Rat On a Hot Tin Plate: New Evidence Shows Ethyl Mercury from Vaccines Causes Abnormal Brain Development in Infants
By Mark Blaxill
As we enter the heart of flu season, industry pressure to rehabilitate thimerosal (the ethyl mercury-based vaccine preservative) has been escalating. Just last week, The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece blaming swine flu vaccine shortages on the demand for mercury-free formulations. According to the author, venture capitalist Scott Gottlieb, one of the main reasons you can’t get the swine flu vaccine is that the Obama administration has been “too cautious” in managing vaccine safety. He blamed three “fateful policy decisions” for restricting swine flu production, one of which was that “the government demanded single-dose syringes because they contain smaller amounts of thimerosal than multi-dose vials.” According to Gottlieb, “This mercury-containing vaccine preservative continues to stir concern it can trigger childhood autism, even though this has been firmly disproven.”
Coming from Gottlieb, this argument should be taken with a grain of salt (Gottlieb has acknowledged relevant conflicts. As a former FDA official in the Bush administration, see (HERE), he had to recuse himself from decisions involving Eli Lilly drug approvals; Eli Lilly sponsored research led to the invention of thimerosal). But Gottlieb was merely the point man for a commonly held view in the vaccine and medical industries. And over the last few months the vaccine industry has shifted their promotional activities into overdrive, eagerly exploiting the opportunity to market the novel threat of the swine flu. In the process they have bundled their full throttle marketing of flu vaccines with a renewed push to eliminate what they see as unnecessary obstacles to flu vaccine production (what others might call prudent product safety measures).
But this new propaganda blitz suggesting that thimerosal is safe—and that merely providing a thimerosal free option is excessively cautious—has scant scientific evidence to support it. Indeed, the overwhelming weight of evidence from animal studies suggests that exposing infants and fetuses to ethyl mercury always was, and continues to be, a bad idea.
In September, a new animal study from a group at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw provided the latest evidence of harm to infants from vaccine level doses of thimerosal. One of the methods they used, a heat sensitivity assessment called the “hot plate test”, had a special resonance for me. I saw my daughter flunk a real life version of this test just a few days before she got her formal diagnosis of autism.
Sick rats
[The] epidemic of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is one of the most alarming public health problems, as the prevalence of autism has been dramatically increasing during the past 20 years world-wide with tragic personal and social consequences. Before 1970 the incidence of ASD was 1 in 2000 children, now in the USA and many other developed countries it is 1 in 150 children. The etiology of ASDs is multifactorial, having both genetic and environmental components, but the evidence strongly suggests that early-life – prenatal and postnatal – exposure to hazardous substances may be responsible for the observed rise in the incidence of autism.
The objective of this research project is to investigate, in a combination of multidisciplinary clinical and preclinical studies, the biological mechanisms of neurodevelopmental toxicity induced in children by certain environmental toxins, particularly mercury and lead.
Conference abstracts often provide the first signals of future publication results and the sponsor group’s abstract, entitled “Vaccine Preservative, Thimerosal, Causes Wide-Spread Neurodevelopmental Disturbances in Young Rats”, provided just such a clue. The abstract didn’t provide much detail, but it made clear that the research was showing evidence of harm to infant rats after receiving an exposure to thimerosal similar to that received under the American childhood immunization schedule during the 1990s.
And in a September article published on line in the journal Brain Research, the Warsaw team revealed their first peer-reviewed findings (HERE). The study design was simple and the results unambiguous. But the methods might strike close to home for some autism parents unfamiliar with the term “nociception.” They certainly struck home for me, and I’ll admit I had to look the word up.
The Warsaw group’s paper followed a protocol for thimerosal administration in rodents first designed by Mady Hornig at Columbia University. Hornig’s group used two different genetic mouse strains (one that was susceptible to autoimmunity and another that was not) and in each strain compared unexposed infant mice to those injected with thimerosal (injections were on days 7, 9, 11 and 15) on a schedule designed to mimic the typical vaccine schedule for human infants (with vaccinations at months 2, 4, 6 and 15) and at comparable weight adjusted doses. The Warsaw team followed the same plan of thimerosal injections with infant rats of two different strains and followed up the exposures with measures of mercury metabolism and infant development, comparing rats injected with thimerosal to those injected with a saline placebo.
When the rats reached 6 weeks of age (an human equivalent age just under 3 years), the Warsaw experimenters tested them for impaired “nociception”, or the “neural processes of encoding and processing noxious stimuli.” In this case, they tested the rats to see how sensitive they were to heat by placing the infant rats on a hot plate (a little over 130 degrees Fahrenheit) and seeing how long it took them to show their discomfort, either by licking their paws or jumping from the plate. This “hot plate test” is a highly standardized animal protocol for pain sensitivity testing, finely tuned to provide just enough heat to generate discomfort but not enough to actually burn the baby rodents (after 30 seconds on the hot plate, the infants were removed “to prevent tissue damage” if they didn’t show any reaction). The amount of time before paw-licking or jumping is measured using a stop watch.
In the susceptible strain, the Warsaw team found that the difference between the infant rats exposed to thimerosal and those with no exposure was highly significant. Unexposed rats took about 10 seconds before they demonstrated discomfort on the hot plate (8 seconds for males and 11 seconds for females); rats exposed to vaccine level doses of thimerosal took about twice as long before they reacted to the heat (over 15 seconds for the males and close to 25 seconds for the females). The researchers concluded that this was the result of “long term neurodevelopmental alterations in brain organization and function.”
