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The Fateful Fork

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Book Review by Terence Gillespie

“The human body has not changed much since its inception, so your foods do not need to change either. Eat the delicious meals of your forebears.”

That simple truth from Eve Gabriel is followed by equally clear guidelines for implementation:OK

“Avoid any food that is advertised on television, radio and magazines. Transition to biodynamic, traditional organic or small diversified farm’s animal foods. Start with the five foods you consume in greatest quantity.”

That’s one truth and a few guidelines covering almost every choice we make about the food entering our bodies. Going further in her new book, The Fateful Fork, Gabriel narrows the fate of our health down to the only food choice that matters: The next one.

“Every mouthful of food you eat presents you with 2 options: To build-up your health, or destroy it. Each bite is a fork in the road: Depending on your choices, you head towards health or disease. Your food leads to predictable destinations.”

Digestible wisdom like this doesn’t come easy. The Fateful Fork is the culmination of a Master’s degree in Naturopathic Nutrition, 15 years of clinical nutrition counseling practice, two decades as a professional chef and a lifetime of research. The vast fields of nutrition, science, food, farming and traditions in health are Gabriel’s life’s work. Her latest book is a condensation of her considerable nutritional wisdom.

The Perfect Diet?

Many of Gabriel’s clients turned to her, as a last resort, to learn which foods to eat and which to avoid to break their reliance on pharmaceutical medications. Although the author initially set out on a journey to find the perfect diet she returned with something better: The knowledge to help others discover what their own optimal diet may be and how to achieve it.

The perfect diet cannot be put on a laminated card and tucked in a universal wallet. It’s a discovery process of what your particular body needs. What can be given to everyone is high quality food and the ability to find, recognize and prepare it. Start with nutrient-dense foods and the optimal ratios for your body will surface naturally if you know how to listen.

Nutrient-Dense Philosophy In One Egg

The criteria for determining nutrient-density is detailed throughout the book. Each criteria forms a level and each level has a range of qualitative possibilities. The basic four levels of quality are:

  1. Growing Methods.
  2. Processing Techniques.
  3. Freshness.
  4. Preparation Techniques.

The author applies the four levels of quality to an egg:

  1. Soil – Chickens ought to be eating foods grown in good soil;
  2. Intact – Eggs are best whole, not just the whites or yolks and not processed;
  3. Fresh – Not old. Local eggs are best;
  4. Preparation methods – Many for eggs which are also easy snack and travel foods.

“This boils down to local farm-raised eggs, which are quite easy to come by once you do a little digging in your specific locale.”

Whole and Intact

An important aspect of food that echoes throughout the Fateful Fork is the wisdom of eating foods in their whole form. For instance, lycopene can be isolated from a tomato, but what’s the point? A lycopene pill will never provide the benefits of eating a whole tomato. Applied to an egg that translates into eating the whole egg. No separating the yolk from the white. Protein powders do not supply the nutrient-dense protein of an intact egg delivered by nature in its perfect vessel containing a myriad of other ingredients all in balance with one another.

Nutrient Dense ‘Superfoods’

All this hype about superfoods had me fooled. Our every day food has the potential to be the superfoods we’ve been looking for; from the right source, unprocessed, fresh and well-prepared. As sources become less and less available it’s no wonder the superfood folklore has arisen.

We don’t have to seek out exotic dark chocolates and honey from specialized regions of the world in hopes of being among the lucky few to be blessed with good health. The main staples of our diet are the superfoods we’ve been seeking. The knowledge of recognizing and insisting on them is the holy grail.

The Naturopathic Way

One of the reasons I trust Gabriel’s advice on food is she has a Masters in Nutrition from Bastyr University where the curriculums adhere to the principles of Naturopathic medicine:

  1. Let nature heal.
  2. Identify and treat causes.
  3. First, do no harm.
    1. Use low-risk procedures and healing compounds.
    2. When possible, do not suppress symptoms.
    3. Customize each diagnosis and treatment plan to fit each patient.
  4. Educate patients.
  5. Treat the whole person.
  6. Prevent illness.

Naturopathy builds on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability. Practitioners craft comprehensive treatment plans that blend the best of modern medical science and traditional natural medical approaches to not only treat disease, but to also restore health.

When my wife and I disagreed with an orthodox medical (Conventional) doctor about the vaccine schedule for our son it was to a naturopathic doctor that we turned. It is serious and wholistic medicine and we’re glad to have a superior alternative to the insurance-dictated conventional. Naturopathic (And Gabriel’s) advice is not given to fit into an insurance reimbursement category. It is customized to individual needs and designed to keep people well. It’s no wonder this comprehensive approach to health is thriving!

Nutrient-Dense Foods Replace Supplements Replacing Drugs

“You can let go of confusing dietary rules and supplement programs, which are only necessary when you eat processed industrial foods.”

Hypertension is a family trait. So far, I’ve been able to control it by non-prescription means. Dr. Atkins Vita-Nutrient Solutions helped me get control of my blood pressure forsaking prescription drugs for a combination of diet, vitamins, minerals and other supplements. After reading The Fateful Fork it’s obvious that many of the supplements recommended by Atkins could be replaced by nutrient-dense foods.

Can I replace all of them? We’ll see. I’m looking forward to trying (With naturopathic assistance). Each pill eliminated is one less expense and hassle even if it’s only a vitamin or herb.

Vegetarian Escapes and Train Wrecks

“If abstaining from animal foods prevented diseases you would know it by now, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

I think the natural reaction to a juicy steak is to cause the human mouth to water. It’s through disgust, unrelated to the animal itself, that many learn to squelch that natural reaction and turn to vegetarianism to escape. After discovering the disgusting conditions under which animals are grown for the slaughter, injected with hormones and antibiotics and fed unnatural foods to maximize profit it’s inevitable that those same toxicities are delivered onto the dinner plate. How can you blame someone for for trying to escape by going veggie?

Unfortunately, the vegetarian escape leads to another set of problems and, if one is not extremely careful, to a train wreck.

“Eating the grain-based substitutes in place of animal foods is unpleasant and foolhardy. Industrial grains (corn, wheat, rice, barley, and all others, even “ancient grains”) are nutrient-deficient, insulin-triggering, processed foods that continually evolve into ever-stranger renditions as technology changes. . . .They are cheap surplus commodities posing as healthful foods.”

“A side effect of animal product avoidance is rampant deficiencies of fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K. It is not surprising that these are now top-selling supplements. Heart disease, vascular degeneration, cataracts and osteoporosis are some of the consequences of fat-soluble vitamin deficiency.

While reading The Fateful Fork my wife, who had recently ‘gone veggie’, was experiencing many of the above symptoms. A blood test and an appointment with her naturopathic doctor revealed the truth of Gabriel’s words, up close and personal. Vitamin D deficiency, low blood sugar and many other stressful symptoms. The doctors prescription was along the lines of “The Paleo Diet”. There’s much to learn from the metaphor in the Paleo books comparing the modern human diet with that of our ancestors. The Fateful Fork is scientifically consistent with most of the Paleo recommendations but Gabriel’s knowledge is far more comprehensive in addressing every aspect of food.

“Try as they might, the long-term, million-dollar studies funded to prove the health benefits of low-fat vegetarian diets, consistently prove otherwise. Instead, the studies show that carbohydrate-rich diets cause heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The more processed carbohydrates you eat, to the exclusion of animal products, the more likely you are to acquire those diseases, and yet the unsound Federal Nutrition Guidelines are ever more restrictive.”

Avoiding Train Wrecks

The Vegetarian ‘movement’ and desire to escape crummy food may never have happened if the food philosophy and accumulated knowledge put forth in the Fateful Fork was understood and widely adopted. Faced with crummy alternatives people took the path of least resistance: Eating only vegetables and fruits and grains which have the appearance of being fresh and natural.

Contrarianism is catchy. When it comes to industrial foods and the chronic health problems they create it’s hard to resist an idea to do the opposite. Fine, but going veggie is not it. The real escape from industrial foods is to biodynamic, traditional organic or small diversified farm’s animal foods and fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Paleo Plus

The Fateful Fork is what the reader is left hungry for after reading the Paleo diet. If you haven’t read either, yet, you can safely skip Paleo for Gabriel’s book and learn more about every aspect of food in the process. While Paleo backs into proving a metaphor, Gabriel builds every component of a meal from the ground up describing the science, lifestyle, tools and challenges you’ll face from the soil to the dinner plate. Her practical explanations for how to prepare foods that Paleo forbids make for wholistic treatment and a better companion for navigating the vast world of food.

