Radically Natural POV: Beware Flu Shot Pushers!

A few weeks ago, during a drive home from a visit to the coast, we stopped at a Rite Aid so my kids could use the bathroom (yes, I weary of roadtrip gas station bathroom stops).  The available facilities in this store were the employee bathrooms in the back stocking area...you know, behind the double doors ominously marked "Employees ONLY."  As we passed through the doors and walked toward the bathroom hallway, I noticed the following sign:

Ah, the winter "flu shot" vaccine push begins.  And apparently, pharmacies have a quota to fill.  The vaccine industry is a money-making machine, and the Wall Street Journal claims that "pharmacies could use a sales boost," explaining why the stores are rolling out the shots earlier this year.

Traditionally, influenza-vaccination season started in October. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the timing be moved up by a month. Now, the shots are available before Labor Day, mixing it up with suntan lotion and back-to-school supplies. ... The hope is that customers will stop in for a flu shot and pick up shampoo or a gallon of milk.

Certainly by now you have heard and read about the dangers of the non-evidence-based flu shot: its lack of efficacy (ie the "one shot protects from a cornucopia of viral strains" fallacy, and the immunity conferring fallacy), and its damaging effect upon your natural immune system.  Your best bet during flu season is to stay well nourished with Real Food (particularly traditional healing foods like broths and probiotic foods, as well as foods rich in vitamin D and A, like cod liver oil), and to use real botanical medicine (both prophylactically, like elder and echinacea, as well as a variety of illness remedies).

Or, you could trust the illustrious CDC.  Yes, a new chapter of the vaccine controversy became prominent in late August after CDC scientist William Thompson came forward, admitting that the CDC has suppressed data showing a link between autism and vaccines.  The CDC is one of the medical industry's loudest voices in the virulent decrying of doctors and scientists who have for many years questioned vaccine safety and efficacy.

But you can climb that mountain of research.  The question we all should be asking is why these shots are being pushed so aggressively.

To learn more, check out the links below.  

Why We Refuse Vaccination (My research paper)
Protecting Our Children from Fear-Based Medicine

A Shot Never Worth Taking (Kelly Brogan, MD)
10 Reasons Flu Shots Are Dangerous
Drug Stores Get an Early Start Pushing Flu Shots (WSJ)
Autism Vaccine CoverUp Snowballs (Updates of recent CDC Whistleblower Scandal)
CDC Whistleblower Calls on Congress to Intervene ("I have a boss who is asking me to lie!")
Vaccine-Autism Fraud Revealed

Radically Natural Remedies for Winter Ick
EWW Ailment Treatments List

Vaccination and the "Scientific Method"

I read this week one of the most succinct, thoroughly researched presentations on the continually raging vaccine controversy.  I wish I had written it!  LOL 

The author highlighted numerous important aspects of this issue, including individual rights, medical efficacy and scientific veracity.  She echoed sentiments and research I have presented, and she emphasized a key component to the controversy: the illegitimate "scientific method" used in vaccine safety trials.  The double-blind placebo controlled trial is the empirical standard of medical science.  But vaccine trials don't use this method.  

You see, vaccines are not research effective because they are not subjected to double-blind placebo controlled studies using a saline solution that is the standard for evidence-based medicine. Vaccinations are tested against other vaccinations, adjuvants, and complex vaccinations – this not only yields inaccurate results but altered and inaccurate safety data. How can you know if something is truly safe if it is not tested against a placebo? -- Megan Heimer, Livingwhole.org

It seems to me that even people who trust that pharma companies are using honest, objective scientific methodology to test their drugs (I am not one of those people) would assent to the falsity of the vaccine safety test methods.  Other drugs are not (supposed to be) tested thus.

Some people might agree with the unscientific vaccine testing protocol, excusing it by saying it would be "unethical" to withhold a "necessary" medicine from a child (I read this in the comments section on Megan's post).  Hmmmm...are vaccines truly necessary?  The jury is certainly out on that one.  Consider that there are thousands of unvaccinated children in this country alone...many of them by parental choice...not to mention the unvaccinated adults.  No child died after a well-check from not receiving a vaccine, but children have died after receiving their vaccines.  I do not believe it is acutely life threatening to withhold a vaccine, so a legitimate study, even a short-term acute reaction study, could certainly be done.  

