Dr. Engley Web Extras

They are up on part four here

Nerdy Mom

Bloggers-please note

Nerdy Mom is an account through my web director... It is not a person on this blog. It is the account when people email the blog. That is why you constantly see it...it is when people email the blog.

I do not publish comments addressing that name....

I always start posts with "This item was emailed to this blog." This way you know...

A poem

Someone passed this to me.... I want to share...


Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
All creatures were stirring
Yes, even the mouse

We tried the melatonin
We gave a hot bath
But the holiday jitters
They always distract

The children were finally
All nestled in bed
When a nightmare of terror
Ran through my own head

Did I get the right gift
The right color and style
Would there be a tantrum
Or just maybe, a smile ?

Our relatives we will see
But they don't understand
The pleasure he gets
From flapping his hands.

He needs discipline they'll say
Just a much needed smack
You must learn to parent
On goes the attack

We'll just smile and nod
Because we know deep inside
The argument is useless
Our anger we will try to hide

We know what it's like
To live with the spectrum
The struggles and triumphs
Achievements, and regressions.

But what they don't know
And what they don't see
Is the joy that we feel
Over simplicity

He said hello!
He ate something green!
He told his first story !
He didn't cause a scene !

He peed in the potty
Who cares if he's ten
He stopped saying the same thing
Again and again.

Others just don't realize
Just how we learn to cope
How we barely hang on
To the end of our rope.

What they don't see
Is the joy we won't hide
When our child with autism
Make the tiniest stride.

We sometimes look at others
Without the problems we face
With jealousy, and envy
Longing and even distaste

But what they don't know
Nor sometimes do we
Is that a child with autism
Brings simplicity

We don't get excited
Over expensive things
But we jump for joy
With the progress hard work brings

A child with autism
Tries hard every day
That makes us proud
More than words can say

They work even harder
Than you or I
To achieve something small
To reach their star in the sky

So to those who don't get it
Who don't have a clue
Take a walk in my shoes
And I will assure you

After ten minutes
Into your walk
You'll look at me
With respect, even shock

You will then realize
Daily what is it I go through
The next time you're tempted to judge
I can assure you

You won't say a thing
You'll be quiet and learn
Like the years that I did
When the tables were turned

Heuristic of Complexity in ASD Biochemistry

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

For all of those trying to wrap their brain around the complexities of regression and the mix of environmental and genetic influences, I hope this heuristic helps. Its extremely complicated with various genes and exposures implicated in various individual children.

Hopefully KOMU can send this to Dr. Judith Miles and any other UM-Columbia, UM-KC, Washington University and Saint Louis University researchers as well as State Legislators trying to conceptualize the issues on the biochemical and exposure side of things. Remember, in terms of gene-environment interactions, one person's safe dose can be another person's toxin due to a genetic polymorphism that leaves them vulnerable where others aren't.

Classic examples of this in pediatrics include PKU, maple syrup urine disease and these have been successfully identified in neonatal screening tests of metabolism. This type of approach is needed to improve the collective function of those at risk for autism. Maybe these great "Show Me" state universities can be the first to define a screening protocol for newborns who have slow detoxification kinetics so that their environmental risks can be better quantified at birth for the risk of regressive autism.

TEXT PROMPTING THIS POST:Severely dysfunctional children can be helped and part of what makes the clinical science of helping these children so difficult is the genetic and environmental heterogeneity of the population. In addition, looking at the work of Dr. Jill James would indicate that the approach requires nutraceutical rather than pharmaceutical approach as relates to the enzyme pathways in sulfation and methylation that are affected. The neurological side of things may be helped by some pharmaceuticals but much of the underlying problems with detoxification need bottleneck hurdles (neutraceuticals) rather than cascade or pathway blockers (pharmaceuticals). If big drug companies could patent and protect those approaches it would help get more research done but at some level you are dealing with a number of "orphan" drug/nutraceutical issues here as one kids autism is impacted by MTHFR mutation, another by COMT, another by paraoxonase, another by COMT dysfunction, etc. I will post a graphic to help unify the issues for those who are interested in just how complex this is.

Stay Tuned

We will have blogs from the team in a few days about final thoughts on the series....
We are going to keep this blog going for the show in Feb...
So we will keep you posted on developments with everything all spring....
While the series may be over for a bit on air---we continue it online!

We will most likely put the hour show online...so everyone can watch it!
Thanks!

Comment-Grateful Viewer

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

Thank you, KOMU TV and news team for having the integrity and courage to cover the controversial issues surrounding our children's afflictions. I have been following your coverage closely. I am but another parent of a child with the autism label. Our son also has mercury toxicity. They are one in the same. So thank you Ashley Reynolds and support team for you earnest efforts on our children's behalf!!

May stories and coverage such as this enhance the truth behind the controversy that we may one day end the madness and recover the already injured children and their families.
In all sincerity and with much appreciation,

Lin Wessels
Sam's MAMA (Mom on A Mission for Autism)

Happy Life and Love to All

I firmly believe {personally} that the holidays we "celebrate" are, on the whole, too commercialized - what we need to truly celebrate is life itself and of its diversity... challenges are not obstacles unless one allows them to be and accepts them as such - and even if most of my life has far too often felt like an "obstacle course", I am glad to have risen to the challenges, leaped the barriers, climbed the walls, walked the tightropes, conquered the chasms, and learned to embrace my autism and its gifts... so I wish you all a Happy, Healthy New Year, Life, Love, Self-acceptance, and Gifts that have meaning far beyond the commercial!

Sharisa Joy

Hour Show in Feb

I am not sure if I posted this or not...but we do have a show coming up in Feb about the series...We will highlight many stories and feature the team that put this all together.
I will keep everyone posted on here.

Low Dose Naltrexone

FDA-approved naltrexone, used to block opioids in the brain. Used in a low dose, can also boost the immune system.

Naltrexone itself was approved by the FDA in 1984 in a 50mg dose for the purpose of helping heroin or opium addicts, by blocking the effect of such drugs. By blocking opioid receptors, naltrexone also blocks the reception of the opioid hormones that our brain and adrenal glands produce: beta-endorphin and metenkephalin. Many body tissues have receptors for these endorphins and enkephalins, including virtually every cell of the body's immune system.

It is one medication that according to Dr. William Shaw Ph.D should be added to the anti-yeast and free of casein and gluten diet and Nystatin protocol for children with autism. Naltrexone blocks opioids in the brain. The opioids from milk and wheat may slow the brain down.

At low doses, naltrexone may help clear the brain of opioids which have already gotten into the brain. In the past studies of this protocol have been done using doses that were to high and therefore showed that sometimes naltrexone has the opposite effect of what is intended. The doses used were 25 to 50 milligrams per day, which can cause pain. These studies failed to include the combination of the elimination of dairy and wheat products.

In autistic children where immune deficiencies are present, naltrexone can boost the immune system and given in low doses.

Reicheit KI et al. Gluten, milk proteins and autism: Results of dietary intervention on behavior and urinary peptide secretion. J. Applied Nutrition 42: 1-11, 1990.

Bovard, et al. Low-dose naltrexone effects on plasma chemistries and clinical symptoms in autism: a double-blind-placebo controlled study Psychiatry
Research 58: 191-20, 1995

Roy S, Loh HH. Effects of opioids on the immune system. Neurochem Res 1996;21:1375-1386

Comment-Combating Autism From Within

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

The stunning information presented by Ashley Reynolds and her news team should be setting off alarms everywhere. Our federal health agencies have done little to address the autism epidemic affecting one in every 150 children--specifically one in every 94 boys in the U.S.

For too long the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been given oversight over itself. This is the agency in charge of the vaccine program and the commonly accepted source for information on vaccine safety. It should come as no surprise that every CDC study on vaccines and autism shows no link. Many times reporters go no further but simply give the CDC the last word.

The simple truth is our children have been exposed to a known neurotoxin in their vaccines made from the second deadliest element on Earth. As they received more and more vaccines in the mandated schedule, the autism rate exploded. The CDC has been a constant state of denial and can only present easily manipulated population studies to try and show that injecting mercury into children is safe.

This research can never make up for the fact that thimerosal, the mercury-based vaccine preservative, was never tested for toxicity BEFORE it was allowed in our children's vaccines. The population studies we're continually told about are the same type of science produced by the tobacco industry in the 1940s and 50s as proof that smoking didn't cause lung cancer. The fact is that there isn't a single toxicological study that can show us that thimerosal is safe.

The CDC has left health care professionals with no choice but to defend vaccines as safe, but this heated controversy shows no sign of going away. More and more in the press are presenting the facts about autism and the link to vaccines.

