The Fraud of Vaccinations

Vaccine Safety and Benefits Not Scientifically Proven

Dr. Harold Buttram

Any medical therapy must balance the “effectiveness” versus the “safety” of its actions on the human body.

For instance, aspirin therapy is effective in preventing a second heart attack after having a first heart attack, and it is quite safe, only having a very small incidence of stomach or intestinal bleeding as a potential long-term side effect. As you read the following, please keep these key points in mind in terms of “effectiveness” versus the “safety” of vaccinations:

Scientific evidence does support the effectiveness of immunizations. They do prevent infectious diseases; some better than others, but this point is not disputed.

Scientific evidence does not support the safety of immunizations. Safety studies on vaccinations are limited to short time periods only: several days to several weeks. There are no long-term (months to years) safety studies on any vaccination or immunization. There is small but increasing scientific evidence of long-term side effects from immunizations that need much more study.

Inadequate Proof of Benefit of Vaccines

It is true that there may be situations where extreme measures may be justified to preserve life and health. The basic question, therefore, is whether the benefits of current childhood vaccines outweigh the harm or whether the reverse is true.

As to the benefits of vaccines, polio has been eliminated from the Western Hemisphere, and smallpox may have been eliminated worldwide. Vaccine proponents would have us believe that vaccines have been largely responsible for controlling virtually all of the former epidemics of killer diseases in the U.S.

With the exceptions cited above, the facts do not bear this out. According to the records of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, from 1911 to 1935 the four leading causes of childhood deaths from infectious diseases in the U.S. were

• Diphtheria
• Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Scarlet fever
• Measles

However, by 1945 the combined death rates from these causes had declined by 95 percent, before the implementation of mass immunization programs. By far the greatest factors in this decline were sanitation through:

• Public health measures
• Improved nutrition
• Better housing with less crowded conditions
• Introduction of antibiotics

Also, the virulence of microorganisms tends to become weakened or attenuated with the passage of time and serial passages through human hosts, one example of which is whooping cough (pertussis), which is clearly a much milder disease today in Western nations than it was 100 or so years ago.

Safety Not Proven

It should be pointed out that today’s children receive 22 or more vaccines before school age, whereas today’s senior citizens received only one, the smallpox vaccine. Some of these vaccines contain potentially toxic mercury (though mercury-free types have recently been produced in response to safety concerns).

With growing public concerns about potential adverse reactions on the immature immune systems of children, it is reasonable to ask ourselves what is already known about such reactions. There is a school of thought that the so-called “minor childhood illnesses” of former times including:

• Measles
• Mumps
• Rubella (German measles)
• Chicken pox

that entered the body through the mucous membranes, served a necessary and positive purpose in challenging and strengthening the immune system of these membranes.

In contrast, so the theory goes, the respective vaccines of these diseases are injected by needle directly into the system of the child, thereby bypassing the mucosal immune system. As a result, mucosal immunity remains relatively weak and stunted in many children, complications of which may be the rapid increase in asthma and eczema now being seen, both in terms of frequency and severity.

This concept tends to be confirmed by four controlled studies, widely separated geographically, in which vaccinated children were found to have significantly more atopic disorders than controls.

In commenting on the increased incidence of asthma and other atopic disorders in the United Kingdom in the article, “Measles and atopy in Guinea-Bissau,” the authors made the following comment:

“The rise of allergic disease among children in the UK over the past 30 years remains unexplained. One hypothesis is that infections in early childhood prevent allergic sensitization, and that successive generations of children have lost this protection as their exposure to infectious disease in early life has declined. Consequently the prevalence of atopy and concomitant allergic disease has risen.”

It is true that in former times there were occasional serious complications from these childhood diseases, but this is an area in which nutritional approaches and homeopathy traditionally have been at their best. If these approaches were made widely available, it is probable that most of these complications could be eliminated. No one wants to see serious complications in our children, but the vaccine route may in time prove to be the worst possible choice that could have been made, as concerns the minor childhood diseases.

Threat of Brain Damage

Perhaps the greatest concern with vaccines today rests with their possible causal relation to the growing epidemic of childhood autism, developmental delay and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Regarding the latter, a recent news item stated that ADHD has increased from 900,000 in 1991 to nearly 5 million today.

Statistics may be open to question, but one cannot question the observations of veteran elementary school teachers who, in our experience, unanimously and emphatically report a marked increase in this disorder in recent years. Regarding autism, a recent survey mandated by the California state legislature found an increase of 273 percent in California in the past 11 years.

At present, primary suspicion for this epidemic of neurobehavioral disorders rests with the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine. Although scientific evidence has not yet reached the standards of scientific proof, one pioneer researcher in this area, Dr. Vijendra Singh with the Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan, has published the report of a study in which he found that a large majority of autistic children tested had antibodies to brain tissue in the form of antibodies to myelin basic protein, a protein strongly correlated to measles antibodies (almost all of the children had been immunized with the MMR vaccine, and none had had these diseases).

This study tends to confirm the results of a similar study published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and coworkers of the Royal Free Hospital in London, indicating a possible link between MMR vaccination, Crohn’s disease of the bowel and autism. If the MMR vaccine were causing an autoimmune reaction involving the brains of autistic children, what would be the mechanism?

Although research in this area is in its infancy, we do know some things. Both the measles and mumps fractions of the MMR vaccine are cultured in chick embryo tissue. As purely genetic material, viruses are highly susceptible to the process of “jumping genes,” in which they may incorporate genetic material from tissue in which they are cultured.

Furthermore, protein sequences in the measles virus have been found to have similarities to those found in brain tissues. As a result, once this foreign genetic material is introduced into the child by a vaccine, it may set in motion an immunologic attack on brain tissues, a process that the work of Dr. Singh would tend to confirm.

Stealth Virus

A similar process may have taken place with the oral (Sabin) polio vaccine, which is cultured in monkey kidney tissue. Years ago Dr. John Martin, then serving as director of the viral oncology branch within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, found foreign DNA in contemporary polio vaccines.

He later learned that a simian (monkey) cytomegalic virus had been found in all of the 11 African green monkeys imported for production of the polio vaccine. After leaving the FDA, Dr. Martin took a position as professor of pathology with the University of Southern California. There he tested blood samples from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, autism and other nervous system disorders.

This work led to his discovery of unique cell-destroying viruses that were not recognized by the immune system. Termed “stealth viruses,” some of which he thought had clearly originated from the simian cytomegalic virus, these viruses were missing specific genes that ordinarily would induce immune responses from the host. It should be admitted that this work is preliminary. No definitive conclusions can be drawn from it, but the need for further intensive investigation should be apparent.

Overdue in the opinion of many, on June 17, 1999 U.S. government officials voted to withdraw their recommendation for the use of the live oral polio vaccine and to recommend exclusive use of the inactive (Salk) polio vaccine, because the former vaccine has been the only remaining source of polio cases in the U.S. since 1979.

