Post Vaccine Syndromes and Knotty Diseases

Post vaccine syndromes present unique challenges for our healthcare system because they are often misdiagnosed and always difficult-to-treat due to the nature of internal disease processes. TCM embodies a conceptual framework and treatment protocols for correcting immune regulation problems consistent with post-vaccine syndromes.

The inflammatory response is an important feature of the immune reaction to pathogenic evil invasion. Inflammation often leads to phlegm nodulation in affected tissues and nearby lymph nodes and blood vessels. With chronic inflammation, deep-lying phlegm evolves into difficult-to-treat knotty diseases. 

The blood, qi and lymph travel together through the channels circulating throughout the body. In TCM, the Zheng Qi (righteous qi) is the ability of the body to resist disease. Zheng Qi is located both inside and outside the blood vessels; thus, it is critically and divinely placed to circulate throughout the body with the vascular system to protect the blood and internal body from pathogenic evil. The struggle between Zheng Qi (resist disease) and Xie Qi (pathogenic factors) represents the core idea of Immunity in TCM. Helping the Zheng Qi to expel Xie Qi is the therapeutic principle.

The body releases the chemical neurotransmitter histamine when it comes into contact with pathogenic evil. Histamine produces various fight-or-flight effects within the body: e.g. smooth muscle contraction, heart rate acceleration, gastric acid secretion and vasodilation of capillaries. The histamine effect on the blood vessels is crucial to its role in protecting the vital organs and tissues from infection. 

When the brain gets the call that pathogenic substances are invading the body, the defensive immune response is to immediately, via the histamine response, move fluid from the vascular system (vasodilation) into the interstitial spaces around affected tissues, vulnerable organs and to lymph nodes and vessels (thus edema/swelling). This action is necessary during infection in order (1) to create a buffer around vital tissues and organs to protect them from circulating pathogens, and (2) to help rid the body of circulating pathogens. 

Once the immune crisis has abated, an evolvement process ensues for returning the body to health. One important part of that process is the transformation of the excess fluid accumulation in and around tissues that occurred during the inflammatory response.

The lungs, spleen and kidneys are the three viscera responsible for controlling and managing body fluids. In the case of genetic or constitutional weakness or zang fu disharmony in these organ systems, both the Zheng Qi and the power to transform damp are weak. When fluid cannot be transformed and drained, it congeals into phlegm – further burdening and weakening the transformative functions of the spleen. 

Modern day diseases (cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, pulmonary, metabolic, neoplastic) are variations on the same spectrum of chronic inflammation: many diseases but rooted in the same pattern of vacuity and damp accumulation.

The concept of Yin Fire espoused by Li Dong Yuan in the Pi Wei Lun is a critical concept in understanding the TCM pathogenesis of complex modern-day diseases. It refers to the engendering of damp heat turning into deep-lying phlegm. According to Li Dong Yuan, when the spleen and stomach “fail to properly raise the pure and down-bear the turbid”, a pattern of spleen vacuity with dampness arises leading to disturbance of kidney ministerial fire or Yin Fire. The vacuity and the excess damp heat create a mutually engendering vicious cycle pattern of pathogenesis. The persistent condition has long-term effects on the lungs, spleen and kidneys (further weakening) and, by correspondence, also the mucosal system (respiratory, gastrointestinal tracts) and the uro-genital system (uterus, bladder, prostate).

With vaccination we have a scenario of toxic heat pathogenic evil injected directly into the bloodstream, bypassing all the normal channels and stages of infection. Vaccines contain adjuvants (toxic chemicals and other noxious substances) to purposefully enhance the adaptive immune response to vaccine antigens. These substances act to accelerate and prolong the immune response. In other words, to prolong immune stimulation over an extended period of time, adjuvant substances (typically neuro-toxic chemicals) are added to vaccines. These exogenous pathogens remain inside the body in tissues. Thus, the histamine response mechanism of fluid secretion is continually stimulated. Repeated vaccination with adjuvant-containing vaccines is excessively taxing - leading to more deficiency, vacuity and phlegm/damp accumulation. The on-going inflammation from constant exposure to toxins deep inside the body leads to both hyper- and hypo-immune responses at the same time, thus setting the stage for difficult-to-treat knotty diseases.

With children there is typically an abundance of qi to mount a good defense during an infection. The spleen, however, does not fully mature until around age 6, and the kidney does not fully mature until around age 12. Thus the spleen and kidney are at a disadvantage when the child’s body is trying to transform fluids and restore vitality. 

Since 1979 the number of required vaccines for children under has increased exponentially from a few to now over 50 vaccines by age six or, on average, one vaccine per month for five years. This is a scenario of repeated infection with vaccines containing adjuvants that prolong the histamine response. 

Enduring diseases such as Crohns, ulcerative colitis, gastroesophageal reflux, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, eczema/psoriasis, arthritis and neuritis are manifestations of this pathogenesis of deep-lying phlegm. These diseases were traditionally diseases of “aging”, but are now rampant in children and young adults as well. 

With high vaccination rates in children and increasing rates in adults, most of our current and future patients will present with symptoms of damp accumulation and knotty diseases. For the purpose of a differential diagnosis, the question is, “What is the relationship of infection by injection to the development of morbid conditions and pathological mechanisms in the development of disease, from its initial manifestation through its critical development?”