vaccine injury

An Over Medicated and Chronically Ill Millennial

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Frequent Infections, Antibiotics, and Asthma

As I’ve reflected on my current health challenges, I’ve come to the realization that I need to head back in time to my earliest years. Like many kids born in the early 90s, I was the first to receive a slew of vaccinations that were previously never given to children. I suffered from frequent “earaches” that led to multiple courses of antibiotics before kindergarten, and by the time I reached middle school, I was taking yearly courses of antibiotics for all sorts of things: colds, sinus infections, acne. It was around this time that I was also diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. I remember almost passing out in a lacrosse practice in 7th grade, and before I knew it, I was put on Advair (daily inhaled steroid) and was hitting the albuterol 2 or 3 times before a workout. My allergies also raged during this time.

Anxiety and Doctor Prescribed Benzodiazepine

I started getting increasingly anxious in early high school. I remember getting what I now know are symptoms of a panic attack in late middle school. Though part of this was due to the fact that I was hiding my sexuality (and hiding it well), I also realize that I had been slamming my adolescent body with drugs, vaccinations and the standard high sugar American diet for 14 years at that point.

My anxiety caused sleeping issues and I was placed on Ambien when I was 16. When I was withdrawn from that, the anxiety got worse (I know now it was Ambien withdrawal), and I was finally sent over to a psychiatrist. After listening to my description of panic attacks, she placed me on Klonopin, one of the most potent benzodiazepines on the market that should never be used for more than a few weeks. She told me to take up to four a day (an insane dose) and that like a diabetic, I needed GABA enhancement, and I would have to take these for the rest of my life.

At 17, I was buzzing on a benzodiazepine every day. I remember that it actually felt quite good and erased all worry. But then I began to experience one of the most terrifying side effects of long-term benzodiazepine dependence: I was getting dementia! I couldn’t remember things for tests or quizzes no matter how hard I studied. When I brought this up to the psychiatrist, she assured me that a little amnesia was a common benzodiazepine side effect, but that the benefits outweighed this. Essentially, giving a teenager dementia outweighed him having anxiety.

Benzodiazepine Withdrawal and Repeat Concussions

When I decided I needed to come off the benzodiazepine after taking it for a year, her instructions were to taper over one week and then jump. Now, this was 2010, and the internet was alive and well at that point. Upon doing just a little bit of research, I knew this woman was insane. All recommendations were that benzodiazepines needed to be tapered over the course of many weeks if not many months. I found a benzo support group online that became my lifeline for the next 4 months as I gradually weaned myself off the drug with the support of my parents and a new primary care doctor. Throughout this time, the one drug that I actually credit with saving me is marijuana. Without it, I’m not sure I would have done as well as I did getting off the drugs and then staying off of them.

I went right off to college that fall, which in retrospect was a miracle. I struggled a lot that first year. I was experiencing post acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) from the benzodiazepine and almost flunked out. I gradually improved but was still dependent on nightly marijuana to go to bed. In 2014, I finally stopped smoking weed and was 100% drug free.

That summer, I ended up getting my first concussion, though I suspect I had many others growing up as I played soccer and lacrosse. As if one wasn’t bad enough, I somehow ended up getting another the next summer in 2015 when I was at the beach and hit my head on a car door. I was later told by a neurologist that once you have a concussion, it becomes significantly easier to get a second, and then a third, and so on.

I had long suffered minor symptoms from benzodiazepine withdrawal that never went away, like tinnitus in my ears, an inability to take GABA drugs without reactivating withdrawal symptoms, and other neurologic symptoms that always made me feel “different.” The concussions added to this complex situation and I would have what I can only describe as seizures during times of stress or intense workout. It felt like my brain had electric current running through it.

Around this time, I also received the first injection for the Gardasil vaccine. I never followed up with the rest of them because of how off I felt that the first few days after getting it. Only recently have I learned about the severe damage that Gardasil can cause.

By 2016, I had been doing a paleo/plant-based diet and felt generally well, but the symptoms from both benzo withdrawal and my concussions persisted. In 2017, I started using CBD oil, and I found that it relieved a lot of the symptoms. It calmed my brain down significantly. I also began using Truvada (HIV medication) during this time as PreP. The one issue that never went away throughout all of this was my anxiety and panic. I was prone to situational panic attacks that felt like my fight/flight system was in total chaos.

