Food is Medicine: Healing vaccine injury.
If you’ve read my previous article on how I became anti-vaccine, you’ll know that my son was injured by vaccines (he is homozygous MTHFR C677T) and that this was what really motivated me to start researching the issue. This also led me to educate myself on nutrition, natural ways to support detoxification, and healing the body.
As a result of our research and implementing several changes to our lifestyle and diet, our son experienced a major improvement in the quality of his life. I’d like to share with you the steps we took as a family to turn the tide and help my son begin to come back from the damage, and truly flourish.
Here are some of the developmental and other health concerns we had about my son, between the ages of 18 months to 4.5 years of age:
- Eczema.
- Difficulty grabbing his attention.
- Sensitive to sounds and textures.
- Disinterested in other children.
- Often very focused on a task and “in his own world”.
- Lack of ability to relate to others or respond with appropriate emotion.
- Hitting head on objects or people.
- Gross motor delay (difficulty getting himself dressed, for example).
- Speech and language delays (could not comprehend how to answer a yes or no question or string together more than two syllables until after two years of age, for example).
- Extreme picky eating (only wanted carbs).
- Robotic monotone voice / speech pattern.
- Stimming (self-stimulatory behavior).
- Hand flapping.
- Repetitive behaviors, activities, and interests.
- Tics, Myoclonus.
- Near constant stomach pain which affected his physical activity and mood.
- Loose stools, pale in color.
- Painful stools.
- Panic attacks and anxiety.
All in all, he exhibited nearly all the signs and symptoms of autism, on a moderate level.
What are the symptoms of autism?
https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/symptoms
All of his developmental concerns have been resolved over time via potent nutrition plus a few supplements that we’ve had him take here and there. Today, he is an interactive, happy, neurotypical functioning kid who has no noticeable delays in movement, cognition, or speech. He is incredibly bright and creative. Most people would never guess that the above health issues were his reality for most of his life or that he was on the spectrum when he was younger. (People have told me this.)
That being said, his health will probably always be a bit of a balancing act due to the impact of the vaccines he received.
When he was 5 years old he developed tonsillitis that caused sleep apnea, which we treated with vitamin C, zinc, and fresh organic carrot & orange juice. At age 9, during a major growth spurt, the tics began to return, along with a stutter. I attribute this to our family slacking on our specialized diet for him, plus the dramatic increase in energetic demands on his body due to the growth spurt. Thankfully we’ve figured out how to help him with these two neurological effects, and we continue to address anything that arises through diet / nutrition, holistic approaches, some supplementation, and lifestyle modifications.
———— What We Did Not Do. ————
After a lot of research and testing, when my son was 4 years, 3 months of age, we made drastic changes to his diet. While many people recommend the “GAPS” diet for gut healing and recovery from neurological damage, we went a different route. Why? Read a bit on it if you haven’t before. In my opinion, the protocol would be darn near impossible for us to actually implement. Why?
One, the protocol is very rigid and daunting – it requires a great deal of daily preparation (mental and physical) which is taxing on parents who are already feeling short on time, energy, and patience. Two, there’s absolutely no way I would ever be able to get my sensitive/sensory, picky eater to eat the following GAPS protocol foods: fermented vegetables and dairy, fermented fish, sauerkraut juice, raw egg yolk, lots of meat, raw lettuce and onion, and spoonfuls of goose or duck fat. Three, my son tested intolerant to dairy and eggs (dairy is recommended and eggs are a staple of the GAPS protocol). And four, from my personal research on optimal/ideal diets and nutrition, a whole food plant-based diet made a lot more sense to me, for many reasons. (Vegetables and fruits have, since time immemorial, been known to be the healthiest foods we can consume.)
We did not do paleo, autoimmune paleo (although I tried this myself), WAPF, keto, etc.
Although these diets can subdue symptoms, they do not necessarily do so through proper excretion of toxicity and waste. They can actually prevent excretion and dial down or suppress function of the immune system, among other negative long term effects.
We reduced potential additional harm by using minimal supplementation.* We did NOT use TRS.*
We did not do homeopathy.
We did not do ACC (chelation).
We did not do the Nemcheck protocol.
————— What We Did. —————
1. We went organic.
As much as possible, we chose organic. If that wasn’t an option, we chose non-gmo items. Glyphosate (Roundup herbicide used on conventional produce) is linked to autism and has recently been implicated in the development of cancer.
2. We cleaned up our drinking water.
We purchased a water filtration system that removes contaminants, but does not remove necessary minerals, such as magnesium. If we were not home, we would purchase only bottled spring water to drink, or a silica-rich, magnesium-rich, bottled mineral water such as Fiji. We originally installed a reverse osmosis system and did not realize it would removed all magnesium and make us magnesium deficient, just by drinking it (demineralized water literally draws magnesium out of the body). This caused him to develop tics. He was especially susceptible to this because aluminum (which is deposited in the brain via vaccination) displaces magnesium and can cause nerve cells to fire repeatedly, and his MTHFR gene mutations reduce his capacity for detoxification and repair.
3. We cut completely:
Gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, corn, processed sugar, food additives (including carrageenan and xanthan gum), and food dyes. Any processed item that had an ingredient on its label that wasn’t an identifiable food item, we did and do not purchase. Gluten and dairy are known to trigger the immune system to attack the brain in a significant portion of the population. They are also very inflammatory. Many parents have found improvements in their spectrum kids when removing these. We tested my son and he had an intolerance to gluten, dairy, soy, and egg. Vaccine injured kids may have issues with egg due to some vaccines being manufactured using egg.
