Falling into the Planned Parenthood Gardasil Snake Pit

Published on December 4, 2017

4737 views

“With 80 percent of clinical trials failing to meet recruitment deadlines in the West, major drug companies are today conducting half or more of their trials outside the major markets, often in countries–like Nigeria–with poor human rights records and weak regulatory infrastructures. Pfizer’s Nigeria trial is unusually sensational and high profile, but its bending of the rules may be more the rule than the exception.” – Sonia Shah, author of The Body Hunters
“It is clear from the evidence presented in this book that the pharmaceutical industry does a biased job of disseminating evidence – to be surprised by this would be absurd – whether it is through advertising, drug reps, ghostwriting, hiding data, bribing people, or running educational programmes for doctors.” ― Ben Goldacre, Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients

The entire mess of questioning one vaccination – HPV, human papilloma virus vaccine known as Gardasil produced by Merck, and, Cervarix from GlaxoSmithKline’s labs – has opened up more than a Pandora’s Box for me. A viper pit I have been dumped into. I am facing a Medusa of sorts, a monster I already battled in other arenas, but I never thought I’d be up against it as a social worker for foster youth.

For four and a half decades, I have witnessed up close the Medusa of Disaster Capitalism and the Unfettered Military Industrial Complex as a reporter in the Southwest USA and throughout Mexico and Central America.

Today, that mythical Medusa’s many snakes as hair strands is most troublesome: I call it the Military-Surveillance-Fossil Fuel-Penal-Medicine-Financial-Education-Media-Pharma-Digital Industrial Complex. It’s turned into an all-encompassing monster.

That reality is a given for many of us who question authority, who see a world better served as non-hierarchical, non-patriarchal and earth/ecosystems/cultures focused. The reader can go to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or something like the Earth Charter and get a sense of how millions of us have not only a yearning for something more just than the current global financial Medusa running things, but we’ve worked for that social-earth-economic justice hard and long.

Fear of Advocating for Clients

One of the rights we hold as self-evident, supposedly held as a God-given American tenet, is the unrestricted ability for any person to find work to both help the person survive in this pay-as-we-go society and to, in some cases, help a person achieve some sort of self-worth and dignity.

The careers I have had include college instructor/faculty, newspaper journalist, community organizer and social worker. My work in the past seven years includes working with adults with severe developmental disabilities; with adults in a memory care facility as their educator and outings lead. I’ve worked to help adults in a sheltered workshop find competitive employment; I have worked with clients deemed homeless/addicts/felons to gain skills, services and employment on their road to recovery-reentry-resuscitating.

I was working a pretty cool job most recently as a social worker/case manager for an independent living program, a suite of services set up nationally for foster youth, 16 to 21 years of age, mainly to get them to finish high school and go onto college or trade school. My gifts as teacher, outdoor educator, world traveler, communicator, and creative soul aided me in making deep and profound connections to youth who have seen the underbelly of life and face many challenges tied to the disconnected nature of living sometimes in dozens of foster care homes. Exposure to drug use, pornography, drug dealing, violence, sexual assault and criminal acts are just some of the histories of these youth.

I worked hands on with youth one-on-one and in groups. I got to take them on outings like surfing in the Pacific and a four-day conference at a private university. I had some level of independence and developed great relationships with other professionals in state, county, city public sector jobs and with foster parents and the youth. The job also afforded me decent training in all sorts of areas, including trauma-informed care and motivational interviewing.

Sex Ed and Me

I came face-to-face, though, with the inner workings of Planned Parenthood, as in my first intersection with PP while training to be a facilitator for one five-hour curriculum attempting to get youth to understand the high risks associated with alcohol use and unprotected sex.

The specific training I had taken as part of my job description was focused on case managers becoming trainers, titled Sexual Health and Adolescent Risk Prevention (SHARP). My former employers, Lifeworks Northwest, a 46-year-old non-profit, receives thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood each year to allow PP to utilize our caseloads, youth, 16 to 21, characterized as high risk for homelessness, dropping out of school, substance abuse, pregnancy and contracting an STI, sexually transmitted infection:

“The goal of the Healthy Youth Collaborative is to reach youth by bringing evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs to scale. To achieve this goal, Planned Parenthood implements Healthy Youth Collaborative programming within each community, in four different settings including schools (middle and high school), health centers, community-based organizations, and juvenile justice facilities. A curriculum has been chosen so that there is an appropriate evidence-based program for each of these settings.”

I’m all for protecting youth and having myriad of ways to incite responsibility through education and modeling. What I found from the training was a bizarrely out-of-touch with current youth culture Planned Parenthood. I found the insistence to follow their curriculum word for word both interfering and hobbling. I also found a lot of condescension, and what I have seen in my many years working in educational circles: both a dumb-downing and infantilizing of many important aspects of a training or course.

While I have always supported the mission to help youth not face unwanted pregnancies, to have strong information and tools tied to sexual health and sexuality, and a place to obtain services for either preventing or curing STI’s/STD’s, I have also worked on the frontlines in El Paso as a volunteer escort for anyone seeking services at that Planned Parenthood. Those Saturday episodes found me face-to-face with angry, picket-bearing extremists who wanted to harass the women we were escorting in for family planning services. I even facilitated media workshops to that same Planned Parenthood on how to handle rough and pervasive anti-Planned Parenthood characters like those in the 1980s and ‘90s making headlines not only in the El Paso Times where I also worked but Time Magazine and the NYT.

Questioning Authority

Ironic, now, that just one month ago, I was in a PP second training, this time at the Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, and I was summarily not only banned from finishing the two-day course, Fundamentals of Sex, but I was then put on administrative leave in Portland by my former employer and then fired ten days later. I’ve pretty much exhausted the scenario tied to that banishment and termination here at Hormones Matter and other venues in the blog sphere.

I had no ax to grind with Planned Parenthood concerning training us – case managers — on how to communicate sex ed to youth. I expected to get through 16 hours of training with flying colors and a three-hour road trip back to Portland.

That did not happen, and Planned Parenthood – four trainers and two supervisors – contacted my employer to not only ban me from the second day of training, but fraudulently stated that I was against Western medicine, was untrainable related to the subject matter, and was a disruption to the learning environment for the other 39 students.

There wasn’t even a kernel of truth to what they stated to my former employer on Oct. 15; however, during my termination meeting Oct. 26, the HR director stated that “the trainers with Planned Parenthood stated you voiced your disagreement with vaccines.” The only voicing I did was anonymously, on paper, about Gardasil. Not vaccines in general.

The relationship between non-profits working with vulnerable youth, including homeless youngsters, and Planned Parenthood is more than just cooperative or symbiotic. My case exposes the fact Planned Parenthood’s falsehoods concerning my participation at a training led directly to my termination.

While I am currently receiving unemployment benefits after the Oregon State adjudicator contacted both my former employer and myself, and here are the findings below, I am really vulnerable on the job market because of the short duration as a case manager (six months) with Lifeworks Northwest when I was really committed for years on this job. The first thing coming to mind for prospective employers is “why such a short tenure with your previous employer?”

You ARE allowed benefits on this claim . . . .
Findings: You were employed by Lifeworks NW until Oct. 26, 2017 when you were fired because you received too many complaints about being unprofessional, confrontational and argumentative. This was not a willful or wantonly negligent disregard of the employer’s interest because there was no policy or rule violation. You deny the accusations of being a disruption to a training that occurred on October 16, 2017. Employer failed to respond to additional attempts to retrieve information.
Legal Conclusion: You were fired but not for misconduct connected with work.

They Say Follow the Money – How about Follow the Compassion!

Writing these articles does bring things into perspective, but anyone with a decent amount of psychological grounding will note that this journalistic process also opens up repeatedly the ludicrousness and trauma tied to what happened to me – wrongful termination without any due process.

I’ve used up my three “free” psychologist visits through the company’s EAP, employee assistance program. I’ve also reached out to a national legal firm on the viability of pursuing a case against Lifeworks Northwest but specifically Planned Parenthood.

I am disenchanted with the characterizations of me as unprofessional, confrontational and argumentative, since I was one of three males at a training with 45 total people, and also, I am working in a field – social services – predominately staffed and managed by females.

Given that, though, I still am following the money:

The 2015-16 budget from Lifeworks Northwest shows some of the money trail, i.e. revenue –
SERVICES BY CLIENT — $24,280,894
PUBLIC GRANTS & CONTRACTS — $16,645,143
CONTRIBUTIONS — $830,512
OTHER REVENUE — $220,952
TOTAL –$41,977,501

The money coming from Planned Parenthood to my former employer — which is money Planned Parenthood receives in the form of federal grant money largely from the Health and Human Services adolescent division – is significant in that Lifeworks NW has dozens of programs, and the Independent Living Program is relatively small so any funding coming into that program is significant.

What’s troubling is that I broke no policy, did not act bizarrely or unprofessionally, and did not engage in argumentative or combative behavior at the Planned Parenthood training, as the Oregon Employment Department’s findings belay –

“This was not a willful or wantonly negligent disregard of the employer’s interest because there was no policy or rule violation.”

The precipitating factor for Planned Parenthood essentially informing my employer that I was not trainable and that I was incapable of imparting sound, evidence-based sex ed information to my clients, was a handwritten suggestion/inquiry solicited by the trainers (stated by them to stay anonymous) after each of the seven modules. One of my two notes was a deep skepticism about one of Planned Parenthood’s money makers – the HPV vaccine, manufactured as Gardasil by Merck. I imparted disappointment that Planned Parenthood trainers were not even aware of or concerned about the negative press around Gardasil.

I never mentioned any disregard for the sex ed training, nor did I state I would not allow my clients to pursue getting any contraceptive or vaccine.

It was clear that the training was all about Planned Parenthood’s word on everything or the highway.

