Yardsticks

It can be confusing to sort through all the information we are given from doctors, books, friends, and the media. Here are some “yardsticks” to help you measure the soundness of advice you are being given:

• Who stands to make a great deal of money from this stance? Vaccines, for example are a billion dollar industry for the manufacturers and the doctors who give them. A book about the dangers of vaccination is highly unlikely to generate that sort of profit. Books, may not be all that profitable to begin with once printing costs, agents’ fees, marketing costs, etc. are subtracted from the price. The writer of a book that questions vaccination may not end up seeing a huge profit. Herbs and (more recently high doses of vitamins) have been used to treat diseases for thousands of years quite successfully. But you can’t patent high doses vitamin A for measles, high doses of vitamin C for pertussis, garlic and onions for preventing heart disease.
• Does the information I’m receiving contradict other advice I’ve been given? Would you feed your child a whole container of Round-Up one drop at a time over several years? Aaahhh! No way! Now how about produce that has been grown with pesticides? Pregnant women have been advised by FDA to avoid eating swordfish, king mackerel and other fish that have high mercury levels. Yet they are encouraged to go out and get a flu shot and put mercury from thimerosal, formaldehyde and potassium chloride (the chemical used in high doses for lethal injections) into their bloodstreams. Doctors generally warn against the use of herbs or homeopathic preparations because no long term studies have been done on them, but no long term studies have done on the flu shot or prenatal ultrasound. Pregnant women are cautioned not to lie on their backs for long periods of time in their second and third trimesters because it can cut off blood flow to the baby, yet the are required to lie on their backs for hours during labor at a hospital when medications such as pitocin and epidurals are used. (For a link to download a list of vaccine additives go to http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/additives.htm)
• Have I researched both sides of this issue? Doctors’ education often doesn’t extend to learning about lesser-intervention options such as home birth or the use of herbs. They probably won’t be able to give you all the facts simply because they don’t know them. Research both sides of any issue before making a decision You can’t be fully educated about an issue unless you have looked at both sides.
• What do the results show? For all of our hospitals and medical intervention, the United States still has a very high infant mortality rate for an industrialized nation. We spend the most on health care of any nation in the world, yet we rank lower for life expectancy than many other industrialized nations. We are told that our children need vaccines to keep diseases at bay, but time and again, vaccinated children still contract and spread the diseases they are immunized against.