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Continued Rise In Autism Diagnoses Puzzles Researchers, Galvanizes Advocates
sciencehabit (1205606) writes "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has raised eyebrows, and concern among current and prospective parents, with a new report documenting that the rate of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in the United States jumped 30% between 2008 and 2010, from one in 88 to one in 68 children. CDC officials don't know, however, whether the startling increase is due to skyrocketing rates of the disorder or more sensitive screening, or a combination of both."
'Nuff Said
about a century and a half ago, nobody ever heard about autism.
you wouldn't be diagnosed an autist, but simply made to stand in a corner of the class with a dunce cap a lot.
i can picture the headlines.
autism discovered!
sudden surge in number of autists baffles scientists!
as we get better at diagnosing conditions like this, naturally there will be a rise in the number of positive diagnoses.
I suspect a lot of diagnoses concern borderline cases, that would previously not have been counted as verified autism - so before, people would be classified as "odd" or "geeky" but not as someone who carries a mental disability.
The same thing happened with depression. In the old days, depression was virtually unheard of, aside from extreme cases of people constantly trying to take their own lives. Nowadays, everybody and their dog gets depressed at some point during the year, and prescribed medicine.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
At last, the real culprit is revealed: zinc.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
My bet:
* Endo/entero-symbiotic microorganisms
Known to alter behaviour in insects and small mammals
Warning: This sig contains a small bug. ==> *
Not saying that all or even most of the diagnoses of autism are false positives, but when you're living in a world where human communities are dwindling and become more insular - so there is less direct social engagement, extended families are spread across continents - so this core social unit is less dynamic and extensive, and people spend more and more time in front of screens - at work and at home, this sort of result is not overly surprising. Shit, when did the first iPhone come out? Mid 2007? Coincidence? iThink not.
Increased screening sensitivity is probably playing a big factor as well: "Tommy seems rather introverted and shuns the company of others. He also throws a huge tantrum when we take away the tablet with the toons on it. Probably autism." I'm not saying this is due to negligent parenting, but when there is an obvious diagnosis that fits the symptoms, why look any further? Again, these are the marginal cases which are sufficiently prevalent to cause this spike.
With every new edition of DSM, disorders percentages rise. In the next edition, every living person will be incuded in the description of a disorder. And in the one after, death will also be incuded within the disorders.
1 in 10 is not a disorder.
It's a harem.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Part of the problem in the UK (so may not be the same in the US) is that there is additional funding and support for kids with diagnoses like ASDs so there is a big incentive for schools and parents to push for it. It's driving a whole approach of medicalising behaviour. Kids who in the past would have been simply regarded as a bit unusual and who a teacher would have had to just cope with are now being given medical diagnoses and possibly additional help.
As discussed in the article what would be interesting to see is more detail on the distribution of ASD diagnoses, in terms of where they sit on the spectrum. If there is an increase the diagnosis of severe autism (the kids who would reasonably have been diagnose as autistic 30 years ago) then that would suggest that there is some environmental factor at work. If, on the other hand it's mostly high functioning and borderline then it seems likely to be mostly down to diagnosis.
While I'm very much in favour of education being better able to deal with kids' differences, I'm not sure medicalising it is the way to go.
Paul Leader
There is much, much more to the process of professional evaluation and diagnosis than what you describe. The process is a whole lot more rigorous than idle speculation.
A biological adaptation to the inundation of data?
Ohh, how I wish it was something like 9 out of 10. Or better 99 out of a 100. Can you imagine how many women will be left "unattended"? Can you?
I never understood the hatred towards gay men. It means more women for the rest of us, you sillies! Now, lesbians are another matter entirely...yet heterosexual males looooove lesbians [or at least lesbian porn] but hate gays. So weird...
No, that would have nothing to do with it, of course...
nice troll
The way we feed has changed radically in a few decades. Nowadays we can only find often GMO sources of some foods, not talking about plastic food and MGS sources ... cookies, potato chips, bread... As a pure anecdotal "evidence" I was recently with my wife in the Philippines two and half weeks, and despite eating far much more, she lost weight, and I lost my belly.
Doctors will NEVER admit they're wrong.
And you're right, they don't know what causes it, why are they so quick to say the vaccines aren't connected?
The question is simply answered: diagnoses are more prevalent because the drugs to treat those patients now exists. It is not mere coincidence that the FDA approved the use of Risperdal in late 2006, and its generic, Risperidone, in late 2008. There were more than a few doctors who have made more than a few dollars from prescribing tis medication. Johnson & Johnson has to pay a $2.2 billion dollar fine for illegally marketing this drug through the use of kickbacks to doctors and pharmacists. So don't tell me the pharmaceutical isn't dirtier than a whore's whose-its. Everyone relax. Autism rates will decline when these drugs get a bad enough name. Then, a more expensive drug will be produced to treat a more common malady, and everyone will freak the fuck out again.
I am Audience.
If the reporting were a completely reliable process that yielded the same result on the same population, regardless of the time and practitioners involved, then I'd worry. Given that practitioners make their money off of positive diagnoses, I would be highly suspicious that many of these are simply therapists who are trying to fill their calendars.
(I say that knowing that my ex had my three children tested by one practitioner, who suddenly found all of mine on the same day to be abnormal and in need of governmental assistance.)
When no one watches the watchers, this is the result.
Why are people so quick to say vaccines are connected? Wait until some weirdo declares that soap causes autism, and see how the world behaves even after the claim is debunked times over. Just like with vaccines. Enjoy the smell of the (literally) unwashed masses then.
Of course, just why it would suddenly go up a the same time vaccination rates are at such a massive low that we're dealing with major outbreaks of formerly all but eradicated diseases I'm not sure but I'm certain that you could understand if you had her PHD (Pretty Hump of Distraction).
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
Parents, scientists, doctors, need to tell a normal tantrum from an autistic one (if there is such a classification).
I have 2 kids, one of which has Asperger's. Both have tantrums when I take the tablet with cartoons on them. Don't quickly assume there's something wrong with your kid... kids do this, they don't know about abstinence, or don't understand yet why everything should be consumed in moderation (heck, some people never understand).
Also, the tantrum may seem visually different (hand flapping) but one important difference is the reason. The reason a "normal" or neurotypical kid has tantrums is obvious and correlates with the time and place it happened (just now). The autistic person's reason could be something completely irrelevant to the present time or place, something that happened long or short time ago, usually at school, a few hours ago.
The Human mind is a delicate thing, cutting edge changes to it don't always work out great (and more often than not won't) but when they do it's just that. Autism is a range of mutations that overall are in a favorable direction toward advanced intellect and lower animalistic emotion-driven behavior. There is no mistake in the fact that when you breed two intellectuals you get an autist 70% of the time - it's the literal bleeding edge of Human intellectual evolutionary development.
but that would mean that 99 out of 100 women would also be gay therefore not increasing your already slim odds of getting laid.
I blame High Fructose Corn Syrup.
I would blame Obama, but that doesnt fit the same time window.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Its the lead and other heavy metals in the toys from china. They have a plot to take over the world by rendering most countries inhabited by autistic people only thereby easy pickings for attack.
One thing that is certain is that vaccines save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children every year. But by all means, forego them if you really don't want to "take the risk."
Mostly because they know a shit-ton more than you do.
http://boingboing.net/2013/01/...
The way I see it, then you say "gay men" what you actually communicate is "penis covered in shit", which explains why gay men are hated more. By the same people who don't mind getting shit on their dick if it comes from a woman...
If soap contains Quick Silver, indeed it can be wise to avoid. Hopefully, no soap does contain that!
It's nice to bring in real arguments now and then, not just emotional justification.
Yep. There's a strong correlation between being in a car and having a car accident but we're not trying to ban cars, are we?
PS: http://tallguywrites.livejourn...
No sig today...
There's strong positive correlation with the amount of autism and the visibility of the anti-vaccer fools.
Vaccination rates are not at an all-time low. That's just plain false.
The number of different kinds of drugs being injected into children today is a great deal more plentiful than when I was a kid.
More direct-to-bloodstream chemicals at formative ages = greater chance of developmental risk. Duh.
Also, the recent press given to outbreaks can be attributed to a few other causes other than that attributed by the (obviou$) medical propaganda. Shit food=shit immune systems. Also, people given non-dead viruses in their jabs can actually become disease vectors themselves. That one's scary. Holier-than-thou assholes spreading the very disease they think they're eradicating. (Of course, people committed to the happy-fuzzy belief in corruption-free Star Trek solutions will quickly try to not let that idea percolate).
