Vaccinations quandary

The media, for the most part, scorn the folks who resist vaccinations for diseases or are disinclined to have their children vaccinated.

It may be a mistake to refuse vaccinations for measles, though I’m not sure. The media, of which I once was a member, and President Obama (whom I hold in high regard) tell us that the science is solid on the safety and effectiveness of measles vaccinations. That may be true, but the doubters may know more than those who subscribe to the proclamations of the mainstream medical community without reservation. For example, it’s possible they’ve investigated and found that some leading alternative physicians, persons with exceptional credentials, cast serious doubt on the safety and efficacy of flu vaccines. People who look beneath the claims of the medical establishment have become skeptical of just about anything it promotes. Wouldn’t you be skeptical if you learned that medical schools have ties to the pharmaceutical industry, and the directors of many receive compensation from Big Pharma?

The latest discovery which goes against conventional medical wisdom is that fluoridated water can be harmful to the health of the thyroid gland. A British study just concluded that fluoride in drinking water increases hypothyroidism. Did I read about it in my local newspaper? Of course not. I found it in the ultraconservative Newsmax online publication – which left me dismayed, because I deplore ideology, particularly the right-wing variety.

The study validates a decision months ago by officials in Wellington, Florida, to stop fluoridating the city’s water.

For many years, we have been advised to have colonoscopies in our later years to look for colon cancer. Now some in conventional medicine, besides the alternative practitioners, are telling us that the procedure can be dangerous and the results faulty. My primary doctor told me recently that the recommendations have changed, with persons over 70 advised against having the procedure.

In the last 10 days or so, the government guidelines on dietary cholesterol were changed, advising people not to worry about consuming foods high in cholesterol, such as eggs and butter, because they add little to the body’s total. This back-pedaling comes after at least 45 years of advice by the leading medical organizations to limit one’s consumption of cholesterol. Alternative doctors have known all along that cholesterol has little effect on cardio-vascular disease, whether dietary or that produced naturally in the liver. The so-called experts still recommend against eating red meat, not distinguishing between the adulterated store meat and quite healthy grass-fed beef. They also remain down on saturated fat, advising shoppers to choose low-fat milk over whole milk, apparently unaware that powdered milk, the cholesterol of which has been damaged, has been added to low-fat milk to give it body. The maverick doctors and nutritionists tell us that saturated fat has many health benefits. What primarily makes milk unhealthy is the pasteurization and homogenization.

For decades, housewives were warned not to use coconut oil in baking because it is high in supposedly harmful saturated fat. The food processing industry invented this fraud because unhealthy vegetable oils were much cheaper to produce, and it was supported by the medical community. Finally, that myth has been dispelled, and we’re now told the truth: Coconut oil, high in lauric acid, is powerfully salutary.

Yet the media, which on all other issues are committed to giving voice to both sides, continue to trumpet the so-called wisdom of mainstream medicine while totally ignoring the highly successful and demonstrably intelligent doctors and research physicians who labor behind the scenes and hold contrary positions.

The village council members of Wellington, Florida, in Palm Beach County, can take comfort in a study at the University of Kent in Great Britain that found a correlation between underactive thyroid and levels of fluoride in potable water. The Wellington politicos have been assailed locally and by a reporting team at the Washington Post for their antifluoridation stance. After all, the federal government has long declared that fluoridation of public water supplies is one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century. A number of scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, have questioned that assumption, and fluoridation of water is banned in some European locales. Some health experts have said the fluorine in toothpaste is adequate protection against tooth decay.

In recent years, the Environmental Protection Agency has reduced its recommendation to between 0.7 and 1.2 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. The British study found that people in areas with fluoride levels above 0.7 milligrams had at least 30 percent more cases of hypothyroidism than areas with lower levels. And in a head-to-head comparison of two areas, one with fluoridated water and the other with no fluoridation, twice as many people in the fluoridated area had hypothyroidism.

The researchers warned that people with an underactive thyroid produce too little of the hormones triiodothyronine and tetraiodothyronine, deficiencies that can interfere with many metabolic functions, often resulting in weight gain and depression.

Take heart, Wellington council members, and stand your ground. You were right all along.