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Zurama - Autistic by Injection

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Member since: Sep 23, 2007
Last logged in: Mar 04, 2010

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Parent, ABA, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Biomedical Intervention

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http://www.foggyrock.com/MyPage/Zurama

Zurama's Bio

I am the mother of five children, the youngest Michael or Mickie as we like to call him, was diagnosed with Autism at 22 months old.After years of early intervention therapy, which didn't work. I learned through trial and error that he had underlying biomedical problems that culminated in Autism like symptoms, including, chronic digestive problems since the age of one, when he received the MMR vaccine.
With biomedical interventions, gfcf and SCD diets, Mickie's body is starting to heal. Some of the most severe symptoms, head banging, night waking, self injurious behaviors are almost gone.
He lost all speech by the age of three. He is now 10 years old and has just started to say mama, for the first time in almost 8 years.

Favorite Blogs (1)

IQ Testing for Nonverbal Abilities

February 21, 2006
IQ Testing for Nonverbal Abilities Yields Dramatically Improv...Read more

By 4muskateers on 04.23.08
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Zurama's Blogs

Autism group: Advertisers dropping Savage

by Zurama on 07/25/2008

Advocates from Autism United gathered in lower Manhattan Friday to announce a host of advertisers have pulled out of nationally syndicated radio talk ...

Oxytocin increases thresholds of colonic visceral perception in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

by Zurama on 07/24/2008

D Louvel, M Delvaux, A Felez, J Fioramonti, L Bueno, Y Lazorthes, J Frexinos

Laboratory of Digestive Motility, Gastroenterology Unit, CHU Rangueil,...

Autistic Man Recovering After Rescue In Wis.

by Zurama on 06/25/2008

Autistic Man Recovering After Rescue In Wis.

By Steve Karnowski Associated Press. tinyurl.com/52vweo

Keith Kennedy's parents figure ...

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Autistic Man Recovering After Rescue In Wis.

By Steve Karnowski Associated Press. tinyurl.com/52vweo

Keith Kennedy's parents figure they'll never know why their autistic 25-year-old son wandered away from a camp for developmentally disabled adults and spent a week lost in the woods. They're just grateful rescuers found him in time.
      And Bruce and Linda Kennedy, as well as their son's doctor, say they likely will never know how he managed to survive without the skills to fend for himself, and with a failing transplanted kidney.
      Keith Kennedy was dehydrated, suffering from hypothermia, naked, filthy, and covered with ticks and bug bites when a St. Paul firefighter found him Sunday evening. He was in thick brush next to a creek bed on swampy ground about a mile from the camp in northwestern Wisconsin. He had been missing for just a half-hour shy of a full week, and didn't take his anti-rejection drugs.
      "How did he survive? He's a very lucky young man," Dr. Timothy Whelan of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, told reporters Monday. He probably had just hours left to live by the time he was found, the doctor said.
      But by Monday morning, Kennedy's condition was stable and improving. His temperature was back to normal from a low of around 84 and he was getting fluids. The ticks weren't the type that carry Lyme disease, but Kennedy was getting antibiotics as a precaution.
      "Right now his kidney function is not very good, but he is making urine," Whelan said. He said it hadn't been necessary so far to put him on dialysis, and the doctor said he was optimistic that the kidney Kennedy received from his father in a 1995 transplant would recover well enough.
      Kennedy's clothes weren't immediately found. Whelan noted that it's not unusual for hypothermia victims to think they're hot and take their clothes off. But Linda Kennedy said it wouldn't have been unusual for her son to take his clothes off "if they were wet or awful." Fortunately, temperatures were mild.
      The 13 campers at the Trade Lake Camp in Grantsburg, Wis., had just been given their nighttime snacks and the others were heading off to bed when Kennedy disappeared June 15. Staffers speculate he sneaked back to the cafeteria to get more popcorn, then ran off because he was afraid of getting in trouble.
      Hundreds of volunteers joined law enforcement officers, firefighters and medics in the search that followed. His parents prayed for a miracle and refused to give up hope, but by Sunday evening had begun discussing with authorities whether to scale back the search. When they heard shouts that he had been found, they got in the sheriff's car so quickly they didn't get confirmation that he was alive until they were en route to the scene.
      "I can't even put it into words," Linda Kennedy said, choking up with emotion. "You can only imagine what we've been going through. It's parents' worst nightmare, it's my definition of hell on earth. It's a nightmare that just wouldn't end. And it's just so incredible how everything came together and we're at this point now. We're just so grateful and so hopeful."
      Bruce Kennedy said it would have been fascinating to have followed his son on his journey. But his son, who can speak only four words, isn't likely to provide any insights on what happened.
      "We're not anticipating him communicating anything about this," he said. "He's never spoken in the past tense in his life."
      Keith Kennedy had been a "runner" since he was 3 years old, his mother said. The parents kept their Minneapolis home where he grew up tightly secured. "Our house really, truly was like Fort Knox," she said. They tried constantly to make sure someone knew where in the house he was, but he would still manage to escape go to nearby stores or factories, they said.
      "I think he bit off more than he could chew," Bruce Kennedy said. "I think he got overwhelmed and he lost his bearings and somehow landed in a horrible spot. But maybe we'll never know."
      Whelan said there's no good way to know if Kennedy ate or drank anything in the woods, though his mother said he would have known enough to drink from a stream if he was able. He probably lost a lot of weight, though his doctor and parents didn't know how much.
      Searchers had passed near the spot where he was found at least a couple times, but it wasn't clear if he was there yet or ended up there later. Linda Kennedy said the lesson is that it's imperative for searchers to keep going back over areas that have already been checked.
      The Kennedys, who live in Roseville while their son lives in a group home in Shoreview, said they'll likely stay glued to either side of him when they take him out in public again. Bruce said he was going to do some research into GPS tracking devices. And they weren't sure if they'll let him go to camp again.
      "When hell freezes over," Linda Kennedy joked.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW
SUBSCRIBE. . . !

. . . Read, then Forward the Schafer Autism Report.

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Helping HANDS for Autism Act Introduced in the House

by Zurama on 06/24/2008

Helping HANDS for Autism Act Introduced in the House
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Carin Yavorcik

Bill provides for lifespan au...

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Helping HANDS for Autism Act Introduced in the House
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By Carin Yavorcik

Bill provides for lifespan autism services and awareness

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a companion to the Helping HANDS for Autism Act this week.

The Helping HANDS for Autism Act (HR 6282) is a three-part legislative package designed to support families dealing with autism spectrum disorders, increase awareness among first responders and public safety officials and provide housing options and services for adults with autism. It was introduced by Reps. Kay Granger (R-TX), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Mike Doyle (D-PA), Dan Burton (R-IN) and Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX). The bill is a companion to S 2950, introduced in the Senate last April.

An estimated 30 million people in the world have an autism spectrum disorder, 1.5 million in America alone. Every day in America, 60 families learn their child has autism. These families face challenges of care, support, education, financial hardship and medical and health care issues that make autism a national public health issue. Though there is no cure, autism is treatable and individuals with autism have tremendous potential. What the Bill Does:

1. Creates a grant program to provide "autism navigator" services to help families navigate the web of services and care they need. Navigators will help guide families to current health, education, housing and social services that are often available to individuals on the autism spectrum. Too often, families feel overwhelmed after diagnosis and often lost as to where to turn for help. The program will help connect families to important treatment options soon after diagnosis, help families identify education options, and help coordinate individuals' care and community support.

2. Provides for the development, demonstration and dissemination of a standard curriculum for the training of first responders (police, fire departments, emergency medical technicians and other volunteers) in assisting individuals with autism and other cognitive behavioral disabilities. It provides grants to states and local governments to support training of first responders. People with developmental disabilities, including autism, have up to seven times more contact with law enforcement officers than others, according to an article in the F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin in April 2001. That is why training is so important. Something as simple as first responders turning off flashing lights and sirens on a police car could make the difference between a peaceful or chaotic encounter.

3. Creates a HUD task force comprised of appropriate national and state autism advocacy groups, community-based organizations and parents who are charged with developing a housing demonstration grant program for adults with autism. The goal of the grant program is to provide individualized housing and services to adults with autism spectrum disorders.

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CNN: Should I Vaccinate My Baby?

by Zurama on 06/24/2008

By Elizabeth Cohen

Five years ago, Kathye Petters-Armitage's first child received the exact vaccinations on the exact schedule recommended by her ...

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WHAT DISEASE DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO GET?

by Zurama on 06/24/2008

By Julie Obradovic
Reprinted from Age of Autism

In the aftermath of the Green the Vaccines Rally, the inevitable criticism of the participants and...

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By Julie Obradovic
Reprinted from Age of Autism

In the aftermath of the Green the Vaccines Rally, the inevitable criticism of the participants and their purpose swooped in with the force of the thunderstorm that struck DC that afternoon.

In the recent years of being an "Autism activist", I have found it much easier to simply steer clear of this criticism. Message boards, Bloggers and editorials that paint me as a fear-mongering fool who uses her child as an experiment only put me in a bad mood.

Initially I was compelled to argue, fighting for my dignity and looking for compassion. What I realized is that is exhaustive work, and frankly, quite fruitless, especially when the bully you're battling is anonymous.

And so it has been that I have chosen to ignore the negativity and focus on the task at hand: finding a way to help families with Autism improve the health and well-being of their children, themselves, and their finances.

None-the-less, occasionally it becomes necessary to stand up and be heard. It's as if the opposition got a new memo on how to belittle one of "us", and frankly, it's annoying.

For starters, as JB Handley addressed in his essay "Moving the Goal Posts", we are now guilty of "changing the game". Evidently we can't make up our minds about what part of the vaccine or vaccines cause Autism.

Is it the mercury? Is it the aluminum? Is it both? Is it too many vaccines in combination? Somehow our inability to stick to one story makes us inauthentic.......

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/06/what-disease-do.html

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What Autism Does to a Mother

by Zurama on 06/24/2008

From Redbook Magazine

Nicole Kalkowski knows that beyond the stress, fear, and family turmoil that come with learning that your child has this deva...

SICK HAMSTERS: MORE EVIDENCE THAT THIMEROSAL HARMS INFANTS

by Zurama on 06/24/2008

By Mark F. Blaxill

In his best-selling book Evidence of Harm, our Age of Autism colleague David Kirby saved his “final note” for a comment on the g...