This finding of harm due to thimerosal exposure is by no means the first in such animal models. In a 2004 paper, Hornig’s susceptible strain of mice showed clear evidence of developmental delay and altered brain development when compared with unexposed mice. In 2007, Peruvian researchers published similar experimental evidence using hamsters; they followed Hornig’s protocol and found clear evidence of developmental delay and brain injury (HERE).
Interestingly, neither of these two studies exposed the study animals to thimerosal at birth. When a recent study group from the University of Pittsburgh and Thoughtful House examined infant primates to see whether a birth dose of thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccine influenced development (HERE), they found significant delays in a group of survival reflexes in the exposed infant monkeys.
In the only other study performed on mice, a group from the University of California that was funded by NIH attempted to replicate Hornig’s mouse model, but found little effect from thimerosal. This apparent contradiction left open the question, which group was correct, California or Columbia? Based on several recent studies, the weight of the evidence seems clear: only the NIH group has been unable to replicate Hornig’s work (suggesting the California team’s methods may have been flawed), while researchers from Peru to Poland have supported the Columbia findings.
In short, Hornig was right. Thimerosal in vaccines is dangerous to infants.
When science imitates life
In late August 1998, our family took a vacation at a friend’s house on the Gulf Coast of Florida. One sunny day, I was sitting in a chair reading a book when I noticed my daughter Michaela, who was then just shy of three years old, toddle up to a reading lamp that was standing right next to my chair. It was early in the afternoon, the room was full of light and I thought the lamp was turned off. She put her fingers up to the light bulb and just after touching it pulled her hand back sharply. Then she just wandered on about the room, with no further reaction or indication of discomfort. I was concerned, however, so I reached up to check the lamp and was surprised to find that the bulb was scalding hot. It was one of those adjustable brightness lamps, and someone had turned the brightness all the way down without switching the light all the way off. I watched Michaela a bit more, waiting for the inevitable wail of pain that never came. Figuring there was nothing to worry about, I switched off the light and continued reading.
The next day, we were all walking towards the beach when I reached down to hold Michaela’s hand as we were about to cross the street. I noticed that her fingers had an angry burn on them where she had touched the light bulb the day before. Her skin had started blistering and it was clear that her brief encounter with the standing lamp had given her what must have been a painful burn. I told my wife about what had happened and we went back to the house to tend to her wound.
But what amazed me most was that my little girl never showed a hint of distress. If I hadn’t seen her pull her hand back from the bulb I would never have known what had happened. She never cried; she never displayed any sign of pain or “nociception”; she barely even noticed.
And, of course, she never spoke a word because she wasn’t speaking at all back then. Just a week later, on the Friday before Labor Day, we had a meeting with a developmental pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and received official notification that Michaela was autistic. The Labor Day weekend that followed was a time of profound shock, and that Friday was the day our lives changed forever.
But in my mind’s eye, I often return to that image, just a few short days before, of Michaela touching the light bulb. It was for me, the single most vivid demonstration that something wasn’t quite right with my little girl. Looking back, it’s clear that she had stumbled into a domestic version of the hot plate test, one operating at temperatures that would provoke charges of cruelty in an animal experiment, but one with starkly similar results. Born in November 1995, Michaela received almost the identical weight-adjusted thimerosal doses as the Columbia University mice, the Peruvian hamsters and the Warsaw rats (more, in fact, since she had also received the birth dose that the Pittsburgh primates had received). So reading this new study from Warsaw meant more to me than most other scientific papers; it was one of the handful of papers I’ve ever read where the experiment literally jumped off the page.
After all, I’d already seen it with my own eyes.
Mark Blaxill is Editor At Large for Age of Autism.
I don't think the article (judging by the abstract) supports your conclusion that the rats' development was disrupted -- rather, that their behavior was abnormal possibly while still having mercury in their brains.
Posted by: Dylan | January 07, 2010 at 01:56 AM
Has anyone noticed how many hucksters are on this and many other similiar websites? Adds for items which are marketed to help those conditions we wish to banish...but which themselves have not been tested.
You probably won't see this comment since the author of the article has to approve it and the site receives money to market the products.
Posted by: P. Phelan | November 13, 2009 at 12:47 AM
Sensory Integration Dysfunction...sounds like a lot of peds, and other medical authorities, these days...
'These days': I recall reading, in 1955-6, in a monthly (that I think was The Atlantic), a mother's report of her then-teenaged son who had been diagnosed with a strange new condition starting to appear called autism. Besides the usual symptoms (even then) - of being in a world of his own, etc. - he displayed two in-particular peculiar features. One was that he would put his face right up into reading lamps, as if fascinated where the light was coming from (It never seemed to hurt his eyes, reported his mother to the interviewer.) the other particular peculiarity about him was that if he saw a bottle of cooking or salad oil he would grab it and guzzle the whole thing down, if not stopped.
I had been a pre-med up until then, and though I chose not to continue on in to medical school, I still had a pre-med's scientific bent of mind; and I remember wondering, What is this all about? What could be causing this obvious brain damage? That conclusion was obvious to me, because of the symptoms in general; and as for the obsession about the cooking/salad oil, that had to be because of the ingredients; and even I knew that the brain was largely made up of fats/oils...
...even I knew...
