Dachel Media Update: Adults Facing Autism
May 26, 2013, UK Scotsman: Autism: Unlocking a generation
May 24, 2013, WDTV, Bridgeport, WV: Autism: What Adults on the Spectrum are Facing
UK Scotsman
"Dr Martha Herbert of Harvard Medical School, an acknowledged autism expert and author of The Autism Revolution, believes the accepted approach has been all wrong from the start. 'Autism is a treatable, whole-body condition that has been miscategorised as a lifelong, genetically caused, psychiatric condition,' she says.
"Herbert, who will be speaking at an autism conference in Edinburgh next month, continues, ;For many years people assumed that if you have a neuro-psychiatric disorder it's some kind of a brain defect that's stamped in from conception by genetic programme - it's assumed the brain is broken. But we're finding out, especially now in the age of iPads and keyboards, that a lot of people who can't talk are typing their brains out. They're writing books, they're making movies, they're communicating over the internet and they're testing out their IQs. Some have IQs of 180.'
"The cause of autism has been debated long and hard - and that debate continues - but Herbert believes at the root of the condition is something called calcium channels, which are key to the way the brain communicates with everything else in our bodies. A breakdown in calcium channels can be caused by genetics or toxins or both.
"And, to be clear, she defines toxins as 'the accumulation of all the stuff we've been exposed to that piles up in our bodies or that drags down our systems. There are so many things in the air and in the food we eat and in the water supply. All of these exposures wear down the cellular function.'
"Nor has this toxic cocktail only resulted in a massive increase in autism. Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer - all are in a similar category, according to Herbert. 'The information we find in those conditions is very similar in autism. In fact, somebody calls autism diabetes of the brain.'
"The publicity surrounding the MMR vaccine, which many believed caused autism, has only served to confuse matters, she says. 'The whole thing has been held back by this crazy vaccine controversy which made everybody afraid. Let's just let it go and look at the kids. They need medical help.'...
'This crazy vaccine controversy'? I'm can't believe that we're supposed to accept that toxins are behind the autism epidemic but we don't need to look at vaccines. Herbert cites the now-common chronic plagues: diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer and she wants to work on treating the gut and fixing the immune system--all the while closing her eyes to what vaccines are doing to us. It's fine to focus on soft drinks, junk food, paint and chemical products--just not vaccines.
I posted this comment:
"On April, 2011, on PBS in the U.S., Dr. Herbert was interviewed by veteran journalist, Robert MacNeil. He asked her about the link between vaccines and autism:
. . .
ROBERT MACNEIL: "Could there be a subset of children with a genetic predisposition to have a toxic reaction to vaccines that, for the rest of the children, have no adverse affect?"
DR. MARTHA HERBERT: "I think it's possible that you could have a genetic subgroup. You also might have an immune subgroup. There are a variety of subgroups. But the problem with the population studies is, they aren't necessarily designed to have the statistical power to find subgroups like that if the subgroups are small."
WDTV
"5 News has broken down autism for you by by teaching you the background, introducing you to a family, and telling you how children with autism learn. But what happens when these young people grow up?
"The truth is right now, there isn't much out there for adults on the autism spectrum.
"'When you go to the therapy session they're young kids, but you won't see 25-year-olds,' said Brad Ford, Parent to a child with autism.
"But why is that?"
Dr. Bob Williams answered that by saying because it's diagnosed in children, they get all the attention. We're supposed to believe that "there are a lot more adults who are autistic than there are children," according to Williams. He not alarmed about autism; we just need to address the needs of adults. I wasn't able to post a comment on this story or I would have asked Williams to go looking for the 30, 50, and 70 year olds with autism and get back to us with his findings.
But this is West Virginia where they have a merciless mandate for vaccines and no exemptions except medical. No one wants to bring up the fact that there's an epidemic of sick kids everywhere, so it's easier to pretend that autism has always been here.
Martha;
The mother and the father - won history of pass vaccinations should be considered too.
In medical literature it is very clear that the immune system of the father is passed down to his children.
My own children were not born with autism, but right after vaccines their temp spiked 105 and on I witnessed stroke like episodes.
My husbadn had tick shots and Tetanus shots all through his teens.
I too ..
Did You?
I know my own Mother had a flu shot a very long time ago - back in the late 60s. The doc asked her just this past week if she wanted a shingles shot and she started describing to him her reaction to the flu shot so many, many years ago.
Posted by: Benedetta | June 01, 2013 at 12:47 AM
@Martha,
There are a couple of references to past research finding higher autism risk with occupational exposure at this site (#4 & #5):
http://www.theautismdoctor.com/autism-and-the-environment-part-2-the-last-century/
I also found a recent study (survey?) that looked at parental occupational exposure. It was conducted on children born in 1994 with the full TCV vaccine schedule in place which might obscure some links IMO, but still found increased risk with some maternal occupations.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23361991
Also, in the book ~The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-Made Epidemic~ by Olmsted & Blaxill, we see how autism becomes associated with maternal rubella infection at least for a period of time, but during the period during which thimerosal containing immune-globulin is used as a rubella treatment.
