There are not many people writing about the potential down sides of vaccines and antibiotics but it’s worth noting. This is a great article written by Health Realizations, Inc:

Two of the top man-made medical breakthroughs in the past 100 years may also be two of the deadliest and most harmful to you and your loved ones. Further, odds are nearly 100% that you and your loved ones have already been treated with these two “breakthroughs” — and may be at risk of the effects now or in the years to come.

Three-quarters of U.S. children have taken antibiotics by the time they’re 2 years old. What does this mean for their future health?

1. Antibiotics

Antibiotics can work wonders when they’re prescribed for bacterial infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis. In this way they truly have been a breakthrough that has saved countless numbers of lives.

The problem with antibiotics is that they are often prescribed to treat viruses — against which they are useless. Viruses like upper respiratory infections, measles, mumps, chickenpox, flu, and gastroenteritis are all viral infections, which antibiotics do nothing for.

Antibiotics, however, do kill bacteria, and they do this quite well. The problem is that they not only kill the bad bacteria that may be causing your illness, but they also kill ALL bacteria, including the good kind in your digestive tract that your body needs, leaving barren territory for all sorts of trouble to brew.

If you have taken antibiotics unnecessarily, for a virus, for instance, you may have therefore killed off all of the good bacteria in your system.

You are exposed to antibiotics not only by prescription medications, but also in animal food products and possibly your drinking water. In fact, about 70 percent of all antibiotics produced in the United States are given to livestock and poultry, which you then feed to your family.

Further, when drugs are excreted in waste, the compounds linger in the environment. In the case of livestock waste, the antibiotic-laced manure is spread directly onto farm crops as fertilizer. From there it may run off into nearby streams.

The result is that bacteria is able to mutate into strains that are resistant to the widely spread antibiotics, paving the way for infections that cannot be easily cured.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2 million people in hospitals get infections each year, which cause 90,000 deaths. Of these, more than 70 percent of the bacteria that causes these infections are resistant to at least one common antibiotic that is typically used to treat them.

New research from the University of Iowa found a new strain of MRSA in 70 percent of hogs and 64 percent of workers on farms that routinely use antibiotics. Experts are now realizing that these drug-resistant bacteria can spread via the food supply, water runoff and other methods, potentially putting the entire population at risk.

(Stay tuned for an upcoming article on this rapidly growing man-made antibiotic health risk that is causing MRSA outbreaks across the U.S.!)

2. Vaccines

Vaccines commonly contain toxic additives including aluminum, mercury, antibiotics, formaldehyde and MSG.

Like antibiotics, vaccines have been touted as a medical breakthrough that has saved many lives. However, recently there has been growing concern that the country’s one-size-fits all, and sometimes mandatory, vaccination policies are not in the best interest of your individual health.

For starters, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) points out that vaccines bypass your body’s natural processes for establishing immunity, leading to what some experts call “artificial immunity.” NVIC states:

“Vaccines provide temporary immunity and sometimes vaccines fail to provide even temporary immunity for some individuals. Because vaccination does not exactly mimic the immunity produced after natural infection, which is often longer-lasting or permanent, booster doses of vaccines are often required to extend vaccine-induced immunity.”

Another issue of concern is the potentially dangerous ingredients added to vaccines. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Chemicals are added to vaccines to inactivate a virus or bacteria and stabilize the vaccine, helping to preserve the vaccine and prevent it from losing its potency over time.”

The CDC continues:

“Chemicals commonly used in the production of vaccines include a suspending fluid (sterile water, saline, or fluids containing protein); preservatives and stabilizers (for example, albumin, phenols, and glycine); and adjuvants or enhancers that help improve the vaccine’s effectiveness. Vaccines may also contain very small amounts of the culture material used to grow the virus or bacteria used in the vaccine, such as chicken egg protein.”

It says right on the CDC’s own Web page that the following ingredients are commonly added to vaccines. You may notice that most of these additives are potentially toxic, and likely substances you do not want injected into your (or your child’s) body:

• Aluminum gels or salts of aluminum, which are added as adjuvants to help  stimulate a better response to the vaccine.

• Antibiotics, which are added to some vaccines to prevent the growth of germs (bacteria) during production and storage of the vaccine.

• Egg protein is found in influenza and yellow fever vaccines, which are prepared using chicken eggs. Ordinarily, persons who are able to eat eggs or egg products safely can receive these vaccines.

• Formaldehyde is used to inactivate bacterial products for toxoid vaccines, (these are vaccines that use an inactive bacterial toxin to produce immunity).  It is also used to kill unwanted viruses and bacteria that might contaminate the vaccine during production.

• Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and 2-phenoxy-ethanol, which are used as stabilizers in a few vaccines to help the vaccine remain unchanged when the vaccine is exposed to heat, light, acidity, or humidity.

• Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative that is added to vials of vaccine that contain more than one dose to prevent contamination and growth of potentially harmful bacteria.

The bottom line is that vaccination is not a foolproof way to avoid disease. The shots do cause side effects, and sometimes those side effects are serious, even deadly.

This is why NVIC continues to ask, “Is the atypical manipulation of the immune system with more and more vaccines in early life setting some children up for chronic disease and disability? Is less better?”

They point out that American children are the most highly vaccinated children in the world (receiving 49 doses of 14 vaccines before the age of 6), and are also among the most chronically ill and disabled. The CDC admits that one in six U.S. children is now developmentally delayed. NVIC also points out:

• During the past quarter century, the number of children with learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma and diabetes has more than tripled.
• More than twice as many children have chronic brain and immune system dysfunction today than did in the 1970s when half as many vaccines were given to children.

So before you decide to get vaccinated (or vaccinate your children) make sure you’re informed of the risks and alternatives first.

Already Taken Antibiotics and Received Vaccines?

You’re far from alone.

The vast majority of Americans have received all of the CDC’s recommended vaccines (along with their toxic additives). Further, 63 percent of U.S. children have taken antibiotics before their first birthday, and 75 percent have gotten their first dose within two years of birth.

So what can you do to protect your health from these potentially toxic assaults?

Fortify Your Body With Probiotics

Donna Gates, nutritional consultant, points out that, fortunately for us, our bodies are remarkably intelligent and quite capable of keeping us healthy if we give them the right “tools.” The key to fighting off illness within your body (this includes not only bacterial infections but also viruses too) is to balance the good and bad bacteria in your gut.

Probiotic supplements have recently become increasingly popular in the United States for this reason, but there’s another way to get good bacteria in your system — and it’s quite tasty! Cultured foods, things like kefir (a fermented milk drink that tastes like tart yogurt) and traditionally fermented sauerkraut, natto and other vegetables are among the best sources of probiotics around.

This is especially important if you have taken antibiotics. Gates says:

“It is absolutely essential to eat probiotic foods and drink probiotic beverages like kefir if you must take an antibiotic. They are a much smarter “antibiotic,” as nature, which is far smarter than humans, has equipped them with the innate ability to know which bad bacteria to attack, and which bacteria to leave alone.

If you consume them during antibiotic therapy, they will continually replace the good bacteria that the antibiotics wipe out. Then continue eating them for a minimum of three months to ensure that you renew a new, healthy “inner ecosystem” in your intestines. Best yet, incorporate these delicious new foods into your diet forever. You’ll be very glad you did.”

So whichever method you choose (choosing both the supplements and the cultured foods is best), be sure that your body is getting a steady source of good bacteria. Once your gut is balanced and healthy, you’ll have to worry much less about illness in the first place, because at this point your immune system will be functioning at its optimal, disease-fighting level.

In choosing a probiotic supplement for yourself, choose one of a high therapeutic dose if you have been on a round of antibiotics.

It can be used where a more aggressive therapeutic approach is required, such as if you are coming off antibiotic therapy. Probiotic Supreme™ delivers 15 billion organisms per dose in a caplet form and uses a patented delivery system to ensure delivery of the highest number of live organisms to your intestinal tract.

Studies have shown that probiotics may be helpful with both immune system modulation and allergies, plus they’re imperative if you’ve recently been on antibiotic therapy. It’s a simple step that may help keep you and your family in the best health possible.

Detox Your Body of Heavy Metals From Vaccines

Along with taking probiotics to fortify your gut health, we highly recommend detoxing heavy metal toxins from your body on a regular basis.

There are many ways of removing toxic chemicals heavy heavy metals from your body, but most of them involve expensive treatments where a doctor injects you with drugs or vitamins intravenously via a drip. Many of these drugs will also strip the good minerals from your body, something that is not recommended since it is difficult to replenish these important substances.

Like other chemicals, heavy metals can accumulate in your body not only from vaccines, but also from silver dental fillings, contaminated seafood and other foods, cosmetics, pollution, contaminated water, and other sources, so it would be wise to disarm this potential “time-bomb” now before it causes serious illness in the future.

Since most of you reading this have likely already been exposed to the secret health risks of antibiotics and vaccines described above (and probably for many years now), consider asking me in my San Francisco office about detox options and probiotics to rebuild healthy flora.