A Complete Crash with Tinidazole

Despite feeling okay in 2018 and most of 2019, my whole world was turned upside down again in the fall of 2019. I contracted some sort of stomach bug that wasn’t going away, and my doctor placed me on a drug called Tinidazole, the sister drug of Metronidazole (Flagyl). I haven’t felt the same since that day.

The symptoms came on almost immediately. Dizziness, depression, increased anxiety, neuropathy in my hands and arms. I became convinced that I had ALS because my hands weren’t working right. It was also unlike me to ever assume something as terrible as a fatal diagnosis, but my brain was in total disarray.

Two weeks after taking the Tinidazole, I had to go back on antibiotics for wisdom teeth removal. Immediately after the surgery, I went into one of the most horrendous panic attacks of my life, in part because I had been injected with novocaine about 20 times. I had to be wheeled out of the doctor’s office because the panic had been so bad. Looking back now, there is a similar case study in Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition.

Things only got worse. By the end of the penicillin, my body was in a total spiral. I began having daily panic attacks that I can’t even describe. My body temperature was low, my fight/flight system was in disarray, I was depressed, I couldn’t think clearly. There were nights when I wouldn’t sleep at all and be in total fight or flight mode. I now know that I was going through Tinidazole toxicity that had gradually gotten worse over a few weeks. Combined with the penicillin, it was a recipe for disaster.

The strangest symptom that has come out of this experience is hypoglycemia. My blood sugar is tanking to dangerously low levels during the day unless I am extremely diligent about eating. There have been a few times that I have almost blacked out. This isn’t a common symptom of Metronidazole/Tinidazole toxicity, but I don’t know where else it could have come from.

Where I Am Now

I’ve improved a bit, but I’m still having symptoms like dizziness, hypoglycemia, altered mental state, neuropathy and a total dysfunction of my fight/flight system.

Looking back at my long and complicated history, I’ve discovered a few things in my research:

  • Early and frequent antibiotic use is linked to anxiety and depression
  • I ate A LOT of sugar throughout my life and my thiamine stores were probably always being hit hard and my mitochondria have probably been fighting this battle my life
  • The benzodiazepine and Ambien have caused deep alterations to my nervous system/GABA receptors that became less noticeable with time but will never fully heal
  • Concussions cause a cascade of effects that damage mitochondria function and lead to other semi-permanent neurological issues
  • Truvada (PreP) also harms mitochondria
  • Tinidazole plummets your thiamine

Thiamine Deficiency and Problems With Paradox

I’d like to start Dr. Lonsdale’s protocol for high-dose thiamine, but I encounter painfully difficult paradox symptoms. I have tried to start with a low dose (less than 10 mg) twice now, and always end up having to stop because it gets so bad. The “heart attack” and “seizure” symptoms are simply too frightening and I’m not sure what’s actually going on in both my brain and heart. I’d like to find a functional doctor that could possibly work with me to measure what’s going on when I take thiamine.

I’m also in the process of working with doctors to run tests on my hypoglycemia issues.

The only other thing I’ve considered is a fecal transplant. Since I’ve been on so many antibiotics, I’m convinced that some of my issues may stem from altered gut microbiota.

Lots of people see improvement from Metronidazole/Tinidazole toxicity over the course of 6-12 months. But unless I can take action, I suspect my thiamine issue will remain.

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Exploring the Nexus Between Estrogen, Autism, and Vaccine Injury

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Autism, estrogen, vaccine injury

In 2011, I published a paper that pointed out the large overlap between estrogen-sensitive cognitive functions and cognitive features that are commonly impacted in autism (1)(2)(3). These overlapping factors include anxiety (4), motor deficits (5), stereotyped and repetitive movements (6), epilepsy (7), hyperactivity and attention deficit (8), disrupted pain recognition (9), deranged serotonin system (10), atypical memory function pattern (11), and atypical visual-spatial information processing (12). From this data and what is known about animal physiology, I developed a theory that excessive estrogen-sensitive brain growth during gestation could cause a high-functioning form of autism.

