Combating Autism from Within

The Series and Hour Special

2008-05-29T21:12:00.003-05:00

If you would like to watch the 14 part series--
starts at "Raising Autistic Children" click here
If you would like to watch the hour special click here

You can email me at AReynolds.autism@gmail.com

Fun in the Windy City

2008-05-28T01:24:00.003-05:00

I took a day to gather my thoughts on the trip. I had a wonderful time. I talked to so many people. This was a great experience to travel and meet people that have been touched by the series. The Internet is such a powerful tool to reach people on a global scale. That's exactly what this series did. By not only reporting the issues that surround autism, but showing the process of the series on this blog, built a strong audience.

I hope the panel brought topics to the forefront on how to develop a stronger relationship between the autism community and journalists. I was humbled to be part of the collective conversation.

Geiers

2008-05-25T16:17:00.001-05:00

I do have video of the Geiers presentation. I will load it later

Packing Up

2008-05-25T15:45:00.003-05:00

Wakefield Chat

2008-05-25T15:27:00.002-05:00

Sat night

2008-05-25T05:41:00.003-05:00

Engley

2008-05-25T03:27:00.004-05:00

Journalism Panel

2008-05-24T20:47:00.015-05:00

Wakefield

2008-05-24T14:05:00.004-05:00

Poling

2008-05-24T13:57:00.004-05:00

Good A.M.

2008-05-24T13:39:00.004-05:00

Saturday Morning. Big day!

Good Times

2008-05-24T13:09:00.002-05:00

Things are going very well. I thought the journalism panel was productive. I think we all gave good insight to parents and doctors.
My video is taking a while to load...but I do have some clips.

Parents and doctors keep approaching me. It is so great to meet so many faces!

Goodnight!

2008-05-23T20:59:00.003-05:00

Haley video

2008-05-23T20:23:00.004-05:00

Mid-Friday

2008-05-23T13:14:00.009-05:00

Jenny McCarthy just got done talking. I was in the very back. I have yet to hear her talk about her son going into a seizures for 70 hours then going into a coma for 4 days. Apparently she is going to do chelation this summer.

The video that she showed at the end--She is producing with Jim. It was a griping video with some of her best quotes when she has appeared on shows.

I am going to see Haley this afternoon.

Here!

2008-05-23T09:38:00.003-05:00

Made it.
The place is packed and doctors are everywhere. I will update later. I have Internet in here! yahoo!

Plane

2008-05-23T09:35:00.001-05:00

Yahoo! Pre-Airport

2008-05-23T02:47:00.001-05:00

Packed!

2008-05-23T00:53:00.001-05:00

Hello! Pre-Windy City

2008-05-21T20:22:00.005-05:00

Hello! Looking forward to Chicago! Thanks for stopping by!

Comment-Commending List

2008-03-10T15:46:00.004-05:00

This item was emailed to this blog--AR

The undersigned organizations and individuals are commending KOMU TV on the excellent investigative report, "Combating Autism from Within." The friends and families of vaccine-injured children, with mercury induced autism, congratulate you on the recent coverage and discussions of this serious disorder which has reached epidemic levels across the United States.

We are so pleased to see the extensive research reported to reveal the struggles families face and the truth about the poisoning of a generation of children through the use of thimerosal containing vaccines.

The Missouri School of Journalism should be proud, this report exemplifies why it is known as the leader in the world for students desiring careers in Journalism. We believe the experience and training these student/reporters have gained through this series will prove to be immeasurable for advancement and professional careers in the media.

The amount of science that was covered is the most in-depth, thoughtful and truthful investigation we have watched unfold by any journalist, during the fifteen year explosion in diagnoses of vaccine related autism.

The journalistic integrity and credibility at KOMU has allowed your viewers to see the reality of children affected by autism and the blatant falsehood of the government and medical community trying to keep this tragedy from being exposed. Your unbiased and accurate report was the first to acknowledge the conflicts of interest which have infested the medical community where a "First Do No Harm" attitude should prevail. The heart breaking lack of medical, educational and social service support for these families was reported in a respectful and meaningful way.

Ashley Reynolds and her team uncovered and reported the misleading information, that is often provided by CDC or pharmaceutical funded scientists, and reported the fact that mercury is still in most flu, tetanus, and diphtheria/tetanus vaccines--and an array of vaccines still contain "trace" amounts. (The term "trace" is not recognized as a scientific term.)

We were pleased to see honest interviews with known experts Dr. Boyd Haley and Dr. David Ayoub speaking about the relationship between mercury exposure and neurological injury. Ms. Reynolds secured an exclusive interview with local resident and former chairman of the Microbiology Department, Dr. Frank B. Engley, Jr., whose studies from 1940's-90's found toxicity of thimerosal at a nanomolar level.

The parents of children suffering from vaccine-induced illnesses applaud you for speaking out about the families' tragedies and reporting the research supporting a causal link between mercury in vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders.

We sincerely appreciate your brave reporting of all sides of the devastating disorder of autism. We look forward to your hour presentation in February.

Respectfully,

A-Champ Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury

Alan D. Clark Research Memorial Fund

Albert W. Burgstahler, PhD., Professor Emeritus of Chemistry; University of Kansas

ARROW- Autism Recovery Resources of Washington

Autism One

Autism United

Boyd Haley, PhD., Professor of Chemistry; University of Kentucky PhD.

