Autism

I find this to be especially interesting in light of the fact that I have lupus (and had at the time of my daughter's birth). I wish they had assembled data on that disorder.

My daughter spent her first two nights in the NICU due to a pneumothorax. She was 39 weeks, and 5lbs 15oz. At 2.5yrs old, she was diagnosed with autism.

Wish I could figure out how all that fits together...it seems like it should somehow.

It's interesting stuff- my kids were 10 weeks premature, and weighed 8 lb 4 oz between the 3 of them.  I've also got some kind of weirdness going on with my immune system in that I'm apparently vaccine-resistant, which is mainly annoying as it means that whenever there's a measles, rubella, or pertussis outbreak I'm pretty much housebound until it's over.  I don't have a clue whether any of those factors contributed to my kids' autism or not, and while I do find it interesting, I'm not sure how practical any of these studies really are when it comes to my kids' lives.  

When I started reading about genetics, it quickly became obvious that getting pregnant is at best a crap-shoot if your goal is a completely "perfect" child no matter what is going on in your body...there are no guarantees regardless and literally thousands of things that can "go wrong" at any stage of fetal development, and I do have concerns that studies like this will not only make prospective parents excessively worried, but that it's going to take us further down the road of designer kids.  I don't want the studies to stop, obviously, because I believe that knowledge is a good thing, but I think that it's important to keep them in perspective.

This is yet another study indicating that the immune system plays a significant role in at least some cases of autism.  Other studies have found higher incidence in people with autism of:

- inflammation in the brain

- inflammatory cytokines in the spinal fluid

- autoimmunity against the myelin basic protein coating nerve cells

- imbalance between various components of the immune system such as Th1 and Th2 cells

Other studies have also found high rated of autoimmune disorders among family members of people with autism.  See p. 181-182 of Karen Seroussi's book "Unraveling the Mysteries of Autism and PDD" discussing a 1999 study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Hosptial in Baltimore and published in the Journal of Child Neurology, which said "Those [subjects] with at least three family members with autoimmune disorders were 5.5 times more likely to have autism".

How could a family history of autoimmune disorders contribute to autism?  Three possibilities come to mind:  genes that cause both autism and autoimmunity, affects of the mother's immune system on the gestating fetus, or a genetic tendency towards autoimmunity making the infant/child more susceptible to injury from environmental factors such as mercury pollution (which has been increasing in our environment) and vaccines.

A recent article in Science Daily at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090706161308.htm

says that "Chronic seizures caused by traumatic head injuries may result from chemicals released by the brain's immune system attempting to repair the injured site, according to a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder."

"For decades researchers have focused on neurons as the culprits in seizures, which can be characterized as debilitating 'electrical storms' in the brain.

"However, recent research has shown that micro-glial cells may play a major role in seizures. Researchers have found that glial cells, which are supportive cells that also constitute a major part of the brain's immune system, cluster within areas in the brain when a severe brain injury has occurred.

"When there has been serious damage to the brain, such as a head injury or infection, the immune system is activated and tries to counteract the damage and repair it,' Barth said. 'These glial cells migrate to the damaged area and release chemicals called cytokines that, unfortunately, also profoundly increase the excitability of the neurons that they are near.

"'In our new study, we showed for the first time that glial cells moving in and secreting these cytokines cause the neurons in the area to become excitable enough to cause seizures.'

"The results of the study appear in the July issue of the journal Brain."

Many parents who report vaccine injury followed by autism also report seizures.  For example, see the case of Bailey Banks at http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/Abell.BANKS.02-0738V.pdf

Part 2 to my prior comment

Some people believe that all vaccines are bad.  Others believe that all vaccines are harmless.  There is a middle group who believe that a few children are susceptible to harm from even one vaccine, and that as the number of vaccines increases the percentage of children adversely affected increases as well.

Even Dr. Paul Offit, vaccine defender, has described the adverse effects of the smallpox vaccine here http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec02/offit_smallpox.html

"The healthy individuals who are receiving the vaccine for the first time are at risks of a number of things. And the risks are small, and they're in the sort of 1-2 per 100,000 vaccinee rate for the first vaccinee.