I am not a big fan of any forced (or group-think) hyper rah-rah-rah of any organization, or what I am now calling the “ich liebe dich Planned Parenthood uber alles in der Welt … I love you Planned Parenthood above anything else in the world” syndrome.

Of note, in my six months working with 40 youth, I was asked more than just occasionally about the safety of IUDs, birth control pills, the transdermal patch, Depo-Provera and once, the Gardasil series of vaccines. I encouraged those youth to check out the Planned Parenthood site and to use Google to find out if there were any large forums commenting on those products so my youth would have more information to make an informed choice.

Planned Parenthood never gave me a chance to meet with the three trainers and two supervisors to discuss their concerns. And, after the banishment, my former employer never sought testimony from me concerning my beliefs about contraception and abortion, nor did they solicit comments from two fellow case managers who were at the training with me to determine my participation and commentary at the training.

If the reader looks at the $16.6 million in public grants and contracts the Lifeworks non-profit received last year, ipso facto this large Portland non-profit depends significantly on money coming from the state, county, and US taxpayer in the form of Planned Parenthood.

It’s All About Language, Narrative Framing, Intent

“What, really, is a word? In its written form, it’s a great many things. It is a symbol. A representation of individual phonics that, when assembled in such a sequence, produces a gestalt. Rearrange the letters corresponding to those sounds, and you’ve eliminated or transformed that symbol. A word is an idea. Not simply a representation of an idea, but an idea in itself. The idea that what we think can not only be thought, not only expressed verbally, but also textually, a physical marking of the presence of thought — the evidence of its spatial existence.” — Daniel Choudhury, What’s Your Word Worth?

Before I go further, a quick glossary of terms should be inserted to help the reader see the context from which I am writing this third part of a series I could thumbnail title as “ My Run-in with Gardasil, Planned Parenthood, and a Culture of No Questions Asked – A Firing Story!”

Sacrosanct – An adjective is defined as anything (principle, place or routine) regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with.
Antivaxxer – A derogatory term used by industry to describe individuals who question vaccine safety or efficacy; typically parents of children injured by vaccines.
Planned Parenthood – A noun defined as a nonprofit organization that does research into and gives advice on contraception, family planning, and reproductive problems.
Big Pharma – A noun defined as large pharmaceutical companies (= companies producing medical drugs), especially when these are seen as having a powerful and bad influence.
Whistleblower – A noun defined as a person who tells someone in authority about something illegal that is happening, esp. in a business or government.

Of course, I could insert the Urban Dictionary’s definitions of these items, and I certainly could link profoundly to various narratives around the mission, vision, and history of Planned Parenthood, what I would call the good, the bad and the ugly of its roots in the 1920’s with Margaret Sanger, a slew of eugenicists, and its oddly racist backers of contraception and sterilization. Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921, and 21 years later changed its name to Planned Parenthood.

Note that I am now in dangerous territory for many readers – the sacrosanct right to seek contraceptive and abortion services. In some ways, I have crossed that line in the sand by criticizing that Sacred Cow in the minds of many, Planned Parenthood.

I am really just attacking the malfeasance and unethical behavior and then treatment of me as a human being in the context of a Planned Parenthood training. I didn’t even get out of the gate, so to speak, with an adult, robust, discussion about the HPV, cervical cancer, the vaccine and its risks.

Almost everything now that I written about Big Pharma-GSK-Merck-HPV Vaccine-Planned Parenthood came AFTER I was fired on the word of Planned Parenthood staff.

Like this doozy – the 2017 Lasker Awards (sort of dubbed the US Nobel Prize) was given to Planned Parenthood and the developers of the HPV vaccine September of this year:

The winners “are being honored for their work in basic and clinical medical research and in public service,” Claire Pomeroy, MD, president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, said at a teleconference today.
Douglas R. Lowy, MD, and John T. Schiller, PhD, both from the National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland, won the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for a major advance that improves the lives of many thousands of people. Their research centers on the development of HPV vaccines that prevent cervical cancer and other tumors caused by HPVs.
Planned Parenthood won the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award for providing vital health services and reproductive care to millions of women for more than 100 years.

The Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award comes with a $250,000 award for each winner. Planned Parenthood in 2012 received 45 percent of its revenues from government health services grants and reimbursements. Now that’s around 35 percent of their revenue stream. In addition, in 2012, 16 percent of revenues were tied to non-medical programs.

From 1939 to 1942 Margaret Sanger was part of the Birth Control Federation of America alongside Mary Lasker and Clarence Gamble in the Negro Project, an effort to deliver birth control to poor black people.

I know my research into Big Pharma’s duplicitous, double-dealing and dangerous schemes is not as risky as throwing down criticism of Planned Parenthood. At Hormones Matter, maybe the idea of questioning Gardasil and Cervarix or even the birth control pill, especially by a white male, also is not dangerous territory.

The reality of how suspect, dangerous and medically unnecessary the HPV vaccine is also puts me into a league of its own vis-à-vis the antivaxxer campaigners, a title I have never adopted or will adopt. I never expected this pebble into the pond – my superficial questioning a vaccine – to turn into a tsunami-like rippling effect in my life.

Vaccines, Science, Anti-Science, Marketing, Propaganda, Resistance to Business as Usual a la Big Pharma

Interestingly, during my research, I came across a story out this February about a meteorologist who questioned the safety of vaccine schedules and chemical ingredients being fired, and hit with the Scarlet Letter, A, as an Antivaxxer.

Did WGBH News hire a science reporter who doesn’t believe in science?
That’s the question being asked by some employees of the PBS affiliate after learning that Mish Michaels, a former meteorologist at WBZ-TV who has been outspoken in her controversial belief that vaccines cause autism, had been hired as the station’s new science reporter.
Among those who wondered whether Michaels was right for the job was Jim Braude, host of WGBH News’s “Greater Boston,” for which Michaels was supposed to report stories. We’re told that Braude this week raised his concerns with station bosses, including WGBH News GM Phil Redo and “Greater Boston” executive producer Bob Dumas, and they have since changed their minds.
“The decision was made that [Michaels] is not a good fit for ‘Greater Boston’ and she won’t be working there, Braude stated.

Most of the 240 comments on the Boston Globe website that carried the news were stinging like this one:

cra-cra-in-sherborn: 02/08/17
Vaccines work because of herd immunity. Everything has risks and benefits and with vaccines the benefit outweighs the risk. What gets me is the antivaxxies lost in the world of narcissistic oblivion who decide they don’t want to take the small risk of vaccinating their kids and mooch off the herd immunity that everyone else created by vaccinating their own kids. If everyone opted out we would all have measles mumps and small pox.
Vaccines should be required for school entry no exceptions. Or home school your kids.

or this one:

mauthedog: 02/09/17
Through work over the last thirty years I’ve made friends across the United States. A few are anti-vaxxers. They constantly share anti-vaxxer posts on Facebook. Over the last couple of years I’ve noted how they have started attacking the “herd” theory and even attacking flu shots.
Most of them are quite religious. Several are right-wing evangelical Christians. They are generally anti-science.
During a FB discussion, one wrote to me how I “chose Science over God.” I didn’t realize there was a choice.
You can’t reason with them. Facts don’t matter. They’ve told me—-Tests can be faked. The CDC is a profit center. It’s about money, not safety. The government is helping big pharma. The government is covering it up.
And so on.
I fear under the current administration, this quackery will grow worse.

Using one giant latex brush, then, by questioning the safety of Gardasil at a Planned Parenthood training, I am now being painted with that same broad stroke into the same corner as the anti-evolution, anti-science “quacks or loonies” or whatever pejorative is the flavor of the digital hour.

Talk of the herd effect is now parlayed into the “rule of the mob,” as everyone, including mainstream and progressive media, attack anyone who dares question Gardasil or the MMR — all the scientists and researchers making a connection with vaccinations like HPV to physical (and brain specific) injuries are vilified. Or the fact that Merck has paid out millions of dollars (and we don’t have all the dollars tied to really how much Merck is shelling out because of courts awarding damages are tied to non-disclosure provisos) gets swept under the rug as “nuisance lawsuits”?

Yet, the story of HPV vaccine and injuries and deaths keeps coming around: Japan pulls Gardasil off the shelves three years ago. A lawsuit, class action, followed this move:

Lawyer Masumi Minaguchi, a representative from the planned lawsuit’s defense team, told a news conference in Tokyo the victims will file the suit sometime after June against the central government, GlaxoSmithKlien PLC, the maker of Cervarix, and Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., the maker of Gardsil, at four district courts in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka.
“The victims wish to live a peaceful life and prevent further suffering by finding out the truth (about the vaccine side effects),” Minaguchi added.
She said the defense team will seek additional plaintiffs to join the lawsuit by holding seminars in April and May. Currently, 12 plaintiffs are taking part in the suit, according to Minaguchi.
Saitama Prefecture resident Nanami Sakai, who plans to be one of the plaintiffs, was one of four to attend the news conference. The 21-year-old, who was given Cervarix twice in 2011, said she did not receive information about the pros and cons of the vaccine before receiving the injections.
“I’d like to know why I was left scarred by the vaccine, why I was not able to receive proper treatment right away and why my situation was not adequately conveyed to the state,” Sakai said.
Sitting in a wheelchair, Sakai said she has numbness in the right side of her body, back and around her chest.

And what about in Colombia, and the injured, dead and lawsuits there tied to HPV vaccine?

