Children are getting sick and dying with contagious diseases because their parents are refusing to allow pediatricians to give their kids vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). Parents are worried that these vaccines cause autism.
Never mind that studies in Sweden, for example, with millions of children, found no relationship between vaccines for measles and an increase in autism.
This false claim stems from a variety of reasons.
For one, Dr. Wakefield, a British former surgeon and medical researcher, known for his fraudulent 1998 research paper in support of the now-discredited claim that there is a link between the administration of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, and the appearance of autism and bowel disease did a study on a sample of twelve children, published in the prestigious journal “Lancet,” finding a link between vaccines and autism. Dr. Wakefield’s study was later retracted and he lost his medical license.
Second, most parents in this generation have no experience with children paralyzed by polio or blinded by rubella. When I was in elementary school I remember seeing pictures of kids on television stricken with polio before who were confined to live inside of big metal tubes called iron lungs with a mirror over their face --- an image that still haunts me.
Third, there has always been a libertarian streak running through the American culture --- vaccines, some say, are a personal decision.
Fourth, in an environmentally conscious population, some people eat only organic foods, drive a Prius, and do composting --- believing that what is natural is better for us and the planet.
The anti-vaxer movement, promoted by media stars, activists, politicians, and religious leaders fan the story line that pharmaceutical companies selling these vaccines are putting profits before people, callously risking the lives of children. This dramatic, media appealing story becomes part of a bigger picture warning us that mainstream medicine hawks toxic cures ---- not informing us about natural treatments recommend by a wide range of alternative medical healers.
In the United States, alternative medicine is a 34 billion a year business. Surveys show that 50% percent of Americans seek out alternative therapies for serious diseases, the effects of aging, and for many psychiatric problems – especially those problems where patients prefer natural remedies.
In his book, “Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine,” Paul Offitt, M.D. makes a strong case for scientific advocacy in the treatment of diseases.
Offitt is a pediatrician who specializes in infectious diseases, and is an expert on vaccines, immunology, and virology. He is the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine which is credited with saving hundreds of lives every day.
Offitt has published more than 130 peer-reviewed articles and has been the author or co-author of books on vaccines, and antibiotics.
Offitt’s book chapters take us on medical rounds to meet Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Mehmet Oz, two media-savvy, ivy-league doctors who distrust modern medicine; we learn about the lure of all things natural; Dr. Offitt reviews the world of fifty-one thousand supplements and the suspicions of Big Pharma; and he examines the natural treatments for menopause and aging, autism, chronic lyme disease, and cancer.
For many consumers, magic potions are hard to resist. Alternative medicine is popular, some say, because mainstream physicians have little time for their patients, are uncaring, cold, and recommend treatments with no certainty of cures. Mainstream docs are in the pocket of Big Pharma, get financial kickbacks, and prescribe unnecessary drugs that have intolerable side-effects.
Everybody knows that Big Pharma cares only about profits, not people. Never mind that Pfizer bought Alacer Corporation in 2012, one of the country’s largest manufactures of megavitamins.
In contrast to mainstream healers, alternative naturopaths, homeopaths and so on, take time with their patients, are warm, caring, and provide natural treatments that work.
Most psychologists have come across patients who have been lured by the magic and promises of alternative therapies. I know I have.
For example, I met with college-educated, warm, sensitive parents of a fourteen year old youngster who had chronic (since first grade) and pervasive (across settings) severe symptoms of restlessness, impulsivity, and the inability to filter out external distractions (distractibility) – core symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These parents were leery, like many parents, about trying pharmacotherapy to treat their son’s ADHD.
So these loving, conscientious parents headed off to a well-respected alternative medical doctor to treat their son. When they found it was too difficult to follow the doctor’s detailed, strict diet regimen for their son, the alternative doc recommended caffeine suppositories for their son’s ADHD. Shaken by this recommendation, the parents then tried the medicine for ADHD with good results.
Another example. A brain mapping clinic recently moved into my neighborhood, modeled after psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen .Dr. Mehmet Oz’s, an Ivy League trained cardiac surgeon, has interviewed Dr. Amen on the popular Dr. Oz television show. What are not told is that Dr. Amen oversees an empire that includes book publishing, television shows, and a line of nutritional supplements. He grosses about 20 million per year, mapping the brain with outmoded brain scans, offering brain-based diagnoses no better than horoscope readings.
A thoughtful, sophisticated teacher came to me about her ten year old son’s psychological difficulties. She said, “I heard an advertisement for a brain clinic on a Christian radio station. I went to their website and I was impressed by their research and testimonials of their patients.” She then took her son to this neighborhood brain mapping clinic -- at a fee of two-thousand dollars for ten treatments. When I asked her son about the brain clinic, he told me:
The first time I had to repeat some numbers I read – they put these things on my head to get my brain waves and then got my brain waves to go through head phones and I get to listen to it. It was different brain waves every time – and sometimes it repeated. I fell asleep once and it helped me sleep better. I’m not worrying about sleeping. I listened to ocean noises and that helped me listen better.
Many otherwise educated, scientifically minded consumers justify buying expensive supplements – vitamins, herbs, special foods -- telling themselves, “It’s worth a try - it can’t hurt.”
