The Hidden Risks in This Heavily Promoted Seasonal Routine…

By Dr. Mercola

Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) is not contagious.

It is an autoimmune disorder that develops when a person's own immune system attacks and damages the myelin sheath of the body's nerves, causing muscle weakeness and paralysis.

GBS symptoms can last for a few weeks or months or can become permanent.

In rare cases, people die from GBS, usually because they cannot breathe.

In the U.S., an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop GBS annually.

Some healthy people, who develop GBS, have recently recovered from a viral or bacterial infection within the previous 4-8 weeks but others have recently been vaccinated.

The inactivated influenza vaccine has been associated with development of GBS since 1976, when an inactivated "swine flu" shot given to millions of healthy Americans caused GBS in several hundred previously healthy Americans and there were 30 deaths.

The CDC says: "In 1976 there was a small increased risk of GBS following vaccination with an influenza vaccine made to protect against a swine flu virus. The increased risk was approximately 1 additional case of GBS per 100,000 people who got the swine flu vaccine. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) conducted a thorough scientific review of this issue in 2003 and concluded that people who received the 1976 swine influenza vaccine had an increased risk for developing GBS. Scientists have multiple theories on why this increased risk may have occurred, but the exact reason for this association remains unknown."

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Early symptoms of GBS include sudden muscle weakness, fatigue and tingling sensations in the legs that can take days or weeks to spread to the arms and upper body and can become painful, eventually ending with either partial or total paralysis. When there is total paralysis, GBS becomes life-threatening because it can impair breathing and interfere with the heart rate and cause high or low blood pressure that can lead to serious complications, such as heart attack and stroke.

It is important to recognize the early symptoms of GBS, whether you have been vaccinated or not, and seek immediate medical care.

Powerful Profile of a Vaccine Victim

While infants and young children are at greatest risk, NO ONE is exempt from the potential serious complications of vaccination, one of which is GBS.

In the video profile of vaccine injury above, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), interviews a Connecticut artist and her mother, a former professor of nursing, who developed Guillaine-Barre syndrome after getting a seasonal flu shot in 2008 and today is permanently disabled with total body paralysis. This family has chosen to share their heartbreaking story to help those, who have had the same experience, feel less alone, and to educate others about what it means to be vaccine injured. What happened to this family is a potent reminder of just how important it is to make well-informed decisions about vaccinations.

Getting Flu Shot at Pharmacy is a Risky Proposition

While many have become used to vaccines being considered "routine," there's really nothing routine about them. Each and every vaccine carries an inherent risk of causing a reaction, injury or death that can be greater for some individuals than others. The seasonal flu vaccine is no exception when it comes to serious health risks, both short- and long-term, for some people.   This is why the trend of getting your flu shot at the local drugstore, grocery store or other non-medical setting is so troubling.

According to a recent article in NPR:

"In 2010, 18.4 percent of adults who were immunized received the flu vaccine at a supermarket or drugstore, just edging out workplace vaccinations for the second most popular venue, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

... [W]hile more people are going to the pharmacy, the number of Americans who get the flu vaccine each year has remained fairly constant at about 40 percent of all adults. Drugstores and supermarket pharmacies are eager to stake out a bigger piece of that market. Nationwide, the number of pharmacists trained to deliver vaccines has nearly quadrupled since 2007, from 40,000 to 150,000."

While pharmacists are trained to administer the vaccine, they're not necessarily trained to address a sudden and life threatening health emergency that may arise after the shot is given. It's important to understand that ALL vaccines carry a risk for provoking an acute adverse reaction, such as fainting or having a seizure, which could be truly life threatening if you're driving a car or crossing a street after you have left the store, for example.

All Vaccines Suppress Your Immune System

Vaccines can also be immune suppressive—that is, they can suppress your immune system, which may not return to normal for weeks to months. Here are just some of the ways vaccines can impair and alter your immune response:

• Some components in vaccines are neurotoxic and may depress your immune response or cause brain and immune dysfunction, particularly heavy metals such as mercury preservatives and aluminum adjuvants
• The lab altered vaccine viruses themselves may also affect your immune response in a negative way
• Vaccines may alter your t-cell function and lead you to become chronically ill
• Vaccines can trigger allergies or autoimmune disorders. Vaccines introduce large foreign protein molecules into your body. Your body can respond to these foreign particles in a way that causes an allergic reaction or triggers autoimmunty, especially in persons genetically or biologically vulnerable to allergy and autoimmunity

The flu vaccine may also pose an immediate risk to your cardiovascular system due to the fact that they elicit an inflammatory response. One 2007 study published in the Annals of Medicine concluded that:

"Abnormalities in arterial function and LDL oxidation may persist for at least two weeks after a slight inflammatory reaction induced by influenza vaccination. These could explain in part the earlier reported increase in cardiovascular risk during the first weeks after an acute inflammatory disorder."

Mercury is a Well-Known Neurotoxin

Thimerosal, which is 49 percent mercury by volume, is a widely used vaccine preservative. 

It is present in many different vaccines used in the U.S., including the majority of seasonal flu vaccines, although there are a few million doses of thimerosal-free single dose vials of influenza vaccine manufactured by drug companies that are supposed to be reserved for infants and pregnant women.

However if you are pregnant or have an infant and want to get a flu shot, be aware that you may have to specifically insist on getting the thimerosal-free single vial version as many health practitioners and pharmacists are still clueless about the health risks associated with thimerosal.

