http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-state-highest-autism-range.html

State with one of highest rates of autism turns out to be in normal range

March 26, 2013
by Mary Jo Layton in Autism spectrum disorders


When New Jersey reported one of the nation's highest rates of autism last year - doubling in six years to one in 49 children - researchers described it as "beyond an emergency." But a federal study released this past week indicated that the high rate appears to be the norm nationally. Autism spectrum disorder now affects one in every 50 children, well above the one in 88 previously reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


"The good news is that the increase in autism isn't special to New Jersey," said Walter Zahorodny, an autism researcher at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "The bad news is that it's a significant increase and it's registering everywhere."

The findings released this past week by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration and the CDC are spurring debate: While experts attribute the increase to better reporting, it also suggests that the disorder is being diagnosed more frequently in children with milder symptoms.

According to the study, 1 million children nationally are diagnosed with autism, a complex disorder that affects brain development and a person's ability to communicate, learn and form relationships.

"The feeling all along wasn't that New Jersey has more cases of autism - New Jersey was just more rigorous in ascertaining the incidence," said Dr. Joseph Holahan, medical director of the child development center at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson. "It's still one of the most common serious developmental disorders we see."

<>

"We still think one in 50 is an underestimate," said Michael Rosanoff, associate director for public health research and scientific review for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

The real issue is we need to meet the demands of this public health crisis," said Rosanoff said. "This should be a wake-up call."

<>

Re: last year's CDC numbers from more rigorously designed study (with the 1 in 49 NJ stat),

Eighty percent of the children with autism in the New Jersey study were identified as having the most severe form of the disorder. Boys were more than five times as likely to be diagnosed as girls, both in New Jersey and in the rest of the country.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-state-highest-autism-range.html#jCp

http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/media-kit/media-kit-videos/

Q&A 4: WHEN DID YOU START TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR CHILD? 3:06



■ALISON MACNEIL – CAMBRIDGE, MA 0:06 I first started to worry about my son about 16 months. He stopped playing with his toys, he stopped making eye contact, didn’t notice if you walked into a room, and had liquid rancid diarrhea all day long.

■SUGAH – HOUSTON, TX 0:38 It was between 12 months to 24 months

■0:49 He was not talking like he should be talking, he would just parrot back whatever I had to say.

■CATHY BRENNAN REILLY – ROCKPORT MA 1:31 At around 18 months he got a cold, a regular cold which turned into pneumonia which turned into ear infections which turned into pneumonia again. During that time he had a fever related seizure, 6 to 8 weeks after the illness he recovered and um, he had lost all his language, he couldn’t speak any more.

Book Review

“This Revolution ignites spirit and brilliance out of the tinder of wrenching pain, crazy contradictions, and a confused and collapsing medical system. Viva la Revolution!!”
~ Martha Herbert, MD, PhD. Pediatric Neurologist and Brain Development Researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital.




Autism Beyond The Spectrum: Inspiring True Stories From Parents Fighting To Rescue Their Children

Twenty-three moms and one brave dad make up The Thinking Moms’ Revolution. Their group stretches from Montana to Malaysia to Montreal. While parenting children with disabilities, they came together on Facebook to collaborate about bio-medical and dietary interventions, as well as doctors and researchers developing cutting edge treatments. In the process they became a tight-knit family dedicated to helping their children lose their diagnoses. Out of this collaboration they have created something far more substantial. Suspecting that the roots of their children’s autism, adhd, asthma, sensory processing disorder and food allergies may be found in the overuse of antibiotics, preventative medical care, environmental toxins and processed food, they began a mission to turn it around!

