by Evelyn Pringle
http://www.opednews.com/
In their public statements, officials within the FDA and CDC, are always claiming that researchers and scientists who conduct studies, not funded by drug companies or the government, are making unfounded claims about a link between thimerosal-laced vaccines and autism, and other neurological disorders, which they claim could lead to reduced vaccine coverage, resulting in preventable outbreaks of disease affecting the entire planet.
I say cut the crap.
Think about it. Why would so many highly respected scientists, researchers and physicians go to such great lengths to concoct bogus studies and issue false reports, in essence putting their professional reputations on the line, if their was no connection? I want these officials to do two things. First I want them to give me one good reason why these professionals would make this up, and two, I want them to give me one logical alternative theory for the current epidemic of disorders.
Read full article at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_evelyn_p_050729_autism___cut_the_cra.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Boys Take Stand In T-Ball Case
By Chris Foreman
Tribune-Review, PA
A Fayette County boy testified Thursday that his T-ball coach offered him $25 if he would hit an autistic teammate in the face in an attempt to sideline him from a playoff game.
Keith Reese Jr., 8, was one of two children to speak from the witnessstand during a preliminary hearing for Mark R. Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar. Downs was ordered to stand trial on charges of two counts of criminalsolicitation to commit aggravated assault, and one count each of corruption of minors, criminal conspiracy and recklessly endangering another person.
Read article at: http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/fayette/s_358349.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:http://www.autismconcepts.com/
Tribune-Review, PA
A Fayette County boy testified Thursday that his T-ball coach offered him $25 if he would hit an autistic teammate in the face in an attempt to sideline him from a playoff game.
Keith Reese Jr., 8, was one of two children to speak from the witnessstand during a preliminary hearing for Mark R. Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar. Downs was ordered to stand trial on charges of two counts of criminalsolicitation to commit aggravated assault, and one count each of corruption of minors, criminal conspiracy and recklessly endangering another person.
Read article at: http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/fayette/s_358349.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:http://www.autismconcepts.com/
Friday, July 22, 2005
T-ball victim invited to Oakland A's game
By Chris Foreman
Tribune-ReviewThursday, July 21, 2005
A Fayette County case in which a T-ball baseball coach allegedly offered to pay one boy to injure an autistic teammate has grabbed the attention of an Oakland A's pitcher.
Starting pitcher Barry Zito has invited the boy and his family to be his guests at an Oakland A's game. Zito would provide tickets and invite the boy to meet the team, his spokeswoman said. The family would need to find a way to the game -- in California or at a site closer to Pennsylvania.
The A's will travel to Cleveland and Baltimore for games later this season.
Read article at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/westmoreland/s_355603.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Tribune-ReviewThursday, July 21, 2005
A Fayette County case in which a T-ball baseball coach allegedly offered to pay one boy to injure an autistic teammate has grabbed the attention of an Oakland A's pitcher.
Starting pitcher Barry Zito has invited the boy and his family to be his guests at an Oakland A's game. Zito would provide tickets and invite the boy to meet the team, his spokeswoman said. The family would need to find a way to the game -- in California or at a site closer to Pennsylvania.
The A's will travel to Cleveland and Baltimore for games later this season.
Read article at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/westmoreland/s_355603.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Scientists Advance Understanding of the Role of a Key Brain Protein in Autism
Results of a Genetic Linkage Analysis of PRKCB1 With Autism Published
PARIS, France, July 18 /CNW/ - Scientists working at IntegraGen SA, the personalized medicines company, have shown that variations in the gene for protein kinase C beta 1 (PRKCB1), a protein with an important role in brain function, are strongly associated with autism. This exciting finding suggests some answers to a number of previous, but unexplained, observations about autism and provides the potential for a mechanistic explanation for some of the characteristics of the condition. The results of the study are published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.(1)
The PRKCB1 gene is expressed in the granule cells within the cerebellum (a region of the brain) where the PRKCB1 protein plays a central role in the transmission of signals by the granule cells to the Purkinje cells. It has previously been reported that there is a decreased number of both granule and Purkinje cells in the brains of autistic individuals and the association of PRKCB1 with autism reported in this study indicates that the cerebellum may play a key role in many of the brain activities that are impaired in autism.
Another intriguing observation is that studies using animal models have shown that PRKCB1 is involved in auditory reversal learning. Considered in light of IntegraGen's results, this suggests that deficiency of the protein might lead to the impairment of this learning capacity, as is frequently seen in autism.
Full article at: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/18/c2354.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
PARIS, France, July 18 /CNW/ - Scientists working at IntegraGen SA, the personalized medicines company, have shown that variations in the gene for protein kinase C beta 1 (PRKCB1), a protein with an important role in brain function, are strongly associated with autism. This exciting finding suggests some answers to a number of previous, but unexplained, observations about autism and provides the potential for a mechanistic explanation for some of the characteristics of the condition. The results of the study are published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.(1)
The PRKCB1 gene is expressed in the granule cells within the cerebellum (a region of the brain) where the PRKCB1 protein plays a central role in the transmission of signals by the granule cells to the Purkinje cells. It has previously been reported that there is a decreased number of both granule and Purkinje cells in the brains of autistic individuals and the association of PRKCB1 with autism reported in this study indicates that the cerebellum may play a key role in many of the brain activities that are impaired in autism.
Another intriguing observation is that studies using animal models have shown that PRKCB1 is involved in auditory reversal learning. Considered in light of IntegraGen's results, this suggests that deficiency of the protein might lead to the impairment of this learning capacity, as is frequently seen in autism.
Full article at: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/18/c2354.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Study reveals parents' MMR views BBC News
Experts have revealed the results of a study designed to assess parents' positions on the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccination.
Parents opposed to the combined measles, mumps and rubella inoculation wereless worried about the illnesses than those who support the MMR jab.
Experts also confirmed that parents opposed to the vaccination were moreconcerned about an autism link.
Read article at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4689359.stm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Parents opposed to the combined measles, mumps and rubella inoculation wereless worried about the illnesses than those who support the MMR jab.
Experts also confirmed that parents opposed to the vaccination were moreconcerned about an autism link.
Read article at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4689359.stm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Study: Children with Autism Have Distinctly Different Immune System Reactions Compared
Immunologists from UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute find clear biological component to perplexing childhood neurological disorder
A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute and the NIEHS Center for Children's Environmental Health demonstrate that children with autism have different immune system responses than children who do not have the disorder. This is important evidence that autism, currently defined primarily by distinct behaviors, may potentially be defined by distinct biologic changes as well.
Published at: http://www.emaxhealth.com/50/2237.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute and the NIEHS Center for Children's Environmental Health demonstrate that children with autism have different immune system responses than children who do not have the disorder. This is important evidence that autism, currently defined primarily by distinct behaviors, may potentially be defined by distinct biologic changes as well.
