Posted on 07/15/2005 5:16:24 AM PDT by bookworm100
"Have YOU looked at the criteria that are used to diagnose "autism" at an ever-increasing rate?"
The criteria was widened, I do not deny that. I'm sure it does account for part of the increase but it certainly didn't account for all of it. We went from 1 in 10,000 in the 80's to 1 in 166 today.
"The other issue is the money-driven labelling of "autistic" for any child whose social interaction is different from what a day-care provider or schoolteacher considers "optimal."
Where is the monetary incentive for a day-care provider or school teacher to label a kid as autistic? I didn't realize that they had a quota to meet.
My wife teaches these children from age 3 to 6. There is a definite difference between these kids and others who are disabled in many ways. I cannot help but think that some outside agent causes this problem. Some of these children are extremely bright, but cannot function because they cannot communicate correctly. Some can talk, but only discuss one subject with which they are obsessed. How does that correlate with paying people to fix something?
Same with ADHD and other psychiatric "diseases". The 700% increase in ADHD diagnosis that occurred in the 1990s was in large part attributed to a broadening of scope and the federal law that reimbursed schools for providing these services.
Every time a child in the public school system is diagnosed with "special needs," the system is able to access additional Federal, state, and local funds. They hire more personnel, instructional and administrative; they can insist on additional facilities, vehicles, materials, etc. Once a child has been labelled "disabled," it is very difficult for him to ever be recovered from the "Special Education" system.
If a child would rather read by himself than play with other kids, they may try to get him labelled "autistic." If he makes jokes that other people don't get, if he's much better in some subjects than others, if he's short-tempered compared with the ideal ... same thing.
People looking at real autism as a medical condition are seeing different things from people looking at "autism" as an education-system phenomenon. I can see where confusion can happen, and I personally appreciate the new information I've seen in your posts.
"The 700% increase in ADHD diagnosis that occurred in the 1990s was in large part attributed to a broadening of scope and the federal law that reimbursed schools for providing these services."
Vaccines were added to the schedule in the late 80's and then again in the early 90's. Each time, we see an associated spike in the rates of autistic children diagnosed in California. The widened criteria that you speak of should not have produced TWO spikes.
It also doesn't explain why we are starting to see the numbers decline in California, which coincides with a reduction of thimerosal in vaccines.
I looked on the Internet and came up with these:
http://www.mercola.com/2005/feb/26/mercury_lies.htm
http://www.stepstoperfecthealth.co.uk/articles/mercury_factsheet_heavy_metal_poisoning.htm
http://www.stepstoperfecthealth.co.uk/articles/mercury_factsheet_heavy_metal_poisoning.htm
Good...I would like to see the evidence. The problem each side has an agenda. I don't think those who want it to be the mercury element have the franchise on honor. The motivator for this bunch seems to be hysteria and $.
As far as I know, few kids get the flu shots that you claim. I am not sure about that. But flu shots for children would not account for the spike in numbers.
If you/they want to run the vaccine companies out of business...fine, but then we wont have just 'autism', we will have a spike in childhood deaths.
No, the big jump in ADHD and related psychiatric "diseases" coincided with the federal IDEA legislation providing additional funding to schools and other institutions for "disabled" children.
I also correlate it to teachers and administrators having less tolerance for deviance from what they consider the norm of behavior, and the change to a less disciplined environment in most schools.
I don't think it had anything much to do with thimerisol.
I agree with your points about the vaccines - the decline starting around when thimerisol was removed are very suggestive, but I suppose we'll just have to see if this continues.
"Correlation is not causality."
100 people put a loaded gun to their head pull the trigger. 100 of those people die. Nope. The loaded gun had nothing to do with it because correlation is not causality.
You need to be careful when applying logical fallacies. That's what formal logic is all about.
Rate of incidence is trend. Trend is possible causality. If the trend is damaging lives by something like autism, it ought to be investigated and parents ought to be warned about the potential causality.