4. We restricted almost entirely:
Meat and grains. Over the course of a couple of years, we gradually cut out all meat except for wild caught salmon (small servings, 3-4x per month, for the beneficial omega fatty acids and B12). We do not allow canola and avoid other vegetable oils as much as possible (we use avocado oil when oil is desired). We also avoided peanuts and peanut butter for several years. Rice or oats are the only two grains we allowed (no corn), and we used them sparingly. *Update (2019): We have been allowing corn for a while now, but we cut it almost completely for 3-4 years. We also eat more rice these days.
5. What he eats
A high-fruit, whole food, 98% plant-based diet. In more detail, he eats a lot of fresh fruit (60-70% of his diet – bananas, strawberries, grapes, nectarines, mango, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries, raspberries, oranges, apples…), cooked/raw veggies (mostly potatoes, broccoli & carrots), fruit and veggie smoothies and juices (spinach, beets, dulse, coconut milk, pumpkin seeds, and hemp hearts added to various fruit smoothies, and kale/leafy greens, celery, cucumber, and carrot included in juices), salsa, avocado, almond butter, nuts and seeds, beans, lentils, rice/rice noodles and pasta sauce, oats, quinoa, teff, and wild caught salmon or sardines (1-2x per month because he genuinely likes these). To make life easier, we also sometimes get very clean-ingredient organic vegan gluten free soups, Amy’s Sonoma veggie/lentil burger patties, almond flour or cassava crackers and chips (eaten sparingly), and use pure maple syrup, dates, or raw honey as natural, unprocessed sweeteners. Over time, the percentage of fruit has dropped a bit due to his improvement in health. We are currently focusing more on building strength rather than detoxification.
We included:
- Epsom salt baths.
- Bentonite clay baths.
- Vitamin C.
- Probiotics (especially L. reuteri & L. rhamnosus).
- Restore.
- Chewable digestive enzymes.
- Magnesium (for resolving tics)
- B complex plus extra B1 (helped with stuttering)
As a side note. Any supplement you take can alter the internal environment of the body and we did not want to use man-made / unnatural supplements to manipulate his system, when doing so is ultimately a guessing game.
We chose the most gentle, natural path to healing, and when we did include vitamin C, probiotics, Restore, magnesium, and enzymes, it was truly to support the dietary changes, here and there, when it seemed he was needing it, not long term. We did not depend on the supplements. If he seemed to be struggling at any time, we re-evaluated our nutritional approach and changed his diet (or drinking water) as needed, for example, in order to supply more magnesium. (We did not regularly give a magnesium supplement.)
We focused on using what God / nature created for the human body to consume for healing.
——— Why did I go this route? ———
I spent countless hours researching diets and trying them myself. It made sense to me that the body would heal with the right fuel and that it would do the work it needed to for any ailment you might have, but that it takes time and diligence. The body knows what to do and I felt I should let it do so without attempting to manipulate an outcome with supplements or medicines. And honestly I’m not into experimenting with my own health or my child’s health. This is why I did not use supplements regularly or depend heavily on them.
I looked at the science on nutrition & diets and I listened to what people had to say about their experiences. I listened to my intuition, and yes, I prayed for guidance. I was inspired by many leaders in the world of natural health and healing when it came to the decisions I made on choosing a particular diet and path to healing.
Ultimately, those that had the most influence on my decision-making were Chris Wark of ChrisBeatCancer.com, Dr. Morse (author of The Detox Miracle Sourcebook), Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org, Charlotte Gerson & Gerson Therapy, and Blue Zones author Dan Buettner. And of course, so many personal testimonies of people healing and reversing their chronic illnesses. I would suggest following or learning more about these people and their recommendations.
Dr. Morse’s Detox Miracle Sourcebook:
https://www.amazon.com/Detox-Miracle-Sourcebook-Complete-Regeneration/dp/1935826190
Everything you need to know about food:
https://youtu.be/GZN3HGiS4zw
Nutritionfacts.org “Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death”: https://youtu.be/30gEiweaAVQ
Gerson Therapy / Juicing: https://youtu.be/ONIIRMplLjo
https://gerson.org/gerpress/the-gerson-therapy/
Blue Zones author interviewed by Chris:
https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/blue-zones-author-dan-buettner-on-how-to-live-to-100-and-beyond/
Testimonies:
Dan McDonald: https://www.regenerateyourlife.org
Fully Raw Kristina: https://www.fullyraw.com
Tanny Raw: https://tannyraw.com
The Raw Boy: https://youtu.be/lOL9mRVqY4A
Jon Stearns: https://www.facebook.com/100008704339037/posts/1912627799037346/
Raw Vegan 70 year old:
https://youtu.be/4gZ4U3V5LEc
There are so many, it would take me forever to post all the ones I remember. These are just some of the people who have inspired me over the years. There are many reasons why I chose this over other diets… keto, paleo, WAPF, etc. Many, many reasons. However it’s just too much to get into!
I should say, being almost fully plant based, our kids don’t have a problem getting enough protein, or calcium, etc. (you can get a more than sufficient amount of these from plants) and I am very aware of making sure we aren’t missing any important vitamins and minerals in our diet.
I hope this benefits you to maybe explore and consider these changes for yourself or your family if you haven’t done so already. This is what has helped my son – and myself with my own health issues – immensely. It has helped us so much, that my husband has started being more diligent with his own diet as well. It wasn’t easy to make all of these changes, but I would do it again and again for the sake of my son living a full life and regaining his health.