Congrats to our winner Lin Wessels. The contest is closed.

Visit the website HERE. Order your copy at Amazon HERE.


"A propulsive chronicle. Thanks to Kirby’s extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming." BOOKLIST

"Immensely readable, should be required reading for anybody concerned with how CAFOs are changing the nature of livestock farming." LIBRARY JOURNAL

Swine flu. MRSA. Unusual concentrations of cancer and other diseases. Massive fish kills from algal blooms and flesh-eating parasites. Recalls of meats, vegetables, and fruits because of deadly E-coli bacteria contamination.  Recent public health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market.  In Animal Factory, bestselling investigative journalist David Kirby exposes the powerful business and political interests behind large-scale factory farms, and tracks the far-reaching fallout that can contaminate our air, land, and water supply. 

By Deb Mylander

Anytime the natural order of life is altered or skewed human beings, in general, have a difficult time accepting the different reality.  For instance: parent's are supposed to die before their children.  My Grandma lost her son (my father) to cancer when he was 44.  That was 17 years ago and her heart still feels the pain where part of it was severed and buried with her child. Another example: children grow up and move away.  However, having a child with a disability means this specific “natural order” is broken.

Typical lives follow a rhythm of milestones and anniversaries. In one week my son will mark one of those milestones, his 12th birthday.  The final year before he officially becomes a teenager. This birthday, more than the 11 others before it, is causing me a lot of fear and trepidation.  In six short years he will technically be an adult.  What will adulthood look like for him?  Will he be able to drive? Hold down a job?  Manage a house on his own? Will he ever  have a girlfriend?  At 12, on his best days, he has the mental capacity of a 6 year old.  So does that mean at 18 he will act  like a 12 year old?  I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but they are replayed in my mind with a steady rhythm much like the sound of a train moving down the track. 

I see old women in the grocery store with their adult disabled sons and I often feel like it is a window into my future.  I think of these as my “crystal ball” moments.  There stands a woman hunched over and frail trying to give verbal instructions to her son who has a  middle-aged body and a child's mind.  There is a reason that we are meant to have children when we are younger, it's because the amount of work that is involved in rearing them requires youthful energy and stamina.  When a child has a disability, like my son, the child rearing gets stuck forever in first gear, yet the car (the parent) continues to age and decay.

I assume this headline, "Girl Blinded by Gardasil Vaccine!" is in your newspaper today, on the front page, as every case of measles, mumps and chicken pox is reported. Will the doctors at Connecticut Children's Medical Center be hailed as heroes or villains, and run out of town on a rail for publishing this report? Take note of a similar case from 1978, reported following trivalent MMR vaccination in a 6 year old boy in 1978 at the end of this post.

How dreadfully sad for this child and her mother, who I'm sure is heartbroken and guilt ridden. Let's pray the damage is reversible. The .pdf from the journal is HERE.

A 16-Year-Old Girl With Bilateral Visual Loss and Left Hemiparesis Following an Immunization Against Human Papilloma Virus

Francis J. DiMario, Jr, MD

Departments of Pediatrics1 at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford, Connecticut, [email protected], University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut

Mirna Hajjar, MD

Department of Neurology at Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut

Thomas Ciesielski, MD

Department of Pathology at Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut

We report the course of a 16-year-old girl who presented with near complete visual loss associated with chiasmal neuritis and a biopsy proven tumefactive demyelinating lesion on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in association with a recent immunization against human papilloma virus.

Key Words: demyelination • tumefactive • blindness • chiasm • HPV
Journal of Child Neurology, Vol. 25, No. 3, 321-327 (2010)
DOI: 10.1177/0883073809349322

In case you've never heard of blindness following vaccination, here's another report. From 1978...

Am J Ophthalmol. 1978 Oct;86(4):544-7.
Optic neuritis complicating measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination.

A 6-year-old boy developed bilateral optic neuritis with decreasing visual acuity 18 days after administration of live attenuated trivalent measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. The patient was treated with oral corticosteroids. The optic neuritis resolved within several weeks and normal vision returned. An afferent pupillary defect persistent in the more severely involved eye for 14 months following vaccination.

 

Our commenter of the week is Amy Trail on the post VA Denies Insurance Coverage for Autism.  As a parent of a child with Autism in the state of VA and as an Educational Advocate for special needs children - The current midset of our legislators in VA is beyond crazy.I would love to see a vote as to how many Delegates in the House have prescriptions for medications that are not necessary. Answer - probably MANY. How many of them are currently rehabing a family member after a stroke? Probably a few - well people that is all we were asking for. My son, lost all skills at 18 months, they call it Autism - I call it a Stroke but he is denied the quality rehab services that he needs but the Delegates family member who is receiving stoke rehab has the best services in the state - I am sure. I have families here in the VA that are standing in lines at food banks to feed their kids because they have spent every dime they have to provide the therapies that the children have to have.

STOP INSURANCE DISCRIMINATION AND FREE THE CHILDREN.

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National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) Meeting
Public Teleconference
Draft Agenda
Current as of February 15, 2010

Friday, February 26, 2010 3 - 5 pm EST
Participants call-in: 1-888-677-1385, Passcode: NVAC

This article from the LA Times explains that children today are chronically sicker than their counterparts 50 years ago. Despite "well" visits at 2 weeks, 2,4,6,9,12,15,18,24 months and then yearly, our kids appear to be headed downhill as far as their health goes. How will they fare as adults? And how can you say that children with asthma, ADHD, obesity, diabetes, food allergies, autism, learning disabilities aren't "less healthy?" The article points out that there are fewer congential defects (perhaps the result of prenatal testing leading to abortion and the addition of Folic Acid to stave off spina bifida) infectious disease, (yes, there is less chicken pox and measles and mumps, the traditional childhood diseases from which most children recovered) and accidents. Is it a necessary tradeoff? What has happened to childhood in America? Sounds to us that Ms. Roans is saying we are MAKING OUR CHILDREN SICK. Wow.

By Sahri Roans

More than a quarter of all U.S. children have a chronic health condition, new research suggests, a significant increase from the rate seen in earlier decades and a statistic that looms large for the nation's efforts to subdue rising healthcare costs.

But the report doesn't suggest that children are less healthy. The comprehensive look at children from 1988 through 2006 also revealed that health conditions themselves have changed.

Fewer children today are affected by congenital defects, infectious diseases and accidents than they were 50 years ago; instead, cultural, lifestyle and environmental conditions appear to be the root cause of many pediatric illnesses.

Age of Autism Media Editor Anne Dachel had a letter to the editor run in the Wall Street Journal this week on their article, Life Among the Yakkity Yaks:

Bari Weiss gives us some information in "The Weekend Interview with Temple Grandin" (Feb. 20) that should at least raise concern among parents. "As many as one in 110 American children are affected by autism spectrum disorders, according to the Centers for Disease Control." (In the 1970s, autism affected only one in 10,000.) "Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. But what causes this developmental disorder . . . remains a mystery."

Maybe we should pay attention to Ms. Grandin's comment, "Scientists need to study 'the kids where they seem to have language and then they lose it at 18 months to two years of age.' She adds: 'I've talked to too many parents that have talked to me about regressions that I can't just pooh-pooh that off.' "

Ms. Grandin notes that severe autism has increased and she cites toxins as possible factors. The CDC now acknowledges that the increase may be due to some unknown environmental factor. However, the CDC sees a problem but not a crisis with autism.
Ms. Grandin reports that GFCF diets can help, yet health officials deny they're effective in reducing signs of autism.

Most important of all is the fact that Temple Grandin's story doesn't come close to what's ahead for most children with autism today. The vast majority will never hold jobs successfully, even those with Aspergers. Ms. Grandin may be working on her fifth doctoral degree and be a national figure, but most Americans with autism will each cost the taxpayers at least $3 million for lifetime care cost, according to a Harvard study from several years ago.

I'm happy for Ms. Grandin's success and her story offers hope, but we cannot continue to ignore the reality of autism for so many children in this country, children who can't talk, can't even make eye contact, and are in diapers as teenagers. We can't continue to ignore the very real autism epidemic.

Anne Dachel
Chippewa Falls, Wis.

By Anne Dachel

Most of us have observed the appearance of endless new studies on autism.  They’re announced with lots of fanfare by the media, but the information contained in the details is typically much different from what the headlines seem to say.  This month was no exception.
 
At the beginning of February came the news that scientists link maternal age to an increased risk for autism based on a study from the UC-Davis. 
 
The NBC station in San Diego put out the story Older Moms at Higher Risk of Having Autistic Children on Feb 9. In it we read, “A woman’s chance of having a child with autism increases as she ages. That’s according to a new study released today.”  
 
The ordinary reader might think that researchers have learned something really critical about autism, the actual story however tells us nothing significant.  Dr. Bruce Hensel reported that they looked at 5.6 million babies born in California and found that if the mother was older than 40 the risk of autism was about 50 percent more likely than for a mother in her twenties, however, “the risk is still small no matter what a woman’s age.”

Please pop over to Huffington Post to comment on the Jenny story in Time. They've just posted about it there and as you can imagine, it will soon be a Trollfest of vaccine injury and treatment deniers.  Thanks.