..and all these years later, the medical authorities are still scratching their heads, and wondering... -
No. I don't buy that. They're not wondering, any longer.
They know.
John Stone mused, a ways back in this thread:
"What has come over so much of the scientific community that they will countenance this great evil and connive at it?"
I used to think, 'They just don't have a chance to read the alternative literature on this subject; they just don't know.' Or as a last resort: 'They're still convinced that the benefits of vaccines so "far outweigh" the risks that they are just true believers.'
But no. I can't give them - my just-about peers in life - the benefit of the doubt any longer.
They know. And John Stone's question is the correct one to ask.
And my answer?
That it's more than just venality, John.
It's power. And the power to corrupt absolutely thereof.
They are the priests of our day.
No. far more. They are the gods of our day.
And they are riddled with moral corruption.
Because without a vision - a vision of something more than Man - the people perish.
And their keepers go first.
Posted by: Stan | November 08, 2009 at 12:36 PM
It's a shame that greed is still overcoming the better judgement of the Health industry and that the Majority of Americans think people like us are crazy, ater all the CDC/FDA and US Government wouldn't allow harm to our children right? Sure, just like they didn't with tobacco. Our day is coming, just not soon enough for some children. Mercury is no doubt bad, I think with the current schedule the MMR is the worst offender though. It's a shame pediatricians don't educate themselves, they could prevent alot of damage.
SCD Diet, LDN, B-12 folic acid, antifungal parade until all food allergies are discovered and ceased.
Good luck to all!
Posted by: RF | November 06, 2009 at 07:19 PM
We too, had a "hot plate" incident which now in hindsight, I can see as a red flag, but back then, we just thought what a "tough kid" she was.
There were 3 parents standing in our kitchen and Macie was playing on the floor at our feet. She was about 13 months and she had just received her vaccinations. (Her b-day is in April and the set of shots that "took her away from us" were given on May 22 and then a flu shot several weeks later.) Looking back at this incident, this truly was the beginning of us losing her to autism. By about 16 months of age, she had lost all language, eye contact, social skills and interaction and the tantrums, rashes and diarrhea, were constant.
We had a fairly new "chef's stove" — a big, silver monster that was turned on and I had felt the entire front of it, including the glass, to make sure it wasn't hot to the touch because we were all standing and playing so close to it. It was actually cool so I felt it safe for her to be there with us. The next thing I knew, Macie was making a funny noise — not too loud, not screaming, but her hand was up and under the stove. I pulled her away, thinking that she got her hand "stuck" and noticed blisters! My husband grabbed her and threw her hand under water while I called 911. While talking to the 911 operator, I was trying to get my hand where Macie must have put hers, feeling around for heat. I found the spot, but my hand was actually too big to get to the place where she must have put hers — it was just a small crack on the underside of the stove where the door connected. The whole time we were running water on her hand — there was just some minor fussing. When at the hospital and while they were peeling her skin away — still, little upset from her. I, on the other hand, was distraught.
She has a big scar to this day - one she will want plastic surgery on when she is older and a constant reminder of that day. It is the only visible or noticeable sign that she ever had autism. And every time I look at her hand, I am reminded of how far we have come and how lucky we have been to have her back with us — whole and healed, but for this small imperfection.
Posted by: krissie | November 06, 2009 at 04:20 AM
I got a meesage for these pharmaceutical vaccine manufacturers, but I can't bring myself to swear that openly on this forum, nor are there words that can describe the bitter trials they envoked on our family....there are no words for the times I held my son through a grand mal seizure, no words for the times I had to clean up autistic enterocolitis, no words for the stares and glares we have had to endure from the public, and no words for the type of professional medical pronouncements/misjudgements/diagnosees of life long disorder and just forget about them. I have no words for these people who knowingly put chemicals in our children's brain with known mitochondrial poisons, known carcinogens, and myelin eaters. No known words for the retroviruses, and contaminations they knew were in them, which causes persistet immune dysfunction and damage to every part of the brain, gut, thyroid and any organ willing to harbor them. There are simply no words for these people who laugh while they are on the shores of the Caribbean with their wives with diamond rings, while I relax on the shores of my blown up swimming pool, because we can't afford vacations because of the medical mockery they call untreatable autism. No words for the lack of funds I will have when I die, because I could not bring myself to take off one vitamin or mineral off their routine because I saw it did something for them in the positive territory and eased their obvious pain. I don't like suffering, never had, and never will...yet, they seem to glory, and enjoy it, as long as it's not their child.....or any other family member (excuse me, I have to make a phone call to my grandaughter who is having a baby)....he hemmm. NO I don't excuse you, I want you front and center, and I want you to witness what your committe wants to hide. Its called real incontravertible truth and science...you know...the kind of science that is not taught in medical schools where you have to actually use your brains? The recipe of autism...ah yes...some say no child is alike...I agree...but one thing is for sure...they didn't need thimerosol ever...RETROVIRUSES/CONTAMINATIONS + METALS + INABILITY TO DETOX = Autism...DUH!!!!!!???
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | November 06, 2009 at 12:20 AM
Hey, vaccine companies - remember you are in the sales business. You are selling a product. Even if you don't think there is a problem with Thimerosal much of the public clearly doesn't want it in their kid's vaccines, period. Make a product they feel comfortable with injecting into their children and you won't have a problem selling it. It really is as simple as that.
