Autism and the Microbiome: Antibiotics May Damage But What About Mercury?
You can read all of Teresa's posts on The Microbiome and our other series reports in our EXCLUSIVES category.
- The Microbiome: Could It Be The Epicenter Of Autism?
- Autism: Does Mercury Modulate The Microbiome?
- The Microbiome In Regressive Autism
- The Microbiome: Could It Be The Epicenter Of Autism?
- The Human Microbiome: Evolution of Vaccine Exposure
- Autism And The Microbiome: Knock-Knock-Knock Penny And The Increasing Observations Of OCD
- Autism and the Microbiome:1st International Symposium and an Odyssey
By Teresa Conrick
I continue to read and piece together facts about the microbiome because it seems very much involved in my daughter’s regression into the abyss of autism. Megan is twenty-one and has both an autism and autoimmune diagnosis. She regressed in her second year of life. Antibiotics, called both good and evil if you read on the internet these days, are being named a connected culprit in the damage being seen in the microbiome:
Scientist Martin Blaser argues that we are suffering from new wave of 'modern plagues' such as obesity and asthma because we have destroyed the naturally occurring bacteria in our bodies….Over the past 150 years, most countries have been getting healthier. Chalk it up to improved sanitation, rat control, clean drinking water, pasteurised milk, childhood vaccinations, modern medical procedures and, of course, 70 years of antibiotics….Yet recently, just within the past few decades, amid all of these medical advances, something has gone terribly wrong. In many ways, we appear to be getting sicker. You can see the headlines every day. We are suffering from an array of what I call "modern plagues": obesity, childhood diabetes, asthma, hay fever, food allergies, oesophageal reflux and cancer, coeliac disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, autism, eczema. In all likelihood, you or someone in your family or someone you know is afflicted. Unlike most lethal plagues of the past that struck relatively fast and hard, these are chronic conditions that diminish and degrade their victims' quality of life for decades…These disorders suggest that our children are experiencing levels of immune dysfunction never seen before. And then there's autism – a much discussed and debated modern plague that is a focus of my laboratory…..
….we need to look closely at the micro-organisms that make a living in and on our bodies – massive assemblages of competing and co-operating microbes known collectively as the microbiome….The microbes that constitute your microbiome are generally acquired early in life; surprisingly, by the age of three, the populations within resemble those of adults. Together, they play a critical role in your immunity and ability to combat disease. In short, your microbiome keeps you healthy….And parts of it are disappearing.
The reasons are all around us, including overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals, caesarean sections, and the widespread use of sanitisers and antiseptics, to name just a few…..In the presence of antibiotics, the resistant organisms are the ones more fit; it is the pressure of intensive antibiotic use that is increasing the presence of these resistant organisms.…….
If that is true, should we not worry about MERCURY as well?
The following scientific studies tell the story and a history that should be included as we look at the microbiome:
“Is exposure to mercury a driving force for the carriage of antibiotic resistance genes?”
…we analysed mercury resistance in collections of strains from various populations with different levels of mercury exposure and various levels of antibiotic resistance. The first population lived in France and had no known mercury exposure. The second lived in French Guyana and included a group of Wayampi Amerindians with a known high exposure to mercury. Carriage rates of mercury resistance were assessed by measuring the MIC and by detecting the merA gene. Mercury-resistant E. coli was found significantly more frequently in the populations that had the highest carriage rates of antibiotic-resistant E. coli and in parallel antibiotic resistance was higher in the population living in an environment with a high exposure to mercury, suggesting a possible co-selection. Exposure to mercury might be a specific driving force for the acquisition and maintenance of mobile antibiotic resistance gene carriage in the absence of antibiotic selective pressure….This confirmed the well established link between mercury and antibiotic resistance (Edlund et al., 1996; Liebert et al., 1997; Pike et al., 2002, 2003; Ready et al., 2003, 2007; Summers et al., 1993; Wireman et al., 1997).