Lloyd Phillips, an American researcher of infectious diseases and genetics, has studied the adverse effects of Gardasil for five years. His work has revealed how Gardasil works differently in different people. He has documented related and biologically plausible mechanisms of action which could cause the many serious and life-threatening side effects which are being reported by girls and young women around the world after receiving the HPV vaccine.
In Colombia we have a potential crisis of major proportions resulting from the use of Gardasil because it is “free and compulsory” by “Law of the Republic”. It is assumed that this HPV vaccine is effective when used to combat cervical cancer, which can be caused by human papilloma virus. However, this vaccine has been hotly debated internationally for allegedly being dangerous and ineffective. It is currently being administered in Colombia without obtaining informed consent from young girls and their parents as to the potential and unknown risks of use.

Is the Ending Full-Circle Back to Bad Pharma and Big Non-profits?

So where does the next installment — part four — go now after not getting to the two big definitions left in my glossary – Big Pharma and Whistleblower? There are literally thousands of documents out there from researchers and scientists and whistleblowers on just what is happening to the human population tied to the vaccine for HPV, let alone those other mandatory childhood vaccinations we are supposed to get for our children before they turn three.

Listening to hours of radio shows on the blog-sphere, and viewing hours of interviews and documentaries on the internet and Netflix, I may sound jaded or exhausted, but alas, I am not. The only way through this is to keep up some hope that change is possible, whether as a climate-environment activist or social worker. Writing is just one rung in the ladder helping me and I hope you, kind reader, get above the miasma and smoke and mirrors our Western For-Profit Medical Industrial Complex has deployed with their endless billions for lobbying and marketing and subterfuge and obfuscation.

Keep reading until Part Four comes out.

“No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer.” — Thomas Browne
“Big Pharma needs sick people to prosper. Patients, not healthy people, are their customers. If everybody was cured of a particular illness or disease, pharmaceutical companies would lose 100% of their profits on the products they sell for that ailment. What all this means is because modern medicine is so heavily intertwined with the financial profits culture, it’s a sickness industry more than it is a health industry.” ― James Morcan, The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy

HPV Vaccine Debate — Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Gardasil Scandal Brewing in Colombia
Four Year Analysis of Adverse Reactions to Gardasil
Gardasil Syndrome
Clinical Trials
In The Know w/ Lloyd W. Phillips (he starts talking at 10:53 into the interview)
Vaccines/Gardasil

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Vitamin D Plays an Integral Role in Adaptive Immunity

by Susan Rex Ryan

Published on November 28, 2017

4367 views

Severe Adverse Reactions Include Vitamin D Deficiency and Autoimmunity

Hormones Matter researchers discovered that, inter alia, severe adverse reactions to any of the surveyed drugs trigger significant but varying autoimmune responses. Moreover, the research revealed an underlying consistency involving all reviewed drugs: vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D Helps Regulate the Adaptive Immune System

The adaptive immune system comprises the body’s intricate network of antibodies and special types of white blood cells (called sensitized lymphocytes ) to thwart new and previous invaders including viruses, bacteria, and drugs. When the adaptive immune system is not strong enough to endure external disruptions such as severe side effects of drugs, it can go awry by signaling antibodies and sensitized lymphocytes to attack healthy cells. This response is called autoimmunity—when the adaptive immune system’s cells do not recognize previous invaders and designate healthy cells as those invaders. In other words, the body’s immune cells attack its own healthy cells.

Scientific research over the past three decades solidifies the connection between vitamin D and autoimmunity. Vitamin D plays an integral role in the regulation of the adaptive immune system. Adequate vitamin D in our bodies can protect us from autoimmunity because adaptive immune cells contain vitamin D receptors (VDRs). These receptors are attached to the surface of the adaptive immune system’s antibodies and sensitized lymphocytes. The VDRs act as “gate keepers” by signaling what external substances, e.g., components of medications, can enter a cell. The VDRs must be replete with vitamin D to effectively regulate adaptive immunity. When the VDRs receive adequate amounts of vitamin D, they enable the adaptive immune system to function properly by attacking new and previous invaders.

When the VDRs attached to the adaptive immune system’s cells do not contain sufficient vitamin D to attack invaders, autoimmunity may kick in, causing the death of healthy immune cells. Thus, low vitamin D levels can lead to autoimmune diseases including thyroid disorders such as Hashimoto’s and demyelinating diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS).

Vitamin D and Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

The Real Women, Real Data research also uncovered another consistency among severe adverse reactions to the reviewed drugs: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease caused by abnormal cells constantly assaulting the thyroid gland
.
Vitamin D receptors are present in the thyroid as well as the pituitary, the pea-shaped gland that controls the thyroid. Not surprisingly, low levels of serum vitamin D have been linked to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, according to recent Turkish medical research:

Published in a 2013 issue of the journal Endocrine Practice, a study conducted at a training and research hospital in Ankara demonstrated that serum vitamin D levels of female chronic Hashimoto’s patients were significantly lower than healthy subjects. Furthermore, the researchers discovered a direct correlation between serum vitamin D levels and thyroid volume as well as an inverse correlation to the antibodies involved in the thyroid.

Researchers at Medeniyet University’s Goztepe Education and Research Hospital in Istanbul learned that 92 per cent of their 161 Hashimoto’s thyroiditis cases had serum vitamin D levels lower than 30 ng/mL (12 nmol/L), a value characterized as “insufficient.” Published in a 2011 issue of the journal Thyroid, the study reports an association between vitamin D insufficiency and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Vitamin D and Demyelinating Disorders

Another disturbing outcome of the Real Woman, Real Data research is the reporting of neurological and neuromuscular symptoms, many which of are consistent with demyelinating disorders such as MS, an autoimmune disease. The development of MS occurs when a poorly functioning, adaptive immune system gradually attacks the protective covering of the nerve cells (called the myelin sheath) of the brain and spinal cord. This potentially debilitating process is called demyelination.

Scientific—primarily epidemiological—research indicates an association between vitamin D levels and the risk of developing a demyelinating disorder such as MS. VDRs exist on nerve cells and the myelin sheath. When the VDRs receive adequate amounts of vitamin D, they help protect the integrity of the myelin sheath. However, when the VDRs do not contain sufficient vitamin D, autoimmunity may occur, resulting in the death of healthy nerve cells. Numerous clinical trials are underway to assess the connection between vitamin D status and the likelihood of developing demyelinating disorders.

Low Vitamin D: The Chicken or the Egg?

The connection between low vitamin D status and the development of autoimmune disease is genuine. However, medical research has not yet determined if vitamin D deficiency plays a role in the development of autoimmune disease, if low vitamin D levels are a consequence of the disease itself, or if vitamin D deficiency acts as both a cause and effect. The authors of the aforementioned 2013 Hashimoto’s study concluded,

“Finally, our results suggested that there may be a causal relation between vitamin D deficiency and development of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. On the other hand, there might be a possible relation between severity of vitamin D deficiency and progression of thyroid damage. However, further studies are needed especially about the effects of vitamin D supplementation on prevention and/or progression of autoimmune thyroid disease.”

Proactive Protection against Severe Adverse Reactions

We could wait years (or decades) to garner the results of further scientific studies and clinical trials to define the exact relationship between vitamin status and severe adverse reactions to vaccines and medications that culminate in autoimmune disorders. Or we could be proactive by taking daily vitamin supplements and enjoying moderate sunlight exposure to increase our vitamin D levels.

It is imperative to take enough vitamin D3 so this essential nutrient will be stored in your cells to help regulate your immune system. The greater your serum vitamin D level (easily obtained from a simple blood test called 25(OH) D, the more likely you will benefit from a stronger immune system that protects your body’s cells from attacking one another.

No one wants to endure severe adverse reactions to drugs such as Gardasil and Lupron, let alone an autoimmune disease. Attaining and maintaining adequate supplementation provides a safe, easy, and inexpensive approach to improved preventive health. By empowering yourself with adequate vitamin D, you may reap the benefits of avoiding disease and enjoying better quality of life.

This article was published previously on Hormone Matter in September 2013.

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Thoughts on Inflammation, Vaccines and Modern Medicine

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on September 28, 2017

5111 views

One of the core components of an HPV vaccine adverse reaction inevitably includes some degree of seemingly unexplainable but observable brain inflammation and white matter disintegration. The brain inflammation falls under a number of different names and diagnoses, some are regionally specific, cerebellar anomalies for example, while others demarcate a more diffuse injury including, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), sometimes known as chronic fatigue, multiple sclerotic (MS) type lesions and, the newest and perhaps more prescient among them, a set of conditions designated as Autoimmune/Inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants or ASIA that denote chronic inflammation both centrally and peripherally relative to vaccine adjuvant exposure.

Is the Brain Immune Privileged?

Despite the observance of brain inflammation in many post HPV vaccine victims, many practitioners, and indeed, the FDA and CDC, seem loathe to recognize that an aluminum lipopolysaccharide adjuvanted virus vector might induce a neuro-inflammatory response, leaving patients with little recourse post injury. The difficulties attributing brain inflammation to a vaccine reaction stem from a long held belief that the blood brain barrier is stalwart in its protection against peripheral trespassers. The brain has long been considered, ‘immune privileged’ having little to no communication with peripheral immune function. Indeed, the perceived impenetrableness of the blood brain barrier is so extensive that brain-body separation might as well be complete, with a brain in bottle and a decapitated body.

Logically, we know this cannot be true. There must be crosstalk between the immune systems of brain/central nervous system and that of the body. How else could we survive if the two modalities were segregated so completely? It turns out, that logic may be prevailing. A decade of research suggests that the long held notion brain immune – privilege is completely and utterly incorrect. Indeed, the immune system not only guides early neurodevelopment (and so mom’s immune function matters) but communicates and affects brain morphological changes chronically. Likewise, signals from the brain continuously influence peripheral immune function.

The immune system appears to influence the nervous system during typical functioning and in disease. Chronic infection or severe illness may disrupt the balance of normal neural–immune cross-talk resulting in permanent structural changes in the brain during development, and/or contributing to pathology later in life. The diversity, promiscuity, and redundancy of “immune” signaling molecules allow for a complex coordination of activities and precise signaling pathways, fundamental to both the immune and nervous systems.