Ashley did the extraordinary. She looked into the studies. She talked to the scientists and doctors who challenge the CDC findings as well as pointing out the financial ties between the people doing the CDC studies and the vaccine makers. She told the public about the difference between epidemiological and toxicological studies. Combating Autism from Within has raised the standard for reporting on the autism epidemic.

Those of us responsible for the AGE OF AUTISM blog are happy to recognize the Combating Autism From Within series in naming the work by Ashley as the best media coverage on autism for 2007! AGE OF AUTISM AWARD: BEST MEDIA Thank you Ashley Reynolds and KOMU-TV!

Anne McElroy Dachel
Media Editor: AGE OF AUTISM

Update

Hello Bloggers!

I have tons of emails! Thanks for all your comments!

Here is an article about our coverage. Send me any other articles you find about us and I will post them on here.
Best Media Coverage

I am working on web extras tonight and tomorrow... I will post on here when they are up on http://www.komu.com/

Comment-Part 4 ...no better. Yes...we have no Thimerosol!

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

I have read the transcript of Part 4...missed the visuals. Once again we have the "expert" octogenarian PhD as well as a "researcher"talking thru the top of their heads about things with which they have not a clue.

Haley the researcher makes a point of identifying vaccines as the obvious only common factor for autism across different nations. Well... of course there are other common environmental factors affecting children around the world. If you discount that the relaxed diagnostic criteria for autism, could account for increased cases, how about plastic? Plastic is now ubiquitous in the environment of the world. Then there are electromagnetic fields (TV, Cell phones), PCBs, asbestos, pesticides, agricultural use of hormones and antibiotics... the list goes on.

Hmmm...and while thinking of alternative theories, the radiologist who posts here may want to explain how it is that medical imaging...particularly prenatal ultrasound...is not the autism
culprit.

The point is, babies are born into a very different environment today than they were 60 years ago. Lets face it, there are some folks who have been opposed to vaccines from the beginning and who have latched onto autism as a selling point. Some of these people also opposed fluoridation of water (as a Communist plot), and have now, quite unfortunately, sold the idea to
some families affected by autism that they should blame "the mercury in vaccines".

I believe that KOMU and Ashley have been "played" by these same vaccine opponents. As a result, we have this very biased and poorly produced series, which merely adds to the pain of autism sufferers and could easily have the effect of children not receiving life saving
vaccines.

What a missed opportunity to address autism! There are real issues which these families face: Lack of school and community support, health care costs in a world without universal
health care, transition to independent living, etc. Where were the interviews with social service agencies, school officials, health departments, insurance company executives? Now that would have been a productive and informative story.

No Thimerosol in the current vaccine regime: I do appreciate that in the text of the 4th installment, there is mention that current routinely used vaccines for children, do not contain thimerosol. So, it is at the end of the series that we kind of learn that single unit dose vaccines are preservative free. That, only in the context however, of "Parents must decide if..."
Sorry...no deciding needed if the issue is Thimerosol...there ain't any!

Historically multi use vials of vaccine contained Thimerosol in very small quantities as a preservative. Single use vials do not contain any preservative, and the "live" vaccines have ALWAYS been preservative free. These would be MMR (Measles, Mumps Rubella),
Varicella (Chickenpox) and the old oral Polio vaccine.

For real information about vaccines see the Immunization Action Coalition:
http://www.immunize.org/
Check out their pictures and films of the results of unvaccinated children. Vaccine preventable illnesses are not simply normal childhood illnesses that people should experience to improve their immune systems. The microcephally, retardation, and blindness of Rubella syndrome are real. The awful sound of babies with diptheria struggling for breath, and the arched back of children dying of tetanus are real. The effectiveness of vaccines to prevent these
tragic outcomes is real.

So...this KOMU series was much ado about nothing...with a potential
terrible effect.

Bill Monroe, RN

Part Four

Here is part four...tell us what you think.

Also, web extras will be up soon.

http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/14f72f27-80ce-0971-019e-ca59a7507560

Comment-Prudence and Foresight

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

Any epigenetic disorder arises as mix of environmental insults and genetic predisposition, leaving us the opportunity with expanding science to find the susceptible genetic populations so that we may protect them from unnecessary environmental exposures.

Precautionary principle would dictate that unneeded environmental stimuli such as vaccine boosters should be avoided in such increasingly identifiable children. Vaccinating smarter will improve outcomes.

Edward F . Fogarty, M.D.
Chairman of Radiology
University of North Dakota School of Medicine

Comment-autism bad, but not related to vaccines...sorry

This item was emailed to this blog -AR

I just saw episode 3 of your series on Autism.I am wondering if KOMU will, in the course of the series disclose that none of the vaccines now routinely used for children contain thimerosol. It has actually been several years since they have. MMR (Measle Mumps Rubella) has NEVER had Thimerosol as a preservative, as it has ALWAYS been preservative free...it being a live virus vaccine.

A few years ago the hue and cry among autism/vaccine conspiracists was that MMR was the autism culprit as it is given at 12 to 15 months andAutism is first usually noticed after that time. I have read of people testifying to the Missouri legislature that the mercury in MMR gave their child autism. I am afraid that can not possibly be true. Studies have shown that Autism is detectable by persons familiar with its symptoms in infants prior to, or at, their first birthday.

As an example see the retrospective first birthday videotape study:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m024230v47531118/

MMR is never given before age one...again, it is not responsible for autism.

As others have noted in your blog, the upsurge in autism cases is in all likelihood a matter of the broadened diagnoses of cases. It can also be related to any number of environmental factors. Some environmental factors combined with genetics are undoughtedly at work with autism and much research is needed. It is a classic fallacious argument however, to assert that vaccines are to blame simply because they are given in infancy around the time that autistic symptoms
manifest. There are plenty of substances and effects in our environment to which humans have never before been exposed. Plastic, for instance, is something that our ancestors never had to deal with, or electromagnetic fields such as are produced by microwaves, cell phones and televisions broadcasting KOMU TV.

You can always find an "expert"somewhere to back up whatever theory you want. Good reporting does not mean rooting around for fringe views. The CDC is not in the business of making people sick. Whenever a problem is found with any vaccine or medicine the CDC pulls it
immediately. (You may remember the rotavirus vaccine which was pulled a few years ago.)

Also...reporting like this has consequences, as in children dying or being born with birth defects due to decreased vaccination rates. Will KOMU be running a month long 14 part series on childhood vaccine preventable diseases?

I think the public deserves to see persons with Rubella syndrome and hear from their families. Seeing an infant with diptheria struggling for each breath should make for a good B roll, and the ascites condition associated with Hepatitis B is also quite dramatic. Perhaps you can find some children with hepatitis. (One of the principle reasons infants are given Hepatitis B in the newborn nursery is to protect them from possible infection from their mothers.) Of course to
film someone dying or ill with polio or living with its effects, they would have to go to India or Africa...not sure if the KOMU budget could get behind that. Finding smallpox would also be a problem...
This website has some pictures and video you could use:
http://www.vaccineinformation.org/

As an aside...
I wonder about the quality of education being afforded by our much touted J School. Seems to me folks are being prepared for a career with the Enquirer, the Globe or some Rupert Murdock outfit and perhaps the taxpayers are not getting their money's worth.
Disappointed in KOMU,

Bill Monroe RN,
Fulton MO

I was interested in seeing how you would present the "CDC view" in the great "debate" on vaccines and autism. You have got to be kidding! So...the CDC did not have the time to address questions of the "When did you stop beating your wife..." variety from student "reporters".
Wow...big "news". You really got them, didn't you! Here is some news for you....that was NOT news.

The fact that vaccines are used safely by most of the world's population and have been studied thoroughly and found to be safe preventing thousands of deaths, suffering, miscarriages and birth defects, does not become a "debate" because a handful of people have chosen to point to vaccines as the cause of their children's autism.

Where were the local vaccine experts? Did you ask to interview anyone at the Health Department, or Dr Cooperstock at MU? Apparently not.

Instead we get more of the Octogenarian PhD (thats NOT a medical Doctor folks), who is satisfied to pass along info based on "...what they tell me". Truly pathetic. And sad.

I think I will skip the next installment in which we learn that Rep Cynthia Davis, and Matt Blunt and the Republican Party are sure to protect our little ones from these nasty vaccines.
Just what IS the agenda of KOMU?
Where are your ethics?

Bill Monroe RN
Fulton MO
--
"Voting is not enough..."
Gov. Howard Dean

Part three

Our third part of the investigation airs tonight. Tell us what you think. You can see it here.
http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/0fcbcb66-80ce-0971-014a-e9d7f410a3e1

Comment-Ethyl and Methyl Mercury not the same thing!