Some of bacteria have developed special resistance mechanisms against mercury, in addition to resistant to different antibiotics. These bacteria usually acquire Hg and antibiotic resistance genes via horizontal gene transfer in their habitat…
They reported that there is a direct relationship between increased use of herbicides and spreading resistant to mercury in bacterial communities residing in agricultural soils (9). Enhancement of mercury contamination increases antibiotic resistant strains. This is a serious environmental and public health concern in such regions (10-12). Moreover, using mercury-containing products such as disinfectants and amalgam may cause spreading of multiple antibiotic resistance strains in hospitals and human intestine (3, 13)..
“Prevalence of Mercury-Resistant and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria found in Dental Amalgam”
Mercury and antibiotic resistance has long been a subject of interest in microbiology that a vast of literature consisting of studies that looked at its genetics and molecular mechanisms. The aim of this study was to isolate and identify Mercury resistant and antibiotic resistant bacteria and determine the Hg-resistant isolates were also antibiotic resistant….
“Normal neonatal microbiome variation in relation to environmental factors, infection and allergy”
In two studies, a large fraction of healthy, non-antibiotic-treated infants in the first 3 months of life harbored resistant and multiple resistant bacterial strains [59,60], perhaps through maternal transmission [61]. Although it has yet to be evaluated epidemiologically, the growing presence of resistant microbes may be due in part to more widespread contaminant exposures from foods and the environment. For instance, several studies demonstrated that individuals exposed to mercury were more likely to possess resistance to multiple antibiotics, suggesting a coselection mechanism [62]…. These multiresistant pathogens heighten risk of adverse outcomes, especially in young children. Once antibiotic resistance genes are selected for, they may persist within the microbiota for years [68].
Because mercurial compounds were commonly used as disinfectants in medical settings they selected for Hg resistant bacteria (Porter et al., 1982); in light of such observations, Hg-containing disinfectants were largely replaced by quaternary ammonium disinfectants during the 1980's. By that time, advances in the study of bacterial gene transfer had revealed that plasmids, which are small circles of DNA capable of moving themselves from one cell to another, could carry multiple genes for resistance to several different antibiotics. Plasmids were then revealed to be the major agents mediating the newly recognized spread of antibiotic multiresistance. Many of the first studied plasmids also carried resistance to mercury and organomercury (e.g. merthiolate) compounds genetically linked to the antibiotic resistance loci on these transferrable bacterial plasmids. Consequently, exposure of bacteria to any agent for which their resident plasmid provided resistance would indirectly select (co-select) for all of the other genetically linked resistance loci on that plasmid (Fig. 2).
“A Study in Balance: How Microbiomes are Changing the Shape of Environmental Health”
Plasmid sharing is one way bacteria develop resistance not only to antibiotics but to any agent that threatens their survival, including metals. In situations where intestinal bacteria are continuously exposed to a metal such as mercury, those bacteria with the genetic machinery that enables them to tolerate the metal are more likely to survive and reproduce. Anne Summers, a microbiologist at the University of Georgia, explains, "In the high-impact environments there are more complex plasmids, but the underlying machinery for generating that complexity has been enabling bacterial evolution for eons." She says humans have generated unprecedented environments with high concentrations of antibiotics and metals, especially mercury, inside our bodies.
Summers says bacterial exposure to metals such as mercury can contribute to antimicrobial resistance because many transferrable plasmids carry genes for multiple types resistance. In other words, in the process of developing metal resistance, a bacterium may also become resistant to an antibiotic it hasn't even encountered. This is important because the result of our collective microbiomes' gene transfers may not always be as good for us as they are for our microbiomes, says Les Dethlefsen, a staff scientist at Stanford University. As Silbergeld puts it: "We may exist at the pleasure of the microbes."
