The Center for Disease Prevention & Reversal Blog

Many of my patients complain of having "no interest". While a small percentage of the population identify as "asexual", the majority of us do not and losing one's sex drive altogether can be disquieting. Sex drive often wanes as we age but it should not disappear completely.

There are physical and psychological reasons for a diminished sex drive and or response.
Among the physical contributors are chronic inflammation, not enough exercise, excessive exercise, prescriptions medications, poor dietary patterns, and fatigue. These contributing factors can all be easily reversed.

Low cholesterol can lead to a decrease in DHEA and sex hormones, especially testosterone as cholesterol is necessary for the production of stress and sex hormones. Chronic stress can also lead to low DHEA and sex hormones as stress utilizes all the precursor hormone (pregnanolone) made from cholesterol to produce the stress hormones. DHEA or pregnanolone supplementation can be helpful but so is turning off the stress response. Reflex biofeedback can do this almost immediately.

Psychological factors that contribute to diminished libido include anxiety, chronic stress, depression, guilt, grief and shock. While therapy is helpful and often necessary, it may not restore libido if the autonomic nervous system is stuck with high sympathetic (fight and flight) tone. Sometimes people find themselves not being able to "turn of" and reflex biofeedback is a very quick way of bringing up the parasympathetic (rest and relaxation) arm of the autonomic nervous system. Other treatments that work are acupuncture, homeopathy, breath work, yoga, meditation, massage and so on. I have found that the RITM SCENAR, a reflex biofeedback device, works the quickest and has the longest lasting results.

A combination of exercise, eating a non-inflammatory diet, adequate sleep and meditation can achieve the balance desired for a healthy libido and sexual response. Sexual response is two-fold and involves both arms of the autonomic system; the parasympathetic system controls the arousal phase and the sympathetic controls the orgasmic phase.

I recommend staying "active" as it helps with balancing the autonomic nervous system. Whether my patients are in a relationship or not, I might recommend equipment. Just like having special equipment in order to enhance one's experience cooking in the kitchen, or in a sport, equipment in the bedroom can enhance the experience whether one is alone or partnered in the endeavor. For incredibly engineered and designed equipment, I recommend shopping at Lelo.com. Lelo is a swedish company (how surprising) that takes its' products seriously and has some the best designed products on the market.

In the last few months, I have seen numerous adult patients for consultation in my Chicago area office with complaints of either exacerbation of their autoimmune disease or a sudden eruption of an autoimmune disorder such as asthma where there had been no prior issue.

The one thing these adult patients all had in common was they were all recent recipients of either a flu vaccine or of a tetanus booster. I have seen autoimmune disease develop after yellow fever vaccination and I've seen my share of "gulf war" syndrome (presumed adverse reaction to the anthrax vaccine) in military personnel. I have also seen pediatric patients who developed bronchitis after each round of vaccines only to develop asthma by pre-school. Many of these patients become free of asthma for years only to have a resurgence after another set of vaccinations.

Most vaccines contain something called adjuvants which are known to hyper simulate the immune system and in those with specific genetics, trigger autoimmune responses. The influenza vaccine in the US and the tetanus booster have not contained these adjuvants. However, they contain other ingredients that can lead to T cell dysfunction and this can trigger an autoimmune reaction.

Most influenza vaccines contain mercury which, like aluminum nano salts, can lead to a breach of the tight junctions in the gut, brain, testes and thyroid. I have written about this phenomenon in relation to gluten and prescription pain meds. In addition, the tetanus toxoid is a powerful immune stimulant which is why it is sometimes included in other vaccines as an adjuvant of sorts. Influenza vaccines also contain formaldehyde. While formaldehyde is naturally occurring at low levels in wood, it is quite toxic and a known carcinogen as well as asthma inducer.

A problem in understanding the safety issues or adverse events related to vaccines, is that the studies looking at adverse events compare the control group (the new vaccine in study) to a placebo group. In all other cases of drug studies, the placebo group would receive something completely inert such as a sugar pill or a saline injection. In vaccine placebos, the placebo group actually receives other vaccines or ingredients of the vaccine such as the adjuvant or preservative without the attenuated viral material.

This poses a real problem because now you have the placebo group receiving a heavy metal, or polysorbate or tetanus toxoid all of which can cause adverse events such as autoimmune responses. The results show the autoimmune responses to occur at the same rate in both the experimental and placebo groups with conclusions drawn that disease rates are the same whether subjects received the real vaccine or not and hence the vaccine is as safe as a placebo.

Another problem is that the vaccine reporting system or VAERS, relies on the vaccine manufacturer itself, to decide if a reported adverse event post vaccination is related to their product. They almost always deny causation. manufacturers have stated that the vaccine ingredients are cleared within 72 hours. This makes little sense as ingredients are not metabolized like they would be if taken orally and there are no studies backing this statement up. In addition, most doctors do not make the link between vaccine and adverse event and hence events are under reported.

The point of all this is that if you or your family have an autoimmune disorder, you should think twice before receiving any vaccinations. If you or your family developed asthma, a rheumatological or thryroid disorder after vaccination, stop vaccinating. There is a long list of what is autoimmune. Autoimmune disease in all forms is skyrocketing in the US and other places where vaccination rates are high. While there are probably many contributing factors for this phenomenon, injecting known stimulants that trigger a strong cytokine reaction is probably not wise.

There are studies supporting this concept However, much more research is needed in this area by independent parties not beholden to the industry and that is the single greatest obstacle in true safety studies.