Prevent Disease – by Markus Heinze
Every hour, three children in the United States are diagnosed with type-1 diabetes (1). Type-1 diabetes’ incidence was very low in the first half of the twentieth century. However, became more prevalent, especially in young children, during the second half of the twentieth century and really began to surge during the past twenty years (1). Researchers also see a trend in the increased prevalence of other autoimmune disorders. Not only are certain autoimmune disorders increasingly common, but the autoimmune diseases, as a class, seem to be on the rise (2).
Since mass-vaccinating began, we’ve seen much higher numbers of autoimmune diseases in younger children, because–as the research shows–the adjuvants found in vaccines can overcome genetic resistance and cause the immune system to turn against itself. Let us take a closer look how vaccines can cause type-1 diabetes in your child.
From a Healthy Immune System to Vaccines to Type-1 Diabetes
Every single decision concerning our daughter was discussed, researched, and reconsidered. She was breastfed and bathed every day. We separated vaccines to ensure that her little immune system wouldn’t be challenged too much (back then I didn’t understand the effects of adjuvants in vaccines). She was fed healthily, and intellectually stimulated. By the time she was three, we marveled at her. We had done everything by the book, so what could go wrong?
Well, something went unnoticed. Silently, her own immune system began to attack her pancreas, and more specifically, the insulin-producing cells in her pancreas. As her pancreas began to produce less and less insulin, her blood sugars rose and caused her to be emotionally irritable and lose weight. We took her to the doctor and then to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital. There she was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes.What? We wondered. Diabetes? How is this possible? She isn’t fat. She has always been fed healthily. She has always been an active and healthy child. How can our child have diabetes?
Our daughter received her MMR vaccine on April 22, 2011, her second hepatitis B shot on June 15, 2011, her third hepatitis B shot on August 10, 2011 and her PCV13 vaccine in August 22, 2011. Ten days after her MMR vaccine she developed a severe rash all over her body. A few weeks after her second hepatitis B shot she started to become more emotionally irritable. A few days after her PCV13 shot she developed red hives covering almost every body part. She was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes at Children’s Hospital on September 27, 2011.
Soon we learned the difference between type-1 and type-2 diabetes. We were told that type-1 diabetes can strike any child, anyone, at any time, and has nothing to do with diet or nutrition. Type-1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder, just like asthma. Within Johanna’s immune system one or possibly both of the following scenarios happened:
- Her B-cells produced antibodies to “flag” her insulin-producing beta cells. The “killer” T-cells, which usually only kill foreign invaders, began to destroy her insulin-producing cells.
- Her “regulatory” T-cells did not distinguish between her own healthy cells and foreign invaders, therefore “allowing” the attack to happen.
Taking a closer look how vaccines can lead to type-1 diabetes I created a simplified visual followed by a description and more supporting research.
Regulatory T-Cells play a critical role in protecting the body’s own cells, such as the insulin-producing cells, from being attacked by the body’s own immune system. When we look at how vaccines work, it is fairly obvious that there has to be a connection between immunization and the development of type-1 diabetes. The antibodies secreted by B-cells circulate throughout the human body and attack the microbes that have not yet infected any cells but are lurking in the blood or the spaces between cells. When antibodies gather on the surface of a microbe, it becomes unable to function. Antibodies signal macrophages and other defensive cells to come eat the microbe. Antibodies also work with other defensive molecules that circulate in the blood, called complement proteins, to destroy microbes. The work of B-cells is called the humoral immune response, or simply the antibody response. The goal of most vaccines is to stimulate this response. In reality, many infectious microbes can be defeated by antibodies alone, without any help from killer T-cells (3). Vaccines, however, are designed to stimulate B-cells or B-cell functioning. B-cells produce the antibodies needed to attack insulin-producing cells.
“In 1991, the Italian government implemented a mandatory hepatitis B immunization program, requiring all children to receive the vaccine when they either reached three months or twelve years of age. No vaccinations were given at any other age to people in the study, and no catch-up vaccination program was implemented for children between those ages. In their study, the scientists measured the incidence of type-I diabetes in vaccinated and unvaccinated children from central Italy. They also measured the differences related to their ages at the times they were vaccinated. The overall relative risk of type I diabetes in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children was 1.34. This means that any children who received the hepatitis B vaccine would be 34% more likely to develop diabetes than unvaccinated children. While this overall risk of diabetes may not seem that great, the statistics took a dramatic increase in children who were vaccinated at age twelve. In that group, the relative risk was measured at 2.58. In other words, children who received the hepatitis B vaccine at age twelve were more than 2.5 times as likely to be diagnosed with type I diabetes as their unvaccinated peers. Based on their findings, the scientists concluded that children inoculated with the hepatitis B vaccine are at an increased risk of type I diabetes. They also suggested that “hepatitis B vaccine per se, or the timing of administration, must be reconsidered to reduce the risk associated with it” (4).
Several large studies conducted in the 1990s have provided convincing evidence that vaccines may be associated with the development of type-1 diabetes. In New Zealand in 1996, researchers saw a 60% increase in childhood diabetes cases after the country had a mass hepatitis B vaccination campaign from 1988 to 1991 for infants six weeks and older. Finland has had a vaccination programs for decades, and J. Barthelow Claasen, M.D., a former researcher at the National Institute of Health, has been documenting a vaccine-diabetes connection. In Infectious Disease in Clinical Practice, he reported that the incidence of diabetes in Finland was stable in children younger than four years of age until the government modified its immunization schedule. In 1974 a total of 130,000 children aged three months to four years received HIB or meningitis vaccine. In 1976, the government added a second pertussis strain to its pertussis vaccine. Between 1977 and 1979, the incidence of type-1 diabetes increased by 64% compared to 1970 to 1976. Overall, childhood diabetes increased by 147% in children younger than three years after all the vaccine changes were made (5).
Conclusion
What do I wish the most? That I had known about type-1 diabetes and vaccines before our child was vaccinated. I wish that as a parent, I would have known that this illness could strike my child, no matter how well I took care of her. I wish I had known that vaccines (or adjuvants in vaccines) have been implicated to cause autoimmune disorders.
Why wasn’t I told by our children’s pediatrician? Had I known about it, I would have done some things differently. I would have been more responsible and skeptical, not letting the government and health officials scare me into vaccinating my children. Hindsight is 20/20 vision, and the research journey I embarked on painted a clearer picture as to all that I could have done–or not done. I would not have vaccinated my child.
Sources:
(1) woodmed.com
(2) alternet.org
(3) niaid.nih.gov
(4) Pozzilli P, et al. Hepatitis B vaccine associated with an
increased type I diabetes in Italy. Presented at the annual meeting
of the American Diabetes Association, San Antonio, TX, June 13, 2000.
(5) books.google.com
Markus Heinze is the founder of Family Health Freedom Network. FHFN is a website dedicated to informing the general public about vaccine dangers as well as alternative and preventative health solutions. Visit his website at www.fhfn.org.
http://preventdisease.com/news/14/041614_The-Link-Between-Vaccines-And-Type-1-Diabetes.shtml