American Fitness Professionals & Associates

Childhood vaccinations are routinely given to infants at a very early age as part of a mass immunization program in the U.S.

But an increasing number of young children react poorly to these shots, especially to DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus), and often experience many mild to serious side effects. The trouble is, one vaccination doesn’t fit all children. “We immunize everybody, but the question should be how to do it without creating all the side effects,” says Harold Whitcomb, M.D., an internist of 45 years’ medical experience, now practicing in Aspen, Colorado.

“It’s time we got more sophisticated in our approach.” Dr. Whitcomb finds that sophistication in the use of a diagnostic technique called electrodermal screening (EDS). This is a way of determining in advance how a child is likely to react to a vaccine and, therefore, whether it is advisable to give the immunization at all. “I do this with all the young children I see,” he reports.

For example, EDS enables Dr. Whitcomb to assess, before giving the vaccine, how a child’s system will react to each of the prime elements in the DPT vaccine. In about 50% of cases, Dr. Whitcomb finds that young children do not tolerate the pertussis component, and he eliminates this from the vaccine mixture, giving only the diphtheria and tetanus parts.

“The risk of getting whooping cough [pertussis] is a lot less than the overt risk of taking a vaccine that will cause a problem,” he notes. There are several reasons why a young child cannot handle pertussis or other vaccines, says Dr. Whitcomb. In some cases, the child is simply too young and has an immature immune system; in Japan, DPT vaccinations are not given until the child is two years old, while in the U.S., they are given at two months.

In other cases, a child’s health history, diet, or family history may preclude an early vaccination, Dr. Whitcomb says. “If I have a child with recurrent ear infections, which is very common, I will never approve a vaccination.” Similarly, if the child is not well-nourished and has a diet of sugar and processed “junk” foods, or if the home environment is not nurturing and stressful, these are also factors contraindicating a vaccine.

“If you give a child living under these conditions a vaccination, they will have more trouble with that vaccine than healthier, stronger children. In such a case, I would delay the vaccine until, according to EDS, the child can handle it.” Another option, using EDS results, is to reduce the vaccine dosage. Dr. Whitcomb cites an example of a child whose EDS evaluation indicated a problem with all three components of DPT. Dr. Whitcomb cut the dose of each in half, so that the vaccine produced only a small reaction which he neutralized with low potencies of Aconite and Bryonia, two homeopathic remedies.

“The ideal approach, made possible by EDS, is that, instead of giving every child the same dose at the same age, we can adjust, or titer, the dose to suit the individual child, or we can wait until the child’s immune system is more able to deal with the stimulus of the vaccination,” Dr. Whitcomb says. The skillful use of EDS also enables Dr. Whitcomb to antidote vaccine damage some time after the immunization.

A boy had a strong reaction to his second DPT shot, then after his third, he failed to thrive and literally did not grow for almost two years, relates Dr. Whitcomb. He used EDS to prepare a homeopathic remedy that would neutralize the effect of the disabling DPT vaccine.

The EDS computer draws on its large repertory of substances, drugs, and natural medicines, all stored as information or energy signals, to identify a remedy that will reverse the reaction in question and undo its damage, Dr. Whitcomb says. “This allows me to make a remedy, or information signal, that reverses the energy field (in this instance, of the DPT vaccine) that created the problem. In the case of this boy, after I neutralized the pertussis, he came out of it and started to grow again.”

How to Reverse Hyperactivity and Get Your Child Off Ritalin Caroline was a six-year-old girl who couldn’t sit still at school. Caroline’s mastery of speech was delayed, she had a chronically runny nose, she was on Ritalin for her hyperactivity, and her doctors and teachers were ready to pin on her a label of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), reports Constantine A. Kotsanis, M.D., medical director of MindBody Health Center International in Grapevine, Texas.

In fact, her hyperactivity was such a problem in the classroom that her teacher felt Caroline’s parents needed to find another school for her. Dr. Kotsanis doesn’t like putting medically-convenient labels, such as ADD, on children because it can stigmatize the child and often obscure the real causes of the heightened or uncontrolled activity.

Many times one of those real causes is an undiagnosed allergy, Dr. Kotsanis says, as it turned out to be with Caroline. Her parents first noticed she had a problem at age seven months; intermittently, she had high fevers accompanied by seizures until she was 18 months old.

When she was four, Caroline had frequent urinary infections and was diagnosed with hyperactivity and borderline (”high function”) autism. At this point, she was put on Ritalin; by the time her parents discovered Dr. Kotsanis, they were eager to get their child off the drug. Studying Caroline’s face, Dr. Kotsanis saw many signs, familiar to him, of unresolved allergies.

The nasal drip, for example, was indicative of mold and food allergies, says Dr. Kotsanis, who frequently sees children diagnosed with ADD bearing mild to severe (and untreated) allergies. A skin prick test for the IgE and IgG immunoglobulins (two of five specialized immune system proteins, useful for identifying immediate and delayed reactions, respectively) confirmed that Caroline had allergies to certain foods, trees, histamines, and glycerins. Caroline’s symptoms were “a little bit of a mixed bag,” says Dr. Kotsanis. “They were a little bit autistic, a little bit ADD, and a little bit ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Her symptomatology, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst, was about a five.” Dr. Kotsanis took Caroline off all sugar products, both natural and synthetic (such as NutraSweet), and had her avoid all milk products, food dyes, white flour, gluten, and canned or processed foods.