CoMeD; The Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs

Darrel G. Moreland, DDS, MSD

David Ayoub, MD

Edward F. Fogarty, III, M.D. and Family

Exceptional Families Network

Frank B. Engley Jr., PhD., Former Professor and Chairman of Micro Biology; and Assistant Dean of the School of Medicine University of Missouri

Foundation for Autism Information and Research

Foundation for Mercury Injured Children

Generation Rescue

HEAL! Healing Every Autistic Life

MAM- Moms Against Mercury

Michael J. Cannon, DO

NAA National Autism Association

No Mercury

Oklahoma Autism Coalition

Prairie Collaborative

Richard Deth, PhD., Professor of Pharmacology Northeastern University, Massachusetts

Safe Minds

Schafer Autism Report

TN4SaferVaccine

The Wyatt Holliday Foundation

World Mercury Project

Comment-Thank You

2008-03-09T19:31:00.003-05:00

This item was emailed to this blog--AR

Thank you, Ashley Reynolds and team!!

Sincerely, thank you for having the courage to go where few others have during this very trying, tumultuous time.

Your journalistic integrity and talent are refreshing and very warmly welcomed!!

Best wishes to all of you,

The Wessels

Lin Wessels
Sam's MAMA
(Mom on A Mission for Autism)

"Even if your are in a minority of one, the truth is still the truth."

Landmark Admission; Parents Making a Difference

2008-03-09T18:23:00.008-05:00

This item was emailed to this blog-AR

In November of 2007 Hannah Poling was recognized as being adversely affected by over-vaccination. We are only now finding out about this because of the Fourth Estate, the government has been trying to keep this under wraps for months.

It is no surprise to me that the first mission of guilt in this issue is for a child of parents who's degrees include MD, PhD, RN, and JD. Now that the courts have recognized a link between vaccinations and neurological damage to children, we need to revisit public policy.

Individual vaccines can't get much safer but vaccine protocols certainly could, quite easily. The 2008 CDC protocol for pediatric vaccines is not the safest of all ways to accomplish the goal of immunity of multiple infectious diseases. There are better ways to vaccinate than the CDC wants to admit, its all over the KOMU Combating Autism From Within blog.

Fingerstick titer checking technology will prevent this wide-scaleover-vaccination of children. Such a simple lab test could tell you whether an additional "booster" is needed, the idea has already beendone for HIV titer checks to diagnose disease, we could use it here and now with minor modifications. The vast majority of kids (95%) are immune for life to measles-mumps and rubella (MMR) after one dose. More than half are immune to Hepatitis B for a long time after onedose.

Why are we wasting 3 extra "boosters" on kids who are already immune at their most neurologically tender moment? Sadly, we "scientific" physicians never check titers, we never use evidence based laboratory science to justify second, third, and fourth shots. Parents need to be made aware of this medical option to avoiding over vaccination, in fact, it should be in hospital and clinic consent forms.

Those in medicine better learn quickly that to give consent to a vaccine that you don't need and were not told of a viable option for avoidance (titer check) should pay attention here as this is one of the many legal liabilities that could lead a hospital or clinic into a lawsuit that has no one else on the table for suit by an injured person.

Governments and school districts would be better served to require titer levels not written records of vaccine shots. Titer levels are scientific evidence of immunity, a vaccine record isn't.

Actually a lot of money could be saved across the board by doing this more scientifically. One might think innovative insurance companiesand state level public health officers would get on board if the real vaccinomics were better understood with respect to checking titers to avoid over use of vaccines in the already immune children who are going through the motions for the sloth of not being as scientific as we could be in medicine.

Ironically, we may be on the cusp of Hep B vaccine failures in children born to women who are immune to Hep B vaccine as the maternalantibodies will cross the placenta and prevent immunization in some percentage of kids for up to a year (the whole Hep B schedule iscrammed into the first year).

This is a gaping hole in CDC policy. Shouldn't we be checking titers? Seems pretty obvious, but culture dominates medical thought more than science as I think the University of Missouri School of Journalism has learned through this project.

For the Poling family, public policy finally lost to extensive clinical science in a resource rich family. In this one case, anamazing family of intellect with a father holding an MD and a PhD andmother holding an RN and JD, have a child who has been recognized as adversely affected by vaccines. The average child adversely affected and not studied appropriately by the conflicted pediatricians giving the vaccines out will not be so lucky in this stacked game of
litigation.

It is true that a vast majority of children will not be affected by the administration of additional vaccinations. But if epidemiological purposes can be met with a more "surgical" approach, there is no reason to endanger a genetically vulnerable child. It is my opinion that all US physicians should thoroughly read the Simpsonwood document which is the most honest assessment of the relationship of vaccines to autism and shows a clear signal ofuncertain strength depending on which "artist" of epidemiology is interpreting the data. It has more to do with the sum of all exposures than any one component of the CDC schedule and we have wasted much time focusing attention onthimerosal, not because its not involved here but it is only a part of the epigenetic effect in the vulnerable populace.

Finally, the Fourth Estate is starting to pay some real attention to this issue, if only for the media hype of this one blessed child, who has a set of parents that are among the few that could even win a judgement like this.

