Glimpses of truth making it through the substantial hype. Look into vaccines yourself, don't just trust the bobble heads on the news.
The FDA's own insert that comes with the swine flu shot says:
"Safety and Effectiveness has NOT been established in pregnant women or nursing mothers."
The vaccines are passed and heavily recommended for infants, children, and their mothers based on trials for previous flu shots. The vaccine makers have been given immunity from legal action related to side effects.Glimpses of truth making it through the substantial hype. Look into vaccines yourself,... more
As the mother of an autistic child, Marie Myung-Ok Lee is navigating uncharted territory as she struggles to manage her son’s condition. She has Picture 4bravely come forward to share her son’s battle with this mysterious disorder, and to discuss how medical marijuana has brought them both back from the brink of despair. Read more > http://ow.ly/zdB3As the mother of an autistic child, Marie Myung-Ok Lee is navigating uncharted... more
As the mother of an autistic child, Marie Myung-Ok Lee is navigating uncharted territory as she struggles to manage her son's condition. She has bravely come forward to share her son's battle with this mysterious disorder, and to discuss how medical marijuana has brought them both back from the brink of despair.
During what Marie calls the "dark phase," her son J had unpredictable mood swings that could erupt into fitful rages. Her 9-year-old would scream during lengthy tantrums, he refused to eat and threw his food on the floor. J broke plates, windows, and other household items as a way of expressing his pain and frustration. The family would hide out within the confines of their home until the darkness passed.
J's behavior disrupted his school performance and terrified the staff. "The teachers were wearing tae kwon do arm pads to protect themselves against his biting," Marie said. The school monitored J's daily outbursts on an "aggression chart" that documented as many as 300 episodes in one day that involved hitting, kicking, biting, or pinching another person.
With her son in crisis, Marie had no choice but to perform an intervention. But the only solution offered by child psychiatrists came in a pill bottle. "His school tried to force us to medicate him," says Marie, who feared the risk of dangerous side effects associated with commonly prescribed antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal. Many of the FDA-approved drugs on the market used to treat symptoms of autism have no proven safety track record for use in children.
Despite the unknown risks, more kids are using prescription drugs than ever before. The number of children on psychiatric meds has skyrocketed in recent years, according to reports in medical journals such as Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Prescription drug use is growing faster among children than the elderly and baby boomers. But when it comes to medicating kids with marijuana, the issue becomes taboo.
"There's no such thing as a harmless drug, but marijuana is much less harmful than other drugs," said Lester Grinspoon, M.D., a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Grinspoon is a leading expert in the field of medical marijuana, who has authored several books on the subject. "No one in the world has died from marijuana," insists Grinspoon, who has spent four decades researching the illicit drug.
Undeterred by the social stigma, Marie pursued this more natural approach to calm J's demons. After discussing her wishes with J's pediatrician, Marie decided to check out Marinol, a synthetic form of THC, which is the primary cannabinoid in marijuana. After fine-tuning J's dosage, she began hearing praises like, "J was a pleasure to have in speech class," instead of complaints about his violent episodes.
After a few months, J built up a tolerance to the drug and his unruly behavior returned. "The drawback of taking Marinol is that it's only THC. That's the most powerful cannabinoid, but it may not be the most relevant," said Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany. Earleywine says there are about 70 different cannabinoids in the marijuana plant, many of which have medicinal value. Marie decided to take a chance on the real deal.
All it took was a signed prescription and a background check for J to become the youngest person in Rhode Island to obtain a license for pot. After buying some marijuana-infused olive oil, Marie made a batch of pot cookies. That night, J ate half of one cookie and "he was tired and conked out," said Marie, who checked hourly on his sleep, "half-expecting some red-eyed ogre from Reefer Madness to come leaping out at us." To her relief, J slept soundly and appeared happy and mellow the next day.