Damage May Yet Escalate

As another concept, it is highly pertinent that many of today’s children are second-generation vaccinees; that is, they are born to mothers previously vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and/or rubella vaccines. It is possible that the reaction rates in the second-generation vaccines may be happening on a much larger scale due to previous sensitization of mothers from their vaccines, this sensitization being transmitted in turn to the fetus during pregnancy.

If this process is taking place, something we cannot know until appropriate research is done, there predictably will be additional increases in autism beyond that already taking place, should the process be continued into a third generation. Time may prove that vaccine programs went awry when they deviated from the most basic of all medical ethics, the right of parents to accept or reject vaccines for their children.

Freedom of choice provides a system of checks and balances now lacking. At the very least, this would provide the parents the power to compel better safety screening of vaccines. Today we have a system in which vaccine production by the pharmaceutical companies is largely self-regulated.

Naturally these companies are interested in profits from their products, which, in itself, is not wrong. However, when arbitrary decisions in the mandating of vaccines are made by government bureaucracies, who are highly partisan to the pharmaceutical companies, with no recourse open to parents, we have all the potential ingredients for a tragedy of historical proportions.

In closing, it may be appropriate to cite an item which, though seemingly small in itself, may be indicative of the problems with which we are faced. In January 1993 a scientific journal published the results of a study of 89 children with adverse clinical reactions following administrations of various combinations of vaccines. Detailed case histories were taken and blood tests were done to examine various parameters of cellular and humoral immunity.

It was found that children with adverse reactions had marked increases in abnormal blood parameters as compared with children who had had no reactions. The first study of its kind as far as we are aware, perhaps the most striking and significant feature of the report is not the results of the tests, which might have been anticipated, so much as the fact that it was published in a foreign publication, Czechoslovakia Pediatrics. American science has been foremost in the development and promotion of vaccines. That it should be laggard in basic safety testing, of which this study may represent one of the modest beginnings, is a sad reflection on the American scientific community. Do we not have a right to expect better?

Harold Buttram is an author and physician at the Woodlands Healing Research Center in Quakertown, Penn.

Santa Fe New Mexican December 20, 2002

Why vaccines aren’t save

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Vaccinations are one of the most controversial issues in modern medicine. Although the vast majority of the conventional medical community believes they are an example of “preventive medicine,” there is a growing community that strongly disagrees.

On an ethical level, there is the issue of their compulsory nature. Should you and your children be forced to have something injected into your bodies, for any reason? This is precisely the case with vaccinations.

Unfortunately, the situation in the United States is getting even worse in this area. Many state governments are mandating these vaccines — and failure to comply results in prison time. The intrusion of the government into our personal freedom is unconscionable.

Meanwhile, ALL vaccines are immune suppressing, which means they depress your natural immune functions, leaving you vulnerable to any number of diseases.

And this is not even taking into account the vaccine additives, such as the mercury preservative thimerosal, which has been linked to autism and other neurological and developmental disorders in children.

Many of the vaccines that are now “required” for children are not even medically necessary. At the top of my list of vaccinations that are highly questionable are the:

• Hepatitis B vaccine
• Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil
• Chicken pox vaccine
• Flu vaccine

Get the Facts Before Vaccinating

For some of you, this may be the first you’re hearing about vaccinations’ potential for harm, and their questionable effectiveness. But please don’t take my word for it.

You have at your fingertips a very powerful tool to find out the facts: the Internet. On this site alone there are thousands of articles about vaccines, their potential side effects, and their dangerous history.

And remember, you still have the legal right to refuse to vaccinate your children. While all 50 states have immunization requirements, 28 allow parents to opt out for medical or religious reasons. Another 20 states allow parents to opt out for personal or philosophical reasons as well.

My previous article, How To Legally Avoid Unwanted Immunizations Of All Kinds, explains how you can go about practicing this right, and there is also an entire chapter in my book Take Control of Your Health devoted to this very topic.

Knowledge truly is power, and the more you know about vaccinations, the more empowered you’ll be to make the best decision for the health of you and your family.

Facts you should know about the truth of vaccines

This stunning censored interview (top) was cut from the TV program The Health Century due to its huge liability — the admission that the Merck drug company has been injecting cancer viruses into people worldwide.

If you find the content shocking, consider watching the second video, the entire movie, “In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism”.

This film is produced and freely distributed by consumer protector and public health expert, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, and features the world‘s leading vaccine expert, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, explaining why Merck‘s vaccines have spread AIDS, leukemia, and other horrific plagues worldwide.

Take this enlightening 2007 investors’ presentation for GlaxoSmithKline, for example. GSK’s overall sales performance rose 9 percent in 2006, with pharmaceutical sales totaling £20.1 Billion, or just under $40 Billion. Other statistics include:

• The U.S. market accounts for more than 50 percent (about $20.6 Billion) of all GSK pharmaceutical sales, with an increased sales volume of 16 percent in 2006
• Europe’s pharmaceutical sales went up by 1 percent, and the international market increased by just 6 percent
• Total vaccine sales rose by 23 percent in 2006, bringing in just under $3.4 Billion (£1.7 Billion)
• Vaccine sales in the U.S. rose 40 percent, compared to Europe’s 20 percent, or the international market’s 13 percent

Now, remember – that’s just GlaxoSmithKline’s numbers for ONE year, which does not include sales by any other pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck.

To give you an idea of where Merck stands, in terms of motivation, Merck’s 2005 Annual Report includes Merck’s plan to win, which is centered on five strategic actions:

1. We are prioritizing our areas of research, based on scientific opportunity and value to our customers (That’s the shareholders, folks, not you!)
2. We are committed to completely redefining our discovery and development process to yield new high-value products more efficiently
3. We will devote more resources to bringing relevant information to payers and consumers, all of whom are becoming more and more involved in the choice of medicines. We will provide more information resources through easily accessible channels — for example, on the Internet and through health professionals (That means more direct advertising, and more bribing of doctors to prescribe their blockbuster drugs)
4. Emerging pharmaceutical markets worldwide provide enormous opportunity because the need for our medicines and vaccines is so great and our ability to meet those needs so clear
5. We are committed to leading the industry in supply strategy. These actions to dramatically alter our cost structure will make a significant contribution toward our goal of double-digit earnings growth… As *** Clark, Merck‘s CEO and president, has said repeatedly, “Effort counts, but results count more, and I am counting on results.”

