Lessons from Miracle Doctors

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.The spleen, for example, serves as both a staging area for the white cell defendersand as a blood filtration plant for removing worn out blood cells.Removal of the spleen leavesone highly susceptible to infection.Even the tonsils and adenoids are not without unique value.There is some evidence to indicate that the only organs in the body that can produce a defenseagainst polio are the tonsils and adenoids.If true, removal of these organs in children would makethem more susceptible to polio.The Complementary Immune SystemAt a certain point, when the macrophage immune system is totally overwhelmed, the "compl-ementary immune system" kicks in.This secondary system is comprised of approximately 25 pro-teins/enzymes that activate in a cascading sequence and end with what's called the "membraneattack complex." As its name implies, this complex attacks the cell walls of invaders.A secondaryfunction of the complementary immune system is to help rid the body of CIC's (circulating im-mune complexes) as discussed in Chapter 5.If the overload on the complementary immune sys-tem is great enough, severe inflammation of tissue, caused by the activity of albumins, can result.The bottom line is that the body's tissue literally begins to attack itself.That is to say, we nowhave an autoimmune condition!How Your Immune System Communicates with ItselfWe now have a sense of how the immune system works, how it identifies invaders and mountsa response, but how in the world does it communicate with itself? The answer lies in a set of pow-erful chemical messengers secreted by the cells of the immune system called cytokines.You'veCopyright � 1999, 2000, 2002, Jon Barron.All Rights Reserved www.jonbarron.orgLessons from the Miracle Doctors - 117 - Optimizing Your Immune Systemprobably heard of several of these cytokines, including Interferon and Tumor Necrosis Factor; butit is the Interleukins which swarm through the body like billions of tiny messengers:Activating the B-Cells and T-Cells"Training" cellsPromoting rapid growth of "trained" defensesShutting down defenses when the threat is goneControlling the inflammation responseIn short, they provide a remarkable set of intelligent checks and balances on the immune sys-tem guiding it, training it, regulating it, marshaling it as required, and resting it when no longerneeded.Building ImmunityWhenever T-Cells or B-Cells become activated by an invader, some of those cells becomememory cells.That is, they encode a "memory" of the particular antigen associated with that in-vader so that the next time they encounter the same antigen, the immune system can respondwithout delay.There are a number of factors that affect the level of immune response we are capable ofmounting.Genetics certainly plays a role.Some individuals are just born with stronger immunesystems than others.Diet, lifestyle, and environment can also enhance or erode the immune sys-tem.In addition, strength of immune response and the duration of immune memory are stronglyinfluenced by the type of antigen involved, and how much of it originally entered the body.When we are born, we have weak immune systems.Whatever immunity we have is given tous by our mothers.Almost immediately, however, assuming that we are nursing, that immunitybegins to grow.The first "milk" we receive from mother is, in fact, not actually milk.It is a sub-stance called colostrum, whose primary purpose is to jack up our immunity.Colostrum is packedwith natural immune boosters such as lactoferrin, alkyglycerols, and transfer factor.(We'll talkmore about these later.) In addition, as we discussed in Chapter 4, nursing helps build the probiot-ic cultures in the digestive tract, which also helps to build our immune systems.1VaccinesIn the wisdom of modern medicine, we have created vaccines to "prebuild memory" for ourimmune systems memories of significant diseases we have never had, such as measles, mumps,polio, diphtheria, small pox, etc.Vaccines contain a weakened sterilized version of microorgan-isms (or proteins from those microorganisms) that is capable of producing an immune response inthe body without inducing a full-blown onset of the disease itself.Although vaccines have played1Children that are put on formula are denied these benefits.Not only are formula fed children more liable toexperience colic, ear infections and colds etc., but there is significant evidence that, for the most part, their im-mune systems never fully "catch up."Copyright � 1999, 2000, 2002, Jon Barron.All Rights Reserved www.jonbarron.orgLessons from the Miracle Doctors - 118 - Optimizing Your Immune Systema significant role in helping reduce the number of deaths among children, this benefit has not comewithout cost.I'm not going to dwell on this issue, because I have a strong emotional attachment to it, whichmakes it impossible for me to be objective.My youngest brother was one of those "small percen-tage" of children who responded badly to the series of three shots he received back in the early60s.Each time he received one of the shots, he ran a high fever and cried all night the last timeliterally screaming for several hours.Each time my mother called the pediatrician, who reassuredher it was nothing to worry about.As it turns out, he was wrong.My brother, along with thou-sands of other children (Unfortunately, even a small percentage, when applied to a large number,still equals thousands of children.), had an allergic reaction to the shots.Each shot caused a smallbrain hemorrhage, ultimately leaving him severely retarded.Although the manufacturer of the vac-cine had indications that this was a possibility, they had not made it clear to the pediatricians whoused it.1 This sort of reaction to a vaccine and this sort of irresponsibility by a pharmaceuticalcompany are not as anomalous as you might think.The polio vaccine that was given to children in the 50s and 60s was not as sterilizedas originally thought.In fact, when better test equipment was later used, it was foundthat there were over 140 live viruses in those early versions of the polio vaccine.With what result? Well for one thing, one of those viruses, SV 40, is strongly impli-cated in brain cancer.Jonas Salk testified before a Senate subcommittee that since 1961, except for a fewimportations from other countries, all cases of polio were caused by the Oral PolioVaccine.2In 1986, the Federal Government set up a National Vaccine Injury CompensationProgram to compensate vaccine injured victims.To date close to $1 billion hasbeen paid out.In addition to the "active" part of the vaccine, the vaccine includes substances such asethylene glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde (a known carcinogen), and aluminum.Look, I'm not saying vaccines should be eliminated just that we should use a little more dis-crimination than we are at the moment.Eventually, it's possible that new techniques of genetic en-gineering, by being able to totally isolate the offending antigen, may be able to offer a safer formof vaccine.But until that day.1Before 1990, doctors were not legally obligated to report adverse reactions to vaccines to the Center for Dis-ease Control; and, even with the current legal obligation, it's estimated that only 10% of doctors report the damagethey see to the CDC.2In fact, there is strong evidence that the original polio epidemic itself in the late 1940s was caused by anothervaccine.The early triple vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus has been shown beyond doubt tocause paralytic polio in some children to whom it was administered.The incidence of polio in children vaccinatedwith this shot was statistically greater than in unvaccinated children [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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