Vaccinating children who’ve had adverse reactions to shots.
By Sam Catanzaro
While kids are still in summer mode, parents have begun preparing for the new school year already. Part of this preparation includes making sure their children are vaccinated, but for parents of kids who have adverse reactions to certain vaccinations, this can be a difficult time. A health center located on the Westside, however, offers patients with severe reactions to vaccines an alternative approach.
Reshma Patel, PA-C, MMS, CEO & Founder of Ananda Integrative Medicine located in Brentwood describes a 12-year-old male patient of hers who had a severe reaction at the injection site to the thigh at age two from the DTap vaccine and has had no vaccine since.
“The patient has had hives to eggs, nuts, soy, wheat, sesame, and the mom decided to hold off on vaccinating,” Patel said, saying the family has have seen every specialist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
In one year, their medical exemption from vaccines will expire, and given the child’s previous adverse reaction to the DTap vaccine, they have come to Ananda Integrative Medicine to get help spacing out vaccinations and getting to the root cause of why the child had an adverse reaction to vaccines in the first place.
“We are removing barriers to healing such as toxins, inflammation and infectons and repleting mineral/vitamin deficiencies, supporting detoxification pathways and decreasing oxidative stress,” Patel said of her approach with the 12-year-old patient.
In addition, Patel is using Nutrition Genomics to test for genes that related to methylation, inflammation, immunity. According to Patel, the term methylation describes a biochemical process that is utilized in the body for transport of nutrients, energy production and in gene modulation. In patients with decreased methylation activity (i.e. methylation deficiency), there are significant shortcomings in the ability to execute a variety of critical chemical functions in the body. These shortcomings can leave the body unprotected from the everyday assault of environmental and infectious agents, sluggish in neurotransmitter production and slow to recover from inflammatory damage.
Appropriate supplementation with the proper methylated vitamins and nutrients will bypass the genetic and acquired deficits and restore the appropriate function of the pathway resulting in improvement in these complicated syndromes, says Patel.
“Nutrition has an ‘epigenetic’ effect on our DNA. In other words, nutrition is one of the major ways we can change the destiny of our genetic healthy history and reverse disease statistics,” Patel said. “Genetics and biochemistry help us discover how we are different, and what we can do to potentially overcome disease susceptibilities through the understanding of epigenetics by applying it to our diet, lifestyle and your environment.”
Patel says that people who have conditions such as asthma, allergies, chronic infections eczema, any auto-immune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Sjogren’s, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic dry eyes, Hashimoto’s, chronic fatigue and immune weakness stand to benefit from such treatment at Ananda Integrative Medicine.
“The patients that can benefit from treatments like these are ones who have seen many practitioners and have not been able to get answers to multiple allergies, sensitivities to too many vaccines all at once, auto-immune disease, gut issues (bloating, diarrhea),” Patel said. “Understanding a person’s predispositions and what you can do about them can be a valuable tool in both prevention and treatment. Nutrition is an essential part of any health program.”
According to Patel, 15 years ago such personalized care was not available to patients, but rapid advances in science have made nutritional genomics something anybody can utilize to lead a healthier life. The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003 at the cost of $2.3 billion. This opened the world to understanding what makes us unique. In 2006 it cost $300,000 to sequence one human genome. By 2016 the cost was under $5,000. Today you can get your whole genome sequenced for $1,000.
And nutritional genomics is just one of many ways Ananda Integrative Medicine help patients develop personalized health plans, including infrared sauna treatments and vitamin injections, both of which provide patients a wide range of health benefits.
“Infrared saunas are an effective tool for natural healing and prevention. Benefits include: relaxation, detoxification, pain relief, blood pressure reduction, improved circulation, skin purification, anti-aging, wound healing, cell health muscle recovery and immunity,” Patel said. “Vitamin injections are great for boosting energy, metabolism, promoting better mood, immune support and thyroid support.”
For more information about Ananda Integrative Medicine’s services, visit AnandaIntegrativeMedicine.com/Services, call (424) 259-2089 or follow on Facebook @AnandaIntegrativeMedicine and Instagram @integrative_Pa. To book an appointment, click HERE.
