The premise of vaccines is a good one: modify an infective agent (bacteria, virus) in the laboratory so it is no longer virulent (disease-producing) without destroying its antigenic characteristics (immune-stimulating). When administered, a vaccine will then theoretically not produce the disease but will create immunity to it.

The approach is similar to that used in homeopathy whereby the toxin responsible for the disease condition is diluted and administered to stimulate the body to fight the disease. Like fighting like.

But, as always, there are slips between the theory and practice of vaccines. For one thing, because large, not homeopathically small, doses of modified infective agents are in vaccines, the immune system can be taxed. Give several different vaccines and repeat them periodically and the immune system can be exhausted. The immune system has finite, not infinite capacity. The net result can be increased vulnerability to cancer, autoimmunities and other infective agents.

There is also the problem of route of administration. The normal point of entry for disease agents is across oral, digestive or respiratory mucous membranes. The exposure is usually only to a small number of organisms, maybe even one. In contrast, vaccines are commonly given by injection, bypassing several layers of important immune-stimulating mechanisms with the mucous membrane barriers and can contain tens of thousands of modified disease agents.

Some vaccines are modified, but are still living. Who is to say what such living creatures do over time when injected into the body in enormous quantities? Viruses are very clever and capable of remarkable change and adaptation. I'm not sure I like the idea of these guys floating around in my body trying to decide how best to attack me. When we take such vaccines, we are volunteering for an experiment.

I will not go into a litany here of all the proven dangers of vaccines or enumeration of tragic results. This has been done elsewhere.

But here are a couple of new problems. Some vaccines contain high levels of thimerosal mercury. Mercury is a potent toxin and its level in some vaccines exceeds Federal Safety Guidelines. Problems linked to thimerosal include autism and speech disorders, as well as heart disease. J Am Physicians Surgeons, 2003; 8(1):6-11

A new vaccine is being developed for Alzheimer's based upon the theory that increased brain plaque is the cause of the disease. However, plaque is not the likely cause, but a symptom (similar to high cholesterol in atherosclerosis), and initial trials of the test vaccine caused 6% of the participants to suffer from severe brain swelling.

In the recent effort to prepare the population for bioterrorism, almost 26,000 people were vaccinated with small pox. So far, seven cases of cardiac problems and ten cases of myopericarditis have been associated with the vaccine. Although this temporal association is being downplayed (like smoking being associated with respiratory disease), it is reason for caution. Additionally, the smallpox vaccine is known to cause hypercoagulability, a condition particularly threatening to those with vessel narrowing atherosclerosis. Some researchers believe that the pox vaccine virus (along with a host of other pathogens) has the capability of adhering to the endothelium (lining) of blood vessels. These nodules stimulate an inflammatory response resulting in platelet adhesion, thrombin release and fibrin formation. When this occurs, the vessel is narrowed depriving distal (downstream) tissue from oxygen and creating the ideal anaerobic (oxygen devoid) environment for proliferation of pathogens (infection), neoplasia (cancer) and sclerotic plaque (heart attack, stroke).

MMWR, 2003; 52(12):248-50

Vaccine mania is caused by misinformation, fear and profit motives. If you believe we have been saved thus far by vaccines for polio, diphtheria and the like, please think again. In almost every case, the vaccine was introduced only after the disease had already naturally declined in the population. Giving credit to the vaccine is like saying the crowing rooster is responsible for the sunrise.

If you or your children are under pressure to take a vaccine, get fully informed. The safest vaccine would be one that is killed (trusting that has really happened) and is given by the same route (oral or aerosol) that the street form of the disease agent would use to attack.

Microbes are ubiquitous. They are in constant contact with us. We cannot escape them by hiding in our homes or wearing facemasks, nor will we eradicate them with disinfectants. In spite of propaganda to the contrary (vaccines are really big money), vaccines will never be the savior of humankind. Their potential risks may even outweigh their benefits when all is said and done. The only cases of polio today, for example, are those caused by the vaccine.

Disease has not wiped out all life on the planet because within any given population there is natural resistance. That resistance is optimized in healthy bodies living a healthy lifestyle and that have proper natural nourishment. Health will never be something somebody else gives to us with a pill or injection; it is something we do to ourselves.