AGE OF AUTISM

Never Surrender

By Jane Johnson

One of the things that saddens me is the prevalence of the idea that if biomedical treatment isn’t started before a child turns five, it's useless, and you—we—might as well give up.

Olmsted on Autism: The breast cancer analogy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 -- One big problem the autism community faces is lousy coverage by Big Media. Where is the curiosity and sense of urgency in the face of the soaring autism rate? Where is the willingness to challenge self-interested parties like the CDC and the AAP rather than rewriting their press releases and calling it a day?

This kind of coverage is not limited to autism, and it can be revealing to look at other illnesses and see the same kind of haphazard and just plain mediocre reporting. This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so let's make it a case study.

Time Magazine's Oct. 15 cover says, "Why Breast Cancer is Spreading Around the World." You'd expect when you read the story to find out why, would you not? But the story itself is a mish-mash. Rather than focus in-depth on the question, the article offers touching but irrelevant anecdotes (so-and-so in China was recently diagnosed and might not have been a decade ago) and pointless diversions. "Of all the things that can determine a woman's chances of surviving breast cancer, perhaps one of the most powerful is the simple matter of race."

Well, that's interesting and important, but it has zero to do with "why breast cancer is spreading around the world." Time devotes only a couple of paragraphs to answering its cover question.

Here are the reasons Time offers:

1)  "Women are simply living long enough to reach the age at which they're most susceptible to breast cancer."

2)  "With Westernized life spans, however, can come Western habits too – fatty foods, lack of exercise and obesity, all of which may raise the incidence of breast cancer."

3) Having fewer children can raise breast cancer risk.

4) There are a bunch of other tenuous and unproven links, from anti-perspirants to birth control pills.

IOM "Autism and the Environment" Report Now Available

The IOM Autism and The Environment workshop was the result of several meetings that Mark Blaxill, Jim Moody and Kelli Ann Davis had with Dr. Raub, Secretary Leavitt's Science Advisor over the last two years.  They met with Dr. Harvey Fineberg, the President of the IOM last October (a meeting hosted by Dr. Raub) and it was from this meeting that the idea for the IOM hosted Workshop on Autism and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for Research transpired.

Mark Blaxill and Laura Bono were part of the Planning Committee which helped to organize the Workshop.  Sallie Bernard and Lyn Redwood were part of the official Workshop and made presentations.  Lyn Redwood was also asked to help in reviewing the Proceedings Report for accuracy, comments, etc.

Here is the memo announcing the report and a link:

Merck Halts AIDS Vaccine Trial

Unfortunate news in the search for an AIDS vaccine. More people who got the Merck experimental AIDS vaccine contracted HIV than those who got the placebo/dummy shot. So did the vaccine make them MORE likely to contract HIV?  Or was it their high-risk predisposition?

Read the full article from AP HERE.

Breaking the Routine of Things

By Cathy Jameson

My husband has been on a 3 ½-week business trip, and it’s been awful from the start.  Three of our four kids came down with the chicken pox.  The baby started her rash as Steve was loading his suitcases into the car to leave. She had more spots traveling down her body as my husband rolled down and out the driveway.  I knew I was in for a long, long three weeks alone.

TACA Reaches Out to CA Families Caught in Fires

Reprinted from the TACA-USA Yahoo group for California members caught in the fires who may need help. Thank you, TACA for your hands on approach to providing services.

For complete information on how you can help, make a donation or if you need help, go to TACA's SITE. 

Wild Fires in Wild Fires!

Thousands of families have been evacuated and the fires are far from
being contained.

TACA Families: If you have lost your home or been evacuated (or know a
family affected by autism that has) please contact us if you need a
place to stay or any other help!

If your child is a regional center client, be sure to contact your
caseworker for information about emergency housing and food allowances.
Find your regional center.

Donald T. and the Gold Salts

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Donald T. occupies a special place in autism history.  He was patient #1 in Dr. Leo Kanner’s original monograph which first described autism in 1943. 

However, according to former UPI writer Dan Olmsted in his Age of Autism series, Donald T. didn’t spend his life in an institution.  Instead, he graduated from college, went to work for a bank, and is now at the age of 74 is spending his retirement traveling the world and playing golf.

Soap and a Dope

By Kim Stagliano

My children received papers in their school bags about the importance of hand washing for preventing the spread of the Staph bacteria that is wreaking havoc across the nation. The school district has been proactive, which is great.

The hand washing memo reminded me of an incident at a recent pediatric visit. I had scheduled two children in one time slot. The doc examined both kids fully. Including the "panty peek" some older girls get. I'm not used to that one yet.

1) She did not wear gloves and 2) She did not wash her hands between checks. It didn't occur to me until after we'd left the building. I'm thinking of changing practices from the local "puppy mill pediatric group" to a sole practitioner. If I can find one.

Wash your hands. Wash your kids' hands. And make sure your doctors wash their hands too. Soap and water. Your first line of defense for a healthy winter.

Sugar and Spice and Antimony? Not Nice!

Why is it when we ask about the chemical cocktail in vaccines doctors turn a blind eye, a deaf ear and give us the finger to boot? And yet, here is a doc at a major medical center in the USA saying point blank that "industrial toxins could be leading to more childhood disease and disorders."  Where does he think the chemicals in vaccines come from, the tooth fairy?  You can find an A - Z list of vaccine ingredients in THIS Rescue Post piece from Kent Heckenlively.

Here's a quote from the full CNN report.

"We are the humans in a dangerous and unnatural experiment in the United States, and I think it's unconscionable," said Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Trasande says that industrial toxins could be leading to more childhood disease and disorders.

"We are in an epidemic of environmentally mediated disease among American children today," he said. "Rates of asthma, childhood cancers, birth defects and developmental disorders have exponentially increased, and it can't be explained by changes in the human genome. So what has changed? All the chemicals we're being exposed to."

BRAINS. BEAUTY. BREAKTHROUGH.

Now appearing at #5 on the New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction list.  Can you hear the entire CDC, AAP and FDA running to grab the cat and shove it back into the bag? Not going to happen. The train has left the station. Are you on it? Or are you watching the caboose speed off without you? Order yours HERE.