I urge parents who are concerned about vaccinations to review all the facts about vaccinations, rather than rely on a conversation or poor journalistic coverage that is not fair and balanced.  As a pediatrician, I ask all the parents in the practice to agree to routine vaccinations for their child(ren).  Failure to do so leads to an ever increasing incidence of Measles and other highly preventable infectious diseases that will continue to flourish in our communities, ultimately incapacitating or killing even innocent individuals.

Parents, if you have specific concerns, please discuss them with your pediatrician about why you have concerns, either of a specific vaccination, (ie MMR) or about a general aversion to the pediatric vaccination programs.  Nevertheless, failure to vaccinate your newborn or child may put innocent infants, child(ren), or adults in harms way from exposure to your underimmunized or not immunized child(ren).  Don’t be the “little blue person who turns red” as illustrated below.

I took an oath on graduation from medical school.  I owe it to every patient to “do no harm”.  I urge each and every parent to please follow standard vaccination practices and provide these life-saving vaccines to your child(ren).  Failure to do so ultimately places responsibility for unnecessary disease or death of innocent persons squarely on the shoulders of those who use the flawed “herd immunity” approach that naysayers know all about.

Community Immunity (“Herd” Immunity) Vaccines can prevent outbreaks of disease and save lives. When a critical portion of a community is immunized against a contagious disease, most members of the community are protected against that disease because there is little opportunity for an outbreak. Even those who are not eligible for certain vaccines—such as infants, pregnant women, or immunocompromised individuals—get some protection because the spread of contagious disease is contained. This is known as “community immunity.” In the illustration below, the top box depicts a community in which no one is immunized and an outbreak occurs. In the middle box, some of the population is immunized but not enough to confer community immunity. In the bottom box, a critical portion of the population is immunized, protecting most community members. The principle of community immunity applies to control of a variety of contagious diseases, including influenza, measles, mumps, rotavirus, and pneumococcal disease.

SOURCE:

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0529-measles.html

Over and over, we read articles, watch news reports, and are taught from a very young age about how cow’s milk and dairy consumption are good for “bones” and “good for us”.  Many nutrition experts and research institutions are now more vigorously questioning these long-standing views that cow’s milk and dairy consumption is good.  Consider this, why are brittle bones and high hip fracture rates in American women at the highest level when compared to the rest of the world? It is a fact that American women consume more cow’s milk than in most countries around the world.  So, naturally you are likely to ask the question why do we have such a problem in our country with hip fractures?  Isn’t calcium derived from cow’s milk supposed to be a good thing? Maybe not.

Yet the science behind this belief may just tell a different story. Cows milk contains both high levels of calcium and animal derived protein (ie casein) both that are consumed at substantial levels in the USA and are known to cause increased calcium urinary excretion, that may lead to brittle bones and subsequent fractures.  So we may just have the scientific response to why brittle bones and American women suffer from this disease at record rates while other countries with predominant plant-based sources of nutrition do not.  Of course, there will always be skeptics out there!  I urge your families to become educated about your health and to consider alternative sources of calcium and proteins in your diets, like the consumption of plant-based alternatives like beans and green vegetables.

SOURCES:

The China Study Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health, T. Colin Camplell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, 2006

http://news360.com/article/241742872

Fruits are healthier than the fruit juice..

Did one ever consider how this E-cigarette industry has morphed into a giant in just a short time.  Now a multibillion dollar industry, poised to addict our innocent youngsters?  These companies producing sweet incentives in the candy jar so to speak, addicting our innocent children?  Will children and teenagers use this E-cigs to inhale or “vape” a multitude of chemicals including hallucinogens to gain euphoria or a thrill, that may sicken, harm, or even kill them.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/254821801.html

Be careful, because too much of something good may end up being bad for you. It is true that Calcium metabolism depends on activated Vitamin D and that activated Vitamin D depends on exposure to sunlight.  That said, too much calcium may be harmful to our own blood vessels, particularly the small coronary arteries that provide oxygen and blood flood to the heart muscle.  So maybe it is time to consider that too much of something like calcium, in the form of a supplemental vitamin, added to our normal dietary calcium consumption may actually be very harmful to our bodies.

http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2014/05/supplements-taking-many-can-hurt/

Just getting around to learning how to use this wordpress blog.  I am a newbie at this, so I ask for patience please 🙂  I have so much medical information to share moving forward, but for now just want to ensure that I am more educated about how to detail the blog.  I urge each of you to visit our pediatric website, pediatricgrowth.com to learn more about my pediatric office.

We have now created an exciting and motivating learning experience through the creation of this living blog.  We will  share with our followers from all around, the important medical information and events that you can benefit from and just maybe you can incorporate into your lives.  Over the coming months there will be many added elements that is certain to satisfy all of us while frequenting this blog.  Of course, we will keep with a true focus on wellness and prevention, but we will be sure to mix in elements of illness and disease, therapies and immunizations, sprinkled with research and development results.  I truly hope that you will enjoy this blog as a vehicle of medical education to assist you and your families to live a  life full of wellness and vitality.