Edward F. Fogarty, III, MD
Chairman of Radiology
University of North Dakota School of Medicine

Father of the child in the image below:

Closing Comments-Anne Dachel

2008-03-09T16:29:00.003-05:00

This item was emailed to this blog--AR

The stunning court case conceding that vaccines were related to autism just last week in Georgia is the beginning of the public's awakening to the truth about autism and vaccines. Many voices are out there questioning the tired claims of public health officials about vaccine safety. The issue is unstoppable now and it will only get more attention in the press.

Ashley Reynolds and her team were among the first few courageous voices in the media presenting the issue in a truly fair and balanced manner. They had to face the criticism from local health officials and university professors, but they were unwilling to downplay the facts they uncovered.

This blog may end, but this outstanding news series will live on!

Anne McElroy Dachel

Member of the board of A-CHAMP

http://www.a-champ.org/

Media Editor: AGE OF AUTISM

Closing Reminder

2008-03-09T13:10:00.002-05:00

Don't forget--Our last active day is Monday. I will be in St. Louis all day on Monday. Once I get back, I will take care of any last comments or posts... Then as of Tuesday this blog will be inactive. You can visit, but you can't make comments.

Senator John McCain Re-Ignites Autism Debate by Jeffrey Dach MD

2008-03-07T15:55:00.002-06:00

Senator John McCain Implicates Vaccines in Autism

Senator John McCain has gone on record questioning the role of vaccines causing the increasing Autism epidemic. (13 )(14 )

“It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise among children. The question is, What’s causing it? And we go back and forth, and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines.” says John McCain, Republican nominee for president.

The vaccine preservative is called thimerosol, also known as ethyl mercury. This statement places republican senator John McCain in the same camp with democrat Robert F Kennedy Jr .

Vaccine Court Admits Vaccination Caused a Child's Autism.

In an unprecedented and stunning verdict this month, the Vaccine Court has awarded compensation to a 9 year old girl, Hannah Poling of Athens Georgia who became autistic after vaccination. The girl has a documented underlying mitochondrial disorder. (1)(5)(6)(7)(11)

Hannah Poling appeared to be a normal child with normal verbal ability until she was vaccinated with 9 vaccines (5 shots) during a routine pediatric visit. Within 48 hours of the vaccination, Hannah developed high fever, cried continuously and stopped walking. Her sleep pattern was disturbed, and she was unable to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. Within three months, Hannah showed typical signs of autism, with autistic behavior such as spinning, staring at lights and fans, and severely reduced verbal ability.

Is Autism caused by Mutation in Mitochondrial DNA Aggravated by Toxins and Immune Challenges?

Hannah's father, Jon is a neurologist and wrote a case report about his daughter's mitochondrial disorder and autism.(19 ) A Portugese study suggested that mitochondrial dysfunction might be one of the most common disorders in Autism. (20 ) Others have found mitochondrial SNP genetic defects in autism involving the Mitochondrial Aspartate/Glutamate Carrier. (22 )(23 ) Dr. Pons at Columbia found mitochondrial DNA mutatons in 5 of 5 autistic children or their mothers.(25 )

Institutional Medicine Denies Any Autism Link with Vaccines

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all denied any linkage between the vaccines and autism.

Institutional Medical Groups Petitioned for Mercury Removal from Vaccines

In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics joined the CDC, the FDA, and the National Institutes of Health issued a joint statement urging vaccine manufacturers to remove Thimerosol. (18 )

As of January 2008, most vaccines are thimerosol-free.(15 ) (16 ) However, the following vaccines still contain thimerosol (mercury): Multi Dose DT, Tetanus, Influenza, Multi-Dose Meningococcal.

For more on the Vaccine Autism link: Autism Vaccine Link Real or Imagined? (12 )

_________________________________________________________

References:

(1 ) http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-03-05-autism-vaccines_N.htm?POE=click-refer
USA Today Story, Officials: Vaccines may have injured girl
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a 9-year-old girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund.

(2 ) http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20080301/cm_huffpost/089318
Senator McCain: "Strong Evidence" of Autism-Vaccine Link
David Kirby Sat Mar 1, 4:21 PM ET Dear Senator McCain, It was with some amazement that I read about your comments, made tonight while campaigning in Texas, about a possible link between mercury in vaccines and autism.According to Jake Tapper at ABC News, a Texas mother of a child with autism asked you about the Federal Court document, first reported on Huffington Post last Monday, in which Justice Department officials conceded that vaccines had aggravated one child's underlying medical condition, resulting in a diagnosis of autism.

(3 ) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080107181551.htm
Autism: Removing Thimerosal From Vaccines Did Not Reduce Autism Cases In California, Report Finds ScienceDaily (Jan. 8, 2008) — Autism cases continued to increase in California after the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal was eliminated from most childhood vaccines, according to a new report.This suggests that exposure to thimerosal is not a primary cause of autism.

(4 ) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/senator-mccain-strong-e_b_89318.html
David Kirby letter to McCain on Huffington Post

(5 ) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/the-vaccineautism-court-_b_88558.html
The Vaccine-Autism Court Document Every American Should Read Posted February 26, 2008

(6 ) http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2086683.0.us_to_award_vaccine_damage_payment.php
sunday herald. US to award vaccine damage payment By Judith Duffy, Health Correspondent Campaigners hail decision as ‘unprecedented’ A DECISION by the US government to award compensation under its vaccine damage programme to a child diagnosed with symptoms of autism has been hailed as "unprecedented" by campaigners.

