Some information that I found interesting. Some things may seem relevant, some random. Take your pick.

Biology (Polio, Lipids, Myelin Sheath, and Meninges)

Poliomyelitis was the term used by doctors to describe the condition in which the gray (polios) anterior matter of the spinal chord (myelos) was inflamed (-itis). 90-95% of reported Polio infections cause no symptoms and leave the host with a life time immunity.

At its peak, Polio was most prevalent in school aged children. Between 5 and 10% of those infected with Poliomyelitis do experience symptoms such as fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, stiffness or pain in the arms or legs. 95% of children who experience symptoms are usually back to normal within 3-4 days or up to two weeks when muscle weakness is experienced. However, up to 5% of cases in which children do experience symptoms, result in death. The death rate in adults experiencing symptoms is higher, between 15 and 30%. (1)

Normally, the Poliovirus enters the body, goes to the gut, and begins reproducing. 90-95% of the time this viral infection is short lived because the immune system is designed to send antibodies to fight the virus, just as it would with a common cold.

But, in rare cases, the virus penetrates the central nervous system, causing meningitis. Contrary to the popular understanding, meningitis is not a virus. Meningitis is an event defined by any virus or bacteria penetrating the protective layer of the Central Nervous System and creating inflammation. The CNS is normally protected by 3 durable membranes called the meninges. The Poliovirus only breaches this membrane in approximately 1% of cases. When this happens the patient develops nonparalytic aseptic meningitis, with symptoms of headache, neck, back, abdominal and extremity pain, fever, vomiting, lethargy, and irritability. Similarly, Polio related paralysis occurs only if the virus penetrates the myelin sheath which protects the nerve cells. (32)

The Myelin Sheath and the Meninges are protected and strengthened by phospholipids. Lipids account for 40% of the organic matter in a healthy human body. Phospholipids are abundant in breastmilk, Grass-fed dairy, grass-fed beef, bovine liver, and free range eggs.

“Phospholipids serve as barriers for your cells and have a role in other specialized functions as well. Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine is the phospholipid responsible for helping your lungs expand during breathing. Cephalin is a phospholipid in your brain’s white matter, neural tissue, nerves and spinal cord. Sphingomyelin, another phospholipid, is a source of ceramide, one of the substances your body needs to kill defective cells. Lecithin is one of the components of bile, a substance your liver produces to help with digestion.” (53)

Phospholipids play a vital role in the myelinization of the central nervous system. Infants who lack phospholipids (abundantly available in breast milk but not in formula or pasturized cows milk) in their diet have abnormally unstable myelin and a higher propensity to breakdown of the myelin in early adulthood. Adults who lack nutrition high in phospholipids are at increased risk of myelin sheath deterioration.(25)

HISTORY

1870 * “During the rapid urbanization and industrial development, high rates of female employment in poorly paid and casual work, domestic over-crowding, adulterated and contaminated milk all posed enormous threats to the survival of the newborn in the nineteenth century… While physicians, philanthropists, politicians and public health professionals were unanimous in their support of breastfeeding, they were forced to search for substitutes for mothers’ milk, to save those infants whose mothers would not or could not nurse them… The application of chemistry and microscopy to an understanding of the composition of milk laid the foundations for the development of artificial feeds, and food technology, and nutritional science began to inform the theory and practice of infant feeding. By the end of the century simple infant milk formulas were becoming available, and wet nursing was undermined by dry nursing.” (43)

1880 * Canned foods first became available for the public to purchase. (45)

1884 * Evaporated Milk is patented. (49)

1885 * Dr.Pepper was created in Waco, Texas. (49)

1886 * CocaCola was created. (49)

1890 * Increasing numbers of cattle farmers were moving to feed lot style ranches necessitating that cattle be fed increasingly grain-based diets rather than free range grass-based diets. (46) * The outcome was that the resulting beef and dairy products contained far less of the omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) necessary for healthy myelin sheath production. (47)

1893 * The Panic of 1893 was, at the time, the worst economic depression the United States had ever experienced. Many women and children were abandoned by husbands who had lost jobs, wealth, and hope. As a result, many turned to bottle feeding their infants so that they could share child care and look for work. Good nutrition was rare so that even breastfed infants were not likely to get needed fats (lipids) for adequate myelin production. (44)

