Vaccines and how they work

We have discussed before how the body is strategically designed with it's own healthy and natural immunity against ANY and ALL foreign agents (bad germs and/or bacteria, viruses and even cancer cells). However, in order for the immune system to work optimally, the body must remain in a state of a homeostasis. This is a healthy state of order that is maintained through lifestyle, diet, exercise and rest.

In the last 50 years there have been many changes in our life-style. We have developed a harder work ethic, erratic sleep patterns with business and stress far outweighing time spent resting and relaxing. We have moved away from the outdoors and become engulfed in a world of technology inside our homes, offices and even cars.We spend less time growing and harvesting or hunting our food and more time eating quick and easy fast or processed foods.
These dramatic changes have not only affected us, humans, but our animal friends as well.

 

Our pets spend less time walking and playing fetch in the park and more time lounging. Our fast paced diets have led to processed foods and cheap treats for our animal friends.
These subtle but IMPORTANT changes have resulted in lowered immune systems.
Just as our own culture has become dependent on artificial immunity, the animal community has as well.

 

I thought this quite funny!!!!

Vaccines will save you money if you only get 1 or 2 in a lifetime!!! But over the course of a pet's life, repeat injections are actually COSTING more money and more  lives, not saving them.

 

As you can see in the first schematic, vaccine immunity may prevent your pet from developing the disease, BUT natural immunity offers long-term protection.

Furthermore, the most important thing to understand when choosing a vaccine over natural immunity is: making sure the adverse reaction caused by the vaccine outweighs the risk of complications of natural infection.
Of course, we will all agree, Parvo, Distemper and Rabies vaccines and possible side effects far outweigh the risk of the complications of the disease.
BUT
1) Did you know that after the age of 1 for Parvo and the age of 2 for Distemper, that your pet is not susceptible to those diseases, with or without prior vaccinations?
Your dog will have either acquired a strong enough immunity through artificial or natural immunity by those ages that the effects of the disease will be contained or controlled by the body's immune system.
2) Did you also know that most vaccines contain other viruses that are no longer a threat to animal welfare such as Hepatitis, Parainfluenza and/or Corona virus?

It's important to know this information, so you can make an educated decision regarding your pet's health and protection thereof.
It's also every owner's right to understand that your pet is not getting vaccinated for 1 or 2 viruses at once but usually more along the lines of 5 to 7 viruses.
This creates a hefty immune response and can cause adverse reactions and overstimulation of the immune system.

You should also know that most vaccines produce immunity for 7,10,12 years. Therefore, each year, the subsequent vaccines are actually working AGAINST your pet's health.

So let's begin by understanding vaccines.

What is a vaccine?

A vaccine is a non-pathogenic biological preparation that provides immunity towards specific infectious diseases. OR
A vaccine creates a mimicked germ or microorganism in the body so the immune system can develop a weapon against the real germ or microorganism when it gets infected.

The preparation can either be killed or live and weakened forms of pathogens, or purified components such as proteins. Vaccination has been proved to be an effective method of preventing many viral and bacterial diseases. All vaccinations function on the principal of introducing the disease causing pathogens into the immune system in order to evoke an immune response by developing antibodies for those pathogens or antigens. These antibodies help the vaccine recipient to efficiently fight the pathogenic disease if and when it occurs.
Antigens (Ag) are chemical substances having the ability to stimulate the body to produce an antibody.
Antibodies (Ab) are chemical substances that react with the specific antigens and help the body in fighting against diseases. Antibodies play an important role in the defense mechanisms of the body. In generic terms, the immune system produces antibodies in response to the presence of the corresponding antigen.
A vaccine may be administered orally, or by intramuscular, intradermal or subcutaneous injection.

Mechanism

A vaccine contains dead, weakened or clinically altered antigens that stimulate the vaccine recipient’s body to produce antibodies. For example, a vaccine for parvo will typically contain a dose of the inactivated parvo virus. These dead microorganisms will be recognized as foreign particles by the leukocytes (white blood cells) of the vaccine recipient’s body.

• T cells become activated and begin activating both the B cells and the Natural Killer Cells.
• B-cells present the antigen (Ag) to plasma cells and these then work within the bone marrow to make anti-bodies (Ab). The Ab's float through the blood stream waiting to be used for battle against the Ag.
• The T cells don't have memory. They just come out to fight. They will fight when ANY Ag enters the body and the are stimulated EVERY single time a vaccine enters the body, which means they are stimulated year after year.

Once the leukocytes understand the structure and composition of the microorganisms, they start producing antibodies to fight the microorganisms. These antibodies are like memory cells of the immune system. Any future invasion of the parvo virus will be immediately taken care of by these antibodies.
To sum it up, the introduced antigens stimulate the vaccine recipient’s immune system to recognize the antigens as foreign substancees, destroy them, and remember them in case of any future infections. The vaccine recipient now develops immunity against that STRAIN of antigen. Antibodies are very specific and will NOT work the same with a similar strain of virus or bacteria.