Head over to TIME HERE to leave a comment telling story of how Jenny has helped you, and how your autism journey mirrored hers in terms of lack of medical guidance and frustration of trying to find the right treatments for your child. The author of the article is Karl Taro Greenfeld, who wrote 2009's Boy Alone about growing up with a profoundly autistic brother in the 1970s. Pay attention to the last line of the Time article. It's imporant. Click over to TIME HERE and leave a comment, please. Thanks. KIM

The Autism Debate: Who's Afraid of Jenny McCarthy? (Photograph by Jeff Minton for Time.)

...In 2005, McCarthy's son Evan, then 2, began having seizures so severe he required repeated emergency hospitalization. McCarthy had noticed that Evan had some developmental delays, compared with his peers in a playgroup they attended, and he exhibited some atypical behaviors: arm flapping, repetitive actions and fixation on strange objects. She describes her panic at Evan's diagnosis in her memoir Louder than Words: "I wished to God the doctor had handed me a pamphlet that said, 'Hey, sorry about the autism, but here's a step-by-step list on what to do next.' But doctors don't do that. They say 'sorry' and move you along." McCarthy began to try almost every treatment that turned up on Google. Evan went through conventional, intensive Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy as well as a host of alternative approaches, including a gluten-free and casein-free (GFCF) diet, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, chelation, aromatherapies, electromagnetics, spoons rubbed on his body, multivitamin therapy, B-12 shots and a range of prescription drugs. McCarthy says she made a deal with God. "Help me fix my boy," she prayed, "and I'll teach the world how I did it."

She believes she did fix her boy. A psychological evaluation from UCLA's neuropsychiatric hospital, dated May 10, 2005, was "conclusive for a diagnosis of Autistic Disorder," and yet here, running toward us on a warm California afternoon, is Evan, shouting out, "Are you here to play with me? When are we going to play?" McCarthy's boy is a vivacious, articulate and communicative child who seems to have beaten the condition. He is an inspiration, the fact of him as incontrovertible as any study done in any laboratory in the world...

Read more: HERE.

Please comment on this article by Nicholas Kristof at The New York Times.  Nevermind, an astute reader just told us NYT closed the comments at 192. Tell your friends to comment here at AoA.

Do Toxins Cause Autism? 

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: February 24, 2010

Autism was first identified in 1943 in an obscure medical journal. Since then it has become a frighteningly common affliction, with the Centers for Disease Control reporting recently that autism disorders now affect almost 1 percent of children.

Over recent decades, other development disorders also appear to have proliferated, along with certain cancers in children and adults. Why? No one knows for certain. And despite their financial and human cost, they presumably won’t be discussed much at Thursday’s White House summit on health care.

Yet they constitute a huge national health burden, and suspicions are growing that one culprit may be chemicals in the environment. An article in a forthcoming issue of a peer-reviewed medical journal, Current Opinion in Pediatrics, just posted online, makes this explicit.

The article cites “historically important, proof-of-concept studies that specifically link autism to environmental exposures experienced prenatally.” It adds that the “likelihood is high” that many chemicals “have potential to cause injury to the developing brain and to produce neurodevelopmental disorders.”

THE COALITION FOR VACCINE SAFETY CALLS FOR CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON FEDERAL AGENCIES’ FAILURE TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE SAFETY RESEARCH

CASE NOT CLOSED ON GOVERNMENT VACCINE SAFETY CLAIMS

WASHINGTON, DC – In a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of House and Senate Committees charged with oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Coalition for Vaccine Safety (CVS) is calling for hearings to investigate HHS, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other government agencies for failure to fully address issues of vaccine safety as intended by the Mandate for Safer Vaccines in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.

With the federal government claiming “case closed” on possible damage to children caused by compulsory vaccines, too much evidence exists and too many unanswered questions remain, according to the letter.  Key concerns are: insufficient and flawed data knowingly and willing used by government entities to reach conclusions that science dictates simply cannot be reached; conflicts of interest of individuals and government agencies involved in vaccine safety research; and ignored statements from experts regarding the un-answered question of a link between thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines and autism.

“The question has not been answered.” (former Chairman of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Dr. Bernadine Healy)

“[T]here's been grossly insufficient investment in research on the safety of immunization.” (former head of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Louis Cooper)

“Yet the study had significant weaknesses and they knew it.”  (former Congressman David Weldon, MD, R-FL in reference to a CDC study regarding thimerosal and autism)

 “[T]he committee cannot rule out, based on the epidemiological evidence, the possibility that vaccines contribute to autism in some small subset or very unusual circumstances.” (The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2004 report on thimerosal and autism)

The Coalition for Vaccine Safety urges Congress to view the claims of HHS and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that vaccines are safe with a jaundiced eye.  The existing evidence on vaccine safety is grossly insufficient and fails to meet the requirements of public confidence.  In fact, significant evidence points to suppression of science that could prove or disprove vaccine safety.  This suppression may be due to potential liability and financial conflicts of interest involving individuals and organizations responsible for scientific studies and vaccine safety policies.  Furthermore, “HHS has blatantly disregarded laws passed by Congress requiring it to properly and thoroughly study vaccine safety,” reads the letter.

By Anne Dachel

I just ran across a recent New York Times opinion piece about the changes being made in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association.  The writer was long time autism denialist, Roy Grinker.  I say denialist because he denies there’s anything wrong with having hundreds of thousands of kids with autism. 

Grinker claims that there’s been no real increase in autism, or that vaccines are a factor, or even that we should worry about autism.   From the sound of his op ed article, we should just embrace autism. 
 
The main message from Grinker in the Times is that it’s a great idea to include Asperger’s Syndrome in the definition of autism in the official DSM.  According to Grinker, his daughter's experience with Asperger's has been rewarding.  He's happy about the one big autism family they're about to create.
 
“If this revision is adopted, the condition will be folded into the category of “autism spectrum disorder,” which will no longer contain any categories for distinct subtypes of autism like Asperger’s and 'pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified' (a category for children with some traits of autism but not enough to warrant a diagnosis).”

We often question the one-size-fits-all approach of the pediatric vaccination schedule. While there are contraindications and exemptions, for the most part, the vaccine schedule is administered per the CDC schedule. Another topic in the autism biomed world is whether Tylenol has adverse effects for our kids. The Atlantic article below delves into Tylenol, not as it relates to autism, but to point out that not every medicine, even an over the counter medicine, is safe for everyone. Of interest is this line, In May 2009, researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, suggested that in some people who suffered liver failure after taking the drug, the cause may be genetic, not the size of the dose. 

Read the full article in The Atlantic.

In the past 50 years, modern pharmacology has created dozens of treatments that improve and save lives. Cardiovascular drugs like beta- blockers have drastically reduced deaths from heart attacks and heart disease. For every million people who take a statin drug for high cholesterol, there are 50,000 fewer angioplasties, surgeries, heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths, studies have shown. And in the past 15 years, drugs have transformed AIDS from a death sentence into a managed disease. These are just some of the triumphs of pharmacology, and each case is a bona fide miracle, a life transformed. 

But not every drug can deliver a fairy-tale ending. Many of the stories we expect from drugs are partly fictions, hiding in a gauze of ambiguous results, placebo effects, and messy side effects. Though it’s widely known that the pharmaceutical industry tests hundreds of substances to get the handful that work, most people assume that those that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are actually effective. But the numbers say otherwise.

Even the best drugs have imperfect chances of working for any one person. Asthma drugs work in about 60 percent of patients. Migraine drugs are effective in only about half of cases. Drugs for Alzheimer’s disease work in about 30 percent of patients. And those are exceptional results compared to cancer drugs, which at best work about 25 percent of the time...

PLoS and NYT vs. Money; FDA vs. Flavor; Hype(r)tension

By Curtis Porter

Medical Journal Gives Up on Evaluating Science

Today the editorial staff of PLoS Medicine, a peer reviewed, open access journal published by the Public Library of Science, declared, “While we continue to be interested in analyses of ways of reducing tobacco use, we will no longer be considering papers where support, in whole or in part, for the study or the researchers comes from a tobacco company.”

“By deciding to no longer allow for research funded in any part by tobacco industry, they're acknowledging that they're no longer able to evaluate science,” says ACSH's Jeff Stier. “It is the very role of journals to discern between good and bad science, and they're throwing their hands up in the air and saying, 'We can't do it.' It's a regression of scientific standards that journals can no longer trust themselves to evaluate science.”

The editorial offers the justification for this decision: “As a medical journal we do this for two reasons. First, tobacco is indisputably bad for health...Second, we remain concerned about the industry's longstanding attempts to distort the science of and deflect attention away from the harmful effects of smoking.”

“It's true that tobacco companies knowingly deceived their customers for many years,” says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. “We can name a few activist groups funded by other interests that have also distorted science to suit their agenda. Still, it's the twenty-first century now, and there are many tobacco products - be they smokeless tobacco or lozenges - that may be used to help people quit smoking. Who but the tobacco industry that produces these alternatives is going to fund research concerning their safety and efficacy? And while smoking is decidedly bad for anyone's health, are the PLoS editors going to ban research supported by other disfavored industries - beverages, pharmaceuticals, who knows what others? - in the near future?”  Read the full article HERE.

