What is In the Flu Vaccine that Can Cause Infertility?

– October 15, 2010Posted in: Articles
Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Joseph Mercola, DO

October 15, 2010

GlaxoSmithKline’s Fluarix swine flu vaccine, among others, contains Polysorbate 80, also known as Tween 80.

A study done in Slovakia on female rats found that when newborn rats were injected with the substance within a week of birth, they developed damage to the vagina and uterine lining, hormonal changes, ovarian deformities and infertility.

The package insert for Fluarix mentions that the manufacturer cannot guarantee your fertility will be unharmed. Further, if your fertility is compromised, recently passed laws protecting vaccine makers will prevent you from holding GlaxoSmithKline responsible.

From the Organic Health article:

“Would you feel comfortable being injected with a vaccine that contains a substance that has been strongly linked to infertility?

Well, if you take the Fluarix swine flu vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline or any of the other swine flu vaccines that contain Polysorbate 80, that is exactly what you will be doing. If you are considering getting the swine flu vaccine, or any other vaccine for that matter, perhaps you should educate yourself about EXACTLY what is in these vaccines before you allow them to be injected into your body.”

In related news, Australian health officials were aware of severe and unusual side effects with the flu vaccine three weeks before they made the data public, and now experts are demanding for a better national surveillance plan.

It took over three months to clearly identify CSL’s Fluvax vaccine as the likely culprit of an outbreak of convulsions (called febrile seizures) among recently vaccinated infants.

Ultimately, at least 100 reports of febrile seizures were received, but the slow response and delays in official responses from state and federal governments were just not acceptable, the experts say and the public not only wants some answers, but a change in the way vaccine adverse events are reported.

Sources: Organic Health, The Sydney Morning Herald September 22, 2010

By now you’ve probably realized that there are numerous dangers inherent with flu vaccines.  Before I address the issue of polysorbate 80 specifically, I want to remind you that there are a large number of flu vaccines on the market, and that the vaccines created by various companies contain different ingredients.

The list of ingredients will also vary depending on which part of the world you’re in. European and American vaccines will oftentimes differ in the type of adjuvants used, for example, as not all ingredients are permitted by all countries.

This complicates matters when discussing the dangers of flu vaccines.

I will do my best to be specific, but beware that the information about polysorbate 80 and other ingredients provided below will apply to some flu vaccines but not all, and may apply to a vaccine by a particular manufacturer in one country, but not in another.

As a consumer, you need to review the vaccines available in your specific area, if you’re concerned about specific ingredients.

You can find the list of approved vaccines for the US here. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also offers a convenient list of vaccine ingredients, available here.

That said, I believe the evidence against using flu vaccines is strong, and that it doesn’t much matter which flu vaccine you’re talking about when it comes down to the question of whether or not it can cause you harm.

All of them can cause harm, in various ways, through a variety of mechanisms.

The Dangers of Polysorbate 80/Tween80

Polysorbate 80, also known as Tween80, is a detergent (surfactant) used to deliver certain drugs or chemical agents across the blood-brain barrier.

This season’s flu vaccine for the US market made by GlaxoSmithKline, called Fluarix, contains polysorbate 80, as does Novartis’ Agriflu.

The HPV vaccine, Gardasil, and a number of other childhood vaccines that carry the potential for serious side effects also contain polysorbate 80.

You can also find this ingredient in any vaccine using the adjuvant MF59, which contains both polysorbate 80 and squalene, which is yet another hazardous ingredient. Squalene is an adjuvant used in vaccines marketed in Europe and other countries, but squalene has not yet been approved by the FDA as an ingredient for vaccines distributed in the U.S.

You can find more in-depth information about the dangers of squalene in this previous report.

The damning study against polysorbate 80 that Organic Health refers to above was a Slovakian study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology in 1993. The researchers injected female rats with Tween 80 (in 1, 5 or 10 percent aqueous solution), on days four through seven after birth.

They discovered that Tween80 accelerated the rats’ maturation, prolonged the estrous cycle, decreased the weight of the uterus and ovaries, and caused damage to the lining of the uterus indicative of chronic estrogenic stimulation.

