Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Autism Tsunami Carries Away Parents' Resources

Society also faces high and growing costs
By James Ottar Grundvig
Special to The Epoch Times

Most parents at the onset of bringing their autistic child to a DAN (Defeat Autism Now!) doctor are unaware of the expense that lies ahead. The sheer outlay of money often accumulates faster than thimerosal in the tissues of spectrum kids. The costs go well beyond the visits to one or more doctors, who have developed varying protocols to treat different spokes of the autism wheel.

The commitment to treat an ASD child cannot be measured in weeks or months, but years and even decades. At a cost of $10,000 to $30,000 or more a year after taxes, with little or no insurance reimbursement, and our local, state, and federal governments giving a deaf ear, the money squeeze is on. There are myriad tests, from blood and yeast tests to stomach X-rays and brain MRI's, that balloon costs upfront. That's because doctors need to rule out a variety of ailments that either fall on the spectrum or outside it. When gastrointestinal (GI) problems, aka "leaky gut" or inflamed bowel disease, are added to the mix the expense and the course for treatment soar exponentially.

No longer are parents of leaky gut children merely treating the brain and detoxing the body of heavy metals, they are also trying to balance diets to curb a relentless diarrhea and constipation and get their aging kids out of wearing diapers. Leaky gut issues also have another hidden long-term drawback: Cost. When it comes to chelation therapy, my son, who doesn't have GI issues, takes the oral and stronger form of chelation. But the DMPS chelation pill ravages the stomach of children with leaky gut, who have yeast, bacteria and absorption problems, which in turn causes inflammation.

The majority of ASD kids who are receiving chelation therapy are forced to take it as a transdermal cream application, using the skin as opposed to the stomach as the conduit to receive the medicine. This slower acting chelator costs more than the pill and takes three to five years to work, due to the gradual absorption rate. The pill form takes approximately half that time and is given in cycles of every two weeks as opposed to every day or two. Thus the costs of chelating autistic children with gut issues are far more exorbitant and time-consuming than those who do not suffer GI ailments.

Excerpted from article available at: http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-2-27/38658.html

For information, resources and practical strategies related to autism visit www.AutismConcepts.com.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Contact Your Representatives Tell Them To Sponsor A699 and S784

A-CHAMP ACTION ALERT!

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
TELL THEM TO SPONSOR A 699 AND S 784

Every day, New York citizens affected by autism spectrum disorders are routinely denied necessary medical care by health insurers. Fortunately, legislation has been introduced that would end this discrimination.

Assembly Bill A 699 introduced by Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer of Queens, and the identical Senate Bill S 784 introduced by Senator Charles Fuschillo of Nassau County will end the injustice. The bill was introduced two years ago, but the insurance lobby beat it back. It's time to try again, but this time we can't let up. This is an election year and we need to let our elected representatives know that they must do the right thing and stop discrimination against individuals with autism spectrum disorders. We need to remind legislators that we vote, and so do our families, friends and neighbors.

This legislation will benefit individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their respective families in a number of ways: It requires coverage for autism spectrum disorders to be subject to the same terms and conditions applicable to the treatment of other disorders, establishes procedures for appropriate referrals to pediatric specialists and for a standing referral consistent with a treatment plan, requires that all procedures, fees, and claims for autism spectrum disorders be no more restrictive than an insurer applies for other care or services under the same plan, and clarifies that the provisions of the bill will not interfere with care currently being provided by a school district.

Just click the link below, insert your zip code, use our message or write one of your own, and send a message to your legislators through our re-messaging system.

http://capwiz.com/a-champ/issues/alert/?alertid=8495401

For information, resources, and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

NYS - Early Childhood Outcomes

A new memorandum related to the State Performance Plan -
Indicator #7

Early Childhood Outcomes is now available at http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/timely.htm or directly at http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/spp/earlychild.htm.

