many others, did not have the funds to pay out-of-pocket for biomedical treatment in the tri-state, and they were also unable to travel to one of the larger clinics around the country.

Because Isacc's parents were not able to have their son seen on an official basis due to the financial strain of doing so, much of what I am writing in this post is speculation. However, it is speculation based on experience. I have seen and spoken with MANY parents and families in the last four years whose children clearly needed biomedical help, but who simply could not afford it. (I have also seen families whose children clearly needed biomedical help, and they COULD afford it but believed it was too expensive and not worth dedicating the resources.)

There are many children - no, there are MANY children on the spectrum (including kids diagnosed with autism, Asperger's, ADHD, PDD, Bipolar disorder, OCD, and ODD) that have underlying medical problems that are never diagnosed and treated. One of the MOST frequent of those problems is Strep infection. When a child has a strep infection that is untreated, it can damage the heart. I don't KNOW that this is what happened with Isaac. All I know is he died because his heart gave out while waiting for his third heart surgery, AND he had Strep and Staph infections in his blood. I cannot recall the exact conversation I had with Isaac's parents, but based on the conversations I have had with EVERY parent of a child with ASD who has sought my help, I would bet the farm that I brought up the importance of checking his Strep titer. This is something I routinely recommend for ALL kids I see, and for ALL kids on the spectrum, especially those with anger outbursts and OCD tendencies. The reason is because PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus) can be treated! And it is often EASY to treat with antibiotics. That is, if you can get your pediatrician or family practice doctor to run the test and give the monthly shots of bicillin. There have been many cases when I have talked with families who could not afford to have their child seen at my former place of employment, and for whom I have recommended they ask their primary care physician about running a strep titer, and for whom the response has been, "That's experimental. There's no proof. I'm not going to do it." For those physicians who think obtaining a blood test to check for strep is "experimental," I take this opportunity to say, "Shame on you." I wonder how many other children with autism have died from heart problems, simply because their physicians refused to check their strep titers - or because they never thought to do so.

Children with autism are not hopeless and they do not deserve to be ignored by the medical professionals simply because they have received an autism diagnosis. These children are medically sick and if we do not care enough about them to do the tests that are necessary and to treat the infections that are wracking their bodies, then WE are responsible when something like this happens.

To Isaac...and to all the other children who currently cannot afford to get the treatment you so desperately need and deserve: I am so sorry. I pray you will have an eternal life in heaven that is completely joyous and free from pain. God knows you deserve it, especially after the way we have failed you on earth. Eternal blessings to you, Isaac.

A Tale of Autistic Blood - Article from Age of Autism, by Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

2009-06-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

There is a very interesting article on the Age of Autism website, entitled "A Tale of Autistic Blood." The article contains a link to a fascinating video and slide show that compares the blood of six autistic children. I highly recommend you watch this and read the article (Click the title to go to the Age of Autism site and read the entire article). My comments about the article and video are posted below.

A Tale of Autistic Blood
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

This may be the most important article about autism I’ve ever written. But first I need you to do a little work. I need you to go to this site (HERE) and watch the approximately five minute long video comparing the blood of six autistic children put together by Mark Squibb.

Marci's Response:
IMO, I believe this is another physiological marker of the multiple factors involved in autism and pretty much all of the comments posted are on track.

Stress will cause aggregation in preparation for clotting in case of injury. Think "fight or flight" - when you are preparing for battle or to run away, there is a significant chance you may get hurt. When the the balance of stress hormones is disrupted (shifted) due to high anxiety or panic, the body doesn't differentiate between real or perceived danger and prepares to clot. So thats ONE factor at work.

Heavy metals like lead and mercury (and aluminum which is not technically a "heavy" metal) also damage the circulatory system and lead to problems like Raynaud's Syndrome, atherosclerosis, hypertension, stroke, and aneurysm.

Metals and other toxins have something else in common - a single valence electron in their outermost ring. This makes them very attractive to each other - they don't like to be alone but like to travel in pairs so they will "hook up" with other toxins. This is one reason (along with impaired detoxification due to depletion of metallothionein) why our kids, once shot up (pun intended) with aluminum or thimerosal (flu vaccine, rhogam, etc.) become like magnets for other toxins. It's also why when chelating, mercury does not come out until after aluminum, antimony, and lead. The magnets (our children) hold onto the metals because their electrical charges have been altered. This was for me, probably the most fascinating thing about the video by Mark Squibb - he actually points out the alteration in electrical fields in the blood patterns of autistic children.

The comment about babesia (a bacteria associated with Lyme disease) is also correct, which is why adults with chronic Lyme exhibit many of the same behavioral and neurological issues as do children with "autism."

Infections in the blood (from systemic yeast, viruses, strep, staph, etc) will also cause clumping, as what is left of the immune system tries to kick in and fight off the infection. Remember that one of the first things the immune system does is to send extra blood (and oxygen) to the sight of injury or infection. This is part of the healing process and is why we get the swelling, heat, and itching when we get a minor cut or scrape. That's the body's attempt to heal.

The problem is, in our children there are so many different things to fight that their bodies become confused and shift over into autoimmunity. The analogy I use is like the old Space Invaders game where you start of shooting at one bad guy and it's relatively easy, but as things speed up, there are too many bad guys to shoot at accurately and you end up crashing and burning.

Finally, the genetic link is (again, IMO) often associated with metals (especially lead) that is passed from mother to child. In the family histories of my patients I frequently see higher than expected occurrance of things like stroke, blood clots, hypertension, bipolar disorder, heart-valve problems, and heavy bleeding/clotting with menses. All of these things, (and autoimmune thyroiditis) are associated with lead poisoning. When I check further, these parents and grandparents grew up with coal-burning stoves, lived near or worked in coal mines, or in some cases owned gas stations (before gasoline was unleaded.)

Very interesting article and video - thanks so much to the folks at Age of Autism for your wonderful work, and to my friend Lori for bringing this article to my attention!

Marci

NIH Study Shows Anti-Depressants Don't Work for Autism

2009-06-02T09:06:00.001-07:00

Below is an article from today's Los Angeles Times, reporting on the results of a recent NIH study looking at the effectiveness of Celexa in Autism. What a waste of money that could have (and should have) been spent researching treatments that really work - like those aimed at healing the gastrointestinal tract.

(Thanks Lori for posting this on C.A.R.E. Keep 'em coming!)

My response to the article, which follows:

This is not surprising at all. Look at the money involved - between 2 & 3 billion per year for drugs that have not been tested on children with autism, and whose side effects are 2-3x worse in kids with ASD. Interesting that the pharmaceutical companies who make the drugs to "treat" the symptoms are also the ones who make the vaccines that contribute to autism in the first place - the perfect storm. Before you pay big bucks for a pyschiatrist to "treat" your child with drugs that don't work, please consider looking deeper to heal the underlying problems.

SSRIs don't work because 95% of serotonin is in the gastrointestinal tract. If the gut is injured then serotonin will not be produced in the first place, so it cannot be utilized in the brain.

SSRI stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor - meaning that what it does is keep Serotonin in the synapse (the gap between two neurons) longer so it can work longer before being taken back up by the neuron that released it. If there is no serotonin for an SSRI to work on (because the gut is injured and it's not being produced) all you are going to get is side-effects from the fillers and dyes used in the capsules.

DUH. I wonder how much money was wasted on this study?
(Click the title to read the article in its entirety)

Study Finds Antidepressant Doesn't Help Autistic Children
Nationwide research finds that citalopram is no more effective than a placebo and that its side effects are twice as bad. About a third of autistic kids take the drug, known as Celexa in the U.S.
By Karen Kaplan June 2, 2009

An antidepressant commonly prescribed to help autistic children control their repetitive behaviors is actually no better than a placebo, according to a report published today.Roughly a third of all children diagnosed with autism in the U.S. now take citalopram, the antidepressant examined in the study, or others that are closely related. The results of the nationwide trial, published in Archives of General Psychiatry, have some experts reconsidering the appropriateness of antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs used to treat children with autism spectrum disorders.

Memorial Day: Remembering the Children of War, Political and Private

2009-05-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

The front page of today's Courier & Press newspaper is a tribute to Kalab Lay, the three year-old boy who was beaten to death by his parents after being failed by the system that was supposed to protect him. Kalab's parents, like many in the Tri-State and beyond, were involved with methamphetamine. Click the link below to read the article in its entirety (please click the "back" button to return to this article).

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/may/23/a-life-tainted-by-meth/

It is fitting that Kalab's face adorns the front page of the C&P today, the Sunday before Memorial Day. We most often think about soldiers at this time, especially those who lose their lives while fighting to protect our freedoms. However, there is a large portion of our society whose lives are also impacted by war, and whose traumas most often go unrecognized: The children of veterans serving in Iraq and Afganistan. With the numbers of veterans returning after sometimes multiple tours of duty, and many of them not receiving assistance for their own traumas, the numbers of children who are abused by their military parents continues to grow.

A while back I wrote an article about the effect of PTSD on military families, and given the timing, I believe it is worth reposting. This is the bulk of today's post. Resources for more information about PTSD and military families are posted at the end of this artcle.

The Effect of PTSD on the Family:

One of the scariest things for someone suffering from PTSD is when something in the present happens that "triggers" memories of the past. This is the same thing that happens when a Viet-Nam veteran suddenly drops to the ground, covering his head or assuming the fetal position when a car backfires (or when the "pop" and "flash" of exploding fireworks catches him off- guard). While we are probably all aware of the difficulties suffered by combat veterans, I have come to realize that as a society we are very unaware of the impact trauma has on adult survivors of child abuse. This needs to change. To illustrate my point, I will use an analogy, as I often do when working with clients in therapy. For the purpose of this example, I will refer to Viet-Nam veterans, as it was only after that war that PTSD was officially recognized. (Before Viet Nam soldiers suffered the same devastating symptoms, but it was referred to as "Shell Shock.")

