We my disagree on the vaccine issue however my daughter and I love astronomy. We can all appreciate the idea that our galaxy is hurling through space at thousands and thousands of miles per hour while still retaining life here on earth as usual. No doubt there is lots of mystery in our world and that things are sometimes not what they seem to be. I guess we can all gain a little bit from the knowlege that we are flying through space at warped (sp?) speed on its own journey with no input from us….

Some things our minds cannot grasp but it doesn’t change what is. So, no sense arguing over vaccines. Let’s agree that the world is full of differing views. We need only to honor our own.

Are you saying that babies are dying because they are not vaccinated or because my unvaccinated children put them at risk? I am willig to risk the life of countless babies? Really? Now I am responsible for other babies? Whose babies??? when vaccine compliance is pretty high in the US. What are you talking about? When someone chooses to feed their kids chemical formula as babies and then allows them to eat a totally artifical, sugar laden diet and then gets strep and breaths or sneezes on my organic, healthy child, can I blame them if my kids get sick? Come on…… (hypothetically speaking because my kids have been around kids with strep and a host of other things and have never gotten sick from exposure, other than maybe a mild cold on rare occasion)

And if the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle of any hot debate, are you too not possibly blinded by medical propoganda? I know of several children who have had “diseases” they should have theoretically been protected from by vaccination…. and why? Vaccine failure or is it that viruses mutate quickly? Oh right, it is possibly because of my unnvacinated children. Hmmmmmmm.

Have you ever studied virology? Or immunology? We know that bacteria are really smart and mutate quickly in the presence of antibiotics. Every organism wants to survive. Built in by nature. Not to mention that many cancers have a strong viral component. But oh yes, we will soon have lot’s of cancer vaccines too… and then more and more. How insane is it to think we can be vaccinated for every possible diesease out there? Good luck those of you who believe you are smarter than nature. At what point do you say enough and start looking at the bigger picture? This debate could go on forever. You have your views and I have mine. You can spend your whole life trying to convince us we are stupid and ignorant but I guarantee it will be in vain. You may feel absolutely passionate in your quest and even may feel like you work for the good of humanity. Do what you must. At some point, one realizes that people have always had different viewpoints about matters of life and death and always will. You can choose to continue to “fight” (your words not mine) if this is truly what you desire.

And no, I do not wonder why you fight us.

And you wonder why I fight people like you who buy into the antivax propaganda?

All so-called “evidence” presented from anyone simply tends to mirror their beliefs.

A pretty simple question…. why have the pro-vacciners villanized those who choose not to vaccinate? If vaccines were safe and effective then they should feel confident that they are protected. Why fret about us? It is toally unreasonble that I should be have to be vaccinated because someone chooses to undergo chemo or other immune distroying chemical treatments -that are being discarded through their waste into the same earth that I have to live on as well. Now these poisonous chemicals are in MY world too. Chemicals do not die. They go on and continue to pollute our environmet -for how long? Who is irresponsible? Shame on those of you with this rediculous argument!!!!!!! But yet this assessment is never openly discussed by the “experts”. Oh, sure thy are experts but at what I won’t try to guess.

Vaccine safety should be self-evident and shouldn’t require bullying and belittling to those who opt out on the side of natural health. Don’t assume we are all ignorant of the “research”. Besides, no one is here to save the world.

When vaccine (and chemial medicine) advocates are willingto have a chemical dump in their backyard, then maybe they can take a stance on the subject. Vaccines are not innocent litte concoctions. Follow the trail from beginning to end and look at all the nasty little “trials” in third world countries & other lovely hidden details. But oh yes, the greater good. If a few should suffer for the greater good…. This passes for sanity. Ok.

I do not believe that vaccines “cause” autism. I do believe that autism is linked to vaccination, though.

Confused?

Acetaminophen is often given in conjunction with vaccines. Acetaminophen is known to deplete glutathione, which is exactly what you don’t want to be doing when you are launching a powerful immune response via vaccination.

Note when the spike in autism started…it was in the late 1980′s, right after aspirin was linked to Reye’s Syndrome, and everyone switched over to Tylenol. Coincidence?

Preliminary studies are already beginning to link prenatal and early childhood acetaminophen use with asthma, which makes perfect sense since glutathione is critical to lung function. This also explains why so many autistic kids have food allergies and GI issues.

Interestingly, children with Down Syndrome, because of their genetic makeup, don’t make enough glutathione, and autism rates in this group range from 5-10% now.

There isn’t a shred of scientific evidence that giving Tylenol before vaccinations is safe or effective. Yet, this practice continues, and no one seems to be connecting the dots. This ridiculous and reckless practice needs to stop.

I know that at least on Bad Astronomy Blog there is a spam filter that puts posts into moderation if they contain hyperlinks, are really, really long, or have bad language in them. If you posted here, try checking to see if the post is still there with an “Awaiting Moderation” tag next to it. If so, be patient. If the post is truly just gone, try posting again, without hyperlinks.

Methinks “Discover” isn’t interested in “discovering” anything that might point to our ridiculous and reckless medical practices in this country as being responsible for thousands of children’s lives being ruined.

::shrug::

Regarding DAN! diet recommendations, I’m assuming you mean the gluten-free/casein-free diet. That diet does not cure autism, as many, including Jenny McCarthy, claim. AFAIU from speaking with some people in the ABA field, there is no quality research that shows that such a diet cures or treats autism itself. What it can do, however, is alleviate physical discomfort in those children with autism who also suffer from celiac disease or other food allergies.

The most noticeable “improvement” is likely going to be in the moderate- to low-functioning end of the autism spectrum, since they will be less able to verbally explain what the problem is and instead tantrum or engage in stimming or self-injurious behavior. Remove the cause of the behavior and the behavior goes away – voila! The parents see their child improve before their eyes. Only problem is that they don’t understand the function of the behavior in the first place and so are unable to connect the dots correctly.

From the discussion here,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/dr-bernadine-healy-dont-d_b_101421.html

if someone like Dr. Healy isn’t as aware of the nuances of vaccine ingredients as Todd W., that’s all the more reason for transparency to explain the nitty gritty details.

Just a quick comment on one of your earlier posts, quoting Barbara Healy, who said: “Their concern was not autism but the lunacy of injecting mercury into little kids through mandated vaccines that together exceeded mercury safety guidelines designed for adults…”

Another flaw here, which she should know better. The safety guideliness “designed for adults” are for methylmercury, not ethylmercury (the compound in thimerosal). The EPA does not have guidelines for ethylmercury exposure, for starters, and secondly, the body handles the two compounds differently. Methylmercury stays in the body for about 3-4 times as long as ethylmercury.

(late edit)

Could the environmental culprit be untested GMO containing foods interaccting with otherwise safe vaccines?

From the little I know about he DAN! diet, it appears to eliminate GMO containing foods (?source of haywire immune reaction) – many parents say it works.

Please read,
SHEDDING LIGHT ON GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOD by Beth Harrison
(recommended by Dr. Arpad Pustzi)

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/Home/index.cfm
SEEDS OF DECEPTION bk
GENETIC ROULETTE bk
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO dvd

Your love for children should override any hesitation to investigate the possibile role of GM soy formula or GM baby foods in autism.

Thank you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/uc-davis-study-autism-is_b_156153.html

Perhaps Dr. P is letting you know what it is like when some of us comment on Age of Autism. They moderate with an iron clown glove, and most of our comments are never approved because dissent is not allowed there.

The Herbert article you linked to is interesting reading, but it is not supportive of the “vaccines cause autism” meme. It only mentions vaccines in passing, and even then, it just says that vaccine reactions are being examined.