Here, Helen Conroy and Lisa Joyce Goes have collected TMR’s stories of healing and hope as they fight to recover their children from autism and related disorders. Each chapter is written by a different TMR member sharing how they found each other, what they have learned along their journey, and why the support of close friends, also parenting kids with special needs, is so important. In this book you will read about their individual experiences, and learn how their determination and friendships have become a daily motivation for parents worldwide.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022582265

Fri Mar 29, 2013, 12:06 AM

Lanny Breuer Cashes in After Not Prosecuting Wall Street Execs-- Approximate Salary of 4 million $

178 RECS

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2009/12/julie-gerberding-named-head-of-merck.html

December 21, 2009

WSJ: Merck Appoints Former CDC Chief As Head Of Vaccines

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Merck & Co. (MRK) named former public-health authority Julie Gerberding as the head of the company's $5 billion vaccines business, starting Jan. 25.

Gerberding was the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through most of President George W. Bush's administration, from 2002 until earlier this year.

Vaccines, along with emerging markets and biologics, are an area Merck is eyeing for growth as it digests its recent acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp. The takeover was designed to help bolster Merck's research pipeline and diversify its product lineup in the face of challenges such as generic competition and setbacks in bringing new drugs to market.

<>

As president of the vaccines business, she will be responsible for the sale of the company's current portfolio of vaccines, the introduction of vaccines from the company's pipeline and the acceleration of Merck's efforts to broaden vaccinations in developing countries. Gerberding will also collaborate with Merck's manufacturing division and Merck Research Laboratories to manage links between basic research, late-stage development and manufacturing.

<>

Google search: ageofautism.com IOM
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_rn=7&gs_ri=psy-ab&gs_mss=ageofautismIOM%20&cp=16&gs_id=24&xhr=t&q=ageofautism.com+IOM&es_nrs=true&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=ageofautism.com+IOM+&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44442042,d.dmQ&fp=89fb49f649d47981&biw=1957&bih=921

http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/01/iom-fails-again-to-pursue-science-on-vaccine-injury.html

IOM Fails Again to Pursue Science on Vaccine Injury

SafeMinds Response to 1/16/2013 IOM Report: http://www.safeminds.org/news/pressroom/safeminds-responds-IOM%20Report.html

The January 16, 2013 Institute of Medicine report, The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety: Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence, and Future Studies, repeats the IOM pattern of failing to call for the appropriate scientific research to be conducted on vaccine-induced autism. The report ignores the fact that for 6 of the 7 vaccines administered in the first year of a child’s life (HCV, DTaP, PCV, Rotavirus, IPV, and Rotavirus), there has never been a study of autism prevalence in children who received the vaccine versus children who did not receive the vaccine. These studies were not performed before each of these vaccines was approved, and have not been performed since approval. The IOM report admits that such a study is the gold standard of science, yet does not call for studies. The IOM report ignores the fact that for the 7th vaccine (Hepatitis B), there has been only one such study and that this study found a 3-fold increase in autism risk for children who received the vaccine in the first month of life. The autism epidemic dates to the 1988 birth cohort per an EPA study, the same birth cohort which was administered the Hib conjugate vaccine (an entirely new class of vaccine), and an October 2011 published paper describes a plausible mechanism by which this new type of vaccine could have caused the autism epidemic. Yet the IOM report ignores the fact that autism prevalence has never been studied for the Hib conjugate vaccine in children receiving versus not receiving this vaccine.

Why would the IOM not call for the obviously necessary research to be conducted? Safeminds believes the answer lies in an institutional bias within IOM towards protecting the vaccination program. Leaked transcripts of initial deliberations during the 2004 IOM Immunization Safety Review show that the IOM chair told the committee that they would not ever come down that autism is a true side effect of vaccines; subsequently, the IOM 2004 report had the audacity to call for a halt in further research into a vaccine-autism association. The IOM 2004 report was not based upon conclusive research, but instead appeared policy-driven based on leaked transcripts. Now in this January 2013 report, intended to lay the groundwork for future research on vaccine-safety, the IOM instead advertises the benefits of the current testing system which has failed to conduct the necessary research. While recognizing that “randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for clinical research”, the IOM committee does not call for these trials. The IOM committee also dismisses the feasibility of retrospectively comparing vaccinated vs unvaccinated children citing that population groups often containing unvaccinated children, such as religious communities, would yield sample sizes too small for valid results. This short-sightedness ignores the more obvious solution of utilizing the estimated 1-2M home-schooled population for such a study.

