Posted on 10/18/2009 7:34:55 PM PDT by Coleus
It is seldom recognized, commented historian René Dubos, that each society and every civilization creates its own diseases.1 Is the peanut allergy epidemic man-made? And if so, how has it been created in millions of children in just 20 years and who or what are its architects? The features of the epidemic continue to puzzle doctors.
In the US alone, 5.6 million people – 2% of the population – are allergic topeanuts and nuts almost all having experienced onset as toddlers. This epidemic tipped into critical mass around 1998 when the first flood of allergic children entered kindergarten sending a shock through education systems. Prevalence of the allergy increases with parental income, education and accessible health care. It does not increase with consumption. In developing countries where peanut consumption is high, the allergy is virtually unknown. In the west, children who have never eaten a peanut experience reactions on initial exposure to the food.
Immunologists claim that this allergy is an immune system abnormality. This view is contrary to that of Dr. Charles Richet, who identified and named the condition anaphylaxis in 1901. Richet proved that anaphylaxis is an inevitable side effect of vaccination. It is a universal reaction of animals to any protein injected into the bloodstream – the first injection sensitizes, the second injection or subsequent consumption of the protein unleashes the life threatening reaction.
Since Richet’s Nobel Prize winning research, doctors have known “how to” create anaphylaxis using a needle. Without the invention of the convenient hypodermic needle in 1853, anaphylaxis would not have gained common currency much less become epidemic. The needle allowed doctors to deliver substances directly into the blood, by-passing the modifying effects of the digestive system. And with the introduction of compulsory vaccination for diphtheria in 1895, anaphylaxis arrived en mass. Thousands of children were made ill or died from what doctors labeled “serum sickness”. By 1906, the sickness was understood to be a systemic allergic reaction. Extreme sickness was characterized by anaphylaxis, swelling, shock, asphyxia and death.
Serum sickness was the first man-made mass allergic phenomenon. The historical link between vaccination and mass allergy is rarely mentioned by doctors. Health officials have several rational arguments for not discussing the subject. One is that US Vaccine Injury Compensation Program guidelines make it impossible to prove a causal link between vaccination and a later “onset” of anaphylaxis – that is, when the toddler first eats peanut butter. The guidelines only recognize anaphylaxis that occurs shortly after injection.
The second argument was summarized by Richet himself who wrote that anaphylaxis “perhaps a sorry matter for the individual, is necessary to the species ….There is something more important than the salvation of the person and that is integral preservation of the race..2
And that “something” was protecting the whole of society from disease by vaccination – a goal that justifies the unavoidable casualties. A third rationalization is economic. Vaccine consumers absorb the cost of damage. Therefore, it makes financial sense to ignore the problem – which can’t be proven anyway. And if litigation brought by angry parents becomes unwieldy, government will intercede with legislation to protect them as it did in 2001 and again in 2008 in the wake of a leaked report that the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosol, was contributing to the massive rise in childhood autism.3 4
The framework for disease management with the needle began as business-minded makers of pharmaceuticals well over 100 years ago met the demands of government and doctors faced with massive immigrant influx during the first industrial revolution. Competition between pharmaceutical companies fed a media soon reliant upon lucrative and unregulated medical ads. In the early 20th century, a meld of compulsory vaccination for military and civilian populations and persuasive ads quickly transformed patients into medical consumers.
Consumers more afraid of disease than the side effects of treatment embraced the tradition of vaccination. For vaccine makers, however, unwanted side effects were balanced with the cost of production. They no longer used horse blood or mouse brain – the former was implicated in serum sickness and the latter was known to create encephalitis. However, an irreplaceable ingredient was vegetable oil. While cost effective and potent, oils could also be dangerous -- they easily over stimulated the immune system.
Lulled perhaps by medical advance, officials were surprised by the second mass allergic phenomenon that began in the 1930s. This was the first outbreak of food anaphylaxis in history and it was caused by just one food: cottonseed oil. Refined cottonseed oil was a primary excipient in the injected “wonder drug” antibiotics and in vaccines.
Well documented issues had weakened the US seed crusher industry which with dropping standards was producing contaminated oils. Protein laden cottonseed oil was found to have been distributed to pharmaceutical and food manufacturers.
The outbreak might have been investigated more thoroughly if it hadn’t ended so soon. Prevalence of the allergy peaked in the late 1940s, gradually declined and then fell from the medical journals, history and memory. This decline may be attributed to a change in vaccine ingredients. After WWII, oil from cottonseed was replaced.
This replacement oil was inexpensive, tariff protected, US grown and controlled tightly by a more reliable industry infrastructure; it came from peanuts. Manufacturers improved their refining processes to remove as much of the protein as possible (although not all according to a 2008 FDA report) thus preventing now well understood allergic implications. With trace peanut protein in some vaccines, the allergy built a profile very quietly in the 1950s but grew more noticeable through the late 1960s and early 70s. The first peanut allergy study in 1974 by S.A. Bock in the US identified its growing prevalence.
