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More Evidence of Increase in Profound Autism
I am Jack's username writes "The New York times has an article (no registration required) about an increase in profound autism in California of 273% between 1987 and 1998. Between 1999 and 2001 more than 6 500 cases were reported, similar to the number reported between 1970 to 1995. The increase cannot be accounted for by misdiagnosis, increased awareness, childhood immunizations, emigration, birth injuries, and genetics. Some autism experts think the actual cases to be dramatically more than reported in the UC study. See also previous discussions about high-function geek rich areas like silicon valley."
I know very little of the condition, but considering autistic people have some extraordinary abilities, is it possible this could be an evolutionary step?
the state that also invented "Epstein-Barr", second hand smoke, and ADD.. hypochondriacs from San Diego to Sacremento
Intelligent Life on Earth
Surely the way to chase this down is to get some clever cross-disciplinary folk on the case. Meanwhile, here's two links that don't require registration:
The Independant's version of the same story.
The BBC is bringing up the MMR "link".
I mean they say that a baby breaths in twice the carsinogens in thre first day of life in california than what has been deemed safe for a life time.
what is the autism rate in other parts of the country or the world?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Current theories suggest it's more like sickle-cell mutations. If you have 'half' of autism, you're good at living within your mind/interacting with machines and information - the classic 'geek' skills.
:}
However, breed the right mix together and you get the full whammy, an individual incapable of interacting with social 'reality' at all. As of yet, there's no "niche" for the poor kids (no evolutionary advantage off getting on Maury Povich), but maybe they'd be killer ML coders had we direct-brain interfaces.
If this *is* a consequence of "geek inbreeding," it'd be interesting to consider the sociological factors that make it so widespread.
Of course, I don't think they've ruled out environmental factors yet, either. Could be another thalidomide at play.
This is also being discussed over at kuro5hin.
The cake is a pie
Could it be accounted for because of the change in population over the last few years in California? Perhaps there are more people having children now than before in that area, as it is becoming a place full of younger people, more apt to have children in order to start a family.
This is getting much talk in the conspiracy circles.
Many think the leading cause for autism comes from the regiment of shots we give our kids from birth to a few years of age.
I have to admit, it's alot of shots these days, and there's clear economic motives for the makers.
Funny thing is, if you scrutinize this, they label you a wacko, or some extreme religious zealot (because of stories of a parent's kid dying because the parent refused treatment based on religion.)
Just go to the news groups and do searches for this type of stuff. It's some very interesting reading.
I refused chicken pox (not smallpox) for my first two kids. It was just becoming mandatory in schools, then when they figured out that many babies were getting deadly disentary, they backed off.
It's crazy when you take your kid in, and get 4 different shots on some occasions.
Parents in the study were asked what might have caused their child's autism. Nearly half the parents in both groups said they did not know. A third blamed genetics; smaller numbers cited immunizations, birth injury or environmental factors.
So, just about half of parents are intellectually honest, then. We don't know what causes autism--there is nothing approaching a consensus among researchers, and there are few well-designed studies that even suggest a possible cause. Asking parents what caused their child's autism is like asking a non-technical person why their hard drive crashed. The answer as likely as not will be "I dunno, maybe I've got a virus?" Interesting for investigating the biases of the hapless user, but not a useful diagnosis.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I'm just surprised that nobody in the study thought to blame living near power lines--unless that's an "environmental factor".
Hypothesis: The incidence of autism is higher because children aren't being allowed to eat enough dirt. Exposure to more microorganisms when young strengthens the immune system. There exists a microbe (virus, perhaps) as-yet-uncharacterized that causes autism. (This happens sometimes with diseases. For example, most stomach ulcers are caused by the bacterium h. pylori and can often be cured with antibiotic therapy. This fact only came to light very recently, after decades of assuming that ulcers were essentially untreatable.) Children's weaker immune systems don't fight this pathogen as effectively as they used to, so they develop autism more frequently.
Solution: Feed all young children dirt.
This hypothesis actually has about as much grounding as many of the other suggested causes of autism. Based on very weak evidence, some parents have started to avoid immunizing their children, putting them at much greater risk for measles and other potentially deadly diseases. Bless the internet and its unquestioned authority on medicine.
~Idarubicin
Some forms of autism make one not like to be around people. I wonder if I have some of that. People who talk too much about non-geek things drive me crackers. Some people just cannot shuddup. My mom, for example, can stretch a 2-minute story into a 20-minute one by providing details that are useless to the story, but I cannot tell her off because she is my mom. She is the reader's digest in reverse.
Mild autism may be what makes a lot of geeks geeks. You never know.
Table-ized A.I.
What's changed in a big way in the last twenty years? Fast food. Tolerance for fat people.
So this is what happens when all those parents spend too much time reading /. and sucking up monitor radiation!
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
From the article...
meaning they suffered from a brain disorder that left them unable to speak or compulsively performing repetitive motions like flapping their arms or rocking.
So this is what afflicts all of our programmers, and I thought it was because our marketing department keeps saying the product will be released next week when we are still in beta...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
California is no where near as polluted as it used to be. There are many other areas of the US which are substantially worse (Houstan, Atlanta). In addition, if it were an issue of pollution, you'd see substantial differences in Southern California, where smog hangs over the city, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where the prevailing winds blow most of the smog eastward.
The cake is a pie
"...will have to suffer their entire lives as unattractive and anti-social."
Austism has no connection with how you look. In some cases there may be other complications from the autistic person, such as downs, but that's a whole differnt disorder.
"It's nothing more than just an enhanced perception of life"
I can't really blame you for thinking of Rainman or other similar cases when thinking of autism, but to think that the average person is made better by this disorder is kind of ignorant. In most cases, it's not only a person's social development that is slowed/stopped/messed up. In fact, their cognative levels are supressed throughout their life.
Be a man! View at -1
acm.cs.uwec.edu
There is some pretty compelling evidence that gluten, a grain protein, triggers autism. Many parents of formerly autistic (!) children swear that a gluten-free diet "cured" their child's autism.
For some unknown reason the medical/scientific community has been very resistant to studying this phenomenon.
-Peter
The Telegraph had an article back in February of last year (no longer available) that set the rate of autism in the UK at 1 in 175 children, or 58 out of every 10,000 (compared to the 10 in 10,000 rate reported in California.)
/.'ers may find Mercola's website hard to stomach, since he's going to tell you to exercise and to stop eating McD's fries and twinkies. ;-)
The evidence is becoming very persuasive that immunizations do bear a large portion of the blame. See the National Vaccine Information Center for some good articles on links to this and other complications.
For our part, after reading dozens of books and talking to as many people, we made the decision not to vaccinate our now six year old. (Commence the flamebait about how we're playing with fire, yadda yadda yadda...)
Dr. Mercola, a naturopathic doctor out of Chicago, also has many good articles about the possible causes of austism. WARNING:
Crocuta
This was an interesting article in wired a while ago.
Asperger's Syndrome is considered very high functioning Autism. Where the person still has some signs of autism, but isn't as extreme as most cases.
There is a wonder in the psych community about whether or not technically inclination and/or mathematically inclination has any correlation to autism. If so, it gives an interesting window into autism.
Wired refers to Asperger's as the "Geek Syndrome." It discusses this boom of autism in California.
Here's the link to the Wired Article (The Geek Syndrome).
~ kjrose
I read an article about autism in Silicon Valley in Wired several months ago. In the article, they described one of the common tests used to determine whether a child is autistic. The test is done with a puppet show, something kids can understand.
Bob and Sally (two puppets) are in a room. Sally has a ball. Sally puts her ball in a box, and goes outside to play. Bob takes Sally's ball out of the box, and puts it in a basket across the room. Sally comes back inside, and wants her ball. Where does she look for it first?
