Wellness

[Clover29]

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

On 1/23/2015 Clover29 said:

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

Has anyone here given thought to the very real possibility that measles outbreaks are not due one's measles vaccination status, but rather to one's Vitamin A levels?

And this is the other bonkers reason why New Age parents don't get their kids vaccinated. They think that a macrobiotic, organic, vitamin-rich diet makes their kids into some kind of immunity super beings, who can't possibly get diseases because they're too healthy, and diseases are only for poor, malnourished people.

Diseases are like nits. They like clean, healthy people just as much as people with no personal hygiene.

I guess you didn't bother to read the articles provided. The information I provided has absolutely nothing to do with New Age parents.

It is well known in medical circles by pediatricians, medical researchers, and even members of the World Health Organization that, "Vitamin A deficiency is a recognised risk factor for severe measles."

I guess the World Health Organization and medical professionals are bonkers, too, by your definition.

I have no issue with the WHO. The World Health Organization estimates that Vitamin A supplementation has averted 1.25 million deaths due to vitamin A deficiency in 40 countries since 1998.

That's not the same thing as 1.25 million deaths from measles. Yes. of course vitamin A deficiency is a thing, but it's not why people get measles. It's certainly not why I got measles. I got measles because someone else with measles (we never knew who) infected me. Someone who should not have been out in public places.

[NoelSeven]

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

On 1/23/2015 NoelSeven said:

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

On 1/23/2015 Clover29 said:

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

Has anyone here given thought to the very real possibility that measles outbreaks are not due one's measles vaccination status, but rather to one's Vitamin A levels?

And this is the other bonkers reason why New Age parents don't get their kids vaccinated. They think that a macrobiotic, organic, vitamin-rich diet makes their kids into some kind of immunity super beings, who can't possibly get diseases because they're too healthy, and diseases are only for poor, malnourished people.

Diseases are like nits. They like clean, healthy people just as much as people with no personal hygiene.

I guess you didn't bother to read the articles provided. The information I provided has absolutely nothing to do with New Age parents.

It is well known in medical circles by pediatricians, medical researchers, and even members of the World Health Organization that, "Vitamin A deficiency is a recognised risk factor for severe measles."

I guess the World Health Organization and medical professionals are bonkers, too, by your definition.

A risk factor is not going to give you measles. It may make it easier to catch if exposed to measles, but measles is a VIRUS.

What you say is true, NoelSeven, but not everyone exposed to measles virus catches the measles. It may not be the antibodies that are protecting those individuals all of the time. Nutritional deficiencies may have something to do with why certain individuals are more susceptible to diseases. If the severity of measles infection is driven, in part, by Vitamin A deficiency, why hasn't anyone done a comprehensive study to determine if the vitamin A levels of children who were exposed to measles, yet didn't develop the disease, were particularly high? Even if measles incidence cannot be stopped by Vitamin A derived nutritionally, or by supplementary means, it still should be recommended for children in communities with a high incidence of circulating measles, and a proper dose for this Vitamin should be established for both children and adults.

The Journal of Infectious Diseases states, "An estimated 125 million preschool-aged children are estimated to have vitamin A deficiency, placing them at high risk for death, severe infection, or blindness as a result of measles."

http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/189/Supplement_1/S4.long

Shouldn't those in public health be doing something about extreme Vitamin A deficiency for any such deficient children in the US, other than promoting a measles vaccine that doesn't work for everyone?

I don't know about the vitamin A deficiency or why there is one, but what you've said is fascinating so I will do some reading about it.

I don't know if public health would be the ones to spearhead that, I'd assume it would be the pediatricians. Maybe Pitdakota will see this and comment.

Right now, I see the main priority as educating parents about getting their children vaccinated, measles isn't the only disease making a comeback.

[Jersey Born]

On 1/23/2015 Clover29 said:

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

On 1/23/2015 Clover29 said:

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

Has anyone here given thought to the very real possibility that measles outbreaks are not due one's measles vaccination status, but rather to one's Vitamin A levels?