Though, to be fair, I don't put the rise in autism down to just corporate jabs. (Protected from prosecution, guaranteed profit corporate jabs). But I also view with suspicion our home environments, EM environments and food supply, which are also far more loaded down with crap than when I was a kid.
I have been soap free my entire life. I do not suffer from autism.
The medical folk in my family complain about this all the time. What they see is that because of the special funding and other programs offered for children diagnosed with 'autism spectrum disorder' there is even a perverse desire to get their kids classified. This effect is coupled with broader definitions of the problem -- autism is now autism spectrum disorder, encompassing a much wider range of symptoms. Even the OP hints at this. What I am not sure we know is whether for a constant set of diagnostic markers the incidence is increasing. If so, I can only speculate around the uncontrolled experiments with chemical food additives we persist in.
They don't care either. My Aunt went to the Hospital with dizziness, the last time she went they thought it may be a Stroke and treated her for it. This time a different Doctor was there and was more concerned with the Television show he was watching and sent her home without treatment. I guess the Television show was more important, perhaps he should of chosen a different profession if he doesn't have an interest in doing his Job.
I myself have been suffering from Heart related issues for quite a many years and all the Doctors seem more concerned about the how nice the Weather is outside. What America needs is a swift kick in the Medical Profession area. And Students need to choose Jobs they actually WANT to participate in.
Children with autism may have irregular clusters of neurons in the brain, according to a paper published on Wednesday, March 27 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings suggest brain abnormalities in children with autism can be traced back to prenatal development.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/for-children-with-autism-brain-abnormalities-may-begin-in-utero/
bitches like Jenny McCarthy, who decided "omg my kid sneezed, he has autisms!!1"
I know science has yet to prove this, but as a betting man i'd say women delaying birth well into their unfertile 30+ years is a big factor in this. Men don't have a wall and a clock, women have a crazy one.
I don't have science to back up my claim, but as a betting man i'd say delaying birth into a woman's 30s is probably what is driving up the autism rates. Men don't have a wall and a biological clock to contend to. Don't let the hamstering say otherwise, women who delay birth until their 30s+ have a higher rate of genetic diseases. As men, our sperm and "clock" is significantly more forgiving than a women's almost to the point of it being a non-issue.
So the neighbor kid was diagnosed with this... and I didn't want to irritate his parents by pointing out the obvious but that kids just obnoxious, there's nothing wrong with him. But oh well... then the school brought in a specialist for MY kid, and they determined that my kid was having trouble in school because he was bi-lingual. You see, my son was born in Africa and we adopted him when he was 2. The funny thing is, he never spoke their language. The only word he knew in his native language when we got him was "Abas" which means "Father" which he'd yell whenever he was afraid of something. I pointed this out to the school but they insisted. Being somewhat of a libertarian I objected to the school wasting money on a special program for him. Then they got nasty. I was trying to impede the progress of my child and it would not be tolerated. A week later the teacher had an assistant 2 days of the week provided by the state to handle her "Bi-lingual" class. Ah, it was all clear now... The school diagnoses disabilities to garner more aid, and more resources from state and federal agencies. They push parents to doctors they know will produce favorable diagnoses and use anything they can find in the childs background to get the result they want.
any fucking site that says' detoxify or anything related should ring alarm bells. it's fucking sham scams.
Not knowing what causes autism and yet knowing beyond reasonable doubt that vaccines don't is entirely consistent with all the medical evidence. Confusing these facts does not demonstrate that medical science is wrong.
well, considering that the rise of these diagnosis seems to be highly correlated with the ability to get SSI benefits in the US, how could anyone really be surprise that, with an economic perk this big, there wouldn't be a shift in behavior among parents?
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
In other news, those who did poorly academically, those who cannot make friends with others, etc, etc. all had brain abnormalities. That doesn't mean a diagnostic label with extra funding is correct.
If they are really diagnosing autism correctly up until now, then maybe just a US thing? Do other countries show a spike in this?
Whoa, whoa whoa! A bully who can read and write? Sorry guy, but who should be locked up in a cage forever is you, and all who act like you. But do not worry, that "retarded" are those that achieve the best jobs while people like you spend the rest of life flipping burgers. Or being killed by the police because of your savage and anti-social behavior.
Nah, tl;dr. Good trolls fit in one-liners.
There's actually a pretty simple explanation. There's a cultural view that having sex with women is a wonderful, beautiful thing and having sex with men is a disgusting, horrible thing. Gay men have sex with men, therefore they are disgusting and horrible, and lesbians have sex with women, therefore they are wonderful and beautiful (at least as long as they aren't butch, anyway).
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
We are just better adapted to the low social interaction, low social grace, opinion dominant world of the internet than all you neurotypicals. ;)
They aren't. The question as to whether vaccines are related to autism has been heavily studied. We may not know what causes it, but we are quite certain as to the fact that vaccines do not. One can exclude a possibility without settling on an answer, you know. You may never figure out who was stealing from your cookie jar, but you can still be certain it wasn't Richard Nixon.
Doctors will NEVER admit they're wrong.
And you're right, they don't know what causes it, why are they so quick to say the vaccines aren't connected?
"Are so quick"? Several different Universities have done research on the subject over many years and all came to the same conclusion, Autism rates are the same in people who get vaccines as people who don't.
Is this a serious question? There was one study which suggested a link (Wakefield). This study's data was fabricated, and was later retracted Wakefield's license was revoked. There were then a flurry of studies showing no link between vaccines and autism. You really think that's "quick to say"?
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
The graph in the article is misleading. 1 in 68 should be twice as high as 1 in136, but instead it's well more than twice as high as the 1 in 125 point.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Dear god you are stupid.
Beware of conflating autism with autism spectrum disorders and asperger's syndrome. Classical, pre-2000s autism isn't a faddish behavioural disorder, it's the kind of debilitating condition that can require life-long professional care.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
First of all, just going to say it again. The definition or classification "autism" is too broad. Different people under the classification have different ranges of impairment. It needs to be broken down. In one area, Asperger's, it once was and has since been blocked in with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Why? (perhaps part of the larger trend of tyring to label more people as "mentally incompetent" as a means of separating people from their rights?) I don't know.
But instead of creating a broad classification and diagnosis, there needs to be increased study into variants and ranges of disability. Some people are just fine and are a bit awkward while others are completely incapable of taking care of themselves. It's inaccurate to simply put it all under that one umbrella and treat things under a "common core" and ultimately unhealthy to do so.
But the complete and utter resistance to seeking out causes blows me away. If one in 68 children were missing limbs at birth, there would be an international outcry. But because the impairment isn't readily visible, people want to ignore it and especially many want to deny it even exists at all seeking to classify it as a "choice" or "behavior disorder." Those people seem to be incredibly selective of their understandings of the connections between the body and the mind. On one hand we all agree and understand that hormone and other chemical balances of the body and especially nutrition and the use of drugs have a profound effect on the mind. Yet at the same time, there is a set of people who want to believe something entirely different despite knowing what they surely already know. (We're magical spirit creatures inhabiting bodies... ignore the fact that taking chemicals can change how your spirit creature feels and acts. People seem immeasurably incapable of connecting the body and the mind.)
Why aren't we investigating more? Why?!
This problem definitely fits the definition of "epidemic" and yet somehow it doesn't warrant investigation and study? Is it because important business models will be threatened? I believe that will be of high likelihood. Some might think it's worse than that and I hope that's not it but there are documented and unclassified cases where out very own US government really and truly has done things to people -- horrible and terrible things. Sometimes it was intentionally and other times perhaps out of wilful ignorance. The question of intent is important, but we do have some basic facts we can at least point to:
1. The rate is high and climbing still.
2. The problem isn't being studied properly.
That's enough for now. It needs to be proven or disproven. There's no need to go any deeper than that at this point.
Here's an exercise: count up how many of the posts above begin with "I'm not a mental health professional, but..." or "I don't have any scientific data to back this up, but..." followed by some theory about how autism is overdiagnosed/not real/etc. It's amazing how people will lambaste (rightfully) a woman--famous for showing her vagina and advertising electronic cigarettes--for claiming without evidence that vaccines cause autism, and yet turn around and promulgate some other ridiculous claim about autism, all while ignoring 1) the clinical evidence that exists, and 2) the interpretation of that evidence by those most qualified to interpret it. Pot, meet kettle.