Posted by: AnaB | November 04, 2009 at 08:46 AM
This Hot Plate study about the rats should be put on all the news shows, CNN, ABC, NBC,CBS. That's good enough evidence for me that thimerosal disrupts the development in our children. My Son is also a victim as a result.
Posted by: Carl Fletcher | November 04, 2009 at 08:07 AM
Jessica, you should never be disappointed in your child. This was no where near his fault, hun. I am right there with you in feeling the anger at the denial of what has happened and continues to happen to our children; in feeling the humiliation when you are told by doctors, whom you are supposed to trust, that you are confusing correlation with causation and that you are an idiot; in being disappointed at science who is covering the butts of those with the most money instead of doing the research that needs to be done. But this isn't your son's fault; our children have done nothing wrong. We also shouldn't blame ourselves; we did nothing wrong either. We are responsible members of society who felt it was the right thing to do by getting our children vaccinated. The ones who should be feeling guilty and who should be feeling disappointed in themselves are those that are dismissing us for doing the right thing and watching our children suffer for it.
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | November 04, 2009 at 07:56 AM
My son never received any TVCs and his routine blood, porphin, and zinc/copper ratios all indicate mercury exposure that is considered within the normal range. But, he still had 2 vaccine reactions: 1 to the 6 mo. DPT and the other the MMR, which triggered the seizures & GI.
Posted by: AnaB | November 04, 2009 at 07:27 AM
I think a class action lawsuit is in order, and I would like to be a part of that.
My daughter was born in 1998, and received TCV's early as she was premature and the schedule was not delayed to account for that.
At 12 months, only a week after those vaccines, she had a pink diaper. I took her to the ped, who told me it was "probably something she ate." Turned out it was blood and she had a kidney stone. She was not showing extra fussiness.
I also remember when she was 3 yrs old and we were on a short trip. She was getting fussy and writhing in her car seat. It was the first time I realized her constipation must be causing her some significant pain.
OUR POOR BABIES.
Posted by: Angry in Michigan | November 03, 2009 at 10:44 PM
Mark
Thanks for your efforts. You are appreciated. Sadly we have a 'hot plate' story too. It never ceases to astonish me what our kids go through and how these important experiences are discounted or pushed aside.
Thanks for advocating for our kids
Posted by: Lisa @ TACA | November 03, 2009 at 10:42 PM
Lisa, they never "removed" the thimerosal. What they are supposed to have done is produced the vaccines without using it in the first place, thereby necessitating the use of single-use vials. The thimerosal was the preservative enabling them to use a multi-use vial, where they could stick up to 20 (I think?) syringes and not have bacteria grow as a result of certain contamination from the (supposedly clean, but not sterile) syringes.
In the 1980's, thimerosal was banned in all OTC products. Single use tiny vials of eyedrops are now available (with no preservatives of any kind, let alone mercury). Yet, we are still expected to inject thimerosal into our children's veins.
When will they figure it out??
Posted by: Taximom | November 03, 2009 at 10:25 PM
"Sometimes when we are disappointed in our children, they can manifest that disappointment as a delay."
I was disappointed in my son. I was disappointed that he had rock hard stools followed by months of chronic diarreah after his 4 month shots. My ped told me rock hard stools that made my son's anus bleed were totally normal.
I was diappointed that after I took my son into the ped's office with full-body eczema they wrote on his records the words SHOT REACTION and never, ever told me this is what happened - even they knew!
I was disappointed he screamed for hours on end in obvious pain and I was unable to help him or find anyone who would treat him.
I was diappointed he suffered - suffered terribly - and was failed by the entire American medical establishment before we could stop it.
I was diappointed to find out how much crap was really wrong with my child - including standard, run of the mill allergy testing - that our pediatrician refused to order because "all autistic kids are like THAT" (whatever the hell THAT means).
I am further diappointed by people who don't bother to read, research or talk to a single parent of one of these sick children before passing judgement by accusing parents of being just "disappointed" that their kids aren't reciting Shakespeare at 12 months. Sounds like someone has been listenting to Shock Jock radio -didn't we just go through this shit?
Posted by: Jessica | November 03, 2009 at 08:22 PM
P. Jennings and other posters - despite living in southern Florida, my child (suspected celiac) NEVER sweated until we started the biomedical approach to helping him.
It is absolutely amazing . . .
Posted by: SFM | November 03, 2009 at 08:01 PM
Mark,
Thanks for sharing this research and how it so personally effected you. I have had this encounter too, where a study on paper takes me back to a memory of Meg's regression. This study shows me why she still is unable to sense the temperature in the bathtub or why she can walk on burning hot cement in bare feet. She gives no indication of pain but her poor skin will be red and burned. At age 16, this tells me the damage from thimerosal is still there, wreaking havoc.
My first experience with the sobering realization of the depth of Meg's injury was when I read ,"Autism: A Novel Type of Mercury Poisoning." As I read it, the words "sweating abnormalities", jumped out at me as I remembered vividly a reunion picnic we had attended when Meg was about 2.5 yo,which took place on a hot July day. All of the people, young and old were sweating except my Meg, who was beet red but not a drop of perspiration. She was crying and never smiled. It must have been torture for her but we didn't know then.
