VIRUSES, VACCINES, AND GENETICS
The information which follows is
gleaned from a number of places. It is a compilation of information I
gathered when we were contemplating the decision to discontinue all
vaccinations for our Bulldogs. The decision was not an easy one
partially because good information was and is hard to find. The
anecdotal information had me convinced but I wanted a better
understanding of the hows and whys of the whole vaccine issue this is
just some of what I found and my understanding of it.
If you are considering going no
vaccs with your dogs but haven't quite made the final decision maybe
the information here will help in your decision making If you have
already stopped vaccinating your dogs but just want a little more
information to support your decision or to help in talking with others
I hope this may help provide some of the information needed.
The
Nature
of
Viruses
"Curing" the symptoms of a viral
infection doesn't mean that the virus has been eliminated from the
body or even killed. Viruses are a truly unique life form. They have
been described as existing at or near the very core of the life force.
They might just as well be described as existing at a point which
exactly straddles the border between the world of the living and the
realm of the inanimate, lifeless one moment only to leap to life the
next and start reproducing and mutating when the conditions are right.
That is, when they have found a living cell in which to live. In this
way viruses might be likened to seeds, some of which have been known
to lie dormant for hundreds of years only to sprout and grow when
conditions are right.
A virus is possibly the simplest
form of life, a fragment of genetic material surrounded by a thin coat
of protein. The core of viruses is a "nonliving" entity, nothing more
than a piece of genetic information. When this "nonliving entity"
enters a body it penetrates the cell walls where it becomes a living
part of the cell. It is now, once again able to reproduce and invade
the nuclei of still other cells where it becomes a part of the
individual's own genes. By so doing it causes genetic change.
Numerous university studies have
shown that vaccines too are capable of causing genetic change. This
shouldn't be very surprising when one considers the make up of
vaccines.
When parasites such as worms and
single celled life forms such as protozoa, and bacteria; or fungi such
as yeast invade an animal's body tissues they are attacked by the
immune system, killed, and removed from the body as waste.
Viruses, on the other hand, because
they are nonliving entities, enter the body unnoticed by the immune
system and migrate into the very cells of the host where they remain
as part of the cell itself. These cells could be blood cells, bone
marrow or virtually any bodily tissue. As long as the altered cells
remain as part of the host, in this case our dogs, the virus continues
to threaten the health and possibly the life of the dog.
A virus can remain dormant in the
body for years and "reawaken" when the immune system becomes
compromised or is under the stress of trying to deal with a new
invader, a vaccine for example. Once a virus invades the body, whether
the individual initially becomes ill or not, the individual's health
remains in danger for as long as the virus remains in the cells. The
virus could suddenly, at any time, for no readily apparent reason,
break its dormancy and start to reproduce. This triggers the immune
system and symptoms of the disease begin to appear.
Viruses are virtually immortal.
That is they can remain dormant in even dead tissue for many years.
Recently, scientists were amazed to discover that they were actually
able to culture the viral crystals of the small pox virus, which they
found in a human mummy dating from about 1000 CE and infect living
cells with them.
Viruses cannot multiply outside of a living body. In fact, outside a
living body viruses can exist only in the form of microscopic crystals
apparently without life. While in this dry crystalline form, viruses
can't multiply. They just lie there or float there awaiting a new
host. Once the virus finds a living host, it invades, enters the cell
nuclei, "reactivates", subdivides, and produces pathology. It may at
some point well go dormant once again or continue to reproduce and
cause illness.
Something else very strange may, and
often does, happen. The virus can "mutate" into something seemingly
completely unrelated to the original virus. For example, the strain of
herpes commonly called (shingles) is believed to be a result of the
reactivation of the varicella (chicken pox) virus which has been lying
dormant in cells of a dorsal root ganglion (a section of nerve).