Red dye especially, her parents said, tended to get Caroline “climbing the walls.” Dr. Kotsanis asked Caroline’s parents to feed her exclusively at home (restaurant food or anything prepackaged or canned had to be avoided) using organically-raised produce. In consultation with Jay Apte, a specialist in Ayurvedic nutrition on the MindBody Health Center’s staff, Dr. Kotsanis had Caroline avoid all cold foods and any foods that would create mucus in the body, such as dairy and “junk” foods.

To get a more detailed understanding of Caroline’s digestive system and nutrient absorption, Dr. Kotsanis ordered a comprehensive stool analysis. This gave him the information he needed to prescribe specialized nutrients to correct the digestive underpinnings of Caroline’s problems. The analysis showed that Caroline had a malabsorption problem and a yeast overgrowth of Candida albicans.

To address the Candida, Dr. Kotsanis started Caroline on a short-term dose of Nystatin, a conventional drug for fungal infections, which she took in capsule form two times daily for four weeks. He also gave her a series of four injections, at two-month intervals, containing homeopathic remedies for food, inhalant, mold, and dander allergies.

Typically, a patient receives 11 shots during a three-year period, then goes on to a maintenance schedule of occasional injections.
The homeopathic remedies (made from the allergens themselves) are low potency and “piggy-backed” onto shark cartilage as a carrier, says Dr. Kotsanis.

“The contents program the immune system’s T-lymphocyte cells to fight the allergens,” he says. Next, he gave her Permeability Factor, 1/2 capsule, three times daily between meals for six weeks, followed by the same dosage for one week per month for one year. This is a “nutritional stabilizing formula” containing amino acids, oils, and vitamins derived from marine sources, borage and rice bran oils, and lecithin.

Its purpose is to regulate the lining and activity of the gastrointestinal tract, especially the intestines. Dr. Kotsanis also put Caroline on Ultra Flora Plus, 1/4 teaspoon, two times daily in four ounces of warm water for six weeks, then up to 1/2 teaspoon, two times daily for six weeks. The purpose of this formula is to replenish beneficial bacteria (such as Lactobacillus acidophilus) in the intestines and thereby improve the absorption of nutrients made possible by these bacteria, says Dr. Kotsanis. To enhance digestion in the stomach and small intestine, Dr. Kotsanis started Caroline on Vital Zymes, an enzyme mixture, taken once daily just before lunch.

A nutrient formula called Super Nu-Thera ®, specifically developed for hyperactive children and containing vitamin B6 (and other B vitamins), magnesium, and additional key nutrients, was next on Dr. Kotsanis’ program for Caroline. Super Nu-Thera ® #200 Nutrient Powder was given at the rate of 1/8 teaspoon once daily, building to twice daily, then to 1/2 teaspoon daily for at least six weeks.

Research conducted and/or reported by Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., of the Autism Research Institute in San Diego, California, indicates that 30 to 40% of autistic children (out of a test group of 200) responded highly favorably to high-dose vitamin B6 in combination with magnesium.

Improvements included better eye contact, fewer tantrums, more interest in the outer world, and more normal behavior in general. Dr. Kotsanis also applied two other innovative techniques to improve Caroline’s condition.

First, he used an approach called sensory integration to sharpen her ability to focus and concentrate while remaining centered in her body. This approach involves simple but effective exercises such as balancing, walking in a straight line, looking at a dot, and dry skin brushing.

Caroline was to brush her skin (torso and extremities, but not head or genitals) in a circular fashion every two hours. When possible, Caroline was to do the brushing while walking and balancing. During the daytime, she was also to be wrapped tightly in a bedsheet —”like an Egyptian mummy,” says Dr. Kotsanis —for ten minutes every two hours.

“This stops the hyperactivity, literally. As she lies there on the floor facing up, she plays visual tic-tac-toe with a ball hanging over her eyes. This helps to calm the child and integrate the activities of both eyes.”

Secondly, Dr. Kotsanis used an audio enhancement training method developed by the French physician Guy Berard, M.D., and involves music. Dr. Kotsanis uses a special device that filters out certain frequencies to which the patient is hypersensitive.

After a while, the patient’s hearing normalizes on these frequencies. “Patients like Caroline are usually hypersensitive to loud noises; this technique helps to retrain them to listen more selectively, and it teaches their auditory system to communicate with the environment.”

Dr. Kotsanis has used this technique to transform nonverbal children into speaking ones; often, they emerge with better socialization skills and eating and sleeping patterns, he adds. A third technique, not used in Caroline’s case, involves special prism lenses to correct visual problems associated with (and possibly partly causing) behavioral and learning disabilities.

The therapeutic use of prism lenses—they look and are worn like glasses —is part of a field called functional or behavioral optometry. “Prism lenses are the correct treatment for dyslexia and can reverse dyslexia quickly,” says Dr. Kotsanis. Dr. Kotsanis’ multifaceted program for Caroline yielded successful results. By the time of her second allergy shot (about one month after beginning treatment), she was stable and calm enough to be taken off the Ritalin (which she had been receiving at 10 mg daily).

Caroline’s school behavior, which formerly her teachers had rated as “terrible,” now quickly improved to “good” and her teachers began remarking “how well she was doing,” says Dr. Kotsanis. In addition to the special homeopathic allergy shots, “the key to stopping the Ritalin was the elimination of all sugar products, both natural and artificial.”

Caroline’s mother reported that her daughter’s speech abilities grew quickly, expanding from one or two words at a time to full sentences, after about five months on the program. Caroline was also able to sit still for up to 21/2 hours of special education classes whereas formerly the most she could manage before fidgeting was ten minutes.

She sleeps much better at night and can fall asleep now without the presence of a parent. Caroline no longer needs diapers and is able to play with other children, where before she could not, says Dr. Kotsanis.