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

I find it interesting that in the report(s) concerning mercury and autism no mention was made of the fact that thimerisol contains ethyl mercury not methyl mercury. This leads me to believe that either a poor job of research was done, or the researcher had a bias ingrained that vaccines cause autism and chose not to give information that challenged that belief.

http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2005/7712/abstract.pdf

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/thimerosalqa.htm

also it is very telling that no mention was made of the fact that Denmark removed all thimerisol from vaccines in 1992. Danish children were thimerosal-free by 1995. Autism prevalence in Denmark has risen in exactly the same fashion as in the United States and the United Kingdom. http://www.autism-watch.org/general/thio.shtml

this series on autism makes me extremely leary of the validity of KOMU’s research on stories and make me much less likely to trust information from your station in the future.

As a parent it is comforting if you can find something, ANYTHING, to blame for your childs conditons or illness. Unfortunately too often the only thing to blame is your childs own genes.

As for the epidemic? Better and much more inclusive diagnostic criteria. The majority of kids now diagnosed with autism 50 yrs ago would have been considered extremely shy and/or backwards/slow, etc. Now they are diagnosed as autistic.

PFL

Evidence Based Medicine

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

The double edged sword of vaccines is that as we increase their use we will increase adverse events particularly as relates to autoimmune phenomena. Where is the simple science that assesses the rates of autoimmune disease as a function of number of vaccinations received?

For the protection of the children of this country and improved health outcomes without threatening herd immunity we have to do more checking of vaccine efficacy rather than assume we need 3 boosters in every child in some series of vaccines. Where is the safety data that ensures giving multiple vaccines at one clinic visit is as safe as separating them. Where is the safety data with a normal saline (NOT ADJUVANT) placebo control on the hepatitis B series?

Participants in such a study who got placebo after safety assessments were in for day of birth immunization would have plenty of time to get catch-up vaccination, I never got hepatitis B shots until college clearly such a disease that have a major behavioral component to transmission could be intensely scrutinized for safety in childhood; there is no medical literature, no documented evidence that indicates these safety assessments have been done.

Focused, smarter protocols with titer checks will easily accomplish this. Concerned parents and a growing number of concerned physicians can develop a congress of "the evidence based" schedule. In the end it will be more appropriate to make decisions on clinical evidence of need. Boosters are inappropriate in those who have documented immunity, titer levels are all I ever had to prove immunity to the diseases of childhood when I started medical school (my vaccine records were lost). Grassroots public awareness campaigns can get the word out that titer level documentation of immunity is actually more appropriate documentation of immunity than a written record of shots that could be forged anyway. Such social nightmares for both sides of the arguments of safety and need such as occurred in Maryland recently could easily be avoided with this simple information.

Nothing is 100% safe and I do think the risks of certain diseases at certain ages warrant vaccination with serial titers for follow up, why waste the shot though if you don't need it? If parents don't want to pursue that slightly more arduous course they can make the assumptions of safety similar to the CDC, but the atmosphere needs to change so that patient education leads to this consideration of this approach as a primary discussion point.

Teasing out the small percentage of vaccine-intolerant kids on the basis of biochemical screening is the goal that government research dollars should be driven towards-it is the HONORABLE thing to do, admitting that there are vulnerable patients who will have a discordantly high risk of injury due to a universal mandate is not easy, those with character will at least admit this goal should be pursued.

I see this same point being made in other areas of medicine with much less angst. Why is this goal ignored, is it conditioning? I have on many occasions turned a friendly colleague around in their thinking on this after getting through the conditioning of medical culture.

We can come together and improve the lives of children in both areas of safety and immunity by taking these simple steps. Even if hubris prevents it coming from the CDC, the culture of pediatrics, and academia; the grassroots efforts of many Great Americans can pull this idea together for the good of our nation's health.

Its hard to argue against this approach in a way that can be justified on truly medical grounds. Simple fact is we have no good evidence of what the rates of vaccine-related iatrogenesis are because there are no prospective controlled studies on this liability issue, the onus is
on the CDC to provide that evidence; is it 1/100, 1/1000, 1/10,000 or 1/1,000,000?

Even at a 1/1,000,000 rate of adverse contrast reactions ,radiologists are still going to be put to task for how they attempted to avoid an ill fated injection by patients, lawyers and health advocates. I am glad we are; we continually improve our safety, most often by the prodding of our colleagues outside of our specialty.

Many thanks again to the KOMU staff and the University of Missouri
School of Journalism,

You have provided a brave investigation that others with a greater
audience could never endeavor!

Edward F. Fogarty, M.D.
Chairman of Radiology
University of North Dakota School of Medicine
Father of a great kid who is slowly beginning to speak.

Making stuff up: a novel form of evidence

Of all the whoppers told by the autism bio-med/conspiracy buffs, none may be easier to refute than that chestnut which tells us that the symptoms of mercury poisoning are "exactly the same" as autism. This line is repeated over and over with great certainty, as if it is as obvious as the setting sun.

The talking point was supersized in 2000 when Medical Hypothesis, a fringe journal for junk scientists, published Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning. When somebody writes Dandruff: A Novel form of Skin Cancer, it will also find a home in Medical Hypothesis. The 2000 paper was widely quoted by parents who needed something to blame. Mercury seemed so obvious - it is known to attack the nervous system, and it's present in thimerosal, and the symptoms of autism present right around the time that infants are immunized. So there ya go - case closed!

Yet a simple comparison of the clinical symptoms of mercury poisoning and the diagnostic criteria for autism shows they are quite distinct.

As Pediatrics tells us, the characteristic motor findings of mercury poisoning are ataxia (gross incoordination of muscle movements) and dysarthria (motor speech disorder).

The outcome of fetal methyl mercury poisoning in severe form also included spasticity. In contrast, in autism, the only common motor manifestations are repetitive behaviors (stereotypies) such as flapping, circling, or rocking. Persons with Asperger syndrome may be clumsy, and hypotonia has been noted in some infants with autism; the frequency of clumsiness and hypotonia in autism spectrum disorders is not established. No other motor findings are common in autism, and indeed the presence of ataxia or dysarthria in a child whose behavior has autistic features should lead to careful medical evaluation for an alternative or additional diagnosis.

Fetal exposure to mercury frequentlyt leads to microcephaly - a small head. But prenatal exposure to lead, alcohol, PCBs and other neurotoxins, for example, also tend to decrease head size. "In contrast", notes Pediatrics, "in autism increasing evidence indicates that head size and, as measured by volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, brain size tends to be larger than population norms."

I guess that's where the "novel" part comes in.


Cross posted at AutismNewsBeat.com

Comment on ANB note of style

This item was emailed to this blog-AR

A Note on Knowledge:
As a licensed health care professional who knows the profoundly deficient working knowledge of chemistry and physics that nowpermeates U.S. medicine from decades of neglect of basic science understanding in pursuit of easily written scripts from large pharmaceutical companies, I can tell you that Dr. Boyd Haley's knowledge on the subject of heavy metal toxicology dwarfs that of allbut a few MDs or DOs in this country. The cultural distance of the best and brightest PhDs from MDs on the campuses of this country's universities is growing at the peril of our healthcare system. Your"note on style" appears to be a weakly veiled attempt to diminish this man's accomplishments by the title behind his name. Most of the advances of our healthcare system are pioneered by PhD's who get the willing ear of visionary MDs to creatively problem solve for the benefit of society and ultimately, many of the Pharmafia corporations that run this country.

ANB: Don't you have some connections with companies that might be interested in my ELISA in home vaccine titer check idea? We couldmake a killing on that one and short sell vaccine companies who will undoubtedly lose tons of money on having no reason for all those unnecessary boosters once we get our test kits out on the market ;-)You in?

Edward F. Fogarty, M.D.

Investigation Part 2

just aired part 2 of the investigation. Tell us what you think! Should be online shortly...
http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/f5b41a1c-80ce-0971-0041-101cdd239ff4

A note on style

Boyd Haley, PhD, is technically entitled to be addressed as "Doctor" with a capital "D," but considering that KOMU is quoting his statements about a medical subject, it's misleading to begin the article by identifying him as a "doctor" with a lowercase "d". Doesn't this imply that he is an MD or DO – a licensed health care professional? He is not.

"Professor Haley" is equally respectful, and eliminates ambiguity regarding his professional status.

Air Dates

Tonight at Ten- Part 2
Monday (the 24th) at Ten- Part 3
Tuesday (the 25th) at Ten- Part 4

Comment-Dr. Miles

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

If you read Dr. Miles' paper, they make a blanket statement in the discussion that their study confirms no link between thimerosal and autism. Problem is they never stratify or control for all the other potential thimerosal doses received subsequently by children who's mothers got thimerosal-free Rhogam.

If you keep selecting the right subsets you will never find statistically significant data in this issue, just keep finding larger heterogenous populations with only one vaccine exposure controlled for and you will never find statistical significance. Its all the vaccines as little hits along the way with and without thimerosal in the wrong envrionmentally challenged populace (aluminum and other toxins will still be slowly removed) that is causing the problem and thimerosal is adding a additional fire to the situation. You can't look at one insult at one point in time on this spectrum of repeated insults along the way and then conclude there is no relationship.

But for clarity, let me model her approach in a similar way in which I could convince people that radiation is not associated with cancer by analogy (follow the parenthetical relations)
Some of you may know there is a recent publication indicating that medical diagnostic radiation is potentially going to be linked to or causative in 2% of US cancers in the next several decades. Thats a very disturbing thing and as a radiologist, I will not do as a so many pediatrics colleagues and tell you that radiation (vaccination) is without harm, in fact its is over used just like vaccines in a myopic world of convenient medicine rather than a thoughtful judicious way in many cases.

But lets say I published this research to prove radiation in medical imaging is safe would you believe me?"We studied kids with childhood leukemia (autism) {who also had 36 x-rays of various body parts (vaccines) in their first 3 years of life} who were in utero during an abdominal X-ray (Rhogam with Hg) and compared them to another group of children {who also had 36 x-rays in the first 36 months} who had an in utero exposure to a maternal abdominal gamma-scintigram (rhogam without thimerosal). We find there is no difference in the rates of leukemia, therefore we conclude that X-ray radiation is not associated with childhood leukemia." Yeah, right what about the percent insult difference of 36 similar insults versus 35 plus one sightly different insult. The degree of insult change or index is not significantly different therefore we conclude that you were not insulted.

Medical radiation is similar to vaccines, it has a risk and should not be pursued unless there is a clinical need. Boosters are never proven to be needed before being given in individual cases, simplest point to keep making; there is no clinical evidence on individual basis that any of my kids ever needed more than one dose of a vaccine, the labs were never checked. There clearly never needed hepatitis B at birth, mumps could have waited etc.

That whole hep B thing really burns me up, its like me telling you to have your daughter get a mammogram at 3 (want to get a good baseline now don't we?)!!!! OH and by the way if you are a BRCA carrier who has a genetic impairment of DNA repair enzymes that affect the breast increasing the risk of cancer, there is NO way radiation to your breast at a critical development period would ever increase your risk of cancer (just like there is no way a vaccine or heavy metal at the right time in development would be linked to adverse outcomes). MEDICINE IS LITTERED with analogies where protective action were made for much fewer people to avoid continued iatrogenesis, the recent gadolinium (heavy metal) toxicities in MRI in THOSE WHO CAN'T DETOXIFY HEAVY METALS is the same damn issue.

I wish I had time to debate the ninnies that keep denying the need to protect the vulnerable by screening them simply because it would appear to be an admission of guilt.


Edward Fogarty, M.D.

Investigation Part 1

We air the first of the four investigations for the series tonight.
Tell us what you think!

Specific Carbohydrate Diet-Gut Issues in Autism

Of the many issues affecting Autistic individuals none is more prevalent then the gut issues. In my son's case it was diagnosed as malabsoption. I was given this diagnosis when he was five and sent home with no information that could help him.

I had an immune panel done and found out he had an Immunoglobin A deficiency and high inmunoglobin E. I took the results to a gastroenterologist who told me that due to his high IgE could not have any dairy and that his immune deficiency made him prone to gastrointestinal infections.

I remember that I took him off milk and cereals. That diet change, stopped the chronic diarrhea,which he had suffered with, since his first birthday. I thought that would be the end of that, but no. He then developed constipation, which caused him a lot of pain.

For eight years my Mickie woke up during the night, giggling, crying screaming or running through the house. During the last three years or so, he has slept very little. He could not lay flat on the bed, but slept sitting up. To me this was the most troublesome part of his issues.

He stimmed constantly and had horrible tantrums or meltdowns.

While networking with other parents I learned about a special diet called SCD diet or Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This diet is described in detail in the book "Breaking The Vicious Cycle" Intestinal Health Through Diet, by Elaine Gottschall. The reason behind this diet is simple. It is supposed to starve the yeast in the stomach, by depriving it of fermentable carbohydrates.

I heard from other parents of the benefits of this diet had brought to their autistic children's health. I decided to implement the diet with Mickie about one month ago. At about two days into the diet, while I was dressing him, he gave me a spontaneous hug. I remember just staying really still. Up to that point this kind of behavior meant that he was going to pull my hair or tug at my clothes and try to hurt me, but his big sister that could see his face said.....___It's Okay mom, he's smiling. I think he just wants a hug. So I hugged him back and proceeded to dress him once more, then he did it again.

The last time Mickie gave me hug was so long ago, I had forgotten how it felt.

A few more days went by and he stopped stimming, seemed more aware of his surroundings, started to notice our pets and even attempted to talk. By the 15Th day he was sleeping through the night. He was no longer sitting up, but was laying flat on the bed.

I have not seen change like this in him since I took him off Casein and Gluten five years ago. Slowly but surely.........

www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info

Reply for ANB

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

TO AUTISM NEWS BEAT:

Producing a study with protocol comparisons for efficacy and safety between current high dose over-vaccination techniques and a more appropriate approach that is evidence based wherein we vaccinate when titer levels are zero or inappropriately low would go a long way for your argument against people concerned about vaccine safety. Frankly, it would end the debate as to whether there is or isn't an associate between autism and vaccinations and it hasn't been done yet-actually that study is decades overdue at this point. I hope you will join the conversation in regards to that idea and review the food for thought below. This all seems pretty simple, protocol comparisons are nothing new in medicine-but are oddly missing from this arena.

We need to vaccinate smarter, not quit vaccinating. The increase in all auto-immune disease in U.S. children in the last 20 years seems to have one major untested variable: an overly intense early-life vaccination protocol. We really haven't fully tested the idea that we can vaccinate against all these diseases in just as an efficacious way with less boosters and less side effects. To do that now is the mature approach to address the the concerns of parents and medical professionals (the number is growing in ranks outside of pediatrics). A paper last month in the New England Journal of Medicine would suggest we have massively underestimated the decay rate of antibodies after childhood vaccination (Amanna, Carlson and Slifka).

The side effect profiles in a study between current high-intensity vaccination protocols and a lower intensity approach should be prospective monitored, not dependent on the weak reporting statistics in the VAERS database. As soon as such a study exists, we will have a much better idea as to the relationship between vaccines and autism. There is no universal mandate in medicine that occurs without some untoward events in the population, and in this instance, when the lives of millions could be affected, harming 1/500 seems like a small number but in 10,000,000 kids thats 20,000 children. Really the more mature approach would be to admit that we may harm 20,000 kids out of 10 million and the progress of science will learn how to avoid or protect the at-risk population so as to further lower those caught in the "friendly" fire of the war on infectious disease. Vaccine compensation program may help those affected, but the onus is on making this public policy measure safer each year.

The immune system is the most sophisticated of all biological systems due to molecular epitopic variability and the ability of each cell to undergo genetic rearrangements of MHC genes for protein expression; playing with this fiery system too much as we are by over-vaccinating only risks unnecessary side effects. Most auto-immune reactions take several stimuli to really upregulate a deleterious and difficult to control response resulting in clinical disease expression. Although understudied, there is significant immune system dysfunction in autistic individuals and autoimmune markers are often present in autistic children.

So wouldn't it be interesting to do some protocol comparisons? We could keep over-vaccinating some children plus add the thimerosal as preservative again on the full schedule and give others a number of protocols of lesser intensity without thimerosal. A prospective approach would appropriately actively monitor all vaccine recipients for acute side effects. The risk assessment for the development of all auto-immune phenomena over a 10 year window of follow-up could be robustly defined in this fashion. JRA, asthma, childhood MS, autism, and juvenile diabetes all seem to be on the rise in the last 15 years-maybe we are just better at diagnosing these diseases, although last I checked diagnosing diabetes is pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, there are few physicians with prestigious positions in public health and pediatrics in this country who have the guts to even try to find the grant money for a study that would connect the dots between auto-immune phenomena in children and number of vaccines received. Should such a study be performed one would bet it comes from outside such vaccine-entrenched camps, so don't blame Mrs. Weinmaster for the med-speak faux pas and what you would consider as citing seemingly inappropriate researchers, there simply are few who have any moxy for taking on the CDC with an MD behind their names and titleship and position should not detract from important observations, recall that a farm boy in Idaho actually invented the television.

Those who's salary and departmental funding is tied into the current dogma would consider doing the above study occupational suicide. Looking collectively at these auto-immune diseases in the context of vaccination intensity in childhood is really what is needed as anyone can parse out subtypes of auto-immune disease to the point that it appears there is no connection to vaccines so long as the prevalence of disease is below the threshold of statistical significance in the individual diseases. Group the diseases as variations on the same theme and then things get a bit more illustrative of a connection.