Kudos to Megan for her Response to Eliminating Vaccine Exemptions!  

Radically Natural POV: The Cancer Culture

“Everyone should know that the ‘war on cancer’ is largely a fraud.‘ — Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling, biochemist and father of vitamin C therapy

In my experience, one of the most controversial and contentious health topics aside from vaccination is cancer treatment. A growing number of holistically minded doctors, as well as the public, are beginning to question the efficacy and scrupulousness of the cancer industry’s approach to this disease. The cancer industry has collected billions of dollars for decades, yet has offered no cure to cancer. A five year remission rate is not a cure. That’s the best assurance that the cancer industry offers. But it isn’t a cure.

Winners of Deep Nutrition Giveaway and a Disclaimer

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Radical Reading Room Deep Nutrition giveaway.  The winners, Katy and Sarah, will receive their books soon.

Someone this week rightly pointed out to me that Sally Fallon, in the Fall 2012 issue of Wise Traditions, the WAPF journal, gave a reluctant thumbs down to Shanahan's book with a lengthy critique.  I've read Fallon's critique and I do agree with some of her concerns, but not all.  When I read Deep Nutrition, I certainly didn't agree with every point or assertion Shanahan made, but I don't agree with everything Fallon says, either.  Few of us will agree with 100% of what we read, no matter the source.  That's why we need to read many books on a topic to build a body of knowledge, rather than relying on one or two sources.  Overall, I think both WAPF and Shanahan (and other traditional nutrition authors) have wonderful information to share with the public about how to nourish ourselves and be well.

Radically Natural Reading Room: Deep Nutrition Giveaway

My readers likely understand by now that I am not fond of the conventional allopathic medical system. My years of study and experience in these realms have convinced me that the modern medical system may have useful diagnostic tools, but their hopelessly limited and sometimes fraudulent paradigm (fed by conventional medical school training) do not provide MDs with the necessary tools for understanding causality and providing cure. 

But every so often I encounter an “outside the box” enlightened unconventional doctor whose work I appreciate and recommend to others. Cate Shanahan is one such doctor. It is obvious that she refused to remain inside the limited paradigm her medical education provided. In her entertaining and easily accessible book, Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food, Shanahan explains, in layman’s terms, the science behind a truth I have been longing for our culture to accept: You can change your DNA. You are not the fatalistic victim of “set in stone” genetics as much as you are of the choices you make about what goes into your body. Shanahan shows how you “create and preserve genetic wealth.”

Fat Is Your Friend!

I have had so many titles for this long-in-the-works article swimming about in my brain...

• Lean Meat: The Scourge of the American Diet
• Embrace Fat: Cholesterol Is Not the Enemy
• Real Fat: The Essential Human Nutrient
• When Bad "Science" Won't Die: The Lipid Lie
• Fabulous Fat: The Beautiful Truth about a Fabulous Nutrient, Starring Cholesterol, Your Hormones' Best Friend!

(That last one seemed just a tad long, LOL!)

ACOG Continues to Wage War Against Birth Freedoms

My ire was kindled this week by information shared in a news email I received from the Citizens for Midwifery:

ACOG Rejects the Ethic That Autonomy Is a Fundamental Human Right

The newsletter describes yet another attack by the ACOG (American College of Gynecology) on homebirth and patient-centered pregnancy care in the United States.  An October 2012 article in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology outlines the faulty ACOG position.  The article actually coaches OBs on how to counteract the "resurgence" of homebirths, and on how to deal with mothers who express a desire to birth at home.

