When approached by individuals on my vaccine stance, I am often asked “Do you recommend that I get (or give my child) vaccines?” The question has many more options for an answer than two, and these answers are complex in how we arrive at them.
“How would you rate the health of you or your child? Your own health?”
You see, though I personally see little to no value in a vaccine’s ability to truly protect someone (see measles graph here, and other’s on our site), that decision is one that you need to make on your own, so I don’t necessarily want to be part of the decision, just the fact finding. However, the point of the question, is – If you think there is value in the vaccine, but you are more afraid of the risk… are you sure that your body is healthy enough to go without the vaccine?
Lets say it again in a different way. If you had measles today, are you a strong individual who will overcome it like the flu? A more potent consideration. Polio. Wikipedia suggests that 25-80% (you can see the lack of statistical controls here have led to a huge range), of people with polio have had post polio syndrome, with lifetime neurological symptoms.
So the question is why do some have these symptoms and some don’t? This is a very hard to quantify, but very straight forward measure of health. Dr. Denmark (the pediatrician who was practicing in Alpharetta GA at the age of 104) had shed light on the importance of the tonsils, and had referred to research that demonstrated the low incidence of post polio in those patient who still had their tonsils.
The point is simply, that when you pursue alternative options for your health, you have to consider that they work differently depending on your overall health. If your child is eating snackables for lunch, and then you think you can use an essential oil to help them overcome whooping cough… well, it just might not work as well as it would with a child who eats clean everyday. Likewise, if your child’s posture has damaged their spinal column (very common in todays children… think device posture), then their immune system will suffer as they come in contact with viruses and bacteria.
You cannot just “decide” one day that you are done with all things medical. You first decide that you are ready to start with all things health. We didn’t get 300 patients off of their lifetime meds back in 2008 because we simply said “STOP!” We got them all healthy to the point where their MD’s said, “Hmmmm, interestingly it seems like you should stop”.
Pursue health, and options will become available.
Be well and Be blessed! - Dr. E