http://www.empiricaltherapies.com/Vaccination_and_Social_Violence.html
Vaccination and Social Violence © 1996, Harris L. Coulter, Ph.D.
(the book can be purchased thru my website
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/bookstor.htm#homeopathy )
I am a medical writer and medical historian who never went to medical
school. Sometimes this is held against me, but not having an M.D. degree can
also be an advantage in writing about medicine, since one does not have the
prejudices and blind spots that come with a medical education.
One of the most common of these prejudices is that the medical profession
never does anything systematically harmful to the patient. But, after all,
we all know that bloodletting was used for centuries and, even in the United
States, was only fully abandoned in the 20th century. Although it was
positively harmful to patients, physicians insisted on using it. What is
more, intelligent laymen understood -- long before the medical profession
itself -- that this procedure was damaging to the health. Physicians had
difficulty appreciating this fact because that's how they were making their
living, and it is hard, even for a physician, to take an objective attitude
toward how he earns his (or her) daily bread. The asbestos and the tobacco
companies, after all, were not the first to come forward and say that
asbestos and tobacco are bad for your health. Another procedure which
intelligent laypersons realize is actively harmful to health, but which is
still desperately defended by physicians, is the childhood vaccination.
The first book I wrote on this subject (co-authored with Barbara Loe Fisher)
was DPT: A Shot in the Dark in 1985. The second was Vaccination, Social
Violence, and Criminality, in 1990. Barbara Fisher and I discovered that
these vaccines -- in particular, the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus)
shot and the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shot -- are far more dangerous
than had been suspected. In fact, the damage they are inflicting can only be
described as catastrophic.
To understand what is occurring it is advisable to divide reactions into
short-term (acute) and long-term (chronic). We found the following acute
reactions. First, there is a series of short-term physical manifestations,
such as swelling at the point of injection, rash, fever of up to 104 or 105
degrees, and inconsolable crying by the baby which may go on even for
several days. The baby may turn blue and have difficulty breathing; he may
faint and remain unconscious for a period of 5 to 10 hours, and he may start
a particular type of crying, called "high-pitched screaming" in the
literature and which seems to have an encephalitic origin. Or he may have a
convulsion or seizure. This acute condition represents a type of
encephalitis (also called "encephalopathy" in the literature). Sometimes it
ends in sudden death. Within a few hours or a day of the shot the baby is
found dead in its cradle. These deaths are classified in our medical
statistics as "crib death" or "sudden infant death of unknown origin." There
are about 9000 cases of SIDS in the United States every year, of which
probably 6000 are vaccine-related.
Of course, most babies do not die but seemingly recover and may be
apparently normal for a month or two. But then the long-term effects of the
vaccine start to appear. These are, in fact, the typical long-term effects
of encephalitis. The child who had convulsions now has seizures or epilepsy.
There may be paralysis (often one-sided) or cerebral palsy. There may be
mental retardation or autism. There may be juvenile-onset diabetes. The
pertussis vaccine, in particular, has an impact on the insulin-producing
centers in the pancreas (the "islets of Langerhans"). Over-stimulation of
these islets, with their subsequent exhaustion, can lead to diabetes or its
opposite -- hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). There may be "cranial nerve
palsies" of various kinds. The cranial nerves pass from the spinal cord over
the skull to the organs of perception. So the baby is suddenly discovered to
be blind, deaf, or dumb. Sudden infant death is presumably caused by palsy
of another cranial nerve (the vagus nerve) which is responsible for
providing the breathing impulse to the lung.
Worth noting is the fact that many of these conditions are thought to be
"congenital" (blindness, deafness, inability to speak, mental retardation).
But "congenital" conditions are almost never detected at birth. Instead,
when the baby is nine months or a year old, the parents at length realize
that he or she cannot see, hear, or speak, or is mentally retarded. Since no
other cause for these conditions can be determined, the physician decides
that they are "congenital." But by this time the baby will have received
three DPT shots, and these shots are known to be capable of causing
blindness, deafness, dumbness, and mental retardation. We concluded that the
DPT shot causes a minimum of 12,000 cases of severe neurological damage
every year, n addition to the 6000 deaths diagnosed as Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome. The neurological damage includes juvenile-onset diabetes,
so-called "congenital" blindness, deafness, mental retardation, autism,
epilepsy, seizures, various kinds of paralyses and palsies, and other
neurological disorders.
The Congress of the United States was sufficiently impressed by DPT: A Shot
in the Dark to adopt, in the end of 1986, the National Vaccination
Compensation Act which establishes an office in Washington to receive
complaints about vaccination damage and, if the complaint seems
well-founded, to pay compensation to the family. This compensation system is
now in operation and has made several hundred awards, for a total of $80
million. Another 3000-4000 claims await resolution. About half the awards
are for children who have died as a result of a childhood vaccination. These
deaths had nearly always been classified by the attending physician as
"Sudden Infant Death of unknown origin."
Before DPT: A Shot in the Dark was written, American health authorities had
always rejected even the possibility that a baby could die from vaccination.