When contemplating grains or legumes, for instance, Paleo just says no. The Fateful Fork tells you the science behind it, how different sources mitigate the downside effects, how preparation affects health values and how it may be combined with other foods to aid digestion.

Raw Milk or No Milk

In The Paleo Diet Cordain says no dairy, period. His reasoning is that “Paleolithic people ate no dairy food. Imagine how difficult it would be to milk a wild animal, even if you could somehow manage to catch one”, he says.

What kind of Paleolithic wimps is Cordain talking about? I can think of a few modern-day engineers, writers and computer programmers who would gladly wrestle a cow into a milk pen to prevent starvation and provide a steady source of food.

In contrast, Gabriel says drink “Raw Milk or No Milk”.

“Raw milk from pasture-fed cows is the ultimate in high-quality food. It is completely different from industrial milk in its composition, freshness and its effects on your health. Historically, raw fresh milk was used therapeutically to cure all sorts of illnesses. The persistent hype in the media, schools, medical field and government about industrial milk’s importance in your diet is based upon the characteristics of traditional raw milk from pasture-fed cows, not on industrial milk. Industrial milk has no redeeming qualities; it ought to be avoided. . . called something else to distinguish it from unadulterated milk.”

And the author does mean raw. Gabriel and her family know the names of the two Jersey cows that produce their milk. Apart from putting it into a bottle the only ‘processing’ is in getting it delivered to the back kitchen door!

Similar advice is given for the forbidden paleo categories of grains and legumes. Gabriel delves further than simple prohibitions based on a metaphor. She provides the science, recommends sources, and gives specific consequences of preparation and combining them with other foods.

Industrial Food, Inc.

“Industrial foods are created to produce one thing: Corporate profits, not healthy people.”

In every area of life, nowadays, we expect technological advances. When it comes to food, however, Gabriel says high-tech innovations are rarely our friend. Technological advances that skirt around quaint notions of high-quality soil-based food may increase corporate profits but only at the expense of human health. The problem is, “You are not periodically updated so that you require new or less nourishment. Despite space travel and cell phones, you are still firmly tethered to this planet earth and the primeval foods it produces. There are no new answers to feeding yourself properly.”

Salt of the Earth, Not the Lab

The real salt of the earth is exactly that: From the earth, not the lab.

“Sea salt contains 92 essential minerals and trace elements such as potassium, magnesium, iodine, boron, selenium, manganese and copper, among others; they do not contain merely sodium and chloride [Like Industrial Table ‘Salt‘].” Even the iodine (Originally added in to prevent goiter –a common thyroid-malfunction-based condition) has become a modern-day ruse with little to no quality iodine in market salts.

Gabriel points out that natural foods don’t have the high amounts of salt we’ve gotten used to. You can add the real salt with more enjoyment and nutrition without fear of adverse effects.

Industrial Food Primer

  • NPK Soil Fallacy – Tragically flawed science concluding that only Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) was necessary to replenish soil has lead to soil sterility and pollution. The hundreds of nutrients in animal manure and post-harvest plant materials are now dubbed “Waste” and replaced with severely lacking and dangerous NPK ‘fertilizers’. How can you get live foods from dead soil?
  • GMO Seeds – Alter the genes of a seed and you own the ‘new’ life-form. These dangerous and unproven altered life-forms convey more property rights than landowners because the patent holders have billions of dollars to enforce them. Farmers have the burden of proof of patent infringement should a scintilla of airborne seed take root in the farmers soil. As this is all but impossible the farmer goes broke just preparing to defend themselves. When they go bust another farm is forced to purchase GMO seeds rather than use the natural seeds from his own crops. Many GMO seeds, once planted, corrupt the soil making the land unsuitable for natural seeds in the future. The farmer landowner is now, in effect, enslaved by the seed provider as is any future purchaser of the land intending to farm.
  • Additives – Additives make foods easy to ship, give them a longer shelf life and make them appear the right colors to entice us to buy them. If the label has more than three or four ingredients (Total) you’re probably in trouble. The most benevolent ingredients you can’t pronounce are a lousy attempt to ‘fortify’ the food with something that shouldn’t have been taken out or killed through processing in the first place.
  • Protection That Isn’t – Under the guise of protection Amish milk farmers are raided while the FDA claims to lack the authority to intervene in the affairs of industrial meat processors who provide a steadily predictable source of deadly e. coli bacteria. Senate Bill 510 does not protect the public from unsanitary conditions of local farms whose natural approach is routinely pristine; it simply eliminates thousands of local natural food providers producing such high-quality alternatives that industrial food companies cannot compete.

We’re Not Sick, We’re Starving

Many of the supposed diseases– for which we’re told some new pharmaceutical drug is needed— are, in fact, the result of simple nutritional deficiencies.

Healthful ‘lively’ foods contain the enzymes necessary to digest the foods that contain them. Industrial foods are dead on arrival and leech the enzymes necessary for digestion from our bodies. Enzymes, vitamins and minerals are drawn from our bodies quickly causing a dangerous deficit. Ironically, getting ‘supersized’ is an efficient way to literally starve yourself of nutrition. Eating ‘live’ foods with enough enzymes for proper digestion is a complete motivation, in and of itself, to ban industrial dead foods from our diets.

Three Votes Per Day

As overwhelming and powerful as these conglomerates and regulations seem they cannot withstand something much more powerful: The three votes a day each of us may cast in favor of our health. By simply refusing to take empty calories and disease ridden foods into our bodies all the products that disgust will remain unsold and rotting on the pallets that deliver them. That message trumps anything you could put on letterhead or voice mail. It will be delivered loudly and clearly to every food producer and representative in the country with the simple act of lifting a forkful of truly nourishing food to our mouths.

ROrganic!

The word “Organic” is being misused by industrial food processors as a means to sell their disease causing crap. Gabriel recommends a new name for the excellent foods being grown and provided by traditional organic farmers: “Rorganic!” meaning real organic. The author explains . . .

“As with industrial milk — which is so completely different from traditional, raw milk from healthy cows — it ought not to be called “milk” at all; the same is true for USDA Organic.”

“Traditional organic farmers have established their reputation and consumer base due to hard work and long years of persistence. Now that their methods are at last economically viable, traditional organic farmers are suffering from being grouped together with the National Organic Program and its infiltration into a market in which they do not earn a place.”

“Since we cannot seem to stop this federal invasion, the real organic farmers need a new name. Rorganic! seems fitting to me.”

Comprehensive Food Philosophy

Gabriel’s food philosophy is comprehensive and easily digested to cover every area necessary to conduct the food choices for a large family (Or restaurant!):

  • Meal Frequency
  • Defining a Meal
  • The Science of Food
  • How to Shop
  • Best Sources
  • Setting up your kitchen
  • Handling snacks
  • Food Storage
  • Handling Leftovers
  • Kitchen Tools
  • Social Challenges
  • Food Groups Redefined
  • Practical Daily-Life Integration
  • Money Saving Charts

Reclaiming Delicious

Our bodies are hard-wired to prefer food with high amounts of salt, fat and sugar. Industrial food processors have mastered the trick of including them in almost everything available. Is it any wonder that we’ve lost touch with what the word delicious means?

Delicious is when everything about a food is enticing because it’s what your body needs to live. Media sources would have us believe that means thick-crust pizza, mac ‘n cheese mix, a bag of potato chips and lucky charms for breakfast. Our bodies know that delicious is fresh blueberries and a glass of pure raw milk, wild-alaskan salmon with asparagus, pasture-fed beef and cauliflower, local farm-raised eggs with sprouted bread toast or a handful of pumpkin seeds with a piece of dark chocolate.

Optimal Food Philosophy?