Vaccine innovations in this period included genetic modifications of proteins, manipulation of molecular weights to target specific antigens and the inclusion of an “adjuvant”. An adjuvant provokes the immune system to create antibodies while requiring less antigen (virus/bacteria). Adjuvant 65, dubbed the immunologists “dirty secret” increased antibody production 13 fold although no one knew exactly why or how. This useful, cost effective “black box” ingredient combined refined peanut oil with aluminum. It was added to childhood vaccines in the 1960s.
Two further changes to childhood vaccines were the introduction of the influenza Hib B in 1988 that was eventually rolled into an unprecedented 5 vaccines in one needle, the PENTA. Neither parents nor family doctors questioned these changes authorized by a WHO expert committee and recommended to governments in western countries. In the documented rush to pull this formula together, it seemed to escape notice that the molecular weights of proteins in the Hib B were almost identical to those in peanut. Peanut allergy tipped quietly into epidemic between 1987 and 1994. ER records in westernized countries revealed the tip of the iceberg in the early 1990s – 90% of all admissions for allergy were for peanut. The allergy hit critical mass around 1998. The tipping point came when the first massive wave of food allergic children entered the public school systems at ages 4 and 5.
Pre-school and kindergarten teachers and principals were taken by surprise5 at the sudden appearance of not one but several food allergic kids in each school, hundreds in each school board, thousands across the US, the UK, Canada and other western countries.
Allergy researchers frantic for an answer to this deadly phenomenon questioned the role skin creams with poorly refined peanut oil, levels of peanut consumption, methods of peanut preparation. They examined long-shot risk factors such as birth month, blood type, gender and race. None pointed to vaccination, a common childhood event with a proven history of creating mass anaphylaxis.
It is not without irony that in virtually every medical article on the allergy mice are made anaphylactic to peanut by injection. If vaccination is the functional mechanism by which millions of children have been sensitized to peanut why isn’t every child allergic? One researcher pointed out in 2004 that “Adjuvant 65 offers the advantage over mineral oil used in [other adjuvants] that it can be metabolized”.
“Metabolized” means that the body can break down and eliminate the waste vaccine. This ability to detoxify varies between individuals and is today an enormous challenge for western children increasingly weakened by digestive imbalance. And even if one does not accept the Injection Hypothesis, the balance between fear of disease and risk of side effects has clearly shifted. Educated parents for whom official rationalizations now ring hollow are beginning to refuse vaccination.
In the wake of the Thimerosol debacle in 2000 and the ongoing celebrity endorsed media campaign (generationrescue.org) which insists that vaccination causes autism, vaccine makers have been quietly phasing out the use of mercury in vaccines used in the west.
Stocked batches of these vaccines have been shipped to China and other Asian and African countries where they have been administered to children, populations of new medical consumers. In China, where peanut consumption is high, the allergy was virtually unknown in 2001.6 Recent studies in 2008 and 2009 indicate that peanut allergy is on the rise in Chinese and Singaporean children.7
Heather A. Fraser Toronto, Ontario info@fraserhorne.com 416-466-0303
1 Reneé Dubos, The Dreams of Reason: Science and Utopias (New York, 1961) p. 71.
2 Charles Richet, “Acceptance Lecture”, Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1913.
3 Defense of vaccine damage is explicit in the transcript of famed 2000 Simpsonwood conference in which 48 government bodies and vaccine makers discuss a report linking mercury in vaccines to autism. This transcript was reviewed by R.F. Kennedy Jr., “Deadly Immunity,” Rolling Stone Magazine (June 20, 2005).
4 Anon, “The Man Behind the Vaccine Mystery”, CBS Evening News, Washington, Dec. 12, 2002. www.cbsnews.com In a post 9-11 world, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist stated, vaccine makers must be free from lawsuits so that they can protect Americans from bio-terrorist attacks.
5 Wendy Harris, “Abnormal Response to Normal Things,” Professionally Speaking Magazine, Ontario College of Teachers, Sept. 2000.
6 K. Beyer K, et al. “Effects of cooking methods on peanut allergenicity,” J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2001 Jun;107(6):1077-81.
7 Europrevall.org and Chiang Wen Chin, “Food Allergy in Singapore,” SingHealth.com (2009)
Interesting.
And a denial does not make it false, either.
I have no thoughts on this one way or the other. However, lack of proof does not mean proof of no causation.
Years ago they gave us BCG vaccinations when we went into nurses training. Nasty little thing. Created a weeping sore on our shoulders for about two weeks. I have no idea if it was useful for anything other than creating a positive skin test indicating TB "exposure" for many years.
“And a denial does not make it false, either.
I have no thoughts on this one way or the other. However, lack of proof does not mean proof of no causation.”
If you read the quote that I said was not true, you’ll see I was actually referring to the fact that a “report was leaked which links...” THAT was not true. There is no study (or official report of such study) that describes a link between the drug and autism. There are only opinion-based article written by the likes of Rolling Stone magazine and Jenny McCarthy. I personally don’t believe the drug/autism link is true as well, but that is a secondary point which I wasn’t making.
