The Age of Autism: Amish ways (UPI)

[bloom]

Washington, DC, Jun. 6 (UPI) -- Part 2 of 2. This column in recent weeks has focused on two related questions: Is the prevalence of autism lower among the Amish, and, if so, how do they differ from the rest of us?

Neither question can be definitively answered by our unscientific and anecdotal inquiries. A more comprehensive study would require the efforts of epidemiologists and probably a government agency, and we will look at that prospect in future columns.

First, though, it is worth summarizing what our initial inquiries have suggested:

-- With the Amish population in the United States approaching 100,000, there should be several hundred identifiably autistic Amish.

-- We so far have located fewer than 10.

-- There no doubt could be more, but a number of people in positions to know -- doctors, health workers, an Amish-Mennonite mother of an adopted autistic child -- say they have observed the prevalence is indeed low.

-- A low prevalence could indicate the Amish have avoided some factor that is triggering autism in the rest of the population.<more>

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050606-100328-8006r.htm

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Like the article says - there are many different ways that the Amish life differs from the mainstream - besides a lack of vaccinations.

The mercury link should not be ignored, however.

[K8-EEE]

1. Thank You.....

As the parent of an autistic daughter, I have always suspected the vaccines. Thanks for this.

[cornermouse]

2. Mercury.

Its in tuna too, isn't it? I wonder if a cummulative effect of mercury from more than one source?

I've always thought it was some sort of pollution.

[bloom]

3. Yes

I think there should warning labels on it - tuna.

People are not being adequately warned.


http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=bestandworst

Also:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/states.asp

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Mercury causes autism?

I recall the Minamata pollution scandal, when most of the residents of a Japanese village were poisoned by eating fish from a harbor contaminated with mercury from a chemical plant in the early 1960s. My memory is hazy, but it seems to me that the symptoms were more like cerebral palsy than like autism.

The Amish differ from mainstream America in more ways than in not getting vaccinated. They don't drive cars (even the air inside a car on a busy highway is bad for you), they don't eat processed foods, they live in rural areas with little or no air pollution, they drink water from wells dug on their own property, they don't use any electrical appliances, they don't smoke or drink alcohol, and, if autism has a genetic factor, it's possible that the gene is simply rare in this small and fairly inbred population. (The Amish do have a higher than average incidence of dwarfism due to being so inbred.)

You might just as well blame Similac or Pampers or any other experience or product that is common to babies from mainstream families and uncommon among the Amish.

[bloom]

5. "You might just as well blame..."

"If anything has emerged from this excursion into the Amish world, it is how often the metals-mercury issue has arisen; two of the first three cases we identified were attributed by the Amish-Mennonite mother to vaccine reactions."



Here is a recent study:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0317-05.htm


"Toxic Tipping Point" is a good article for those interested.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/03/02_354.html

[cornermouse]

6. Actually, well water can be and sometimes is polluted.

If they use wood heat for their house, smoke from that can be a polluting factor.