First of all, it's been more than 2 years since my last ABX and I have been doing great. I hiked Big Bend last fall and felt like my performance was only slightly weaker than it was pre-Lyme. Now, to celebrate turning 50 I am training for the trip of my life- trekking in the Himalayas for 23 days. You can bet when I get to the pilgrimage site at the source of the Ganges I will fly a prayer flag for all of my Lymenet family, and all the other Lymies we haven't met yet.

Now here is my question:

Many shots and vaccinations are recommended by the "establishment" when you go to India. But we kind of don't swallow their whole program do we?

However, I AM considering the shots for hepatitis A and cholera.

Does anybody have any feedback about things like flu shots and innoculations for Lymies?

Given the weariness my immune systen may still be recovering from, should I do the shots? I never do flu shots, but I can survive the flu in my own bed easier than surviving cholera on some mountain top somewhere.

I just don't want the shots to trigger some kind of heightened immune response.

Anybody have any feedback from their doctors for this kind of question?

thanks and healing to all

They should be avilable without but I'd start looking now. Call you health department and tell them you need these without Mercury preservative. They may be able to help you locate then.

I recently passed on a tetnus shot because of my Lyme. I don't know about these other diseases......so no input there....sorry.

Oh and thanks for returning with encouragement.

robi

Guess you have looked at the CDC advice (I know, but they can't be wrong all the time)?
I took a gander at this website, just because I used to be a world traveler and am green with envy. They do not recommend any shots for cholera, didn't even look like any were available, in my hasty glance.

And the hepatitis does seem to be available without mercury.

See this URL
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/indianrg.htm

if you still are in touch with the doctor who treated you for lyme (i assume an LLMD) you may want to ask him/her about the vaccinations.

First let me say, you are one h@!! OF AN INSPIRATION..

Next, as far as immunizations, based on what I have read, anyway..IMO..

"Houston..we have a problem"

Here's just a few articles, and there are references within, ect..many published statements within the medical community.
..that to my mind not only prove they don't work, and are a misnomer..
but that they are very harmful to our immune system.

My 2c.

Have a wonderful trip!!!

Mo

http://www.ghchealth.com/vaccinations-the-hour-of-the-time.html

(PS to Moms and other, there are tips in here as to how to get out of forced vaccination)

http://www.country-spice.com/webpages/healthreports/vaccinesquotes.htm

and a snip from another source:

WHEN THE VACCINE ENTERS THE BODY

The purpose of the vaccination is to get the body to produce antibodies which will provide immunity for a time against a certain disease. In 1949-1950, the British Medical Council carried out an extensive investigation to determine the degree to which anti-diphtheria antibodies, produced by vaccinations, helped the public resist diphtheria. Since the disease was epidemic at the time, the government had a large number of cases to work with. In their official 1950 report, they disclosed that the presence of antibodies were of no help of any kind in resisting diphtheria. Some people developed the disease who had high antibody count while others with low count were highly resistant (British Medical Council Report, #272, May 1950).

Dr. Wenddel Belfield, of San Jose, California, explains the mystery:

"Antibodies are not needed when the primary immunological defense [leukocytes, interferon, T-cells, etc.] is functioning at maximum capacity . . Antibody production appears to occur only when the ascorbate level, in the primary defense components, are at low levels, thereby permitting some viruses to survive the primary defenses."--W. Belfield, M.D., quoted in Drs. G. Dettman and A. Kalokerinos, "A Supportive Submission," The Dangers of Immunization, 1979.

"It is nonsense to think that you can inject pus . . into a little child and in any way improve its health . . There is no such thing as immunization, but we sell it under the name `immunization' . . If we could by any means build up a natural resistance to disease through these artificial means, I would applaud it--but we can't do it. The body has its own methods of defense. These depend on the vitality of the body at the time. If it is vital enough, it will resist all infections; if it isn't vital enough it won't and you can't change the vitality of the body for the better by introducing poison of any kind into it."--William Howard Hay, M.D., quoted by Usher Burdick in the House of Representatives, 1937; printed in the Congressional Record, December 21, 1937.

The strange act of introducing weakened disease germs into the body, which we call "vaccination," can produce abnormal conditions in the body which, years later, can erupt in something terrible. In a landmark book, Dr. Richard Moskowitz explained that the unnatural process of vaccination can put slow-acting viruses into the body. These, he says, can later produce nearly incurable chronic diseases (R. Moskowitz, "Immunizations: A Dissenting View," Dissent in Medicine: Nine Doctors Speak Out, 1985, pp. 133-166).

Vaccines go directly into the body and are "not censored by the liver," according to Dr. William Albrecht. Aside from the antibiotics and germ-deadening chemicals in them, vaccines are primarily composed of foreign proteins from animals. Normally, proteins, chemicals, and other substances which are eaten, are processed in the liver to protect you. But vaccination sends these foreign substances directly into the bloodstream.