But hurt, it can. Offitt tell us:
…And it’s not just the supplements themselves that might be harmful, but what’s contaminating them. In 2004, researchers at Harvard Medical School tested Indian remedies obtained from shops near Boston’s City Hall. They found that 20% contained potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury, and arsenic… These problems aren’t rare. Between 1983 and 2004, poison-control centers in the United States received 1.3 million reports of adverse reactions to vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements, of which 175,268 required treatment in hospitals and 139 resulted in death. In 2012, the FDA estimated that approximately 50,000 adverse reactions to supplements occurred every year.
Although conventional therapies can be disappointing, alternative therapies shouldn’t be given a free pass…All therapies should be held to the same high standard of proof; otherwise we’ll continue to be hoodwinked by healers who ask us to believe in them rather than in the science that fails to support their claims. And it’ll happen when we’re most vulnerable, most willing to spend whatever it takes for the promise of a cure
Vaccines, Measles, Autism, and McCarthyism
This quackish cult of vaccine panic has infected GOP presidential politicians. For example, Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist, claimed he heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. He injected his libertarian views about the state not owning your children. Chris Christie, another Red State candidate, said parents should have a choice whether to vaccinate their children.
It is not just Republican presidential want-to-bees’ who live in an alternative universe when it comes to autism and vaccines. When President Obama was a Presidential candidate in 2008, he mentioned the skyrocketing autism rate, saying, “Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to vaccines.” Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008, in response to a questionnaire from an autism activism group, said she has a commitment to “make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines.” That no relationships exits between autism and vaccines was as clear in 2008 as it is now.
The champion alternative universe politician still committed to warning us about the false autism-vaccine connection is Robert Kennedy Jr. He is an outspoken opponent of the inclusion of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in vaccines. In June 2005, Kennedy authored an article in Rolling Stone and Salon.com alleging a government conspiracy to cover up connections between the vaccine preservative thimerosal and childhood autism.
When it comes to the treatment of autism, Jenny McCarthy has been a tireless, influential anti-vaccine activist. Ms. McCarthy’s resume includes a successful modeling career, a television host, and an actress. Her career started in 1993 when she was a model for Playboy magazine and was named Playmate of the year.
On September 24, 2008, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Ms. McCarthey about her book “Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds.” Oprah was impressed, she said, “Jenny wrote the book. She knows what she’s talking about.”
McCarthy knew enough not to trust mainstream physicians, and did her own research, with the help of Dr. Jerry Kartzinel. Dr. Kartzinel was part of a group of physicians belonging to Defeat Austism Now (DAN) who believed that autism could be cured with vitamins and supplements. So McCarthy, with the help of Dr. Kartzinel, became an expert on the causes and treatments of autism.
McCarthy, Kartzinel, and doctors associated with DAN, list the following multiple causes and treatments for autism, cited in Offitt’s book:
• Autism is caused by vaccines. Jenny McCarthy says, “Right before my son got the MMR (measles – mumps – rubella) shot, I said to the doctor, ‘I have a very bad feeling about this shot. This is the autism shot, isn’t it? And then the nurse gave my son that shot. And I remember going, Oh, God, no! And soon thereafter I noticed a change. The soul was gone from his eyes.’”
• Autism is caused by mitochrondrial dysfunction and should be treated with megadoses of vitimains A, C, D, E, K, and the B group, as well as zinc, selenium, calcium, magnesium, chromium, cod liver oil, omega-3 fatty acids, taurine, glutamine, arginine, creatine, carnitine, and coeszyme Q10.
• Autism is caused by food allergies and should be treated by restricting gluten and casein. McCarthy claimed that after three weeks of this diet her autistic son doubled his language.
• Autism is caused by overgrowth of fungi in the intestine and should be treated with antifungals and cow colostrum.
• Autism is caused by heavy-metal poisoning and should be treated with detoxifying therapies such as coffee enemas and intravenous etylenediaminetetraaceti c acid (EDTA).
• Autism is caused by misalignment of the spine and should be treated with vigorous chiropractic manipulations of the head and neck.
• Autism is caused by inflammation of the brain and should be treated with curcuma longa, a plant from the ginger family.
• Autism is caused by improper digestion of food and should be treated with digestive enzymes.
• Autism is caused by incorrect wiring of the brain and should be treated with electrical or magnetic stimulation.
• Autism is caused by an imbalance of immune cells and should be treated by infecting children with hookworms and whipworms.
• Autism is caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain and should be treated by placing children in hyperbaric oxygen chambers.
• Autism is caused by a leaky gut and should be treated with probiotics.
• Autism is caused by immune dysregulation and should be treated with intravenous immunoglobulins or stem-cell transplantation.
• Autism is caused by excessive stimulation and should be treated with marijuana or melotonin.
• Autism is caused by a defect in metabolism and should be treated with shots of vitamin B.
• Autism is caused by chronic viral infections such as herpes and should be treated by antiviral medicines.
• Autism is caused by a blockage of the lymph glands and should be treated with lymphatic damage massage.
• Autism is caused by intestinal parasites and should be treated with by chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and purifying industrial waste
This eerie list of the causes and treatments for autism has no scientific credibility. In fact, if you look up alternative therapies for cancer, many of these same causes of autism will appear on the list for causes and treatments for cancer.
I agree with the activists, politicians, and religious leaders that when it comes to vaccinations, parents should have a choice.
That choice should be: the right arm or the left arm.
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About the author
Top reviews from other countries
- daisycowReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2018
excellent take-down of the CAM myth
- J ReviewerReviewed in Canada on October 24, 2013
An Important Part of Your Decision Making Process
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