Published at: http://www.emaxhealth.com/50/2237.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Tee-ball coach charged in assault
Arranged attack to sideline autistic player, police say
Saturday, July 16, 2005
By Moustafa Ayad, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Fayette County tee-ball coach was arraigned on felony charges yesterday that he bribed a 7-year-old player to throw a baseball at a mentally disabled teammate's face to keep the boy out of a game.
State police said Mark Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, offered his star player $25 on June 27 to hit an 8-year-old autistic child with a baseball because he wanted to win the game.
Full article at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05197/539043.stm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
By Moustafa Ayad, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Fayette County tee-ball coach was arraigned on felony charges yesterday that he bribed a 7-year-old player to throw a baseball at a mentally disabled teammate's face to keep the boy out of a game.
State police said Mark Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, offered his star player $25 on June 27 to hit an 8-year-old autistic child with a baseball because he wanted to win the game.
Full article at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05197/539043.stm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Special education goes home
New Jersey.com, Hackensack, NJ
Saturday, July 16, 2005
By Deena Yellin, Staff Writer
Pressure from the federal and state government to cut special-education costs is causing more North Jersey school districts to create their own programs and educate disabled students closer to home.
District officials predict that the immediate expense of creating special-education classes - through construction and hiring teachers - has long-term benefits. It eliminates tuition and transporting students to private programs, which can cost up to $100,000 per student.
The trend of pulling children back to district is growing, said Richard Vespucci, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.
Read full article at:
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDkmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY3MjM5MzAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
By Deena Yellin, Staff Writer
Pressure from the federal and state government to cut special-education costs is causing more North Jersey school districts to create their own programs and educate disabled students closer to home.
District officials predict that the immediate expense of creating special-education classes - through construction and hiring teachers - has long-term benefits. It eliminates tuition and transporting students to private programs, which can cost up to $100,000 per student.
The trend of pulling children back to district is growing, said Richard Vespucci, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.
Read full article at:
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDkmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY3MjM5MzAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Friday, July 15, 2005
A Kennedy Fuels Autism Debate
By Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News Correspondent
July 14, 2005
Is there a link between autism and childhood vaccines?
Medical experts say no -- resoundingly -- but some advocacy and parent groups and scientists disagree. As CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, those who believe there is such a link now have the forceful and highly controversial support of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Advocates say that it's no coincidence that one new study indicates that when a mercury preservative was removed from most vaccines, autism rates in California went down. After growing for more than a decade, new cases of autism may be slowing down in California. That's according to data compiled by the state that has been on the leading edge of identifying and tracking the nation's autism epidemic. The trend is fueling a debate over vaccines and the autism epidemic--a debate that Kennedy has now entered.
Full article available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/14/eveningnews/main709269.shtml
View Debate on Autism-Vaccine Link at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/videoplayer/newVid/small_player/cbsnews_videoplayer_settings.html?clip=/media/2005/07/14/video709277.rm&sec=3420&vidId=3420&title=Debate$@$On$@$Autism-Vaccine$@$Link&hitboxMLC=eveningnews
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
July 14, 2005
Is there a link between autism and childhood vaccines?
Medical experts say no -- resoundingly -- but some advocacy and parent groups and scientists disagree. As CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, those who believe there is such a link now have the forceful and highly controversial support of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Advocates say that it's no coincidence that one new study indicates that when a mercury preservative was removed from most vaccines, autism rates in California went down. After growing for more than a decade, new cases of autism may be slowing down in California. That's according to data compiled by the state that has been on the leading edge of identifying and tracking the nation's autism epidemic. The trend is fueling a debate over vaccines and the autism epidemic--a debate that Kennedy has now entered.
Full article available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/14/eveningnews/main709269.shtml
View Debate on Autism-Vaccine Link at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/videoplayer/newVid/small_player/cbsnews_videoplayer_settings.html?clip=/media/2005/07/14/video709277.rm&sec=3420&vidId=3420&title=Debate$@$On$@$Autism-Vaccine$@$Link&hitboxMLC=eveningnews
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Free Kids and Teens Printable Coloring Pages
Nice website for free activities on rainy days, afternoon or weekend fun! Also offers nice clip art and animation.
Free Kids and Teens Printable Coloring Pages
http://www.ability.org.uk/kids_and_teens_printable_colouri.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Free Kids and Teens Printable Coloring Pages
http://www.ability.org.uk/kids_and_teens_printable_colouri.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Study Finds Industrial Pollution Begins in the Womb
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 14, 2005
Contact: EWG Public Affairs, 202-667-6982
Study Finds Industrial Pollution Begins in the Womb
Hundreds of Toxic Chemicals Measured in Newborn Babies
WASHINGTON - Not long ago, scientists believed that babies in the womb were largely protected from most toxic chemicals. A new study helps confirm an opposite view: that chemical exposure begins in the womb, as hundreds of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides are pumped back and forth from mother to baby through umbilical cord blood.
Environmental Working Group (EWG) commissioned laboratory tests of 10 American Red Cross cord blood samples for the most extensive array of industrial chemicals, pesticides and other pollutants ever studied. The group found that the babies averaged 200 contaminants in their blood. The pollutants included mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA. In total, the babies' blood had 287 chemicals, including 209 never before detected in cord blood.
The blood samples came from babies born in U.S. hospitals in August and September of 2004. The study, called Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns, tested each sample of umbilical cord blood for an unprecedented 413 industrial and consumer product chemicals. The study(www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/) is part of an important new science that measures toxins in people - the human body burden."
For years scientists have studied pollution in the air, water, land and in our food. Recently they've investigated its health impacts on adults. Now we find this pollution is reaching babies during vital stages of development," said EWG Vice President for Research Jane Houlihan. "These findings raise questions about the gaps in our federal safety net. Instead of rubber-stamping almost every new chemical that industry invents, we've got to strengthen and modernize the laws that are supposed to protect Americans from pollutants."
U.S. industries manufacture and import approximately 75,000 chemicals, 3,000 of them at over a million pounds per year. Yet health officials do not know how many of these chemicals pollute fetal blood and what the health consequences of in utero exposures might be. Many of these chemicals require specialized techniques to detect. Chemical manufacturers are not required to make available to the public or government health officials methods to detect their chemicals in humans, and most do not volunteer them.
EWG's Houlihan said that had her group been able to test for more chemicals, it would almost certainly have detected them.
Full Report and following topics are linked on url:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/newsrelease.php
1: Executive summary
2: Babies are vulnerable to chemical harm
3: Human health problems on the rise
4: Recommendations
Detailed findings
Methodology
Questions and Answers
References
News Release
News Advisory
About This Report
Related News Coverage
The Environmental Working Group and Environmental Working Group Action Fund are nonprofits that use the power of information to protect public health and the environment.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Contact: EWG Public Affairs, 202-667-6982
Study Finds Industrial Pollution Begins in the Womb
Hundreds of Toxic Chemicals Measured in Newborn Babies
WASHINGTON - Not long ago, scientists believed that babies in the womb were largely protected from most toxic chemicals. A new study helps confirm an opposite view: that chemical exposure begins in the womb, as hundreds of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides are pumped back and forth from mother to baby through umbilical cord blood.