An autistic child doesn't recognize that what he/she knows (Bob moved the ball) is different than what Sally knows (she left it in the box, and wasn't there when Bob moved it).
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
If you think autism is "an enhanced perception of life," you are terribly misinformed.
Please, go spend some time with autistic children. Between your comments, those about "California hypochondriacs", and about evolution(!?), I am surprised at the level of ignorance about this disease. It is a profound illness, not just lonely smart kids. Not even close.
Flat5
I'll bite ...
... but they are certainly peer-reviewed, and not completely anecdotal!)
...
What economic motives are there for vaccine makers to produce a product that could cause autism?
Just FYI, most of the employees at the vaccine company I am familiar with insist on their families being inoculated with the vaccine produced by that company. They are aware of the stringent testing, QA/QC and improvements in the products made by the company. Of course, all vaccine manufacturers have to meet an extremely high standard of quality now, but it shows you the loyalty and security that these employees feel about their employer's products.
As for searching the newsgroups, I have to just laugh. What an unbiased and peer-reviewed source! (Admittedly, not all scientific publications can be regarded as unbiased
With the recent upsurge of panicked parents refusing to let their children be vaccinated, I'm (pessimistically) awaiting the return of the scourges that our grandparents used to fear
YS
"Arrr! The laws of science be a harsh mistress." -- Bender
Could I suggest that people who are really interested about vaccines consult references on both sides of the story? Or even read something based on facts, on scientific methods, peer-reviewed (scientific publications in refereed journals)?
/.! Never mind. ;-)
Oh, wait, this is
YS
"Arrr! The laws of science be a harsh mistress." -- Bender
However, there is no shortage of theories to explain the surge in autism. There are two of them that seem to deserve some research:
- Autism is caused by mercury (thimerosal) in vaccines.
- Autism is caused by methylmercury in fish, when eaten during pregnancy.
The FDA already discourages eating some types of fish during pregnancy (they even publish mercury levels in seafood).Look we need to de-generalize this thread a bit. Austism ranges from the profoundly disfunctional to the almost normal.
Some studies suggest a genetic link, others suggest environmental triggers. I suspect both will be validated at some point. Consider that autism has been around and documented for centuries - "idiot savants" - yet why a huge increase now?
Some suspect the MMR vaccine since the disease manifests around that time period.
As far as the autism spectrum goes it covers several "disorders". My son is either Asperger's or PDD-NOS (pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified) but seems normal to most people at surface glance. He is high-strung, and needs support for social situations but is extremely bright. He was reading at age 3 and doing base 2 math, multiplication and division at age 5.
In today's world he will be academically very gifted and socially completely disadvantaged. Yet the strange thing is that he is simply expressing traits my wife and I both possess more strongly than we did.
Once I starting reading the literature dealing with my son's condition it became obvious that I expressed many of these traits as a child. My wife was gifted but not as socially challenged. Once I figured things out I was able to appear mostly normal....well that's subjective I suppose.
So - my suspicion based on my experience and that of the parents around us in our support groups is one of two possibilities:
1. That autistic traits are caused by genetic and environmental factors and the environmental factors are increasing in severity....
OR
2. It is genetic and becoming more prevalent because male and female "geeks" are now allowed to co-exist. Perhaps this is nothing more than a result of women's equality allowing women and men to meet their true peers. Consider that in the "old days" women that were mentally gifted did not become doctors or computer programmers. Even 30 years ago it was not common to see female doctors or lawyers - yes they existed but compared to today where parity is finally beginning to show...
I suspect number 2 is more likely and unfortunately since evolution is currently suppressed for humanity thanks to our advances we cannot tell how this will affect our race. Our son will do well aside from some challenges socially, but do we tell him to marry someone dumb or not to have kids?
This sig contains a manual self-destruct. Kindly please put your foot through your monitor in 8 seconds.
I suggest you increase your "experiences" a bit more and read up on autism here.
:-)
Or check this out. It's a list of symptoms from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (commonly referred to as "The DSM IV").
Sure, a lot of us geeks fit the criteria, but one must be very careful to not confuse introversion with autism.
This new epidemic in California is probably just a bunch of really smart people having children together.
Have they attempted to corrolate it at all with both parents starting families later in life?
Most of my friends (the very beginning of gen-x, born in the late 60s) started their families late. Even though we were 25 when we had our son (and I thought that was late... couple of years out of college), many just got started a year or so ago.
There's a good amount of data on chromosonal damage beginning in the thirties, including a real decline in late 30s. Add that to everyone using fertility drugs (hint: you're starting too late) and people having second and third kids in their 40s, and you've got to have more problems.
I'd expect this trend to be even stronger on the west coast where being a DINK is a class statement (and often necessary requirement to get that BMW 5 series, 5,000+ sq. foot house, clothes, etc).
*scoove*
What about other areas with a high density of intelligent people? OR what does Silicon Valley have that no other area does?
I have no idea what causes the problem but neither does anyone else.
This gluten story is typical of bullshitotherapists. What happens is that *some* people have an intolerance to gluten (I think it's called coelial disease), and their body reacts badly to it, with very different symptoms from person to person.
It happens that, among those few people who have this disorder, the symptoms can look like ADHD or Autism. But those persons do not have ADHD or Autism, they really have gluten intolerance! The problem is that, IIRC, this disorder is pretty difficult to diagnose, and since it's quite rare, and as a result of the confusing symptoms, most of the victims are not properly treated.
Now here comes the bullshitotherapist stupidity: blame ADHD and Autism on gluten. Et voila!
But yeah, if you suffer from this gluten problem, and you stop eating gluten altogether, the symptoms will usually go away; now the difference is that psychostimulants won't do a thing to those people: they will still have the ADHD-like symptoms. Conversely, people with real ADHD won't get any benefit from removing gluten from their diet, they'll just waste a lot of their time.
>>There's a good amount of data on chromosonal damage beginning in the thirties, including a real decline in late 30s.
Got any links? I haven't heard of that before.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
A couple of years ago I heard a story on All Things Considered that was about a gentleman who had opened what is basically a free/open repository of genome info on families with autism.
The reason he'd done this is because his son was autistic, and he discovered that biomed research firms were fscking patenting autistic genes to ensure that if a cure was ever found they'd reap huge profits from the treatment. This landrush for intellectual property also had the nasty side effect of killing just about any collaborative research effort for a cure or treatment... no one could get samples to work with. And the companies doing this weren't even trying to protect their own research projects.... they were just sitting on the damn knowledge (or rather, rights to the knowledge).
Now we've got stuff like the CAN Foundation and AGRE, so hopefully there's a shot at developing an answer other than, "Uhhhh.... just stick Rain Man in the looney bin and get on with your life." Hopefully a cure can be found, and failing that a treatment or at least we can figure out what the fsck causes it.
But I can't help but wonder if this "epidemic" might not have been preventable (or at least mitigated) if some greedy bastards had actually used their talents to help other people instead of making the downpayment on the Lexus.
Funny this has come up now, as I've been thinking about autism, in particular the high functioning versions for a while now, as it appears I have something called Asperger's Syndrome.
Basically it's a mild form of autism - check this out:
Many individuals with Asperger's lead highly productive lives, in highly specialised fields such as academia. Nevertheless, their behaviour is often slightly abnormal - perhaps lacking social skills even if they are more socially aware and willing to interact than people with other kinds of autism. Often someone with Asperger's may be obsessed with complex topics such as music, history, or the weather, and have above average verbal skills. But in some cases, the voice appears to be flat and lacking in emotion, speech can be stilted and repetitive, and conversations tend to revolve around self rather than others. Many have dyslexia or writing problems - and can appear to lack common sense.