It should not be surprising then, that nutrient status and toxicant exposures in the periphery, in the body, affect central nervous system function and are capable of inducing brain inflammation and vice versa. And yet, it is; perhaps even more so than any of us realize.

Re -Thinking Brain Inflammation

When one reads through the definitions, research and case reports of ADEM, ME, MS or other instances of brain inflammation, the notion that biochemical lesions in the periphery are linked to observed neuro-inflammatory reactions is far from center stage. Nevertheless, if we can accept the premise what happens in and to the body does not stay in the body, then we can begin to re-frame our approach to brain inflammation. Specifically, we can look at inflammation more globally and ask not only what triggers inflammation, but allows inflammation to persist chronically, regardless of its location. If there is an on-going peripheral inflammatory response, is it not prudent to suspect that a similar response might be occurring within the central nervous system, even if our imaging tools are not yet capable of visualizing the inflammation; even if it is too premature to observe demyelination, neuronal, axonal swelling or other telltale signs of chronic brain inflammation? I think it is.

Vaccine Adjuvants: A Pathway to Brain Inflammation

With the HPV vaccine, and indeed, any vaccine, the deactivated viral vectors come with a cocktail of additional chemical toxicants and a metal adjuvant to boost the recipient’s immune response, as measured by the increase in post vaccine inflammatory markers. It is believed that without these adjuvants (and data back this up), the recipient’s immune response is insufficiently activated to merit ‘protection’ against the virus. The strength or size of the immune response is then equated with success and protection.

By this equation, an excessive immune response that continues chronically and is eventually labeled ‘autoimmune’ as innate systems begin to fail, is in some way not a failure or side effect, but an example of extreme success; the larger the immune response, the stronger the vaccine. And so, skewed as this observation may seem, within the current vaccine-paradigm there can be no ‘side-effects’, not really. By design, there should be inflammation, even brain inflammation; the more the better. Also by design, metal, lipid soluble, adjuvants cross the blood brain barrier and directly induce brain inflammation. To say vaccines don’t or somehow couldn’t induce brain inflammation is ignorant, if not, utterly negligent, and quite simply, defies logic. Again, for prudence and safety, shouldn’t we assume that an inflammatory reaction in the body might also ignite some concordant reaction in the central nervous system?

Why Aren’t We All Vaccine Injured?

What becomes apparent though, is even with exposure to the most toxic brew of vaccines, not all who receive vaccines are injured, at least observably. (I would argue, however, even those who appear healthy post vaccine, had we the tools to observe brain inflammation more accurately, would show a central inflammatory response, at least acutely, and likely, progressively). So what distinguishes those individuals who seem fine post vaccine, particularly post HPV vaccine, from those who are injured severely and sometimes mortally?

More and more, I think that the fundamental differences between vaccine reactors and non-reactors rest in microbial and mitochondrial health. Indeed, all vaccines, medications, and environmental toxicants damage mitochondria, often via multiple mechanisms, while altering microbial balance. Whether an individual can withstand those mitochondrial insults depends largely upon a balance struck among three variables: 1) heritable mitochondrial dysfunction, genetic and epigenetic; 2) the frequency and severity of toxicant exposures across the lifetime; and 3) nutrient status. Those variables then, through the mitochondria, influence the degree and chronicity of inflammation post vaccine. With the HPV vaccine in particular, the timing of the vaccine, just as puberty approaches and hormone systems come online, may confer additional and unrecognized risks to future reproductive health.

Mitochondria and Microbiota

The mitochondria, as we’ve written about on numerous occasions, control not only cellular energy, but cell life and death. Every cell in the body, including neurons in the brain, require healthy mitochondria to function appropriately. Healthy mitochondria are inextricably tied to nutrient concentrations, which demand not only dietary considerations but balanced gut microbiota. Gut bacteria synthesize essential nutrients from scratch and absorb and metabolize dietary nutrients that feed the mitochondria. Indeed, from an evolutionary perspective, mitochondria evolved from microbiota and formed the symbiotic relationship that regulate organismal health. Disturb gut bacteria and not only do we get an increase in pathogenic infections and chronic inflammation, but also, a consequent decrease in nutrient availability. This too can, by itself, damage mitochondria.

When the mitochondria are damaged, either by lack nutrients and/or toxicant exposure, they trigger cascades of biochemical reactions aimed at conserving energy and saving the cell for as long as reasonably possible. When survival is no longer possible, mitochondrial sequestration, and eventually, death ensue, often via necrosis rather than the more tightly regulated apoptosis. Where the mitochondria die, cells die, tissue dies and organ function becomes impaired. I should note, as steroid hormone production is a key function of mitochondria, hormone dysregulation, ovarian damage and reduced reproductive capacity may be specific marker of mitochondrial damage in young women.

Mitochondria and Inflammation

Mitochondria regulate immune system activation and inflammation and so inflammation is a sign of mitochondrial damage, even brain inflammation. Per a leading researcher in mitochondrial signaling:

The cell danger response (CDR) is the evolutionarily conserved metabolic response that protects cells and hosts from harm. It is triggered by encounters with chemical, physical, or biological threats that exceed the cellular capacity for homeostasis. The resulting metabolic mismatch between available resources and functional capacity produces a cascade of changes in cellular electron flow, oxygen consumption, redox, membrane fluidity, lipid dynamics, bioenergetics, carbon and sulfur resource allocation, protein folding and aggregation, vitamin availability, metal homeostasis, indole, pterin, 1-carbon and polyamine metabolism, and polymer formation.
The first wave of danger signals consists of the release of metabolic intermediates like ATP and ADP, Krebs cycle intermediates, oxygen, and reactive oxygen species (ROS), and is sustained by purinergic signaling.
After the danger has been eliminated or neutralized, a choreographed sequence of anti-inflammatory and regenerative pathways is activated to reverse the CDR and to heal.
When the CDR persists abnormally, whole body metabolism and the gut microbiome are disturbed, the collective performance of multiple organ systems is impaired, behavior is changed, and chronic disease results.

Reducing Inflammation

Instinctively, we think reducing inflammation pharmacologically, by blocking one of the many inflammatory pathways, is the preferred route of treatment. However, this may only add to the mitochondrial damage, further alter the balance of gut microbiota and ensure increased immune activation, while doing nothing to restore mitochondrial and microbial health. In emergent and acute cases, this may be warranted, where an immediate, albeit temporary, reduction in inflammation is required. The risk, however, is that short term gains in reduced inflammation are overridden by additional mitochondrial damage and increased risk of chronic and/or progressive inflammation. The whole process risks becoming a medical game of whack-a-mole; a boon to pharmaceutical sales, but devastating to those who live with the pain of a long-standing inflammatory condition.

In light of the the fact that damaged mitochondria activate inflammatory pathways and that vaccines, medications and environmental toxicants induce mitochondrial damage, perhaps we ought to begin looking at restoring gut microbial health and overall mitochondrial functioning. And as an aside, perhaps we ought to look at persistent inflammation not as an autoinflammatory reaction, but for what is it, an indication of on-going mitochondrial dysfunction.

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This post was published originally on Hormones Matter on September 22, 2014.

Do We Need a New Approach to Vaccine Recommendations?

by Viera Scheibner, PhD

Published on August 24, 2017

2530 views

In a recent article published in the British Medical Journal, Crowcroft et al (2015) suggest we need a new approach to vaccine recommendations. Focusing mainly on the economic and ethical considerations involved in public policy surrounding vaccine programs and vaccine approval the authors write:

“We are on a steep trajectory away from an era of inexpensive vaccines for diseases that are widespread in the absence of immunisation… Technologies such as searching genetic codes for possible antigens and the development of new adjuvants to stimulate immune responses also bring considerable uncertainty about safety and effectiveness.”
“…some sections of society are less likely to vaccinate themselves or their children. Those who hesitate to vaccinate are often highly educated, well resourced, and demand respect for their perspectives.”

Though speaking specifically about a ‘novel vaccine’ for serogroup B meningococcal disease, Bexsero (Novartis, Basel), the issues and problems of vaccine safety and approval apply to all vaccines. Arguably, more important than the economic risk to benefit models used by healthcare policy analysts to calculate the health costs for vaccines are the very real questions associated with safety and efficacy. Those concerns neither make it to same cost/benefit calculations, inasmuch as the actual costs associated with mitigating adverse reactions are not included, nor do they appear paramount to policy makers or ethicists. The preference instead is to assume that risks of adverse reactions and ineffective vaccines are minimal compared the risks associated with the diseases vaccines purport to protect against. I would suggest that efficacy and safety are central to any risk/benefit calculation and ensuing policy decision. For without those data, neither the economic costs nor the human costs of said policy decision can be accurately assessed.

Vaccine Safety and Efficacy

If we look at the historical data, across multiple vaccines, a pattern emerges that is quite distinct from the models proposed by many healthcare agencies and governmental institutions.

Crawcroft and Britto (2002) called whooping cough a continuing problem, which has re-merged in countries with high vaccination coverage [with inexpensive vaccines] and low mortality. Then they contradicted themselves. “Pertussis has re-emerged…because of low coverage after a vaccine scare in the 1980s (in the United Kingdom) or the use of vaccines with poor efficacy (Canada, Sweden).”

“Germany stopped their vaccination programmes completely and only reinstated vaccination for pertussis after years of recurrent epidemics of whooping cough.” However, according to Miller and Farrington (1988), “In West Germany, unlike the UK, there are no national statistics on pertussis incidence, no national vaccination policy and no figures for vaccine uptake. Local studies have shown that vaccination rates are low and that pertussis is prevalent particularly in 2-4 year age-group, which is typical of a country with low uptake, similarly serotype 2 predominates.”

Whooping cough vaccine was introduced in the UK during the 1960s and national statistics on uptake rates are available from 1961.

“Mortality data show that death from whooping cough declined before ‘the disease was reduced by vaccination’”.

Are there any Diseases Reduced by Vaccination?

Starting with smallpox vaccines, continuing through typhoid, diphtheria and later on DPT and other vaccines, the highest incidence of targeted diseases occurred in the vaccinated. Famously, the Leicester citizens’ boycott of smallpox vaccine stopped smallpox epidemics in their city. Outbreaks of typhoid in the army occurred right after mass vaccination (Wright 1901). A huge diphtheria outbreak in the vaccinated in the 1940s in Nazi Germany and in the Nazi occupied countries. A documented 300% increase in the incidence of whooping cough starting in the 2-months old DPT recipients in the USA in mid seventies (Hutchins et al 1988).

The US outbreaks of measles in even 100% vaccinated populations started in 1963 with the licensure and mass use (Sencer et al. 1967) of the measles vaccines. The destruction of transplacentally-transmitted immunity (Mulholland 1995) predicted by vaccine researchers early in the piece, resulted in pertussis and measles occurring in newborn babies in all countries with high vaccination compliance. Outbreaks of provocation paralysis (infantile paralysis) provoked by all vaccinations) (McCloskey 1950) are well-documented.

Natural infectious diseases of childhood (both mortality and morbidity) were on the downward trajectory 50 years before any vaccines were administered in mass proportions. The main reasons were better nutrition (especially better vitamin C status), sanitation, clean water and uncrowded living conditions. Generational immunity acquired by repeated exposure and inherited and acquired natural immunity cannot be overlooked, either.

The largely unvaccinated Amish (claiming religious exemption) had not reported a single case of measles between 1970 and December 1987, for 18 years (Sutter et all 1991), while the well-vaccinated non-Amish communities experienced regular 2-3 year epidemics in even 100% vaccinated populations. Pro-vaccinators claimed success and set a date for measles eradication (1 October 1982). Instead, large measles outbreaks occurred in the vaccinated non-Amish, starting in 1982, and on 5 December 1987 in the Amish. The situation simply confirmed Hedrich’s (1933) evaluation of measles epidemic cycles (2-3, 11, and even 18 years).

Pertussis followed similar dynamics motivating pro-vaccinators to claim success with early pertussis vaccination. However, it did not take long and pertussis outbreaks in fully vaccinated populations followed mass vaccination drives. Instead of abandoning the obviously ineffective vaccination, the culture of “lies, damn lies and statistics” set in.

Sweden discontinued pertussis vaccine use for 11 years in 1979; whooping cough became a mild disease and stopped occurring in babies and young children below one year of age (Isacson et al. 1993). Very few doses of pertussis vaccine were administered, however, even those few recipients developed pertussis (one in 3). 372 (61%) of the 377 parents interviewed, reported clinical pertussis in their unvaccinated children (confirming Hedrich’s (1933) concept of herd immunity).

When Sweden resumed pertussis vaccination (with acellular vaccine) in mid 1990s, not only the incidence went up, but the babies under the age of one contracted the disease already during the trials of acellular vaccine straight after the first dose of the vaccine (Olin 1995). The trial was discontinued before the expected termination date. Epidemics in the vaccinated have continued.

Japan moved the DPT & P vaccination age to two years in mid seventies with similar effect as observed in Sweden, including a substantial fall in the overall infant mortality (from 17^th to the first, lowest infant mortality rate in the world (Jenny Scott 1990).

The UK experienced similar dynamics, also in mid seventies. After the first media report of brain damage linked to DPT vaccine the UK parent’s compliance fell down to 30% or even 10%), but according to Fine and Clarkson (1982), paradoxically, the inter-epidemic period did not decrease after the 1974 fall in vaccine uptake.

Pertussis incidence and hospital admissions fell markedly and so did the overall infant mortality. Macfarlane (1982) wrote, ”The postneonatal mortality fell markedly in 1976, a year on which a sharp decline in neonatal mortality rate began. Between 1976 and 1979, however, neither the late neonatal nor the post-neonatal mortality rates fell any further. Indeed, the post-neonatal mortality rate increased slightly among babies born in 1977. Obviously, when the compliance started climbing, so did the infant mortality rates in England and Wales and Glasgow. Epidemics in the vaccinated followed.

Preston (1994) analyzed the pertussis situation and wrote, ”In the mid-1970s, the general public and many health care professionals in Britain lost faith in the safety of whole-cell pertussis vaccine. This reaction (largely in response to fears about vaccine-induced brain damage) was unjustified, and caused vaccine uptake in infants to plunge from 80% to 30%.” Preston compared this with the situation in Massachusetts and wrote, “An apparent increase in incidence in 1989-91 was largely due to wider surveillance and the introduction of serologic diagnosis for adolescents with not less than 1 week of paroxysmal coughing…” “Stott and Davis suggested that, in the absence of a positive culture, the term “pseudo-whooping cough” is appropriate for paroxysmal cough of less than 3 weeks duration. Although the authors of the Massachusetts report express concern about the diagnosis of pertussis in fully vaccinated children, they do not tell us how many of these children had positive cultures, culture positivity being the only reliable laboratory test.

Cincinnati likewise experienced a resurgence of pertussis in 1993, with 223 culture-positive cases. Although 82% of diagnosed “cases” between 6 months and 6 years of age had received at least three doses of (Connaught and Lederle) vaccine, the criteria for clinical diagnosis are not stated, nor are we told the number of culture-positive cases in this age group…Both consider panic measures, such as neonatal vaccination, immunisation of pregnant women and boosting with acellular vaccine.” And, we are told “The vaccine cannot be expected to protect against pseudo whooping cough. Nevertheless, there are several good reasons for genuine failure of pertussis vaccination.”

Early Vaccination and Later Disease

In all countries with national vaccination programs, the distribution of all vaccine-preventable disease experienced deranged age distribution. The present situation is that in all developed countries with high vaccination compliance epidemics of pertussis, measles, mumps, etc. occur with increased frequency and magnitude, and, in the vaccinated.

Medical researchers documented waning vaccine ‘immunity’, changes in the serogroup, polymorphism and mutations of the causative organisms (directly linked to vaccines in a similar fashion as experienced with antibiotics and other antibacterials and antivirals) (Cassiday et al. 2000; Octavia et al. 2011; Mooi et al. 2014).

Medical research provides important scientific evidence against continued use of vaccines, which is an outdated, ineffective and unsafe technology. Moreover, the evidence of the benefits of natural infectious diseases in providing a life-long specific and non-specific immunity has also been mounting.

References

Crawcroft et al. 2015. Do we need a new approach to making vaccine recommendations? BMJ; 30 January: 350; h308:1-6 (Analysis).
Crawcroft and Britto. 2002. Whooping cough – a continuing problem. BMJ; 325. 29 June : 1537-1538 (editorial).
Miller and Farrington. 1988. The current epidemiology of pertussis in the developed world: UK and West Germany. Tokai J Exp Clin Med; 13 Suppl): 97-101.
Wright 1901. On the changes affected by anti-typhoid inoculation in the bactericidal power of the blood; with remarks on the probable significance of these changes. Lancet; Sep 14: 715-723.
Hutchins et al. 1988. Current epidemiology of pertussis in the United States. Tokai j Clin Med; 13(Suppl): 103-109.
Sencer et al. 1967. Epidemiologic basis for eradication of measles in 1967. Pub Health Reports; 82(3): 253-256.
Mulholland 1995. Measles and pertussis in developing countries with good vaccine coverage. Lancet; 345. Febr 4: 305-307.
McCloskey, 1950, The relation of prophylactic inoculations to the inset of poliomyelitis. Lancer. April 18: 659-663.
Sutter et al. 1991. Measles among the Amish: a comparative study of measles severity in primary and secondary cases in households. J Infect Dis; 163: 12-16.
Hedrich 1933. Monthly estimates of the child population “susceptible” to measles, 1900-1930, Baltimore, MD. Am J Hygiene: 613-635.
Isacson et al. 1993. How common is whooping cough in a non vaccinating country? Ped infec Dis J; 12(4): 284-288.
Olin 1995. Acellular pertussis vaccines – a question of efficacy. J of Hospital Infections; 30 (Suppl): 503-507.
Jenny Scott 1990. US slips in infant mortality. National Commission to prevent infant mortality.
Fine and Clarkson 1982. The recurrence of whooping cough: possible implications for assessment of vaccine efficacy. Lancet; March 20: 666-668.
Macfarlane 1982. Infant deaths after four weeks. Lancet; October 23: 9290939.
Preston 1994. Pertussis vaccination: neither panic nor complacency. Lancet; 344, August 20: 491-492.
Stott and Davis. 1981. Pertussis vaccination and pseudo-whooping cough. BMJ; 282,June 6: 1871.
Cassiday et al. 2000. Polymorphism in Bordetella pertussis pertactin and pertussus toxin virulence factors in the United States, 1935-1999). J Infect Dis; 182: 1402-1408.
Octavia et al. 2011. Insight into evolution of Bordetella pertussis from comparative genomic analyses: evidence of vaccine-driven selection. Mol Biol Evol; Jan 10; 28(1): 707-715.
Mooi et al. 2014. Pertussis resurgence: waning immunity and pathogen adaptation – two side of the same coin. Epidemiol Infect. Feb 13; 142(4): 685-694.

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This article was published originally on Hormones Matter on March 19, 2015.