Most people who "diagnose" make money from ongoing treatment. Kids who are interested in anything apart from the friggin tv and Justin beiber worship are called "Autistic" or "ADHD" these days. No. These are NORMAL KIDS, YOUR KIDS ARE THE FUCKING WEIRDOS WATCHING A SATANIC RITUAL PERFORMED ON STAGE.
I've been through the screening twice. Once in 1998 (age 12) with no diagnosis and again in 2010 (age 24) with a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome. It wasn't even borderline. The doctor's explanation was that less was known about autism spectrum disorders in 1998.
A South Korean study found the figure to be 1 in 38. It's likely not *that* high, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the true number is much closer to that figure than our 1 in 68.
How about stress... the high levels of stress-associated hormones that come with it... mothers that have children at later and later ages... driving pregnant to work up to the last month... in the ever worsening commute grind....
"First do no harm" there is no room in the Hippocratic oath for "greater good" style thinking.
I doubt it is actually 1 in 10, they are probably counting lesbians, and everyone knows lesbians do not count.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
1) They're very quick to play hero when the other doctor is wrong
2) a) They weren't "quick to say" it, they produced an enormous body of evidence.
2) b) The moon disappears. You're blamed. I'm pretty sure that you can show you're not responsible without knowing who the actual culprit is.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Let’s see rising levels of mercury in fish, arsenic in rice, methylbromide in bread, adding fluoride [*] to drinking water ON PURPOSE, BPA in plastic food containers, volatile PBDE flame retardant in yout furniture, VCOs in your paint and building materials, trans fats. I can go on and on and on.
Besides eating a diet excessively high in carbs and low in other nutrients, we’re poisoning the shit out of ourselves. And you’re surprised that some people aren’t handling it well?
[*] Fluoridation is controvercial, the target of commie conspiracy theories, etc. In reality, it’s shown to have a substantial positive impact on tooth development in children, it’s dirt cheap, and kills many pathogens in water. However, it’s also strongly linked with lowered IQs and thyroid disease. It’s basically poison. If you’re smart, you’ll get a fluoride filter for your water and give your kids high doses of iodine instead, which has the same effect on teeth, the same disinfectant properties, and is an essential mineral.
Everyone's autistic to some degree, and no one bothered to check before.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Just because more people are seeking diagnosis and treatment when a treatment becomes available, doesn't mean either the diagnosis is wrong or the treatment is ineffective. According to the data, Erectile Dysfunction was an extremely rare condition prior to the release of Viagra, but extremely common afterward. That doesn't mean E.D. rates suddenly increased, or doctors misdiagnosed it to sell more drugs; it just means few men were willing to tell their doctors about it when they thought there was no effective treatment (or so I've heard, I wouldn't know personally).
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
More research is needed on the rise of autism reports. Statistical research, not medical, that is. The definition of autism has been expanded dramatically over the past 50 years, from what once were only the most severe cases, to cases that a casual observer would never notice.
Not to diminish the impact that autism, in all of its forms, has on people's lives, but to tell if there is an increase or not, one would need to use the same screening criteria as in the past. The 1 in 68 figure could simply be the definition of what is autism has been expanded. This is important to know, because if the increase is real, then something, most likely environmental, is causing it. OTOH, if it is just from expanding the definition, nothing has really changed.
Is distributing vaccines to people in Africa really causing an increase in autism there? Or is having medical professionals coming into a region that has little to no health care system allowing for people to be screened and that screening is what is causing the rise in reported cases?
Maybe, just maybe, its something in our modern diet. Take look at these links -
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Chemist-says-omitting-MSG-cured-daughter-s-autism-5329126.php
http://unblindmymind.org/
Herd immunity starts to fail and those idiots that don't immunize start to affect those that can't be immunized such as pregnant women and babies. imo, you refuse to immunize you should be placed on No fly list, refused entry into school, government buildings etc. Treated like a leper, yes.. but you had the choice of a freely available cure.
I think the rise in autism is being caused by children's minds being rewired by receiving the perverse teachings of liberalism. Their brains become such a tangled chaotic mess that it no longer functions properly.
If you don't use soap ever, you probably are human contact free too... although what did they use before soap was made?
Last week the BBC had this article on autism which says whatever is causing autism happens long before birth.
From the article:
Patchy changes in the developing brain long before birth may cause symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research suggests.
In other words, vaccines have NO relation to who does or does not develop autism.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this study yet. Perhaps Hypothyroid rates are skyrocketing and with it autism? http://www.sciencedaily.com/re... Autism four times likelier when mother's thyroid is weakened Pregnant women who don't make nearly enough thyroid hormone are nearly 4 times likelier to produce autistic children than healthy women, report scientists from the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute and Erasmus Medical Centre in an upcoming Annals of Neurology. The association emerged from a study of more than 4,000 Dutch mothers and their children, and it supports a growing view that autism spectrum disorders can be caused by a lack of maternal thyroid hormone, which past studies have shown is crucial to the migration of fetal brain cells during embryo development.
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill
Ahm.. you do realize that the use of 'Quick Silver' in that piece is in reference to their company name? Oh and look, the person claiming that the particular compound that was in vaccines was dangerous has built a personal empire off the myth, selling products and services including a fake cure for a non-existent situation. Oh and look, he is not a medical doctor, nor a chemist... his degree is in Environmental Sciences from a satellite campus of University of Illinois.
Sure.. I am going to believe a scam artist over peer reviewed experts in actual relevant fields who would just love to find flaws in each other's research.
To the fact that people wait longer until they conceive, and several studies have data that shows that having children after one of the parent is older than 35 years old increases the probability of having an autistic child?
Most BO comes from all the crap people consume.
Eat cleanly and you won't smell, unless you build up sweat colonies. Being forced to not use deodorant/anti-perspirant/colognes sure taught me quickly what foods were good for me.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Our society has more and more stratification, with people that have a skills or professions associated more with the autistic spectrum being more likely to end up with a partner who has similar strengths/weaknesses. 100 years ago that was far less likely to be the case as people tended to marry people with different levels of education/intelligence/attainment - this being before women were commonly tertiary educated.
It is well known that Autism/Aspergers is far more prevalent amongst the children of Silicon Valleys tech workers.
"2) b) The moon disappears. You're blamed. I'm pretty sure that you can show you're not responsible without knowing who the actual culprit is."
Not in any way the ensuing angry mob would accept. Just before the world ended.
Could it be that people are quick to label an opinion "troll" if they find it unsympathetic? Yes, I believe it could. Please remember that open-mindedness is an important virtue.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Isn't it obvious? People who, in previous times, would simply have been considered oddballs are now being diagnosed as autistic. 30 years ago most Americans hadn't even heard of autism, now every parent in the country is on lookout for the warning signs and ready to get a diagnosis at the drop of a hat. I really don't think it's any more complicated than that.
Yeah, it's definantly not a serious lifelong mental disability that can cause grief for both the child and the family without proper diagnosis and medical support - they're just being pussies. Ever hear of that old saying, "walk a mile in some one else's shoes?"
Because there are ample studies saying so.
If you still believe that vaccines could potentially maybe in some cases cause autism, you are a fucking retard at best, a con artist at worst.
Is it a genetic thing, passed on to kids, or might it be something caused by medicines or whatnot?
Most mother-to-be are taking different things during their term that they feel safe taking. What if things like Allergy pills are causing it?
Looks like a widespread version of Thalidomide Babies of this generation.
That's the great tragedy of Wakefield's science by press release, of course.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
They figured this out in 1972 on the BBC
The rest of the world is just catching up.
Dear Moron whom the Mod Trolls upvoted,
Did it ever occur to you that evolution occurs because of mutations? Not every mutation is advantageous, and some mutations are intermediaries before the next advantageous mutations.
Go put that in your crack pipe and smoke it. Get hiiiiiigggghhhh on information!
"significant proportion of the new cases are due to more sensitive diagnostic measures rather than increased incidence, "
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
LMAO, you don't know how evolution works, do you? What possible advantage could autism provide, when it renders most afflicted persons unsociable and awkward and therefore highly unlikely to pass on their genes?
LMAO, you don't know how evolution works, do you? What possible advantage could sickle-cell anemia provide, when it renders most afflicted persons breathless and weak and prematurely dead and therefore highly unlikely to pass on their genes? The real story here is probably more complicated than this, but it's a *hell* of a lot more complicated than that.