While chicken pox can occur at any age, it is most common in children
between two and eight years old. That means that shingles in adults
may result from the reawakening of the chicken pox virus which entered
the body 20 to 30 years earlier and just lay in wait to reappear with
its new identity and set of symptoms. Generally speaking this
reactivation is potentiated by some assault on the immune system; poor
diet, stress vaccination, or some combination of these. Obviously,
therefore, maintaining a proper diet, controlling stress, and keeping
the immune system in top condition should prevent this sort of
"reactivation" from occurring or at least prevent it from resulting in
any sort of pathology.
From
Virus to Vaccine--A Closer Look At Vaccines
To produce a viral vaccine viruses
are harvested and cultured on living animal cells in a laboratory.
They are then altered in one of several different ways ending up as
either "killed" or "Modified Live" vaccines. So now we are asked to
believe that they have gone from life threatening viruses to life
saving vaccines, even though it is known that some percentage of the
viruses so treated will not be "killed" or fragmented sufficiently to
render them "harmless". Something to keep in mind here is the very
peculiar characteristics of viruses and their ability to regenerate
from an apparently lifeless crystalline state to once again become a
living, invading, replicating virus. Often metamorphosing into a
different virus than the one which was originally injected into your
dog.
One of the earlier studies which showed that vaccinations may in fact
be changing the genetic structure of humans was done in September of
1971. In that study scientists at the University of Geneva made the
discovery that biological substances entering directly into the
bloodstream could become part of human genetic structure. It had
previously been discovered by Japanese bacteriologists that bacteria
of one species transferred their own specific antibiotic resistance to
bacteria of an entirely different species. Further studies by Dr.
Maurice Stroun and Dr. Philip Anker in the Department of Plant
Physiology at the University of Geneva, provided evidence that the
transfer of genetic information is not confined to bacteria, but can
also occur between bacteria and higher plants and animals. An article
in World Medicine, September 22, 1971, said "Geneva scientists
are convinced that normal animal and plant cells shed DNA, and that
this DNA is taken up by other cells in the organism."
As we are talking about vaccines,
the phrase, “biological substances entering directly into the
bloodstream could become part of human (or in this case canine)
genetic structure.” Is of particular importance because, of course,
vaccines are injected rather than entering the body the way the
naturally occurring virus would. This means that by injecting our dogs
with vaccines we are creating an even greater danger of the very real
risk of causing genetic changes in our dogs, genetic changes which
often lead to “chronic disease of unknown origin”.
Vaccines are simply "altered" viruses in a suspension of animal cells,
some preservatives, chemicals, and heavy metals. It doesn't matter if
they are called killed or modified live they're still viruses. If they
were not, they wouldn't work. Even though some vaccines are referred
to as "killed" they are not truly killed. They are instead
"inactivated". Inactivated simply means that in theory the virus
cannot reproduce, multiply, and create pathology. Whole-killed
vaccines are vaccines consisting of the entire virus that has been
"inactivated" in some manner, generally with heat, radiation, or
chemicals. Other drugs, chemicals, and heavy metals are also added to
the vaccines as adjuvants (antibody boosters) or as preservatives.
These include drugs, antibiotics, and toxic disinfectants. Included in
the list are neomycin, streptomycin, sodium chloride, sodium
hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum hydrochloride, sorbitol,
hydrolyzed gelatin, thimerosal (a mercury derivative) and
formaldehyde. Any of these may be included in the concoction and
injected into our dogs. Do we really want to inject these things into
our dogs?
Other vaccines are referred to as "Modified Live" vaccines. MLV
vaccines are made up of particles of live viruses that have been
altered in a laboratory by passing the virus through animal tissue
repeatedly to partially break it up and reduce its potency. The reason
for using only parts of the viruses in these vaccines is so that the
"attenuated" viruses will be "non-disease causing". That is, they are
alive, but are incapable of producing the SAME disease as the original
virus would have caused. Again keep in mind what has previously been
said about the nature of viruses. These live viral agents are fully
capable of reproduction within the cells of the animal into which they
have been injected. The MLV vaccines are generally preferred by the
medical community over the "killed" vaccines as they are shown to
produce better immunity.
Once injected into your poor dog they are there to stay unless some
treatment is used or change takes place to create an adverse
environment for the virus within the cells, the presence of antibodies
for example.