On a more progressive note, hopefully someone will pursue this multi-million dollar concept using the same idea for home pregnancy testing (modified ELISA or EMIT) for checking vaccine immunocompetency: One could simply create test strips for finger prick blood samples to give a "yes" or "no" titer check on all the various pediatric vaccines. This would allow us to easily check the need for various boosters annually without the need for more invasive and problematic phlebotomy. There is a probably a large market for this and the sooner it gets done the more likely it is the we will progress in our understanding of auto-immune diseases that are induced by unwarranted boosters. This approach would clearly be more scientific and evidence based, it may eventually render the current CDC schedule like the tobacco ads I have in my office at the hospital from the early 20th century glorifying the brands of cigarettes that are physician favorites; sadly amusing chaff of an older generation of MD's misguided dogma.

Edward Fogarty, M.D.

HERE's THE ORIGINAL POST:

AND YE SHALL KNOW THEM BY THEIR WORDS

A recent letter to the editor in the Lawrence Journal-World tells us everything we need to know about opponents of childhood immunization, most of whom cling to the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.The letter contains all the half truths, insinuations, and flat-out confabulations one would expect from a movement that long ago jettisoned science in favor of guerrilla marketing.To the editor:Health of our children under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to decline. The United States is ranked 41st in infant mortality. Who are the 40 countries that have lower rates of infant death?One in four children has asthma. One in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability. Could it be that we inject infants, on their day of birth, with hepatitis B vaccines that still contain up to three micrograms of neurotoxic mercury as well as aluminum?Where are the front page headlines when major autism researchers re-examine their research and say "oops" or when the Department of Justice conceded that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism?Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan both have a Ph.D. in medicine and had the courage to admit in the Journal of Child Neurology, "We have reanalyzed the data set forth originally reported in 2004 and have found that the original P value was in error and that a significant relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, the hair sample analysis results offer some support for the idea that persons with autism may be less efficient and more variable at eliminating mercury from the blood."We are failing our children's health. It is time to help stop poisoning kids.Linda Weinmaster,LawrenceSigh.First, the hepatitis B vaccine does not contain "up to three micrograms" of mercury. From the CDC's own website we learn:All hepatitis B vaccines intended for use in infants and children are free of thimerosal as a preservative, and an adequate supply of these vaccines is available for all infant and childhood vaccinations. This vaccine should be administered to all newborn infants and is a major cornerstone in the prevention of a potentially fatal disease in children and adults.A Google search for "hepatitis B vaccine" +thimerosal yields a bumper crop of quack medical sites, including Mercola.com which tells us Hep B contains up to 25 micrograms of mercury. This is nonsense. Anybody can spin a defamatory yarn, and some will continue to as long as newspapers publish them.Moving on, Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan are not "major autism researchers", nor were they the authors of the original paper they criticized, as letter's author wants us to believe. DeSoto and Hitlan do not each have a PhD in medicine because there is no such degree. They are PhD psychologists. Why does Weinmaster feel it is necessary to make stuff up? Did she not research her letter first? Or is she relying on fabrications to cover up a lack of evidence for her claims? Falsely proclaiming the two psychologists as medical experts confers a level of respectability that Weinmaster's claims do not deserve. The DeSoto paper does not prove that mercury causes autism. You can read a detailed critique of the DeSoto paper here.Despite what Weinmaster and her fellow travelers tell us, the Department of Justice did not "concede that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism" because there is no sound evidence that mercury in any form causes autism. This slur was lifted from fringe anti-vaccine groups who deliberately misread the respondent's notice in the ongoing Vaccine Court Hearings. The respondents told the special masters that vaccines caused a significant aggravation of an underlying condition in one of the petitioners' test cases. Serious adverse reactions do happen from time to time, which is why the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund was created 20 years ago.The oft-repeated claim that "one in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability," is a self-serving interpretation of normally distributed data on a bell curve. It's akin to saying that half of all children are below average. Here's a graphic explanation of the "one in six" canard.One in six children are below the standard deviation, and one in six are above.Yes, the US infant mortality rate is far too high, but there is no evidence that vaccines are to blame. Infant mortality tends to be a proxy for extreme poverty, and few developed countries with lower infant mortality rates have poverty rates close to that of the US. The best way to combat infant morality is with more prenatal screening and counseling, low cost or free health care, and education. Scaring parents into foregoing vaccinations for their children does not prevent deaths.We are failing our children's health. It is time to help stop poisoning parents' minds with phony conspiracies and fear mongering.

Dr. Miles Airs Today

Our package about Dr. Judith Miles airs today on KOMU. I'm really excited for you all to see it. Dr. Miles works at the Thompson Center which we featured earlier in the series here in Columbia. We thought that it was important to feature Dr. Miles in the series because she presents a side of the causation argument we've yet to feature. Also, it was a story on Dr. Miles' RhoGAM study that started this whole series. You can look at that study which found no link between thimerosal and autism on KOMU's website.

Go to the website to check out the story on Dr. Miles and take a look at our extra web features including a slideshow and a behind the scenes video.

You will also see Dr. Miles featured in the investigation portion of the series which will air next week.

Haley Airs Tonight

The package that introduces Dr. Haley airs tonight. The trip to Lexington, Kentucky was the first trip that the team took for the series, and it's nice to finally see the story air. We decided to include Dr. Boyd Haley in our series because we are addressing the vaccine debate and quite a bit of his research is regarding mercury toxicity, so he is a source for one side of the vaccine debate.

Check out Dr. Haley on the KOMU website to see what we've already posted and check back after the show tonight for more KOMU.com extras as well as a slideshow and a behind the scenes look at the trip.

And this isn't the only time you will see Dr. Haley. We feature him in our investigation portion of the series next week.

And ye shall know them by their words

A recent letter to the editor in the Lawrence Journal-World tells us everything we need to know about opponents of childhood immunization, most of whom cling to the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.

The letter contains all the half truths, insinuations, and flat-out confabulations one would expect from a movement that long ago jettisoned science in favor of guerrilla marketing.

To the editor:

Health of our children under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to decline. The United States is ranked 41st in infant mortality. Who are the 40 countries that have lower rates of infant death?

One in four children has asthma. One in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability. Could it be that we inject infants, on their day of birth, with hepatitis B vaccines that still contain up to three micrograms of neurotoxic mercury as well as aluminum?

Where are the front page headlines when major autism researchers re-examine their research and say "oops" or when the Department of Justice conceded that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism?

Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan both have a Ph.D. in medicine and had the courage to admit in the Journal of Child Neurology, “We have reanalyzed the data set forth originally reported in 2004 and have found that the original P value was in error and that a significant relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, the hair sample analysis results offer some support for the idea that persons with autism may be less efficient and more variable at eliminating mercury from the blood.”

We are failing our children’s health. It is time to help stop poisoning kids.

Linda Weinmaster,
Lawrence

Sigh.

First, the hepatitis B vaccine does not contain "up to three micrograms" of mercury. From the CDC's own website we learn:

All hepatitis B vaccines intended for use in infants and children are free of thimerosal as a preservative, and an adequate supply of these vaccines is available for all infant and childhood vaccinations. This vaccine should be administered to all newborn infants and is a major cornerstone in the prevention of a potentially fatal disease in children and adults.

A Google search for "hepatitis B vaccine" +thimerosal yields a bumper crop of quack medical sites, including Mercola.com which tells us Hep B contains up to 25 micrograms of mercury. This is nonsense. Anybody can spin a defamatory yarn, and some will continue to as long as newspapers publish them.

Moving on, Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan are not "major autism researchers", nor were they the authors of the original paper they criticized, as letter's author wants us to believe. DeSoto and Hitlan do not each have a PhD in medicine because there is no such degree. They are PhD psychologists. Why does Weinmaster feel it is necessary to make stuff up? Did she not research her letter first? Or is she relying on fabrications to cover up a lack of evidence for her claims? Falsely proclaiming the two psychologists as medical experts confers a level of respectability that Weinmaster's claims do not deserve. The DeSoto paper does not prove that mercury causes autism. You can read a detailed critique of the DeSoto paper here.

Despite what Weinmaster and her fellow travelers tell us, the Department of Justice did not "concede that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism" because there is no sound evidence that mercury in any form causes autism. This slur was lifted from fringe anti-vaccine groups who deliberately misread the respondent's notice in the ongoing Vaccine Court Hearings. The respondents told the special masters that vaccines caused a significant aggravation of an underlying condition in one of the petitioners' test cases. Serious adverse reactions do happen from time to time, which is why the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund was created 20 years ago.

The oft-repeated claim that "one in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability," is a self-serving interpretation of normally distributed data on a bell curve. It's akin to saying that half of all children are below average. Here's a graphic explanation of the "one in six" canard.


One in six children are below the standard deviation, and one in six are above.

Yes, the US infant mortality rate is far too high, but there is no evidence that vaccines are to blame. Infant mortality tends to be a proxy for extreme poverty, and few developed countries with lower infant mortality rates have poverty rates close to that of the US. The best way to combat infant morality is with more prenatal screening and counseling, low cost or free health care, and education. Scaring parents into foregoing vaccinations for their children does not prevent deaths.

We are failing our children’s health. It is time to help stop poisoning parents' minds with phony conspiracies and fear mongering.

Hey Bloggers

We are gearing up to start week three of the series!

Sunday we have our story with Dr. Boyd Haley.
Tuesday we have our story with Dr. Judith Miles.

Then we proceed to our investigation portion. As of right now we have four parts. We will most likely air two this week and two the following... but I will keep you posted.

I am flooded with emails and phone calls. I appreciate all of the feedback, but as you can imagine, I am very busy...Email is the best way to get into contact with me:

Areynolds.autism@gmail.com

Thank you so much for all your emails and comments!

Comments Air

We have an ombudsman project at KOMU. We discuss your comments this week. You can watch it here.

Your View

Local Resources

Today we featured local resources we have in Columbia to combat autism.
Check it out here
Resources

Dr. Rudolph Airs

Our segment about the trip to Kansas City just aired. We talk to Dr. Charles Rudolph about chelation therapy. Though this is a controversial topic, we thought it was important to show you because some people use it to treat autism.







Check out the story here.

You can also look at a behind the scenes video and a slideshow.

Hello from an Insider!

Hi from snowy Colorado - I have found your blog interesting so far - for those who don't know me, I'm 29, have autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, anxiety, am non-verbal, communicate via keyboards, am a graduate of Denver University with a dual degree in Psychology and Sociology, am President of Autcom aka the Autism National Committe, a member of the Panel of Advisors on the Spectrum for ASA, an advisory board member of Autism Perspective, on the Executive and Legislative Committees as well as the board of The Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council, an author, composer, award winning advocate, public speaker and consultant, and so much more! I will gladly share my story if you'd like and want to help children and adults with disabilities and their families, professionals, and other caregivers. Please feel free to ask me anything.

Sharisa Joy
sharisajoyshares@gmail.com
sharisajoy@aol.com
sharisajoyshares@comcast.net
sharisajoy@yahoo.com

Updates

Hey everyone!

Tomorrow we air our the story on chelation at 5pm.
Thursday we air our story on resources in Columbia at 5pm.

Also we have an ombudsman project at KOMU. We are going to go over comments we have gotten from the series via emails and here on the blog. This will air Friday and be online at http://www.komu.com/

Story from KOMU News at 10 - December 9, 2007

This story is now on http://www.komu.com/ on the series page.

This is part two of the Weinmaster family. We show you what Linda is doing to help Adam with his autism by alternative and natural treatments...

You can watch the story here

You will find video, script, and web extras...in the meantime... comment here about it!

For our Bloggers

Comment-Thimerosal (49.55% Hg) causes Hg Poisoning

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

Please consider the following realities about Thimerosal:

THIMESOSAL CAUSES MERCURY POISONING: AN OVERVIEW

Sub-acute mercury poisoning by Thimerosal manifests as clinical symptoms that include the set of symptoms used to diagnose autism. Thimerosal toxicity is a matter of the specific dose and Thimerosal's persistence in the parts of the body in a form that is toxic to thoseorgans, tissues, and/or fluids in which it ispresent at a level high enough to exert its toxic effects.

Moreover, because: · Thimerosal (49.55% mercury by weight), Thimerosal's initial mercury-containing solvolys is products (ethylmercury chloride [75.66 % mercury by weight] and ethylmercury hydroxide [81.28% mercury by weight]), and its final metabolites (tissue- incorporated "inorganic" mercury ("complexed" Hg2+") have all been proven to be highly toxic in short term.

Recent peer-reviewed published research studies [1] have clear established that some young children with a diagnosis in the autism spectrum ARE mercury poisoned and that their principal mercury exposure was from the Thimerosal-preserved vaccines they and, in some cases, their mothers' received and passed to them during pregnancy and breast feeding, and · Apparently, in Hanna Poling v. Sec. HHS (vaccine court case: 02-1466V), a "Thimerosal as a causal factor" test case in the vaccine court's Autism Omnibus, the federal government has conceded that the Thimerosal in the vaccines Hannah Poling received was a causal factor in the neuroencephalopathy-generated autism spectrum disorder symptoms that characterize Hannah Poling's vaccine injuries, there is no question that Thimerosal can causesub-acute mercury poisoning in some children injected with Thimerosal-containing vaccines to the point that the mercury-poisoned child will exhibit mercury-poisoning symptoms that include that set of symptoms used to diagnose an autism spectrum disorder.

Thus, the real question is when are vaccine apologists going to stop raising questions that have been answered and start admitting that Thimerosal-containing vaccines have mercury poisoned and are mercury-poisoning our children and ourselves to the point that some children and adults are sub-acutely mercury poisoned, and exhibit those symptoms that are used to in the diagnosis of a wide variety of neurodevelopmental (e.g., autistic disorder, pervasive developmentaldisorder - not otherwise specified [PDD-NOS],Asperger's, attention deficit disorder [ADD] andattention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD])and other disorders (asthma, diabetes, obesity, multiple sclerosis (MS), and food allergies) inour children, and, for those old enough to missthe prenatal and early childhood Thimerosal-poisoning, "dementias" (e.g., Alzheimer's) inourselves.

References:
1. a. Nataf R, et al. Poryphyrinuria in childhood autistic disorder: implications for environmental toxicity. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2006; 214: 99-108.

b. Geier DA, Geier MR. A prospective assessment of porphyrins in autistic disorders: a potential marker for heavy metal exposure. Neurotox Res 2006; 10: 57-64.

c. Geier DA, Geier MR. A case series of children with apparent mercury toxic encephalopathies manifesting with clinical symptoms of regressive autistic disorders. J Toxicol Environ Health A 2007; 70: 837-851.

Hopefully, the preceding realities have settled the issue of whether Thimerosal is a major causal factor in most children who have adiagnosis in the autism spectrum.

Respectfully,
Dr. King

Science Advisor for CoMeD, the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs:

http://www.mercury-freedrugs.org/

Comment-Autism and Journalistic Integrity

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR


To Ashley Reynolds and KOMU,

Thank you for delving into one of the most controversial areas of medicine and pediatrics with an open mind and a fair voice for individuals to share their stories. Autism is probably the most
complex neurobehavioral developmental disorder we will ever know on such a grand scale in our society. Dysfunction in the immune system, the gut and within critical hepato-renal detoxification enzyme pathways are making this an enigma for medicine and science. Focusing on one variable in such a multi-variate problem is in large part why its understanding is so elusive.

In a small but ever growing population of people, vaccines can have deleterious effects. There are small populations for which many seemingly innocuous insults to others are, in these individuals, quite deleterious. An average medical student can name one of the classic examples of such subpopulation susceptibility; xeroderma pigmentosa, in which individuals who have a genetic impairment that prevents correction of DNA damage suffered by ultraviolet light.
Miniscule amounts of UV light in these individuals leads to skin cancer. So too it is with autism, miniscule amounts of heavy metals are in many instances creating the initial havoc that leads to this derailment of development. Global intra-body increased half-life of heavy metals appears to exist in these children because one or a couple of a many genes involved in methylation and/or sulfation are poorly functioning.

Mercury and aluminum in vaccines are implicated in potentiating the derangement in this subpopulation, in addition to ambient heavy metals and other toxins in the environment. Its the heavy metals that medical science controls that are really the most important, simply be the fact that they are controllable exposures. Those who have the funds and research capabilites to prove this association definitively have yet to investigate the connection thoroughly in the
susceptible population for obvious legal and ethical ramifications of ignoring mothers for 20 years on this issue. Recall that for the first 20 years of autism being a named syndrome, the mothers were blamed for being the causative factor, that was when medical students were lucky to ever see an autistic child during their training.

Now that the epidemic is upon us, medical professionals need to pull our collective head out of the sand that keeps getting piled up by the last great American industry (pharmaceuticals) and start doing the brave science that will help these children. In many ways this could re-instill confidence by pursuing safer vaccinations and in particular safer vaccination protocols. The current protocols have NEVER be tested against lighter schedules even using the same vaccines (decreased boosters, more age appropriate timing of vaccines, etc). This comparison will lead to saving money in healthcare as a direct result of decreased vaccine purchasing and administration as well as indirectly through decreased incidence of side effects, speech delay being the most obvious and easiest to test as a safety indicator against the current ever burgeoning protocols.

Last month the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper by Amanna, Carlson and Slifka that indicates the duration of coverage of many vaccines exceeds the life span of the study population, by centuries in a longitudinal regression analysis of titer decay rates. This is good science to say we need to cut back on early life vaccinations. One shot may be all many children may need for coverage until much later in life on many of these childhood diseases. Boosters are likely causing much more harm than good for the profit of vaccine corporations.

The hypothesis that there really is a connection between vaccines and speech delays as well as an acceleration of autistic behaviors in a subpopulation that is susceptible to immunodysfunction and high heavy metal half-lives is a valid one that needs urgent study. The CDC and the FDA will be the last "watchdogs" to protect that science, for it is the very hypothesis that will prove a connection once the appropriate at risk population is selected. Thank you for protecting
the collective conversation and thought that can lead to such a hypothesis through investigating the stories of those like the Weinmasters who have legitimate concerns that this hypothesis may be correct, as do I.

Edward F. Fogarty, M.D.
Chairman of Radiology at the University of North Dakota School of
Medicine

Promo

Weinmaster Story Airs

The portion of the series about the Weinmaster family aired. I'm so excited to finally share this with you all.
They are a big football family trying to recover their son from autism. The family believes autism caused by mercury in vaccines.





I did a behind the scenes story and slide show of the family.
You can see it here.

Adam

Be sure to watch Sunday night for part 2 of Adam's story!

Please comment and tell us what you think of Adam's story.

Will Meets Snow

Many of you met our son Tuesday evening when KOMU aired a story on him. Yesterday, here in Columbia, Will met snow for the first time. During Ashley's interview, I mentioned how we celebrate the fact he looks at the world a little differently.

Yesterday, we were reminded not to take something as downright cool as snow for granted. Interestingly, Will's aversion to wearing something on his head gave way to this fantastic lid when he understood: "First hat. Then outside." (thanks to the deliberative skills of mama).



Please enjoy your weekend. We will, too.

Jeremy Airs

I started searching for an adult with autism at the end of September. I had a couple names of local adults with autism who were interested in the series but they were not interested in sharing their story with us on camera. It was a long process to find an adult with autism...but we did it!

Jeremy was willing to help us. It's now December and I'm thrilled that our viewers will finally see Ashley's interview with Jeremy. This past week, our viewers, who have followed this series from the blog's launch in September, saw all different types of families. Now you will have the opportunity to see someone on the other end of the spectrum, someone with aspergers syndrome.

Watch Jeremy

Please view links about aspergers syndrome and adults with autism at http://www.komu.com/. I also did a behind the scenes story and slide shows for Jeremy's story.

Comment-Questions to make people think

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

I love that you are doing a story on this. I have just a few comments, and a few questions. I'll also post some of my information and resources.

There are a lot of people that criticize what is said on the internet about this subject. In all fairness, there are a lot of kooks lurking around the net. However, say you had information of upmost importance to get out to people, and mainstream media wouldn't touch it. This is the case here, where most media is funded highly by drug companies that make money on vaccination, and therefore they have the upper hand. Where would you turn to get the word out? Certainly the internet is a great place to start. There are other ways to get information out to people, and you will certainly find those groups that are more involved and vocal. But you can't assume every piece of information on the net is false. The internet connects us in ways we never knew of before, and we can get information faster now than even 5 years ago.

Certainly if one is going to do their research and scrutinize everything they read, they should do so online AND with other resources. Which I have done. I am no expert, just a parent that is seeking the truth, and wanting the best for my child.

I started researching vaccines when I was pregnant. My mother in law told me that she had heard that autism might be linked to them since they are giving so many now. When I found out that they were trying to convince me that the chicken pox was a "deadly" disease that we had to vaccinate against, red flags went up... you're SUPPOSED to get chicken pox as a kid! I was also astounded that we needed to give a hepatitis B shot at birth. I don't claim to be a professional in the medical field, but I am certainly no dummy. I know a thing or two about a few diseases, and I know that hepatitis B is a blood infection that is transmitted by IV-sharing individuals, prostitutes and homosexuals. NOT newborns in sterile hospital nurseries. I thought the medical community had lost their minds when they said they NEEDED to vaccinate at birth for hepatitis B. That seemed OUTRAGEOUS to me! So my slight distrust for the medical community began. And it only escalated. (I should probably point out too, that my mom is a nurse, so I have always trusted my doctors.)

I researched enough to know I didnt want to do anything I wasn't comfortable with. Then came my son's two month checkup. I checked in that day and everything was fine. The nurse was bright and friendly and the pediatrician was gentle and sweet. Then I told her I was opting out of shots for that day. Suddenly the whole office seemed to turn on me. She filled my arms with paperwork from the CDC saying the risks of the diseases were great and that he was sure to die if I didnt vaccinate him. I told her I was uncomfortable with it based on what I have researched. Her response was something very similar to this: "The whole mercury in vaccine fiasco came about after a couple of doctors were sitting around at the CDC one day. One happened to mention as an afterthought that thimerosal had mercury in it and that might be harmful. Once that hit the media, it exploded into this nonsense about autism."

I was stunned. I didnt know if she actually believed that load or if she was trying to make something up on the spot. Anyone who has done 5 minutes of research into this knows that the medical community has fought this from the beginning. Besides, how can THOUSANDS of people have the EXACT SAME STORY about their kids regressing into autism after their 18 month MMR, and have it be a coincedence? I think not. So, my distrust for the medical community grew further.

I looked at her and said thanks. I'll keep that in mind as we're making our final decisions. She sighed heavily and walked out. Signing my paperwork as I was leaving was not so cheery as my check in. I haven't been back, and I don't intend to.

Our chiropractor is now our expert on health and wellness... our doctor, so to speak. But we now have a different idea of what health care should be. Doctors deal with sickness, not health. We'd rather take care of ourselves naturally and promote health rather than try and run from feeling sick. Health means your body is functioning properly - not that you arent feeling sick. Often times when you are sick, that means your body is functioning properly to rid your body of a disease. So we see health as an overall lifestyle, and take the good with the bad; not just "there's a pill for everything."

So thats a bit of my story... my son is 7 months old, unvaccinated and completely healthy. He has yet to contract something "deadly" like chicken pox. We are promoting health in our family by eating in a way that strengthens our immune systems, we dont use toxic anything in our home, we use homeopathic remedies, my son is breastfed and we take care of each other emotionally. Thats just a sliver of what we do to stay healthy.

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What follows is a little bit of my research, accompanied by a few questions that should make people think. I hope this helps!

From www.nvic.org - if you vaccinate, ask the following questions:

1. Is my child sick right now?
   
2. Has my child had a bad reaction to a vaccination before?
   
3. Does my child have a personal or family history of:

• vaccine reactions
• convulsions or neurological disorders
• severe allergies
• immune system disorders

1. Do I know if my child is at high risk of reacting?
   
2. Do I know how to identify a vaccine reaction?
   
3. Do I know how to report a vaccine reaction?
   
4. Do I know the vaccine manufacturer's name and lot number?
   
5. Do I know I have a choice?
   
   

More questions and information:

In regards to the theory that autism could be caused by genetics, how can you have an epidemic of a genetic disease? Why are genetics suddenly turning on us?

How can you justify injecting formaldeheyde into your baby? Aluminum? Antifreeze? Ether? Bovine serum? MSG? Polysorbate 80? Gelatin? Have you researched these ingredients to know if they are safe? Do you know that your digestive system is equipped to break down animal matter like chick eggs, and that your bloodstream is not equipped to handle it at all?

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol11no01/04-0632.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/downloads/chpt07_mumps.pdf

Do you trust a company that conducts studies on its own product? Of course not. So why do you trust pharmaceutical companies that test their own product? Do you know how their tests are conducted? Are you 100% sure that they are conducted with integrity? Espcially with so much money at stake?

Do you trust your parenting decisions enough to promote health and strengthen your child's imune system? Why would you need a vaccine to do that for you?

At age 2 months, do you know if your child is allergic to soy, yeast, or three seperate antibiotics? Did you know that they are being injected with them?

Would you feed your child genetically modified food products? Why would you inject them with genetically modified virus and bacteria products?

Would you let your child breathe the deadly mercury gas emitted from a broken spiral florescent lightbulb, or play with the mercury in an old thermometer? Why would you let your doctor inject it into them, especially prior to age 1 when their liver and gall bladders are not fully functioning to detoxify the body of heavy metals such as mercury, causing it to be stored in vulnerable brain tissue?

Did you know that if a vial of vaccine with thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, falls on the floor and breaks, it is hazardous waste and needs to be cleaned up by haz-mat certified professionals so nobody gets exposed to it. (Vaccines can be called "mercury free" if they have less than 3 mcg in them, although the standard limit is 1mcg)

Did you know that the Rotovirus vaccine was pulled from the market the first time it was added to the CDC Schedule for causing bowel obstructions and killing several children? This was discovered after it was on the market because of the rush through safety tests funded and run by the manufacturer.