Imagine yourself as a combat soldier in Viet Nam. You and your buddies are hunkered down, rifles at the ready, creeping through thick jungle foliage. Your body is tense. All your senses are on high alert for any sign of danger. Suddenly a bullet whizzes by you so fast you can feel the breeze on your face as it slices through the air. Then another one flies by. And another. You call on your heightened senses, frantically trying to figure out where the bullets are coming from but the jungle is so thick you can't see your attacker. Another bullet zings by and hits your best buddy. He falls, bleeding from his belly and writhing in pain. You go to him, kneeling, trying to help stop the bleeding. Meanwhile, the onslaught of bullets continues and you have to make a decision to stay and help your friend or retreat and try to keep from becoming another war statistic. As you are trying to figure out what to do, your friend dies in your arms. You are still under attack. You do not have time to think about your friend or to experience the painful emotions of losing him. You refocus your attention on the situation at hand and do what you can to avoid being killed.

Now imagine that this scenario repeats itself over and over again for several months or even years on end. It is easy for us to see how the lives of combat veterans would be impacted, with the ongoing traumas they face. Not only are they facing horrendous conditions and repetitive traumas, they can't get away from it. They can't just say, "I've had enough. I'm outta’ here." They are, in effect, trapped.

Imagine you are the child of a combat veteran returning from the war. You have missed your daddy terribly and have spent many hours dreaming of the day he would come home again. You remember how he used to play catch with you in the yard or crawl around on the floor with you on his back squealing with delight, shouting, "Yee-haw! Giddy-up!" As a child, you expect things to return to the way they were and life will continue as it was before Daddy left. But Daddy is not the same. He doesn't laugh. He hardly even talks to you. When he does, he sounds angry or annoyed. You try to figure out why he's mad at you and you work hard to be good so maybe, you can make him happy. Maybe you can make him smile. Time goes by and Daddy doesn't smile. He is even more quiet than before and gets angry over the littlest things. Unlike before, when Daddy gets upset, he yells. Sometimes he throws things. Sometimes he hurts you. Or Mommy. Sometimes he storms out of the house and drives away in his car with the tires squealing, and you cry because you're afraid he won't come back. Or you cry because you're afraid he will. The man who came home looks like Daddy but it isn't Daddy. Like the combat soldier, you are living in a war zone. Like the combat soldier, you don't know when the attack will come, what will set it off, or how bad the damage will be. You just know it will happen and you have to be ready for it when it does. Like the combat soldier your body goes on high-alert, always watching out for signs of danger. You can't sleep and when you do you have nightmares but you can't wake up Mommy and Daddy to tell them because Daddy might get angry. So you keep it to yourself. It's hard for you to concentrate on your schoolwork and your grades start falling. You are afraid of what will happen when Daddy sees your report card. Like the combat soldier, bad things are happening all around you. Like the combat soldier, you are trapped. Because you are a child, you can't just say, "I've had enough. I'm outta’ here."

The human brain is a wonderful thing. It has the ability to go on autopilot when necessary, shielding us from awareness when things get too overwhelming. This is what we call a "defense mechanism" and it is a very important coping skill that allows us to survive even the most terrifying of experiences. As we all know, many veterans of the Viet-Nam War basically accomplished the same thing through self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, which allowed them to "zone-out" and escape the pain, if only for a while. Others did not turn to substance abuse, but became sullen, withdrawn, and unable to interact with others or hold a job. Many families were split and the suicide rate among veterans skyrocketed. If there is anyone who does not see parallels between Viet Nam and Iraq, at least in this regard, he or she has simply not been paying attention.

Many people, even those who have little faith in the necessity or effectiveness of mental health based interventions, can and do accept that the lives of our veterans are often immeasurably changed as a result of their experiences. Tragically, we as a society do not afford the same compassion for adults, who as children experienced their own terrifying battles, in many cases continuing for several years without any end to the conflict. For many adult survivors of child abuse (war-related or not), their "tours of duty" extended far beyond anything this nation would require of even the strongest, most well trained adult soldier. For many survivors of child abuse, the consequences of their experience have never been acknowledged. Not even by themselves. If there is any hope of changing the cycle and helping today’s military children, we must learn from the past.

There are many good sources of information on the web. A few very relevant websites are listed here, in case you wish to read further.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565407

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/165/10/1199

http://coalitionforveterans.org/2009/01/invisible-wounds/

http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/facts/specific/fs_children_veterans.html

http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/index.html

http://www.ptsdalliance.org/

http://www.sidran.org/

Swine Flu - Why Mexico City? It's Evansville in July

2009-04-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

I have been working nonstop this month doing a series of presentations about biomedical interventions for autism. So far, I've finished and presented seven different talks, which presented information about immune disregulation, gastrointestinal illness, labs, diets, supplements, and the association of environmental toxins in the epidemic of autism. Tomorrow night I will be talking about vaccines. In preparation for tomorrow night's talk, I have been learning about why things like aluminum and mercury are put into the vaccines in the first place. It has to do with their effects on preserving and enhancing viral activity. This worries me, because I also know from my research and presentations, that there are several other toxins, including heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium, that also change the way the body handles viruses. This is what has been bothering me all day today.

Today, instead of preparing for tomorrow night's talk, I am consumed with the breaking news about the Swine Flu. As of the afternoon there are 40 confirmed cases in the United States. Apparently the largest cluster is among a group of students in New York, who had traveled to Mexico for Spring Break. There has been much commentary on the news about the fact that the cases in the U.S. (thus far) have been mild compared to the spectrum of illness that is currently ravaging Mexico City. This begs the question, "Why is it so bad in Mexico City?" We need to figure out the answer to that question if we are to predict where the pandemic will be most severe in other parts of the world, including here in the U.S.

As I have been pondering (obsessing about) this question today, I keep getting a sinking feeling in my gut. The reason is because I know too much. That's not a compliment to myself, it's a statement that explains why I have so much trouble sleeping some nights. I have an incessant need to know "why" things happen. In this case, you will have to judge if this is a good thing.

The sinking feeling in my stomach is related to something I remember from the second Defeat Autism Now! Conference I attended (April 2007). There was a presentation given by Dr. William Rea, from the Environmental Health Center in Dallas, Texas. The presentation was entitled, "The Environmental Aspects of ASD; The Early Mechanisms of Chronic Degenerative Disease and Hypersensitivity." I know, that's a long title. Much of the presentation was about the impact of toxins (heavy metals, pesticides, organophosphates, etc.) on the immune system and the subsequent link to autism. This will not sound like Greek to anyone who has researched the issue of thimerosal (mercury) or aluminum in vaccines and their effects on viruses.

Anyway, the main thing I remember from Dr. Rea's presentation was a photograph of Mexico City and the smog there. When I got home this afternoon, I pulled out my binder from that Conference and looked up Dr. Rea's presentation. I found the photo of Mexico City, and written above it, in my handwriting, is "Evansville in July."

So, I googled "Mexico City" and "Air Pollution." Here is what I found:

Mexico City ranks at the top of the list of "Most Polluted Megacities" in the world, according to Maricela Yip and Pierre Madl, authors of an interesting paper, completed while they were students at the University of Salzburg in Austria. It appears the paper was published under the direction of Dr. W. Hofmann, and the Department of Biophysics, "in Cooperation with the Afro-Asian Institute (Salzburg, Austria) and International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at QUT (Australia)."

I honestly don't know how impressed I should be by these authors or whether or not the source is a "valid" one. However, when I read the article (actually skimmed it, due to time constraints), several bells went off. Why is this relevant to Southwestern Indiana?

The article talks about the specific toxins that are ranked "severe" and "heavy" in Mexico City: Sulfur Dioxide, Particulate Matter, Lead, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, and Ozone. These are some of the same toxins that cause Southwestern Indiana to have more PPM and Ozone Alert days in the summer than they have in Los Angeles. If you think I'm joking, check out the EPA website for yourself. And, like Mexico City, we live in a valley, so the toxins get trapped here. If you have ever read this blog before, you have probably read some of my "rantings" about these toxins and the health effects of living in the "Coal Burning Power Plant Capital of the World."

I am not going to reprise my rants here, but if you would like to learn about what's in our environment and how it relates to this discussion and your children's health, please read the previous posts: It's In the Air In Southwestern Indiana and Environmental Toxins and Autism. (click on the title to go to the original post.)

To learn about how the air pollution in Mexico City may be contributing to the high levels of deaths from the Swine Flu, please read the article, Air Pollution in Mexico City by Maricela Yip and Pierre Madl.

If there really is a connection here, we need to take steps now to beef up our immune systems by taking antioxidants and natural anti-virals like grapefruit seed extract and olive leaf extract. This will be especially important for groups whose immune systems are already compromised by persistent viral infections (herpes, HIV, Epstein-Barr, etc.). This includes children with autism, ADHD, asthma, and allergies. It also includes adults with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

Don't panic, but now is the time to prepare. If there is a connection between the air pollution and the flu virus, places like Southwestern Indiana may have a lot more to deal with in the near future than high rates of autism, cancer, and suicide.

I hope I'm wrong.

Marci

Preparing Your Body for Pregnancy; Preparing Your Child for Vaccination

2009-03-06T15:16:00.000-08:00

If you have read much about biomedical interventions and recovery from autism, you may be familiar with the analogy of being hit by a bus. As Stan Kurtz writes, “You cannot be cured of being hit by a bus, but you can recover from it. You might even be able to recover enough that you do not need to park in special parking spaces when you go shopping. If you are fortunate enough you might recover well enough that you gain back so much of your functioning such that no one would know you were ever in an accident.” This is a great analogy, especially for those children who have already received a diagnosis of autism. In many cases, while we may not be able to “cure” the autism, if we address the underlying conditions through appropriated testing and treatment, we may be able to recover the child to the point where he or she no longer meets the diagnostic criteria for autism. In many cases, no one would ever guess the child had been “hit by the bus” in the first place.

But wait…

What if we could prevent your child from being hit by the bus in the first place?

