Wednesday, April 30, 2014

5 powerful antibiotics that don't require a prescription

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 by: Derek Henry
Tags: natural antibiotics, manuka honey, anti-virals










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(NaturalNews) Hospital antibiotics have become one of the most over prescribed "medicines" today. As a result people have ruined their digestive systems, and ironically, have lowered their natural immunity to all types of infections in the future. Get rid if infections without the digestive destruction, with these five powerful natural antibiotics.

Garlic
Garlic has been used medicinally by cultures around the world for thousands of years. In fact, it was used in the 1700s to ward off plague.

Garlic possesses potent antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties and is able to help protect and facilitate removal of unfriendly bacteria. It is also very high in natural antioxidants that destroy free radicals, which also supports a strong immune system.

The active ingredient in garlic, allicin, is the key component to killing and warding off harmful bacteria. Crush it to activate these compounds, and eat it raw, in a warm tea, or in lightly cooked food.

Colloidal silver
Colloidal silver has been known as an effective antibiotic for centuries. In the early 1900s, Alfred Searle, founder of the Searle pharmaceutical company, discovered that it could kill the most deadly pathogens.

Searle stated that applying colloidal silver to human subjects has been done in a large number of cases with astonishing results. The main advantage was that it was rapidly fatal to microbes without toxic action on its host.

Recent research has also stated that colloidal silver can destroy antibiotic resistant microbes like MRSA, the bird flu, and SARS.

Oil of oregano
Oil of oregano takes care of pathogenic bacteria without disrupting beneficial bacteria. It is also antiviral and antifungal which makes it a powerful three-in-one combination that rivals pharmaceuticals while not encouraging antibiotic resistance.

The key antimicrobial ingredient in oil of oregano is carvacrol. You should ensure that your source is at least 70 percent carvacrol content in order to be effective.

Echinacea
Echinacea has been used to treat a wide variety of infections for hundreds of years. Traditionally, it was used to treat open wounds, diphtheria, blood poisoning, and other bacterial related illnesses.

Today, this potent herb is used mostly for colds and flu, due to its ability to destroy the most dangerous forms of bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus, which causes deadly MRSA.

Manuka honey
Perhaps the most palatable antibiotic comes in the form of manuka honey. Applied topically it can kill a wide range of pathogens including MRSA and flesh eating bacteria. It was also found that the treated bacteria did not build up any resistance, which would eventually render manuka honey ineffective.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of natural antibiotics, but a great start for an all natural pharmacy. Also consider reishi, pau d'arco, una de gato, olive leaf extract, cloves, turmeric, and even lemons to round out your antibiotic arsenal.

Sources for this article include:





About the author:
Motivated by his own story of being sick and crippled at age 30 to healthy and pain free 5 years later, Derek is an expert in helping people get on track in a fraction of the time it took him on his own journey. Actively engaged in the research of natural healing for over 6 years, Derek has spent over 3000 hours studying and collaborating with top minds in nutrition and utilizes that extensive knowledge to deliver protocols that help people overcome their own health challenges. 

Derek is the owner and Master Health Coach at Healing the Body, and writer of over 200 natural health articles, many of which are featured at his Healing the Body Facebook Fan Page

Derek specializes in specific nutritional and wellness programs, from simple lifestyle transitions to complete healing protocols. Check out his popular free health consult.



How to Prevent the Spread of Drug-Resistant Bacteria in Your Kitchen

April 30, 2014 | 98,758 views










By Dr. Mercola
According to a report1 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), published in October 2013, two million American adults and children become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year. At least 23,000 of them die as a direct result of those infections, and even more die from complications.2  
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has repeatedly ignored the elephant in the room when it comes to the promulgation of antibiotic-resistant disease, namely modern factory farming practices where antibiotics are routinely fed to animals to promote growth.
Despite the fact that both penicillin and tetracyclines are used in human medicine, about half of the total sales for these two antibiotics end up in animal feed.
All in all, an estimated 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the US end up in livestock. Needless to say, the impact of agricultural antibiotics on human disease is quite significant and cannot be ignored.
Unless you're eating organically raised meats, every piece of meat you eat will give you a small dose of antibiotics, and this low-dosing is a major part of the problem, because when the bacteria are not killed by the antibiotic, they become stronger and develop resistance through mutation.
The CDC has previously concluded that as much as 22 percent of antibiotic-resistant illness in humans is in fact linked to food, and research has shown that nearly half of all meats sold in the US harbor drug-resistant bacteria!
Most of the meat sold in American grocery stores and restaurants comes from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which can house tens of thousands of animals under one roof, in unsanitary, disease-ridden conditions. It's these conditions that allow foodborne pathogens to flourish, and indeed studies have shown that the larger the farm, the greater the chances of contamination.
Your Kitchen May Be a Major Source of Drug-Resistant Pathogens
These drug-resistant bacteria can also easily spread during food preparation. As reported by Reuters,3 cutting boards used to prepare raw poultry can be a major culprit in the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. As noted by Dr. James R. Johnson, an infectious diseases researcher:
"If other foods go on those boards before the boards get cleaned, or even after they're cleaned if the cleaning isn't 100 percent effective, the other foods, which may not get cooked, or not as thoroughly as poultry, likely would get contaminated and so could possibly pose an even higher risk of transmission to humans than the poultry products themselves."
In a recent Swiss study,4 researchers collected cutting boards and discarded plastic gloves from the kitchen in their hospital and private homes around Switzerland, Germany, and France.
The cutting boards were then swabbed for bacteria. In total, 154 cutting boards were collected from the hospital kitchen over the course of 16 months. Ten of them tested positive for antibiotic-resistant E. coli. Of the 144 boards collected from private homes, five of them also tested positive for the harmful bacteria. Of the gloves collected, half were contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria.
In light of these findings, the researchers urge all cooks to carefully wash your hands, and to be mindful of the fact that cutting boards and plastic gloves used during food preparation can be a source of transmission of pathogenic bacteria that can lead to very serious illness.

