MMR: Vaccine can cause blood disorder
March 13, 2008
by Healthy News Service

There's more bad news for advocates of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine with the discovery this week that it can cause a blood disorder. Researchers have found that it may trigger immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), an immune system malfunction that destroys the body?s own blood platelets.

The effect seems to last for an average of seven days, during which time the child's platelet count could fall.

The risk is relatively low, say researchers, and one case of ITP will be caused per 40,000 vaccinations. The risk appears to last for up to 42 days after vaccination.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver analyzed the health profiles of more than 1 million children who had been vaccinated. Of these, 259 developed ITP, and they reckon the vaccine was responsible for 76 per cent of these cases.

(Source: Pediatrics, 2008; 121: e687-e692).

Another great wild springtime green for detoxing and cleansing the body of its winter residue!
 
Phytolacca americana aka Poke Salat aka Pokeweed
 
Last week I covered other greens that the body can utilize to detox the winter comfort food build up out of the system. Today another one, that isn't so common in most of the world but an exceptional one...

During my years of living in Oklahoma as a young child we had a spring ritual that produced a tasty and healthy green dish, but we did not understand how great it was for our body. That time was known to us as "poke salat pickin time". This tasty green popular wild food is found mostly in the eastern half of the United States but can be found in the western portion in some areas. Each year as spring approaches I start to hunger for these tasty greens. Mother nature produces some great free food if you know where to look for it? These days with the population so exploded it's harder to find but bet your grand mother will know where to find it!

There are Poke Salat Festivals in Alabama  and Louisiana in early May!
 
Some so-called smart people will tell you not to eat Poke Salat, but they also will tell you that processed foods are good for you and your body can be healthy without vitamins and minerals so I totally discount their recommendations!
 
We new Americans didn't start that spring ritual! The true-blue Native Americans introduced the plant to the early European settlers and fast became such a popular pot herb that seeds soon were being cultivated back in Europe. After a long winter without fresh food, the early settlers looked forward to cooking the first tender green leaves of pokeweed. It gave them vitamins while providing a good spring cleansing tonic. They'd cook it up with Lamb's Quarters - another of my favorite wild greens - and Dock, which are also early spring greens. Some people today still cook and eat poke greens in the early spring although fast food is overshadowing healthy eating that I fear these healthy greens are losing their appeal in this and future generations. Growing up it was simply understood that everyone ate greens and liked them but now most children have never tasted a green food or if they have most have chosen to dislike them.
 
Salat is the German word for salad, and probably came with German settlers. In towns you'll find pokeweed growing wild in alleyways and vacant lots. In the country it grows in the fence rows and along the edges of woods. Best picked in early spring. When mature, in mid and late summer, it has clusters of shiny purple berries which birds love to eat and will not wash off your hands when squeezed. Poke is said to be poisonous in uncooked form and not to be eaten raw in salads!
 
Pokeweed is a large and coarse herbaceous weed with big leaves, a stout reddish trunk, widely branching reddish stems, and elongated erect clusters of small white flowers that give way to drooping clusters of dark purple berries. The leaves are smooth, long and taper at both ends.  As the season progresses all parts of the plant take on more of a reddish or purplish hue. Pokeberry is an herbaceous perennial that dies back in winter and grows quickly in spring Mature leaves give off an unpleasant odor when bruised. In addition to eating the young shoots and leaves, native Americans and early American settlers made a crimson dye from the berry juice and that continues with some naturalists today. The berry juice was used for ink.
 
Care should be taken when picking! Only the young shoots and developing leaves - before they take on their reddish hue - can be eaten, and only after boiling for 20-30 minutes in at least two changes of water. Be very careful not to get any of the root when picking the young shoots.
 
Native Americans from throughout its range used pokeweed concoctions for a wide variety of internal and external medicinal applications.   It seems the berry juice has been used for pimples and boils, in some cases taken internally in very small amounts and in other cases applied to the skin. It has also been taken for joint pain and applied to sore breasts. Leaf concoctions have been used as an expectorant, emetic and cathartic. Winter way-back-when use to find a sister or two with boils on them and my mother would make a poke poultice applied to the boils and it really worked to eliminate them?
 
Sadly I cannot find the exact nutrient makeup of Poke Salat but is said to contain the same nutrients as the cabbage, collard and kale families. Traditionally cooking; drained leaves are then seasoned with salt, pepper and bacon drippings and then fried in an iron skillet. Personally, any way you fix spinach will work with poke greens as long as you change water half way through cooking.
 
My mother served poke greens two ways. One; by boiling until tender then she would drain them and put into a skillet and add one egg and one small chopped onion per 2 cups of greens and cook until eggs were set and onions tender crunchy. Second, my most favorite, was simply boiled for about 15 minutes, drain off water, add more water and sliced onions, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper to taste. Both ways are tasty.
 
I now live in an area that I cannot find wild poke greens, but forced to buy canned ones, which just isn't the same nor as tasty? Fresh is best!
Lena