Over the past four months, Marie has documented her son's progress in an online blog entitled, Why I Give My 9-Year-Old Pot, Part II. While she doesn't believe marijuana is a cure for autism, it "allows J to participate more fully in life without the dangers and sometimes permanent side effects of pharmaceutical drugs." Dr. Grinspoon has seen positive results with a number of his autistic patients who are undergoing pot therapy. "I can confidently say to a parent that marijuana relieves some types of pain. It's not going to hurt them if you use it responsibly," Grinspoon says. Ingesting the drug works better because the effects can last up to eight hours. "A little goes a long way," says Earleywine, who reminds parents that the drug can take up to an hour and a half to kick in, "so wait a little while before administering any more."
While a growing number of distressed parents are turning to the herbal remedy, many moms with autistic kids are skeptical. "I feel it does more harm than good," says Trish, the mother of a 7-year-old boy with autism. "You are sedating the child, not treating the cause of the rage." Trish believes that medicating kids with pot is a cop-out. "Nobody said parenting was going to be easy, or that the solution to every problem is to get our children stoned."
The mainstream medical community shuns the subject, and the government refuses to fund any research that would legitimize marijuana use in treating autism or aggression disorders. "Marijuana is a very loaded subject," says Cara Natterson, M.D., a pediatrician and mother of two. "As a parent and as a pediatrician, I feel a responsibility to know that what I am putting into a child -- mine or someone else's -- is safe and tested."
The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes the legalization of marijuana, but does support further research into the potential medical benefits of cannabis. "We need to make sure the treatment is safe -- we haven't done that," Natterson adds. The doctor can sympathize with parents who desperately want to help their child. "But wanting to advocate for your child and making sure your child is safe are two different things," Natterson said.
Marie is confident that she has made the right choice when she sees J's transformation. "He doesn't look stoned. He just looks like a happy little boy."
Steven Wiltshire (born in 1974) is an accomplished architectural artist who has been diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder. Wiltshire’s work has been the subject of many television documentaries; neurologist Oliver Sacks praised his artistic work in the chapter “Prodigies” in his book “An Anthropologist on Mars.” Stephen Wiltshire’s many published art books include “Cities” (1989), “Floating Cities” (1991) and “Stephen Wiltshire’s American Dream” (1993).
Wiltshire is presently working to complete his last drawing in a series of city panoramas, this time of his spiritual home, New York City. Wiltshire’s collection of already completed works depicting some of the world’s most iconic cities already includes London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rome, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dubai and Jerusalem. A 20-minute fly-over Manhattan this past weekend provided the memory for a 20-foot panorama of the city that he’s drawing throughout this week at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. Viewers can watch his progress on a live web cam or by visiting the Institute while he works from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday, Oct. 26 to Friday, Oct. 30, 2009.
This piece includes a number photographs, a slide show of Stephen Wiltshire's work, a video of Wiltshire's current work drawing the panorama of New York City and a live web cam of him at work on the panorama.Steven Wiltshire (born in 1974) is an accomplished architectural artist who has been... more
The home secretary Alan Johnson has "stopped the clock" on the extradition of computer hacker Gary McKinnon after new medical evidence emerged. Johnson told MPs his 11th hour intervention was to allow McKinnon's legal team to consider medical reports and make legal representations.
Gary McKinnon is accused by the US of what they call the biggest military computer hack of all time for hacking into Pentagon networks. McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, says he was just looking for evidence of UFO sightings and meant no harm.
Supporters of McKinnon say he's at suicide risk if he's exported to a maximum security prison in the States. The US government, embarrassed that one man could hack into some of their most secure military networks from his bedroom in London, have been piling on the pressure to get him extradited to America under a terrorism extradition agreement for some time now.
Critics of the 2003 US-UK extradition treaty, which was created to allow terrorism suspects to be sent between the two countries, argue it's lopsided and gives a better deal to the USA.
McKinnon's mother spoke out after this latest announcement and echoed those sentiments, saying “We should not have a Government that is so powerless it cannot stand up against America for the right of its own citizens.”The home secretary Alan Johnson has "stopped the clock" on the extradition of computer... more
After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.
