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Recently, I have had patients seek me out for wound care.  When they ask me if I can help them, I’m sure I get a dumbfounded look on my face – I am, after all, a neuromusculoskeletal doctor – before I answer “sure” and reach DEEP into my memories for how to address wounds.  I remembered some things and have had to relearn others.  And…, the patient numbers are increasing, and the results are amazing…

My first case has been a patient for years.  He is a super guy and we have the best chats when he comes in for a treatment.  One afternoon he asked me if I could look at a wound on his leg that was not healing.  He had cut it eight weeks earlier, went to the ER, had stitches, and the stitches had broken open before they were ready to be removed.  The doctor told him to let it heal on its own, but seven more weeks and two rounds of antibiotics later, the wound was still open and red enough around its edges that I feared infection was right around the corner. I decided that I would try ozone on the wound and see what happened.  After a 20 minute application, the wound was pink around the edges and looked dramatically different.  I sent him home with ozonated oil to apply to the wound and asked him to come back in a week.  One week later, the wound was pink, filled in with granulation tissue (part of the healing) and looked great.  One week after that it was all healed up and looked fabulous.  I was amazed.

My second case was a young boy who had a puncture wound on his leg.  It had happened a few days prior to his visit and his mom asked me if I could do anything to help. Luckily, my patient described above had come in just the week before…. I tried ozone with a new delivery system and oil on this boys wound as well.  His wound healed in a week.  I began to gain a bit of confidence.  Perhaps the first patient was not a random miracle.

My third case involved a woman with a plethora of medical conditions.  Heart disease, kidney problems, high blood pressure, pain in her legs…she had a good deal of stuff to work on.  Her most pressing concern, because it woke her up at night, was a wound on her leg that had been present for two months and was not healing.  Ozone and ozonated oil to the rescue again.  Her wound is on the mend and now we can tackle her other medical issues.

Three wound cases, three successes.  Although, I don’t feel super skilled at treating wounds, I am looking forward to brushing up more on my wound care skills and helping out more patients.  It is nice to see their faces when their skin mends and they can return to their normal lives.

I have had more than a few patients come in recently with heel pain/discomfort.  I have had my own journey with heel pain.  Twenty plus years ago I was standing on a ladder when it slipped on the concrete floor it was on and I went down with it.  My feet were almost ten feet off the floor and I stayed with the rung and landed standing straight up.  Ouch!  It knocked the wind out of me, but I was young and did not break anything (that I knew of).  I shook it off.  I thought I was OK with no issues.  I did not got to the doctor (and did not even know that osteopaths existed).  By the time I started osteoapthic school, my feet, but especially my right one, were NOT right.  They could lock up and bring me to my knees.  I could treat them and find relief in a few seconds, but it would not stay gone. My walking would have issues sometimes.  So, to sort myself out, I have had to learn the feet well.  That way I can talk to my colleagues and instruct them on how to treat my feet.

In keeping it simple, the foot has three main parts.  The forefoot (where the toes are), the mid foot (where the arch is) and the hind foot (where the heel is).  The mid and hind foot are supposed to MOVE in relation to one another.  This is one of the mechanisms that allows you to adapt to uneven ground.  There are a multitude of ligaments here (like rubber bands) that allow movement while maintaining stability.  When trauma occurs (no matter where) the effected ligaments tighten.  If that trauma is in the foot, the ligaments that surround the heel can tighten and restrict the motion of the heel area.

This is fairly easy to treat if you understand the anatomy. Unfortunately, most don’t.  If the trauma was simple (like using your heel to dig in the dirt), then a simple release of the ligaments should return you to normal and require no follow up.  If the trauma was severe (like falling off a ladder) then the ligaments likely received some damage and simple release is not enough.  They need to be addressed with either surgery by a competent physician or podiatrist OR they need prolotherapy (the route I chose).  After a few injections, my heel was on the mend and feeling much better.

Now when one of my patients comes in and gives a similar story to mine, I am much better prepared to help them due to my journey.

I know I did not cover plantar fasciitis or heel spurs here, but that was part of the learning journey as well. So, yes, I know about them and can successfully treat them as well.