(7 ) http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg19726464.100-autism-payout-reignites-vaccine-controversy.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
Autism payout reignites vaccine controversy 08 March 2008 From New Scientist Jim Giles

(8 ) http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/05/autism.vaccines.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
Case renews debate on vaccine-autism link

(9 ) http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jPIMulfcbi1seZqbdrRmkoVP20IgD8V7I5FO0
AP News, Government Concedes Vaccine Injury Case
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund.

(10 ) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/imus-mccain-autism-and_b_89775.html?amp;cid=1139523449&ei=9UzOR7fiEoT2-wGmh4nvDg
Imus, McCain, Autism, and 08 Posted March 4, 2008 Transcript of radio interview.

(11 ) http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/health/stories/2008/03/06/autism_0306.html
March 6, 2008 Girl, 9, Helps Link Vaccines to Autism Cause By ALISON YOUNG The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 03/06/08 In a move autism family advocates call unprecedented, federal health officials have concluded that childhood vaccines contributed to symptoms of the disorder in a 9-year-old Georgia girl.

(12 ) http://jeffreydach.com/2007/10/11/autism-vaccines-and-robert-f-kennedy-jr-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx

(13 ) http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/03/04/mccain-strong-evidence-links-autism-to-vaccines/
March 4, 2008, McCain: ‘Strong Evidence’ Links Autism to Vaccines Posted by Jacob Goldstein

(14 ) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04autism.html?ex=1362373200
Into the Fray Over the Cause of Autism New Yoirk Times By BENEDICT CAREY March 4, 2008
“It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise among children,” Senator John McCain said while campaigning recently in Texas. “The question is, What’s causing it? And we go back and forth, and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines.”

(15 ) http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1
Thimerosal Content of Vaccines Routinely Recommended for Children 6 Years of Age and Younger - (updated 7/18/2005)

(16 ) http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm
Thimerosal Content in Some US Licensed Vaccines updated January 28, 2008

(17 ) http://www.robertfkennedyjr.com/
Robert F Kennedy Jr Web Site

(18 ) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4826a3.htm
CDC Joint Statement asking for removal of thimersol from vaccines

(19 ) http://jcn.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/21/2/170
Journal of Child Neurology, Vol. 21, No. 2, 170-172 (2006)
Developmental Regression and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in a Child With Autism
Jon S. Poling, MD, PhD Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, MD

(20 ) http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=282214
Mitochondrial dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders: a population-based study
G Oliveira L Diogo M Grazina P Garcia A Ataíde Oeiras, Portugal.

Abstract. A minority of cases of autism has been associated with several different organic conditions, including bioenergetic metabolism deficiency. In a population-based study, we screened associated medical conditions in a group of 120 children with autism (current age range 11y 5mo to 14y 4mo, mean age 12y 11mo [SD 9.6mo], male:female ratio 2.9:1).

Children were diagnosed using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria, the Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised, and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale; 76% were diagnosed with typical autism and 24% with atypical autism. Cognitive functional level was assessed with the Griffiths scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and was in the normal range in 17%. Epilepsy was present in 19 patients. Plasma lactate levels were measured in 69 patients, and in 14 we found hyperlactacidemia. Five of 11 patients studied were classified with definite mitochondrial respiratory chain disorder, suggesting that this might be one of the most common disorders associated with autism (5 of 69; 7.2%) and warranting further investigation.

(22 ) http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/161/4/662
Linkage and Association of the Mitochondrial Aspartate/Glutamate Carrier SLC25A12 Gene With Autism
Nicolas Ramoz, Ph.D., Jennifer G. Reichert, B.Sc., Christopher J. Smith, Ph.D., Jeremy M. Silverman, Ph.D., Irina N. Bespalova, Ph.D., Kenneth L. Davis, M.D., and Joseph D. Buxbaum, Ph.D.

(23 ) http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/162/11/2182
Am J Psychiatry 162:2182-2184, November 2005
Confirmation of Association Between Autism and the Mitochondrial Aspartate/Glutamate Carrier SLC25A12 Gene on Chromosome 2q31 Ricardo Segurado, B.A., Ph.D., Judith Conroy, B.A.,

(24 ) http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/exploring-the-biomedical-issues-of-autism.pdf
AUTISM: THE EVOLUTION OF A DISEASE Bryan Jepson, MD Presented at the National Autism Association conference
asssociated with Thoughtful House and Wakefield

(25 ) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14722523
J Pediatr. 2004 Jan;144(1):81-5.
Mitochondrial DNA abnormalities and autistic spectrum disorders.

Pons R, Andreu AL, Checcarelli N, Vilà MR, Engelstad K, Sue CM, Shungu D, Haggerty R, de Vivo DC, DiMauro S. Departments of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10032, USA.

OBJECTIVES: To further characterize mtDNA defects associated with autistic features, especially the A3243G mtDNA mutation and mtDNA depletion.