Environmental Working Group (EWG) commissioned laboratory tests of 10 American Red Cross cord blood samples for the most extensive array of industrial chemicals, pesticides and other pollutants ever studied. The group found that the babies averaged 200 contaminants in their blood. The pollutants included mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA. In total, the babies' blood had 287 chemicals, including 209 never before detected in cord blood.
The blood samples came from babies born in U.S. hospitals in August and September of 2004. The study, called Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns, tested each sample of umbilical cord blood for an unprecedented 413 industrial and consumer product chemicals. The study(www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/) is part of an important new science that measures toxins in people - the human body burden."
For years scientists have studied pollution in the air, water, land and in our food. Recently they've investigated its health impacts on adults. Now we find this pollution is reaching babies during vital stages of development," said EWG Vice President for Research Jane Houlihan. "These findings raise questions about the gaps in our federal safety net. Instead of rubber-stamping almost every new chemical that industry invents, we've got to strengthen and modernize the laws that are supposed to protect Americans from pollutants."
U.S. industries manufacture and import approximately 75,000 chemicals, 3,000 of them at over a million pounds per year. Yet health officials do not know how many of these chemicals pollute fetal blood and what the health consequences of in utero exposures might be. Many of these chemicals require specialized techniques to detect. Chemical manufacturers are not required to make available to the public or government health officials methods to detect their chemicals in humans, and most do not volunteer them.
EWG's Houlihan said that had her group been able to test for more chemicals, it would almost certainly have detected them.
Full Report and following topics are linked on url:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/newsrelease.php
1: Executive summary
2: Babies are vulnerable to chemical harm
3: Human health problems on the rise
4: Recommendations
Detailed findings
Methodology
Questions and Answers
References
News Release
News Advisory
About This Report
Related News Coverage
The Environmental Working Group and Environmental Working Group Action Fund are nonprofits that use the power of information to protect public health and the environment.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Toxic elements found in infants' cord blood
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 14, 2005
In a benchmark study released today, researchers found an average of 200 industrial compounds, pollutants and other chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of newborns, including seven dangerous pesticides - some banned in the United States more than 30 years ago.
The report, Body Burden - The Pollution in Newborns, by the Washington,D.C.-based Environmental Working Group, detected 287 chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of 10 newborns. Of those chemicals, 76 cause cancer in humans or animals, 94 are toxic to the brain and nervous system and 79 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests.
Full article available at: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2005/07/14/m1a_peststudy_0714.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 14, 2005
In a benchmark study released today, researchers found an average of 200 industrial compounds, pollutants and other chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of newborns, including seven dangerous pesticides - some banned in the United States more than 30 years ago.
The report, Body Burden - The Pollution in Newborns, by the Washington,D.C.-based Environmental Working Group, detected 287 chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of 10 newborns. Of those chemicals, 76 cause cancer in humans or animals, 94 are toxic to the brain and nervous system and 79 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests.
Full article available at: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2005/07/14/m1a_peststudy_0714.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Parents use alternative method to treat daughter's autism
By Lisa R. Howeler--Times Reporter
ATHENS -- Grace Martin is 6 years old. When she was 2, her parents were told she was autistic.
Medical books do not list a known cause for autism, but Ken and Beth Martin believe mercury in Grace's childhood vaccines may have caused their daughter to develop the condition.
Read full article at: http://www.eveningtimes.com/articles/2005/07/14/news/news1.txt
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
ATHENS -- Grace Martin is 6 years old. When she was 2, her parents were told she was autistic.
Medical books do not list a known cause for autism, but Ken and Beth Martin believe mercury in Grace's childhood vaccines may have caused their daughter to develop the condition.
Read full article at: http://www.eveningtimes.com/articles/2005/07/14/news/news1.txt
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Should I Vaccinate My Child?
By Jini Patel Thompson
ByronChild, Australia
June-August 2005 Issue
As the mother of a newborn, it became important to find out what is really going on with infant and childhood vaccination and whether it is conclusively a beneficial or necessary procedure. Thus I embarked on four months of research into immunisation -squeezed in between the demands of caring for and breastfeeding our new baby Oscar! The facts opposite highlight a different face of the vaccination question; effectiveness, adverse effects, and long-term consequences. The unspoken thread running through each of these is a pressing question: Why haven't more people been informed of this evidence, and indeed, why is vaccination presented carte blanche as a positive, imperative requisite for our children's health?
Do vaccines actually work? As I researched the issue, I was amazed to discover that there is a large and growing body of clinical studies, fieldwork (in developing nations) and historical data refuting the safety and efficacy of vaccination. Unfortunately, the propaganda campaign for vaccination has been so successful that mostof us automatically believe that vaccines are so effective they are responsible for the virtual eradication of serious childhood illnesses. In reality this is not so, and if you examine the actual rates of incidence for each disease (from mainstream sources such as the Lancet, WHO and UNICEF), the graphs show a clearly different picture.
Full article available at: http://www.byronchild.com
A former journalist, Jini Patel Thompson's health articles have beenpublished in numerous magazines and newspapers throughout Canada,t he United States and Europe. She is the author of two books on natural healing methods for Crohn's, Colitis and IRS, and a DVD titled: Baby Fart Aerobics: And Other Natural treatments for Colicky Babies.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
ByronChild, Australia
June-August 2005 Issue
As the mother of a newborn, it became important to find out what is really going on with infant and childhood vaccination and whether it is conclusively a beneficial or necessary procedure. Thus I embarked on four months of research into immunisation -squeezed in between the demands of caring for and breastfeeding our new baby Oscar! The facts opposite highlight a different face of the vaccination question; effectiveness, adverse effects, and long-term consequences. The unspoken thread running through each of these is a pressing question: Why haven't more people been informed of this evidence, and indeed, why is vaccination presented carte blanche as a positive, imperative requisite for our children's health?
Do vaccines actually work? As I researched the issue, I was amazed to discover that there is a large and growing body of clinical studies, fieldwork (in developing nations) and historical data refuting the safety and efficacy of vaccination. Unfortunately, the propaganda campaign for vaccination has been so successful that mostof us automatically believe that vaccines are so effective they are responsible for the virtual eradication of serious childhood illnesses. In reality this is not so, and if you examine the actual rates of incidence for each disease (from mainstream sources such as the Lancet, WHO and UNICEF), the graphs show a clearly different picture.
Full article available at: http://www.byronchild.com
A former journalist, Jini Patel Thompson's health articles have beenpublished in numerous magazines and newspapers throughout Canada,t he United States and Europe. She is the author of two books on natural healing methods for Crohn's, Colitis and IRS, and a DVD titled: Baby Fart Aerobics: And Other Natural treatments for Colicky Babies.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
GAO Report - Child Welfare: Better Data and Evaluations Would Help Improve Processes and Programs for Adopting Children with Special Needs
The General Accounting Office just came out with this report on programs for helping parents who wish or have adopted kids with special needs. The report provides good, hard information and may be a useful resource.