There is a fair amount of controversy surrounding vitamin D. Experts can’t seem to agree on what form and the dosage of vitamin D that we need per day as humans. I’m going to give you my recommendations, based on the reading that I’ve done, and the experience I’ve had with my patients and myself.

Vitamin D is measured in something called international units or I.U.’s. This is a different standard of measure than traditional milligrams or grams. When we get a vitamin D level from the laboratory, the numbers come back with a range from 0 to 100. Medically speaking, if you have a level that is below 30, you have a condition called hypovitaminosis D. This simply means you have low vitamin D. In the standard medical world anything that is 30 or above puts you in the “normal” range. However, that does not mean you are optimal. The optimal range is 70 or above. It is at the 70 or above level that you really start to feel the benefits of optimal vitamin D.

In many respects vitamin D is not a true vitamin, it functions more like an enzyme. When your levels are optimal, vitamin D can function like a pain reliever. It can also enhance the immune system. It prevents 20 or more different types of cancers when optimal. It can help heal the gut lining for patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or other gastrointestinal diseases. It also regulates calcium and phosphorus in the body. This is important for bone health and the prevention of osteoporosis and osteopenia.

Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency can include: rheumatic pains, muscle weakness, gradual hearing loss, and fracture risk in adults. In children it can show up as knock knees, bowed legs, spinal curvature, pigeon breast, skull disfigurement, tooth decay and other dental problems. Significant deficiencies can show up as rickets, osteomalacia, or osteoporosis. Thus, this vitamin is important! Vitamin D exists in two forms: vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol and vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol.  Of these two forms, vitamin D3 is the one we need the most. It is the most active in the body.

As a supplement vitamin D3 comes in a liquid and a powder. The liquids come in two forms, a dropper form and a capsule form. The liquid capsule form is usually based on soybean oil, and should be avoided because of the estrogen mimicking effects of soybeans (it is bad for both men and women). That leaves the dropper form, which is wonderful for children or adults who can’t swallow capsules and the powdered form which comes in capsules and tablets (some of which are dissolvable in the mouth).

When I was first learning about vitamin D, I had some patients who tested it on themselves. They traveled frequently, and often had aches and pains when dragging their luggage through the airport. They decided to take an increased dose of vitamin D before travel, and lo and behold, they had absolutely no pains when moving their luggage through the airport on that trip. As a result I did more reading and learned that what we got taught in medical school about the recommended daily dose of vitamin D was significantly low. We learned that 400 international units should be enough to keep someone healthy. This is incorrect. 400 international units will keep the average person from showing the signs and symptoms of rickets. Their lab tested vitamin D level will come low though.

There is talk now about doubling the recommendation to 800 international units per day. This is still significantly low. Some people take 1000 to 2000 international units per day. However, on a sunny day, when you go out into the sun with exposed skin, your body may make up to 50,000 international units before it decides it’s had enough for one day. When our vitamin D levels are low, we typically get depressed. Medicine has a name for this, seasonal affective disorder. Many of us have a treatment for this; it’s called winter vacation to someplace sunny. We travel someplace during the winter that has lots of sun like Arizona or Florida, expose our skin to the sun, increase our vitamin D levels, and return with much less depression. While I am not suggesting that you change your vacation plans, many of the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder can be alleviated with adequate amounts of vitamin D.

Here are my recommendations for daily doses:

For healthy individuals, 5000 international units per day should be sufficient to bring your levels up into the 70s after taking them for 2 to 3 months.

For moderately unhealthy individuals, people that work indoors, or people who get little exercise, 10,000 international units per day should be sufficient.

For people with osteopenia or osteoporosis, 25,000 international units per day with the addition of vitamin K in the form of MK7 is my recommendation. These patients should have their blood levels monitored, and so I don’t recommend undertaking this dose without the care of the physician.

For very unhealthy individuals, I usually start these people out on 50,000 international unit’s per day for two or more weeks to build their levels up quickly. Again, I don’t recommend doing this on your own without the care of a physician.

For people who have acute illnesses, which can include the flu or viral illnesses, you can safely take 2000 international unit’s per kilogram of your body weight per day for three days. This has the effect of supercharging your immune system.