Some don't even know that thimerosal is a mercury derivative!

A typical dose of thimerosal-containing flu vaccine contains 25 micrograms thimerosal. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the safe limit for human exposure to mercury is 0.1 mcg per kilo of weight per day.

Since almost half of the thimerosal is mercury, this means that each flu shot contains just over 12 mcg's of mercury, which would be considered unsafe for anyone weighing less than 120 kilos, or just under 265 pounds.

There's really no debate about whether or not mercury is a neurotoxin. It's a well-established fact that it is. It's also well understood that mercury is particularly damaging to young, developing brains, and this is one of the core concerns about vaccines. If it's unsafe to breathe or ingest mercury, why would it suddenly become harmless when injected directly into your body, bypassing all of your body's natural detoxification pathways?

If anything, the damage is likely to be far more profound!  The following video offers a powerful illustration of how mercury literally destroys brain neurons.

Why Did Vaccine Maker Fail to Reveal Massive Increase in Reactions?

On October 18, The Australian published an article questioning the omission of research showing a dramatic uptick in side effects from the flu vaccine in 2006. As you may recall, last year, Australia temporarily suspended all seasonal flu vaccinations for children under the age of five after noticing a 200 percent increase in unusual fevers and convulsions. At that time, CSL submitted updated research from 2006 showing a sharp rise in fevers linked to its vaccine, which they had omitted from the legally required product information sheets given to doctors.

The product sheets instead listed figures from 2005.

The 2005 information showed 22.5 per cent of children under three, and nearly 16 percent of children aged three to nine experienced fever as a side effect. Meanwhile the updated figures for 2006 showed the rate of unusual fevers had nearly DOUBLED, to 39.5 percent in children up to three, and 27 percent for three to nine-year olds.

According to The Australian:

"Both sets of results were published in 2009, but CSL has still not included the more alarming set of figures in the product information. The Medical Journal of Australia reported... that CSL did not give this information to Australia's drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, until last year when the spate of serious febrile convulsions in young children given the annual flu jab triggered a suspension on the use of such vaccines for children under five."

The CSL's explanation for the omission is that they didn't think the 2006 figures were "clinically substantially different" to the 2005 figures.  Really? If a doubling of side effects is not substantially and clinically different, then what is?

Was Blend of Flu Viruses to Blame for Increase in Adverse Effects?

CSL now claims to have pinpointed the potential problem causing their H1N1 vaccine (Fluvax) to be so much more reactive than seasonal flu vaccines of the past. According to a September 3 article in The Australian:

"CSL followed World Health Organisation recommendations when it concocted its controversial Fluvax vaccine, which combined swine flu with two seasonal strains of influenza for the first time... CSL yesterday revealed a breakthrough in its 18-month scientific investigation...  It said the interim findings pointed to a problem with how the three virus strains interacted.

"Our scientific studies indicate that the interaction between the particular virus strains used in the 2010 . . . vaccine contributed to the reactions, but we are still working to understand the how and why," a CSL spokeswoman told The Weekend Australian. "We have completed comprehensive investigations into our manufacturing operations (which) have not identified any change or deviation in our standard registered manufacturing process that could have contributed to the increased reactions.""

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has rebutted CSL's conclusions stating that:

"None of the other manufacturers have seen the same sort of effects with these strains," Dr [Ian] Barr [deputy director of the WHO's influenza research laboratory in Melbourne] said. He ruled out testing the WHO's flu-shot recipe -- which tends to change each year -- before new vaccines were used on people. "It's just not possible because this is more or less a just-in-time vaccine," he said."

Both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Australian counterpart, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), have blamed the problem on manufacturing deficiencies, poor management, and inadequate cleaning and testing at the CSL facility. According to The Australian:

"The TGA said yesterday different manufacturing processes could explain why only CSL's vaccine caused such widespread side-effects in children last year."While the different brands of seasonal influenza vaccines use the same strains of virus, there are differences in manufacturing processes that may result in differences in the biology of the vaccines," an administration spokeswoman said.

Finland Vows to Pay for Lifetime Medical Care for Kids Harmed by H1N1 Vaccine

The 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu vaccine wreaked uncommon havoc in many countries. For example, several European countries noticed a staggering uptick in narcolepsy —a rare and devastating sleeping disorder.  Unfortunately, vaccine makers are completely shielded from liability for any harm caused by a pandemic vaccine, which is what the H1N1 flu vaccine was, so the fact that this vaccine turned out to be so harmful is a red flag for everyone to carefully weigh potential benefits and risks, and not trust blindly when health officials and doctors give standard assurances of vaccine safety and effectiveness.

In a rare and welcome demonstration of compassion and respect for the vaccine injured, the Finnish government and major health insurance companies recently announced they will pay for lifetime medical care for all the children diagnosed with narcolepsy after receiving the swine flu vaccine.

As reported by Yahoo News: 

"Finnish and international researchers recently found a conclusive link between the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine and new cases of narcolepsy… The Finnish Pharmaceutical Insurance Pool (LVP), which represents insurance companies, said… it would honor all insurance claims in this category… The Finnish government meanwhile agreed to cover any medical costs exceeding the insurance claims.