Now, while 6000 deaths and 12,000 cases of severe neuralgic damage may seem
a large number, any biological phenomena occurs along a gradient or spectrum
ranging from "normality" to severe damage. If there are 12,000 cases of
severe neurological damage every year, there must be hundreds of thousands
of cases of milder damage. What about these millions of children who fall
somewhere between "normality" and obvious neuralgic damage?
My book, Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality describes children
and adults who have been damaged by vaccination but not severely enough to
be institutionalized. Their condition I have called the "post- encephalitic
syndrome." Encephalitis (whether from vaccination or from some other cause)
can range from severe to moderate, even subclinical. It is also possible to
have encephalitis in which the acute symptoms are extremely mild but which
still does much long-term damage. The "less serious" long-term sequelae
resemble the more severe cases but are milder. Instead of having epilepsy or
seizures, the children suffer from what are called "staring spells" or
"absence seizures." Instead of being mentally retarded to the point of
incapacity to function in society, they suffer loss of IQ: many function at
the 80 or 90 IQ level -- just above subnormality. Instead of paralysis or
cerebral palsy, they may lose a degree of muscular control -- "atony" --
especially of the hands. The parents will say that the baby doesn't use his
hands for crawling, or that he picks up objects with his feet instead of his
hands. They manifest all the cranial nerve palsies, but in a less severe
form. Instead of being blind, they have astigmatisms and nystagmus
(involuntary and jerky repetitive movements of the eyeballs). They can be
cross-eyed. They may have trouble moving their eyes from side to side. Or
they are dyslexic, cannot read letters, cannot spell, cannot understand
numbers, and the like. A peculiar feature is that they sometimes have
obsessions about people's eyes, are afraid to look others in the eyes, etc.
Instead of being totally deaf, they have mild loss of hearing. Or they have
chronic earaches -- otitis media. This is called in the United States "glue
ear," and it is a kind of buildup of water in the ear, often requiring the
installation of little tubes for drainage. At least half of all U.S children
have had otitis media by their first birthday. By age 6 90% have had them.
This condition accounts for 26 million visits to physicians every year. In
addition, about 1 million children have tubes inserted in their ears every
year, at a cost of $1000/operation. Thus $1 billion is spent each year on
this operation.
Just imagine what it means if this is all, or mostly all, caused by the
pertussis vaccine. This particular "glue ear" type of otitis was not known
in American medical practice before the late 1940's or early 1950's -- in
other words, the time when the pertussis vaccine was being introduced.
Instead of being completely dumb, they may have a peculiarly harsh or dull
or inexpressive voice. Often they stutter and have other speech impediments.
The child will have asthma or other breathing difficulties. The incidence of
asthma has been steadily rising in the United States for the past several
decades -- especially asthma in very small children. Children now are dying
of asthma, whereas in the past doctors always used to say that "no child
ever dies of asthma." Migraine headaches are also very common in this
population. ] They have sleep and appetite disturbances -- anorexia and
bulimia. In the latter case, they will often put on weight.
Another long-term effect of this vaccine is tendency to allergies,
especially allergy to milk. Needless to say, a large proportion of the
population in all of the industrialized countries of the world today suffer
from allergies. We found that newborn infants with colic -- meaning an
allergy to milk-- tend to react more strongly to the vaccine. Undoubtedly
colic should be considered a counter indication to vaccination.
Another long-term effect is disturbance of sleep rhythm; the child turns
night into day and day into night. They are often hyperactive. They have an
extremely short attention span. Their behavior is dominated by impulses.
They have lowered resistance to infection -- due, presumably, to defective
operation of the immune system. Other serious disorders are: seizures and
epilepsy, blindness or loss of speech, paralysis or palsy of one or several
limbs, and mental retardation. These are all possible effects of the
vaccine. So one finds the same kinds of physical disabilities as in the more
profoundly affected children, but everything is somewhat milder. "Mild" here
is a relative term. After all, hyperactivity, dyslexia, and short attention
span are very serious social problems -- leading, in fact, to the collapse
of the American educational system today. Indeed, the physical disabilities
are only part of the picture.
http://members.aol.com/doctorrmosk/articles/childhood_ear_1.html
Childhood Ear Infections
by Richard Moskowitz, M.D. (homeopath)
"With significant ear involvement, it is helpful to assure the parents that
antibiotic treatment is no more effective than placebo, [notes 8, 9, 10]
and that it produces more frequent relapses than giving symptomatic
treatment or simply allowing the children to recover on their own. [note
11] At that point it makes sense to offer homeopathic remedies, both as
needed for the acute episodes, and preventively, to minimize their number
and severity."
"Based on Koch's postulates and their immense predictive power, the war on
bacteria is nevertheless unwinnable even in thought"
"The epidemic of chronic ear disease must be attributed to two colossal
public health blunders: the war on the nasopharyngeal bacteria, fought with
antibiotics, tubes, and the cultivation of fear; and the vaccination of
entire populations against a growing list of diseases with no end in sight,
and no strategy or inclination to consider the long-term consequences.""