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By Mark F. Blaxill

In his best-selling book Evidence of Harm, our Age of Autism colleague David Kirby saved his “final note” for a comment on the global legacy of thimerosal exposure in vaccines. In the book’s closing passage, he wrote:

“If thimerosal is one day proven to be a contributing factor to autism, and if U.S. made vaccines containing the preservative are now being supplied the world over, the scope of this potential tragedy becomes unthinkable.

“The United States, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, is not exactly the most beloved nation on earth. What if the profitable export of our vaunted medical technology has led to the poisoning of hundred of thousands of children? What then?”

As Bush Administration officials have moved with surprising determination to defend the safety both of the current flu vaccine program (which targets expectant mothers with injections of ethyl mercury) and past vaccine program recommendations (which permitted the injection of unintentionally excessive amounts of ethyl mercury in infants), one often overlooked implication of the Administration’s policy has been to make Kirby’s nightmare suggestion a reality. U.S. vaccine manufacturers have continued to ship thimerosal containing vaccine formulations all over the world, in effect offering a defiant double standard of mercury risk for infants from rich countries as compared to poor countries.........

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/06/sick-hamsters-m.html

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2008 Annual Family Picnic

by Zurama on 06/24/2008

Thank you! 5th Annual TACA Picnic Raises $110,000 and Counting!

More than 2,200 people turned out for the fifth annual TACA family picnic presente...

Green Our Vaccines Rally

by Zurama on 06/24/2008

On June 4, 2008 the Green our Vaccines March & Rally occurred in Washington DC with hosts Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey. Rally speakers included: Rob...

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Autism on "Days of Our Lives": Is This a Good Thing?

by Zurama on 06/15/2008

Autism on "Days of Our Lives": Is This a Good Thing? Your Opinion Requested!

I think I watched two episodes of the soap opera Days of Our Lives bac...

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Autism on "Days of Our Lives": Is This a Good Thing? Your Opinion Requested!

I think I watched two episodes of the soap opera Days of Our Lives back in the 1970's. I haven't seen the show since then. So I have no clue whether this press release from Autism Speaks (which is working with the show's writing staff) represents a breakthrough or a pitfall for the autism community. Here's what the release has to say:
http://autism.about.com/b/2008/06/11/autism-on-days-of-our-lives-is-this-a-good-thing-your-opinion-requested.htm?nl=1
    The growing autism crisis – which has recently drawn increasing national attention -- is addressed in a personal manner beginning in the June 24 episode of NBC's daytime drama “Days of our Lives” in an insightful story based on the experiences of the series' head writer, Dena Higley, who, with her husband has raised Commisioner Abe Caver, Dr. Lexie Carver and Theo an autistic child of their own. NBC joins with Autism Speaks, the nation's leading autism advocacy organization, to help convey a message of hope and useful information during the course of the storyline.

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Letter to Pediatricians about GI Symptoms in Autistic Patients

by Zurama on 06/13/2008

In October 2006, the organization “Autism Speaks” convened a group of pediatric gastroenterologists and autism specialists to review the available evi...

TEACHING A CHILD WITH AUTISM

by Zurama on 06/13/2008

Products and Services
Materials to teach children
Our goal is to increase language and communication of skills of children who fall on the auti...

Kids Clear™ Detoxifying Clay Baths

by Zurama on 06/13/2008

Kids Clear™ is a 100% pure pharmaceutical grade bentonite clay that has a very high cation exchange capacity (a 98-107 meq/100g on the CEC scale), whi...

AUTISM SUPPORT PROJECT

by Zurama on 06/13/2008

Discovery Toys has sensational products that encourage multiple levels of learning for all children. For children with autism, the diversity and bread...

Hidden CDC Data Confirms Vaccine-Autism Link

by Zurama on 06/12/2008

Hidden CDC Data Confirms Vaccine-Autism Link

Press Release Contacts:

For Immediate Release CoMeD President [Rev. ...

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Hidden CDC Data Confirms Vaccine-Autism Link

Press Release                 Contacts:

For Immediate Release           CoMeD President [Rev. Lisa K. Sykes (Richmond, VA) 804-364-8426]

June 12, 2008                       CoMeD Sci. Advisor [Dr. King (Lake Hiawatha, NJ) 973-263-4843]

WASHINGTON, DC – A newly published study in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences,[1][1] the official journal of the Worl d Federation of Neurology,[2][2] links mercury from the Thimerosal in vaccines with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

This study represents six years worth of effort by independent researchers to gain access to hidden US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD).  In 2003, the Government Reform Committee of the US House of Representatives asserted, “(a)ccess by independent researchers to the Vaccine Safety Datalink database is needed for independent replication and validation of CDC studies regarding exposure of infants to mercury-containing vaccines and autism.”

Nonetheless, this new analysis of some of the data in the carefully guarded VSD database, documenting the mercury poisoning of a generation of American children, would never have been possible without the intervention of Congressional leaders, parent autism advocacy groups, and legal experts.  Ironically, only a few independent researchers have gained even this limited level of restricted access to the VSD database, despite the fact that the VSD Project is funded by hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

The new study, led by Dr. Heather Young, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, examined the CDC-supplied medical vaccination records from the VSD of 278,624 children, born from 1990 through 1996.

This study calculated the average mercury exposure children incurred from routine childhood Thimerosal-containing vaccines, by year of birth, during their first year of life.  After calculating average mercury exposure by year of birth, the study then estimated the prevalence rates of various medical diagnoses for children born in each of the years examined.

The prevalence rate of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders correlated with the average mercury exposure children received: increasing/decreasing levels of mercury exposure from routine childhood Thimerosal-containing vaccines resulted in corresponding trends in prevalence rates of these diagnoses.  By contrast, medical outcomes presumed to be unrelated to mercury exposure did not correlate with the average levels of mercury exposure from routine childhood Thimerosal-containing vaccines.

Depending upon the specific neurodevelopmental disorder examined (autism, autism spectrum disorder, tics, emotional disturbance, attention deficit disorder-hyperactivity disorder, and developmental/learning disorder), the observed overall risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders was significantly higher (about 2- to 6- fold) following an additional 100 micrograms of mercury exposure.  For autism alone, the overall risk was about 2.5-fold higher following an additional 100 micrograms of mercury exposure.

These results demonstrate that the suspicions of those serving on the Government Reform Committee were correct: “…(t)o date, studies conducted or funded by the CDC that purportedly dispute any correlation between autism and vaccine injury have been of poor design, under-powered, and fatally flawed.  The CDC’s rush to support and promote such research is reflective of a philosophical conflict in looking fairly at emerging theories and clinical data related to adverse reactions from vaccinations.”

To financially support further research conducted by independent investigators in the VSD, please use the PayPal link on CoMeD’s website, http://www.mercury-freedrugs.org, for your tax-deductible contributions.  CoMeD, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(C)(3) corporation actively engaged in legal, educational and scientific efforts to stop all use of mercury in medicine, and to ban the use of all mercury-containing medicines.

[1][1]      Young HA, Geier DA, Geier MR. Thimerosal exposure in infants and neurodevelopmental disorders:  An assessment of computerized medical records in the Vaccine Safety Datalink. J Neurol Sci. 2008 May 1 4. [Epub ahead of print] Article available at: http://www.pharmalot.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/thimerosal-vaccine-study.pdf

[2][2]      The World Federation of Neurology is a non-governmental organization associated with the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Child Experts Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay

by Zurama on 06/09/2008

Pass the word: Only 287 signatures needed to reach 27,000 Against
TeenScreen! Click here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Pass t...

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Pass the word: Only 287 signatures needed to reach 27,000 Against
TeenScreen! Click here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Pass the word!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/08conflict.html?
ex=1213502400&en=23737184f344c4

ca&ei=5070&emc=eta1

New York Times
Child Experts Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay
By Gardiner Harris and Benedict Carey
June 8, 2008
A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped
fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in
children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug
makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this
income to university officials, according to information given
Congressional investigators.

Senator Charles E. Grassley pushed three experts in child psychiatry
at Harvard to expose their income from consulting fees.

Dr. Joseph Biederman belatedly reported at least $1.6 million in
consulting fees.
By failing to report income, the psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman,
and a colleague in the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical
School, Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, may have violated federal and
university research rules designed to police potential conflicts of
interest, according to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of
Iowa. Some of their research is financed by government grants.

Like Dr. Biederman, Dr. Wilens belatedly reported earning at least
$1.6 million from 2000 to 2007, and another Harvard colleague, Dr.
Thomas Spencer, reported earning at least $1 million after being
pressed by Mr. Grassley's investigators. But even these amended
disclosures may understate the researchers' outside income because
some entries contradict payment information from drug makers, Mr.
Grassley found.

In one example, Dr. Biederman reported no income from Johnson &
Johnson for 2001 in a disclosure report filed with the university.
When asked recently to check again, he reported receiving $3,500. But
Johnson & Johnson told Mr. Grassley that it paid him $58,169 in 2001,
Mr. Grassley found.

The Harvard group's consulting arrangements with drug makers were
already controversial because of the researchers' advocacy of
unapproved uses of psychiatric medicines in children.

In an e-mailed statement, Dr. Biederman said, "My interests are
solely in the advancement of medical treatment through rigorous and
objective study," and he said he took conflict-of-interest
policies "very seriously." Drs. Wilens and Spencer said in e-mailed
statements that they thought they had complied with conflict-of-
interest rules.

John Burklow, a spokesman for the National Institutes of Health,
said: "If there have been violations of N.I.H. policy — and if
research integrity has been compromised — we will take all the
appropriate action within our power to hold those responsible
accountable. This would be completely unacceptable behavior, and
N.I.H. will not tolerate it."

The federal grants received by Drs. Biederman and Wilens were
administered by Massachusetts General Hospital, which in 2005 won
$287 million in such grants. The health institutes could place
restrictions on the hospital's grants or even suspend them
altogether.

Alyssa Kneller, a Harvard spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed
statement: "The information released by Senator Grassley suggests
that, in certain instances, each doctor may have failed to disclose
outside income from pharmaceutical companies and other entities that
should have been disclosed."

Ms. Kneller said the doctors had been referred to a university
conflict committee for review.

Mr. Grassley sent letters on Wednesday to Harvard and the health
institutes outlining his investigators' findings, and he placed the
letters along with his comments in The Congressional Record.