Child Welfare: Better Data and Evaluations Would Help Improve Processes and Programs for Adopting Children with Special Needs.
GAO-05-292, June 13.
Report available at:
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-292
Highlights: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05292high.pdf
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Child Welfare: Better Data and Evaluations Would Help Improve Processes and Programs for Adopting Children with Special Needs.
GAO-05-292, June 13.
Report available at:
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-292
Highlights: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05292high.pdf
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Autism, Mercury and the California Numbers
Commentary
By David Kirby
For months now, a mantra of the thimerosal defenders has been as follows: "Mercury was removed from vaccines years ago, and we have not seen a drop in autism rates." It looks like they might have to find a new slogan.
Freshly reported numbers out of California show that new cases entering that state's disability system (children who are three-to-four years old and newly diagnosed with autism) have indeed dropped since 2002, marking the first decline in new autism cases since California began tracking the mysterious disorder.
Read entire commentary at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/featuredposts.html#a004133
David Kirby is author of "Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic" (St. Martin's Press 2005) www.evidenceofharm.com
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
By David Kirby
For months now, a mantra of the thimerosal defenders has been as follows: "Mercury was removed from vaccines years ago, and we have not seen a drop in autism rates." It looks like they might have to find a new slogan.
Freshly reported numbers out of California show that new cases entering that state's disability system (children who are three-to-four years old and newly diagnosed with autism) have indeed dropped since 2002, marking the first decline in new autism cases since California began tracking the mysterious disorder.
Read entire commentary at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/featuredposts.html#a004133
David Kirby is author of "Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic" (St. Martin's Press 2005) www.evidenceofharm.com
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Study: Positive touch, the implications for parents and their children with autism: an exploratory study
1: Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2005 Aug;11(3):182-9.
Positive touch, the implications for parents and their children with autism: an exploratory study.
Cullen LA, Barlow JH, Cushway D.
School of Health and Social Science, Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Health, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK.
The aims of this study were (1) to explore the experience of touch between parents and children with autism before, during, and after a Training and Support Programme (TSP), and (2) to develop a model of the process of touch therapy for this group of parents and children. Fourteen parents and their children agreed to take part in the study. Five of these parents withdrew. Reasons for withdrawal included personal circumstances and ill health. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with parents before attending the TSP and Home Record Sheets completed by parents during the TSP. Results indicate that before the TSP touch was experienced as out of parents' control. During the TSP, the experience of touch appeared to change. A key benefit gained by parents was the feeling of closeness to children. The key benefits gained by children were perceived by the parents as improved sleep patterns, children were more relaxed after receiving the massage and appeared more amenable to touch. Of interest was children's request for massage at home. At 16-week follow-up both parents and children continue to enjoy giving and receiving touch therapy, respectively.
PMID: 16005835 [PubMed - in process]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16005835&query_hl=1
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Positive touch, the implications for parents and their children with autism: an exploratory study.
Cullen LA, Barlow JH, Cushway D.
School of Health and Social Science, Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Health, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK.
The aims of this study were (1) to explore the experience of touch between parents and children with autism before, during, and after a Training and Support Programme (TSP), and (2) to develop a model of the process of touch therapy for this group of parents and children. Fourteen parents and their children agreed to take part in the study. Five of these parents withdrew. Reasons for withdrawal included personal circumstances and ill health. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with parents before attending the TSP and Home Record Sheets completed by parents during the TSP. Results indicate that before the TSP touch was experienced as out of parents' control. During the TSP, the experience of touch appeared to change. A key benefit gained by parents was the feeling of closeness to children. The key benefits gained by children were perceived by the parents as improved sleep patterns, children were more relaxed after receiving the massage and appeared more amenable to touch. Of interest was children's request for massage at home. At 16-week follow-up both parents and children continue to enjoy giving and receiving touch therapy, respectively.
PMID: 16005835 [PubMed - in process]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16005835&query_hl=1
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
The Age of Autism: Both Sides Now
By Dan Olmsted in Science Daily for United Press International.
http://tinyurl.com/77ykp
Part 1 of 2. Regular readers of this column (and we thank you) know that we value a back-and-forth approach. Since beginning this open-ended series six months ago, we have paused several times to let readers speak, and our direction has been shaped by their responses.
Lately, we have been pursuing the vaccine question, unable to satisfy ourselves the case is completely closed on whether the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal triggered a sharp rise in autism diagnoses in the 1990s. Partly, that is due to our own research among two populations --homeschoolers who do not vaccinate their children, and particularly the Amish, who have a religious exemption from the mandatory childhood-vaccine schedule.
While acknowledging our limitations, we've stated the facts as we found them -- little evidence of autism, certainly nowhere near the 1-in-166 rate diagnosed in the rest of the population.
This has led some readers to suspect our mind is made up, whereas we view it as wide open. If better minds than ours would simply (and quickly) study the rate of autism in such populations -- a task that to date has been oddly omitted from the millions in grants and thousands of studies on autism-- we think the matter could be brought to a decisive conclusion.
If never-vaccinated children have the same rate of autism as everyone else, isn't the case closed? Your honor, we are willing to stipulate that it is.
Another reason we keep talking about vaccines is ... that is what so many parents of autistic children talk about when they get in touch with us. We have in fact formed one conclusion: It is important to listen to what parents say about their own children. This is a widely accepted concept --but honored in the breach when it comes to much of the mainstream media's coverage of autism.
Strangely, "Father Knows Best" applies metaphorically more than factually: Paternalistic medical experts and scientific bodies evoke godlike awe in much of the media, whereas real-life fathers and mothers get the brushoff. Yet the mainstream media's role is to present all sides and -- if they have any agenda at all -- to question authority, not comfort it.
That was our point in critiquing an article in The New York Times last month, headlined "On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research." Because the Times' front page sets the agenda for so much of the media, how it treats controversial topics matters inordinately.
The article clearly and unapologetically gave more weight to a select group of scientific studies -- "research" -- than to parents who doubt that research. That is not necessarily a problem, but why do parents doubt that research? Because, in many cases, they think they witnessed a vaccine reaction that left their child autistic. Of course, that proves nothing; the well-established principle is temporal association cannot establish causality. True enough, but being shot with a gun and dropping dead are widely viewed as associated both temporally and causally, absent compelling proof to the contrary. Some parents consider the association between immunizations and autism about that clear -- at least when it pertains to their child. That does not mean they are right, but it suggests they should be heard in enough detail for the reader to decide whether they are making any sense. That was our problem with the Times' piece. Where were the parents' accounts of what they saw and believed, accounts that might explain their objections to research that says otherwise? Nowhere.
Of course, not every parent thinks he or she has witnessed a link between vaccination and their child's autism. Many if not most reject the idea entirely, but "the literature" -- my inbox being one example -- is full of just such striking accounts. You cannot write about why parents object to research clearing vaccines as a cause of autism without addressing that. The Times did.