Another Day, Another Death

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on July 25, 2017

2226 views

Another Gardasil girl died last month. I didn’t know her, but her mother had written for us a few years back. My heart aches for her family and for all of the other families who have lost loved ones to pharmaceutical industry malfeasance. Sadly, her death is just one more in a long line of deaths attributable to this vaccine. For the industry that profits from this vaccine, her death means nothing.

No one, except her family and friends will suffer for her death. There will be no culpability from the industry that manufactures and distributes this vaccine, none from the governmental agencies that fail to address the safety issues of these medications, none from the doctors who push this and others vaccines and then dismiss the side effects outright leaving parents to navigate the resultant complex illnesses on their own. No one will admit responsibility. How can they? We have all have been fed a heavy diet of ‘vaccines are always perfectly safe’, that injuries and deaths are due to random chance, not the cocktail of toxicants proffered under the guise of herd immunity. Just unlucky I guess, the price to pay for the safety of others.

Vaccines are perfectly safe.

Really?

Forget, of course, that this is foolhardy and that nothing is perfectly safe.

Forget also that industry knows these vaccines are neither safe nor effective, having fudged the trials and post market research, spent billions on marketing to promote the faulty research, and no small sum on astroturfing campaigns, replete with vitriolic trolls and an echo chamber of paid ‘thought leaders‘.

Forget that 70% of major media budgets are funded by the pharmaceutical industry advertising, as are most medical associations, medical education, university and continuing, medical journals, and patient support groups. Health journalism too, receives its fair share of pharma funding.

Forget that the pharmaceutical industry spends more in lobbying politicians than any other industry, including defense.

Forget that the FDA is a revolving door to cushy industry jobs. Approve this or that drug and one is set for life once one’s government affiliation is over.

Forget too that FDA review panels are staffed with industry insiders and that FDA approves 96% of all applications. Can’t imagine how bad a drug has to be in order the FDA to reject it.

Forget that when vaccine side effects began to be recognized en masse during the Reagan administration, industry quickly colluded with governmental agencies to force vaccination and eliminate any liability for themselves. Enter the vaccine courts, where no matter the injury, no matter the negligence or malfeasance, the government foots the bill for industry. What an ideal business model; all products are always safe and if they aren’t someone else covers those costs. Liability? Responsibility? Nope.

Forget all of these things, and yes, vaccines can be considered perfectly safe, side effects ignored, and deaths considered unfortunate matters of coincidence.

Except they aren’t and we shouldn’t forget.

Young women are dying and/or are debilitated to the point of wanting to die, thousands of them, with this one vaccine alone. This is on top of the skyrocketing number of vaccine and pharmaceutical injured children. Did you know that 1 in every 68 children suffers with neurodevelopmental disorders; 1 in 68. That is a staggering statistic that should give us all pause, but mostly, it doesn’t. Neither does the fact that 70% of adults take at least one medication chronically, 50% take two or more, and 20% take five or more medications, or that toddlers represent the largest growing market for psychotropic medications – toddlers! Admittedly, toddlers can be a bit crazy, but do we really, truly believe that toddlers need antidepressants, stimulants, or worse yet, antipsychotics?

With all of these medications and vaccines, are we healthier?

Nope.

In fact, for the first time in generations, we are living sicker and dying younger. But no, we hold tight to the belief that pharmaceutical medicine is working and all of these injuries, illnesses, and deaths are flukes attributable to the vagaries of random chance.

It was a convenient dissonance while it lasted; still is for many. It allowed us to avoid the much starker reality of modern pharmaceutical medicine or modern living in general: that chemistry matters, that toxicants don’t just magically disappear once they enter the body (or the oceans), and that for all of our technological brilliance, we really have no frickin clue what the compound effects of all of these chemicals are. We really don’t. Heck, we don’t even know what most medications do. A study in the British Medical Journal found that only 50% of medications have sufficient data to suggest that they are likely effective. And since we don’t test most medications on women, we really have no idea whether any medications work or induce serious side effects in women.

Pharmaceuticals are chemical toxicants, plain and simple. They are poisons, albeit sometimes necessary poisons, but poisons nevertheless. We don’t call them poisons though. We call them medicines, but the fact remains, poisons don’t become less poisonous simply because we rename them.

Poisons, by their very nature, are designed to kill things, to block things, and otherwise usurp normal biological functions. Poisons do not ‘heal’. They supplant and they override. Neither do they become less poisonous simply because we take them in small doses. In fact, in many cases, it’s with the smaller doses, particularly when taken chronically, that we see the most devastating side effects, the complex multi-system ones that do everything but kill the individual outright. We are dissonant from these concepts, sometimes willfully. The chemistry is complicated, the disinformation dense, and if we’re truthful with ourselves, it’s easier not to know. Until it isn’t.

Knowing all of this, what do we say to the families who have lost love ones to vaccine injury or death or medication injury or death? How do we go about our daily lives knowing the science is corrupted, arguably with intention, and that more will suffer as a result?

I don’t know the answer to either of these questions. All I know is that as a mom, I feel your loss and I am sorry.

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Post Gardasil Severe Cyclic Vomiting, Migraines, and a Long List of Other Symptoms

by Jean Mathews

Published on July 18, 2017

5022 views

This is a photo of Stephanie Matthews pre-Gardasil. Below is a photo of her in December 2016, while in the hospital. She is slowly starting to let me calendar her health with photos and writing.

Gardasil, the journey no one should take…

If this story helps just one more girl, this journey will not be in vain.

I will not be able to touch the tip of the iceberg with this story. So much more has happened over these past 4-5 years. It has been a whirlwind and like a whirlwind, and unwelcome event. If you take one thing away from Steph’s story it should be clear as a bell. DO NOT GET THE GARDASIL VACCINE FOR YOURSELF OR YOUR CHILDREN.

Stephanie was 23 years old at the time of her 1^st Gardasil vaccine. As most young adults, Stephanie was working, had her own health insurance and took responsibility for her health and medical decisions. Stephanie had been a Type I diabetic since age 10 and knows how important it is to take care of herself. At her regular checkup the doctor said that she needed to get this “NEW” vaccine for the HPV virus. So the journey began.

Steph received her first vaccine in June 2008. The second in October 2008. The night of her second vaccine Stephanie was hospitalized in ICU for an acute respiratory problem and sky rocketing blood sugars.

The 3^rd vaccine was given in December 2008. Early in 2009, Stephanie took a trip to Mexico. On her way back she had uncontrollable vomiting, headaches, body aches and was again hospitalized.

Thinking that she may have picked something up while on her travels to Mexico, we pressed the hospital and doctors to check for parasites and pathogens. All tests came back negative.

She began being hospitalized over and over again with uncontrolled vomiting, headaches and body aches, Test after tests, revealed nothing. Then finally a diagnosis of gastroparesis (delayed gastric emptying), from her diabetes. Her body was also full of yeast. The gastric emptying test came back inconclusive and one of them came back slow.

Here is the clincher, we did not give any thought to the vaccine, because we did not know she had the vaccine. It was not until we started realizing that her symptoms were not conclusive to gastroparesis, that I pressed Stephanie asking what she may have done differently or been exposed to. This is when she said “well, I had a vaccine”. Keep in mind she was an adult and trusting the doctors, she did not think this was relevant. They would not give her something to hurt her, she thought.

Connecting the Dots: It was Gardasil

It would be close to two years before the awakening as to Steph’s “mystery illness would be realized. It was while on my Facebook page a large flashing ad on the left of my screen shouting one more girl, got my attention. I clicked on it and found that several girls had the same symptoms. I had so many questions.

How was this vaccine tested?

What did the package insert say?

Did any other of these girls have already compromised immune systems like Steph with her type I diabetes?

Was it tested on this group of girls?

Why do some get sick but not all and why so many? It is like playing Russian roulette.

Why had other countries already taken the vaccine off the market?

This was just the beginning of the long long journey into the Gardisil nightmare.

Vomiting, Edema, Itching, Hair Loss, Extreme Moods, Jaw Growth, Bone Aches, and More

Since October 2008, Stephanie has been hospitalized over 80 times. She was in for three weeks in Southern California. This time on a purely liquid diet, hooked up to IVs, gaining weight and still vomiting. She had headaches, disrupted menstrual cycle, large weight gain, itching, hair loss body aches depression, extreme mood changes.

She has had EVERY test over and over again.

Not one doctor that we encountered had yet to look or even consider the vaccine; they have blamed everything from her diabetes, to her being psychologically sick.

The doctors have gone so far as to say that they think we are crazy. Her last doctor in Southern California finally looked at the other girls’ stories and the website SaneVax. He threw his hands up and said, “If this were my mother, daughter, sister or aunt, I would go and get a second opinion.” Keep in mind by this time, Steph has had every blood test, scope, scan and test that was available, all pretty much inconclusive or if one came back positive once, it was not positive again.

They pumped her full of anti-nausea meds, antibiotics, fluids, painkillers, anti-fungal over and over again. Each and every hospital visit we would have to go over the same thing, and each and every time we would get the same treatment. We were always told by the hospitals,

“We don’t fix people here. We just get them well enough to follow up with their primary doctor.”

I could not get them to understand that she is hospitalized so much that by the time she gets out and gets an appointment to her primary doctor, she is sick again and admitted to the hospital. We have had 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th opinions.

These symptoms are brutal. The vomiting is not something that stops on its own, and is accompanied by brutal stomachaches as well. Now you tell me, how does a person who is vomiting more days out of their life, than not, gain weight?

Other symptoms: It is almost like she has gone into menopause, with the hair loss, mood swings, and night sweats, hot flashes. This vaccine disrupts the entire neurological and endocrine system. In addition to the uncontrollable vomiting, her symptoms include: fatigue, fainting, dizziness, severe food allergies, missed menstrual periods, severe cramps, and bartonella rash. Weight gain, uncontrollable blood sugars, light sensitivity and heat sensitivity.