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

NOTICE: Autism Concepts website will be offline for 24-48 hours

Autism Concepts website will be offline about 24-48 hours due to its transfer to a new web hosting company.

We are sorry for any inconvenience.

Should you wish to contact us please email us at:
wbtori@optonline.com.

Family: Autistic man's death was unnecessary

By Pat Krochmal and Frank Main

Cunningham died after Des Plaines police responded to a report of an aggravated battery Nov. 20, 2005, at 843 S. Golf Cul de Sac in Des Plaines, the location of a group home in which Cunningham was living. The home, operated by Evanston-based Rimland Services NFP, provides specialized support to individuals with autism.

According to information released last week by a Cook County Medical Examiner's Office spokeswoman, Cunningham suffocated from being placed face down with an officer's hand on his back. His hands, according to the spokeswoman, were cuffed behind his back when police were trying to subdue Cunningham after he severely bit a caregiver on the hand and arms.

A 50,000-volt charge through the wire-attached darts of a Taser stun gun used by police during the encounter did not contribute to his death, according to the medical examiner's office. Neither did pepper spray or a medication a paramedic administered to sedate Cunningham, the office said. The medication's dosage was either too small, or was not circulating in his bloodstream because he was already dead, the office said.

Excerpts from article at: http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/dp/02-16-06-826705.html

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Press Release: Reuters Correspondent Fox Hits 'Easy Button' on Autism Reports, Says National Autism Association

Press Release
Source: National Autism Association

Reuters Correspondent Fox Hits 'Easy Button' on Autism Reports, Says National Autism Association
Tuesday February 21, 9:03 am ET

Reporter's 2/19 Story on Misunderstandings Leaves Little Clarified, Fails to Ask Tough Questions

NIXA, Mo., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Today a group of parents in the mercury poisoning/autism community say there's no real difference between the James Freys of the world and reporters who "nod and write." Many believe the author of a Reuters article published on 2/19 entitled "Autism Surrounded by Misunderstandings," was quick to accept the answers given and took the easy route on such a complicated topic.

In Sunday's article, Maggie Fox, who typically favors proponents of ethylmercury Thimerosal, rested her faith in psychiatrist Dr. Irving Gottesman about the concerns of vaccines and their mercury ingredients' contribution to the rise in autism. In Fox's article, Gottesman said, " ... scientists are battling a plethora of Internet Web sites devoted to the idea that mercury causes autism."

Yet many scientists believe mercury has indeed caused the rise in autism. Web sites, along with written materials and peer-reviewed studies support accredited scientists and researchers that Fox failed to use as a balance to her autism article. Parents are growing frustrated with these nod-and-write tactics.

"Mass communication is about working hard to spread the most dependable information for the sake of knowledge and intelligence," says parent Wendy Fournier. "Unfortunately, Ms. Fox has forgotten this. Meanwhile, our children sit in a prison of silence where the truth has become banned."

Some parents believe that the court of public opinion is just as powerful as honest science when it comes to the wide prevalence of mercury poisoning dubbed "autism." "Journalistic integrity is key," says mother Rita Shreffler. "Otherwise, you're simply a transcriber ... a secretary of half-truths, rather than a championed poet of the whole truth."

The Reuters article came after a meeting of fellow doctors with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Donors of AAAS include Johnson and Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer. Reuters also has several ties to pharmaceutical companies such as Merck and Glaxo SmithKline. A few of these pharmaceutical companies hold a vested interest in disproving a link between mercury-containing vaccines they manufactured and neurological injuries to children.

NAA, a non-profit and parent-run organization, plans to launch a formal request for full disclosure to groups such as Reuters. The request would require any conflicts of interest be disclosed at the end of articles that deal with pharmaceutical issues. For more information visit www.nationalautism.org.

Contact:Rita Shreffler, NAA (Nixa, MO) 417-818-9030
Wendy Fournier, NAA (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523

Source: National Autism Association


For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Expert panel dispels the many myths of Autism

Medical Condition News
Published: Tuesday, 21-Feb-2006

A panel of autism experts at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have presented reports which comment on the assumptions about the developmental disability.