Those who have complained about the Times' story have heard from the newspaper's Public Editor Byron Calame. Here, verbatim, is what he told representatives of the group A-CHAMP: I have carefully reviewed your e-mail and spent several hours with the editors and reporters who prepared the article, who have provided me with explanations and information to answer the questions your e-mail raised in my mind.
This has left me convinced that the article isn't intellectually dishonest. Nor are the omissions staggering. Nor is there a pervasive editorial bias. I find the article fair and accurate, even though I understand why it could disappointment a group such as yours with its strong point of view on the controversy that surrounds autism today.
It seems to me you may have a misconception of what The Times regards as fairness and balance in an article. There's a general obligation to listen to all sides in a controversial situation, which I think the reporters clearly did in this case. But when it comes time to write the article, it doesn't necessarily mean 20 inches for one side and 20 inches for the other. I find your concern that all the documents and communications you provided to the reporters didn't get into the article a possible reflection of this numbers-oriented perception of balance.
Readers of The Times expect to get the most meaningful and significant information presented in the most efficient way possible. The Times expects its reporters and editors to work hard and smart to gather a lot of information -- and select the information that is the most meaningful and significant to put in their articles.
All studies and documents aren't of equal value, so they don't necessarily deserve an equal amount of space in a Times article. The reporters were aware of the three government reports or sets of recommendations you cited and had decided -- correctly, it seems to me --that they didn't merit inclusion in the article.
As for your request for a meeting, I would be willing to meet in person or on a conference call with up to three representatives of A-CHAMP for 45 minutes on a mutually agreeable date in August. I have requests for meetings from two other groups, which I would intend to schedule for the same day.
Whatever you may think of the Times story, it is interesting to hear a complete, cogent defense of it, wouldn't you agree? We respectfully suggest that was the Times' fundamental lapse -- not presenting enough of the "vs." argument to let readers form their own conclusion about the parents' case or how they came to believe it.
That is what we propose to do in Part 2 of this discussion: let the parent of an autistic child, a parent quoted in bits and bites in the Times piece, speak for herself. Verbatim. In toto. At length.
You can decide what to make of it. And we will print what you say.
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
Reprinted here with permission.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
http://tinyurl.com/77ykp
Part 1 of 2. Regular readers of this column (and we thank you) know that we value a back-and-forth approach. Since beginning this open-ended series six months ago, we have paused several times to let readers speak, and our direction has been shaped by their responses.
Lately, we have been pursuing the vaccine question, unable to satisfy ourselves the case is completely closed on whether the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal triggered a sharp rise in autism diagnoses in the 1990s. Partly, that is due to our own research among two populations --homeschoolers who do not vaccinate their children, and particularly the Amish, who have a religious exemption from the mandatory childhood-vaccine schedule.
While acknowledging our limitations, we've stated the facts as we found them -- little evidence of autism, certainly nowhere near the 1-in-166 rate diagnosed in the rest of the population.
This has led some readers to suspect our mind is made up, whereas we view it as wide open. If better minds than ours would simply (and quickly) study the rate of autism in such populations -- a task that to date has been oddly omitted from the millions in grants and thousands of studies on autism-- we think the matter could be brought to a decisive conclusion.
If never-vaccinated children have the same rate of autism as everyone else, isn't the case closed? Your honor, we are willing to stipulate that it is.
Another reason we keep talking about vaccines is ... that is what so many parents of autistic children talk about when they get in touch with us. We have in fact formed one conclusion: It is important to listen to what parents say about their own children. This is a widely accepted concept --but honored in the breach when it comes to much of the mainstream media's coverage of autism.
Strangely, "Father Knows Best" applies metaphorically more than factually: Paternalistic medical experts and scientific bodies evoke godlike awe in much of the media, whereas real-life fathers and mothers get the brushoff. Yet the mainstream media's role is to present all sides and -- if they have any agenda at all -- to question authority, not comfort it.
That was our point in critiquing an article in The New York Times last month, headlined "On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research." Because the Times' front page sets the agenda for so much of the media, how it treats controversial topics matters inordinately.
The article clearly and unapologetically gave more weight to a select group of scientific studies -- "research" -- than to parents who doubt that research. That is not necessarily a problem, but why do parents doubt that research? Because, in many cases, they think they witnessed a vaccine reaction that left their child autistic. Of course, that proves nothing; the well-established principle is temporal association cannot establish causality. True enough, but being shot with a gun and dropping dead are widely viewed as associated both temporally and causally, absent compelling proof to the contrary. Some parents consider the association between immunizations and autism about that clear -- at least when it pertains to their child. That does not mean they are right, but it suggests they should be heard in enough detail for the reader to decide whether they are making any sense. That was our problem with the Times' piece. Where were the parents' accounts of what they saw and believed, accounts that might explain their objections to research that says otherwise? Nowhere.
Of course, not every parent thinks he or she has witnessed a link between vaccination and their child's autism. Many if not most reject the idea entirely, but "the literature" -- my inbox being one example -- is full of just such striking accounts. You cannot write about why parents object to research clearing vaccines as a cause of autism without addressing that. The Times did.
Those who have complained about the Times' story have heard from the newspaper's Public Editor Byron Calame. Here, verbatim, is what he told representatives of the group A-CHAMP: I have carefully reviewed your e-mail and spent several hours with the editors and reporters who prepared the article, who have provided me with explanations and information to answer the questions your e-mail raised in my mind.
This has left me convinced that the article isn't intellectually dishonest. Nor are the omissions staggering. Nor is there a pervasive editorial bias. I find the article fair and accurate, even though I understand why it could disappointment a group such as yours with its strong point of view on the controversy that surrounds autism today.
It seems to me you may have a misconception of what The Times regards as fairness and balance in an article. There's a general obligation to listen to all sides in a controversial situation, which I think the reporters clearly did in this case. But when it comes time to write the article, it doesn't necessarily mean 20 inches for one side and 20 inches for the other. I find your concern that all the documents and communications you provided to the reporters didn't get into the article a possible reflection of this numbers-oriented perception of balance.
Readers of The Times expect to get the most meaningful and significant information presented in the most efficient way possible. The Times expects its reporters and editors to work hard and smart to gather a lot of information -- and select the information that is the most meaningful and significant to put in their articles.
All studies and documents aren't of equal value, so they don't necessarily deserve an equal amount of space in a Times article. The reporters were aware of the three government reports or sets of recommendations you cited and had decided -- correctly, it seems to me --that they didn't merit inclusion in the article.
As for your request for a meeting, I would be willing to meet in person or on a conference call with up to three representatives of A-CHAMP for 45 minutes on a mutually agreeable date in August. I have requests for meetings from two other groups, which I would intend to schedule for the same day.
Whatever you may think of the Times story, it is interesting to hear a complete, cogent defense of it, wouldn't you agree? We respectfully suggest that was the Times' fundamental lapse -- not presenting enough of the "vs." argument to let readers form their own conclusion about the parents' case or how they came to believe it.
That is what we propose to do in Part 2 of this discussion: let the parent of an autistic child, a parent quoted in bits and bites in the Times piece, speak for herself. Verbatim. In toto. At length.
