Childhood illnesses: Need we mess with them?

[Guest guest]

Supporting Children's Health - by Philip Incao, M.D. http://www.goodlight.net /vacexpert/suportng.htmThe rate of chronic illness in children has tripled since 1960, possiblydue in part to the overuse of childhood vaccinations. The surprising newsis that the standard childhood illnesses these vaccines suppress

mayactually benefit the immune system. .One of the best ways to ensure your children's health is to allow them toget sick. At first hearing, this concept may sound outrageous. Yet standardchildhood illnesses, such as measles, mumps, and even whooping cough, maybe of key benefit to a child's developing immune system and it may

beinadvisable to suppress these illnesses with immunisations. Evidence isalso accumulating that routine childhood vaccinations may directlycontribute to the emergence of chronic problems such as eczema, earinfections, asthma, and bowel inflammations. .It's a challenging medical proposition, but ever since the 1920s, manyEuropean physicians and a small band of American doctors (myself included,for the past 23 years) have avoided using most vaccinations, based on amedical approach called Anthroposophic medicine.In this field, we regard childhood vaccinations as anything but routine;rather, we consider them in most cases to be suspect, dangerous, and worthyof exceedingly rigorous review. Generally, we try to avoid giving mostvaccinations and rely instead on alternative, more natural ways of helpingthe child cope with what we contend are the necessary and beneficialillnesses of

childhood.The Immune System Benefits from Early Illness .Before these concepts make sense, it must be pointed out that the immunesystem has two different aspects. One aspect is called the humoral immunesystem whereby antibodies (specialised defence proteins) are produced torecognise and neutralise antigens (foreign particles in the body). .The other aspect is called the cell-mediated immune system, and involveswhite blood cells and specialised immune cells called macrophages whichÒeatÓ antigens. These also help drive the antigens out of the body, causingskin rashes and discharges of pus and mucus from the throat and lungs. Bothare typical signs of the beneficial acute inflammatory illnesses ofchildhood. .These two poles of the immune system have a reciprocal relationship. Thatmeans when the humoral pole is overstimulated (for example, from

vaccinesor allergies), the cell-mediated pole tends

to be relatively inactive.Vaccines do not stimulate this pole, so their contents never get dischargedfrom the body. .Polio and tetanus do not belong to this group of beneficial standardchildhood illnesses. I use the word "standard" to denote acute inflammatoryillnesses (usually with rash and fever) typical and common to children inWestern, industrialised nations. These illnesses are also standard tochildhood as a developmental phase, something akin to the predictablechange in teeth around age seven. .Many years ago, Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian scientist and founder of theAnthroposophic approach to medicine, argued that childhood illnesses are astandard feature of childhood because the young body needs them. Now let'ssee how this plays out in a standard childhood illness or its suppressionwith vaccinations. .An acute inflammatory childhood illness--measles, mumps, rubella,

chickenpox, scarlatina, or

whooping cough--develops the cell-mediated immunesystem, while a vaccine activates the humoral immune system. The differencehere is crucial because it is the cell-mediated response that protects thechild from future illness and that provides, in effect, the deeper immunity. .Physicians who practice Anthroposophical medicine generally believe thathaving acute but limited inflammatory diseases as a child helps protect oneas an adult against more serious, long-term, chronic illnesses. Not havingthese childhood illnesses (because of multiple vaccinations) can lead to agreater incidence of adult health problems. The same is true when thesechildhood illnesses are routinely suppressed with antibiotics rather thanhelping the cell-mediated immune system to work out the illness in a rashor mucous discharge. .Recent research in conventional medical journals is now confirming thisview. In early 1997, a

team of British

physicians writing in Science madethis provocative statement: "Childhood infections may, therefore,paradoxically protect against asthma." In other words, these infectionshave a purpose in building general immunity. .The British physicians noted that the incidence of asthma has doubled since1977 in Western countries and in the U.S. it is responsible for 33% of allpaediatric emergency-room visits. Yet this growing incidence of asthmaseems to be related more to the suppression or absence of respiratoryinfections than to the commonly perceived cause, air pollution. .Highly polluted European cities where the use of antibiotics andimmunisations is less than in the U.S. have lower asthma rates thancomparable U.S. cities. Conversely, in Tucson, Arizona, despite the dryheat and lack of irritants (such as dust mites) in the