The current recommendation for children is four hundred international unit’s per day minimum. This is for children of any age group.

Those of you wishing to learn more about vitamin D, please feel free to make an appointment the office.

I read a very interesting article written by a podiatrist about feet.  In the article the author did research on indigenous peoples who do not wear shoes.  He found that 3% of those people had foot problems.  Then the same study was done on modern society.  He found that 78% of the people had foot problems.  I think of the 3% as equal in both populations – these are foot problems that are present from birth; club foot, flat feet, etc. If you subtract the indigenous 3% from the modern society number you have 75% of the population that has foot problems.  That is due to the only thing that differs in walking between you and me and an indigenous person – modern SHOES.

Shoes are made around a form called a last.  The last time that the (shoe) last was really re-engineered was over 150 years ago.  Thus, we are a bit out of date with our thinking.  Make no mistake; shoes are designed for fashion, not function.  Fashion sells shoes.  It amazes me how much pain and discomfort people will put up with to “look good”.

If you read the book “Born to Run” you will notice that the book strongly suggests that we did not really have problems with people running with shoes on until the 1970’s when the first running shoe came on the market.  Those shoes changed the way the foot strikes the ground and that lead to problems.  The design of running shoes still has not changed.  The problems still persist.

One thing your shoes should not do is be straight along the inner edge.  If you look at a babies feet, their big toe is a bit to the middle (medial) from their heel when the foot is straight (it looks a bit like an ape foot).  They can also move their big toe more like a monkey (they can move it toward the middle).  This is normal.  When you start wearing shoes, the muscle that allows this motion of the toe (called abduction) gets weak (atrophy).  After a time it simply can’t move the toe to the middle anymore – it does not have the strength.  This is due to the end of the shoe (the toe box) pushing the big toe against all of the other ones.  Over years the abductor muscle weakens and the adductor muscle (the one that moves the big toe toward the others) gets stronger (it has no opposition).  This pulls the end of the big toe toward the others and the joint (the ball of the foot or the metacarpal/phalangeal joint of the great toe) begins to move toward the middle – away from the other toes.  We call this a bunion.  Notice the cause of the bunion – SHOES.  Shoes that work with your feet (rather than against) will not try to make the inner edge of your foot straight, but will allow it to make the natural curve that nature intended.

Contrary to popular belief, the human foot (when it works correctly) is a self-supporting structure (as in it requires no outside help).  Thus, arch supports are not required when the foot mechanically works as it should – they are not a long term solution to foot pain.  My first recommendation is to get your feet treated by someone who is skilled at getting the bones, ligaments and muscles to work correctly, and then buy shoes that work WITH the foot, rather than against it.

My personal favorite for shoes is a company out of Pennsylvania called Flexible Footwear.  Their shoes are the most comfortable that I have ever owned and their customer service is amazing!

I am also a fan of barefoot shoes.

Maintaining zeta potential is one of the main keys to leading a long and healthy life.  Zeta potential refers to the ability of particles to stay suspended in solution.  Its main usage is in industry where manufacturers want things to stay in solution.  When the zeta potential falls, things precipitate (fall) out of solution. They form clumps.  If you want your pasta sauce to look mixed together in the jar, then the correct zeta potential is the science behind why….

Here is how it works in the body:

The simple definition of electrolytes is anything, that when placed in water, will separate into charged particles.  Your body is full of electrolytes – sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), chloride (Cl), bicarbonate (HCO3), etc.  Many of these are measurable with standard lab tests to some extent.  However, the tests don’t tell much about the environment these molecules exist in.

The lab tests can tell us about the numbers of particles, but not how they are interacting.  That is where zeta potential comes in.  In keeping the chemistry simple, all molecules want room to move.  That “space” is due to temperature, thickness of the solution they are suspended in, number of particles and the charge on the particles. It is the last two that I want to focus on.