By Katie Wright

I recently came across a press release from the Autism Speaks High Risk Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC) about their recent meeting to examine autistic regression (HERE). Naturally, I think this is great; this issue has been ignored for so long. How terrific that a mainstream research body delves into this subject!

For anyone who does not know, my son Christian had a horrific regression at the age of 2. The mainstream medical and autism community could offer no help or insight whatsoever in 2004. The suffering is these medically complex kids is intense, the interventions few and the research on them practically non-existent. If it were not for the help I found from DAN! Practioners my son would still be living in pain.

So I eagerly read the official synopsis of this BSRC meeting. My enthusiasm quickly cooled. It felt like 2004 all over again.

I have researched regression’s causes and treatments almost everyday since my son became sick. I hate it. I received two Masters in Counseling Psychology. I hated all the stats and research methods courses. I thought: “I am going to work with people, I will never need to know this stuff again!” Well now the joke is on me. It turns out I no longer work clinically at all, but devote all my efforts to research. Almost every Mom with a child like mine does the same. We are pretty much in this alone and it is up to us to figure out why our kids regressed, became ill and how to heal them.

BSRC’s recommendations for regression related research includes: eye-gazing coding, on line diaries, eye tracking and EEGs. It could hardly be worse. First of all it is well known, well documented that when children are regressing their eye contact becomes poor. Autism research has been there (invested millions in this already), done that, researched that, reported on that- time to move on. EEGs always sound good but they reveal useful information about 1% of the time. Putting a toddler through the nightmarish processes of a 24-hour EEG needs to yield better results. So few neurologists understand how to look for the very subtle spikes and merely tell parents, “Everything is fine.” Christian had terrible absence seizures. It was actually obvious. He had 4 EEGs. Finally someone found the subtle spikes but guess what there is almost nothing you can do about it anyways. Back to square one.

After that I am thinking, “Where is the proposed research on sibs developing GI disease, night sweats/ night terrors, severe eczema, adverse vaccine reactions…issues all closely associated with regressive autism?” More than any other form of autism, regressive autism is a total body disease: kids have brain inflammation, immune dysfunction and develop colitis like GI disease. Tracking eye-gazing could not possibly be a lower a lower priority. Ask any family.

The losers are children with autism. The bill, SB464, was flawed, very flawed. But if you were one of the few it would have helped, it was valuable and a starting point for more coverage. Of course, this is the state where last week a Delegate named Bob Marshall (R) said that disabled children are God's punishment for having had an abortion HERE. Read and comment at WTKR.com.

RICHMOND, Va. - Legislation that would have required many Virginia employee health care plans to cover a treatment for autistic children died Tuesday under business and insurance industry claims that its costs would hurt business.

Sen. Janet Howell's bill was tabled Tuesday on an unrecorded voice vote by a House Commerce and Labor subcommittee.

The defeat ends a 2010 legislative push by families of children with the neurological disorder to secure coverage for a treatment called applied behavior analysis.

"They were lobbied hard by the insurance and business lobbies not to stand up for children and families," said Mark Llobell of Virginia Beach, grandfather of an autistic child and one of several tearful relatives who consoled one another after the vote.

ABA treatments cost $30,000 a year and up. Many middle-class families forced to pay the costs themselves confront financial ruin.

Virginia is among 35 states that do not compel insurers to cover the ABA treatments, which specialists say are the best hope autistic children have for living a normal life.

David Kirby has kindly given us one of the few advance reader copies (ARC) of his new book, Animal Factory, available NOW for presale. Publishers print a handful or ARCs before the final book is published and we have one for you, signed by David Kirby. Visit the website HERE. Order your copy at Amazon HERE.

THE CONTEST IS CLOSED. Thank you.

"A propulsive chronicle. Thanks to Kirby’s extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming." BOOKLIST

"Immensely readable, should be required reading for anybody concerned with how CAFOs are changing the nature of livestock farming." LIBRARY JOURNAL

Swine flu. MRSA. Unusual concentrations of cancer and other diseases. Massive fish kills from algal blooms and flesh-eating parasites. Recalls of meats, vegetables, and fruits because of deadly E-coli bacteria contamination.  Recent public health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market.  In Animal Factory, bestselling investigative journalist David Kirby exposes the powerful business and political interests behind large-scale factory farms, and tracks the far-reaching fallout that can contaminate our air, land, and water supply. 

By John Stone

Prof Trisha Greenhalgh, whose analysis of the controversial Wakefield Lancet paper, was published by Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer on his website (HERE) has received more than £1.4m in grants from the UK government’s Department of Health since 2003.
 
When Deer’s original allegations were published in the Sunday Times in February 2004 they were supported by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson. Prof Greenhalgh failed to disclose either her government funding or her assistance of Deer when earlier this month she published an article in British Medical Journal criticising the Lancet’s delay in retracting article (HERE). Nor have BMJ so far published the letter (see below) pointing out her unfortunate omissions.

Greenhalgh’s reading of the paper was not only contested by Andrew Wakefield (HERE) and Carol Stott (HERE) on one side of the MMR controversy, but also implicitly by prominent Guardian science journalist Ben Goldacre on the other. Goldacre wrote in a 2005 award winning article (HERE): 

  "...people periodically come up to me and say, isn't it funny how that Wakefield MMR paper turned out to be Bad Science after all? And I say: no. The paper always was and still remains a perfectly good small case series report, but it was systematically misrepresented as being more than that, by media that are incapable of interpreting and reporting scientific data."

Goldacre’s opinion apparently led to bad feeling between himself and Deer (HERE ).

Greenhalgh’s analysis projected a hypothesis onto the paper which was not partof its design and may have indirectly influenced the decision of the General Medical Council who decided that paper was not an early report, as stated, but a bungled version of a more formal scientific paper, commissioned by the Legal Aid Board, which the defence always insisted was never undertaken.

This is the text of my letter to BMJ, so far unpublished by them:-
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Trisha Greenhalgh: competing interests"
----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
Prof Greenhalgh [1] does not disclose any competing interests. She
has, however, contributed a controversial article [2,3] attacking the 1998
paper [4] to journalist Brian Deer's website. Although not disclosed here
by Greenhalgh or in the accompanying article by Deer [5], Deer was named
as a complainant against Andrew Wakefield in the High Court by Mr Justice
Eady, who stated [6]:
 
"Well before the programme was broadcast [Mr Deer] had made a
complaint to the GMC about the Claimant. His communications were made on
25 February, 12 March and 1 July 2004. In due course, on 27 August of the
same year, the GMC sent the Claimant a letter notifying him of the
information against him."

Read the full article and comment at PulseToday.

The Department of Health has revealed it is to scrap plans for healthy children under five to continue to be vaccinated against swine flu, just three months after urging GPs to vaccinate more than three million youngsters against the outbreak.

In a major U-Turn, the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, revealed the programme of vaccinating healthy children would wrap up at the end of next month, although GPs have been told to continue to try to vaccinate children until then.

Extending the vaccination campaign to children has proved a disappointment, with just 17% of children in England having had the vaccine according to the latest uptake figures.

GP leaders blamed protracted negotiations with the Government, which refused to provide concessions on GP workload via a national deal, for the lack of uptake in a campaign which ended up being launched as a hugely patchwork and bitter set of local arrangements between PCTs and GPs.

Temple Grandin gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal this weekend (HERE) in which she amplified comments she's been making about controversial aspects of autism. The interviewer mentions Andy Wakefield's 1998 Lancet paper -- now retracted by the journal -- and "the antivaccine movement perhaps best associated with the actress Jenny McCarthy ..."

"Scientifically, there's still some things to be done,' Ms. Grandin says. Scientists need to study 'the kids where they seem to have language and then they lose it at 18 months to two years of age.' She adds: 'I've talked to too many parents that have talked to me about regressions that I can't just pooh-pooh that off.'"

So what to do? "We can't stop vaccinating because we're going to end up with all these childhood diseases. i grew up with iron lungs. ... That was horrible, dreadful ... We can't go back to that."

She recommends: "'If you have autism in the family history,' or other auto-immune problems, 'you still vaccinate. Delay it a bit, space them out.'" She again cites "very big improvements" with wheat-free and dairy-free diets. And she insists that while better recognition may have increased the number of people diagnosed with Asperger's,  "some of the severe autism has increased." And that suggests, the interviewer wrote, "the possibility of environmental toxins interacting with 'susceptible genetics.'"-- Dan Olmsted

 

By Martin Walker

Part of me isn't surprised by this apparent new development (the resignation of Dr Wakefield from Thoughtful House). The simple math of Thoughtful House's board suggests that there will be at least one or two people of caliber and integrity, who know that all the cranksite stuff about a witch-hunt, sinister forces and all that shit, are just that: shit. Wakefield has been nailed, absolutely fairly, properly, but belatedly, with no hidden agendas or vested interests. Apart, that is, from the public interest.

Brian Deer February 18, posted on Respectful Insolence
 

Occasionally I look at how my reputation is faring on the internet. There, amongst pages about my writing and campaigning over the last thirty years, is Brian Deer's character assassination of me, Liar for Hire, (1) whenever I see this, I spend a few moments checking reality. I go back to the beginning and remind myself that it began with the parents: ordinary, able, loving and honest individuals whose lives and children were suddenly plunged into the maelstrom of inflammatory bowel disease, regressive autism and other forms of vaccine damage.

