StemCell Therapy

I'm hesitant to give my child the measles vaccine, because I'm worried about long-lasting side effects. Is it dangerous? Sally G., Jacksonville, Florida

As we've said before, it's smart to get your child the vaccine as early as your pediatrician recommends. The risk of getting vaccinated is greatly outweighed by the benefit of avoiding the measles. For vaccinations overall, the ratio of risk to benefit is one to 40,000. Worldwide, the measles kills over 100,000 children annually. In the U.S., since Jan. 1, there have been 880 cases of the disease, which was declared eradicated here in 2000! The real news, however, is that the re-emergence of measles poses a greater risk than we knew.

Harvard researchers have found that measles causes immune amnesia. It wipes out 20% to 50% of your body's antibodies, which are protecting you from a slew of diseases caused by other viruses and bacteria. That may be why bacterial ear infections and pneumonia are common complications after getting the measles. Long-term effects may be even more serious. And that's another good reason to get your child vaccinated as early as recommended.

So why are so many American parents hesitant? Researchers at Brigham Young University thought it may be because folks don't have firsthand experience with the devastating effects of those illnesses. To test the theory, they sent 250 students out to interview locals who had come down with vaccine-preventable diseases, such as polio, shingles and tuberculosis. Some of those students referred to themselves as "vaccine hesitant," but around 70% became pro-vaccine after learning how life-damaging the diseases were.

Bottom line: Don't make yourself go through firsthand tragedy before you realize how smart it is to get vaccinated! Kids should get the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine at 1 year old and again between 28 days later and 6 years old. You can also opt for two doses of the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella/chickenpox) vaccine; it's approved for children 12 months through 12 years old.

Last week I thought I heard someone at the door, but when I checked there was no one there. Am I losing my mind, or should I get my hearing checked? Sam B., Portland, Oregon

If you have ringing in your ears, doorbells or otherwise, you might want to get checked out by an audiologist. It could be a sign of hearing loss. But if it's just a one-time event, it's probably nothing.

Sensory hallucinations what that was are pretty common, and there are many forms. You can hear, see, smell, taste or feel something that isn't there. While they can be associated with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, they are also related to certain medications, drug abuse, medical conditions like Parkinson's and perhaps sleep deprivation, stress and anxiety.

They can also result from what Georgetown University neuroscientists say is a bottleneck of feed-forward and feedback signals. It's what can occur when the brain is asked to process more information than it can handle. These days, there is more information out there at your fingertips (coming in and going out) than at any time in human history.

In addition, researchers at Stanford University recently discovered how easy it is to provoke hallucinations. In the lab, they altered the neural activity of mice (those rodents have millions of neurons in their brains; humans have billions) by disrupting about 20 individual neurons using light and sound. When they did so, the mice showed signs of believing something was there when it wasn't. This prompted one researcher to ponder, "Why are we not hallucinating all the time, due to spurious random activity?"

Now, that's not to diminish the seriousness of recurrent hallucinatory episodes that interfere with your everyday quality of life. If that's the case, you should keep a journal of when and where they happen and discuss the incidents with your doctor so he/she can pinpoint the cause.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of "The Dr. Oz Show," and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Email your health and wellness questions to Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen at youdocsdaily@sharecare.com.

Excerpt from:
Oz & Roizen: Measles wipes out parts of the immune system - Bluffton Today

This entry was posted on December 17, 2019 at 8:41 am and is filed under Immune System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |