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.
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• 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.
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• 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.