To avoid cross-contamination with other foods and spread of potentially harmful bacteria, I strongly suggest adhering to the following recommendations:
  • Use a designated cutting board for raw meat and poultry, and never use this board for other food preparation, such as cutting up vegetables. Color coding your cutting boards is a simple way to distinguish between them
  • To sanitize your cutting board, be sure to use hot water and detergent. Simply wiping it off with a rag will not destroy the bacteria
  • For an inexpensive, safe, and effective kitchen counter and cutting board sanitizer, use 3% hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. Keep each liquid in a separate spray bottle, and then spray the surface with one, followed by the other, and wipe off
  • Coconut oil can also be used to clean, treat, and sanitize your wooden cutting boards. It's a powerful destroyer of all kinds of microbes, from viruses to bacteria to protozoa. Olive oil is another alternative. The fats will also help condition the wood
Antibacterial Detergents Can Do More Harm Than Good


In an ironic twist, if you're using commercially available antibacterial detergents to clean your kitchen or wash your hands, you may actually be causing far more harm than good. Triclosan, a potent antibacterial and antifungal agent used in a large number of everyday products such as soaps, detergents, toothpaste, deodorants and antiperspirants, and other cosmetics, has been around for about three decades. It can now even be found in clothing and children's toys. It's so widely used; it's even been detected in human blood, urine, and breast milk. Unfortunately, this excessive use of triclosan is also spurring the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
According to recent research,5, 6 the compound actually helps staph bacteria to colonize in the human nose. Of the 90 participants tested, 41 percent had detectable levels of triclosan in their snot, and this presence, the researchers found, can double a person's risk of carrying and spreading the staph infection. As reported by Science News:7
"Because triclosan usually kills bacteria, the finding was a surprise, says [microbiologist Blaise] Boles, who works to understand why only some people harbor staph. A person carrying the microbe in his or her nose, he says, has a much higher risk of a staph infection, which can occur in the skin and blood and cause pneumonia and produce toxic shock syndrome.
...In the lab, the researchers found that staph grown with nonlethal doses of triclosan were more 'sticky,' attaching better to human proteins, as well as to glass and plastic surfaces. Nonlethal doses of triclosan in snot could help staph hunker down in the nose, giving it an advantage over other nose-dwelling microbes, Boles says."
Besides promoting drug-resistant bacteria, triclosan has also been found to have both estrogenic and androgenic activity and has been linked to hormone disruption in animals. One 2006 study8 found that triclosan induces changes in the thyroid hormone-mediated process of metamorphosis of the North American bullfrog, and a 2009 study9 demonstrated that triclosan significantly decreases circulating concentrations of the thyroid hormone thyroxine (T4) in male rats.
Also Beware of Common Allergen in Disinfectant Wipes
On a side note, if you're a fan of disinfectant wipes, beware that many of the products on the market (whether they're designed to disinfect or not) can contain a preservative called methylisothiazolinone (MI), which can cause serious allergic reactions. While initially thought to be safe, it was only after it became widely used that it was discovered it could easily be one of the very worst preservatives on the market.


Drug-Resistant Staph Is a Serious Public Health Problem
Staph bacteria are one of the most common causes of skin infections in the US, but they're typically mild and can be easily treated. Antibiotic-resistant staph however, is a whole other story. And methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a very serious public health problem. In 2005, there were close to 100,000 cases of invasive MRSA infections in the US, which lead to more than 18,600 deaths. HIV/AIDS killed 17,000 people that same year.10 According to more recent statistics from the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), MRSA now kills more Americans each year than the combined total of emphysema, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's disease, and homicide.11
Unlike typical staph bacteria, MRSA is much more dangerous because it has become resistant to virtually all of the broad-spectrum antibiotics used to treat it. This includes methicillin, oxacillin, penicillin, and amoxicillin. Moreover, this "super bug" is constantly adapting, outsmarting even newer antibiotics. Because MRSA is so difficult to eradicate, it can easily progress from a superficial skin infection to a life-threatening infection.
Hospitals are perhaps the most significant havens of drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA. According to the most recent report12, 13 by the CDC, hospital-acquired infections now affect one in 25 patients. In 2011, an estimated 722,000 patients contracted an infection during a stay in an acute care hospital in the US, and about 75,000 of them died as a result of it. That amounts to just over 205 deaths from hospital-acquired infections every day of the year!
Natural Approaches to Preventing Spread of Drug-Resistant Bacteria
First and foremost, everyone needs to take the issue of antibiotic use seriously. This is of course an issue that must be addressed on a large scale, both within modern medicine and agriculture, but you also need to evaluate your own use of antibiotics, and avoid taking them -- or giving them to your children -- unless absolutely necessary. I also recommend reducing your exposure to antibiotics by choosing organic, grass-fed or pastured meat and dairy products for your family, as organic standards do not permit the use of antibiotics for growth-promotion purposes. Avoiding this regular low-dosing of antibiotics can go a long way toward safeguarding your health. Aside from that, here are a few other sound methods that can help prevent the spread of infectious bacteria of all kinds:

  1. Wash Your Hands... and Make Sure Your Doctor Does Too. Handwashing is one of the oldest and most powerful antibacterial treatments. Be sure to use a mild soap and avoid all antibacterial soaps. Remember, triclosan can contribute to the development of even more resistant bacteria. More importantly, antibacterial agents are not necessary for soap to effectively sanitize your hands. Guidelines to proper hand-washing include:
    • Wash your hands for 10 to 15 seconds with warm water
    • Use plain soap without any antibacterials, especially triclosan
    • Clean all the nooks and crannies of your hands, including under fingernails
    • Rinse thoroughly under running water
    • In public places, use a paper towel to open the door as a protection from germs that harbor on handles
  2. There's no need to become obsessive about washing your hands, however. In fact, if you wash them too frequently you can actually extract many of the protective oils in your skin, which can cause your skin to crack and bleed, and your skin is actually your primary defense against bacteria -- not the soap. It is rare for a germ on your skin to cause a problem -- it is typically only an issue when you transfer that to your nose, mouth, or an open wound like cracked skin. So obsessive-compulsive washing can actually increase your risk of getting sick by providing an entryway for potentially dangerous pathogens.
  3. Avoid Sharing Your Personal Items. Since most drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA, can spread by contact with contaminated objects, keep personal items like towels, clothing, bed linens, athletic equipment, razors, and more to yourself.
  4. Use Natural Disinfectants. As with antibacterial hand soaps, antibacterial house cleaners are best avoided. A natural all-purpose cleanser that works great for kitchen counters, cutting boards, and bathrooms is 3% hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. Just put each liquid into a separate spray bottle, then spray the surface with one, followed by the other.
  5. Consider Copper Kitchen Fittings. On a larger scale, making door handles, taps, and light switches from copper can help defeat antibiotic-resistant super bugs, according to scientists.14 Researchers have discovered that copper fittings rapidly kill bugs in hospital wards, succeeding where other infection control measures fail. Lab tests show that the metal can effectively kill off MRSA along with other dangerous germs, including the flu virus and the E. coli food poisoning bug. Steel and aluminum surfaces, on the other hand, were shown to increase bacteria colonization over time.