IF you trust vaccines so much, why do you discourage unvaxed kids from being in public school with vaxed kids? If they worked it would only harm the kids whose parents knew there was a risk. Where did we get this idea that children are born disease ridden?

Who gets rich off the vaccines? Is it safe to accept the opinion of members of the FDA and CDC advisory commitees when they own stock or have worked for the pharm companies?

IF the flu vaccine worked why, when there are years that the vaccines are for strains that are in the US, then years when the vaccines are for strains that never made it to the US, are the death and fatality rate not drasticaly different?

$75,000 Offered For MD to Publicly Drink Vaccine Additives

Jock Doubleday, director of the California non-profit corporation Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc., has offered $75,000 to the first medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO who publicly drinks a mixture of standard vaccine additives. The additives would be the same as those contained in the vaccines recommended for a 6-year-old according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and the dose would be body-weight calibrated.

It would include, but not be limited to:
• Thimerosal (a mercury derivative)
• Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
• Phenol (a disinfectant dye)
• Aluminum
• Benzethonium chloride (a disinfectant)
• Formaldehyde (a preservative and disinfectant)

On August 1, 2007, if no one has taken the challenge, the offer will be increased to $90,000 and will increase at a rate of $5,000 per month until someone accepts.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/07/19/75-000-offered-for-md-to-publicly-drink-vaccine-additives.aspx

Do the research for yourself!
http://www.whale.to/vaccines.html
www.nvic.org
www.vaclib.org
www.drtenpenny.com
www.thinktwice.com
www.mercola.com

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Vaccine ingredients: (see above CDC vaccine ingredient posting for more information)

Ammonium Sulfate
Suspected gastrointestinal, liver, nerve and respiratory system poison.

Beta-propilactone
Known to cause cancer, suspected gastrointestinal, liver, respiratory, skin and sense organ poison

Genetically modified yeast, animal, bacterial and viral DNA
Can be incorporated into the recipient's DNA and cause genetic mutations.

Latex Rubber
Can cause life-threatening allergic reactions

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Being studdied for mutagenic, teratogenic (developmental malformation and monstrosities) and reproductive effects. A neurotoxinAllergic reactions range from mild to severe.

Aluminum
Implicated as a cause of brain damage, suspected factor in alzeheimers, dementia, seizures and comas. Allergic reactions can occur on skin.

Formaldehyde
Major constituent of embalming fluid; poisonous if ingested. Probable carcinogen; suspected gastrointestinal, liver, immune system, nerve, reproductive system and respiratory poison. Linked to lukemia, brain, colon and lymphatic cancers. (So toxic that when working with it, you must have your face covered so you dont breathe in too many of the fumes... and we're injecting ourselves with it.)

Micro-Organisms
Live and killed viri and bacteria or their toxins. The polio vaccine was contaminated with a monkey virus now turning up in human bone, lung lining, brain tumors and lymphomas.

Polysorbate 80
Known to cause cancer in animals

Tri(n)butylphosphate
Suspected nerve and kidney poison

Glutaraldehyde
Poisonous if injected. Causes birth defects in experimental animals

Gelatin
Produced from pieces of calf and cattle skins, de-minerialized cattle bones and pork skin. Allergic reactions have been reported.

Gentamicin sulfate and polymyxin B
Allergic reactions can range from mild to life threatening.

Mercury (Thimerosal)
One of the most poisonous substances known. Has an affinity for the brain, gut, liver, bone-marrow and kidneys. Minute amounts can cause nerve damage. Symptoms of mercury toxocity are similar to those of autism.

Neomycin Sulfate
Interferes with Vitamin B6 absorption. An error in the update of B6 can cause a form of epilepsy and mental retardation. Allergic reactions can be mild to life-threatening.

Phenol / phenoxyethanol (2-pe)
Used as an antifreeze. Toxic to all cells and cabable of disabling the immune system's primary response mechanism.

Human and animal cells
Human cells from aborted fetal tissue and human albumin. Pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain, guinea pig, dog kidney, cow heart, monkey kidney, chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg, calf serum, sheep blood and others.

" A major cause of the roman empire's decline after 6 centuries of world dominance was its replacement of stone aqueducts by lead pipes for the transport and supply of drinking water. Roman engineers, the best in the world, turned their fellow citizens into neurological cripples. Today, our own "best and brightest" with the best of intentions, achieve the same end through childhood vaccination programs yeilding the modern scourges of hyperactivity, learning disabilities, autism, appetite disorders, and impulsive violence."
-Harris L. Coulter, Ph. D
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Okay, everyone. We know all about the toxic ingredients in vaccines. We have all heard about the mercury / autism debate. What we havent covered is what a vaccine actually DOES to your body.

This is not just speculation from my limited high school biology background. This information comes from a chiropractor here in Colorado Springs who periodically does information sessions for the community on the effects of vaccines. If anyone is near Colorado Springs and would like to know when the next session is, please message me and let me know. It is great information.

In laymans terms, the immune system has two facets. There is the cellular response to viruses and disease, and there is the antibody response. The cellular response recieves diseases naturally, has time to recognize, process and weaken the diseases before passing the information off to the antibody response. Then the antibody response kicks in and creates memory cells that recognize the disease and remembers how to fight it for next time. These two facets MUST be in balance or the immune system becomes damaged permanently.

Here's the thing. Were you to get a disease or virus NATURALLY, your body would use all its natural defenses to receive it, weaken it and fight it off before the antibody response starts. It'd have to pass your skin, your stomach lining, your sinuses, your lungs, etc - all the natural defenses our bodies have BEFORE showing up in the blood stream. But when you inject a vaccine into your system, you are bypassing ALL your body's natural defenses and forcing your body's antibody response to shoot through the roof.

This causes the cellular response to weaken.

The more you vaccinate, the weaker your cellular response becomes.

Eventually it will shut down and make you more suseptible to diseases because your body wont recognize a disease or fight it off until its too late - the antibody response is trained to be in supermode. The cellular response goes, "what we were doing before obviuosly didnt work since it made it into the blood stream without us knowing about it, so there's no point in trying anymore." ESPECIALLY in newborn babies and infants, we are training their immune systems FROM THE BEGINNING to operate un-naturally.

A few more things to keep in mind. Vaccines have to be cultured on live tissue. They are cultured on monkeys, dogs, cows, pigs, etc. There are also 13 vaccines currently on the market that are cultured on aborted human fetal tissue. For me as a christian, that was a huge deal. Now, for those that are cultured on a foreign agent such as a monkey kidney, the virus's RNA will take the form of the monkey's DNA which morphs the original virus into an entirely new disease. The thing is this: a monkey's DNA and a human's DNA are 99.9% alike. BUT that .1% is the difference between a monkey and a human!!! So to get a vaccine that is 99.9% like the original means the difference between two completely diametrically different things. When you inject something into yourself that has taken the form of a monkey, your body can not process it the same that a naturally occuring human disease would.

He also said this: a "long term study" is defined by the CDC and the FDA...

as 14 days.

Not years. Not decades, not even months! 14 days. Which, by the way, is less time than the flu incubates in your body before showing symptoms. Imagine the effects that a convoluted monkey / human disease will take - decades later!!! Back in the 60's and 70s the polio vaccine was made a certain way on monkey tissue which created a by-product disease called SV40. SV40 is now known to cause ALL KINDS of cancer. Breast cancer, bone cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, etc. And the scary thing: it crossed the plancental barrier and is causing cancer and diabetes in kids now. They are saying it will take up to 5 GENERATIONS to get all that thing out of our systems.

Who is to say that they "fixed" that with modern vaccines? They are still using monkeys, cows, etc. for culturing diseases.

Several of the CDC and the FDA members that vote on the vaccines being given on the market today own patents for them. The CDC allows members THREE conflict of interest WAIVERS every year. No questions asked. Is public health REALLY their only concern?

One more thing and I'll be done. Therer is NO LONGER independent medical research firms. They are all dummy companies for the big pharmaceutical corporations. AND, anyone in a scientific field will tell you that if you have an agenda, you can twist "results" to your liking. If a dummy company does "research" on a vaccine or pill and comes up with results that the big company didnt like, they FIRE the head researcher and replace him with someone that will give them the results they want.

Lets not be dummies for the medical industry - which is exactly what this is. Your pediatrician gets PAID to give vaccines - thats a HUGE part of their paycheck!!! Of COURSE they are going to promote and push them! Follow the money trail and you will almost always find that its good for someone's checkbook to give you some drug, pill or vaccine. Doctors arent bad people - they are just doing what they are told and taught. And its scary.

Thats all - I hope this helps!

Rachel

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Success is never ending; failure is never final