The experts, a psychologist, an epidemiologist, a psychiatrist and a physician, say that people with autism are more intelligent and able to function better than previously believed, but mistrust of doctors, biased tests and the Internet have meant myths abound regarding the condition.

Read full article at: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=16113

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

At 21, The Help Ends

State Services Sorely Lacking For Adults With Autism
By Hilary Waldman
The Hartford Courant
February 16 2006

When Charles Vaughn turned 21 on Jan. 11, he walked into a bureaucratic black hole. Connecticut, along with Alabama and Mississippi, is one of three states that provide no services for autistic adults.

"They get all of these good services in school, and you reach that magic age and all of a sudden those services disappear," said Jeanne Milstein, the state's child advocate. "I mean talk about setting them up to fail."

The problem is simple to understand, but apparently difficult to repair. Connecticut has no state agency to serve adults who have normal intelligence and no diagnosed psychiatric or physical ailments but are severely disabled.

Experts estimate that there may be more than 20,000 adults in Connecticut such as Charles Vaughn, who may score high marks on IQ tests but will crumble under the pressure of a job interview.

Excerpts from article at: http://www.courant.com/hc-adultautism.artfeb16,0,203499.story?coll=hc-headlines-home

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: http://www.autismconcepts.com/.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Capitol Insider: Education budget goes upstairs

Staff reports

Rep. Richard Lindsey, D-Centre, shepherded through a state education budget that, despite criticism from Gov. Bob Riley, proved very popular in the Alabama House. The $6 billion Special Education Trust Fund passed out of the House Thursday on a 99-3 vote.

Riley is calling it the "No Special Interest Left Behind Act," but Republican lawmakers couldn't ignore large spending increases in the budget, including money for hundreds more teachers and $78 million for reading, math and science programs, which Riley supports.

The budget contains a $141 million, 5 percent pay raise for education employees and a 7 percent cost of living increase for retirees, giving both groups an 11 percent increase in two years.

Read full article at: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060219/NEWS02/602190329/1009

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please viist: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Free Seminar - Autism in Alaska:Navigating the System

If you'd like more information give the Stone Group a call at 561-3701.

Autism in Alaska: Navigating the System
Providence Alaska Medical Center
East and West Auditoriums
Monday, February 20, 2006 7-10 p.m.

Call the Stone Group at (907) 561-3701


For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Chartbook Compiles Data on Children's Health, Growth, and Development

The Health and Well-Being of Children: A Portrait of States and the Nation 2005 provides an overview of broad health characteristics for children, brings together national and state-level data for the first time, and points to a need to improve access to health care for children from low-income families, children with no health insurance, and children with special health care needs. The chartbook, produced by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, is based on data from the National Survey of Children's Health and focuses on measures of children's physical and mental health, health care, and general well-being as it relates to their families, schools, and neighborhoods. Information for each state, easy-to-follow bar graphs, and breakdown analyses by race and ethnicity are included. The report is available at http://www.mchb.hrsa.gov/thechild/index.htm.

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

FDA Advised to Add 'Black Box' Warnings to Ritalin, Other Stimulants

An advisory panel to the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday it is recommending that the FDA require manufacturers of widely prescribed stimulants such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Concerta to place the most serious type of warning on the drugs, to indicate they may increase the risk of strokes and cardiac arrhythmias in children and adults.