“Plasmid-Determined Resistance to Antimicrobial Drugs and Toxic Metal Ions in Bacteria” (1983)"
Resistance to mercurials (Hg') is a common plasmid-determined property of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria (64, 331, 369,417, 418). This may have been caused by the use (until recently) of mercurials such as phenylmercury and thimerosal as hospital disinfectants (148) or by industrial and urban pollution. A decreasing incidence of mercurial resistance in hospital strains has coincided with the discontinuation of mercurial disinfectant usage (300).
Sadly in that science, we can see how mercury could affect the bacteria of humans, the microbiome, and not in a good way. On August 29, 1931, Vivian Ann Murdock was born. She was to be the first child born of the Kanner 11, those first ever children diagnosed, autistic. Her arrival was years before antibiotics were available, like the rest of those ill-fated eleven, but the timing and her place of birth, Baltimore, put her in the bull’s eye of Thimerosal. The connection to mercury in those children and in those families is just too coincidental and tragic.
Some more research to paint that picture:
MERCURY IN MEDICINE REPORT
HON. DAN BURTON OF INDIANA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
In October 1929, Eli Lilly and Company registered thimerosal under the trade name Merthiolate. Merthiolate was used to kill bacteria and prevent contamination in antiseptic ointments, creams, jellies, and sprays used by consumers and in hospitals. Thimerosal was also used in nasal sprays, eye drops, contact lens solutions, immunoglobulins, and most importantly here—vaccines. Thimerosal was patented the same year that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But because it took more than a decade for penicillin to be fully developed, and large-scale production to begin, thimerosal was widely used in the interim. To the medical profession, who were without antibiotics during the 1930’s and 1940’s, thimerosal (marketed as Merthiolate) and other antiseptic products were gladly received.......Thimerosal became the most widely used preservative in vaccines and other medical products. Its use in antiseptic products to prevent infections was common. By the time that the FDA conducted its review of mercury in 1999, more than 50 licensed vaccines contained thimerosal.
…alkyl mercurial compounds such as ethyl mercury have been characterized as readily absorbable when put in contact with the skin or as able to readily cross cell membranes [35, 37].
Degraded solutions of thimerosal possess greater antibacterial activity than freshly prepared solutions [21]. Ethyl mercury, the specific species of mercurial which blocks bacterial growth, becomes more plentiful with time and is not lost in solution [10]. Thimerosal added to vials of hepatitis B vaccine undergoes rapid, partial (29-44%) degradation to ethyl mercury and then is stable for at least 3 years [48]. The degradation occurs without loss of antimicrobial activity.
…..It has been suggested that the widespread use of thimerosal in vaccines and various other products for medical use may account for the fact that thimerosal usually produces the highest frequency of positive skin reactions in the general population in dermal patch tests [54].
And this quote may be the most important of all:
….early-life toxicant exposure could shift the microbial balance, potentially affecting both immune and microbiome development…
If mercury, especially Man-made mercurials, can affect bacteria like antibiotics, it is important as we look to the microbiome as both the problem but also the solution.
Teresa Conrick is Contributing Editor to Age of Autism.
,
According it Fengold kids with autism werefound to have a gut pathogen that is robbing the body of sulfur. His team measured and characterized the flora in our kids guts which showed clear dysbiosis and presence of the pathogen Desulfovibrio in high levels not found in controls.
Excellent presentation by Dr. Fiengold at the Autism Microbiome conference held in June.
http://www.microbiome-autism.com/
Fiengold's a study
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-230X/11/22
Posted by: Autismmom | July 20, 2014 at 10:10 AM
Oh dear, I blogged on the wrong site. The one addressing Bob Moffit was suppose to go under Dan's weekly wrap. Hubby has been bad today - myclonic jerks, low oxygen, heart beating fast and then slow - it seems to never end.
Posted by: Benedetta | July 19, 2014 at 04:49 PM
Thank you again Autism Mom - you are so sweet to bring us these links
Posted by: Benedetta | July 19, 2014 at 10:26 AM
No -No Bob go ahead and suggest that global warming is not a worthy topic - just like the blitz about the hole in the ozone -- was nothing topic except that both paid off as the government (EPA) collected vast sums of money.