*It takes the body 7-10 days to produce antibodies.
While the leukocytes learn to fight against these pathogens, the vaccine recipient may display symptoms of the disease, such as high fever, vomiting etc.
Pets may also have an immediate allergic response with the presentation of so many antigens resulting in symptoms of vomiting, high fever, facial swelling and/or hives.

 

 

Why ANNUAL vaccines  are NOT ok :

If your pet is getting vaccinated with 5 or 7 or more vaccines every year, each vaccine stimulates the T-cells to wage war against a whole host of foreign antigens. With this many antigens at once, the immune system literally sees a huge invasion much like being in a world war.
This does not mimic a normal scenario in life, where a pet might be presented with 1 or 2 antigens at a time.

This can be a problem for several reasons:

 

• It sequesters the immune system. This means it keeps the immune system busy with pointless repetitive vaccine Ag's when it could be on the lookout for other foreign Ag's or cancer cells. This results in immune-SUPPRESSION. The immune system is lowered from overworking which results in susceptibility with TRUE foreign Ags.
• It over stimulates the immune system. As I said above, every time the body is hit with 5-7 or more foreign invaders at once, it's like a sudden invasion during a huge World War. An over activated immune system can result in AUTO-immune diseases. These means the immune system gets so hyped up, it turns on itself and begins attacking the host (the pet).
• When antibodies (Ab) attach to antigens(Ag) this forms an Ag/Ab complex. After the neutralization has occurred, this complex should naturally get destroyed through phagocytosis - where it is eaten by another white cell or leukocyte (macrophages). However, in overwhelming situations such as repeat antibody stimulation by antigen presentation, some of these complexes do not get destroyed. After an Ag-Ab reaction, the immune complexes can be subject to any of a number of responses, including complement deposition or processing by proteases.
•  
• 
• When these complexes do not get phagocytized or eaten, they may get deposited as complements.These complexes are fairly large proteins, so they cannot just float around in the bloodstream. The body may try to rid itself of them by depositing into other organs - liver, kidneys and joints are the primary places. When this happens they may themselves cause disease e.g. in certain forms of vasculitis. Vasculitis is an inflammation of the wall of a vessel. Most of the overflow lodge in the synovial spaces of the joints which results in inflammation known as arthritis and others are pushed through the kidney tubules which can result in inflammation known as glomerulonephritis and even create inflammation of the liver resulting in hepatitis. This may further trigger a Type 3 sensitivity auto-immune reaction such as Systemic Lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis, auto-immune hemolytic anemia and auto-immune thrombocytopenia.
•  

• Every time a vaccine enters the body the liver and entero-hepatic system must try to rid the body of the foreign materials used in the vaccine, such as mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and polyethylene glycol. This creates liver heat (from an Eastern medicine standpoint) and can even result in damage to the liver as these are heavy metals and dangerous chemicals.

 

Immunity and the Gut

Since the majority of the immune system is found in the Gut, I figured we could start our immune discussion here.
This is the area that comes into contact with the largest amount of foreign material.

As most of you know, my primary focus is Eastern Medicine and The Five Element theory. In my experience, this system has proved to be the most accurate and the most truthful. While western medicine has its place it has become fairly biased through pharmaceutically funded research.
This ancient system of Eastern medicine was developed through pure observation and has been used for several thousand years. The accuracy astounds me.

I will use TCM for Traditional Chinese Medicine and 5ET for Five Element Theory.

In TCM, it is said that we receive our life's energy or qi from 3 sources:
1) Jing - our genetic qi which we receive from birth.
I like to think of this as our maternal immunity - that which we received in the womb from our mother and father's DNA. Some of us were born with naturally strong immune function and some of us with weak immune function.
2) Food qi - this is the energy we derive from our food. It either works for us and strengthens our immune system or works against us and lowers our immune function. This is where I believe the American diet has failed significantly. Most doctors and veterinarians refuse to believe "WE ARE WHAT WE EAT."
3) Lung qi - this is the energy we derive from the air we breathe.
Some people are born into areas with clean open air and others are born into areas with poor air quality. Some may live in areas that are polluted from factories or traffic or live in an environment that is damp and moldy/mildewed or are exposed to chemicals such as formaldehyde, propane or low levels of carbon monoxide.

So as we see, there are really only 2 aspects of our immune health we can control:
The food we eat.
The air we breathe.

Below is a picture of the layers of the upper intestine, duodenum, where food is primarily absorbed.

Since the gut comprises the largest immune function in the body, the health of the gut is of utmost importance. The gut has many layers as you can see in the picture. The layer that is most affected through diet, poor health, disease, drug metabolism -especially antibiotics, and/or excessive vaccinations is the innermost layer, the mucosa. Within this layer are tiny finger like projections, called villi. These are responsible for the first line of defense in absorbing nutrients and keeping out invaders such as bad bacteria, viruses, chemicals, toxins, food additives, etc.
Below is a magnified view of the villi and how they receive particles through ingestion.