Nine Years Post-Gardasil: Still Sick, Mounting Hospital Bills and No Answers

By October 2010, Stephanie’s Cobra insurance ran out. She was now uninsured, unable to work, she could barely get out of bed, and her hospital bills had mounted to over $2 million dollars. I decided to move her to Northern California, so she would be closer and maybe get fresh start with new doctors. She had already been hospitalized numerous times in Southern California at five different hospitals.

The move north proved to us that the medical field is not willing to accept or take responsibility to go up against the “big Pharma” companies.

Steph spent most of April 2013 in the hospital. We went so far as to have her gallbladder removed, just hoping this would stop her uncontrollable vomiting, wrong again. One doctor actually told us

“So what if it is the vaccine, what are we going to do about it?”

Today, Steph is 31 she is on disability, and on Medicare, but still not one doctor is willing to look further into the fact that the vaccine has caused her symptoms. Her visits to the hospital are coming farther apart.

It seems that there is a series of things that happen before she gets sick. She becomes extremely tired. She will “swell up” get extremely bad migraines and body aches. Then the vomiting will start. She will vomit with no food in her system and it will be hundreds of times and last for days. This seems to be occur every three months.

Gardasil Victims

Stephanie is not alone, there have been 394 deaths, and 51,522 adverse reactions reported to VAERS. This is only in the United States. Keep in mind; these are only reported reactions, how many other families have sick adult daughters that have not put two and two together? Many other countries are battling the same Gardasil Injuries, Ireland, Mexico, Australia, UK and Japan just to name a few.

Now they are going to be giving it to 12 year-olds in schools and without parental consent if that child wants it. And why in the world would they want 12 year olds to get this vaccine, without having to tell their parents? A 12 year old that became sick from this vaccine without parental knowledge would never be able to connect the two event! And so, the horrible journey in to Gardisil prison would begin.

I just hope that all of our girl’s stories help to get the word out that this vaccine, is a killer! It takes away lives. It makes the medical field and pharmaceutical companies millions, and now it is being said that many of these girls will become sterile. This is now being stated by the American College of Pediatricians. ACPEDS.org

My opinion is that these doctors and hospitals are scared to death to side with an extremely sick young girl, for fear of retaliation against the drug companies and mainly in this case MERCK. Please know that all 3 of my children had their childhood vaccines. I was not anti-vaccine, until this. The Gardasil vaccine “fast tracked” to the mainstream medical and do not have sufficient testing to deem them safe for anyone.

Please do not even consider this vaccine, it has damaged and killed more girls throughout the U. S. and other countries than the disease it was meant to protect against!

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What About the Pap Smear?

by Elena Perez

Published on February 9, 2016

3211 views

In 2008, the New York Times noted that pharmaceutical companies made a forceful push to get Gardasil to the public, even though critics were wary that the long-term outcome was unknown. It only took Gardasil six months to be approved after submitting their application to the FDA. The Center for Disease Control recommended the product shortly after, even though it can take years for most vaccines to be accepted.

Adverse effects from the HPV vaccine are already being reported, but other impacts may be less obvious, such as a false notion that the vaccine prevents cervical cancer.

Forgotten Pap Smear

Amid mounting skepticism over the safety and effectiveness of the HPV vaccine, our attention seems to have been drawn away from the cervical cancer prevention method of yore – The Papanicolaou smear, or, as you may refer to it as, the Pap smear.

A British cervical cancer specialist, Angela Ruffle, stated in the New York Times that she was against any fast adoption of Gardasil in England. She was not just wary of adverse side effects from the vaccine, but also concerned about a false sense of confidence that could deter women from getting regular Pap smears, which are still necessary to detect strains of HPV that Gardasil does not vaccinate against. Mrs. Ruffle cautioned that “if we do this quickly and badly, we can cause more deaths.”

Even the lead developer of Gardasil, Diane Harper, underlined the importance of the Pap smear:

“The best way to prevent cervical cancer is with routine Pap screening starting at age 21 years. Vaccination cannot prevent as many cervical cancers as can Pap screening… Gardasil is associated with GBS [Guillian-Barre Syndrome] that has resulted in deaths. Pap screening using a speculum and taking cells from the cervix is not a procedure that results in death.”

What the Cell?

When my legs are in stirrups for my pap smear, I’m usually concentrating more heavily on pushing my tailbone down, as opposed to what the procedure actually entails. As it turns out, your nurse practitioner, or doctor, is actually scraping at your cervix to collect a sample of cells.

Yes, they’re scraping at your cervix, but it sure beats Guillian-Barre Syndrome.

The doctor then places the cell sample into a container that will be sent off to the laboratory for inspection. Any abnormalities detected in the cell samples allow doctors to take preventative measures against cervical cancer.

Promoting Fewer Pap Smears

Pap smear views have shifted, though, and in June, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) made changes to their 2003 recommendations, calling for less frequent pap tests. Women should now begin Pap testing at the age of 21, with no more than one Pap smear every three years; whereas women were previously urged to begin Pap screening within a few years of becoming sexually active, and obtain a Pap test at least every three years, though more frequent screening was recommended.

The USPSTF changed its Pap Smear recommendations for the same reason it recommended fewer mammograms: The false positive results led to invasive, painful, and costly biopsies that were unnecessary. False positives findings from Pap smears could also result in future pregnancy risks.

HPV is common, but most healthy men and women are capable of eliminating the infection on their own, so detection of HPV does not necessarily lead to cervical cancer. For this reason, the USPSTF recommends against regular HPV screening for women younger than 30 years of age. And if you are 30, you can put off your Pap screening for 5 years if you combine the Pap test with HPV testing.

HPV Testing – The End for Pap Smears?

There is now a Hybrid Capture II High-Risk HPV DNA test that analyzes DNA from your cervix to detect high-risk HPV. A study supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found that HPV DNA testing significantly reduced advanced cervical cancer, as well as deaths from cervical cancer.

The low-cost HPV DNA test will have a major impact in developing countries, where cervical cancer results in over 250,000 deaths a year, but the Pap Smear has already reduced the number of deaths caused by cervical cancer to 4,000 per year.

The Pap smear, however, may very well be run out of town now that HPV DNA testing is included in the Affordable Care Act, offering women over 30 HPV testing every three years. Of course, it’s hard to say, since this HPV DNA test only detects 13 types of HPV; and while the types of HPV tested for are high-risk, cancer-causing strains, there are at least 100 different strains of HPV, which means at least 87 strains will not be detected.

Regardless of whether or not Pap screening will be replaced with the HPV DNA testing, it’s important to note that regular screening is necessary to detect and prevent cervical cancer; the HPV vaccine alone does not prevent cervical cancer.

This article was published originally on Hormones Matter in July 2012.

Hormones Matter Top 100 Articles of 2015

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on January 4, 2016

2306 views

Happy New Year, everyone. We have another remarkable year under our belts. Hormones Matter continues to grow month after month. This year, despite the site being down for a month in September, we had over 815,000 visitors, most staying quite a while to read our articles.

Since inception, we’ve published close to 900 articles, many are read by thousands of readers every month. The hysterectomy and endometriosis articles continue to draw large crowds, demonstrating the great need for information in these areas of women’s health.

Our success is thanks to a fantastic crew of volunteer writers who spend countless hours researching complex medical topics, making connections, identifying unconventional therapeutic opportunities, and bringing to light, what are often, invisible illnesses. Without these incredibly talented and compassionate individuals, Hormones Matter would not exist.

Before we begin the new year in earnest, let us take a moment to thank all of the writers of Hormones Matter.

Thank You Hormones Matter Writers!

Below are the articles and authors who made the top 100 list for 2015. If you haven’t read these articles, it’s time to do so. If you like them, share them and share our site so we can continue to grow. If you were helped by any of our articles, take a moment and send the writer a thank you note.

This year, we thought we’d do something a little different and include the 25 all-time favorite articles on Hormones Matter. Be sure to scroll down to the second table and take a look. The numbers are quite impressive.

Since we are run by volunteers and unfunded, feel free contribute a few dollars to cover the costs of maintaining operations. Crowdfund Hormones Matter. Every dollar helps.

If you’d like to share your health story or join our team of writers: Write for Us.