Turmeric Ointment Heals Oral Lichen Planus in Clinical Study


Posted on: Tuesday, April 29th 2014 at 1:15 pm

Lichen planus can affect the face, the mouth, the hands and feet and practically any other skin surface of the body. It is difficult to treat and the cause is often mysterious. The lesions may continue for years or may periodically emerge – sometimes in different places.
Does nature provide a possible treatment? Quite possibly, at least for oral lichen planus.
Researchers from King George's Medical University in India studied 10 patients with chronic lichen planus for three months. The patients were given a turmeric ointment and applied the ointment onto the affected areas in and around the mouth twice a day for the three month period.
The patients were diagnosed and measured for thongprasom scores – which measures the amount of skin that the Lichen planus affects – before the study began and every 15 days during the study. The researchers also measured the patients' pain through VAS scores – the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), which graphically charts the amount of relative pain using questionnaires.
The turmeric ointment had dramatic results
After the first week, nine of the patients had "mild" clinical improvement and one had no improvement. After the second week, nine patients had moderate improvement and one had mile improvement. After the fourth week, nine of the patients had marked improvement and one had moderate clinical improvement. After the third month, nine of the ten patients were clinically healed and one had marked clinical improvement.
As for symptoms, nine out of ten had burning sensations after the first week of treatment, nine had redness, all ten had ulcerations and all ten had Wickham striae - white lines that appear around the lesions. After the second week, those symptoms were seen among five, two, eight and eight respectively. After the fourth week, none of the patients had burning symptoms, and none had redness. Five still had ulcerations and five still had Wickham strai.
But after the third month of treatment, none of the patients had burning sensations, none had redness, none had ulceration and none had Wickham straie.
Among the VAS pain scores, all the patients scored between two and four on the pain scale, and at the end of the three months, that pain went down to zero or close to it among all the patients.
The treatment also resulted in no adverse side effects.
How the turmeric ointment was made
The ointment was derived from the roots of Curcuma longa L. – turmeric – while the plant was flowering.
To make the extract, the researchers ground the root parts in a mill and soaked in 10 parts alcohol to one part powder for 48 hours. The mix was evaporated using a rotary evaporator and then refrigerated.
Turmeric's anti-mutagenic and immune-boosting properties
Turmeric contains numerous medicinal constituents – many of which have shown to be medicinal by themselves. These include turmerin, zingiberene and a number of curcuminioids such as curcumin and hydroxy-methoxyphenyl-heptadiene. It also contains essential oils with 9-turmerons.
Turmeric's antioxidant and curative properties are well known. But what is less known is its ability to alter inflammatory gene expression among the immune system. This includes inhibiting COX-2 gene expression and inhibiting tumor growth.
In a study that illustrated this, researchers from the University of Hong Kong found that curcumin inhibited the growth of tongue cancer cells within the laboratory.
This ability to moderate and stimulate the immune system is apparently a good match for lichen planus because the disorder appears to relate to damaged T-cell responses among the skin cells. Apparently the T-cells begin to attack the skin cells as though they are foreign.
REFERENCES:
Tsang RK, Tang WW, Gao W, Ho WK, Chan JY, Wei WI, Wong TS. Curcumin inhibits tongue carcinoma cells migration and invasion through downregulation of matrix metallopeptidase 10. Cancer Invest. 2012 Aug;30(7):503-12. doi: 10.3109/07357907.2012.691192.

Singh V, Pal M, Gupta S, Tiwari SK, Malkunje L, Das S. Turmeric - A new treatment option for lichen planus: A pilot study. Natl J Maxillofac Surg. 2013 Jul;4(2):198-201. doi: 10.4103/0975-5950.127651.

Cannabis Extract Fights 'Incurable Form' of Leukemia


Posted on: Monday, April 28th 2014 at 9:30 am
Written By: Sayer Ji, Founder

A remarkable case report documents a 14-year old girl who, after 34-months of chemo, radiation and bone marrow transplant treatments, was given up for dead. Her family discovered research on cannabis extract, and before she died of a secondary complication of her original treatment, used it successfully to put her leukemia into remission.
There are plenty of anecdotal reports of the successful use of cannabis in treating cancer, but few cases occur under conventional medical supervision, and virtually none make it into a peer-reviewed biomedical journal as a case report.
Remarkably, however, just such a case was reported in Case Reports in Oncology last year, and involved a 14-year girl diagnosed with a form of cancer of the white blood cells known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Despite a high remission rate for ALL after 5 year of 94% in children and 30-40% in adults using conventional combination chemotherapy, this particular child was diagnosed with a very aggressive (i.e. conventional treatment resistant) form of ALL (positive for the Philadelphia chromosome mutation).
After undergoing a protracted series of unsuccessful conventional treatments over the course of 34 months – including a bone marrow transplant, aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy  -- the girl's case was pronounced 'incurable,' with the patient's hematologist/oncologist stating that she "suffers from terminal malignant disease," expecting her condition to progress rapidly towards death.
Because the family received no other suggestions for treatment beyond palliative care, they decided to do research on their own, stumbling on a paper published in Nature Reviews: Cancer in 2003 titled, "Cannibinoids: Potential Anti-Cancer Agents," which encouraged them to administer oral cannabinoid extracts to the patient.  According to the case report:
"The family found promise in an organization known as Phoenix Tears, led by Rick Simpson who had treated several cancers with hemp oil, an extract from the cannabis plant. Rick worked with the family to help them prepare the extract.
With Rick Simpson's assistance, the family used cannabis oil extract for the next 78 days, with regular monitoring of the blast cell count, the primary indicator of the malignant progression of the disease process.
The figure below shows the successful suppression of the blast cells using cannabis extract.

Clearly, the cannabis extract was effective at inhibiting the uncontrolled proliferation of the girl's leukemia, without the highly toxic side effects of conventional treatment.
Sadly, however, on day 78, the 14-year old passed away as a consequence of bleeding associated with bowel perforation, and ultimately the lasting adverse effects of the original 34 months of aggressive treatment she had underwent previous to cannabis.
In the discussion portion of the case report, the authors noted,
"The results shown here cannot be attributed to the phenomenon of 'spontaneous remission' because a dose response curve was achieved... These results cannot be explained by any other therapies, as the child was under palliative care and was solely on cannabinoid treatment when the response was documented by the SickKids Hospital. The toxicology reports ruled out chemotherapeutic agents, and only showed her to be positive for THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) when she had 'a recent massive decrease of WBC from 350,000 to 0.3' inducing tumor lysis syndrome, as reported by the primary hematologist/oncologist at the SickKids Hospital."
The study authors believe this therapy should be viewed as "polytherapy," owing to the fact that a wide range of cannabinoids have been found within resinous extract, which demonstrate a variety of anti-cancer properties, e.g. anti-angiogenic, anti-proliferative, etc.  They further acknowledged the potential for the profound superiority of cannabinoid therapy to conventional treatments:
 "It must be noted that where our most advanced chemotherapeutic agents had failed to control the blast counts and had devastating side effects that ultimately resulted in the death of the patient, the cannabinoid therapy had no toxic side effects and only psychosomatic properties, with an increase in the patient's vitality."
For those looking for additional research on the anti-cancer and related health properties of cannabinoids, use our database on cannabis or download our cannabis research pdf. For additional research on potential therapeutic interventions for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) view our ALL research database.
  • seattlecca.org/StemCellTransplant
  • Most Experience, Best Outcomes Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Ctr


  • Sayer Ji is the founder of GreenMedInfo.com, an author, educator, Steering Committee Member of the Global GMO Free Coalition (GGFC), and an advisory board member of the National Health Federation.