Not only that, but I'd be willing to bet that with the vaccine scares, vaccinations actually went down during that time. And yet, what happened? Autism rates skyrocketed by 30%. Correlation != causation, of course, but anyone crying that vaccines are the cause will need to explain how the two can have an inverse relationship like that.
Far more likely is that more kids were simply submitted for testing by concerned parents. Jenny McCarthy identified her son as autistic in 2007 (mind you, this is after she identified him as a "crystal child" and herself as an "indigo mom"), and started her campaigning against vaccines in early 2008 with claims on Larry King Live. By mid-2010, Wakefield had had his medical license revoked, his research discredited, and was thoroughly debunked. He was even more thoroughly discredited as we got through 2011, and the anti-vaxxer proponents were on their back foot trying to defend a premise that had had its foundation washed away.
Long story short, this research was conducted during the height of the vaccine scares, when more parents than ever were aware of autism and were looking for it in their children. Rather than better medical screening or more incidents of autism, I'd simply suggest that this is a case of more children being submitted to the medical screening.
Nt
"... methylbromide in bread.."
I see you have fallen for the food terrorist bullshit.
" adding fluoride [*] to drinking water ON PURPOSE"
which has shown nothing bu positive effects for decades.
" BPA in plastic food containers, "
ibn which there is no data there is any harm.
"I can go on and on and on."
Of course you can go on and on. That's because you are unencumbered by the thinking process.
" However, it’s also strongly linked with lowered IQs and thyroid disease."
No, it isn't.
". It’s basically poison."
so is water.
It's the dose that makes the poison.
" If you’re smart, you’ll get a fluoride filter for your water "
that's the opposite of smart.
" your kids high doses of iodine instead"
it's the dose that makes the poison. Don't just recommend 'high doses' of anything dumb ass. Our salt is iodized becasue we are well aware of iodine defency.
"which has the same effect on teeth"
no it doesn't.
"the same disinfectant properties, "
no it doesn't.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Hey! It was 4 minutes to Judge Wapner...
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
Unfortunately, we can't get this sort of action on AGW.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
while the rising ability to test is probably a good part of this, found out about this study fairly recently:
Research by CHORI Scientists Indicates Causal Link between Vitamin D, Serotonin Synthesis and Autism: Dietary Interventions Will Have Relevance for Prevention and possibly for Treatment of Autism
http://www.childrenshospitaloakland.org/main/news/research-by-chori-scientists-indicates-causal-link-230.aspx
(and possibly related : http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416 - Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases -- but only maybe)
"First do no harm" there is no room in the Hippocratic oath for "greater good" style thinking.
But there is room in the Oath for praying to Apollo, not letting women practice medicine and not having sex with slaves. The Hippocratic Oath is not particularly inclusive or exclusive. It's really kinda freaky. It has a couple of worthwhile sentences but it could use a bit of updating.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I can’t address all of your misinformation. However, it is well known, for instance, that bromine displaces iodine in the thyroid. They’re both halides, and bromine acts therefore as an endocrine disruptor, inhibiting proper thyroid function. It’s also linked with thyroid cancer (indirectly at least, because low iodine is linked with thyroid cancer). SO, if you want to keep your thyroid healthy, don’t consume bromides.
Fluorides have a similar effect, actually. It too is a halide and displaces iodine. What about chlorine, you say? Chlorine (or several chloride compounds anyway; we’re talking about bound forms of all of these chemicals) is another essential element used by the body, so there is no conflict there (although I can’t say what happens if you get them out of balance).
If you don’t care about your thyroid function, that’s fine. But people with Grave’s, Hashimoto’s, auto-immune thyroiditis, and various other such diseases DO care about that and DON’T appreciate these contaminants exascerbating and/or causing their trouble. But maybe you only give a crap about your own health (or maybe not even that?).
You didn’t address the mercury in fish or arsenic in rice. Convenient that you left those out? Oh, and the carcinogenic flame retardant.
As for BPA, allow me to quote wikipedia (which you should have looked at before responding): Bisphenol A is an endocrine disruptor that can mimic estrogen and has been shown to cause negative health effects in animal studies.
High doses: For iodone, a high dose would be MANY times the RDA, but well within safe limits. See "http://www.thyroid.org/iodine-deficiency/“. The RDA depends on your condition (e.g. pregnant) and ranges from 150 to about 300 micrograms. However, regular doses of 12.5 milligrams are completely safe, and some people with thyroid diseases are recommended to take up to 50 milligrams/day for a while to treat a defficiency. The average Japanese diet brings in 1 to 3 milligrams per day from edible seaweed. Extreme doses *much higher than I’m talking about) are at risk primarily of disrupting thyroid function (differently from a deficiency, of course).
As for teeth, instead of getting fluoroapatite (Ca5(PO4)3F), you get iodoapatite (Ca5(PO4)3I). Basic chemistry. Go learn some.
Of course, you’re one of those conspiracy people, but like backwards or something. You think some people just want to make things more expensive or inconvenient. Are the commies trying to disrupt our economy by suggesting we don’t use chemicals with known health effects? There’s also not a conspiracy the other way either. These contaminants are not in our food and water because some people are conspiring to hurt us. Free-market factors have given rise to cost-effective solutions to problems, some of which we have subsequenty determined to be unhealthy. The main problem is that people are cheap and ignorant.
I wish we could edit posts. Speak about updating .... (No, I'm NOT looking at you beta).
It isn't even clear that Primum non nocere (first, do no harm) was actually coined by Hippocrates (see the Wikipedia article). He certainly alludes to it, however ("to abstain from doing harm"). /medical history nazi
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You must not know many doctors.
There are doctors that won't admit that they're ever wrong.
But on the whole, the only thing a doctor loves more than proving some other doctor is wrong is telling the whole world about it with a published paper.
Even after living with someone affected by mental illness I'd argue that you STILL don't know squat about it in general. Every case is nearly unique. To "know squat" about it you'd need to be familiar with a very broad range, not just one person.
Anyway, the topic here is "autism" and the comparison is to depression. The OP is pretty darn close to spot on for both.
It's neither good nor bad, just a simple fact. Increased attention and diagnosis and grouping of a much lower range of severity with those that are much more prominent and easy to identify results in what looks (mostly to idiots) like an "epidemic" when in reality, it's very likely ENTIRELY the result of these diagnostic changes and increased awareness. If you ask me the "Autism spectrum" is a crock! They need to come up with a better name for high-functioning cases as IMHO they don't have nearly enough in common with the debilitating and severely limiting cases to even be called the same thing. It would help avoid a lot of confusion.
When I was born, autism was barely diagnosed; I was just plain weird; 64 years later, I am still just plain weird. The normal world will never get it.
"Autism is a catch-all disease, describing symptoms with a great number of underlying causative factors."
That is EXACTLY the problem that needs to be fixed. Grouping all those things under one big umbrella, though perhaps still useful in a "yes, something really is wrong with Johnny, he's not just lazy and dumb" perspective, it's a really really stupid way to go about declaring something an epidemic and looking for what horrible thing in society or the environment is suddenly causing "it" when "it" could be any of a thousand vaguely similar conditions ranging from almost perfectly normal up to completely unable to function and requiring constant supervision. They need to stop trying to make the thing bigger in order to pool funding, and instead look at these things individually, give them useful names, and only collaborate where it actually makes sense to do so (in the study of issues/factors common across the two semi-related disordered being studied).
"Most BO comes from all the crap people consume."
false.
"Eat cleanly and you won't smell"
meaningless.
"taught me quickly what foods were good for me."
Anecdote couples with confirmation bias sure shows I'm right. Blah blah blah.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
They've certainly proven that rates of a wide variety of physical and mental disorders are greater in births to older mothers, by statistically significant proportions.
That much is far better understood than the "autism spectrum" crap itself (I'm not saying autism doesn't exist, just that making an entire "spectrum" of disorders, often with different causes and dramatically different symptoms, and calling it all autism is not really beneficial to anyone except perhaps those seeking research funding, attention, or drug/treatment revenue. Otherwise it's largely a disservice to those affected by said conditions).
Or, he was paying attention to her speech patterns, concentration and eye movement and the best way to do that is to see how well that can talk about something they enjoy?