Read alert at: http://www.healthinschools.org/2006/feb10b_alert.asp

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Monday, February 13, 2006

The Age of Autism: Doctors for mercury

By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- As doctors and health authorities fight state bans on mercury in vaccines and keep giving it to kids and pregnant women, one fact stands out: their certainty.
The image of pediatricians and public officials as valiant defenders of mercury takes a bit of getting used to, given their longstanding efforts to keep the toxic element out of our food, our bodies and the environment.
No reasonable person -- let alone health professional -- would advocate keeping mercury in childhood vaccines unless they were absolutely certain it was an exception to this lethal legacy.
That's especially so because vaccines can be made without the mercury preservative, called thimerosal. You can take it out and still protect the health of American children through vaccination, and if you had a shred of doubt about its safety, surely you would.
If you keep it in, you had better be right.
But what is the real degree of certainty that thimerosal is safe? Is it absolute? Beyond a reasonable doubt? A preponderance of the evidence -- the lesser standard that applies in civil cases but not when someone's freedom (or life) is at stake?
Here's the kind of thing that makes doctors -- most of whom have no more ability than you or I to investigate the safety of vaccines for themselves -- feel so certain. It's a paper titled "Vaccine Safety Controversies and the Future of Vaccination Programs," and it appears in the November 2005 issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
The authors are from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends the childhood immunization schedule; the United Nations World Health Organization, which oversees the vaccination of tens of millions of people worldwide every year, and several big universities. The report was supported by "unrestricted grants from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, several universities and other institutions."
"Thimerosal has been used for (more than) 60 years in infant vaccines and in other applications and has not been associated with adverse health effects in the general population, except when persons have been exposed to amounts many orders of magnitude greater than found in vaccines or pharmaceuticals," the authors write.
That's a ringing endorsement of safety (whether it's supported by the data is an issue I'll address in upcoming columns). But keep reading: "It should also be borne in mind that the risks of thimerosal-containing vaccines to the fetus, premature infant and low-weight infant have insufficiently been studied."
Whoa. "Insufficiently studied" -- after more than 60 years of giving thimerosal to pregnant women and babies of every size and shape? Nonetheless, the CDC recommends flu shots for pregnant women and 6-to-23-months-olds and won't recommend thimerosal-free versions. As a result, most flu shots still contain mercury.
Another new study is condescendingly titled, "When science is not enough -- a risk/benefit profile of thimerosal-containing vaccines," by Australians C. John Clements and Peter B. McIntyre in the journal Expert Opinion on Drug Safety:
"Thimerosal is safe as a vaccine preservative, and should continue to be used in settings where accessibility and cost require that multi-dose vials of vaccine are available."
Clements advises the WHO on vaccine policy; McIntyre is director of Australia's National Center for Immunization Research and Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases.
"The overwhelming weight of scientific opinion rejects the hypothesis that neurodevelopmental abnormalities are causally related to the use of thimerosal in vaccines," they point out.
This is the kind of ammunition public health officials and the American Academy of Pediatrics are firing back at proponents of mercury bans --"overwhelming" evidence that thimerosal is safe. In Illinois, the state AAP vigorously opposed the ban.
"Though well intended, these bills do not advance public health and could inadvertently diminish our state's efforts at fighting influenza," the AAP said. "Though it is a mercury-containing compound, thimerosal does not pass from the bloodstream into the brain to any significant degree."
The state legislators listened politely to that dubious assertion -- and voted to limit thimerosal in childhood vaccines anyway. But that was not the last word.
As reported by R. L. Nave in the Illinois Times last month: "Citing cost concerns and a potential shortfall for the upcoming flu season, the Illinois Department of Public Health filed for a 12-month exemption to the Mercury-Free Vaccine Act, passed last summer to limit the use of vaccines containing mercury. However, child-health-care advocates who lobbied for the bill's passage are upset by what they believe was a premeditated attempt by IDPH to circumvent state law."
This is what you call chutzpah -- public health authorities thwarting the express will of the people, certain that flu shots will save humanity and mercury never hurt anybody. Does the governor never fire anyone?
Almost lost in this crossfire is the simple fact that in 1999, these selfsame health authorities -- the CDC, the Public Health Service, the pediatricians, the family physicians -- urged drug companies to remove thimerosal from childhood immunizations in the United States as soon as possible.
Most childhood vaccines -- in the United States, not overseas -- are now thimerosal-free. But that's hardly a blanket reassurance, because most flu shots do contain thimerosal.
Yet the CDC is still studying whether thimerosal causes autism.
"We do agree the preponderance of evidence to date suggests there is no association between thimerosal and autism," CDC spokesman Glen Nowak told us last month. But he said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding is committed to exploring all possibilities until the cause or causes of the disorder are identified.
"Dr. Gerberding has made it clear the CDC has not ruled out anything as possible causes of autism, including thimerosal," Nowak said. "Science is a dynamic process. We have continued to fund studies to look at the role, if any, of thimerosal."
Given these caveats, what would you do? Well, there are two maxims of medicine that might apply. "First, do no harm," is the obvious one.
The second, related concept is the precautionary principle which, according to wikipedia.org, "is the idea that if the consequences of an action are unknown, but are judged to have some potential for major or irreversible negative consequences, then it is better to avoid that action."
So: Vaccines don't need mercury. Even government experts acknowledge some possible risks -- to the fetus, for example -- are insufficiently studied 60 years on. A link to autism has not been ruled out. They're continuing to investigate, as they should.
But the doctors and their public and private allies are battling state by state to stop mercury bans, and the CDC won't recommend a thimerosal-free flu shot for kids and pregnant woman. There's a phrase for this approach:
Bombs away.
--
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Article shared here with permission.