See, pharmaceutical companies are in the business of making money, just like every other competitive business – they’re not in the business of protecting public health. In the financial section of Merck’s 2005 Annual Report to shareholders we find the following statistics, showing a healthy increase in sales of vaccines as well:
Merck 2005 Annual Report to Shareholders.

http://www.mercola.com

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Al-Razi on Smallpox and Measles

Al-Razi on Smallpox and Measles

Muhammad Ibn Zakariyya al-Razi was the first physician in history who described in details the symptoms and signs of smallpox and measles based on clinical examination, and he was the first who distinguished between these two diseases by putting what is called now the differential diagnosis. This was very clear in his book: The Book on Smallpox and Measles. A manuscript of this book is kept now in Leiden University Library in the Netherlands under the number 761. We have in our Institute for the History of Arabic Science in Aleppo a microfilm of this manuscript. This book was twice translated into Latin in the 18th century. This book consists of fourteen chapters. The third chapter is considered the most important of this book; it is entitled “The chapter related to the symptoms suggesting the exacerbation of smallpox and measles’. The aim of this study is to describe this book revealing its importance in the field of history of Islamic medicine. Short Biography Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi was born in al-Ray City near Tehran in 251 H / 865 CE and died there in 313 H / 925 CE. He was a well known Muslim physician and writer, whose medical writings greatly influenced the Islamic world as well as Western Europe in the Middle Ages. He wrote on almost every aspect of medicine. Al-Razi moved to Baghdad when he was forty years old, and headed many hospitals. Europe knew him under the Latinized form of his name, Rhazes. The Sultan ‘Adhud al-Dawla asked him to find a suitable place for establishing the Bimaristan al-Adhudi. He hanged pieces of meat in various places of the city and decided for the place where the putrefaction of the meat was the slowest. Al-Razi composed more than two hundred books related to medicine, pharmacy, philosophy, music and many other sciences. And he is considered the first who founded experimental science especially in the field of medicine and chemistry, given his major interest in the experimental methodology in different natural sciences. Al-Razi’s Book on Smallpox and Measles (Kitab al-Jadari wa ‘l-Hasba) Al-Razi was the first physician in history who described in details the symptoms and signs of smallpox and measles based on clinical examination, and he was the first who distinguished between these two diseases by putting what is called now the differential diagnosis. This was very clear in his Book on Smallpox and Measles. A manuscript of this book is kept now in Leiden University Library in the Netherlands under the number 761. A microfilm of this manuscript exists in the Library of the Institute for the History of Arabic Science in Aleppo. This book was edited in Arabic and gained a great popularity in Europe after that it was translated several times into Latin and other European languages, including French, English and German. According to Honka, the book was published in Europe forty times between 1498 and 1866. But the interest that surrounds this book was during the 18th century, at a time when there was much interest in the inoculation or varulation around 1720 following the description of the procedure in Turkey by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the Ambassador Extraordinary to the Turkish court in Istanbul. image alt text Figure 1. On-line publication of al-Razi’s Kitab fi ‘l-jadari on the website of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (p. 1). Source: http://almashriq.hiof.no/ddc/ projects/saab/S16R27/index.html.

Al-Razi began his book with a short introduction, in which he explained the direct cause for composing his treatise, as he did not find a satisfying book written by the physicians before him dealing with this subject. The book consists of fourteen chapters. The first defines the causes of the two diseases and why just few people could escape from the attack. In the second chapter al-Razi mentioned the bodies which are more susceptible to get smallpox, and the times in the year in which the disease is more common. In this regard he says that thin, hot and dry bodies are more susceptible for measles and not to smallpox, while thin, cold and dry bodies are not susceptible for both diseases, but if they are attacked by smallpox, the disease will be benign. The times in which smallpox is most probable to widespread are at the end of autumn and the beginning of spring. In severely hot and dry summers and also if the autumn was hot and dry without rain, measles would be more expected in susceptible individuals. The third chapter is the most important of the whole book. It is entitled ?the chapter related to the symptoms suggesting the exacerbation of smallpox and measles’. In this chapter al-Razi declares that before a smallpox eruption, the patient complains of continuous fever, back pain, nose itching and sleeping disorders. Then he mentions many other general symptoms and signs such as generalized pain, breathing difficulties, cough, redness in the cheeks and eyes, sore throat, dry mouth, hoarseness, headache, anxiety and sometimes syncope may be developed. Upon reviewing this text we can recognize that al-Razi clearly emphasized that smallpox is different from measles, and he declared that there are common signs for the two diseases, and other more specific signs for every disease, enabling the physician to make a differential diagnosis between them. The most probable common signs between smallpox and measles are: Continuous fever, nose itching, allergy in the body, cheek and eyes redness, sore throat, chest pain, breathing difficulties, cough, hoarseness, headache and sometimes syncope. The author says that it is not necessary that all of these symptoms and signs should appear together, as some of them may be absent. On the other hand, regarding the symptoms, which are specific for every disease, he says that back pain is more sever in smallpox, while it may be slight or absent in measles. Distress, syncope and anxiety are more prominent in measles. The fourth chapter is on the management of smallpox in general, so he indicates ten procedures which should be carried out to achieve this purpose. The fifth chapter, which is the longest chapter of the book, deals with the prevention of smallpox before the appearance of its signs, and diminishing its diffusion after the signs appear.. In this chapter al-Razi advises to perform venesection to all patients above fourteen years old and cupping for young patients. Then his advice is to use special diets according to the patient’s condition and age. The sixth chapter is on the factors which accelerate the appearance of skin lesions in smallpox. Al-Razi says that a massage and drinking cold water could accelerate the appearance of smallpox and measles especially when the fever is severe, thus the disease will pass easily. Also he mentioned the use of many herbal drugs which may play an important role to achieve this purpose. The seventh chapter is on taking care of the eye, throat and other organs, which need to be cared for after the appearance of smallpox signs. In this chapter al-Razi explains how this care should be performed. He also draws attention for taking care of the feet and hands, as severe pain may develop resulting from sclerosis of the skin in these members. The eighth chapter is on the factors which accelerate the maturation of smallpox. Here al-Razi advises in the case where the patient is in a good condition, the physician should do his best to mature smallpox. In this case, bandages of hot water with some flowers boiled inside it are applied to the sites of the lesion. The ninth chapter is on the factors which dry or desiccate smallpox. In the case where smallpox is wet, some kinds of ointments taken from many kinds of plants like rice are applied to dry it and make it possible to be removed. The tenth chapter is on the substances which remove the crust. Al-Razi says that if the lesion became dry and a residual of crust is still dominant, the physician should look if it was thin and dry the ointment of acetic acid should be applied first several times until it completely disappears. When the lesion is located in the face, a special kind of ointment derived from peanuts should be used. If the crust is wet, the physician may carefully scrape it off without using any ointment. The eleventh chapter is on the substances, which remove the residual effect of smallpox on the eye and all the body. Here al-Razi differentiates between the residual effects of smallpox on the eye from that on the rest of the body. In the first case he indicates to use many kinds of ointments, some of them derived from animal products. If the lesions are located all over the body, many compound ointments may be used. The twelfth chapter is on the diet recommended to a smallpox patient. The patient should drink malt (barley with water) exactly as done in acute diseases. Also, peeled lentils mixed with some other juices like acetic acid, may be of beneficial effect for smallpox patients. The thirteenth chapter is on the management of bowel function. Al-Razi states that in the last stages of most cases of measles and smallpox the faeces is soft especially in measles, therefore laxatives should be avoided except in the early stages of some cases of smallpox especially when there is fever or headache. The fourteenth chapter is on the prognosis of smallpox and measles. In this last chapter al-Razi describes the signs where the prognosis is bad, and where the prognosis is good. He considered severe pain, continuous fever, insomnia, nose itching and a shining color of the eruption as signs of bad prognosis.