"It is just this congruence between the vaccine-related responses and the
original illness that suggests how vaccines act nonspecifically on the
immune system as a whole, and so implicates vaccination in the basic riddle
of chronicity itself. As new biotechnology companies produce new
genetically-engineered vaccines as fast as possible, the unrestricted war
against identifiable acute diseases has already added to the pre-existing
chronic disease burden a considerable array of DNA and RNA fragments
looking for chromosomes to recombine with and certain to engender new
diseases of which as yet we know nothing. In short, I am afraid that
doctors, like politicians, are here to stay."
Adapted from a lecture presented at the 150th Anniversary of the foundation
of the American Institute of Homeopathy, St. Moritz Hotel, New York, April
9, 1994, and published in the Journal of the American Institute of
Homeopathy 87:137, Autumn 1994.
Otitis media has become the commonest pediatric diagnosis made by
physicians who care for children in the United States, [note 1] with an
annual budget topping $2 billion in 1982, [note 2] and no relief in sight.
After decades of punishing warfare against the nasopharyngeal bacteria,
several medical journal articles have recently begun to question the safety
and effective-ness of antibiotics and tympanostomy and the wisdom of
continuing the purely military strategy based on them. [notes 3, 4, 5]
The present impasse creates the opportunity and the obligation for anyone
with a better idea to share it with the medical community and the general
public. Nobody need take my word for it that homeopathic remedies are
inexpensive, nontoxic, and effective even in advanced cases, or that
parents, children, and their caregivers deeply appreciate the non-invasive
philosophy governing their use. I will feel generously rewarded if more
laypeople and professionals will only try them and see for them-selves.
The following cases of childhood ear infections are intended to show how
the homeopathic viewpoint can assist both clinically, in the diagnosis and
treatment of these all-too-common ailments, and in the design of
ex-perimental research into the causal factors that promote and influence
them.
The cases that I have chosen are noteworthy not for any particular skill in
choosing the correct medicine, but in precisely the opposite sense, that
excellent results are regularly attainable with common remedies and
case-taking methods already well known to the serious student. Indeed, the
exemplary success of homeopathic remedies in treating such children is
itself an important clue to the mystery of pediatric otitis media in our
time.
Case 1. C. Z., a girl of 3, had had recurrent ear infections since the age
of 5 or 6 months, typically associated with colds and the production of
thick, green mucus, and requiring antibiotics more or less continuously for
several months at a time. With no fever and at most a slight earache, she
often became irritable and cranky as the cold ended, when the pediatrician
often made the diagnosis by otoscope. Apart from mild eczema, the child was
seldom ill other-wise, and rarely had the fevers or acute illnesses to be
expected at her age. A strapping 8 lb. at birth, she fell short of 16 lb.at 1 year and had remained small for her age. Teething was late, painful,
and difficult. She had had all the usual vaccines with no acute reaction.
I chose Calcarea Sulph.. 200, and two months later her mother reported the
best winter ever, with no ear infections and two light colds that were
quickly aborted with Calc. Sulph. 12C. I next saw her a year later, several
weeks after an acute episode of wheezing in the middle of a cold, for which
Pulsatilla 30X prescribed over the phone had worked splendidly. But though
she had been free of ear infections in all that time, she had had a fever
or two and was still plagued by quantities of thick greenish-yellow phlegm
in her nose and throat. After one dose of Sulphur 200, she never came back.
When I called recently, over five years later, in preparation for this
talk, her mother told me that she had had no more ear infections, and there
was no need to bring her back, since her general health had remained good,
and the usual first-aid remedies had been very effective for the usual
colds, fevers, and URI's that had developed along the way.
I want to add a few comments about this rather typical case. First, as I
reread it now, I doubt that either Calc. Sulph. or Sulphur was the best
remedy for this patient, since she was on the chilly side, and even after
treatment she continued to produce thick green phlegm and be subject to
rather frequent colds. I can't really defend or explain either prescription
at this point. Yet her mother was more than satisfied. The ear infections
disappeared and never came back, the long-term or constitutional issues
stayed in the background, and the remedies she herself came up with
continued to help without further assistance.
Notwithstanding the small remedies and "cured" cases that we like to parade
at our conferences, I must admit that the bulk of my reputation is built on
stories as generic and unspectacular as this one. I feel deeply grateful to
a method that adds feathers to my cap even when I bumble or fall short.
Second, my experience confirms numerous reports in the European literature
that most kids eventually outgrow their ear infections anyway, if simply
allowed to do so without further allopathic interference. [note 6]
Case 2. K. G.-S., a boy of 16 months, had already had five ear infections
and five rounds of antibiotics when I first saw him. Only the first episode
at six months was associated with fever (102.8° F.) and acute earache, which
subsided promptly once the eardrum had perforated and discharged the pus
that had accumulated behind it. Although weighing 7 lb. and appearing normal
and healthy at birth, he was slow to nurse, fell behind in his gross motor
development, had considerable discomfort with teething, and weighed only 20
lb. by the time I first saw him. His only other complaint was a chronic
diarrhea that began on antibiotic treatment and had never gone away. Despite
intense, prolonged crying after the first and second DPT's, the third was
uneventful, as was the MMR.