The unprecedented concession was filed on November 9, and sealed to protect the plaintiff's identify. It was obtained through individuals unrelated to the case.
The claim, one of 4,900 autism cases currently pending in Federal "Vaccine Court," was conceded by US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and other Justice Department officials, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, the "defendant" in all Vaccine Court cases.
The child's claim against the government -- that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism -- was supposed to be one of three "test cases" for the thimerosal-autism theory currently under consideration by a three-member panel of Special Masters, the presiding justices in Federal Claims Court.After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of... more
When Cathlene Echan walked into her pediatrician's office two weeks after giving birth, she was nervous about discussing her recent decision not to vaccinate her second baby.
But Echan, of Orange County, Calif., did not expect to be asked to leave.
"The doctor said it was too much of a liability to have us as patients," said Echan, a 28-year-old stay at home mom. Echan's oldest child, Josiah, now 5, had just been diagnosed with autism around the same time her second son Torren, now 2, was born.
Echan said she did research and read articles online about autism, she talked with other parents and then came to the pediatrician's office with doubts about vaccines.
"I hadn't come to a conclusion at that point when I saw the doctor, but I was so nervous because they're brothers, and I thought there could be a predisposition for it," said Echan. "As a mom, I can't knowingly do something to my second child when I believe it played a role in causing my older child's neurological disorder.
"She was very nice at first, but when I asked her to give him [Torren] a checkup, she said, 'you need to leave,'" said Echan.
Echan's situation is a growing problem for parents and pediatricians alike. Despite adamant statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Centers of Disease Control that vaccines have no link to autism, an anti-vaccination movement is growing online, from parent to parent, and through activist celebrities, such as actress Jenny McCarthy.
Now, more and more doctors are feeling compelled to say "no" back to these parents. The issue was raised Wednesday at the annual American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Gary Marshall, a presenter at the meeting, said there are some cases when it's ethical and legal to refuse to continue to see, or treat, a child.
...More...When Cathlene Echan walked into her pediatrician's office two weeks after giving... more
To hear his enemies talk, you might think Paul Offit is the most hated man in America. A pediatrician in Philadelphia, he is the coinventor of a rotavirus vaccine that could save tens of thousands of lives every year. Yet environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slams Offit as a “biostitute” who whores for the pharmaceutical industry. Actor Jim Carrey calls him a profiteer and distills the doctor’s attitude toward childhood vaccination down to this chilling mantra: “Grab ‘em and stab ‘em.” Recently, Carrey and his girlfriend, Jenny McCarthy, went on CNN’s Larry King Live and singled out Offit’s vaccine, RotaTeq, as one of many unnecessary vaccines, all administered, they said, for just one reason: “Greed.”
Has irrational fear has brought about the resurgence of preventable childhood diseases or does the risk outweigh the benefit?To hear his enemies talk, you might think Paul Offit is the most hated man in America.... more
The question concerning whether or not children who receive vaccinations are more likely to have autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may have been indirectly and/or partially answered by the results of a study reporting that children with the disorder do not have higher levels of mercury in the bloodstream than children who are developing normally.The question concerning whether or not children who receive vaccinations are more... more
Did you ever wonder why rainman with all his amazing math and logic skills couldn't get a real job and be a productive member of society? Well it turns out he can.Did you ever wonder why rainman with all his amazing math and logic skills couldn't... more
(Health.com) -- Alisa Rock, whose 10-year-old son Connor has autism, says parents of autistic children often align themselves with one of two camps: There are those who believe that genes cause the disorder, and those firmly convinced that environmental factors are to blame.
"Then there are people who are in the middle," says Rock, a Baltimore, Maryland, mom. She counts herself in this category, as she thinks that both genes and environment likely play a part.
She has, however, more questions than answers. "I personally am still a confused parent," she explains.