You can decide what to make of it. And we will print what you say.
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
Reprinted here with permission.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Number of Autism Cases Declines in Calif.
Number of New Cases of Autism in California Declines for the First Time in More Than 10 Years
The Associated Press
Jul. 13, 2005 - The number of new cases of autism in California has fallen for the first time in more than 10 years in what may be a bellwether for autism rates nationwide, according to new data compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services.
The total number of autistic children receiving special education services from the state continues to grow bringing the current total to 28,046 but the rate of increase peaked in 2002 and has dropped slightly since then.
Full article available at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/print?id=937092
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
The Associated Press
Jul. 13, 2005 - The number of new cases of autism in California has fallen for the first time in more than 10 years in what may be a bellwether for autism rates nationwide, according to new data compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services.
The total number of autistic children receiving special education services from the state continues to grow bringing the current total to 28,046 but the rate of increase peaked in 2002 and has dropped slightly since then.
Full article available at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/print?id=937092
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
What is MTHFR Mutation? - Toward Understanding the SAM and Folic Acid Cycles
As a Mom with two MTHFR mutations who has a child with ASD and moderate to severe enzyme mutation, I wish to share a link to an article offering an easy-to-understand explanation of what the MTHFR mutation is all about. Article also offers an easy way to 'fix' the mutation(s) with vitamins and supplements.
Toward Understanding the SAM and Folic Acid Cycles
~or~ A Hole in the Bucket
by Ginger Houston-Ludlam
http://www.einstein-syndrome.com/biochemistry_101/hole_bucket.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Toward Understanding the SAM and Folic Acid Cycles
~or~ A Hole in the Bucket
by Ginger Houston-Ludlam
http://www.einstein-syndrome.com/biochemistry_101/hole_bucket.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Mistrust rises with autism rate
By Anita Manning, USA Today
The argument over what is causing soaring rates of autism has reached a boiling point with furious parent groups and their famous allies accusing scientists and public health officials of hiding information to cover up their own mistakes.
Article available at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-07-06-autism_x.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
The argument over what is causing soaring rates of autism has reached a boiling point with furious parent groups and their famous allies accusing scientists and public health officials of hiding information to cover up their own mistakes.
Article available at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-07-06-autism_x.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Autism drug cuts aggression
HealthDayNews
The antipsychotic drug risperidone is a safe, effective treatment for children with autism characterised by tantrums, aggression and/or self-injury, concludes a multi-site study sponsored by the US National Institute of Mental Health.
The study of 101 children (82 boys, 19 girls), aged 5 to 17, found that treatment with risperidone resulted in decreased aggression, reduced repetitive behaviours and increased social interaction, with limited side effects. The study also found that discontinuation of risperidone after six months of treatment resulted in a rapid return of aggressive and disruptive behaviour in most cases.
The findings appear in the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Full article available at:
http://www.health24.com/news/Mind_Psychology/1-930,32407.asp
Related article:
Drug helps counter autism effects
The antipsychotic drug Risperdal decreased tantrums, aggression and self-injurious behavior among children with autism in a small study funded by the government.
This is the first time any drug from a relatively new class of medications called atypical antipsychotics has been systematically studied in autistic kids.
''The response to [Risperdal] ranks among the most positive ever observed in children with autism for a drug treatment,'' said study investigator James McCracken, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the
Autism, mercury, and politics by Robert Kennedy Jr.
By Robert Kennedy Jr. July 1, 2005
MOUNTING EVIDENCE suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays, and other childhood neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.
Prior to 1989, American infants generally received three vaccinations (polio, measles-mumps-rubella, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis). In the early 1990s, public health officials dramatically increased the number of Thimerosal-containing vaccinations without considering the cumulative impact of the mercury load on developing brains.
In a 1991 memo, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccination programs, warned his bosses that 6-month-old children administered the shots on schedule would suffer mercury exposures 87 times the government safety standards. He recommended that Thimerosal be discontinued and complained that the US Food and Drug Administration, which has a notoriously close relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, could not be counted on to take appropriate action as its European counterparts had. Merck ignored Hilleman's warning, and for eight years government officials added seven more shots for children containing Thimerosal.
The Age of Autism: Dismaying 'Times'
The Age of Autism: Dismaying 'Times'
By Dan Olmsted
United Press International
Published July 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Who knew the longest word in the English language would be the best one to explain what is wrong with a newspaper article?
The word is related to establishment bias, and the newspaper in question is none other than The New York Times.
June 25, the paper that sold us on WMDs in Iraq and virtually convicted Wen Ho Lee as a spy for the Chinese, weighed in with a front-page story on whether vaccines cause autism.
Preposterous, the Times concluded, without dirtying its white-gloved hands by actually having to say so. All the right people agree, and the Times quoted them to persuasive effect. The headline said it all: "On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research."
Those whose eyewitness experience convinces them otherwise were cast as hysterical, homicidal scientific illiterates who talk to God through elderly gentlemen and lock children in saunas in their crazed attempts to make money.
The right kind of people, apparently, do not include thousands of parents of autistic children, or thousands of Amish, almost all of whom do not vaccinate their children and do not seem to suffer much autism.
The parents say they have watched their children descend into autism after receiving vaccinations. Doctors who treat the mostly unvaccinated Amish say they have seen every other kind of disorder, but almost no autism.
Who cares, when you have "medical experts" and peer-reviewed "scientific studies" galore? These people are credentialed, for Heaven's sake. They teach at the schools and work at the agencies that count. They hew to the scientific method. They are top-drawer -- and they say autism is not caused by vaccines.
Why, then, does the intellectual version of trailer trash -- untutored parents, the frightfully out-of-its-depth "lay press," people without the right degrees, the right pedigrees, the right publications, the right to an opinion -- keep intruding on this turf?
Because the matter is nowhere near as cut-and-dried as the Times has portrayed it. Absent, for example, were any of the studies that do point a finger at vaccines and the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. Also missing were the critiques of the science the Times relied on, critiques that may be wrong but are certainly worth hearing.
Dismissed were all of the alternative treatments many parents say vastly improved their children's condition. As the Times noted, no studies confirm that assertion, but why not? Why not study them urgently and, if it is discovered that removing mercury from autistic kids' systems really has some effect, what are the implications of that?
Nor was there an acknowledgement that, although the experts maintain there is no link, they have never -- never -- studied the most obvious population: the unvaccinated. All they would need to do is count the number of unvaccinated children with autism and compare that ratio to the rest of society.
If the experts had done this, that issue could have been taken off the table by now. Instead, the real debate is stuck at the starting gate. Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they do not even know if autism has increased in the past decade, although they have had 10 years to figure it out.
I am sure the Times will be very sorry if it finds its editors were in error about the subject and condescending to the parents of autistic children. We can see the Editor's Note now, modeled on "The Times and Wen Ho Lee":
Headlined "The Times, Vaccines and Autism," the editors admit "that our dismissal of the theory was premature and relied too heavily on epidemiological studies that proved to be flawed and that we did not review independently. Worse, we undervalued the eyewitness accounts of parents who watched their children disappear into autism after vaccinations."
