Evidence of MMR vaccine safety grows
Last December, when nine NHL players from the New York Rangers, the Anaheim Ducks and the Minnesota Wild all came down with the mumps, teams gave all players who wanted them booster shots of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.
Since a mumps vaccine became available in 1967, incidents in the United States have plummeted from around 186,000 cases annually to less than 1,000 in 2014. But mini-epidemics do pop up in places where people who are unvaccinated or who have lowered immunity (because of age or medical conditions) live in close contact. That lack of vaccination and subsequent outbreaks occur mostly as a result of the unwarranted suspicion that the MMR vaccine is unsafe and somehow linked to autism spectrum disorder.
Now, yet another study, this one looking at almost 100,000 children, has found that there is no link between vaccinations and developing ASD, even if a child is considered at high risk because he or she has a sibling diagnosed with ASD.
In fact, the study found less incidence of autism among vaccinated kids!
In the group of high-risk 5-year-olds, ASD developed in 23 of 269 who weren’t vaccinated (8.6 percent), compared with 30 of 796 (3.8 percent) who had gotten two doses of the MMR vaccine.
Many other studies have found no correlation between autism and vaccinations. We hope researchers will focus on more troubling potential causes of autism, such as hormone disruptors in plastics, environmental pollutants such as pesticides and smog, and genetics. DON’T GET KIDS DRUNK ON SUGAR
When SpongeBob SquarePants gets drunk on ice cream in his self-titled movie, he rants, reels and steps in it! Seems a sugar buzz can put even a high-strung animated character on a Rocky Road. Well, now researchers are declaring that cartoon story is not so make-believe.
“Sugar is the alcohol of childhood!” says a panel of doctors, professors, researchers and nutritionists who founded Action on Sugar. Their declaration of war on companies that target youngsters with obesityinducing, sugar-rich foods — and their plea to adults to avoid them, too — builds on the info in a 2012 paper in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that revealed that added fructose (corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and a zillion other products) when consumed in excess is “a chronic, dose-dependent liver toxin” that damages the liver just like alcohol does! And on top of that, it’s metabolized directly into fat, not energy!
All added sugars, and syrups are Food Felons and a healthy life depends on avoiding them. Now there’s one more reason to protect your kids and yourself.
So, start with this: Check ingredients listings for added sugars, such as sucrose, glucose, syrup, dextrose, fructose, corn syrup or HFCS. Refuse to buy anything that has more than 4 grams per serving of those ingredients. You can enjoy natural sweetness from fresh fruit, 100 percent whole grains and big-flavor herbs like basil, mint and lavender. Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare.com.