No, no that can't be it. It must be they don't care and not that you are a clueless idiot.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
While I agree that any site that is using catch phrases like "detoxify" is probably bullshit, one can't help but wonder about the role diet might have in this whole problem. Our diet is, well, fucked up. We have the government pushing low fat, high carbohydrate diets, companies that push high fructose corn syrup into anything they've removed the fat from and all of that rely heavily on genetically modified food or manufactured chemicals; just look at that monstrosity called "Lunchables." We feed that to our children!!! Take into account the fact that we've been pretty loose with how we treat drinking water for the last 100 or so years, and I think you have a recipe for poor health -- the equivalent of being wealthy, but cash poor. While we have the greatest healthcare system in history, we (in the USA, anyway) have poorest nutrition. Cargill and the like are more interested in having a tomato that can be dropped from 10,000 feet without damage than they are in creating a tomato that retains its nutrition longer.
100% agreed on your first two paragraphs but then you went down the rabbit hole. There's a lot of research going on, though it's not always targeted well due to the problems identified above and because a big chunk of the funding is tied to the promise of future revenue. "Autism" is way too broad. There need to be different names for these disorders and not some idiotic "spectrum" trumped up mostly in order to attract media attention and to better pool research funding and treatment revenue.
Trying to inject religion into it is largely a straw man though. There may be a FEW religious people who think that medical science is somehow bad and we should only seek spiritual guidance, but they are an extreme, extreme, tiny minority. The huge majority of religious people, Christian, and otherwise, are fully in agreement that seeking spiritual guidance IN ADDITION TO, not instead of, medical treatment is wise and prudent. Nothing about the former causes any real problems with the latter.
Then the big business and government conspiracy thing? Give me a break...
So yes, study it more, especially by splitting it up into more specific classes of symptoms and severity, and when any underlying cause is found for any one of those, make sure it's considered a completely separate problem at that point. After picking off enough of them, the larger problem (if it actually is a problem of anywhere near the magnitude that it's being touted as) can start to be understood.
Anything 'processed' has byproducts.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
There are some studies that were published in late 2013 that strongly correlate the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy or childhood with autism/ASD.
http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/home/eng/Acetaminophen.asp (full text)
Evidence is presented that Cuba's rate of autism is 298 times lower than that in the US. Cuba has compulsory vaccination of children, but acetaminophen is rarely prescribed and is not available OTC. In contrast,
The study linked above also notes the following study that was also published in 2013:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673819/ (full text)
it renders most afflicted persons unsociable and awkward and therefore highly unlikely to pass on their genes?
What makes you think it meakes them any less likely to pass on their genes - on the average? Autism spectrum is virtually synonomous with "nerd". Recent studies (referenced in at least one recent slashdot discussion) have shown that "nerds" are nearly as likely to marry as the average, and MUCH more likely to have a stable, long-lasting, marriage.
While I didn't see anything about their reproduction rate, stable marriages tend to lead, not just to children, but to an upbringing that produces SUCCESSFUL children. (In particular, a male role model is virtually required for the male offspring to avoid mis-socialization that leads to a tendency to violent crime and prison time.)
Add to that the observation that some of the best paying jobs tend to be performed very well by, and dominated by, people with various Ausbergers-spectrum "disorders" and you have obvious advantages for both attracting a mate to a stable relationship and providing children with competitive advantages (especially health care and education).
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
it is also common to encourage your child to be diagnosed with a higher level diagnosis on the autism spectrum because in most provinces in canada that's the only way you get any medical support; the other option is to move provinces to somewhere that treats a wider ranger on the spectrum but that's obviously a last resort since that's a big change
as we get better at diagnosing conditions like this, naturally there will be a rise in the number of positive diagnoses.
With ADHD the educational system has several incentives - both administrative and financial - to hang the label on kids. The percentage diagnosed with this condition has also experienced substantial growth (and there is a substantial controversey of whether this is the result of the incentives rather than a rise in the condition). Perhaps a similar situation is present with the Autisim-Spectrum diagnosis.
If the school systems labeling nerdy kids with "autism sufferer" leads to them reducing the amount they try to force them to be standardized jocks, defending them more from bullies, and giving them a quiet environment to learn, I'd applaud and promote the increase in the practice. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
To see what sort of advantages autism could give, please see #5 in "5 Horrible Diseases That Changed The World (For the Better)" by Robert Evans and Philip Moon and #1 in "5 Brain Disorders That Started as Evolutionary Advantages" by Matthew Moffitt and Himanshu Sharma.
What else has changed in that time period?
Give it time. Just like string theory, it will be a generational thing.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Actual clinical depression is a serious disorder and of course has existed throughout history. However, currently about a quarter of women in the US between 40 and 50 are on antidepressant drugs at any one time, and about 10% of all Americans over 12.
In particular, (I've heard that) more than 50% of adult women in the US have been treated for depression at least once in their lives.
This is a source of one of the major pushbacks against gun control proposals that ban people who have seen a shrink from ever having guns: It would disarm the bulk of women (including especially those who are being stalked or attacked, who are likely to have a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder label hung on them.)
Interestingly, while severely clinically depressed patients may be suicide risks and thus a "danger to themselves", the depressed in general are much LESS likely to be a danger to others than the average of the population - even when treated with antidepressant drugs.
(The occasional person who goes on a crime spree when on antidepressants is the result of another phenomenon: People can be both psychopaths and clinically depressed. The depression debilitates them so they don't act out. Treat the depression and you have a fully-functional psychopath. There is some discussion in the psychiatric community, as a result, over whether it might be ethical to refuse to treat the depression of severe, uncompemsated, psychopaths/)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Can I borrow your axe-grinder when you are done with it?
There is definitely a connection between diet and certain symptoms of autism. Several cases have been reported of children diagnosed early in life, who were later found to have a dietary allergy or sensitivity. The underlying condition was causing them so much pain, or otherwise hindering their psychological development, that they presented with autism-like symptoms. Others have reported that casein (dairy protein) was metabolized into a psychoactive toxin. (Can't seem to find any reliable evidence of that last one, though. Maybe I mistook a blog post for a medical essay.)
Anyway, to say that Lunchables is the problem, may not be too far from the truth. Not because "oh noez teh processed food produx!" But because your kid may have a gluten sensitivity, phenylketonuria, or a dairy allergy, and the crackers, cheese, and diet soda are making his body violently ill.
One of my children is a 'special needs' kid.
Takes them an hour to do 25 elementary school math problems. Not because they are 'slow', but cannot stay on task, internally and externally distracted, all the time.
We feel pressured to always have them on meds, different meds if they don't seem to be behaving 'better', drugs roulette, so they can seem more Acceptable to Others.
IEPs. Basically years of adversarial polite conflict with the elementary school, the principal of the elementary school, to accomodate the child's special needs. The principal trying to say the child has a displine problem, and would not provide all the services called out in my child's IEP, until we escalated over the principal's head to the district itself.
My child, that I love, I worry about, contantly. I worry about them beeing bullied, teased, made to feel bad for them just being themselves, in a world that likes to be xenophobic for those that Dont Seem To Fit In.
For me, I feel a sense of resignated acceptance. I already expect for my child to always be living with me, even when I am retired. I torture myself with worry how they will do in this world, once I am no longer alive to help them.
For me, I feel a cosmic finger has pointed at me, and has judged my existance will be a bit more biblical Job than those whose kids are Normals.
For me, I will be happy to be proved wrong, and that my special needs child grows up okay, but so far, I do not see any hope of that yet.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
That Bowie is an angsty bitch?
With little that is productive and useful to say. Everybody can spot problems, it is the solutions that take intelligence, effort and work.
ironic captcha: narcotic
It is not uncommon for medical issues to be mixed up with cultural issues. This is particularly true particular those conditions for which there is no "cure", only more or less enlightened management. Once a bona fide cure is discovered, the issue will usually but gradually turn into a pure medical problem. First managed through a treatment, and then hopefully marginalised or eradicated completely. This has happened to smallpox, and to a lesser extent polio or tuberculosis (in the first world at least), just to mention some examples.
AIDS, substance abuse, and autism clearly have a medical component. They also clearly have a cultural component. They are emphatically not one or the other. At some stage they may be, but not today.
Until that time, accept the mixup. If you can then participate in enlightened management and progress towards cures. If you can't, then please avoid getting in the way of those who do :-)
I suspect, what will be discovered by science and research, is that our civilization has created mutagens, that have helped accelerate the rate at which members of the population have these conditions.
Romans with lead.
Recent history with things like DDT.
History shows us that we often do not know the downside of some of our choices. For example, we only found out about lead poisoning, and removing lead from automotive fuel and residential paints, in one generation.