Dr. Biederman is one of the most influential researchers in child
psychiatry and is widely admired for focusing the field's attention
on its most troubled young patients. Although many of his studies are
small and often financed by drug makers, his work helped to fuel a
controversial 40-fold increase from 1994 to 2003 in the diagnosis of
pediatric bipolar disorder, which is characterized by severe mood
swings, and a rapid rise in the use of antipsychotic medicines in
children. The Grassley investigation did not address research quality.

Doctors have known for years that antipsychotic drugs, sometimes
called major tranquilizers, can quickly subdue children. But
youngsters appear to be especially susceptible to the weight gain and
metabolic problems caused by the drugs, and it is far from clear that
the medications improve children's lives over time, experts say.

In the last 25 years, drug and device makers have displaced the
federal government as the primary source of research financing, and
industry support is vital to many university research programs. But
as corporate research executives recruit the brightest scientists,
their brethren in marketing departments have discovered that some of
these same scientists can be terrific pitchmen.

To protect research integrity, the National Institutes of Health
require researchers to report to universities earnings of $10,000 or
more per year, for instance, in consulting money from makers of drugs
also studied by the researchers in federally financed trials.
Universities manage financial conflicts by requiring that the money
be disclosed to research subjects, among other measures.

The health institutes last year awarded more than $23 billion in
grants to more than 325,000 researchers at over 3,000 universities,
and auditing the potential conflicts of each grantee would be
impossible, health institutes officials have long insisted. So the
government relies on universities.

Universities ask professors to report their conflicts but do almost
nothing to verify the accuracy of these voluntary disclosures.

"It's really been an honor system thing," said Dr. Robert Alpern,
dean of Yale School of Medicine. "If somebody tells us that a
pharmaceutical company pays them $80,000 a year, I don't even know
how to check on that."

Some states have laws requiring drug makers to disclose payments made
to doctors, and Mr. Grassley and others have sponsored legislation to
create a national registry.

Lawmakers have been concerned in recent years about the use of
unapproved medications in children and the influence of industry
money.

Mr. Grassley asked Harvard for the three researchers' financial
disclosure reports from 2000 through 2007 and asked some drug makers
to list payments made to them.

"Basically, these forms were a mess," Mr. Grassley said in comments
he entered into The Congressional Record on Wednesday. "Over the last
seven years, it looked like they had taken a couple hundred thousand
dollars."

Prompted by Mr. Grassley's interest, Harvard asked the researchers to
re-examine their disclosure reports.

In the new disclosures, the trio's outside consulting income jumped
but was still contradicted by reports sent to Mr. Grassley from some
of the companies. In some cases, the income seems to have put the
researchers in violation of university and federal rules.

In 2000, for instance, Dr. Biederman received a grant from the
National Institutes of Health to study in children Strattera, an Eli
Lilly drug for attention deficit disorder. Dr. Biederman reported to
Harvard that he received less than $10,000 from Lilly that year, but
the company told Mr. Grassley that it paid Dr. Biederman more than
$14,000 in 2000, Mr. Grassley's letter stated.

At the time, Harvard forbade professors from conducting clinical
trials if they received payments over $10,000 from the company whose
product was being studied, and federal rules required such conflicts
to be managed.

Mr. Grassley said these discrepancies demonstrated profound flaws in
the oversight of researchers' financial conflicts and the need for a
national registry. But the disclosures may also cloud the work of one
of the most prominent group of child psychiatrists in the world.

In the past decade, Dr. Biederman and his colleagues have promoted
the aggressive diagnosis and drug treatment of childhood bipolar
disorder, a mood problem once thought confined to adults. They have
maintained that the disorder was underdiagnosed in children and could
be treated with antipsychotic drugs, medications invented to treat
schizophrenia.

Other researchers have made similar assertions. As a result,
pediatric bipolar diagnoses and antipsychotic drug use in children
have soared. Some 500,000 children and teenagers were given at least
one prescription for an antipsychotic in 2007, including 20,500 under
6 years of age, according to Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy
benefit manager.

Few psychiatrists today doubt that bipolar disorder can strike in the
early teenage years, or that many of the children being given the
diagnosis are deeply distressed.

"I consider Dr. Biederman a true visionary in recognizing this
illness in children," said Susan Resko, director of the Child and
Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, "and he's not only saved many lives
but restored hope to thousands of families across the country."

Longtime critics of the group see its influence differently. "They
have given the Harvard imprimatur to this commercial experimentation
on children," said Vera Sharav, president and founder of the Alliance
for Human Research Protection, a patient advocacy group.

Many researchers strongly disagree over what bipolar looks like in
youngsters, and some now fear the definition has been expanded
unnecessarily, due in part to the Harvard group.

The group published the results of a string of drug trials from 2001
to 2006, but the studies were so small and loosely designed that they
were largely inconclusive, experts say. In some studies testing
antipsychotic drugs, the group defined improvement as a decline of 30
percent or more on a scale called the Young Mania Rating Scale — well
below the 50 percent change that most researchers now use as the
standard.

Controlling for bias is especially important in such work, given that
the scale is subjective, and raters often depend on reports from
parents and children, several top psychiatrists said.

More broadly, they said, revelations of undisclosed payments from
drug makers to leading researchers are especially damaging for
psychiatry.

"The price we pay for these kinds of revelations is credibility, and
we just can't afford to lose any more of that in this field," said
Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, executive director of the Stanley Medical
Research Institute, which finances psychiatric studies. "In the area
of child psychiatry in particular, we know much less than we should,
and we desperately need research that is not influenced by industry
money."

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Vaccine Injured March on Capitol Hill

by Zurama on 06/06/2008

ADVOCACY

A Day of Remembrance:
Vaccine Injured March on Capitol Hill

By Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center. www.nvic...

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ADVOCACY

A Day of Remembrance:
Vaccine Injured March on Capitol Hill

By Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center. www.nvic.org

Barbara Fischkin, left, with Lujene Clark, a parent activist and founder of No Mercury, See Fischkin's commentary about the rally on the Huffington Post blog. tinyurl.com/4kot2l Photo by Christine Heeren of Lighthouse Studios.

They came by the thousands from all over the America. On June 4, 2008, mothers and fathers with vaccine injured autistic children marched down the middle of Independence Avenue and rallied at the foot of the nation's Capitol. Some parents walked with, held or pushed their children in strollers while others, whose children were too severely brain injured to attend, carried signs and photos. They had come to witness, in one way or another, what had happened to their children after vaccination.
      The day broke hot and humid with a threat of torrential rains that would have drenched the marchers. But then, the skies cleared and the sun came out in time for the determined parents and their children to gather on the grounds of the Washington Monument and line up behind Hollywood celebrities Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy leading the march and the "Green Our Vaccines" rally that would follow.
      Although the primary message of the march was to call on government health agencies to "remove toxins" from vaccines and "adjust the vaccine schedule" by reducing the numbers of vaccines given to infants simultaneously, NVIC supporters carried signs declaring "No forced vaccination. Not in America." As NVIC co-founder Kathi Williams and I walked past the long line of families waiting to begin the march, we and our now-grown children held up the signs featuring the American flag and statue of liberty. All the way down the line, the families of vaccine injured children clapped and cheered the message of freedom we carried to honor and empower them as we passed.
      And while many at the front of the line marching down Independence Avenue chanted "Too many, too soon," those of us bringing up the back of the line chanted "Hey, hey, Ho, ho - forced vaccines have got to go!" with an African American father urging us to shout louder and louder as we approached the Department of Health and Human Services. "Let them hear you," he yelled. "Tell them what you want."
      I looked at my 30-year old son, who became multiply learning disabled after a neurological reaction to his fourth DPT shot in 1980 when he was two and a half, as he walked beside me resolutely holding up our sign and shouting in a deep voice "Forced vaccines have got to go." When he was eight years old, I remembered marching in Atlanta in front of the Centers for Disease Control in 1986 with Kathi and the young mothers of babies who had been brain injured or died after DPT vaccination in the 1980's. We were the first generation to march in protest against toxic vaccines and one-size-fits-all government vaccine policies justified by the utilitarian premise that it is ethical to throw a minority of children under the bus in service to others.
      The second generation, whose children were born in the 1990's and developed autism after vaccination, held a series of rallies on Capitol Hill sponsored by Unlocking Autism beginning in 2000 when Congressman Dan Burton initiated congressional hearings on the link between autism and vaccines. In the summer of 2005, parents protesting mercury in vaccines marched and rallied on Capitol Hill. Today, the third generation knows that vaccine damage is about more than mercury. It is also about too much vaccination: 48 doses of 14 vaccines given by age six and 69 doses of 16 vaccines federal health officials now say children must get by the time they graduate from high school.
      At the rally podium, Jim Carey delivered a remarkable address that was also a sweet love letter to his partner, Jenny McCarthy. He said "Autism is everywhere. It is on every street and in every town" and he asked the CDC "How stupid do you think we are?"
      Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and physicians such as Jay Gordon, M.D. and professor of chemistry Boyd Haley, Ph.D. called for removal of toxins from vaccines. Jenny McCarthy, who is the celebrity spokesperson for Talk About Curing Autism Now (TACA), held up the government's childhood vaccine schedule and said "Parents need to know it is called a recommended schedule, not a mandatory schedule."
      Unfortunately, that may not be true in many states in the future. Lobbyists for drug companies making vaccines, medical organizations representing doctors who give vaccines and government health officials are pressing state legislators in every state to pass legislation that would automatically turn CDC new vaccine "recommendations" into state mandatory vaccination laws.
      This kind of proposed legislation was beaten back in the California legislature by the education efforts of autism activist Rick Rollens last year. But right now, the New York State legislature is about to capitulate to the Forced Vaccination Lobby and force children in New York to use every vaccine the CDC "recommends" or face punishment, including loss of the right to get an education.
      A rally of families protesting the proposed legislation will be held in Albany, NY at the Capitol Building at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 10. For more information, go to www.mykids mychoice.com
      I will never forget marching with parents and their vaccine injured children in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2008. Just as I will never forget all the marches that have gone before during the past quarter century that parents have been asking those who operate and profit from the mass vaccination system to make vaccines and vaccine policies safer.
      Three decades of begging is long enough. Now it is time for all Americans - both those with vaccine injured children and those with healthy children - to  Stand Up and Be Counted for the human right to make informed, voluntary decisions about vaccination. Our freedom and the biological integrity of this and future generations is on the line. Without the legal right to say "no" to vaccination, the people have no economic or political leverage to protect themselves and their children from toxic vaccines and dangerous vaccine policies.
      The next march on Capitol Hill talking about vaccines should be all about freedom.
      (To view wonderful photos of the rally, go to the blog Adventures in Autism). adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/

DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW
SUBSCRIBE. . . !