The worst part is the Times probably will make the same mistake again on some other important issue -- unless it fixes its fatal flaw of comfortable certainty, otherwise known as arrogance or, in the terminology of the Greek tragedy this is, hubris.
Offering alms to the autistic in two or three years really will not suffice. The New York Times -- plus ABC, NBC and many others, for that matter -- needs to join the rest of us who are thinking for ourselves and grappling with whether vaccines -- the greatest public-health achievement of all time -- inadvertently triggered a disaster for a minority of families.
Getting back to our original theme, the problem with the Times is establishmentarianism, "the doctrine of supporting the social or political establishment," as wordreference.com describes it. Those who diss that establishment encounter another layer of rejection: antidisestablishmentarianism. At last, a practical use for that word!
Until the simple question of what causes autism is clearly established, a lot of people touched by the condition just will not shut up, whether that distresses the enforcers of the longest word in the English language or not.
Article at: http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050706-033143-7347r
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
By Dan Olmsted
United Press International
Published July 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Who knew the longest word in the English language would be the best one to explain what is wrong with a newspaper article?
The word is related to establishment bias, and the newspaper in question is none other than The New York Times.
June 25, the paper that sold us on WMDs in Iraq and virtually convicted Wen Ho Lee as a spy for the Chinese, weighed in with a front-page story on whether vaccines cause autism.
Preposterous, the Times concluded, without dirtying its white-gloved hands by actually having to say so. All the right people agree, and the Times quoted them to persuasive effect. The headline said it all: "On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research."
Those whose eyewitness experience convinces them otherwise were cast as hysterical, homicidal scientific illiterates who talk to God through elderly gentlemen and lock children in saunas in their crazed attempts to make money.
The right kind of people, apparently, do not include thousands of parents of autistic children, or thousands of Amish, almost all of whom do not vaccinate their children and do not seem to suffer much autism.
The parents say they have watched their children descend into autism after receiving vaccinations. Doctors who treat the mostly unvaccinated Amish say they have seen every other kind of disorder, but almost no autism.
Who cares, when you have "medical experts" and peer-reviewed "scientific studies" galore? These people are credentialed, for Heaven's sake. They teach at the schools and work at the agencies that count. They hew to the scientific method. They are top-drawer -- and they say autism is not caused by vaccines.
Why, then, does the intellectual version of trailer trash -- untutored parents, the frightfully out-of-its-depth "lay press," people without the right degrees, the right pedigrees, the right publications, the right to an opinion -- keep intruding on this turf?
Because the matter is nowhere near as cut-and-dried as the Times has portrayed it. Absent, for example, were any of the studies that do point a finger at vaccines and the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. Also missing were the critiques of the science the Times relied on, critiques that may be wrong but are certainly worth hearing.
Dismissed were all of the alternative treatments many parents say vastly improved their children's condition. As the Times noted, no studies confirm that assertion, but why not? Why not study them urgently and, if it is discovered that removing mercury from autistic kids' systems really has some effect, what are the implications of that?
Nor was there an acknowledgement that, although the experts maintain there is no link, they have never -- never -- studied the most obvious population: the unvaccinated. All they would need to do is count the number of unvaccinated children with autism and compare that ratio to the rest of society.
If the experts had done this, that issue could have been taken off the table by now. Instead, the real debate is stuck at the starting gate. Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they do not even know if autism has increased in the past decade, although they have had 10 years to figure it out.
I am sure the Times will be very sorry if it finds its editors were in error about the subject and condescending to the parents of autistic children. We can see the Editor's Note now, modeled on "The Times and Wen Ho Lee":
Headlined "The Times, Vaccines and Autism," the editors admit "that our dismissal of the theory was premature and relied too heavily on epidemiological studies that proved to be flawed and that we did not review independently. Worse, we undervalued the eyewitness accounts of parents who watched their children disappear into autism after vaccinations."
The worst part is the Times probably will make the same mistake again on some other important issue -- unless it fixes its fatal flaw of comfortable certainty, otherwise known as arrogance or, in the terminology of the Greek tragedy this is, hubris.
Offering alms to the autistic in two or three years really will not suffice. The New York Times -- plus ABC, NBC and many others, for that matter -- needs to join the rest of us who are thinking for ourselves and grappling with whether vaccines -- the greatest public-health achievement of all time -- inadvertently triggered a disaster for a minority of families.
Getting back to our original theme, the problem with the Times is establishmentarianism, "the doctrine of supporting the social or political establishment," as wordreference.com describes it. Those who diss that establishment encounter another layer of rejection: antidisestablishmentarianism. At last, a practical use for that word!
Until the simple question of what causes autism is clearly established, a lot of people touched by the condition just will not shut up, whether that distresses the enforcers of the longest word in the English language or not.
Article at: http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050706-033143-7347r
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
CODEX Threat to Supplement Market
Rome, July 4, 2005: “The struggle has just begun.” With these words, one dietary supplement activist expressed the outrage and resolve that dietary supplement activists present at the Codex Commission meeting feel about the Commission’s limiting of the international dietary supplement market to supplement products restricted by safety factors as if they were toxic chemicals.
Read full article at: http://www.healthliesexposed.com/articles/article_2005_07_1_3933.shtml
Read related articles at: http://www.citizens.org/priorities/codex/romeupdate.cfm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Read full article at: http://www.healthliesexposed.com/articles/article_2005_07_1_3933.shtml
Read related articles at: http://www.citizens.org/priorities/codex/romeupdate.cfm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Vaccine tie to autism gains new supporters
07.03.2005
By Carla McClain
Arizona Daily Star
The decade-long debate over what has caused this country's frightening spike of childhood autism once again is exploding.
Behind the ongoing tragedy is the face of Lucas Taube, a Marana 3-year-old whose once-joyful, bright, noisy little self vanished into a strange world of silence and isolation - just weeks after getting four vaccinations in one day.
Full article available at:http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/82522.php
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
By Carla McClain
Arizona Daily Star
The decade-long debate over what has caused this country's frightening spike of childhood autism once again is exploding.
Behind the ongoing tragedy is the face of Lucas Taube, a Marana 3-year-old whose once-joyful, bright, noisy little self vanished into a strange world of silence and isolation - just weeks after getting four vaccinations in one day.
Full article available at:http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/82522.php
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Study: New model may better predict outcomes for children with autism and autistic spectrum disorders
Public release date: 5-Jul-2005
Contact: John Ascenzi
Ascenzi@email.chop.edu
267-426-6055
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Classification tool may better describe autism-related disorders, help evaluate treatments
A new classification tool may allow healthcare professionals treating children with autism and autism-related disorders to more systematically sort out the combination of traits in the condition, and to better predict how children may improve over time. If the model holds up to further study, it may also allow researchers to gauge the effectiveness of different autism treatments.