According to a 2009 survey in Pediatrics journal, 54% of parents are concerned about the adverse effects of vaccines and 25% think some vaccines cause autism in healthy children. Per a 2010 National Poll on Children’s Health, 89% of parents rate vaccine safety as the most important topic in children’s health research today. The IOM report is disappointing in that it does not lay out a path to the necessary research, and as such does nothing to allay the concerns of parents regarding vaccine injury. For the estimated money spent for this IOM report, the U.S. government could have instead funded a retrospective study of autism prevalence in home-schooled vaccinated versus unvaccinated children. SafeMinds calls for urgent government funding for the necessary vaccine-autism research, rather than continuing to fund organizations such as IOM which advocate for avoiding such research.

Posted by Age of Autism at January 19, 2013 at 5:42 AM

http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/03/geraldine-dawson-says-vaccines-dont-cause-autism.html

...A reader named Ed Burke offered this analogy:

"I don't have a horse in this race, but I am surprised that no one is talking about what the study shows, which does little or nothing to inform the debate as to whether the current recommended vaccine schedule is safe.

"If you fire paint guns across a schoolyard all day and that night compare the kids with splattered clothes to the ones clean, they were all exposed to the same number of paintballs. The paintballs still caused the splattered clothes.

"If you expose a population of kids to a slew of vaccines and then compare those who develop autism to those who don't, and say, well, the autistic kids were not exposed to any more vaccines than the non-autistic kids, that does not prove the vaccines do not cause autism any more than our hypothetical proved paintballs do not cause splattered clothes.

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-walter-zahorodny-believes-vaccines.html

APRIL 3, 2012

Dr. Walter Zahorodny Believes Vaccines Cause Autism. And Geri Dawson???

By Ginger Taylor


From a Radio Listener in NYC:

I was listening this AM to WNYC – Kurt Andersen, of all hostile people, did a segment on the ADDM numbers with Walter Zahorodny, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. Zahorodny was the lead researcher on the New Jersey portion of the study.

Kurt Andersen (Seth Mnookin's friend): “I guess we know what they (the causes of autism) aren’t, for instance childhood vaccines. Right?

Dr. Zahorodny: “Vaccines don’t play a significant role in autism increasing. Some small number of children probably do have autism because of an adverse vaccine reaction, but they don’t make for the overall rise.”

D'oh!

What's that you say Dr. Z? Vaccines don't cause most autism, but they do cause some autism?? You don't say?!

When the brainwashed "science media" can't even get those involved in the research to hold the "vaccines do not cause autism" line any more... we can be assured that the Hungry Lie is falling apart in earnest and the end of the vaccine age is near.

If anyone can confirm or has audio, would love to hear it.

UPDATE: Confirmation. Starts at 13:20 (AUDIO LINK): http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2012/apr/02/autism-rates-rise-new-jersey/

More at link.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/06/autism-and-what-the-experts-are-saying-part-two-.html

Autism and What the Experts are Saying, Part Two: Dawson, Zahorodny, and Amaral

June 04, 2012 at 5:45 AM
By Anne Dachel

If you’re like me, you’re sick to death of reporters telling you that all the science shows no link between vaccines and autism. Members of the press don’t hesitate to remind the public on a daily basis that only misguided parents believe vaccinations can cause autism. It’s usually a one sentence dismissal in a news report...

There are some huge chinks in the armor of the no link claim, however. I’m referring to the public acknowledgement by some top medical experts that yes, vaccinations do sometimes cause children to become autistic.

