Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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The Study Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy

The Autism-Vaccine controversy is not going to die off any times soon.  The pro-vaccine side says there are hundreds of studies debunking any link.  What I find most interesting, is that all those studies are in response to one little observation with 12 children back in the late 90’s.

The controversy has been heightened in recent days due to the scheduled showing of the film Vaxxed: From Cover Up to Catastrophe.

 

The part that interests me is that whenever the link gets mentioned in major news media outlets, the name Dr. Andrew Wakefield is included.  It’s not just his name, it’s the fact that his study of 12 children gets blamed on Dr. Wakefield starting the autism-vaccine link.  Not only is he blamed, there’s an immediate statement that his study has been tarred and feathered and anyone thinking of using it as credible evidence is just as much of a quack as Wakefield.

Let’s take a look at Dr. Wakefield’s study that turned the world up side down.  The study was only 12 kids.  The kids were sent to Dr. Wakefield, a GI specialist, not to diagnose an MMR link with the autism, but to assess the child’s bowels.  Here is a paraphrased version of it.

We investigated a consecutive series of children with chronic enterocolitis and regressive developmental disorder.

12 children (mean age 6 years [range 3–10], 11 boys) were referred to a paediatric gastroenterology unit with a history of normal development followed by loss of acquired skills, including language, together with diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Children underwent gastroenterological, neurological, and developmental assessment and review of developmental records. Ileocolonoscopy and biopsy sampling, magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and lumbar puncture were done under sedation. Barium follow-through radiography was done where possible. Biochemical, haematological, and immunological profiles were examined.

None had neurological abnormalities on clinical examination; MRI scans, EEGs, and cerebrospinal-fluid profiles were normal; and fragile X was negative. Prospective developmental records showed satisfactory achievement of early milestones in all children. The only girl (child number eight) was noted to be a slow developer compared with her older sister. She was subsequently found to have coarctation of the aorta. After surgical repair of the aorta at the age of 14 months, she progressed rapidly, and learnt to talk. Speech was lost later. Child four was kept under review for the first year of life because of wide bridging of the nose. He was discharged from follow-up as developmentally normal at age 1 year. In eight children, the onset of behavioural problems had been linked, either by the parents or by the child’s physician, with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination. Five had had an early adverse reaction to immunisation (rash, fever, delirium; and, in three cases, convulsions).

Asperger first recorded the link between coeliac disease and behavioural psychoses. (4) Walker-Smith and colleagues (5) detected low concentrations of alpha-1 antitrypsin in children with typical autism, and D’Eufemia and colleagues (6) identified abnormal intestinal permeability, a feature of small intestinal enteropathy, in 43% of a group of autistic children with no gastrointestinal symptoms, but not in matched controls. These studies, together with our own, including evidence of anaemia and IgA deficiency in some children, would support the hypothesis that the consequences of an inflamed or dysfunctional intestine may play a part in behavioural changes in some children.

We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described. Virological studies are underway that may help to resolve this issue. If there is a causal link between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and this syndrome, a rising incidence might be anticipated after the introduction of this vaccine in the UK in 1988. Published evidence is inadequate to show whether there is a change in incidence (22) or a link with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. (23)

Urinary methylmalonic-acid concentrations were raised in most of the children, a finding indicative of a functional vitamin B12 deficiency. Although vitamin B12 concentrations were normal, serum B12 is not a good measure of functional B12 status. (25) Urinary methylmalonic-acid excretion is increased in disorders such as Crohn’s disease, in which cobalamin excreted in bile is not reabsorbed. A similar problem may have occurred in the children in our study. Vitamin B12 is essential for myelinogenesis in the developing central nervous system, a process that is not complete until around the age of 10 years. B12 deficiency may, therefore, be a contributory factor in the developmental regression. (26)

We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction. In most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine.

The bold font is my emphasis.

And then the world lost it’s sh*t.

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My Crystal Clear Stance on Vaccines – Revised 2015

The Truth About Vaccines

Preface

I originally wrote a post in 2012 called 'My CRYSTAL Clear Stance on Vaccines (Which Aren't Immunizations)' at my old blog at www.DrKurtPerkins.com.  You've most likely been re-directed from that link to this site or from Health Impact News.  