Optimal solutions provide benefits beyond solving the initial problem. They address every dimension rather than merely splitting the difference between a short list of comfortable alternatives. The discovery process screens to match the true context of reality where preconceived notions are, at most, a starting point. The food solutions put forth in Fateful Fork provide the kind of multi-dimensional fruit one would expect from this kind of exhaustive approach to nutrition. They:

  • Increase Quality
  • Require Less Intake
  • Cost less
  • Increase Health
  • Satiate Appetite
  • Realign Imbalances
  • Promote Health
  • Prevent Disease
  • Save Future Health Care Costs
  • Are Delicious (The real non-twinky, what your body needs kind of delicious).

The cost is finding sources, sometimes spending more in the short-term, reorienting lifestyle around re-supply and preparation, and abstaining from bad choices.

The author strikes me as someone who has been so immersed in every aspect of her passion about food and nutrition that merely writing about it didn’t make the priority list, until now. Now that it has the reader benefits from Gabriel having faced the challenges of translating and implementing her nutrient-dense philosophy in every conceivable environment, circumstance and context.

If I could choose the experience, qualifications and lifestyle of the optimal person to write about food the theoretical author would have an identical resume to Gabriel’s: A Master’s degree in Naturopathic Nutrition, 15 years of clinical nutrition counseling practice, two decades as a professional chef and an avid gardener. Luckily, we get all that from a person who can also write! What she’s written may enable you to avoid train wrecks and unnecessary health care costs by learning how to load your next fateful fork with the nutrient-dense foods that lead to optimal health.

Copyright © 2010 Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com.

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Reading to Babies
Children

The Weak Link in Teaching Your Baby to Read

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The discovery of Dr. Titzer is that Babies can:

  1. Start learning to read as early as 3 months old.
  2. Learn to read easier and faster than 1st graders.
  3. Learn multiple languages effortlessly in a window that closes down rapidly after the age of four.

Dr. Titzer’s contribution has been in publicizing these discoveries and putting together the materials for other parents to duplicate the stunning results with his daughters.

The program is simple. After five days on it our 16-month-old is learning . . . .something. Then again it’s hard to imagine any activity we could do together that would not lead to him learning more rapidly. Babies are expert learners and spending time with parents is a super-stimulant. That’s why I think main ingredient for the success of the program is also its weakest link: Parents. Their ability to work the program with their baby every day, twice a day.

Each of two daily sessions last 30 minutes each. To get these two sessions in with their kids parents will need to . . .

Teach Instead of Work or Rest

If one parent is home with the baby during the day then the first session will be easier to do. If not, there are three options:

  1. Teach the first session before work.
  2. Teach the first session at lunch.
  3. Arrange for your daycare giver to teach the first session.

I say teach even though the instructions say you can just pop the DVD in and let the baby watch. Although our son is glued to the presentation for the first 15-minutes he needs some encouragement to finish. He’s also excited to go through the picture cards after the video and that’s parent and baby time.

I suppose you could get your daycare giver to pop a DVD in for the first session. But, you’d also want them to follow up with the cards and picture book, afterwards.

After work one of the parents will need to teach the 2nd session while the baby is alert and interested and before they’re ready for bed. So, just when parents are ready to plop down and rest after work it will be time for the 2nd session.

The sessions are relaxing and fun. The regularity, not the teaching, is the challenge. Excitement has taken us through the first week. Now, our discipline of keeping to the twice-a-day sessions will be the main factor in determining our son’s progress.

The Program May Work If the Parents Do

The people involved are more predictive of success than the method used.

Years ago, five friends and I held a “bodyfat” contest. The goal was to see who could lose the most bodyfat in three months each using their own diet and exercise program. For three months we each worked out three times a week and used a different popular diet program: Atkins, The Zone, etc..

The results? The guys who were motivated made their program work. They could have used any program and succeeded with it. And, the unmotivated guys wouldn’t have been saved by a better program.

The success of the “Your Baby Can Read” program will be determined by the parents’ work. Babies are thrilled to learn and interact and play. If the parents can manage the discipline of the regular sessions then this program will probably work.

Parent & Baby Time Equals Success

If parents can manage the twice-a-day feat of teaching their babies for an hour a day then they’ve made a breakthrough that far exceeds the results of any program. The real success is the increased time you spend with your kids. Is there anything a child won’t learn faster and better with time and attention from their parents? If not then why stop at reading?

Sure enough, there are other programs for teaching your baby Colors, Patters, Numbers, Shapes, Prepositions, Four additional languages and a more advanced reading program.

Is Faster and Better Optimal?

Whether faster and better is Optimal is a different question. For most subjects the answer is probably yes. However, big steps forward come with costs and considerations. When it comes to reading at an early age Bill Sardi points out the link between reading and myopia that occurs with people and cultures focused on literacy.

Advanced Problems

Whoever discovers treasure has to figure out where to put it and how to use it. If TV and video games were replaced with Shakespeare would all children be myopic?  Every advance leads to advanced problems. Something that looks like a step forward may not be.

The ability to read is a mandatory skill. Reading earlier advances the problems of eye care sooner into a child’s life. Bill Sardi recommends vitamin C & D, calcium, copper, sunlight, holding books more than 12 inches from the eye, and focusing on distant objects. We’re lucky to have Bill’s advice at the same time we’re teaching our son to read.

What about issues that would stem from other forms of child advancement: Skipping grades, advanced homeschooling, socialization, early graduation? Dr. Titzer refers to some of these issues as well as the achievement gap between early readers and later readers increasing over time (a.k.a. the “Mathew Effect” where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer).

Titzer says grade skipping, socialization and achievement gaps have been easily dealt with in his daughters progress. I would imagine the problems of achievement are tiny compared with non-achievement. As one of my favorite bumper stickers says, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”.

Early Training for an Optimal Life

This program is our first baby step towards homeschooling. If it leads to some kind of gap between our son and his peers then I’ll consider it early training for his Optimal Life.

Even with adults the earlier one starts on a path towards optimal the more unmeasureable their life is against traditional yardsticks. We live in a world that measures the multiple dimensions of intelligence with an integer. Sorry, but after you tell me what your IQ is I’ll still know very little about your intelligence.

I must have read that, somewhere.

 

Copyright © 2010 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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Baby Crying
Children

Why is My Baby Crying?

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I was Mr. Mom the last two weeks for our 11 month old. His grandparents, who usually take care of him during the day, went on vacation. My wife works away from home. I work, too. . . from home. That put me in charge of the day care.

By our third day, together, I was able to figure out what he wanted when he whined or cried. By the fourth day his whimpering stopped because he had what he needed before having to cry about it. Taking care of him was a lot easier than I expected. Sure, he needs lots of attention, but, it was nothing like the awful stories I’ve been hearing all my life. I began to think about why babies have a reputation for being so difficult. And, what’s making it easier for us?

I’m no more a baby expert than any parent. What I’m listing, here, are seven reasons why I think we’re having an easier time with our baby than the stories you’ll hear ‘out there‘. Six of them the parents can control. The last one is luck of the draw:

  1. Schedule
  2. Routines
  3. Company
  4. No Vaccines
  5. Balanced Meals
  6. Vitamins
  7. Disposition

(Note: This article was written in 2009. We’ve since had our second baby who was only a dream when writing this article. One thing that stands out, now, is the implication that a baby crying is, somehow, a disaster–or proof positive of a problem– that must be “solved”. Of course, it could be just that as crying is one of the few ways a baby can communicate . . . anything. What I left out, in my new-father haste to “solve the problem”, was the sheer joy of a baby crying when you “just know” there’s nothing seriously wrong. That’s why I chose the picture for the article of both a man and baby crying with mom laughing: It’s a more accurate portrayal of the wonder and beauty of this time in a  family’s life. I don’t want to live in a world where baby’s don’t cry nor do I mean to contribute to such a world through any words that I may write. What I do want to share with potential new parents is how much easier, and lovely, it is to care for a crying baby than what you may have been told. That’s something I never knew, in large part, because the parents I might have learned from didn’t say. If silence is the worst mistake then I pray the Lord keep me from making it and keep it short and sweet it the process.)

Schedule

Timothy’s on a loose schedule for the entire day. It’s specific in content and sequence. It’s flexible in start time with naps and bottles dropping off depending on his mood and other activities:

  1. Wake up and Bottle – Whey protein (No cows milk) With Vitamins and Fatty Acids.
  2. Play or sleep until . . .
  3. Breakfeast – oatmeal with a scoop of stomach flora
  4. Bath and Change Clothes
  5. Ride in Toy Car around the block
  6. Play, Bottle then Nap
  7. Lunch
  8. Play, Bottle then Nap
  9. Dinner
  10. Play
  11. Bottle (with cereal) then off to bed.