In Finland, 79 children between the ages of four and 19 developed narcolepsy after receiving the Pandemrix vaccine in 2009 and 2010. Of these cases, an unusually high number, 76, also suffered from bouts of cataplexy, suffering hallucinations or paralysing physical collapses, according to Finnish research."

Flu Vaccine for Pregnant Women Now Called into Question

In the U.S., trivalent influenza vaccination is universally recommended for all pregnant women, but a new study now calls this practice into question. The study examined "the magnitude, time course, and variance in inflammatory responses following seasonal influenza virus vaccination among pregnant women."  The women were assessed prior to, and at one day, two days, and one week following vaccination..

The analysis showed significant increases in C-reactive protein (CRP) and other markers of inflammation following the vaccinations. According to the authors:

"Trivalent influenza virus vaccination elicits a measurable inflammatory response among pregnant women ... There was considerable variability in magnitude of response; coefficients of variation for change at two days post-vaccination ranged from 122 percent to 728 percent, with the greatest variability in IL-6 responses at this timepoint.

… As adverse perinatal health outcomes including preeclampsia and preterm birth have an inflammatory component, a tendency toward greater inflammatory responding to immune triggers may predict risk of adverse outcomes, providing insight into biological mechanisms underlying risk… further research is needed to confirm that the mild inflammatory response elicited by vaccination is benign in pregnancy."

Are Flu Vaccines Increasing Inflammation in Pregnant Women to Dangerous Levels?

The issue of inflammation is very important, and may be a crucial concern for pregnant women and infants. Pregnant women experiencing acute inflammation, whether from natural infection or from a vaccination, may well suffer an increased risk of their unborn child suffering health damage as a result.

It has always been a principle in medicine that one should not expose pregnant women to unnecessary risks from smoking or ingesting drugs or alcohol or other toxins because the risk to the unborn child is too great. Until a decade ago, most women were not routinely advised by doctors to get vaccinated during pregnancy but, today, there is a big push by the CDC and medical trade organizations to vaccinate all pregnant women in any trimester. The really big push began in earnest during the much-hyped pandemic "swine flu" influenza scare of 2009, a flu that turned out to be less severe than most annual "flu seasons."

Researchers are now questioning the assumed safety of giving flu shots to pregnant women because stimulating a woman's immune system during midterm and later term pregnancy may significantly increase the risk that her baby will develop autism during childhood and schizophrenia sometime during the teenage years and afterward. This risk is not minor. According to Dr. Blaylock, it's a well-accepted fact within neuroscience that eliciting an immune response during pregnancy increases the risk of autism and schizophrenia in her offspring seven- to 14-fold!

In fact, a number of neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems can occur in babies born to women immunologically stimulated during pregnancy. For example, in one study done by Dr. Laura Hewitson, a professor of obstetrics at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center, found that a single vaccine used in human babies, when used in newborn monkeys, caused significant abnormalities in brainstem development.

It's true that serious flu infections or E. coli infections during pregnancy are a major risk for all these complications, but a woman's risk of actually becoming infected is quite small.

Two years ago, I interviewed Dr. Blaylock, a board certified neurosurgeon and author of Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills, on this topic. At the time, we were discussing the swine flu and H1N1 vaccine, but one particular segment relates to the issue of vaccinations during pregnancy in general. As stated above, vaccines elicit an inflammatory response, and according to Dr. Blaylock, this is of considerable concern for pregnant women.

Based on the data Dr. Blaylock shared in that interview, pregnant women had about a 99.97 percent chance of NOT becoming so ill from the swine flu that they would require any type of hospital care. Put another way, a pregnant woman only had a 0.03 percent chance of contracting a life-threatening case of influenza. These statistics would likely be applicable for most "regular" flu seasons as well. With the risk of suffering complications from naturally-acquired influenza being so low, why is the US government insisting on vaccinating ALL pregnant women; thereby significantly increasing the risk to ALL unborn infants?

What Your Obstetrician Doesn't Know about Vaccines Can Jeopardize Your Baby

Each year, the CDC and medical trade associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urge pregnant women and young children to get a flu shot because, they say, pregnant women and young children are "particularly at risk" for flu complications and death. However, the statistics simply do not support this recommendation.

Neither does the science...

Unfortunately, many obstetricians and pediatricians strongly recommend the flu vaccine to their pregnant patients because they simply don't know any better.

Doctors typically do not read neuroscience journals, perhaps because they don't have the time or because it is a lot easier to just blindly trust and follow the CDC or AAP "recommendations" without every checking them out.  But the link between inflammatory cytokine production during pregnancy and subsequent health problems in infants and young children is well explained in the medical literature; it's been published in well-respected journals and is already accepted within the field of neuroscience.

How to Protect Yourself Against the Flu Without Vaccination

Fortunately, avoiding a serious case of the flu doesn't require a flu vaccine. By following these simple guidelines, you can keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you're far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with or, if you do get sick with the flu, you are better prepared to move through it without complications and soon return to good health.

• Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I've previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu -- not the flu virus itself. This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. Regularly monitor your vitamin D levels to confirm your levels are within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml.

  Ideally, you'll want to get all your vitamin D from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed, but as a last resort you can take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. According to the latest review by Carole Baggerly (Grassrootshealth.org), adults need about 8,000 IU's a day.

• Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar impairs the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a healthy immune system is one of the most important keys to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.
• Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you're tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night's Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
• Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma.
• Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads.
• Take a Good Source of Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils that are trans fats and in processed foods as it will seriously damage your immune response.
• Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don't use antibacterial soap for this -- antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
• Use Natural Antibiotics. Examples include colloidal silver, oil of oregano, and garlic. These work like broad-spectrum antibiotics against bacteria, viruses, and protozoa in your body. And unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, they do not appear to lead to resistance.
• Avoid Hospitals.  I'd recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you're having an emergency and need expert medical care, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds. The best place to get plenty of rest and recover from illness that is not life-threatening is usually in the comfort of your own home.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand vaccine exemptions, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact.

Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAvocacy.org not only gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community, but when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Contact Your Elected Officials

Write or email your elected state representatives and share your concerns. Call them, or better yet, make an appointment to visit them in person in their office. Don't let them forget you!

It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what's really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the "real life" experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down.  Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:

• NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
• If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
• Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or  government officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want,  I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

See new "The Greater Good" Documentary for Free This Week

"The Greater Good" movie is a groundbreaking documentary about the vaccine safety and informed consent debate that is a "must see" for everyone who wants to learn more about the different scientific, health policy, economic, legal, ethical and political issues involved in the vaccination controversy. This film will help you educate others about how important it is to do your own research and learn more before you make a vaccination decision for yourself or your child. You can see this eye-opening movie for free on Mercola.com this week only and also get the DVD of the film for $10 until supplies run out. Click here.

Worse than Bad Advice – This Can Lead to Seizures, Paralysis, Blindness, and Death

THE GREATER GOOD from BNP Pictures on Vimeo.

By Dr. Mercola

"THE GREATER GOOD looks behind the fear, hype and politics that have polarized the vaccine debate in America today.

The film re-frames the emotionally charged issue and offers, for the first time, the opportunity for a rational and scientific discussion on how to create a safer and more effective vaccine program."

This film recently received the 2nd annual "Koroni Award for a documentary feature addressing an issue of importance to public health" at the Sidewalk Film Festival.

It also received the Cinematic Vision Award at the 2011 Amsterdam Film Festival.

From my point of view, this film couldn't be more timely and if you have any interest in the vaccine controversy is a must see.

I sincerely hope you will share this article with family, close friends and social networks while free viewing of the film is still available, and urge everyone you know to take the time to watch it.

Barbara Loe Fisher summarizes the purpose of the film rather succinctly when she says that the issue of vaccines, "has become so polarized—you're either pro-vaccine or you're anti-vaccine.

When you take a centrist position, like the National Vaccine Information Center, you are automatically put into the category of being anti-vaccine.

But the truth is, we're just trying to make vaccine policies and vaccines safer."

Individual Rights versus Politics

The Greater Good "weaves together the stories of families whose lives have been forever changed by vaccination," and shows how modern medicine, especially when driven by politics and big business, can rob you of some of your most basic rights. The results of such politically- and financially-driven policies can be devastating and one movie reviewer, who saw the groundbreaking  documentary, commented:

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"What's being said is staggering, especially if you don't know too much about the science of, and politics behind, vaccines." - LA Weekly

But this film is focused on analyzing what can be done to create positive change and reduce irrational fears so parents and doctors can work together to minimize vaccine risks vaccine risks to individuals and our population.

The film seeks to open the channels of communication between parents, doctors, and policy makers to listen and learn from each other in order to begin a rational discussion about vaccine safety. After all, don't all of us want our kids to be healthy and safe from unnecessary harm? In order to ensure the safety of as many children as possible, we cannot continue to ignore the signs that maybe we've taken vaccines as our primary disease prevention strategy too far; to the point that we're now seeing too many people being hurt.

Unlike many other TV programs and documentaries on this topic, The Greater Good takes care to acknowledge both doctors and scientists, who advocate for mass, mandatory vaccination policies as well as those, who question the science, policy and ethics of current vaccine policies.

From my point of view, there can be little doubt that we need to review the safety and effectiveness of the current vaccination program in the U.S., and this review needs to include methodologiclly sound investigative science. If we don't do that now, we may not be able to stop further damage to the health of future generations of children.

Incomplete Science Shapes US Vaccination Policies

Public health officials have long insisted that vaccines are the best way to protect the public health.  As a result, the number of doses of vaccines included in the childhood vaccination schedule has tripled over the past 30 years, from 23 doses of seven different vaccines in 1980 to 69 doses of 16 different vaccines in 2010.

However, alongside the rise in administered vaccines, we've also seen a significant rise in children with chronic disease and disabilities. For whatever reason, our kids are getting sicker. Infant mortality has also risen. In 1960, America ranked 12^th in infant mortality among all nations of the world. By 2005, we ranked 30^th. Furthermore, more full term babies die before their first birthday in the US than in most European countries, and the US gives its infants more vaccines than any other country in the world.

So, could it all be a coincidence?

The truth is, we don't know. 

No one has formally and independently studied the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children, and this is something that needs to be done not just for each individual vaccine, but also for multiple vaccine combinations.  The research is INCOMPLETE, and that is a major part of the problem.  How can you claim a pharmaceutical product like a vaccine is safe for everyone and that using multiple vaccines from day of birth throughout childhood is a wise public health policy when that policy has not been adequately studied? As a nation, the U.S. is gambling the health of its citizens on assumptions.

As stated in the film:

"The certainty is not scientific."