Figure 2.

On-line publication of al-Razi’s Kitab fi ‘l-jadari on the website of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (p. 1). Source: On-line publication of al-Razi’s Kitab fi ‘l-jadari on the website of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (pp. 2-3). Source: http://almashriq.hiof.no/ddc/projects/saab/ S16R27/html-640/003-002.html. The Scientific Value of the Book 1. Al-Razi’s Book on Smallpox and Measles is considered the first one of its kind, as it gives an explanation for smallpox and measles in an isolated book. 2. In the first chapter he mentioned that the putrefying air is a contributive factor for spreading the disease. 3. In this respect, al-Razi is credited as the scholar who differentiated, for the first time in the history of medicine, between these two diseases, and described every disease separately in details, unlike all Greek and Arab physicians before him, who considered the two diseases as one disease. Many historians such as Justave Lebon, Sigrid Honka, Douglas and others recognized this priority. In this book, al-Razi differentiated between the two diseases in three places: in the second chapter, when he talked about the bodies which are more susceptible to get smallpox, and the times in the year, in which the disease is more common. Also, in the third chapter he pointed out the symptoms that suggest the eruption of smallpox and measles. In the fourteenth chapter, which is on the prognosis of smallpox and measles, he also differentiated between these two diseases. 4. He recognized the relationship between the type of the eruption in measles and the severity of the disease. 5. The opinions of al-Razi are characterized by being free of false old concepts, so it was clear that al-Razi was very keen to prescribe the treatment in detail and the kinds of food which are more suitable, as he believed that food has an important role in the treatment. 6. Al-Razi disagrees with other physicians before him in using cold water to neutralize severe fever in smallpox and measles diseases. 7. The Kitab al-judari wa ‘l-hasba provides a decisive proof that al-Razi, such as many other Muslim physicians, was not just a translator of Greek, Indian and Syriac medicine. Indeed, in addition to the very important achievement exposed in the treatise. He innovated lot of theories and new opinions, which contributed in medicine development at that time. Harrison’s textbook of internal medicine mentioned that al-Razi was the first who described the measles disease and differentiated it from smallpox. Also, in the popular Encarta Encyclopedia (1998 edition), it is written: “Al-Razi’s personal experiences and observations as a physician make al-Hawi a landmark in the history of medicine. In his most famous work, Treatise on Smallpox and Measles, al-Razi gives the earliest known description of smallpox”. The smallpox and measles diseases were dealt with by al-Razi in several of his other medical works, as shown in the following paragraphs. Al-Hawi fi ‘l-Tibb Al-Hawi fi ‘l-Tibb is an extremely important source for our knowledge of Greek, Indian and early Arabic writings, for al-Razi was meticulous about crediting his sources. Al-Razi died before arranging fully the book, but his followers rearranged it under the supervision of Ibn al-’Amid who was the minister of al-Hassan ibn Bouyeih. This comprehensive book on medicine, al-Hawi, was translated into Latin in 1279 under the title of Liber Continens by Faraj ben Salem, a physician of Sicilian Jewish origin, employed by Charles of Anjou to translate medical works. Later it was translated many times into Latin, and became one of the nine books relied on in teaching in the medical college library of Paris in 1395. A special part of this book, which is related to pharmacology, was still considered the first reference in Europe for a long time after the renaissance age. There is a rare manuscript of the translation of al-Hawi into Latin, written in 1282, in the French National Library in Paris. The first edition was published in Italy in 1486 under the title: Liber Dictus Elhavi, then many editions appeared, the last one was under the title: Continens Rasis in 1542. There exists a rare copy of this edition in the Cambridge Library, UK.

Figure 3.

On-line publication of al-Razi’s Kitab fi ‘l-jadari on the website of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (p. 1). Source: On-line publication of al-Razi’s Kitab fi ‘l-jadari on the website of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (pp. 2-3). Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/ islamic_medical/image/image09.gif. Al-Hawi’ is still considered the largest medical textbook edited from the Arabic language up to date, as it consists of twenty three volumes, according to the edition which was accomplished by the Othmania Publishing House in Haydarabad, India between 1955 and 1971. In the 17th volume of the book, al-Razi discussed smallpox and measles. He described the eruption of measles as red skin maculae without protrusion into or out of the skin, while the eruption in smallpox is infiltrated into skin. Then, he mentions that the smallpox eruption appears as groups, while the measles eruption appears altogether. He considered the black and violet colors of the eruption in smallpox as bad prognosis.

Figure 4.

