New Purchase Confession...and a New Poll

We bought a new thing the other day. Yes, we did. I must confess. And so overpowering was the desire, the perceived need, that we didn't even flinch at the idea. We didn't even pause and reflect on how it would mess up our compact not to purchase anything new.* We just ran out and without thinking much about it got...

A NEW WATER HEATER!!!

Woo hoo!! Aren't we completely decadent! Sorry, I probably shouldn't be so brazen and crass to brag about our material wealth like that. Kind of low brow, huh? Any way, we get hot water. Luxury, I tell you.

And actually, I think it is luxurious. To not have hot water pointed in a real tangible way to how completely spoiled we are and take these little every day luxuries completely for granted. And when I say tangible, I mean that I took a shower and went in there knowing full well that there was no hot water. People bathe without hot water all over the world every day. Have you ever had a completely ice cold shower? Try it if you haven't just to see if you could handle it. It was kind of a fun challenge--once.

I used less conditioner in my hair too. I didn't want to spend one second in there longer than I had to.

Which brings me to a new poll. (I know people already answered a poll a while ago about whether or not they leave the lights on in their house and I never have talked about it again. That's lame. If you participate in a poll, you should see the results, right? It's like when there's an asterisk and then you never find what it means at the bottom of the page. Gah! I hate that!! The result of the poll was that almost everyone turns off their lights. A couple of brave souls admitted that they sometimes turn off the lights. Thanks for being honest and for taking that poll. Now, on to this new one.) Please answer the poll at the side. What every day thing in your life would you miss the most? Say you lost your dishwasher because it broke, or someone burgled your house and stole your air conditioner...Which things would you miss the most?

I really missed our water heater. I'm glad to have it back again. Oops. I'm bragging again. Sorry.

NOTE: In the poll, you can vote for as many choices as you'd like. Maybe it's a tie between several things...You can also go change your vote, if you need to.

My Son is Starving

After having two large wedges of cantaloupe, a half a kiwi, two eggs, and a large slice of whole wheat cherry/strawberry coffee cake, my son just said to me, "I'm starving--can I have some food?!"

Yeah, I see his point--that was a paltry breakfast. What am I thinking?

Back to the kitchen...

I'd Like to See This Convention

I'm really looking forward to the Democratic Convention in August. I think it will be inspiring to see Obama accept the nomination of the Democratic party. And, I always love seeing each state proclaim its greatness and list its fabulous attributes before they designate whatever number of delegates in support of the candidate! Its fun. But, perhaps there could be another way to go. Maybe there could be even more pomp and showmanship.

I think this convention with Jimmy Durante and Vaudeville producer George M. Cohan would be a right good time.

The delegates totin' guns and wearing top hats and playing instruments? Par-tay!

What About Typhoid and Scarlet Fever?

I wanted to know where the huge instances of disease are in light of the low vaccination rate in the adult population as cited by the CDC in a recent article. Neo-agrarain brought up some good points in response to my Where's the Diphtheria Outbreak? post. He said,

Diphtheria is again more a disease of conditions. Diphtheria is rare in the United States and Europe,where the sanitation systems are very developed. Also health officials have been immunizing children against it for decades. However, it's still common in developing countries where immunizations aren't given routinely. There are many cases of it in nations at war such as Afghanistan and Iraq. There it would be a benefit to immunize the population until the sanitation system gets up to par. As for vaccinating here...do we still need to? One could argue the point that no we don't need to, but it is kind of like taking a vitamin it may do you some good or it may do nothing to you, but it shouldn't harm you if done properly

That got me thinking some more. I'm not sure that all the vaccines we're giving our kids and are being pressured to take more of ourselves are necessarily harmless, "like taking a vitamin." I want to show you a couple of things.

This graph shows the decline in five infectious diseases from 1900 up until 1965, also indicating the years when various vaccines were introduced into public use. (The data comes from The Vital Statistics of the United States)
It shows measles, scarlet fever, typhoid, whooping cough and diphtheria all decreasing in severity. This is a graph of the death rate from these diseases, not incidence. That's what matters for sickness though, right? Am I going to be OK and get through this illness, or am I going to die? Do you see anything interesting about these five diseases? I notice that typhoid was second in deaths after diphtheria in the early 1900s. Clearly a scourge. Then, lower down on the graph is a closer cluster of scarlet fever, whooping cough and measles. You can see that the death rate for all of these diseases declined well before introduction of vaccines.

What about typhoid and scarlet fever? There are no vaccines for those two diseases, and yet the death rate for them declined just as it did for whooping cough and measles and diphtheria. Especially after WWII--look at where the numbers are then for all of these diseases, before vaccine introduction for both whooping cough and measles.

Clearly there are all sorts of things involved in disease carriage and transmission. Sanitation and improved nutrition and access to clean water all increased as the rate of death from these diseases decreased. I don't think this is coincidental. I think there's a causal relationship. I think it's why you see increased death rates worldwide where people don't have access to clean water and good food.

While communicable diseases in general and childhood diseases were decreasing other conditions were increasing. This graph shows the increase in cancer mortality during the 1900s. It shows a greater than 3 fold increase in cancer death rates during this period.
There have also been huge increases in the incidence of asthma, allergies, and autism. All of this occurring at the same time. I don't think vaccines helped with the diseases, I think improved sanitation and improved nutrition and clean water did. However, there has been a shift away from real, whole foods to convenience foods laden with artificial ingredients and chemicals. Is this healthy? Vaccination rates are ever increasing for more and more conditions (whether or not they're life threatening). There are vaccines for ear infections and diarrhea? Yet, typhoid and scarlet fever aren't even thought about in this country. Yet. They may develop a vaccine for those too, and then we'll start seeing literature about how awful those diseases are.*

This is the recommended vaccination schedule from 1983 compared to 2007.


Has there been a concurrent improvement in overall health in children during this time? Or are we seeing more asthma, allergies, autism, diabetes, heart disease (even in children), and cancer?

I think vaccines can have a negative impact on health, and I fully support a parent's right to determine the best ways to ensure health for their children. Parents are responsible for the health of their own children. Disease eradication is much more complicated than a magic pill or magic injection. Ultimately, many people are thinking we may be trading some temporary illnesses that you can get through for long term health problems.

* NOTE: I stand corrected. I just read an article about Scarlet Fever--it says several vaccines are being developed. Are you worried about scarlet fever right now? Does is occur to you to be concerned about it? Will you get a vaccine for this for you or your kids? Also, there is a typhoid vaccine that people are recommended to take when traveling to areas of the world with typhoid...but, typhoid diminished here in this country well before the onset of a vaccine, and no one takes it here. Yet.