Developmental pediatrician James Coplan, M.D., reports on a study of 91 children he saw between 1997 and 2002 at the Regional Autism Center of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Most patients were pre-schoolers or of elementary school age, and predominantly boys. The study appears in the July 2005 issue of Pediatrics.
The children in the study had autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), a group of neurodevelopmental disorders of impaired social communication. Those disorders include classic autism, pervasive developmental disorder and Asperger's syndrome. Dr. Coplan studied the relationship among three variables: the severity of the disorder (called atypicality), general intelligence (measured as IQ or developmental quotient) and time.
"These disorders are dynamic and change over time," says Dr. Coplan. "Although they are traditionally classified into mutually exclusive diagnostic boxes, they tend to blend into each other, and this model provides a way to look continuously at ASD, as the symptoms occur and develop along the autistic spectrum, and as the symptoms change over time."
Some children have severe autistic symptoms but high intelligence; others have mild symptoms and mental retardation, or combinations in between, he added. In explaining the model to parents, he sometimes draws an analogy to weight and height. Just as each individual can have a different combination of weight and stature, someone can have an individual combination of intelligence and degree of autism.
One central finding of the study, said Dr. Coplan, is that children in the normal range of intelligence (an IQ of 70 or above) show significant improvement in their ASD symptoms over time. "We can offer the hopeful message to parents that many children with ASD will improve as part of the natural course of the condition," he said. This finding reinforced impressions by Dr. Coplan and many previous researchers about clinical outcomes for children with ASD.
Dr. Coplan cautions that although the model has predictive value for clinical outcomes when looking at average outcomes for groups of children, it will not necessarily predict a course for each individual patient. Rather it would provide a "roadmap" on which to plot a child's progress over time.
The model still must be confirmed in larger studies of populations of children with ASD, not just in a sample from one clinic, according to Dr. Coplan.
If larger studies validate the model, he adds, it may become a benchmark to help researchers evaluate the effectiveness of particular ASD treatments. "Many currently popular therapies may be capitalizing on the natural history of ASD, and claiming such improvement on their own behalf," he writes in the paper. If patients improved more than would be anticipated from the model's outline of the natural course of ASD alone, that might provide evidence for a treatment's success.
Additionally, the model might shed light into causes of ASD, as yet unknown. Children with ASD from different causes may follow different developmental paths," says Dr. Coplan, and studying those patterns may help researchers to better identify causes for the diseases.
Dr. Coplan has since left Children's Hospital to establish a private practice, Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics of the Main Line, in Rosemont, Pa. Dr. Coplan's co-author was Abbas F. Jawad, Ph.D., of the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The Regional Autism Center at Children's Hospital houses a large interdisciplinary program for the diagnosis and treatment of children with ASD.
###
About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking second in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 430-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents.
For more information, visit www.chop.edu.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Contact: John Ascenzi
Ascenzi@email.chop.edu
267-426-6055
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Classification tool may better describe autism-related disorders, help evaluate treatments
A new classification tool may allow healthcare professionals treating children with autism and autism-related disorders to more systematically sort out the combination of traits in the condition, and to better predict how children may improve over time. If the model holds up to further study, it may also allow researchers to gauge the effectiveness of different autism treatments.
Developmental pediatrician James Coplan, M.D., reports on a study of 91 children he saw between 1997 and 2002 at the Regional Autism Center of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Most patients were pre-schoolers or of elementary school age, and predominantly boys. The study appears in the July 2005 issue of Pediatrics.
The children in the study had autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), a group of neurodevelopmental disorders of impaired social communication. Those disorders include classic autism, pervasive developmental disorder and Asperger's syndrome. Dr. Coplan studied the relationship among three variables: the severity of the disorder (called atypicality), general intelligence (measured as IQ or developmental quotient) and time.
"These disorders are dynamic and change over time," says Dr. Coplan. "Although they are traditionally classified into mutually exclusive diagnostic boxes, they tend to blend into each other, and this model provides a way to look continuously at ASD, as the symptoms occur and develop along the autistic spectrum, and as the symptoms change over time."
Some children have severe autistic symptoms but high intelligence; others have mild symptoms and mental retardation, or combinations in between, he added. In explaining the model to parents, he sometimes draws an analogy to weight and height. Just as each individual can have a different combination of weight and stature, someone can have an individual combination of intelligence and degree of autism.
One central finding of the study, said Dr. Coplan, is that children in the normal range of intelligence (an IQ of 70 or above) show significant improvement in their ASD symptoms over time. "We can offer the hopeful message to parents that many children with ASD will improve as part of the natural course of the condition," he said. This finding reinforced impressions by Dr. Coplan and many previous researchers about clinical outcomes for children with ASD.
Dr. Coplan cautions that although the model has predictive value for clinical outcomes when looking at average outcomes for groups of children, it will not necessarily predict a course for each individual patient. Rather it would provide a "roadmap" on which to plot a child's progress over time.
The model still must be confirmed in larger studies of populations of children with ASD, not just in a sample from one clinic, according to Dr. Coplan.
If larger studies validate the model, he adds, it may become a benchmark to help researchers evaluate the effectiveness of particular ASD treatments. "Many currently popular therapies may be capitalizing on the natural history of ASD, and claiming such improvement on their own behalf," he writes in the paper. If patients improved more than would be anticipated from the model's outline of the natural course of ASD alone, that might provide evidence for a treatment's success.
Additionally, the model might shed light into causes of ASD, as yet unknown. Children with ASD from different causes may follow different developmental paths," says Dr. Coplan, and studying those patterns may help researchers to better identify causes for the diseases.
Dr. Coplan has since left Children's Hospital to establish a private practice, Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics of the Main Line, in Rosemont, Pa. Dr. Coplan's co-author was Abbas F. Jawad, Ph.D., of the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The Regional Autism Center at Children's Hospital houses a large interdisciplinary program for the diagnosis and treatment of children with ASD.
###
About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking second in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 430-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents.
For more information, visit www.chop.edu.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Study questions extent of autism in the U.S.
05 Jul 2005
Source: Reuters
By Andrew Stern
CHICAGO, July 5 (Reuters) - Government figures which have been cited to prove that autism is rapidly increasing in the United States are not reliable and thus unsuitable for tracking the disorder, a study said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Education figures, based on the number of children receiving special education assistance, have internal "anomalies" and are in conflict with a number of studies on the prevalence of the condition, said the report from Portland State University in Oregon.
"Basically we don't know what the true prevalence of autism is in this country," the study's author, physician James Laidler, said in an interview.
Full article available at:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04730058.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Source: Reuters
By Andrew Stern
CHICAGO, July 5 (Reuters) - Government figures which have been cited to prove that autism is rapidly increasing in the United States are not reliable and thus unsuitable for tracking the disorder, a study said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Education figures, based on the number of children receiving special education assistance, have internal "anomalies" and are in conflict with a number of studies on the prevalence of the condition, said the report from Portland State University in Oregon.
"Basically we don't know what the true prevalence of autism is in this country," the study's author, physician James Laidler, said in an interview.
Full article available at:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04730058.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
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