The brains of lower mammals are most receptive to estrogen-sensitive growth during the gestational period of sexual differentiation, when the fetus’s testosterone enters the developing brain, converts to estradiol, which is an estrogen, and proceeds to stimulate estrogen receptors. Counter-intuitively, it is this estrogen-sensitive development that makes the male brain masculine (13). The human brain is sexually dimorphic in the same areas known to be rich with hormone receptors in animals, suggesting that human development may proceed similarly (14).

If some estrogen-sensitive brain growth is necessary for a human brain to become masculine, then there should be a point where this growth becomes excessive and atypical. Male fetuses would logically be more susceptible than females to this excessive growth, due to their relatively higher baseline level of estrogen-sensitive brain development. And if neurodevelopmental autism results after a specific threshold of estrogen-sensitive brain growth is achieved, it would stand to reason that males would be at greater risk than females for developing this form of autism.

Quite a few studies support a role for estrogen in autism, albeit inadvertently. Hypothyroidism, for example, has been associated with breast cancer as well as increased risk of having an autistic child (15)(16). Autism is also associated with high levels of fetal testosterone, which is relevant because high levels of testosterone would be expected to lead to increased estradiol synthesis (17). One study found a link between autism and mothers’ residential proximity to agricultural application of pyrethroid insecticides during pregnancy, and pyrethroid insecticides are known to be estrogenic (18)(19). Another study found a link between autism and maternal usage of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a type of antidepressant that has also been found to be estrogenic (20)(21). Still another study found a link between autism and maternal vitamin D deficiency, a condition also associated with increased risk of breast cancer (22)(23).

Despite all of the evidence of a link between estrogen and autism development, clearly not all pregnant women who are exposed to pyrethroid insecticides, take SSRIs, or have vitamin D deficiency give birth to autistic children. Why would only some pregnancies be susceptible to excessive estrogen-sensitive brain growth? The answer to this may lie with common genetic impairments that affect the metabolism of folic acid, which has been known since the 1940’s to increase estrogen-sensitive tissue growth in mammals being treated with synthetic estrogen (24).

The Trouble with One-Size-Fits-All Prenatal Vitamins

Folic acid, the synthetic form of the B-vitamin folate, has gradually become a ubiquitous prenatal supplement ever since it was discovered in 1980 to prevent the occurrence of neural tube defects (NTDs). Even though folic acid only prevents NTDs when taken prior to neural tube closure, which occurs four weeks after conception, obstetricians in the United States now inexplicably recommend folic acid throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy (correspondence with author of 25). This may be unwise, because genetic mutations that impact folate metabolism are both exceedingly common and rarely discovered. Such mutations would cause difficulty in metabolizing the large amount of folic acid in most prenatal vitamins.

Folate metabolism is a key part of a critical metabolic process, the methylation cycle, which produces methyl groups that are necessary for numerous biochemical reactions in the body. Vitamin B12 is also required in the methylation cycle. In most commercially available vitamins, unfortunately, B12 is in the form of cyanocobalamin, which requires a methyl group to participate in the methylation cycle. Cyanocobalamin’s demand for methyl groups would therefore place further strain on a genetically impaired methylation cycle that is already struggling to metabolize folic acid, perhaps leading to an accumulation of abnormal amounts of both folate and B12 in the bloodstream. Does a condition of accumulated folate and B12 actually exist in pregnancy? It does indeed – and last year it was associated with an extremely high risk of autism.

In May 2016, Johns Hopkins released the results of a study that measured the levels of folate and B12 in women’s bloodstreams shortly after giving birth. The study involved almost 1,400 mother-child pairs from births occurring between 1998 and 2013. The researchers found that women with very high (more than four times adequate) levels of folate in their blood had twice the risk of having an autistic child, women with very high levels of B12 had triple the risk of having an autistic child, and women with very high levels of both folate and B12 had 17.6 times the risk of having an autistic child (26). Several science journalists and medical news commentators quickly downplayed these findings as being premature, without consideration of possible flaws in current supplementation practice.

The mothers in the Johns Hopkins study were tested for mutations in MTHFR, the gene that provides instructions for making an enzyme critical to folate metabolism. Autism risk did not change based on maternal MTHFR genotype. The participants’ offspring were evidently not genotyped, however, so it may still be reasonable to speculate that the significant vitamin retention discovered by the researchers might have been due to either (a) MTHFR mutations being present in the fetuses, or (b) some combined effect of maternal and fetal mutations. In addition, there are a number of common methylation cycle mutations besides variations in the MTHFR gene that could impact overall metabolic efficiency. In any event, the participants were drawn from a low income population, which suggests that these women may have only had access to relatively inexpensive vitamins containing folic acid and cyanocobalamin. In sum, we have reasonable grounds to suspect that a combination of standard prenatal vitamins and unknown methylation mutations may be the reason why some women would accumulate excessive levels of folate and B12 in their bloodstreams during pregnancy.

Folic Acid’s Forgotten Relationship to Estrogen-Sensitive Growth

One reason that high concentrations of folic acid in a pregnant woman might be problematic is that there is evidence of folic acid acting like a growth magnifier for estrogen. In a series of experiments beginning in the early 1940’s, it was discovered that estrogen-sensitive oviduct growth in chicks was significantly enhanced when folic acid was present in conjunction with the synthetic estrogen stilbestrol (24). Excessive folic acid in the human bloodstream might therefore magnify the effects of estrogenic chemicals in our modern environment – like SSRIs – or magnify the effects of physical conditions that appear to increase estrogen-sensitive growth on their own, like vitamin D deficiency. And perhaps such magnification can cause an excessive amount of estrogen-sensitive growth in a developing human brain just as readily as it does with a growing chick oviduct.

If excessive estrogen-sensitive brain growth does cause neurodevelopmental autism, then the severity of this kind of autism would likely depend on a complex interplay between mother and child’s genetic capacity to metabolize folic acid, the kinds and quantities of vitamins taken during pregnancy, the sex of the fetus, the extent of maternal exposure to factors that promote estrogen-sensitive growth, and the gestational periods in which these exposures occur. A very wide range of outcomes would thus be expected, even amongst genetically similar children.

Superimposed against the variation in autism outcomes would be a potentially wide variation in methylation impairment of the fetus, leading to a highly heterogeneous group of children with varying degrees of neurodevelopmental autism as well as varying degrees of methylation impairment. This assertion is supported by the consistent finding of methylation-related mutations amongst autistic children (27). Adding to the complexity of clinical presentation, some children might develop neurodevelopmental autism without any methylation mutations at all, whereas other children with methylation mutations might escape development of autism because the requisite conditions were simply not present in the womb when estrogen-sensitive brain growth was occurring.

The methylation cycle produces glutathione, and an impaired methylation cycle would lead to lowered glutathione levels and oxidative stress. This, in turn, would cause difficulty in fighting infections, resolving inflammation, and removing toxins like metals from the bloodstream. All of these conditions have been reported in autistic children, in addition to atypical concentrations of glutathione metabolites (28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33). Vaccines contain metals, and there exists a growing association between methylation impairment and possible predisposition to vaccine injury (34)(35). The estrogen theory would therefore predict autistic children to have more adverse vaccine reactions and related medical co-morbidities than would be predicted to occur by chance alone. The theory would also suggest that post-vaccination regressive autism, occurring suddenly in a child with no prior developmental concerns, may not actually be autism, but may instead be autism-mimicking brain injury (encephalopathy) caused by impaired detoxification pathways failing to purge certain vaccine ingredients. Encephalopathy has, in fact, been repeatedly compensated as a vaccine injury by the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (36).

The Complications of Multiple Avenues of Causation

In closing, it is important to note that the estrogen theory suggests that autism might be a naturally occurring human condition, which has increased in incidence only because (a) widespread folic acid supplementation has magnified the chances of developing it, and (b) the number of estrogenic chemicals in our environment has been, and still is, on an ever-increasing trajectory. It is also important to note that the estrogen theory contemplates genetic susceptibility to autism coming from what might be an entire universe of genetic mutation combinations that compose, affect, or depend upon the methylation cycle, in addition to genes that affect hormone production. Research will never uncover a consistent genetic liability if this is true. In addition, if a multitude of estrogenic substances and conditions are the underlying cause of neurodevelopmental autistic traits, and if vaccines are the underlying cause of regressive encephalopathy and associated medical co-morbidities, then epidemiological studies of prenatal folic acid consumption will likely result in as much uncertainty as genetic studies have.

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This article was published originally on Hormones Matter on May 25, 2017. 