One month after Sulphur 10M, his mother reported that the diarrhea had
worsened, becoming acute the first week after the remedy, but that, ever
since a fever of 103° F. on the third day, his highest so far, he had had no
symptoms of a cold or ear infection at all. Because of the diarrhea, I gave
him Calc. Carb. 10M, and by the next visit, two months later, he was well,
and had made good pro-gress developmentally, with no ear infections, one
brief cold for which Calc. Sulph. 12C worked well, and no more diarrhea.
I did not see him again for more than a year, four months after an episode
of acute otitis with no earache but a fever of 103°F. that had lasted a full
week on antibiotics. Apart from a few colds and a reappearance of diarrhea
at these times, he had had no more ear infections and was continuing to grow
and develop normally. Repeating Sulphur 10M, I had no further news of him
until I asked my receptionist to call recently, more than five years later,
and learned that he had been healthy, had had no ear infections, and needed
no antibiotics throughout that time. After buying a remedy kit and studying
on her own, the mother had found Belladonna to be highly effective for his
various colds and acute illnesses, and no longer needed my help.
Once again, not for any elegant prescribing on my part, much less from any
notion that the child was "cured," I treasure cases like this one,because
our work together helped the mother to take charge of her son's health, and
to perform competently in that role. When my own learned prescriptions fail,
as they not seldom do, I have good reason to feel proud when the parents
themselves find the remedies that work best for their child. Perhaps the
most precious gift that homeopaths can offer is our relationships with our
patients, which can continue to grow and flourish even when the search for
the ideal remedy proves elusive.
Case 3. J. L., a girl of 6, had had frequent ear infections since the age of
five months, especially when exposed to other kids in crowded day care or
classroom settings. With little fever and no earache, the acute episodes
were typically mild, with red cheeks, loss of appetite, and grumpy or
irritable behavior. Also vulnerable to staying up late and to sudden changes
of weather, she seldom ran fevers of any degree, the highest being around
102°F. with a "Strep throat," but she had already taken antibiotics over two
dozen times. Although vaccinated at the usual times without any obvious
reaction, she developed an ear infection soon after her last DPT shot that
had lasted for four months despite continuous antibiotics, and had subsided
only after chiropractic treatment.
Soon after Sulphur10M, she developed a generalized rash that lasted several
days, followed by a buoyant mood and more lively energy than she had shown
in a long time. At her first follow-up, she had a cold, with the usual red
cheeks, runny eye, temporary hearing loss, and the dreaded positive Strep
culture. It required a considerable leap of faith for her mother to let this
tiny cold run its course without antibiotics, using only Pulsatilla 30X as
needed, and later buying a kit of remedies and a book to show her how to use
them. Two months later, her pediatrician was happy to report and even take
credit for the fact that her ears were uninfected for the first time that
anyone could remember.
The following winter she returned with mild symptoms, a low fever, and a
weakly positive Strep culture. As the illness subsided, I repeated Sulphur
10M, and by her next visit two months later the picture had changed to
recurrent sore throats, foul breath, enlarged tonsils, dark circles under
the eyes, and a loose, productive cough. This time I gave her Mercurius 1M,
followed by the 10M a month later, with excellent results until her next
cold many months later, when she developed the same swollen tonsils and
loose cough as before. After the third dose of Sulphur 10M, I lost track of
her for a few years, but the mother eventually called to report that she had
been well the whole time, with no major colds and no ear infections, and a
perfect attendance record at school for the year just finished. A few months
ago, I called to check up and learned that she was doing splendidly in high
school, with no more ear infections in the nine years since she had begun
using remedies.
********
"Equating fluid behind the drum with infection requiring treatment ignores
what all pediatricians know, that URI's with swelling of the tonsils and
adenoids produce congestion of the middle ear and temporary hearing loss as
a result. Decades of warfare against the nasopharyngeal bacteria have
culminated in a Vietnam-like strategy of killing everything in the
vicinity."
********
Again leaving aside my rather crude prescribing in this case, I want to
point out a few of the methodological issues it poses, issues so obvious and
fundamental as to be easily overlooked. First, equating fluid behind the
eardrum with an ear infection requiring antibiotic treatment ignores what
every pediatrician knows, that most colds or URI's with swelling of the
tonsils or adenoids produce secondary congestion of the middle ear and
temporary hearing loss as a result. The girl in this case was prone mainly
to tonsillitis, and could be said to have ear infections only to the extent
that pneumatic otoscopes can detect even minute amounts of fluid, and that
years of deadly warfare against the nasopharyngeal bacteria have culminated
in a Vietnam-like strategy of killing every living thing in the vicinity.
Second, her longest period of ear involvement followed a DPT shot, a
connection that I have often verified in practice, but is rarely sus-pected
by pediatricians, because vaccines are regarded as sacrosanct and almost
risk-free, except for negligibly rare acute reactions developing within the
first hours or days. [note 7]
Third, like most of my chronic otitis patients, this child seldom ran fevers
during the time she received conventional treatment, and began to do so only
as her general condition improved. Useful both for reassuring the family and
for making a simple prognosis, this humble fact carries a profound
implication for the natural history of the disease and its recent evolution.
Case 4. L. P., a girl of ten months, had already had four acute ear
infections and received antibiotics for each one. The first began at two
months, when her mother weaned her to go back to work, and the child
developed a rash and unusually cranky behavior on a milk-based formula.