...Now is it just me or does that sound like the average geek??
Now.. dotcom boom, THOUSANDS of geeks emigrate to California and in particular the Silicon Valley area. Many of these people were part of failed dotcom startups and relocated to other areas; some were part of successful startups and relocated to other areas. These people have children, and as autism disorders are typically hereditary, I find it as no surprise that their children have a high probability of having autistic disorders.
The following data is lifted directly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/autism/au
Epidemiologic studies have shown no relationship between MMR vaccination in children and development of autism:
* In 1997, the National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES) was examined to see if there was any link between measles vaccine and neurological events. The researchers found no indication that measles vaccine contributes to the development of long-term neurological damage, including educational and behavioral deficits (Miller et al., 1997).
* A study by Gillberg and Heijbel (1998) examined the prevalence of autism in children born in Sweden from 1975-1984. There was no difference in the prevalence of autism among children born before the introduction of the MMR vaccine in Sweden and those born after the vaccine was introduced.
* In 1999, the British Committee on Safety of Medicines convened a "Working Party on MMR Vaccine" to conduct a systematic review of reports of autism, gastrointestinal disease, and similar disorders after receipt of MMR or measles/rubella vaccine. It was concluded that the available information did not support the posited associations between MMR and autism and other disorders.
* Taylor and colleagues (1999) studied 498 children with autism in the UK and found the age at which they were diagnosed was the same regardless of whether they received the MMR vaccine before or after 18 months of age or whether they were never vaccinated. Importantly, the first signs or diagnoses of autism were not more likely to occur within time periods following MMR vaccination than during other time periods. Also, there was no sudden increase in cases of autism after the introduction of MMR vaccine in the UK. Such a jump would have been expected if MMR vaccine was causing a substantial increase in autism.
* Kaye and colleagues (2001) assessed the relationship between the risk of autism among children in the UK and MMR vaccine. Among a subgroup of boys aged 2-5 years, the risk of autism increased almost 4 fold from 1988 to 1993, while MMR vaccination coverage remained constant at approximately 95% over these same years.
* Researchers in the U.S. found that among children born between 1980 and 1994 and enrolled in California kindergartens, there was a 373% relative increase in autism cases, though the relative increase in MMR vaccine coverage by the age of 24 months was only 14% (Dales et al., 2001). For more on this study, see California Data on Theory of Autism and MMR Immunization.
* Researchers in the UK (Frombonne & Chakrabarti, 2001) conducted a study to test the idea that a new form, or "new variant," of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) exists. This new variant IBD has been described as a combination of developmental regression and gastrointestinal symptoms occurring shortly after MMR immunization. Information on 96 children (95 immunized with MMR) who were born between 1992 and 1995 and were diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder were compared with data from 2 groups of autistic patients (one group of 98 born before MMR was ever used and one group of 68 who were likely to have received MMR vaccine). No evidence was found to support a new syndrome of MMR-induced IBD/autism. For instance, the researchers found that there were no differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups with regard to when their parents first became concerned about their child's development. Similarly, the rate of developmental regression reported in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups was not different; therefore, there was no suggestion that developmental regression had increased in frequency since MMR was introduced. Of the 96 children in the first group, no inflammatory bowel disorder was reported. Furthermore, there was no association found between developmental regression and gastrointestinal symptoms.
* Another group of researchers in the UK (Taylor et al., 2002) also examined whether MMR vaccination is associated with bowel problems and developmental regression in children with autism, looking for evidence of a "new variant" form of IBD/autism. The study included 278 cases of children with autism and 195 with atypical autism (cases with many of the features of childhood autism but not quite meeting the required criteria for that diagnosis, or with atypical features such as onset of symptoms after the age of 3 years). The cases included in this study were born between 1979 and 1998. The proportion of children with developmental regression or bowel symptoms did not change significantly from 1979 to 1988, a period which included the introduction of MMR vaccination in the UK in 1988. No significant difference was found in rates of bowel problems or regression in children who received the MMR vaccine before their parents became concerned about their development, compared with those who received it only after such concern and those who had not received the MMR vaccine. The findings provide no support for an MMR associated "new variant" form of autism and further evidence against involvement of MMR vaccine in autism.
The chain will continue with their children's children, etc...
You're a sick bastard. Children shouldn't be having sex.
There are other possibilities too. The US Environmental Assessment Center web page lists many dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Maybe this is a new one?
Some industry zealots say it is all just FUD, but I am not so sure. They seem to be members of a violent political party too.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
There was this kid who, as he got older, never spoke. His parents took him to doctors, specialists, psychiatrists, all to no avail. In ever other way, he seemed normal. This continued until his 10th birthday, when one night at dinner, he said "These beans are cold".
His overjoyed parents asked "if you can talk, why haven't you said anything before?"
He replied "Up to now, everything's been ok".
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
My grandparents had their kids at 16, my parents had me around 20-22, my wife and I are 29-27 respectively. We haven't had children yet because we want to wait for things to become financially stable (we want our kids to have a good home)
:)
Out of all the factors in the article, it didn't seem to touch too much on the age factor. I read somewhere once that older parents can lead to all sorts of abnormalities with pregnancy. Could it be age is playing a role here?
There are a lot of similiar couples/singles my wife and I know, they're slowly approaching 30's, no children yet. Compared with our parents who all had thier kids in their 20's we're a bit behind
It seems that the older we have children, the more that can go wrong. Silicon valley is a tough place to live (financially) and the burden of buying a house here and paying the bills has made alot of my friend put off having children till their 30's. It's an enviromentally prompted response to make sure we give our successive generation a strong foothold in life.
I think the answer is as simple as, people in silicon valley have children at an older age, therefore more autistic children are born as a result.
I consider gluten an unlikely culprit. It's hardly a new item in the environment... it's present in huge quantities in almost every wheat-based product, most notably bread, and always has been. You can't account for an upswing in autism by blaming gluten; we've been swimming in the stuff for centuries, and I doubt that California has suddenly experienced a massive increase in bread consumption.
I'll take these stories more seriously when I see convincing, controlled, peer-reviewed studies that show that they're for real.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
Autism genes that enhance programming abilities may lead to less children for the autistic programmer (AP), but if the AP is programming in the area of, say, development of life-extending technology (e.g., beating old age, cancer etc.) then the AP genes may lead to greater disperal of human genes later down the road.
Sig:
Navy nuke sub lifestyle?
Interestingly, the test result interpretation key says: Scores over 32 are generally taken to indicate Asperger's Syndrome or high-functioning autism, with more than 34 an "extreme" score. A "normal" score, based on control groups, is about 16 (or 15 for women and between 17 and 18 for men). A group of mathematics-contest winners scored an average of 24.5. A group of scientists scored an average of 18.5 (19 for men, 17 for women), with computer scientists at about 21, physicists at 19 and those in biology or medicine at about 15.
An abusive use of antibiotics, causing autoimmunities may very well be a contributing factor.
Regressive Autism May Be Linked to Autoimmune Enteropathy
NEW YORK (MedscapeWire) Apr 30 -- A regressive type of autism described in the April issue of Molecular Psychiatry may have an autoimmune basis, either directly or indirectly from an autoimmune enteropathy.
"We report findings of a novel form of enteropathy in children with autism, characterized by lymphocytic infiltration, increased crypt cell proliferation and enterocyte numbers, with co-localization of IgG and complement C1q on the enterocyte basolateral membrane," write F. Torrente, from Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, United Kingdom, and colleagues.
This comparative histologic study examined children with a form of autism characterized by regression in the second year of life after apparently normal early development. Earlier reports of immunologic abnormalities and unexpected bowel pathology in autistic children have come from this subgroup of affected patients. In this study, the researchers compared duodenal biopsies from 25 autistic children of this type with those from 11 children with celiac disease, 5 with cerebral palsy and mental retardation, and 18 histologically normal controls.