Nickel --Oh, try wearing your favorite pair of jeans with a nickel button rubbing on your belly -- one little red dot of itchy painful - till I sewed a patch over it. They use to make cheap jewelry -out of it - crusty pierced ears and itchy necks and wrist. Do they still make that kind of stuff?
I saw the news too about the kid breaking out from an i pod - and I too wondered if this shows us just how much metals are in our electronics - which really I thought the outer covering protects us -- maybe not.
Geek marries a geek in an industry of computers and metals. Yeah, that is it exactly!
Some day if there is anyone left to read -- they will archive those old articles consider they guy writing this might have had a bit too much mercury.
Posted by: Benedetta | July 19, 2014 at 10:11 AM
Hi Benedetta,
The gut microbiome research that MacFabe, Frye, Finegold and Vercoe are doing is phenomenal. Finegold talks about gut dysbiosis and finding an excess of a bacteria called
Desulfovibrio in the GI of children with autism. The work these researchers are doing on the gut-brain connection and mito dysfunction is outstanding. According to Dr Frye our kids have a underlying mito dysfunction. He says although genetic research gets the bulk of funding, that only 21% of autism cases are solely genetic which means 79% are being caused by environmental factors affecting the genes. Frye's presentation at the Autism Canada symposium is brilliant also. I think we should forget the do nothing IACC, and turn our attention on the microbiome research. These guys are the ones to watch. I see major breakthroughs happening thanks to these scientists.
Dr. Sydney Finegold Interview- Cogent /Benger
http://cogentbenger.com/autism/interviews/finegold-interview/
Microbiology of regressive autism
Sydney M. FinegoldJulia DownesPaula H. Summanen
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075996411002423
Posted by: Autismmom | July 19, 2014 at 09:43 AM
Thank You SOOOOO Much for giving me these links.
I have been feeling kind of depressed today -- So this was a pick me up for you to give me these links Austism mom
This one said on the end that Propionic is produced when we eat wheat based fibers and the arabic gum found in pops.
Posted by: Benedetta | July 19, 2014 at 12:27 AM
Here's a better link to Autism Canada symposium presentations on Exploring the gut brain connection in autism" some really great speakers.
http://autismcanada.org/scientificsymposium/
Posted by: Autismmom | July 18, 2014 at 04:54 PM
Benedetta,
The presentation on gut microbiome below is very interesting.I think its a combination of vaccines, antibiotics, pesticides and antimicrobials that tipping our kids over the edge.
Toy manufactureres also coat antimicrobials on baby toys which could be altering the gut environment since babies continually put things in their mouths.
Here is an excellent presentation by Emma Allen Vercoe for an AutismCanada symposium. Vercoe researches the gut microbiome
"A New Paradigm in Medicine: Microbial Ecosystems Therapeutics"- Emma Allen Vercoe
Click Here for Presentation
http://www.autismcanada.org/scientificsymposium/2012/vids/004_Emma_Allen/
More about the Autism Canada symposium:
"Exploring the Gut Brain Connection in Autism"
On August 7, 2012, Autism Canada and the Autism Research Institute co-hosted the Scientific Symposium 2012, "Exploring the Gut Brain Connection in Autism, in Toronto to explore the potential role of infectious agents in autism phenotypes. Experts from several diverse disciplines met to discuss the growing evidence for microbiological etiology in certain forms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. If infectious agents can be shown to play an important role in the etiology of autism, this offers an exciting and tangible opportunity for development of novel diagnostics, therapies, and preventive measures."
Click here for more presentations (including Dr. Derrick MacFabe):
http://www.autismcanada.org/scientificsymposium/
Posted by: Autism mom | July 18, 2014 at 01:42 PM
Propionic acid is put in a lot of animal feeds and baked goods because it retards mold and bacteria growth.
It is also produced by a lot of different bacteria - in sweat glands --and in fermentation of the large intestines. Propionic acid producing bacteria are responsible for some types of deep acne and the smell of seat.