Particle charge: particles are positively charged, negatively charged or neutral (when they are called a molecule).  In the body, the main liquid that moves things around is called blood plasma.  It is what the red blood cells move in.  If we look at blood plasma from an electrolyte standpoint, there are a specific amount of electrolytes (particles) that are supposed to be in solution.  These charged particles attract or move away from each other very much like traffic on a highway as they move through the body.

Red blood cells are commonly negatively charged.  Through small electrical forces this makes the red blood cells slightly push away from each other.  This allows blood to normally flow smoothly.  This is healthy blood.  If the charge on the blood cell changes from negative to slightly positive, the blood cells now want to be closer together.  They may even want to stick to each other.  What do we call that?  A change in Zeta Potential…or a clot.

If we just cut our finger on a piece of paper, then this is good thing.  If we are talking about the blood vessels that run into our brain, this is very bad – that is a stroke.  If it is our heart, that would be a heart attack.  So Zeta Potential is important.

If you are in the optimal range for Zeta Potential, your blood is able to move around well in the body.  Your pH (the acid or base level) is normal, you are hydrated, AND it is extremely unlikely that you WILL EVER develop heart or kidney disease.

If you have an excess of positive charges (the positive particle number goes up) in your body (which can come about from many things – like too much salt in your diet, heavy metal toxicity, drinking tap water, chronic dehydration, and WAY too many things to list here….) you predispose yourself to: cancer (from a drop in pH), blood clotting diseases (heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and many more), kidney and gall stones (from the precipitation of blood electrolytes).  If you notice, this is most of the chronic things that people die from.

If you have an excess of negative charges in your body (which can come from many things as well) you predispose yourself to diseases of fluid retention: congestive heart failure, peripheral edema, and nutrient deficiencies.  These are the rest of the chronic diseases.

Remember that Zeta Potential just describes how much the particles in your body (blood and other fluids) attract or repel each other.

There are some simple ways to test Zeta Potential:

You can measure it directly with a urine and saliva test from Solaris.

You can measure it indirectly by using a zeta potential meter on urine.  I have those meters at the office.

Grounding (also called earthing) is literally reconnecting your body with the ground (earth).  It is the basis of healing.  Here is how it works: 1) The earth is a universal electron donor.  What that means is that the earth provides negative charges (electrons) to any positively charged particle that needs them.

2) Oxidative stress is neutralized by grounding.  Pollution, poor nutrition, lack of adequate sleep and many other things can cause the body to oxidize molecules (develop a positive charge).  This can lead to tissue and DNA damage.  Grounding helps to neutralize this effect by providing electrons.

3) Some hormone imbalances can be corrected with grounding.  If your hormone imbalance is a result of stress, returning your body to a more relaxed, grounded state, can correct the hormone imbalance.

4) Disturbed sleep may be helped by grounding.  If you are having sleep problems, grounding can help to restore better sleep by lowering the levels of the hormone cortisol (which is responsible for your sleep/wake cycles).

5) The effects of aging can be helped by grounding.  Oxidative stress contributes to aging.  Grounding helps to correct oxidative stress and can help relieve the effects of aging, such as DNA damage, varicose veins, and spider veins.

6) If you work indoors all day, work or live above the ground floor, drive a car, don’t get outside much, or live in a stressful environment my strong suggestion is that you learn as much as you can about grounding/earthing and take measures to ground yourself.

Grounding can be as simple as walking barefoot in the grass.  It can be sleeping on the bare ground as well.  However, there are simpler ways to ground yourself in today’s modern world.  There are conductive fabrics that can be connected to the earth that will act as if your body is on the ground, even if you are in the comfort of your bed, at your computer or are in your favorite chair.  You can learn more about how grounding/earthing works by clicking here.  You can order the book “Earthing” or visit their product selection.  If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you can order the fabrics and materials to create your own grounding system here.  Or you can visit our office for pre-made earthing sheets and more information on earthing products.

I started medical school with newly prescribed bifocal glasses.  I got at least weekly headaches that were debilitating.  After starting school I found out from my mentor and teacher, Ed Stiles, that there was a way to get eyeglasses prescribed in a way that could reduce your prescription and at the same time help your headaches.  Dr. Stiles had gone from trifocals to bifocals and he was about 65 at the time.  His eyes were still improving.  He made a phone call on my behalf and I went to Hartford, CT and saw Steve Shifreen, MD, and got my first cranial eyeglass prescription.  I got enough relief from a single change in my prescription that I sought out training to learn how to do cranial eyeglass prescriptions to my patients.  I took my first course in 2005 and have been prescribing glasses for my patients since then.