Let’s think about pregnancy. When a fetus is growing in the womb, it is incubating. We have been told for some time now that pregnant women should not smoke and should not drink alcohol, because these behaviors are known to be damaging to a developing fetus. The peer-reviewed medical literature is bursting at the seams with paper after paper, documenting the research findings about the teratologic effects of tobacco and alcohol.

Teratologic: the scientific study of visible conditions caused by the interruption or alteration of normal development

Marci’s note: Teratological effects may well include effects that are not “visible” and which may not become known for a long time after the exposure that caused the damage. Examples:

Babies who were fed soy formula. Soy is a source of estrogen. When fed as the sole source of nutrition, the amount of estrogen taken in can disrupt the balance between hormones, and may contribute to the early onset of puberty in girls, and delayed onset of puberty in boys.
Terbutaline administration. Terbutaline is a medication given to women to stop preterm labor. It has been linked to later onset of learning disabilities and social deficits in children whose mothers took the drug during pregnancy.

By now, everyone has heard that there is an epidemic of autism in this country. There are some people who still want to deny this fact, but the evidence is overwhelming, and it is real. It’s not just because of more inclusive diagnostic criteria. It’s also not purely genetic. There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic. So what’s going on? And why can’t the researchers figure out the cause of autism?

The clue is in the previous question. As long as researchers are looking for “the cause” of autism, they are not going to find it. Why? Because multiple factors working together synergistically is the source of the epidemic. There is no single “smoking gun.” If you are not familiar with the concept of synergism, you need to understand this key concept. Here is the definition:

Synergism: the phenomenon in which the combined action of two things such as drugs or muscles is greater than the sum of their effects individually. In the case of drugs, the result may be dangerous to the patient.

Marci’s note: in the case of toxins (heavy metals, toxic chemicals, pesticides, organophosphates, food additives), the combined action of two (or more) things is greater than the sum of their effects individually. The result may be dangerous to the patient. Alternatively, the synergistic effect of a genetic predisposition and an environmental exposure (to metals, pesticides, medications, etc…) will be more damaging than the effects of either situation (genetic or environmental) alone. The result may be dangerous to the patient. (Remember that in this case, the patient is the infant in the incubator.)

Synergy is an extremely important concept when it comes to autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The concept of synergy is precisely why families who have sought relief through “The Vaccine Court” have not been successful in establishing that their children’s regressive autism was caused by the combination of thimerosal (mercury) and the MMR vaccine. (Note: the basic premise of the argument is that the child’s immune system is compromised by mercury (a heavy metal, which damages multiple systems in the body, including the enzymatic processes, and detoxification pathways), predisposing the child to be more vulnerable to the effects of the MMR vaccine (a vaccination which simultaneously injects three separate viruses into the blood stream, bypassing the body’s primary immune defense mechanisms (gastrointestinal and respiratory), ultimately resulting in a situation which overwhelms the body’s defenses and leads to chronic illness (fever, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, ear infections, respiratory infections, chronic tonsillitis, strep, bronchitis, allergies, asthma, & seizures), which later results in the behavioral and cognitive symptoms that lead to an “autism spectrum disorder” diagnosis.

Please remember that the fever, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, seizures, etc… tend to occur prior to the behaviors that lead, ultimately, to the “autism” diagnosis. This is an important piece of information, especially since most parents I have spoken with report that the “experts” who diagnosed their children with “autism” often state (with considerable authority) that the physical symptoms (diarrhea, constipation, vomiting) the parents are reporting are “just part of autism.” The physical symptoms are therefore ignored. This is PRECISELY why professionals who do not look further than the obvious behavioral and cognitive presentations, can and do state (with considerable authority), that “Autism is a lifelong condition and there is nothing you can do about it.” From where I sit, it looks like the authorities have it backwards. The physical symptoms happen first and the behavioral and cognitive symptoms happen as a result of the physical symptoms. Therefore, the lack of eye-contact, reduced awareness of the environment, inattention, aggression, and poor social skills are “just part of the gastro-intestinal disease” and if we do something to fix the GI problems, the symptoms associated with the child’s “autism” diagnosis will improve. If this sounds like voodoo science to you, let me phrase it differently.

Consider, for a moment, symptoms that you yourself might have had. Have you ever had a migraine? Have you ever had a “stomach virus” with nausea, pain in your gut, diarrhea, constipation, achy joints, headache and ‘brain-fog?’ If you have, please try to recall at this moment what it felt like. Now, imagine you are in a room full of four year-olds – a preschool environment. Do you feel “social?” Can you concentrate? Are you likely to learn and “achieve on par with your potential?”

If you only consider “autism” – which is a behavioral and cognitive-based diagnosis – and do not look further, the professionals who tell you with so much authority, “There is nothing you can do” are probably correct. If you don’t look beyond the behaviors and the label, it is likely that you are facing a lifelong diagnosis, for which you will not see significant improvement. In other words, your child will most likely never get married or have children, will probably not be able to live independently, will most likely not be able to support himself or herself, and will require full-time support from you until the day you die – which will probably happen prematurely due to all the stress you will endure in the interim. And your marriage? Statistics indicate that the divorce rate among couples with autistic children is 85%. Is this a good time to talk about the economy and the difficulties of single parents raising a child with autism?

I realize I am being brutal. I apologize for that, but not for the need to be honest. Grab a tissue, have a good cry, and suck it up because this discussion is relevant to your life. It is especially relevant if you are considering having children in the future.

“Current Events” time!

On February 12, 2009, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (Vaccine Court) Special Masters ruled against three families of autistic children, whose histories were chosen as “test cases” in the plaintiffs’ efforts to legally establish causality between thimerosal, MMR, and the children’s regression into autistic symptoms, which happened to occur shortly after receiving the vaccinations.

It was reported that one factor which helped sway the decision against the families is that they claimed their children were “developing normally” prior to the administration of the MMR vaccine. The Masters, upon review of photographs, videos, and medical records of the children in question, concluded that the parents’ claim that their children were “developing normally” was untrue. As I recall, the opinion of the special masters cited things like videos and photographs showing inconsistent eye-contact prior to the MMR administration. This concept of “normal development” hit me like a ton of bricks when I read it.

What does this statement mean, “Developing Normally?”

When I think about this question, the first thing that comes to mind is how shocked I have been and continue to be, when I ask parents the following question, “Did your child have a lot of ear infections during the first four years of life?”

The answer I frequently receive is, “Not a lot. No more than any other children.”
My response: “How many ear infections does your child typically have in a year?”
Typical response: “Three or four.”

What is important about the conversation, as reported above, is that most parents I interview report that their child is having three or four ear infections per year (which are treated with antibiotics) and the parents are also reporting that their child is no different from other children who are “developing normally.”

This is a problem.

Another area where I see a problem involves constipation. My developmental history form specifically asks about constipation and the majority of children I see have had significant problems with the frequency of bowel movements. Several have had to go to the hospital multiple times because their bowels have become impacted. Many parents have told me that they have expressed concerns to their pediatricians or family doctors, regarding their children’s infrequent bowel movements (often once a week or less), only to be told by their trusted physician, “In some children, that’s normal.”

Bowel movements are the body’s way of clearing toxins. (The body also clears toxins through urination and sweating.) Some toxins will ONLY clear the body through bowel movements. If you have toxins building up in the body and the half-life of that toxin is, let’s say 3 days, and the child in question is only having a bowel movement every 7 days, then if that toxin is taken into the body (perhaps through vaccination) and the child does not have a bowel movement for four or five days after taking the toxin it, where do you suppose the toxin goes? It gets stored in the body. Some of it goes into the soft tissues like kidneys and bone marrow. Some of it goes into the brain. Once it’s stored, it’s hard to get it out.

The gist of this is that our children are NOT developing normally if they are having chronic constipation (or diarrhea), or if they are having chronic bacterial and viral infections, upper respiratory infections, bronchitis, tonsillitis, strep, allergies, and asthma. We have an entire generation of children who are more prone to illness than children who are truly “developing normally.” The problem is, we have become so accustomed to this that we now accept this situation as “normal.” This needs to change. (Note: The generation of children who are so prone to infections and gastrointestinal problems coincides with the administration of the Hepatitis B vaccination at birth. For more on this topic, please read the post Vaccines and Autism - Your Child vs. The Greater Good.)

So, going back to the concept of teratology – things that disrupt normal development … In order to prevent more children from being “hit by the bus,” we need to pay closer attention to the things that may disrupt “normal development,” starting before conception even occurs. We need to prepare the incubator. For those children who are already here, we need to assess the status of their overall health and development BEFORE we inject them with multiple viruses simultaneously, and BEFORE we allow anyone to inject them with substances (thimerosal, aluminum, formaldehyde, etc.) that are KNOWN to have teratologic effects. Remember, the first rule of vaccinations is “do not vaccinate a sick child.” The problem is that when we view children with chronic conditions (viruses, bacterial infections, etc.) as “normal,” our perception of what constitutes “a sick child” has been skewed. Those are the children who are being “thrown in front of the bus.” My point: If we identify (accurately) those children who ARE sick, and get them healthy BEFORE administering vaccinations, we are likely to decrease the numbers of children who subsequently regress and end up receiving an autism diagnosis.

Back to the main question at hand – what do you need to do to increase your chances of having a healthy baby – one who stays healthy and does not become part of the estimated 1 in 67 American children with an autism spectrum disorder?

Don’t wait until you are pregnant to start preparing your body. Remember, you are the incubator. Imagine for a moment that you have just delivered a baby that was born premature, and had to be placed in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) of the hospital. When your precious infant is taken from your womb and placed in the incubator in the NICU, you expect that the incubator will be a healthy environment for your fragile infant. By healthy, I mean, you expect that the incubator is free from bacteria (strep, staph, clostridia), viruses (Herpes, Measles, Varicella [Chickenpox], Human Papilloma Virus, Epstein-Barr, Cytomegalovirus), yeast (candida albicans and others), and parasites. You also expect that the incubator your infant is placed in will not be contaminated with heavy metals (lead, mercury, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum [not technically a ‘heavy metal’]), and that the incubator will not be sprayed with pesticides or contaminated with organophosphates. In essence, what you expect, is that your precious baby will be placed in a pristine environment, in which he or she will be able to develop, to his or her full potential.

