Cumulative Toxic Load

We live in a toxic environment. We go out on the street and there are fumes from cars. Our ecology is damaged by toxicity from factories and cars. In our food there are toxins primarily caused by factory-produced foods which are preserved in order to sell and make a profit, and to grow more food - not quality food - we use pesticides (chemical poisons). Particularly post-second world war we have increasingly ingested foods with toxins especially those people who eat fast foods. All of this could be called our toxic load.

Nature has given us the liver to cope with toxic load, but especially for those who drink the toxic load becomes too much, the liver packs in and dies - a simplistic model!

BigFood has food scientists, and they look at how to preserve the food in order to help with profits. How safe the food then is we don't know although there are some food regulations. However it is industry standard to accept carcinogens such as MSG and aspartame.

I think it reasonable to say that vaccines add to this toxic environment but before I go on I want to reiterate that with regards to epidemic vaccines this toxic environment is minimal compared to the benefits. Have the people who advocate changes to vaccines limited their own personal toxic load elsewhere first? Do they drive electric cars? As with all things the toxic load must be reduced, and as vaccines are compulsory scientists ought to be more circumspect about the toxic load. But to then suggest that the toxic load in vaccines is enough to warrant a choice not to be vaccinated is in my view preposterous.

However in general it is my view that science does NOT take enough care with toxins in our food and toxins in our medicines; profits in BigFood and BigPharma come first. Because of this I understand the questioning about vaccines but that questioning needs to be kept within the scientific community and not used as a divisive political weapon.

I will not take flu vaccines as in my view the vaccine adds to my toxic load. I have always had doubts about mercury in vaccines - thimerosal. With regards to epidemic vaccines I accept the thimerosal risk but with flu vaccines I don't. I note this woolly argument in John Oliver's good piece on vaccines. I have not observed BigPharma as having a policy that they respond to public clamour just to ease those fears, thimerosal in my view has some toxicity. Not enough to refuse to take epidemic vaccines - removed or not.

I have a completely different view about flu and the use of flu vaccines. I don't take the toxicity of vaccine slightly, and don't choose to take vaccines unnecessarily. For me the flu is an unnecessary vaccine. Who is concerned about flu? The employer. For many people the only time they have off work is for colds or flu, and the employers begrudge that. I believe some employers insist on flu vaccine for employees - disgraceful, that is a freedom of choice that should be fought. Come on libertarians - attack your paymasters. People have been sacked in the US at TriHealth and Essentia for not taking flu vaccines. If you are in health situations where you are in close contact with vulnerable people, I think the flu shot is reasonable. But in the case of Essentia they did not negotiate with the nurses; that is suspicious. But to be clear the flu virus is not known to be effective - CDC only 40-60% effective. Given the toxic load of the vaccine, I have to question the use of a flu vaccine and its imposition. Hence my proviso about the vulnerable.

I was a teacher and flu was a big problem but it should be noted that such absences were not simply flus but also colds; much time was lost because of these colds and flus. A flu will go round the school downing teachers and students alike. Students come back to school too quickly because parents have issues with care. Teachers are always under pressure to teach at whatever the personal cost, so during the cold and flu season the classroom is a cauldron; I know I always went back too early yet I resisted returning to work more than most teachers I think because I believed I should only be at work if I was capable of doing the job and when I was not a possible source of infection. I wonder whether 40-60% effectiveness would dent this problem.

I have no doubts at all that it is the 'cauldron' nature of the classroom that makes the situation far worse. Rather than treating the classroom as child-care provision, if it was seen as a place of education where teachers and students had to be feeling competent to learn, then I suspect flus would be less of a problem.

On a personal level I have always considered colds and flus as a measure of stress, it was not so much the contagion in the cauldron but whether my immune system was strong enough to cope. As a retired person I do not pick up that many flus - this was not true at one stage because of andropause, if it happens I take vit c and sleep it off - watching favourite movies. I don't see myself in a "CDC-vulnerable" group, and am not willing to fill myself with the additional toxins for a dubious benefit.

But that is me. Dr Mercola is against flu shots - look at this. He is concerned about the toxins present in the vaccines - similar to Vaccines Revealed, but he did not join their team whose integrity is compromised. He goes into more details as why specifically he is against the flu vaccine as opposed to epidemic vaccines. Here, Scientific American describes how they make up the vaccine. Dr Mercola describes the process similarly but he notes that even though it is flu season it is not one (or the most popular three) that we necessarily get for that season, we could get a different flu. His view, the flu vaccine is not very effective. So why take a flu vaccine that is not effective? And because absence might well be colds rather than flu, it would seem to be an ineffective imposition.

I don't like it but if you are working with vulnerable old people flu might not give you a problem but could well hurt the vulnerable. I understand why nurses want to refuse, and that is why I think it should be discussed with nurses' organisations. If the research and understanding is good why didn't Essentia negotiate? That is heavy-handed oppression, and to me indicates something else.

Within this issue of toxic environment there appears to be a weakness in the science - as far as I know. I am prepared to accept that when food scientists investigate the toxicity of their products, the side effects are within acceptable limits. However, how much investigation goes into cumulative toxic load in humans? The problem is not the effect of the individual toxic product but the cumulative effect of all the toxins in all products as well as dealing with environmental toxins.

The issue is not even that simple. I give you a case study I know well - me. When I was teaching I did not care about toxicity. When I was young I drank. Once I stopped drinking I did not care about diet too much - although I was mainly vegetarian for health reasons; now I eat meat to increase yang - yin condition was giving me heart issues. All my life I had migraines; I retired early at 54 - not for health reasons - with stomach issues, reflux, migraines and so on. I had hoped that my health would improve because I was not being stressed by the job, but it did not. After a year I was diagnosed with GERD, detoxed and went on a plant-based diet. Gradually my health improved. I consider stress was an important factor in my poor health in the job when I was older, but after retirement the cause was toxins. I had to remove the cumulative toxic load before I could be healthy.

To me it seems that one individual toxic cause such as vaccines is not the problem, it is the cumulative effect. Baby products tend to have stricter food regulations so there is limited cumulative effect there. But the baby gains its health from the mother, how much toxic accumulation does the mother have? Cigarettes and alcohol are discouraged in mothers, why? Toxic effect. Mothers are encouraged to eat healthy diets. Why? Toxic effects. So if there are toxic effects that can affect babies, can they also not affect adults?

Dr Mercola has his own system for detoxing and building up immunity - as described in the flu-shot article. In my view everyone should examine their own diets and attempt to reduce the cumulative toxic effect. Science also needs to do more about this cumulative effect. But to recommend a reduction with epidemic vaccine shots is completely irresponsible. With regards to flu vaccines I think the situation is different (except when in contact with the vulnerable and their weakened immune systems) as the benefits are nowhere near as clear. But the issue is not an individual toxic source but the cumulative effect, no one source can be blamed so the problem continues. What can we do about the control of the food science by BigFood and BigPharma? Nothing. But we can control the toxins we take in with our foods. One obvious method - a macrobiotic diet. But detoxing and reducing toxic intake can help. It can never be 100% but then Nature gave us livers. Do the best you can but at least try to reduce toxic intake - reduce the cumulative toxic load.