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WDDTY e-News Service - 16 October 2003

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 15:39:10 +0100

 

 

WHAT DOCTORS DON’T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No.55 - 16 October 03

 

Please feel free to email this broadcast to any friends you feel would

appreciate receiving it.

 

 

 

 

AUTISM: Does head size provide the clue?

 

Who are the children that may go on to develop autism? Researchers from the

Center for Autism Research at San Diego believe that the autistic child is born

with an unusually small head, and brain, and then experiences extraordinary head

and brain growth.

 

Their theory is supported by their own research, based on a small group of 48

autistic children, and by earlier research. One study noted that 90 per cent of

autistic children, aged between 2 and 3, had larger brain volumes than average

and an abnormally large head circumference. Another study reported that brain

size in 4-year-old children with autism exceeded the healthy average.

 

The new study by the Center confirmed these findings, but also discovered that

the autistic child is more likely to be born with small head size. Sudden, and

excessive, growth of the brain and head then occurs one to two months after

birth, and again between six and 14 months.

 

These growth spurts happen long before autistic tendencies-such as delayed

speech, poor attention and unusual social behaviour-start to appear, which

usually occurs during the second and third years of life.

 

But sudden head and brain growth is not the cause-it's just another indicator.

Admittedly, only around 6 per cent of non-autistic children experience the same

sort of sudden brain and head growth, but it's still a significant minority.

Similarly, other studies suggest that the growth pattern happens only to 59 per

cent of autistic children, so a sizeable minority have normal brain growth

patterns.

 

So, while health authorities would love to seize on this new research to dampen

down concerns about a link between autism and the MMR vaccine, this trial

doesn't give them the let-out they're looking for.

 

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003;290: 337-44).

 

 

 

AUTISM: The part that the MMR vaccine may play

 

A new study has thrown more light on the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine

and whether it causes autism. In a study of 52 autistic children who had the

vaccine, 43 of them had antibodies to the vaccine virus, which were not found in

any of the healthy controls, including 15 siblings.

 

The researchers suggest " autistic children have a hyper-immune response to

measles virus, which in the absence of a wild-type measles infection might be a

sign of an abnormal immune response to the vaccine strain or virus

reactivation. " In other words the vaccine does not cause autism, but it

triggers it in autistic children, who are hypersensitive to it.

 

Perhaps by blending the research about head and brain development, parents of

potentially autistic children may be able to determine if their child should be

given the vaccine.

 

(Source: Autism Research Review International, 2003; 17: 6).

 

* Researchers have discounted fears, especially among parents in America, that

thimerosal in vaccines could cause autism. Thimerosal, which is 50 per cent

mercury, is used as a preservative.

 

The researchers compared autism and vaccination rates in California, Sweden and

Denmark, and found that, while autism rates continued to increase in all three

regions, vaccines containing thimerosal had been removed in Sweden and Denmark

by the early 1990s.

 

(Source: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2003; 25: 101-6).

 

 

 

AFTER THE GYM: Don't drink too much liquid

 

If you work out in the gym or you're a regular jogger, you probably drink a lot

of fluids during and after exercise. It's seems a natural thing to rehydrate

the body and replace the fluids lost during exercise-but, if done to excess, it

could be dangerous practice. At least seven athletes have died after drinking

too much liquid, and another 250 have needed hospital treatment.

 

The practice is more to do with fashion rather than science; in fact, there is

no science at all to support it. Until the late 1960s athletes were advised not

to drink during exercise, as it would impair performance. Then, in 1969, a

landmark study, entitled 'The danger of an inadequate water intake during

marathon running', was published-even though it neither looked at the dangers,

nor did it base its findings on marathon races. Indeed, the article confirmed

the ancient lore that the dehydrated runners won the race.

 

But the ill-titled piece was enough to spawn an industry of articles and papers

that extolled the importance of drinking plenty of fluids-water or sports

drinks-during and after exercise. Most were funded by a growing sports drinks

industry.

 

So what to do? As usual, common sense should prevail, and you should drink if

you're thirsty, but don't try to replace your lost body weight with liquid, as

is suggested-it just might kill you.

 

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2003; 327: 113-4).

 

 

 

HEARING IMPLANTS: They can cause meningitis

 

Children who have Cochlear implants-a device that is surgically implanted to

help the hearing of profoundly deaf people-run a risk of contracting bacterial

meningitis.

 

This unexpected consequence was first reported to the American drug regulator,

the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), last year by one manufacturer of the

implants.

 

The link has now been established in a new study carried out by the National

Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, which has investigated

the records of 4,264 children who were given implants between 1997 and 2002. Of

these, 26 had developed bacterial meningitis, something like 30 times the rate

that would be expected in a healthy population.

 

The culprit appears to be the positioner, part of the implant that helps the

electrical signal. Children who had an implant with a positioner were four

times as likely to develop meningitis as those with an implant without one.

 

(Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 2003; 349: 535-45).

 

 

 

NOTE:

 

 

 

Enews is going on a short break. Look out for your next broadcast on October

30.

 

 

 

 

Listen to Lynne

 

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