1894 First US recorded cases of Polio. 132 cases in Vermont. (2)

1906 * It began to gain public attention that foods and medicines had become much more processed and deceptive in the last 50 years. Chemical additives were used to add color, heighten flavor, delay spoilage, soften breads, and more. People who thought they were purchasing strawberry jam found themselves eating strawberry flavored apple scraps, glucose, coal-tar dye, and timothy seed compound that looked and tasted similar to strawberry jam. Questionable producers had begun using adulterated fertilizers, chemicals to cover rancid meat, deodorizer to hide rotten eggs, and substituted less expensive glucose for honey. This concern grew to such a degree that the 1906 Food and Drug Act was passed calling for some degree of government regulation on the labeling of food and medicine.

1909 * Nearly 400 Coca-Cola bottling plants were operating. Some were open only during hot-weather months when demand was high. (68) * The average American consumed 65 pounds of sugar annually. (70)

1910 * Bruce Kraig, professor of history at Roosevelt University and president of the Culinary Historians of Chicago, said “the 1910s saw the beginning of the proliferation of processed foods. In a scant 10 years, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Oreo cookies, Crisco, Quaker Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice, Marshmallow Fluff and Nathan’s hot dogs took a bow. Aunt Jemima’s smile was already imprinted upon the American culinary psyche, as were the Kellogg’s and C.W. Post’s brand names.” (70)

1913 * Mississippi was the last state to enact compulsory school attendance laws which had begun in some states as early as 1852. (59)

1914 * The average family spent 60% of their income on food. (45) * Margarine made with vegetable oils and animal fats began to replace butter, greatly reducing the average person’s intake of Vit K2, CLA, Butyrate, and Omega3 (which help prevent cancer, lower body fat, fight inflammation, and strengthen the Myelin sheath). (48)

1916 Reported: 27,000 cases of Polio in the US. (3) * New York City experienced the first large epidemic of polio with over 9,000 reported cases, resulting in 2,343 deaths, out of a population of more than 5 million. This meant that, in New York City, 1 in 550 people contracted Polio and 1 in 2,134 died. (3) * Nationwide there were 27,000 total reported cases and 6,000 deaths out of a US population of 102 million. Or 1 in 3778 contracting polio with 1 in 17,000 resulting in death. (3) * The most serious cases were commonly found in areas with poor nutrition and sanitation such as the densely packed New York City.

1917 * During WWI, women entered the workforce like never before. On the home front, women were employed in factories, stores, and within the government leaving infants and young children in the care of family and friends, thus necessitating a significant rise in the number of bottle fed infants.

1919 * Nutritional foods were in short supply and the government was encouraging Meatless-Mondays, Wheatless Wednesdays, etc.

1920 * Coca-Cola was operating more than 1,000 bottling companies and the drink was found in all but six soda fountains in the US. Some attributed the increased sales to the fact that prohibition had shut down bars. (66, 68)

1922 * Due to contamination of milk supplies, pasteurization became widespread in the United States. Pasteurization destroys Lipase, an enzyme found in milk which is essential to the digestion of fats (lipids). (65)

1923 * Milky Way bar was created. (45)

1929 * The Great Depression cause families to find ways to stretch every bit of food, many spending their days in soup lines when the groceries didn’t go far enough. Even low-lipid grain-fed beef consumption was cut back greatly. (70)

1930 Reported: 9,000 cases. (29) * Snickers bar was created. (45)

1931 Reported: 17,000 cases. (29)

1932 Reported: 3,000 cases. (29) * Mars Bar was created. (45)

1933 Reported: 5,000 cases. (29) * Arthur Kallet and F.J. Schlink authored the national bestseller “100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs, and Cosmetics”. They asserted that the American population is being used as guinea pigs in a giant experiment undertaken by the American producers of food stuffs and medicines. Kallet and Schlink premise the book as being “written in the interest of the consumer, who does not yet realize that he is being used as a guinea pig…” (35)

