MSG In Vaccines by Jack Samuels /Yurko Project

The Use Of Processed Free Glutamic Acid (MSG) In Vaccines.

I am very concerned about the use of processed free glutamic acid (MSG) in
vaccines and infant formulas.

Let me begin by defining the term MSG.

The glutamate industry and companies, including pharmaceutical firms, that wish to use processed free glutamic acid (MSG) in their products, improperly claim that the term "MSG" only applies to the food ingredient "monosodium glutamate."   They pretend not to realize that "monosodium glutamate" is nothing more than glutamic acid that has been freed from protein through a manufacturing process (processed free glutamic acid), salt (sodium), and moisture.  It is the processed free glutamic acid that MSG-sensitive people react to, providing that they ingest amounts that exceed their tolerances for the substance.  Consumers may react to processed free glutamic acid that is contained in any food ingredient or product, including AuxiGro, regardless of the name of the ingredient or product.

Because MSG-sensitive people may react to all ingredients and products that contain processed free glutamic acid, they refer to such ingredients and products as containing "MSG."  In August, 1995, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) noted in a document entitled the "FDA Backgrounder" that consumers frequently refer to all [free] glutamic acid as "MSG."  The "FDA Backgrounder" is still in use by the FDA and can likely be found on their Web  site.

Based on peer reviewed studies, there is no question that glutamic acid is neurotoxic.   This can be easily confirmed by accessing MEDLINE retrieval service for studies dating from 1966 to the present, using the words
"glutamic acid" in combination with the words "brain lesions" and then "neurotoxicity."  I would also suggest that you look up the words "learning disabilities," "obesity," "asthma," "tachycardia," and "seizures" in combination with the words "glutamic acid."

I would suggest that MEDLINE be accessed at a medical school library or at a major public library.  It has been my experience that the MEDLINE retrieval systems available on Internet, are not complete.

There is also no question that the young are most at risk from MSG.  To confirm this, you might start by reviewing the work of John W. Olney, MD. and look up the words "glutamic acid" in combination with the words "blood brain barrier" and "placental barrier."  You will learn that the blood brain barrier is not fully developed in the young to protect against toxins that
enter the blood, and that glutamic acid can also penetrate the placental barrier.

Disregarding the blood brain barrier and the placental barrier issues, the literature clearly indicates that, based on the amount of MSG used in the 1970s, over 25% of the population react to MSG.  You might check the studies by Reif-Lehrer and a study by Kenney and Tidball.  A later glutamate industry funded study by Kerr, et al. attempts to discredit the above stated studies by narrowly defining what an MSG reaction is.   A careful reading of the Kerr et al. study will disclose that 43% of the respondents in the study reacted to MSG with reactions that we now recognize as possible MSG reactions.

Although we have not reviewed all vaccines used on infants, we have found one or two sources of processed free glutamic acid (MSG) in those that we have information on.   In discussion with a retired executive of a company that produces vaccines, he suggested to me that all viral vaccines would have free glutamic acid, used to feed the live virus.  The glutamic acid in vaccines are often described as "stabilizers," i.e., ingredients to keep the virus alive.  We describe them as a hidden source of processed free glutamic acid (MSG).

An example for you would be the Chickenpox Vaccine by VariVax -- Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck).  This vaccine includes "L-monosodium glutamate" and "hydrolyzed gelatin." 

Another example would be Merck's M-M-R vaccine.  The product insert states that the growth medium for measles and mumps includes "amino acids" and "glutamate."  It is also stated that the medium for rubella included "amino acids"
and "hydrolyzed gelatin."  Finally, it states that the "reconstituted vaccine" for subcutaneous administration includes hydrolyzed gelatin.

We have no way of knowing which amino acids are used in Merck's vaccines, but we do know that the amino acids "glutamic acid," "aspartic acid," and "L-cysteine" are neurotoxic.  We also know that any hydrolyzed protein, such as the hydrolyzed gelatin will contain some processed free glutamic acid (MSG), some aspartic acid, and some L-cysteine, all considered to be neurotoxic by neuroscientists.   Even without hydrolyzing gelatin, gelatin contains over 11% processed free glutamic acid (MSG) and some aspartic acid and L-cysteine.  It is present as a result of the manufacturing process that results in gelatin.

The product insert for M-M-R vaccine by Merck provides a contraindication that states, in part: "Hypersensitivity to any component of the vaccine, including gelatin."   It is footnoted to the following reference:

             Kelso, J.M.; Jones, R.T.; Yunginger, J.'W.: Anaphylaxis to
             measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine mediated by IgE to
             gelatin, J. Aller. Clin. Immunol.. 91: 867-872, 1993.