If you expect strangers to care for your baby this way, shouldn’t you do everything you can to care for your future child with the same concern?

This entire thought process should start at least one to two years before you become pregnant.
If you live in the Tri-state (Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois), you should know that you live in the coal-burning power plant capitol of the world. If you have lived here for any length of time, you have been exposed to heavy metals (from coal-burning power plants), pesticides and organophosphates (from farming). If you get annual flu shots and have not specified that you want thimerosal-free flu shots, you have had a yearly dose of mercury injected directly into your bloodstream.

If you live in an area where you are regularly exposed to heavy metals and other environmental toxins, you owe it to your future children to find out what toxins have built up in your system, before you make it an incubator for your future child. You would not want your child to be placed in a hospital incubator contaminated with bacteria, viruses, and toxins (metals, pesticides, organophosphates), so why would you allow your child to spend the most important growing stage in just such an environment. If you do not pursue primary intervention that assesses your own body stores of these toxins, that is exactly what you are doing. The incubator is contaminated.

Clean it up before you trust it with the future of your precious baby.

2. If you are the parent of a young child and you are concerned about whether or not to vaccinate him or her, you need to become informed about your options as a parent. One of those options I would encourage is to have your child evaluated first to determine if there are physical problems that should be addressed, prior to vaccination. This may be especially important if your child has gastrointestinal problems, or recurrent viral and/or bacterial infections.

To learn more about assessment for genetic vulnerability and toxic exposures before you get pregnant, or before vaccinating your child, contact Marcella Piper-Terry, M.S.; Biomedical Consultant; marcellaterry@hotmail.com

Rappoport Raises Important Questions About Vaccines

2008-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

First, let me say that prior to today, I have never heard of Jon Rappoport.

I have been catching up on emails, which have been sorely neglected during the Christmas break. This evening I clicked on a post from one of the groups I shadow, and followed the link to this, which is said to be an interview of a former vaccine researcher, who does not want to use his own identity because of the consequences of doing so. (If this is true, his decision is completely understandable.)

If this is not true, I still believe it is worth posting, as there are many questions that need to be asked, which may come from more interested people having access to the dialogue (scripted or not).

I encourage parents to research the vaccine issue and make informed decisions before injecting anything into their child's body. Make your own decisions.

Marci

http://avropa.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5F6877002CEECEB3!1964.entry

O'Bama: Please Change Government Stance on Autism!

2008-12-15T05:19:00.000-08:00

Hello All:
There is currently a forum on Change.org - which will allow you to submit or vote for ideas that you believe President-elect O'Bama needs to address for change when his administration is ushered into power. Please go to the following link and vote for change for our children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism:

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/bodies_in_rebellion

And visit the Bodies in Rebellion site to learn more:

http://www.bodiesinrebellion.com/

Here is one of the latests posts on the Change. org site: (Lots of information well worth your time to investigate.)

Blessings.
Marci

For all those that want to understand the realtionship between mercury and autism read the article "Blood Levels of Mercury Are Related to Diagnosis of Autism: A Reanalysis of an Important Data Set.

http://bodiesinrebellion.com/BloodLevelsofMercuryRelatedtoAutism1.pdf

The symptoms of mercury toxicity and autism are almost identical: Thimerosal and autism? A plausible hypothesis that should not be dismissed . Medical Hypotheses , Volume 62 , Issue 5 , Pages 788 - 794 M .

Blaxillhttp://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/Med_Hypoth_Blaxill_Redwood_Bernard.pdfFor

Those that do not understand how serious a problem autism is... just read all these comments parents and relatives are making. Do a search for Dr. Boyd Haley, University of Kentucky, Dr. Mady Hornig, Columbia University, Dr. Thomas Burbacher, University of Washington; Dr. Mark Geier, President of The Genetic Centers of America and David Geier, Vice President of The Institute of Chronic Illnesses, and Dr. Jill James, University of Arkansas. They're just a few of the independent scientists whose findings link unsafe vaccines to neurological damage in our children. Research on vaccines can also be found on this link:

http://www.generationrescue.org/studies.html

The National Autism Association has said that while officials continue to claim that there is no science linking vaccines to autism, many peer-reviewed published studies confirm the connection between vaccinations and neurological injuries.

http://www.national%20autismassociatio%20n.org/library.%20php

Look at what the former head of the NIH has to say:

CBS News Exclusive: Former Head Of NIH Says Government Too Quick To Dismiss Possible LinkSEE VIDEO

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/12/cbsnews_investigates/main4086809.shtml

Healy said that officials have been too quick to dismiss a link between vaccines and autism without ever studying the group that got sick. There never have been studies done on the kids that developed symptoms of autism within a few weeks of being vaccinated. She furthermore pointed out that the Institute of Medicine which produced the cumulative study on vaccines and autism in 2004 refused to 'pursue susceptibility groups.' In other words, they didn't want to find any evidence that linked vaccines to autism. She left us with the haunting statement: 'The question has not been answered.'

In the current issue of U.S. News and World Report, A Government Call for Vaccine Research, Dr. Healy again calls for more research into vaccine safety. This ad ran in USA Today on Feb 12 and 29: Green our vaccines. And administer them with greater care.

http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/080212.pdf .

It shows what happened to the vaccine schedule since 1983 and it lists the toxic ingredients like mercury, aluminum, MSG, ether, formaldehyde, and anti-freeze commonly found in vaccines. The soaring increase in autism directly coincided with the dramatic escalation of the number of vaccines. It's important to note that there has never been a study done on the cumulative effect of so many vaccines with toxic ingredients so soon on the health of a baby. This is also the time period in which autism went from one in 10,000 children to one in every 150 on average in the U.S. The official autism rate is one in 150 children. In the 1970s, the rate was one in every 10,000 kids. The CDC gave us the figure of one in 150 in Feb. 2007, but it was based on studies of eight year olds done back in 2002 and 2000. Those children are now 14 and 16 years old. This can hardly be considered a true picture of the autism disaster. In Minnesota, the recognized rate is one in every 81 kids. Others put the national average rate at one in every 67 children. Among the Somali immigrants in Minneapolis, the autism rate for American-born Somali children is one in every 28 kids. And these children are ones with classic autism. They could hardly have been misdiagnosed. One in every six schoolchildren now has a diagnosis of a learning disability.

Autism, once a rare disorder, is now so common that everyone knows someone with an autistic child and no one can reasonability tell us why. When we read about autism, it's always about kids with autism. Where are the 30, 50, and 70 year olds with autism like we see in our children? We should all be worried about what will happen when hundreds of thousands of children with autism age out into the welfare system. They'll become the responsibility of the taxpayers. We do not currently have a significant adult population with autism, but that will soon be changing and the cost of their support and care will be massive. Findings by Michael Ganz at Harvard make a chilling prediction of the future cost to our society. Ganz projects that it will cost about $3.2 million to take care of ONE autistic person over his or her lifetime. His findings are felt by others to be a gross underestimate of the eventual autism price tag.

Autism Has High Costs to U.S. Society, press release of Tuesday ...

The words of Laura Bono of the National Autism Association are a grim forecast for the future: "As those children reach adulthood, the U.S. is ill-equipped to care for them. Not only do we not have enough services for adults now, the light at the end of the tunnel is a train. Frankly, we don't know what we're going to do."

Click the link below to view this discussion.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/bodies_in_rebellion

Lead in Wild Game, Venison, Be Careful What You Eat!

2008-11-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

The following article is important, especially for those of us with sick children, who also live in areas of the country where wild game consumption is part of how families get by.

The take-home message is: Think about every aspect of your life, especially if you have a child with autism or other developmental disability. Also, please remember that lead only shows up in blood for a short period of time after exposure. It is stored in soft tissues, including bone marrow and the brain, for decades after initial exposure, and the effect is cumulative. In other words, it adds up. Just because it doesn't show up in blood doesn't mean it's not in your body (or your child's body).

Lead is also passed from mother to child in utero and through breast milk, so if you have eaten a considerable amount of wild game in your life and are thinking about getting pregnant, you may want to have a hair analysis and urine provocation test prior to conception. Get the lead out before you pass it on to the next generation.

Take care.
Marci

Study links lead in blood to wild game consumption

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer James Macpherson, Associated Press Writer – Wed Nov 5, 8:58 pm ET

BISMARCK, N.D. – North Dakota health officials are recommending that pregnant women and young children avoid eating meat from wild game killed with lead bullets.

The recommendation is based on a study released Wednesday that examined the lead levels in the blood of more than 700 state residents. Those who ate wild game killed with lead bullets appeared to have higher lead levels than those who ate little or no wild game.

The elevated lead levels were not considered dangerous, but North Dakota says pregnant women and children younger than 6 should avoid eating venison harvested using lead bullets.
Those groups are considered most at risk from lead poisoning, which can cause learning problems and convulsions, and in severe cases can lead to brain damage and death.

The study, conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department, is the first to connect lead traces in game with higher lead levels in the blood of game eaters, said Dr. Stephen Pickard, a CDC epidemiolgist who works with the state health department.

A separate study by Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources previously found that fragments from lead bullets spread as far as 18 inches away from the wound.

"Nobody was in trouble from the lead levels," Pickard said. However, "the effect was small but large enough to be a concern," he said.

Pickard said the study found "the more recent the consumption of wild game harvested with lead bullets, the higher the level of lead in the blood."

Officials in North Dakota and other states have warned about eating venison killed with lead ammunition since the spring, when a physician conducting tests using a CT scanner found lead in samples of donated deer meat.

The findings led North Dakota's health department to order food pantries to throw out donated venison. Some groups that organize venison donations have called such actions premature and unsupported by science.

Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., Winner of the Noble Prize

2008-10-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

With yesterday's announcement of this year's winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, I think it is appropriate to honor the man who, sadly, will never see the full effects of his lifetime commitment to individuals and families impacted by autism. This man worked tirelessly and passionately in his quest for the true causes and effective treatments of autism to be accepted and widely applied so that more children could live free from constant pain and become independent, contributing members of society.

Today's post is dedicated to Bernard Rimland, Ph.D (1928 – 2006). The bulk of this post is a reprint of Dr. Rimland's testimony in 2000, before the House Committee on Government Reform. Given the current state of our economy and the recent 700 billion dollar buyout, I believe the timing of this post is especially relevant.

Here's to you, Bernie. Thank-you. You did not live long enough to receive the Nobel Prize, but if they gave one for being a Noble Man, you would have no competition whatsoever.

Testimony of Bernard Rimland, Ph.D. Before House Committee on Government Reform

April 6, 2000

The Autism Increase: Research Needed on the Vaccine Connection

My name is Bernard Rimland. I am a research psychologist (Ph.D.). and am Director Of the Autism Research Institute, which I founded in 1967. I am also the founder of the Autism Society of America (1965), and the editor of the Autism Research Review International. My book, Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implication for a Neural Theory of Behavior (1964) is widely credited with changing the field of psychiatry from its claim that autism is an emotional illness, caused by destructive mothers, to its current recognition that autism is a biological disorder. I have lectured on autism and related problems throughout the world, and am author of numerous publications. I served as primary technical advisor on autism for the film Rain Man.

My son Mark was born in 1956. It was obvious from birth that this perfectly normal-looking infant had something drastically wrong with him. I had earned my Ph.D in experimental psychology 3 years earlier and had never encountered the word autism. Our pediatrician, with 35 years of experience, had never heard of autism either. Autism was extremely rare then - it is extremely common now.

Some supposed experts will tell you that the increase reflects only greater awareness. That is nonsense. Any pediatrician, teacher or school official with 20 or more years experience will confirm what the studies tell us: there is a real increase in autism and the numbers are huge and growing. The epidemic is serious and world-wide.

Soon after my textbook on autism was published in 1964, I began to hear from other parents. Many parents told me that their children were normal until getting a triple vaccine - the DPT shot. In 1965 I began systematically collecting data on the symptoms and possible causes of autism: In 1967—33 years ago—I began querying the parents, specifically about the child's response to the DPT shot. Many had reported marked deterioration.

During the past few years the Autism Research Institute has been flooded with an upsurge in pleas for help from parents throughout the world - from wherever the World Health Organization vaccine guidelines are followed. The majority of these parents say their children were normal until getting the MMR - another triple vaccine.

Let me dispel several myths promoted by those who deny the autism-vaccine connection:

They claim the vaccines are safe, but physicians are indoctrinated to disbelieve claims of harm and are not trained to recognize nor required to report any adverse reactions. From 90% to 99% of the adverse reactions reported to doctors are never reported by those doctors to the government's extremely lax Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, known as the VAERS.

They say that the suspected linkage between the MMR vaccination and autism has been disproved by a study conducted by Brent Taylor and his colleagues in London, and published last year in The Lancet. The Taylor study is seriously flawed in many ways, as had been noted in a number of letters to the editor of The Lancet and in a number of additional letters on the subject which have been posted on the internet. It was subject to strong attack at a recent meeting of the British Statistical Society. I have been a full-time researcher my entire professional life, for almost 50 years, and I respectfully asked Dr. Taylor for a copy of the data so that I could reanalyze them. He refused this ordinary professional courtesy, and I have subsequently written to the editor of The Lancet requesting that an impartial committee be asked to reexamine Dr. Taylor's statistical methods. If he refuses again, I urged The Lancet to retract his paper.

They say that autism has a large genetic component, and therefore vaccines must play a minimal, if any, role in the causation of autism. My book Infantile Autism, published in 1964, was the first systematic attempt to marshal the evidence for genetics as a contributing cause of autism, so I am certainly not hostile to that idea. However, genes do not begin to account for the huge increase in the incidence of autism, ranging from 250% to 500% in various places. I might add that we have just reviewed all of the recent genetic studies for the next issue of the Autism Research Review International, which I edit. The results are spectacularly inconsistent. The best guess is that there are at least 20 different genes involved in the causation of autism. Gene therapy is decades off, and may be infeasible.

They claim that autism naturally occurs at about 18 months, when the MMR is routinely given, so the association is merely coincidental and not causal. But the onset of autism at 18 months is a recent development. Autism starting at 18 months rose very sharply in the mid-1980s, when the MMR vaccine came into wide use. A coincidence? Hardly! See the graph below.

Autism is not the only severe chronic illness which has reached epidemic proportions as the number of (profitable) vaccines has rapidly increased. Children now receive 33 vaccines before they enter school - a huge increase. The vaccines contain not only live viruses but also very significant amounts of highly toxic substances such as mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde. Could this be the reason for the upsurge in autism, ADHD, asthma, arthritis, Crohn's disease, lupus and other chronic disorders?

As a parent and as a full-time professional researcher, I am bitterly disappointed with the medical establishment's dismal record with regard to autism over the past 60 years. The medical schools, as well as the governmental agencies, have consistently supported outmoded, unproven and even disproven theories from the very beginning, and have actively opposed the most promising approaches for the treatment of autism. They supported the psychoanalytically-based theories which held the mother responsible for causing autism through her supposedly hostile attitude toward the child. They opposed the use of behavior modification, the most uniformly beneficial treatment for autism, by claiming that it neglected the deep-seated emotional blocks that were supposedly at the root of autism. They have ignored, and continue to ignore, the long series of studies conducted both in the U. S. and Europe showing that the elimination of foods containing gluten and casein from the diet brings about marked improvement in many autistic children. They have consistently ignored the series of 18 consecutive studies, conducted by researchers in 6 countries, which showed that almost half of all autistic children and adults respond favorably to high doses of vitamin B6 and magnesium., with no adverse effects. Eleven of these studies were double-blind placebo-crossover experiments. There is no drug that comes close to B6/magnesium in terms of safety, efficacy and positive research findings.

Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on non-productive lines of research, while virtually no money at all has been given to research on the methods of alternative medicine, which are far more promising in terms of both safety and efficacy.

The most interesting questions are not being asked: Why does the majority of the population survive such epidemics as autism, the bubonic plague, Legionnaires' disease, polio and AIDS, while relatively few succumb?

The answer is that the survivors have a healthy, effective immune system. Would enhancing the immune system decrease the likelihood of adverse reactions to vaccines (including the anthrax vaccine - DOD please note!)? Very probably. It is well known that the immune system must be adequately supplied with many nutrients if it is to function properly, including especially vitamins A, C, E, B6 and a number of minerals, including zinc, magnesium, and selenium. Nutritional levels of these substances are not only harmless, they are essential to good health. Since people do not change their diets readily, I believe that foods should be fortified with these nutrients - especially foods that will be consumed by infants and children. Research along these lines - as well as on the safety of the vaccines - is desperately needed.

As a parent and a researcher, I believe there should be a marked redirection of effort and funding, along the lines suggested above.

Committee on Government Reform

2157 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-5074

Reprinted from:http://www.house.gov/reform/hearings/healthcare/00.06.04/rimland.htm

The Flu Vaccine - Is It Worth It? A Cost-Benefit Analysis

2008-10-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I posted an article on this blog entitled, "Is There Thimerosal in the Flu Vaccine." At that time, it had just been announced in the media that the CDC was stepping up efforts this year "like never before" to ensure that every man, woman, and child (including babies and the as-yet unborn) receive the flu vaccine. As I wrote then, this is extremely concerning, especially when it comes to vaccinating pregnant women in the second trimester, and vaccinating babies and children with something that contains mercury. I cannot understand why, after the CDC finally agreed to remove thimerosal from the childhood vaccine schedule, they would now recommend vaccinations for babies and children that still contain this extremely toxic heavy metal.

I know this is a topic I already covered, but it is one that is so important it's worth expanding on.

Today was one of those rare days when, having attended the Health Fair at USI, I found myself at home with my feet up when the news came on. One of the stories covered by Ann Komas, anchor for WFIE News, reported on a "Drive-In Flu Clinic" that took place today in Indianapolis. People are lining up in their cars, simultaneously rolling down their windows and rolling up their sleeves to get the flu vaccines they have been so fervently advised to receive.

I wonder how many of them know about the thimerosal.

As my 8 year-old watched the news report she screwed up her face and said, "EEEWWWW! Gross!!!" I was very relieved to be able to tell her that she didn't have to worry about that because she is not getting a flu shot.

The government has GREATLY over-stated both the severity of the threat to healthy individuals from the flu, and the efficacy of the flu vaccine in preventing flu-related deaths. If you would like to read a fascinating article, written by research-physicians that will help you to make an informed decision about whether or not to submit to the government's push, click here.
If you don't care to read the entire article, here are some things to consider:

This information is taken directly from the article, "A Shot of Fear," written by By Steven Woloshin, Lisa M. Schwartz and H. Gilbert Welch, published in 2005 in The Washington Post.

According to the CDC, 90 percent of flu-related deaths occur among people age 65 years and older. Based on this information and the age distribution of the population, the chance of a flu-related death for people in that age group is about one in 1,000. Another way of saying this is that the chance of not dying from flu for those 65 and older is about 999 out of 1,000. (For context, the chance of a flu-related death is slightly lower than the chance of dying from a fall or other accident.)
For people younger than 65 (including children), the chance of a flu-related death is much smaller -- about one in 100,000.

The authors of the above-reference article point out that the wording of papers published in some highly-regarded, peer-reviewed, medical journals is misleading and overstates the effectiveness of the flu vaccination.