This is easier than it looks. The start times shift up to an hour though always in the same sequence. There’s many benefits for him (And for me, these last two weeks) in being on a schedule like this:

  • Predictability – The baby knows what to expect and so do we. Neither of us is surprised by bath time or when its time to take a knap. The baby begins to expect to receive all the things he needs at a certain time. It becomes easy to figure out what he may be missing if he does start to whine or cry. In other words, it makes the process of elimination for why he’s crying very simple.
  • Planning – All of us know what is happening and when, including the baby. We can plan the times for phone calls, shopping for items needed, visits from friends, working out at the gym or whatever else is going on in our non-baby life.
  • Comforting – It seems to me the schedule removes a certain anxiety from the baby’s mood. His emotions and metabolism ebb and flow as the schedule unfolds. He knows that everything he needs is going to be given to him when its time to be given. And it was comforting for me to know that I was doing everything necessary for him and not leaving anything out.
  • Ease of Transition to Backup Caretaker – This is an awesome benefit! It made it very easy for me to step in as primary caretaker. Timothy’s schedule didn’t change at all when grandmom and grandpop went on vacation. I was clumsy, at first, but knew what and when to do everything and was certain nothing was being left out because of the schedule they gave me. When he cried in the first three days it was because I was not getting him to the next item on his schedule in time or he wanted a bottle instead of a nap, or, vice versa.

Routines

Everything on and off his schedule unfolds in a predictable way:

  • When he’s watching a cartoon he’s sitting in his chair and hears the sound of us in the kitchen making his lunch.
  • He knows its time to take a nap when we’re lying next to him after his morning bottle.
  • He knows he’s going for a car ride when the dog starts barking and we get his toy car ready.

This is real SuperNanny stuff, I know. But, we’re planning on having a second child and I think schedules and routines are going to be key in managing our lives. I also think they’re going to be key in having less babies crying for seemingly no reason. And if they cry, we’ll have good clues as to why.

Company

Not having company makes Timothy cry.

Other than when he’s sleeping he wants company at all times. This will probably change in a few years as he starts reading or playing with more educational toys. But, for now, he wants someone with him at all times. You don’t have to be looking at him or directly interacting with him. You just have to be there with him in the same room.

BTW, Isabel gets a special mention in this category: We get a little crying when switching company from mom to dad and just laughing when switching back to mom. Do we have a mama’s boy issue, here? Mmmmmmmm. Not sure. It only lasts about 45 seconds. We’ll see.

No Vaccines

I think we have a much easier time with Timothy because he wasn’t vaccinated. When he cries its for one of six reasons (See Conclusion, below). He’s not in a constant state of recovery from the three dozen antigens he would have gotten by now. That’s 36 less things to cry about.

For a thorough explanation of why we chose not to vaccinate see my article, Vaccines For My Baby. It was not an easy choice, our first pediatrician ‘fired’ us and it’s been the subject of many discussions. But, I do think it was the right choice and part of that is evident in Timothy’s lack of crying for ‘mysterious’ reasons.

I may be wrong, but, I suspect the reason babies have a reputation for endless and inexplicable crying is because of the dramatic rise in vaccines given to them since 1982. If you’ve got the other six items in this article under control then vaccines may be the crying culprit.

What a tragedy it would be if less people have babies because vaccines make them cry too much. New parents tell would-be parents their nightmarish stories and the endless patience needed to withstand constant crying. The would-be parents don’t have superhuman patience so opt out of having children, at all.

All I’ll say here is that vaccines are not needed to achieve immunization to the diseases for which they’re given. In most cases the fine print actually says that immunization is not guaranteed by the vaccine. The only thing that can guarantee protection from the world’s millions of diseases is the babies’ immune system — the very thing vaccines tend to destroy, not boost.

Balanced Meals

I get grumpy and grouchy when I eat the wrong foods. If I was a baby that would probably take the form of crying. I think its reasonable to say that a baby cries less on a balanced diet. Or, to put it another way: An unbalanced diet is unlikely to lead to less crying.

Blood sugar regulation is key to mood leveling. We’ve taken pains to remove high-glycemic food from our son’s diet. His diet is about 30-40-30 protien-carbs-fats with the carbs being all vegetables and fruits. His bottle is the closest to breast milk in content we could find with no cow’s milk (Whey protein, instead).

From what we’ve seen this seems to be a very balanced diet for him. It levels his blood sugar, keeps him satisfied until the next mealtime and his energy spikes are smooth and natural with no crashing in between.

Vitamins

What’s the opposite of a vaccine? Nutrition that assists rather than destroys your immune system. Vitamins, minerals and fatty acids are all added to Timothy’s morning bottle.

We give him extra vitamin D because babies get much less sun than toddlers. We also give him a baby appropriate liquid multi-vitamin, fatty acids and add a small scoop of beneficial bacteria for his stomach to his morning cereal.

All of this was recommended by our son’s doctor who is a naturopath. The stomach flora is recommended for babies who were breastfed for less than 6 months. The added vitamins are to supplement a babies diet since newborns are not eating a wide variety of food, yet. Bacteria in the stomach enables easier digestion: One less thing to cry about.

Disposition

This one’s luck of the draw.

Most of the parents I’ve talk with say their baby had a definite disposition from the moment they were born. That’s been true for us, as well.

I hear the term ‘colicky’ to describe a baby that cries all the time. Colic is a term for anything that causes abdominal pain in horses (And now babies, too). I’m not sure if this is 100% disposition. It could be one of the other 6 items in this article because the term ‘colicky’ is so broadly used.

I’ll know more about this after we have baby #2. For now I would just say that we did not draw the short straw on this one (Thank God).

Conclusion

Our baby cries for six reasons:

  1. Hungry
  2. Tired
  3. Dirty – Needs diaper change
  4. Company
  5. Pain – Bumps himself while playing
  6. Toy – Got pushed under the furniture or he wants one.

It’s worth saying that these are the only reasons he cries. I wish somebody gave me this list when I was deciding on having children. It’s a much shorter list than I was led to believe by rumours, magazine articles and stories floating around ‘out there’.

Addressing the six things that make our baby cry doesn’t require superhuman patience. It requires a simple rem edy to a short list of causes.

We didn’t draw the short straw on disposition, this time. If Baby #2 is ‘colicky’ at least we’ll have strategies in our control to minimize babys’ (And parents’) crying.

I’m grateful to my wife, mother and father-in-law for putting so many things in place that serve Timothy’s needs before he has to cry about them. He has a schedule, routines, company, is not vaccinated, has balanced meals, gets good nutrition and there is no mysterious or endless crying. None of these things are a big deal, alone. It is a very big deal, however, when they come together and make for a happy baby and a peaceful house.

Copyright © 2014 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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Flu Swine
Children

Swine Flu Insanity

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  1. Most Medical Doctors won’t take it.
  2. Nobody knows for sure what’s in it.
  3. Insurance companies refuse to insure medical professionals who inject it.
  4. The companies making it have insisted the government grant them total liability protection for any complications resulting from it.
  5. One of the known ingredients in multidose vials is mercury.
  6. It will not be ready in time to be tested in any scientific way.
  7. The trials that have been conducted have not been performed with the same vaccine that will be given to the public.
  8. The H1N1 strain for which it has been prepared has already mutated so that the ‘vaccine’ can not possibly help your immune system with the old original H1N1 strain which is now gone.

Last, but, not least: When a similar vaccination program was undertaken in 1976 it killed 250 people and left an enormous number of neurologically damaged and crippled while creating a brand new “Made in USA” autoimmune disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS).

Ok, that’s my list, against, written as a concerned parent. Buckle up your seatbelts for 18 more from a truly thorough full-time health advocate, Bill Sardi. Then come back to put this insanity in perspective on what this artificial crisis is really about, if you’ve got the time.

Why would anyone take this shot?

Simple:

  • Few people have the time or desire to research these things.
  • Reading medical research documents is hardly the preferred way to relax after a hard days work.
  • The CDC says it will save us though offers zero evidence to back up their evasive recommendations.

