Let Us Now Praise (Largely) Overlooked Women

As we approach Mother’s Day, it feels an appropriate time for me to sing the largely unsung praises of a number of women who have come into my awareness in my personal passage through life.  Some, just off the top of my head:

* Dr (Ph.D.) Phyllis Mullenix, who in the ‘90s conducted one of the largest studies into the neurotoxicological effects of fluoride in rats, and got canned for her efforts, and results.  (Which showed both hypoactivity (“confusion, drowsiness, lassitude” -  i.e., passivity) and hyperactivity - depending on when the dose was given, prenatally or postnatally - and lower IQ.) 

* Dr. Marcia Angell, the former Editor-in-Chief of the very prestigious medical journal the New England Journal of Medicine.  The “former,”  because of doing such things as writing a book entitled ‘The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It,’ and an article - published in the New York Review of Books - called ‘Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption’.1

* Dr. Virginia Livingston-Wheeler, a cancer researcher in the mid-to latter half of the 20th century who discovered a (pleomorphic) microbe at the very least associated with (she considered it outright "causative of") cancer, developed an autogenous vaccine (immuno-therapy) tor cancer, and supported “dietary changes” that promote a life free of cancer (by enhancing one’s immune system), with a remarkable success rate in her clinic in San Diego.  Ever hear of her?  No surprise there.2 

* Barbara Loe Fisher, a mom who was appalled and mortified when her oldest son developed brain damage from his fourth DPT vaccine shot and devoted the rest of her life to helping humanity free itself of such arrogantly and incautiously prescribed medical procedures, particularly in co-founding the National Vaccine Information Center, and co-authoring, with Harris L. Coulter, Ph.D., the seminal work, ‘DPT: A Shot in the Dark’ published in 1985.   

These are just some of the remarkable women of our time.  And then, there are all those women who chose to stay at home and raise their children - the highest of all human callings - as best they could in difficult environmental circumstances.

I salute you all.

—

footnotes:

1 Dr. Angell: “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.  I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”  

2 And her early partner in their crime - of being excellent researchers, and honestly reporting on it  - Dr. Eleanor Alexander-Jackson.