air, the rate ofasthma is

the same as elsewhere in the country. .The Science physicians suggested that diseases such as tuberculosis andwhooping cough may permanently alter a child's immune system such that theyconfer a lifetime protection against asthma. Certainly they were not sayingchildren should have tuberculosis, but they noted that the humoral immunesystem needs to be tempered by the cell-mediated response, and this besthappens during an infectious childhood disease. .When a child undergoes an intense but short-term lung infection, thisprovides the necessary exercise of the cell-mediated immune system. If thisdoes not happen, the humoral system is left unbridled and subject toover-reaction to otherwise harmless pollen and dust particles; eventually,this may lead to asthma. .Let's follow this idea in the case of measles. When a child gets a measlesrash, the body excretes the virus through the skin, usually

within aboutfour

days after rash onset. If the child does not get a measles rash, someof the measles virus remains unneutralised in the body where it can act asa chronic irritant to the immune system and contribute to degenerativedisease later. .The fever and rash of measles enable the body to burn up the virus; havinga measles vaccine is like planting a seed of future infection in the bodyand tricking the body not to reject it. This is because a vaccine resultsin only a partial immunity; ie., the humoral system is triggered while thecell-mediated system remains dormant or can even be inhibited by thevaccine. This insight was first put forward by Boston homoeopath RichardMoskowitz, M.D., in the early 1980s. .Danish physician Tove Ronne stated it simply in The Lancet in 1985:"Measles virus infection without rash in childhood is

related to disease inadult

life." Among these, Dr. Ronne listed skin disease, immunedysfunctions, degenerative diseases of bone and cartilage, and certaincancers. It's alarming to note that a few years later, in 1991, theNational Cancer Institute announced that the rate of all cancers amongwhite American children grew by 4.1% between 1973 and 1988. Morespecifically, the rate of childhood leukemia increased by 10.7% while braincancers soared by 30.5%. .Predisposing Children to More Disease Later? .Put simply, the research suggests that if children do not undergo some typeof limited respiratory infection, they are more at risk for developingasthma, among other problems. Michel R. Odent, M.D., and colleagues at thePrimal Health Research Centre in London, England, documented thisconnection in a

report on 448 children, published in

the Journal of theAmerican Medical Association in 1994. .Out of this group, 243 children (average age, eight years) had beenimmunised with the pertussis vaccine for whooping cough. Of these, 26 (10%)had asthma compared to only four (1.9%) of the 208 children not immunised.This suggests that having the pertussis vaccine can increase a child's riskof developing asthma by more than five times. .Similarly, in the vaccinated group, 130 children had ear infectionscompared to only 59 among the 208 non-vaccinated. Here the risk ofdeveloping subsequent ear infections was increased by almost two times inpertussis-vaccinated children. The incidence of other diseases (excludingasthma, ear infections, eczema, and whooping cough) was also noticeablyhigher in the vaccinated group--34.6% versus 24% for non-vaccinatedchildren. .The measles vaccine has been linked with higher rates of inflammatory

boweldisease. Based on

a study of 3,545 people who received live measles vaccineas children, their rate of developing ulcerative colitis wastwo-and-one-half times higher and three times higher for Crohn's comparedto an unvaccinated group, as reported in The Lancet. The MMR (measles,mumps, rubella) vaccine has also been implicated in higher rates ofdiabetes (see accompanying sidebar, "Do Vaccinations Cause Diabetes?")..There are still other data suggestive of a vaccine link with disease. Forexample, for largely "unexplained" reasons, between 1960 and 1981, the rateof activity-limiting chronic conditions among children doubled from 1.8 to3.8%, most noticeably in allergic and mental/nervous system disorders. By1995, this figure had climbed again to 6.7%. In other words, the rate morethan tripled since 1960. I contend the rise is not "unexplained;" rather,it is explained by the fact that we have overused antibiotics

andimmunisations.

