Vaccination
Dr. Weyrich's Naturopathic Functional Medicine Notebook
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Overview
The discussion of whether or not a child should be vaccinated is politically charged and emotional. Dr. Weyrich does not make a general recommendation pro or con, but advises parents to discuss the following information with their doctor prior to making informed consent.Most vaccines are not 100% effective - meaning that they are not guaranteed to confer immunity to your child even if administered per the standard protocol. They do benefit overall public health through what is called "herd immunity". That is to say, if most children are vaccinated and develop immunity, the disease will spread much slower through the portion of the community that lacks immunity than it would otherwise. Thus vaccinated children confer protection on the unvaccinated.
While it is acknowledged that there is some risk of adverse reactions to vaccinations, public health officials believe that there is greater risk to children who contract the disease. This risk/benefit calculation is complex and subject to error in the model assumptions. For example, current medical technology, improved sanitation and nutrition may greatly reduce the current risk of some diseases when compared to their historical risks. At the same time, emerging risks due to vaccination may be slow to accumulate sufficient sample size to achieve statistical significance, thus giving vaccination advocates "plausible deniability".
Given the current medical standard of care that advocates the use of vaccinations, it would be very difficult to get approval from a medical review board to allow double-blind placebo controlled studies of alternatives to childhood vaccination.
Ultimately the parent must make an informed decision, keeping in mind that each disease and type of vaccination has its own risk/benefit profile, which may also be different for each child, based on the circumstances.
Because of insufficient demand by his patients to warrant stocking vaccines, Dr. Weyrich does not perform vaccinations, but refers patients seeking vaccination to a doctor who does provide the procedure.
Etiology
The Chinese described in detail the vaccination of children against smallpox centuries before vaccination with cowpox was introduced in Europe. It appears that it was common knowledge at the time of Edward Jenner that cowpox conferred immunity against smallpox, and a farmer named Benjamin Jesty is reported to have vaccinated his family some twenty years before Dr. Edward Jenner coined the word vaccination.Given its long history in folk medicine throughout the world, vaccination is arguably a naturopathic technique. However, some naturopaths have reservations regarding the safety and risk/benefit profile of certain current vaccines and protocols.
Hypotheses
Anecdotal evidence connects the DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus) vaccination with the onset of autism, which based on symptoms has been attributed to a subclinical infection of Clostridium tetani due to a contamination of the vaccine sample used [Bolte1998]. As discussed elsewhere, these symptoms are often associated with gut dysbiosis involving many possible strains of Clostridium spp. Since diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus are particularly devastating to a child, it seems that strong evidence is required to avoid vaccinating for these diseases, although steps may need to be taken to mitigate the risk.Gastrointestinal abnormalities have been observed by Andrew Wakefield (Royal Free Hospital, London) and Karoly Hovarth (University of Maryland School of Medicine) after vaccination with certain types of measles vaccine, specifically the combined MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine [Shaw2008].
ICD-9 Codes
| ICD9-Code | Description | Comments |
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References
Unless specifically noted above, references used in the construction of this web page include the following:[FDM] Lecture notes from Functional Medicine University.
[SCNM] Lecture notes from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine.
[UT] Lecture notes from the University of Tennessee graduate programs in Chemistry and Biochemistry.
[Shaw2008] Shaw W. Biological Treatments for Autism & PDD, Third Edition. (2008).
[Bolte1998] Bolte ER. Autism and Clostridium tetani. Med Hypotheses. 1998 Aug;51(2):133-44. Review.
Copyright © 2007-2010 Dr. Weyrich (Naturopathic Medical license number 07-1008). The information on this site is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease or illness. The statements on this website have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This web page is http://www.DrWeyrich.com/disorders/vaccination.html - Phone Dr. Weyrich at (480) 423-6952