    He founded Greenmedinfo.com in 2008 in order to provide the world an open access, evidence-based resource supporting natural and integrative modalities. It is widely recognized as the most widely referenced health resource of its kind.

    Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

    15 Natural Remedies for the Treatment of Acid Reflux and Ulcers

    April 28, 2014 | 131,055 views







    By Dr. Mercola
    Acid reflux is an extremely common health problem, affecting as many as 50 percent of Americans. Other terms used for this condition are gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or peptic ulcer disease.
    The hallmark symptom of acid reflux is "heartburn"—a burning sensation behind your breastbone that sometimes travels up your throat. In some cases, this pain can be severe enough to be mistaken for a heart attack.
    Conventionally, acid reflux is thought to be caused by excessive amounts of acid in your stomach, which is why acid-blocking drugs are typically prescribed or recommended.
    This is a serious medical misconception that adversely affects hundreds of millions of people, as the problem usually results from having too little acid in your stomach.
    What Causes Heartburn?
    After food passes through your esophagus into your stomach, a muscular valve called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) closes, preventing food or acid to move back up.
    Acid reflux occurs when the LES relaxes inappropriately, allowing acid from your stomach to flow (reflux) backward into your esophagus. But it's important to understand that acid reflux is not a disease caused by excessive acid production in your stomach; rather it's a symptom more commonly related to:
    • Hiatal hernia1
    • Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection (H. pylori bacteria is thought to affect more than half of the world's population, and has been identified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization2)
    While these two conditions are unrelated, many who have a hiatal hernia also have H. pylori, which cause a chronic low-level inflammation of your stomach lining that can result in an ulcer3 and associated symptoms. If you have a hiatal hernia, physical therapy on the area may work and many chiropractors are skilled in this adjustment.
    The hypothesis that H. pylori infection is responsible, or at least a major factor, for producing the symptoms of acid reflux stems from the work done by Dr. Barry Marshall, an Australian physician, during the early 1980s.
    Are You Suffering a Drug Side Effect?
    Besides these underlying conditions, please beware that certain prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications can also cause heartburn. Common culprits include anxiety medications and antidepressants, antibiotics, blood pressure medications, nitroglycerin, osteoporosis drugs, and pain relievers.
    If your heartburn is caused by a medication you're taking, the answer is, of course, to address what, when, and how you're taking that drug. Please do not make the mistake of simply adding yet another drug to counteract this side effect. WebMD4 offers a number of helpful tips for how to address drug-induced heartburn, such as:
    • Avoid taking more than the recommended or prescribed dose
    • Some medications are best taken on an empty stomach, while others are less likely to cause side effects like heartburn when taken with a meal. Check the label for instructions, or ask your doctor or pharmacist for advise on when and how to take your medication
    • Ask your doctor or pharmacist to review ALL the medications and supplements you're taking to see if one or more of them cause heartburn.
    • Changing the dose or switching to another medication may be advisable to ease your heartburn. Some drugs may be available in cream form rather than a pill, which would be far less likely to cause heartburn
    • Avoid laying down right after taking your medication
    • Drink some ginger tea
    Why Medications for Heartburn Can Do More Harm Than Good
    One of the most commonly prescribed drugs for heartburn and acid reflux are proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), which are very effective at blocking acid production in your stomach.
    While that may sound like an appropriate remedy, considering the fact that stomach acid is creeping up your esophagus, in most cases it's actually the worst approach possible, as a major part of the problem is typically related to your stomach producing too little stomach acid.
    There are over 16,000 articles in the medical literature showing that suppressing stomach acid does not address the problem. It only temporarily treats the symptoms.
    PPIs like Nexium, Prilosec, and Prevacid were originally designed to treat a very limited range of severe problems. According to Mitchell Katz, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, who wrote an editorial5 on this topic four years ago, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are only warranted for the treatment of:
    • Bleeding ulcers
    • Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (a rare condition that causes your stomach to produce excess acid)
    • Severe acid reflux, where an endoscopy has confirmed that your esophagus is damaged
    According to Katz, "about 60 to 70 percent of people taking these drugs have mild heartburn and shouldn't be on them." Part of the problem with PPIs is that when you suppress the amount of acid in your stomach, you decrease your body's ability to kill the helicobacter bacteria. So if your heartburn is caused by an H. pylori infection, it actually makes your condition worse and perpetuates the problem. Besides that, reducing acid in your stomach diminishes your primary defense mechanism for food-borne infections, which will increase your risk of food poisoning. PPI drugs can also cause potentially serious side effects, including pneumonia, bone loss, hip fractures, and infection with Clostridium difficile (a harmful intestinal bacteria).
    Warning: Proton Pump Inhibitors Tend to Cause Dependence
    It's also worth nothing that you'll also develop both tolerance and dependence on PPI drugs, so you should not stop taking proton pump inhibitors cold turkey. You need to wean yourself off them gradually or else you might experience a severe rebound of your symptoms. In some cases, the problem may end up being worse than before you started taking the medication.
    Ideally, you'll want to get a lower dose than you're on now, and then gradually decrease your dose. Once you get down to the lowest dose of the proton pump inhibitor, you can start substituting with an over-the-counter H2 blocker like Tagamet, Cimetidine, Zantac, or Raniditine. Then gradually wean off the H2 blocker over the next several weeks.
    While you wean yourself off these drugs (if you're already on one), you'll want to start implementing a lifestyle modification program that can eliminate this condition once and for all. Antibiotics can typically eradicate H. pylori, but there are many other effective strategies that can also work. Ideally, you'd want to try these first, as antibiotics will also kill off the beneficial bacteria in your gut, which can cause other health complications. Besides, H. pylori is growing increasingly resistant to antibiotics, making the availability of non-drug alternatives even more important.
    Your First Line of Treatment – Unprocessed Foods and Probiotics
    Ultimately, the answer to heartburn and acid indigestion is to restore your natural gastric balance and function. Eating large amounts of processed foods and sugars is a surefire way to exacerbate acid reflux as it will upset the bacterial balance in your stomach and intestine. Instead, you'll want to eat a lot of vegetables and other high-quality, ideally organic, unprocessed foods. Also, eliminate food triggers from your diet. Common culprits here include caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine products.
    Next, you need to make sure you're getting enough beneficial bacteria from your diet. This will help balance your bowel flora, which can help eliminate H. pylori bacteria naturally without resorting to antibiotics. It will also aid in proper digestion and assimilation of your food. Ideally, you'll want to get your probiotics from fermented foods. If you aren't eating fermented foods, you most likely need to supplement with a probiotic on a regular basis. Ideally, you'll want to include a variety of cultured foods and beverages in your diet, as each food will inoculate your gut with a variety of different microorganisms. Fermented foods you can easily make at home include:
    • Fermented vegetables
    • Chutneys
    • Cultured dairy, such as yoghurt, kefir, and sour cream
    • Fish, such as mackerel and Swedish gravlax
    Addressing Low Acid Production
    As mentioned earlier, heartburn is typically a sign of having too little stomach acid. To encourage your body to make sufficient amounts of hydrochloric acid (stomach acid), you'll also want to make sure you're consuming enough of the raw material on a regular basis.
    High-quality sea salt (unprocessed salt), such as Himalayan salt, will not only provide you with the chloride your body needs to make hydrochloric acid, it also contains over 80 trace minerals your body needs to perform optimally, biochemically. Sauerkraut or cabbage juice is also a strong—if not the strongest—stimulant for your body to produce stomach acid. Having a few teaspoons of cabbage juice before eating, or better yet, fermented cabbage juice from sauerkraut, will do wonders to improve your digestion.
    Other Safe and Effective Strategies to Eliminate Heartburn and Acid Reflux
    Besides addressing your day-to-day diet and optimizing your gut flora, a number of other strategies can also help you get your heartburn under control, sans medications. The following suggestions are drawn from a variety of sources, including Everydayroots.com, which lists 15 different natural remedies for heartburn;6 as well as research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine,7 the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,8 and others.
    Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
    As mentioned earlier, acid reflux typically results from having too little acid in your stomach. 