I can't speak for whether all autism is connected to such exposures. As my family has both some sensitivity to metals and much history of immune dysfunction (and some history of vaccines adversely impacting health), I do suspect such exposures strongly and wonder if there are sometimes multi-generational effects or inheritable susceptibilities or perhaps just an inherited toxic load, something that can't be found by looking at genes? With my daughter, I can't say she was born "normal" for sure--I have no developmental training, but I think in some ways she was different than the norm--but then she had the HepB vaccine on day one to confuse things further. She had a head size off the scale. She had a mom with high amalgam load, most likely already impacting my health, and probably pre-diabetic thanks possibly to that combined with a few months of birth control pills that really took a health toll. I then watched my daughter regress or halt in development temporarily multiple times, the most distinct in memory were on the heels of some "well-baby" visits and later a dental appointment (I was very slow to connect environment, particularly her "healthcare" to what was happening).
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | May 31, 2013 at 02:15 PM
In the 70s when my son was born there wasn't any talk about vaccines so no one thought about resisting having them given. I think most of us with adult who have autism routinely gave what the doctor ordered. There was a big respect about doctors who were supposed to be experts. But, my son was BORN with autism before the shots.
Posted by: Martha Moyer | May 31, 2013 at 12:22 PM
Martha Moyer
Of course, no one is saying that vaccines are the exclusive cause of autism but in 1973-4 your son could already have received DPT (or components, with thimerosal) and MMR (or components), plus of course polio. Most children as we know received vaccines but not on the same scale as today. You haven't said what you son received - perhaps you were a stern resister?
Posted by: John Stone | May 29, 2013 at 08:35 PM
So much discussed is about vaccines and I am not to say vaccines might be the cause of some who have autism. However, how do you explain that my son, born in 1973, was born with autism?
Posted by: Martha Moyer | May 29, 2013 at 08:17 PM
SUGAR Diabetes and Autism
MANY of the most serious medical problems in the US have IMO almost laughably simple solutions. Let us look at two.
In my childhood what we now call Type II Diabetes was called SUGAR Diabetes. What does Type II mean to the vast information consuming public? It means a disease which concerns SOMETHING. What does SUGAR Diabetes mean? It means a disease which somehow concerns SUGAR. This simple name change has aborned a 200 Billion dollar/year and growing INDUSTRY. Everyone is on this bandwagon HHS, Big Medicine, Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Government, eat, eat, eat.
So what is the SIMPLE way to almost totally obviate and TREAT SUGAR DIABETES? STOP EATING SUGAR and simple carbs which are quickly converted into SUGAR. That is all you have to do.
Not that it is easy to do in the USA. 90% of the crap in your average supermarket will be off limits to you because about 25% of the calories in a supermarket are from SUGAR.
I will not take as much time with autism.
So what is the SIMPLE way to almost totally obviate autism? STOP VACCINATING. That is all you have to do. As a bonus you will also be mostly obviating the ASDs and all the other diseases of "vaccination".
Posted by: Lou | May 29, 2013 at 06:35 PM
'Autism is a treatable, whole-body condition that has been miscategorised as a lifelong, genetically caused, psychiatric condition,'
Yes, yes and YES!
Posted by: Lou | May 29, 2013 at 05:56 PM
Dr. Herbert,
Thank you for your comment. I believe you are right about the medical community's refusal to address the concomitant health problems associated with autism or even to admit that there's been a true increase in autism because it may be linked to the dramatic increase in the vaccination schedule.
Personally, I don't accept that we should avoid talking about the link to vaccines. Recognizing the cause is as important as "the focus on the medical problems of autism." How can a society allow more children to become victims and merely try to repair the damage afterwards?
Anne Dachel, Media
Posted by: Anne Dachel | May 29, 2013 at 10:45 AM
I like the spirit of the article coming out of an interview with me in the Scotsman. I was misquoted about five times but not maliciously. For example, i did not say that calcium channels are the primary cause of autism. Instead, i used it as an example of a phenomenon that can be caused either genetically or environmentally, where the impact is due to the physiological dysfunction, and where that physiological impact is at least in some respects is indifferent to whether the calcium channels are misfunctioning due to genes or environment or both -- but that is a subtle point that is hard to convey in a press interview. I do think it is accurate that the CONTROVERSY about vaccines has interfered with the focus on the medical problems of autism, because people have been afraid to say anything that would make them even appear to be associated with a "politically incorrect" position about vaccines.
Posted by: Martha Herbert | May 28, 2013 at 10:25 PM