And this is the other bonkers reason why New Age parents don't get their kids vaccinated. They think that a macrobiotic, organic, vitamin-rich diet makes their kids into some kind of immunity super beings, who can't possibly get diseases because they're too healthy, and diseases are only for poor, malnourished people.

Diseases are like nits. They like clean, healthy people just as much as people with no personal hygiene.

I guess you didn't bother to read the articles provided. The information I provided has absolutely nothing to do with New Age parents.

It is well known in medical circles by pediatricians, medical researchers, and even members of the World Health Organization that, "Vitamin A deficiency is a recognised risk factor for severe measles."

I guess the World Health Organization and medical professionals are bonkers, too, by your definition.

I have no issue with the WHO. The World Health Organization estimates that Vitamin A supplementation has averted 1.25 million deaths due to vitamin A deficiency in 40 countries since 1998.

That's not the same thing as 1.25 million deaths from measles. Yes. of course vitamin A deficiency is a thing, but it's not why people get measles. It's certainly not why I got measles. I got measles because someone else with measles (we never knew who) infected me. Someone who should not have been out in public places.

Clover, the person who infected you may very well have been vaccinated.

http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/02/27/cid.ciu105

http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20649

http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/04/measles-outbreak-traced-fully-vaccinated-patient-first-tim...

I do agree that people with measles should not be out in public infecting others.

[NoelSeven]

Jersey Born -

Hi, again. Looking into vitamin A deficiency in children, I see a lot of information about this being a serious problem in undeveloped countries around the world and being a leading cause of blindness.

It sounds like strides are being made to eradicate that, but I'm not seeing where it is an issue in America, or that it is correlated with measles.

[NoelSeven]

FYI:

20 Students In This District Were Told To Stay Home Because They Are Not Vaccinated

Twenty kids from Huntington Beach High School in California have not been allowed to attend school since early January because they have not received vaccines that protect against measles.

Earlier this month, a student from the Orange County school was diagnosed with measles, amid a growing outbreak of the illness in the region.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/huntington-beach-measles_n_6534678.html?utm_hp_ref=educati...

[Jersey Born]

I just wish that some scientists would conduct the following experiment:

Select 100 mice, or another animal. Check the animal blood for Vitamin A, and bring the vitamin A level to certain, varied, and pre-determined levels in 50 of the animals. Do not supplement the remaining 50 animals with Vitamin A. Then, find out if the levels of Vitamin A established in the animals in any way correlated with protection from measles after actually exposing all 100 of the animals to measles. If Vitamin A could actually reduce the incidence of measles cases, in spite of exposure to measles, it would be a wonderful thing to discover. I'm not saying it would. I have no idea what the result of such an experiment would be. I would like to know what effect different blood levels of Vitamin A might or might not have on measles infection rates.

Vitamin A is used a a treatment for measles, as it is known to reduce the severity of diagnosed measles cases and reduce complications from the virus.

Interestingly, measles virus depletes the Vitamin A stored in a person's body when they are infected with the virus, too. There is a definite interplay between measles and Vitamin A that needs to be better understood.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437709/

[NoelSeven]

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

I just wish that some scientists would conduct the following experiment:

Select 100 mice, or another animal. Check the animal blood for Vitamin A, and bring the vitamin A level to certain, varied, and pre-determined levels in 50 of the animals. Do not supplement the remaining 50 animals with Vitamin A. Then, find out if the levels of Vitamin A established in the animals in any way correlated with protection from measles after actually exposing all 100 of the animals to measles. If Vitamin A could actually reduce the incidence of measles cases, in spite of exposure to measles, it would be a wonderful thing to discover. I'm not saying it would. I have no idea what the result of such an experiment would be. I would like to know what effect different blood levels of Vitamin A might or might not have on measles infection rates.

Vitamin A is used a a treatment for measles, as it is known to reduce the severity of diagnosed measles cases and reduce complications from the virus.

Interestingly, measles virus depletes the Vitamin A stored in a person's body when they are infected with the virus, too. There is a definite interplay between measles and Vitamin A that needs to be better understood.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437709/

But apparently we do not have a vitamin A deficiency problem in America, although it is wide spread in other undeveloped parts of the world.