1934 Reported: 7,000 cases. (29)

1935 Reported: 10,000 cases. (29) * KitKat bar was created. (45)

1936 Reported: 4,000 cases. (29) * Spam was invented. (45) * Doctors noted that paralytic poliomyelitis often started at the site of another type of injection. The phenomenon later became known as Provocation Polio. (37)

1937 Reported: 9,000 cases. (29) * Families were spending only 35% of their income on food. (45) * Rolo’s were invented. (45)

1938 Reported: 1,000 cases. (29) * The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was created by President Roosevelt and his law partner, Basil O’Connor. (27)

1939 Reported: 7000 cases. (29)

1940 Reported: 10,000 cases. (29)

1941 Reported: 9000 cases. (29) * Drs. Francis and Mack isolated the Mahoney poliovirus “from the pooled feces of three healthy children in Cleveland.” (22)

1942 Reported: 4,000 cases. (29) * Diphtheria and pertussis vaccines were first introduced and cases of paralytic poliomyelitis tripled. (34)

* With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US entered into WWII. The government rationed meat, butter, milk, cheese, and eggs (all of the most prominent sources of phospholipids). As a result of these limits, sales of convenience and prepared foods shot up. Margarine became the standard household butter replacement. (70)

1943 Reported: 12,000 cases. (29)

1944 Reported: 19,000 cases. (29) * July 12, Coca-Cola manufactured their one-billionth gallon of Coca-Cola syrup.

1945 Reported: 13,000 cases. (29) * Families were encouraged to plant “Victory Gardens” to fill out the dinner table with vegetables. However, DDT (chlorophenoethane, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was a top recommended pesticide recently released in the United States (against the advice of investigators who had studied the pharmacology of the compound and found it dangerous for all forms of life). (71) It would later be classified as a neurotoxin and banned for agricultural use both in the US and worldwide. * Margarine had evolved to a formula completely composed of vegetable oils due to shortages on animal products. (52) * WWII ended. Over 400,000 fathers, sons, and brothers would not be returning from the war. (54) * Spam become a large part of the U.S. soldier’s meat consumption as well as a common household meat on the homefront. Military personnel referred to as “ham that didn’t pass its physical,” or “meatloaf without basic training”. (55)

1946 Reported: 25,000 cases. (29)

1947 Reported: 11,000 cases. (29)

1948 Reported: 26,000 cases. (29) * Jonas Salk, funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, set out to determine the number of different types of polio virus. Salk and his team saw this as an opportunity to research the possibility of a vaccine. (19)

1949 Reported: 42,000 cases. (29) * Research showed that Polio struck the hardest in summer months. Dr. Benjamin Sandler, a nutritional expert at the Oteen Hospital, theorized that there could be a connection between the increase of Polio cases and greater amounts of ice cream, soft drinks, and artificial sweeteners consumed during the summer. He used local media to advise North Carolina residents to decrease their consumption of such products. The people listened and the North Carolina State Health Department reported 2,498 cases of polio in 1948, and only 229 cases in 1949 in spite of a national rise of almost 40%! One company reported ice cream sales in NC to be down by 1 million gallons during the first week following Dr. Sandler’s publishing of the anti-polio diet. This inspired the Rockefeller Milk Trust, which sold frozen products to the area, to work with the soft drink business leaders (who also took a significant hit) to convince the people that Dr. Sandler’s findings were contrived and the Polio drop was a coincidence. The next summer ice cream and soda sales, as well as Polio rates were back to normal. (36)