..Certainly this evidence paints a picture, and it confirms whatAnthroposophic physicians have contended for 75 years. It is healthier forthe child to undergo an acute upper respiratory infection (with appropriateherbal and homoeopathic support, described below) than to suppress orpreempt it with antibiotics and vaccinations. The more you allow childrento work out their acute illnesses, to really exercise their immune systemswithout suppressing the process, the stronger the system will be and theless prone the children will be to serious adult degenerative illnesses. .When an adult comes down with an infectious, inflammatory disease, it isactually a blessing because it might prevent them from developing a moreserious chronic problem. I've seen adults who suppressed inflammatorydiseases, such as bronchitis or pneumonia, then five to ten years latercame down with cancer. Letting the inflammations

run their course

instead(with support, naturally), may have prevented the cancer from developing. .How Measles Can Cure Eczema .Now let's see how undergoing childhood measles may actually improve achild's health, both immediately and in the long-term. Consider the case ofHans, whom I first treated for measles when he was nine. .Hans did not receive the measles vaccine because he was allergic to eggs.The vaccine contains an egg product and is not recommended for childrenwith this allergy. When he was nine, he came down with measles, which is abit late for children. Of considerable interest here is the fact that foryears Hans had suffered from severe eczema; his skin was dry and cracked,particularly behind the elbows and knees, and occasionally it bled. Infact, Hans often could not straighten his legs because the eczema made ittoo painful. .His measles

produced a strong rash

and a fever of 104 F, yet I did nothingto suppress these reactions with Tylenol (Panadol) or Advil (Ibuprofin),for example, as conventional medicine would recommend. Instead, I gave HansAnthroposophic remedies to support him through the measles process.Specifically, I gave him low potencies of Apis, Belladonna, Argentum/Carbo/Silicea, Ferrum Phosphate, Prunus Spinosa (from the sloe plum), andEchinacea. .These remedies do not suppress the fever, but allow the constitution totolerate it better. The temperature does not need to come down, but thechild needs to be able to tolerate it. Again, the important concept is thatthe fever is a natural, useful, necessary process for a child's health. Thechild must be closely observed by a medical professional during the illnessprocess to be sure the course the illness is taking is benign. It isimportant to find out if complications like encephalitis or pneumonia

aredeveloping.

These rarely occur and are not directly linked to the degree ofthe fever. .The remedies we use for children make the body more transparent orpermeable to allow the toxicity or fever process to flow through it withoutgetting stuck. Let me illustrate this principle with an analogy. .If you have a copper rod and you light a candle at one end of it, thewarmth of the flame will flow quickly through the rod and you feel thewarmth at the other end. Similarly, if the body is like a copper tube, thewarmth of the fever will flow through it but not cause a complication suchas a convulsion; but if the body is more like lead, which is dense and doesnot conduct heat well, complications are likely to arise. .The lead does not conduct or dissipate the heat; rather, it starts to meltat the point of contact with the heat. It remains cold at one end and getsoverheated at the other. This is analogous to the

undesirable situation

ofchildren having cold feet and a hot head. Care should always be taken thatchildren have warm feet, especially during a fever. .If you suppress the fever with drugs or antibiotics, you block this flowand make the body more like the lead in this analogy. How long a child hasthe disease is not as important as avoiding complications. The length oftime depends on how much toxicity the body needs to discharge through thefever. .When Hans' measles were over, his eczema had almost completely disappeared.Hans is now in his twenties and has never had a recurrence of eczema sincehis measles. This is a typical example of how stimulating the cell-mediatedside of the immune system can help the body overcome an allergic problem.The measles process enabled Hans' system to stop reacting allergically andproducing the eczema symptoms. In a sense, you could say that the feverburned the allergic reaction out

of his body.

..His case also underscores the fact that childhood measles in industrialisedcountries is a benign disease if you understand how to treat it. Hans'symptoms, the high fever and intense rash, were not mild, but scientificstudies have shown that the stronger the initial symptoms, the less likelyit is that the child will get the damaging or dangerous complications, suchas encephalitis or pneumonia. .Do Vaccinations Cause Diabetes?While the U.S. population has only doubled since the 1940s, the number ofAmericans with diabetes has increased 200 times, and it has increased by300% in the last 15 years alone, representing about 15% of all U.S.health-care costs. Routine childhood vaccinations may be a prime cause ofthe diabetes epidemic, according to testimony presented before the U.S.House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on April 16, 1997,

byHarris L.