For information, resources and information on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Dr. Buttar's Private Consultation is now Available at Workshops in San Jose, Dallas, Boston, and Charlotte!

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For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Autism & The Brain

By Lisa Malak

(WFRV) LOS ANGELES, CA Scientists May Be Closer To Answering What Happens In The Brain To Make A Child Autistic.Autistic Children Often Struggle To Recognize.. Or Understand Emotions In Other People.

In A U-C-L-A Study.. They Scanned The Brains Of Kids With Autism.. And Those Without.. While Showing Them Pictures Of Different Emotions.

Analyzing The Part Of The Brain Responsible For Emotion.. Doctors Noticed In Autistic Kids.. Nothing Happened..But In Other Kids.. It Lit Up.

Article available at: http://wfrv.com/health/local_story_038102311.html

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: http://www.autismconcepts.com/.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

MMR : the facade cracks

February 07, 2006
Daily Mail, 7 February 2006

Ever since the MMR controversy burst upon a bemused world back in 1998, the battle lines have been very clearly drawn.

In one camp is Andrew Wakefield, the gastro-enterologist who started the whole furore when he claimed to have discovered a new syndrome in children combining autistic symptoms with a new type of bowel disease.

The affected children’s parents believed that this was the result of their triple measles, mumps and rubella jabs. Mr Wakefield took their fears seriously and suggested that, for the sake of prudence, children should be vaccinated with single jabs rather than MMR.

In the uproar that has ensued ever since virtually the entire medical establishment, headed by the Department of Health, has lined up in the opposite camp to denounce Mr Wakefield’s claims in the most vitriolic terms as ‘junk science’ with no substance to them whatsoever. MMR, said all these experts with one voice, had been proved to be safe.

As a result, Mr Wakefield’s reputation has been systematically trashed and his research is said to be discredited. Yet many parents remain concerned. Only about 70 per cent of children are being vaccinated with MMR, raising fears of epidemics of measles, mumps and rubella. Indeed, as figures published yesterday revealed, in some areas a few as one in ten children has the triple jab.

Yet as the controversy deepened, there was never a chink in the united front the health department presented to the world. It painted the anti-MMR camp as a bunch of hysterical and grasping parents desperate to blame someone for the inexplicable tragedy that had befallen their children, and exploited by a cranky and irresponsible doctor who was putting the health of the nation’s children at risk by terrifying parents into avoiding giving them the MMR jab.

At the very core of the department’s case was its assertion that all the evidence was on its side. There had been no serious corroboration of Mr Wakefield’s claims and all reputable studies had shown MMR to be safe. There was simply no scientific case to answer.

Now, however, that united front has been shattered. A former senior Government medical officer has broken ranks to say that, on the contrary, the evidence suggests that for a small proportion of children MMR is not safe and that the Government is guilty of ‘utterly inexplicable complacency’.

The person who is saying this cannot easily be dismissed. Dr Peter Fletcher, a former Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of Health in the late 1970s, is a former medical assessor to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines and had responsibility for deciding whether new vaccines were safe. For years, therefore, he was at the very heart of the vaccine policy-making and regulatory establishment. If anyone knows how to assess all the available evidence on such matters, he surely does.

Full article posted at: http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles/archives/001580.html


For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Gold salts autism cure tested

Discover News
03 February, 2006

Gold salts may one day be used to treat autism, a scientist has suggested. Mady Hornig from Columbia's Mailman School of Public Policy is to test whether gold salts can improve the functioning of "autistic mice", the United Press International reports. Dr Hornig has bred a group of mice with a susceptibility to thimerosal, which used to be widely used in children's immunisations and is thought by many to be linked to the rise in autism.

Read full article at:
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=6916

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Free Publication: Special Education in a Nutshell 2005 Edition

The Education Law Center in Pennsylvania has updated their advocacy publication: Special Education in a Nutshell 2005 Edition.

Download Special Education in a Nutshell 2005 at:
http://www.elc-pa.org/pubs/downloads/english/dis-Nutshell%20manual2005.pdf

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Former science chief: 'MMR fears coming true'

02/05/06 - Health section

Former science chief: 'MMR fears coming true'
By Sue Corrigan, Mail on Sunday

A former Government medical officer responsible for deciding whether medicines are safe has accused the Government of "utterly inexplicable complacency" over the MMR triple vaccine for children.

Dr Peter Fletcher, who was Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of Health, said if it is proven that the jab causes autism, "the refusal by governments to evaluate the risks properly will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history".

He added that after agreeing to be an expert witness on drug-safety trials for parents' lawyers, he had received and studied thousands of documents relating to the case which he believed the public had a right to see.

He said he has seen a "steady accumulation of evidence" from scientists worldwide that the measles, mumps and rubella jab is causing brain damage in certain children.

But he added: "There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves."

His warning follows reports that the Government is this week planning to announce the addition of a jab against pneumococcal meningitis for babies, probably from next April. It is also considering flu jabs for under-twos - not to protect the children, but adults they may infect.

In the late Seventies, Dr Fletcher served as Chief Scientific Officer at the DoH and Medical Assessor to the Committee on Safety of Medicines, meaning he was responsible for deciding if new vaccines were safe.

Find this story at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=376203&in_page_id=1774

For more information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Doctor: Wrong medication to blame in autism death

The Associated Press
01/18/2006

A 5-year-old autistic boy died because the wrong medication was administered during a controversial treatment for the disorder, a doctor at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Abubakar Tariq Nadama, of Monroeville, died Aug. 23 in his doctor's office because he was given the wrong medication, not because of the therapy itself, Dr. Mary Jean Brown said Tuesday.

Chelation therapy involves injecting a synthetic amino acid called EDTA into the body, which is supposed to clean out heavy metals from the bloodstream so they can be dispelled through urine.

Some parents and doctors believe autism is caused by heavy metals. The FDA has approved chelation for treatment of lead and heavy metal poisoning, but not to treat autism, because it is considered risky.

"It's a case of look-alike/sound-alike medications," Brown, chief of the CDC's lead poisoning prevention branch, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "The child was given Disodium EDTA instead of Calcium Disodium EDTA. The generic names are Versinate and Endrate. They sound alike. They're clear and colorless and odorless. They were mixed up."