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Another Day, Another Death

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Gardasil death

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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Walking on the Edge of a Sword: Cervarix Injury in Japan

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This is the story of my teenage daughter who, beginning in 2010, received a series of vaccinations that culminated with the three shot HPV vaccine, Cervarix (Gardasil in the US). Although she had some health issues as an infant and child, she was thriving and doing well prior to the vaccine. After the Cervarix vaccine series this all changed.

Sharne was born in 1998. Her health issues pre-vaccine included: pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), a form of Aspergers, infantile asthma, atopic dermatitis, pyelitis, otitis media, Candida, hemolytic streptococcus, pneumonia, wart, FMF (periodic fever syndrome), agrochemical sensitivity and repeated stomatitis. Her immunization history was as follows:

  • 15 May 2010 DT BIKEN (Lot. No. 2E007 2011.6.8, 0.1ml) left arm
  • 19 March 2011 Japanese encephalitis BIKEN (JR059 2012.5.18, 0.5ml) left arm
  • 25 June 2011 Measles and Rubella Takeda (Lot. No. Y116 2012.2.24, 0.5ml) left arm
  • 27 July 2011 HPV  Cervarix  1st shot (Lot. No. AHPVA129CA, 0.5ml) left arm
  • 17 October 2011  Cervarix  2nd shot (Lot. No. AHPVA143AA, 0.5ml) right arm
  • 26 March 2012  Cervarix  3rd shot (Lot. No. AHPVA161BA 0.5ml) left arm

Before the Cervarix Vaccine

Sharne was born October 02, 1998. Prior to Cervarix vaccine, she enjoyed her school life. She liked to be in the school rather than being home, including going to an evening school for extra study.  As she wanted to gain accreditation to a high school, she tried to go to school even when she had a fever of 40 degree centigrade because in order to get the accreditation she was allowed to be absent from school only up to 5 days

Prior to the HPV vaccine, Sharne did not need to sleep for a long time, and she woke up early even when she went to bed late the day before. Before the symptoms occurred, she used to wake up at five o’clock in the morning. She’d read her favorite books, and then went to run around the house for about 10 minutes.

She was an athlete and was the fastest 1000 meter runner in her class when she was in 7th grade. She had strong lungs, and her respiration rate and pulse rate had been low since she was a little girl, but it is now is much higher. Her pulse is averages 70-80 beats per minute; average for some, but several points higher for her.

She used to prepare breakfast by herself, do homework and go to school. She was really independent, managed her own schedule, found whatever she wanted to do, and when she needed to be taken to or picked up she just told me the time to be taken to or picked up.  She never conflicted with others, avoided any dispute, and was a very quiet, gentle and good natured child.

After the Cervarix Vaccine

Now she cannot do what she could do previously. She has difficulties remembering things. She cannot remember what she has done. She cannot manage her own things, stationary, notebooks, glasses.  She used to look after her things very carefully, and never asked where they were. She’d never forgotten what she needed to take to school, but now she leaves her glasses on the floor of her bedroom or in a washing bowl even for two weeks. She cries when she cannot find her notebook, and she cannot remember what she did in the past.

Her IQ and test scores have dropped a lot and continue to drop.

She says impolite things to teachers or family members and becomes violent like an insane person. She hates most of people around her.

Recently, she cannot understand what she is going to do or where she is. In addition, she has muscle weakness in legs, and cannot raise her left foot. Her grip strength dropped from about 30 kgf to 5 or 6 kgf.

The Progression of Symptoms Post – HPV Vaccine

Looking back now, it seemed to have started after the first Cervarix shot, but it gradually worsened for about two weeks after the third shot, and half a year later she could not get up at all. Symptoms:

  • After 1st shot: asthma attack (the first time for seven years).
  • After 2nd shot: malaise, long-lasting urticaria, repeated nosebleed
  • After 3rd shot: in MRI, extension of T2, cerebral blood flow decrease, atrial rhythm, arrhythmia, increase of eosinophil, IgE, IgD, and complement titer, abnormal malaise, chronic slight fever, clouding of consciousness, hypersomnia, brain function deterioration such as memory, comprehension, calculation, and execution functions, personality change, irritability, aggression, depression, childishness, behaving like a baby, hyperpnea, respiratory distress, muscle weakness, back pain, headache, parotitis, temporomandibular arthritis, dysphagia, stomatitis, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, back pain, muscle pain, abnormal vision, photophobia, double vision, reduced vision, etc.