As to the Barbara Healy interview, I can’t evaluate it until I know a few things. She states that the IOM said not to pursue susceptible populations. I would like to see the evidence that supports that claim. She mentions that the reason for this is because public health officials did not want to scare the public. Again, evidence please. She said that there should be studies focusing on children who were diagnosed with autism within a short time period after receiving vaccinations. Okay. So, what would be the methodology? How would study participants be selected? What control groups would be used? What blinding measures would be taken? What steps would be taken to rule out confounding variables, such as exposure to other environmental chemicals or diseases? And if such a study were undertaken and still came back without showing any link, is that enough? Is the question answered then, or would she call for more research into a vaccine-autism link?

How much research is enough to answer the question? Also, in the Alison Singer thread, I think it was, someone mentioned that Healy stated that even a trace amount of thimerosal is still exposure to mercury. True, but keep in mind that that is less than 1 microgram of ethylmercury (not pure mercury and not methylmercury). How much mercury is the average child exposed to in their daily life? Is it less than what is in vaccines? Also consider that ethylmercury is eliminated from the body with about a week or so, so the trace amounts don’t have much time at all to build up and cause any damage, if they cause damage at all.

http://www.ageofautism.com/paul-offit-is-wrong-dr-he.html
MUST WATCH CBS VIDEO
Bernadine Healy: We Need Answers (CBS Video)
This CBS interview with Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health — raises fundamental questions about the safety of vaccines in a vulnerable subset of children, and whether those vaccines might trigger autism. “The question has not been answered,” she tells Sharyl Attkisson.

Again, Dr. Martha Herbert
http://marthaherbert.com/biography1.html
Dr. Martha Herbert is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, a Pediatric Neurologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, a member of the MGH Center for Morphometric Analysis, and an affiliate of the Harvard-MIT-MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. She is director of the TRANSCEND Research Program (Treatment Research and Neuroscience Evaluation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders)…

http://marthaherbert.com/
“I am a pediatric neurologist and a brain development researcher. My main focus is autism. After much thought, I have come to the formulation that autism may be most inclusively understood and helped through an inclusive whole-body systems approach, where genes and environment are understood to interplay…”

Dr. Herbert provides the link to this article at her website.
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/apr/autism-it2019s-not-just-in-the-head
Autism: It’s Not Just In the Head
The devastating derangements of autism also show up in the gut and in the immune system. That unexpected discovery is sparking new treatments that target the body in addition to the brain…
by Jill Neimark
published March 22, 2007

Regarding the UC-Davis study by Hertz-Picciotto and Delwiche (“The rise in autism and the role of age at diagnosis”, published in Epidemiology. Volume 20(1)January 2009pp 84-90), I am unfortunately unable to access the full text, but the abstract states that “[a]utism cases were identified from 1990 through 2006 in databases of the California Department of Developmental Services, which coordinates services for individuals with specific developmental disorders.” This suggests to me that there may be a flaw in their methodology, leading to incorrect conclusions. The California DDS data base likely only records those cases where people have filed for assistance. If this is the case, then the increase in cases in the DDS database may very well be from more people filing claims, rather than a true increase in the number of cases. Therefore, concluding that greater awareness, better diagnostic criteria, etc., are not likely causes is, at best, an erroneous assumption.

Does anyone have acccess to the full text of this study? I would be interested if the researchers compared the DDS database against any other medical records to eliminate that source of bias. I’m interested in reading the full methodology used.

Anonymous, if you have access to the full text, I suggest reading the actual study and examine it for methodological flaws, rather than basing your opinion on a news article.

Autism is a complicated disorder in every way. Until research brings a really clear understanding of the cause(s), we will not hear the end of this discussion. It does not help that the conventional wisdom of the medical community has gotten autism wrong before.

I am encouraged by people like Dr. Offit who are helping to get the mainstream scientific perspective back into the public eye. And I’m encouraged by the well-informed individuals who are discussing this question on this thread. I hope this will help everyone get a clearer view.

For those readers who are parents of children with autism, the Interactive Autism Network is currently surveying parents about their beliefs about vaccines and autism. If you are interested in participating, you can visit http://www.ianproject.org to sign up to participate in research. For other readers, the community area of the IAN site is a good place to read up on current research on autism.