For example, a 2003 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine observed that the flu vaccine was associated with a 50 percent reduction in the overall death rate (that is, death from heart disease, stroke, cancer and all other causes combined). To attribute an effect of this magnitude solely to the flu vaccine is ludicrous: Flu-related deaths make up less than 2 percent of all deaths. If the claim were accurate, the vaccine's power would dwarf that of any other medical intervention.

The authors go on to point out that for some, it is not necessarily the concern of death from the flu that drives them (now, literally) to get the vaccination. Many Americans roll up their sleeves and hold their screaming children down to receive the flu shot because they don't want to be sick and don't want to miss work or school.

The authors write, "Many may get flu shots simply to avoid getting sick. The Cochrane Collaboration identified more than 20 randomized trials addressing this question. The overall chance of developing "clinical" flu was 19 percent in those chosen, again by chance, to receive the recommended flu vaccine vs. 23 percent in the control groups."

If I'm interpreting this correctly, having received the flu vaccine conferred a 4% advantage when it came to actually getting sick, when compared to those who did not receive the flu vaccine.

Read on:

Studies have also measured another outcome: how vaccination affects days lost from work. On average, there are about 0.16 fewer days lost from work per person vaccinated. Another way of saying this is that about 5 percent of those vaccinated avoid missing about three days of work because of the flu. (That is, 0.16 days divided by the 5 percent who benefited from vaccination equals 3.2 days.) The other 95 percent vaccinated got no benefit.

For anyone who is concerned about injecting mercury into yourself or your child, PLEASE ask yourself, "Is it worth it?" before obediently and blindly rolling up your sleeves. For pregnant women and parents of small children, PLEASE, JUST SAY "NO."

Marcella Piper-Terry, M.S.

SUCCESS RATES FOR BIOMEDICAL TREATMENT OF AUTISM

2008-09-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

The success rate experienced by families who undertake a biomedical approach for autism is often excellent, for those who stick with it. A major problem is that by the time people hear about Biomedical interventions for Autism, they have been convinced by their pediatrician or family doctor that there is nothing that can be done for autism, and since we live in a society that tends to value a physician's word as being on par with "the word of God" this can be a big hurdle to overcome.

A related problem is that most traditionally-trained physicians are not taught about nutrition or methods of disease prevention. They are taught to suppress symptoms with pharmaceutical drugs and to remove body parts when they decay or stop working - often because the symptoms of underlying disease are masked with pharmaceutical drugs while things continue to get worse.

Physicians and clinicians who employ biomedical treatments for autism (and ADHD, ADD, Bipolar Disorder, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, etc.) subscribe to the belief that the most important thing is "FIRST, DO NO HARM." As is the case when considering any kind of intervention, we must ask ourselves if any risks associated are greater than any potential benefit that may come from taking the particular course of action. This is referred to as a “cost/benefit analysis.” In any cost/benefit analysis, you want to make decisions where the potential benefit outweighs the potential cost. I believe this is especially true when considering a treatment approach for a sick child.

The Autism Research Institute has been collecting data from parents for several years, regarding the success rates of various interventions, both biomedical and pharmaceutical. To view the complete list of parent ratings for biomedical and pharmaceutical interventions, click the following link: http://www.autism.com/treatable/form34qr.htm

Data from more than 26 thousand of parents indicates that biomedical interventions, such as dietary changes, antifungals, targeted supplementation with specific vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, and probiotics, and chelation therapy to remove heavy metals, organophosphates, and pesticides, are many times more successful than treatment with psychotropic medications AND they are far less likely to cause negative reactions in the children.

For example, Adderall, Ritalin, and Risperdal are three of the most frequently prescribed medications given to children with autism to help control behavior (suppress symptoms). Parent ratings regarding the success rates for these medications are as follows:

Adderall: of 775 cases, 43% got worse; 32% got better; 25% no effect.
Adderall: Better:Worse Ratio = 0.8:1

Ritalin: of 4127 cases, 45% got worse; 29% got better; 26% no effect.
Ritalin: Better:Worse Ratio = 0.7:1

Risperdal: of 1038 cases, 20% got worse; 54% got better; 26% no effect.
Risperdal: Better:Worse Ratio = 2.8:1

Note: "got worse" in these parental reports relates solely to the worsening of problematic behaviors. To read further information regarding potential side effects of these and other psychotropic medications click the following link:
http://www.autism.com/ari/adverse_reactions.html

Constipation and diarrhea are rampant in a vast majority of kids with autism, as are problems with eczema, skin rashes, and environmental and dietary allergies. Because 70% of the body’s immune system is located in the gastrointestinal tract, problems related to GI injury and inflammation are often the source of a domino-like cascade of issues as the child becomes immune-compromised and increasingly susceptible to bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections.

Dietary changes often help to correct issues in the gut and are therefore frequently targeted initially in biomedical treatments for autism. Parent ratings regarding the success of dietary interventions are as follows:

Remove Milk/Dairy: of 6360 cases, 2% got worse; 52% got better; 46% no effect.
Remove Milk/Dairy: Better:Worse Ratio: 32:1

Remove Wheat: of 3774 cases, 2% got worse; 51% got better; 47% no effect
Remove Wheat: Better:Worse Ratio: 28:1

Gluten Free/Casein Free Diet: of 2561 cases, 3% got worse; 66% got better; 31% no effect
GF/CF Diet: Better:Worse Ratio: 19:1

Candida Diet (Yeast-Free): of 941 cases, 3% got worse; 56% got better; 41% no effect
GF/CF Diet: Better:Worse Ratio: 19:1

Food Allergy Treatment: of 952 cases, 3% got worse; 64% got better; 33% no effect
Food Allergy Treatment: Better:Worse Ratio: 24:1

Yeast overgrowth (Candida Albicans) is a very common finding in children with autism, and is one of the effects of their weakened immune systems and resultant administration of antibiotics to fight recurrent bacterial infections. Physicians who adhere to the Defeat Autism Now! approach very often order laboratory testing to determine if yeast is problematic, and if so, will treat accordingly with antifungal prescriptions. Parental reports of success with antifungal treatment are as follows:

Antifungals: Diflucan: of 653 cases, 5% got worse; 57% got better; 38% no effect
Antifungals: Diflucan: Better:Worse Ratio: 11:1

Antifungals: Nystatin: of 1388 cases, 5% got worse; 50% got better; 44% no effect
Antifungals: Nystatin: Better:Worse Ratio: 9.7:1

Specific nutritional therapies and supplementation targeted for the individual child is a cornerstone of biomedical treatment of autism. One must be careful in giving vitamins and it is not advised to do so unless you know what you're doing. Having said that, one of the most frequently recommended supplements for autism is Cod Liver Oil or Fish Oil (must be treated to remove mercury - don't buy cheap fish oil!!!!). Other Fatty Acids are also supplemented, based on lab results and detailed developmental history and family history. Parent ratings for the success of these interventions are as follows:

Cod Liver Oil: of 1681 cases, 4% got worse; 51% got better; 45% no effect.
Cod Liver Oil: Better: Worse Ratio = 13:1

Fatty Acids: of 1169 cases, 2% got worse; 56% got better; 41% no effect.
Fatty Acids: Better: Worse Ratio = 24:1

Heavy Metal toxicity is a very common finding in children with autism, as is shown on hair analysis, through urine provocation testing, and now with porphyrin tests. Chelation (removal) of heavy metals and other toxins is often a very effective component of biomedical treatment for autism and is used when indicated, based on laboratory findings. Parent ratings for success rates of chelation treatments are as follows:

Chelation: of 803 cases, 3% got worse; 74% got better; 23% no effect.
Chelation: Better:Worse Ratio = 24:1

There are many other intervention strategies that are helping to recover children from an autism diagnosis and Defeat Autism Now! clinicians and researchers all over the globe are working tirelessly in their efforts.

If you ask a parent whose child disappeared for years, who made no eye contact, spoke no words, and spent hours each day watching his or her fingers and spinning in circles, that parent's response to the question, "How successful is biomedical treatment?" will depend on his or her own experience. If you ask one of the parents I met at a Defeat Autism Now! conference, who's children actually got on the stage, made eye contact with the interviewers, and answered questions in front of hundreds of other parents and professionals, the answer, I'm sure, would be "Extremely successful!"

Biomedical interventions do not work for everyone, and the results are varied, depending on the particular child. This is also why the GF/CF diet or SCD diet or LOD diet, or whatever, is not THE answer for everyone. Individual children need to be treated as individuals. Treatments need to be tailored, based on the child’s own developmental and medical history, observations of parents, and results of laboratory tests that assess specific areas for intervention.

Every child is different and EVERY CHILD WITH AUTISM IS DIFFERENT. That's why the standard medical response, "There's nothing you can do for autism" makes no sense.

Autism is treatable. Recovery is possible. One child at a time.

To view videos of some of the many children who have been successfully recovered from an autism diagnosis by implementing some of the above biomedical interventions, please click on the links below. Head’s up: You might want to grab a box of tissues for these.

This information is 4allofyou!

Blessings,
Marci

Baxter's Recovery from Autism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsmBoGPzx9U&feature=related

Ethan's Recovery from Autism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEw0Y5LJ6vg

Edward's Autism Journey and Recovery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtHvtWBv7aM

NIMH Cancels Chelation Study While Dr. Proffit Heads for the Bank

2008-09-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Guess what? A couple of days ago the media announced, "A government agency has dropped plans for a study of a controversial treatment for autism that critics had called an unethical experiment on children. The National Institute of Mental Health said in a statement Wednesday that the study of the treatment - called chelation - has been abandoned."

I'm shocked. (that's sarcasm)

Okay. After about ten minutes of research, here's what I found:

First, the NIH study was called off because an experimental psychologist at Cornell University found that rats who were administered a chelating agent (succimer) specifically meant to chelate lead, suffered from learning disabilities that are long-lasting if they were administered the drug when they did not have lead poisoning to begin with. Towards the end of the article, it notes that the most likely reason for this is because succimer depletes zinc and iron and the resulting deficiencies of these minerals are what probably caused the cognitive problems. DUH!!!