Coulter, Ph.D., medical history scholar and president of theCenter for Empirical Medicine in Washington, D.C. Based on animal studies,the pertussis vaccine (part of the DPT vaccination) is known to stimulateoverproduction of insulin by the pancreas. This is followed by exhaustionof that organ's "islets of Langerhans" (which make insulin) andunderproduction of insulin, resulting in chronic low blood sugar(hypoglycaemia) and eventually diabetes, says Dr. Coulter. .Both untreated rubella and the rubella vaccine (part of the MMRinoculation) produce immune complexes that can damage the pancreas andsignificantly reduce the levels of insulin that organ is able to secrete.As an untreated disease, mumps can damage the pancreas. As a vaccine, thereare now many case reports directly linking the onset of diabetes--sometimeswithin

only a month's time--with

receipt of the mumps vaccination. New Zealand researchers observed a 60% increase in the cases of juvenilediabetes following a hepatitis-B vaccination program. Despite the mountingevidence linking vaccines with diabetes, the U.S. government refuses toresearch the connection, says Dr. Coulter. "The fact that the federalmedical establishment--which would be the major source of funds for such anepidemiologic investigation--is itself highly committed to the childhoodvaccination program, goes far to explain the absence of any officialinterest in this connection." .How a Fever Can Reverse the Effects of a Vaccination .It is increasingly noted that many of the routine childhood vaccinationscan produce a variety of side effects and complications, posing bothimmediate and long-term

dangers. aged 19 months,

had all hisvaccinations, including DPT, MMR, tetanus, polio, and Hib (Haemophilusinfluenza type b). .After his first two DPT shots at two and four months, Todd screamed everynight for a week, after which his parents and paediatrician realised he hadreacted to the shot and should have no more DPT. At 18 months, Toddreceived his MMR and polio immunisations, after which he slept almostcontinually for two days; when he was awake, he was lethargic and hisbreathing was shallow. A week later, Todd had trouble standing erect anddid not want to walk on his own. About two weeks later, Todd came down witha 104 F fever and a rash. When both subsided, he was his normal self again. .To understand what happened with you need to appreciate thedocumented fact that some vaccines can produce a slight but significantstate of encephalitis, or brain inflammation. While this is usuallyreversible, it may

also leave lingering

effects such as dyslexia orattention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I didn't get to treat Todd untilafter all this had happened, so I focused on giving him remedies to healhis post-encephalitic state. I gave him Arnica, Belladonna, and Formica totake for the next six to 12 months for the after-effects of the braininflammation caused by the vaccines. .Todd's fever and rash following his MMR vaccination was his body's attemptto "burn" the vaccine toxins out of his system. The first sign that thesematerials irritated his system was Todd's lethargy, two-day sleeping binge,and inability to walk; these symptoms, in fact, indicated a slight braininflammation. The second sign was the rash and fever which arose todischarge these toxins from the body. .In Afghanistan, the common treatment for measles is to wrap the child

inblankets to produce a rash.

The idea is that the more the measles comes outas a skin rash, the less likely the child is to get encephalitis orpneumonia. Anthroposophic physicians concur with the thinking behind this"folk remedy." .In the months immediately following his MMR injection and reaction, Todddeveloped constipation (with movements only every 2-3 days) and a spasticbowel. I regarded this as another symptom of his vaccine reaction. Spasticcolon is often a symptom of food allergies and according to researchreported by Harris L. Coulter, Ph.D., in Vaccination, Social Violence, andCriminality: The Medical Assault on the American Brain (North AtlanticBooks, 1990), many of today's food allergies are traceable to vaccines. Dr.Coulter noted that encephalitis, especially derived from vaccinations, canproduce allergic states, adding that "the interrelation among allergies,vaccination, and encephalitis has been an active topic of