These symptoms were also intensified for the week following her first DPT
shot. A few weeks after that, the ear infection developed suddenly, with
high fever and violent earache, like all the others. With the help of
Calcarea Carb. 1M initially and Chamomilla 30X as needed acutely, she did
quite well, with fewer colds and no acute episodes, but mild symptoms
persisted and were aggravated by teething, when the remedies had to be
repeated. She relapsed the following spring, six months later, with three
acute ear infections and three rounds of antibiotics in the three months
since her father had insisted on her long-overdue MMR shot.
At this point I gave Lycopodium 10M, Sulphur 10M a month later, and almost a
third remedy after that, but I heard that the parents had separated and were
vying angrily over the child. From then on, she did very well on infrequent
doses of Sulphur, despite a violent gastroenteritis following a DT-polio
booster, and a tendency to relapse when she stayed with her father, who let
her eat her fill of dairy products and took her to the doctor for her
regular quota of vaccines and antibiotics. I have continued to see this
child at long intervals for more than nine years, and although she has long
since outgrown her ear infections, her underlying health issues have not
changed very much. Since the acute, vigor-ous responses of her infancy, her
basically strong constitution and maturing immune system have enabled her to
bounce back more quickly when she does fall ill. While very fond of milk and
cheese and somewhat allergic to them as well, she continues to grow and
develop normally in the face of her conflicted heritage that she can as yet
neither understand nor change.
In short, this is a child of strong vitality, representing the opposite side
of the same issues already discussed: 1) an innate ability to respond
acutely and vigorously, and rebound quickly from illness; 2) a tendency to
relapse following vaccination (and milk allergy, often associated with it);
and 3) the classic signs and symptoms of acute otitis media that were the
rule in the pre-vaccine era.
With these representative cases in mind, I will try to summarize my
experience with otitis media in children, giving special emphasis to the
practical issues of diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and long-term case
management. As with my allopathic colleagues, middle-ear infection is one of
the commonest presenting complaints of children in my practice. In an
average week I will triage several acute episodes over the phone, and see at
least one new and probably two or three established patients with chronic or
recurrent otitis that has been diagnosed and treated on a long-term basis or
repeatedly with antibiotics or tympanostomy or both.
What most of these patients have in common is the absence or paucity of
strong symptoms like high fever or violent earache that would indicate an
acute, vigorous response to their illness. With a few notable exceptions,
like the last case I presented, their symptoms even during acute flareups
are typically vague or nondescript in character, e. g., fussy or cranky
behavior, whining or picking at the ear, congestive hearing loss, poor
appetite, and the like. In quite a few cases, there are no symptoms
whatsoever, and the child behaves and functions normally, but at the
well-baby visit the pediatrician detects fluid in the ear, signs it off as
an "ear infection," and begins or continues the cycle of antibiotics that
often proves so difficult to break.
********
"The most striking and disturbing feature of these cases is precisely their
chronicity, their tendency to develop smoldering or persistent responses to
illness and to relapse more and more easily, resulting in a failure to heal
or resolve them in a clearcut or timely fashion."
*********
Similarly, although the symptoms often recede during treatment, relapse is
common, and even when the child appears clinically well, the presence of
fluid is regularly interpreted as continuing infection and cited as a
mandate for further treatment. In this way, a child who may never have been
that sick never gets entirely well, and continues to relapse until the
doctor recommends antibiotics for months at a time and later surgical
drainage as well, if the condition persists despite these lesser measures,
as indeed it often does. In short, the most striking and dis-turbing feature
of these cases is precisely their chronicity, their tendency to develop
smoldering or persistent responses to illness and to relapse more and more
easily, resulting in a failure to heal or resolve them in a clearcut or
timely fashion.
Breaking this cycle of chronicity proves quite easy if parents and
caregivers can suspend the conventional wisodm that reduces the art of
diagnosis to the specialized detection of abnormalities and the goal of
treatment to the killing of our resident bacteria. As much as finding the
correct remedy, the critical requirement for success in treating these kids
is to re-educate the parents and develop an alternative model that works and
makes sense to everyone.
First, it is necessary to redefine the illness and how best to detect it,
beginning with basic anatomy and the clinical and pathological features of a
URI with ear involvement (congestion, earache, etc.), in contrast with
classic acute otitis media. In my own practice I emphasize the signs and
symptoms that parents themselves are aware of, i. e., how each child feels
and functions in his or her own special world, or what homeopaths like to
call the "totality of symptoms." If they are willing to trust me thus far,
I'll take the next step and propose that we not look in the ear unless the
illness is acute and intense, or hasn't resolved after giving remedies, or
either of us is so panicked that we just have to know. Since any URI can
produce detectable fluid or congestion behind the eardrum, and the homeopath
does not need or even want to treat illness all the way to the end,
the totality of symptoms is what best defines the illness, and the otoscope
is useful primarily to confirm or qualify what the alert observer already
knows.