Two problems with NIH calling off the chelation study as a result of the above:

1. ANY doctor trained by the Autism Research Institute (Defeat Autism Now!) KNOWS that one of the FIRST things to do is assess the child's nutritional status, including testing for zinc and iron levels. AND, they know that chelation with ANY agent is NOT an option unless the child has DOCUMENTED heavy metals in the body. This is WHY we do hair analysis AND urine provocation AND fecal metal tests. Any physician who uses chelation to treat heavy metals in the absence of proof that there ARE heavy metals should NOT be using chelation. This is akin to prescribing chemotherapy for cancer to someone who LOOKS like they may have cancer, without ever doing the tests to determine if the cancer really exists. Chemotherapy drugs are some of the MOST toxic drugs on the planet, but nobody is suggesting that we not use them! (At least nobody in "mainstream" medicine)

2. A more appropriate design for the NIH study, instead of administering chelating agents to children who do not have heavy metals, would be to document that ALL children in the study have heavy metals in their systems and then administer ALL of the same interventions, including addressing mineral and nutritional deficiencies in ALL participants. The experimental condition should be those children who receive chelation, while the control group should be a group of children who are matched on all other interventions but do not receive chelation. In this way, there would be no problems associated with the fact that the control group did not have heavy metals AND there would be no problems associated with mineral depletion because, just as it is in the clinical setting in hundreds of Defeat Autism Now! trained physicians, THE MINERAL LEVELS WOULD BE CONSISTENTLY MONITORED TO ENSURE THEY ARE NOT BEING DEPLETED BY THE DRUGS! AGAIN, DUH!!!!!!

Why can't NIH figure this out?

I suspect this is because the powers-that-be do not understand clinical nutrition. This is most likely because traditionally trained physicians practicing traditional western medicine are trained in medical schools that are funded by pharmaceutical companies, and most M.D.s have never taken a SINGLE course in nutrition. It is NOT REQUIRED. No WONDER we have so many drugs that have been pulled from the market after significant numbers of patients have DIED because of side effects of the drugs, which WERE approved by the FDA.

Care for some Vioxx, anyone?

It seems to me that the reason the powers-that-be do not want chelation to become more readily available is because if they did, more children with heavy metal poisoning would have access to this very effective (and very safe) treatment. That would mean that there would be hundreds of thousands of children whose levels of mercury (and lead and antimony) would be DOCUMENTED, and doctors like Paul Offit, who happens to sit on the IOM (Institute of Medicine), which has declared that an association between thimerosal (mercury) and autism does not exist, can continue to rake in the dough at the expense of our children. For those who don't know, Dr. Paul Offit is not only the most vocal opponent of the mercury/autism connection, he is also one of the recipients of 182 MILLION DOLLARS, for royalties to the Rotavirus Vaccine, of which Dr Offit is a patent-holder. HMMMMNNNNN.........

Has anyone ever heard the saying, "The Fox is Guarding the Henhouse?"

WATCH THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Hw-Q23S_s

Once again, I advise parents to DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and do not rely on the misinformation being put out by those like Dr. Offit, who have SO MUCH to gain if our children remain poisoned by heavy metals.

To read more about chelation and the truth about the scare tactics, please visit the Autism Research Institute's website and read the following two articles:

http://www.autism.com/treatable/chelation/chelationsafety.htm

http://www.autism.com/ari/editorials/ed_chelationstory.htm

Marcella Piper-Terry

An Open Letter to Governor Mitch Daniels Regarding Thimerosal and Environmental Mercury

2008-09-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

AN OPEN LETTER TO MITCH DANIELS, GOVERNOR OF INDIANA:

Governor Daniels:

I have lived in the state of Indiana for seven years. There are a few questions I, as one of your constituents, would like for you to address.

First, I would like to know why Indiana, and particularly Southwestern Indiana, needs more coal burning power plants, and please do not tell me it's because it's good for our economy.

With the majority of counties in SW Indiana out-of-compliance with the EPA's Clean Air Act our economy and infrastructure is no doubt on the losing end due to loss of federal funding.
The cost of lost work days by our citizens who are too sick to work, due to the effects of heavy metal poisoning and cardiopulmonary damage from particulate matter surely cannot be good for our economy.
The increase in the incidence of autism, which has been shown to be related to the proximity to coal-burning power plants, cannot be good for our economy, especially when you consider that there are no daycare facilities who will accept children with "behavioral problems." Mothers of sick children frequently have no other option but to withdraw from the workforce and stay at home to care for their child. Statistics reveal an 85% divorce rate in families of children with autism - they succumb to the unrelenting stress, which encompasses EVERY aspect of EVERY hour of EVERY DAY. There are no state provisions for respite care, and no state funded programs for adolescents and adults with autism who age out of the system at eighteen. Families are left holding the bag and footing the bill. Surely this is not good for our economy in the state of Indiana.

And, speaking of sick children, I for one do not think it is coincidental that the top five agricultural crops grown in Indiana (and exported all over the world) are the same top five foods that have been demonstrated to cause intestinal problems, including colic, chronic constipation, and diarrhea in children with autism. It is also not coincidental that when these five foods (wheat, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs) are removed from the diets of children with autism, more than 65% of those children improve significantly, some to the point where they actually LOSE their autism diagnosis. Do you really believe this is a coincidence? What is going to happen to the economy in Indiana when the rest of the world realizes that it may not just be the food that's making them sick, but the poisons that are in the food? SURELY THAT'S NOT GOING TO BE GOOD FOR OUR ECONOMY!

As I am sure you know, the heavy metals that go into our air and water also go into our soil and from there, into the food we grow. As the photographs above clearly show, there has been no effort in this state to ensure that our food supply is spared from the toxic plumes being spewed from the coal-burning power plants. There has also apparently been no concern about locating power plants within spitting distance of elementary schools where our children are required by state law to spend a certain amount of time outdoors, running, playing and practicing sports and other activities. Isn't this inconsistent with your push for Healthy Hoosiers?

With the ever-increasing frequency of Ozone and PPM days, during which "sensitive groups," including children, are advised to stay indoors, it's no wonder Indiana ranks at the top of the charts for citizens who qualify as morbidly obese. With the serious health problems associated with that condition, I can't fathom how this outcome could contribute to a strong economy for the state.

With the neurological damage caused by heavy metals, including the loss of IQ points associated with even minute exposure to lead, we are spending increasing amounts of our tax dollars on special education programs, to remediate the damage done by the power-plants and their toxins. How is that good for our economy?

In Vanderburgh County, we are currently on target to surpass last year's suicide rate, and once again reclaim our title as the county with the highest suicide rate in the nation. Two years ago, the rate was four times the national average - AND the rate in Vanderburgh County was four times the rate of the state of Indiana. Of course, many of those people who killed themselves may have been on the public assistance roles, due to physical and mental health problems, so I guess their deaths could conceivably be good for the economy on some level, but I sincerely hope this is not one of the areas you would consider a "positive" outcome of increased coal production.

A related issue is the extreme amount of Vanadium introduced into our environment as a result of coal production. With excess vanadium resulting in the depletion of lithium, this is a very likely contributor to the suicide rate, as depletion of lithium is associated with bipolar disorder. Of course, you may not be aware, or may have forgotten the outcries for more psychiatric facilities after the suicide death of 10 year-old DeTwain Barnett in May 2007. Unfortunately, until the environmental poisoning is decreased, the suicide rate is not likely to decrease, nor is the shortage of mental health providers in this area.

A second question I have is related to your former position as Senior Vice President of Marketing Strategy for Eli Lily, and your subsequent position as Budget Director for the Bush White House. In my attempt to understand the Lily Rider, which was sneaked into the Homeland Security Act, I did find a newspaper article that printed your adamant denial regarding any knowledge or responsibility for this rider, which was meant to deny families of children poisoned by thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines their right to due process in a Court of Law. My understanding of this rider is that it is called "The Lily Rider" because Eli Lily was the developer of thimerosal and so by denying families their day in court, the rider protected the pharmaceutical giant, which just happened to be your former employer.

Two questions:

1. If not you, then who?

2. Do you own stock in Eli Lily?

One final question I'm pondering is this: Given the obvious health problems and associated economic costs to a state from being the "coal-burning power plant capital of the world," and, given the documented association between mercury and coal-burning power plants AND autism, WHY WOULD THE GOVERNOR OF ANY STATE WANT TO INCREASE MERCURY IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF HIS OR HER CONSTITUENTS?

Of course, I could understand why, if the governor in question had reason to confound the evidence regarding whether or not thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines had anything to do with the epidemic of autism in America's children.

If not you, then who?

Looking forward to your assistance in sorting out this confusion.

Sincerely yours,
Marcella Piper-Terry

Diet and Autism, the GFCF Cult

2008-09-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

The photos above show the corn, soybean, and wheat fields located between Marr's Elementary School and the smokestacks belonging to Vectren Energy's Brown Power Station located on the west side of Evansville, Indiana. These photos were taken in July 2008.

Today's post:

This post addresses some questions people have been asking about the Gluten-Free/Casein-Free Diet and why it is so important in recovering kids diagnosed with Autism. By the way, all of this information also applies to ADHD, ADD, Asperger's Syndrome, and other forms of Pervasive Developmental Disabilities Diagnoses.

When Jenny McArthy first came out publicly with her son’s story, she took a huge personal risk, braving all sorts of criticism from mainstream medicine and groups who believe that by improving a child’s state of wellness, we are somehow saying that we do not accept our children’s individuality. While I applaud Ms. McCarthy’s willingness to make herself a target for all kinds of backlash, one concern I have is the extreme emphasis on GFCF (Gluten-Free, Casein-Free), or for that matter SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet), LOD (Low Oxylate Diet), etc., as THE DOCTRINE everyone must follow. It's not that simple. If you start removing things because of sensitivities, without also focusing on improving digestion, clearing constipation, and healing the lining of the intestinal tract, eventually you end up with an even more limited list of foods because the child will keep developing new sensitivities.