There are more and more independent doctors out there saying there is a link, but I’m talking about doctors who are often cited in news stories denying any causal relationship, yet who will also admit that, yes, sometimes vaccines are responsible.

<...>

In April, 2011, Dr. David Amaral, Director of Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis MIND Institute, was interviewed for PBS by Robert MacNeil.

He was asked if vaccines can cause autism and he said this:

“I think it's pretty clear that, in general, vaccines are not the culprit. There has been enough epidemiological evidence showing that if you look at children that receive the standard childhood vaccines that, if anything, those children are at slightly less risk of having autism than children that aren't immunized.

“And so, you know, I think it probably is a waste of effort at this time to try and understand vaccines as a major culprit for, or a major cause of, autism. It's not to say, however, that there isn't a small subset of children who may be particularly vulnerable to vaccines.

“And in their case, having the vaccines, or particular vaccines, particularly in certain kinds of situations -- if the child was ill, if the child had a precondition, like a mitochondrial defect. Vaccinations for those children actually may be the environmental factor that tipped them over the edge of autism. And I think it is incredibly important, still, to try and figure out what, if any, vulnerabilities, in a small subset of children, might make them at risk for having certain vaccinations."

It’s shocking to listen to well-credentialed experts deny any link at the same time they also casually talk about the possibility vaccines are a factors in autism. That was never supposed to happen. Dawson’s “very small minority of individuals," Zahorondny’s “some small number of children,” and Amaral’s “small subset of children” might include my child. And how big is “small”? And where is the proof that the vulnerable group of children is “small”? There isn’t a single study that has looked at the children who regressed into autism following routine vaccinations.

It was the late Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health, who was on CBS News in 2008 calling for such a study. She said,

“This is the time when we do have the opportunity to understand whether or not there are susceptible children … that makes them more susceptible to vaccines plural, to one particular vaccine, or to components of a vaccine, like mercury. …We have to take another look at that hypothesis, not deny it….”

CBS reporter, Sharyl Attkisson:

“Do you think the government was too quick to dismiss out of hand that there was this possibility of a link between vaccines and autism?”

Healy:

“I think the government or certain health officials in the government have been too quick to dismiss the concerns of these families without studying the population that got sick. I haven’t seen major studies that focus on 300 kids who got autistic symptoms within a period of a few weeks of a vaccine. I think that public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as irrational without sufficient studies of causation.”

<...>

In April, 2011, Dr. David Amaral, Director of Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis MIND Institute, was interviewed for PBS by Robert MacNeil.

"... It's not to say, however, that there isn't a small subset of children who may be particularly vulnerable to vaccines. And in their case, having the vaccines, or particular vaccines, particularly in certain kinds of situations -- if the child was ill, if the child had a precondition, like a mitochondrial defect. Vaccinations for those children actually may be the environmental factor that tipped them over the edge of autism. And I think it is incredibly important, still, to try and figure out what, if any, vulnerabilities, in a small subset of children, might make them at risk for having certain vaccinations."

http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/06/autism-and-what-the-experts-are-saying-part-two-.html

On April 2, 2012 on WNYC, interviewer Kurt Andersen... did a segment on the ADDM numbers with Dr. Walter Zahorodny, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. Zahorodny was the lead researcher on the New Jersey portion of the CDC study.

Kurt Andersen (Seth Mnookin's friend): “I guess we know what they (the causes of autism) aren’t, for instance childhood vaccines. Right?
Dr. Zahorodny: “Vaccines don’t play a significant role in autism increasing. Some small number of children probably do have autism because of an adverse vaccine reaction, but they don’t make for the overall rise.”

Starts at 13:20 (AUDIO LINK): http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2012/apr/02/autism-rates-rise-new-jersey/

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-walter-zahorodny-believes-vaccines.html

AUDIO (starts at 40:57): http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/04/02/autism-numbers-skyrocket/player

Monday, April 2, 2012 at 10:00 AM
Autism Numbers Skyrocket

GUEST: Dr. Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

Ashbrook: "Dr. Dawson, here's a question online from Melrose, has the link between MMR vaccine and autism been completely discredited. I notice that the word 'vaccine' has not even come up so far in this hour. Is that...for some years that had a lot of attention, is that off the table now, Dr. Dawson?"