But I think we have to look at these bacteria in their communities - what is with them - what is "not" there, and in what numbers,
and for me -- they will have to explain which they will never do -- how the vaccines set it off.
Posted by: Benedetta | July 18, 2014 at 12:20 PM
Display Settings:AbstractSend to:
J Neuroinflammation. 2012 Apr 24;9:74. doi: 10.1186/1742-2094-9-74.
Etiology of autistic features: the persisting neurotoxic effects of propionic acid.
El-Ansary AK1, Ben Bacha A, Kotb M.
Author information
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Recent clinical observations suggest that certain gut and dietary factors may transiently worsen symptoms in autism. Propionic acid (PA) is a short chain fatty acid and an important intermediate of cellular metabolism. Although PA has several beneficial biological effects, its accumulation is neurotoxic.
METHODS:
Two groups of young Western albino male rats weighing about 45 to 60 grams (approximately 21 days old) were used in the present study. The first group consisted of oral buffered PA-treated rats that were given a neurotoxic dose of 250 mg/kg body weight/day for three days, n = eight; the second group of rats were given only phosphate buffered saline and used as a control. Biochemical parameters representing oxidative stress, energy metabolism, neuroinflammation, neurotransmission, and apoptosis were investigated in brain homogenates of both groups.
RESULTS:
Biochemical analyses of brain homogenates from PA-treated rats showed an increase in oxidative stress markers (for example, lipid peroxidation), coupled with a decrease in glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and catalase activities. Impaired energy metabolism was ascertained through the decrease of lactate dehydrogenase and activation of creatine kinase (CK). Elevated IL-6, TNFα, IFNγ and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) confirmed the neuroinflammatory effect of PA. Moreover, elevation of caspase3 and DNA fragmentation proved the pro-apoptotic and neurotoxic effect of PA to rat pups
CONCLUSION:
By comparing the results obtained with those from animal models of autism or with clinical data on the biochemical profile of autistic patients, this study showed that the neurotoxicity of PA as an environmental factor could play a central role in the etiology of autistic biochemical features.
PMID: 22531301 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC3425128 Free PMC Article
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Posted by: Autismmom | July 17, 2014 at 08:21 PM
Here is a very interesting study related to gut bacteria and "aquired" mitochondrial dysfunction that underlies autism. Derrick MacFabe is one if the coauthors
Unique acyl-carnitine profiles are potential biomarkers for acquired mitochondrial disease in autism spectrum disorder"
R E Frye1, S Melnyk1 and D F MacFabe2
1Department of Pediatrics, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Little Rock, AR, USA
2The Kilee Patchell-Evans Autism Research Group-Departments of Psychology (Neuroscience) and Psychiatry, Lawson Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Correspondence: Dr RE Frye, Department of Pediatrics, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Slot 512-41B, 13 Children′s Way, Little Rock, AR 72202, USA. E-mail [email protected]
Received 2 July 2012; Revised 27 October 2012; Accepted 10 November 2012
Abstract
"Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with mitochondrial disease (MD). Interestingly, most individuals with ASD and MD do not have a specific genetic mutation to explain the MD, raising the possibility of that MD may be acquired, at least in a subgroup of children with ASD. Acquired MD has been demonstrated in a rodent ASD model in which propionic acid (PPA), an enteric bacterial fermentation product of ASD-associated gut bacteria, is infused intracerebroventricularly. This animal model shows validity as it demonstrates many behavioral, metabolic, neuropathologic and neurophysiologic abnormalities associated with ASD. This animal model also demonstrates a unique pattern of elevations in short-chain and long-chain acyl-carnitines suggesting abnormalities in fatty-acid metabolism. To determine if the same pattern of biomarkers of abnormal fatty-acid metabolism are present in children with ASD, the laboratory results from a large cohort of children with ASD (n=213) who underwent screening for metabolic disorders, including mitochondrial and fatty-acid oxidation disorders, in a medically based autism clinic were reviewed. Acyl-carnitine panels were determined to be abnormal if three or more individual acyl-carnitine species were abnormal in the panel and