I wrote the original post with the intent of saving time answering questions from parents on what I do with vaccines concerning my kids.  It was written, not as advice for what they should do, but why I am choosing to not vaccinate my kids.  I write this as a dad first and wanting to do what we feel is best for them.  

VaccinesIt blew up.  That post receives thousands of hits per day.  I have received comments of encouragement and gratitude for sticking my neck out and I have received comments wishing my kids would die from every 'vaccine-preventable' illness to 'teach me a lesson.'  The past 3 years have been a whirl wind.  

It's 2015 and times are changing fast.  Hesitantly due to all the back lash, I have decided to update this now in response to California passing mandatory vaccine laws.  Being in Colorado, I know these same mandates are coming down the pipe line, it's just a matter of time  What's ironic is that we're taught in schools to think independently and be problem solvers.  The reality is that now 'they', the government, will take away education to those that don't conform to their ideals and dogma.  

Is this ironic or just incongruent?  In any scenario, these mandates aren't going to do anything but drive more division and shouting between what the state requires and what parents think is best for their kids.  Those parents that have made a conscious and educated choice to not vaccinate are not going to stick needles in their kid's arms just so their kid can go to public school.

Is this the new segregation?  The vaccine topic gets as heated as race, religion, and politics.  

I don't care if you vaccinate... 

Let me continue to be crystal clear.  I honestly don't care if you vaccinate or not.  Your vaccinated child is not going to affect my non-vaccinated child.  My non-vaccinated child is not going to affect your vaccinated child, right?  If the vaccine works, you have nothing to worry about.  

I'm not recommending you do vaccinate.  I'm not recommending you don't vaccinate.  I'm recommending you take the emotion out of the decision and take action that you are comfortable doing.  The following are my decisions based on what I am doing as a dad, not as a provider.  My role as a dad takes much priority over my role as a doctor (even though many don't think I'm a 'real' doctor due to the designated initials after my name).  The irony is that when you want someone with the correct initials but have a differing opinion, you think they are a quack too.  

Be honest, you just want to back someone that you agree with, regardless of their training.   

As a parent, let's be honest, none of us are going to sacrifice what we think is best for our kids for 'the greater good.'  Even those that want mandated vaccines to 'protect' their child that cannot receive a vaccine for whatever reason aren't pushing for the greater good argument to protect those that can't get vaccines.  They are pushing for the greater good to protect their own child, which happens to be in the 'can't get vaccines' crowd.  Non-vaccinators choose their route to protect their own kid just like those parents that choose needles.  

We get heated with vaccines because we want what's best for our own kids.  If someone else is doing something different than how we would do it, it's taken as a slap in the face as not being a good parent.  If I don't want my kid eating cake at a birthday party, some other parent is going to take that as me being better and them being a bad parent for allowing their child to eat it.  Get over yourself.  Your friends choosing to vaccinate or not shouldn't cause you to get so emotional about the issue.  

Other families kids come second.  I'm going to choose my kid's welfare over your kid 100x out of 100. 

What I care about is that free-market healthcare decisions are slowly turning into state run mandates.  I firmly believe that a parent has the right to make healthcare decisions for their kids.  It's not just with vaccines.  The parent should have the right to do chemo or not with their child.  A parent should have a right to decide if their kids get chiropractic care or not.  A parent should choose whether or not to feed their kid twinkies or not.  

As a healthcare provider, mind you one that does not have the right to administer vaccines, these mandates set a precedent that your healthcare decisions are no longer between you and your doctor.  That decision now has a 3rd and potentially a 4th party involved in your decision.  One party is the insurance company, if you choose to use it.  The other party is the local government regulations.  If a doctor contracts with an insurance company, his/her recommendations are clouded by what the insurance contract allows.  

This vaccine mandate has set a precedent that your health choices are no longer between you and your doctor.  This will either drive people away from the doctor, knowing they are not getting unbiased advice.  Or this will drive doctors away from the practice, knowing they can't practice the science, art, and philosophy of their craft.  I don't know any doctor that got into their specialty to be told what to do.  