"But they can get an infection of the brain, called encephalopathy or encephalitis. If they have eczema, they can have sometimes a severe and occasionally fatal disease called eczema vaccinatum. And this is very common that one can inadvertently touch the site that was inoculated and then touch the eye and have an infection of the eye, which can rarely be quite severe. In patients who have decreased capacities to fight infection, there is a disease called 'progressive vaccinia' where in fact the disease is overwhelming and it is the cause of death.

"So, there are side effects which are quite severe, which when you start to immunize as many as 500,000 people you're going to see. And what I think is sobering is that this is a vaccine which has eliminated disease, that was probably one of the most important causes of death in this world. Probably about 300 million people have died of smallpox. This vaccine has eliminated it.

"When the disease occurs, either in epidemic or endemic fashion, this vaccine is a godsend. But we don't have smallpox disease anymore in this world. We haven't seen a case on the face of this earth in 25 years. And I guess my sense of this is that arguably one could wait until there's at least one case that's documented as being smallpox anywhere, frankly, on the face of the earth before we move forward to inoculate so many people with a vaccine that can do harm."

This is a very good description of weighing the risks and benefits of a vaccine.  When smallpox was present, he considered the risks of the vaccine to be better than the risks of the disease.  But now that exposure to small pox is so unlikely, the risks of the vaccine are not acceptable.

If small pox can cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), why is it so hard to believe that receiving the MMR plus varicela vaccines at the same time could cause encephalitis in some children?  My own daughter had a febrile seizure a few days after receiving the MMR plus varicela vaccines.  She was lucky -- after a month of fevers she recovered.  It is quite plausible that for some children the inflammatory process in the brain continues.

Dr. Offit mentions eczema (perhaps a sign of an overactive or allergy/autoimmunity-prone immune system) and also "patients who have decreased capacities to fight infection", i.e. immonodeficiency.  Anectdotally, I have heard some parents of children with autism discuss a family history of  immunodeficiency.  Where there is immunodeficiency, the body may not be able to respond appropriately to the injected live viruses, even though the viruses are weakened -- perhaps resulting in chronic infection and inflammation.

So what's a parent to do?  I don't think there are definite answers at this point.  But I do believe that every parent must research vaccines and not just blindly follow the accepted schedule.  Consider whether every vaccine is necessary, whether it is necessary at such a young age, and whether it is safe to give multiple vaccines at once.  If pregnant, don't get a flu shot containing thimerosal, and consider whether it makes sense to get a flu shot at all.  Books such as Dr. Robert Sears' "The Vaccine Book" and Dr. Stephanie Cave's "What Your Doctor May Not Tell you About Children's vaccinations" may be good resources.  Dr. Sears also has a web site http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/ .

I am just a layperson, not any kind of expert.  But I am concerned about the 1 in 150 rate of autism (or maybe now 1 in 100) and increased rates of ADD, severe allergies, asthma, diabetes, and other immune system disorders among today's children.  I don't believe anyone understands all the effects of giving so many vaccines at such a young age -- far more than we gave 25 ago when the rates of all these conditions were lower than today.  (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030303200_pf.html )

My grandson had severe intestinal and allergy issues at birth, however we were recommended by 2 medical doctors who also practice natural medicine not to get any vaccines until these issues were resolved.  My daughter therefore refused the vaccines until he was hospitalized and the hospital staff threatened her with loss of custody due to "medical neglect" and she was so scared that she complied with their demands for the vaccines.  [Because she was not aware that she had the legal right to stand her ground and refuse them] The doctors also intentionally deceived her by pretending to agree with her that he only receive two vaccines. However in reality the shot record demonstrates NINE vaccines given at once. (Two injections totaling a combination of 9)

My grandson had ZERO autism symptoms or behaviors until these vaccines were forced upon him.  He has aluminum levels off the charts.  Where did the aluminum come from?  The same place that the mercury came from until they were forced by congressional hearings to remove it.  THE VACCINES caused my grandson's autism right before our eyes and we are not the only ones.  A survey by Generation Rescue showed that 70% of parents attribute the autism regression to vaccines.  And with 1,500,000 children with autism in this country now, that is about one million sets of parents making the same exact observation.

