Thursday, April 2, 2009
Vaccination - Does It Really Work?
In Chapter 9, there is a section titled, “Spinal Crackers” (Carroll 228). The section concentrates on chiropractors and their various beliefs on medicine. Carroll specifically focuses on the fact that chiropractors do not believe in vaccination. “A 1994 survey of 171 chiropractors reported that one-third believed there was no scientific proof that immunization prevents disease.” (Carroll 230). My question is is this actually true? With so much emphasis on the importance of vaccination and vaccination requirements in schools it would appear that they are successful otherwise why would they be a requirement? Find evidence that vaccinations do, in fact, work or find evidence in support of the chiropractors that shows that vaccinations may not be as effective as commonly thought.
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As Carroll states on page 230, some vaccinations have indeed been successful. For example, the polio vaccination has since almost completely wiped out the vaccine. However, vaccines and their uses definitely have many negative effects. Apparently, chiropractors are strong advocates against the force of vaccinations on the public. They, along with many others, believe that disease can be prevented or cured by changes in behavior or environment, rather than just science.
ReplyDeleteDiseases like measles, chicken pox and whooping cough are proved to not be caused by germs, but rather toxic conditions already in the body. Therefore, vaccines are not effectively fighting the core of the disease when injected into the body to fight off bacteria and viruses. In under developed countries, these diseases can occur by malnutrition and other poor living conditions. In more developed countries, over consumption of meat and dairy can cause these diseases.
Vaccines do nothing to remove these toxic conditions in the body, but they stimulate the immune system to fight off germs. However, these germs are just feeding off the toxics in the body, which is what they’re meant to do. This relationship is called mutualistic symbiosis.
Therefore, vaccines do not effectively target the cause of the disease. Children in third world countries still die at alarming rates from measles or polio even though many have had vaccinations. This is because the vaccines don’t target the real problems: malnutrition and lack of clean drinking water. The vaccine doesn’t help change the diet and therefore doesn’t protect the child from these diseases.
Research done on whooping cough, diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, typhoid fever and polio show the decreases over time of the disease. However, these significant decreases happen before any widespread vaccines are enforced. For example, measles showed many cases up until around the 1950’s and peaked around 1885, 1898 and 1916. However, the vaccine wasn’t spread until around 1966. At this point, the disease had already decreased significantly, but the vaccine was given the credit for this when in fact, there were other conditions helping to lower the cases of measles.
Like I said above, many of these diseases are caused by toxic levels in the body that are caused by things like malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions. After the huge peak of measles in 1885, living conditions, as well as nutrition, improved over the years. This had to have a significant effect on diseases like measles.
Overall, there is significant evidence on the effects of vaccines. Many claim that diseases are caused by things other than germs that the immune system can fight off. Therefore, in these cases, vaccines can be ineffective and the things that really need to change are in the external environment.
As Meagan said, many diseases are caused by toxic compounds in the body. However, even though toxic levels in the body can be raised solely by the human’s living conditions such as malnutrition and an unsanitary environment, toxic compounds can ALSO be made by harmful parasitic organisms. Vaccines can not only target these poisonous substances, but they can also target the organisms that are creating them. Therefore, vaccines DO help remove toxic conditions from the body.
ReplyDeleteBiotoxins are produced by “germs” living inside host organisms such as humans. In order to prevent our bodies from being affected from these biotoxins, doctors can give use vaccines that contain toxoids, which are inactivated toxic compounds. When these toxoids that resemble the active form of a biotoxin enter the body, our immune systems recognize them as foreign invaders and destroy them. Our body also remembers these toxic compounds and creates immunity. When a virus or a bacterium that enters the body produces the biotoxin, the immune system recognizes it as a “bad” substance and destroys it. Also, if inactive forms of the virus or bacteria that make the biotoxin are used in a vaccine, our immune systems will be able to recognize the organism that makes the biotoxin and will destroy it before any toxic compounds can be produced.
An example of a disease that is caused by a biotoxin is tetanus. Tetanus is caused by a neurotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium tetani. This bacterium can enter the body if the human has an open wound. The neurotoxin created by Clostridium tetani, called tetanospasmin, causes muscle spasms in the jaw and muscles spasms in all parts of the body. The vaccine for tetanus contains a toxoid that is an inactive form of tetanospasmin. The immune system destroys and recognizes this compound resembling the poisonous neurotoxin and can destroy active tetanospasmin if it is found in the body.