Physicians in California will now no longer be allowed to fairly and honestly explain the pros and cons of various vaccines to families. With the state legislature making medical decisions for families by threatening to exclude children from school, the physician-patient relationship becomes irrelevant. Dr. Paul Thomas MD

I know the intent behind these mandates is to try and limit perceived harm to the child, even with the best intentioned of parents.  The problem is that these mandates won't increase health outcomes.  These mandates are based on dogma and faulty interpretation of data that created vaccines as the savior of the free world.  

We already have real world examples.  Mississippi has the highest vaccine rate, lowest measles rates, yet the HIGHEST infant mortality rate in the US.  West Virginia also has strict vaccine mandates like Mississippi and their infant mortality rate is astronomical compared to California, whom now has just as strict guidelines.  

Infant Mortality rate

 

I'm not saying the vaccine causes the high infant mortality rate nor am I anti-vaccine.  I'm pro-health.  Shouldn't our proof of healthcare mandates be measured in health outcomes, not just the 'most vaccinated?'  Are we using science and outcomes to make these mandates or dogma?  If the the most vaccinated equals the healthiest, then I'm all for vaccines and vaccine mandates.  But this isn't the case.  Instead, as a dad, I play risk analysis with healthcare interventions with the ultimate measuring stick being 'healthy kids.'

 

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Shout Louder

I’m sure you have heard by now but California has now lost vaccine exemption laws.  In other words, if you don’t get your child vaccinated, you can’t bring them to day care or any public or private schooling.  You are vanished into the realms of home schooling and online charter schools.

Much of this policy was spear headed by the hysteria over the measles cases in Disney Land last year.  By hysteria, I mean fear and worry that much of our childhood diseases will be back to plague our kids and take their lives away.  But is that really the case?  Is it possible to take the fear and worry out of emotional decisions?

So far, the answer is no.  Each side just tends to shout louder.  If we could take the shouting away and focus on why we are afraid and worried, then I think we would have better communication from both sides of the vaccine fence, or should I say wall.  Both sides actually want the same thing.

Both sides want our kids to be as healthy as humanly possible.  The disagreement comes in how we achieve those results.  The pro-vaccine choice crowd has to shout louder since they don’t have the budget of all the organizations that want anti-choice vaccine.

As soon as you induce fear or worry, the logical, communication parts of your brain get bypassed in favor for the emotional limbic system.  It’s a fight or flight reaction.  You’re never going to look into the mouth of a Black bear and analyze his teeth.  “Maybe it’s an old bear and the teeth have all fallen out”….said no one ever that has survived a bear attack.   

Hysteria is easy when talking about health outcomes because there is that fear of the unknown.  

How do you take the fear out of a situation?  You have to take the emotion out of it.  This is easier said than done but very doable and possible.  Why fear is at an all time high is because our society has shifted towards a post-modern type population.  There are just as many millennials as there are Baby Boomers.  

A modern population is where information is valued over experience.  If I tell you not to touch the stove becasue you will burn your hand, you will most likely listen and obey. 

A post-modern population is when experience is valued over information.  In this case, I can tell you not to touch the stove but you are either going to find out for yourself or you will play on the experience of someone close to you before you believe me.  Either you have already burned your hand or you know someone that has already burned their hand and can tell you from experience not to touch the hot stove. 

I’m an analytical guy and I don’t like either scenario.  I get asked all the time how I am so confident in major decisions in my life?  It’s because I crunch numbers.  I mix the information to create my own first hand experience.  

Fear and uncertainty are relieved by authority.  Authority is training. -Ryan Holiday

If I am getting anxious about a decision or circumstance, I’ll start with worse case scenario and look at the actual odds of that happening.  In other words, I train.  

Fear and uncertainty are relieved by authority. Authority is training. -Ryan Holiday Click To Tweet

For example:  Many people make a decision to drive a motorized vehicle on a daily basis.  There is a risk to this.  The worse case scenario is death by accident.  You would think this would deter people from driving so much but it doesn’t?  Why?  Because the actual probability of death from a car accident is very minute.  Even the probability of death from drunk driving is lower than your probability of death from drunk walking.  

It’s estimated that there is 42,000 deaths each year from car accidents.  If our population is 315 million, that leaves you with a 0.013% chance of dying by car accident.  In other words, you have a 99.987% chance of living through your car ride.  I’ll take those odds in Vegas any day.  You take those odds every time you buckle your toddler into your back seat. 

Another scenario happened with my first child.  My wife had tested positive for Group B strep and they wanted to do prophylactic antibiotics during pregnancy and hold our baby for 2 days in the hospital for observation while dosing antibiotics, ‘just in case.’  Our provider kept saying that if we don’t do the antibiotics, there would be a 1 in 200 chance of death of our baby.  From an emotional standpoint, that sounds serious.

To my favor, my emotionless persona comes in handy.   

I bet we all know 200 people and to have 1 person die in that circle would hit close to home.  But when you look at the odds of it, it seems laughable.  They make a big stink at a chance of occurrence equal to 0.5%.  In other words, my child has a 99.5% chance of being perfectly fine.  Again, I’ll take those odds any day in any market. 

One of the most emotional issues that creates fear is infectious disease.  My generation (Gen X) is told we are ignorant because we didn’t see the devastation of polio and that by not vaccinating, we’re putting our kids in amazing danger of death and paralysis.  Worse yet, if we don’t vaccinate our kids, we are putting other kids at risk, even the vaccinated ones.  

Below is a screenshot from the CDC describing polio. Let’s analyze the numbers to dissipate fear. 


It says in the late 1940’s to early 1950’s, there was an average of 35,000 cases of polio.  I will assume this means 35,000 cases per year.  The population in 1950 was 150,000,000.  Therefore the chance of getting polio is 35,000/150,000,000 x 100 = 0.023%.  This is for the entire population, not just kids.   These numbers are also PRIOR to vaccine administration.   

In the first paragraph it states that 72% have no symptoms what-so-ever.  My questions is, how do you know these people had polio?  If you had no symptoms what-so-ever, what is the likelihood of you going to the doctor and getting tested for polio? 

Then it states that 24% have minor symptoms that look like the flu.  If you have a fever, sore throat, upset stomach and NO paralysis, do you automatically think you have polio?  Not a chance. Again, what are the chances of your doctor testing you for polio with that list of symptoms?

96% of the people that supposedly have polio have symptoms (or don’t have symptoms) that look nothing like scary polio.  Could the 35,000 number be inflated?  Could 33,600 of those 35,000 cases be something other than polio?  I won’t speculate, I’ll keep using the published numbers. 

1-5% develop aseptic meningitis.  Meningitis sucks.  It’s painful and you feel like you wish you were dead.  But it also states these people’s symptoms resolve. 

The scary thing is the ‘Less Than 1%.‘  These are the cases that experience paralysis.  They live but their lives are greatly affected physically and emotionally.  Of the 1% of the 35,000 cases, 5-10% OF the 1%, will die. These look like scary numbers because people just read 5-10% of people will die.  You have to read carefully. 

Let’s break the numbers down a bit and use all these numbers that are PRE-VACCINE to look at actual risk of getting polio and risk of choosing to not vaccinate. 

We have already established that your chance of getting polio prior to the vaccine was 0.023%.  In other words, in 1950,  you have a 99.977% chance of NOT getting polio at all and a zero chance of getting a vaccine to ‘prevent’ it.   

1% of polio cases (35,000 total) will be paralyzed.  1% of 35,000 is 350 people.  5-10% OF the 1%, will die.  5% of 350 is 17.5 people. 10% of 350 is 35 people.  In other words 17-35 people died each year of polio.  

Therefore your chance of paralysis from polio PRIOR to the vaccine is 0.00023% (350/150,000,000 x 100).  Your chance of DEATH from polio PRIOR to the vaccine is 0.000016% to 0.000023% (17.5 – 35/150,000,000 x 100). This goes for child or adult, they don’t specify.  

As the CDC says, your chance of paralysis increases with age, so it may be safe to say your chance of death increases with age since it’s the 5-10% of the 1% paralyzed. Maybe as adults, we should be more worried about getting the polio vaccine than giving it to our kids.  