With significant ear involvement, it is helpful to assure the parents that
antibiotic treatment is no more effective than placebo, [notes 8, 9, 10] and
that it produces more frequent relapses than giving symptomatic treatment or
simply allowing the children to recover on their own. [note 11] At that
point it makes sense to offer homeopathic remedies, both as needed for the
acute episodes, and preventively, to minimize their number and severity.
Finally, it is imperative to take a careful vaccine history, and to look for
familial influences or other factors that may aggravate a pre-existing
chronic state, such as traumatic birth, food allergy, emotional upset, and
the like. Quite often, the first episode can be traced to the time of a DPT,
MMR, or other vaccine, even though no acute or obvious reaction was noted at
the time, [note 12] or an old pattern of chronic or recurrent otitis is
activated by a booster after a long period of remission. [note 13] Such
apparent-ly speculative connections have also been verified by the
successful use of homeopathic "nosodes" prepared from the vaccines
themselves in re-solving difficult cases. [note 14] Drawing on these
experiences, I routinely ask parents not to vaccinate their children until
they are cured, and refer them to my various publications on the subject for
further study. While I have also seen chronic otitis in unvaccinated kids,
the crucial importance of vaccines lies in the fact that they are compulsory
for all and regarded as so uniformly safe and beneficial that the
possibility of chronic, long-term problems from them is seldom investigated
or taken seriously. [note 15]
With this educational work in progress, it is appropriate to proceed with
homeopathic remedies. Both the procedure that I follow and the remedies I
use are much the same as would be found in any homeopathic practice
involving children, and I see no need to elaborate on them here. If the
child is not acutely ill at the time of the first visit, I may begin with
one dose of the indicated constitutional remedy, or perhaps three weekly
doses. In addition, it is reassuring to give parents a strategy and a list
of remedies to have on hand for acute flare-ups, and to see the child or at
least coach the parents through these episodes with words of encourage-ment,
changing the remedy as needed. Often these acute remedies will include the
constitutional plus a few others that are complementary to it.
Once remedies help them through this critical phase of the illness without
antibiotics, the rest of the treatment is likely to proceed very smoothly.
But if the child has never responded so acutely or intensely before, it is
useful to prepare the family for such an eventuality as the underlying
condition improves. By no means cause for discouragement, relapses many
months or even years later are much easier to treat, since precipitating
factors are usually much more obvious after a long period of good health,
and remedies that worked well before will most likely do so again, as the
children often know and will ask for it themselves. Indeed, this uncanny
clarification and ordering of cases over time is a major and predictable
benefit of successful treatment, and the awe and wonder it inspires in
doctor and patient alike are among our highest rewards.
*********
"In the 1960's, otitis media was an acute disease, with high fever and pain,
which subsided dramatically once the eardrum burst and discharged its
contents. It didn't last long, had often taken care of itself before we
could do anything about it, and was unlikely to come back for a long time.
It was just what I have come to recognize as a favorable sign when I see it
today."
**********
What is mysterious and problematic about ear infections in children thus
lies not so much in their treatment, which is not particularly difficult and
involves many of the same remedies as for other chronic ailments, as in the
disturbing fact of that chronicity itself. As a medical student in the early
1960's, I encountered otitis media promarily as an acute disease, usually
presenting in the Emergency Room with high fever and piercing screams of
pain, both of which subsided dramatically once the eardrum burst and
discharged its infected contents. While certainly not a pleasant experience
for doctor or patient, it didn't last very long, indeed had often
taken care of itself before we had a chance to do anything about it, and was
unlikely to come back for a long time to come. In every way it close-ly
resembles the kind of flare-up which, when I see it in a patient today, I
have learned to recognize as a favorable sign.
***********
"The epidemic of chronic ear disease must be attributed to two colossal
public health blunders: the war on the nasopharyngeal bacteria, fought with
antibiotics, tubes, and the cultivation of fear; and the vaccination of
entire populations against a growing list of diseases with no end in sight,
and no strategy or inclination to consider the long-term consequences."
***********
After 1982, when I moved to Boston, stopped attending births, and limited my
practice to homeopathy, I began to see large numbers of the sort of chronic
otitis patient that I have just described. Why the sporadic acute infections
I knew in medical school had mushroomed into a chronic disease of colossal
proportions was also precisely the question with which I began this article.
Both my clinical experience and the research I have conducted to try to make
sense of it have strongly corroborated my "gut" feeling that the modern
epidemic of chronic ear disease must largely be attributed to two colossal
public health blunders that carry on the same outmoded militaristic
philosophy:
1) the war on the nasopharyngeal bacteria, fought with antibiotics,
tympanostomy tubes, and the systematic cultivation of fear; and
2) the vaccination of entire populations against a growing list of diseases,
with no end in sight, and no inclination or strategy to consider the
possible long-term consequences.