So my guess is, like we have discovered that some substances are carcinogens, that some things we are exposed to routinely today, will be classified as mutagens, and restricted or banned.
For those that already express the condition, I fear there is no solution. A mutation in the current science, unlike the movie Gattaca, doesn't seem fixable.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
My guess is that this 30% increase aren't more of the stereotypical autistics who are unable to care for themselves, it's identifying people who would benefit from behavioral therapy. Thus, as we better understand and better understand how to help those with it, your statistic will become less and less true. With respect to individuals who lead a very difficult life due family members or friends who have severe autism, autism itself isn't tragic, certain cases of autism are tragic. My condolences if you know someone who has a tragic case of autism. It is not my intent to exacerbate your pain.
The autistic spectrum is wide and the irony of these diagnoses from physicians is that many of the most skilled and respected physicians are high-functioning autistics. If I ever have someone doing a thoracotomy on me to repair my hemorrhaging aorta, I don't want my cardiothoracic surgeon to have a kind, bubbly, empathetic personality. I want a detail-oriented freak who understands his craft so intricately that he can save my life with nothing but unimaginable focus. The sharpness of his mind and the dullness of his personality can actually be, in fact, a benefit in many cases.
"With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone."
Many people are easily influenced by pop culture icons. You can say it is stupid, which it is, but it **is** what it is. There are many people who just aren't that smart and it will always be this way. The only way to fight fire is with fire. Enlist some A list star to say they believe in vaccination, appeal to the masses with some heart wrenching story of a disabled kid whose condition could have been prevented, soft music and plenty of tears. Every nerdy doctor pleading with people, holding up volumes of scientific evidence is just a waste of time. The masses need anecdotal evidence and a good heart wrenching presentation, something they can be emotionally attached to, something that is believable in their gut.
Or is it a consequence of the drugging of children to make them "behave" in school?
If anything, a 30% increase over a mere three year period is far too much to indicate a genetic or environmental factor other than perhaps a new and easily spread virus.
Two factors may be driving this apparent increase:
1. The recent broadening of the Autism Spectrum Disorder to include Aspergers. Autism is now little more than a catch-all for childhood difficulties in socializing.
2. More special needs funding for autism, which creates and incentive for schools and specialists to call something autism. The result is an unhealthy bubble. More apparent case drive more funding which then creates more apparent cases.
Why are people so quick to say vaccines are connected? Wait until some weirdo declares that soap causes autism, and see how the world behaves even after the claim is debunked times over. Just like with vaccines. Enjoy the smell of the (literally) unwashed masses then.
Because soap doesn't normally contain a mercury compound as a preservative.
Why are people so quick to say vaccines are connected? Wait until some weirdo declares that soap causes autism, and see how the world behaves even after the claim is debunked times over. Just like with vaccines. Enjoy the smell of the (literally) unwashed masses then.
Because soap doesn't normally contain a mercury compound as a preservative.
OK, but vaccines for kids don't normally contain a mercury compound as a preservative either.
So, my fiance happens to be a Board Certified Behavior Analyst specializing in Austim, and from the comments I can tell you two things:
1) The science (yes, I chose that word on purpose) of Behavior Analysis (BA) has grown immensely in that last decade. Both in the body of research, the systems of diagnosis, and the professional development associations supporting the work to address the needs of people "on the spectrum". She is board certified, which is not a trivial thing if you haven't ever had to stand in front of one, and knows more about how kids brains work than I know about computer systems. Keep in mind I'm a VP managing a HUGE cloud infrastructure, still SSH into boxes myself and have 30+years of computer work under my belt.
If you have never seen how a multi-week observation is conducted to determine where, and if, a child is in need of training or other assistance, well STFU. Calling the child, or the parent, or the staff involved "lazy" shows you need to look in a mirror.
2) The biology behind Autism is not well defined, but the symptoms, ie: how it manifests, it VERY clearly defined - and data driven. Behind every Autism "diagnosis" is a multi-page report prepared by one or more people (double blind) and then reviewed before presentation to parents. And before thousands of tax-payer dollars, or insurance dollars, or whatever resources are allocated - there is HARD EVIDENCE of the need. Maybe the child is mild,and just needs for adults to start treating him/her like a human and not an animal to be spanked or yelled at. Maybe the child will be lucky to count change properly and/or complete a transaction at a lunch counter... Don't tell me we shouldn't try to help those people because "it didn't happen that much back in my day."
Bottom line: Have some compassion for your fellow humans. Especially the 8yr old ones. And stop confusing facts with "feelings". It hurts other people. Often.
1 Dachshund + 1 Dachshunds = A Paradox.
The human species is evoluting degeneratively, let's say devoluting. The brain and our health are the first victims of this.
We're devoluting because the widespread use of contraception prevents successful males from spreading there genes in the amounts required to sustain the quality of the human race. Not too long ago, alpha males would spread their genes 50 to 100 times, or even 1000 times if very succesful. Today, perhaps average 3 or four kids for them. That's not sustainable, humans were not designed that way.
And nature doesn't give a fuck about your political correct counter-opinion.
My karma ran over your dogma
...the family of an autistic child badly wants an answer. First they don't know the name (diagnosis). Once they have a name they then need a cause.
The truth is that the causes of autism are unknown. However for a lot of people that is simply unacceptable. So they seize upon some answer which seems sorta plausible (you need to discount or mutate science, but it's a child you insensitive clod!)
When we do finally understand the cause(s) of autism, there are likely to be multiple factors at play. If the answer were simple, like an SNP or a single substance exposure, we probably would have found it by now. Or, and this is a low probability item you understand, we may find that autism is caused by something that science had deemed to be 'impossible', and therefore was not rigorously investigated. The example of stomach ulcers is the signature example here. It's easy to criticize science and scientists for having blinders when this happens, but usually the logic behind the blinkered thinking sounds pretty good at the time.
Much more likely though is some sort of genetic vulnerability which then gets triggered by some environmental exposure. Bonus points for complexity if there are dozens of genes involved and multiple environmental exposures.
And beyond the desperate parents seeking answers, there is always an economic faction at work, busily selling product. I'm always a bit uncomfortable with their products and pitch. But then, that's what they say about the scientific viewpoint too.
The DNA for a woman's eggs is formed when she is born. Men, on the other hand, generate sperm; sperm is formed by continuously dividing cells and so is vulnerable to repeated mutations. A older man's sperm has significantly more mutated DNA than a young man's.
http://www.nature.com/news/fathers-bequeath-more-mutations-as-they-age-1.11247 ... so if age is a factor in inheritable diseases specifically, the male party is the one to be concerned about.
A handful of successful children from a single stable marriage require far more effort than the half dozen kids from various failed relationships who, because they never experienced stability in their home life, will go out and and repeat the behaviour seen in their parents, the latter approach also tends to ensure a better spread of genes, breeding occurring at a younger age when fewer complications are likely to occur and fewer genetic defects are likely to arise.
Being successful and a good person is great, but it's not necessarily the best strategy for passing on one's genes, i suspect that in reality that accolade goes to being scum, living in council flats and breeding like rabbits, sadly.
Who has realized in the last year, complete with a schizophrenic personality break, paranoia, and then great cathartic self-revelation, that he is autistic...
Allow me to say this: People who are so fucking intelligent or simply DIFFERENT that they cannot communicate with normal society without backbreaking acts of self-defiance, DESERVE PROTECTION FROM BEING ABUSED.
The label of autism, if you are too insensitive or thoughtless to recognize it, is a civil rights issue. It is not medical, it is hardly scientific.
I love and fixate on the pattern that follows. If I get kicked out of my house, because all I want to do is study this pattern, thats fine with me. Just don't try and stop me from thinking what I think and feeling what i feel. Telling me I am "normal" and should therefore behave appropriately, is like telling a gay person not to sexualize their sex. Autistic PEOPLE are people too. The people who huddle near the center of the pack and hate people who FEED THEM KNOWLEDGE AT THE RATE THEY CAN COMFORTABLY CONSUME IT are being turned into the next generation of laboratory guinea pigs. Sheeple, they might be called.
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whats the next line?
Autism is different from ADD. Autism means, far from neurotypical, which means, less context for communication. Autistic people have to FIGURE OUT how other people communicate, and therefore end up much more intelligent but with a great defecit to what they can "just know," and therefore they do not have access to MANY THINGS that neurotypical people have access to. In this way, they are disabled. It is not a choice, it is a way of being made.