Something I haven’t touched on are the implications of the use of
animal cells and tissue for the culturing of viruses used in the
manufacture of vaccines, and they are numerous.
Studies conducted by Phillip Anker and Maurice Stroun revealed the
following: spontaneous release of DNA material from mammalian cells,
spontaneous transfer of DNA from bacteria to higher organisms,
spontaneous transfer of DNA between cells of higher organisms, release
of RNA by mammalian cells, and biological activity of released
complexes containing RNA.
The viruses used to create the vaccines are cultured on animal
(mammalian) tissue and are filtered through animal (mammalian) tissue.
In the process of doing this, some of the DNA and RNA from the animal
from which the tissue was taken are transferred along with the
modified virus used to create the vaccine. The same is true of any
bacteria or viruses which may be residing in the animal tissue.
First lets consider the consequence of injecting foreign animal cells
into your dog. Even if the vaccine works as it is supposed to to
prevent a specific illness we are still injecting the cells from
another animal into our dogs. The mere presence of these "alien"
cells, animal RNA and DNA - foreign genetic material could be and
often is enough to trigger an auto immune response. That is, once the
dog’s immune system identifies the foreign cells or bits of cells as
invaders it mounts an assault on them. If these cells are similar to
cells in the dog's own body (which, of course, most often they are)
the assault may also be directed at the dog’s very own tissues. The
result? AutoImmune Disease.
Next lets consider the possibility that the cells on which the viruses
were cultured or through which they were filtered were infected with
some other virus or bacteria. This virus or bacteria, or bits of its
DNA or RNA also gets included in the vaccine. It however has not been
inactivated or attenuated. This happens not infrequently though it is
not readily admitted to.
Finally we must consider all the known "side affects" and allergic
reactions to any of the multitude of ingredients in the vaccines. As
if all of that weren't enough there are still a couple of other
factors to consider.
As a breeder one of the most upsetting bits of information for me is
that these vaccines/viruses will be passed on to the offspring of our
dogs. as will the genetic change caused by the vaccines. Part of the
reason that this is so disturbing, is the fact that the virus may show
up in our puppies in a mutated form making it harder to diagnose and
treat. Mutated or not, it becomes part of the genetic makeup of our
dogs and any puppies we may produce.
Including all of this, and a good deal of anecdotal information, in
our decision making process, we made the decision to stop vaccinating
our dogs. The reason was much the same as that behind our deciding to
feed a BARF diet, it simply made good sense to us. You might arrive at
a different decision but I thought seeing the information we used in
making our decision might help in your decision making. Or if it's a
decision you've already made, then perhaps the information presented
above will add to your understanding of the issue or to your ability
to communicate your convictions to others.
I am still working at learning all that I can about this very
fascinating subject. If you have not looked into the subject of
viruses and vaccines perhaps this will provide the impetus to start.
If you are already familiar with the subject but could use a little
better understanding of the many aspects involved, perhaps this will
prompt you to continue to investigate the subject. Your dogs' health
and continued well being are at stake.
SOURCES "Natures Antibiotic, OLIVE LEAF EXTRACT"-- Dr. Morton Walker
Kinsington Publishing corp. 1997 "MAXIMUM IMMUNITY"--Weiner, M.A.
Gateway Books 1986 "COLOR ATLAS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES 3RD EDITION" --R.T.D.
Edmond; H.A.K. Roland; P.D. Welsby. Mosby-Wolf 1995 "PROFESSIONAL
GUIDE TO DISEASES", 5TH EDITION--Springhouse Corp. 1995 Countless
e-mails on lists such as jstsayno2vaccs and K9nutrition, telling of
personal experiences with vaccines, diet, and vaccine and diet induced
chronic diseases in dogs. Many web sites such as:
http://www.odomnet.com/vaccines/introduc.htm
http://www.asr-svcs.dircon.co.uk/wwwchc/
http://www.unc.edu/~aphillip/www/vaccine/dvm1.htm
http://justsayno2vaccines.naturesfarmacy.com/
and many more.