Despite the fact that many of these parents knew that their children's illnesses began following the MMR vaccination, in Britain some of the best healed professional people, as well as some of the seediest like Brian Deer, have closed ranks on them, denied vaccine damage and tried to erase both parents and children from the organic life of British society.

Worse still, some of these people, such as the GMC prosecuting counsel, have accused the parents sotto voce of a sly plot, a vendetta to enrich themselves by suing vaccine manufacturing pharmaceutical companies, either that or diagnosed in them a kind of Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, as a result of which they forced their children upon Dr Wakefield. In the midst of this moral crime wave, amongst academics, regulators and medical profiteers, amongst media, science and political personalities, Dr Wakefield emerged as a kind of hero; a lone voice that put his faith in science and scientific method, a good doctor whose reputation was dragged through the fake mud of a Hollywood film set.

The battle over the moral character of Dr Andrew Wakefield has for the moment become a stumbling block on the road to recovery and treatment of the children adversely affected by vaccines. Inevitably the most difficult of decisions is now presented to parents: do they cold shoulder the advancing political reality and draw in their wings around the nest to protect their children or do they immerse themselves in politics and put the diagnosis and treatment of their damaged children on hold? - Perhaps there is a way to do both things simultaneously.

I would contend from my relatively privileged position, that the first strategy will walk us all into the snows of oblivion like blind beggars in a Bruegel’s painting. The second strategy will set us on a path of energetic confrontation with our enemies, but every marginal victory will help the children. There is no doubt in my mind which battle needs to be won in order for us to reach back and tighten our grip on the hands of the damaged children. Now more than ever we have to win the political battle in the public arena.

By Dan Olmsted

Dr. Andrew Wakefield announced today his intention to move on to a new phase of leadership in the autism community as he also prepares a more aggressive defense of his scientific accomplishments in the wake of a ruling from the U.K.’s General Medical Council (GMC). That ruling, which charged Wakefield and two pediatric gastroenterologists with misconduct, was followed shortly by the retraction of a 1998 case series report by Wakefield and his colleagues from London’s Royal Free Hospital in The Lancet. “There has been an extraordinary outpouring of support from the autism community in response to the events of the last two weeks”, Wakefield told Age of Autism in an exclusive interview. “The most exciting part of it has been the opening up of an entirely new sort of opportunity that will allow me to continue my work on behalf of autism families.” Wakefield said he would provide more specifics on the nature of that opportunity soon. “In addition, I will now speak publicly to refute the findings that have been made against me. I know my necessary silence on these issues has troubled many parents in both the U.K. and the U.S. But I’m ready now to get back on the front foot and publicly contest the false accusations that have been made against me, my colleagues, and indirectly The Lancet children. It’s been long overdue.”

Wakefield, previously the Executive Director of Thoughtful House, had been a senior scientist in charge of an ambitious primate research program on vaccine safety. The first paper from this project was published online on October 2, 2009 by Neurotoxicology (see HERE) who then decided unexpectedly on February 12 not to proceed with publication in the print edition (like The Lancet, the journal Neurotoxicology is owned by Elsevier, a division of Reed Elsevier PLC). Many autism advocates have expressed the concern that the attack on Wakefield has been part of a broader campaign for the suppression of science, including the primate project (see HERE). Earlier this week, Jane Johnson of Thoughtful House released the following statement. “We fully support [Dr. Wakefield’s] decision to leave Thoughtful House in order to make sure that the controversy surrounding the recent findings of the General Medical Council does not interfere with the important work that our dedicated team of clinicians and researchers is doing on behalf of children with autism and their families.”

Wakefield expressed optimism that by working with the support of a larger set of autism organizations he would be able to focus attention back on the exploding population of affected children and their families, “which is where it belongs”, he emphasized. “I have always followed the principle that good medicine, and ultimately good science, begins and ends with the patient. We need to remember that the purpose of medical science is not to serve the medical industry but rather the interests of the patients the industry serves.”

Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

From the CDC website on Autism. It seems vaccines have not been ruled out, as the media and others continue to tell us.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html

Causes and Risk Factors

We do not know all of the causes of ASDs.  However, we have learned that there are likely many causes for multiple types of ASDs.  There may be many different factors that make a child more likely to have an ASD, including environmental, biologic and genetic factors.

•Most scientists agree that genes are one of the risk factors that can make a person more likely to develop an ASD.  

•Children who have a sibling or parent with an ASD are at a higher risk of also having an ASD.

•ASDs tend to occur more often in people who have certain other medical conditions.  About 10% of children with an ASD have an identifiable genetic disorder, such as Fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders.

•Some harmful drugs taken during pregnancy have been linked with a higher risk of ASDs, for example, the prescription drugs thalidomide and valproic acid.

•We know that the once common belief that poor parenting practices cause ASDs is not true.

•There is some evidence that the critical period for developing ASDs occurs before birth.  However, concerns about vaccines and infections have led researchers to consider risk factors before and after birth.

By Crystal Engler

I’m fed up.  I’m sick to death of fighting alone.  Autism is about to swallow me whole, and where are you, government?  What concerns you least?  The fact that families are drowning in the darkness of autism or that the children you won’t help are growing up to become 200 pound problems that will fall into your lap once our generation is gone?

I’ve passed through all the stages of grief.  When my little two year old was diagnosed, I had faith that he would recover.  I would fix him.  Now, nearly four years later when I can no longer carry him out of Wal-Mart of a freakin' Books-A-Million store by myself, I wonder if it will ever happen. 

I’m worn out.  I consider myself to be a proactive autism warrior.  I’ve done it all; there is no stone left unturned.  And at the same time, my son’s temper tantrums and out of control behavior are no better than they were when we began this journey.  What exactly do you suggest for us, Mr. President?

I’m tired of screaming at the top of my lungs and having no words escape from my mouth.  While most people are concerned about the economy or the Superbowl, autism warriors are fighting a different battle.  We have greater concerns.  Will our children get away from us and be found at the bottom of a nearby lake?  Will seizures begin when puberty sets in?  How will we handle an out of control teenager who’s twice our size?  Who will care for our children when we’re dead?

Gardiner Harris writes about medical news for The New York Times. He has called out pharma on numerous occasions, most recently this weekend regarding the diabetes drug Avandia.  Lisa Goes, an AoA contributor, sent Mr. Harris an email regarding his treatment of The Lancet retraction. The response she received from him is below in red. Her email follows as well.

How is it that Mr. Harris can ride a white horse regarding pharmaceutical drug safety and yet don a black hat when it comes to vaccine safety? In fairness, Mr. Harris did report last year, NYT Reports CDC Failed to Properly Screen Vaccine Advisors for Conflicts of Interest.

Read his article, Research Ties Diabetes Drug to Heart Woes and pay attention to this paragraph, “Instead, G.S.K. executives attempted to intimidate independent physicians, focused on strategies to minimize or misrepresent findings that Avandia may increase cardiovascular risk, and sought ways to downplay findings that a competing drug might reduce cardiovascular risk,” concludes the report, which was overseen by Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican."

Why should we believe vaccines, the new profit center for pharma, are exempt from strong arm tactics and outright fraud? Also from the article:

Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "Harris, Gardiner" <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Fri, February 19, 2010 8:00:42 AM
Subject: Re: READER MAIL: Gardiner Harris

Thanks for your note. I'm sorry for your children's difficulties, your anger and your willingness to believe wild conspiracy theories about the roots of autism.

----- Original Message -----
From: NYTimes.com <[email protected]>
To: Harris, Gardiner
Sent: Thu Feb 18 22:09:35 2010
Subject: READER MAIL: Gardiner Harris

To: GARDINER HARRIS

You have received reader mail via nytimes.com.  To respond to this reader, simply 'reply' to this message.

READER'S NAME:
LJ Goes

READER'S MESSAGE:
Dear Mr. Harris, I was recently forwarded your New York Times article regarding the Lancet retraction, found here http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/health/research/03lancet.html. I am the busy mom of three small children with little free time to correct feeble reporting. Conversely, I'm certain given your impressive tenure in the journalism community you are not accustomed to admonitions from the public. I can assure you I do not routinely begin correspondence to someone I've never met with such direct aggression. It's just that given the needs of those around me I really don't have the time or patience for political correctness.

Dr. Mark Hyman has a post about mercury in our bodies at HuffPo. Meanwhile, we remain in the Jabberwocky world where mainstream physicians inject and drill mercury (yes, we know it's the "good" mercury not the poison kind) into patients every day.  Read the full post and comment at HuffPo HERE.

If you are heavy, it could be making you sick and tired and age prematurely. And I don't mean heavy with fat ...

I mean heavy with heavy metals -- like mercury!

Unfortunately, toxic mercury problems are common. Along with polar bears, beluga whales, ducks, otters, panthers, and all river fish as well as most large ocean fish, we humans are poisoning ourselves with mercury at ever increasing rates.

There's no doubt about it, mercury is the most alarming, disease-causing source of environmental toxicity that I see daily in my practice. Many of patients have toxic levels of mercury -- and they're not alone. I personally suffered from mercury toxicity and chronic fatigue syndrome --which I cured myself from, in part by getting rid of the mercury in my body. So I know about this first hand...