Being allowed to identify with a label that fearful morons can understand (sort of) and use to both respect and honor my different character, has been the greatest privilege of my life. It has literally freed up my heart and brain to cooperate with each other.
If you are able to describe the above pattern using words (and i'm pretty sure you are ABLE) you might be able to begin to see what is happening in the world, in a way that you won't be so fucking callous as to describe an autistic person as having something WRONG with them. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME, motherfucker, except that I am socially inappropriate. No offense intended. I may be obnoxious, but that is just "how god made me" and thats YOUR problem, not mine.
If you don't use soap ever, you probably are human contact free too... although what did they use before soap was made?
Ancient Romans used olive oil.
Are we really evolving? What does this mean for the concept of evolution? Shouldn't things get better if we evolve and not worse? Some of this rise is surely medical, but I have to wonder how much is just people without a father or decent male role-model in their life. Would be interesting to see if there's a correlation between divorce rates and this. Also, what about the parents who just let the TV/tablet/ipod touch/flappy birds raise their kids instead of them doing it?
Ok fine.... but did anyone take the time to prove that peanut butter does not cause autism? Sure, we all believed it was vaccines but now we are pretty sure it is peanut butter. Where are the studies?! ;)
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
Before that, wasn't it basically just scrubbing with sand?
http://www.statisticbrain.com/cell-phone-tower-statistics/
The reason many call it a craze or a fad, is that it deflects attention away from the real cause(s).
/. and Ars.
I like the book "Disconnected Kids" because it points the finger at developmental imbalance in the brain. This makes the most sense to me because (1) when you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person, (2) many things can throw off development (especially with the dozens and dozens of vaccines now given to infants, and fluoridation, and microwave radiation broadcasters...I mean, baby monitors), (3) the guy offers techniques to re-balance one's brain that I think makes sense and work to at least an extent, (4) he has opened dozens of clinics to help treat people, etc.
"It's a fad" is the 21st century equivalent of "You're a racist!" Quick and easy deflection. The real fad is corporations having armies of minions who reverse-troll for their clients by the hour on social media and places like
I come here for the love
Best comment I've ever seen on autistic people.
I have extensive experience caring for and living with them.
At this point I agree with Dr. Robert Melillo, as I posted above. With TAS individual I live with, I have seen considerable improvement but it has come through repeatedly teaching new/better behaviors, not through letting the individual become more and more shut off.
FWIW, I think armchair experts are the biggest problem. Try living with one, or caring for many of them for many years. You'll change your tune.
I come here for the love
Oh, thank goodness you quoted Wikipedia. That settles it.
To the grandparent poster, check out "The Greater Good". Will totally change your view of vaccinations. One of the most profound things I learned was that in "vaccine vs no vaccine" studies, the "no vaccine" people in some cases still received the mercury (!) and in other cases received a different vaccine (!). That's right, there was no "control" group so they compared the health effect of a mercury-containing vaccine with...a mercury-containing control and/or a different vaccine.
Other juicy bits from that documentary:
- The number of vaccines given to kids these days is TEN times what was given 30 or 40 years ago.
- some vaccines still use mercury.
- some autistic individuals became so at the same time they (1) got a bunch of vaccinations and (2) were then tested and found to have toxic levels of mercury in their system, prompting (3) a successful lawsuit, and resulting compensation.
I come here for the love
This all has to do with evolution being put on its head. We have stopped the natural selection process, so we will get mutations that are good and ones that are bad. Nuff said.
There is no B3 bomber
Could it be the increased use of X-rays by people doing prenatal exams?
RoundUp (glyphosate) and the clones of it have increased in direct correlation with the rise in autism. Now correlation does NOT equal causation but it's a great place to start.
So is there any mechanism that it could be doing this by? Why yes there is. Glyphosate kills plants by attacking the shikimate pathway. That pathway exists in the bacteria in your gut. The balance of bacteria in your gut is responsible for:
About 75% of your immune system regulation.
Neurotransmitter building blocks (more than any other part of your body aside from the brain). Brain scientists are calling the gut bacteria the "second brain" because it is so vital.
Garbage disposal. It helps regulate the sulfur pathway that disposes of cellular debris.
So what happens when kids are around a year old? They stop breast feeding and start eating solid foods. Their immune system is poorly formed and into that we dump a load of poison.
How do you avoid it? With great difficulty. Not only do you have to avoid all genetically engineered foods which means almost all corn, canola, soy, vegetable fats, etc but you have to avoid products from criminally idiotic farmers who spray their crop with Roundup before harvest to dry it (dessication). A process even Monsanto says not to do.
But hey lets just keep poisoning ourselves and PAYING for the privilege of doing it because large corporations and the government agencies they own would never lie to us about the safety of it.
Sure we can. We do. Unfortunately, the science seems to come out as something you don't want.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
In my youth, if you could not focus, you were given a desk at the back of the class. That was done so that you would not disturb the rest of the class.
In 2008 and thereafter, better methods of detecting and working with autism has evolved. Now in our Montreal public schools, we practice "No child left behind".
My daughter specializes in breaking through the autistic child's barriers and personality problems, and getting the child to learn, and even do homework. That child, hopefully, after highschool, may have enough self discipline to attend college or university.
But it is expensive, as my daughter, a teacher to autistic children is a 1 on 1 dedicated resource. Hopefully, that investment will mean that society will not have to support the child, when he/she reaches adulthood/maturity.
Parents of the autistic children are most grateful for what the school board is doing and funding. My daughter also teaches parents how to re-enforce the child's social skills and learning. The hard part is the initial task of getting the child to be responsive and having him/her out of her own cloud.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Thirty years ago, EVERYBODY had had the mumps, measles, and chickenpox. It was NORMAL. As proof of this, I cite below quotes from books and popular television programmes from the 70s and 80s. Any of you 'vaccine believers' care to explain what changed since then?
'The masters or sitcom' by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, p161: ... ...
BILL: Go round kissing all the babies. That'll get the votes.
ANDREE: How is he doctor?
KENNETH: Oh, it's nothing to worry about, just a slight case of measles. Plenty of rest, he'll be all right in a week or two.
TONY: (Disgusted) Measles. Whose bright idea was it to go round kissing all the babies?
BILL: Well, I'm sorry, Tub.
TONY: 'Don't forget the one with the freckles,' he says. Aaah... If I get half as many votes as I've got spots, I'll sweep the country.
Doctor at Large, Series 1 Ep. 25, 2:14 Dr. Upton is taken ill and says "Feels like mumps. I had mumps. I had it when I was eight." ...Really, Flo, you can't possibly remember that." Flo; "I can! Of course I can, George. Mother let me stay up to read you Treasure Island."
Catweazle, series 1, final part, 'The Trickery Lantern', 2:30 Flo (Mr. Bennett's sister); "You were just like this with chickenpox." Mr. Bennett; "Chickenpox?" Flo; "When you were nine." Mr. Bennett; "When I was?
Catweazle, Series 1, Episode 4, 'The Witching Hour', 22:20, Miss Bonnington says "My arch enemy, Mrs. Willougbhy wasn't there." Mr. Bennett (Carrot's father); "Wasn't there?" Miss Bonnington; "Terribly funny, you'd never believe it. She's suddenly gone down with measles!" Carrot; "Measles?" Miss Bonnington; "Funny that - so sudden - several cases in the village of course, but she was perfectly alright this afternoon in the hairdressers. Hope I don't catch it!" (laughing out loud)
Steptoe and Son Christmas Special - Chickenpox, last five minutes.
Robin's Nest, Series 2, Episode 7, 10:10, Robin's brother's got mumps.
Robin's Nest, Series 3, Episode 4, 18:20 - Mr Nicholls said he hadn't had mumps.
The Famous Five - Five Go Adventuring Again, 2:00 - George says "And what with that, and my being ill, he thought it would be a good idea if we all have lessons", Anne says "Your spots have all gone", George replies "I know, I was officially de-measled this morning".
Man About the House - Series 1, Episode 3 - After the Monopoly game, Chrissie says "I haven't had so much fun since I had the mumps".
"Larry Grayson on Pebble Mill 1992" in Mpegs/Comedy, 4:39, said he had measles twice.
'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' directed by Selznick. 10:33,
Tom: Where have you been such a long time. I haven't seen you since we got engaged.
Girl: I had the chickenpox.
Tom: You haven't got it now, have you?
Girl: No, silly, think my ma would let me out if I wasn't all cured?
