Microbiome - the story of "Our" bugs

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/01/242361826/exploring-the-invisible-universe-that-lives-on-us-and-in-us

A 5 minute story on how important our normal, native "bugs" are to our health.  This is awesome.  I saw it first on www.Mercola.com

GA public schools could be forced to promote HPV vaccine

The following is a letter I wrote to my state congressman.  The Georgia state House is going to vote on a law to have public schools teach 11yr old kids about the HPV vaccine.  I think it's a bad idea and I told my congressman why.

February 26^th 2013

Representative Scott Holcomb

Capital Office                                   District Office

511-E Coverdell                               2306 Briarcliff Commons NE
Atlanta, GA 30334                        Atlanta, GA 30345

Regarding: HB 162: Requiring public schools to provide information
                                        concerning human papilloma virus and the
                                        availability of a vaccine against such virus.

Dear Representative Holcomb,

I am a voting citizen in your district, you are my representative. I am concerned about HB 162. I have found the proposed bill requiring public education about HPV that explicitly leads citizens towards a HPV vaccination to be dangerous. The available research regarding HPV, cervical cancer and the HPV vaccination has convinced me 1) the benefits are too small, 2) the risks of the vaccination are too great, and 3) many more people would suffer as a consequence of public education explicitly leading toward increased utilization of this vaccination.

1) The benefits of the HPV vaccination is too small; it is not clinically proven to be effective.
Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA, Spinosa JP. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines as an Option for Preventing Cervical Malignancies: (How) Effective and Safe? Curr Pharm Des. 2012 Sep 24. [Epub ahead of print]

From the abstract:

the widespread optimism regarding HPV vaccines long-term benefits appears to rest on a number of unproven assumptions (or such which are at odds with factual evidence) and significant misinterpretation of available data.

clinical trials data have not demonstrated to date that the vaccines have actually prevented a single case of cervical cancer (let alone cervical cancer death), nor that the current overly optimistic surrogate marker-based extrapolations are justified.

2) The HPV vaccination risks are too great.
According to research listed below there's actually a 3-6% increased chance of high-risk HPV infections for vaccinated women when compared to unvaccinated women. And according to Merck, the largest HPV vaccine manufacturer, if a woman has been naturally exposed to the HPV strains found in the vaccine she has a 45% increased risk of precancerous lesions if she gets the shot.

Wright TC, Stoler MH, Behrens CM, et al. The ATHENA human papillomavirus study: design, methods, and baseline results. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2012;206:46.e1-11.

FDA.gov Gardasil™ HPV Quadrivalent Vaccine May 18, 2006 VRBPAC Meeting (PDF)

3) People would suffer on a larger scale from widespread use of the vaccine more than the viral infection itself.
As of January 7^th 2013, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has received the following HPV vaccination reactions:

• 130 reports of death

• 904 reports of disability

• 518 life-threatening adverse events

• 10,225 emergency room visits

• 2,809 hospitalizations

According to the CDC's Genital HPV infection 2013 fact sheet: HPV – a sexually transmitted virus – is so common that 50% of sexually active adults have it currently and nearly 100% will have at least one strain of HPV in their life. Yet 99.5% of those people will never develop any outward sign or health complication from it in any way. And if HPV is present, 90% of cases clear up on their own, from the inherent strength of the human immune system.

This is an excerpt from the case of an 11 year old Georgia girl who died 4 days after her first HPV vaccination:

 

March 31st 2009:

First dose of GARDASIL the patient experienced fever and pain in the hip after getting the vaccine. [Parents of] the patient sought medical attention.

April 1st 2009

Patient taken to the ER with Fever, presented with hip pain and muscle tenderness. Thought to be a viral infection. She was prescribed pain killers. Sent home.

April 3rd 2009

Came to ER again with a fever of 102''F, body aches, inability to walk, leg pain, nausea, vomiting, rash and severe muscle aches.

Evening April 3rd - 4th

Not sleeping and acting differently. Transferred to higher level of care.

April 4th 2009

Emergency care; cardiovascular instability. Patient intubated and despite extensive resuscitation efforts patient expired. The patient died on 03-APR-2009.

                 Final diagnosis; Post-vaccination reaction.