    You can easily improve the acid content of your stomach by taking one tablespoon of raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar in a large glass of water.
    Betaine
    Another option is to take a betaine hydrochloric supplement, which is available in health food stores without prescription. You'll want to take as many as you need to get the slightest burning sensation and then decrease by one capsule. This will help your body to better digest your food, and will also help kill the H. pylori bacteria.
    Baking soda
    One-half to one full teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in an eight-ounce glass of water may ease the burn of acid reflux as it helps neutralize stomach acid. I would not recommend this is a regular solution but it can sure help in an emergency when you are in excruciating pain.
    Aloe juice
    The juice of the aloe plant naturally helps reduce inflammation, which may ease symptoms of acid reflux. Drink about 1/2 cup of aloe vera juice before meals. If you want to avoid its laxative effect, look for a brand that has removed the laxative component.
    Ginger root or chamomile tea
    Ginger has been found to have a gastroprotective effect by blocking acid and suppressing helicobacter pylori.9 According to a 2007 study,10 it's also far superior to lansoprazole for preventing the formation of ulcers, exhibiting six- to eight-fold greater potency over the drug! This is perhaps not all that surprising, considering the fact that ginger root has been traditionally used against gastric disturbances since ancient times.

    Add two or three slices of fresh ginger root to two cups of hot water. Let steep for about half an hour. Drink about 20 minutes or so before your meal.

    Before bed, try a cup of chamomile tea, which can help soothe stomach inflammation and help you sleep.
    Vitamin D
    Vitamin D is important for addressing any infectious component. Once your vitamin D levels are optimized, you're also going to optimize your production of about 200 antimicrobial peptides that will help your body eradicate any infection that shouldn't be there. 

    As I've discussed in many previous articles, you can increase your vitamin D levels through appropriate amounts of sun exposure, or through the use of a safe tanning bed. If neither of those are available, you can take an oral vitamin D3 supplement; just remember to also increase your vitamin K2 intake.
    Astaxanthin
    This exceptionally potent antioxidant was found to reduce symptoms of acid reflux in patients when compared to a placebo, particularly in those with pronounced helicobacter pylori infection.11 Best results were obtained at a daily dose of 40 mg.
    Slippery elm
    Slippery elm coats and soothes the mouth, throat, stomach, and intestines, and contains antioxidants that can help address inflammatory bowel conditions. It also stimulates nerve endings in your gastrointestinal tract. This helps increase mucus secretion, which protects your gastrointestinal tract against ulcers and excess acidity. The University of Maryland Medical Center12 makes the following adult dosing recommendations:

    • Tea: Pour 2 cups boiling water over 4 g (roughly 2 tablespoons) of powdered bark, then steep for 3 - 5 minutes. Drink 3 times per day.
    • Tincture: 5 mL 3 times per day.
    • Capsules: 400 - 500 mg 3 - 4 times daily for 4 - 8 weeks. Take with a full glass of water.
    • Lozenges: follow dosing instructions on label.
    Chinese herbs for the treatment of "Gu" symptoms caused by chronic inflammatory diseases
    So-called "Gu" symptoms include digestive issues associated with inflammation and pathogenic infestation. For more information about classical herbs used in Chinese Medicine for the treatment of such symptoms, please see the article, "Treating Chronic Inflammatory Diseases with Chinese Herbs: 'Gu Syndrome' in Modern Clinical Practice," published by the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine13
    Glutamine
    Research14 published in 2009 found that gastrointestinal damage caused by H. pylori can be addressed with the amino acid glutamine, found in many foods, including beef, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy products, and some fruits and vegetables. L-glutamine, the biologically active isomer of glutamine, is also widely available as a supplement.
    Folate or folic acid (vitamin B9) and other B vitamins
    As reported by clinical nutritionist Byron Richards,15 research suggests B vitamins can reduce your risk for acid reflux. Higher folic acid intake was found to reduce acid reflux by approximately 40 percent. Low vitamin B2 and B6 levels were also linked to an increased risk for acid reflux. The best way to raise your folate levels is by eating folate-rich whole foods, such as liver, asparagus, spinach, okra, and beans.
    You Don't Need a Drug to Banish Acid Reflux
    To recap, the answer to gastric problems like ulcers and acid indigestion is to restore your natural gastric balance and function. Not only is it useful for optimal gut function but it is crucial for your long-term health, as your gut flora can increase your absorption of nutrients, and play a significant role in mental and physical health. It is very clear from reviewing the literature that you can't be healthy until your gut flora is optimized. That is one of the ways eating sugars harm you—they push your gut flora balance in the wrong direction.
    Switching from processed foods to whole foods is therefore step number one. To further optimize your gut health, you'll want to make sure you're consuming enough good bacteria from traditionally fermented foods, such as fermented vegetables, or in a probiotic supplement. This will help balance your bowel flora, which can help eliminate Helicobacter bacteria naturally. If you have heartburn, acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcer disease, or any acid-related condition, the strategies listed above may also offer relief.
    For even more information, I encourage you to read natural health pioneer Dr. Jonathan Wright's excellent book Your Stomach: What is Really Making You Miserable and What to Do About It. Last but not least, you could even try the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). In the video below, EFT practitioner Julie Schiffman demonstrates how to tap for acid reflux.