1950 Reported: 32,000 cases. (29)

1951 Reported: 27,000 cases. (29)

1952 Reported: 57,628 cases (The peak year for Polio). *This was 58 years after first reports in the US. (4,5)

1953 Reported: 35,592 cases (3) * A significant drop of 22,000 fewer cases and no vaccine was yet available.

1954, Reported: 38,476 cases. (Up 3,000) (3) * In June of 1954, the first small scale trials with Salk’s vaccine began (2) . The Salk’s Polio strain had been inactivated with formaldehyde (21) and required 4-5 weeks to trigger immunity in the average person. * Six months before Salk’s vaccine test for safety and effectiveness would be reviewed the Polio Fund in the U.S. had already contracted to purchase enough of the Salk vaccine to immunize 9,000,000 children and pregnant women the following year. (15) * Reports claim that Salk’s vaccine was tested for safety and efficiency on 1.8 million children. However, only 443,000 received one or more injections of Salk’s vaccine. 201,229 children received a placebo and 1.2 million children received no vaccination at all and served as a control group. (7, 30) * Despite objections and published concerns by numerous scientist, Harry Weaver, the NFIP’s director of research, wrote: “The practice of medicine is based on calculated risk …. If [we wait until more] research is carried out, large numbers of human beings will develop poliomyelitis who might have been prevented from doing so.” (28) * It turned out that Salk’s “killed-virus” was not as attenuated as he had hoped. Hundreds contracted polio from Salk’s vaccine and many died. (38)

1955, Reported: 28,985 cases. (3) (Down 10,000) * Less than a year later, on April 12th 1955, Salk’s vaccine was declared safe and effective with the field trial results showing that 1 in 1,907 un-vaccinated children contracted Polio while only 1 in 3,964 vaccinated children contracted Polio. In the observed control trials, 1 in 12,333 vaccinated children contracted non-paralytic Polio while 1 in 11,788 unvaccinated children contracted non-paralytic Polio. (30) * Prior to 1955, Polio, Coxsackie virus, and Meningitis (caused by any virus or bacteria) were all diagnosed and reported as Polio based on symptoms. After the field test of Salk’s virus they were redefined as three separate illnesses with specific diagnostic parameters and began to be reported as such. (17) * The first commercial inactive polio vaccines (IPV’s) were being produced by 5 different labs. An American virologist and epidemiologist named Bernice Eddy and her team were assigned to test the vaccines from each company. She discovered that the inactivated vaccine manufactured by Cutter Laboratories contained residual live poliovirus, resulting in the test monkeys showing polio-like symptoms and paralysis. Eddy reported her findings to William Workman, head of the Laboratory of Biologics Control, but her findings were never given to the vaccine licensing advisory committee. (9) The vaccine rolled out anyway. * A few weeks after the press conference announcing success of the vaccine trials, an Idaho doctor reported a case of paralytic polio in a recently vaccinated girl. In the following weeks, more reports came in to local health authorities. All involved a disturbing detail: paralysis began in the vaccinated arm, rather than in the legs as was more common. It was traced back to the Cutter Laboratory batches of the vaccine. (6) * Children who contracted Polio from the Cutter batches were more likely to suffer severe and permanent paralysis, require breathing assistance from and Iron Lung, and more likely to die than children affected with natural polio. (13)

1956 Reported: 15,110 cases. (3) (Down by 14,000 cases)

1957 Reported: 5,185 cases. (3) (Down by 10,000) * At this point more than 100 million doses of Salk’s vaccine had been distributed throughout the United States. (11) * After reports of Polio being contracted from the vaccine and Polio cases contracted by multiple associates of those who had received the vaccine became so numerous that they could no longer be ignored, it came out that the batches issued in 1955 differed from those used in Salk’s trials in that Salk’s original field tested vaccine had included Methiolate and the ones being dispensed to the public did not. (31) * While Salk’s vaccine was inactivated, Dr. Albert Sabin, an American physician and microbiologist, was working to create a live attenuated vaccine because the immunity of Salk’s vaccine was showing evidence of waning and live virus would produce a more natural immunity. However it was also more dangerous to inject people with a live vaccine. To achieve the optimal virulence, he had to isolate the 3 poliovirus strains and then pass them through a myriad of host cells. Sabin’s oral polio vaccine (OPV) is composed of 3 strains. Type 1 evolved from Drs. Francis and Mack’s Mahoney poliovirus from 1941 and had been passaged through no less than 69 monkey cultures, mostly testicular and kidney. (20) * “The resulting material was called Sabin Original Merck (SOM) and was provided to Lederle in 1960 as the seed material to manufacture its polio vaccine. Types II and III were created in a similar fashion.” (22) * He hoped to stimulate a true immune response using a weakened, or attenuated, live virus. He eventually encountered a strain of the polio virus which would infect the intestinal tract but appeared to be to weak to penetrate the myelin sheath of the central nervous system. He had experimented on thousands of monkeys to find the virus but the initial human trials would be carried out in foreign countries. (38, 39)

