Why I'm Not Afraid of the Big Bad Measles

 If you listen to the media reports I am one of the irresponsible parents that's causing the current outbreak of measles; a disease that the medical profession has “eradicated” in the Americas.  But, I ask, who is more irresponsible?  Me for not injecting my healthy children with a substance that may only provide short-term immunity to a disease that more than likely won't threaten their lives?  Or, the person that injects substances that don’t provide true immunity, and, in fact, are more likely to cause damage to their fragile nervous systems? Today I am going to focus on measles, which is normally a very contagious disease that does require quarantine and extreme hygiene for the caregivers of the infected.  While measles can be deadly, with proper care and support very rarely does it cause any serious or lasting symptoms. The most common symptoms are a head cold, red eyes, rash that can cover part or all of the body, and fever.  Although rare, one of the more serious symptoms caused by measles is encephalitis or inflammation of the brain.  However, this only happens in about 0.01% of those infected worldwide.  Only about 1 in 100,000 cases develop other serious complications to measles. The biggest risk factor for complications from measles is malnutrition and lack of rest during the active infection.  So, if you aren’t loading your kids with improper nutrition that suppresses their immune system and destroys their bodies natural ability to heal from the infection, your children should be able to do quite well and if they get sick, they should be able to fight it off with no long term side effects and have lifelong immunity from measles.  And isn't that, although in error, really what patients think they're getting from the vaccine? No matter where your thoughts go when considering if vaccinations are safe or if they can potentially cause autism, there are simply too many documented potential links to vaccines, especially the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.  An Italian court actually found that the MMR vaccine was the cause of at least one case of Autism.   In my opinion, it simply isn’t worth the risk of injecting the most potentially dangerous vaccination on the market into my healthy children.  I’ll post more of my opinion on other vaccines in an upcoming post but, will say for this publication, in a properly nourished and cared for population the current list of required vaccines are not necessary. Call me a quack, call me reckless with my children’s welfare, but there is no way I would risk not hearing my son scream with laughter, or seeing my daughter’s big blue eyes sparkle when she smiles at me.  If you feel that the risks of the disease outweigh the potential risk of autism, Aspergers, ADD, ADHD, or the other potential links to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination, then you should vaccinate.  However, I feel confident in my decision not to vaccinate my own children, and confident in advising my patients on vaccinations, because I know they are well nourished and their immune systems are functioning properly due to Chiropractic, Applied Kinesiology, and Homeopathy care.