Read full article at:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15950125&BRD=2212&PAG=461&dept_id=465812&rfi=6

For more information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Friday, February 03, 2006

The Age of Autism: New test of gold salts

By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor

A Columbia University scientist plans to test whether gold salts improve the functioning of "autistic mice" -- a step toward finding whether they could help children with autism.

Dr. Mady Hornig of Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health will give the compound to mice that have been bred to be susceptible to thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's immunizations until recently. Some researchers and parents believe thimerosal is implicated in the explosion of autism diagnoses over the past decade, though federal health authorities say that theory has been discredited.

In previous research, Hornig found that the susceptible mouse breed shows autistic-like behaviors, including self-mutilation, when given thimerosal at doses proportionate to those children received until recently.

Hornig "is developing a treatment protocol using gold salts which she will administer to these genetically susceptible mice to determine if the treatment might improve their behavior and brain function and if there are side effects," according to an announcement of the project by the National Autism Association.

"Gold tightly binds mercury and there are anecdotal reports of gold salts being effective in improving autism outcomes."

That is a reference to Age of Autism's report last year that the first person ever diagnosed with the disorder improved significantly after treatment with gold salts. That child, known as Donald T., was given the compound to treat a life-threatening attack of juvenile arthritis in 1946, when he was 12 years old.

According to Donald's brother, interviewed in the small Mississippi town where both still live, the treatment cleared up the arthritis -- and his autism improved markedly and unexpectedly as well.

"When he was finally released (from the Campbell Clinic in Memphis), the nervous condition he was formerly afflicted with was gone," his brother said. "The proclivity to excitability and extreme nervousness had all but cleared up."

Donald became "more social," the brother said. He went on to graduate from college, where he belonged to a fraternity; worked at a bank; lives on his own; and now, in retirement, travels the world and plays a good game of golf.

That information caught the attention of autism researchers who believe the disorder might result from a toxic exposure in utero or in infancy, possibly the mercury that was used in vaccines as early as 1931 (Donald was born in 1933).

One such scientist, chemistry professor Boyd Haley of the University of Kentucky, did a laboratory experiment in December to see if gold salts had any effect on mercury.

They did, reversing the binding of mercury to molecules. "This does lend support to the possible removal of mercury from biological proteins in individuals treated with gold salts," Haley said.

Gold salts acting on mercury is not the only way they might theoretically help a person with autism. Some researchers believe autism is an autoimmune condition, in which the immune system begins to attack the body.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, the ailment Donald had at age 12, is such a condition; gold salts were used to treat it because they somehow calm the inflammatory autoimmune attack. If the same process is happening in the brains of autistic children, gold salts might ameliorate it in the same way.

Researchers caution that gold salts should not be tried as a treatment for autism because of the risk of severe side effects and lack of data about its effectiveness.

Hornig said she was moved to begin the study by the death of Liz Birt, an advocate for children with autism who died in a car crash in December. Birt was a co-founder of SafeMinds, a group that urges the removal of mercury from all medical products. SafeMinds is sponsoring the study and soliciting donations in Birt's memory.

Details of the project, called Go for the Gold, can be found at www.nationalautismassociation.org.
--
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Article used here with permission.

For more information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Special Education Students Benefit From Unique Literacy Intervention Model

Press Release
Wednesday February 1, 12:54 pm ET

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Southwest Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) is working with Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes for a second year to address the literacy development needs of students. SELPA services twelve area school districts and over 13,000 students on Individual Education Plans (IEP) in Los Angeles County. Last year, the success of Lindamood-Bell's unique Center in a School™ CIS™ program led to a dramatic increase in the reading and language comprehension skills of students. The program's small group intervention, customized to meet the needs of each child, enabled many students to increase their reading skills by one or more grade levels in only eight weeks of instruction.

"Working in collaboration with districts, we identified the pupils that were a perfect fit with the Center in a School™ program. Our results were very positive," said Bob Farran, director of Southwest SELPA.
Students with learning disabilities drop out of high school at twice the rate of their non-disabled peers. SELPA works to maintain special education programs and services for these at-risk students. By implementing Lindamood-Bell's CIS™, Southwest SELPA is able to provide students with 120 hours of intensive intervention delivered by Lindamood-Bell staff.