"If you take water into your system as drink, it goes into your bloodstream directly from the stomach. But if you take fats, they move into your lymphatic system. When you take other substances like carbohydrates and proteins, they go into the intestines, and from there are passed through the liver, as the body's chemical censor, before they go into the blood and the circulation throughout the body. Most of your vaccination serums are proteins, and are not censored by the liver. Consequently, vaccinations can be a terrific shock to the system."--William Albrecht, M.D., In Organic Consumer Report, December 4, 1962.

This is why vaccines do not really give the body immunity--yet that is why they were injected in the first place. Marian Tompson found that, when immunity to a disease is acquired naturally, the possibility of reinfection is only 3.2%. But when it comes through vaccination, the reinfection rate is 80% (Marian Tompson, "Another View," The People's Doctor, Vol. 6, No. 12, p. 8).

"Just because you give somebody a vaccine, and perhaps get an antibody reaction, doesn't mean a thing. The only true antibodies, of course, are those you get naturally. What we're doing [when we inject vaccines] is interfering with a very delicate mechanism that does its own thing. If nutrition is correct, it does it in the right way. Now if you insult a person in this way and try to trigger off something that nature looks after, you're asking for all sorts of trouble, and we don't believe it works."--Dr. Glen Dettman, interviewed by Jay Patrick, and quoted in "The Great American Deception," Let's Live, December 1976, p. 57.

Ordinarily, diseases which enter the body are filtered through an elaborate network of body defenses. But vaccines--because they are injected directly into the bloodstream--seem to slip by many of those defenses. Walene James, in Immunization: The Reality Behind the Myth, says that a vaccine, placed directly into the blood vessel, is able to gain immediate access to all the major tissues and organs--and bypass the immune responses that might otherwise have destroyed it (1988, pp. 14-15). Research by Drs. Kalokerinos and Dettman discovered that, since the vaccine viruses have been successfully acquired by other immunity factors, when the T-cells encounter them in the blood, they assume the strange, new viruses must be friendly. So the T-cells adjust for this factor and henceforth let them live and slowly multiple.

Does all this remind you of AIDS? If you have followed research studies on AIDS and the T-cells, you will recognize that the similarities are frightening. That point needs discussing.

Your recovery of pre-Lyme health is a miracle and accomplishment. By getting multiple vaccines you are risking all of it. I would suggest seeing an alternative medicine doctor with your concerns about exotic diseases. There are many ways to protect yourself. Including staying home, if you're that concerned. Chances are good that you'll pick up some parasites even if you don't get a disease.

Read the warnings for the vaccines you are considering in the PDR. I don't think they even guarantee 100% protection from the disease. If your immune system beat down Lyme, it's probably stronger than you think. Also check out: www.909shot.com www.thinktwice.com

"I just don't want the shots to trigger some kind of heightened immune response." That sounds like your gut talking to you; maybe listen.

Here are two more good info references on doing that.

State and government..or medical..educational institutions say it's mandatory, and will intimidate using that language..
(saying kids can't go to school, Docs will yell..
ect, ect, ect..)

But if you become familiar with the laws in your state, their are always clauses that noone mentions..
there to protect the govt (they wouldn't dare write a mandatory law with no exemption, lest they be held accountable for health effects)

Usually in each state ..there is a Medical, Religious, or philosophical waiver available.

This site has a booklet (bottom of page) on the state laws .. each listed.

The booklet et the very top of the list is a good tool, also.

..and a sample affidavit..also at the bottom of the list, with the State law directory.

http://thinktwice.com/vaccine.htm#

This is a basic outline by Mercola on how you can argue this.
http://www.mercola.com/article/vaccines/legally_avoid_shots.htm

Mo

Zipzip, I was just casting about to see what folks had heard from their various doctors- one of mine I know will say say no way to vaccines, I don't know about the other.

Robi, so glad you are getting strong, I emailed you. Keep it up!

Lou, sorry I meant typhus, not cholera. That CDC site I think should be a place to start for all travellers, even if you don't buy the vaccine thing, it is chock full of info.

Patdetweiler, it's obvious you have really moved aroung this planet. Thanks for responding. This trip is led by my yoga teacher. She takes people to India and Nepal a couple times a year. She is the most mindful person I have ever met when it comes to the concept of clean, and the support crew are all known to her. But the thought has certainly occurred to me - the food may be piping hot (and clean) when it is ladled into your bowl- but you have to trust the one that cleans the bowls right? I am n more conscious of this stuff since my Lyme adventure. Or maybe I am just turning into a little old biddy.

Now, big drum roll please. Thousand thanks to Mo and Ibrakefor ticks. What in the world was I thinking? Vaccines are against my religion. Sorry, not my paradigm, dear. Thanks for reminding me. (Mo has always beeen the first responder with just the reading material you need) Some of the others in my group were rolling up their sleeves for one shot or another and I got carried away.

It is so great to come here and have a place to discuss this stuff. You all are the best.

Curious question if i may, How long did you have Lyme before starting treatment?