Managing Editor's Note: An Age of Autism reader named Allison T. sent us this lovely poem by her daughter. Congratulations, Carolyn, on winning the Northern Virginia Award of Excellence for Literature. You're a wonderful little sister to Jackson.

Artist's Statement:

My brother Jackson inspired me to write a poem.  He has autism and I think that makes him beautiful because he is different from other 10 year old boys.  And being different is beautiful.  I always feel safe with him around because he is not a bully.  He does not pick on me like most older brothers or boys do.  He is kind to me.  He makes me happy and plays with me.  I trust him to always love and care for me.   He has a good heart. 

A brother named Jackson 
Understands the way things work 
Tells his feelings 
Is always respectful 
Special to me 
Makes great movies on his video camera 
 
Is not a bully 
So kind 
 
Before I was born he did not have autism  
Every time I show up, he is happy 
Always nice to little kids 
Usually he doesn’t need help with work 
Tells the truth 
Is in control of himself 
Follows directions 
Unbelievable kid 
Listens to music once and he can copy it by heart 

Caroline T.
2nd Grade
Sleepy Hollow Elementary

By J. Bradley Borden

In general, I've never big a big fan of blaming violent movies, TV, or video games, for the acts committed by people who view them regularly. However, if you have a kid with autism, you might consider taking a look at what exactly your child is watching. While this is a great idea for all parents, sometimes autism parents might assume that a certain show is OK or think your child is not paying attention to what YOU are watching.

In our case, our daughter is super perceptive even when we think she is focused on something else entirely. She also seems to tune in to our moods, which can also be a factor considering what you are watching. You often hear people say that kids with autism do not imitate others. This is not the case for lots of kids with autism. Our daughter does lots of imitating of people in real life and stuff from movies. Kids with autism are often very visual thinkers.

Video Modeling is even a therapy used to teach social behaviors to children on the Autism spectrum. In our case, what might appear to be just general bad behavior could have roots in a movie she saw last night, last week, or last year. Even movies that are NOT VIOLENT and perfectly fine with neuro-typical kids, can result in unwanted behaviors. One prime example of a movie banned from ever seeing the light of day in our house is the 1999 Walt Disney movie TARZAN. For one thing, Tarzan swing from everything under the sun. There are also lots of OVER ACTIVE MONKEYS being monkeys. None of these are things you want imitated. Acting like a monkey in Walmart could perhaps result in some parenting stress even for the best of us. Yes, that can be a pain, but some acts in what you might consider safe media, could result in serious injury or even death if imitated by your child.

Managing Editor's Note: John Robison wrote Look Me In The Eye, about his life with undiagnosed Asperger's ( he was diagnosed at 40.) I consider him a good friend and am thrilled to share his report on this exciting prospective treatment for our kids. There's much more to read about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation at John's blog HERE.

Last night I attended Brain Health / Body Wealth at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alvaro Pascual Leone told a rapt audience about new discoveries in brain plasticity and what it may mean to us, especially as we age. Then Dr. Dan Press talked about practical neurology, and what’s on the immediate horizon for conditions like Alzheimer’s.

After they spoke Paul Levy came to the podium. He’s the head of the Beth Israel hospital, and he spoke of the need for more funding to support the cutting edge research that doctors like Alvaro and Dan are pursuing. To my surprise, the event finished with this video of me www.youtube.com/johnelderrobison.

I knew they were going to show it, but I’d never seen the thing projected on a big screen and I almost felt embarrassed being up there like that. But I believe in all I said, and I believe most of all in the promise of the work Alvaro and his team is doing at Beth Israel neuroscience.

There’s a lot of talk about genetics in the autism world. And genetic research may lead to discoveries that help my grandchildren. However, genetics study is not likely to help you, me, or our kids, friends and family. Research like Alvaro’s – using TMS to remediate disability in people like me – has tremendous promise for all of us, in the very near future.

Read John's full blog entry HERE.

The treatment category is sponsored by Lee Silsby, the leader in quality compounded medications for autism.

Registration for the Autism One/Generation Rescue 2010 "Autism Redefined" Conference is open! Are you ready to join those who are redefining autism?  Click HERE for registration information.

KEYNOTE: JENNY McCARTHY
OVER 150 SPEAKERS

Chicago, Illinois, May 24-30, 2010

Many new faces and any favorites!

Featuring:

prediction/prevention track
environmental track
advocacy track
PANDAS track
seizures track
adult issues
much more

Join us at www.autismone.org

Hope is real.  Recovery is happening. The treatment category is sponsored by Lee Silsby, the leader in quality compounded medications for autism.

“Many children are diagnosed between the age of 2 and 3, during the height of the childhood vaccine schedule… The true onset of autism in most ASD children likely began a year or two prior to the vaccines that are blamed as the cause.” WRONG.

By J.B. Handley
 
I’m beginning to think that the term ”Science-based medicine”, which happens to be the name of a blog founded by Yale neurologist Dr. Steven Novella and co-run by blogging weirdo David Gorski, has much in common with other humorous phrases like “military intelligence”, “jumbo shrimp”, and “clean coal.”
 
How else do I explain the atomic stupidity Dr. Novella shared with the world when he once again tried to debunk the growing evidence linking vaccines to autism in a recent blog post entitled “The Early Course of Autism.”
 
Dr. Novella’s piece details a recent study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry titled “A Prospective Study of the Emergence of Early Behavioral Signs of Autism”   that tried to figure out when signs of autism first emerge in babies.
 
Ironically, the study Novella references is quite supportive of the theory that autism is caused by the environment and most notably vaccines. But, by being a clue-free moron, Dr. Novella tries to use the study to make the opposite case, and crashes and burns, as I will explain.
 
Let’s start with the study itself, where the study authors conclude:
 
“These results suggest that behavioral signs of autism are not present at birth, as once suggested by Kanner, but emerge over time through a process of diminishment of key social communication behaviors. More children may present with a regressive course than previously thought, but parent report methods do not capture this phenomenon well. Implications for onset classification systems and clinical screening are also discussed.”
 
Stop. Wait a minute. Let’s rewind. Signs of autism emerge over time? Not present at birth?  Diminishment of key social communication? More kids may present with a “regressive course” than previously thought? These authors appear to be preaching to the choir: this is the story I hear from parents every day and the one I lived. My son was normal, meeting his milestones, and slowly, he lost everything.
 
Novella then writes:
 
“But what these results indicate is that clear signs of autism emerge between 6 and 12 months of age. Further, social skills tend to be regressive in ASD between 6 and 18 months of age. It was previously thought that social regression was less common in ASD, but this study suggests it is the rule, not the exception. Meanwhile, language skills did not regress in this study, they continued to improve in the ASD group, just on a slower curve than the TD group.”
 
Reading Novella’s blog for the first time, when I got to this paragraph, I thought to myself, “Where the hell is this guy going with this piece? He’s one of the bad guys, but he sounds like he’s affirming the story of my son and so many other kids.”
 

By Adriana Gamondes

What if the pharmaceutical industry had a formula for projected drug profits from a massive rise in autism? A formula such as:  P_Y=P×Y
 
And what if the same industry simultaneously rewarded scientists, media companies and organizations which disseminate the concept that there is no autism epidemic, that the rise is “false”, that the numbers have always been with us, but that there’s just increased diagnosis due to increased clinical and public recognition of autism? And what if this industry went on a massive campaign to proselytize the dangers of any treatment method—or any scientific authority— which threatened P_Y=P×Y?

Profiting from something while claiming it doesn’t exist isn’t anything new. According to some historians, the myth of the flat earth was perpetuated by the Phoenicians to prevent maritime trade rivals from voyaging to England to mine tin. Tin, which seems to have been scarce in ancient Canaan, was an essential ingredient to bronze; bronze was the essence of military power and trade at the time. Advantage in the tin trade gave the Phoenicians untold power.  As long as the lie held, Phoenician fleets regularly made mining expeditions north, trading freely with the natives of the British Isles—while neighboring states feared plummeting off the edge of the world if they dared to sail through the Straits of Gibraltar.
For the analogy, imagine the existence of the epidemic as “England”; autism recovery treatments as the “Straits of Gibraltar”; and maybe psychopharmaceutical drug profits as “tin”.

The epidemic-based profit formula actually exists. It was published in a 2003 study for Eli Lilly by researchers Robert and Julia Gerlai (HERE). From the study:

The question whether the epidemic status of ASD is due to true increase of incidence of the disease or simply its better detection and diagnosis is debated. Nevertheless, according to a most recent report to the legislature on the principal findings from the epidemiology of autism in California, the M.I.N.D. institute has confirmed that the increase of incidence is real and cannot be attributed to changes in diagnostic criteria or misclassification. Autism was estimated to have a frequency of more than 1 in 500 children, while more recent studies found its prevalence as high as 1 in 150 (for examples, see; also see CDC website). Researchers, private (e.g., Alliance for Autism Research), and government (e.g., National Institutes of Health, USA) agencies have recognized the enormous need. As a result, funding for research has significantly increased. Surprisingly, however, autism is still not among the neurological or neuropsychiatric diseases onto which large pharmaceutical research companies traditionally focus. This is unfortunate as ASD represents a significant unmet medical need with an enormous market size. Consider the following: ASD may be diagnosed as early as 2–3 years of age. Some even argue that successful diagnosis may be made at 8-12 months). Autistic persons can live a normal life span. The market size can thus be calculated as follows: 

 P_Y=P×Y

where P_Y is the number of “patient years,” P is the number of patients and Y is the number of years for which patients live after diagnosis. Calculating with the conservative prevalence estimate of 1 in 500, there may be approximately 600,000 ASD patients in the USA alone. These persons may live for an average of 76 years. Using the conservative age of 3 years for the time of diagnosis, PY may be calculated as follows.

