Dr Mansfield’s Blog

SHARP WORDS ABOUT VACCINES

10-05-2008

As one of the few doctors in the country willing to offer seperate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, Dr Peter Mansfield is a controversial figure in the medical world. In his first monthly update for The Stirrer he re-opens the debate on MMR, wonders why the French live longer, and chews over the vitamin debate.

News is managed very tightly in the UK. If it were not for a few news sites on the internet, I would not be aware that there have been deaths related to MMR or measles vaccine in India and in Bolton, Lancashire; that Merck has been asked to clean up its factory or risk loss of its vaccine producer licence; and that quite a stack of reports of adverse reactions to HPV vaccine is accumulating at the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

I would not even know that the GMC case against Dr Wakefield and his colleagues seems to be going their way. The baby in Bolton died last November in his cot, 48 hours after a dose of MMR had apparently made him feverish and unsettled. The Coroner recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.

There seems to be no doubt that in the USA people are allowed to know and discuss news like this, whereas we in the UK are not. Moreover, all three candidates for US President have pledged to conduct research into the role of vaccines in autism and other childhood illnesses.

One little bit of news did make it onto the local news this week, however. About 200 children recently received doses of MMR that had not been kept at the right temperature. Two have been revaccinated and others may have to be. (How was fridge temperature overlooked when the vaccine was taken from it? – it beats me.)

Against this kind of background I wonder just how much longer the Department of Health can go on like this. They are acting like drug salesmen, anxious to shift as much vaccine as they can. They refuse to acknowledge that mumps vaccine protection is temporary, so mumps infection has been high in teenagers and adults in recent years – 45000 cases in 2005.

British public health policy is determined directly by the share price of vaccine and drug manufacturers. Parents need to believe that, and take their families’ health in their own hands. Good food in a good home is their best protection. Where vaccines are concerned, less given later is definitely healthier.

What Protects the French? 

The French do everything wrong, according to British public health messages. They drink more than twice as much alcohol as we do, smoke more and eat more saturated fat. Yet they suffer only half as much premature coronary disease as we do, have half the level of obesity seen in Britain, and live considerably longer – twice as many in France make it to 100 as on this side of the channel, despite the population being about the same size.

I don’t think there is much mystery about this. They care much more about the quality of their food than we do. Good food does not just taste better and satisfy hunger more thoroughly, it also protects better against disease and degeneration. Scientists may struggle to grasp this, but it’s true.

Perhaps I have it in for received public health wisdom, but I’m perfectly certain we in Britain misunderstand food. Yet it is our principal asset for health. It stands to reason that an unhealthy plant or animal is less able to sustain health in the person who eats it.

It is an obvious and common experience that fresh food tastes and satisfies better. It may be less obvious but is nonetheless true, that live food conveys much more vitality than dead food, and vitality protects you from any kind of deflection from health.

This matters a great deal. Children who eat well are immune from bacterial meningitis because the skin of their bowel is perfectly constructed, and backed by a vigorous immune system, so that germs never get from the bowel or nose, where they are harmless, into the bloodstream where they can cause catastrophe.

This situation is not a matter of vaccination but sheer good feeding.

The other advantage the French have is far fewer citizens with Arctic ancestry. In this country about one in three cool down inappropriately overnight, as if entering hibernation. This slowing of metabolism means the daily minor wear and tear of the heart and major arteries does not get fully repaired overnight, and the heart ages faster than it should.

Besides their inheritance, the French enjoy more warmth and sunshine than we do, which makes hibernation less likely anyway. Brits who have the hibernation problem and move to France or Spain usually find that their metabolism improves, giving their hearts and arteries a longer lease of life.

    Vitamin Pills Harmful? 

Yes, they may be, because most pills contain vitamins and minerals in a chemically pure form. In nature they never occur like this. The process we call growth or metabolism produces tissue, a continuous web of substance with its constituents woven into it. In this form, which we call food, vitamins and minerals are always helpful to health and recovery from illness.

The particular vitamins that are supposed to shorten life are the ones bought by cancer victims trying to help themselves. Cancer victims die sooner because of their disease, not their pills. Supplements made from proper tissue (“food-state”, “bio-food” etc), work much better – just like food, in fact.

Check our more from Dr Mansfield at www.goodhealthkeeping.co.uk

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