Timeline of Symptoms Post Cervarix Shots

2012

April: about 2 weeks after the third shot (March 26), exertional hyperpnoea and muscle weakness occurred.

May or June: started experiencing malaise, gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, headache, chest pain, and anginal symptoms during nocturnal rest. There was muscle weakness when getting off from her bicycle in the school and could not stand up.

September: could not get up, altered state of consciousness lasted for a long time, there were anginal symptoms, atrial rhythm, arrhythmia, blood flow decrease, extension of T2 in MRI, and leukoaraiosis.

October to December: treated with steroid. Although malaise had dramatically improved, brain blood flow did not improve, accumulation was observed in the hippocampus, and the treatment was stopped.

 2013

January: malaise worsened seriously. There were depression, suicidal thought, and personality change (irritability, excitability, persecutory delusion).  Even in school she cried loudly like a one-year old baby and dashed out from the classroom.

June: we noticed the association with the vaccine when watching a TV news about suspension of recommendation of HPV vaccine.  Around this time, she became violent at night. Cried loudly like roaring. Sharne threw her younger brother by the full force. (This violence disappeared soon after IVIG.)

August: we saw Dr. Sasaki, and he proposed three treatments, that included, steroid pulse, IVIG, and an immunosuppressive agent.

September: immunoglobulin (due to fever, discontinued on the 3rd day, she became cheerful on the 2nd day, and the sensation of toes returned. Malaise also improved a little.  Blood flow increased, and the best results for SPECT so far), but involuntary movement gradually intensified.

2014

February: steroid pulse (after about 2 weeks, headache and back ache, etc. decreased, cognitive function and facial expression a improved slightly, the time of sleep during day decreased, but after about 20 days new systemic joint pain and excruciating pain started, and malaise, gastrointestinal symptoms, etc. also restarted.)

Her sensitivity to glare and the double vision disappeared.  Involuntary movement started to appear.

March: 2nd cycle of steroid pulse (this time, there were no effects on mental strength and malaise, and there was a symptom like muscle weakness, which had appeared with the altered state of consciousness in the autumn 2012), involuntary movement and muscle weakness seemed to increase, and IgG decreased.

May: she was depressed. She received immunoadsorption therapy, involuntary movement decreased, but spasm and tremor have started. Mental motivation improved, and gentle character has returned. Malaise has alleviated, and daily life became almost normal.

June: malaise returned in one week after discharge from the hospital, and IgG decreased.

July: motivation dropped. Mental symptoms have started.

Lab Tests and Other Diagnostic Results

  • Cerebrospinal fluid test results: autumn 2013: contaminated with blood, but IgG was as high as 5.8 (this is not influenced by serum contamination)
  • February 2014: cell count 12, CD4 64.9, CD8 31.4, cytotoxic T cell, granzyme B 1.3
  • Diagnosed as a possibility of subacute encephalitis.
  • April 2014: abnormal values for various types of interleukins, etc.
  • June 2014: antiganglioside antibody positive

The Lesson I Learned too late

‘We need question even what the government is doing.’ This is what I learned with this huge and irreparable mistake. I tell our story because I do not want to other parents to make the same mistake and because we need help understanding the post-vaccine reactions, so that our children, already injured by the Cervarix vaccine can recover.

Vaccination of boys has already started in some countries, and clinical trials have begun in Japan. In order to protect the future of children, please think and research before you vaccinate. I will let my voice be heard in order for many people to receive information about the dangers of the HPV vaccine.

Cervarix Adverse Effects in Japan

There are more than 2000 reports about adverse effects in Japan, but some doctors refuse to report. There have been more than 1000 contacts to the network of HPVW injured people in Japan, the number of people registered exceeds 255, but still there are only a few medical institutions that care for injured.  The government should support and subsidize medical institutions that exert themselves for elucidation of the mechanisms of the cause and establishment of the way to treat underlying causes.

Postscript: This article was written originally in Japanese and translated to English by a friend of Hormones Matter.

Participate in Research

Hormones MatterTM is conducting research on the side effects and adverse events associated with Gardasil and its counterpart Cervarix. If you or your daughter has had either HPV vaccine, please take this important survey. The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.