So it would seem helpful that new research on autism has just discovered a possible genetic link -- an alteration near a gene called semaphorin 5A, which is thought to guide the growth of brain-cell extensions essential for neuron-to-neuron communication. But for some parents, including Rock, the research is just a stepping stone to answering the million-dollar question: What causes autism?
"I don't think they're there yet, and I don't think that [this gene is] the answer for every single child with autism," Rock says. "Autism's just a set of symptoms. It doesn't really tell you about the child or what their disease is, really." Health.com: Kids on the run: The new trend in family-friendly fitness
And that's what the researchers say too.
"The scientific consensus now is that we're not talking about a single disorder. We're talking about a collection of disorders that are probably related," says Andy Shih, the vice president of scientific affairs for Autism Speaks, a New York City-based organization that supports autism research and advocates for people with autism and their families. "The current thinking is that there could be as many as 100 genes or more involved in autism."
In the new findings, published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard, and several other institutions sifted through the genomes of 1,031 families that included at least two people with autism.
A simple change near the semaphorin 5A gene was "significantly associated with autism," they report, while dissections of brain tissue from 19 autistic individuals and 10 people without autism revealed that the gene's expression was lower in people with autism.
"That is both exciting as well as daunting," says Aravinda Chakravarti, who directs the Center for Complex Disease Genomics of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, Maryland. If other researchers replicate the association -- meaning they do the experiment independently and get the same result, the gold standard of scientific proof -- experiments can be done to begin to unravel what environmental factors might interact with genes to contribute to the disease, he adds.
...More...(Health.com) -- Alisa Rock, whose 10-year-old son Connor has autism, says parents of... more
Last spring, I wrote about applying for a medical marijuana license for my autistic, allergic 9-year-old son, J., in hopes of soothing his gut pain and anxiety, the roots of the behavioral demons that caused him to lash out at others and himself. After reading studies of how cannabis can ease pain and worry, and in consultation with his doctor, we decided to give it a try. A month into daily cannabis tea and mj-oil cookies (my husband discovered his inner baker), I reported, we both felt that J. seemed happier. But it was hard to tell. He’d have a good morning, then at dinner he’d throw his food. Still, we did notice that when he came home from school with stomach pain (he wasn’t getting any supplemental cannabis there), he’d run to the kitchen and demand his tea and cookie. As if he knew this was the stuff that dulled the hellish gut pangs.
How is J. doing now, four months into our cannabis experiment? Well, one day recently, he came home from school, and I noticed something really different: He had a whole shirt on.
Pre-pot, J. ate things that weren’t food. There’s a name for this: pica. (Pregnant women are known to pica on chalk and laundry starch.) J. chewed the collar of his T-shirts while stealthily deconstructing them from the bottom up, teasing apart and then swallowing the threads. By the time I picked him up from the bus stop after school, the front half of his shirt was gone. His pica become so uncontrollable we couldn’t let him sleep with a pajama top (it would be gone by morning) or a pillow (ditto the case and the stuffing). An antique family quilt was reduced to fabric strips, and he even managed to eat holes in a fleece blanket—so much for his organic diet. I started dressing him only in organic cotton shirts, but we couldn’t support the cost of a new one every day. The worst part was watching him scream in pain on the toilet, when what went in had to come out. I had nightmares about long threads knotting in digestive organs.Last spring, I wrote about applying for a medical marijuana license for my autistic,... more
As a parent of a child in the autism spectrum, I perpetually feel like I swim in the 6 degrees of separation with folks that either know or are affected by 'the spectrum'.As a parent of a child in the autism spectrum, I perpetually feel like I swim in the 6... more
Two new government studies indicate about 1 in 100 children have autism disorders -- higher than a previous U.S. estimate of 1 in 150.
Greater awareness, broader definitions and spotting autism in younger children may explain some of the increase, federal health officials said.
"The concern here is that buried in these numbers is a true increase," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "We're going to have to think very hard about what we're going to do for the 1 in 100."