    D-Mannose for UTI Prevention Validated in a Clinical Trial



    April 28, 2014 | 18,048 views




    By Dr. Mercola
    Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the second most common type of infection in the body, sending more than eight million people to their health care providers every year in the US alone.1
    Women suffer from UTIs far more often than men, and more than 50 percent of women will develop a UTI during her lifetime. For about 20 percent of women, the infection becomes recurrent and some will suffer from three or more UTIs a year.
    This is concerning, as the treatment most often recommended by conventional medicine is antibiotics. For those with recurrent infections, low doses of antibiotics may be prescribed daily for six months or more which increase the risk of developing antibiotic-resistant strains.
    Additionally, antibiotics kill even the friendly micro-organisms in your body, leading to major disruptions in health (including an increased risk of yeast infections, among other issues, in women). If you suffer from UTIs on occasion or more frequently, there's a natural treatment you should know about that is effective in more than 90 percent of cases.
    D-Mannose Works As Well As Antibiotics in Preventing UTI Recurrence
    In a study of more than 300 women with a history of recurrent UTIs, researchers treated the women with either two grams of D-mannose, 50 milligrams of an antibiotic, or no treatment daily for six months. D-Mannose is a naturally occurring sugar that's closely related to glucose.
    Only 15 percent of those taking the D-mannose had a recurrent UTI compared to 20 percent for the antibiotic group (both of which were significantly lower than the no-treatment group).2 However, the incidence of side effects was significantly lower in the D-mannose group than the antibiotics group.
    Dr. Jonathan Wright was among the first to begin using D-mannose for UTIs some 20 years ago, and in his experience administering it to more than 200 patients, the treatment is 85-90 percent effective.
    It works for treating acute UTIs, for prophylaxis in women prone to recurrent infections or for the prevention of post-intercourse UTIs, and it's safe for both adults and children. Dr. Wright recommends the following doses:
    • For treatment of UTIs: 1 teaspoon (about 2 grams) for adults, ½ to 1 teaspoon for children, dissolved in a glass of water and repeated every two to three hours. Continue for two to three days after symptoms have disappeared.
    • For preventing recurring infections: Start with the dosages listed above for treatment, then gradually reduce the dose, if possible.
    • For prevention of post-intercourse UTIs: Take 1 tablespoon one hour prior to intercourse and another tablespoon immediately afterward.
    Why Does D-Mannose Work for Treating UTIs?
    More than 90 percent of UTIs are caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli), which is normally found in your intestinal tract. Problems only arise when this ordinary bacterium is present in high numbers in places where it shouldn't be—like your urinary system.
    When normal E. coli gets into your urinary tract and multiplies, you experience the usual signs and symptoms of a UTI:
    • Burning with urination
    • Frequent urges to urinate
    • Lower abdominal pain or aching
    • Blood in your urine (sometimes, but not always)
    • Cloudy urine
    The cell walls of each E. coli are covered with tiny fingerlike projections called fimbria allowing them to "stick" to the inner walls of your bladder and even work their way upward to your ureter and kidneys.
    Because they cling to your urinary organs, they can't simply be washed out when you urinate. These little fingerlike projections are made of an amino acid-sugar complex, a glycoprotein called lectin, which makes them sticky.
    Lectin on the bacteria's fimbria binds to mannose, which is produced by your cells and covers the internal lining of your urinary organs. This mannose allows the bacteria to adhere to you—like Velcro. But as Dr. Wright explains, when you take D-mannose it sticks to the E. coli so it is can be effectively "rinsed" out by your urination:3
    "Unfortunately for the E. coli, D-mannose 'sticks' to E. coli lectins even better than E. coli lectins 'stick' to human cells. When we take a large quantity of D-mannose, almost all of it spills into the urine through our kidneys, literally 'coating' any E.coli present so they can no longer 'stick' to the inside walls of the bladder and urinary tract. The E. coli are literally rinsed away with normal urination!"
    Another potential theory for why D-mannose works may be its relationship to Tamm-Horsfall protein, a glycoprotein that plays a key role in your body's defense against UTIs. It has been suggested that D-mannose might work primarily by promoting the activation of Tamm-Horsfall protein.4
    If You Have a UTI, Try D-Mannose First
    The antibiotic pipeline is running dry as an increasing number of superbugs are outsmarting our antibiotics. We are at the beginning of the end of the antibiotic age, which will change modern medicine as we know it if overuse isn't curbed soon. So the use of antibiotics cannot be taken lightly, and along with transforming our use of antibiotics in agriculture, we must also reserve them for medical use only when absolutely necessary.
    In the majority of cases, UTIs can be effectively treated without antibiotics by using D-mannose. This is why, if you have a UTI, you should try D-mannose first. It's important to note that D-mannose only works for UTIs caused by E. coli, This represents 90 percent (or more) of infections. If you want to be sure, your physician can order a urine culture to identify the bacteria present, so you'll know if yours is one of the minority of cases not caused by E. coli. As Dr. Wright explained:5
    "D-mannose is very safe, even for long-term use, although most women (or the very occasional man) with single episodes of bladder or urinary tract infection will only need it for a few days at most. Although D-mannose is a simple sugar, very little of it is metabolized. It doesn't interfere with blood sugar regulation, even for diabetics. It creates no disruption or imbalance in normal body microflora. It's safe even for pregnant women and very small children. In the less than 10% of cases where the infection is a bacteria other than E. coli, antibiotics can be started in plenty of time."
    The majority of urinary tract infections can be cured when symptoms first arise, or prevented altogether, using D-mannose and the hygiene steps outline below. Occasionally, despite preventative measures, a kidney infection can develop. If you suspect you have a kidney infection (symptoms include fever and pain in your back, side, groin, or abdomen) it might be necessary to see a physician and use an antibiotic so the infection does not spread to your kidney, where it can become life threatening or lead to the loss of the kidney.
    What About Cranberry Juice for UTIs?
    Many people are aware of the home remedy of drinking cranberry juice for UTIs, and this is because the active ingredient in cranberry juice is D-mannose. D-mannose can actually be derived from berries, peaches, apples, and some other plants. So why not drink cranberry juice instead of taking D-mannose in supplement form?
    The amount of D-mannose in cranberry juice is significantly less, making it much less effective. Plus, cranberry juice is high in sugar, which adds stress to your immune system and can fuel the growth of pathogenic bacteria in your gut. Pure D-mannose is about 10-50 times stronger than cranberry, non-toxic and completely safe, with NO adverse effects.
    Unlike the large amounts of fructose you'd get by consuming a lot of cranberry juice, D-mannose does not convert to glycogen or get stored in your liver. Only very small amounts of D-mannose are metabolized, so it doesn't interfere with blood sugar regulation or produce metabolic stresses. D-mannose is more like glucose, which every cell in your body is designed to use (but your body absorbs D-mannose much more slowly than glucose). Most of the D-mannose is filtered through your kidneys and routed to your bladder, then quickly excreted in your urine, making it ideal for people with diabetes or anyone who is not interested in drinking sugary fruit juice.
    Natural Steps to a Healthy Urinary System
    The most important factor in the overall health of your urinary tract is drinking plenty of pure, fresh water every day. Adequate hydration is extremely important for preventing UTIs (not to mention, is the number one risk factor for kidney stones). As a woman, there are additional hygiene steps you can take to maintain a healthy urinary tract:
    • Urinate when you feel the need. Don't resist the urge to go
    • Wipe from front to back to prevent bacteria from entering your urethra
    • Take showers instead of tub baths. Avoid hot tubs/Jacuzzis
    • Cleanse your genital area prior to sexual intercourse
    • Avoid using feminine hygiene sprays, which may irritate your urethra, and use only white unscented toilet paper to avoid potential dye reactions, or better yet—a bidet

