Dr. Arturo M. Volpe

Pharmaceutical giant Merck recently announced that, in response to “market demand,” it will soon release a new infant vaccine called ProQuad that is widely expected to replace the MMR. It will combine four live virus vaccines: measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chicken pox).

From a purely practical standpoint, the more vaccines you combine, and the fewer the shots, the better; but is anyone at Merck thinking about what is this likely to do to the immune systems and development of susceptible infants?

Live viruses in vaccines are the very same ones that cause the diseases for which they immunize, except that they have been “attenuated” or weakened and supposedly made harmless in the laboratory. These weakened viruses lose the capacity to induce the actual disease, but they still carry markers that trigger an immune response and this later protects children from the actual disease.

This sounds just great, except that it doesn’t quite track what ends up happening to the live viruses once they’re injected into infants’ bodies. If they’re just harmlessly excreted, fine. But what if somehow they are able to mutate or cause a different kind of trouble in the presence of a weak immune system or other unknown risk factors?

Evidence that this can happen in susceptible individuals is mounting. Studies performed by Andrew Wakefield, MD and others show that the measles virus persists in the digestive tracts of autistic children whose only exposure to this disease was through vaccines. Once in the gut this virus is believed to cause chronic inflammation leading to classic symptoms of diarrhea, constipation and poor digestion so often seen in autism. Find a list of these studies at http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/vaccine/MMRreferences.htm

Other interesting research shows that active viruses suppress the production of glutathione (GSH) in the body (J Biol Chem 1997 Jan 31; 272 (5): 2700-8). GSH is a protein the body makes and that it needs to eliminate a broad range of toxins from mercury to toxic chemicals. The inhibition of GSH is usually temporary, and after recovery from a virus the GSH production rapidly returns to baseline. But what if the virus persists, as Dr. Wakefield has shown can happen in autism? It is likely that this might lead to long-term GSH inhibition and may explain why chelation, a treatment to remove mercury and other metals, is so helpful for many autistic children.

An even better way to address this problem would be to exercise more caution with live virus vaccines, at least until all the answers are in!

Tags: Immune System, Vaccines
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I received the link to this article from one of my readers. While the title states that up to 5% of farmed salmon is deformed, the text then informs us that in some areas, including
Norway, the rate of deformity exceeds 25%. What seems to be happening is that the bodies of these poor fish grow too fast compared to their skeletons, causing them, I am sure, to look pretty awkward.

Although the author of the article tells us that the cause of this phenomenon is still a mystery, my reader knew better and suggested in her email that she believed it could be related to what they are fed. I agree wholeheartedly! Feed things like cornmeal and soy protein to fish evolved to eat shrimp and what do you expect?

We donít have to look very far to see examples of what improper diet will do to physical development. In fact we don’t have to look any further than ourselves. For example, it is
interesting to note that we are “designed” to have four wisdom teeth and yet hardly any of us have enough space in our mouths to accommodate them. Is this a design flaw? I don’t think so.

Today no one asks questions like these, because we are so focused on “wonder” drugs and “miracle” surgeries.” But there were times when these questions made a lot of sense to people.

In the early part of the 20th century Weston Price, a dentist, asked himself this very question. Noting that wild animals always have perfect dentition he wondered if there might be people, somewhere in the world, who also did.

This one question led him to undertake two decades of intense travels to the most remote areas of the globe, and what he found was nothing short of spectacular. Back in the 1930’s there still were groups of people living traditional lifestyles on every continent. He found them in Ireland, in remote Swiss valleys, and elsewhere. Their only contact with the rest of the world often was mail service once a week during the good season. Nowadays they’re gone, assimilated into modern society, and our opportunity to study them is lost forever.

Dr. Price lived with these people, he studied them, photographed them and came to know them well. They grew or hunted all their own food, prepared it according to ancestral recipes and, you guessed it, they had perfect teeth! Not only that, they also enjoyed radiant health. At a time when TB was the number one killer in the civilized world, he could find no evidence that these groups ever experienced a single case of this disease.

In some cases Dr. Price visited family members who had moved to the city and adopted the modern lifestyle, and found that they experienced all the same problems the rest of us do, further proving his point that diet was linked to physical development.

To read about the farmed salmons go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/environment_salmon_dc

Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues
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by Janice Welch

I decided to write about this topic after having many questions from mothers about plastics. Are they really that bad? How can I possibly avoid them? What is a safe sippy cup?

I usually answer, “Use plastic only when it is unavoidable – and yes I know, it is oftentimes unavoidable.” Here are my guidelines for using plastics:

• Never use plastic in the microwave! You can find plenty of different-sized Pyrex glass containers to use for heating in the microwave – even down to very convenient one-cup sizes.

They also have plastic lids (yes I know- but the lids don’t touch the food) that are excellent for storing leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer. In the microwave, use parchment paper or wax paper as a lid.
• Wash your plastics by hand; do not expose them to the high temperatures of a dishwasher.
• Replace your plastics if you see any type of wear, cracks, or discoloration.
• Avoid #3, #6, and #7 plastics (the number is stamped in a triangle on the bottom of the container). These are recycling codes. Not all plastic containers have this code, but if they don’t, you can call the manufacturer or just find a replacement that does have the code.

Of the BAD (#3, #6, #7) ones, the worst offender is the #7 (other) plastics. These are usually the polycarbonates and contain bisphenol-A, a hormone disruptor that will leach into water and other matter. I was very discouraged to find all single-serve applesauce ñ so popular in kid’s lunches – use #7 plastic, and this includes Whole Kids Organic from Whole Foods! What is even worse is that many of the name-brand baby bottles for infant formula are #7. A much better choice would be Evenflo glass baby bottles, available online at Baby Super Mall.

#3 stands for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics that contain phthalates for flexibility. These phthalates are known carcinogens and are not bound to the PVC molecule, making it easier for them to leach whatever it comes in contact with (your food or drink).

#6 polystyrene (PS) plastics can leach styrene a carcinogen that, like bisphenol-A, also affects hormones.

For the ACCEPTABLE ones (#1, #2, #4, #5):

#1 polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) plastics are good one-time use plastics. Reuse or extended storage in these containers increases the risk of leaching the phthalates into the product. So these should be recycled right after using.

The best reusable containers from a leaching standpoint are made from #2 high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic, or #5 polypropylene (PP) plastic. (As for the sippy cup question, Playtex Insulator Cups are ones I found in #5 plastic)

For food wraps and bags, look for #4 low-density polypropylene (LDPE) plastic. Many are made from #3 PVC, but I have found a few that are #4 (LDPE). The ones I use are Glad
Clingwrap, Glad-Lock baggies, and Ziploc baggies.

Now you too are armed and ready to be a plastic detective. Happy hunting!

Tags: Chemicals & Environmental Issues
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We have long suspected that chemicals interact with one another, creating destructive synergies, but this has been difficult to prove since very few studies have ever looked at the combined effects of multiple chemicals. This applies not only to chemicals in the environment, like pesticide residues or plastics, but also to medications, most of which are also chemical compounds. Although medications are studied for safety, these studies are only performed on one medication at a time, even though they may very well interact with one another and with other chemicals thereby creating new compounds with different and unknown safety profiles.

Now the tip of the iceberg may be starting to emerge, as a new study from Duke University looked at the interaction between the pre-term labor drug terbutaline (Bethine), for which one million prescriptions are written every year, and ubiquitous pesticide residues. The study used rats, but it is very likely that the results apply to humans as well since rats have consistently been shown to be more resistant to chemicals than we are.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Chemicals & Environmental Issues, Fish Oil, Mental Health
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