"Autism: A Novel Type of Mercury Poisoning" is the most comprehensive paper I have ever read that describes autism in my daughter. I could go on and on describing the myriad symptoms that Meg had and continues to have so this is my opportunity to thank all of the authors- Sallie Bernard,Albert Enayati,Teresa Binstock,Heidi Roger,Lyn Redwood, and Woody McGinnis who have taken us up right to today with their diligent research on mercury/thimerosal damage and what we see in our kids- from 10 years ago, their research has almost predicted the science of today in autism -
http://www.autism.com/triggers/vaccine/mercury.htm
"Mitochondrial dysfunction, especially in brain"
"Low levels of glutathione; decreased ability of liver to detoxify heavy metals"
"More likely to have allergies and asthma; familial presence of autoimmune diseases, especially rheumatoid arthritis; IgA deficiencies"
"Indications of on-going immune response in CNS"
"Skewed immune-cell subset in the Th2 direction and abnormal CD4/CD8 ratios"
"Elevated glutamate and aspartate"
"Diarrhea, constipation, gaseousness, abdominal discomfort, colitis"....and much more.
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | November 03, 2009 at 06:06 PM
to Pamela @"can anything be inferred about this reference to the opioid system and our children's reaction to wheat gluten, given the apparent opium like effect wheat has on so many of them?"
Yes.
But imo not necessarily just because of gluten etc foods acting as opioids... but because of raised chronic inflammation in our kids and because the immune/inflammatory (chemokine) systems are intrinsically connected to opioid systems. (Hence LDN)
Posted by: Natasa | November 03, 2009 at 05:44 PM
"Sometimes when we are disappointed in our children, they can manifest that disappointment as a delay."
It's things like that that make me lose my mind. We have had a taste of that bull shit a couple of times before.
From Ben's pediatrician's notes recovered after Ben's diagnosis:
mom concerned doctors unable to be positive he has OM vs. viral and wants to know if Ben could possibly have leukemia or anything else that may be causing chronic and recurring fevers.
mom also asked about seizure activity, during the day he will stiffen up and kind of be unresponsive however will have no shaking. he will wake up in middle of night or during nap screaming and crying and acts as if parents are not there, not interacting with them.
mom wonders about high fever and how it may have affected his brain and whether it can account for his behavior problems
Ben well appearing , playful, no apparent distress
seems to exhibit age appropriate behavior, maybe a bit on hyperactive side
mom very preoccupied with Ben’s behavioral what she perceives to be Ben’s behavioral disorder and is eager to find the cause at this point
mother concerned about lack of speech and not responding to name
advised to wait until first of year
vaccines given today, DPaT and flu
Posted by: bensmyson | November 03, 2009 at 05:10 PM
Still thinking about this and wondering if they checked the rats' heart rates, or even if, like humans, rat heart rates are elevated when they are in pain...
Posted by: A Mom | November 03, 2009 at 05:08 PM
Not to get off topic, but I am wondering if anyone here knows whether and how it has been confirmed that the drug companies actually removed mercury from the vaccines that they were supposed to remove them from. I don't trust these drug companies as far as I can spit. And since we know they are still selling their mercury-laced vaccines to the developing world, it seems like it would be fairly easy for them to do a switcharoo, periodically shipping the mercury-laced vaccines to unsuspecting (and perhaps uncaring) U.S. doctors. This would avert what for them must be a dreaded before-and-after comparison of health and developmental outcomes in children who received maximum mercury exposure vs. the supposedly reduced exposure levels on the schedule today.
I am really concerned about this. I know it sounds like a vast conspiracy theory, but these drug companies have already proven themselves to be capable of lying about anything and everything in order to look more attractive on Wall Street.
Please let me know if either you yourself have checked the vials -- not just the labels but the contents of the vials themselves, or if you know of somebody who has. Unless this is being routinely audited by a government agency, who's to say what's really in those containers?
Posted by: Lisa | November 03, 2009 at 05:00 PM
I don't believe it is an insensitivity to pain at all. I believe it is an inability to verbalize, with words, pain or to demonstrate that they are in pain. It's like something stops the process in between the onset of pain and the reacting to it.
The best example I can give is this: When I was passing a kidney stone, I was in excruciating pain. Pain like labor pain but in a different, smaller area. I was given powerful pain meds. They didn't diminish the pain at all but they did diminish my ability to keep complaining about the pain. I was so f'd up on pain meds that I couldn't speak. But the pain was no less. No less at all! I am sure the nurses thought I was in less pain though, because I stopped complaining.
Posted by: A Mom | November 03, 2009 at 04:45 PM
Do they have the entire article posted or do they just have the abstract? I'd like to look it through in its entirety. Ammunition, ya know ;-P
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | November 03, 2009 at 04:14 PM
I recently wondered why I was not hearing much out of other countries regarding vaccine/mercury research. Looks like they are at work, we just don't hear about it. Thank you for sharing this important information.
Posted by: claudine Liss | November 03, 2009 at 03:54 PM
This is about much more than rats on a hot plate.
For so long, we have been fed the lie that the only variable in our children's discipline is that of their outer environment - that is, the quality of parenting and care given.
So much so that we, having bought into this nonsense, would go against our own intuition, our own instincts, and believe that it is the case only to inflict further torment in the form of physical discipline of our helpless children.
THEY CAN'T EVEN FEEL IT FOR GOODNESS SAKES and what pain is a spanking compared to THEIR PAIN which is so blatantly demonstrated in their fits of rage, their screaming, biting and harming themselves and others. Disciplined for communicating distress - it doesn't get any worse than that.