    In addition, a healthy diet is key in supporting your urinary tract health. Frequent consumption of fermented foods in particular, such as kefir, sauerkraut, and other fermented vegetables, is great for your overall health—including your urinary system.

    Groundbreaking Study: Vaccines Cause Children More Adverse Reactions Than Any Other Drug

    April 26, 2014 | 153,950 views







    By Dr. Mercola
    A groundbreaking new drug safety study in Shanghai, China, provides some much needed information about the frequency of vaccine drug reactions among children.
    Adverse drug reactions are a serious public health concern and one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.1 More than a half million children are treated every year for adverse drug reactions in US outpatient clinics and emergency rooms.2
    The Shanghai study, based on reported pediatric adverse drug reactions (ADRs) for 2009, found that 42 percent were caused by vaccines, with reactions ranging from mild skin rashes to deadly reactions like anaphylaxis and death. Of all the drugs causing adverse reactions among children, vaccines are the most commonly reported.3, 4
    This study is particularly significant because the vast majority of reports came from physicians, pharmacists, and other health care providers. Less than three percent of the reports were from consumers.
    Another safety report5 about pediatric drug reactions was just published by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and lists the top 15 drugs causing serious adverse reactions in children.
    Psychiatric drugs and analgesics (especially ibuprofen) figure prominently in their top 15 list. The report also mentions psychological side effects such as aggression and suicidal ideation as frequent symptoms from 10 of the 15 most commonly reported drugs.
    Drugs and Vaccines Are More Dangerous for the Very Young
    Three major trends emerged in the Chinese drug reaction study:
    • Gender: Males (60 percent) were represented more than females (40 percent)
    • Age: Young children were more susceptible to harm; 65 percent of the adverse drug reactions were reported for children age 5 and under, and about 40 percent involved children aged 2 months to 2 years. The highest proportion of serious reports was for newborns (0 to 1 month). The ISMP and other researchers have confirmed that the number of adverse drug reactions is highest in the first year of life—so parents of newborns, beware!6
    • "Polypharmacy": The more drugs a child is exposed to, the higher the proportion of serious reactions; drug-to-drug interactions (DDI) are increasingly problematic with today's practice of "polypharmacy"(using two or more drugs together)
    Vaccine reactions are very difficult to detect because often, multiple vaccines are given together, with synergistic toxicities and multiple adverse interactions occurring, which makes it hard to know what is causing what. Vaccine reactions are also notoriously underreported, as many physicians brush off symptoms as mere "coincidence," denying they have anything to do with vaccination.
    The Chinese researchers made the following statement about why they believe vaccines are causing so many adverse reactions:
    "The ADR rate caused by vaccines is much higher than other drugs, and this may be related to the types and number of vaccinations being used in China, as the types of routine immunization vaccines in China reach up to 15 kinds, which is much higher than seven kinds in India and Vietnam, nine kinds in Thailand and 11 kinds in America, and most of the vaccines in China are attenuated live vaccines, which may bring a greater potential safety hazard."
    High Infant Mortality and High Infant Vaccine Rates—Are They Related?
    The US has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world. Yet, American infants are given the greatest number of vaccines—26 doses of vaccines by the end of their first year. Can this really be a coincidence? If vaccines were doing a good job at safeguarding children's health, the US should be enjoying extremely low infant mortality, shouldn't it?
    Acute adverse reactions that are actually reported are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more deleterious effects when you consider post-vaccination brain inflammation (encephalitis) and encephalopathy, immune dysfunction, paralysis, and other long-term health sequelae that have been causally related to both live attenuated virus and inactivated vaccines around the world, especially the types used in developing nations. The tragic results of this are poignantly illustrated in the featured study.
    If your child's immune system is not functioning properly, he or she may be more susceptible than the average child to suffering a serious vaccine reaction. The unfortunate part is, currently there are few ways to determine in advance whether or not your child has normal immune function or has other biological, genetic, or environmental risk factors that greatly increase individual susceptibility to suffering harm from vaccinations.
    This means that an adverse vaccine reaction may be your first indication your child's immune system is vulnerable to atypical manipulation by vaccines —and sadly, in some cases, the brain or immune system damage caused by vaccination is severe and permanent. According to Dr. Kelly Brogan, one of the most fundamental problems with today's vaccine paradigm is that vaccine safety has not been studied—much less proven: "The current schedule has never been studied – not one vaccine in a vaccinated vs. unvaccinated design, let alone multiple delivered at once, or the entire long-term effects of 49 doses of 14 vaccines by age 6."
    The Government Gives Vaccine Manufacturers a Free Pass
    In 1988, Congress passed a law shielding physicians and vaccine manufacturers from vaccine injury lawsuits. Prior to this law, most doctors were much more cautious about giving vaccines to children who had a prior adverse vaccine reaction—for fear of being sued.
    For example, the whole cell pertussis vaccine in the DPT shot was notorious for causing seizures, high pitched screaming, and collapse shock due to brain inflammation. Prior to 1988, pediatricians were warned not to give the DPT to children who had a history of seizures in the first 72 hours following a DPT. But now that doctors and vaccine manufacturers are protected from lawsuits, vaccine reactions are regarded as "less significant," even "coincidental"... of course, they're NOT insignificant when it's your child who is having one! The vaccine manufacturers and physicians are being taken care of... but who is protecting your child?
    A Fundamentally Flawed Concept of Immunity
    Vaccine manufacturers would like you to believe that the "immunity" you receive from vaccines is equal to or better than what is conferred through natural exposure to the infection, but this simply isn't the case. There are important differences between naturally acquired immunity and temporary vaccine-induced antibody production. Vaccines are never 100 percent protective because they provide only artificial, temporary, typically inferior immunity compared to what your body would receive from natural exposure to a disease.
    Immunity is a complicated process with many moving parts—immunological, neurological, and endocrinological—not the dumbed down version the pharmaceutical industry feeds to the public. The common reductionist notion that immunity involves nothing more than a simple antigen-antibody response is a gross oversimplification—not to mention the arrogance that, with a vaccine, they can improve on a biological process that Nature has been perfecting for thousands or even millions of years. Take measles, for example. According to Dr. Suzanne Humphries:7
    "Since most vaccines are delivered by injection, the mucous membranes are bypassed and thus blood antibodies are produced but not mucosal antibodies. Mucosal exposure is what contributes to the production of antibodies in the mammary gland. A child's exposure to the virus while being breastfed by a naturally immune mother would lead to an asymptomatic infection that results in long-term immunity to that virus. Vaccinated mothers have lower levels of virus-specific antibodies in the serum and milk, compared to naturally immune mothers, and thus their infants are unprotected."
    Prior to the vaccine era, mothers were naturally immune to measles and passed on that immunity to their infants via placenta and breast milk. But vaccinated mothers cannot pass along vaccine-induced "immunity" because of the issue described above. As a result, infants whose mothers were born after 1963 are more susceptible to measles than are infants of older mothers. For a healthy child with normal immune function, measles is not a deadly disease—in fact, 30 percent of measles cases among the unvaccinated are missed because they are so mild.8
    It should also be noted that the recently reported pertussis (whooping cough)9 and mumps outbreaks10 have occurred predominantly among the vaccinated –and measles "outbreaks"11 have also involved vaccinated persons —invalidating claims that vaccinated people cannot get sick from or transmit infectious diseases. The fact that a lot of vaccinated people still get sick is a prime example of how getting vaccinated is not a "good health" guarantee. In fact, keeping your immune system healthy through good nutrition, exercise, reduction of stress, and limiting exposure to environmental toxins is a much better strategy for staying well and also for helping you to heal more quickly if you do get sick.
    The Truth About Herd Immunity