However, I understand that I wasn’t very clear.
The lunch boxes were invariably based on a theme from a television show. Some of the lunchboxes I remember were of The Partridge Family, Scooby-Doo, The Archies and even Adam-12 had their own lunchbox.
Never understood why it became mandatory to prepare and serve hot lunches in the schools and install all those soda and snack machines instead of just having the kids bring their lunches from home. It took my mother maybe 10 minutes to assemble the sandwiches each morning for the three of us so I'm not buying the "working Mom" excuse either.
For the benefit of others who shared my ignorance, here is more information.
I really am sorry to get in on this one late. However, my wife and I have no allergies to speak of and we had the full compliment of vaccines, whereas my son cannot even be in the same room as peanut oil or he breaks out in hives. We discovered his allergy to peanuts when I gave him a bite of my peanut butter sandwich when he was 12 months. We took him to the ER as his airway was closing fast due to a reaction. Our children have not had vaccinations due to several anecdotal cases we know of first-hand where a kid got a shot and then developed autism.
I understand your point. That’s why I said “anecdotal.” I don’t expect anyone else to take that as evidence, but it is my own evidence.
I am 100% sure there were TB shots, although you are probably right about that stupid thimble. I saw my childhood innoculation record and TB was on it.
But my reading says that we are now finding they were not that useful since TB appears to co-evolve with humans.
I suspect it was done in fits and starts — so maybe I was during the “on” period in California.
>>About 50% of kids who get vaccinations later get facial hair.<<
Interestingly (and of classification difficulty) is that they get it on their palms.
;)
Thanks for reinforcing my memory.
For a second there I was afraid I was a replicant with implanted memories (and was hoping I was a Nexus 8)
>>several anecdotal cases we know of first-hand where a kid got a shot and then developed autism.<<
A friend of mine got a flu shot and got into a car accident the next day. Thus, I won’t get a flu shot because it causes car accidents.
>>But thank you for your use of the $10,000 dollar latin phrase post hoc ergo propter hoc.<<
Sorry to dogpile and I am glad it all worked out for you (well, for the most part). I would say that the marked increase in peanut allergy, pretty much out of nowhere, is indeed analogous (if not congruent) with the marked increase in autism.
You did take a risk, but that is what parents do. I only ask (as a citizen) that it be a reasoned risk.
And I owe you a $5,000 discount because I thought I was stuffily (is there any other way?) discoursing on “Non Sequitur” arguments!
Really, good job on clarificatiating.
There are a LOT of potential explanations. One which has been put forth by serious researchers, is that many children in developed countries are growing up in unnaturally sterile environments, with homes constantly being cleaned, Lysol’d, vacuumed with vacuum cleaners equipped with HEPA filters, spending little time outside interacting with bugs and bird poop, and thus not getting a normal range and quantity of exposures to properly develop their immune systems (this is consistent with what’s been demonstrated with more ordinary allergies, that children growing up on farms are far less likely to be allergic to things like dogs/cats/pollen).
The key is the correlation to developed countries, where there’s a whole range of synthetic chemicals that people are exposed to on a daily basis. The chemicals emanating from foam rubber furniture cushions and “rubber” backed rugs, adhesives used in plywood and pressboard products, fiberglass used in insulation, and the idiotic fire retardant chemicals that are all over upholstery fabric and children pajamas. Another chemical of unknown effects was spotted recently — can’t recall what it was, but it’s formed by chlorinated water and heat, and they found elevated levels in the blood of people who’d recently taken a shower! Compulsive showering is a very modern Western concept (and still not nearly as frequent in Europe as in the US. And then there are all the lawn chemicals and household cleaning products and home/garden pesticides. There are just so MANY things that could be causing this, that trying to blame vaccines is really absurd. One big part of the puzzle may simply be that kids who were genetically predisposed to this used to die long before reaching reproductive age (and still do in underdeveloped countries), and thus not pass on the genes for it. Now they’re all running around with epi-pens and being helicoptered to the hospital.
And wait til you come down with shingles to decide that it’s not worth vaccinating against chicken pox. For some people it never fully goes away. For my father, it took several months and also involved a trip to the emergency room when a doctor thought his symptoms sounded like a heart attack. An elderly woman who lived next door to my vacation home, and had been doing fine living on her own, ended up having to move into a nursing about 3 years ago due to shingles. The pain remains unmanageable without drugs that impair her balance and reflexes, so she can’t live on her own anymore. Keeping her in a nursing home for what may well turn out to be 10 years or more, with not only ruin her quality of life, but cost several hundred thousand dollars.
No, if you've ever had chicken pox, you're at risk of shingles. You can't get shingles if you never had chicken pox. One childhood vaccination thus prevents both chicken pox and shingles.
OH... Man... are you kidding me? It’s not until reading about halfway into this that I find out it’s just more of that stupid anti-vaccine nonsense?
There should be some kind of warning label or something on these threads.
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