P_Y=600,000×73=43,800,000, i.e., almost 44 million patient years.

Managing Editor's Note: Please wake up, America. Join our reality AAP. Report on the stress and lack of support and respect, media. Autism is killing our children, shattering our families. We need support, help, treatment, respite, my God, we need respite. How long before we have to add a "RIP" category?

 BY Oren Yaniv, Erin Durkin and Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

An autistic 11-year-old boy who can barely speak died in a fire that he set Tuesday when his grandmother left him alone in her Brooklyn apartment, officials and witnesses said.

Tavon Turpin used matches or a lighter to ignite the blaze in a hallway closet while his grandmother, Melinda McLain, 59, had gone to a deli near the Coney Island apartment, police said.

The grandmother was hit with criminal charges for leaving home without Tavon, who recently sparked a small fire by cooking a cell phone in a microwave, police and FDNY sources said.

"The kid didn't have a chance," said neighbor Wigberto Figueroa, 34. "It's so sad."

Read more: NY Daily News.

Managing Editor's Note: We're pleased to see more research and relief coming for people with autism and Asperger's because of this positive media report on oxytocin, despite the fact that the study only included 13 subjects, a low enough number to draw ridicule from the autism untreatables in other instances.

A point to ponder as we learn more, oxytocin is produced in the pituitary gland and this gland is affected by mercury exposure.  From Britannica oxytocin is a ...hormone used clinically to stimulate contractions of the uterus during labour, to control bleeding following delivery, and to stimulate the secretion of breast milk. Oxytocin was first synthesized (along with the related vasopressin, or antidiuretic hormone [ADH]) by American biochemist Vincent du Vigneaud in 1953, and he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1955 for this work. Synthetic oxytocin has since become widely used in obstetric practice. Natural oxytocin is secreted by the posterior pituitary gland, which holds and secretes oxytocin produced by the hypothalamus.
 
In August of 2009, US News  ran a story about a study from UCLA:The UCLA study found evidence linking inorganic mercury in the blood to tissues known to be targets for the toxin, such as the liver, the immune system and the pituitary gland.

From The Washington Post.

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

A nasal spray containing a hormone that is known to make women more maternal and men less shy apparently can help those with autism make eye contact and interact better with others, according to a provocative study released Monday.

The study, involving 13 adults with either a high-functioning form of autism or Asperger syndrome, a mild form of the disorder, found that when the subjects inhaled the hormone oxytocin, they scored significantly better on a test that involved recognizing faces and performed much better in a game that involved tossing a ball with others.

Mark Blaxill is featured in USA Today this morning for an opposing view to, Debate on Fighting Disease: Vaccine Fear Mongering Endgangers Child Health. Mark takes ownership of his opposing view --which USA Today titled  "Unjustly accused -- Medical industry seeks to suppress science to protect vaccine profits," we have restored Mark's original title here -- and we are left wondering who wrote the "Vaccine fear mongering" editorial, excerpted below.

Americans no longer routinely see people disfigured by smallpox or crippled by polio, so it's easy to forget what terrible scourges those diseases were before vaccination eradicated them here. Routine shots also nearly wiped out measles, a dangerous childhood illness that killed 450 and caused 4,000 cases of encephalitis annually in the USA before a vaccine became widely available in the mid-1960s.

But reported cases of measles, while still tiny, are now ticking upward, and the probable reason is troubling: Fearful parents are refusing to let their children be vaccinated against once-common childhood diseases. Anxiety — fanned by a discredited British researcher and misguided celebrities — has grown that childhood vaccines, chiefly the MMR vaccine (for measles, mumps and rubella), are a reason for an alarming spike in the number of children with autism, a disorder that impairs a child's social and communication skills, often severely... (Read and comment on the full article Debate on Fighting Disease: Vaccine Fear Mongering Endgangers Child Health. )

Here is Mark Blaxill's response. Please comment at USA Today using the link below.

Believe objective science and parents, not the medical industry or the media frenzy 

In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, a memorable scene follows the protagonist (working at the satirically named Ministry of Truth) as he rewrites the news to erase a man’s life and work from history. That’s what Richard Horton, editor of the British medical journal The Lancet, just attempted when he retracted a case series report by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues at the Royal Free Hospital from the scientific record. Horton should be ashamed of himself, and anyone who believes in the free and open discussion of controversial scientific questions should be concerned about what has happened to our civil discourse in the process.

There’s a lot of name-calling and misinformation swirling around this issue that should stop. Parents concerned about vaccine safety issues are branded “anti-vaccine.” Dedicated scientists who simply reported a series of cases combining bowel symptoms, autistic regression and exposure to the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) stand accused of fraud and misconduct. Meanwhile, the medical industry has dismissed concerns over exploding autism rates in a crusade to protect their policies and vaccine profits.

Anyone convinced that Wakefield is the problem should ask a simple question: Can you name a single instance of fraud or misconduct by Wakefield, describe it simply without deferring to the authority of some faceless tribunal and defend the evidence to an informed skeptic? You won’t succeed. Why? Because the evidence clearly shows there was neither fraud nor misconduct. The parents whose children Wakefield studied never complained, and most have gone public with their support of Wakefield and his colleagues. Why wouldn’t they? Their children were treated by Wakefield’s colleagues, experts in pediatric gastroenterology, and the children’s intestinal symptoms and symptoms of autism improved.

The Lancet parents are not alone. Thousands of parents all over the world — dedicated, educated parents of children with autism — have done their own scientific diligence and reached conclusions that differ from the media frenzy stoked up by government officials and the medical industry. They trust Wakefield and believe he and his colleagues stand unjustly accused. They also believe that scientific censorship is a pernicious thing and should stop. You should, too.

Mark Blaxill is Editor-at-Large for Age of Autism and a Director of SafeMinds, an organization that researches the role of mercury in autism.

  We believe in the rights to life, liberty, and personal security for ourselves and our children.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Grant Park, Downtown Chicago

www.americanpersonalrightsrally.org

www.americanpersonalrights.org

We demand the universal human rights standard of informed consent for all medical interventions. Compulsory vaccination cannot be legally and morally justified.

We affirm...the sanctity of personal space the right to be left alone, and the freedom to make personal health care decisions guided by the professionals of our choosing.

We invite all people, families and organizations committed to protecting these fundamental rights to stand with us in downtown Chicago on May 26, 2010 at our inaugural rally, and to work with us after the event to support grassroots advocacy, education, and leadership in defense of our personal – individual, legal, moral, religious, civil, and human -- rights.

By Jennifer LaRue Huget
Thursday, February 11, 2010

Read the full article in The Washington Post.

Last week, the British medical journal the Lancet, which had originally published a controversial 1998 study by British researcher Andrew Wakefield that implied a link between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, formally retracted that study. In the wake of this, one of the tantalizing areas to be explored is the role diet might play in the lives of children with autism.

Research published in October showed that 1 in 91 children has a disorder somewhere along the autism spectrum, with degrees of severity ranging from mild to major. (Federal figures released in December put that number at 1 in 110.) For now, the only treatment known to help kids with autism -- the most common of the conditions that make up what is known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) -- is placement in an education program that's appropriate to their specific needs, providing speech and language therapy to boost their ability to communicate, and helping them develop social skills, according to Susan Levy, director of the Regional Autism Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' autism subcommittee...

 

The treatment category is sponsored by Lee Silsby, the leader in quality compounded medications for autism.

Autism Speaks Top Science Breakthroughs for 2009:



The Good:

1) It is now widely accepted that autism affects 1 in 110 American children and 1 in 70 America boys.

2) Mitochondrial Dysfunction/ Fever and Autistic Regression. It is wonderful to see this critically important and vastly understudied issue being researched. Too many ASD parents already know about this autistic trajectory having seen it up close. The majority of this parent community believes that repeated adverse reactions to multiple vaccinations trigger severe fevers, brain inflammation and loss of skills and speech.

3) Later Language Acquisition. Autistic kids can acquire language after 5.

4) Association /w Family History of Autoimmune Disorders and Autism. I don’t understand why this is being studied in Denmark rather than the US, but the subject is important. Families have known this association to be strong for years now and it is good to see money invested in this issue.

5) Early Intervention Works. The earlier a child is diagnosed w/ ASD the earlier intervention starts the better the outcome.

The Bad:

1) The Mice Model. We need phenotype investments right now in our children. Classic ASD, Regressive ASD, Non-responders, ABA responders, Sick/ GI ASD kids and Recovered kids. Why are we not starting there, detailing the symptomology, the ASD trajectory, interventions and current treatment outcomes for each of these forms of ASD? That is what autism families want studied.

2) Genome Technologies. Where to begin? This is hugely expensive research that fascinates scientists yet is enormously unpopular with families. Genome work has been largely disappointing regarding yielding insights to disease like MS and Parkinson’s.