. . . Read, then Forward the Schafer Autism Report.

$35 for 1 year - or free!
www.sarnet.org

• • •

Other Media Coverage

Green Our Vaccine Rally

CBS: Led by actors Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, they're marching against the medical establishment that says there's no evidence vaccines cause autism, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.
      "We want to send the message to the CDC and our federal government that vaccinations schedules are not one size fits all for all children and that each child is different," said concerned parent Michael Williamson.
      Their new battle cry: Spread out the vaccine schedule.
      "Thirty-six vaccines in the first few years of the life are too many too soon," Carrey said.
      By the time a child is two years old, the CDC recommends 14 different vaccines in as many as 28 doses. That may sound like a lot - but these shots have helped to wipe out diseases like smallpox, polio and measles, saving an estimated 33,000 lives a year, according to the CDC.
      Even so, some are asking: Why give so many vaccines over a relatively short period of time? Dr. Paul Offit helped invent one of those vaccines.
      "There is no advantage to spacing out, delaying or withholding vaccines," Offit said. "The only thing that will come of that kind of behavior will be allowing for a period of time to occur when children are at risk of vaccine preventable diseases."
      The activists are also worried about the preservatives used to keep vaccines sterile.
      Safety concerns about a mercury-based preservative called Thimerosol led to its removal from most childhood vaccines almost a decade ago. But since then autism rates have gone up, not down. Still, parents are asking lots of questions.
      "I would say that as a pediatrician I spend about 50 percent of my day talking about vaccines," said Pediatric Dr. Bruce Brovender.
      He insists his patients be vaccinated, but he's willing to compromise with parents - up to a point.
      Brovender warns them about the risks if they don't follow the schedule recommended by the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics.
      "They are 100 percent warned that by delaying or spacing them out they are not going to get the protection they need," Brovender said. "It's better to follow the academy's schedule, but it's better to get something than nothing."
      He says the marchers have forgotten the consequences of failing to vaccinate properly.
      "The child who didn't get the whooping cough vaccine and is now on a respirator and now may have permanent brain and lung damage," he said.

• • •

Washington Post: Marching for the Children

You never truly know what's real with any Hollywood couple, but when Jim Carrey travels cross-country to support Jenny McCarthy-- well, the relationship looks like a keeper. They've been together for two years, so there might be one of those ugly breakups around the corner -- but right now they seem so happy that it's hard to be snarky.
      The two came to Washington yesterday asking for changes in vaccines that some have linked to autism. McCarthy has been an activist since her 6-year-old son, Evan, was diagnosed, and the stars led a march and rally for 8,000 parents at the Capitol wearing "Green Our Vaccines" T-shirts (she paired hers with black jeans and black Converse sneakers, he wore khakis), reports our colleague Marissa Newhall.
      "Today I am not the celebrity," McCarthy told the crowd. "Today I am a mom of a child who had autism, who has a voice that is willing to shake the ground of those responsible until all of our children are safe."
      Organizers want to reduce what they say are harmful toxins in children's vaccines. Autism has increased dramatically along with the number of mandatory vaccines over the past 25 years; activists want the feds to study both vaccine requirements and ingredients.
      Carrey skipped the jokes and went straight to the heartstrings. "My daughter Jane, Jenny and Evan are the greatest things that ever happened to me, and learning how to love them has made me a man. So dads, hang in there. You need these kids as much as these kids need you."

Here are some links to media coverage regarding the event:

tinyurl.com/6orl9d

tinyurl.com/3ko5vh

abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4987758

tinyurl.com/3ko5vh

www.people.com/people/article/0,,20204466,00.html
      
www.ageofautism.com/

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Mother Who Caged Teen Son Gets 20 Years in Prison

by Zurama on 06/03/2008

A Florida mother kept her 17-year-old adopted son in a cage in her home and starved him. She was sentenced to 20 years in jail for it, the Associated ...

Vaccine-Injury Advocates Gathering in Washington for June 4 Rally

by Zurama on 06/02/2008

News Release Contacts:
For immediate release Wendy Fournier (Portsmouth, RI) 401-8...

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News Release                                       Contacts:
For immediate release                        Wendy Fournier (Portsmouth, RI) 401-835-5828
6/2/08                                                    Rita Shreffler (Nixa, MO) 401-632-6452

Vaccine-Injury Advocates Gathering in Washington for June 4 Rally
Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey to hold largest ever rally on vaccine-autism link

Washington, DC – The National Autism Association (NAA) will join nearly forty other advocacy organizations in the June 4 “Green Our Vaccines” rally planned by Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey to draw attention to the vaccine-autism link.  Organized by Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), Generation Rescue, HEAL and Moms Against Mercury, the rally is generating enthusiasm among parents and caregivers who have long believed that their children’s autism symptoms were triggered by exposure to toxic vaccine components.

“It’s time for our nation’s health agencies to put our children first and get toxins out of vaccines,” said NAA vice-president Ann Brasher, grandparent of a vaccine-injured child diagnosed with autism. “Known poisons such as mercury and aluminum should never be injected into humans, especially infants and young children.  The needlessly aggressive vaccine schedule plus toxic vaccine ingredients have wreaked havoc on the health of an entire generation.”

The rise in autism and related diagnoses over the past 20 years is alarming, with one in 150 children now diagnosed with autism.  Additionally, one in six children has a learning or behavior disorder.  A growing number of parents and medical professionals believe increased exposure to toxic vaccines and the rise in children’s health issues are not coincidental.

Following the rally, thousands of parents will visit with their legislators to relay their personal stories of vaccine-injury and ask that legislation be supported on behalf of their vaccine-injured children.  NAA encourages its members and chapter leaders to ask for support for several specific pieces of legislation including:

* The Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007, HR 2832
    * The Mercury-Free Vaccines Act of 2007, HR 881
    * The Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act of 2007, HR 1973

“This is a unique opportunity for parents to impact the direction of legislation that will make a difference in the lives of so many children that were injured simply because they followed the vaccine schedule,” commented Ms. Brasher.  “We are their voice, and we’re not going away until their injuries are recognized and appropriately addressed by our government and the medical community.”

For more information on autism, visit www.nationalautism.org.

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Two men walk in Nevada for autism awareness

by Zurama on 06/02/2008

Two men are walking their way across the country to raise awareness for autism.

Bobby Genese and his friend Robert Williams started their journey a...

Biomedical Autism Treatments

by Zurama on 06/01/2008

Did Your Doctor Tell You There Was, “Nothing You Could Do” To Help Your Child With Autism?

That Simply Isn't True.

I am among a group of physici...

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Did Your Doctor Tell You There Was, “Nothing You Could Do” To Help Your Child With Autism?

That Simply Isn't True.

I am among a group of physicians and other health care providers who understand that for many children with autism there are true underlying medical conditions at the root of their problems. Autism is not just a brain (neurodevelopmental) disorder, but rather a multi-system disorder, involving the immune, digestive, hormone, biochemical and detoxification systems in the body. The imbalance in these systems has profound effect their brain. When you treat a child’s underlying medical problems their autism symptoms may either disappear or get better.

For the past 10 years, I have treated hundreds of children in my private practice. Following my biomedical treatment program, many parents of these children have seen great success and have, “brought their children back” from autism. Others have seen their children improve in their health, behavior and quality of life – which ultimately translates into a happier and healthier family.
http://www.autismactionplan.com/

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Gastrointestinal Pathology in Autism: Description and Treatment

by Zurama on 05/31/2008

This paper adapted from a conference presentation, describes various lesions found in the gastrointestinal tracts of children with autism spectrum dis...

Thoughtful House Annual-Report-2007

by Zurama on 05/31/2008

Thoughtful House Annual-Report-2007
http://thoughtfulhouse.org/annual-report-2007.pdf...

Thoughtful House Newsletter-April/2008

by Zurama on 05/31/2008

Letter from Dr. Wakefield,
Thoughtful House Library,
Read more here,
http://thoughtfulhouse.org/newsletters/04-2008.pdf...

Share the Cause

by Zurama on 05/31/2008

Natural Cellular Defense with active Liquid Zeolite is a non-toxic mineral proven to remove heavy metals, balance pH and it may even prevent and/or cu...

The IEP Meeting

by Zurama on 05/31/2008

The School District Must Find an Appropriate Program for Your Child or Create One.

Once your child qualifies for special education, the process bec...

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What is a Parent Attachment and How Do You Make One?

by Zurama on 05/31/2008

Many times, parents do not intend to sign the papers at the IEP meeting, but everything looks acceptable and they sign. Then, that night, they see som...

A Few Sample Goals and Objectives from Dave Sherman's Book Autism:

by Zurama on 05/31/2008

A Few Sample Goals and Objectives from Dave Sherman's Book Autism: Asserting Your Child's Rights to a Special Education coming out Fall of 2006.

Sa...

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Assertiveness and Effective Parent Advocacy

by Zurama on 05/29/2008

This is a simple, but helpful advice.

Advocacy helps you get services for all special education children............
http://www.autismeducation.ne...

Advocating for your Child

by Zurama on 05/29/2008

Another great site I found while preparing for Mickie's IEP on Monday.

As the parent of a child with a disability, you have two goals:
To ensure t...

Wrightslaw Yellow Pages For Kids with Disabilities

by Zurama on 05/29/2008

I found this while doing a search on google.
Find educational consultants, psychologists, educational diagnosticians, health care providers, academic...

Doctors Seek Earlier Diagnosis for Autism

by Zurama on 05/29/2008

This was delivered by the Shafer report.

Doctors Seek Earlier Diagnosis for Autism

Seattle -- When her toddler son seemed not to notice a door s...

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This was delivered by the Shafer report.