Am I alone in my confession? My child has recovered from his distress, thank God, and with his recovery, has developed self-discipline with very little "help" from me.
Not only us, but society, has developed an entire science surrounding the altering of behavior toward socially acceptable norms by manipulation of - for the most part - the physical environment.
Should coping behaviors replace treatment of underlying medical conditions? NO! Why then, do we have so many so-called medical experts who have no clue about the biological causes of behavior trying to manipulate people into compliance?!
Please know that I do value ABA and actually hope to become a BCBA in the future, but so that the truth may be exposed and so that biological treatments may become variables that are measured.
I thank all of you here who have been a continuing motivation to me, many of you have contributed to the knowledge needed for my child's healing. I thank God, my rock, who whispers truths in my ear.
Posted by: Elizabeth | November 03, 2009 at 03:42 PM
If researchers or doctors were to provide an "answer" to the issues presented above, I'm sure they would say the problems are genetic. If they acknowledged the problems, that is.
But those problems are not genetic, as everyone here already knows. Being able to locate a gene which 'controls' an action or function does not mean the gene is working properly. Mercury and other chemical interference can change or block the function of a gene.
The OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man) shows a "genetic" condition which is named INSENSITIVITY TO PAIN, CONGENITAL, WITH ANHIDROSIS (CIPA).
The descriptions here are insensitivity to pain -- in varying degrees. Are your children also less able to sweat? The anhydrosis link is not accidental.
The description of CIPA begins with clinical features:
"Swanson et al. (1963, 1965) described 2 brothers with congenital insensitivity to pain and anhidrosis, despite normal-appearing sweat glands on skin biopsy. Temperature sensation was also defective. One of the brothers died after a 24-hour illness during which his temperature reached 109 degrees F. Almost complete absence of the first order afferent system considered responsible for pain and temperature was found at autopsy (Swanson et al., 1965).
"Pinsky and DiGeorge (1966) described the same disorder in 3 mentally retarded children, 2 of whom were sibs, with recurrent episodes of unexplained fever, repeated traumatic and thermal injuries, and self-mutilating behavior. Sweating could not be elicited by thermal, painful, emotional, or chemical stimuli, and histamine evoked no axonal flare. Subcutaneous administration of mecholyl or neostigmine in doses capable of producing lacrimation in normal children failed to do so in these patients, despite their occasional spontaneous lacrimation."
Posted by: P. Jennings | November 03, 2009 at 03:40 PM
One of the first signs that something was wrong with my daughter came when I discovered her ear drum had burst as I picked her up from her afternoon nap. She wasn't crying. She hadn't been crying prior. She was 5 months old.
My second thought, after being horrified and calling the doctor immediately, was "Why isn't she crying?". I couldn't phathom her not being able to feel what had happened.
When I mentioned this to the doctor and said, "Is it possible she isn't feeling this? She's had no signs what so ever of an ear infection. No irritability or anything. She wasn't even crying when I picked her up and saw this."
I was told, "It's very unlikely. Perhaps you need to pay better attention to your child, mom."
It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life, right up there with the neurologist handing me a psychologist's card and saying, "Sometimes when we are disappointed in our children, they can manifest that disappointment as a delay."
Posted by: Julie Obradovic | November 03, 2009 at 02:45 PM
Check out the interview posted today with Dr. Russell Blaylock on Mercola.com. It is a bit long so, get your cup of herbal tea and be prepared to wish Doc Blaylock was the U.S. Surgeon General.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx
Posted by: Deb O. | November 03, 2009 at 02:22 PM
We have a hot plate story too. We have a ceran stove top. I was cooking dinner and had just pulled a frying pan off and turned off the burner. My son was having a melt down at the time and decided to take his angst out on the appliances. He kicked the fridge and dishwasher and then slammed his hand down on the burner that I had just used. My husband and I rushed over to him but there was no reaction. I started to think that maybe the burner was already cool so I ran over and checked it. It was still really hot. I looked back at my son and he said he was okay. Then he stared off for awhile and then he screamed. We put his hand under running cold water. He again said, "I'm okay" but then he started screaming a few minutes later. We took him to the ER where they treated his hand for burns.
He can have raging ear infections but the only way we will know (and my son is verbal) is that he is louder than usual.
Posted by: samaxtics | November 03, 2009 at 01:15 PM
Good question Pamela.
My son had a high pain tolerance as many have described and responded very positive to GFCF Diet.
Posted by: Charlie | November 03, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Oh, Adrienne, what a sad and awful memory. Our family's "aha!" moment involved blood, too.
My son caught his big toe on a piece of kitchen flooring that had come loose and we both found ourselves staring at torn skin and dripping blood. I was more upset than he was; he didn't cry. He still remembers the red blood but not the pain.
I also remember him crawling under the table and bonking his head repeatedly on the way out; I'd have to walk over and save him from himself. There have been other similar indicators. Thankfully nowadays he tells me when things are uncomfortable but I still check and re-check bath water, etc.
Posted by: nhokkanen | November 03, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Our 'wake up' to diminished pain sensitivity came with blood! My little guy was turning 3 a few days later, when he came down the stairs after a nap, lost his footing and face-planted into the wall. His bottom front two teeth went right through his bottom lip. When he stood up, he looked at me blankly and kept coming down the stairs. I'll never forget it as long as I live. It was so wrong, in my opinion, that I kept asking him all the way to the hospital if he was ok. It wasn't until we went GFCF and added MB12 shots that he regained feeling.