Study design Five patients with autistic spectrum disorders and family histories of mitochondrial DNA diseases were studied. We performed mtDNA analysis in all patients and magnetic resonance spectroscopy in three.

RESULTS: Three patients manifested isolated autistic spectrum features and two had additional neurologic symptoms. Two patients harbored the A3243G mutation. In two others, the A3243G mutation was not found in accessible tissues but was present in tissues from their mothers. The fifth patient had 72% mtDNA depletion in skeletal muscle.

CONCLUSIONS: Autistic spectrum disorders with or without additional neurologic features can be early presentations of the A3243G mtDNA mutation and can be a prominent clinical manifestation of mtDNA depletion. Mitochondrial dysfunction should be considered in patients who have autistic features and associated neurologic findings or who have evidence of maternal inheritance.

Jeffrey Dach MD
4700 Sheridan Suite T
Hollywood Florida 33021
954-983-1443

Original article can be found here.

Your View shows Blog Wars

2008-03-01T13:42:00.000-06:00

Watch it here

Last Words

2008-02-28T20:22:00.000-06:00

Here is a post for final comments....

Closing March 10th

2008-02-28T20:18:00.003-06:00

We will be closing the blog March 10th. The blog will still be here, but becomes inactive March 10th. I will also be stepping back from my gmail account.

Closing Blog

2008-02-25T20:42:00.001-06:00

We will be closing the blog in about two weeks. I will let you know the date soon.

Try this

2008-02-25T09:40:00.001-06:00

Our series site is down. Watch the special here

Special is Up!

2008-02-25T00:42:00.002-06:00

The site is now working. You can watch the 7 part show here.
Tell us what you think here or send us a Your View

Site Crashed

2008-02-24T14:52:00.001-06:00

Because of our high amount of hits... The video is not working correctly. I will post on the blog once the show is up

Special is Online

2008-02-24T12:25:00.003-06:00

The show has aired and you can watch here.
Tell us what you think!
There are seven parts in our hour long special.
the website is going through updates today--So don't be alarmed if you see error messages. The video for the show is working... If you have issues-email me.

READY TO ROLL!

2008-02-23T18:01:00.003-06:00

This week every night I ended up leaving the station around 5am. Thursday night, I came into the station around 5pm and didn't leave till 4pm on Friday...The team has worked countless hours for this show.

The Combating Autism From Within show, following the series, is ready for air.
The hour special will feature a look back at the families we featured along with updates. We will also look back into our investigation. Along with reading comments from the series, there is a story on our blog and behind the scenes from the crew that made this series possible.

Once the series is online, I will create a post with a link. We would love to hear from you. You can also send your comments to the station here

Anne Dachel: anti-vaccine activist???

2008-02-10T19:15:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog--AR

I read the comment referring to me as an anti-vaccine activist: "You were introduced to autism last June when you interviewed Dr. Miles. After the story ran, you were deluged with messages from anti-vaccine activists, such as Anne Dachel at Age of Autism. The activists convinced you there was another side to the story that needed to be told, and that's what precipitated the Combating Autism series."

I've never thought of myself of being "anti-vaccine." I'm dedicated to publicizing the epidemic of autism affecting a generation of children, yet which is unrecognized by the medical community and the federal health agencies.

The reference was made to "another side to to the story that needed to be told." Isn't that what legitimate journalism is all about? Isn't the media obligated to investigate and fairly present issues like this? Ashley Reynolds gave us some of the most balanced coverage we've ever seen in the press.

Anne Dachel

Media Editor: AGE OF AUTISM

Member of the board of A-CHAMP

http://www.a-champ.org

Rumor Has It

2008-02-07T13:35:00.001-06:00

Word has been buzzing and got to me... A few people have told me they have heard the series is tainted because someone in my family has autism.
This is not the case at all. There is no one in my family that has autism.
In my nine years of working in journalism... I knew very little about the disorder until I started working on the first story last June.
No one in my family has autism.
If anyone has any further questions, you can email me at
AReynolds.autism@gmail.com

In the meantime, I hope to post a video promo of the show in a week or so.

another blog comment on autism

2008-02-06T13:51:00.001-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog--AR

I have to say, Fogarty, Haley, Ayoub and Engley are undoubtedly on to something. As a mom who loves and cherishes ALL FOUR of her children, I am very willing to listen to the facts and do what I can to TREAT and/or RECOVER my son.

I do hang on to hope...I have to. I admit, when my son was first diagnosed, and I heard some of the crazy ideas about NUTRITION and VACCINATIONS affecting these kids, I thought it was ludicrous. However, since truly looking AND listening, I have done a complete "180". The evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable. As a health professional - but more so as a parent - I won't close my eyes and refuse to believe what's right out in front of me just because the bureacracies in our country are in denial.

I accept and embrace my son AS IS, but what kind of a mother would I be if I wasn't ready to look at ALL TREATMENTS with an open mind?

Tricia Kiefer, RN BAN
Nurse Manager, Birthcenter One

Comment-Combating autism from within

2008-02-04T12:40:00.001-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog--AR

I wanted to take a moment to comment on your blog...

I have a six-year-old son with autism. He was diagnosed almost 2 years ago to the day. I admit, when I first received the diagnosis, I was totally devastated. Since then, my outlook has changed...

