Time Magazine has an excellent report on autism.

[Ilsa]

Actually, it is several articles covering physiology, treatment, etc.

One analogy given is that researchers are concluding that, like cancer, there are probably multiple causes, both environmental and genetic, including heavy metals (and small doses of them in vaccines) and there are probably subcategories of autism, which is why they use a more generalized term, Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have thought htis for a long time, and even asked my son's doctor is there were any good antibiotocs which would cross the blood brain barrier to treat inflammatory symptoms found in the frontal cortex.

I'm digressing. But anyone interested should pick up the article for a good overview.

(BTW, I haven't finished it yet.)

[Greybnk48]

1. Our local news reported last week

that N.E. Wisconsin has an extraorinarily high rate of autism. They are looking at our water a a primary culprit.

[Uncle Joe]

2. I am just speculating here, but

I read an article in Sunday's paper that stated how a seafood diet rich in omega 3 fatty acids such as Salmon helped people with rheumatoid arthritis because it reduced inflammation.

[PATRICK]

3. apologize for not having read it

Though I've seen the cover. But does anything smack of corporate leaning damage control? Sure anything has multiple causes but the recent epidemic must have industrial pollution and vaccinations as a prime source. The two biggest culprits for the new numbers could be played off so as to mitigate and remove responsibility from either now that the heat is on from parents and the undeniable increase out there in the awakening population. The last flurry during the EPA era came from a similar undeniable plague of physical poisonings. How is the Times spin moving toward action and responsibility, especially with some of the scandals regarding vaccines?

Just curious.

[Ilsa]

4. As a parent of a child with autism, I haven't gotten that far yet.

I still have to absorb probable causes and treatment before I get to that aspect of the articles. We have too much at stake.

[Odin2005]

6. There is no "recent epidemic"

Doctors are just getting better at diagnosing it, back in the day many poeple with autism would have been misdiagnosed.

I'm sick of the conspiracy theories regarding mental illnesses.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Yeah me too

Thanks for saying that. :)

[KamaAina]

11. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Researchers are aware of the "better diagnosis" theory and have controlled for it in their studies. Besides, they would have had to have gotten a lot better at diagnosis in just the past ten years, during which the incidence has increased from (roughly) 1 in 700 to 1 in 166.

Besides, autism is not a "mental illness" per se, though it is included in DSM-IV; Asperger himself, one of the two original researchers in the field, noted that what he was studying was not an illness but a stable personality trait, like introversion.

[Ilsa]

5. Also, CBS is running a series this week on the Evening News. eom

[Odin2005]

7. There is definitely a genetic component to Autism.

It runs in my mom's side of the mamily family.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. The most recent research I saw said that genetics is a far bigger factor

than any environmental ones (such as vaccines). But they are still not ready to rule out environmental toxins.

I would like to see this settled once and for all since the number of parents refusing to vaccine their kids is increasing over this autism scare. THAT is scarier, IMO, than the risk of autism.

[Odin2005]

10. I am actually DEEPLY concerned about the vaccination thing.

if if they did cause a small increase in the occurance of Autism, the benifits outweight the negitives many times over. My Grandma know all about how deadly diseases like TB were, she lost 4 siblings to it. People in industrialized countries take our modern lack of humanity's old killers for granted now that older people who before widespread vaccination are passsing away.

Even more concerning is that this seems to be a tip on an iceberg of growing fear of using science to solve our problems. Prescription drugs, genetic engineering, nuclear energy, etc, are being attacked by people who treat the creations of modern science and technology as something to be scared of, they can only see the negatives and are blind to the positives.