The Hygiene Hypothesis
All of the below is from “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations
It’s a law of nature: For every action there is a reaction. That principle is behind the argument made by some experts that response to the decreased number of infectious diseases in childhood, achieved through the use of mass immunization, has been an increase in chronic autoimmune disorders, such as asthma, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, especially among children, who are the largest group being vaccinated.
Interfering with Nature
In 1997 the Economist published an article in which the author-scientists noted that interfering with nature — trying to prevent or treat an infectious disease — can lead to undesirable results. One excellent example is antibiotics, which were developed to destroy disease-causing bacteria. The result is we now have more antibiotic-resistant bacteria than we ever had and diseases are not responding to antibiotic treatment.
The “hygiene hypothesis” states that being exposed to infectious diseases during childhood provides immunity against those diseases and may prevent chronic problems later in life. The article notes that “intervening in infections may have undesirable effects on the hosts — that is, on people — as well as on the pathogens (disease-causing organisms) themselves.” One theory explains that the human immune system has evolved over tens of thousands of years to respond to and be strengthened by invading disease-causing organisms. If that natural tendency to right these organisms is taken away through the use of vaccinations, the immune system may then attach itself — autoimmune disease.
Some researchers, as you will discover below, believe the hygiene hypothesis may explain the relationship between vaccines and the rise in chronic autoimmune disorders. Their studies show evidence that vaccines may be having “undesirable effects” on both people and the disease-causing organisms.
Disrupting the Immune System
In the November 1997 issue of Science News, Harvard Medical School immunologist Howard L. Weiner said that immunization disrupts the activity of the immune system. “If a person has a tendency toward a disease at a certain age, a vaccine might…make [him or her] more susceptible later, when other challenges come along.” An example of this idea is the belief of many experts that giving the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine to children forces the disease to emerge in adolescence or adulthood, when it can cause much more serious complications than it can during childhood (see chapter 11).
