Dr. Arturo M. Volpe

(Note: see also “Are mercury-free vaccines really safer?” June 2006)

When it comes to vaccinating children, I think this is a decision parents should be able to make on their own. Unfortunately, once regulators establish vaccination policies and make it impossible for unvaccinated children to enroll in school the entire matter becomes more complicated.

If you are interested in working within the system but wish to take extra precautions to protect your children there are several things you can do.

The first is to delay all vaccines until your child is two, because at that age the immune system has achieved a greater level of maturity and there is a smaller risk of adverse effects.

The next is to avoid injecting multiple vaccines at one time, to the extent that this is possible. Remember that vaccines are combined for convenience’s sake, without adequate studies to support the safety of this practice.
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Tags: Mercury in Medications, Vaccines
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Just a few weeks ago, as I was searching for specific information relating to gluten, I came across a different kind of website by a vet who calls himself “Dogtor J.” The address is www.dogtorj.com.

The design of this website is intriguing, with the top of every page showing an attractive picture of a dog – quite a treat for a dog lover like myself! It took me a while to understand why this site would even have come up on a Google search for amino acid content of gluten, but then I realized that it was no mistake because the site is actually full of pertinent information.

It’s easy to get lost in the site as there are pages upon pages of information on a broad range of pet and human conditions linked to food intolerance, and other philosophical dissertations on diet and the history of food. Since I was about to leave town to attend a conference in Boston I decided to print a few pages and read them on the way. I ended up printing more than fifty pages, but they made for great airplane reading!
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Tags: Autoimmune disease, Chronic Fatigue, Diet, Food Allergies, Immune System
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When it comes to constipation, natural practitioners hold that it is way under-diagnosed by conventional physicians. The way we see it, anything less than one bowel movement a day is unhealthy; but in medicine constipation is only considered a problem when it is severe. In these cases Miralax seems to be increasingly the drug of choice. But is it really a good solution?

Miralax has such a reassuring name that makes it sound like it is just the thing nature created for this problem. Fewer people might be willing to take it – or give it to their children – if they knew that the active ingredient is a chemical called polyethylene glycol (PEG), a close relative of ethylene glycol (antifreeze).  Why, you might ask, would something like antifreeze end up being used as a laxative?   Well, because it works, it is synthetic and can therefore be patented, and approval studies have not uncovered any dangers (in healthy adults). Read More »

Tags: Constipation
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I know many people with children who are metal toxic have the big question of “Where is it coming from?” In the case of mercury, we are fairly certain that most of it came from shots laden with thimersol, or from dental amalgams. But would you be surprised to find out that a derivative of thimersol (phenylmercuric acetate) is found in eye makeup, especially

mascara? Although the Food and Drug Administration restricts the use of phenylmercuric acetate, cosmetic manufacturers are not required to register with the FDA.

My personal quest has been trying to identify where the lead in my sonís body is coming from, and there are plenty of sources. But the one most alarming to me I stumbled upon
only recently: garden hoses!

This was a real “Oh my God” moment, as I envisioned my son playing in the front yard holding the hose (hand-to-mouth transfer) as well as soaking in the water from the hose in his wading pool. The ludicrous thing is that I have a garden filter that attaches to the outside faucet to purify the water for him since he loves to play in it so much. Turns out I was purifying the water only to poison it as it ran through the hose.

According to a study done by Consumer Reports, most garden hoses contain lead. Water that was allowed to stand in the hose contained up to 100 times more lead than is allowed by the EPA to come out of a faucet.

YIKES!!!

After reading this I immediately threw out our garden hoses and went on a quest to find a lead-free hose. Only if a hose contains the label ìsafe for drinking waterî is it safe for you

and your children to handle. I found one online called Handi Hose but didn’t order it since it was approaching a warm weekend and I wanted one immediately. After much searching, I found one at Target called Hydro Hose. Both the Handi Hose and the Hydro Hose are flat hoses on a reel. There are supposedly conventional round hoses labeled safe for drinking water, but I didn’t find any.

The flat hose I bought works very well, and my son was immediately drawn to its bright yellow color. I felt such a sense of relief, but also exasperation, knowing I had found one more piece in what seems a never-ending puzzle.

Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues
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