these abnormalities were verified by repeated testing. Overall, 17% of individuals with ASD demonstrated consistently abnormal acyl-carnitine panels. Next, it was determined if specific acyl-carnitine species were consistently elevated across the individuals with consistently abnormal acyl-carnitine panels. Significant elevations in short-chain and long-chain, but not medium-chain, acyl-carnitines were found in the ASD individuals with consistently abnormal acyl-carnitine panels—a pattern consistent with the PPA rodent ASD model. Examination of electron transport chain function in muscle and fibroblast culture, histological and electron microscopy examination of muscle and other biomarkers of mitochondrial metabolism revealed a pattern consistent with the notion that PPA could be interfering with mitochondrial metabolism at the level of the tricarboxylic-acid cycle (TCAC). The function of the fatty-acid oxidation pathway in fibroblast cultures and biomarkers for abnormalities in non-mitochondrial fatty-acid metabolism were not consistently abnormal across the subgroup of ASD children, consistent with the notion that the abnormalities in fatty-acid metabolism found in this subgroup of children with ASD were secondary to TCAC abnormalities. Glutathione metabolism was abnormal in the subset of ASD individuals with consistent acyl-carnitine panel abnormalities in a pattern similar to glutathione abnormalities found in the PPA rodent model of ASD. These data suggest that there are similar pathological processes between a subset of ASD children and an animal model of ASD with acquired mitochondrial dysfunction. Future studies need to identify additional parallels between the PPA rodent model of ASD and this subset of ASD individuals with this unique pattern of acyl-carnitine abnormalities. A better understanding of this animal model and subset of children with ASD should lead to better insight in mechanisms behind environmentally induced ASD pathophysiology and should provide guidance for developing preventive and symptomatic treatments."
http://www.nature.com/tp/journal/v3/n1/full/tp2012143a.html
Posted by: Autismmom | July 17, 2014 at 07:44 PM
Thanks for looking at this newly evolving topic of the microbiome.
To be blunt our knowledge until recently has been totally abysmal.
We have followed advice from doctors that has put the human microbiome under sustained attack for at least 200 years with increasing attack in the last 50 or so years.
We dont yet know if vaccines are attacking bugs we need in our microbiome!
But with 100 000 plus different species the effect will hopefully be minor?
The genetic code in these bugs will swamp that of the human genome.
8 000 000 genes from the bugs compared to our own 22 000.
See:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microbiome-survey/
It is absolute certain that modern medicine has driven us to our current status:
USA Poorer Health Shorter Lives.
Talk of too clean a society may have some basis in fact.
Comments are good for this easy to understand article:
http://phylogenomics.blogspot.fr/2012/06/human-microbiome-project-hmp-new-papers.html
Leads to more reading on this topic the medical experts have forgotten about for too long.
If modern science has forgotten about our microbiome which is more important than us even then it is clear there will not be one error in medical advice but more like EVERY bit of medical advice is likely to be bad for us.
Time for a REVOLUTION in medical care?
To replace decades of medical catastrophes?
Only possible by the total ignorance:
We dont know why you have disorder X.
Compounded by total arroagance
We know that the insult X,Y and Z are not RESPONSIBLE!
Clue - They make too much money for Big pHARMa.
Posted by: John Fryer | July 17, 2014 at 05:04 PM
Wow, hot on the trail, nice job! Thanks for giving these headlines a little limelight.
So, might this explain why mainstream media has been so busy this past year trying to convince people that the unvacccinated/partially vaccinated are "spreading disease" somehow?
Are the headlines meant to distract from the true pattern of the situation, that not only does viral shedding happen upon vaccination, widespread vaccination may be contributing to the antibiotic resistant infections that are killing people in the hospitals and communities, to the tune of over 2 million resistant infections a year and about 23,000 deaths. Not all of that can be from antibiotic resistant infections transmitting from over drugged farm animals and people given oral antibiotics. With such high vaccination coverage rates, every person who gets vaccinated may be contributing to community antibiotic failure, hospitalizations and death.