I cannot help but wonder if at least some of the subjects in the study of Kelso, et al. reacted to gelatin.  Most reactions to processed free glutamic acid (MSG), as contained in gelatin, are not IgE mediated.  They are best described as a sensitivity to a toxic substance.

If you wish to determine more about Merck vaccines, I would suggest you call their National Service Center at (800) NSC-MERCK.  Do not ask about the presence of "MSG" in vaccines.  Rather, ask about the presence of "free glutamic acid."  You will have a better chance of getting a reliable answer.

Merck does not produce DPT vaccine, and I have not yet received my confirmation that the product includes processed free glutamic acid (MSG).  I am, however, told by others that it does.  If you wish, when I receive confirmation of the ingredients that are in DPT vaccine, I will let you know.

Not long ago, a vaccine for Rotavirus came to market.  The product, which contained some processed free glutamic acid (MSG), carried a warning in the product insert that it not be used for individuals who had a hypersensitivity to MSG.  Shortly after the Rotavirus came to market, it was found that the vaccine resulted in digestive blockages, and the product was withdrawn from the market.

Finally, it is noted that the vaccines that we have reviewed contain one or more "phosphates."  Based on my experiences as an MSG-sensitive individual with little tolerance for MSG, and reports from other MSG-sensitive people with little tolerance for the substance, phosphates can cause an MSG-type reaction.  Although we find no data in the literature to explain such
reactions, we believe that the reactions are related to the fact that phosphates use up calcium and magnesium, minerals that are involved in the metabolism of glutamic acid.

One last comment regarding the exposure of infants to processed free glutamic acid (MSG): the presence of processed free glutamic acid (MSG) in infant formulas.  We have found that major brands of infant formula, if not all infant formulas, contain some processed free glutamic acid (MSG).  The hypoallergenic soy formulas contain very high levels of MSG.  See
www.truthinlabelingorg/formulacopy.html for further detail.  It might be worthwhile for someone to do a study of people who were raised on hypoallergenic formulas to determine if they have experienced a higher incidence of obesity, learning disabilities, and/or ADHD, in childhood and/or endocrine disorders later in life, as compared with people who were breast
fed, and then as compared with people who were raised on milk based infant formulas.

If I can be of any further help to anyone on this important subject, they should not hesitate to write or call.  If anyone receives a list of ingredients from vaccine producers, I would be pleased to go over the ingredients and advise them of the ingredients that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG). 

Jack Samuels
adandjack@aol.com
(858) 481-9333

http://www.whale.to/a/msg.html

Slow Poisoning - MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) 

Even though many are aware of the harmful side effects of MSG, I thought I would post this information, as this adds a new twist to the dangers - obesity. Remember----usually if the label says "natural flavorings" it is the common euphemism for MSG. Since so many people are concerned about weight I thought I would pass this on(though I am aware of other causes of obesity:
 
Slow Poisoning
I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, and spent years working for the government.
 
He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.
 
No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans?) to become obese They even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats"?
 
I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything! The Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburg! er Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones.
 
The items that didn't have MSG had something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who catch on.
 
But it didn't stop there. When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis', Applebees and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!
 
So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative or a vitamin? Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called The Slow Poisoning of America, www.spofamerica.com , he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body. Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG at: file://www.msgfacts.com/facts/msgfact12.html explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more.
 
A study of elderly people showed that people eat more of the foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us?
 
'Betcha can't eat just one', takes on a whole new mea! ning where MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight? The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added. Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance! Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the prepackaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday.
 
The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim it's safe to eat in any amount. How can they claim it is safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these? 
  
*The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity. Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT, Ribeiro IA. Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002

 

*Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats. Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori RC, Nascimento CM, Ribeiro Brain Res Bull. 2002 Aug   
*Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: an animal model of multiple risk factors. Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N, Yoshinari Fujishima Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar   
*Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in suckling period and subsequent development of obesity. Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao K, Kusunoki Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct
 
Yes, that last study was not a typo, it WAS written in 1978. Both the medical research community and food "manufacturers" have known MSG's side effects for decades! Many more studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to Diabetes, Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer's. But what can we do to stop the food manufacturers from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see?
 
Even as you read this, George W. Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress. Called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" also known as the "Cheeseburger Bill", this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods.
Read about it for yourself at:
 
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8458081.htm
"Last month the House of Representatives passed the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" to protect the food and beverage industr! y from civil lawsuits. Under the measure, known as the "Cheeseburger Bill," people who buy food or drinks couldn't sue the companies that made them, the stores that sold them or the restaurants that served them if they got fat from the products, so long as the products met existing laws.
 
