Posted on 04/20/2017 12:20:41 PM PDT by azkathy
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of every 68 children born in the United States has autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Though all races, ethnicities and socioeconomic groups are affected by ASD, myths and misunderstandings still persist in media, schools and workplaces — that childhood vaccines are a cause has been disproved, yet the rumor refuses to die. April is World Autism Awareness month, so we spoke with Dr. Joseph Buxbaum, a molecular geneticist and neurobiologist who directs the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai Health System, to separate fact from fiction.
What is autism spectrum disorder?
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex developmental disorder affecting brain development. ASD is characterized by difficulties in social interaction, deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication and the presence of restricted or repetitive behaviors, including sensory symptoms.
The severity and presentation of symptoms vary across individuals. ASD is about four times more common among boys than girls. Due to increased public awareness, improved diagnostic tools and research in this area, more cases are identified and at younger ages. Early diagnosis is important because it can lead to earlier treatment, which research has linked to more positive outcomes.
What causes autism spectrum disorder? Vaccines are definitely not linked to it, correct?
There is strong data indicating that genetics are a predominant cause of autism. There are numerous, very compelling epidemiological studies that have clearly disproven any connection between autism and vaccines. One of the primary missions of the Seaver Autism Center is to investigate causes of autism. We take a genetics-first approach to this investigation. We expect there to be about 1,000 genes in the human genome for autism.
(Excerpt) Read more at metro.us ...
I actually believe that a reason autism rates are lower for women is that the social awkwardness associated with mild autism among men/boys is considered “adorkable” among women/girls.
You must not have had any real experience with Autism. My nephew is Autistic and I can promise you “learning to adapt” is not even remotely an option.
Every time I read idiots claiming the only reason there are higher numbers now is because everyone is jumping on the spectrum disorder bandwagon I want to scream. Try living with a truly Autistic child for even one day, much less a lifetime. It is not faked, it is not lazy parenting. It is a lifetime sentence and it can destroy families. People who dismiss this really need to take one day out of their life and go volunteer to work with children with Autism. I guarantee they will be changed forever doing so.
I’m on the Autism Spectrum.
Life is harder with brains that have trouble with interpersonal relations, even if someone is only mildly affected. Just like life is harder if you have diabetes or a serious allergy. This is true even for forever undiagnosed people barely on the spectrum.
And if the child is diagnosed, it means there are problems just being educated, living, getting from one activity to another, coping with normal life. These problems affect everyone around the child.
Thirdly, some children are affected so severely that they will never for a moment be able to care for themselves. It is a huge spectrum.
But if we can prevent it by keeping our lives and bodies safe from neurotoxins, we should try. Even if it hurts various industrial or medical industries.
No. Watch the preschool classes. The three year olds. It won’t take long to pick out the kids who are not “with” the group, engaging in repetitive motions. They are nearly all boys. It’s not about who is adorable.
Standing ovation for your post.
It was my first, and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Nothing in any parenting books helped. It was a living hell.
See my post 28.
Hep B for a newborn. Had to send hub to the nursery with mine (they don’t let the baby stay with the mom after childbirth. 4 hours after birth the kid is left wondering what’s going on alone. That’s another subject) to make sure they didn’t give her the hep b. I’d told the pediatrician no but the nursery techs have their own rules
It is all a fight. People stand around giving the mom all kinds of support and the baby is the one having a bad day really
>> But if we can prevent it by keeping our lives and bodies safe from neurotoxins, we should try. Even if it hurts various industrial or medical industries. <<
You write as if measles, whooping cough, polio, etc., were simply made up by pharmaceutical companies. The reason we take MOST vaccines is so millions of people don’t die or come down with debilitating illness. If your children are fortunate enough to stay healthy because my children have taken their vaccines and therefore cannot spread the disease to them, you should be aware that you are sentencing other children (with weakened immune systems) to death.
I think that it is common enough that maybe a few thousand expecting parents could be recruited for intensive monitoring with 100% coverage child health insurance so drugs and vaccines could be tracked 100%.
One video camera could be placed say in the kitchen and one in the main living area so we would know what the child eats and how it behaves on a daily basis.
Parents that discover they have an autistic could turn over their tapes to researchers.
That’s my suggestion.
It may seem a bit much, but given the severity of the problem, I tend to think intensive monitoring ought to be tried.
Full blown autism has always been around, we just called it “retarded”. I remember a couple of kids in school.
What we see now are more subtle cases. I know a few kids that are on the borderline of “indulged”. We got our butts kicked regularly for being “weird”. That calmed the weirdness. I remember Bill pounding me every day in 6th grade for “rocking” because I sat in front of him in class. After a steady diet of that, I learned to adapt.
At the risk of opening a can of worms, my personal experience lends some truth to both your statements.
I, also, am on the ‘spectrum,’ or whatever that means nowadays. Whatever the case, living in this world is a headache and a half. I have been tempted more than a few times to just get a government check for ‘disability’ like the people I know who have it a lot easier than I do.
(In the end, a combination of vanity and the simple fact that I couldn’t stand being a burden on people changed that. That and the autists on government checks that I knew were insufferable leftist narcissists. So... yay, I guess?)
There ARE resources available to learn to adapt. I went through quite a few of them, and they’ve helped me learn to manage the autism thing. Life certainly isn’t perfect, but damned if it isn’t a lot better than it was before I got diagnosed.
“In one study on European perch, diluted concentrations of oxazepam in the water were found to alter fish behavior, leading to increased activity, reduced sociality and higher feeding rates.”
“The fish stopped shoaling, which is a type of fish behavior used to keep schools of fish together and avoid predators. The fish also took more risks, venturing out to explore more often on their own.”
I am not trying to be mean but you are parroting a myth or inaccurate history. The truth is all diseases which we vaccinate for were in massive decline BEFORE the vaccines were introduced. Living conditions, sanitation, nutrition, clean water, all contributed to precipitous decline in incidence of these diseases. To simply attribute it to the vaccines is error.
I am not against vaccines and have been vaccinated myself. I am however very against the SUPER SCHEDULE we as a country have adopted. Look around the rest of the world, we are alone in our massive increase of vaccinations. We have concurrently experienced a massive increase in SIDS and vaccine injuries and Autism.
People argue that they were vaccinated and are fine so everyone else should be too. Never making the connection that “their” vaccination was 4 shots and kids these days are being faced with 60. SIXTY! The real irony is that those same people are themselves un vaccinated by todays ever evolving standards. There are multiple vaccine bills pushing their way through legislatures mandating Adult vaccinations. Can’t wait to see all the rabid pro vaxxers get faced with a plethora of potentially health harming vaccionations that are not optional. Actually I could wait my entire lifetime because that is medical tyranny.
Kids have a lot more toys nowadays.
They don’t have the same attention spans as a result.
It got better as I got older but now I am reverting back as I approach 60. It’s like I have given up trying to hide it. The fact I play video games all the time probably doesn’t help.
Luckily, it is a great thing for a programmer to have.
Three observations
They have expanded what is considered autistic in order increase awareness and funding. I don’t know if vaccines have increased the number of cases. Unfortunately, I don’t trust anyone enough to give me an honest answer.
In the past people with milder symptoms (the majority) were just considered eccentric. They generally were better than average on some skills, less than average on others.
Schools want students more clustered closer to the mean because they are easier to teach. Boys generally make up the majority of the outliers and the schools recommend drugging them to make them behave closer to the mean.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.