1958 Reported: 5,787 cases (3) (Up by 600) I * Sabin’s vaccine was given permission for trials in the United States but it was found that people who received Sabin’s oral polio vaccine (OPV) shed weakened virus in their fecal waste for up to 6 weeks, infecting family memebers. (38, 39)

1959 Reported: 8,425 cases. (3) (Up by 2,500) * The US used 79 million pounds of DDT in one year. (72)

1960 Reported: 3,190 cases (3) (Down by 5000) * Ben Sweet and Maurice Hilleman published results showing cancerous growths in the offspring of rodents injected with Salk’s original polio vaccine but no one listened. (h) * “In May of 1960, Dr. Ratner chaired a panel discussion, at the 120th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Medical Society to review the increasing rise in paralytic polio in the United States. The proceedings were reprinted in the August, 1960, Illinois Medical Journal which exposed the Salk vaccine as a frank and ineptly disguised fraud. One of the experts on the panel, statistician Dr. Bernard Greenberg, who went on to testify at Congressional hearings, revealed how data had been manipulated to hide the dangers and ineffectiveness of the vaccine from the pubic. Dr. Greenberg explained that the perceived overall reduction in polio cases was achieved by changing the criteria by which polio was diagnosed.” (16) * “In the 1950’s, the sophisticated virological techniques of today did not exist. And the technology that existed was rarely available to practicing physicians. Therefore, most diagnoses were based upon clinical observation, not sophisticated virological studies. Since polio was epidemic, most physicians were cavalier in making a diagnosis of “non-paralytic poliomyelitis” in children presenting with vague symptoms of muscle aches, malaise, and fever. Since polio was “going around”, such children must have had polio. . . . Interestingly, as the number of polio cases decreased, the number of meningitis cases increased.” (17)

1961 Reported: 1,312 cases (3) (Down by 2000) * Scientist learned that children exposed to the virus during the first year or two of life still carried some antibodies from the womb and nursing causing them to experience a quick and symptom free bout with the Poliovirus conferring lifetime immunity. Modern sanitation practices had eliminated the potential for early exposure meaning that more children were having their first bouts with the virus without the antibodies that were present in the first year of life. (51)

1962 Reported: 886 cases (3) * Virologist Bernice Eddy described the SV40 (vacuolating virus) oncogenic function in inducing sarcoma and tumors in the central nervous system of hamsters inoculated with monkeys cells infected with SV40. (12) Again, it was published and dismissed. * In July, scientist collect lung tissue from an aborted female which were used as a host to produce the WI-38 cell line used in the MMR vaccine development. (61) * Dr. Bernard Greenberg, a biostatistics expert and chairman of the Committee on Evaluation and Standards of the American Public Health Association, testified at a panel discussion used as evidence for the congressional hearings on the Salk’s vaccine. During these hearings he highlighted many problems associated with polio statistics. He pointed out that the recent decline in reported Polio cases were likely the result of changes in the diagnostic requirements for Polio, “Prior to 1954 any physician who reported paralytic poliomyelitis was doing his patient a service by way of subsidizing the cost of hospitalization and was being community-minded in reporting a communicable disease. The criterion of diagnosis at that time in most health departments followed the World Health Organization definition: ‘Spinal paralytic poliomyelitis: signs and symptoms of nonparalytic poliomyelitis with the addition of partial or complete paralysis of one or more muscle groups, detected on two examinations at least 24 hours apart.’ Note that ‘two examinations at least 24 hours apart’ was all that was required. Laboratory confirmation and presence of residual paralysis was not required. In 1955 the criteria were changed to conform more closely to the definition used in the 1954 field trials: residual paralysis was determined 10 to 20 days after onset of illness and again 50 to 70 days after onset…. This change in definition meant that in 1955 we started reporting a new disease, namely, paralytic poliomyelitis with a longer-lasting paralysis. Furthermore, diagnostic procedures have continued to be refined. Coxsackie virus infections and aseptic meningitis have been distinguished from paralytic poliomyelitis. Prior to 1954 large numbers of these cases undoubtedly were mislabeled as paralytic poliomyelitis. Thus, simply by changes in diagnostic criteria, the number of paralytic cases was predetermined to decrease in 1955-1957, whether or not any vaccine was used.” (16) *The same year Salk’s inactivated vaccine began to be replaced by Sabin’s live vaccine (11) reportedly because it was easier to administer and less expensive to manufacture.