DAN! has been hesitant (in my opinion) to recommend the use of digestive enzymes, which seems to be because they do not want people to use the enzymes as a "lazy" alternative to cleaning up the diet. Cleaning up the diet is a very important thing to do - by getting rid of artificial dyes, artificial preservatives, white flour and sugar, artificial sweeteners, fermented foods, yeasty foods, and basically eliminating things your child is obviously addicted to (this often means wheat and cow's milk), allergic or highly sensitive to (frequently, soy, corn, & eggs).

Personally, as a resident of the Midwest who drives by multiple corn, soy, and wheat fields, as well as coal-burning power plants on a daily basis, I have strong suspicions that the extremely frequent "food allergies" and "food sensitivities" to these five foods in particular, may have more to do with where they are grown and the environmental toxins, than with the food itself. Our food is being grown in soil that is polluted with heavy metals. The corn being grown in this region is fed to the cows and chickens from which our milk and eggs are derived.

Back to today's question and why Dietary Interventions are so important:

Many children with autism self-limit their diets to the point where the only foods they will accept are wheat and dairy-based. The problem is that with a leaky gut - caused by candida overgrowth - among other things, gluten and dairy are not broken down effectively and they are misidentified by the body as opiates. In combination with the alcohol produced by the yeast, you get a kid who is mixing drugs and alcohol and no wonder they're spaced out! And no wonder they have such high pain tolerance. Opiates are what we give to adults after back surgery!

The GFCF diet works so well because it removes the sources of opiates. This is why you may initially see an increase in negative behavior and hyperactivity when removing wheat and dairy from the diet. They are going through withdrawal - aka "cleansing." This is also why the diet is so difficult to stick to because like all addicts, when the kid is not closely supervised, he or she is going to "drug-seek." Lock your cabinets and put a chain on the freezer door!

Many children, especially those who are further to the right on the continuum between autism and ADHD, will benefit significantly from the addition of digestive enzymes, which help to break down particular offending proteins (in most cases, gluten & casein). Others, who are facing more significant challenges, will need to be completely free of dietary sources of gluten and casein. For some, even a minute amount can be problematic and the negative effects can last for several weeks after a single dietary infraction. The only way to know where a child falls on the continuum is through thorough examination of the developmental history and by gathering objective data through laboratory testing.

Many older children, and especially those who are high-functioning, make the connection between how good they feel when they abstain from problematic foods and take digestive enzymes, versus how bad they feel when they don't. As a result, they are much more likely (at least in my house) to be the ones to say, "Mom, I need an enzyme!" Does that make me lazy? Okay. It also helps to keep me - and my kids - closer to the "sane" area on the continuum.

BALANCE is the key! Not rabid adherence to any particular diet just because that's what worked for someone else's child. In most children I have seen, once yeast is eradicated and constipation and/or diarrhea are under control, you can often re-introduce foods, especially if you are supplementing with enzymes to break them down. My kids have been taking enzymes with every meal and snack for the last few years, along with probiotics, CLO, and full-spectrum vitamin/mineral/amino acid supplements. As a result, they CAN eat cake and ice cream at parties. The only time we really have problems with dietary infractions is if we run out of enzymes! Then there was the time my husband bought a package of those frozen "cherry" slushy things - even enzymes couldn't handle that one. He has learned his lesson about red dye, believe me!

Being a mom (or dad) of a sick kid makes you nuts. Accept it and roll with it. You don't have to necessarily join the GFCF or SCD cult in order to be successful at motherhood (parenthood) - even if your kid happens to have autism. The best dietary advice (in my opinion and experience) is to stick to the outer aisles of the grocery store. Shun anything in a cardboard box. You may as well feed them the box; it has more nutrition and fewer preservatives and neurotoxins. Avoid cans as much as possible. Read labels. The more ingredients something has in it, the less you want it. If you can't pronounce it your body probably can't recognize it and won't know what to do with it. When your body can't figure out what to do with it, valuable energy is wasted trying to get rid of it and it gets lumped in with all the other toxins in the heap.

When you have a child with autism, "Diet" is about controlling that which is possible for us to control. "Perfection" and "Diet" only belong in the same sentence when you're talking about anorexia and bulimia. We're all too obsessive-compulsive already. Where do you think our kids got it from?

If your child does not respond to the more general dietary interventions, then you probably need to consider formal laboratory testing for food allergies (IgG – not IgE) and enlist the help of medical professionals to eliminate problematic foods while ensuring your child receives the proper nutritional supplementation for optimal wellness.

In the meantime, give yourself a break as a parent. Congratulate yourself for being proactive regarding your child’s healthcare! To celebrate, have a piece of fruit - just be sure to peel it if it's not organic.

Marci Terry

Is There Thimerosal In the Flu Vaccine?

2008-08-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spoke at a local private school, where I talked about Executive Dysfunction and the change in what is considered "normal" as our society moves along the continuum in response to changes in our environment.

After my presentation, there were a few educators present who had some questions regarding my work as a Defeat Autism Now! provider. One of those questions was regarding the flu vaccine and if there is thimerosal in it. The woman who asked the question reported to me that her daughter had asked her pediatrician about the safety of the flu vaccine because she was considering whether or not to give it to her child. The woman before me (the grandmother of said child) indicated that the pediatrician in question responded to the concerned mother, "Of course the flu vaccine is safe! There hasn't been thimerosal in vaccines for six years!"

This is an outright lie.

Thimerosal was taken out of the CHILDHOOD vaccine schedule in 2004. The huge numbers of vaccines that were already stockpiled in pediatricians' and family practice docs' offices were NOT discarded - this means that unless a parent SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED their child be given INDIVIDUAL DOSE vaccines without preservatives, YOU DON'T KNOW if the vaccines given during and after 2004 were thimerosal-free or not. (You can research the vaccines yourself if you obtain a copy of your child's shot records and look up the particular vaccinations your child received.)

Of HUGE concern at this time is that the CDC and Pharmaceutical companies who develop the vaccines are pushing for ALL children, including infants and those yet unborn, be vaccinated against the flu. (Recommendations include vaccinating pregnant women during the second trimester of gestation.) A news story yesterday announced that flu vaccines have been produced and are being distributed in record numbers this year in the attempt to vaccinate every man, woman, child, and infant in the U.S.
THE FLU VACCINE DOES CONTAIN THIMEROSAL.

For those nay-sayers who believe this is misinformation reported by some radical wacko with an agenda or crazy conspiracy theory, here is the link to the CDC article declaring that yes, the flu vaccine contains mercury. Please read this very carefully and with the same skepticism I would hope you apply to everything you read online (including this blog):
http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/ABOUT/QA/thimerosal.htm

Note that the CDC uses terminology indicating that even in the vaccines that are labeled "preservative-free" THIMEROSAL IS USED IN THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS. The CDC states that the amount is so small and by the time the process is finished, it is untraceable. This is different from stating that IT IS NOT THERE. This is the same type of semantic trickery that has been played for years. Nothing has changed.

Please take the responsibility upon yourself as a parent to do your own research and find out the truth before you allow anyone to inject ANYTHING into your child. I don't know if the pediatrician mentioned above actually knows he is lying to the concerned parents of his young patients. If he does not realize this, it is his responsibility as a professional to research more closely the products he is declaring as safe. I encourage all parents reading this to ask your pediatrician about thimerosal in flu vaccines before having your child (or yourself) vaccinated. If your physician tells you there is no thimerosal in the vaccine, I suggest you find another physician. If he or she doesn't know about thimerosal, with all the media coverage on this issue, what is the likelihood that he or she researches any of the other drugs before writing out prescriptions?

Who is educating our doctors?
The pharmaceutical reps who peddle the prescriptions. The effectiveness of the sales pitch may be the determining factor as to which drugs a doctor prescribes. That's not about healing. That's about money.

As a Defeat Autism Now! provider, I am not taking the position (at this time) that you should not vaccinate your child at all. I am, however, suggesting that you become more proactive in the well-being of the children you have been blessed with and do not blindly follow advice just because the person dispensing it has the letters M.D. behind his or her name.

Posted below is a suggested schedule, for those who make the decision to vaccinate their children. This schedule includes the vaccinations that are protective against CHILDHOOD illnesses and is less likely to overwhelm their immune systems by greatly decreasing the number of antigens introduced into the body simultaneously. This allows the body to respond more appropriately to the invading antigen, and should decrease the likelihood of immune system confusion (which is related to auto-immune response).

Birth
Hepatitis B if mom is Hep. B Positive, otherwise wait
4 months
Hib, IPV
5 months
DTaP
6 months
Hib, IPV
7 months
DTaP
8 months
Hib
9 months
DTaP
15 months
Measles
17 months
Hib, IPV
18 months
DTaP
21 months
Rubella
24 months
Prevnar 1 dose
30 months
Mumps
4-5 years
Varicella (if not immune already)
4-5 years
Hepatitis B series
4-5 years
DTaP, IPV boosters
4-5 years
test titers for MMR and do not give unless not immune.

Please note that the above recommendations include not vaccinating a newborn against Hepatitis B unless the mother is positive. Hepatitis B is a sexually-transmitted disease. It is NOT typically a disease of childhood and should therefore NOT be given to all children as part of the CHILDHOOD vaccine schedule. Please also note that it is recommended that you NOT give a second round of vaccines for Measles, Mumps, and Rubella unless the child is not already immune. The reason the "Booster" vaccine was recommended in the first place is because 10% of children failed to establish immunity after the first vaccine. (I would argue this is a failure in the vaccine, rather than in the children themselves.) Rather than recommend testing for immunity to determine WHICH 10% of children actually NEEDED another dose of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella into their systems, the CDC recommended re-vaccinating ALL children, to be sure we catch the 10% still at risk. Ask yourself who benefits from that decision: Answer: The pharmaceutical industry and the companies who develop the vaccine.

Okay. Rant over for today.
Educate yourselves. We are humans - not sheep.

Marci