Posted by: Adrienne | November 03, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Mark;
It would be interesting to know how they bred up rats that are genetically prone to inflammatory problems????
Wonder what they looked for; High sed rates, high CPKS, what?
The environmental labs for Dow chemical even put these rats on electricified plates too, and test for pain that way!
You have been through some dark days, and for that I am so very sorry.
Posted by: Benedetta | November 03, 2009 at 11:23 AM
For a short time we had the services of a Hospice alliance nurse to help with our son Liam.
As I prepared his dinner, the Nurse would give him a epson salt, baking soda W\Ginger bath. On this day a certified nursing Assistant was giving him his bath and did not check the water temp. He refused to sit but had a stand up, 10 minute bath. When he got up from his dinner he fell to the floor. We checked his legs and they were burned almost to the knee. What are they teaching in Nursing School these days?
Posted by: Matt Flynn | November 03, 2009 at 10:14 AM
In addition to not being able to communicate pain from "the worst ear infection" ever seen (by her pediatrician) many times, we also had a non-verbal burn incident. One night, while I was in the bathroom, she was putting tiny, tiny pieces of paper into the electric outlets (after removing the covers). I heard the "zap" sound and saw the lights flicker. The only thing she did in response to the 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her tiny fingers was try to pick off the blackened burned flesh as I drove her to the ER, where she was admitted overnight.
How cruel is it, among other things, that our children cannot even communicate when they are in pain, but rather sometimes inflict more pain upon themselves, such as throwing and thrashing themselves about when their tummies hurt.
What has been done to our children (and is still being done to children) is a crime against humanity - a holocaust against our children - the systematic destruction of our children. While at the same time, those responsible are making billions of dollars in profit off of them, off of the destruction of our children and our lives.
Posted by: A Mom | November 03, 2009 at 10:10 AM
As I commented to Benedetta yesterday:
"We have had a decade of prevarication and bureaucratic manouevering, while the vaccine programme is still expanding and projected to expand at a reckless rate. Every opportunity is used to sneak mercury back on to the schedule, and we have official pronouncements everywhere that it is perfectly safe for which there is no evidence or justification at all.
"And now, above all we have the swine flu scare, hi-jacking the public agenda. It is very depressing to see politicians and officials flexing their muscles over this while the public gets daily more sceptical."
http://tinyurl.com/ykadkso
What has come over so much of the scientific community that they will countenance this great evil and connive at it?
Posted by: John Stone | November 03, 2009 at 10:06 AM
I posted early this morning and thought of something else.
My older child - who didn't start the HepB series until 4 months of age - was extremely responsive (as a toddler) to the word "HOT" - i.e., if you said something was "hot" this chld would go nowhere near the object.
My younger child - who started HepB at birth - never had quite the same reaction to the word "HOT." He would be careful but never reacted reflexively the way older child did (just thought younger child was "tougher"). He can also handle hot pans the way a veteran mom can. :)
Younger child is not autistic but responded really well to a gluten free diet (we think may be celiac). This child also had some pretty glaring sensory issues which seemed to resolve with diet.
It really makes you wonder . . .
Posted by: Angela | November 03, 2009 at 10:00 AM
We used to have to lock the bathroom doors when my son was younger. Soon after his diagnosis, he somehow got into the bathroom and crawled up into the sink. So, he sat down in the sink indian style and turned on the hot water. When I walked in on him soon after, he was happily splashing away in the scalding hot water. His legs were red and blistered for days afterwards, but luckily, there wasn't any serious injury. He didn't cry out or anything.
His doctor called it Sensory Integration Dysfunction. I find it intriguing that rats develop this condition so soon after a TCV.
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | November 03, 2009 at 09:53 AM
I'm sure this story can be repeated throughout our community. My son was almost 3yo when he put his hand on a hot tractor engine. He was quite burned, but never showed any signs that he even noticed it.
My fil still talks about what a 'tough little guy' he was, but even at the time (way before dx), I knew that just wasn't right. It still upsets me too, Kim.
Posted by: Sally Miller | November 03, 2009 at 08:36 AM
Mark,
Thanks for sharing this and your experience as well.
We too have seen the "hot plate test" in action. In fact, the cold plate test as well. Our son Thomas was extremely insensitive to hot AND cold. One time my wife was doing dishes in water so hot that I could not put my hand in for even a second (Laura was using rubber gloves). Thomas loved to put things in water at the time and he reached in to find a pebble he put in. He fished around for nearly 15 seconds before he found his pebble and his arm and hand were scarlet red. I checked the water and it was too much for me.
Living in Minnesota we are used to 20 to 30 degrees below zero - just dress warm. Thomas opened the door one day and stepped out in just a diaper onto our step and stood there like it was summertime until I grabbed him back in and shut the door.
All that greatly diminished after going GFCF but he still does not seem to mind the cold and will often want to where his sweat pants and his favorite hooded sweater on an 80 degree day.
I always joked about having "my own little lab rat" when trying to explain why Thomas' symptoms match a lot of the reasearch we find, but this takes the cake!
Thanks again for sharing.
Tim
Posted by: Tim Kasemodel | November 03, 2009 at 08:31 AM
Mark, Thank you for citing Scott Gottlieb was a former FDA official, and is now promoting the safety of the mercury preservative thimerosal via The Wall Street Journal.