Compared with the normal and cerebral palsy control patients, the autistic children had increased numbers of enterocytes and Paneth cells, increased lymphocyte infiltration in epithelium and lamina propria, and upregulated crypt cell proliferation. Compared with those with celiac disease, the autistic children had fewer intraepithelial lymphocytes and lamina propria cells and more lamina propria T-cell populations. In 23 of 25 autistic children, but in none of the other subjects, there was IgG deposition on the basolateral epithelial surface, co-localizing with complement C1q.
Although these findings support an autoimmune basis for the unexpected bowel abnormalities in children with autism, the authors question the relevance of these findings to the general autistic population, because these children had more obvious bowel symptoms than are typically reported.
Interestingly, however, some children with regressive autism respond to enteric therapy. The bowel changes could also reflect a genetic condition affecting several systems, with brain symptoms more obvious than gastrointestinal symptoms. Although further research is needed to clarify the role of the "gut-brain axis" in autism, autoimmune mechanisms may suggest avenues for future treatment.
"It is possible that in the future there will be such a concept as 'autoimmune autism' within the autism spectrum," J. Licinio and colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles, write in an accompanying editorial. "Other biological alterations may be the hallmarks of distinct disorders that may emerge from within our current classification of autism."
Rien n'est plus beau que le creux du 0.
Most of the theories [guesses] seem to focus on genetics or environmental factors.
I don't think it's genetics. People haven't changed that much in general and there isn't a "California" gene pool to point to--new people are moving to California and having children all the time. (I was born and raised in California and I'm still live there [here] so I'm seeing this firsthand.) And I don't think that there are enough "geeks" to account for that big of a shift even in Silicon Valley--It still takes a small army of burger flippers, gas station attendants, janitors, car washers, etc. to support a high-performance "geek."
Under environmental factors there seem to be two areas being looked at: stuff happening or being done to children such as vaccinations, and general lifestyle such as poor diet.
I think that it is environmental and probably something unnatural. My guess is some government mandated program such MTBE in the gasoline.
--
But then again I thought VCR+ was a stupid idea and would die a quick death--so what do I know?
The Globe and Mail (Saturday October 19, 2002) has a related article (with the title given in the subject line) in print and online.
They even have an "AQ" test to see where you are on the "autism spectrum".
I'm not sure I share the enthusiasm some of the quoted experts have for the idea that a number of talented people are having children with "good genes", which is causing this recent increase in autistic behaviour. Even assuming that exteme talent implies retarded social skills, I find it hard to believe that the basic talent it takes to write code, train users and invent documentation is extreme enough to warrant this kind of musing.
Add to that the skepticism I have for anything as complex as social interaction and family having a measurable genetic quality...
Good read nonetheless.
-- clvrmnky
Still another possibility -- that large numbers of families with autistic children had moved into California -- was discarded when it turned out that most children in both groups were born in California.
;-). No need to get militant about diet, just cut out the obvious stuff (soft drinks, candy, donuts, and all that). As a bonus I shed my excess weight with no additional effort and I'm a lot less lethargic. I suspect that this has no influence on Asperger's/Autism but autism might cause or merely corrolate with allergies and other problems as side effects?
;-).
That's because the geeks who moved to California likely didn't marry until they got there. You've still got a self-selected community.
Nevertheless, more parents of younger children reported constipation and vomiting, which they attributed to complications from the measles vaccine. Wheat allergies were also more frequent. But none of these differences fully explain the increase in autism cases in California, Dr. Byrd said.
Interesting, since I fit the profile for Asperger's and I remember vomiting quite a bit when I was little. I was having all sorts of stomach trouble until recently when I discovered that cutting out refined sugar from my diet cured that (sugar feeds yeast, mix Coke/desserts with fresh bread/pizza crust and kaboom!). Fruits and veggies keep things moving
Hmm, trophy wives would be a good defense against having children with full spectrum autism
This new epidemic in California is probably just a bunch of really smart people having children together.
The horror of it!
Seriously, though. If two people with similar traits mate, the offspring are perhaps more likely to posses exaggerated versions that trait set beyond a "useful" level. Thus, the children may be more likely to obsess on details, such as numerical games or intricate patterns, at the expense of other things.
There may be a genetic reason for the tendancy of "opposites attract".
Table-ized A.I.
Autism isn't fatal, but it can have a troubling effect on one's social life.
I don't think you're witnessing autism at all. What's most likely going on is an anxiety or social disorder (agoraphobia) than autism. The problem I see here is that autism has gained this false reputation for being some kind of mind-expanding/genius disease and frankly that's a load of BS. Autistics in general simply cannot function well enough to finish a college application let alone a CS degree.
Buying into this romaticised notion of autism is probably an assumption that will hurt one in the long run. If someone in need of therapy for what is most likely an anxiety or social disorder decides against such treatment because "hey I'm an autistic geek, I read it on slashdot" then they're only harming and fooling themselves.
A lot of the increase might be explained by information overload as well - since the 70's, the amount of information you are exposed to has increased dramatically, and even adult brains are not able to handle it!
These folks have been doing a somewhat radical program for Autistic children (and their parents) for a while now, with impressive results!
I print, therefore I am.
So, what might cause Asthma (Which may be leveling off as we speak), childhood Diabetes, increased incidence of autoimmune disorders and cancer, and increased incidence of autism?
It isn't vaccines! The science doesn't stand up. If you think it's vaccines, we'll agree to disagree, okay?
I blame the chlorinated carbon molecule.
Organochlorines have been absent from the earth, in any appreciable amounts, since before the appearance of multicelled life. They are immensely stable, but nothing natural creates them - for energetic reasons, they are purely synthetic. They have unique (powerful, TOXIC) chemistry that we can "exploit but never control", in the words of Pandora's Poison author Shalini Ramanathan. This is an excellent book if you're interested in which feature of our 20th century lifestyle is raising disease incidences.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Autism doesn't make you not want to be around people half as much as it makes you want and practically need your interactions with other people to follow carefully crafted scripts, which is not a feature of this society, and therefore autistic people interact less with other people, despite a desire to do so.
An increase in people with autistic traits should lead to features in society that such people want and need.
A question I've been wondering is whether most people with autistic features (not the severly autistic) can function better in a society with such features than non-autistic people do in this one.
I remember a very old 2-3 year slashdot news article mentioning this. It is no longer online. Basically a women did a study with nerdy and brilliant computer geniuses and mathematicians to find out if they are autistic to a mild degree. Turns out she discovered a separate syndrome which is in the mild autism category.
For the geeks reading this:
1.) Do you find certain social situations difficult or awkward?
2.) Do you feel out of place sometimes?
3.) Do you have bizarre certain interests that no on cares about? *computers cough cough
4.) Do you feel smart in certain area's but lack knowledge sometimes of other different area's?
5.) Do you find expressing emotions difficult even though you have them?
6.) Do you feel yourself to be somewhat clumsy ?
7.) As a kid did you feel more interested in complex things like science or weather rather then playing GI joe ?
8.) Do you find yourself to be somewhat compulsive?
Chances are you may be mildly autistic
Autism and its related aspergers syndrome is very complex. Its different then mental retardation and is hard to describe. I know because I have aspergers which is a mild variant of autism and have an IQ of 122.
I have both conditions that match autism and aspergers so I am unique. For example I can easily handle most social situations but I am clumsy and have poor eye and hand coordination. To this day I can not play a piano with two hands. The mechanism in the brain that divides the signals to my hands does not work properly. My left hand will play the rhythm of my right and my right would play the rhythms of my left. In complex situations like in relationships, I can notice my difficulties. I do not do well when women are not real direct about how they feel. Why do women do this?