The Latin translation of al-Hawi: Albubecar Muhamed Rhazes, Continens Rasis… (Venise: Ottaviano Scoto, 1529). Online publication on the website of the Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de médecine in Paris. Source: http://194.254.96.21/livanc/? cote=extbibcomsiena25_2a019& do=chapitre. A treatise on pediatric diseases (Risala fi amradh al-atfal wa ‘l-’ianaya bhihim): Al-Razi wrote this treatise in 900 H. Most historians like Rabdill, Gustave Lebon, and Sigrid Honka consider it as the first separated book written in pediatric diseases, because al-Razi for the first time in the history of medicine separated between pediatrics and gynecology, while all other physicians before him used to gather the two subjects in one book. Unfortunately, the original Arabic version of this book seems to be lost. In the past it was translated into Hebrew then into Latin between 1114 and 1187, and it was published many times. Lately, Pieper translated many chapters into German, and Ruhra accomplished another translation into English, then the entire treatise was translated into Italian. Recently, Dr. Samuel Rabdill put a new English translation of this treatise and published it in the American Pediatric Journal (n° 5, vol. 122, 1971). This translation is considered now the best version. Dr. Mahmood Haj Kasem from Iraq translated it into Arabic. The treatise contains twenty-four chapters discussing many pediatric diseases and their treatment. Among these diseases smallpox and measles were discussed. Also, many other pediatric diseases were described such as tinea, scabies, hydrocephalous, abdominal enlargement, sneezing, insomnia, epilepsy, ear discharges, eye diseases, teeth diseases, mouth ulceration, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, worms, umbilical protrusion, hernia, urethral stone, and poliomyelitis. In addition to the historical importance of this treatise it has a scientific importance, as it contains new opinions and theories related to pediatric diseases. The effect of al-Razi concepts related to smallpox and measles on the physicians after him It is well known that during the time of al-Razi, books were not written and widely published like in our time, but there were only some manuscripts available for some scholars for every book. Therefore, we can expect that many Muslim physicians after al-Razi’s time did not mention the master’s concepts regarding smallpox and measles. I would like here to trace the effect of al-Razi concepts in this issue on the Muslim physicians after him. Ali ‘ibn Abbas al-Majusi: He died in 994 (about 70 years after al-Razi). In the fourteenth chapter of the first volume of his book Kamel al-Sina’a al-Tibiya, he talked about smallpox. He considered smallpox and measles as one disease. This means that al-Majusi had no idea about al-Razi writings in this regard, or his pride prevented him to quote from al-Razi’s book. Ibn Sina: He lived about one hundred years after al-Razi. Upon comparison between what was written by Ibn Sina in his book al-Qanun fi ‘l-ttib (The Canonof Medicine) with al-Razi’s writings on smallpox and measles, it is clear that Ibn Sina quoted a lot of information from al-Razi. In the third book of al-Qanun, he devoted a special part to deal with smallpox and measles. Ibn Sina differentiated between the two diseases and said they have common signs, and other signs specific for every disease. Then he described the skin eruption of every disease, resembling that written by al-Razi. But Ibn Sina did not mention that he had quoted from al-Razi’s writings. Ibn Zuhr: He lived in al-Andalus and died there in 1162. His book is entitled Al-Taysir fi ‘l-Mudawati wa-’l-Tadbir. It was translated into Hebrew then into Latin, and published many times under the name of Facilicito Adjumentum. In the second volume of the book, ibn-Zuhr devoted a chapter to smallpox and measles, and he considered them as one disease. It is clear that Ibn Zuhr did not quote from Ibn Sina’s or al-Razi’s writings regarding smallpox and measles, especially if we know that al-Qanun was well known in al-Andalus during that time. Ibn al-Nafis: He was born in Damascus and died in Cairo in 1288. His book is entitled al-Mujaz fi al-tib (The Concise Book in Medicine). It is considered as a revision of Ibn Sina’s Canon. Therefore, ibn al-Nafis repeated briefly what Ibn Sina had exposed about smallpox and measles, and he differentiated between the two diseases. But, it is worth mentioning that ibn al-Nafis did not mention the back pain as a differential sign of smallpox. Dawud al-Antaki: He was born in Antakia and died in Mecca in 1599. His medical book, known as Tadhkirat Dawud (Memoir of Dawud), has a longer title: Tadhkirat Uli al-albab wa ‘l-Jami’ li-l-’ajab al-’ujab. In the first part of this book he describes the signs of measles and smallpox in a way very like that described by al-Razi. In addition, he differentiated between the two diseases. In the same chapter he talked about chicken pox, and considered it as a benign form of smallpox. Madian al-Qawsuni: He was an Egyptian physician who lived in the 17th century. His medical book is entitled Qamus al-atiba wa namuus al-aliba (The Physician’s Dictionary). In the first chapter of the book, where he dealt with measles, he described the signs of measles and smallpox, mentioning that he quoted it from Ibn Sina’s Canon. He differentiated between the two diseases saying that the lesion in measles is small, thin and does not extend outside the skin, while smallpox lesion is protruded outside the skin and thick. Conclusion No doubt that al-Razi was the first physician in the history of medicine who differentiated between smallpox and measles, and considered them as two diseases. The influence of his concepts in the diagnosis of these diseases on the Muslim physicians was very clear, especially on Ibn Sina, ibn al-Nafis, al-Antaki and al-Qawsuni. But it is worth mentioning that the majority of these physicians have quoted their information in this regard from The Canon of Ibn Sina, as it was the book that knew the widest diffusion and exerted the largest influence in the east as well as in the west. At the end, I would like to conclude this presentation by a word of truth, written by the European Doctor De Poure, who declared: “Medicine was absent till Hypocrites created it, dead till Galen revived it, dispersed till Rhazes collected it, deficient till Avicenna completed it”. References – Al-Baba M.Z., History and legislation of pharmacy, Damascus: Damascus University, 1986, p. 344. – Ibn Sina, Al-Qanun fit-Tibb. Beirut: Dar Sader, 1980, vol. 3, p. 197. – Honka, Zigrid, Shamsu ‘l-’Arab Tasta’u ‘ala al-Gharb, 2nd edition, Beirut, 1969. – Al-Majusi, Kamel al-Sina’a al-Tibiyya, Cairo, 1918. – Al-Razi, Kitab al-Jadari wa ‘l-Hasbah, Italy, 1766. – Al-Razi, Al-Hawi, Haydarabad, India, 1955-1976. – Al-Razi, Kitab fi al-Jadari wa ‘l-Hasbah. Printed at the expense of the Syrian Evangelical College of the city of Beirut. Beirut, 1872. – Savage-Smith, Emilie, Islamic Culture and Medical Arts, Bethesda (Maryland): National Library of Medicine, 1994. * Dr. Abdul Nasser Kaadan is the Chairman of History of Medicine Department, Aleppo University, Aleppo – Syria. He is also the President of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine ISHIM (www.ishim.net). Dr. Kaadan has been awarded by the Syrian Government the Bassel al-Assad Prize in the field of History of Medical Research Dr. Kaadan, who is an orthopedic surgeon since 1986, received his PhD in History of Medicine in 1993 from the Institute for the History of Arabic Science in Aleppo. Address: P.O. Box 7581, Aleppo, Syria. E-mail: a.kaadan@scs-net.org. by: Abdul Nasser Kaadan, MD, PhD, Sun 08 April, 2007 Related Articles: Arab Surgeon Albucasis (Al-Zahrawi) by: Dr. Ibrahim Shaikh Albucasis was not only a medical scholar, but a great practicing physician and surgeon. His works include, At-Tasrif, which contains the earliest pictures of surgical instruments in history, about 200 are described and illustrated. Arabic Medicine in the Mediterranean by: Prof. Charles Burnett Professor Charles Burnett describes in a talk he recently gave the phenomena of Arabic Medicine which stretched across the Islamic world and embraced all religions and took knowledge from wherever it was found. Al-Razi the Medical Scholar by: FSTC Ltd Al-Razi was “a writer of rare and incredible productiveness as well as the greatest clinician of Islam.” The great works of Al-Razi are of immense significance in the study of medicine. Ibn Sina’s writing on Beauty by: Prof. Nil Sari Akdeniz Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE), known in Latin as Avicenna, wrote much about beauty in his famous “Canon of Medicine”. Today we can identify many of the terms he used with terms such as hormones. The Earliest Pediatric Surgical Atlas: Cerrahiye-i Ilhaniye by: S. N. Cenk Buyukunal and Nil Sari The author of one of the earliest surgical books was Serafeddin Sabuncuoglu. In 1465, he wrote a surgical book in Turkish which contained not only pictures or miniatures of pediatric surgical procedures, but there were also many important and major new contributions to the surgical literature. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Introduction of Smallpox Vaccination to England by: Dr. Salim Ayduz This short article describes Lady Montagu’s efforts in introducing a technique of vaccinating against smallpox; a technique that she learnt from Ottoman Turkey and transported, against some resistance, to the shores of Britain. It was from this knowledge, which had existed for some time in the Muslim lands, that Dr. Edward Jenner was able to develop modern methods of smallpox vaccination. Ear, Nose and Throat Medical Practice in Muslim Heritage by: Prof. Mostafa Shehata Muslim medicine is characterized by a high level of experience and critical clinical observation setting aside mythologies and legends. The ear, nose and throat exemplify the participation of Muslim medicine and the contribution of the great Arab physicians to the study of anatomy, physiology and diseases of these organs. Selected Gleanings from the History of Islamic Medicine by: FSTC Limited The medical Islamic tradition is one of the richest and the most lasting components of the general history of medicine. Some of its main aspects are dealt with in a series of five articles by Dr. Sharif Kaf al-Ghazal, a physician and historian of Islamic medicine.