Dr. Dawson: "There is no evidence that the increase in prevalence that we're seeing in Autism Spectrum Disorder is linked to the MMR vaccine. You know, if vaccines play a role, and there has not been any evidence thus far to show that it has, it would be a very small minority of individuals who have an underlying medical condition where the vaccine may have triggered an onset of symptoms for an already existing condition or vulnerability. So we do not believe that vaccines are an explanation of the increase and we strongly encourage parents to get their children vaccinated."

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-walter-zahorodny-believes-vaccines.html
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/04/02/autism-numbers-skyrocket

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-walter-zahorodny-believes-vaccines.html

April 3, 2012
by Ginger Taylor

...Ashbrook, like Andersen, took the initiative of bringing the vaccine question into the interview, and in both cases it was merely an invitation to declare the vaccine hypothesis DOA. And neither Zahorodny or Dawson took the opportunity to do so!

They BOTH could have said, "Correct." And just moved on. But they didn't!

They both contradicted their interviewers presumptive statements, and said a version of, "Incorrect, vaccines do cause autism in some children, and it is a smaller number of cases than people think, but I don't see that vaccine induced autism could be playing a major factor in the increase."

IMHO... no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that these two didn't know exactly what they were doing. They had every chance to run from vaccine causation and they didn't. They confirmed it. Then they minimized it.

We have just witnessed the very quiet pushing of the envelope. Dr. Geri Dawson and Dr. Walter Zahorodny have just joined you and me and all our friends in taking our position that vaccines cause some cases of autism, just not all the cases of autism. Now we are only separated by the degree in which we believe the vaccine induced autism is a factor in the skyrocketing autism numbers.

<...>

http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/featured-guest-blog-april-is-a-comin/

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Valerie Foley

...Moreover, in autism there are people who can talk and people who can’t. People who can live independently and people who can’t. People who need regular hospital care and people who don’t. It’s a spectrum disorder.

So the idea that those who need less, actively campaign against those who need more, is not just insane, it’s got a really ugly feel to it.

In other social movements, the stay in the same placers tend to stay in the same place, and the move forwarders tend to move forwards. Makes sense. In autism, the stay in the same placers seem to need to slow down the forward momentum, and I’m buggered if I understand why. Because if you are happy with the status quo, wouldn’t you just um, live it?

<>

But here’s the important thing.

Your personal experience contributes to the massive growing pool of autism experience. It is not indicative of everyone who shares the experience of autism. The reality of your experience does not negate the integrity or validity of anyone else’s experience.

<>

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20049118-10391695.html

March 31, 2011 11:32 AM
By Sharyl Attkisson

...The article in the Journal of Immunotoxicology is entitled "Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes--A review." The author is Helen Ratajczak, surprisingly herself a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm. Ratajczak did what nobody else apparently has bothered to do: she reviewed the body of published science since autism was first described in 1943. Not just one theory suggested by research such as the role of MMR shots, or the mercury preservative thimerosal; but all of them.

Ratajczak's article states, in part, that "Documented causes of autism include genetic mutations and/or deletions, viral infections, and encephalitis [brain damage] following vaccination. Therefore, autism is the result of genetic defects and/or inflammation of the brain."

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/07/dear-dr-novella.html

Dr. Jon Poling to Dr. Steven Novella: Don't Attack the Moms

Managing Editor's Note: The following is a letter sent to Dr. Steven Novella, a neurologist at Yale University, from Dr. Jon Poling. (We've printed the letter with permission.) Dr. Novella is the founder of The New England Skeptical Society (meetings, 1st Tuesday of the month, on the lawn of the House of the Seven Gables, Salem, MA. BYOB (bring your own blinders.) and is a contributing editor to Quackwatch. Dr. Poling is a neurologist/PhD and the father of Miss Hannah Poling.