Doctors Seek Earlier Diagnosis for Autism

Seattle -- When her toddler son seemed not to notice a door slamming nearby during his checkup, Jo James thought nothing of it. Her husband, a Microsoft manager, also has an uncanny ability to block out his surroundings.
      A check of Ben's hearing after a nurse's prompt found nothing amiss. It wasn't until two years and one perceptive Montessori teacher later that his parents finally learned the cause of Ben's obliviousness: autism.
      "He didn't mix terribly well socially," Jo James, of Sammamish, Wash., recalled ruefully. "But then, what 2-year-old boy does?"
      Autism typically isn't diagnosed until after age 2. Yet it may be detectable even in infancy _ before a baby is old enough to display telltale traits such as social ineptitude and compulsive preoccupations. Pioneering research at the University of Washington during the 1990s, for example, found that trained observers can spot, with remarkable accuracy, kids who were later diagnosed with autism by viewing videos of their first birthdays.
      Now University of Washington researchers are aiming to decipher those early clues in hopes of short-circuiting autism before it becomes full-blown.
      In January, they began an $11.3 million trial to identify latent signs of autism in infants for intensive behavioral therapy. It is the nation's first attempt to test a hypothesis that early intervention may actually prevent autism in high-risk infants by rewiring their brains.
      "We know the brain has a lot of potential to respond" to the right stimulation, said Sara Webb, a research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the principal investigator for the study at University of Washington Autism Center.
      The goal is "to teach parents to give the child that missing piece that he's not getting on his own."

Skeptical Parents
      The study's very premise _ that autism may not be destiny _ has stirred unease and skepticism among some parents. They also fret that it may rekindle the discredited notion that autism is triggered by detached and unloving mothers.
      "I object to the message that if parents don't rush out like headless chickens before the child is X age, they've lost them," said Lisa Rudy, a mother and autism advocate from Falmouth, Mass.
      The implication is that "if only the mother spent more time bonding with the infant, that child will never develop autism," Rudy added.
      But University of Washington researchers say they're not laying any blame on parenting. The goal is akin to averting diabetes through vigilance in a person with a family history of the disease, said Annette Estes, associate director of the Autism Center and a study investigator.
      "If you are at risk for diabetes, you look for signs," Estes said. With autism, the genetic "risk factors are present at birth. What we are doing is heightening the parents' awareness."
      Though some parents report concerns early on, tiny babies by definition don't have autism. That's because they can't manifest such diagnostic symptoms as language deficits and repetitive rituals.
      Yet researchers suspect that babies exhibit subtle clues that precede overt symptoms. For instance, healthy babies react visibly to changes in a person's expression, such as switching from cooing to a sad face. A baby who doesn't seem to register the change may warrant watching, Estes said.
      "At 6 months, a baby has a limited repertoire of signs" of autism, she said. "The question is `What are the real early signs?'"

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Neurotoxic effects of postnatal thimerosal are mouse strain dependent

by Zurama on 05/29/2008

Neuronal glutamate transporter immunoreactivity patterns are abnormal in the hippocampi of thimerosal-treated SJL mice. Coronal sections of hippocampu...

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VSL#3 a Powerful Probiotic

by Zurama on 05/29/2008

Someone on another list told me about
VSL#3® - The probiotic medical food for the dietary management of patients with Ulcerative Colitis, Irritable ...

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Someone on another list told me about 
VSL#3® - The probiotic medical food for the dietary management of patients with Ulcerative Colitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), or an Ileal Pouch.

VSL#3 Lactic Acid Bacteria Probiotic

Currently on backorder

Buy Six Boxes or more to receive FREE SHIPPING (Continental US only)
Use code VSLFREE

Contains 10 packets.
COMPOSITION PER PACKET OF VSL#3

Lactic Acid Bacteria: - 450 billion/packet

Streptococcus thermophilus
Bifidobacterium breve
Bifidobacterium longum
Bifidobacterium infantis
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus bulgaricus

Other Ingredient contained in VSL3: Corn Starch

Instructions for Use of Probiotic VSL#3
VSL#3 probiotics can be mixed in yogurt, ice cream, apple sauce or any other cold food or non-carbonated drink. Stir contents and ingest immediately.
VSL#3 should not be mixed or taken with hot foods or hot drinks because the high heat inactivate the lactic acid bacteria.

VSL#3 is different from other lactic acid bacteria preparations in:
- number of bacteria
- number and type of strains
- clinically proven efficacy

Suggested Use of VSL#3:
1-4 packets daily
Open Packet of VSL3 and stir contents into yogurt, apple sauce or any other cold food or non-carbonated drink.
Packets should be refrigerated (39-46 degress F 4-8 degress C).
If unopened and stored under refrigeration, the probiotic formula is guaranteed through "best if used by" date.
However, VSL#3 probiotic may be stored at room temperature for up to a WEEK without adversely affecting potency of the lactic acid bacteria.

VSL#3 is a high potency friendly bacteria probiotic designed to produce optimal quantities and types of protective bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.
Each dose of VSL#3 contains 450 billion protective probiotic beneficial bacteria.

The live lactic acid bacteria in VSL3 Probiotic have been cultivated, freeze-dried and mixed in high concentration. VSL#3 is the probiotic that has been proven in clinical studies to be effective in serious gastrointestinal disorders, particularly the management and prevention of Pouchitis, which is an inflammation of the small bowel reservoir or pouch, that is the most frequent colon removal and pouch creation surgery for ulcerative colitis. 8 strains of friendly bacteria have been purposefully selected, carefully cultivated and mixed proportionally to obtain the proven experimental and clinical efficacy of VSL#3.

VSL#3 used successfully for Ulcerative Colitis

According to research presented by Richard Fedorak, MD at Digestive Disease Week 2003 in Orlando FL, VSL#3 Probiotic therapy can be effective for treating patients with ulcerative colitis.

"Many ulcerative colitis patients do not respond to conventional treatments and side effects of these medications can be troublesome," Dr. Fedorak said. "These results are meaningful because they demonstrate that adding a probiotic with multiple strains and a high concentration of bacteria to the treatment regimen may have the potential to stop this disease in its tracks and avoid any treatment-related side effects."

In the multicenter, open-label study, 30 patients from Canada, United States, and Italy with a recent flare-up of mild to moderate ulcerative colitis that did not respond to conventional treatment were given four packets daily of the probiotic preparation of friendly bacteria VSL#3 (equivalent to 3,600 billion good bacteria) for 6 weeks. Eligible patients also remained on steady doses of standard therapies including mesalamine, oral corticosteroids, and azathioprine.

The primary end point of remission was determined using the Ulcerative Colitis Clinical Score (UCCS), and was observed in 63% of patients. An additional 23% had an improvement in symptoms, for a combined remission/response rate of 86%. Four patients did not respond to the treatment, with one patient demonstrating worsened disease activity.

No negative biochemical or clinical effects were observed by adding the therapy.

Dr. Fedorak said results from the study confirm earlier findings that showed VSL#3 is effective in the management of gastrointestinal disorders such as pouchitis, a major complication following a common surgical procedure in patients with ulcerative colitis.

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Do vaccines cause autism?

by Zurama on 05/28/2008

Article by Dr. Wakefield in the "Austin American-Statesman"

Wakefield: Advances in medical science demand ongoing scrutiny
Dr. Andrew J. Wakefield...

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Article by Dr. Wakefield in the "Austin American-Statesman"

Wakefield: Advances in medical science demand ongoing scrutiny
Dr. Andrew J. Wakefield, LOCAL CONTRIBUTOR
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Do vaccines cause autism?

According to the former head of the National Institutes of Health, the question remains unanswered.

George Bernard Shaw once said that science never solves a problem without creating ten more. For every advance in medical science, in particular for vaccines given to healthy children, there must be ongoing scrutiny to look for those inevitable problems. This is a duty of modern science.

However, in a recent interview on CBS News, Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health and member of the Institute of Medicine, acknowledged that public health officials have failed to fulfill that duty when it comes to the problem of autism.

Regarding the possibility that vaccines might contribute to autism, Dr. Healy acknowledged that many of her colleagues "don't want to pursue a hypothesis because that hypothesis could be damaging to the public health community at large by scaring people." Dr. Healy said that the government has been too quick to dismiss the concerns of these families without studying affected children.

Many others share this concern. Along with the many universities and research institutions that have published research investigating the safety of vaccines, she now joins all three presidential hopefuls, as well as many hundreds of thousands of parents worldwide, in insisting on an honest examination of this theory.

Faced with an epidemic of developmental disorders in children and increasing evidence of a link with childhood vaccines, Dr. Healy reiterated the position taken by parents and doctors for many years: that there may be a subset of children who, for genetic or other reasons, are susceptible to developing autism following vaccination.

Like many others, Dr. Healy had initially dismissed the vaccine-autism link based on a 'superficial' understanding of the evidence gleaned from newspapers. However, as she looked deeper into the science, she realized that no study exists that demonstrates that our current recommended vaccine schedule is safe. She supports the kinds of studies that doctors and scientists at Thoughtful House Center for Children have advocated from the outset – meticulous investigations of affected children, and detailed testing of the childhood vaccine schedule in an appropriate animal model. She also endorsed strategies such as modifying the vaccine schedule in the vulnerable children to reduce the risk of complications, should this subset of children be identified.

Amazingly, animal safety testing has been applied to individual vaccines, but it has never been used to assess the real-world risks—that is, the cumulative effect of what is now as many as 38 vaccines in the recommended schedule before the age of 5 years.

Far too often doctors and researchers have been unfairly criticized for asking the very questions Dr. Healy is articulating. We and others in the autism community hope that Dr. Healy's revelation will go far deeper than the expression of an individual's opinion in a matter of public debate. It could be the tipping point for many in the public health community who have remained silent. We do not yet have the scientific answers, but as Dr. Healy confirms, we should not live in fear of asking the right questions.

The stakes are too high. If, after adequate studies, no link is found, then public confidence will be restored and the debate will be put to rest. If a link is established, then we can focus on identifying the subset of children that are vulnerable and be able to save them. It is the responsibility of the public health community and physicians to develop a safe vaccination schedule that protects everyone, without exception.

Andrew J. Wakefield is executive director of Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin.

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~Under Our Skin~

by Zurama on 05/23/2008

A dramatic tale of microbes, medicine and money, this eye-opening film investigates the untold story of Lyme disease, an emerging epidemic larger than...

Autism to Alzheimer's

by Zurama on 05/15/2008

Autism to Alzheimer's
A fever of the mind no more

Autism to Alzheimer'sBy James Ottar Grundvig

Is there a link between the explosion of the aut...

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Autism to Alzheimer's
A fever of the mind no more

Autism to Alzheimer'sBy James Ottar Grundvig

Is there a link between the explosion of the autism epidemic and the sharp increase in the number of elderly contracting Alzheimer's disease?
 