Not only am I blessed (refer to my own personal blog: www.blessedwithautism.blogspot.com to have my son (and all 4 of my children!) in my life, but we are blessed with this condition we call autism. The amazing qualities that he possesses far surpass any unfavorable conditions that people tend to think of when hearing about autism.

There is a misconception that these kids lack affection and personality. On the contrary, my son (and ALL the other kids on the spectrum that I've come to know) is a loving, charismatic (and highly "quirky") individual. (And VERY intelligent - he reads many levels above his grade and consistently EXCEEDS the academic expectations in school!) He has helped me learn what it means to truly be patient. He has helped me appreciate life and everything in it. Since my son's diagnosis, I have not only learned to "accept" it, but I have embraced it. I wouldn't change a thing.

Tricia Kiefer, RN BAN
Nurse Manager, Birthcenter One

Hopeful Leadership in Treating Autism

2008-02-03T21:06:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog--AR

http://anon.autismri.com.edgesuite.net/anon.autismri/RecoveredChildren/AutismIsTreatableVideo-highband.wmv

Despite the incredibly complex situation as relates to autism, there is hope-I strongly encourage parents and journalists visiting this site to watch the entire video above and pay attention to some of the academic credentials of some of the people involved here.

The function of children on the autistic spectrum can be improved, more and more children are showing such gains after leaving the treatment of establishment physicians. Some card-carrying members of the AAP (such as in my community) are starting to pay attention so that over time this situation will continue to improve despite the attacks on the brave clinicians who are taking on this uphill battle.

The continued improvements in increasingly larger numbers of kids is further evidence that we have neglected one of the most common pediatric problems. The neglect goes back decades to Bernard Rimland, PhD who first debunked the "bad mothering" theory from another PhD of my Alma Mater. This neglect really has huge impacts on our country's GDP down the line and state budgets RIGHT NOW.

The collective neurobehavioral functioning of this society's children needs to climb quickly so that the numerically heavy population needing their work productivity in the next 30 years will actually have a societal safety net. The baby boomers who are so set on denying this are the same people that will reap the rewards of their neglect of this issue, unfortunately a lot of lawyers, farmers, accountants, truck drivers, some teachers and others of that generation's cohorts really don't realize what the MDs of their generation are neglecting here.

Autism is treatable, and its not just behavioral interventions or by the use of a single pharmacologic approach; its complicated and its high time the real geniuses inside academic medicine started paying attention to the people on the video above.

Thanks again to KOMU and the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

There are likely few other Journalism Schools in this country (land of the free home of the brave) that would have the guts to face the wrath of academic medicine on their own university quadrangles as relates to the topics you have addressed here. Another sign of the the coercive nature of the health profession that screams across campus at those interested in finding the truth.

Seems rather unhealthy, doesn't it?

Edward F. Fogarty, MD

Chairman of Radiology

University of North Dakota School of Medicine

Still getting emails-update

2008-02-02T18:23:00.000-06:00

Wow! The power of the internet blows my mind. I am still getting emails. I'm very behind but doing my best to get back to everyone that is emailing me. Thank you so much for the emails! I can't get over how many people are watching the series.

We are all very busy planning the show. We have about 20 people making this possible.

The team and a few professors are speaking at a seminar on campus about series...still not sure of the date.

If you would like a copy of the series you can contact me at AReynolds.autism@gmail.com There is a fee.

We are still not sure when we will make this blog inactive...but I will be sure to give a heads up before doing so.

Guess what? The Amish vaccinate!

2008-01-31T13:47:00.000-06:00

And they have autism.

In the spring of 2005, UPI reporter Dan Olmsted wrote that autism is rare among the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. “Where are the autistic Amish?” he wrote. “I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism.”

Olmsted’s anecdotal evidence is cited ad nauseum as evidence that thimerosal causes autism. The case rests on twin assumptions: that the Amish don’t vaccinate, and that they don’t have autism. But Olmsted never visited the cryptically-named Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, where doctors treat of children who exhibit autistic behavior. It’s not even necessary to visit the clinic. A simple phone call to a staff physician, such as the one I made recently, is enough to debunk “the Amish anomaly”, as Olmsted calls it.

“The idea that the Amish do not vaccinate their children is untrue,” says Dr. Kevin Strauss, MD, a pediatrician at the CSC. “We run a weekly vaccination clinic and it’s very busy.” He says Amish vaccinations rates are lower than the general population’s, but younger Amish are more likely to be vaccinated than older generations.

Strauss also sees plenty of Amish children showing symptoms of autism. “Autism isn’t a diagnosis - it’s a description of behavior. We see autistic behaviors along with seizure disorders or mental retardation or a genetic disorder, where the autism is part of a more complicated clinical spectrum.” Fragile X syndrome and Retts is also common among the clinic’s patients.

Strauss, along with Dr. D. Holmes Morton, MD, authored a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which described a mysterious seizure disorder that resulted in mental retardation and autistic behavior in nine Amish children. The study was publish one year after Olmsted’s mythic voyage, so it would seem a story correction would be in order.

In an email exchange with AutismNewsBeat, Olmsted said he made several attempts to contact Dr. Morton, but Olmsted would not say if those attempts were made before or after his Age of Autism stories ran. Strauss said Olmsted never visited the clinic, and added “I don’t think he spent much time in Lancaster County.