Oliver Postgage book "Seeing things", page 12: (When he was six or seven) "but I saw little of the place because I almost immediately came down with measles... a day or two later when Grandad himself turned up, really just to pat me and wish me well because by then I was over the worst of the measles."
(This was in 1930-1932)
Here's another article for you:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1646939/
So immunizations have been ongoing since the early 20th century and there wasn't a spate of Autism, ADD, or Aspergers then. Unless of course, no one knew what those conditions were and chalked it up to general 'weirdness' or retardation. Either vaccinations are the cause, which means that they are actually changing the DNA of these children or vaccinations are doing nothing but imparting immunizations and your kid has screwy DNA to begin with.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org...
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org...
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/1...
https://www.drfuhrman.com/chil...
That said, there are other factors besides sunlight and poor diet (esp. junk food additives etc.) as well as other odd factors like too much vitamin A relative to vitamin D in supplements. Society was more formally structured (with "manners") decades ago, which made it easier to navigate for people on the autistic spectrum. Kids were allowed to be kids a lot more. Mothers spent more time with young kids (including working from home together on farms) rather than farming young kids out to day care and preschool all day. And so on.
http://www.thewaronkids.com/
http://www.chrismercogliano.co...
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
To the extent gluten free helps, I wonder if it may be because it also usually avoids a lot of mainstream junk like foods with artificial colors and flavors that can create general problems? What might just make some other kid a bit cranky or a bit hyper might push some other kid past some meltdown threshold. So, excellent diet (e.g. Dr. Fuhrman, Dr. Hyman) help take away at least some potential problems which autism is going to possibly amplify.
But yes, practical behavioral interventions can make a big difference. One aspect of autism is too many connections in the brain relative to other kids where the neural connections die off in the womb or in the first years. So, what may seem to come more naturally to other kids regarding social norms has to be more explicitly learned. There is some software and books for leaning about facial expressions, for example.
Also perhaps of help are homeshooling/unschooling and free schools that can be more accommodating of strong focus.
Good luck.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
"As somebody who's going back to college, I'm really surprised to see how big the "ADD generation" is. They're everywhere, they can't focus, and they have a million ideas at once. I always thought the ADD craze you mentioned was bullshit too, but being around younger people I can see they are considerably different from the people I worked with back when I got my first degree. It really was a night and day difference when switching from being around thirty-somethings to twenty-somethings."
Explained in part: http://www.amazon.com/Supernor...
https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
http://www.paulgraham.com/addi...
So, always on smartphones full of interesting content are just like sugar-laden donuts -- killing you with a seeming treadmill of pleasure that totally displaces other less-fun-or-pleasurable-in-the-short-term behaviors and nutrients needed for well-rounded health and success.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
"Nunez descends into the valley and finds an unusual village with windowless houses and a network of paths, all bordered by curbs. Upon discovering that everyone is blind, Nunez begins reciting to himself the refrain, "In the Country of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King". He realises that he can teach and rule them, but the villagers have no concept of sight, and do not understand his attempts to explain this fifth sense to them. Frustrated, Nunez becomes angry, but the villagers calm him, and he reluctantly submits to their way of life, because returning to the outside world seems impossible.
Nunez is assigned to work for a villager named Yacob. He becomes attracted to Yacob's youngest daughter, Medina-Sarote. Nunez and Medina-Sarote soon fall in love with one another, and having won her confidence, Nunez slowly starts trying to explain sight to her. Medina-Sarote, however, simply dismisses it as his imagination. When Nunez asks for her hand in marriage, he is turned down by the village elders on account of his "unstable" obsession with "sight". The village doctor suggests that Nunez's eyes be removed, claiming that they are diseased and are affecting his brain. Nunez reluctantly consents to the operation because of his love for Medina-Sarote. However, at sunrise on the day of the operation, while all the villagers are asleep, Nunez, the failed King of the Blind, sets off for the mountains (without provisions or equipment), hoping to find a passage to the outside world, and escape the valley."
While I loved the cartoon version of "A Connectuct Yankeee in King Arthur's Court", plus similar stories ("Lest Darkness Fall" etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... and even "Coneheads"), in practice, it seems that being significantly different in cultural outlook from a backwards society can be a huge handicap leading to isolation (e.g. "Stranger in a Strange Land" or the religious story Doug Adams called being nailed to a tree 2000 years ago for suggesting people might try being nice to each other).
Another take on all that:
http://www.fromthewilderness.c...
"Start building your lifeboats where you are now. I can see that the lessons I have learned here are important whether you arethinking of moving from city to countryside, state to state, or nation to nation. Whatever shortcomings you may think exist where you live are far outnumbered by the advantages you have where you are a part of an existing ecosystem that you know and which knows you. If the time comes when it is necessary to leave that community you will be better off moving with your tribe rather than moving alone."
What did brilliance in the end get Tesla? Or Semmelweis? Or Shelton? Or Gatto? or CH Douglas? Or Charles Fourier? Or even Galileo? Or Dee Hock founder of Visa and the Chaordic Commons or Michael Philips founder of MasterCard? Or Theodore Sturgeon and "The Skills of Xanadu"? Or Doug Engelbart and "The Mother of All Demos" and the mouse? Or even Alan Kay and Dan Ingalls and others with the increasingly forgotten-but-continually-badly-re-invented Smalltalk (e.g. Ruby & Java & many others)? See on Kay in particular:
https://www.google.com/search?...
How many of them have most people even heard of? Yet they provided many of the better ideas that shape our lives today. There are many other mostly forgotten people we could add to that list, even if there may be some small subgroup of fans at some point in time. And the people I list are even on the upper end of the scale as at least having been recognized as mostly ignored or forgotten despite being brilliant, unlike legions of other people who have contributed to society such as those who bred potatoes or apples or r
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Ac wrote: "A handful of successful children from a single stable marriage require far more effort than the half dozen kids from various failed relationships who, because they never experienced stability in their home life, will go out and and repeat the behaviour seen in their parents, the latter approach also tends to ensure a better spread of genes, breeding occurring at a younger age when fewer complications are likely to occur and fewer genetic defects are likely to arise. Being successful and a good person is great, but it's not necessarily the best strategy for passing on one's genes, i suspect that in reality that accolade goes to being scum, living in council flats and breeding like rabbits, sadly."
Way too much insightful truth in this. :-) See also R-selection vs. K-selection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
"In ecology, r/K selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in a species that inversely relate parental investment and the quantity and quality of offspring. Each selection seems to promote success in different environments. r-selection species spread parental investment across many offspring whereas K-selected species focus theirs on a few. Neither mode of propagation is intrinsically superior, and they can coexist in the same habitat; e.g., rodents and elephants."
And also some New Yorker or Atlantic article a year or so ago that said, why are people surprised when someone like Bill Clinton or any other successful powerful politician "throws away his career for some fling" when to some extent that is in some sense the whole point evolutionary of amassing power?
All that said, humans have memes as well as genes, and so our behavior also has a moral component with collective social consequences.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
The Guardian ran this story a week back
Recessive genes persist because they are not expressed in every generation, but lie hidden until two gametes with the same recessives mate. The hidden genes have no selective pressures so they persist.
The same goes for red hair and innate forms of homosexuality. However, homosexuality may be a development issue in the fetus as well.
Not all homosexuals are innate or developmental, it seems. There is such a thing as a cultural genome.
And failed???
Over vaccination and electromagnetic pollution - two main reasons.
Young parents, especially mothers to be, using cellphones, and WiFi at home, at work. At least don't have it home.
Autism can be easily reversed with no wheat no dairy diet. So, young future mothers take a note.
http://www.wddty.com/autism-is-a-gut-problem-and-can-be-reversed-with-a-no-wheat-no-dairy-diet.html05
March 2012
Autism can be improved – and even reversed – without drugs. Children just need to stop eating wheat and dairy, researchers have discovered this week – because the problem is related to the gut and immune system.
Children with autism may be more allergic, and have more gut problems, than other children – and this may be the key to reversing the problem, say researchers from Penn State.
When autistic children are given a gluten-free and casein-free diet – no wheat and no dairy, condition improves drastically......
Recent studies (referenced in at least one recent slashdot discussion) have shown that "nerds" are nearly as likely to marry as the average, and MUCH more likely to have a stable, long-lasting, marriage.
I can't fathom why any intelligent person would care about a mere title. For a few negligible benefits? The very notion of getting married disgusts me thoroughly.
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