So, in the end people just go with their doctors’ recommendation (Who is probably not going to take it, themselves).

To make matters far worse you have states like Massachusetts trying to pass a law that will fine people $1000 per day or 30 days in jail for not taking the shot. Given that the ingredients are not even known what exactly is this law even based on? We know congress doesn’t read the laws they pass, but, this takes it to a new level of incompetence.

Don’t Take My Word for It

In his latest Newsletter Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. says:

“Right now, the government is working hard to implement a draconian program to vaccinate the population by force. This is an absolutely insane idea. If they mandate that all Americans be vaccinated, I predict that we will see an unprecedented number of vaccine-related deaths (as many as 250 died during the 1976 vaccine fiasco) and an enormous number of neurologically damaged and crippled people. The vaccine tested for safety before the 1976 scare was not the one used — the actual vaccine given to the public was untested. We may be seeing the same thing again. I suspect that the dangerous MF-59 adjuvant (squalene) will not be in the vaccine used for the test, but will be in the one given to the public. MF-59 is an immune-boosting additive that has been associated with severe autoimmune diseases,such as Lupus and multiple sclerosis-like disorders. There is a potential for millions of people to be crippled by these vaccine-induced diseases. As for the flu itself, at the time of this writing it is considered to be a low virulent virus — meaning that it is no worse than any other flu in the recent past. Those who are dying are not dying from the virus itself, but from a cytokine storm. Their bodies’ reaction to the virus is what is actually killing them. It was recently reported that smokers were found to have an intense inflammatory reaction deep within their lungs when exposed to the flu virus. One wonders how many of those who died were smokers or had immune disorders, but the CDC is keeping silent.”

“The 1976 swine flu fiasco began when a single soldier died from the flu at Fort Dix. He was infected along with five other soldiers, but he decided to go on a forced march even though he was sick. A person can die from a common cold if forced to march — I know because I used to see these soldiers when I was in the service. The other soldiers were tested and found to have a common strain of flu. The CDC analyzed the blood of the soldier who died and announced he had the swine flu strain. The news triggered a panic. The public was not told that a sergeant gave the soldier mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but did not contract the flu. I suspect that the CDC mistyped the virus. Here we go again!”

Spermicide, Cleaners, and Cosmetics along with Thimerosal and Squalene Found in Experimental H1N1 Vaccine

Our first glimpse into the actual ingredients is coming at this late date of 09/14/2009. Here’s an article written by a guy who volunteered for one of the rushed trials just to see what he could find out about the ingredients.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny and Russell Blaylock say:

To download their two fliers that summarize the medical facts about flu vaccines and where the swine flu fits in to the picture. Print them out and show them to your loved ones to focus what can be a difficult conversation.

For more comprehensive information see Dr. Blaylocks web page. or Dr. Tenpenny’s vaccine information center.

Here’s an article comparing the Swine Flu Hoax to the 1918 pandemic during world war I.

Swine Flu: Natural Pandemic or Man-Made Pandemonium?

Lila Rajiva Puts It All Together for us explaining the real motivations behind this latest hoax and future medical crimes against humanity we’re likely to see in the future.

Get Daily Updates

You can get up to date tracking on the coming flu “pandemic”, here.

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Screaming to be Heard
Family

What French Women Know about Estrogen…and American Women Don’t!

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(Excerpted from Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet’s forthcoming book: The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Estrogen: What America Got Wrong. . . and How To Do It Right)

Many of you saw the national news reports in late February 2007 announcing the findings of the ESTHER study, sponsored by health agencies of the French government. ESTHER, which stands for Estrogen and Thromboembolism Risk, showed that women taking oral estrogens were four times more likely to have a blood clot than women using estrogen in a transdermal gel or patch delivery. In fact, the women using estradiol gel or patches had no more blood clots than women using no hormones at all (placebo)! 56% of ESTHER women on transdermal therapy were using estradiol gel.

I wrote about lower risk of blood clots with non-oral estrogen in the first edition of Screaming to Be Heard, published in 1995. Studies since the 1970s have shown this important difference between oral and transdermal estrogen. Research data has become even stronger to support this longstanding observation that differences in the way hormones are delivered play a major role in safety vs. complications.

In the United States, this research comes as a surprise to women and most doctors. But French women and their doctors have known about these differences for over thirty years…what gives? The answer may lie in the different types of hormone products doctors prescribe in the U.S.A. and Europe.

American women have traditionally been given oral pills of Premarin (a mixture of horse estrogens) or Prempro (horse estrogens plus a potent synthetic progestin). Both products contain hormones that are foreign to the human body, and not identical to anything women make naturally. Yet, these two products alone have accounted for 80 to 85% of all hormone prescriptions in the United States for the last fifty years!

European women, on the other hand, have traditionally used products with bioidentical estradiol and progesterone, hormones that are identical to what the human body makes.

But even more critical is the difference in route of delivery here in the U.S.A. compared to Europe: 70% of women in France and Italy, for example, use transdermal forms of estradiol such as gels, lotions or patches that have been approved by their regulatory bodies (like our FDA). Contrast that 70% with the U.S. statistics: only 3% of American women use a transdermal form of estradiol, even though British researchers first published studies in the 1970s showing reduced risk of blood clots with non-oral estrogen.

One of the most successful options overseas, EstroGel, a pleasant, easy-to-use clear gel containing bioidentical estradiol, was approved by the French equivalent of the FDA about 30 years ago! Today, EstroGel is the most widely used form of estradiol in Europe. Even though EstroGel has been used so successfully in European countries for so many years, American women did not get this product until the FDA approved it in February 2004! So it seems the French have handled women’s hormone therapy a lot better than the Americans have for a long, long time!

Keep in mind, all of the various products using 17-beta estradiol deliver the identical molecular copy of a woman’s premenopausal estrogen.

Transdermal estradiol products deliver the human 17-beta estradiol in a way that is the most “natural” of all. The estradiol is absorbed through the skin, directly into the bloodstream, similar to the release of hormones from the ovaries. Direct delivery to the bloodstream bypasses the “first pass” metabolism in the liver that breaks down and changes estradiol into other forms that may not be as effective for its normal functions.

The primary difference between pill form and transdermal gel/patch is that oral estrogens all have to be metabolized (changed) first in the liver, called the “first pass” effect. Everything we eat swallow by mouth goes through the liver first so it can be changed into compounds that can be carried in the bloodstream. This first pass through the liver stimulates production of some clotting factors and proteins that lead to both pluses, and minuses, or oral medications.

One “plus” of oral estrogen is that it stimulates the liver to make more of the “good” cholesterol, or HDL. That means if you are a woman who has a very low level of HDL, you may need this boost in production provided by oral estrogen for the heart-protective effects of HDL. EstroGel, Estrasorb lotion or the patches (Climara and Vivelle DOT) still give you the natural physiological benefits of estradiol to maintain the normal level of HDL cholesterol. They just don’t give you that “first-pass” liver stimulation to ramp up production of HDL.

The “minuses” of oral estrogen can lead to a higher risk of blood clots: the liver “first-pass” effect can stimulate more production of clotting factors that in some women can cause deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or blood clots to the lungs, called pulmonary emboli (PE). Obesity, smoking, and inactivity, and genetic mutations like Factor V Leiden (a blood coagulation disorder) further increase the risk of clots.

Other “minuses” of oral estrogens, particularly mixed equine estrogens like Premarin, include stimulation of liver production of triglycerides (a blood fat associated with increased risk of heart disease if too high), renin (a substance that can cause high blood pressure), and greater likelihood of gallstones if you have a predisposition to those problems.

American women often say that “pills are easier” and they don’t want to be bothered with putting on the gel, or they don’t like the look of the “ring” with the patches as the adhesive around the edge picks up lint from clothes. But if it makes an important difference for your health, aren’t these pretty minor problems?

Apparently French women think so—and the widespread use of EstroGel throughout Europe attests to its ease of use and pleasant, non-greasy feeling on the skin. So maybe it’s time for you to get savvy and take advantage of the estrogen benefits and lower risks that European women have known for so long!

