The Age of Autism: Quite the Coincidence

June 1, 2007

The Age of Autism: Quite the CoincidenceBy Dan Olmsted for UPI.http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/68180.htmlIt's amazing the coincidences one comes across while reportingabout autism:The autism rate rises in tandem with increasing numbers ofvaccines that contain a known neurotoxin, ethyl mercury.Public health authorities say that's coincidence.Parents say their children became autistic after receivingmercury-containing vaccinations, sometimes several shots in one day.Pediatricians call that coincidence, too.Another remarkable fact that caught my attention: Autism wasfirst identified in both the United States and Europe at almostexactly the same time. Child psychiatrist Leo Kanner published hislandmark paper at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1943;pediatrician Hans Asperger published his -- about a slightly lesssever ely affected group of children -- in Vienna in 1944. Cut off by aworld war, neither knew of the other's work.Coincidence, say the experts, who attribute the timing toimproving diagnostic techniques in both countries.What else can the experts say, literally invested as they are inmassively funded genetic research to find the presumed cause? If it'snot a coincidence that autism arose simultaneously on separatecontinents, that suggests something happened in two places at once totrigger the disorder. And that would suggest genes are not thefundamental factor, though they certainly could be implicated inmaking some children susceptible to whatever the new exposure was.The first Age of Autism column in early 2005, titled "Donald T.and Fritz V.," made this point, noting that the first Austrian casereport and the first American case report "were born within fourmonths of each other, Fritz V. in June of 1933 and Donald T. thatSepte mber." Because Kanner's kids became known as "autistic" andAsperger ' s as having "Asperger's disorder," the overwhelmingcommonalities have not been fully appreciated; Kanner ' s study ofDonald and 10 other children was titled "Autistic Disturbances ofAffective Contact," and Asperger called his study of Fritz and threeother children "'Autistic Psychopathy' in Childhood." At differenttimes in different places, they were seeing the same remarkabledisorder. These kids were all "on the spectrum," as we say today, andthat raises a question I put this way in that first column: "Was itcoincidence the first few cases of these strikingly similar disorderswere identified at the same time, by the same term, in children bornthe same decade, by doctors thousands of miles apart? "Or, is it aclue to when and where autism started -- and why?"The question reflects a huge, and hugely important, debate. Ifautistic children always existed in the same percentages but just werenot formally classified until the 1940s, that would suggest betterdiagnosis, not a troubling increase in the number of autistic children."If, however, autism had a clear beginning in the fairly recentpast ... then the issue is very different. That would suggestsomething new caused those first autism and Asperger's cases ...something caused them to increase, and something is still causing themtoday." At that time, I had no clue about a possible connection. Butnow, after reporting and writing more than 100 Age of Autism columnsover the past two years, I do.The clue could be the simultaneous arrival of ethyl mercury --but not, necessarily, in the vaccines that some parents blame for thehuge rise in reported cases over the past two decades. What I havelearned is that this especially dangerous form of organic mercury alsowas used starting around 1930 in fungicides. Morris Kharasch, the sameAmerican chemist who patented its use in vaccines -- where it iscalled thimerosal -- also pioneered its use as a seed disinfectant.Remember, this type of mercury didn't exist in nature; it'sman-made, and Kharasch is the man who made it marketable.+ Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/68180See what's free at AOL.com.

June 1, 2007

Without reading right through the whole article I can relate to the first paragraph based on the fact that my youngest son has Asperger's Syndrome and NO-ONE will ever convince me that it was "co-incidence" that caused it!

Up until my son had had a combo shot just prior to going to Pre-School he was a beautiful bright-eyed, happy-go-lucky kid with a love and a zest for life. This was a baby that stood up and walked at 9 mos of age without ever having crawled first, was talking clearly in SENTENCES before he was 18 mos old, and always had a smile on his face. A child with Asperger's "at birth" does NOT do these things so quickly or easily as a normal child would.

In an instant the lights went out and we lost forever that bubbly child with the beautiful smile, to be replaced with an unseeing blankness, no social skills at all and an underlying anger and violence that caused him to try to kill me several times during his teenage years.

Happily though this same son has "healed" himself with diet change and a lot of effort on his part and is leading an almost normal life and is working and living by himself. I am so proud of him! But when you look closely at his face you can still see that "blank" unseeing look in his eyes, as if he just doesnt see you.

huggs

Lyndall

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blessingsx10

1/06/2007 2:42:14 PM

Re: The Age of Autism: Quite the Coincidence

The Age of Autism: Quite the CoincidenceBy Dan Olmsted for UPI.http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/68180.htmlIt's amazing the coincidences one comes across while reportingabout autism:The autism rate rises in tandem with increasing numbers ofvaccines that contain a known neurotoxin, ethyl mercury.Public health authorities say that's coincidence.Parents say their children became autistic after receivingmercury-containing vaccinations, sometimes several shots in one day.Pediatricians call that coincidence, too.