This book explains clearly and simply why two parents, each with health-related science degrees, chose not to immunise their three children. It offers a precise understanding of the insight gained from years of research and inquiry into immunisation. It provides a perspective of immunisation that, when combined with more than 700 references to medical and scientific literature, convincingly challenges the generally accepted medical opinion of immunisation.

Choosing Not To Immunise Our Children is a must read for every person needing to make a decision regarding immunisation, and a valuable resource for anyone interested in health.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Choosing not to immunize our children. The reasons behind the decision.

HOW IT CAME ABOUT

The seed of thought that began the research and eventually the writing of this book Choosing not to immunize our children, came from statements made by the Health and Medical Research Council of Australia in their book “The Australian Immunisation Handbook” (7th edition, p.260-261). They stated lifestyle factors, like eating and exercising, are not sufficient to prevent "vaccine preventable" diseases like measles, believing vaccination to have a unique role in their prevention. They also considered that of a group of 100 of unvaccinated children, all of them will 'catch' measles if exposed to it, and of these children all will be at a risk of developing a high rate of complications.

These statements claim that a healthy lifestyle is not enough to prevent "vaccine-preventable" diseases, or a high rate of complications from those diseases. It also suggested that the infectious diseases for which vaccines are used might in some way be different from other infectious diseases, different enough that the only way to avoid them and their complications is by being vaccinated.

These statements, statements that had such far-reaching ramifications, intrigued Dale Frazer. They were statements that challenged his sense of the value of good health, and he believed were statements that begged for further investigation.

“Choosing not to immunize our children. The reasons behind the decision” is the result of years of research that resulted from the author reading those authoritative statements. Playing the role of the devils’ advocate, he took the reverse opinion to be true, that lifestyle factors are capable of preventing vaccine preventable diseases and their complications, and sought evidence to support that opinion.

The support he found was so convincing to him that it led him to not only writing a book about the subject, but to also not immunise his own children.

From his research he concluded that lifestyle factors are acknowledged to influence a wide range of disease states in human beings, from infectious disease to cancer. The manner in which lifestyle factors influence the susceptibility to the infectious diseases for which vaccines are administered, are not necessarily any different from their influence on susceptibility to other infectious disease that do not have vaccines developed for them.

The fact that lifestyle factors can influence susceptibility to disease is known because of the influence that they have on the functions of the immune system, the system that is intimately involved with maintaining and regaining health. So if lifestyle factors were capable of influencing our state of health, what value would there be in being healthy if health itself were unable to reduce our susceptibility to disease?

His research supported the important conclusion that health has a value, and that its value means that greater health results in less disease and less complications from disease, whether there are vaccines available for those diseases or not.

He was fascinated by the research that demonstrated that the lifestyle of every living organism influences the state of health of that organism. If the ‘lifestyle’ of any living thing is not conducive to supporting its health, then an increased susceptibility to disease will inevitably result. He believes that even germs can have unhealthy lifestyle influences that may eventually lead to their disease and death.

He believes that babies, infants, toddlers and adult humans are no different in this respect. Each live in a particular environment and are influenced by the lifestyle they lead, or by which they are led. Even a one-week old baby has a lifestyle as does an unborn foetus, a lifestyle that can be health supporting or health impairing. A poorly nourished baby will be more susceptible to disease than a well nourished baby. An adequately rested baby will have better immune function than another baby that is sleep deprived, and so on.

Taking this concept of lifestyle and its effect on immune function, Dale Frazer than examined disease incidence around the world and the influence of nutrition (only one aspect of 'lifestyle') on those diseases. At one extreme were obviously malnourished children in mostly very poor countries. At the other were well-nourished children in mostly affluent countries. The obviously malnourished were most likely to die of many diseases, including “vaccine preventable diseases” and their complications, while the well nourished were least likely to die from them. Indeed, the death rate increased exponentially with the degree of nutritional compromise. However, 83% of all malnutrition related deaths (reference supplied in text) occurred in the group that were mildly to moderately malnourished, simply because this group is so large in number.

This is of course the tragedy of desperate lifestyles, desperate through scarcity rather than choice. Importantly, the research demonstrated that there exists another group of children who are also at greater risk of disease, complications from disease and death. These are the children that appear healthy, appear well nourished, yet are not. They are considered normal, and appear healthy and clinically well, yet are malnourished. Despite their healthy appearance they are more susceptible to disease. These children are not only found in undeveloped, poorly developed and poverty stricken countries. They are also found in technologically advanced, highly developed wealthy countries, and in every country in between. These otherwise apparently normal healthy children are in some manner undernourished, immune compromised, and at greater risk of disease and complications from those diseases.

Frazer believes that in every society, there exists a proportion of the population that appear well yet are immune compromised to some degree. The degree of immune compromise may vary from day to day, week to week and so on, depending on how well the provisions for health are met, purely as a result of lifestyle factors. Some individuals may enter or leave this group as their level of immune compromise changes. Others may stay consistently within this group.

Frazer considers that it is this group as a whole that gives the impression that health is not enough to resist certain disease states, as these individuals develop disease when they are 'apparently' well.

The amount of research on nutrition alone and its influence on susceptibility to disease is staggering. Of course there are many other factors that contribute to 'lifestyle' and therefore our health and susceptibility to disease. Frazer explores many of these factors and their influence on susceptibility to disease, plus looks at many other important aspects of disease that are not commonly discussed.

Below is the content chapter listing for “Choosing not to immunize our children. The reasons behind the decision.”

CONTENTS

1. Choosing not to immunise our children
2. Infection
3. Infectious disease
4. Germs
5. Antibodies
6. Immunisation
7. Immunity. What’s in a name?
8. Immunisation. What’s in a name?
9. Health? What’s in a name?
10. The spirit of health
11. What is the value of health?
12. The theory of toxaemia
13. Susceptibility
14. Antibodies versus health
15. Germs, antibodies and health
16. In the beginning (the design of disease)
17. Medicine, Social Reformers, and the Natural Hygienists
18. An overview of models
19. Orthodoxy and Natural Hygiene
20. Who gets sick, who gets sickest and who dies?
21. Childhood infectious disease
22. The pattern of sickness over time
23. The recent history of infectious disease
24. Who stays well
25. The influence of nutrition
26. Breast feeding
27. Nutritional status of children in developing countries
28. Nutritional status of children in developed countries
29. Malnutrition and immunisation
30. Gathering the statistics
31. Two opposing studies
32. Herd immunity
33. Understanding inflammation
34. A developmental milestone
35. Dreaming of magic bullets
36. Combining vaccines and multiple vaccines
37. What about polio? The commonly asked question
38. Smoking
39. In conclusion- Possible flaws in our model
40. References (793 references from medical and scientific sources)

Choosing not to immunise our children is Dale Frazer’s second book. His first book Firstly do no harm is an exploration of the essential biological principles of health and healing.