Your article is specific to another group: The Roma Community in Europe, commonly called "Gypsies."

[Toppers]

I ended up getting vaccinated again for MMR years ago. I was one of those children who was in the group whose first vaccine was ineffective.

I had to be up-to-date on my vaccines at the time that I got the second MMR shot because I was working with children and the state that I was living in at the time required that I pass a state physical.

[Jersey Born]

On 1/23/2015 NoelSeven said:

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

I just wish that some scientists would conduct the following experiment:

Select 100 mice, or another animal. Check the animal blood for Vitamin A, and bring the vitamin A level to certain, varied, and pre-determined levels in 50 of the animals. Do not supplement the remaining 50 animals with Vitamin A. Then, find out if the levels of Vitamin A established in the animals in any way correlated with protection from measles after actually exposing all 100 of the animals to measles. If Vitamin A could actually reduce the incidence of measles cases, in spite of exposure to measles, it would be a wonderful thing to discover. I'm not saying it would. I have no idea what the result of such an experiment would be. I would like to know what effect different blood levels of Vitamin A might or might not have on measles infection rates.

Vitamin A is used a a treatment for measles, as it is known to reduce the severity of diagnosed measles cases and reduce complications from the virus.

Interestingly, measles virus depletes the Vitamin A stored in a person's body when they are infected with the virus, too. There is a definite interplay between measles and Vitamin A that needs to be better understood.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437709/

But apparently we do not have a vitamin A deficiency problem in America, although it is wide spread in other undeveloped parts of the world.

Your article is specific to another group: The Roma Community in Europe, commonly called "Gypsies."

True, the article is about gypsies, but American children are eating a lot of junk food, and processed foods as their parents are working so hard to support them, that many don't take the time, or have the money, to buy healthy foods and cook healthy meals for their children. I am not aware of any commonly given blood tests that offer that Vitamin A screening in the course of a typical doctor's visit for children or adults. As far as I know, doctors don't regularly screen for Vitamin A levels, so how would we know what the levels of our children are, or what our own levels are, if we are not tested to find out?

[NoelSeven]

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

On 1/23/2015 NoelSeven said:

On 1/23/2015 Jersey Born said:

I just wish that some scientists would conduct the following experiment:

Select 100 mice, or another animal. Check the animal blood for Vitamin A, and bring the vitamin A level to certain, varied, and pre-determined levels in 50 of the animals. Do not supplement the remaining 50 animals with Vitamin A. Then, find out if the levels of Vitamin A established in the animals in any way correlated with protection from measles after actually exposing all 100 of the animals to measles. If Vitamin A could actually reduce the incidence of measles cases, in spite of exposure to measles, it would be a wonderful thing to discover. I'm not saying it would. I have no idea what the result of such an experiment would be. I would like to know what effect different blood levels of Vitamin A might or might not have on measles infection rates.

Vitamin A is used a a treatment for measles, as it is known to reduce the severity of diagnosed measles cases and reduce complications from the virus.

Interestingly, measles virus depletes the Vitamin A stored in a person's body when they are infected with the virus, too. There is a definite interplay between measles and Vitamin A that needs to be better understood.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437709/

But apparently we do not have a vitamin A deficiency problem in America, although it is wide spread in other undeveloped parts of the world.

Your article is specific to another group: The Roma Community in Europe, commonly called "Gypsies."

True, the article is about gypsies, but American children are eating a lot of junk food, and processed foods as their parents are working so hard to support them, that many don't take the time, or have the money, to buy healthy foods and cook healthy meals for their children. I am not aware of any commonly given blood tests that offer that Vitamin A screening in the course of a typical doctor's visit for children or adults. As far as I know, doctors don't regularly screen for Vitamin A levels, so how would we know what the levels of our children are, or what our own levels are, if we are not tested to find out?

We would be seeing an uptick in the consequences of vitamin A deficiency, such as childhood blindness, and we are not seeing that or other evidence of serious malnutrition as seen in a vitamin A deficiency.