For the past few years, I have asked myself that question whenever I took my 8-year-old son, Fridrik, who was diagnosed in 2003 with Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), an increasingly common form of autism, to his physician, Dr. Henry Sobo, in Stamford, Conn.
 
That's because Dr. Sobo, an internist who tailors individual programs for patients by using homeopathic therapy, had built his reputation on treating neurological disorders, from children with ADHD to adults with Parkinson's disease. Although autism was new to him, it was déjà vu.
 
Do All Roads Point to Toxicity of the Brain?
 
Since doing research into the cause of Fridrik's neurological disorder, I have come to an understanding about both diseases. Alzheimer's, which appears in adults older than 65 years, is the incremental degradation of the brain. Autism is the acute poisoning of the brain in a growing subpopulation of children.
 
Besides unique genetic flaws in each, the common thread between an adult with Alzheimer's and a baby at the onset of the regressive form of autism is myelin, the insulation of the brain's wiring.
 
Myelin, or the membrane blanket that protects the brain circuitry, doesn't completely form and wrap the brain in an infant until 18 months old. For the adult, the unwrapping of the protective sheath takes place at mid-age, or about 50. Thus, the brain is vulnerable to toxins during its development and after its primary use, due to the absence of myelin.
 
Little of this biological fact seems to filter back to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Maybe this will change based on a new study on autism and a new treatment for Alzheimer's, both of which are currently undergoing more testing, both of which point to the same underlying root cause, with one maybe helping the treatment of the other, and with autism perhaps explaining the therapy for Alzheimer's.
 
Fever Reduces Symptoms of Autism
 
Last December, Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, announced with great fanfare that fever in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) reduced or even eliminated the symptoms of autistic behavior not only during a fever, but also up to a week after it subsided. Dr. Andrew Zimmermann, whose team ran the study for the child neurological institute, which was founded in 1937 to study and treat kids with cerebral palsy, must have wondered: What caused this?
 
When I first heard the news, it confirmed to me what I always suspected about autism: Heavy metals toxicity is the reason behind the fever-induced, temporary relief of autistic symptoms in children of the autism spectrum.
To me, having worked in the construction industry more than 25 years and having studied the behavior of material properties in college, the fever angle made sense. The first point was due to its simplicity-one event. One global change to the brain explaining the why, how, and what of a very complex neurological disorder, for which modern medicine has failed to find the cause since the first case was diagnosed during World War II.
 
Imagine heavy metals on the micro scale embedding tiny specs and flakes in certain regions of the pre-myelin-protected brain, and the child being unable to excrete those particles that most children can. The particles lodge themselves in, around, and between the nodes and nerve endings that make up the neural network, and interrupt the brain's electrical signals.
As more metals accumulate, they block more signals and break down the brain cells' ability to process key functions-like a virus-infected computer. For ASD kids like my son that means impairing their ability to speak, rendering fine-motor skills of their fingers useless, flattening arched feet, and amplifying the auditory reception of their ears to the point of pain.
 
How Could a Fever Help a Child Suffering From Autism?
 
With heavy metals planted at the exact nodes in the brain where the damage occurred, the fever would heat up the metal particles, and they in turn would bridge the interrupted break points in the neural network.
In other words, metals, being highly conductive of both heat and electricity, would complete what has not been working in ASD (autism spectrum disorder) kids since the first year of their lives. Okay. But then what would cause the temporary connections of the neural network to continue to work for a week after the fever had dissipated?
 
Again, the answer is heavy metals. Metals consist of a different material makeup than brain tissue and blood. They would retain the heat produced by a fever longer, thus keeping the electrical pulses working well after the fever was gone. But once the heat of the metals matched the body temperature of the brain, the temporary, bridged connections would no longer work, and the full-blown symptoms of autism would return.
The week that I heard the news, I contacted Elise Babbitt-Welker, the communications manager at Kennedy Krieger Institute. I told her what I believed was the answer to the riddle.
 
She said that the Institute had received many inquiries to its study and that she would pass on my "heavy metals angle" to Dr. Zimmermann's team of scientists.
 
In an e-mail, Ms. Babbitt-Welker wrote: "This phenomenon has been widely reported on by parents, clinicians and researchers alike, but this most recent research was the first to study the association using a controlled scientific methodology. That said, [with it] being a study with only 30 children, he and his fellow researchers know that more research is needed to confirm the findings."
 
The Alzheimer's Hat
 
With Dr. Zimmermann applying for grants to further research the findings, we can only wonder how one would replicate a fever in a child without spiking the core body temperature.
 
Then, in a stroke of timing, on Jan. 28-seven weeks after the fever study had made news-an answer to that question arrived. On ABC News, a segment on Alzheimer's disease caught my eye. Dr. Gordon Dougal, along with a team of researchers at the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom, showed the "Alzheimer's Hat," which looked like a cross between a football and motorcycle helmet.
 
In a preliminary testing phase, the Hat, which would be worn 10 minutes per day by an Alzheimer's patient like Dr. Dougal's father, pulses the brain with infrared beams-the claim being that the Hat relieved memory-loss and speech-impaired symptoms in his father.
 
The doctor also tested the Hat's infrared technology on 30 lab rats, "20 of which were deemed to be experiencing middle-aged mental decline," for which he stated the "rays improved the memory functions of these rats to that of young rats."
 
Many entrenched American doctors and scientists scoffed at and belittled treating the brain with infrared; they should withhold judgment until the findings from both the Kennedy Krieger fever study has run its course, while Dr. Dougal confirms the Alzheimer's Hat in a wider study. Since the University of Sunderland has an autism department, perhaps the autism-fever study and the Alzheimer's infrared treatment could start to share information.
 
With the bulk of the autism epidemic related to some form of heavy metals toxicity, I believe it's about time that the heat angle as a form of treatment in ASD kids receives the funds to find out whether the jump-start in the damaged neural network of the brain can be produced by heat-whether it's the body's own temperature or artificial as in infrared.

http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/Autism%20to%20Alzheimer's.asp

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The Parents Have Seen What They’ve Seen.......

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

It is not in dispute that vaccines have saved millions of lives. The MMR/autism parents are not anti-vaccination in principle. These parents all took ...

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It is not in dispute that vaccines have saved millions of lives. The MMR/autism parents are not anti-vaccination in principle. These parents all took children to be vaccinated. We all recognise the need to protect children from diseases.

But saving lives from diseases doesn’t justify ruining significant numbers of lives from unrecognised and unmonitored vaccine damage.

It is also felt by many parents that the mantra "the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks" has become increasingly skewed by

(a) occasionally overstating the dangers of diseases, citing experience of diseases from poor and underdeveloped countries, or UK experiences from half a century ago, or pointing to recent deaths (e.g. Ireland) where other factors played a major part, or

(b) grossly underplaying or dismissing outright any risks from vaccination. This latter has been aided by the extremely poor monitoring of adverse outcomes, and by the authorities strenuously refusing to accept that an adverse outcome was the result of a vaccine.

All affected parents are in the privileged position of having watched their child degenerate. It is a powerful first-hand experience. Comparing notes results in finding that other parents have undergone extremely similar experiences. Unfortunately, such experiences are not part of a scientifically-controlled study, so are routinely dismissed by the Department of Health as anecdotal.

Usually there appears to be a very gradual degeneration over many weeks and months, not an acute event, more akin to (eg) the onset of cancer than the rare acute reactions to vaccines seen in the past.

But all the attention of the past upon possible adverse reactions to vaccines has focussed upon acute near-immediate events.

The onset of gut/bowel problems and hyperactivity have accompanied the onset of autism. Some link between them is therefore likely, even without detailed research.

An anecdote is an anecdote. A consistent pattern of anecdotes is much more powerful. What we have is a consistent detailed pattern of reports from parents. The importance of this pattern has been ignored by the Department of Health.

http://www.whale.to/a/thrower.html#7:%20The%20Parents%20Have%20Seen%20What%20They%E2%80%99ve%20Seen.......

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The New Syndrome

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

This is a summary of the new syndrome of autistic enterocolitis:

In a 200-strong cohort of children examined through ileocolonoscopy at the Royal F...

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This is a summary of the new syndrome of autistic enterocolitis:

In a 200-strong cohort of children examined through ileocolonoscopy at the Royal Free Hospital, London, an almost 100% incidence of ileal-lymphoid nodular hyperplasia has been found. This condition manifests itself as swollen lumps throughout the intestinal tissue of autistic children. The condition is very rare in non-autistic children.

The condition is believed to have developed in each case in the period following MMR immunisation

Because of its swollen and hyperplasic condition, undigested toxins , having not been stopped by either the intestine or the liver (which can also be damaged) may then be able to attack the central nervous system. The evidence for the complete pathway of damage is uncertain at present, due to lack of research.

An alternative pathway of damage may be that the virus(es) in the vaccine, or other constituents of the vaccine, may be inflicting the actual damage, or interfering with the brain’s further development by damaging myelinisation. Comprehensive studies to determine this have also yet to be undertaken.

It is also possible that thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative that has been routinely used in a number of vaccines, may have played a role. Again, adequate research has not yet been done.

Damage may in the event be via a combination of these pathways.

http://www.whale.to/a/thrower.html#2:%20The%20New%20Syndrome

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What Is Acquired Autism/Autistic Enterocolitis?

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

What Is Acquired Autism/Autistic Enterocolitis?

Autism is not an illness in itself, so much as a manifestation of a dysfunction in certain parts of...

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What Is Acquired Autism/Autistic Enterocolitis?

Autism is not an illness in itself, so much as a manifestation of a dysfunction in certain parts of the central nervous system, particularly affecting language, cognitive and intellectual development and the ability to relate to others.

The "classic" form of autism was first described by Dr. Leo Kanner. These children were different from normally-developing children from birth.

However, a very different form of autism has now begun to predominate. In this, children develop normally, passing all their developmental milestones, and then later acquire an autistic-like condition. They lose their previously-demonstrated speech, learned behaviour and social skills. In effect, they dissolve into a state of mental impairment, of varying severity. Often the damage is severe or very severe, and usually the damage is permanent.

This late onset of autism typically follows the receipt of MMR vaccination. It does not necessarily occur immediately afterwards - onset of autism is not in any case an "acute" reaction - and there are now grounds for believing that onset following vaccination may be very gradual indeed, spread over at least many weeks, more probably several or many months, or even in some cases several years.

Crucially, the onset of this acquired form of autism is accompanied by other visible manifestations of problems. These include bright red ears and dark rings under the eyes after certain foods, gluten and casein intolerances, hyperactivity, night sweating and loss of temperature control, and chronically poor sleep patterns.