First, let me say that I am not an ophthalmologist.  I do not perform traditional eye exams that check for cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, etc.  The services I provide are not a substitute for being seen by an optical professional.  For that reason I require that anyone that is working with me for eyeglasses to have had a full eye exam within the last two years prior to seeing me and that they continue seeing their optical professional during our time working together.  Working together in this way we can be assured that you do not have a condition with your eyes that requires the medical attention of an ophthalmologist or other specialist.

If you have received an eyeglass prescription from your optical professional please bring that with you to your first appointment.  Although I can do a full refraction (eyeglass exam) in my office, bringing your prescription saves time.

A simplistic way of describing what we will be doing is using your body’s muscles as an indicator for when your eyes are staining to be able to see.  We will use lenses and eyeglasses to work together to minimize or completely remove this muscular tension.  That way when you open your eyes your body does not have to “work” to see.  It just comes naturally.  The reality of what we will be doing is much more complex and involves physics, optics, the properties of metals and plastics and how they all interact with the body.  I would be happy to discuss those things in person when you come in.  It fascinates me.

Because this approach is scientifically based, is precise, and is fairly technical, I require a few things from your glasses and lenses that most optical professional do not.  My prescriptions are precise (to the nearest 1/8th diopter) and I require that the optical lab that grinds your lenses meet that precision.  This is usually not hard to accomplish, but can take an extra day or so to get your glasses.  Also, because we are going to be fitting the glasses very precisely to your head, I require eyeglass frames that allow the adjustments that need to be made and that will hold them in place.  In general, these are either full or semi-rimless metal frames.  No memory metal (because I have to heat it to bend it and that discolors the frames), no plastic frames (again because heating is required and the frames may distort), no rimless frames (because they are not designed to be precisely adjusted and the lens will likely crack during the adjustment) and no frames with wide temple arm hinges (they cannot easily be bent).  I will talk with you more during your visit on how to select the correct frames.  I also have a limited selection of frames in the office for you to choose from or to use as a sizing guide for your eyeglass selection.

We will also talk about lens selection and the pros and cons of each lens material.  For the most part we will be using plastic lenses that are fairly standard.  They are the least expensive type and distort the visual spectrum the least.  If you require bi- or tri- focal lenses we will discuss the types of lenses available and what they can do to your vision – again both pros and cons.  We can also talk about tinting and sunglass options if required.  Polarized lenses (like the ones you get when you choose non-prescription sunglasses) cause big problems with the head and are not recommended for sensitive folks (and we are all sensitive to these).  3D glasses can also cause problems.  If you need to use these for entertainment, we can talk about better choices among what is available.

After you get your glasses made, I adjust the frames to fit you as perfectly as I can.  Once we get your glasses adjusted to your head, the glasses themselves become a treatment.  You will get instruction in how to care for them.  Each time you open your eyes with your glasses on your body begins to treat itself.  This is a powerful process and can shift longstanding tension patterns in the body.  Most of the time this tension pattern shift will change your eyeglass prescription.  For some people this change can happen in a relatively short time (say two to three weeks after getting your glasses) and for some it can take longer (a year or more).  There is no set time period, but each change usually means an adjustment to your frames and/or a new prescription for lenses.  Since changing your lenses a few times a year can be costly, we will work together to find the most cost effective ways to make this happen.

Just to be clear, this treatment requires that you actually WEAR the prescription that is given to you.  We will work together to optimize your comfort level with the prescription you will be wearing.  The goal of this type of treatment is to remove “visual somatic strain” (that is the tension the can happen in the head and the body during the process of seeing).   It has helped me reduce my headaches (the ones that were caused by glasses by well over 95%).  I may now have one per year as opposed to one or more per week.  My own journey has helped to benefit many of my patients since then.  As I teach this method to other physicians, I continue to gain more knowledge to improve my methods.