Advantages of transdermal delivery include:

  1. Transdermal delivery bypasses the first step in the liver that oral medicines undergo.  It is this “first pass” in the liver that causes an unwanted increase in clotting factors that lead to higher risk of blood clots;
  2. It maintains steadier blood levels of estradiol, similar to the hormone production by the ovary (helpful for women with
    blood pressure or “hormonal” headache problems);
  3. It leads to better improvement in glucose control and insulin sensitivity than with oral estrogens;
  4. It causes less rise in blood level of estrone, the estrogen of body fat, than seen with oral estrogens, again because transdermal estradiol bypasses the liver “first pass;”
  5. The estradiol is less likely to be adversely affected by other medications, since it is not metabolized first in the liver;
  6. Transdermal delivery of estradiol does not elevate triglycerides as occurs in some women taking oral estrogens;
  7. Non-oral estradiol is less likely to cause gallstones;
  8. Transdermal estradiol helps maintain a premenopausal healthy balance of good HDL to bad LDL cholesterol even though it doesn’t raise HDL as rapidly or quite as high as oral estrogens.

The bottom line is that many of the health risks you have heard about from “estrogen” in the headlines over the last five years have been based on the Women’s Health Initiative studies using only horse-derived oral estrogens and synthetic progestins. My clinical experience over twenty years, and the international research, show that those risks don’t apply in the same way to all other types of estrogens and other ways of giving the hormone, such as transdermal.

The WHI—which studied older postmenopausal women using either Premarin alone if they had a hysterectomy, or Prempro(horse estrogens plus medroxyprogesterone acetate, a potent synthetic progestin) if they did not—is the major U.S. study that has caused so much turmoil and confusion about hormones since 2002. The WHI was presented in the press as a study of “healthy” menopausal women.

Healthy? Only in America would we call women with these characteristics “healthy!” No country in Europe has such a high percentage of hypertension or obesity, both of which are risk factors for stroke, heart disease and breast cancer. Consider these statistics from the WHI study data:

  • 35% of the women were already being treated for high blood
    pressure.
  • 35% were significantly overweight.
  • Another 34% were obese by the medical definition, making
    a total of 69% of the entire study group having an abnormal
    body mass index, which affects all kinds of health risks from
    breast cancer to cardiovascular disease.
  • 12.5% had high enough cholesterol to require medication.
  • 16% had a family history of breast cancer.
  • 4% had diabetes.
  • 40% were former smokers, and 10% continued to smoke cigarettes during the study.

These women were “typical” Americans maybe, but certainly not “healthy.”

The only thing meant by healthy in the published research studies was that the women in the study just didn’t have symptoms of menopause! I’ll bet you didn’t even know that the WHI even excluded women experiencing hot flashes! Seems strange, doesn’t it?

Older women in the WHI already had evidence of heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. So these baseline problems affect the response to hormones, especially when high dose, “unnatural” products are used in women so long after menopause.

Recent worldwide research on hormone use has shown there is a “window of opportunity” early in the menopause transition for hormone therapy to prevent damage to various tissues and organs. Once this window of time is past, however, hormone therapy doesn’t reverse damages that have occurred. This was demonstrated clearly in the Women’s Health Initiative using Premarin and Prempro in elderly postmenopausal women.

The International Menopause Society position paper in September, 2002, said: “The WHI results, and particularly the data on cardiovascular disease risk, should only be related to the continuous combined treatment of 0.625 mg CEE (conjugated equine estrogens, Premarin) together with 2.5 mg MPA (medroxy-progesterone acetate), prescribed to elderly, obese women with characteristics similar to those depicted in the WHI study”.2 (Parenthetical explanations by Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.).

In fact, the above comments and WHI findings validate concerns I have been raising about Premarin and Prempro in my previous books and medical articles since the early 1990s.

And now, French researchers have given us even more fuel for the fire that there are other, safer ways to use estrogen— ways that help you feel better, feel more vital and energetic, and not have all the risks you have read about in the press.

Now it’s time for American women to appreciate, and benefit from, the differences in type of estrogen and how it can be given to better meet individual needs. If you are using, or considering, estrogen to relieve menopausal symptoms, ask your doctor if you can try EstroGel or one of the patch brands that are FDA-approved bioidentical options for estradiol.

As the French say, Vive la difference!

 

© 2007 Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., Permission to reprint in whole (Not in part) is gladly granted, provided full credit is given. Visit Dr. Vliet at her main office in Tucson and explore much more at her website, www.HerPlace.com aka HER Place®

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Children

Vaccines For My Baby

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I knew very little about vaccines before our son came along.

If you’d asked me whether I would vaccinate my children I would have said, “Of course”. I mean, nothing happened to me and I didn’t contract any of the diseases I was vaccinated against. Why wouldn’t I want the same for my child?

Well, things have changed since the 60’s when I was born. I received 6 vaccines and 2 of those were in the 1st grade. Today, a child gets 32 doses of 12 vaccines before the age of 2!

“That’s great!” you may say. “Medical science has come a long way!”.

Uh. . . .No, not really.

A Web Search and A Can Of Worms

What started out as a quick web search before Timothy’s vaccination appointment turned into serious concerns and heated discussions between my wife and I. We even tried using google search terms that were deliberately positive in hopes of finding thumbs-up recommendations on any of the vaccines. Out of the 12 on the CDC’s schedule we found some positive things to say about 4 of them. Feel free to give it a try. Most of the positive comments are by a government or pharmaceutical company source.

Two months is not much time to make optimal vaccine choices for your baby. That’s how long parents have to wade through the pros and cons.

Two months. What am I saying? They come at your baby with a syringe full of hepatitis B the day he’s born!

Is all this necessary? Well, I’ll tell you our answer in this article and I hope it saves you some time in coming up with yours.

Executive Summary for Busy Parents

The increased number of vaccines is more a tribute to the sales and marketing of pharmaceutical companies than to better protection for your child.

The drop off in measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever and whooping cough that everyone thinks the vaccines accomplished has more to do with better nutrition, improved sanitation and cleaner water than anything else.

After doing extensive research we did decide to vaccinate our son. But, we’re making specific choices about which vaccines truly protect him and those around him. We’re also using advice from doctors (With no vested interest or liability), our intuition and research to decide on vaccines that builds up his immune system rather than destroy it.

In order to achieve these goals we’re throwing the CDC’s schedule (of insanity) out the window and into the trash where it belongs. There are vaccines on the CDC schedule we’re going to give our son, but, not on their schedule and not all at once. That’s because the CDC’s vaccination schedule is:

  • Too Much
  • Too Soon
  • Too Many
  • Too Toxic

Here’s an excellent article by Doctor Donald W. Miller with a broad, balanced and thoughtful view and vaccination schedule that will protect your child and the children they interact with. As Dr. Miller’s predicts in his article, most pediatricians would be shocked by his recommended departure from the CDC schedule.

Another balanced view by an excellent doctor is put forth by a source many pediatricians are already familiar with: Dr. Bob Sear’s, The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child.

We’re about to make final decisions on what vaccines to give our son. One way to summarize what we’ll do would be to say:

  • Not zero.
  • Not everything.
  • Not all at once.

Decision Criteria

Our criteria for anything injected into our son is:

  1. Does more good than harm.
  2. Strengthens rather than destroys the immune system.
  3. Does not shock or confuse his body.
  4. Protects him when traveling and other known risks.
  5. Protects others around him.

Common sense? I thought so. Aren’t these these the stated goals of the CDC?

If I thought the CDC schedule came anywhere near achieving these goals I wouldn’t have put so much effort into all this research and writing this article.

First Do No Harm

That’s the oath all doctors take. Sounds good. I’m taking it too when it comes to my baby. I hereby swear.

So why do so many of the vaccines have a negative effectiveness rate? No kidding, the vaccine gives you more chance of getting the disease its supposed to protect you from than if you weren’t vaccinated, at all?

Ok, stop laughing. This is serious business when you’re trying to sell vaccines. . . . I mean for parents.

If I want to protect my child from disease A and find that I increase his protection from disease A by not taking the vaccination for it then the choice is easy. Throw in the added benefit of withholding from our 8-week old baby a dash of mercury, formaldehyde, latex, monkey kidney and other goodies and the decision is a slam dunk!

Ok, vaccines in this category are the easy ones to decide on. But, avoiding harm while deciding on vaccines that may benefit your child is the approach to take with all of them.