Strauss said the clinic treats “syndromic autism”, where autism as part of a more complicated clinical spectrum that can include mental retardation, chromosomal abnormalities, unusual facial features, and short stature, as well as Fragile X syndrome. “We see quite a few Amish children with Fragile X,” he said.

Strauss says he doesn’t see “idiopathic autism” at the clinic, which he defines as children with average or above average IQs who display autistic behavior. “My personal experience is we don’t see a lot of Amish children with idiopathic autism. It doesn’t mean they don’t exist, only that we aren’t seeing them at the clinic.”

He says a child in the general population is more likely to have autism detected early and to receive a diagnosis than an Amish child. “Amish child may not be referred to an MD or psychologist because the child is managed in the community, where they have special teachers,” he says. “We know autism when we see it, but we don’t go actively into the Amish community and screen for ASD.”

Strauss adds that the Amish have a high prevalence of genetic risk factors and are protected from others. The low rate of idiopathic autism “might have more to do what genetic structure of population than lifestyle, environment or diet.”

So what’s up with Olmsted? Did a UPI reporter fabricate a story, then pass it off as true? Science blogger Prometheus offers three possible explanations:

Mr. Olmsted didn’t look all that carefully for autistic children, having already concluded that there wouldn’t be any.

Mr. Olmsted found autistic children, but didn’t count them - either because he either didn’t feel that they had real autism or because it conflicted with his forgone conclusion.

The Amish families - being somewhat suspicious of “outsiders” (not without good reason) - didn’t confide the details of their family medical issues with Mr. Olmsted.

I’m still waiting for Mr. Olmsted’s side of the story.

Sunday Feb 24th

2008-01-24T09:35:00.000-06:00

Our Hour Special will air Feb 24th at 11AM. We will post the entire show with some online extras on our website-www.komu.com

Comment-Scientific Criticisms-KOMU

2008-01-19T06:50:00.001-06:00

http://www.safeminds.org/pressroom/pres_releases/Review_Miles_Takahashi_6-20-07.pdf

For those who are students of science, it would seem there are some fair assessments and issues brought to light in the piece above. As relates to the KOMU coverage of this, I would have to think Dr. Miles might want to comment on these criticisms in the February wrap up.

For policy makers in state government in Missouri, this little project has done a great service to our democracy by presenting both sides of a debate. I encourage all to read through all of the many posts, understand we are human and this is of incredible importance to many not just as a medical debate but as relates to the potential for biological imperialism as imposed by state and federal government. Titer documentation not vaccination records should determine public school entrance and exemptions need to be protected. I will vaccinate my fourth child in a quite different manner than the "guidelines" given by the CDC, knowing all that I understand currently and was complete unaware of before having been engaged in this area by the experience of my family.

Evidence based medicine requires evidence of need for boosters after first dose of a vaccine in a series; it is the keep-it-simple-stupid approach that should be openly and honestly discussed between family practice and pediatrics physicians and their patients. Those who open their doors in practice to this idea may see many new patients, parents like me who want to vaccinate their children for the appropriate at-risk epidemic diseases at appropriate ages with the safest of approaches; this would shift revenue to clinical pathologists from vaccine companies selling unneeded boosters and to open-minded clinicians in the care of children. This compromise puts the patient-physician relationship back in the spotlight. The approach also dims the governance-governed relationship of the CDC and public health officials trying to do their best on a societal basis while ignoring the needs of individuals. These policy artists are so willing to overdose vaccines on the assumption that it is the best method to protect a populace that can't make decisions on its own; very unAmerican and unscientific as the idea has never ben approached any other way. A titer check approach to indicate booster need would actually help defuse a growing vaccine availability crisis, ironic isn't it?

For those who ask why a former Husker and Dakotan has so much to say on this blog, it is simple: our water is your water, I live on the banks of the great river that bears the name of your state and what we do up here on these molecules of H2O gets to Missouri eventually.

Protecting our children's environment is getting harder everyday and it is something that requires great effort from the "little" guy. Autism has a major environmental component that is a liability for the many large industries that are polluting our children's bodies; thus, though vaccines are not completely to blame they do reflect the effects of an industry who job it is to protect the environmental health of our children.

Physicians pushing pharmaceuticals to be better than the fossil fuels industry, metals manufacturers and other industrial polluters shouldn't be so hard, but as anyone can see from experience on this blog, the conditioning of MDs leads them to keep their mouths shut on politically contentious issues for fear of many backlashes.

If PHaRMA wants to push back on this issue, maybe they should spend some money on researching the environmental connections here in a productive manner for their industry by supporting the epidemiology of autism near industrial pollution sites instead of just trying to white wash their own role in this , or give Dr. Von Saal of the University of Missouri some grants to research the explosion of reproductive toxins in our food supply. The role of other industries in this internal-environmental crisis affecting the neurological health of the next generation of Americans is probably even worse than the role played by vaccines, but mom's keep blaming vaccines completely when by temporal association there is an event of vaccination and a response of neurological decline that then gets institutionally ignored.