3) Genetic Copy Number Variations and Pathways-How much does this cost in terms of helping people affected with autism now? Why aren’t these resources being invested into environmental trigger research that will yield faster and less expensive results?

4) Ripserdal, Parent Training and ABA. Parent training is always great but why is risperdal the ONLY intervention mentioned for children living with autism now? Risperdal may indeed help some children but it is a powerful anti-psychotic with dangerous side- effects, especially for boys: the growth of breasts, extreme weight gain, overall dampening of all cognitive and emotional affect…Where is the acknowledgement of these risks?

Risperdal and other powerful off-label anti-psychotics regularly used on autistic children are only treating the symptoms. They do not touch the underlying problems. Yes, sometimes symptom management must be the first priority in extreme cases but this is not a tenable approach to helping our kids.

Where is the acknowledgement that some children act out because they are in pain?

Shouldn’t we studying and advocating for the treatment of underlying medical issues before risperdal? Where is the research on GI pain- an issue that affects at least 40% of children with autism and one which greatly decreases an individual’s ability to function, make progress or even be part of their family? Why isn’t that a bigger priority than developing anti-psychotics?

 

By Bill Welsh

It is difficult to express how despondent I felt in London following the verdict at the General Medical Council (GMC) in the case against Dr Andrew Wakefield, and Professors Walker-Smith and Murch. The GMC panel chairman’s opening remark prior to his hour long reading of the panel’s verdicts was however still uppermost in my mind as I left the courtroom:
“The panel wish to make it clear that this case is not concerned with whether there is or might be any link between the MMR vaccination and autism”.

 How the media would contrive to ignore this preliminary guidance was already apparent judging by the early editions of the London evening press:

 “Vaccine is Safe, say experts” according to one
and
”No evidence of MMR-autism link”, stated another.

This level of inaccurate reporting by indolent journalists was to be repeated in the media throughout the UK for 48 hours. None of us will be be surprised at that but it is nevertheless worrying when the entire media of one country can get a simple fact so very wrong.

My personal air of depression was not helped when, as I boarded the train in London for my five hour journey back home to Scotland, I was informed that the on-board buffet bar did not stock whisky.  Five hours without a dram* and me in a state of depression! I thought “is there no end to my misery?”

Nothing else for it, I decided to read some of the documents and clippings that had gathered over time in my briefcase in the hope that the journey Northbound through England would pass more speedily. One clipping from the Guardian, a respected broadsheet, caught my eye immediately:

“Parents too busy to help children learn to talk, expert suggests”

The article told us:

"Children spend so much time in front of the television and computer games, and so little time with adults that one child in six has difficulty learning to talk, according to an expert appointed by the government to improve young people's communication skills.

Results of a YouGov survey published today by Jean Gross, the new "communication champion" for children, found that twice as many boys struggle as girls, and almost one in four of all children have problems talking. "This really matters," Gross said. "Our ability to communicate is fundamental and underpins everything else."

My own first thought was: Why did the government appoint a new ‘communication champion for children’ ? Is there a new problem? The answer is perhaps contained in the next part of the article:

By Teresa Conrick

In 1994,when I was pregnant with my second child, a film called, "The Shawshank Redemption," came out. Being pregnant, tending to my beautiful, toddler Megan, and working part-time, teaching in a psychiatric hospital demanded my attention and I missed this film.  It wasn't until around 1999 that I happened to catch it one night on TBS and it was exactly what I needed, so I am here to share my thoughts and recommend that you watch it - now - as it is exactly what our community needs.

In 1999, my world had changed drastically since five years prior.  Megan had lost skills, including speech, had become distant, sad, crying and physically ill with ear infections, rashes, fevers, vomiting, nosebleeds, reflux, and diarrhea more times than I could count.  She was to then be diagnosed with autism in 1995.  Since I did work in a psychiatric hospital and had finished my masters in Special Education, I had an inkling of what autism was but no experience except for "Rainman" and a brief observation of a male, nonverbal teen, hospitalized for a "medication adjustment."

As I watched Shawshank that first time, I became a huge fan.  Here was an atypical movie for me.  It had no romance, no great costumes, no catchy music.  What it did have was a story that I could identify with and one that I relate to now more than ever, especially as the innocent Andy Wakefield, like our hero, Andy Dufresne is unfairly judged and "imprisoned."

Andy in the movie has been tried on circumstantial evidence and found guilty of killing his wife and her lover.  He is then shipped off to Shawshank Prison where he must deal with other prisoners, hatred, despair, injustice and corruption in the form of the Warden and some of the guards. Andy is innocent and knows it but he must deal with prison life and he does so with intelligence and hope.  His relationships, especially with Red, another prisoner who trusts Andy and sees him as different than all of the prisoners at Shawshank, is a good one - "He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn't normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yeah, I think it would be fair to say... I liked Andy from the start."  Over nineteen years, the two would become close friends.

The Warden was a cruel, selfish and evil man.  He put Andy to work for nineteen years as his personal accountant, taking money from the prison and "laundering" it.  He also was responsible for a young prisoner's death, a lad who knew Andy was innocent and could identify the real killer, a psychopathic prisoner who confessed haughtily to the young lad of the killings.  Andy went with his evidence of innocence to the Warden and because this information would release Andy, would get him out of Shawshank and out of the Warden's "laundering" job, the lad was killed and Andy was punished more for even thinking of revealing the truth of his innocence and the identity of the real criminal. The Warden was not about to let Andy or anyone get in the way of his money scheme and the power he held over Shawshank and the prisoners.

By Martin Walker

I want to start this post with an apology. Writing my last piece about the liquidation of Dr Wakefield's science I was rushed. Not only was I still suffering from the trauma of the GMC verdict but I was also finishing a book. Rushed and traumatised, I wrote a very truncated post that left out one of the most important acts of attempted censorship in British science in the last decade. As it happens, the case of Arpad Pusztie does more than echo the case of Dr Wakefield; because of an apparently odd coincidence, it actually links to it.

I should warn readers that what follows is a very unsavoury tale best not read over breakfast, or any other meal for that matter.

In 2007 Dr Richard Horton and Sir Peter Lachmann found themselves on the same side batting for the prosecution in Dr Wakefield's GMC Fitness to Practice Hearing. Lachmann's evidence intriguing. In his original Sunday Times article Brian Deer had suggested that Dr Wakefield had taken out a patent on an alternative vaccine to MMR, intimating that, had he been able to damage MMR in his Lancet case review paper and future studies, he would have been able to make millions from the sales of his own vaccine. The prosecution pursued this fairy story with absurd alacrity throughout two and a half years of the hearing. It has re-emerged after the verdict as well, again propagated by Deer and his associates. However, not only was this story a complete farrago, but the tall tale was actually dropped while Lachmann, the head honcho of British genetic modification, gave his evidence.

The patent that Dr Wakefield had taken out on behalf of the Royal Free Hospital, was for a particular type of Transfer Factor that he believed might conceivably by able to reverse the adverse reactions that some children might have suffered following MMR vaccination; in the event, it was given by a clinician to only one child with the involvement of the parents, and had no apparent success and so was not used further.  Once again Deer, had turned an innocent and compassionate scientific idea into an untruthful fabrication which described Dr Wakefield as someone who thought he could take on single handed one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world and produce a vaccine to rival MMR. For this was the prosecution case on this issue: first Wakefield would attack the leading vaccine manufacturers with concocted stories of adverse reactions to the MMR vaccine, then he would distribute his new vaccine, presumably on a global scale. Did the prosecution believe this? Did Miss Smith, the senior prosecutor, believe it? Could they? Would you?

Certainly they never put such a story to Sir Peter Lachmann because even he would have had to put them right about the fact that Transfer Factor wasn't 'a vaccine' that would compete with MMR. So while Miss Smith took Lachmann through his evidence - she slaloming between very general comments about the possibility of using TF to inhibit various viruses and microbes - it was Lachmann who pointed out the fact that nowhere in any of the papers did it actually state that Dr Wakefield was using TF to inhibit measles virus - and more specifically as an untested and possibly dangerous treatment. Lachmann described the history of the therapeutic use of TF, telling the hearing that it had had mildly curative effects in some trials. However, inevitably, in Lachmann's opinion, Wakefield was completely misguided; the type of Transfer Factor he suggested would do no good to an autistic child, for this is what the subjects were according to Miss Smith, not children with inflammatory bowel disease but simply autistic.

Despite it being clear that Deer's description of TF as a vaccine that could rival MMR, wouldn't stand up, after Lachmann had given his evidence, the prosecution returned to this story and it has surfaced with repetitive daftness right up to the present day.  Even on the matter of dangerous experimental substances and chances of serious adverse reactions, Lachmann did next to nothing for the prosecution. Miss Smith's stroll through Lachmann's evidence ended with this exchange:

Q  As far as the Dr Fudenberg version, I hesitate to ask an eminent scientist to speculate, but are you able to give any assistance at all as to whether that might have side effects and what they might be?

A  In general I would imagine it is very much like drinking goat's milk; I would not imagine it was any more dangerous than that.  If they have stimulated these goats to make inflammatory cytokines in their colostrum, which is possible, then it might have the same possibility of improving or creating side effects due to immuno potentiation that you can get from other forms of transfer factor.  I would have thought it was fairly unlikely that you would have enough of anything in there to produce cytokine storms or anything of this description. The more probable is that it would have no particular effects at all.