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Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?

Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?

Disponible en Espanol American health officials declared a public health emergency as cases of swine flu were confirmed in the U.S. Health officials across the world fear this could be the leading edge of a global pandemic emerging from Mexico, where seven people are confirmed dead as a result of the new virus. On Wednesday April 29th, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level to five on its six-level threat scale,1 which means they’ve determined that the virus is capable of human-to-human transmission.

The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already traveling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu. Phase 5 had never been declared since the warning system was introduced in 2005 in response to the avian influenza crisis. Phase 6 means a pandemic is under way. Several nations have imposed travel bans, or made plans to quarantine air travelers2 that present symptoms of the swine flu despite the fact that WHO now openly states it is not possible to contain the spread of this infection and recommends mitigation measures, not restricting travel or closing borders.

Just What is a Pandemic Anyway?

A pandemic does not necessarily mean what you think it does, it is NOT black-plague carts being hauled through the streets piled high with dead bodies. Nor does it mean flesh eating zombies wandering the streets feeding on the living. All a pandemic means is that a new infectious disease is spreading throughout the world. By definition, a “pandemic” is an epidemic that is geographically widespread. Fear-mongers are always careful to add the innuendo that millions of people could and probably will die, as in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 that killed about 20 million people worldwide.

How does the death of even a few hundred equate to 20 million?

swine flu Much Fear Mongering Being Promoted I suspect you have likely been alarmed by the media’s coverage of the swine flu scare. It has a noticeable subplot – preparing you for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well as forcing you to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations.

On April 27, Time magazine published an article which discusses how dozens died and hundreds were injured from vaccines as a result of the 1976 swine flu fiasco, when the Ford administration attempted to use the infection of soldiers at Fort Dix as a pretext for a mass vaccination of the entire country. Despite acknowledging that the 1976 farce was an example of “how not to handle a flu outbreak”, the article still introduces the notion that officials “may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease”. Fear has become so widespread that Egypt has ordered the slaughter of the country’s 300,000 pigs, even though no cases have been reported there.

Fortunately some respectable journalists recognize this and are seeking to spread a voice of reason to the fear that is being promoted in the majority of the media’

This is NOT the First Swine Flu Panic My guess is that you can expect to see a lot of panic over this issue in the near future. But the key is to remain calm — this isn’t the first time the public has been warned about swine flu. The last time was in 1976, right before I entered medical school and I remember it very clearly. It resulted in the massive swine flu vaccine campaign. Do you happen to recall the result of this massive campaign? Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths. However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics.

And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized. More People Died From the Swine Flu Vaccine than Swine Flu! It is very difficult to forecast a pandemic, and a rash response can be extremely damaging. To put things into perspective, malaria kills 3,000 people EVERY DAY, and it’s considered “a health problem”… But of course, there are no fancy vaccines for malaria that can rake in billions of dollars in a short amount of time. One Australian news source,3 for example, states that even a mild swine flu epidemic could lead to the deaths of 1.4 million people and would reduce economic growth by nearly $5 trillion dollars. Give me a break, if this doesn’t sound like the outlandish cries of the pandemic bird-flu I don’t know what does. Do you remember when President Bush said two million Americans would die as a result of the bird flu? In 2005, in 2006, 2007, and again in 2008, those fears were exposed as little more than a cruel hoax, designed to instill fear, and line the pocketbooks of various individuals and industry. I became so convinced by the evidence AGAINST the possibility of a bird flu pandemic that I wrote a New York Times bestselling book, The Bird Flu Hoax, all about the massive fraud involved with the epidemic that never happened.. swine flu

What is the Swine Flu?

Regular swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease, caused by a type-A influenza virus that affects pigs. The current strain, A(H1N1), is a new variation of an H1N1 virus — which causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans — that also contains genetic material of bird and pig versions of the flu. Symptoms include:

* Fever of more than 100

* Coughing

* Runny nose and/or sore throat

* Joint aches

* Severe headache

* Vomiting and/or diarrhea

* Lethargy

* Lack of appetite

Interestingly enough, this version has never before been seen in neither human nor animal, which I will discuss a bit later. This does sound bad. But not so fast. There are a few reasons to not rush to conclusions that this is the deadly pandemic we’ve been told would occur in the near future (as if anyone could predict it without having some sort of inside knowledge). Current State of Swine Flu Spread As of May 1, 2009, 11 countries have officially reported 363 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection and only ten deaths in the ENTIRE world from this illness.

At this time ALL of the deaths are from people born in Mexico. Why Mexico? Well overcrowding, poor nutrition and overall poor immunity, all of which are indigenous to Mexico will radically increase your risk of death from almost any infection.

Interestingly there are no official reports of just who these people are that died.

• Are they elderly or infirm people, are they already chronically ill?

• Are they under 5 years old?

• Or perhaps someone who could just as easily be killed by the common cold or a slip and fall?

These are important questions that have not been answered. The number of fatalities, and suspected and confirmed cases across the world change depending on the source, so your best bet — if you want the latest numbers — is to use Google Maps’ Swine Flu Tracker.

There is also an experimental version for Mexico. But “officially’ the most recent numbers according to the World Health Organization’s Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response site are:

• Country Cases Deaths Mexico 156 9 United States 141 1
• * Canada 34
• 0 Spain 13
• 0 United Kingdom 8
• 0 Germany 3
• 0 New Zealand 3
• 0 Israel 2
• 0 Switzerland 1 0
• Austria 1 0
• Netherlands 1 0
• *The United States has had 141 confirmed cases, and one death

BUT no deaths from US Citizens. On April 29th CNN reported the first swine fatality in the US, however this was actually a child from Mexico that died in Texas. It is important to note that nearly all suspected new cases have been reported as mild. Personally, I am highly skeptical. It simply doesn’t add up to a real pandemic.