"The students receiving comprehension instruction last year had impressive results," said Tom Mendoza, Director of Lindamood-Bell's Center in a School™. "They improved reading comprehension from well below the normal range to above average."

Lindamood-Bell is an internationally recognized leader in education, owing to its scientifically based reading research and instructional work. With 40 private Learning Centers and over 100 projects in schools, Lindamood-Bell has worked for nearly 30 years with students including those previously diagnosed with dyslexia, hyperlexia, ADD/ADHD and autism. Lindamood-Bell student success stories have received national attention in U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, Time, the neuroscience journal, Neuron, and on CNN.

For additional information about Lindamood-Bell's Center in a School™ or School Services division please call (800) 233-1819 or visit them on-line at www.lindamoodbell.com.

Source: Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes

For information, resources and strategies on autism please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Study: Autistic Social Impairment in the Siblings of Children With Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Am J Psychiatry 163:294-296, February 2006doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.163.2.294© 2006 American Psychiatric Association

Autistic Social Impairment in the Siblings of Children With Pervasive Developmental Disorders

John N. Constantino, M.D., Clara Lajonchere, Ph.D., Marin Lutz, B.A., Teddi Gray, Anna Abbacchi, M.S., Kathleen McKenna, Deepti Singh, B.A., and Richard D. Todd, Ph.D., M.D.

OBJECTIVE: Sibling recurrence risk in autism has been estimated to be approximately 10%. This study investigated subsyndromal autistic impairments among siblings of probands with pervasive developmental disorders. METHOD: The authors used the Social Responsiveness Scale to obtain quantitative assessments of autistic social impairment in three groups of proband-sibling pairs: 1) autistic children from multiple-incidence families and their closest in age nonautistic brothers (N=49 pairs); 2) children with any pervasive developmental disorder, including autism, and their closest-in-age brothers (N=100 pairs), and 3) children with psychopathology unrelated to autism and their closest-in-age brothers (N=45 pairs). RESULTS: Sibling Social Responsiveness Scale scores were continuously distributed and substantially elevated for both the autistic and pervasive developmental disorder groups. Highest scores (i.e., greatest impairment) were seen among siblings of autistic probands from multiple-incidence families, followed by siblings of probands with any pervasive developmental disorder, then siblings of probands with psychopathology unrelated to autism. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together with previous findings, these results support the notion that genetic susceptibility factors responsible for common, subsyndromal social impairments may be related to the causes of categorically defined pervasive developmental disorders.


For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.

Information Sessions on New York State’s Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004

Save the Date!

The Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID), New York State Education Department (NYSED), will be presenting information in spring 2006 on State requirements to implement IDEA 2004, with emphasis on new responsibilities for individual evaluations and eligibility determinations, individualized education program (IEP) development and implementation, transition services, discipline, due process and accountability requirements under the State Performance Plan (SPP).

Eleven information sessions* are scheduled throughout the State with a tentative listing of dates and locations as follows:

March 13, 2006 - Albany
March 21, 2006 - Hempstead
March 21, 2006 - Purchase
March 21, 2006 - Patchogue
March 22, 2006 - New York City
March 23, 2006 - New York City
March 23, 2006 - Potsdam
March 28, 2006 - Rochester
March 29, 2006 - Binghamton
March 30, 2006 - Buffalo
April 4, 2006 - Syracuse

* Each session will cover all topics and present the same information.
Sessions are tentatively scheduled from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM with sign-in beginning at 8:00 AM. The sessions are open to the public, however those planning to attend must pre-register for the event. When details are finalized, specific information as to the exact locations, directions and the registration process will be made available at http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/idea/home.html. At that time, pre-registrations will be available through the VESID web site.

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.