The arrival of these problems and the degeneration of the child into autism as a "package" strongly suggests that they are interconnected.

The timing of onset following vaccination is described by the UK Department of Health as a coincidence. Their argument is that it is "noticed" around this time, because this is a time when child development is most rapid, and any failure most noticeable.

However, very significantly, much older children have also degenerated into autism after MMR. If degeneration in affected children always follows immunisation with MMR or measles-containing vaccine, regardless of the age of the child, then it implies that the link is not coincidental.

Also, no cases are known, at least to campaigning parents, of any children who have become autistic just before MMR.

Also, it is not simply a failure to develop. The children have developed normally, then inexplicably acquired their autistic state. This protracted event has been directly observed by parents and relatives, and in many cases recorded on photographs and video footage.

No credible alternative explanation for why a previously-healthy child should become severely autistic has been put forward. The unheralded acquisition of a state of severe disability, in a substantial number of hitherto-healthy children, has to have a significant causal trigger.

Undoubtedly there are other factors involved, pointing to a predisposition of certain children to be vulnerable to damage, of varying severity. Research should be trying to pinpoint those factors, but is not. It is being held up by the refusal of the medical establishment in the UK to recognise the problem, or even to recognise the increase in autism.

Also coinciding with the late onset of autism in many of the children (or other damage - autism is not the only manifestation of there being a problem), has come gastrointestinal problems such as alternating bouts of diarrhoea and constipation, chronic abdominal pains and bloating.

Examination of children has identified a novel form of inflammatory bowel disease, ileal-lymphoid nodular hyperplasia. This has emerged after ileocolonoscopy of affected children and analysis of samples. This research has not only come from the Royal Free Hospital, London, but also from other centres in the US.

The simultaneous onset of these problems after a normal early development suggests that it is highly likely that these other elements are linked into the biological explanatory sequence of autism, notably through the pathway of gut damage and either the penetration of the blood-brain barrier or the triggering of some other process, such as serious myelin damage (in basic terms, the myelin sheath is the "insulation" around the neurons or "wires" of the brain).

http://www.whale.to/a/thrower.html#1:%20What%20Is%20Acquired%20Autism/Autistic%20Enterocolitis?

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Arrowsmith School

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Great Video. The Arrowsmith Program is founded on neuroscientific research and over 25 years of experience demonstrating that it is possible for stude...

Finding a Clinician using a Defeat Autism Now! approach: Questions to Ask

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Here is a list of questions that parents may want to use when talking to other parents about practitioners or interviewing a clinician using a Defeat ...

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Here is a list of questions that parents may want to use when talking to other parents about practitioners or interviewing a clinician using a Defeat Autism Now! approach  It is important to realize that not all clinicians listed on the ARI Web page have the same background, training or areas of expertise. To help parents select a practitioner who best fits their needs and the needs of their child, several experienced parents formulated the following list of questions. While interviewing a clinician you may not need or want to use all of these questions. But we hope they help you in your pursuit to find the best practitioner for you and your child.

1. What led you to become a clinician using a Defeat Autism Now! approach?

2. Are your patients required to use special diets such as GF/CF, SCD, low-oxalate, etc.? Why?

3. When was your last Defeat Autism Now! Conference? Have you also attended the physician’s training? How do you stay current with emerging Defeat Autism Now! treatments?

4. Approximately how many individuals with autism have you treated? What age range?

5. How do you handle blood draws and other unique lab tests? My child is combative; do you have advice for violent patients?

6. In the event we have a biomedical-related emergency, how will I contact you?

7. Do you share an e-mail address, cell phone, etc. with your patients?

8. Are you willing to offer phone consultation for distant patients? What are the costs?

9. Can you collaborate with other specialists we will be dealing with (Gastrointestinal, etc)? Are you willing to collaborate on treatment and testing with my child’s pediatrician if he/she is receptive?

10. Will you provide a clear plan for supplements and where to purchase them?

11. I am interested in working with a doctor who chelates when it is warranted. Do you test autistic patients for heavy metals and provide chelation treatments when necessary?

12. Do you take insurance? If not, can you provide organized, coded insurance forms?

13. Can you recommend ways to connect with other parents pursuing Defeat Autism Now! treatments?

14. Do you speak any other languages?

15. Can you provide a list of all services your office provides on-site? Examples: HBOT, infrared sauna, Secretin IVs, IVIG, Anti-viral therapies, nutritional counseling, blood draws, etc.

16. Do you support active Defeat Autism Now! parents by networking, collaborating, speaking at conferences, etc.

17. What are the primary medical specialties in which you were originally trained (i.e. pediatrics, family medicine)? What is now the primary focus of your practice? If you are not an MD or DO, in what field(s) are you licensed?

18. How long do you spend face-to-face in an initial appointment?

19. Do you sell proprietary nutritional supplements or have a sales agreement with supplement suppliers? Do you sell supplements at cost?

20. Do you bill for laboratory tests done by commercial laboratories? How do you break down the fees?

21. Do you have a waiting list? How long is it?

http://www.autism.com/dan/ques2ask.htm

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Neuroscience for Kids

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Nutrient Effects on the Nervous System

Vitamin A (Retinol)Deficiecy

Vision problems such as night blindness (nyctalopia). Night blindness is th...

Yeast, fungal, viral, parasite Symptoms and treatment

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Yeast Symptoms
Giggly, inappropriate laughing
Foggy, spacey
Change in bowel movements (foul/yeasty smelling stools), gas, and
...

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Yeast Symptoms
       Giggly, inappropriate laughing
       Foggy, spacey
       Change in bowel movements (foul/yeasty smelling stools), gas, and
       bloated belly
       Yeasty rash/diaper rash, white coating on tongue, red ring around
       the anus, ringworm, cradle cap
       Bed wetting or accidents
       Sleep disturbance or Night waking
       Hyperactivity, hand flapping, toe walking
       Sugar craving
Yeast signs and tests
       Stool mycology and sensitivities
       Urine OAT (organic acid test)
                 elevated arabinose
                    elevated tartaric acid
Treatment
       Start a potent Probiotic
       Digestive Enzymes
       Clean up the diet
               Casein/Gluten free
               Limit sugar
               Consider SCD and/or Low oxalate
       Support the gut and reduce inflammation
Vitamins/supplements, herbs, medications
       Antifungals
       Drugs
•       Nystatin, Ampho B
•       Fluconazole
•       Itraconazole
•       Ketoconazole
       Herbals
•       Berberine
•       Grapefruit Seed Extract
•       Oil of Oregano, Pau d'Arco
•       Garlic, Samento
       Homeopathy
Look out for 'die off'
       Loose stools, diarrhea
       Behavior, irritability
       Head aches, head bangingn
       Fatigue
       Sleep disturbance
       Rashes

Bacteria
       Loose stools, diarrhea
       Behavior, irritability
       Head aches, head banging
       Fatigue
       Sleep disturbance
       Rashes
Strep symptoms
       Recurrent Strep infections or bacterial infections
       OCD, rituals
       Verbal stimming, repetitive, echolalia
       Hyperactive, ADD/ADHD
       Irritability, mood changes, tantrums
       Motor tics or involuntary movements
Strep signs and tests
       Stool culture
       OAT, high hippuric acid indicates bacterial overgrowth
       Testing to rule out PANDAS
       Antistreptolysin titer (ASO titer), this rises 3-6 weeks after a
strep infection
       AntiDNase B Ab titer, this rises 6-8 weeks after a strep infection
PANDAS
       Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with
       Streptococcal Infections
Autoimmune theory
       When the child is exposed to strep, the immune system builds
        antibodies against strep.  These antibodies can cross react with areas
        in the brain, such as the basal ganglia, rather than the strep.
New clues: July 2006 NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health)
       Research suggests that an antibody against strep bacteria sometimes
       mistakenly acts on brain enzymes, disrupting communication between
       neurons and causing OCD and related tics disorders in children.
Other effects of Strep
           TNF  (Pro inflammatory)
       Strep antibodies induces activity of NMDA
Treatment options for Strep
       Probiotics
       Alkalization
       Xylitol
       Antibacterial Herbs
•       Golden seal
•       Oregon grape root
•       Neem
       Homeopathy
       Antibacterial medications
       Immune modulators
•       Oral immunoglobins
•       Transfer factors
•       Colostrum
•       Glycan
Treatment for PANDAS
       Treatmentn for OCD and Tics disorders
       IVIG (IV immunogluobins)
       Plasma exchange or plasmapheresis
       Studies are inconclusive on whether these more aggressive treatment
       are beneficial
Clostridia
       This is a pathogenic anaerobic bacteria.
       Clostridia can be found associated with an elevated HPHPA/DHPPA on
        the urine OAT
        Clostridia produce toxins and enzymes  that create severe gut
        inflammation and produce watery diarrhea

Clostridia issues
Symptoms
•       Aggressive
•       Temper
•       Agitation
•       Irritable
•       Very foul stools
•       Mucus in stools
•       Severe diarrhea following  antibiotic use

•       Probiotics, High Potency single strain
•       Sacchyromyces Boulardii
•       Antibiotics
       Vancomycin
       Metronidazole (Flagyl)
•       Immune modulators
•       Homeopathics
•       HBOT

Viral symptoms
       Visual and Cognitive processing difficulties
       Poor eye contact
       Immune dysregulation: Never sick or frequently sick
       Poor muscle tone and fatigue
       Seizures
       Stereotypical Behavior
       Rashes, cold sores, warts
       Fatigue
       History of regression after MMR vaccine or other live virus
Viral signs
       Elevated viral titers
       Elevated lymphocytes
       Low WBC
       Low natural killer cells
       Upregulation of TNF Alpha
Testing for viruses
       Quantitative AB titers: CMV, EBV, HHV6 Measles, Mumps, Rubella,
Polio, Varicella Zoster, HepB-surface antibody, Tetanus
       Titers are a guide
       Autism is a regulatory problem both internal and external
       Our practice and what we see
Treatment options for viruses
       Infra Red Sauna
       Herbs
       Natural Remedies
       Homeopathic Remedies
       Antiviral medications
       Essential Oils
       HBOT
Viral issues
Treatment Options
•       Antiviral Agents
       Olive Leaf Extract, Elderberry
       Caprylic Acid
       High Dose Vitamin A
•       Antiviral Drugs
       Acyclovir
       Valacyclovir
      n Famvir
       Imunovir
•       Immune Support
       Low Dosen Naltrexone
       Red. Glutathione
       Zinc
       Immune Modulators
Side effects of treatment
       Yeast flare up
       Viral "die off"
       Low grade fever
       Rash
       Poor sleep
       Hypermobility
Parasites
       Discomfort and bloating of stomach
       Itchy buttocks, night waking, fecal smearing
       Diarrhea and constipation
       Teeth grinding
       Mal absorption of nutrients, pica, insatiable appetite
       Allergies
       Behavior changes and/or aggression, worse at full moon
•       Picking
•       Biting
•       Restlessness
Types of parasites
       Protozoa: Amoebas, Giardia
       Nematodes: Round worms, Pinworms, Hookworms
       Cestodes: Tapeworms
       Trematodes: Flukes
Testing for parasites
       Comprehensive Stool and Parasitology
       Very Difficult to find on stool test
       Scotch tape test sometimes done in the early morning
       Review behaviors around various times of the month
       Moon cycles
Treatments for parasites
       Probiotics
       Herbs
       Wormwood
       Black walnut
       Pumpkin seeds
       Clove
       Coconut oil
       Homeopathy
       Antiparasitic medications
       Metronidazole
       Paromomycin

They (yeast, bacteria, viral or parasites)don't go down without a fight!!