Are there more deaths from vaccine preventable diseases each year, or from antibiotic resistance, which it seems may need to be added to the collateral damage/risk side of getting vaccinated?
I bet with accurate statistics, one could say " We know that at least. . . lives could be saved this year by NOT vaccinating.!"
Do increases in death and hospitalization rates from antibiotic resistance infections track with the increases in CDC vaccination recommendations?
Is anyone running a study of whether vaccinated people carry a higher or lower burden of antibiotic resistant microbes in their biome?
Maybe every time an antibiotic resistant infection is reported, someone can record whether that person has been vaccinated and with which vaccines and when was the latest one. Could shine some light on the subject about whether vaccinated individuals are more susceptible to antibiotic resistance infections.
I suppose someone might already know whether there is a correlation there and figured the first horse out of the gate wins, hence the "vaccine free people are causing problems" headlines all over the place - it keeps the vaccine safety advocates always on the defense. Next completely illogical idea we see in the headlines, we should immediately be looking for recently completed studies showing the opposite of the mass media's suggestions.
Posted by: Jenny | July 16, 2014 at 01:21 PM
I agree, Teresa, that the microbiome research is incredibly exciting. Just for starters, the research is confirming that autism can be about an unbalanced microbiome. That's great in two ways - there's an actual biological basis (not psychiatric), and it supports the idea that it's more about environmental exposure than genetics. I don't think the genetics argument will stand long against this research, and once that falls, people will want to change the environmental exposures to avoid autism (and all the other chronic diseases associated with an unhealthy microbiome). I'm so glad you are researching and sharing this series!
Autism mom, it does sound like a bioweapon, but it is reality in the research world. I guess you could call these genetically modified cell lines, and the manufactured animal models are also genetically modified. While the XMRV controversy was ongoing, it was suggested that laboratories may have spread this retrovirus in the cell cultures. If XMRV was spread, totally unintentionally, I'll bet it's not the only virus spread this way, and, why would we assume that there is nothing in the measles vaccine? Does the vaccine strain measles virus come with something that makes it more harmful? I'm looking forward to Kent's new book, "Plague". It's a very exciting time!
Benedetta, I think the firefly gene that codes for luciferin is still one of the most common genes to insert. Things change and stay the same all at once.
Posted by: Betty Bona | July 16, 2014 at 01:06 PM
Betty it is hard to believe with the history of the DPT shot -becoming really bad in 1970s - the vaccine protect the vaccine makers court in 1987 - and after that the added boosters and new vaccines.
Boosters - yes they knew it was in my communicable diseaes text book -- small book - paper back and pocket sized --- boosters with each and ever one added - they become more dangerous.
They traced bio path ways by radiated isotopes. Works really well.
The flourescense - first I ever heard of that was taking a fire fly gene and putting it in a plant. I am still waiting for those seeds of glowing pumpkins.
Posted by: Benedetta | July 16, 2014 at 10:06 AM
Betty what you describe sounds like a bioweapon
Posted by: Autism mom | July 15, 2014 at 11:17 PM
Hi.
Betty I have some of those same questions but remember that "The human microbiome is composed of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa."..... bacteria is part of it, a big part but those high MMR titers that many of our children carry years after vaccination may be part of this as well as acute reactions. It is important to look at all exposures which is why some are now saying that the microbiome is not real as it is more "the exposome" of the microbiome.
Either way it is offering a rich portal of investigation that sure seems related.
Thanks and thanks Benedetta for your comments and support on this topic!