New Parents Are Blind-sided

Timothy was 1-day old when it was “time for his Hepatitis B shot”.

Well, it wasn’t time for Timothy’s’. We declined the shot and said we’ll take care of vaccinations at the pediatricians office. We gave them the doctor’s card and a signature and that was that.

We also declined applying for a social security number while filing for his birth certificate. The clerk came back with the box checked “Yes” for social security number. When we pointed it out he said, “Oh, sorry. Its just that I’ve done 25,000 of these and no one has ever done that”. I believe him.

It makes me think that very few new parents are prepared for vaccination decisions before they have to make them. The CDC schedule is presented to you as if its written in stone. If you protest they make you feel like a bad parent that will never be able to find a daycare, school or pediatrician that will “put up” with people like you.

Wrong on all counts, but, I do admire the expert marketing.

Day Care Visit

We have a day care near the house. I went to visit them and asked about vaccination requirements. The administrator said, “Yes, they have to have them. All parents have a card from their doctors and we verify that they are up to date”.

I was horrified. Did that mean everyone just goes along with the program and any deviation from the state dictated norm was a giant hassle?

No, exemptions are easy. You just download the form, print it out and sign it. And that form stays on file with the daycare. Done. From the daycare’s perspective your child is now “Up to date”.

Same goes with schools or any other facility you may be concerned about.

Spoke With Doctors

Our OBGYN was in favor of giving all the vaccines. And she put her money where her mouth is by administering them to her kids. I don’t agree with her. But, she was consistent and goes down as one solid yes for the CDC schedule.

My mothers’ doctor was all for them, too. He doesn’t have any kids, so, that’s less of an endorsement than our OBGYN’s. He said he’s seen some people with the conditions that could have been prevented by the vaccines and that convinced him. At the time, I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to ask questions about specific vaccines.

And, finally, our current pediatrician is in favor of the CDC schedule. On our first meeting we weren’t even there to discuss vaccines and I wasn’t in a position to be specific about them, yet. She mentioned that after 2001 they don’t have mercury anymore (Thank you O’ previous parents). In many cases, she’s right about that. However, the flu shots still have mercury (Thimeresol) and there are many other ingredients to be concerned with besides mercury. More on our vaccine meeting with our pediatrician, later.

Ok, so the doctors were 3 for 3 in favor. No wonder everyone just gets them all. Who wants to go contrary to those odds?

Well, maybe it was just my sample. Because, research turns up dozens of doctors who not only disagree with these three, but, have done extensive studies and research on why they don’t agree.

Spoke with other parents

Most just went along with the program, of course. One of our friends makes sure that no more than three shots are given in any one visit. That has the effect of letting the immune system get some time to react before intoducing another vaccine immediately. That’s definitely a good thing to do.

Overall, who has time to sift through all this information? And parents are threatened with the law and lots of hassles if the don’t so what do you expect?

One thing that came up in three of the conversations was that they knew of someone with autism whose parents suspected was caused by vaccines. I’ve only talked with four parents, so far, so that’s a high hit rate (And I didn’t bring it up).

Caring vs. Emulating

I care about people and want to listen to their stories and what they are doing and going through in their lives and their children. That doesn’t mean that I can always find something in their experience to emulate. I think all parents want to learn from each other, but, we should also have the strength of our convictions to follow through with our beliefs on what’s best for our kids.

In my case, my ‘beliefs’ on the subject have been formed by an exhaustive review of as much research as I can digest. I offer this article as one of many sources that may compress time and serve as a gateway to their own research.

Mommy & Daddy in Sync?

No, not completely. But, we owe it to our son to go with our collective best choices. My wife was persuaded by the 3 doctors we asked to go along with the full CDC schedule. Frankly, so was I. Re-read the “. . . Can of worms” section above for why we did’nt do that.

The benefits of going along with the program are considerable:

  • No explaining to do
  • No research necessary
  • No problems with pediatricians
  • No tension with you spouse or other family members
  • No exemption to download and sign and possibly explain to whoever
  • The warm cozy nod from all government agencies and pediatricians that you’ve been responsible parents and ‘done the right and educated thing’.

Fantastic. But, those are benefits for the parents and this decision is about our son.

Gulf War Syndrome

This was an interesting discovery while researching vaccines. It turns out that many consider this GWS everyone is talking about to be due to the compressed vaccination schedule of the troops just before they’re deployed.

Take Vitamins Before Getting the Vaccine

According to Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.:

“Numerous studies have shown that nutritional depletion, even of one or two nutrients, dramatically increases vaccine complications. This is especially so for Vitamin A (as mixed carotenoids), vitamin E and vitamin D3. I would recommend a daily multivitamin/ mineral supplement without iron. In addition, I would recommend 1000 mg. of ascorbate (as magnesium ascorbate) three times a day between meals, vitamin E either as d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate or mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) 400 IU a day and DHA oil capsules-100 mg. three times a day. Dosages for children would have to be adjusted for weight and age. Vitamin D3 is particularly important since it is known to regulate immune reactions and calm down those reactions that are overactive. New studies have shown that adults should be taking 1000 to 1500 IU of vitamin D3 instead of the previous 400 IU recommended by the government. A number of experiments have shown that vitamin D3 can significantly reduce the neurological damage caused by multiple sclerosis-like experimental reactions (experimental allergic encephalomyelitis). ”

What About the Other Kids?

I believe we have a moral obligation to consider the implications to society (Other kids) when making vaccination choices for our own baby. As I’m going through each vaccine other children than our own are a big factor in making our final (Optimal) choice.

Travel

We are all only a jet plane ride away from an infectious disease from another continent.

When Columbus discovered the new world he also killed most of the people living there. Infectious diseases from Spain made the sword unnecessary.

The only difference between his ship and our planes is the planes are faster and there’s more of them. For that reason, even if you Don’t Travel with your baby you are, in effect, still traveling because ‘foreigners’ are coming to you.

Travel is a prime consideration for letting Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus and Polio stay in your child’s vaccine schedule. When they should be given is a different matter.

Play The Vaccine Lottery

“My child got all the vaccines and she’s fine”.

I have two responses to this:

  1. Thank God . . . .your child handled the shots, well.
  2. Think of your vaccination card as a lottery ticket. 1 in 68 ticket holders are autistic and 1 in 6 have some kind of learning disability, neurological problem, or autoimmune disorder like Type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma or a bowel disorder. Later in life ticket holders are entitled to an increased chance of getting cancer or problems associated with having a live virus in their spinal column for the rest of their lives.

Low Criteria for Success

Since there are no long term studies on the effects of vaccines what is the criteria of success?

Simple: A vaccination is successful if your child doesn’t have any seizures, intestinal obstruction or anaphylaxis (severe, whole-body allergic reaction) within 4-6 weeks of the shot(s).

What happens later? I couldn’t tell you because nobody can. There are no follow-up studies. Even if there were, which of the 12 vaccines are you going to blame?

That makes for an excellent defense in court, doesn’t it? It wasn’t our vaccine, your honor, it was those other eleven they’re baby was injected with.

Japan’s Two Year Delay (And the Amish)

My wife was asking for study results showing the benefits of delaying vaccines until two years of age. That’s what Dr. Donald Miller recommends to minimize brain damage. He says the brain is at least 80% developed by then.

Since there are no long term tests on the effects of vaccines I couldn’t offer her any. But, I could offer her the results of the entire nation of Japan and the Amish. When the Japanese government started losing vaccine cases and having to pay up they decided to relent and delay the vaccines until age two. That’s when their SIDS rate plummeted by 90%! Raymond Obomsawin, M.D. says:

“Delay of DPT immunization until 2 years of age in Japan has resulted in a dramatic decline in adverse side effects. In the period of 1970-1974, when DPT vaccination was begun at 3 to 5 months of age, the Japanese national compensation system paid out claims for 57 permanent severe damage vaccine cases, and 37 deaths. During the ensuing six year period 1975-1980, when DPT injections were delayed to 24 months of age, severe reactions from the vaccine were reduced to a total of eight with three deaths. This represents an 85 to 90 percent reduction in severe cases of damage and death.”

The Amish have no Autism and they’re not dropping dead from the diseases the CDC is warning us about, either. They’re like Hawaiians who have no word “snow” in their vocabulary because it doesn’t exist in their world. But, the Amish have two words they don’t need in their vocabulary: Vaccine and Autism.