Potential reactions when eliminating these pathogens
       Symptoms
•       Irritability, aggression, behavioral issues
•       Increased stimming, hyperactivity, sleeplessness
•       Skin rash, diaper rash, fever
       Possible Causes
•       Side effect of supplement or allergy to drug
•       Yeast or Bacterial Flare-up (Balancing act)
•       Detox Reaction = Too rapid of an effect leading to vitamin or
mineral deficiency, oxidative stress, liver or kidney stress
•       Die off = Rapid death of gut bugs, leading to excess release of
toxins and subsequent liver or kidney stress
Treatment approach
•       Rate severity, if severe stop supplement, notify physician
•       Treat with Activated charcoal/Bentonite clay and/or Alka Seltzer
Gold, homeopathic remedy, if helpful probably die off
•       Rule out dysbiosis, treat accordingly
•       Check ammonia level
•       Add Liver Support
       Milk thistle, artichoke extract, dandelion root
       Give at bedtime

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An Introduction to Possible Biomedical Causes and Treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorders

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Gastrointestinal abnormalities, immune dysfunctions, detoxification irregularities, and nutritional deficiencies or imbalances may cause some of the s...

Understanding Autism by Dr. Wakefield

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

This really caught my eye! This little boy reminds me of Mikcie, even though he is doing better. His little body looks like a severe case of Inflamato...

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This really caught my eye! This little boy reminds me of Mikcie, even though he is doing better. His little body looks like a severe case of Inflamatory Bowl Disease...........

By Dr. Wakefield.

Here's a little boy I've been seeing in England. Here he is on the left at the age of one, perfectly happy and healthy, and on the right at the age of six. He looks like a child from a famine zone in East Africa.

He has no muscle mass at all, he has a hugely distended abdomen--this child has an underlying gastrointestinal disease until proven otherwise. And yet pediatric gastroenterologists to whom this child was referred would not see him on the basis that his condition was too controversial. There is nothing controversial about this child.

The person who is under investigation in this family is not the child, but the mother, for starving her child. He has two brothers and a sister (behind him in this picture), and they belie that contention because they are perfectly well-nourished. This is the awkward position in which medicine has placed itself—practitioners fail to treat children because of the prevailing dogma, choosing to blame the parents for the disease instead.......
read more here:

http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/0405-conf-awakefield.htm

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Conference Presentations: Bryan Jepson, MD

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

For a long time, everything went as planned. In 1998 my second son Aaron was born. You can see in his toddler pictures that he was very well connected...

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For a long time, everything went as planned. In 1998 my second son Aaron was born. You can see in his toddler pictures that he was very well connected, very happy, and he had great eye contact. He was a normally developing kid. We had no reason to suspect that there was anything wrong with him. In fact, my older son had more of the characteristics we associate with autism. He was very colicky and very sensitive to sound and light when he was a baby. So, Aaron was a real pleasure. In a picture of Aaron after his third birthday, you can see that he was a different child.

Even though we knew he was autistic before we brought him in for an official diagnosis, we weren't remotely prepared for what the psychiatrist told us. He said, "Your son meets ten out of the twelve criteria for full-blown autism. His prognosis is very poor. He's likely to be institutionalized. You can put him in our school and we'll try to teach him some skills, but it's unlikely that he's ever going to achieve any kind of functional level." Furthermore, he said, "Don't waste your time looking at alternative treatments like diet and vitamins and things like that because they're a waste of money.".........

Since I was a very traditional allopathic physician, I didn't know that there was any other way of thinking about autism. I thought the only possible course was acceptance. I knew that the day would never come when we would put him in an institution, but I didn't realize that there was a lot more information about autism than what we were being told. Laurie was not willing to accept the prognosis and started researching on the internet. I'm sure this is a story that many of you are familiar with--she found the Autism Research Institute (ARI) website and she started Aaron on a gluten and casein-free diet and added B6 and other vitamins.......... 
Read more here:

http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/0405-conf-bjepson.htm

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The Candida Yeast-Autism Connection

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Written by Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D.

There is a great deal of evidence that a form of yeast, candida (rhymes with "Canada") albicans, may cause aut...

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Written by Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D.

There is a great deal of evidence that a form of yeast, candida (rhymes with "Canada") albicans, may cause autism and may exacerbate many behavior and health problems in autistic individuals, especially those with late-onset autism.

Scenario. Candida albicans belongs to the yeast family and is a single-cell fungus. This form of yeast is located in various parts of the body including the digestive tract. Generally speaking, benign microbes limit the amount of yeast in the intestinal tract, and thus, keep the yeast under control. However, exposure to antibiotics, especially repeated exposure, can destroy these microbes. This can result in an overgrowth of candida albicans. When the yeast multiplies, it releases toxins in the body; and these toxins are known to impair the central nervous system and the immune system.

Some of the behavior problems which have been linked to an overgrowth of candida albicans include: confusion, hyperactivity, short attention span, lethargy, irritability, and aggression. Health problems can include: headaches, stomachaches, constipation, gas pains, fatigue, and depression. These problems are often worse during damp and/or muggy days and in moldy places. Additionally, exposure to perfumes and insecticides can worsen the condition.

http://www.autism.com/triggers/candida_org.htm

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Rehabilitation of Autism With Immune Modulation Therapy

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Autoimmunity may play a key role in the pathogenesis of autism, an early-onset disorder of the developing central nervous system. Viruses such as Meas...

High Dose Vitamin A Protocol [for measles virus]

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

It has been shown that in the presence of active measles virus, a 2-day mega-dosing of 400,000 iu of Vitamin A will affect the measles virus, maybe no...

Dr Andrew Wakefield

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

SPONTANEOUS MUCOSAL LYMPHOCYTE CYTOKINE PROFILES IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM AND GASTROINTESTINAL SYMPTOMS: MUCOSAL IMMUNE ACTIVATION AND REDUCED COUNTER ...

Autism Video Sharing Community

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

Autism Key is a site run by parents and for parents of children with autism & autism spectrum disorders. Through first hand experience, we've learne...

Autoimmunity Against Myelin in Autism

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

This is a very interesting article........

V.K. Singh has studied autism as an autoimmune disorder for over fifteen years. He believes that up to e...

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Autism linked to fatty nerve cell coating

by Zurama on 05/10/2008

I found this online, while doing my usual research on autism......

New research may explain why more boys are affected by autism than girls.
There...

Mickie's Regression into the World of Autism

by Zurama on 12/20/2007

Low functioning Autism has got to be the most frustrating thing I have ever had to deal with. Everything in my life revolves around Mickie. I just kee...

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Low functioning Autism has got to be the most frustrating thing I have ever had to deal with. Everything in my life revolves around Mickie. I just keep thinking that there will be no place for him in the world if he stays the way he is now. So I keep looking for ways to get him out of himself, so when I'm gone he can fight for himself.

When he was diagnosed at 22 months I thought he would just start learning if he had intensive therapy, but he didn't and in fact got worse. By the age of four he was completely lost in his world. Chelation therapy did help get some of his eye contact back.

On Mickie's 10th birthday I made the decision to start doing something more about my frustration with his slow progress. I had stopped video taping him right after the diagnosis of Autism. The life just kind of went right out of me. I started making videos of him again. I signed on to Youtube and created a channel for Mickie.

The response to Mickie's videos has been interesting to say the least. Most people are very gracious, but some of the others are just plain nasty. Interesting enough some of the most negative comments have come from mothers of Autistic kids. I an not in any way ashamed of him, not by a long shot.

Some have accused me of portraying Autism in a negative way. I just record Mickie being himself or what I like to call, "Mickie in the Raw". I'm guessing Mickie is not what the majority of people with Autism act like. I just got tired of seeing it portrayed as something just perfectly normal. It is what is; and, what is not is a dirty little secret that has to be hidden so that it won't offend the sensibilities of some.

It's a cruel world out there! It's evident when I take him out in public and people do stare and give dirty looks and shush him, because he can get really loud and there just no way to stop him. Perhaps they have never seen anyone like Mickie, because Autism is portrayed as something else.

Autism isolates the entire family, not just the afflicted child. It is difficult to visit and to have visitors. It is very hard and expensive to find appropriate childcare.

It is very tough to describe what it feels like to see your child suffer and not be able to help him. The pain of knowing that no amount of therapy and no amount of money will ever give him back the potential he was born with, can seem at times, unbearable. The love that I feel for this little boy is more than I could imagine, but at the same time I morn every day for the child he once was and might never be again.

Once in a blue moon I get a glance at the precious little person trapped inside his confused body - that person who views the world so different than me. And it's at those moments that I remember why I was meant to be his mother. It's hard to see everyone else's life around you go on as if everything was just fine, yet you know it's not ever going to be the same for you.

Sometimes when I touch bottom and I imagine this little guy as a grown man, and me too old to watch over him, I realize that this is as close as I have ever been to hell.

Am I bitter? Yes! Am I happy? No!! This days happiness is just a word, a front for the rest of world to see, because in the end; I just want my son back.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=autismtookmickie

I may be contacted at autismtookmickie@gmail.com

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