    One of the most commonly parroted sound bites in the vaccine debate is the term "herd immunity," tossed around by vaccine advocates who don't really understand the concept. They suggest that if 95 percent or more of the population can be made "immune" to an infectious disease via vaccination, the disease will be eradicated or controlled. Despite these claims, there is little proof that vaccines are responsible for eradicating diseases even when "herd immunity" vaccination levels are reached. Recent outbreaks of common diseases like measles are evidence of this.
    Overvaccination not only exposes people to potentially dangerous adverse reactions, but it may damage the health of the greater community. Take varicella zoster (chickenpox), for example. According to Dr. Humphries:12
    "Prior to the universal varicella vaccination program, 95 percent of adults experienced natural chickenpox (usually as school aged children)—these cases were usually benign and resulted in long term immunity. This high percentage of individuals having long term immunity has been compromised by mass vaccination of children, which provides at best 70 to 90 percent immunity that is temporary and of unknown duration—shifting chickenpox to a more vulnerable adult population where chickenpox carries 20 times more risk of death and 15 times more risk of hospitalization compared to children. Add to this the adverse effects of both the chickenpox and shingles vaccines, as well as the potential for increased risk of shingles for an estimated 30 to 50 years among adults."
    A young child with active chickenpox, who comes into contact with an adult who had chickenpox as a child, is giving the adult a natural "booster" that will not cause symptoms but will strengthen the adult's immunity to the disease. But since the introduction of the chickenpox vaccine in 1995 in the US, followed by chickenpox vaccine mandates in the states, there are fewer natural boosters for the adult population. Now, there is a shingles (herpes zoster) epidemic among adults – and Merck is the sole producer of both chickenpox and shingles vaccine in the US!
    Vaccines Invite New Strains to the Party
    Vaccines are having the unintended effect of creating new strains and more virulent strains of disease, in a similar way as antibiotic overuse has led to antibiotic resistance. The B. pertussis organism that causes whooping cough has evolved to evade the DPT/DtaP vaccines that have been used worldwide since the early 1950s. A mutated B. pertussis strain has emerged and is associated with severe symptoms.13
    Sometimes, the pressure placed by vaccines on an organism causes non-vaccine strains to become more dominant. This is true of some of the more than 80 pneumococcal strains that are not contained in pneumococcal vaccines (Prevnar-7 and Prevnar-13), and have become prevalent since the vaccines were introduced in 2000.14 Some of these non-vaccine strains are now causing severe disease. This phenomenon is a direct result of the pressure on the organisms to adapt and survive.
    The point is, even if vaccines were somehow miraculously able to eradicate all of our most dreaded infectious diseases, it's only a matter of time before new versions will appear—and potentially with heightened virulence! Life has a way of finding a means to survive. And you will be less prepared to fight off these new invaders if your immune system is compromised, as it can be from vaccines. With that in mind, vaccination may very well be promoting infectious disease, rather than eliminating it.15
    If you are thinking there MUST be a better way to stay healthy than continuously adding new vaccines, you are right! There is no complicated recipe, no extensive protocols... just good basic lifestyle choices. Eat well, sleep well, exercise effectively and consistently, manage your stress, and avoid toxic exposures whenever possible. Making a few lifestyle adjustments will allow you to build your health naturally, including your resistance to illness. And of course, we can all benefit from the support and care of a good physician!
    Finding an Enlightened Physician
    If you are a parent, it's up to you to find a doctor you can trust who will avoid administering vaccines in the face of previous vaccine reactions. Don't be afraid to stand up for your right to protect your child. There are enlightened pediatricians who take a "precautionary approach" because they care about preventing adverse reactions, injuries, and deaths. It's your health, your family, your choice.
    Search until you find a compassionate and knowledgeable health care practitioner who will work with you to make the best decisions for you and your family. If you are the parent of a newborn, be extremely careful with all drugs and use them ONLY if absolutely necessary. As you have seen, infants are the most vulnerable. If you or your child experiences an adverse reaction to a drug or vaccine, please consult your physician immediately and report it to VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, and encourage your physician to do the same.
    Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Defend Vaccine Exemptions

    With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, it's critical to protect your right to make independent health choices and exercise voluntary informed consent to vaccination. It is urgent that everyone in America stand up and fight to protect and expand vaccine informed consent protections in state public health and employment laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved with your state legislators and educating the leaders in your community.

    THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.
    National vaccine policy recommendations are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact. It is critical for EVERYONE to get involved now in standing up for the legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices in America because those choices are being threatened by lobbyists representing drug companies, medical trade associations and public health officials, who are trying to persuade legislators to strip all vaccine exemptions from public health laws.
    Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you immediate, easy access to your own state legislators on your Smart Phone or computer so you can make your voice heard. You will be kept up-to-date on the latest state bills threatening your vaccine choice rights and get practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. Also, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips..
    So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
    Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know
    If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.
    I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.
    We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
    Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
    I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at www.NVIC.org:
    • NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
    • If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
    • Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers, school and health officials for making independent vaccine choices.
    Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care
    If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.


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