Making Your Optimal Choice

Much of the information on the web is from the three groups of people who have the most to gain from speaking up:

  1. Pharmaceutical Companies who are selling their product
  2. Parents Who Have an Injured Child Trying To Help Others
  3. Government sources promoting public policy

Sometimes its hard to distinguish between the drug companies and government sources. Both are 100% positive on every vaccine and 100% negative on whether any cause more harm than good. The parents become better sources as their objectivity is restored after the incident with their child.

So, it can be hard to get an objective view of all sides of the issues with the twelve vaccines. The best sources I’ve found were doctors who used their education to take an objective view of vaccines. They don’t work for drug companies and just decided to delve into the subject. Then you start to really got all sides of the issue.

All Experience is Anecdotal

If you shut your car door and lock yourself out because the keys are in the car you’ve had yourself a personal experience. Will you learn from that experience? Will you change your behavior and avoid locking yourself out again?

If you say, “Yes” or “Probably” or “Maybe” to that question then your conducting bad science according to the AMA. All you’ve done is have yourself an anecdotal experience. Unless you’ve conducted a clinical trial of N number of other people locking themselves out of their car you can’t conclude anything about your personal experience. In fact, any conclusions you’ve come to based on any experience you’ve ever had in your life is mere anecdotal evidence. Learn from it at your own risk, pal.

That’s a great way to shut the mouths of all those parents with anecdotal horror stories of what happened after their baby was vaccinated. Bad science. Not valid. Doesn’t mean anything.

Ok, so don’t put the horror stories in your medical study. But, parents with “anecdotal” stories have managed to sue the crap out of pharmaceutical companies for bad reactions to vaccines. So much, in fact, that all 50 states give parents a way to opt-out of all vaccines. They didn’t put the exemption in place to protect or defend your rights. They make it available because state’s attorneys told them parents would sue the state broke if they made vaccines mandatory.

Websites & Sources

Opt Out Forms for Every State

Gary Nulls Vaccine Nation Documentary Video

Shirley-wellness-cafe re: 2 years and sids

Vaccine Friendly Doctors

Try Dr. David Bannister in Roseville or Dr. John Oberholtzer in Davis. I’ve heard they are both respectful of parents’ rights to make informed medical decisions for their children.

Dr. Marcus Porrino
Dr. Rebecca H. Porrino
Sonoma Naturopathic Medicine
710 West Napa St, Suite 1
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 996-9355
www.SonomaNatMed.com

Julia Getzelman, M.D.
GetzWell Pediatrics
1701 Church Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 826-1701

www.GetzWell.com

Selective and delayed vaccination forum
2001 overview by Harold E Buttram, MD
Head of the CDC Admits Autism Link
MMR and Mitochondrial slide show
How To Vaccine Safely
Robert Kennedy on the Vaccine Autism Coverup, thimerosal
Hidden CDC Data Confirms Vaccine-Autism Link
autism-vaccine blog
Gulf War Syndrome: Too Many Vaccines Within One Week
The Law Considers Official CDC schedule to be a Recommendation ONLY
exemption website
Look up History & Ingredients of EVERY Vaccine!
Interactive Lookup Table for Vaccines & Ingredients
National Vaccine Information Center
Jenny Mcarthy Interview Part I
CBN News Story

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How to Quit Drinking Coffee

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The best way to quit drinking coffee is to replace it with something else. For coffee you’ll need direct and indirect replacements.

The indirect replacements are for the routines, sights, sounds, textures, tastes, feelings, circumstances and occasions that surround your coffee drinking.

The better your choice of replacement(s) for the drink and all these other things that surround your drinking the easier the quitting will be.

In the rest of this article I’ll tell you what replacement(s) I chose and describe my current experience with quitting.

Should you quit drinking coffee?

Not knowing if or why you want to stop drinking coffee is probably why you haven’t quit, already. Or maybe your why is not enough to motivate you.

In the case of coffee we’re bombarded with conflicting stories about whether its good or bad for us. Both sides of the health argument for coffee are about even and the question will probably never be resolved.

If coffee controls you instead of you controlling it then you should quit drinking it. You’ll know it’s controlling you when you can’t start the day without it. Or, if you get a headache when you don’t have enough.

Replacements

Quitting is a transition to something else. Here’s a few things to keep in mind about picking and using replacements:

The best replacements usually have a lot in common with what you’re trying to quit. Things we have to quit often involve routines, sights, sounds, textures, tastes and feelings surrounding the thing we’re trying to quit. You may need replacements for them, as well. For coffee, there is the taste, the caffeine buzz, the smell, the warm liquid flowing down your throat and the routine of grinding the beans and setting up the machine.

You may need a series of replacements before settling on the final. That means Your Optimal final replacement may not be the best first replacement to use. Your body may have to detoxify or have other reactions and compensations it has to cycle through before you can ultimately quit. In extreme cases that may mean moving from something toxic to something less toxic and eventually to something non-toxic. The final replacement should be something actually good for you.

But, we’re talking coffee, here, not heroin. One or two replacements will probably do it. I used four replacements for coffee: Two for the morning and two others for the afternoon, see below.

It may be best to allow yourself as much of your replacements as you want as long as your replacement is not toxic. It may serve as a psychological reward for following through on the quitting.

My Replacements for Coffee

My first replacement is tea, with caffeine.

For me, it is the perfect first replacement because it has so much in common with the way I drink coffee. Tea is hot, I add milk and stevia to it, it prevents my caffeine withdrawal headache and the physical routine surrounding its preparation is almost identical to making coffee. We have one of those “Instant Hot” water dispensors in the kitchen so I get the added benefit of having the tea ready, almost instantly.

My second replacement is tea, without caffeine. By this time I’ve ramped down on the amount of caffeine in the tea, so, probably won’t get a withdrawal headache any more. If I do then alternating with caffeinated tea is the quick remedy. After about seven days the whole craving for coffee in the morning is gone. That’s surprisingly quick for someone who couldn’t imagine starting a day without coffee only a week ago!

My third replacement, used in the afternoon, is a nap. I was using coffee as a crutch to power through the afternoon without a nap or a break. I decided not to fight afternoon naps any longer and just take one. The benefits of afternoon naps have been enormous! If fact, I feel it gives almost a full extra day of productivity every day! Wow, talk about a replacement.

Every once in a while I have a diet Rock Star after waking up from my afternoon knap. So far, its been a great way to start my ‘second day’. It’s one of those sugar free health drinks that has healthy ingredients. I’m skeptical about the pink, blue and yellow stuff they use in sugar free drinks and prefer stevia. But, for now, I’m enjoying the Rock-Star until I find something better. Leading candidates are pelligrino with a little fruit juice added for taste or some of the exotic teas my wife gets on her trips to China.

How Long Does It Take?

The whole thing took about a week, for me.

As much as I was addicted to coffee it just didn’t take that long to quit drinking it. I had a headache for the first 3 days if I didn’t have enough caffeinated tea. A little bit of tea and “Poof”, headache gone.

One of the surprising things for me was accepting the fact that I’m a slow riser. It takes me a while to leave dreamland and cut over to wakefulness. Because of this I find the routine of making the tea just as useful as the tea, itself. Therefore, when I wake up I go right into preparing the tea and, by the time its ready, I’m ready for the day.

How Will You Know When You’ve Quit?

You’ll know you’ve quit when you can take it or leave it.

Coffee will take its place among the multitude of drink options available to you depending on occasion and mood. You’ll be able to start your day with a clear mind and ready to go to work even though you’ve had no coffee.

A few days ago, we were over at a friends house and I was starting to fade. We were late in getting together and didn’t want to leave, yet. The conversation was interesting and another couple had just walked in the door that we wanted to socialize with. I made myself one cup of coffee. It was just the thing needed to keep the conversation going for a while until it was time to go. One cup of coffee and that was it. No coffee needed the next morning and no problems sleeping that night.

Coffee is now just another drink option. I neither crave it, avoid it or even think about it. If I want a cup I have one. I’ll even just have a decaf since I don’t need the buzz to think clearly, anymore.

Start acting and feeling like this and you’ll know you’ve quit.

 

Copyright © 2008 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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