Vaccines are currently approved based on the research submitted to the government by the drug companies that have developed the new vaccine and funded the pre-licensure studies. Many of the studies drug companies conduct do not use true placebos and have only a few hundred or a few thousand healthy people enrolled, who do not match the health profile of the millions of people told to get the vaccine after it is licensed. The safety of vaccine policies are primarily based on the word of the companies that produce and profit from vaccines and enjoy a liability shield from vaccine injury lawsuits in civil court that was given to them by Congress and the Supreme Court.

Is this wise?

Furthermore, the mass vaccination program takes a one-size-fits-all strategy approach. It does not acknowledge that we are all individuals with different predispositions and health status, which  can play a significant role in how we react to vaccines or prescription drugs. For example, research by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride indicates that children with compromised gut flora are particularly prone to vaccine damage.

Currently there is almost no individual screening done by most doctors to assess whether an individual is at high risk for having a vaccine reaction that can end in serious health problems or even death. Wouldn't it make sense to do everything possible to minimize vaccine risks?  After all, while increasing numbers of parents opt to delay vaccinations or opt out of vaccines for their children, there are many parents who want to vaccinate their children and they deserve to have confidence that everything possible is being done to minimize vaccine risks for their child..

Being able to easily and inexpensively decrease a child's chances of experiencing an adverse reaction should be embraced and encouraged by all health officials and doctors rather than conveniently dismissing the legitimate vaccine safety concerns of parents as "anti-vaccine" and "anti-establisment."

Why We Should Urge Our Daughters to Be One Less Victim of Gardasil

In 2006, Merck released Gardasil, a vaccine designed to protect young girls and women against being infected with four strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). The idea was that if HPV infection , which is cleared asymptomatically within two years by more than 90 percent of those who get it, is that HPV associated cervical cancers in women would be prevented.

 One of the three vaccine injury cases featured in The Greater Good movie is that of Gabi Swank, a 15-year-old honor student who decided to get the Gardasil vaccine after seeing a "Be One Less" Gardasil vaccine advertisement on TV. Like so many young girls, she wasn't warned about any possible side effects when she got the shots, which are given as a series of three injections.

Gabi is now a Gardasil injury statistic, a young girl permanently disabled by the vaccine.

At the time the documentary was filmed, she had already suffered two strokes and experienced partial paralysis.   She also lost part of her vision and today suffers frequent seizures. When she was in high school, many days she had to use a wheelchair to get around school due to muscle pain and chronic fatigue.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, recently issued an update on adverse reaction reports relating to Gardasil. The documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) detail 26 new deaths reported following HPV vaccination between September 1, 2010 and September 15, 2011. That's 26 deaths of young, previously healthy, girls in just one year.

Other serious side effects reported during that time frame included:

Seizures	Paralysis	Blindness	Pancreatitis
Speech problems	Short term memory loss	Guillain-Barre syndrome	Ovarian cysts

Between May 2009 and September 2010, 16 deaths occurred after Gardasil vaccination. For that timeframe there were also 789 reports of "serious" adverse reactions, of which 213 resulted in permanent disability and 25 resulting in a diagnosis of Guillain Barre Syndrome, Judicial Watch reported.

When Politics and Vaccine Safety Collide… You Usually Lose

According to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:

"These reports raise additional concerns about Gardasil's questionable safety and provide ample reason to end the push to give it young girls and boys. And the CDC's continued caginess on reported deaths is disturbing. Federal, state, and local officials need to stop promoting this vaccine for children."

Unfortunately, many elected officials are doing just the opposite. Texas Governor Rick Perry is a perfect example. In 2007, he signed an Executive Order mandating all 11- and 12-year-old girls in Texas to get the HPV vaccine. Fortunately, the law was overturned two months later, after a firestorm of opposition. Many have now connected the dots and exposed his too-cozy ties to Merck, the maker of Gardasil More recently, Calfornia Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing minors to be given Gardasil vaccine (and other vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases) without their parents' knowledge or informed consent..

Annual PAP Test Now Discouraged. Why?

According to recently updated guidelines by the federal Preventive Services Task Force, women over 21 are now to be dissuaded from annual PAP smears. Instead the panel recommends that women between 21 and 65 get a PAP smear test every three years, stating that "evidence is still insufficient to weigh harms and benefits of tests screening for human papillomavirus (HPV)."

Other cancer groups agree. As reported by Reuters:

"Everybody agrees on almost everything: Let's get rid of regular annual Pap testing, let's get rid of teenage screenings, let's screen women who aren't getting screened," said Debbie Saslow, the American Cancer Society's director of breast and gynecologic cancer.

The problem with this stance is that PAP smears prevent cervical cancer deaths far more effectively than the HPV vaccine ever will. And it's hard to compare the potential side effects of the HPV vaccine with the potential side effects of PAP tests. I've never heard of anyone dying or becoming paralyzed from a PAP smear…

Now, I don't necessarily disagree with their recommendation to reduce the frequency of PAP testing, but I question the double standard that is so readily visible here. Why are cancer groups recommending getting rid of a safe and effective screening method, which we know saves lives, while vigorously advocating the clearly risky HPV vaccine? For example, the National Cervical Cancer Coalition offers the following response to the question about Gardasil's safety:

"The FDA has licensed the vaccine as safe and effective. This vaccine has been tested in thousands of females (9 to 26 years of age) around the world. These studies have shown no serious side effects. The most common side effect is brief soreness at the injection site."