The Senate is expected to take up a similar bill later this year."

The Bill has already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters get it through before the media lets everyone know about MSG, the intentional Nicotine for food.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada. While sitting in the Government office, the official told him "Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn't touch the stuff!" But this top level government official refused to tell the public what he knew. The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the fast food industry may hurt their profit margin.

So what do we do? The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it. Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive. But what can I do about it? I'm just one voice, what can I do to stop the poisoning of our children, while guys like Bush are insuring financial protection for the industry that is poisoning us. I for one am doing something about it. I am sending this email out to everyone I know in an attempt to show you the truth that the corporate owned politicians and media won't tell you.

The best way you can help save yourself and your children from this drug-induced epidemic, is to forward this email to everyone. With any luck, it will circle the globe before Bush can p! ass the Bill protecting those who poisoned us. The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry. Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place before someone blew the whistle on Nicotine? Blow the whistle on MSG. If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us, and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine, at www.pubmed.com  . Type in the words "MSG Obese", and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

We do not want to be rats in one giant experiment, and we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic, addicted sheep, waiting for the slaughter.

With your help we can put an end to this, and stop the Slow Poisoning of America.

Let's save our children...save all of us !!

May 21, 2004 | Back Issues

Bush Officials Weaken Organic Food Standards: Public Shut Out

The Bush Administration is giving Americans new reason to watch what they eat. Over the course of 10 days last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued three "guidances" and one directive -- all legally binding interpretations of law -- that threaten to seriously dilute the meaning of the word organic and discredit the department's National Organic Program.

The changes -- which would allow the use of antibiotics on organic dairy cows, as well as synthetic pesticides on organic farms, and more -- were made with zero input from the public or the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the advisory group that worked for more than a decade to help craft the first federal organic standards, put in place in October 2002.

The USDA insists the changes are harmless: "The directives have not changed anything. They are just clarifications of what is in the regulations that were written by the National Organic Standards Board," stated USDA spokesperson Joan Shaffer. "They just explain what's enforceable. There is no difference [between the clarifications and the original regulations] -- it's just another way of explaining it."

But Jim Riddle, vice chair of the NOSB and endowed chair in agricultural systems at the University of Minnesota, argues that what the USDA is trying to pass off as a clarification of regulations is in fact a substantial change: "These are the sorts of changes for which the department is supposed to do a formal new rulemaking process, with posting in the federal register, feedback from our advisory board, and a public-comment period. And yet there is no such process denoted anywhere."

Organic activists suspect that industry pressure drove the policy shifts. They point out that the USDA leadership has long-standing industry sympathies: Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman served on the board of directors of a biotech company; both her chief of staff and her director of communications were plucked right out of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

One practice favored by large agribusiness is the use of antibiotics on cows. A USDA guidance issued on April 14 will allow just that on organic dairy farms -- a dramatic reversal of 2002 rules. [1] Under the new guidelines, sickly dairy cows can be treated not just with antibiotics but with numerous others drugs and still have their milk qualify as organic, so long as 12 months pass between the time the treatments are administered and the time the milk is sold.

"This new directive makes a mockery of organic standards," said Richard Wood, a recent member of the FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee and executive director of Food Animal Concerns Trust.

Another new guidance put out on the same day would allow cattle farmers to feed their heifers non-organic fishmeal that could be riddled with synthetic preservatives, mercury, and PCBs, and still sell their beef as organic.

And the following week, on April 23, the USDA took the startling step of issuing a legal directive that opens the door for use of some synthetic pesticides on organic farms.

Last but certainly not least, another guidance released on April 14 narrows the scope of the federal organic certification program to crops, livestock, and the products derived from them, meaning that national organic standards will not be developed for fish, nutritional supplements, pet food, fertilizers, cosmetics, or personal-care products.

Despite the USDA's demurrals, activists view the department's changes as a serious threat to hard-won standards for organic products. The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and other groups are investigating possible industry influence into the USDA's process, and some environmental groups are preparing to take legal action.

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This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch and Grist Magazine. For more on this story, visit Grist Magazine.

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SOURCES:
[1] Antibiotic Guidance Statement, USDA, Apr. 14, 2004.
[2] Fishmeal Guidance Statement, USDA, Apr. 14, 2004.
[3] Pesticide Compliance, USDA, Apr. 23, 2004.
[4] Scope Guidance Statement, USDA, Apr. 14, 2004.