What are Adjuvants and Why Might They Be Causing the Autism Epidemic?

While most of us know someone who thinks they may have been harmed by a vaccine, we may not believe them... That is until we experience it for ourselves. That is what happened to us. The symptoms were subtle at first. Smiles disappearing, hyper-focusing on words, emotional outbursts, and social withdrawal came on so slowly that it was difficult to determine exactly when they started, or connect them to any one particular thing. That was until the MMR. The dark circles, night terrors, the hours and hours of screaming without any way to console. All that was met with what I now know was gaslighting from my child's doctor. These pediatricians had an agenda, and any question I raised was met with contention and downright coercion. My questions deserved an answer, and my child deserved care, but I got neither. One important question was about adjuvants. An adjuvant is a substance that helps the body find the pathogen so it can create an antibody for it. One of the chemicals in the vaccines is aluminum. Pathogens are expensive, aluminum is not. Vaccine manufacturers use nearly a milligram of aluminum (800 micrograms) in the Pedarix combo vaccine alone, which is only one of the three stabs a 2-month-old is to receive on schedule. The total amount of aluminum injected into a 2-month-old according to the schedule exceeds 1 milligram.

So what? It must be well understood and tested if we are putting it in there, right? This PubMed article says differently...

"Aluminum adjuvants are widely used in human vaccines based on their ability to enhance antibody production. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unknown...(emphasis added) Our findings suggest that aluminum hydroxide directly stimulates monocytes to produce proinflammatory cytokines activating T cells. Activated Th2 cells release IL-4, which in turn can induce an increase in the expression of MHC class II molecules on monocytes."(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11160013/)

Could this "unknown" mechanism also cause auto-immune problems or neurologic dysfunction causing some type of developmental delay? Let's look at a study done by the NIH..

“Following i.v. injection, ~ 0.001 to 0.01% of the aluminium dose enters each gram of brain and ~ 100-fold more each gram of bone. Brain aluminium uptake across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) may be mediated by Tf-receptor mediated endocytosis (TfR-ME) and a Tf-independent mechanism that may transport aluminium citrate... Regardless of the duration of exposure, the toxicity attributed to aluminium is dependent upon the physiochemical properties (solubility, pH, bioavailability, etc.), type of aluminium preparation, route of administration, and physiological status (presence of renal dysfunction). Following oral exposure, aluminium distributes throughout the organism with accumulation in bone, kidneys and brain being of concern to humans with evidence of renal dysfunction, anemia or neurobehavioural alterations reported after excessive doses... There are no published reports of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling of aluminium. A few models have been developed that incorporate the reported results of toxicokinetic studies with aluminium.”(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782734/) (emphasis added)

I guess this is basically saying, “we don’t know how this aluminum affects people.” This, of course, is beside the known inflammatory response noted in the previous study.

But wait... there was that one study about infant hydration fluid... This study was published on the American Academy of Pediatrics website in the mid-2000s, approximately 2006, but was then removed from their site because it stated that 500 micrograms of aluminum in hydration fluid administered over a period of 10 days to premature infants showed developmental delay by 18 months of age compared to the control group that was administered hydration fluid without the aluminum. That is less than half of the aluminum a 2-month old infant gets at their checkup. This study was quickly removed from the AAP site when researchers cited it as a possible concern with aluminum-containing vaccines.

The liver, a major detoxification organ, is affected by aluminum as well.

“Another complication of parenteral nutrition therapy in infants is cholestatic liver disease, manifested by reduced bile flow, and, occasionally, gallstones. Aluminum has been found to accumulate in the livers of these infants, and there is experimental evidence that aluminum can reduce bile flow both in rats and in piglets. Aluminum contamination of parenteral nutrition solutions puts infants at increased risk for complications of parenteral nutrition therapy; amounts of aluminum in parenteral nutrition solutions should therefore be minimized.” (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+7331) (Emphasis added)

I started this article in 2013, about 10 years ago, when someone on social media suggested that, "anti-vaxxers should be sterilized." I responded with some of this information and asked for reason and respect... "Until you read these studies, and the other multitude of NIH studies about aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG, thimerosal (Flu), and animal and human components found in vaccines, with understanding, I encourage everyone to not offer up parenting advice, ask for law enforcement intervention, or ask these 'anti-vaxxers' to be sterilized. Doing so only shows your ignorance." I dare say that my sentiment has been the same for the last 22 years.

            Read everything, and respond respectfully.

If we've learned anything from recent events, even "expert" researchers and scientists don't know everything. That is why we continue to ask questions.

Another one of those questions is, what is causing the side effects?

We know many drugs cause headaches, but what biological process is causing the headache? Are we causing micro changes in the myelin sheath on the nerve cells in the brain? Are we causing a sharp rise in blood pressure? Is there a receptor disruption, or hormonal imbalance that is caused by the introduction of the drug?

I hypothesize the pathogen, adjuvants, and preservative combo are responsible for some type of brain inflammation, which may be why we see an upturn in autism rates at about 2 years of age. Some others have blamed a complicated process involving inflammation and the use of acetaminophen. Auto-immune reactions similar to PANDAS, which is a disease where antibodies attack the part of the brain responsible for voluntary motion, may also be a factor. If strep can cause a reaction like this, why can't other viruses?

Also, MMR and Varicella are the first vaccines on the schedule to have human components. Is it possible that some people's immune systems make antibodies for these human components, which then start attacking their own human tissue? These questions are not being asked, and the growing evidence is ignored and dismissed as anecdotal. Science best practice aside, there are too many of these stories to ignore. Some doctors are finally stepping up and asking the tough questions, doing their own research and not relying on just the pharmaceutical company's findings.

Don't blindly take anything anyone says about any medication, including vaccines. Your patients deserve at least that. With all due respect for the time and training doctors receive in medical school, they are in fact conditioned by this very education to turn to drugs. I've read too many scientific studies on new drugs hailed as the latest wonder drug while the findings, when carefully understood, were mediocre at best.

Consider also that most hypotheses are designed to highlight a drug's effectiveness. When you chose an outcome that states what you hope to accomplish with the subject, the scientist's bias, which each one of us has, serves to predispose the outcome.

Some researchers take this into account and actually try to disprove the drug's effectiveness. Kudos to you bias blasters!

Unfortunately when bias slips in, and even a small difference between the subject group and the control is found, this product into which resources, energy, and time has been poured, is hailed as a success. The pharmaceutical company has money and time in the drug's production and wants to recoup its cost. No matter how small the success is, the side effects are often minimized, and it's deemed a win.

I'd like to conclude with this plea. Doctors, please treat your patients, not as cattle to be run through the system, but treat them as the individuals they are. Take time to read the studies of that new drug the rep just dropped off. Ask questions about past side effects, allergies, and other exposures. And please, please, check your patients for immunity before telling them they need a booster.

Your patients will thank you for your careful and considerate care, and you will sleep easy knowing that you did your absolute best for each individual.