Based on Koch's postulates and their immense predictive power, the war on
bacteria is nevertheless unwinnable even in thought. As the most basic life
form on the planet, bacteria reproduce themselves in about six hours, and
through natural selection rapidly become resistant to even the most lethal
antibiotics. In clinical medicine, some major examples include
hospital-borne epidemics of resistant Staphylococci and E. coli, and the
emergence of infections with L-forms, Mycoplasma, and PPLO organisms, all
lacking cell walls, neat adaptations to penicillin-rich environments. In a
recent Newsweek cover story, the spread of resistant strains made U. S.
hospitals look like centers of germ warfare from which many types of
virulent organisms are disseminated into a general population more or less
helpless to stop them. [note 16]
In the case of childhood ear infections, resistant strains have been
similarly implicated in the weak primary immune responses and high relapse
rates associated with antibiotic treatment. [note 17] Other frequent com-
plications include superinfection with yeast and other common fungi, as well
as the food and environmental allergies that often accompany them.
Furthermore, numerous studies have shown that the supposedly causative
organisms isolated from children with chronic ear infetions are simply the
common pathogens of the tonsils and nasopharynx, such as the "pneumococcus,"
or Streptococcus pneumoniae, Group A ß-hemolytic Streptococcus, Hemophilus
influenzae type B, and Staphylococcus aureus, all of which are regularly
found in healthy throats as well. [note 18] In 25% of children with acute
otitis, and in 80% of those with the most prevalent chronic serous variety,
the middle-ear discharges and cultures are sterile and contain no organisms
whatsoever. [notes 19, 20] Once these resident bacteria are destroyed, the
result could have been foreseen by ordinary common sense: chronic serous
otitis, or "glue ear," an important cause of chronic and even permanent
deafness. Thus even more destructive than these antibacterial weapons
themselves is the fanatical strategy of attacking and killing that makes
such imagery seem attractive.
A further application of the same approach has been the develop-ment of the
pneumatic otoscope, its tight seal permitting the detection of even minute
amounts of fluid and thus facilitating both early diagnosis and more minute
surveillance. Yet diagnosing more infection has only unleashed more of the
same firepower, and thus more of the same results already described. Indeed,
with tympanostomy the war against chronic otitis media has reached its final
dead end, since it looks like an obvious mechanical solution to the problem,
yet has itself recently been found to be a major cause of otosclerosis and
permanent hearing loss, the same spectre used to browbeat reluctant parents
into accepting it in the first place. [note 21] Still more ironic is the
fact that it simply makes permanent and structural the natural perforation
and drainage that the acutely infected ear heals so
well by itself and with so few complications.
In any case, it makes little sense to search out and destroy the friendly
bacteria that already live with us and police our bodies so effect-ively
most of the time, or to imagine that making war on them could ever produce
anything but more devastation, more war, and ultimately more resistant and
less friendly bacteria.
Although I have previously written about vaccinations in some detail,
relatively little of my experience with vaccine-related illness is of the
kind that Harris Coulter and Barbara Fisher write about in A Shot in the
Dark, [note 22] or what might be termed the specific effects of a particular
vaccine. While these reactions are apt to be the most severe and also the
most useful in learning how to prescribe the nosodes that correspond to
them, most of the complications I have seen in my practice have been limited
to subtler reactions that I would describe as non-specific in type. By that
I mean that they resemble exacerbations of the pre-existing chronic state,
looking more or less the same in a given individual, regard-less of which
vaccine is given, and are benefited by the same group of remedies are used
to treat chronic illness in the general population, vaccinated or not.
Although such reactions are more difficult to recognize and verify, they are
also much more common, and I suspect much more important as well.
***********
"Two of four cases suffered relapses of their chronic state after a vaccine,
one suffered identical relapses after two different vaccines, and all four
first developed their complaint during their initial series. In none were
their responses acute enough to be identified as symptoms of the vaccine.
What was repeatable was simply the chronicity of the responses."
**********
Thus two of the four cases I presented suffered prolonged, severe relapses
of their chronic state after a vaccination, one patient suffered almost
identical relapses after two different vaccines, and all four first
developed their chief complaint during their initial three-dose vaccine
series. In no case were their responses acute or obvious enough to be
identified as a repeatable symptom of the vaccine. Indeed, all that was
repeatable in all cases and with all the vaccines was simply the chronicity
of the responses, the fact that they occurred more frequently, persisted for
longer periods of time, and were less likely to resolve spontaneously.
It is just this congruence between the vaccine-related responses and the
original illness that suggests how vaccines act nonspecifically on the
immune system as a whole, and so implicates vaccination in the basic riddle
of chronicity itself. As new biotechnology companies produce new
genetically-engineered vaccines as fast as possible, the unrestricted war
against identifiable acute diseases has already added to the pre-existing
chronic disease burden a considerable array of DNA and RNA fragments looking
for chromosomes to recombine with and certain to engender new diseases of
which as yet we know nothing. In short, I am afraid that doctors, like
politicians, are here to stay.
--END--
Notes
1. Koch, H., Office Visits to Pediatricians, National Center for Health
Statistics, Washington, 1974.
2. Bluestone, C., "Otitis Media in Children," New England Journal of
Medicine 306:1399, June 10, 1982.
3. Cantekin, E., et al., "Antimicrobial Therapy for Otitis Media with
Effusion," Journal of the AMA 266:3309, December 18, 1991.
4. Frenkel, M., "Acute Otitis Media: Does Therapy Alter Its Course?"
Postgraduate Medicine 82:83, October 1987.
5. Family Practice News, December 15, 1990, p. 1.
6. Van Buchem, F., et al., "Therapy of Acute Otitis Media," Lancet 2:883,
1981. [back]
7. Moskowitz, R., "The Case Against Immunizations," Journal of the American
Institute of Homeopathy 76:7, March 1983. [back]
8. Cantekin, op. cit. [back]
9. Van Buchem, op. cit. [back]
10. Townsend, E., "Otitis Media in Pediatric Practice," New York State
Journal of Medicine 64;1591, June 1964. [back]
11. Cantekin, op. cit. [back]
12. Moskowitz, R., "Vaccination: A Sacrament of Modern Medicine," Journal
of the American Institute of Homeopathy 84:96, Dec. 1991. [back]
13. Ibid. [back]
14. Ibid. [back]
15. Ibid. [back]
16. "The End of Antibiotics," Newsweek, March 28, 1994, p. 47. [back]
17. Cantekin, op. cit. [back]
18. Bluestone, op. cit. [back]
19. Ibid. [back]
20. Cantekin, op. cit. [back]
21. Family Practice News, op. cit. [back]
22. Coulter and Fisher, DPT: A Shot in the Dark, Avery, New York, 1991.
[back]
Can hearing test predict susceptibility to SIDS?
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | July 30, 2007
For reasons shrouded in mystery, several thousand babies die each year in
the United States with little warning, their demise a tragedy for parents
and a source of frustration for physicians. Now, researchers who reviewed
the medical records of five dozen Rhode Island babies are posing this
intriguing question: Could a simple hearing test predict the newborns who
are likely to succumb to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?
The researchers, affiliated with hospitals in Providence and Seattle,
examined hearing tests for 31 babies who died of SIDS from 1993 to 2005, and
compared them with screenings for 31 healthy babies born during the same
period. The scientists discovered that the healthy infants and the SIDS
newborns had significantly different test results for their right ears. What
does hearing have to do with SIDS? Potentially, a lot, the scientists report
in the July edition of the journal Early Human Development. Microscopic hair
cells deep inside the ear may play a pivotal role in regulating breathing,
and newborn hearing tests, they write, could offer the first clue that the
inner ear has sustained damage -- and therefore the baby is at risk.
But the authors of the new study, along with other specialists in SIDS and
audiology, caution that the findings are too preliminary to recommend that
hearing tests be used to routinely gauge that risk. "It certainly is
provocative, the concept of being able to potentially identify children who
would be at risk of dying of SIDS," said Dr. Jonathan Davis, chief of
newborn medicine at Tufts Floating Hospital for Children, who has done SIDS
research but was not involved with the new study. "Certainly, the concept of
a child dying unexpectedly is frightening for any parent."
For every 10,000 US babies born, about 5 will die in their sleep from SIDS,
which is the leading cause of death in the first year of life. The rate of
SIDS deaths has plummeted by 50 percent since the early 1990s, when health
authorities embarked on a national campaign encouraging parents to make sure
newborns sleep on their backs instead of their bellies. Research into the
syndrome has focused on a broad range of potential triggers, including
infections, but has failed to identify a single dominant cause. That's
because SIDS, instead, is likely the result of an intricate series of things
gone wrong, said Dr. Daniel D. Rubens, lead author of the new study.
"If it wasn't subtle," said Rubens, an anesthesiologist at Children's
Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle, "it would kill the baby
outright." Rubens and his colleagues from Providence assert that the roots
of SIDS may trace back to the few minutes before a baby comes into the
world. During that time, as mothers push harder and harder to deliver the
infant, blood pumps ferociously through the umbilical cord, into the baby's
heart and brain. In most of the body, arteries gradually decrease in size,
easing any damage from a sudden onslaught of blood.
But the big veins from the heart connect to tiny vessels inside the ear,
like an interstate highway shrinking to a single-lane dirt road. In some
cases, the little vessels can't handle the pressure and rupture, Rubens
believes, damaging particularly the inner-ear hair cells on the right and
throwing the baby's breathing regulation out of whack. Researchers believe
that the inner ear helps regulate the system that tells an infant's body
that too much carbon dioxide is building up during sleep and that more
oxygen is needed. And that's why the scientists wanted to see if hearing
tests revealed any differences between babies who died of SIDS and those who
didn't. They chose to review records from Rhode Island because it's
nationally recognized for carefully cataloging hearing tests as well as
tracking infant deaths.
Nationally, about 94 percent of newborns are given hearing tests.
The new study found that the SIDS babies had worse hearing in their right
ears than the healthy babies, a difference, Rubens said, that is "not
random. It's consistent, it's clear." Those lower test results may indicate
that the trauma of delivery harmed the babies' inner ears, thus predisposing
them to SIDS. But the study does not prove that a certain test reading is
associated with a certain risk, said Judith Gravel, director of the Center
for Childhood Communication at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. If such
a measure could be established for an individual baby, physicians and
parents could, for instance, more closely monitor infants who are at-risk.
"Certainly," Gravel said, "it's a condition that everyone would like to be
able to detect so that all of the measures available to keep babies alive
are used."
http://children.webmd.com/news/20070727/newborn-hearing-test-may-predict-sids
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