Laboring Under Delusions: How Fear Facilitates Our Broken Birth Culture

I am glowing this week, as I just discovered I am pregnant with whom we hope will be child number four. I have a history of infertility and miscarriages, along with debilitating nausea and vomiting that lasts the entire gestation, so each pregnancy is met with prayerful anticipation. My births, however, have been wonderful, natural, empowering events...that necessitated commitment, preparation and hard work on my part. And I can promise you, Ladies, home waterbirths are every bit as wonderful as you’ve heard. I’ve had a land birth and I’ve had waterbirths...and you couldn’t pay me to give birth out of the water. They don’t call it the “aqua”dural for nothing! (Check out the myriad advantages of waterbirths for Mom and baby at the Waterbirth International website.)

Protecting Our Children from Fear-Based Medicine and Vaccine Damage

I have long been a skeptic of the modern medical establishment's paradigm and practices.  Because I am wired to question and contradict the status quo, it was natural for me to eject from a broken medical system.  I believe the modern allopathic system is irrevocably flawed; I do not trust drug companies or the institutions and doctors over whom they hold sway.

Before my children were born, I determined I would never vaccinate any of them.  I had studied and queried enough to know that the fear-based vaccination agenda would not be a part of our lives.  At that time, my position was somewhat unusual...much more so than now.  Because of the wealth of information being quickly disseminated in our society today, growing numbers of concerned parents have begun to question the sanity of the vaccine program. 

Food Freedoms and Parental Rights Fall Prey to Tyranny and Greed

Yes, once again the little dictators are out of control...trampling our inalienable, fundamental, natural rights; running roughshod over our personal freedoms.  Read on for this week's "tyranny in review."

Pastured Pork Comes Under the Gun

As reported by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, "In a brazen power grab threatening the livelihood of hundreds of small farmers, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is using the state Invasive Species Act to expand its jurisdiction beyond hunting and fishing to farming operations. On April 1, 2012 an Invasive Species Order (ISO) that DNR issued in December 2010 prohibiting the possession of a number of different types breeds of swine will go into effect." (emphasis mine)

News You Should Know

As I have been unable to devote any significant time to writing this month, I wanted to share some news items that have caught my attention and are (I believe) worthy of contemplation.  (Thanks to my valued contacts for their contributions...you know who you are.)


First up, we have a heart surgeon telling the public that the fear of fat so aggressively promoted by the establishment is a big, fat lie.  (And all the WAPF acolytes say: "We could have told you that!"  Nevertheless, it's good to see this truth getting more press.)  "The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine."  Read more about What Really Causes Heart Disease.

The Ugly Facts on Medical Lobbyists

I know...I'm breaking my own hiatus...but I just couldn't help it.  The following alert from Mercola is too important for me to ignore; it's the kind of thing I feel compelled to share.  I will not elaborate on it, nor will I copy it in entirety here.  I ask you to go to the link, read the article and watch the clips for yourself.  And please share this with others.

Medical Lobbyists Stealing Your Freedom

The War Rages...Please Fight for Real Milk and Your Health Rights

I know I said the next few posts were going back to topics other than Real Food, but this is too important to ignore.  I am irate...and as such, will keep my vociferations as brief as possible.  I am utterly disgusted with the latest governmental raw milk witch hunt.  I apologize in advance, but this is going to be rant-like...you've been warned.


Yesterday the CA Dept. of Food and Ag. shut down Organic Pasture's raw milk operation with allegations that five children were infected by e. coli that was "suspected" to come from OP milk.  Samples of the milk that those children consumed have tested negative for e. coli.  Read more here:

It's All About Trust

I had planned to write a richly referenced treatise on the failures and corruption of the modern medical industry, but as I contemplated the necessary content and examined my purpose in sharing it, a broader message formulated in my mind.  Trust.  Simple word, complex concept.  Blind trust...earned trust...full trust, no trust.  So many facets.

Outside the friends and family who may visit me here, I am an ambiguity.  You don't know me.  Why should you trust me?  I could be a complete lunatic with some smooth phraseology and a nice book list.  I'm not, but you don't know that.  LOL  (This reminds me of a conversation I had with my hubby about "credibility stock."  When I advise someone on a course of treatment or dietary change and they see positive improvement or healing occur, he tells me my "credibility stock" soars.  Nice visual.)