But it does raise serious questions about where this brand new, never before seen virus came from, especially since it cannot be contracted from eating pork products, and has never before been seen in pigs, and contains traits from the bird flu — and which, so far, only seems to respond to Tamiflu.

Are we just that lucky, or… what?

Your Fear Will Make Some People VERY Rich in Today’s Crumbling Economy Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) is approved for treatment of uncomplicated influenza A and B in children 1 year of age or older. It is also approved for prevention of influenza in people 13 years or older. It’s part of a group of anti-influenza drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors, which work by blocking a viral enzyme that helps the influenza virus to invade cells in your respiratory tract. According to the Associated Press at least one financial analyst estimates up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales in the near future10 — and that’s without a pandemic outbreak.

More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection, have seen a rise in their shares in a matter of days, and will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread. Swine flue is extremely convenient for governments that would have very soon have to dispose of billions of dollars of Tamiflu stock, which they bought to counter avian flu, or H5N1.

The US government ordered 20 million doses, costing $2 billion, in October, 2005, and around that time the UK government ordered 14.6 million doses. Tamiflu’s manufacturer, Roche, has confirmed that the shelf life of its anti-viral is three years. As soon as Homeland Security declared a health emergency, 25 percent — about 12 million doses — of Tamiflu and Relenza treatment courses were released from the nation’s stockpile. However, beware that the declaration also allows unapproved tests and drugs to be administered to children.

Many health- and government officials are more than willing to take that chance with your life, and the life of your child. But are you? Tamiflu Loaded With Side Effects, Including Death and Can Only Reduce Symptoms by 36 Hours at BEST Please realize that Tamiflu is NOT a safe drug Serious side effects include convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections Japan actually banned Tamiflu for children in 2007.

Remember, Tamiflu went through some rough times not too long ago, as the dangers of this drug came to light when, in 2007, the FDA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the drug.

Additionally common side effects of Tamiflu include:

• * Nausea
• * Diarrhea
• * Dizziness
• * Cough
• Fatique

All in all, the very symptoms you’re trying to avoid. Additionally, Tamiflu has been reported to be ineffective against seasonal flu outbreaks, and may not be sufficient to combat an epidemic or pandemic. But making matters worse, some patients with influenza are at HIGHER risk for secondary bacterial infections when on Tamiflu. And secondary bacterial infections, as I mentioned earlier, was likely the REAL cause of the mass fatalities during the 1918 pandemic! But here’s the real kicker.

When Tamiflu is used as directed (twice daily for 5 days) it can ONLY reduce the duration of your influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 ½ days, according to the official data. Why on earth would anyone want to take a drug that has a chance of killing you, was banned in Japan, is loaded with side effects that mimic the flu itself, costs over $100, and AT BEST can only provide 36 hours of SYMPTOM relief. Just doesn’t make any sense.

Should You Accept a Flu Vaccine — Just to be Safe? .

As stated in the New York Times14 and elsewhere, flu experts have no idea whether the current seasonal flu vaccine would offer any protection whatsoever against this exotic mutant, and it will take months to create a new one. But let me tell you, getting vaccinated now would not only offer no protection and potentially cause great harm, it would most likely be loaded with toxic mercury which is used as a preservative in most flu vaccines.. I’ve written extensively about the numerous dangers (and ineffectiveness) of flu vaccines, and why I do not recommend them to anyone. So no matter what you hear — even if it comes from your doctor — don’t get a regular flu shot. They rarely work against seasonal flu…and certainly can’t offer protection against a never-before- seen strain. Currently, the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are the only drugs that appear effective against the (human flu) H1N1 virus, and I strongly believe taking Tamiflu to protect yourself against this new virus could be a serious mistake — for all the reasons I already mentioned above. But in addition to the dangerous side effects of Tamiflu, there is also growing evidence of resistance against the drug.

In February, the pre-publication and preliminary findings journal called Nature Precedings published a paper on this concern, stating15: The dramatic rise of oseltamivir [Tamiflu] resistance in the H1N1 serotype in the 2007/2008 season and the fixing of H274Y in the 2008/2009 season has raised concerns regarding individuals at risk for seasonal influenza, as well as development of similar resistance in the H5N1 serotype [bird flu]. Previously, oseltamivir resistance produced changes in H1N1 and H3N2 at multiple positions in treated patients. In contrast, the recently reported resistance involved patients who had not recently taken oseltamivir. It’s one more reason not to bother with this potentially dangerous drug. And, once a specific swine flu drug is created, you can be sure that it has not had the time to be tested in clinical trials to determine safety and effectiveness, which puts us right back where I started this article — with a potential repeat of the last dangerous swine flu vaccine, which destroyed the lives of hundreds of people.

Topping the whole mess off, of course, is the fact that if the new vaccine turns out to be a killer, the pharmaceutical companies responsible are immune from lawsuits — something I’ve also warned about before on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, those prospects won’t stop the governments of the world from mandating the vaccine — a scenario I hope we can all avoid. How to Protect Yourself Without Dangerous Drugs and Vaccinations For now, my point is that there are always going to be threats of flu pandemics, real or created, and there will always be potentially toxic vaccines that are peddled as the solution. But you can break free of that whole drug-solution trap by following some natural health principles. I have not caught a flu in over two decades, and you can avoid it too, without getting vaccinated, by following these simple guidelines, which will keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you’re far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with.

* Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I’ve previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu — not the flu virus itself. This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. I would STRONGLY urge you to have your vitamin D level monitored to confirm your levels are therapeutic at 50-70 ng.ml and done by a reliable vitamin D lab like Lab Corp. For those of you in the US we hope to launch a vitamin D testing service through Lab Corp that allows you to have your vitamin D levels checked at your local blood drawing facility, and relatively inexpensively. We hope to offer this service by June 2009. If you are coming down with flu like symptoms and have not been on vitamin D you can take doses of 50,000 units a day for three days to treat the acute infection. Some researchers like Dr. Cannell, believe the dose could even be as high as 1000 units per pound of body weight for three days.

However, most of Dr. Cannell’s work was with seasonal and not pandemic flu. If your body has never been exposed to the antigens there is chance that the vitamin D might not work. However the best bet is to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D around 60 ng/ml. BUT to keep this in perspective the regular flu, not the swine flu, has killed 13,000 in the US since January. But there is strong support that these types of figures are grossly exaggerated to increase vaccine sales. However, the fact remains that the regular flu at this point in time is FAR more dangerous than the swine flu and were you worried about the regular flu before the media started talking this up?

• * Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.
• * Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you’re tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
• * Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma. You can check out my free, 25-page EFT manual for some guidelines on how to perform EFT.
• * Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. You can review my exercise guidelines for some great tips on how to get started.
• * Take a good source of animal based omega-3 fats like Krill Oil. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils that are trans fats and in processed foods as it will seriously damage your immune response.
• * Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don’t use antibacterial soap for this — antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
• * Eat Garlic Regularly. Garlic works like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria, virus, and protozoa in the body. And unlike with antibiotics, no resistance can be built up so it is an absolutely safe product to use. However, if you are allergic or don’t enjoy garlic it would be best to avoid as it will likely cause more harm than good.
• * Avoid Hospitals and Vaccines In this particular case, I’d also recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you’re having an emergency, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds, and could be one of the likeliest places you could be exposed to this new bug.

Vaccines will not be available for six months at the minimum but when available they will be ineffective and can lead to crippling paralysis like Guillain-Barré Syndrome just as it did in the 70s. Factory Farming Maybe Source of Swine Flu Another theory as to the cause of Swine Flu might be factory farming. In the United States, pigs travel coast to coast. They can be bred in North Carolina, fattened in the corn belt of Iowa, and slaughtered in California. While this may reduce short-term costs for the pork industry, the highly contagious nature of diseases like influenza (perhaps made further infectious by the stresses of transport) needs to be considered when calculating the true cost of long-distance live animal transport. The majority of U.S. pig farms now confine more than 5,000 animals each. With a group of 5,000 animals, if a novel virus shows up it will have more opportunity to replicate and potentially spread than in a group of 100 pigs on a small farm. With massive concentrations of farm animals within which to mutate, these new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast track, jumping and reassorting between species at an unprecedented rate.

Why a True Bird- or Swine Flu Pandemic is HIGHLY Unlikely While in my opinion it is highly likely factory farming is responsible for producing this viral strain, I believe there is still no cause for concern. You may not know this, but all H1N1 flu’s are descendants of the 1918 pandemic strain. The reason why the flu shot may or may not work, however, from year to year, is due to mutations. Therefore, there’s no vaccine available for this current hybrid flu strain, and naturally, this is feeding the fear that millions of people will die before a vaccine can be made. However, let me remind you of one very important fact here. Just a couple of months ago, scientists concluded that the 1918 flu pandemic that killed between 50-100 million people worldwide in a matter of 18 months — which all these worst case scenarios are built upon — was NOT due to the flu itself!4 Instead, they discovered the real culprit was strep infections.

People with influenza often get what is known as a “superinfection” with a bacterial agent. In 1918 it appears to have been Streptococcus pneumoniae. Since strep is much easier to treat than the flu using modern medicine, a new pandemic would likely be much less dire than it was in the early 20th century, the researchers concluded.

Others, such as evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald,5 claim that a pandemic of this sort simply cannot happen, because in order for it to occur, the world has to change. Not the virus itself, but the world. In a previous interview for Esquire magazine, in which he discusses the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, he states:

“They think that if a virus mutates, it’s an evolutionary event. Well, the virus is mutating because that is what viruses and other pathogens do. But evolution is not just random mutation. It is random mutation coupled with natural selection; it is a battle for competitive advantage among different strains generated by random mutation. For bird flu to evolve into a human pandemic, the strain that finds a home in humanity has to be a strain that is both highly virulent and highly transmissible. Deadliness has to translate somehow into popularity; H5N1 has to find a way to kill or immobilize its human hosts, and still find other hosts to infect. Usually that doesn’t happen.”

Ewald goes on to explain that evolution in general is all about trade-offs, and in the evolution of infections the trade-off is between virulence and transmissibility. What this means is that in order for a “bird flu” or “swine flu” to turn into a human pandemic, it has to find an environment that favors both deadly virulence and ease of transmission. People living in squalor on the Western Front at the end of World War I generated such an environment, from which the epidemic of 1918 could arise. Likewise, crowded chicken farms, slaughterhouses, and jam-packed markets of eastern Asia provide another such environment, and that environment gave rise to the bird flu — a pathogen that both kills and spreads, in birds, but not in humans.

Says Ewald:

“We know that H5N1 is well adapted to birds. We also know that it has a hard time becoming a virus that can move from person to person. It has a hard time without our doing anything. But we can make it harder. We can make sure it has no human population in which to evolve transmissibility. There is no need to rely on the mass extermination of chickens. There is no need to stockpile vaccines for everyone. By vaccinating just the people most at risk — the people who work with chickens and the caregivers — we can prevent it from becoming transmissible among humans. Then it doesn’t matter what it does in chickens.”

Please remember that, despite the fantastic headlines and projections of MILLIONS of deaths, the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a mere 257 people worldwide since late 2003. As unfortunate as those deaths are, 257 deaths worldwide from any disease, over the course of five years, simply does not constitute an emergency worthy of much attention, let alone fear! Honestly, your risk of being killed by a lightning strike in the last five years was about 2,300 percent higher than your risk of contracting and dying from the bird flu.6 I’m not kidding! In just one year (2004), more than 1,170 people died from lighting strikes, worldwide.7

So please, as the numbers of confirmed swine flu cases are released, keep a level head and don’t let fear run away with your brains. Where did This Mysterious New Animal-Human Flu Strain Come From? Alongside the fear-mongering headlines, I’ve also seen increasing numbers of reports questioning the true nature of this virus. And rightfully so. Could a mixed animal-human mutant like this occur naturally? And if not, who made it, and how was it released?

Not one to dabble too deep in conspiracy theories, I don’t have to strain very hard to find actual facts to support the notion that this may not be a natural mutation, and that those who stand to gain have the wherewithal to pull off such a stunt. Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. Czech reporters were probing to see if it may have been part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic; as such a “mistake” would be virtually impossible under the security protocols of that virus. The H5N1 virus on its own is not very airborne. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which are more easily spread, the effect could be a potent, airborne, deadly, biological weapon. If this batch of live bird flu and seasonal flu viruses had reached the public, it could have resulted in dire consequences. There is a name for this mixing of viruses; it’s called “reassortment,” and it is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created in the lab. Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak — the 1977 Russian flu — was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory. Another example of the less sterling integrity of Big Pharma is the case of Bayer, who sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus. So while it is morally unthinkable that a drug company would knowingly contaminate flu vaccines with a deadly flu virus such as the bird- or swine flu, it is certainly not impossible. It has already happened more than once. But there seems to be no repercussions or hard feelings when industry oversteps the boundaries of morality and integrity and enters the arena of obscenity. Because, lo and behold, which company has been chosen to head up efforts, along with WHO, to produce a vaccine against the Mexican swine flu?

Baxter!

11 Despite the fact that ink has barely dried on the investigative reports from their should-be-criminal “mistake” against humanity. According to other sources,12 a top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission “vectors” that suggest the new strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon. The UN expert believes that Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and the current A-H1N1 swine flu virus are biological warfare agents. In addition, Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick — the same Army research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released, according to a recent article in the Fredrick News Post.13 In February, the top biodefense lab halted all its research into Ebola, anthrax, plague, and other diseases known as “select agents,” after they discovered virus samples that weren’t listed in its inventory and might have been switched with something else.

From Dr. Mercola.com

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