Dear Dr. Novella,

<>

With regard to the science of Autism, I have no argument with the assertion that a single case does not prove causation of a generalized autism-vaccine link. What the case does illustrate though is a more subtle point that many physicians cannot or do not want to comprehend (ostensibly because vaccines are too important to even question). Autism is a heterogeneous disorder defined by behavioral criteria and having multiple causes. Epidemiological studies which have not found a link between autism and aspects of vaccination do not consider the concept of autism subgroups. Indeed, in a heterogeneous disorder like Autism, subgroups may indeed be ‘vaccine-injured’ but the effect is diluted out in the larger population (improperly powered study due to inability to calculate effect size with unknown susceptible subpopulation). I think former NIH Director, Dr. Bernadine Healey explained it best in that population epidemiology studies are not “granular” enough to rule-out a susceptible subgroup.

Furthermore, ‘science’ has not systematically studied the children who fell ill following vaccination to determine what the cause(s) for their adverse reaction was. It would follow that if you never tried to understand why a single child developed encephalopathy following vaccination—you wouldn’t have the first clue as to what aspects of vaccination you could alter which could increase the relative risk of that adverse event (whether it be thimerosal, live virus, or ‘too many’). Could the susceptibility be a mitochondrial genetic haplogroup similar to Chloramphenicol toxicity—sure it could! Why did a few Alzheimer’s patients die of fatal encephalitis following administration of the failed AN-1792 vaccine, but the majority had no ill effects (vaccine didn’t work though)?

Definition: Autism is a heterogeneous systemic disorder with primary neuropsychiatric manifestations due to complex genetic and gene-environmental interactions likely affecting synaptic plasticity early in childhood development. This new theory of Autism is rapidly replacing the ‘old guard’ dictum that Autism is a genetically predetermined developmental brain disorder of synaptic formation/pruning that is set in motion prenatally. By the ‘10 year rule of science,’ your time is about up!

Until the biological basis of ASD subgroups are better understood, further epidemiological and genetic studies regarding “Autism” causation will be relatively meaningless. We need good science to be able to address these complex issues which parallel nicely the emerging story of genetic and environmental influences in Parkinson’s disease. Perhaps some Parkinson’s researchers want to take a crack at Autism?

<>

Thank-you Dr. Novella and his band of skeptics for continuing the debate.

Dr. Jon Poling

Jon S. Poling MD PhD
Managing Partner, Athens Neurological Associates
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, Medical College of Georgia
Diplomate, American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine
ASN Certified in MRI and CT Neuroimaging

Posted by Age of Autism at July 22, 2008

http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/03/geraldine-dawson-says-vaccines-dont-cause-autism.html

COMMENTS EXCERPT:

Here, the industrial scientists misuse the definition of the word “control children.” Normally a “control” group is the group not exposed to the potential cause of an effect under investigation. In this case the “control children” are the children reported with no effects by the industrial scientists after exposure to the potential cause(s).

See http://www.jpeds.com/webfiles/images/journals/ympd/JPEDSDeStefano.pdf

So the study compared exposure groups of children to exposure groups of children. But it did not compare zero exposure groups of children to exposure groups of children.

Thalidomide was defended by industrial scientists with this approach using an absence of real control children. This is what Sjostrom and Nilsson wrote over 40 years ago about the deceit in that approach:

“Every biologist knows that within a group of living organisms there is always an individual variation in the sensitivity towards, for example, a poison or a drug. Because of natural biological variation some individuals are affected more than others and some are perhaps not affected at all. If about 0.5 milligrams of strychnine is given by intraperitoneal injection to a certain strain of rats, approximately 50 per cent of the animals will die. The fact that the other 50 per cent survive cannot, of course, be taken as evidence against a causal relation between the intake of strychnine and death in rats.” Sjostrom and Nilsson, “Thalidomide and the Power of the Drug Companies,” (1972) p.162.