If you are interested in exploring this process to help your eyes, symptoms or body, please ask me or my staff.  The office number is 317-228-9270.

Water is essential for life.  Unfortunately for the earth and her inhabitants (us), truly clean water is going the way of the dodo bird.  After reading numerous articles and doing experiments on water quality, here is what I recommend:

1) Avoid bottled water.  The regulations are spotty about how bottled water is handled.  It can contain MANY chemicals that regular tap water is not allowed to have.  The plastic containers it is housed in give off chemicals as well.  Save the earth, your body, and the landfills by steering clear of bottled water.  Use one of the other sources of water below and store it in stainless steel, glass or BPA free plastic containers.  Don’t heat water in plastic!

2) Tap water is OK, but not optimal.  Tap water is an improvement over bottled water.  It is much more strongly regulated.  There are limits to many harmful chemicals that it can contain.  It is tested multiple times per day.  That being said, it is not pure.  I still recommend at a minimum a charcoal filter (like a Britta) to remove tastes and odors (which come from chemicals).  An even better choice is a sinktop filter that removes fluoride, chlorine, etc.

3) Reverse Osmosis water is still a better choice.  This water has been run through a membrane that gives out WATER (as in just H2O).  It tastes like water (humans are one of the few animals that actually don’t “taste” water. We taste the impurities).  The drawbacks are that it uses much more water than it gives out to drive the RO membrane and it takes out the minerals that we need with our water.  These minerals can be replaced by adding sea salt or potassium salts to the water after it comes out of the filter.

4) Distilled Water should be used ONLY for a short time.  It contains NO minerals, and thus none of the “life” that we need from water.  If you are drinking distilled water, then do so for no more than two weeks and do it for a specific reason (like detoxification).  It will also pull in carbon dioxide from the air if left open.  That is why some distilled water takes like the plastic jug it comes in.  This makes the water acid.  If the water you use tastes like anything but water, use a different source.

5) Alkaline water is great, but has drawbacks.  To get the water alkaline, it is run through an electrical gradient.  To achieve alkalinity, particles must be moved across that gradient.  Particles from tap water….  Alkaline water still has the chlorine, fluoride, etc. in it due to the nature of the process to make it alkaline.  That does not mean it is bad, just that you should have a good source of water before connecting the alkalinizer.

This simple formula for water consumption is to take your body weight in pounds and divide that number by two.  The is the number of ounces of water you should take in daily.  That amount can come from soups, broths, or plain water.  Coffee, tea, soda pop (Coke, Pepsi, etc.) and alcohol are all diuretics – they remove more water from your body than they give you.  If you are going to consume these beverages, then here is the guideline: for every cup of coffee (tea, etc.), ADD one cup of water to your total for the day.  When adopting this guideline, start slowly and build up gradually to allow your body to adapt.

For more information about potassium salts to add to your water to help with detoxifying water soluble toxins, please call the office.  These require a visit to a pharmacy that compounds them and that requires a prescription.

Please call the office for more details.  The number is 317-228-9270.

This is copied from Dr. Mercola’s website.  I include it here because it is well written and explains many aspects of vaccination that are vitally important.  If your children or any of your loved ones have any of the symptoms of an adverse vaccine reaction please seek the help and guidance of an experienced osteopath and health care team…and don’t give up.  Even things that are many years old can be changed with proper treatment.

If You Vaccinate, Ask 8!

What You Need to Know Before & After Vaccination

Under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, over $2 billion has been awarded to children and adults for whom the risks of vaccine injury were 100%.  Vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry risks, which can be greater for some than others. NVIC encourages you to become fully informed about the risks and complications of diseases and vaccines and speak with one or more trusted health care professionals before making a vaccination decision.

1. Am I or my child sick right now?
2. Have I or my child had a bad reaction to a vaccination before?
3. Do I or my child have a personal or family history of vaccine reactions, neurological disorders, severe allergies or immune system problems?
4. Do I know the disease and vaccine risks for myself or my child?
5. Do I have full information about the vaccine’s side effects?
6. Do I know how to identify and report a vaccine reaction?
7. Do I know I need to keep a written record, including the vaccine manufacturer’s name and lot number, for all vaccinations?
8. Do I know I have the right to make an informed choice?

If you answered yes to questions 1, 2, and 3, or no to questions 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and do not understand the significance of your answer, you may want to review information on NVIC’s website with links to other websites and resources so you can better answer these questions designed to educate consumers about the importance of making fully informed vaccine decisions.  Click here to learn more about the role of informed consent in vaccination. 

NVIC also publishes a free online NVIC Vaccine eNewsletter to keep consumers informed of the latest information about vaccines and infectious diseases and offers tools like NVIC’s Advocacy Portal that helps consumers protect vaccine choice in their state and the Vaccine Ingredient Calculator to assist consumers in becoming knowledgeable about vaccines, existing safe standards for toxins found in vaccines and a printable vaccination plan to facilitate parent-health provider dialogue.  Be sure to visit our Diseases and Vaccines webpage, which provides information on risks and benefits associated with vaccines.

If you choose to vaccinate, always keep a written record of exactly which shots/vaccines you or your child have received, including the manufacturer’s name and vaccine lot number. Write down and describe in detail any serious health problems that develop after vaccination and keep vaccination records in a file you can access easily.

It is important to be able to recognize an adverse reaction and seek appropriate medical attention, as well as reporting a vaccine adverse event with federal health officials at the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), who monitor vaccines after they have been licensed. Information provided to VAERS, may also help identify high risk factors that make some individuals more vulnerable to suffering vaccine reactions.  To learn more about injury compensation and filing an injury claim, click here.

If you or your child experiences any of the symptoms listed below in the hours, days or weeks following vaccination, it should be reported to VAERS.  Some vaccine reaction symptoms include:

• Pronounced swelling, redness, heat or hardness at the site of the injection;
• Body rash or hives;
• Shock/collapse;
• High pitched screaming or persistent crying for hours;
• Extreme sleepiness or long periods of unresponsiveness;
• High fever (over 103 F)
• Twitching or jerking of the body, arm, leg or head;
• Crossing of eyes;
• Weakness or paralysis of any part of the body;
• Loss of eye contact or awareness or social withdrawal;
• Loss of ability to roll over, sit up or stand up;
• Vision or hearing loss;
• Restlessness, hyperactivity or inability to concentrate;
• Sleep disturbances that change wake/sleep pattern;
• Head banging or onset of repetitive movements (flapping, rubbing, rocking, spinning);
• Joint pain;
• Muscle weakness;
• Disabling fatigue;
• Loss of memory;
• Onset of chronic ear or respiratory infections;
• Violent or persistent diarrhea or chronic constipation;
• Breathing problems (asthma);
• Excessive bleeding (thrombocytopenia) or anemia.

There are other symptoms, which may indicate that you or your child has suffered a vaccine reaction. Not all symptoms that occur following vaccination are caused by the vaccine(s) recently received, but it cannot be automatically concluded that symptoms which do occur are NOT related to the vaccine. Therefore, it is important for your doctor to write down all serious health problems that occur after vaccination in the permanent medical record and to report ALL serious symptoms or dramatic change in physical, mental or emotional behavior that does occur following vaccination to VAERS.  It is also important that re-vaccination does not continue until it has been determined that the serious health problem which developed after vaccination was not causally related to the vaccination(s). Continued vaccination in the presence of serious health deterioration could lead to vaccine injury or death.

Although it has been the law since 1986 for doctors and other vaccine providers to report hospitalizations, injuries, deaths and serious health problems following vaccination to VAERS, it is estimated that less than 10 percent, perhaps less than one percent of all vaccine-related health problems are ever reported. If your doctor will not report a serious health problem that you or child experienced after vaccination to VAERS, you have the right to make the vaccine adverse event report to VAERS yourself.

Since its’ founding in 1982, the National Vaccine Information Center has operated a Vaccine Reaction Registry which has served as a watchdog on the VAERS system. We encourage you to also report any suspected vaccine reaction you or your child has experienced to NVIC’s Vaccine Reaction Registry.