The rats’ ovaries were also damaged, with degenerative follicles and no corpora lutea (a mass of progesterone-secreting endocrine tissue that forms immediately after ovulation).

Such severe deformities to the ovary can lead to infertility.

The question is whether or not these effects also apply to humans. Unfortunately, there’s a glaring lack of continued research in this area.

Instead of thoroughly evaluating the dangers of the ingredients used in vaccines, it appears as though vaccine makers are taking full advantage of their government sanctioned immunity against liability for damage.

You’ll see that all flu vaccines simply state that it “has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility.”

End of story.

Or is it?

Don’t you think you should be able to demand proof that something you’re supposed to inject into your body once a year — from 6 months’ of age, until you die — will not render you infertile, or cause Alzheimer’s or some other disease, in the process?

Think about that for a moment… What are these ingredients doing to your body, really? And how many yearly doses of these toxins can your body withstand before it protests?

Now, there’s not much additional evidence that polysorbate 80, specifically, can directly cause infertility. Infertility-inducing vaccines typically tend to be laced with human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). However, that doesn’t mean that the 1993 rat study is not an indication that it might harm your fertility, and it doesn’t mean polysorbate 80 is safe to use.

We also know polysorbate 80 is a potential inductor of anaphylactic shock.

One 2005 study concluded that, “Polysorbate 80 is a ubiquitously used solubilizing agent that can cause severe nonimmunologic anaphylactoid reactions. ”

Cancer researchers have also investigated some of the effects of Tween80.

One cancer study looking at the effects of Tween80 on the in vitro metabolism of very specific cancer cells found the detergent caused marked increases in the cell permeability. Soluble nucleotides and amino acids were removed by the Tween80 treatment, and oxygen uptake was reduced by 50 percent, among other things.

While this in and of itself has nothing to do with causing infertility, it’s clear that Tween80/polysorbate 80 causes significant cell permeability, allowing whatever else is in the vaccine in question to also enter your cells.

Why Vaccinations Can Be so Dangerous

The presumed intent of a vaccination is to help you build immunity to potentially harmful organisms that cause illness and disease. However, your body’s immune system is already designed to do this in response to organisms which invade your body naturally.

Most disease-causing organisms enter your body through the mucous membranes of your nose, mouth, pulmonary system or your digestive tract – NOT through an injection.

These mucous membranes have their own immune system, called the IgA immune system. It is a different system from the one activated when a vaccine is injected into your body. Your IgA immune system is your body’s first line of defense. Its job is to fight off invading organisms at their entry points, reducing or even eliminating the need for activation of your body’s immune system.

However, when a virus is injected into your body in a vaccine, and especially when combined with an immune adjuvant, your IgA immune system is bypassed and your body’s immune system kicks into high gear in response to the vaccination.

Adjuvants can trigger unwanted immune responses, as they can cause your immune system to overreact to the introduction of the organism you’re being vaccinated against.

Make no mistake about it, injecting organisms into your body to provoke immunity is contrary to nature, and vaccination carries enormous potential to do serious damage to your health.

Would You Knowingly and Willingly Inject Yourself with Known Toxins?

The main “active” ingredient in a vaccine is either killed viruses or live ones that have been attenuated (weakened and made less harmful).

Most seasonal flu vaccines contain dangerous levels of mercury in the form of thimerosal, a deadly preservative that is 50 times more toxic than regular mercury. If taken in high enough doses, thimerosal can result in long-term immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions.

It can also predispose adults to neurological problems such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

But thimerosal is not the only concern when it comes to flu vaccines. You also have the dangers of immune adjuvants like squalene or aluminum to contend with. (Aluminum adjuvants are used in approved U.S. influenza vaccines while other countries may allow squalene to be added as an adjuvant).

Other toxic substances found in various flu vaccines include:

Ethylene glycol (antifreeze) Triton X100 (detergent)
Formaldehyde – a known cancer causing agent Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Neomycin and streptomycin (antibiotics) Phenol (carbolic acid)
Aluminum — a neurotoxin linked to Alzheimer’s disease Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™) – which can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis

(To determine which vaccines contain which ingredients, see this CDC list.)

