Dr. Angela Agrios, ND
My very talented Naturopathic Doctor
She treats a wide variety of conditions
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Los Angeles, CA (Pacific Palisades)
Autism Causes
Mom Explains Vaccine Injury and Why Not To Vaccinate Interview with Holly Riley, Parent of Fully Recovered Autistic Child
We wanted our kids to have the best of health, and we followed the vaccine recommendations that our doctors made. Our son was fully vaccinated up until the time of his diagnosis, which means he got pretty much the full array of childhood vaccines, since most of those are finished by the age of two. And as we researched autism and health, we started to put together some information and realized that vaccines, indeed, did play a role in his autism. Looking back chronologically, the first assault was prenatal because I did get the flu vaccine when I was pregnant with him. And that flu vaccine contains 25 micrograms of mercury, which is a significant amount of that neurotoxin. To be exposed to it prenatally means that the developing fetus is even more vulnerable to the toxins of mercury. So that was his first assault, vaccine injury.
And the second vaccine injury, I would point out, is on his first day of life, and that was the hepatitis B vaccine. The University of Pittsburgh, along with Thoughtful House, have been doing research on monkeys and vaccines, giving the monkeys the full vaccine schedule, including thimerosal that children received in the 1990s. And they found that the monkeys, after just the one dose of the hepatitis B, which contains 12.5 micrograms of mercury, the monkeys had a significant challenge with motor skills including the ability to latch on for nursing.
And I recall very vividly when Quinn was born, he latched on immediately. I was able to nurse him right there in the delivery room, and he looked right up at me and he latched on like a pro and nursed right away. The next day after he received his hepatitis B in the hospital, he had a real hard time latching on, and it was a significant contrast. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but now in light of this recent research, I really believe that that was his second vaccine injury with hepatitis B first-day-of-life dose.
Moving forward, I believe his exposure to thimerosal, the mercury-containing preservative in vaccines, diminished his ability to handle viruses and bacterial infections and just weakened his immune system in general so that by the time he was one and he received his MMR vaccine, along with the vericella for chicken pox vaccine, his body just couldn’t handle it. And those vaccines in combination on the same day, receiving four live viruses, was really harmful to his gastrointestinal system.
And it was then that we really saw a decline in his health, including eczema. He began to get ear infections. His diaper rash got worse and really didn’t get much better regardless of what we did. It just persisted, even with all the different treatments and remedies we tried. And I now know that that was probably due to a very significant yeast infection that was brought on by the gastrointestinal problems.
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So the vaccines, in retrospect, were a significant part of his deteriorating health, and I really do feel that the vaccines for Quinn really, really affected his body’s ability to detox. Another thing that was significant, I believe, was the fact that he did run a fever with his vaccinations. It wasn’t a giant fever. It wasn’t huge, but the pediatrician recommended for us to give him Tylenol or acetaminophen to deal with the fever and discomfort that came with the vaccines.
Unfortunately, acetaminophen shuts down the body’s ability to produce glutathione, which is this sort of best antioxidant our bodies have, and it’s very crucial for detoxification. So essentially by giving him the Tylenol, we were even further inhibiting his abilities to process the toxins that were in the vaccines, and I believe that was a very significant part of his inability to detoxify from those vaccines.
At one point during a doctor’s visit, we realized that we were actually even giving him too much Tylenol. And the doctor does the calculation by weight and when she did the calculation by weight and made the recommendation of how much to give him, I said, “But the last time we were here, we were told to give him this other amount, which was more.” So in effect, when he was having fevers, we were giving him an overdose of Tylenol, which is a very significant stress on the liver and certainly, it cuts off that glutathione production. So I think that’s a significant thing.
And many families also, once you have had a baby and you know your baby’s probably going to be uncomfortable with the shots, choose to give the Tylenol before you go to the pediatrician well-baby visit. That’s what we did with Quinn. I gave him the Tylenol when we were heading out the door to go to the well-baby visits because I knew he was going to have some pain and fevers with the vaccines, and I really regret that I did that because I know it made the vaccine damage more significant.
After learning so much as we were researching how to treat Quinn’s autism, we decided not to vaccinate as a precaution because there was enough information out there that we were concerned and felt that if we decided to finish his vaccine schedule, it could wait. So essentially, we put the vaccine schedule on pause and subsequently have chosen to not vaccinate at all. He will not receive any other vaccines.
In researching vaccines and overall health, I’ve learned a lot about the immune system and come to understand that our immune systems are very powerful when we’re healthy and that the natural immunity is a far more valuable asset than vaccine-induced immunity. I’ve learned that our bodies are capable of handling infections and that they will recover from infections and gain that lifelong immunity.
Something I didn’t realize is that the deaths from childhood diseases were already on the decline due to improved sanitation before vaccines were introduced. So when a child gets something like the mumps or measles or chicken pox, they get over it and gain the lifelong immunity, which we got from chicken pox when we were kids.
Another concern I have is that in trying to eradicate the childhood illnesses, we've traded those for chronic illness and that chronic illness is seen everywhere in all populations in our country and around the world. We’re seeing increases in autism; we’re seeing more children with ADHD; we have many children who are suffering from asthma and allergies like never before. And all of that increase in those childhood chronic illnesses correlate significantly with the increase in the children’s vaccine schedule over the past decades.
When we were kids, we got vaccines for about ten illnesses when I was a child; and today, a child, if they follow the CDC’s recommended schedule, by the time they graduate from high school, are going to get 60 plus vaccines and that’s a significant difference and a significant assault on the immune system.
If I were to have another baby, I would choose not to vaccinate. I would focus on overall health to help establish that natural immunity through a healthy diet and exercise, plenty of rest, and let the body do what it was meant to do and take care of itself.
