One Farmers Perspective on the Raw Milk

[thistlebloom]

We aren't going to change each others minds about this. I have done a lot of reading on this through the years. I regret being pressured into making a decision on vaccinations for my kids when I had not educated myself on all the sides to the subject.

 

[Beekissed]

If anyone is reading this and thinks mumps is just a child's disease. Let an adult male get it, good chance infertility can come from it.

Worse yet, mumps later becomes shingles. Think shingles is an innocent disease, my friends got it. One is on spinal block and Meds trying to control nerve damage and constant pain. Yes, I got shingles vaccine even though it is only 60% effective. The 40% that do get it after vaccine, the side effects are much less. Yes, I had mumps....

I'm sorry, Seed, but the irony of someone who thinks mumps can cause shingles(two very different viruses there, bub) telling a nurse to get a medical education is just funny.

And, yes, most diseases are contact or airborne in transmission and good hygiene can play a HUGE role in the the transmission of these diseases...you have no idea how clean or not clean people were "in those days" as you weren't following each person around and testing the bacteria levels on their hands, in their homes, in their soils, wells and streams from which they drank, washed and cooked.

Hygiene doesn't just cover hand washing, but the cleanliness of the water, surfaces, air flow(that's huge, BTW), food supply, farming practices, medical practices, etc.

All of these things were improving around the same time vaccines were being developed and used large scale on the populace, so it's very hard to say what played the bigger part in the eradication of the prevalence of these kind of diseases. Not to mention more was being taught about nutrition and prenatal and infant care along about then, so children were more able to develop antibodies against disease...those that were immuno depressed for some reason couldn't develop antibodies, even with the vaccines.

My education about medical history is just fine and my children had the proper vaccines, though if I knew then what I know now I might have limited those to the very basic, basic vaccines and they wouldn't have been repeated in a series.

No need to beat a dead horse here as we are slightly off topic, so we'll have to agree to disagree and roll on down the road.

 

[seedcorn]

I was wrong on shingles and mumps interaction. Would have been polite to correct me as its chicken pox and shingles. Point remains "innocent" childhood diseases aren't innocent and vaccines have curtailed serious diseases. My family has been affected and it was not because we or those we associated with weren't hygienic.

When it's bed time, I should have went to bed.

 

[digitS']

Perhaps we can discuss personal experiences.

I also grew up in the '50's. I had both forms of measles. My parents said that I had "normal" hearing before the first time, when I was 6. When I was about 10 or 11, I was sick with the second.

My wife had an episode of shingles about 5 years ago. There seemed to be no help from oral painkillers and she had several weeks with a lot of discomfort - head, shoulders, and chest.

I have a friend who I came to know in my mid-twenties. We had lived in neighboring small communities as children. His family was stricken with polio. I still remember the local news and conversations. They lived in town near the public swimming pool.

In a household which included 4 young children, the father died. The mother walked with braces until she was in her 50's, then she had to use a wheelchair. She didn't live to see her 60th birthday. I was a friend by then and attended her funeral.

The oldest son is still around. He recovered from polio but hunched shoulders characterise his posture. My friend was the second child. He and the two younger did not fall ill but they grew up without a father and with a polio-crippled mother.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

@digitS' If only they would have washed their hands, all could have been avoided.....

Can I assume, measles cost you some hearing loss?

As for me, didn't realize the seriousness of shingles until friends/family hit with it.

As far as raw milk, my g'parents used it but processed it into butter/cheese immediately or into milk can to sell. Love raw, whole milk to drink once chilled.

 

[bobm]

In th '50's in my 4 year High School in central Cal. with a total population of less than 400 students ... in the days before polio vaccines became available, our Sophamore class of 96, there were 4 kids with polio, freshman class had 4, Junior class had 5, Senior class had 7. How many kids have polio now ? In my extended family, there are 2 MD's, 4 nurses, 5 pharmasists, 1 Veterinarian, 5 lawyers, 3 priests, 5 nuns, 5 business owners, 5 University technicians. They ALL support vaccinating kids . Both my father and mother were one of 10 kids born into their families ... only 3 survived to adulthood in each. In my family there are 4 kids born ... all of us grew up and had kids of our own withou any deaths. What is the survival rates today ?

 

[digitS']

I don't know about the hearing loss, Seed'.

At 7, I had rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. At 18, xrays showed joint "erosion." I was finally diagnosed with RA, 10 years later. RA "flair-ups" faded away 10 years after that but I was a wreck by then.

Hearing loss was progressive. Couldn't hear the doctor's wrist watch as a kid. Couldn't pass the hearing test in high school. Began wearing hearing aids in my 30's. Severe loss category in the 40's.

Like members of your family, there was a level of health before illnesses and a change after. My friend's mom died of congestive heart failure but that followed her years of life in a wheelchair.

Steve

 

[baymule]

My mother had polio. She was blessed to only have a weakened, shaky left arm. My husband's two older brothers had polio and both died before age 54. One was a bed ridden invalid.

I can rember standing in a long line as a very small child for polio vaccine. I was given a pink sugar cube.

 

[seedcorn]

I was never so happy as when we got sugar cubes instead of shots-they HURT....

 

[Ridgerunner]

The only person crippled that I knew was from polio was my father's first cousin on his mother's side, a big man named Jim Bob who walked with crutches. He still got his farm work done.

There were a few other crippled people around but I don't know if that was from polio.