Hormones Matter Top 100 Articles of 2015

Article Title and Author	Reads
1. Post Hysterectomy Skeletal and Anatomical Changes -WS	50,814
2. Sex in a Bottle: the Latest Drugs for Female Sexual Desire – Chandler Marrs	47,910
3. Sexual Function after Hysterectomy – WS	28,898
4. In the ER Again – Heavy Menstrual Bleeding -Lisbeth Prifogle	25,326
5. Endometrial Ablation – Hysterectomy Alternative or Trap? -WS	25,048
7. Adhesions: Cause, Consequence and Collateral Damage – David Wiseman	22, 868
8. Is Sciatic Endometriosis Possible? – Center for Endometriosis Care	11,701
9. Endometriosis: A Husband’s Perspective – Jeremy Bridge Cook	11,626
10. A Connection between Hypothyroidism and PCOS – Sergei Avdiushko	11,024
11. Often Injured, Rarely Treated: Tailbone Misalignment – Leslie Wakefield	10,580
12. Hysterectomy: Impact on Pelvic Floor and Organ Function – WS	8,494
13. Pill Bleeds are not Periods – Lara Briden	8,440
14. Silent Death – Serotonin Syndrome – Angela Stanton	8,408
15. An Often Overlooked Cause of Fatigue: Low Ferritin – Philippa Bridge-Cook	8,374
16. Wide Awake: A Hysterectomy Story – Robin Karr	7,733
17. How Hair Loss Changed My Life – Suki Eleuterio
18. The High Cost of Endometriosis – Philippa Bridge-Cook	7,170
19. Skin Disorders post Gardasil – Chandler Marrs	6,891
20. Essure Sterilization: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Margaret Aranda	6,820
21. Love Hurts – Sex with Endometriosis – Rachel Cohen	6,779
22. Dehydration and Salt Deficiency Migraines – Angela Stanton	6,638
23. Adverse Reactions, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Gait, Balance and Tremors – Chandler Marrs	6,445
24. Stop the Metformin Madness – Chandler Marrs	6,400
25. Lupron, Estradiol and the Mitochondria: A Pathway to Adverse Reactions – Chandler Marrs	6,110
26. Endometriosis after Hysterectomy – Rosemary Finnegan	6,093
27. The Reality of Endometriosis in the ER – Rachel Cohen	5,962
28. Mittelschmerz – what should you know – Sergei Avdiushko	5,780
29. Red Raspberry Leaf Tea to Relieve Menstrual Pain – Lisbeth Prifogle	5,586
30. Mommy Brain: Pregnancy and Postpartum Memory Deficits – Chandler Marrs	5,437
31. Parasites: A Possible Cause of Endometriosis, PCOS, and Other Chronic, Degenerative Illnesses – Dorothy Harpley-Garcia	5,414
32. Endometriosis and Risk of Suicide – Philippa Bridge-Cook	5,413
33. Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics and Thyroid Problems: Is there a Connection? – JMR	5, 228
34. Adenomyosis – Philippa Bridge-Cook	5,022
35. Gardasil: The Controversy Continues – Lisbeth Prifogle	4,809
36. Hyperemesis Gravidarum – Severe Morning Sickness: Are Mitochondria Involved? – Chandler Marrs	4,801
37. Oral Contraceptives, Epigenetics, and Autism – Kim Elizabeth Strifert	4,452
38. High Blood Pressure in Women: Could Progesterone be to Blame? – Chandler Marrs	4,446
39. My Battle with Endometriosis: Hysterectomy at 23 – Samantha Bowick	4,288
40. Thiamine Deficiency Testing: Understanding the Labs – Derrick Lonsdale	4,045
41. My Battle with Endometriosis and Migraines – Angela Kawakami	3,839
42. Tampons with Glyphosate: Underpinnings of Modern Period Problems? – Chandler Marrs	3,835
43. Cipro, Levaquin and Avelox are Chemo Drugs – Lisa Bloomquist	3,792
44. Hysterectomy or Not – Angela’s Endometriosis Update – Angela Kawakami	3,750
45. Warning to Floxies: Beware of New Med for Psoriatic Arthritis – Debra Anderson	3,691
46. DES – The Drug to Prevent Miscarriage Ruins Lives of Millions – DES Daughter	3,655
47. Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction (SOD) – Brooke Keefer	3,540
48. Progesterone for Peripheral Neuropathy – Chandler Marrs	3,278
49. The Fluoroquinolone Time Bomb – Answers in the Mitochondria – Lisa Bloomquist	3,251
50. Why is PCOS so Common? – Lara Briden	3,211
51. Pregnancy Toes – What Sugar does to Feet – Angela Stanton	2,971
52. Five Half-truths of Hormonal Contraceptives – The Pill, Patch and Ring – Joe Malone	2,834
53. Five Years After Gardasil – Ashley Adair	2,831
54. Bleeding Disorders Overlooked in Women with Heavy Periods – Philippa Bridge Cook	2,826
55. Is Gardasil Mandated in Your State? – Lisbeth Prifogle	2,814
56. Is Prenatal Dexamethasone Safe: The Baby Makers’ Hubris – Chandler Marrs	2,808
57. Porn Brain – A Leading Cause of Erectile Dysfunction – Chandler Marrs	2,792
58. Lupron and Endometriosis – Jordan Davidson	2,752
59. Endometriosis, Adhesions and Physical Therapy – Philippa Bridge-Cook	2,746
60. Glabrata – A Deadly Post Fluoroquinolone Risk You’ve Never Heard About – Debra Anderson	2,703
61. Are You Vitamin B12 Deficient? – Chandler Marrs	2,635
62. Topamax: The Drug with 9 Lives – Angela Stanton	2,635
63. Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome – Philippa Bridge-Cook	2,622
64. The Endo Diet: Part 1 – Kelsey Chin	2,614
65. Endometriosis and Adhesions – Angela Kawakami	2,544
66. Thyroid Disease Plus Migraines – Nancy Bonk	2,530
67. Is it Endometriosis? – Rosalie Miletich	2,414
68. Hysterectomy, Hormones, and Suicide – Robin Karr	2,412
69. Why I am Backing the Sweetening the Pill Documentary – Laura Wershler	2,321
70. I Wanted to Die Last Night: Endometriosis and Suicide – Rachel Cohen	2,271
71. How Can Something As Simple As Thiamine Cause So Many Problems? – Derrick Lonsdale	2,456
72. Thyroid Dysfunction with Medication or Vaccine Induced Demyelinating Diseases – Chandler Marrs	2,034
73. Angela’s Endometriosis Post Operative Update – Angela Kawakami	2,017
74. Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics Damage Mitochondria – FDA Does Little – Lisa Bloomquist	1,993
75. Endometriosis and Pregnancy at a Glance – Center for Endometriosis Care	1,969
76. Don’t Take Cipro, Levaquin or Avelox If…. – Lisa Bloomquist	1,960
77. Gardasil Injured – Dollie Duckworth	1,898
78. Fear of Childbirth Prolongs Labor – Elena Perez	1,888
79. Fluoroquinolone Poisoning: A Tale from the Twilight Zone – Kristen Weber	1,883
80. Personal Story: Thyroid Cancer – Myrna Wooders	1,880
81. Recurrent Miscarriage – Philippa Bridge-Cook	1,873
82. Recovering from the Gardasil Vaccine: A Long and Complicated Process – Charlotte Nielsen	1,842
83. Pelvic Therapy for Endometriosis, Adhesions and Sexual Pain – Belinda Wurn	1,818
84. Hormones, Hysterectomy and the Hippocampus – Chandler Marrs	1,777
85. Why Fatigue Matters in Thyroid Disease – Chandler Marrs	1,718
86. How Do You Deal with the Lasting Effects of Endometriosis? – Samantha Bowick	1,697
87. Depression with Endometriosis – Samantha Bowick	1,678
88. Easing Endometriosis Pain and Inflammation with Nutrition – Erin Luyendyk	1,648
89. Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis and Ovarian Teratomas – Chandler Marrs	1,634
90. Autoinflammatory Syndromes Induced by Adjuvants: A Case for PFAPA – Sarah Flynn	1,595
91. Endometriosis Awareness Month: A Wish Noted – Philippa Bridge-Cook	1,513
92. The Role of Androgens in Postmenopausal Women – Sergei Avdiushko	1,477
93. It Wasn’t by Choice: Dysautonomia – Margaret Aranda	1,454
94. Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics Associated with Nervous System Damage – Lisa Bloomquist	1,453
95. Vitamin D3 and Thyroid Health – Susan Rex Ryan	1,439
96. Dealing with Doctors When You Have Undiagnosed Endometriosis -Angela Kawakami	1,439
97. Endometriosis and Being a Trans Person: Beyond Gendered Reproductive Health – Luke Fox	1,436
98. Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome and Mitochondrial Dysfunction: Research and Treatments – Philippa Bridge-Cook	1,430
99. Living with Ehlers Danlos is Hell – Debra Anderson	1,420
100. What is Fluoroquinolone Toxicity? – Lisa Bloomquist	1,415

Hormones Matter All-Time Top 25 Articles

Article Title and Author	Reads
1. Post Hysterectomy Skeletal and Anatomical Changes -WS	105,336
2. Sex in a Bottle: the Latest Drugs for Female Sexual Desire – Chandler Marrs	99,098
3. Endometrial Ablation – Hysterectomy Alternative or Trap? -WS	70,999
4. Adhesions: Cause, Consequence and Collateral Damage – David Wiseman	40,299
5. In the ER Again – Heavy Menstrual Bleeding -Lisbeth Prifogle	39,821
7. Sexual Function after Hysterectomy – WS	35,188
8. A Connection between Hypothyroidism and PCOS – Sergei Avdiushko	31,193
9. Is Sciatic Endometriosis Possible? – Center for Endometriosis Care	24,691
10. Endometriosis: A Husband’s Perspective – Jeremy Bridge-Cook	23,251
11. Skin Disorders post Gardasil – Chandler Marrs	18,105
12. Gardasil: The Controversy Continues – Lisbeth Prifogle	14,174
13. Wide Awake: A Hysterectomy Story – Robin Karr	14,134
14. Endometriosis and Risk of Suicide – Philippa Bridge-Cook	13,836
15. Love Hurts – Sex with Endometriosis – Rachel Cohen	13,782
16. Endometriosis after Hysterectomy – Rosemary Finnegan	13,294
17. Hysterectomy: Impact on Pelvic Floor and Organ Function – WS	13,056
18. Adverse Reactions, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Gait, Balance and Tremors – Chandler Marrs	12,901
19. How Hair Loss Changed My Life – Suki Eleuterio	12,835
20. Mittelschmerz – what should you know – Sergei Avdiushko	11,919
21. Often Injured, Rarely Treated: Tailbone Misalignment – Leslie Wakefield	11,521
22. An Often Overlooked Cause of Fatigue: Low Ferritin – Philippa Bridge-Cook	10,821
23. Mommy Brain: Pregnancy and Postpartum Memory Deficits – Chandler Marrs	10,591
24. Adenomyosis – Philippa Bridge-Cook	10,249
25. I Wanted to Die Last Night: Endometriosis and Suicide – Rachel Cohen	9,826

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Thank You Hormones Matter Writers!

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