Did not parents have immune disorders and these other related health issues before the autism epidemic??  What is different in the last 20 years?  The vaccines have quadrupled and thus the immune and toxic assault to little babies and children.  In reality ALL infants are at higher risk of any kind of toxic exposure.  Many health issues have been shown to increase the risk of autism, however prior to this massive assault of the vaccines, these same health issues did not produce autism prior to the increase in the vaccine schedule. When my daughter was born 37 years ago the autism rate was 1 in 10,000 and the vaccine schedule was only 10.  Now it is 48 doses by age 6, but according to the "official party line" there is no correlation???!!!

From my own perspective and experience prior to my grandson's vaccine induced autism, I was a healthy functioning person all my life until I was exposed to a toxic solvent gas that permanently changed my entire health status. Being driven by desperation in search of recovery for myself, I learned that the MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) community has accumulated the science that proves the obvious: Toxic exposures and toxic overloads produce changes in many organ systems and damage health in many ways, just as autism is the result of a toxic overload producing systemic damages. [Chemical Injury Information Network]

OK we don't have to be rocket scientists to use some simple basic logic here. It has been known throughout history that poisonous substances damage health and even kill people. It is known that our environment is contaminated with many toxic substances which can bio accumulate in our bodies slowly but surely producing disease. And yet I was exposed to many toxic substances, as we all are, with no obvious ill effects, until that one fatal day that a solvent was used to remove floor tile from a space adjacent to my business. It would be a very long story for me to list all of the subsequent health issues caused by this toxic exposure, but the point is simply that if my body had not been overwhelmed with toxins beyond what it could normally handle, I would not have become disabled. And if my grandson's body had not been overwhelmed by all of the toxins in the vaccines, HE WOULD NOT BE AUTISTIC AND HE WOULD NOT BE SUFFERING FROM THE EFFECTS OF ALL THIS POISON.

The medical system and vaccine industry is using so called "Science" to manipulate information and "studies" in order to avoid the reality of the vaccine induced autism, cancer, ADD, asthma, allergies, diabetes, on and on ad nauseum.  All of these health issues in children are skyrocketing along with the increased vaccine schedule.  While the powers that be rely upon 14 highly questionable and faulty studies to support their false claim that "vaccines do not cause autism", TACA lists 565 studies and citations which demonstrate the obvious link between vaccines and autism.

http://www.lispectrum.com/pdfs/Supporting_Medical_Studies.pdf

The medical hierarchy won't even report the actual current statistic of 1 in 67 based on public school records.  Why is the "official" statistic of 1 in 150 being reported as current when this figure is based on children born in 1994?  Because they don't want the public to know the actual reality of how bad it really is.

.org/yazbak/1-in-150-is-really-1-in-67-20071005.htmhttp://web.archive.org/web/20071223152720/www.vaproject

http://fourteenstudies.com/history.html

Mercury and Aluminum have both been demonstrated by many thousands of studies to produce the neurological damages seen in both Autism and Alzheimers. For God's sake, Mercury was known to induce "Mad Hatters" 200 years ago, but somehow Mercury couldn't have anything to do with autism??!!! I learned about Aluminum and Mercury being found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients over 30 years ago, but in all this time the medical heirarchy continually increased vaccines to the elderly, vaccines which included amounts of these heavy metals way above the "safe" levels. (Logic again tells me that there is no safe level of any heavy metals, so there should not be ANY of this in vaccines) Subsequently we have a statistic of 50% of people over age 65 being diagnosed with Alzheimers, a condition which has many similarities to autism, and yet somehow the vaccines have no contribution to this??!!!! My grandson has aluminum levels off the charts, but this has nothing to do with his autism??? OH REALLY.

Aluminum Toxicity Medical Research and Studies:

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/hydro/al.htm

Over 7,000 reference articles on aluminum toxicity existed in various data bases as of 1936, (Today, there are more than a million) all recognizing the toxicity.

Mercury and Aluminum are not the only contributing factors to vaccine poisoning, but with heavy metals assaulting the glutathione pathway, it doesn't take much of any other poison to produce further damages. Just assaulting the human body with multiple virus and bacteria can easily overwhelm the immune system. So here we have concurrent assaults to the detoxification system and the immune system both at once with multiple ongoing vaccines.