As a kid I fell into the autism category but as I grew up I become less and less autistic. I use to daydream at school and go into my own world whenever the teacher wasn't looking. I no longer do this. I can do things today that I could not do a decade ago. Its weird and I can not explain it but I guess maybe my brain is re-wiring itself. I have brilliant in some area's but falter in others. Especially anything doing with 3d-space or mathematics. However I am great with logic and programming which uses the same area's of the brain.
http://saveie6.com/
First of all, note that I am not saying you don't have Asperger's. But it doesn't neccessarily follow from the definition you provided that Asperger's is even the most common cause for the behaviors described. For example, I was a bright little kid. I picked up reading early, enjoyed it greatly, and so of course I was made fun of often in elementary school. This, for a long time, made me reluctant to interact with other people or try to make friends - I thought they'd just make fun of me. (Sound familiar, slashdotters?) I got over it eventually, but for a lot of my early childhood, I missed out on a lot of the normal socialization process.
:-)
:-)
/. to assume they have Asperger's - it's an easy explanation for nerdiness, but it needn't always (or even often) be the correct one.
As a result, I'm a bit socially inept. A lot of social interactions other people take for granted - especially interacting with groups of people - I picked up later. But this isn't because of some sort of neurological problem - I just didn't have a normal social life, because the other kids made it hard to have one.
Likewise, I have above-average verbal skills (don't judge by this post, please), a strong interest in politics and history, and I'm a bit self-centered in my conversation. But this can all be easily enough explained as the product of social isolation and an affinity for the written word, not Asperger's. If you like to read, history (and politics, which is really just a subset of the same) is something you're going to have an easy time learning. And as for being a bit self-centered - again, that could be the result of social isolation. Or, I could just be an asshole, that's certainly a possibility.
In the interests of intellectual honesty though, I feel the need to mention some things that I can't explain away with social/psychological factors. Asperger's suffers, if I read the definition write, tend to have mild speech problems - I had to visit a speech therapist for a while when I was seven. And my handwriting has always been very, very bad. And, as my friends and family can attest, I do seem to lack common sense.
My point, however, is it makes no sense for the tends of thousands of fine people on
I'm the stranger...posting to
One of the ways life has seemed to work lately is that the higher-end bits of society (higher paying job, better education, etc) are so damn busy that they have less time to breed. I wouldn't entirely discount the possibility that being able to afford a house full of electronic gismo's isn't subjecting them to all sorts of fun partial-sterility-causing radiation either.
Now, on the other hand, you can take somebody who is not quite as smart, maybe works his butt off 9-5 and then goes home. Then, instead of going to shopping, social clubs, blah blah blah, he either grabs a little TV or hops in bed and makes a few kids.
The other end to this is that those with Harvard educations and etc etc also often seem to see children as an obstacle to personal success in life (my question, what do you have to show for life at 70 with $2mil and nobody to inherit it?).
Anyhow, this is not a rant. The final point is this:
I know *somebody* will want to flame me on this. Disclaimer: I'm not rich in any way, nor do I believe that those with such opportunity should be allowed to have children any more than those of lesser. I'm not a scientist. These conclusions are only on a basis of independent reading and some researching and may not be entirely applicable to autism.
I blame the chlorinated carbon molecule.
That doesn't explain why the profound increase in Autism is present in CALIFORNIA, with no evidence (so far) of anything similar elsewhere.
So, assuming that further research doesn't come up with a similar rise elsewhere, that raises the question of "Why California". (Or why heavily in California and more lightly elsewhere.) Exposure to chlorinated carbon compounds is not particularly higher there - especially given Californian's aversion to chlorinated water.
Continuing to assume that causality implies correlation and it's a chemical issue, let's go down the list.
Right at the top: Gasoline oxygenation additives - in particular: MTBE, to which everybody in California who pumps their own gas - or drinks water - is exposed to in significant amounts, and has been for years. It's quite toxic, and has been implicated as a cause of asthma for a while now.
Certain illegal drugs exposure during and just before pregnancy is probably significantly higher in California - both because the drugs have been more prevalent here and because people interested in taking them have migrated here. But they're hardly unknown or unpopular elsewhere.
Dropping drugs for a bit: Another candidate is child rearing practices - in schools and home. California is the epicenter of the feel-good schools of child rearing. Systematically reward self-destructive behavior with attention and you can quickly teach a child to emit it continuously. And self-esteem based teaching systems will do precicely that.
California is also a hotbed of NON-vaccination. Side-effects of childhood or foetal viral infection immediately springs to mind. (Second trimester influenza has already been implicated in another mental syndrome - Schizophrenia.)
I could go on. But somehow I don't think the culprit will turn out to be Freon, PCB, Vynil Chloride, or chlorinated water byproducts.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
You're right, "autism level" is not discrete. A diagnosis based on a large variety of symptoms and variables, not just those listed in the DSM for that particular disorder.
BTW, the ":-)" in my post is an emoticon : "An ASCII glyph used to indicate an emotional state". In this case the emotional state was humor.
"Re:Hmm...maybe too! (Score:1)
p icsilicovolcanoconiosis!" And yeah, maybe you do. But you need to look at other, simply possibilities as well - simply choosing the most interesting one, like Asperger's, is intellectually dishonest.
by skinfitz on Sunday October 20, @03:58PM (#4490881)
(User #564041 Info | http://www.mywebsitelinks.com/)
The thing with Asperger's is that not everyone suffers with the *all* the symptoms, people typically have their own set out of the bunch, and also there are varying degrees of severity.
To be honest, it sounds to me like you might have Asperger's from what you say in your post - have you ever considered it?
I am convinced that I have it as it explains an awful lot in my life..."
Have I considered it? Yes, that's why I mentioned a couple things which could, concievably indicate Asperger's. But there are so many other, more mundane things which can cause social ineptitude and other "Asperger's symptoms" that it seems implausible that all or even most nerds are the product of this disease. People tend to have medical student's syndrome - they hear about a disease, and they say to themselves "Hey! I have that symptom! I have that symptom too! I must have Asperger's/cancer/pseumonia/pneumonoultramicrosco
I'm the stranger...posting to
The evidence is becoming very persuasive that immunizations do bear a large portion of the blame...
There may be commonality between the vaccination figures and autism figures. That does not mean that the one causes the other.
(Commence the flamebait about how we're playing with fire, yadda yadda yadda...)
To be successful a vaccination programme needs to include over 95% of the population in order to achieve 'herd immunity'. Less than 95% and you run the risk of an epidemic. Remember, the ultimate aim is to erradicate the virus. Deciding not to vaccinate your children based on the unsubstantiated causality between vaccination and autism is selfish and irresponsible.
# init 5
Connection closed.
Oh...
However, it is possible that a milder expression of the same genes does have advantages, ala tech centers. Think sickle-cell anemia, where one gene gives you malaria resistantance, but two make you very sick.
So clearly, the answer to stopping the spread of this Autism is to mandate that every geek coder in Silicon Valley must mate with a supermodel who has no math or technical skills whatsoever. They must not mate with other geeks, but only with those who get paid to wear their underwear on stage. This is absolutely necessary for the survival of intelligence and technology in our country! So please models, take one for the team!
Hmm, I posted this story with an article in the Globe and Mail yesterday and got rejected, but "ce la vie".
Here is my slashdot commentary on the article with the direct link to the Globe and Mail article (also in my sig).
Here is the Globe and Mail article entitled: Is there a 'geek' syndrome?. The title points out that parents with a technical background are far more likely to produce autistic children. Some studies have shown that parents of autistic children are twice as likely to be engineers. Rather alarming. The article also features an "autism quotient" quiz to determine the prominence of ones autistic traits.
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
I'm totally serious. There's a brief test at the end of this Globe and Mail article on the autism explosion and the apparent geek link.
:-)
Interestingly enough, I received an AQ of 12 (below the average of 18), meaning I'm more well-adjusted than "normal" people. Rather amusing I thought.
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
Some people have found gluten-free diets successful in helping autistic children.
The whole gluten-intolerance area is *way* behind other areas of research; hopefully someday there will be more discoveries that can help both conditions (especially autism).
Rather than slashdotting a specific site, I'll just mention that a google search for "gluten intolerance" and autism has a lot of related sites and articles.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
What economic motives are there for vaccine makers to produce a product that could cause autism?
Indeed, what motive is there for an industry whose downside is not only recognized but economically protected by U.S. state and federal law? As of 1995, over $600 million dollars have been paid out to families of vaccine-damaged children.
How is it, that, of all medicines, vaccinations are (to its supporters) somehow without risk? That allergic reactions are unthinkable, and the notion of triggered immune disorders the very stuff of quacks and wingnuts?
As for searching the newsgroups, I have to just laugh. What an unbiased and peer-reviewed source!
When pharmeceutical firms and govt begin funding peer-reviewed research into adverse reactions, then hopefully we can all laugh with you. When knowledge replaces conjecture, we'll all be better off.
There is virtually no medicine without risk, even simple medications such as aspirin and its kind have adverse reactions. Immunizations contain not just the dead or partially dead bacterium or virus, but a whole host of other ingredients, including culturing material and mercury, some of what is suspected in producing adverse reactions.
Finally, there are few who don't acknowledge the benefits of vaccines to society. But thanks to their effectiveness, the risk of disease has been replaced by the risk of adverse reaction. That risk has been identified, but there's no way to protect an individual from it. That's the problem that's got to be solved, predicting when an individual will get sick from an immunization.
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
Thanks.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
I'm sorry, but how can any Autism study say there's a 273% increase in Autsim and not take into account that the DIAGNOSTIC RULES CHANGED IN 1994?
The DSM-IV came out in 1994 and significantly broadened the diagnostic criteria for Autism. In my not so humble opinion, this has to have contributed directly to the 273% number the UCD study spouts.
My 3-year-old son was diagnosed with Autism last year. There are a huge number of "autistic traits" scattered through out my family. I have no doubt that if born today, I would have been diagnosed on the "autism spectrum", my father certainly would have been, as well as two of my nephews and quite likely my sister.
As it is, we were simply called "different" or "challenging" or "problematic". "Autism" was reserved for the likes of "Rainman".
The study (at least as it's being reported) is invalid. There has not been a 273% increase in Autism, there has been a 273% percent increase in the Autism cases being diagnosed.
Anyone else find that an ironic turn of phrase, given the subject being discussed?
Maybe they should add another question to that test: "Do you find yourself trying to define the world in terms of the programming language you use?" ;-)
Tim
I have a personal theory on the major origions of autism. It is often reported that autistic children often have mothers who are in intellectually demanding careers and are of above average intelligence. My theory goes that such mothers tend to have less emotional bonding to their children, perhaps in pregnancy as well, thereby giving their unborn children a profound sense of rejection. The children then retreat into their own inner world.
The extremely high intellectual demands of modern working environments doesn't leave much place for emotions or attention or warmth for that matter. This is what I attribute the raise in autism to.
To underscore my theory, go and visit online places like the Fray where lots of lonely rejected people recount their inner feelings and lives in our digital age.
A paste from that page, there's more news articles grouped there, well worth the loook before you (anyone you) dismiss it out of hand. There's billions of dollarts at stake, maybe trillions if you count the lawsuit potential. There's been cases so blatant-kid gets shot, gets immediately sick, doesn't recover- that it can't be dismissed out of hand. the newspaper article is repeating the mantra of mega pharmco profits="good", nothing to see here move along now. Phooie. This info is being ignored in favor of "profits". And before anyone wants to debate vaccinations good/bad, read the links first, there's hour's worth.
Documents 1 to 10 matching the query "autism AND vaccinations":
1. Fears Raised Over Preservative In Measles And Other Vaccines Abstract: Rense.com Fears Raised Over Preservative In Measles And Other Vaccines By Kimberly Atkins Boston Globe Correspondent 7-18-1Lyn Redwood, a registered nurse, thought she was doing the right thing when she took her healthy son, Will, to get vaccinated (8,498 bytes - 7/23/2001 7:50:52 AM GMT)
2. SIGHTINGS Abstract: SIGHTINGS Vaccinations May Be Rx For Disaster By Kelly Patricia O'Meara Insight Magazine Online Vol.15 No.37 - October 4-11, 1999 Published Date 9-10-99, in Washington, D.C.http:www.insightmag.com/articles/story4.html. 9-15-99. The ounce of prevention t (13,651 bytes - 7/23/2001 6:09:34 PM GMT)
3. UK Families Seek Compensation For Alleged MMR Vaccine Harm Abstract: Rense.com UK Families Seek Compensation For Alleged MMR Vaccine Harm By Richard Woodman 1-7-2. LONDON (Reuters Health) - More than 1,000 British families have joined a legal battle for millions of pounds compensation for harm they claim was caus (4,861 bytes - 1/8/2002 3:17:15 AM GMT)
4. SIGHTINGS Abstract: SIGHTINGS Measles and Mumps Vaccines Banned In UK BBC News 8-28-99. The single-dose jabs may be ineffective, says the government The government has banned the only alternative to the controversial triple measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccin (4,889 bytes - 7/23/2001 5:15:36 PM GMT)
5. Top UK Doctor Ties 170 Cases Of Autism To MMR Baby Vaccine Abstract: Rense.com Top UK Doctor Ties 170 Cases Of Autism To MMR Baby Vaccine By Lorraine Fraser - Medical Correspondenthttp:www.telegraph.co.uk. 1-21-01. The consultant who first raised concerns about MMR vaccinations has disclosed to The Telegraph that (5,990 bytes - 7/30/2001 4:47:57 AM GMT)
6. More Madness - Toxic Vaccine ORDERED Used On Babies Abstract: Rense.com More Madness - Toxic Vaccine ORDERED Used On Babies By Rosie Waterhouse The Sunday Times - London 8-6-1The Department of Health has told doctors they must use stocks of a mercury-based vaccine for infants even though it is being (5,826 bytes - 8/7/2001 1:48:11 AM GMT)
7. More Madness - Toxic Vaccine ORDERED Used On Babies Abstract: Rense.com More Madness - Toxic Vaccine ORDERED Used On Babies 8-5-1. The Department of Health has told doctors they must use stocks of a mercury-based vaccine for infants even though it is being phased out for safety reasons. The department is (5,538 bytes - 8/7/2001 1:48:21 AM GMT)
8. Living Without Vaccinations Abstract: Rense.com Living Without Vaccinations By Dorsey Griffith Sacramento Bee 12-5-1. They are as lively and rosy-cheeked as any 5- and 6-year-old girls, their long, blond hair gleaming in the sun as they swing upside down from the monk (10,281 bytes - 12/6/2001 2:57:44 AM GMT)
9. Measles Virus Found In Boy's Brain After MMR Vaccine Abstract: Rense.com Measles Virus Found In Boy's Brain After MMR Vaccine By Lorraine Fraser Medical Correspondent The Telegraph - UK 10-7-2A child who developed severe epilepsy after receiving the MMR jab has been found to have measles virus from the vaccine in hi (11,946 bytes - 10/8/2002 6:14:05 AM GMT)
10. Mother Of Five Children...All With Autism...To Sue Over MMR Vaccine Abstract: Rense.com Mother Of Five Children. All With Autism.To Sue Over MMR Vaccine By Celia Hall - Medical Editorhttp:www.telegraph.co.uk. 1-26-01. A mother who claims that five of her children developed autism after having their measles, mumps and (3,064 bytes - 7/30/2001 4:47:58 AM GMT)
more links at parent link
One of the implicit themes I see here that has not gotten much open discussion is that of being smarter than other people, both as a kid and afterwards. This notion seems very deeply embedded in geek culture, and is tightly bound up the sense of alienation that seems so prevalent here. For some reason, being "smarter" than other kids seems to set one in the direction of alienting narcissism.
As Jay Matthews, a very well-spoken education columnist for the Washington Post puts it in a piece on college interviews:
This is some of this wisest advice I can imagine giving a teenager. First of all the notion of being "smarter" than other people is suspect - you have to define smart in a very narrow way to believe that. Or put another way, there sure are a lot of "dumb jerks" out there who seem to be able to accomplish many of their life goals. Are they "smart"? Who cares, they're getting what they're after.
None of this is to contest the more knowledgeable points of view on autism or Asperger's, but simply to point out that there's a pretty strong link between alienation and one-dimensional estimations of intelligence (see the work of Howard Gardner on multiple intelligences, and to encourage everyone in this very intellectual crowd, particularly those raising children (saw a couple disturbing posts of 40+ somethings who really think they're smarter than most others) to look hard at what it means to be smart, and at the consequences of teaching a child to be a particular kind of smart.
Ever notice that when insurance companies get forced to cover something the occurence of that something increases to exceptional numbers?
Gee....
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Whatever happened to plain vanilla "shyness". In my own experience there seems to be some correlation between shyness and above average intelligence. So lack of social skills or social anxiety cannot be the same as Autism or Aspergers which are both forms of brain dysfunction. I'm getting tired of so many geeks here listening to a description of Autism or Aspergers and automatically assuming "that's me, at least a little". There is such a thing as shyness, social anxiety, introversion, etc, which are not related to Autism or Aspergers. Most geeks are just shy, end of story.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Seriously, the article jumps too far with conclusions. It almost says that geeks are genetically different than other human beings.
The Raven.
The Raven
Note: info taken from a class I once took. Use at your own risk.
One of the obnoxious requirements placed on Superfund sites is that the pollution cannot simply be contained. The entire site has to be made as clean as it was prior to contamination. This is hideously expensive, and sometimes wasteful. But the upshot is that they wouldn't have started construction, the old pollution is probably gone.
You can get more information about the Superfund project, and possibly even the site you're interested in here.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
"Autism is caused by mercury (thimerosal) in vaccines [mercola.com]."
If this were true, in the future we should see a sharp drop in Autism cases, in children born right around now. The FDA passed down an instruction to reduce the use of thimerosal a while ago, and most manufacturers have either reformulated, or are in the process of reformulating to use other preservatives (a few never used thimerosal to begin with).
Many forms of Autism are related to the link between both sides of the brain. People with less connections (or less effective connections -- which is a different problem) tend to be geeks. The other end of the spectrum seems are the socialites. Thouse with low levels of cross conects tend to be able to focus on a problem on one side of the brain but are hopeless for problems that require both. Men typicaly have fewer cross connects than women. A high level of cross connects are very importaint for verbal communication of ideas (and they play a part in strange moodyness as well).
If your mother's father was an Engineer, your very likly to be a geek if your male. When you throw this into a social context, you will find that most of the women who like hanging around with geeks, have a geeky father or or gradfather. This means they have the gene for this and have become conditioned to the "different" level of communication. If a geek breeds with a woman who has the gene, a geeky child is very likly. Its standard genetics and it explains why the best geeks of all time had a very short line of decendants.
Mercury causes autism, mercury is in vaccines. In the past 2 or 3 years there has been a huge increase in fish consumption due to its health benefits. Fish has lots of mercury. Its also possible fossil fuel additives made to clean up the air in CA are creating mercury compounds.
I've never seen a hyphen put there before, but it seems kinda like there should be one. New Yorkers makes it kinda wierd, like you're talking about new people from York or something.
Whatever. Somewhere during that >9/11 "let's all not hate NY" thing I read some article or something about New Yorkers being rude. I don't even remeber what form of media this was, but the point was something about how they're only rude when you're being an idiot, kind of like tech support guys. For example, tourists who'll just stop somewhere and stare at crap, and if the sidewalk's busy, people having to get around them will slow everything down for the whole block. It's a lot easier to yell at them to get the fuck out of the way, and it saves everybody time.
Yeah, well, I don't have a point here really. Good time for a +1 bonus.
Gluten intolerance is not the issue. Gluten is decomposed into glutomorphine molecules in the intestine. Many, many plants contain opiod peptides because all animals mediate respiration through the opiod peptides. Plants have evolved this trait so as to prevent their consumption by insects. Wheat contains particularly powerful opiod peptides, which is one of the reasons it is so resilient to insect infestation (but not molds).
,B., This and that : an artefactual alkaloid and its peptide analogs. Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 1992 / 13 (9) / 341-345.
For some reading on this info try these articles:
1. Fukudome, S. et al, Release of opioid peptides, gluten exorphins by the action of pancreatic elastase. FEBS Lett. 1997 / 412 (3) / 475-479. , Fukudome, S. et al, Gluten exorphin C : a novel opioid peptide derived from wheat gluten. FEBS Lett. 1993 / 316 (1) / 17-19.
2. Max
Note: Exorphins are opiod peptides which are exogenous in origin, as opposed to the endrogenous opiods (endorphins) created by your body.
Capsule summaries of these journal articles can be found at The National Library of Medicine.
I will attempt to summarize.
Opiods are used by the body to condition social behavior. Sex, human contact, listening to others speak, all of these activities cause measureable increases in endorphin levels in the brain. This occurs to condition humans to continue that behavior, it is a classic reward conditioning system. I don't want to get into WHY respiration and feelings of well being are related, but it is due to ancient evolution which is not completely understood. Social behavior of ants is mediated in a similar fashion for instance.
Glutan affects all people like all opiod peptides do. Is it any wonder that Asthma has also increased at an alarming rate, as rapid of an increase as autism? Not at all, because autism is the behavioral result of opiod consumption. As an adult, its not that big of a deal. A junkie can still speak, but it is the childs desire to be with his mother, that drives him to learn to speak from her. Without that initial drive, he never learns correctly. Asthma is ALWAYS the result of respiratory suppresion due to kappa-opiod receptor agonists. Constipation is another major problem. How many people here always know chicks who pop laxatives like mad? It is also because of eating glutan.
The other primary reason why glutan is added to foods is because it is addictive. More glutan, means mor profits. Why would glutan, a protein from wheat, be added to junk food like Doritos or Slim Jims, or instant soup, or TV dinners... It is to make people eat more.
Today, the pricessing of wheat has allowed extremely concentrated forms of gluten. Many are chemically decomposed such that they are nearly PURE gluto-morphine molecules, so that they are even MORE addictive.
And this is the way companies want it. Haven't you ever thought its crazy that people overeat on cookies, and they say its the sugar. But no one overeats on bananas, even though they have MORE Sugar per gram than cookies? Or they say its the starch, but no one gets fat eating 10 pounds of potatoes a day, even though potatoes contain a HUGE quantity of starch, more per gram than cookies? Its the opiod peptide content of these foods which causing overeating.
The government has known this for years. The first example of finding these effects of wheat go back to 1980, of you do the research. The government doesn't care, because they know just as the Roman emperors knew 2000 years ago that a population jacked up on wheat products all day will be less likely to rebel.
Hasn't anyone wondered why the popularus party at the end of the Republic gave away ONLY bread? Not any other kind of food? Or why prisoners are usually given bread? It keeps them apathetic and complacent.
Is it also any wonder that the narcosis effect commonly called ADHD is also countered by CNS drugs? Or better yet, that Amphetamine was until 10-15 years ago also the only drug used for Asthma? Respiration is stimulated through activation of the Alpha-2 adrenal receptors in the brain.
As far as WHEAT and Autism, for MANY mild cases of autism, administration of an opiod antagonist drug, such as nalextrone, can easily reverse much of the behavior (or lack thereof) exhibited by such patients.
What is the problem? In the past, natural wheat was used, and many population groups evolved to resistant to small doses of gluto-morphine peptides. But through modern chemistry, new kinds of glutan is being added to foods which is far more powerful. The end result is a population that is prone to asthma, apathy, antisocial behavior, constipation, and addicted to stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine, or cocaine.
The number of people who do not consume any of those drugs is very, very small.
I will be honest, there is a way out. Your body does adjust. I was even on prescription dextroamphetamine for a long time, smoked for 10 years, drank coffee every day. Not consuming wheat sounds like its impossible, but its SOO easy. It is hard at first, you will crave these foods, but like all addictions, it will past. It just takes time.
The end result is you will think more clearly, breath more deeply, be more awake, and have more of a will to live. Its also nice to have regular bowel movements. Anyway, its been a long weekend for me, and its time to go to sleep. I encourage anyone who reads this far to think before you eat, especially if you give food to children. Wheat products and junk food containing wheat is just not suitable for human consumption, and harms children in the long run.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
I'm sure there'll be a lot of comments about this one. I'd even be willing to bet that most /.ers have more symptoms of Aspergers than not.
Getting down to cases: I can only theorise based on my own internal experiences. So, here goes some facts and opinions, without attempt at analysis:
When I was about 6, I had a General Anaesthetic. It took me over 10 hours to come out of it. For much of that period I was dimly aware of external stimuli, they just weren't important. Eventually I managed to decode the face-slaps and sounds as attempts to wake me up, and thought it useful to do so. I guess (and I do mean guess) that a lot of autistic children just haven't seen a good reason to interact socially or with anything else in the Universe. Even a fingerprint can be endlessly fascinating, so why bother with the sounds that the universe (the bits that are other people) makes? They are just a distraction. You can make them go away by screaming, so why remember words? As for my own son - who's now 16 months old - I'm playing games with him with lots of mechanical toys (lots of fun to be had with swinging doors ), but also playing social-interaction games such as "pass the juice bottle" where we share a cup of juice, taking turns. And a lot of exaggerated facial grimaces for smiles, frowns and other non-verbal communications. I want to show him that things outside himself are interesting too. Because to lose speech and get too fascinated by internals is debilitating and very very not-useful, fun though it might be. You will get frustrated, and not know how to alter your environment to make it better. You will also upset people around you who care about you.
Zoe Brain - Rocket Scientist
The New York times has an article (no registration required)
About farking time. Taco, perhaps you might want to add code to Googleize NYT links in stories?
Here's a related one. I once asked a biologist how it was possible for a genetic disposition for homosexuality to survive Darwinism. It seemed obvious to me that homosexuals would have fewer biological children than heterosexuals. He agreed with me, adding that according to computer models, even if homosexuals had 99% as many children as heterosexuals did, any hypothetical "gay gene" would be completely wiped out in a few thousand years.
But, he added, some biologist had recently published a clever theory: Apparently small tribes of prehistoric people would generally have a shaman, or medicine man. Furthermore, he said, for various reasons homosexuals were particularly well-suited to such a vocation. Therefore, a tribe whose gene pool was "just gay enough" had better survival odds than a "straight tribe", since its shamans would be more competent, and suitable shaman protegés easier to find.
In other words, although the shaman had no sons, he would have more nephews. And that could theoretically have been enough to tip the balance of natural selection.
(Note that I've been putting "gay gene" in quotes because I believe that, while there may exist congenital factors, homosexuality is a conclusion drawn from many non-congenital factors as well.)
"How can you claim that you are anti-crack, while still writing a window manager?" — Metacity README
At 146, you're never going to find an intellectual mate. I remember that less than 2% of the population is over 120. I usually test at the 130 range. You probably represent about
Your biological urges will tell you to BREED UP. Your mental mind will tell you that breeding up means that you need to find someone that can hold a conversation on your level with. There is the rub. You will never find an intellectual equal. More than likely you never have felt that you have ever been fully challenged with an intellectual equal. So don't expect to find a woman with those qualities either. It is a goose chase. Besides, women don't run that way. You're trying to spawn like salmon instead of human.
Give it up. I did and won. I never found a girl that dazzled me mentally. So I cleaned up, kept my head up and found the female equivalent. A "GO GETTER." She is a beautiful, motivated, big breasted veterinarian who is fascinated by my thoughts. Keep this in mind: there will be nothing EVER that people can do to address your fundamental difference in thinking... and a woman will not change that either. If you are a 146, you might never, EVER find a peer in this world. Much less a female one, because women's intellegence does not manifest itself well by men's standards.
You will have to accept that in this lifetime, you will never be like them. SO DON'T. Your mind will always be alien to them. Just hunt out characteristics that makes your ideal, NON-SUPERHUMAN BRAINED WOMAN, and I will guarantee that love will pursue immediately. Besides, she (the one that you will find sooner or later) is not looking around thinking, "Gee, I need the smartest man I can get my hands on." It is a soup of characteristics. So point to the other ones that you have. You're smart, so blend in a little.
Think about this one for a bit. Which is more appealing to women 1) a man that is a brilliant thinker with hygiene problems and an affinity for Danger Girl T-shirts or 2) a man that looks like all the rest until he opens his mouth and in 30 seconds you can tell this man really has a brain and is going somewhere.
Remember: Uncleanliness and lack of style to women is like irrationality and lack of utility to men, they are on the same standard of turn-off.
Good luck. Happy hunting.
How credible is this study? It's a pilot study making a request for more funding and it hasn't been peer-reviewed yet.
How do we know this isn't a ploy just like the Marin County Breast Cancer power-grab/funding-grab?
He could've gotten whooping cough. Or measles. Mumps is not fun either. I've traveled in places where they have these vaccines. When my father was a child these vaccines weren't available even in the USA. He missed six months of school due to various "childhood" diseases that few, if any, slashdotters have seen. Fortunately he didn't suffer any permanent disabilities.
Best Slashdot Co
Over the past century electronic media have become more pervasive- telephone -> radio -> TV -> video games -> internet. People were "wired" together minutes a day in the past to 24/7 now. Could this cause the "shutdown in emotitional communication the autistic experience?
A little knowledge is indeed the most dangerous of things...
This is absolutely false. The overwhelming majority of mutations are malefic. Only a very few DNA copy deviations will create anything at least on par with the original, something like one in millions. The chance at an actual improvement is theoretical only, none ever observed.
BTW, this is just one reason of miriad reasons why some people, religiously informed or not, still doubt that the Theory of Biological Evolution will ever be proved a fact. The main reason being that in speculative Philosophy it has existed for millenia before Darwin applied it to Biology: see CS Lewis' The Funeral of a Great Myth.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
So their relatives reproduce the same while those with the autism reproduce less, making it a net loss, and therefore a trait that is selected against.
The cake is a pie
If you want to try the test yourself easily, I've put it up on my website as a form (no personal information gathered, although your responses end up being saved as part of the URI for a day or so in our log rotations):
p
http://www.fibrespeed.net/~mbabcock/mirrors/aq.ph
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)