Vaccination Not All Black and White | Richard Moskowitz, MD
So, let’s think about the measles. That’s a very good example because it’s a strong infectious disease, and it has a high fever, and then you get over it in a week… and I’m looking at that process, what’s involved in that. That’s a concerted outpouring of the entire immune system, the result of which […]
Sick is the New Normal
The alarming rise in incidence of chronic, inflammatory-type disorders among children cannot be fully explained by such theories as the hygiene hypothesis, poor eating habits or defective genes. Certainly, there is more to the root cause of food allergies, asthma, autism-spectrum disorders, type 1 and 2 diabetes, obesity, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) (otherwise known as fatty liver disease…
Fauci Says Zika Vaccine Coming by 2018
Director of the National Institutes for Health Anthony Fauci, MD announced this week that a Zika vaccine could be rushed to market as early as 2018. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has already launched two phase 1 Zika vaccine trials this year, including a genetically engineered vaccine. “I’m confident we’ll get a Zika vaccine, but it’s not going to be before 2018,” said Dr. Fauci…
C-Section Births Rising in the U.S.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cesarean section (C-section) births are on the rise in wealthy nations. In 1965, the U.S cesarean birth rate was 4.5 percent.2 Since then, the national cesarean birth rate has increased seven-fold. In 2009, the rate peaked to 32.9 percent and dropped slightly to 32.2 percent in 2014.2 Currently, one in three women give birth via C-section…
The Cost of Avoiding Vaccines: The Flawed UNC Study
A new study published in the journal Health Affairs pegged the cost to the U.S. economy of people opting not to vaccinate against vaccine-preventable diseases at $7.1 billion in 2015. The study, performed by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and funded by Merck & Co., based the figure on estimates of medical and lost productivity costs related to being sick.
Barbara Loe Fisher on the Importance of Balanced Cellular and Humoral Immune System Responses
Humans and infectious microbes have coexisted for as long as humans have walked the earth, and the human immune system has developed an efficient way of dealing with viral and bacterial infections. When infected with a microorganism, the body’s first line of defense is for the cellular or ‘innate’ part of the immune system to mount an inflammatory response. This response then signals the humoral or ‘learned’ part of the immune system to produce anti-inflammatory chemicals and…