Vaccines, adjuvants and potential toxicity: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_244/ai_111271897

Studying Vaccine Ingredients:

http://www.trackingvaccinations.com/#heavy

Prior to this massive increase in the vaccine schedule the autism rate was only 1 in 10,000. The basic logic of the facts is so obvious that considering the insanity of the medical systems' denial of this reality infuriates me. And our government backs them up??!!! Congress has been bought and paid for with 30 pieces of silver and they are thus allowing the crucifixion of our children.

"We the people" must utilize our own intelligent reasoning powers that God gave us to protect our children and to recover our children from vaccine injuries. World wide statistics regarding vaccine schedules and autism rates should have produced an obvious conclusion to our government by now, so where are they??? Still backing up the vaccine industry. An idiot could simply look at the statistics and figure this out. America and Great Britain have the largest vaccine schedules and the highest rates of autism while the countries with the lowest rates of autism have the lowest vaccine schedules. Since it doesn't take a rocket scientist to arrive at this conclusion, there is only one other explanation: Corruption and Greed is what is ruining the health of American children, and no one in our government wonders why we are 34th in infant mortality, or wonders about the fact that we lead the world in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other major diseases???

But we hear it on the news every day: "America leads the world in medicine" instead of the actual reality: "America leads the world in DISEASE."  America leads the world in toxic vaccines and toxic drugs, but somehow this has no correlation to leading the world in disease??!!! [Autism being just one of many]

GOD HELP US.

Our autistic daughter also developed seizures at age 5 (about a year after her initial PDD-NOS diagnosis); her neurologist added a diagnosis of encephalopathy.  Her seizures have been more or less under control with an ever-changing "cocktail" of anti-epileptic drugs, spiking when her system gets "out of balance" (for ex., during allergy seasons), but she's always had at least one or two drop seizures a week (and full-out grand mal seizures during her "spike times").

She also has had GI issues for a long time (both reflux and lower-GI problems).  Under the guidance of a pediatric gastroenterologist who often works with autistic kids (but also with "neurotypical" kids with Crohn's, etc), many of those issues have been improved; but because there are still unresolved issues, the GI doctor recommended a trial of a liquid ("elemental") diet to allow the lower GI system to be completely "unchallenged" for a period of time.

Since she's been on the diet, our daughter hasn't had a *single* seizure (about a month now, which is pretty much the longest in more than three years that she's been seizure free).  She's also lost some weight, because she doesn't much like only being on a liquid diet (can't say I blame her! :-) and so isn't particularly eager to drink her "shakes" instead of having her favorite bacon strips. 

I know that this doesn't prove anything, but as you all might imagine, it certainly makes me more willing to believe a connection between gut issues (putting aside causation, since I don't want to engage with that tarbaby) and brain issues, at least as far as seizures are concerned.  Our daughter does appear to have better focus and more propensity to interaction than she has had recently, since she's been on her diet; but that may be connected as much to a lack of seizures as to an "improvement in her autism" (whatever that might mean).  Or not. :-)

Just one more individual's experience -- and potentially biased observation, at that.  Your mileage may vary.

Matthew used to drink Ensure, two of them a day but in a bottle, this was before Risperdal and it helped to stop the PICA.

I weighed 3 lbs in 1960, my Mom had toxemia and was given last rites in Hospital & I had an emergency Baptism - it states this on my document.  I was in incubator for 6 weeks.

Matt weighed 9 lbs 15 oz and Nick was 7 lbs.

What is reason for Charlie taking the anti epilepsy drug, what is it called?  Wonder if that would be advised for Matt?

Over the yrs Drs get confused with my eczema and rosacea and have wondered if I have Lupus - never did any testing though. 

I clicked on too fast - meant to also add that I converse with many parents that also have eczema and/or asthma too.  There seems to be some correlation there with having kids with autism.

I have many conditions believed to be auto immune in nature: severe Narcolepsy with Cataplexy, RA, Fibromaylgia, Diabetes, and Chronic Lyme's Disease. I do not have any children, yet, but would be very concerned on passion on any of my medical disabilities or even causing Autism in any way.