 

 

 

When the gut is unhealthy, the villi do not work properly. If the villi are not working properly foreign invaders may enter into the second layer. Here they will be met with the gut's store of immune cells - the lymphatic system but if the villi are unhealthy, the lymphatic system will likely not be functioning at optimal capacity.
Lymphatics: Just as blood vessels (arteries and veins) carry blood in the body, a parallel system called lymphatics carry lymph, a clear, watery fluid from spaces within tissues, containing various substances (including proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and sometimes even microbes).
The lymphatic system and lacteals of the villi can become congested with cholesterol and/or other toxins which decrease the viscosity of the lymph fluid and further prevent immune protection.
We will discuss proper gut health in another discussion.

As you can see in this next photo, there is a lymphatic system (tiny green clusters) located in the mucosa layer, this should be the body's strongest defense mechanism.

Below is a short picture of what the system looks like working together to keep the body protected. As food, chemicals, toxins enter the intestinal tract the intestinal cellular health must be prepared to go to war. Eating seems so passive and even enjoyable but to our body is a constant battle. It is such a beautiful and unique system so intricately designed. I just cannot get enough of it.

I have also included a short video (just a few minutes long) which walks the viewer through all the steps above.
Please take a moment to watch this video, it will help you understand the importance of gut health and why it is imperative that we nourish our health through diet, supplements, life-style and partake very little in chemically derived medications, especially antibiotics.

Click on the link below to watch the video.

http://bcove.me/4wul3t4o

Understanding the body's Immune System

 

As most of you know, my passion is teaching against the harmful effects of vaccines.
While some vaccines may help prevent diseases, over-vaccinating actually creates disease.
Understanding vaccines begins with understanding the Immune System. I am amazed at how little our society is taught regarding this very important subject.
This will be geared towards our animal friends but much of the information relates to us people as well. There are very little differences in the immune system between the species.

One definition of disease is :
A disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, esp. one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.

Regardless, I call disease, DIS-ease.
That means, I define disease as anything that causes the body to become imbalanced or affects it's natural state of homeostasis.
Homeostasis is a state of physiological equilibrium,  in which the body must remain to keep all cells and structures within the body functioning normal.

The body was designed to internally regulate itself for optimal health.
Our body was designed with its very own amazing IMMUNE SYSTEM in which it is designed to destroy ANY and ALL foreign agents that may enter or develop within the body which could cause harm.
Examples: bacterial agents, viruses, cancer cells, harmful chemicals, residual toxins.

                                    


The body was designed to deal with each and every one of the agents listed above.

Natural Immunity is far more powerful than artificial immunity.
However, over the last 50 years, our dependence has been geared toward protection from artificial immunity.

A few important facts about the Immune System:
1) The immune functions optimally in a healthy environment - in a normal state of homeostasis. Anything that may negatively affect homeostasis will, in turn, affect the immune system.  
    a) prescription drugs - anti-inflammatories, pain medications, other prescribed medications,     chemicals -topical or oral flea and heartworm preventatives, residual chemicals - mercury or formaldehyde from vaccine injections, ingested chemicals - processed foods, additives, food dyes
    b) poor diet - lack of fresh and/or organic vegetables, meats containing hormones, antibiotics, or growth stimulants
    c) stress - stress of disease - chronic illness or chronically suppressed immune system, negative changes in lifestyle or uneasiness of environment
    d) lack of exercise
2) The immune system was designed to be the body's primary defense mechanism.

3) The immune system's defense mechanism protects through
    a) mucosal protection of nose or nares - sinus - adenoids
    b) mouth beginning with tonsils and continuing through the gut mucosa
    c) skin - largest organ of the body
4) Immune cells are stored in the lymph nodes, thymus, peyer's patches of the intestinal tract and bone marrow. In humans, the spleen is a primary storage area for immune cells but this is not the case in the dog.
5) The largest immune defense mechanism resides in the GUT or intestinal mucosa - Peyer's patches.
6) The body is designed to tag EVERY abnormal cell with a flag, including cancer cells. A normal and healthy immune system is designed to destroy cancer cells as soon as they are identified.
7) The immune system uses 2 forms of protection
    a) Cell mediated immunity - this is the first line of defense to a foreign invader. The body instigates it's armed and ready soldier cells - macrophages, T-cells and cytotoxic cells to destroy the invader.
    b) Humoral immunity - this is memory immunity. The body has ANTI-bodies stored in the bone marrow from previous first invasion or artificial immunity - vaccines. The anti-body is specific for the antigen invading and the enemy is removed through identification and destruction.

 

 

The antibody combines with the antigen (the enemy) to form an Ag/Ab complex. Once formed, the complex must be cleared by the body. I will discuss the importance of this over the course of this tutorial.

*Important fact: artificial immunity is not effective, just as natural immunity is not effective in an unhealthy animal or in the face of chronic DIS-ease.
Vaccines are not medicine.
Vaccines will not benefit an animal in a diseased state and will not prevent disease in an animal already infected with the illness. In fact, it will lower it's body's natural immune response through pre-occupation and make the animal more susceptible to the disease.