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!
6 comments:
Ashley, you make it sound certain that Adam's lead and copper levels have come down. Do you know that for sure? If so, how did you confirm that?
If you are going to report that some people think mercury is linked to autism, it would be more informative if you explained the proposed mechanism for the link. Then, if you produced a simple graphic comparing the symptoms of mercury poisoning and autism, your viewers would see they have little in common. That would bring some balance to this report.
I know you have promised to show both sides of the debate (and among real scientists, there is little debate on the vaccine-mercury link), but don't you think each report should stand by itself as a model of balance? If someone only saw Sunday's episode, she might form an opinion that coprophyrin urine tests are a reliable measure of mercury toxicity, when the opposite is true.
So porphyrin levels are not a potential link to mercury toxicity at all?
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Heavy metals may be implicated in autism
Section: In brief: Research news and discovery
URINE samples from hundreds of French children have yielded evidence for a link between autism and exposure to heavy metals. If validated, the findings might mean some cases of autism could be treated with drugs that purge the body of heavy metals.
Samples from children with autism contained abnormally high levels of a family of proteins called porphyrins, which are precursors in the production of haem, the oxygen-carrying component in haemoglobin. Heavy metals block haem production, causing porphyrins to accumulate in urine. Concentrations of one molecule, coproporphyrin, were 2.6 times as high in urine from children with autism as in controls.
Autism is thought to have a number of unknown genetic and environmental causes. Richard Lathe of Pieta Research in Edinburgh, UK, says he has found one of these factors. "It's highly likely that heavy metals are responsible for childhood autistic disorder in a majority of cases," he claims. The study will appear in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology.
Lathe says these porphyrin metabolites bind to receptors in the brain and have been linked with epilepsy and autism.
The researchers restored porphyrin concentrations to normal in 12 children by treating them with "chelation" drugs that mop up heavy metals and are then excreted. It is not yet known whether the children's symptoms have eased, but Lathe cites anecdotal reports suggesting the drugs might do some good.
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I said coprophyrin urine tests are not a reliable measure of mercury toxicity. True statement.
ANBautismnewsbeatken
Your opinion is the urinary porphyry profile is not a good measure for mercury toxicity. It does not show the total body burden which would be much higher than wh is in the urine. Where do you get your information? Are we suppose to take the word of a nameless poster? What are your credentials? It has been accepted as the most reliable test to measure mercury poisoning for almost 15 years and is preformed by Lab Corp of America one of the largest laboratories in the country.
We do monthly lab work on all metals so we can watch as the levels went from way out of range like copper 1340 ref range of 3-35; arsenic 330 ref range of 0-50; lead 110 ref range 0-80; cobalt 37 ref range 1-2 . These levels have decreased drastically. If you email me I would be happy to share them with you. You claim you have a child on the spectrum. Tell us about your child. Have you check for heavy metals? What do you base your questioning of what my child's lab work is without any knowledge? I have many relatives that are doctors, dentists and nurses. Most have seen Adam labs and agree he is heavy metal toxic. My dad is a retired orthodontist and he went to his professional building of dentist, internal medicine doctors, oral surgeon and GP’s to tell them about the mercury in vaccines. Not one of the doctors was aware and all were shocked by this information. One GP threw away all his mercury flu vaccines in 2003 and ordered new ones without mercury, when they came in he was shocked, they still had mercury. My pediatrician even wrote those words on Adam's physical.
Ashley did an excellent job showing an array of children on the spectrum doing different therapies that help their children. I have done almost every therapy with Adam and they all have helped to some degree. Chelation has helped the most. My greatest concern is improving my sons health so he feel better. No one can learn when they are in pain.
You continue to say real scientist, who are you talking about? The amount of information they have presented in 5-6 minutes is amazing, it would take much longer to explain system failures that mercury causes.
What can you add to help those of us that are struggling with very sick children? It seems is all you do is nit pick. I hope you are being paid well. The mercury is safe and does not cause autism is the story we hear everyday. Where's the proof? This story is the most balanced and thorough investigation of this issue I have seen.
Linda Weinmaster
ANB said...
I said coprophyrin urine tests are not a reliable measure of mercury toxicity. True statement.
ANB:
Then what do you suggest as a reliable measure of mercury toxicity in the human body?
The content of urine varies varies between individuals, so it's necessary to measure a secondary constant element from the urine and report the result as a ratio. This is what Nataf, and Geier did in their studies, the only studies I am aware of that hypothesize porphyrin testing is accurate for mercury. Those studies used creatinine - a constant in urine - to provide a baseline figure for an accurate percentage of porphyrins.
This is a standard way for measuring compounds in urine. But what happens when the population being studied has significantly low levels of creatinine? Obviously, this would present a false reading of elevated porphyrins.
Is there reason to believe that autistic kids have low creatinine in autistic kids? It seems so.
"Spot urinary creatinine excretion in pervasive developmental disorders" published in Pediatrics International, reports "a significant decrease in urinary creatinine concentration was found in the PDD group compared to controls using a Mann–Whitney two-tailed ranks test."
The facts is that porphyrin testing for mercury has not been studied adequately, and thus not reliable. Again, that is a true statement.
Thanks for the dialog. My motive for writing this is that I am deeply concerned about bad science and media-driven misrepresentations, and the lack of focus on peer reviewed science which leads to good educational interventions for all autistic people.
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