medicalinvestigation since the 1930s." .While conventional medicine sees no connection between the digestive andnervous systems, the interrelatedness of the two is strongly acknowledgedby practitioners of Anthroposophic, Chinese, and homoeopathic medicine. .To correct Todd's intestinal problems, I started him on ground flaxseed atthe rate of two teaspoons, twice daily. Six months later when I saw himnext, Todd was having daily bowel movements; the stools were softer andwere eliminated without pain. He also had no problem standing up or movingaround on his own and by all visible signs was developing normally. .Todd cured most of the brain inflammation himself by getting the rash andfever. However, Todd is still at risk for a learning disability such asdyslexia--in effect, a third layer of reaction and damage from thevaccines--when he eventually attends school. Many of these

relationshipsare subtle and

problems may not surface or become noticeable until yearslater. .Remedies for Dealing with Childhood Illnesses .Most of the illnesses common to childhood are the standard upperrespiratory tract conditions. While in the view of physicians practicingAnthroposophic medicine it is crucial to not suppress the illness withdrugs or antibiotics, we offer many remedies to parents to support thedischarging--we call it "the expressing"--of the illness, driving it out ofthe body. .Typically, I find that about 90% of the childhood illnesses can be helpedwith about a dozen low-potency home remedies. I often prescribe mypersonalised home remedy "kit," which contains 13 Anthroposophic orhomoeopathic medicines, to parents wishing to approach their children'shealth in this way. For example, Ferrum phosphate is effective forrelieving colds, flu, sinusitis, or

any upper respiratory

infection such asbronchitis; Cinnabar is for sore throats and swollen lymph glands; and Apisbelladonna (a homoeopathic combination of the honey bee and deadlynightshade) works well for fevers and pain. .These are classical homoeopathic remedies, but among specificallyAnthroposophic medicines we often use Infludo for flu, bronchitis, orpneumonia. This formula contains phosphorus, Aconite, Bryonia, eucalyptus,Eupatorium, and Sabadilla. For earaches, my home remedy kit includescapsicum (red pepper) and the herb lovage, given orally or directly intothe ear where it has a gentle warming effect that relieves the pain. Theparents obtain the kits (and other Anthroposophic medicines) from WeledaPharmacy which prepares the kit according to my prescription for eachchild. Certain old-fashioned remedies, including milk of magnesia whichcleanses the colon, are handy for treating children with

inflammatorydiseases. .From

our medical perspective, it is often not the type of childhood illnessthat determines the mix of remedies, but rather the child you are treating.You have to individualise, based on symptoms and the child's particularconstitution. Two different children with the same illness may requirequite different treatments. .Anthroposophic, homoeopathic, and other natural medicines have also enabledme for the last 20 years to avoid using antibiotics in treating children.The aim of treatment is to support the externalising and discharging of theillness process--to get it out of the body--so that no residual illnessremains to become a chronic problem later in life. The essential point isthat health is not merely the absence of illness, as conventional medicinepresumes. Rather, it is the balance between acute inflammatory and chronicillnesses; when you suppress the first in childhood, you're likely to getmuch

more chronic illness in

adulthood. .Do Vaccines Delay Children's Development? .According to the U.S. Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families,7.5 million American children are considered developmentally delayed,compared to 4.8 million in 1991. Of these 7.5 million, an estimated 30% areautistic, which is not surprising as autism has been linked with the MMRvaccine. .Children with developmental delays (based on a survey of 696 children, aged1-12) are 27% more likely to have had at least three ear infections and 50%more likely to have been on continuing rounds of antibiotics (20 cycles ormore), according to the Developmental Delay Registry in March 1995. Mostimportant for this discussion, the study also found that developmentallydelayed children were four times more likely than normal children to havehad a negative reaction to a vaccination.

..-----Vaccination

procedures are a politically motivated non-science, whose practitioners

are only interested in injecting multitudes of vaccines without much

interest or care as to their effects. Data collection on reactions to

vaccines is only paid lip service, and the obvious ineffectiveness of

vaccines to prevent diseases is glossed over. The fact that natural

infectious diseases have beneficial effect on the maturation and

development of the immune system is ignored or deliberately suppressed.

Consequently, parents of small children and any potential recipients of

vaccines and any orthodox medications should be wary of any member of

the medical establishment extolling the non-existent virtues of

vaccination. - Viera Scheibner, Ph.D. All it takes is just one vaccine to forever change your life. - Dawn, mother of vaccine damaged child.

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