This Won't Hurt a Bit

Before I discuss what I promised last time, that is Dr. Paul Cheney’s paradigm of chronic fatigue syndrome, I wanted to first elaborate on one additional factor that I suspect might have contributed to my eventual 6-year sentence with chronic fatigue syndrome.

On May 6, 1997 I was preparing for my mission to Russia, and stopped by the immunization clinic on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM to get my required vaccines. On this day, I received a total of six vaccines in rapid succession – Typhoid, Td (tetanus-diphtheria), MMR (measles-mumps-rubella), OPV (oral polio vaccine), hepatitis A, and hepatitis B.

Though the attending nurse did his job with precision and a smile, I remember a wave of shock went through my body as I downed the liquid polio vaccine out of a disposable cup and a tiny needle was stuck in my arm, the final of 4 shots in that day. I nearly passed out, though I was experiencing neither fear nor pain. I also remember feeling feverish and weak for a day or two afterwards.

Why the strange reaction of a healthy 22-year-old female to something so “innocuous” as inoculations, something we routinely do for tiny babies and small children? I don’t know, but maybe it had something to do with the introduction of the following foreign substances into my bloodstream that afternoon:

• (MMR ingredients) measles, mumps, rubella live virus, the antibiotic neomycin, the chemical sorbitol, and the animal by products hydrolyzed gelatin, chick embryonic fluid, and human diploid cells from aborted fetal tissue.

• (Td ingredients) tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, aluminum phosphate, modified Mueller-Miller casamino acid medium, modified Mueller’s growth medium, aluminum phosphate.

• (Hepatitis A ingredients) Hepatitis A virus, the chemicals formalin, (AKA Formaldehyde), aluminum hydroxide, 2-phenoxyethanol, and polysorbate 20, and human diploid cells from aborted fetal tissues.

• (Hepatitis B ingredients) genetic sequence of the hepatitis B virus that codes for the surface antigen (HbSAg), cloned into GMO yeast, aluminum hydroxide, and thimerosal (containing mercury).

And the following ingredients into my digestive tract:

• (Oral Polio Vaccine ingredients) 3 types of attenuated polio viruses, the antibiotics neomycin, streptomycin, the chemical sorbitol, and the animal by products monkey kidney cells and calf serum.

• (Typhoid ingredients) cell surface Vi polysaccharide from Salmonella typhi Ty2 strain, aspartame, phenol, and polydimethylsiloxane (silicone).

I also received a second round of both hepatitis A and B vaccines later that summer, and a flu shot later that fall. I opted out of the third round of hepatitis A and B after returning from Russia – a wise decision, in retrospect.

Of course, there is no way of knowing if any of these vaccines did any long-term damage to my system, or what good they may have done if any in protecting me from disease while I was in Russia.

There are a couple of points I would like to make, however, about chronic fatigue syndrome and vaccines in general.

First of all, it is widely recognized by physicians who work extensively with cfs-ridden patients that some people become ill immediately following a vaccination. My cousin, for example, received a flu shot while she was in college, and came down with cfs shortly thereafter. Further, there are accounts of individual fully recovered from cfs suffering relapse upon receiving a vaccine.

There are two things in particular about vaccines that concern me when it comes to chronic fatigue syndrome. One, the exposure to toxic substances such as aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, aspartame and etc… Chronic fatigue syndrome is an illness involving severe toxicity and oftentimes heavy metal poisoning. It is not impossible that some of the toxic chemicals found in vaccines could remain in the body after vaccination occurs, contributing to the overall toxic load of the individual and increasing their chances of eventually falling victim to cfs (and potentially any number of other illnesses).

Second is the immune modulating function of the vaccine – and this is even more suspect to me than the cocktail of toxic ingredients.

Without getting too technical, there are two basic types of immunity in the body—cellular immunity, which takes place when an individual is exposed to a pathogen, and the body launches an attack of different types of cells that search and destroy the microbe. This type of immunity deals with T cells, which are the cells that are also designed to destroy any cancerous cells that form in the body. In order for the cell-mediated immunity to develop in an individual, they must be exposed to a variety of pathogens at an early age. Throughout the history of man until recently, cellular immunity has been dominant in the body.

With the advent of mass vaccinations, cellular immunity has taken a backseat to humoral immunity, which involves the production of antibodies that attach to the cell membrane of the microbe, or antigen, and flags it for destruction.

Vaccines, by their very design, stimulate humoral immunity. One is injected with a microbe or something akin to it (sometimes the microbe is attenuated or weakened, sometimes it is live, and sometimes toxins from the microbe seem to suffice).

An adjuvant, or substance that enhances the body’s immune response, is another part of the vaccine. Aluminum is a common adjuvant that, when combined with the microbe, send the body’s humoral response into hyper drive making anti-bodies against the microbe.

This response is designed to prepare the individual for a successful battle against any future infection with that particular microbe. As I mentioned earlier, it has also shifted the masses from a cellular-mediated dominant immune function, to a dominance of humoral immunity.

Humoral dominance, unfortunately for many, is also associated with such illnesses as chronic fatigue syndrome, where the individual first becomes sick oftentimes by exposure to some sort of pathogen, and an exaggerated immune response ensues, causing a cascade of many other unpleasant symptoms and problems. In fact, one of the important steps in healing from cfs for many people (myself included) involves shifting the body out of humoral or T2 dominance and its associated inflammatory responses and deficiency of T cells (I used Taurox SB from Allergy Research Group for this purpose).

I hope I haven’t either bored my readers to tears or caused others to be disgusted with my relatively simplistic understanding of immunology. Either way, let me make my point clear as I wrap up this week’s article:

There is both anecdotal and scientific evidence suggesting the possibility that vaccines may contribute to the development and/or exacerbation of chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as contributing to relapse in some individuals.

So when Uncle Sam, or anyone else suggests I get vaccinated for the swine flu, or for anything else at all, I will politely and emphatically decline.

Until next time . . .

P.S. Other illnesses associated with humoral immunity dominance include Lupus, asthma, autism, allergies (including food allergies), AIDS, eczema, multiple chemical sensitivity disorder, candida (yeast) overgrowth, viral hepatitis, Gulf War Syndrome, ADD/ADHD, chronic sinusitis, ulcerative colitis, chronic viral infections, and cancer.