It does not even hint at the many thousands of serious adverse events reported after Gardasil vaccinations to the government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) since its approval, including 26 deaths in the past 12 months alone!  

Furthermore, the death rate from cervical cancer in the United States is a mere 3 per 100,000. Your daughter has a much higher risk of dying in a car accident than she does dying from cervical cancer. Cervical cancer rates are even lower in some European countries.  The reason why the mortality rate is so low is because the immune system's of the vast majority of women is usually strong enough to clear up this kind of infection on its own, and does so in more than 90 percent of all cases. The CDC even admits to this fact on their website.

For the "Greater Good"—At What Price?

Rigidly maintaining the assumption that one-size-fits-all mass-vaccinations are necessary and "for the greater good" fails to take into account the possibility that there is harm being done to an increasing number of people, who are not being counted when vaccine benefit and risk calculations are done by health officials.

Keep in mind that to this day, we have NO reliable data indicating just how many children are truly being harmed by any particular vaccine, as adverse event reporting is completely voluntary. Many people are still unaware that the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) even exists, or that you can file a report yourself if your doctor fails to make a report..

The CDC itself admits that only a small fraction of hospitalization, injuries and deaths after vaccination are ever reported. In one 1993 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler estimated that fewer than one percent of all doctors report injuries and deaths following the administration of prescription drugs. This estimate may be even lower for vaccines. According to Barbara Loe Fisher, one survey conducted by the NVIC in New York in 1994 revealed that only one doctor in 40 reported to VAERS.

In an ideal world scenario, any and all adverse events would be reported following vaccination, and health outcomes would be evaluated long-term. Today, many doctors and health authorities simply dismiss adverse events as "unrelated" to the vaccine.

But on what do they base their conclusions?

I urge you to take the time to watch The Greater Good, and start to think about  some of the profound questions raised in the film.  What we need is an open, intelligent, civil dialogue about how we can ensure the health and well-being of our children, and that doesn't mean it has to be all or nothing! Everyone should be allowed to exercise voluntary, informed consent to vaccination and that means you should be able to use every recommended vaccine, some vaccines or no vaccines at all. We should all have the legal right to make informed, voluntary decision about any drug or vaccine or medical procedure that carries risk to our health or the health of our children.

When our government recommends doctors give children 69 doses of vaccines and many of those vaccines are mandated,  safety MUST become the FIRST priority for public health officials, and doctors giving vaccines.  It is essential that the appropriate studies be done to find out if the current vaccine schedule is doing far more harm than good.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand vaccine exemptions, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact.

Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAvocacy.org not only gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community, but when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Contact Your Elected Officials

Write or email your elected state representatives and share your concerns. Call them, or better yet, make an appointment to visit them in person in their office. Don't let them forget you!

It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what's really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the "real life" experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down.  Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:

• NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
• If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
• Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or  government officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want,  I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

Sugar-Free Drinks and Chewing Gum Linked to Tooth Damage

By Dr. Mercola

Many people choose sugar-free beverages and gum because they believe they are safer for their teeth.

The sugar alcohol xylitol, which is popular in sugar-free foods, has even been found to help fight tooth decay, and the European Union has approved a related health claim that it is a 'tooth friendly' ingredient in chewing gum.

However, a label of "sugar-free" should not automatically be taken to mean "safe for your teeth." As a new study revealed, even foods that contain "tooth friendly" xylitol have the potential to cause other dental problems …

Sugar-Free Foods May Cause Tooth Erosion

The fact that sugar-free foods do not contain sugar may mean they're less likely to contribute to the formation of cavities in your teeth, however this says nothing about their ability to cause other tooth problems, like dental erosion.

A new review revealed that sugar-free products that contain acidic flavorings and preservatives may in fact lead to dental erosion, even if they contain cavity-fighting xylitol.

The researchers stated:

"Although the presence of acidic flavorings and preservatives in sugar-free products has received less attention, these additives may have adverse dental health effects, such as dental erosion. Furthermore, the term sugar-free may generate false security because people may automatically believe that sugar-free products are safe on teeth."

Unlike cavities, dental erosion is a process of incremental decalcification, which, over time, literally dissolves your teeth. Virtually any food or beverage that is acidic can contribute to tooth erosion, including carbonated beverages like soda, sports drinks, fruit juice, lemon juice and vinegar.

Reducing or eliminating as many erosive beverages as possible from your diet is important if you want to protect your teeth from unnecessary damage, and this has nothing to do with their sugar content, or lack thereof.

So if you're eating sugar-free foods to protect your teeth you are being misled because if the food is acidic or contains acidic flavorings or preservatives, it will still have the potential to damage your teeth. In fact, if you believe there is any benefit to eating foods that contain artificial sweeteners, you are probably in for a surprise …

Artificial Sweeteners Can Damage Your Health and Make You Fat

The fact that sugar-free products can damage your teeth adds to the growing litany of reasons why you're better off ditching these fake foods from your diet altogether.

For starters, artificial sweeteners themselves are toxic. For instance, aspartame (found in Equal, Spoonful, Equal Measure, AminoSweet, Benevia, NutraTaste, and Canderel) is metabolized inside your body into both wood alcohol (a poison) and formaldehyde (which embalms tissue and is not eliminated from your body through the normal waste filtering done by your liver and kidneys). It's been linked to birth defects, cancer, brain tumors and weight gain.