Let’s compare that to your 0.013% chance of dying in a car accident in 2015 (when we have the strictest and strongest car safety regulations of all time).  You have a 565x to 812x higher chance of death from getting in the car to drive to the doctor to get the polio shot than you do by taking your chances of staying home and NOT getting the polio shot at all.  0.013/0.000016 or 0.000023%.  

I don’t disregard the pain and suffering of those individuals or families that experienced paralysis or death from polio.  I wish I could give them back their lives.  What kills me just as much is that a marketing campaign and governmental policy was created around the fear and worry of those individual’s experiences.  

I’m thankful for medicine in emergency situations.  Vaccines are not an emergency situation.  It’s not like they work immediately, hence the need for booster shots.  As a parent, you can take time to analyze the risks vs. benefits of the intervention and it probably won’t cost you anything.

I’ve never made a decision that I was proud of when fear or worry was involved.  Take time, analyze, and be comfortable with your decision.  The outcomes has to be ‘health.’  When we turn that into ‘most vaccinated,’ we get different results.

West Virginia and Mississippi have the strictest vaccine laws.  Mississippi has the highest vaccine rate in the US.  They also have the highest infant mortality rate, almost 100% higher than California.  West Virginia’s infant mortality rate is 52% higher than California’s.  Do we have to wait for California’s rates to match those other states with the strictest vaccine laws to change our health outcomes?  I hope not. 

I’m not saying the vaccines killed all the babies.  What I’m saying is that we’re making policy changes based on other states that have the poorest health outcomes.  Despite California’s high vaccine exemption rate, they have one of the best infant mortality rates.  It shouldn’t matter the vaccine rate if you can boast a low infant mortality rate or boast high health outcomes.  The problem is that policy makers put vaccine rate and health outcomes in the same sentence and it’s just not true.

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DPT Pregnancy Push

I had a conversation with a pregnant patient the other day.  She said her OB was pushing her to get the pertussis vaccine to protect her unborn baby.  She was very reluctant and hesitant but asked me what I thought?

You know what?  It’s doesn’t really matter what I think.  Let’s go to the literature. Here is the Tripedia – DPT Vaccine that I will reference as literature.  You can also get it off the FDA website.

DPT Pregnancy Push

When someone asks if they should get it, especially when it comes to pregnancy and unborn children, they are asking, “is it safe?” I can only answer, “I don’t know…but neither do they?”

This is from the document itself.  I do love that it says NOT to give it to pregnant women, yet OBs across the nation push this on unknowing expectant mothers.  If you’re searching for this statement, it’s on page 6, about 1/2 way down.

Pregnancy Category C Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with Tripedia vaccine. It is not known whether Tripedia vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproductive capacity. Tripedia vaccine is NOT indicated for women of child-bearing age.

Maybe you’re not pregnant but your pediatrician is pushing the DPT to your kids and you’re just not sure if it’s safe for the kids.  Again, look to the same literature.  This time, scroll down to page 11.

Adverse events reported during post-approval use of Tripedia vaccine include idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, SIDS, anaphylactic reaction, cellulitis, autism, convulsion/grand mal convulsion, encephalopathy, hypotonia, neuropathy, somnolence and apnea. Events were included in this list because of the seriousness or frequency of reporting.

I want you to key in on the ‘post-approval’ phrase as these are reported by you, the parent, to the VAERS database.  The real study for these vaccines happens when they are unleashed on millions in the general public, where they can’t control for certain factors.

The events were reported due to the seriousness or frequency of reporting.  It’s estimated only 10% of adverse reactions are ever reported.  There are many more reactions that get swept under the table.

Your kid might be fine after getting this shot.  Your kid might not be fine after getting this shot.  It’s your job as a parent to weigh the risks of the chances of getting Diphtheria, Pertussis, or Tetanus vs. the chances of having an adverse reaction like purpura, SIDS, autism, and seizures (notice how they use the word convulsion instead of seizure?).

I personally don’t care if you get shots or not.  What I care about is that you don’t make decisions blindly nor go into these decisions lightly.