Has anyone ever investigated all the food additives, preservatives, dairy and beef hormone procedures, etc? Nutrasweet was found to be a neurological irritant in young children. There is a myriad of changes in our dietary culture that might be causetive factors.
I grew up with healthy, home grown food for the most part. We raised our own chickens and eggs, went to the local meat market for beef and pork. This was not processed meat. I am NOT a health food nut. But I think this revision in cultrual dietary provisions should be looked at more closely. HOw many kids get REAL home cooked meals? I see this dietary neglect in my own grand kids. Fortunately none have autism.
It is my opinion this mercury thing is ridiculous. There is NO real scientific evidence to validate this. But SOMETHING is causing it. We just haven't found the culprit yet.
"Good...I would like to see the evidence."
You can see a lot of it at www.GenerationRescue.org
"I don't think those who want it to be the mercury element have the franchise on honor. The motivator for this bunch seems to be hysteria and $."
The motivator for the mercury theorists is getting their kids better. The reasons for believing mercury is the cause are numerous. Autism spiked when more mercury was added to the vaccine schedule. The symptoms of autism are very similar to the symptoms of mercury poisoning. These are some of the obvious ones but there are many more.
"As far as I know, few kids get the flu shots that you claim. I am not sure about that."
Perhaps it's not as common as say the MMR vaccine, but it was added to the vaccine schedule for children over 6 months of age and doctors tend to follow that schedule.
"But flu shots for children would not account for the spike in numbers."
I never said they would. It was the introduction of vaccines in the late 80's & early 90's that caused the spike. I simply said that at the same time that we are phasing out mercury from the vaccine schedule a new mercury laced vaccine was added to the schedule which would obviously increases the mercury burden for children and puts them more at risk.
"If you/they want to run the vaccine companies out of business...fine, but then we wont have just 'autism', we will have a spike in childhood deaths."
Run the vaccine companies out of business? When did I say that? I want ALL mercury out of vaccines and I want independent researchers to review the data so we can get the truth on the autism/vaccine controversy and then get going on a cure for autism so we as a country don't need to spend TRILLIONS of dollars supporting the autistic community.
Rare in third world?
You mean we are not vaccinating those kids? I would like to see the rate of vaccination/ autism from one of those 3rd world countries. I had the impression that loads of vaccinations were donated for 3rd world children.
That would be interesting are revealing to look at. These 3rd world kids don't eat food with preservatives, chemicalized chicken, eggs and beef. This is where I think the culprit will eventually be found.
I agree with your points about our food supply. There are too many chemicals and too many unknowns.
But to say there is NO real scientific evidence would not be accurate. Mercury is a known neurotoxin. The symptoms of mercury poisoning are very similar to autism. The rates of autism climbed at the same rate of the mercury increase in childhood vaccines. The first, unpublished, CDC study found a HUGE correlation. See it here: http://www.safeminds.org/Generation%20Zero%20Pres.pdf
I think I've got it now thanks.
A high percentage of them don't get vaccinated. Infant mortality is very high in poor countries.
"...Grandson...we can absolutely trace his slide into autism to the vaccines..."
Thank you for your post. You are absolutely correct and here is further evidence regarding the vaccine-autism connection:
In September, 2000 some 2,000 people, mostly MDs, assembled at the Town and Country resort in San Diego to hear the latest research on autism. Following the April 2000 Congressional hearings (Dan Burton’s) on autism and vaccines, this epidemic can no longer be ignored.
The figure of one autistic infant for every 150 is now widely documented.
Dr. Stephanie Cave presented enlightening data on mercury toxicity, drawn largely from the brilliant work of Sallie Bernard. Dr. Cave explained how:
By age two, American children have received 237 micrograms of mercury through vaccines alone, which far exceeds current EPA "safe" levels of .1 mcg/kg. per day. That's one-tenth of a microgram, not one microgram.