The overriding gigantic problem is getting honest news to the public of Swine/H1N1 flu, or typical seasonal flu, if not via the WSJ - then by other news media. However, our national media and CDC combine to keep Fear front and center with their dishonest propaganda, despite resoundingly good news available from right next door, and from Australia and New Zealand. For instance:
1) Published in New England Journal of Medicine October 8, 2009 (10.1056/NEJMoa0908481), titled
Critical Care Services and 2009 H1N1 Influenza in Australia and New Zealand.
I quote from their discussion at the end of the Study:
"The proportion of patients who died in the hospital in our study is no higher than that previously reported among patients with seasonal influenza A who were admitted to an ICU.24 Patients admitted to an ICU with seasonal influenza A predominantly are elderly and have coexisting conditions.24 Among patients admitted to ICU, older age, the presence of coexisting conditions, and a requirement for invasive ventilation were independently associated with increased risk of death, but because there were greater numbers of younger patients in our cohort, the majority of deaths occurred in younger patients."
As I have written earlier here on AoA, the total N1N1 flu-associated deaths for Australia's flu season (now over) was 185, and this small number was insignificant to the historical flu-associated deaths of 2,500 to 3,000 per year in Australia (data from their own Health Agencies).
In fact, I would make the argument the H1N1 variant tested for this year was most probably in Australia last year, but only 'tested for' this year because of the incredible amount of publicity.
2) The sweeping Flu-Infection Study by Canadian doctors Skowronski and De Serres showing a flu vaccination shot doubled the risk of Canadians becoming ill with flu has prompted their Health Officials to suspend the seasonal flu vaccination programs until further notice. Astoundingly this news has been essentially censored by CDC who in fact know about it, but dismiss it. Why?
Neither of these momentous "epidemic" findings has been a dent in our own American CDC and/or News Media fear-mongering. The WSJ has occasionally broken from the pack, so it's disappointing they run with the Fear-Monger Pack on the issue of Flu.
Posted by: david burd | November 03, 2009 at 08:18 AM
Opioid System?
I just read the study abstract and the last sentence reads,
"Present findings show that THIM administration to suckling or adult rats impairs sensitivity to pain, apparently due to activation the endogenous opioid system."
For those smarter than I in matters related to chemistry, biology and science...can anything be inferred about this reference to the opioid system and our children's reaction to wheat gluten, given the apparent opium like effect wheat has on so many of them?
Posted by: Pamela | November 03, 2009 at 08:16 AM
Mark
Thank you for this article and sharing your personal story.
We too noticed this issue with our daughter. She was never burned but we often noticed her fall or bump her head or smash a finger and show no sign of the pain she should have felt.
For my Dad was initially very skeptical or in denial about the functional regression we were seeing, However, he was the one who most often pointed this issue out. He said several times, "Pamela why doesn't she feel pain? That's just not right."
That just not right and now we know why.
Posted by: Pamela | November 03, 2009 at 08:06 AM
Ben used to be covered with bruises, never would he have complained, rarely does he complain now but back then he never reacted to pain. In fact I remember when I saw him scratch an itch and remarked to my wife "I think he is getting better, he itches.
I think of the statistic that most children are not diagnosed with autism until they are around six years of age. I would assume that many children with undiagnosed cases of autism are in daycare, the fact that they are not being diagnosed earlier means the child has more than likely fallen through the cracks somewhere. Autism finds itself in every segment of society. Some parents and caretakers may not be the most educated or sober or even gentle. A child with autism has a tendency to, at times, get under the skin of those in charge of the child's care. Autism would try the patience of Job, I can imagine what anger and frustration an autistic child might bring out in a single parent with a drug dependency problem or a sadistic daycare worker. I wonder how many suffer serious injury, broken bones etc. perhaps even another brain injury simply because they have a vaccine injury causing nociception and don't complain.
Posted by: bensmyson | November 03, 2009 at 08:02 AM
Here we have a chance to do our own "Peer Reviewed" Study. Your post brought tears to my eyes thinking through the times that Tanner has done something, touched something, fell on something that would make almost all cry.
I can not get past the common sense portion of our cries? How can Kathleen Sebelius announce to the world we have a international Health Crisis With Autism with known environmental triggers yet pile on the insult to the children?
Posted by: Tanners Dad | November 03, 2009 at 07:25 AM
Bella also burned herself. I got a note from school, "Where did Bella get that burn on her arm?" I pulled up her sleeve and sure enough, there was a mark. I thought back to the night before - she'd been at the counter when I took a pan of french fries out of the oven. The mark looked like her forearm had bumped the lip of the pan. She never cried out. It still upsets me.
Kim
Posted by: Stagmom | November 03, 2009 at 06:48 AM
Ditto! My son burned his hand on a bulb too. Same reaction. Delayed. He was not yet two.
Posted by: Holly M. | November 03, 2009 at 06:40 AM
Mark - I saw that piece in the WSJ, too, and was shocked to read it. There seemed to be a steady drumbeat of "thimerosal is relatively safe . . . shame on people for questioning it." And then, of course, you read the author's "bio" and it makes more sense.
Thank you very much for presenting this important and interesting research.
I no longer subscribe to the WSJ (after many years of reading it, I finally gave up) and hope the print publication completely founders. Shame on them.
Posted by: Angela | November 03, 2009 at 05:55 AM