Friday, July 02, 2004

...but polio may not be a virus...

In The Ecologist this month there is a long article linking Polio to DDT and other toxic pesticides, rather than to a virus.

It makes me grateful all over again to my parents. My dad was a Food Reform type, which is why I grew up as a vegetarian (even though it was my mother who actually did all the work of upbringing).

I was also allowed to not drink cow’s milk (long before the fashion for food allergy explanations of illness – lacto intolerance, etc) even though it was ‘compulsory’ in schools. No doubt the government was continuing with its plan to keep the population healthy (started during WW11) and not just promoting dairy farming for profit fnord; I was also allowed to not have any of the inoculations ‘against’ polio (see above), whooping cough, and so on. It does seem now that they were either ineffective or positively likely to give you polio, etc. I never understood the hysteria this generated. I remember people calling it ‘irresponsible’ to not inoculate children. My only counter used to be “well, if all your own children have been inoculated I am the only one who can end up ill”.
Nowadays the counter to that is not that my parents were putting me at risk; or that they were putting other people’s children at risk; it would be to do with the cost of looking after me if I did fall ill.

But hey - I am lucky I didn't get polio on my fruitarian diet - given that it was fruit they were most intensively spraying...

Here's a starting point

And this one says that being breastfed helped me; as did not having my tonsils out....

2 comments:

pentaphobe said...

Glad to hear you weren't inoculated either.. I conveniantly skipped school every time they were trying to - or would "accidentally" forget to bring the permission form home. I can also count the number of times I've had antibiotics on my left hand. (hmm.. but how many times have I had antibiotics on my right hand? thanks very much, English)

Some interesting links there - thanks for the over-the-coffee reading material.

I've had two tetanus boosters though - I wonder when they'll link that with something...

okay - off now, got to do some serious knocking on wood :)
(the only question that remains, is do I do it like the Israeli's (knock up on the underside) or just stick to the more common method? ;-P )

Toby said...

Ah yes - well, I didn't stay 'pure'. When I was about 14, and my mum had gone to live in a different country (Malta) I could get to visit for the summer holidays if I had a smallpox jab...and when I tried to refuse I was threatened with not seeing her for another year...I asked what the options were (my stepfather didn't buy any of this) and I was told I could go to Malta without having a jab, but would have to check into the police station weekly for a checkup.

Now I look at that and go "was that adult bullshit?" or was it how stupid the world can be...

We think we've got rid of smallpox now.

So I had a smallpox/tetanus jab - called TBAT? maybe?(scar on left shoulder) - so I could go see my mum for a few weeks.

And I did have a tetanus jab the day I trashed a finger on an archaeological site, but I've never had boosters through all the circus years.

As for antibiotics - I shunned them through most of my life, but I admit to trying them a couple of times in the last 3-4 years, when I had some strange and difficult stuff. They may have helped, I can't tell. I don't think so. They make me feel ill as all the good guys get killed off.

I prefer my immune system to have a go.

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