In conclusion, vaccines CAN help remove toxic conditions in the body as well as fight off germs. Depending on the disease, vaccines can help create immunity in a variety of ways, including using inactive compounds called toxoids to help the body fight off biotoxins and targeting the organism that creates the biotoxin.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine#Developing_immunity
http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-64390-Diphtheria-Tetanus+Toxoids+Ped+IM.aspx?drugid=64390&drugname=Diphtheria-Tetanus+Toxoids+Ped+IM
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tetanus/DS00227
Like Meagan and Josh stated above, vaccines can prevent diseases by parasites, bacteria, viruses, and various germs. Not only do the statistical decrease in occurrence of diseases show that vaccines are effective, but also a study of the immune system does prove that vaccines are effective. A vaccine includes inactivated bacterial toxins, killed microbes, parts of microbes, and viable but weakened microbes. These microbes have the antigens to stimulate an immune response and immunological memory. The vaccinated individual will have a quick secondary response based on memory cells when encountered by the disease a second time. Routine immunization of infants and children has dramatically decreased the incidence of infectious diseases such as the whooping cough and the eradication of the smallpox (Campbell 916). The drop of polio from 38,476 cases in 1954 to 28,985 after the vaccine was available and the further decrease to 1312 cases 6 years after the vaccine was available clearly shows that vaccines are effective (Carroll 229). The antigens of microbes are received by B cells, which proliferate to give rise to a clone of identical cells bearing the receptors for the specific antigen. Some of these proliferating cells develop into short-lived plasma cells that secrete antibodies specific for the antigen, while some develop into long-lived memory cells that can respond rapidly upon subsequent exposure to the same antigen. This rise of memory cells from vaccines shows the artificial active immunity of humans.
ReplyDeleteI’ll give a specific example of a vaccine and argue that it doesn’t work (although I happen to believe the opposite). The CDC is doing research on whether the flu vaccine is effective, and preliminary results show that you will get just as sick with flu-like illnesses if you have got the vaccine as if you hadn’t. Why is this? Here are some possible explanations.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, here is an easier-to-make argument: that a flu vaccine cannot protect you from all types of flu. This seems obvious, but it is relevant. Here is the explanation for this effect. There is no single virus that causes the flu, and there is no one flu vaccine that protects against all of them. A flu vaccine is merely designed to give immunity against the strains of flu that are either common or serious. It is kind of like a one-size-fits-all deal. Here is how the flu vaccine works. The vaccine gives your body parts of inactivated flu viruses. These viruses stimulate the body to produce antibodies that, which bind virus cells for destruction. Memory cells are created so that the virus can never infect your body again. However, an antibody for one type of flu won’t necessarily bind to a virus part from another type of flu due to the different structures. There has to be a “chemical match” between the virus and antibodies (which are proteins). A flu vaccine can only stimulate your immune system to protect you against the viruses in the vaccine, not any other ones.
Here is another point: you may not even get complete protection against the intended target with the flu vaccine (or any vaccine). Why? Part of it is because viruses change over time (structure=function). The piece that was in the vaccine may not look the same (chemically) as the real virus (after a while). Also, the vaccine may not have given you enough stimulation to fight the disease. So we already know what happens with a vaccine: the inactivated virus piece finds a chemical match in your body, which causes an immune response. Antibodies are produced that mark the virus for destruction, and memory cells are produced. However, will your body win the fight when the real virus comes along? Yes, right? Memory cells are produced. But there is a chance that you will still get the flu. This can happen if your body isn’t fast enough producing a response. This can happen if you are exposed to the flu less than 2 weeks after you get the vaccine, or if there is too much time between vaccination and exposure. You can also lose the battle if you don’t produce enough of a response. This can happen if your body is overwhelmed by exposure to a high level of the virus. Also, common in old people/people with suppressed immune systems, your body can produce not enough antibodies. Another possibility is that your body didn’t recognize the initial virus piece (which has to do with genetics). All this can lead to your body not producing enough of a response. And, as said before, the virus can change beyond your body’s ability to recognize it.
The flu vaccine varies in effectiveness from year to year. Even in a best case scenario, it won’t always protect against the flu. However, this is an argument against the flu vaccine. My opinion is that everybody should still get the vaccine, as it is better than nothing.
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa011604a.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/protect/keyfacts.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine