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The Truth About Vaccines
Plus: did you ever believe these skin health myths?
The 10almonds Team
June 16, 2023
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Quote of the Day: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Vaccines are a necessary part of life, and/but contain many alarming ingredients
See today’s main feature for resources to learn about these!
Our immune systems are great—and just need a little help in a very specific way
Herd immunity is great—but isn’t what many people think it is
Cooking at home gives great health benefits—we know exactly what we’re eating and how it was prepared!
If you’d like that but don’t have time for meal prep, you can save time on both meal prep and shopping by taking advantage of 50% off today’s sponsor, Trifecta Nutrition, who will deliver ready-prepped nutrition-optimized meals (the plans are customizable!) to your door.
Exposure to dioxins can negatively impact thyroid function
“Night owls” tend to live shorter lives on average… But it’s not the late nights that increase mortality risk
(It’s the alcohol and smoking that, statistically speaking, often go with such)
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
5 skin health myths to stop believing now | Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter
Your skin is your body's largest organ... but it might be the most misunderstood:
The myths:
💉 MAIN FEATURE
The Truth About Vaccines
Yesterday we asked your views on vaccines, and we got an interesting spread of answers. Of those who responded to the poll, most were in favour of vaccines. We got quite a lot of comments this time too; we can’t feature them all, but we’ll include extracts from a few in our article today, as they raised interesting points!
Vaccines contain dangerous ingredients that will harm us more than the disease would: True or False?
False, contextually.
Many people are very understandably wary of things they know full well to be toxic, being injected into them.
One subscriber who voted for “Vaccines are poison, and/or are some manner of conspiracy 😡” wrote:
❝I think vaccines from 50–60 years ago are true vaccines and were safer than vaccines today. I have not had a vaccine for many, many years, and I never plan to have any kind of vaccine/shot again.❞
They didn’t say why they personally felt this way, but the notion that “things were simpler back in the day” is a common (and often correct!) observation regards health, especially when it comes to unwanted additives and ultraprocessing of food.
Things like aluminum or mercury in vaccines are much like sodium and chlorine in table salt. Sodium and chlorine are indeed both toxic to us. But in the form of sodium chloride, it’s a normal part of our diet, provided we don’t overdo it.
Additionally, the amount of unwanted metals (e.g. aluminum, mercury) in vaccines is orders of magnitude smaller than the amount in dietary sources—even if you’re a baby and your “dietary sources” are breast milk and/or formula milk.
In the case of formaldehyde (an inactivating agent), it’s also the dose that makes the poison (and the quantity in vaccines is truly miniscule).
This academic paper alone cites more sources than we could here without making today’s newsletter longer than it already is:
I have a perfectly good immune system, it can handle the disease: True or False?
True! Contingently.
In fact, our immune system is so good at defending against disease, that the best thing we can do to protect ourselves is show our immune system a dead or deactivated version of a pathogen, so that when the real pathogen comes along, our immune system knows exactly what it is and what to do about it.
In other words, a vaccine.
One subscriber who voted for “Vaccines are important but in some cases the side effects can be worse 🤔” wrote:
❝In some ways I’m vacd out. I got COVid a few months ago and had no symptoms except a cough. I have asthma and it didn’t trigger a lot of congestion. No issues. I am fully vaccinated but not sure I’ll get one in fall.❞
We’re glad this subscriber didn’t get too ill! A testimony to their robust immune system doing what it’s supposed to, after being shown a recent-ish edition of the pathogen, in deactivated form.
It’s very reasonable to start wondering: “surely I’m vaccinated enough by now”
And, hopefully, you are! But, as any given pathogen mutates over time, we eventually need to show our immune system what the new version looks like, or else it won’t recognize it.
So why don’t we need booster shots for everything? Often, it’s because a pathogen has stopped mutating at any meaningful rate. Polio is an example of this—no booster is needed for most people in most places.
Others, like flu, require annual boosters to keep up with the pathogens.
Herd immunity will keep us safe: True or False?
True! Ish.
But it doesn’t mean what a lot of people think it means. For example, in the UK, “herd immunity” was the strategy promoted by Prime Minister of the hour, Boris Johnson. But he misunderstood what it meant:
What he thought it meant: everyone gets the disease, then everyone who doesn’t die is now immune
What it actually means: if most people are immune to the disease (for example: due to having been vaccinated), it can’t easily get to the people who aren’t immune
One subscriber who voted for “Vaccines are critical for our health; vax to the max! 💪” wrote:
❝I had a chiropractor a few years ago, who explained to me that if the general public took vaccines, then she would not have to vaccinate her children and take a risk of having side effects❞
Obviously, we can’t speak for this subscriber’s chiropractor’s children, but this raises a good example: some people can’t safely have a given vaccine, due to underlying medical conditions—or perhaps it is not available to them, for example if they are under a certain age.
In such cases, herd immunity—other people around having been vaccinated and thus not passing on the disease—is what will keep them safe.
Here’s a useful guide from the US Dept of Health and Human Services:
And, for those who are more visually inclined, here’s a graphical representation of a mathematical model of how herd immunity works (you can run a simulation)!
Stay safe!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Trifecta: Unwind, Recharge, and Reach Your Goals
We’ve written before about how cooking our own food at home means plenty of health benefits. Knowing all the ingredients and the process, we can be assured that what we’re eating is healthy. But what if we don’t have the time or inclination for a mountain of kitchen prep each day?
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It’s often said that the best way to “buy happiness” is with purchases that save us time—because what’s more precious than that?
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Please do check out our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
🌍 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Food and Nutrition: What Everyone Needs to Know - by Dr. P.K. Newby
The "What Everyone Needs To Know" part of the title is the name of a series of books, of which this one, "Food and Nutrition", is one.
In this case, the title is apt, and/or could have been "What Everyone Really Should Know", or "What Everyone Would Like To Think They Know But Have Often Just Been Bluffing Their Way Through The Supermarket Aisles".
The chapter and section headings are all in the forms of questions, such that all-together in such volume in the table of contents, they're reminiscent of the "Jonathan Frakes Asks You Things" meme.
But, this serves a dual purpose—for one, it makes the whole book one big FAQ, which is a very convenient format. Furthermore, it prompts a little thought on the part of the reader before each section, if we indeed question for ourselves:
Are fertilizers in farming friend or foe?
How have the Digital Revolution and Information Age impacted our diet?
Are canned and frozen foods inferior to fresh?
Does snacking or meal timing matter?
What are cereal grains and "pseudograins"?
...And so many more. But what's best about this is:
Dr. Newby doesn't reference her own preferences, or even have a particular way of eating she'd like us to adopt. She just lays out the science to answer each question, as discovered by high-quality studies and a general weight of evidence.
Bottom line: this book can level-up your nutritional knowledge from bluffing to really knowing! A worthy addition to anyone's bookshelf.
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
May today see you well-prepared for the coming weekend,
The 10almonds Team