My wife and I just spent a week touring the Western Isles. I didn’t take this photo as a substitute for a tree (its a blowy place in winter and the soil is shallow, so trees are few) but it got me thinking about power and the messages we receive.
Holidays give you time to catch up on some reading. Sad perhaps, but the book I first chose on my e-reader was by Dr Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk, titled Dissolving Illusions, Disease Vaccines and the Forgotten History. It was rather good.
Now I have to tread carefully here, as the Society of Homeopaths is precise on its guidance to members.
“The Society does not permit RSHoms to provide advice on, or participate in a patient’s decisions regarding vaccination. In line with current UK law, they may signpost patients to information on vaccination from reliable sources, including the NHS, so that they can make a fully informed decision. Homeopaths will support patients in their decision.”
Source – Society of Homeopaths Website
So, in line with the above, I simply draw to your attention some of the themes in the book which I found interesting, and hope you might also.
The opening chapters consider the nature of transmissible disease and the epidemics that often result. It is a remarkable fact that God, Nature, Evolution (you may choose one or more) has gifted us with a remarkable physiological system, that by means of innate and adaptive immune response protects us from innumerable bacteria and viruses. Actually our bodies contain trillions of these and it is only a very few that bring us to grief.
It should than come as no surprise that a healthy nourished body fights infection best. I have written on this general topic before. Nothing controversial here, I hope.
These opening chapters describe the lives of the poor in Dickensian times and up until the early years of the 20th century. This short passage serves as a brief summary:
‘Among the labouring classes, life expectation remained low – little more than thirty years – and the 1930s photographs show working people looking old by their thirties abnd forties, as poor nutrition, illness,bad living conditions and gross overwork took their toll.’
Humphries, Suzanne; Bystianyk, Roman: Dissolving illusions (p32) Kindle Editions
‘Bad living conditions‘, is rather an understatement: overcrowding, foul air, polluted water, vermin and running sewage etc. The silver vinaigrette was of doubtful value
By chance we passed through a cemetery in North Uist, and it is remarkable how many lived to a good age in a rural setting in contrast to the industrial cities. You might care to wander through a churchyard in the New Forest, a very rural part a century of more ago, and see if you come to the same conclusion.
The simple fact is that by improving nutrition and living standards, lifespan increased dramatically during the twentieth century.
The ‘illusion’ referred to in the title of the book is the extent to which advances in health are attributed to advances in medical therapeutics. That is not to deny the advances in medicine and surgery during the 20th century, just that they tend to take too much of the credit.
The second half of the book focuses on the principal diseases, smallpox, diphtheria, polio, whooping cough, measles and so on. The general theme was that each had declined significantly before medical intervention (usually vaccine).
As a Glaswegian this statistic struck me:
‘Before the general nutrition status of European children reached the high level it is today, measles infection was something to be feared… measles accounted for 11% of all deaths in Glasgow in the years 1807-1812.‘
Humphries, Suzanne; Bystrianyk, Roman. Dissolving Illusions (pp 328-329). 2013 Kindle Edition
My generation caught measles as a matter of course, and with some sensible nursing from Mum, we survived unscathed.
In the UK measles vaccination commenced in 1968 and the chart below is quite interesting. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Considering the theme that underlies all the diseases covered in the book, the lines below from a book by Daniel M Davies, Professor of Immunology at Manchester University came to mind:
‘We are at the dawn of a new health revolution. But the elephant in the room is global poverty. Nearly half the world lives on less than $2 a day, and the economics of making and providing new medicines is another kind of tragedy…..Though it deals with matters of life and death, the pharmaceutical industry is a business not a charity and when deciding research priorities, the potential for financial gain is a critical factor if not the decisive factor…’ Davis D, Beautiful Cure (p195), Bodley Head, 2018
So is it new medicines we really need, or better living conditions? Returning to Humphries and Brystianyk:
‘The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world’s poorest countries… they said the money will produce higher immunisation rates and aims to make sure that 90 percent of children are immunised against dangerous diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia in poorer nations.
“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” Bill Gates said in a statement. “Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before”.
Perhaps a $10 billion decade of sustainable farming, nutrition, and sanitation would have a long-lasting impact on saving the children under discussion?’
Humphries, S; Bystrianyk, R. Dissolving Illusions (pp. 290-291). Kindle Edition
What do you think?
Vaccines using attenuated / live viruses yield a better immune response that those using inactivated material. In technical terminology they are more antigenic.
The feared disease of my generation was polio, and you’d think it would be a heroic story (I did too). In fact it is complex, and you’ll have to read the book if you wish to know more. Suffice to say that inadequacies in diagnostics, treatment, vaccine development, and environmental factors all underminine innate immunity. Add to this the media generated climate of fear mean that polio continues to cast its shadow. A fear, the authors argue, that is disproportionate to risk.
The polio vaccine story is interesting.
The polio vaccine comes in two forms. The live / attenuated Sabin vaccine – (that given orally on a sugar lump in my day) and inactivated vaccine (Salk), as used in the DTP jab – the P being polio. The former (Sabin) being ‘live’ – as mentioned – is more antigenic.
The problem with the ‘live attenuated’ Sabin virus is that it can be excreted in faeces. Latterly this proved to be a more significant cause of polio outbreaks than the ‘wild’ virus (vaccine-derived-poliovirus or VDP).
The vaccine used in the UK today is the inactivated version for that reason.
In some parts of the world the live / attenuated form is still used. The source of the polio virus recently identified at a sewage treatment plant in London is thought to be India or Pakistan. Two countries that still use the live / attenuated vaccine.
(Somewhat similarly, the book tells the tradgedy caused by inadequate viral inactivation in the original Salk vaccine, which resulted in significant viral spread – here is a paper on the story The Cutter Incident. Though the currently used vaccine is a version of the Salk type it has obviously been modified to ensure no repeat of the Cutter debacle.)
Moving onward…
I am a bit of a fan of fellow Scot, Dr Malcolm Kendrick, GP and author. As an insider, he can better observe the medical system than most.
Dr Kendrick is the author of an excellent book titled Doctoring Data. In this book he shows you how numbers get manipulated to justify decisions.
His particular interest is heart disease, and he questions the high cholesterol hypothesis in cardio-vascular disease. Consequently, he challenges the current enthusiam for ‘statins’ – a profitable business.
He has a new book on the subject.
There is one other topic which he observes to be off limits: vaccination. Just in the last week or so he penned a very interesting blog titled Vaccines – how did they come about?
And lo, homeopathy gets a mention…
‘Homeopathy is mocked’.
‘Vaccination is venerated’.
Yet, as he elucidates they have a common ancestry. How interesting.
The original use of cowpox virus to protect against smallpox actually follows the homeopathic principle of “like cures like” (law of similars). Today, the term vaccination has taken on other meanings.
Back to Humphries and Bystrainyk for clarification:
‘Vaccination: From vacca, the Latin word for cow: Inoculation of cowpox virus (orthopox vaccinia virus) with the intention of protecting against smallpox virus. Also known as cowpoxing.
Today the term has been used to describe many other types of inoculations: A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen, such as a bacterium or a virus, or of a portion of the pathogen’s structure that, upon administration, stimulates antibody production or humoral immunity against the pathogen.‘
Humphries S; Bystrianyk R, Dissolving Illusions (p22). Kindle Edition
As an aside, the Covid mRNA “vaccines” are further removed still from Jenner’s “vaccine” concept. Ne’er a cow in sight.
I return to the strange photo at the top of this blog, which shows a power line.
As Prof. Davis noted the pharmaceutical industry is a business and power and money as we all know are close bedfellows.
Alas there is not a lot of transparency (nor science) when power and money are involved. The issue reaches well beyond the matter of vaccines as comedian Russell Brand entertainingly explains on YouTube here.
Next time I’ll return to homeopathy with a reflection on the second book I read on holiday. Is homeopathy placebo or not?
By the way, if the subject of childhood vaccination interests you, I commend Dr Richard Halvorsen’s well researched book.
Finally, to do justice to the people of the Western Isles, there is rather more to see than power lines. Here is Tarbert (Harris) on a beautiful sunny day.
Disclaimer: I am a qualified professional homeopath and not a medical doctor. The NHS has many resources, and seeking the opinion of your GP is always of value.
Dibden Purlieu, Southampton