You May Want to Reconsider Taking the Flu Shot this Year

This year you must also remember that this season’s flu vaccine will be a combination vaccine that contains both several regular influenaza strains PLUS the controversial 2009 pandemic H1N1 “swine flu” strain..

As you may have heard, the 2009 pandemic H1N1 swine flu vaccine has already been implicated in causing a highly unusual and serious health problem in children and teens across Europe, namely narcolepsy.

Australia also temporarily banned this year’s flu vaccine containing the pandemic H1N1 strain for children under the age of five, due to an unusually large number of side effects.

The causes for the increased reactivity of the single and combination flu shots administered in Australia and Europe are still unknown… However, I strongly advise you not wait to find out the mechanics behind these problems and seriously consider the known and unknown risks of getting the flu shot.

Not only do flu shots not work, but when something goes awry, you have no legal recourse as the U.S. Congress has granted immunity against lawsuits not just to the makers of Tamiflu and Relenza (for injuries stemming from their use against swine flu), but also to all future swine flu vaccines and “any associated adjuvants”.

Vitamin D and the Flu

There is so much compelling evidence that I believe optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu — not the influenza virus itself.

R Edgar Hope Simpson was one of the first to discover the link between a deficiency in solar radiation and seasonal influenza. Then, in 2006, the journal Epidemiology and Infection published Dr. John Cannell’s paper Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D, which presents the hypothesis that influenza is merely a symptom of vitamin D deficiency.

He followed this up with another study published in the Virology Journal in 2008.

His findings were again confirmed last year by another study — the largest and most nationally representative of its kind to date — that involved about 19,000 Americans.

It found that people with the lowest blood vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu. In conclusion, lead author Dr. Adit Ginde stated:

“The findings of our study support an important role for vitamin D in prevention of common respiratory infections, such as colds and the flu. Individuals with common lung diseases, such as asthma or emphysema, may be particularly susceptible to respiratory infections from vitamin D deficiency.”

Add to this the fact that vitamin D has been shown to have a dramatic impact on nearly all chronic diseases, and you begin to see why optimizing your vitamin D levels may indeed be crucial for avoiding the flu in the first place, and/or avoiding serious and potentially deadly complications from the flu.

What You Can Do Right Now

I urge you to educate yourself about influenza and vaccination risks, and to take care of your health to reduce or eliminate your risk of contracting the flu. The key is to keep your immune system strong by following these guidelines:

My Appeal to You

Don’t sit this one out! We’ve got them “on the run.”

Tell everyone. Tell your friends, your family. With a little bit of effort, you can make significant strides toward preserving your freedom to make voluntary health decisions affecting your and your children’s future.

One of the top goals for the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is preserving your freedom of choice about if and when to use vaccines. As part of that mission, this non-profit charity has been fighting for your right to make informed VOLUNTARY vaccine choices since 1982.

During the upcoming Vaccine Awareness Week, NVIC is launching the online NVIC State Advocacy Portal that will give you the tools you need to take action to protect legal medical, religious and conscientious belief exemptions to vaccination in YOUR state.

Mercola.com & NVIC Dedicating November 1-6 Vaccine Awareness Week

In a long-scheduled joint effort to raise public awareness about important vaccination issues during the week of November 1-6, 2010, Mercola.com and NVIC will publish a series of articles and interviews on vaccine topics of interest to Mercola.com newsletter subscribers and NVIC Vaccine E-newsletter readers.

The week-long public awareness program will also raise funds for NVIC, a non-profit charity that has been working for more than two decades to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and protecting informed consent to vaccination.

The November 1-6 Vaccine Awareness Week hosted by Mercola.com and NVIC will follow a month-long vaccine awareness effort in October that was recently announced on Facebook by parents highlighting Gardasil vaccine risks.

The six-week-long focus this fall on vaccine issues will help raise the consciousness of many more Americans, who may be unaware that they can take an active role in helping to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths and defend the legal right to make voluntary vaccination choices.

And remember, you can always visit Vaccines.Mercola.com and NVIC.org for the latest vaccine news updates and other important vaccine information.

www.mercola.com

Tags: , ,