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | July 15, 2014 at 06:29 PM
Researchers are always in need of new cell lines with specific characteristics. Maybe they want to add a plasmid that will allow them to detect specific activity by fluorescence. They can permanently transfect a plasmid with the fluorescent feature into the cell. In order to select only the cells that have received the plasmid and kill all the others, they might add antibiotic resistance on this plasmid. Then they add the antibiotic to the culture. Anything that lives will have the fluorescent feature and the antibiotic resistance. They keep the new cell line going by carrying it on the antibiotic. I have no idea how vaccines are made, but I wonder if we are injecting plasmids with antibiotic resistance or mercury resistance in our vaccines. Maybe it's not even intentional, but just gets in the final product the way that XMRV gets into cell cultures by accident.
I think the microbiome is hugely important in our epidemics of chronic diseases, but I think there are additional factors. For autism, the number of kids who have relatively instant reactions to the MMR can't be denied. I think of the microbiome as being slower than those instant reactions. That makes me wonder what is in the MMR vaccine that can cause such reactions in children (maybe only those who have injured microbiomes). I could be wrong. Maybe the MMR simply destroys an already unhealthy microbiome in a matter of hours. Still, I would like to know more about those weakened viruses and the process of weakening them.
Posted by: Betty Bona | July 15, 2014 at 05:53 PM
My son had a very bad reaction to antibiotic (Zithromax) at age 1-1/2 while I was treating him for an ear infecion. He ended up in the ER on an I/V because he got severely dehydrated and developed bad diarrhea. I wonder if the antibiotic set the stage for bad gut flora and eventually autistic regression.
Since our kids seem to have abnormal gut flora, has anyone here tried MMS (Kerri Rivera's protocol? Due to very bad rumors on the internet, I have been very reluctant to try this treatment for my son. I went online and viewed this testimonial in particular from an autism dad who has 2 kids with autism- one is recovered. His daughter sounds exactly like my son (she was echolalic, talked gibberish etc...) After years of struggling, he treated the kids with MMS. His daughter is now in a gifted program at shool, her IQ is 133.
Could MMS be wiping out the bad gut flora?
I am just interested in knowing if anyone has tried this. Thanks
Treating Autism with MMS - Testimonial (9 of 10) .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O_Sa8ldM7k
Posted by: autism mom | July 15, 2014 at 12:05 PM
My sister-in-law "NOW" takes IgG -- I did not mean "NOT".
Posted by: Benedetta | July 15, 2014 at 11:05 AM
Teresa:
Thanks for the update.
The microbiome held in Arkansas still have not archived the speakers. I am still waiting.
As for your article today -- amazing.
So, basically the same genes of microbes that make a microbe able to become mercury resistant is the same area/same genes that makes these microbes become resistant to antibiotics.
That is a great advantage over other microbes that can not do that.
This might be the reason that the woman that works at the Dollar Store lost her 40 year old, military husband to many bouts of pneumonia.
or
Why my sister-in-law keeps getting pneumonia - even getting the MERSA kind -- and not takes IgG -- my understanding is that gut bacteria is responsible for the body producing IgA -- that turns into IgGs.
So over use of antibiotics is hardly the driving force -- after all a baby has an ear infection and crying - or dripping green snot; it would be medical malpractice not to give them antibiotics.
Which brings to my mind --a friend I taught school with- her son and my daughter were in the same class, together. Her son as a tot did not receive an antibiotic for a sinus infection, he could not fight it off and so it got into the bone --he ended up in the hospital - and then they had to really pour the antibiotics to him. .
This also happened to a teacher too - he was out for a very long time.
So the medical profession is wanting to hold back on giving us an antibiotic; I am fine with that -- if they hold back the vaccines too.
It looks pretty bad -- guys - this can do nothing but spread to every household.
Right now I am lacto- fermenting everything in sight -- plus holding a ball bat on my family to eat it at every meal.
I made some just this week - it might work - it might not -- I put some together under that under that full super moon of July -- a prayer of mercy, a lot of luck, and some magic seems needed.
Hint: If you are the kind that never ate fermented food much -- - try putting it together - same bite in with a piece of food like meatloaf. There is something there that is very pleasant, that surprised my son and myself. .
Posted by: Benedetta | July 15, 2014 at 11:02 AM