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Are Safer Vaccines Possible?

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Vaccine safety

Perhaps, but only if we can admit that some vaccines cause injury and rework the entire vaccine development and monitoring system.

Vaccine Safety

Vaccine safety is a controversial topic, almost as controversial as politics or religion. In polite company, it is best not to bring up the subject, lest an all-out shouting match ensue.  On the one side, we have the pro-vaccine camp, who believes wholeheartedly that every vaccine is necessary and safe – ‘why else would they be on the market?’ is a common refrain. On the other, the anti-vaccine crowd, who for various reasons, are against vaccines. Some among the anti-vaxers are fundamentally against all vaccines as a matter of religious or libertarian principle. In their eyes, vaccination represents the worst of big government subjugation. It is an attack on their very freedom. Others in the anti-vax crowd come to their views experientially, through injury or tragedy.  Somewhere in the middle, the rest of us, parents, scientists, doctors and health advocates who are neither for nor against vaccines in principle, but who just want our kids to be safe and healthy.

Beyond For or Against

Much like the polarization of politics, the polarization of the vaccine safety and efficacy, all but nullifies reasoned concerns. One is either for or against vaccines. There is no grey area. This is fantastic for vaccine manufacturers because every concern, every injury can be written off by simply de-legitimizing the claimant – placing them in the nutty anti-vax camp, while correspondingly and overwhelming flooding the media with pro-vaccine marketing. Money does indeed buy power and power protects profits. With virtually all vaccines licensed manufactured by just five companies and revenues exceeding $25 billion annually and growing, the money and power are highly concentrated.

Stepping back though, away from the money and marketing, why anyone with a brain would believe that any vaccine or medication was universally safe and effective defies logic, not to mention the inherent variability of human physiology. To be entirely and ardently pro-vaccine as many are, one has to choose to ignore that basic fact – that for some people, some vaccines and medications either will not work or worse, will cause great injury. To ignore that fact, especially when there are no direct financial incentives to do so, one has to invalidate the tragedies that are in front of them; to convince oneself that the injured person before them is either lying to gain attention or simply is not credible and therefore not to be taken seriously. Either way, the net result of de-legitimizing injury, is to shutter the possibility of additional research, research that might find a connection. It’s quite a deft bit of cognitive dissonance, more so as the evidence of injury mounts.

De-legitimizing a claim of vaccine injury is easy; attack the person, not the claim, label the mom (because it is almost always moms making these claims) as irrational (hysterical), ignorant, and best of all, as anti-science; as if science is infallible and all-knowing rather than dynamic and changing. Ironically, bolstering the certitude of science, especially that which comes from organizations whose fiduciary or political obligations demand results remain in their favor, does more to reduce the credibility of the scientific endeavor and the public trust than simply admitting that sometimes the science is wrong or not nearly as clear as we once had believed. Polarization is more than just annoying and inconvenient. It is dangerous.

Skewed Development and Evaluation Process

As with the drug industry, especially after the recent Supreme Court decisions, the entire infrastructure of the vaccine industry is skewed in favor of finding vaccines safe and effective. There is very little space or motivation to find a vaccine dangerous. According to a recent report on Conflicts of Interest in  Vaccine Safety Research:

Fixing the Vaccine System – The Long Game

There is no easy or quick fix. The systems and barriers to vaccine, and indeed, drug safety are deeply entrenched in organizational and legal frameworks. The pendulum has swung so far away from consumer safety in favor of corporate protections that efforts to fix these problems must be viewed in terms of a long game; one that recognizes institutional and policy change has to take place over the next 10-20 years. The first step, however, is to recognize there is a problem and that vaccine injuries are likely within a system where there is little transparency and even less accountability for injuries.

The second and more difficult phase includes the major policy and infrastructure changes.
Those are a mess. Many are discussed in the piece Conflicts of Interest in  Vaccine Safety Research.  Many more need to be added. I will be writing a piece on this topic over the coming weeks. If you would like to contribute your thoughts on removing conflicts of interest from the vaccine safety and indeed, the entire drug development and review process, send me a note. In the mean time, we’re doing our part to understand Gardasil and Cervarix, vaccine safety and injury.

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