Immunizations: Adult and Pediatric
Recently a client of mine asked to have me address immunizations in my blog. I am happy to address any health issues that you would like me to. Just email the office at frontdesk@emeraldcityclinic.com and we will our best to address your concerns publicly. So here is a controversial topic of immunizations. Public Health would not like my opinion about immunizations and therefore most Naturopathic physicians shy away from a stance because it goes beyond health into the political arena. Given this environment I have never been one to shy away from an opinion.
First immunizations MUST be an individual decision between a client and the best medical advice that your physician can give you individually NOT societally. It is a societal decision to immunize everyone and now it is societal health problem that everyone is allergic to eggs. So I will attempt to discuss some of the "Fall immunizations". First all flu vaccines are decide in the Spring as to what MIGHT show up and there is a great deal of money involved. Flu vaccines generally do NOT improve your immune system and has some potentially life threatening side effects. There are more health provoking ways to prevent the flu. Washing your hands, eating a good diet, sleeping, taking care of your immune system. Once you have been exposed we have powerful herbal and nutritional medicines to prevent the horrible systems of the flu. So generally speaking I do NOT recommend these annual flu vaccines.
Pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough, is now being recommended for all adults to prevent spreading it to pediatric population. The fear based advertising out there really irritates me. If you are around infants under 2 routinely I might seriously consider getting immunized but it is NOT a given. Pertussis vaccine does NOT give life time immunity and the disease does. This is a "hot button topic" worthy of a John Stewart episode but I am not going to go there right now, I would just recommend that you talk to one of your Emerald City Clinic physician before accepting any immunizaitons.
Pneumonia immunizaiton: Do not do it. No reason. Build your immune system. Sleep.
Shingles: Boy this is really an exercise in restraint for me. A good case of chicken pox as a child will give you life time immunity. Chicken pox vaccine given to pediatric clients instead of getting a case of chicken pox is resulting in higher levels of shingles. If you never got a "good case of chicken pox" and you are exposed to chicken pox as an adult AND you are stressed out and nutritionally deficient you can get shingles. But shingles is easily treatable with Naturopathic care and a sign that your immune system needs some attention.
The bottomline is NONE of these immunization are getting to the cause of someone's compromised immune system. For hours outside in fresh air and green spaces increase your natural killer cells which is a better protection for any virus then an immunization. An immunization commits a portion of your immune semi permanently to only responding to that virus removing flexiblity from your immune system to respond to other insults. For example if you have 100 white blood cells and 80% are committed to only recognizing a mumps virus in a blue hat, then when the mumps virus with the green hat arrives you only have 20% available to defend you. Seems like an overcommitment of your resources.
Hum you can see I have returned to Emerald City feeling exuberant to get back to helping all of you optimize your health. Once again I want to reiterate that immunization decision are individual and should be addressed with your concerns with your doctor at Emerald City Clinic.