Safety and Effectiveness of Herbs and Pharmaceuticals

I suspect that your analysis might be wrong.My grandson was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. After a more recent re-examination, it was concluded that he is actually normal, and that the diagnosis was mistaken.I suspect that the reason autism is increasing, is because people are looking harder. I am not saying that they are all being misdiagnosed. Indeed, the diagnoses might be correct. But we are often diagnosing a child as autistic, when 20 years ago that child would have been treated as a bit odd, perhaps socially awkward - but nobody would have applied an "autism" label. That is to say, we are finding cases of autism because we are looking harder.Perhaps there is an actual increase in the rate of autism, but because so much of what is seen can be explained as "we are looking harder," we need to be cautious in how we assess the evidence. Yes, I'm like that, too. I tend to think that nature's way is often the best. However, taking herbal remedies that are not part of our natural diet does strike me as unnatural, and just as unnatural as taking something made in a laboratory.Full disclosure requires that I acknowledge that I am taking medication for hypertension. Nature does have its way of taking care of that - it is called death.

I think its a mistake to put it that way.A vaccine is useless if people are not actually vaccinated. IMO the FDA acted to increase the credibility of vaccines, so that more people might use them. It was not a matter of kowtowing.

Yes, I agree with that. And nothing is going to persuade the nutters that vaccines are safe, not even the removal of thimerosal.The main concern is with people who are sitting on the fence, who have heard of the controversy and are not sure how to respond to that. I see the FDA action as an attempt to reassure those people of the safety of vaccines by removing one on the causes of their uncertainty.

On the contrary, we know a lot. In most cases, the body can deal with this in the small amounts present. You should be more concerned about what is in processed foods. I don't think we actually know that. All we know is that the number of diagnoses have soared. It might be that the increase is because we are looking harder. That sounds unnecessarily alarmist. A vaccine for malaria would be great. But I wouldn't expect that to be part of routine childhood vaccination except in regions where malaria is endemic. Is that what the ranting, raving loonies are saying now?

If the smoking vaccine turns out to be effective, this will likely be an expensive vaccine that people voluntarily use to help them quit smoking. It isn't going to become part of routine childhood vaccinations.The people making a fuss over this are raving ranting loonies.

My comment about knowing a lot was intended to apply to the question of what vaccines do. I made a separate comment on the preservatives and other components, but you neglected to quote that. If allergies are on the rise, that probably has to do with things in the environment, rather than with vaccines.When I was young, ADHD was never diagnosed. So sure, the rate is now higher, because people are looking for it.There are many premature babies who survive today, but who would not have survived at times past. Some of these have development problems related to the premature birth. And that could one of the things that affects autism. And then there are more women giving birth at an older age, which is a known risk for some of these problems. In my experience, the medical profession is very conservative in its decisions on making a vaccine part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule. I have no concerns about that.For other vaccines, available if we choose, I don't see a problem in having such vaccines available for those who want them. My personal choice depends on the various risks and amount of protection involved. I do have annual flu shots. I have avoided any allergy treatments, whether vaccine or drug, on the basis that I can manage to put up with a little allergy from time to time.