One doctor’s surprising answer to the epidemic of autoimmunity and chronic disease.

Over the past 50 years, rates of autoimmunity and chronic disease have exploded: Currently, one in two-and-a-half American children has an allergy; one in 11 has asthma; one in 13 has severe food allergies; and one in 36 has autism. While some attribute this rise to increased awareness and diagnosis, Thomas Cowan, MD, argues for a direct causal relationship to a corresponding increase in the number of vaccines American children typically receive - approximately 70 vaccine doses by age 18. The goal of these vaccines is precisely what we’re now seeing in such abundance among our chronically ill children: the provocation of immune response.

Dr. Cowan looks at emerging evidence that certain childhood illnesses are actually protective of disease later in life; examines the role of fever, the gut, and cellular fluid in immune health; argues that vaccination is an ineffective (and harmful) attempt to shortcut a complex immune response; and asserts that the medical establishment has engaged in an authoritarian argument that robs parents of informed consent. His ultimate question, from the point of view of a doctor who has decades of experience treating countless children, is what we are really doing to children when we vaccinate them.