1963 * Subsequent studies demonstrated that SV40, which was used in Salk’s vaccine, caused brain tumors in animals (24) and that SV40 could transform or turn cancerous normal human tissue in vitro. * Sabin’s oral “sugar-cube” vaccine became available for general use in spite of the knowledge that the vaccinated individuals would shed a live but weakened Poliovirus for 6 weeks after inoculation. (38, 39)

1964 Reported: 121 cases. (50)

1965 Reported: 61 cases. (50)

1966 * A male fetus was aborted for psychiatric reasons from a 27 year old woman. Fetal lung tissue was removed for the purpose of culturing the origins of the MCR-5 cell line. (14) This cell line would later be used in the DTaP, IPV (Pentacel) as well as 5 other vaccines.

1971 * The USDA moved to ban sodium nitrite because of studies showed connections to pancreatic and bowel cancer, diabetes, and red blood cell damage, but the meat industry insisted that the chemical was safe and publicly accused the USDA of trying to “ban bacon.” (56)

1972 * DDT is banned for agricultural use in the US. (57) * This was be followed by a worldwide ban in the Stockholm Convention in 2001. (58) * The Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry lists developmental processes, endocrine glands and hormones, liver function, the central nervous system, and reproductive systems as areas that are adversely affected by DDT. (72)

1978 * Enhanced Potency IPV produced in human diploid cells was created with the goal of decreasing the number of vaccinations required for lifetime immunity from 4 down to 2 or 3.

1979 * The last recorded case of “wild Polio” in US. All further reports have been vaccine shed strains. (2) * Between 1980 and 1999 there would be 162 confirmed cases of Vaccine induced (or shed) Paralytic Polio in the United States.

1980 * 54% of American women were nursing. (26)

1983 * The CDC recommends 23 doses of 7 vaccines (DPT, MMR, polio) between two months and age six. (63)

1986 * The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was passed by Congress to reduce the potential financial liability of vaccine makers due to vaccine injury claims. There had been an recent upturn in adverse reactions to the DTaP vaccine. The company producing the vaccine was losing money so they cut back production. Concerned that reduced production would mean reduced availability of the vaccine, the government created a special Court specifically for dealing with adverse reactions to vaccines. The National Injury Compensation Program was created to provide a no-fault system for compensating vaccine-related injuries or death. Vaccine companies could no longer be held at fault for vaccine related injuries. (60)

1987 * Enhanced potency IPV was released in the US. (18) * The CDC states: “The effect of enhanced-potency IPV on the circulation of poliovirus in a community has not yet been determined, but it is likely to be at least as good as that seen with conventional IPV.” (62)

1992 * A study in Sweden found a 2.5-fold increase in the incidence of meningitis between 1970 and 1980. A case-control study of risk factors for Meningitis conducted in the same area found breastfeeding to be a strong protective factor against Meningitis. (33)

2000 * Due to the fact that Sabin’s OPV could not be given to people with compromised immune systems, it’s ability to cause polio in some recipients, and it’s viral shedding tendency (whereby people exposed to recently vaccinated individuals occasionally contract Polio) the CDC reverted back to recommending that children only be given the Salk’s killed-virus vaccine (IPV) based on previous saftey and efficiency test. Only it wasn’t the same vaccine. The IPV in production was based on Salk’s vaccine but it was in fact the Inhanced Potency IPV released in 87. The CDC recommends 4 doses. (40, 41, 42)

2005 * Inflammation of the Meninges (by any virus including the Poliovirus) is considered Non-Paralytic-Aseptic-Meningitis. (23)

2008 * 70% of women choose to breastfeed. (26) * Studies show evidence that exposure to DDT may be associated with breast cancer, diabetes, decreased semen quality, spontaneous abortion, and impaired neurodevelopment in children. (73)

2014 * The CDC now recommends 49 doses of 14 vaccines before the age of 3 years, more than double what was recommended in 1983. * The CDC recommend 69 doses of 16 vaccines by the age of 18. (63, 64)

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