Sucralose (Splenda) was approved by the FDA based on only two human studies, the longest of which lasted only four days – even though animal studies found the sweetener was associated with decreased red blood cells (a sign of anemia), male infertility, enlarged kidneys, spontaneous abortions and an increased death rate.

Further, consuming artificial sweeteners can cause distortions in your biochemistry, and if you drink diet soda in an attempt to lose weight, they won't help you. Instead, most studies looking at this show very clearly that diet soft drinks actually double your obesity risk by stimulating your appetite, increasing carbohydrate cravings, and stimulating fat storage!

Several years ago, I wrote a book called Sweet Deception, in which I expose the many concerns related to the consumption of artificial sweeteners.

It's an extremely well-researched book, and it's as valid today as it was when I first wrote it. I spent over three years and had five health care professionals work on it with me, as the maker of Splenda, Johnson & Johnson, had their legal firm write me a 20-page letter threatening to sue me if I published the book. Needless to say, the book was published and they did not sue me as the information was all true. This is not to say that you should swap your sugar-free foods for sugary varieties, as sugar, too, will wreck your teeth.

A Low-Sugar, Healthy Diet, Not Sugar-Free Fake Foods, is the Key to Healthy Teeth

Cavities form on your teeth when the acid-producing bacteria in plaque dissolve the mineral in your teeth. While microscopic at first, the cavities can increase in size and number until the decay must be drilled out and repaired with a filling or crown, a root canal performed, or the tooth removed. But how do you prevent the proliferation of the bacteria that cause decay in the first place?

By avoiding sugars and processed foods (including sugar-free processed foods)!

Good oral health and strong, healthy teeth are the direct result of a healthy diet. Dr. Weston A. Price, who was one of the major nutritional pioneers of all time, completed some of the most incredible research on this topic back in the 1900s, and it is still very much relevant today.

What he found, and documented in his classic book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, is that native tribes who were eating their traditional diet had nearly perfect teeth, and were almost 100 percent free of tooth decay -- and they did not have toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, or root canals and fillings.

But when these tribal populations were introduced to sugar and white flour, guess what happened … their health, and their perfect teeth, rapidly deteriorated. Most people whose diet includes very little sugar and few processed foods have very low rates of tooth decay. So the simple act of limiting, or eliminating sugar, and avoiding processed foods -- along with regular cleanings with your natural mercury-free dentist -- will ensure that your teeth and gums stay healthy and cavity-free naturally.

Your Dental Health is a Window to Your Overall Health

Most people regard a cavity as a minor inconvenience, but if your tooth has begun to decay to the point that a cavity is evident, this is a major sign that disease-causing bacteria has begun to overpower your immune system and your body.

Your teeth are constantly under attack from the foods you eat, the beverages you drink and bacteria, so much so that your body constantly works at repairing small amounts of damage to the enamel of your teeth. If you're healthy, this should be enough to prevent cavities from forming, but if the bacteria overwhelm your system, dental decay can result.

Gum disease, which is caused by the long-term effects of plaque deposits and is a major cause of tooth decay, also raises your risk of developing several chronic health problems including:

• Pneumonia
• Lung disease
• Diabetes
• Stroke
• Heart disease

So tending to your oral health is an important strategy for protecting your overall health. This includes not only brushing and flossing but also eating right by avoiding sugar, sugar-free foods and processed foods. In the event you are looking for a sweet treat that will not interfere with your health or harm your teeth, the herb stevia is my favorite option.

Medicare Part B to Cut Premium and Deductible Cost in 2012

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today that Medicare Part B premiums will be lower than previously projected for 2012, and deductibles will go down by $22.
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Do You Supplement with Vitamin D? Please Remember This…

By Dr. Mercola

Vitamin K is frequently called the "forgotten vitamin" for a good reason -- it's often not fully appreciated, considering its immense value to your health.

One of these oft-overlooked benefits is in relation to your insulin sensitivity, which has implications for a slew of potentially life-threatening chronic diseases.

Vitamin K Enhances Insulin Sensitivity

Research shows that vitamin K can help to regulate your glucose metabolism by converting to a substance called carboxylated osteocalcin in your body, which affects insulin sensitivity.

A recent study found for the first time that vitamin K2 supplementation increased insulin sensitivity in healthy young men, and the effect seemed to be related to increased carboxylated osteocalcin levels, rather than to another factor such as modulation of inflammation.

According to the study in Diabetes Care:

"Although our study could not provide the underlying mechanism, we speculate that [carboxylated osteocalcin] or vitamin K could modulate adipokines or inflammatory pathways other than the IL-6 pathways.

Alternatively, [carboxylated osteocalcin] can directly regulate glucose disposal at skeletal muscle or adipose tissues."

Past research has also shown that vitamin K slowed the development of insulin resistance in elderly men, adding to the growing evidence that vitamin K has a potentially beneficial role in insulin metabolism.

This is an incredibly important benefit, as enhanced insulin sensitivity means that it is easier for your body to take up sugar from your bloodstream.

Impaired insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance, occurs when your body cannot use insulin properly, allowing your blood sugar levels to get too high. Insulin resistance is a precursor to type 2 diabetes as well as a risk factor in many other chronic diseases.