As Sarah quoted below the CDC acknowledges that not biological systems are alike. So where is the study with real control children? Autism Speaks, where are the millions of dollars in research being spent?

Posted March 30, 2013 at 11:54 AM

http://www.jabs.org.uk/

CryShame press release - 9 March 2013

http://www.cryshame.co.uk

Important new research ( http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058058 ) reports similar findings to the work of Dr Andrew Wakefield in the 1998 Lancet and in subsequent paper in the early 2000s

Groundbreaking new research examines the molecular structure of inflammatory material taken from the bowels of autistic children. It compares the structure of diseased biopsies in the autistic children with biopsies from three groups of non-autistic children with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and histologically normal (the controls).

Previous research confirmed the pathological and immunological make-up of biopsies of autistic children, but had not to date identified its specific molecular structure. Children with the four different conditions have been found to have similar findings of inflammation. But it was not clear if this was the same condition shared by all four groups; or if a distinct condition was specific to autistic children alone; or if indeed there was no disease in the autistic group. A molecular analysis of the genetic structure found in the inflamed bowel tissue of children in each group would provide initial answers to these questions.

To date government and medical scientists continue to deny an association between autism and bowel disease. In the UK there is currently no research into the association between autism and chronic bowel disease. This has been the predicament since the government and medical profession waged a campaign to discredit research from the Royal Free Hospital led by Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998 and the early 2000s that first identified the presence of bowel disease in autistic children.

Following years of denial from government and the medical profession, new research published in the leading online journal PLOS ONE confirms the presence of intestinal disease in autistic children and supports reports from many parents of ongoing painful gastric problems in their autistic children.

The research studied bowel samples from 25 autistic, 8 Crohn's, 5 ulcerative colitis and 15 normal control children and found that inflammatory material obtained from the biopsies of autistic children had a distinct molecular structure that was different from the other three groups.

This is an important finding of the distinct genetic expression that has now been identified in autistic children as distinct from non-autistic children with Crohns, ulcerative colitis and normal bowels. It paves the way for future research into the specific molecular structure of the inflammation affecting autistic children and hopefully will lead to new interventions and treatment.

Background Notes

1. The first paper to bring to public attention the presence of bowel disease in autistic children was Wakefield AJ, (1998) 'Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children'.The Lancet published this paper in 1998 but subsequently retracted it in 2010 after the GMC found Dr Wakefield and Professor Walker-Smith guilty of serious professional misconduct.

2. Several former colleagues went on in the early 2000s to study the nature of the bowel disease in autistic children, focusing on the pathology of gut tissue and the presence of autoimmune features in the bowel (eg Furlano et al (2001) 'Colonic CD8 and ?? T-cell infiltration with epithelial damage in children with autism', Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 138, 3).

3. The senior research leader of the Lancet and subsequent papers was Professor John Walker-Smith who in March 2012 had all the charges of professional misconduct made by the GMC quashed on appeal by Justice Mitting in the High Court.

4. Government Minister admits more needs to be done to research autism and bowel disease. Read letter here.

http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/media-kit/

Did You Know?

1. As of 2007, 54% of American children had a chronic disease including obesity.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876285910002500

2. 1 in 6 children have a developmental disability.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/developmentaldisabilities/index.html

3. In 1983, only 10 vaccines were given and the Autism rate was 1 in 10,000. In 2008, the vaccine schedule was increased to 36 vaccines and the autism rate was 1 in 150. Today in 2013 there are 46 vaccines and the autism rate in 1 in 88.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/past.html

4. ADHD affects an estimated 3-7% of children in the U.S.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html

5. There have been no studies testing the safety of the Flu Vaccine on pregnant women.
https://www.vaccineshoppe.com/image.cfm?doc_id=12651&image_type=product_pdf

More.

http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/media-kit/media-kit-videos/



■ALISON MACNEIL – CAMBRIDGE, MA - 0:06 The problems we were experiencing with our children are not rare, in fact incredibly common.

