HPV Vaccine

I just talked to my old college roommate. It's been such a long time! She recently married her high school sweetheart and I couldn't be happier for her. Unfortunately she was feeling a bit frustrated after a conversation with her mother who really wanted her to get the HPV vaccine. Apparently, her younger sister had just received it and the doctors office asked about her as well.

She was frustrated because her mother was under the assumption that it was a vaccine against cancer, not a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease that could cause cancer. I was so proud of her for realizing this. Unfortunately she wasn't aware that there are over 100 types of HPV and Gardisil only "protects" against 4 strains, which do cause at least 70% of the cervical cancers...in the US. She also wasn't aware of all the side effects that have been reported after receiving the vaccine.

I, unfortunately, wasn't completely comfortable with my knowledge of these side effects so I did a few google searches "hpv vaccine safety" and "hpv vaccine safety death" Of course the first thing to pop up with either search was the CDC, which I skipped because they don't do their own research, rather they (and the FDA) rely on the research provided by drug companies. I believe they are heavily influenced by lobbyist and so I won't rely solely on their information to make my important medical decisions. However I did come up with the websites below which seemed to provide level-headed information, with exception of the FDA which I included to see how crafty they were with the wording and is an interesting read after going through the first three. I ordered these in what my opinion was the least medically/most holistically oriented to the most medical/least holistic.

I absolutely love the women to women website. It brings up great points for concern. Especially that the HPV vaccine was not tested in combination with other drugs and 1/5 Americans take at least 5 medications daily. It was also not tested in combination with other vaccines, with exception to Hep B. Some girls are experiencing effects after receiving this and another vaccine - essentially a medical experiment in themselves. The reality is that very few drugs are tested in combination with other drugs...and considering how many drugs are on the market, it would be completely impossible.

One of the articles points out that the vaccine study participants were only followed for 17 months. That may seem like a long time, but that's not even a full year and half. We're left to wonder if the diseases our daughters experience in 2, 5, or 10 years are in some way connected to the vaccine. Short term studies are another common practice of pharmaceutical companies. How often does your medical doctor recommend you take your cholesterol lowering medications just until your levels drop to a recommended level? Rather, this is something you're going to need forever to keep levels under control.

The CDC and FDC continually say that they can't be sure that the reactions experienced by some are the direct result of the vaccination. But they also can't be sure that they aren't. The bottom line is that every person differs in risk factors and genetic make up. We don't know how the vaccine will react with other drugs, or poor life style habits (such as a diet of McDonalds and other processed foods) in the face of genetic predisposition. This could be the one straw that breaks the camels back.

Vaccination is a personal choice. It comes down to what makes sense to you and the risks you are willing to take and the risks are definitely there, which ever you choose. But at least you'll know that you made a decision based on all the information you had available to you at the time. This isn't something that should be forced upon us by government mandate, especially considering that they aren't willing to compensate us for the losses we aren't guaranteed we won't sustain and can't predict

http://www.naturalnews.com/023080.html

http://www.womentowomen.com/sexualityandfertility/gardasil-landing.aspx

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/63586.php

http://www.fda.gov/CBER/safety/gardasil071408.htm

American Killers

Here's an article from Newsweek.  The author says that we are the #1 killer in the US, directed by the choices we make.

I'm going to have to agree with him.  He says that we've more than quadrupled the amount of people who die prematurely, despite the world being a safer place with the advent of such safety items as seat belts.  People taking personal responsibility has been something I've been harping on for quite some time.  No one wants to take responsibility for spilling hot coffee on themselves.  How can you eat healthy when it's so expensive, but you can afford to eat out nightly.  You can't exercise because you have no time, but you can spend hours sitting in front of a computer or tv each day. Or why eat healthy or exercise when if you just gain a few more pounds your insurance company will pay for expensive, risky weight loss surgery.  

Apparently some people have issue with the author including suicide in his numbers.  The issue is genetic predisposition to depression, etc.  But what so many people fail to see in their quest of personally irresponsibility is that it's a genetic PREdisposition, but a genetic disposition.  We can avoid genetically predisposed obesity by leading a healthy lifestyle, and we can avoid diseases like depression the same way by changing the way we think and also by leading a healthy lifestyle, who doesn't know that exercise releases endorphins and endorphins make you happy and happy people don't kill (Elle Woods from Legally Blonde said that!).  Besides, depression is commonly a side effect of many prescription drugs, like statins, that overweight people commonly take.  

What's really interesting to me is that it was pointed on that the 20th century was the century of medicine.  Doesn't that imply that we should be healthier?  And yet where are we?  We have the highest levels of chronic disease and obesity than ever!!  What has medicine done?  Nothing, except indoctrinate us into believing that a pill is our quick answer.  Judging by the state of our health, medicine is not the way to go.