Dachel Media Update: Dave Weldon, Autism and GI
By Anne Dachel
Read Anne's commentary and view the links after the jump. The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and their OurKidsASD brand.
Sept 22, 2014, Space Coast Daily (FL): Dr. Dave Weldon: Doctors' Goodwill Foundation Ambassador
Sept 17, 2014, CBS Philly: Cause Of Autism Could Be Found In Digestive System, Researchers Say
Sept 17, 2014, Phoenix New Times: Arizona Families with Dangerous Kids Have Few Places to Turn for Help
At the September reunion of the freshman class of the 104th U.S. Congress in 1994, event organizer Dr. Dave Weldon reminisced about his first foray into politics....
Thanks to Weldon, toxic mercury-containing preservatives were removed from childhood vaccines.
"We came in on what the media described as the "bow wave" in the election of '94 and we gave ourselves 100 days to accomplish the "Contract with America," one of the most ambitious legislative reform packages of modern times," said the Indialantic physician.
So, do any of these celebrating Congress people realize that in 1994 the U.S. autism rate was one in every 500 children, and today it's one in every 68? This explosion happened under their watch and all they did was give us IAAC with Thomas Insel in charge.
It's a little annoying to see a promo of Dave Weldon's good works in Congress and see that "Thanks to Weldon," .... "mercury-containing preservatives," which we're told are "toxic," were removed from children's vaccines.
That's not true. American children and pregnant women continue to be shot up with deadly mercury---and kids in the poorest places on Earth--incredibly are given lots of mercury laced vaccines because, sorry, their countries are unable to afford mercury-free vaccines.
Please watch the Sharyl Attkisson CBS video from SIX YEARS AGO where Weldon talks about vaccines and autism that I included in my comment below.
Researchers looking into the cause of autism think they may have found it in an unlikely place - the gut.
Autism was first officially recognized as a condition 60 years ago. Most people we know have a family member who is autistic or knows someone who has a family member diagnosed with autism.
I can't believe that Dr. McDonough is STILL talking like this. Four years ago a national study linked the gut and the brain. McDonough pretends this is news. I posted three comments.
Matt Bourne spent his spring break knocking over furniture. One day, he broke a dresser in his sister's room and pulled down a flat-screen television. He punched himself in the face, hit his older sister, and hit his mom.
The family dealt with it as they normally did, taking turns cornering the 10-year-old in a back bedroom in their home in Cornville, about a 90-minute drive north of metro Phoenix. When someone had to use the bathroom, another family member would step in to take a turn.
It was the longest violent rage Matt had ever had, lasting for seven hours.
No one could ask Matt what was wrong, because he doesn't speak.
This is the story of Matt Bourne and it's the down side of autism. I'm frankly surprised Ashley Cusick even wrote about it. This boy is violent and he's only eleven. (We told that the good news is that only ten percent of ASD kids are like Matt.) BUT.......considering almost 2 percent of U.S. kids have an autism diagnosis, that's still a lot of Americans.
Wendy Fournier, National Autism Association, is quoted, but still they don't see her comment as a wake-up call.
There are no facilities for kids like Matt, we're told. WHY???
There are vague references to closing institutions and a lack of resources, but nothing about A EPIDEMIC OF AUTISTIC KIDS.
The classic line here... "No matter the cause, ..." .........I've heard it so many times before.........
We will fade into a sea of children becoming adults who can't speak, can't learn, can't live independently, and are violent.....and NEVER ONCE ADMIT THIS IS A NATIONAL HEALTH CRISIS FOR WHICH WE NEED ANSWERS. NEVER DEMAND TO KNOW THE CAUSE.
IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and their OurKidsASD brand. Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy is one of the largest and most respected compounding pharmacies in the country. They use only the finest quality chemicals and equipment to prepare our patients’ compounded medications and nutritional supplements. Customizing medication and nutritional supplements for our customers allows them to achieve their unique health goals.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism and author of The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public, which goes on sale this Fall from Skyhorse Publishing.
CBS Philly:
"Researchers looking into the cause of autism think they may have found it in an unlikely place - the gut."
Anne commented: "I can't believe that Dr. McDonough is STILL talking like this. Four years ago a national study linked the gut and the brain. McDonough pretends this is news"
In April .. 2007 .. Discover Magazine published a lenghty article written by Jill Niemark .. titled: "Autism: It's Not Just In The Head".
Here are some comments I "cut and pasted together" .. but .. the entire article is still well worth reading at
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/apr/autism-it2019s-not-just-in-the-head
"The devastating derangements of autism also show up in the gut and in the immune system. That unexpected discovery is sparking new treatments that target the body in addition to the brain."
"The condition, traditionally seen as genetic and originating in the brain, is starting to be viewed in a broader and very different light, as a possible immune and neuroinflammatory disorder. As a result, autism is beginning to look like a condition that can, in some and perhaps many cases, be successfully treated."
"Meanwhile, on the sidelines of that confusing discussion, a disparate group—immunologists, naturopaths, neuroscientists, and toxicologists—is turning up clues that are yielding novel strategies to help autistic patients. New studies are examining contributing factors ranging from vaccine reactions to atypical growth in the placenta, abnormal tissue in the gut, inflamed tissue in the brain, food allergies, and disturbed brain wave synchrony. Some clinicians are using genetic test results to recommend unconventional nutritional therapies, and others employ drugs to fight viruses and quell inflammation."
"Above all, there is a new emphasis on the interaction between vulnerable genes and environmental triggers, along with a growing sense that low-dose, multiple toxic and infectious exposures may be a major contributing factor to autism and its related disorders. A vivid analogy is that genes load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger."
"First, autism may not be rigidly determined but instead may be related to common gene variants, called polymorphisms, that may be derailed by environmental triggers. Second, affected genes may disturb fundamental pathways in the body and lead to chronic inflammation across the brain, immune system, and digestive system. Third, inflammation is treatable.
“Harvard pediatric neurologist Martha Herbert, author of a 14,000-word paper in the journal Clinical Neuropsychiatry that reconceptualizes the universe of autism, pulling the brain down from its privileged perch as an organ isolated from the rest of the body.
“I no longer see autism as a disorder of the brain but as a disorder that affects the brain,” Herbert says. “It also affects the immune system and the gut.
"I can't think of it as a coincidence anymore that so many autistic kids have a history of allergies, eczema, or chronic diarrhea."
This was a "cutting edge" column that I remember was waved at a Senate hearing by a Senator urging his colleagues to read it themselves.
By the way .. does anyone know how Harvard pediatric neurologist Martha Herbert's enthusiastic .. 7 year old .. ground breaking research .. into the "brain gut" connection .. went missing for the last seven years .. long enough for this idiot McDonough to pretend his "theory" of a connection between the "brain and gut" is new?
Posted by: BoB Moffitt | September 24, 2014 at 07:08 AM
As long as psychiatry has too heavy a hand in this, the example of Matt will be treated as a psychiatric problem with more toxic medicines. Or it will become a crime problem "cured" with jail time when the child gets older. Some of us know it's neither. It is a problem that could be dealt with if more attention were paid to the parents who know their kids. They know it's mercury toxicity (from vaccines or fish or dental mercury fillings) and they know it can be dealt with after all the mercury is removed safely from their environment. Chelation therapy is expensive and has to be used with extreme caution. Preventing mercury toxicity would be even better.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | September 24, 2014 at 01:39 AM