And of course, “How not to do science”:
http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/ausscience0404.htm

From the well named site:
http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/vaxliars/vaccines.htm

Your comments are approved, AoA does not allow dissent. If one tries to correct the errors posted there the comments are never approved. There is no free speech allowed there.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/12/smoke-and-mirrors-dr-richard-horton-and-the-wakefield-affair.html
December 22, 2008
Smoke and Mirrors: Dr Richard Horton and the Wakefield Affair

and tribute, here,
http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/12/age-of-autism-awards-2008-galileo-award-dr-andrew-wakefield.html
December 31, 2008
Age of Autism Awards 2008 Galileo Award: Dr. Andrew Wakefield

Dr. Bernadine Healy – Age of Autism Awards 2008 Person of the Year

UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute Study Shows California’s Autism Increase Not Due To Better Counting, Diagnosis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Jan. 7, 2009

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) – A study by researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute has found that the seven- to eight-fold increase in the number children born in California with autism since 1990 cannot be explained by either changes in how the condition is diagnosed or counted – and the trend shows no sign of abating.

Published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Epidemiology, results from the study also suggest that research should shift from genetics to the host of chemicals and infectious microbes in the environment that are likely at the root of changes in the neurodevelopment of California’s children.

“It’s time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California,” said UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researcher Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a professor of environmental and occupational health and epidemiology and an internationally respected autism researcher.

Hertz-Picciotto said that many researchers, state officials and advocacy organizations have viewed the rise in autism’s incidence in California with skepticism.

The incidence of autism by age six in California has increased from fewer than nine in 10,000 for children born in 1990 to more than 44 in 10,000 for children born in 2000. Some have argued that this change could have been due to migration into California of families with autistic children, inclusion of children with milder forms of autism in the counting and earlier ages of diagnosis as consequences of improved surveillance or greater awareness.

Hertz-Picciotto and her co-author, Lora Delwiche of the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences, initiated the study to address these beliefs, analyzing data collected by the state of California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) from 1990 to 2006, as well as the United States Census Bureau and state of California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records, which compiles and maintains birth statistics.

Hertz-Picciotto and Delwiche correlated the number of cases of autism reported between 1990 and 2006 with birth records and excluded children not born in California. They used Census Bureau data to calculate the rate of incidence in the population over time and examined the age at diagnosis of all children ages two to 10 years old.

The methodology eliminated migration as a potential cause of the increase in the number of autism cases. It also revealed that no more than 56 percent of the estimated 600-to-700 percent increase, that is, less than one-tenth of the increased number of reported autism cases, could be attributed to the inclusion of milder cases of autism. Only 24 percent of the increase could be attributed to earlier age at diagnosis.

“These are fairly small percentages compared to the size of the increase that we’ve seen in the state,” Hertz-Picciotto said.

Hertz-Picciotto said that the study is a clarion call to researchers and policy makers who have focused attention and money on understanding the genetic components of autism. She said that the rise in cases of autism in California cannot be attributed to the state’s increasingly diverse population because the disorder affects ethnic groups at fairly similar rates.

“Right now, about 10 to 20 times more research dollars are spent on studies of the genetic causes of autism than on environmental ones. We need to even out the funding,” Hertz-Picciotto said.

The study results are also a harbinger of things to come for public-health officials, who should prepare to offer services to the increasing number of children diagnosed with autism in the last decade who are now entering their late teen years, Hertz-Picciotto said.

“These children are now moving toward adulthood, and a sizeable percentage of them have not developed the life skills that would allow them to live independently,” she said.

The question for the state of California, Hertz-Picciotto said, will become: ‘What happens to them when their parents cannot take care of them?’

“These questions are not going to go away and they are only going to loom larger in the future. Until we know the causes and can eliminate them, we as a society need to provide those treatments and interventions that do seem to help these children adapt. We as scientists need to improve available therapies and create new ones,” Hertz-Picciotto said…
END EXCERPT