Sir Peter Lachmann's low-key evidence that mildly ridiculed Dr Wakefield, like so much of the prosecution evidence, took what was essentially Brian Deer's random and inarticulate accusations no further.

The following is excerpted from Autism File Magazine with permission. A .pdf link to the original article follows at the end of the post.

By Polly Tommey

I think we have a problem; maybe people with Asperger’s and autism should not be underthe same umbrella. It seems to me that we are dealing with two completely different conditions.

We know all about the similarities, but it’s the differences that concern me at the moment, and it’s the differences that are so apparent in the calls that I receive every week.

I get calls from people with Asperger’s who say they need help with things like getting into
mainstream school, getting into college, getting a job and keeping it, finding somewhere to live within commuting distance of their own community, making friends, getting a girlfriend,
getting a diagnosis. Many are proud of what makes them special and proud to be a part of the Asperger’s community, but they want the wider community to accept them for who they are and to help them find their place.

Parents and caregivers dealing with autism tell me what they need: a school or place that
meets their child’s needs without having to take the school district to court every step of the way; a curriculum that recognizes the overriding
importance of independence and social skills; more access to specialized speech and language therapy; more access to educational and
therapeutic approaches that can help reduce anxiety, improve behavior and enhance life skills; and medical and nutritional needs to be taken seriously as a matter of urgency. Perhaps most importantly, they need the support of doctors
who can recognize and treat the various medical issues that plague so many of our children. They need someone to help them get fit and ready for learning, and, of course, they need an answer to the burning question that many are afraid to ask: what will happen to our children when they become adults?

Read the full article HERE.

Our sponsor Lee Silsby and OurKidsASD is now able to ship products to California. Oh my Gaw-ud! (Sorry, I'm from Bah-stun, I don't do Valley Girl very well.) KS
The treatment category is sponsored by Lee Silsby, the leader in quality compounded medications for autism.

Congrats to CarolynKylesMom, our winner!

THE CONTEST IS CLOSED.

Leave a comment to win a dozen gluten free, casein free, egg free, agave sweetened, no artificial coloring cupcakes from www.chasingcupcakes.com in New Orleans. The winner will be able to speak with Chase Nugent about the cupcakes before shipping.

New Orleans Children taste King Cake for the First Time-
Thanks to a Local Mother Who Finds Her Niches as a Gluten-Free Baker:

NEW ORLEANS (February 5, 2010)- The brainchild of a working mom, the CUPCAKE KING CAKE was created to provide those who live with food allergies, diabetes, celiac disease, autism or special diets with delicious desserts rather than ones that taste like cardboard.

Chase Nugent is a veteran of the television and digital broadcast industry, and self described New Orleanian. In 2008, Chase’s son, John-John was diagnosed as having a gluten and casein allergy. So a nationwide search began to find John delicious gluten free/ casein free cupcakes. Her search turned up many recopies yet they were more like dry, tasteless softballs.

Unsuccessful in her pursuit of gluten-free/ casein-free cupcake perfection, Chase stopped the chase. Returned to the kitchen, and focused on creating a gluten-free/casein-free/ dairy free/ egg free/dye free/ vegan masterpiece.

The result, the CUPCAKE KING CAKE, created so that everyone can participate in the tastiness that is the king cake.

Make sure the next person to bring a King Cake to your party brings this one so everyone can enjoy it!

THE CONTEST IS CLOSED.

 

 

Managing Editor's Note: I have no idea what to think of this story. Is William Page formally diagnosed as autistic? Does he have Asperger's Syndrome? Is every criminal who seems odd or remote going to be called "autistic." Autism has been in a lot of very disturbing stories this week. Two mothers killed their sons. The college shooter in Alabama has a whiff of Asperger's floating around her descriptions. Will a perception of danger or criminality harm our loved ones with autism? It's a far cry from crowing about the gifts, that's for sure. But I simply do not know what to make of it. Do you?

From Pittsburgh Live: Autism diagnosis may take death off table for Braddock man

An Allegheny County judge is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against a Braddock man accused of abandoning his 23-month-old daughter to die in freezing temperatures.

A psychologist testified Friday that defendant William Page is autistic, a condition his lawyer argued precludes death as a possible punishment if he is convicted of first-degree murder.
"These are not the type of people to whom the death penalty should be applied," defense attorney Richard Narvin said. "Do we (execute) people who (start out) behind the rest of us? This is a developmental disorder."

The U.S. Supreme Court has barred imposing the death penalty in cases involving the mentally disabled and juveniles.

Experts said the courts have not ruled whether autism is included in that protected group.
"If the court rules against the defense, certainly they can still present (the autism) as a mitigating factor, should it reach the penalty phase. It's something the jury can weigh," said Duquesne University law professor Bruce Antkowiak, who is not connected to the case. "And if the court rules against (the defense), it's preserved for appeal."

Looks like we have another T-shirt headed to the UK! Our commenter of the week is Jenny Allan on the post, No Parents Ever Complained: Our family's 'Wakefield babe' is now a handsome young man. His condition has been helped over the years by carefully eliminating certain foods and food additives from his diet. This was largely trial and error along with freely given advice from other parents of affected children. His gastroenterologists and neurologists are plainly terrified to even mention the name 'Wakefield' when referring to his past treatments and all references to this, including those colonoscopy films have been 'expunged' from his medical notes!! It is my hope that this high functioning young person with Asperger's Syndrome will eventually, along with other grown up vaccine damaged victims, carry on this fight against our very uncaring Government and Medical establishment. It was the Thalidomide children who eventually 'shamed' our Government and got a very belated apology!! We are all very grateful to Dr Wakefield and Profs Murch and Walker Smith for their professional care and kindness. Their bravery shames our vindictive Medical establishment and spineless government.

Didn't win but still want a T-shirt? Taking a page from public television, we'll happily send you one as our thank you for making a donation to A of A via our PayPal donate button.  You choose the donation amount. OK? Please tell us on the PayPal form if you want an adult M, L, XL or 2XL and include your mailing  address in the comments box at PayPal. Click below to  to see the back of the shirt.

Congratulatons to Lyn Redwood, Spectrum Publication's Person of the Year. In addition, read Dan Olmsted's tribute to Lyn, also in Spectrum below the jump.

Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN, NP, sits at her desk in her rural Georgia home. She is surrounded by pictures. There are pictures of her three children and children of her fellow “mercury moms.”  They are the faces of the children whose lives she has helped improve. The pictures are there to keep her motivated, a constant reminder of what she’s working for.
   
There’s something else Redwood keeps in her office: a rejection letter. Several years ago Redwood began writing a book, Mercury Rising: The Untold Story Behind America’s Epidemic of Learning Disabilities and Autism, and shopped it around at publishing houses. No one wanted it. The rejection letter from Simon and Schuster, framed and hanging on Redwood’s office wall, says that the subject matter is so upsetting they doubted that parents would want to buy a book as alarming as this one. 

Luckily for the autism community, rejection does not scare Redwood. During the last 10 years of advocacy, she has had to become accustomed to it. She has even found a way to thrive on it, out of necessity and perhaps self-preservation. She and other autism parents have been waging a monumental battle for the lives of their children for over a decade. And they have certainly not gotten the results they thought they would when they started out. 

What has made Redwood’s role in this battle even more remarkable over the past few years is that she is free to go. Her son, Will, is now recovered from autism. She could have left the autism world far behind years ago. But instead of easing her way out of the community and reveling in a “normal” life once again, she has increased her workload.

Please pop over to HuffPo to comment on this post by Sally Beck: Richard Horton Waffles on Lancet's Wakefield Retraction

Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet was quick to dismiss Wakefield who he once told he had the 'utmost respect for.'

In one newspaper he said of the Wakefield study: "It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false. I feel I was deceived."

This is in stark contrast to comments Horton made earlier in an interview with me for The Observer newspaper, and in a written email to an epidemiologist seeking clarification on whether the science in the Wakefield study held up. Horton was quick to confirm that the science in the paper, which looked at whether 12 autistic children also suffered bowel disease, was good.

He reiterated his statement in his evidence to the GMC, "There was no question in my mind that subject to external peer review and editor debate, we should publish this work," he said. "The description of what seemed to be a new syndrome and its relations to possible environmental triggers was original and would certainly have interested our readers."

Read the full post HERE.

Tell us what you think of the proposed changes in the DSM V to include Asperger's in with autism and PDDs. Read the full story at CNN.

(CNN) -- People with Asperger's syndrome would be included in the same diagnostic group as people with autism and pervasive developmental disorders, according to new guidelines under consideration by the American Psychiatric Association.

The AP story in the New York Times reads:

CHICAGO (AP) -- Some people with Asperger's syndrome are upset about proposed changes in how their form of autism is diagnosed.

U.S. psychiatrists are revising the manual they use to diagnose mental illness. One proposal would eliminate Asperger's as a separate diagnosis and group it in a single autism spectrum disorders category.

Many people with Asperger's call themselves Aspies and view their condition as their identity. They don't think of themselves as autistic.

The revisions are based on recent research showing little difference between mild autism and Asperger's. The American Psychiatric Association is taking public comment before adopting the revisions.