Three days in particular may be singled out as spectacularly toxic for infants:
Day of birth: hepatitis B-12 mcg mercury
30 x safe level
At 4 months: DTaP and HiB on same day - 50 mcg mercury
60 x safe level
At 6 months: Hep B, Polio - 62.5 mcg mercury
78 x safe level
At 15 months the child receives another 50 mcg
41 x safe level
These figures are calculated for an infant's average weight in kilograms for each age.
These one-day blasts of mercury are called "bolus doses". Although they far exceed "safe" levels, there has never been any research conducted on the toxicity of such bolus doses of mercury given to infants all these years.
Inconceivable
Historically, the toxicity of mercury has been known for more than a century. The Mad Hatter was more than a fantasy character from Alice in Wonderland. Mad Hatter's disease became well known in England in the mid-1800s, when hat-makers were subject to inhaling the vapors from the mercury-based stiffening compound they used on felt to make top hats.
Sources of Mercury
It is interesting to learn that common household remedies that were used up into the 1960s like mercurochrome and "teething powder" were often the cause of acute mercury poisoning and disease.
In the U.S., EPA mercury toxicity studies have involved contamination from fish, air, and other environmental sources.
Methylmercury has long been associated with serious neurological disorders, demyelinating diseases, gut disease, and visual damage.
The mercury in vaccines, however, is in the form of thimerosal, which is 50 times more toxic than plain old mercury.
Reasons for this include:
· Injected mercury is far more toxic than ingested mercury.
· There's no blood-brain barrier in infants.
· Mercury accumulates in brain cells and nerves.
· Infants don't produce bile, which is necessary to excrete mercury.
Thimerosal becomes organic mercury
Once it is in nerve tissue, it is converted irreversibly to its inorganic form. Thimerosal is a much more toxic form of mercury than one would get from eating open-sea fish; it has to do with the difficulty of clearing thimerosal from the blood.
Thimerosal is converted to ethylmercury, an organic form that has a preference for nerve cells.
Without a complete blood-brain barrier, an infant's brain and spinal cord are sitting ducks. Once in the nerve cells, mercury is changed back to the inorganic form and becomes tightly bound. Mercury can then remain for years, like a time-release capsule, causing permanent degeneration and death of brain cells.
Bernard also notes that the body normally clears mercury by fixing it to bile, but before six months of age, infants don't produce bile. Result: mercury can't be excreted.
Four separate government agencies have set safe levels for methylmercury, but no safe levels have ever been set for thimerosal, because thimerosal isn't included in toxicity studies.
Theoretically, that means that the above excesses of safe levels of mercury on the single days listed above are actually 50 times higher.
Does the fact that the mercury is accompanied by a vaccine somehow place it above scrutiny? The Sallie Bernard study of vaccines and mercury toxicity was probably the main reason Congress began to see the obvious correlation.
Yes.
Adding to your comments, doctors are very reluctant to make a diagnosis of autism, because that initial diagnosis has a profound negative impact on the child as he goes through life. The impact has mostly to do with having the tag 'autistic' to any form that boy is a part of. Insurance is higher, etc. The initial diagnosis is like a tattoo, and it is hard to have irradicated.
My boy is 'developmentally delayed', which is to say he is on the 'autism spectrum'. He'll play with kids, he laughs, he has a sense of imagination. Ask him a direct question about what he saw at the petting zoo, and he'll freeze up. Ask leading questions and he'll answer in the affirmative.
Privately, the doctor says he's on the spectrum, but hopes he'll simply grow out of it. He won't hang the tag because its difficult to unhang.
As to why he's like this, we don't know and nobody seems to.
Or it means schools want more funding and have found a new way to get it. Witness the explosion in "learning disabilities" which often means the kid's a brat and knows he doesn't have to cooperate in school. I used to type transcripts for Special Ed hearings, and the stuff that was defined as a disability would make your toes curl.
That there is a correlation does not necessarily mean that there is not causation. Sometimes those who are paranoid are being followed. Thus we should not rule out a possible causation because we see a correlation.
Now do you get it?
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