An 11yr old little girl died because she received a poorly tested, risky vaccine for a common nonthreatening germ.

Please vote no on HB 162.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Aaron Rossi DC

Superbugs? Not so super...

There has been plenty of talk about 'superbugs' lately.  They come with initials; MRSA and CRE and I'm sure there's more.  What I notice and expect to increase are the stories of alarm in the media about these villains. 

What everyone already knows is that they exist now because we have overused antibiotics to such an extent, that certain bacteria are now unfazed by them.  That point is very important -it holds the key on how we can improve this situation from here.  But the full picture is much bigger and much more interesting.

All living organisms can share some form of communication; humans, bugs, plants, bacteria - there is no exception.  Understanding the interplay between antibiotics and superbugs is rooted here.  Imagine for a moment there was a noise weapon created that could kill anyone who could hear.  Who would survive?  Deaf people.  After a long time, who would be the only ones to pass on their genes?  Those that cannot hear.  Using the way bacteria communicate with each other,  the little transmitting substances have been highly synthesized and weaponized until it's now an antibiotic.  The bacteria that could 'hear' have always been the ones destroyed by antibiotics.  The outlying 'deaf' microbe is what passes on the genes.

So now what?  We've got deaf bacteria completely out of balance with their environment and resistant to man-made intervention...  Your own immune system to the rescue.  Your immune system tackles bacterial invaders in a completely different style.  In fact there are two general ways your immune system keeps hostile bacteria subdued, super or not.



The first way is with this special cell we have inside us.  It's called a neutrophil.  Sure it may look like some purple smudge with a few more purple dots, to you. 




But to a hostile bacteria it looks entirely like this:

Instead of explosive projectiles however, a bacteria would be dealing with made-to-order antibodies.  A type of "bullet" perfectly specific to the facing-off bacteria.


The second type of bacteria defense does not involve "shooting" anything.  Instead, a big immune system cell called a macrophage eats the bugs.  The big red thing in the middle is the macrophage.  It just pulls it's target in, and munch munch.


This is similar to the story of another unrelenting pursuer, passionate to consume its target.

The bottom line: your strong immune system protects you from bugs, whether "super" or not.  Keep your immune system strong.  More on that to come.

Fever - It's no sweat

  Do you remember the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?” The scene when Ferris gave a lesson on how to fake an illness to get out of school.  I always thought it was funny how he made the point: NEVER FAKE A FEVER.  If you get a worried mom, you might be spending the day in a doctor’s office!  That’s worse than school.

      I grew up with Chiropractors as parents and they never made a big deal about fevers.  They would give me a chiropractic adjustment and let the fever take it's course.  As an adult and after studying it, I understand it more now too.  But to some it can be scary, and they do treat it as a big deal.  You or someone you love feels miserable.  Usually no one is getting any sleep and you want to help, but how? Use drugs or other methods to control the fever, or should I let it go?  If their temperature gets too high it might be dangerous… Right?

      We all know that your body is heating up to fight off something, but why does it heat up? What does that do exactly? Your amazing brain has miles of nerves and sensors keeping track of things inside of you.  Controlling exactly when and how the best responses should happen. Here’s some related info:

 

1/10,000,000g of bacterial waste (basically bacterial 'poo') is enough for the brain to detect, and tell the body to start fighting the bugs with a fever.^[1]  Along with shivering, every 10 beats per minute increased heart rate causes 1 degree increased heat.  Although you're getting hotter, your brain tricks you into feeling chills, and thus bundle up to keep the extra heat.^[1]

Like Popeye got stronger with spinach, each 1 degree increase of body temperature strengthens the immune system by 10%.^[1]

    As the heat continues to bolster you, those little invaders are being cooked.  Bacteria and viruses are much more sensitive to heat than you are.  And while you're getting stronger, they're getting slower and weaker as the fever burns.  Your white blood cells signal to your brain what kind of progress they’re making in the fight.^[2] And the intensity of the fever is monitored very closely.  Once it's no longer necessary the fever breaks.  You immediately flush, feel hot, throw off the covers and sweat. You naturally dissipate heat this way 10 times quicker than it took to build up.^[1] No need for cool baths and such.

Continue... 
References