Figuring out how many children have autism is extremely difficult because diagnosis is based on a child's behavior, said Dr. Susan E. Levy of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics subcommittee on autism.
"With diabetes you can get a blood test," said Levy. "As of yet, there's no consistent biologic marker we can use to make the diagnosis of autism."
The new estimate would mean about 673,000 American children have autism. Previous estimates put the number at about 560,000.
One of the studies stems from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health. The results were released Monday, and published in October's Pediatrics.
In that study, based on telephone surveys, parents reported about 1 in 91 children, ages 3 to 17, had autism, including milder forms such as Asperger's syndrome.
more at link...Two new government studies indicate about 1 in 100 children have autism disorders --... more
Among the many great mysteries of autism is this: Where are all the adults with the disorder? In California, for instance, about 80% of people identified as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are 18 or under. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) indicate that about 1 in 150 children in the U.S. have autism, but despite the fact that autism is by definition a lifelong condition, the agency doesn't have any numbers for adults. Neither has anyone else. Until now.
On Sept. 22, England's National Health Service (NHS) released the first study of autism in the general adult population. The findings confirm the intuitive assumption: that ASD is just as common in adults as it is in children. Researchers at the University of Leicester, working with the NHS Information Center found that roughly 1 in 100 adults are on the spectrum — the same rate found for children in England, Japan, Canada and, for that matter, New Jersey.
This finding would also appear to contradict the commonplace idea that autism rates have exploded in the two decades. Researchers found no significant differences in autism prevalence among people they surveyed in their 20s, 30s, 40s, right up through their 70s. "This suggests that the factors that lead to developing autism appear to be constant," said Dr. Terry Brugha, professor of psychiatry at the University of Leicester and lead author of the study. "I think what our survey suggests doesn't go with the idea that the prevalence is rising."
In England, where there is widespread suspicion that the childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella has led to an explosion in autism cases, the study was hailed as part of a growing body of evidence that the vaccine, which was introduced in the 1988, is not to blame.Among the many great mysteries of autism is this: Where are all the adults with the... more
John Travolta, spoke publicly for the first time about the death of his son. H was giving evidence at the Bahamian supreme court in Nassau against two people accused of trying to extort $25 million (£16m) from him.
Travolta follows Scientology, but the religious system does not recognise autism as a condition.
According to Travolta's lawyers the defendants tried to use the "refusal of medical attention form" to extort money from Travolta. However, Travolta himself brought the extortion case against them.
Travolta has struggled to come to terms with his son's death and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after Jett suffered a seizure.
Must be awful coping with reliving your son's death and dealing with people trying to blackmail you at the same time.John Travolta, spoke publicly for the first time about the death of his son. H was... more
This is Scott James, a 21 year-old who has been diagnosed with Autism, and being in fear of people, hasn't been able to leave his house. But, after all those years of hiding away he's "won over the whole of Manchester" said Simon. When asked how it felt to be singing on stage, Scott replied "It's the best feeling in the world, it really is."
I'm not one for X Factor charity cases but watching this last night really touched me!
Abercrombie & Fitch was fined $115,264 for refusing to let an Apple Valley teen help her autistic sister try on clothes.
Four years after Abercrombie & Fitch refused to let a teenager help her autistic sister try on clothes at its Mall of America store, state officials have fined the company $115,264 for discriminating against a disabled person.
The hefty penalty from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights pleased the Maxson family of Apple Valley, which was forced to push hard for satisfaction after the retailing giant refused to apologize for the incident and even questioned whether the girl was disabled. The fine was levied in June but made public this month.Abercrombie & Fitch was fined $115,264 for refusing to let an Apple Valley teen help... more
The Department of Defense is financing a $300,000 study that will pair dogs with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan that are trained to recognize when they are about to have a panic attack by nudging them or nuzzling them. Service dogs have been helping those with mental illnesses since the late 1990's.The Department of Defense is financing a $300,000 study that will pair dogs with... more