In fact, controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your risk of chronic diseases, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer. The increase in insulin-related diseases we're now seeing is largely due to lack of exercise combined with the excessive consumption of fructose and carbohydrates in the average American diet, which means healthy sources of vitamin K are often lacking!

Are You Getting Enough Vitamin K to Get These Important Benefits?

According to Dr. Cees Vermeer, one of the world's top researchers into vitamin K, nearly everyone is deficient in it -- just like most people are deficient in vitamin D. Most of you get just enough vitamin K from your diet to maintain adequate blood clotting, but NOT enough to offer protection against the following health problems -- and the list continues to grow:

Arterial calcification, cardiovascular disease and varicose veins	Brain health problems, including dementia (the specifics of which are under study)
Osteoporosis	Tooth decay
Prostate cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer and leukemia	Infectious diseases such as pneumonia

For a comprehensive exploration of all the research and functions of vitamin K, refer to this article on the Weston Price website, but before you head out to buy a supplement or increase your dietary intake, it's important to understand the differences between the two forms, as they can impact its potential benefit.

What are the Different Types of Vitamin K?

Vitamin K exists in two basic forms, K1 and K2:

1. Vitamin K1: Found in green vegetables, K1 goes directly to your liver and helps you maintain a healthy blood clotting system. (This is the kind of K that infants need to help prevent a serious bleeding disorder.)
2. Vitamin K2: Bacteria produce this type of vitamin K. It is present in high quantities in your gut, but unfortunately is not absorbed from there and passes out in your stool. K2 goes straight to vessel walls, bones, and tissues other than your liver.

There are several different forms of vitamin K2: MK4, MK7, MK8, and MK9. The form of vitamin K that has the most relevance for health benefits is MK7, a newer and longer acting form with more practical applications. MK7 is extracted from the Japanese fermented soy product called natto. You could actually get loads of MK7 from consuming natto, as it is relatively inexpensive and available in most Asian food markets.

Few people, however, tolerate its smell and slimy texture, so most people who find natto unpalatable prefer to take a supplement. Most vitamin K2 supplements are in the form MK7. You can also get MK7 by eating fermented cheeses.

Do You Take Oral Vitamin D? Why Vitamin K2 is Especially Important for You

There are very compelling reasons to make a concerted effort to get ALL your vitamin D requirements from exposure to sunshine, or by using a safe tanning bed (one with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields).

As a quick summary, when you expose your skin to sunshine, your skin synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water soluble form can travel freely in your blood stream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called "bad" cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. The suspicion is that the oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D likely will not provide the same benefits as the vitamin D created in your skin from sun exposure, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate.

For more details, please refer to my recent interview with Dr. Stephanie Seneff.

As a last resort, if neither sun exposure nor safe tanning beds are feasible options, then you may resort to taking an oral vitamin D3 supplement. Getting back to vitamin K, there is evidence that the safety of vitamin D is dependent on vitamin K, and that vitamin D toxicity (although very rare with the D3 form) is actually mitigated by vitamin K2 deficiency. So if you take oral vitamin D, ideally you should take vitamin K2 as well.

There is also a synergistic effect between vitamins D and K, as these two agents work together to increase MGP, or Matrix GLA Protein, which is the protein responsible for protecting your blood vessels from calcification. In healthy arteries, MGP congregates around the elastic fibers of your tunica media (arterial lining), guarding them against calcium crystal formation.

Vitamin K Keeps Calcium Where You Need It, Not Where You Don't

There is new evidence that it is vitamin K (specifically, vitamin K2) that directs calcium to your skeleton, while preventing it from being deposited where you don't want it -- i.e., your organs, joint spaces, and arteries. A large part of arterial plaque consists of calcium deposits (atherosclerosis), hence the term "hardening of the arteries."

Vitamin K2 activates a protein hormone called osteocalcin, produced by osteoblasts, which is needed to bind calcium into the matrix of your bone. Osteocalcin also appears to help prevent calcium from depositing into your arteries. So while increasing calcium is good for your bones, it is not so good for your arteries, which can become calcified. Vitamin K protects your blood vessels from calcifying when in the presence of high calcium levels.

Optimizing Your Vitamin K Intake

Vitamin K measurements in blood plasma can be done accurately, but the results are really not helpful because they mainly reflect "what you ate yesterday," according to Dr. Vermeer. Because there are no good laboratory assessments, he and his team have developed and patented a very promising laboratory test to assess vitamin K levels indirectly by measuring circulating MGP.

They are hoping to have this test available to the public in the next several years for a reasonable price, and several labs are already interested. Additionally, they are working on developing a home test that would be available at your neighborhood drug store.

At this time, however, there is really no commercial test that would give you meaningful information. But since nearly 100 percent of people don't get sufficient amounts of vitamin K from their diet to reap its full health benefits, you can assume you need to bump up your vitamin K levels.

Ideally, optimize your vitamin K through a combination of dietary sources (leafy green vegetables, fermented foods like natto, raw milk cheeses, etc.) and a K2 supplement, if needed. Although the exact dosing (for oral supplementation) is yet to be determined, Dr. Vermeer recommends up to 185 mcg daily for adults.  You must use caution on the higher doses if you take anticoagulants, but if you are generally healthy and not on these types of medications, I suggest 150-300 mcg daily.

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