■LISA JOYCE GOES – NEW LENNOX, IL - 1:05 Over 50% of the population have children with special needs or chronic illness and that is a staggering statistic. Our goal is to help people know that they are not alone.

■HELEN CONROY – NAPLES, FL - 2:32 People don’t know what your going through and it’s hard to do it by yourself. One of the things that inspired us to really write the book to share that type of support and to hope inspire it in othe people. We share our stories in the book and we hope that people identify with at least one of us.

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2013/03/testimony-on-maine-ld-672-act-relating.html

By Ginger Taylor
March 11, 2013

...Vaccine policy should not be based merely on the reduction of communicable disease levels, but on overall health outcomes for children, including the true increased risk of autoimmune and neurological disorders that may be caused by an overaggressive and inappropriate vaccine schedule.

Last week, the Journal of Pediatrics published a study that did a pretty good job of demolishing a favorite antivaccine trope used to frighten parents. In fact, it’s one of the most effective of antivaccine tropes, as evidenced by a large number of parents who are generally pro-vaccine expressing doubts when asked about this particular antivaccine slogan. I’m referring, of course, to the “too many too soon” slogan, in which antivaccinationists try to imply that the current vaccine schedule somehow “overwhelms” an infant’s immune system and leads to autism by some unknown and undemonstrated mechanism. There is no compelling science behind this particular idea, but that doesn’t stop it from being used as an argument against the current vaccine schedule by antivaccinationists and antivaccine-sympathetic doctors like “Dr. Bob” Sears (who created an “alternate” vaccine schedule based on the idea that the current schedule gives babies too many shots too soon) and Dr. Jay Gordon. “Too many too soon” even became the rallying cry of a march on Washington, DC led by the queen of the antivaccine movement herself (at least at the time, anyway), Jenny McCarthy.

So it was that when I wrote about this particular study and what it showed the first time, I couldn’t resist mentioning a few of the antivaccinationists who, predictably, attacked the study, including the aforementioned “Dr. Bob” Sears, whose tantrum on Facebook over the study was burning stupid distilled down to the most powerful stupid known, much as 16 Million Reserve distills down pepper extract to a mixture so hot that it’s painful. “Dr. Bob’s” screed has the same effect on the brain of anyone who has a science-based understanding of vaccines as 16 Million Reserve has on the tongue. So, for that matter, did homeopath Heidi Stevenson’s “scientific critique” of the study.

And so does Brian Hooker’s critique of the study.

The things I do for you! After reading Hooker’s “debunking” of DeStefano et al, I feel the need for many, many gallons of reason and science to wash the pain from my brain, much as a hapless person who ingests 16 Million Reserve will crave gallons and gallons of water to wash the pain from his mouth. Before I get into his “scientific critique,” let’s just remind everyone of who Brian Hooker is. Brian Hooker is a biochemical engineer who works as a consultant in the biotech industry who also, unfortunately, has turned to antivaccine quackery. Specifically, he belongs to the wing of the antivaccine movement that believes against all evidence that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal that used to be in childhood vaccines until around 2001 to 2002 is a major cause of autism. He’s also somehow managed to beguile a certain budding antivaccine crank by the name of Jake Crosby to the point that Jake turned on his former allies and dished dirt in the form of their private e-mails, publishing them on the even crankier Patrick “Tim” Bolen’s website. Hooker’s claim, channeled through Crosby’s “reporting,” was that he actually had arranged the Congressional hearing on autism in November and that the antivaccine crank group SafeMinds had, through its lobbyist Beth Clay, stepped in and taken it over by misrepresenting themselves as representing Hooker.