So it causes thoughtful pause...whom do we trust and why?  Whom should we trust and how do we know?  Instead of force-feeding you my point of view, I want to cause you to think...to question.  I want you to dig, to learn, to formulate healthy skepticisms and a nose for half-truths.  For those already in my camp, this message is nothing new.  And I am not in the business of converting staunch objectors...I have neither the time nor the emotional bandwidth to do so.  My message is perhaps most apropos for the seekers.

When it comes to health problems, illness and disease, people often seek "alternatives" after modern medicine has failed them.  These seekers have begun to see a fundamental truth:  modern medicine will continue to fail because it is not a system of healing that can create wellness.  How often do you consult with a conventionally trained doctor that considers your ailment in light of your holistic physiological system and teaches you how to change your lifestyle and diet to create wellness?  How often do they encourage you to learn and take responsibility for your own health so that you do not need them?  How often do they help you to identify the core cause of your chronic illness/ailment and teach you how to achieve healing? How often do they tell you to eschew chemicals and toxins (including drugs), eat Real Food (including saturated fats from pastured animals), spend time outside in direct sunlight without sunscreen, drink the correct amount of water, consume sea salt generously, and reduce your EMF exposure?  How often do they prescribe pure botanical medicine that actually heal bodily systems and boost immunity?  How often do they advise you to cleanse and restore your liver and then teach you how to do it?  How often do they tell you that cancer can be healed...and without toxins? or tell you how to live and eat to avoid getting cancer?  How often do those doctors do much more than "diagnose" and prescribe pharmaceuticals to affect symptomatology?  Drugs don't cure disease.  The drug industry has no vested interest in curing anyone of anything.  Medical mistakes, including prescription drugs kill around 780,000 people annually.*  But I digress......

When you consider the medical establishment and its practices, you should be asking some simple but fundamental questions.  [If it isn't already painfully obvious, I should point out that I will be using "we" to represent our collective modern society.]  Why do we blindly trust doctors (MDs); why do we accept them as the "gods" in the white coats?  Why do we believe that they "know best" and have the answers?  How did the modern allopathic medical system become the dominant option...the authoritative voice...on the medical landscape?  Is their science supreme?  Are their theories and modalities correct?  How and in what are said doctors educated...by whom and why?  How are drugs and procedures tested and approved...and by whom?  Whose interests are served in the outcome?  Are the outcomes honest?  Is the modern medical industry truly a trustworthy system?

I could answer all these questions for you, but it would spoil your fun.  Do your own digging...seek truth and be not afraid of the answers you may find.  As you search, consider this:  Are we, in our technocratic age, so arrogant as to believe that only in the last 100 years of human history we have "gotten it all right?"  I argue that millennia of human history tells us otherwise.

I will close with an anecdote (which, of course, will contain another question).  I encountered someone who came to me for advice in dealing with a significant medical issue.  She was not completely comfortable with the pharmaceutical approach recommended to her by the MD and I took the time to discuss with her the very real dangers of the drug offered to her, as well as to prescribe some herbal and nutritional therapies.  When I told her the history and effects of said drug, she became wide-eyed, somewhat incredulous, and replied, "Oh, but they (the FDA) would never allow that to be given to people if it were dangerous!"  I was so astounded at such naivete that I could not immediately reply.  But her comment typifies an all-too-common mentality of blind trust in the medical establishment and its regulatory agencies.  My new reply, which I must practice, lest I be caught off-guard again in future, is, "Why would you assume such a thing?"

And I will leave you with that thought...or this one:  Why would you...why do you...assume the status quo is the only acceptable route?  Why do you trust the modern medical establishment?  I suggest that before you continue to do so with any level of comfort, that you do some homework.  After that, once you have unearthed what lies beneath well-crafted PR and cleared through the smoke and mirrors, if you still want to place your trust completely in the existing dominant system, just be sure it is earned trust...not blind trust.


For more information on these topics, please watch my Library and Links tabs (which will be compiled as quickly as possible in the next weeks).


*
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/medicine/usamed/deaths.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/009278.html
http://www.lightparty.com/Health/HealingRegeneration/html/AccidentalDeathPrescriptio.html