The future will show we are on the course of a growing epigenetic epidemic, our genes and our environments are suffering increasing dysfunction. These kids are Rachel Carson's birds of the 21st century they need better than what society is doing to skirt the issues so as to protect establishment medicine (state of denial), pharmaceuticals (vaccines), big oil (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), manufacturing (heavy metals), agriculture (organophosphates), food processors (bisphenol A, aspartame), and others (including radiologists) who are playing this role in punctuated genomic instability complicated by molecular slowing of toxin handling kinetics in an increasing proportion of an entire generation of children. Sadly, all of this is only going to get much worse (slowly) for a very long time (decades); the chicken little of today will be understood as the sentinel of tomorrow-by then I fear we will not really have the American experiment anymore, being too run down as a middle class populace by these social-environmental issues to fight the good fight anymore.

As for approach to treatment, establishment academic clinicians need to start paying attention to the work and ideas of Martha Herbert, MD, PhD at Harvard, she's doing the right homework on this issue where so many others are afraid to in the ivory towers. People who want the vision to see how to make this debate productive for children need to read Changing the Course of Autism by Bryan Jepson, MD.

Thanks again to the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, you are profiles in courage for our day.

Edward F. Fogarty, III, M.D.

Chairman of Radiology

University of North Dakota School of Medicine

Lifelong resident of the banks of the Missouri.

Out of Town

2008-01-18T10:14:00.000-06:00

Leaving town...be back late tomorrow night... I am still behind on many emails. I hope to catch up next week. If you comment on the blog, it won't show up until later this weekend.

Thank You!

2008-01-16T19:30:00.000-06:00

Now that the series is behind us...We are making plans to shut down the blog in a few weeks. I will have a set date by Friday. I will post the shut down day on the blog.

We are going to keep the blog online, but make it inactive.

We are in the process of planning an hour long show in February. The show will feature a round table discussion and behind the scenes clips.

We will put the entire show online.
We look forward to your comments.
Thank you for participating in this blog.
We enjoyed sharing the process of the series with you and hope you enjoyed getting a first view of the series.

Thank You!

Unfounded opinion

2008-01-14T13:29:00.000-06:00

A Maryland Circuit court judge has found that Professor Boyd Haley, PhD, and four other self-described autism experts are not qualified to testify in a vaccine-related lawsuit. The decision followed ten days of court testimony.

The judge wrote that Haley and the others are not qualified by "knowledge, skill, experience, training or education" to link vaccines to autism.

One the other hand, after reviewing the science of autism for six months, KOMU did find Prof. Haley qualified by "knowledge, skill, experience, training or education" to link vaccines to autism.

What did KOMU find about Prof. Haley that the circuit court judge missed? Some viewers would like to know.

MADISON, N.J., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wyeth announced today that The Honorable Stuart R. Berger of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City in Baltimore, Maryland, has granted Wyeth's motion to preclude plaintiffs' expert witnesses in an alleged vaccine injury case from testifying that exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines can cause autism. The court's decision, in the case of Blackwell, et al. v. Sigma Aldrich, Inc., et al., followed a 10-day evidentiary hearing held last August.

Judge Berger found that "thimerosal in vaccines does not cause or contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism," noting that "it is generally accepted in the relevant scientific community that autism is genetic in origin except in rare instances of prenatal exposures to certain substances at defined periods during pregnancy."

Judge Berger held that plaintiffs had failed to show that the methodologies underlying their expert witnesses' opinions are generally accepted as reliable in the scientific community. He also held that plaintiffs' expert witnesses were not qualified "by knowledge, skill, experience, training or education" or that they could not set forth a sufficient factual basis to support the causation opinions that plaintiffs wished to present to the jury.

"We believe that the court's decision is in complete accord with the overwhelming scientific evidence that there is no link between vaccines and autism. The court correctly applied Maryland law to bar unfounded opinion testimony on scientific issues," says Daniel J. Thomasch, lead trial counsel for Wyeth in this litigation, who is a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

Your View shows your comments

2008-01-11T20:26:00.000-06:00

You can watch Your View here

Reflections

2008-01-11T19:46:00.000-06:00

Wow! We wrapped up the series... I don't even know where to start this blog entry.

We continue to get feedback. I have my gmail account, blog, mizzou email, and Your View accounts... Each one has gotten so many comments...hundreds...I am simply in awe of the impact of this series. It is truly "The little series that could."

Each day it continues to spread. I have received emails from all around the world. Letters continue to pour in.

This series has been the last six months of my life. I have put in countless hours. From picking each word when writing scripts to picking each shot when editing. The sleepless nights... stressing out... Learning Who's Who in autism... and my friends putting up with me constantly talking about autism...this has been an experience I will never forget.

I have been touched by every family...every person. Starting with the Everhart's strength in raising two kids on the spectrum. Tim and Dee's drive to help their son. Andy's courage in being a single parent. Jeremy's determination to adapt and improve his social skills. Linda's activism and journey with Adam’s recovery. These families shaped the series.

A women stopped me in public last week amazed that these families were so open and honest...From using alternative treatments, to a single parent's tough times, the families we featured told us their struggles and triumphs. It was our pleasure to share their story.

I'm slowly trying to get back to a somewhat normal life. I started general assignment reporting again this past week. I have to tell you, it is odd to walk out of the building with a camera and not go talk to someone about autism. It has been a challenge to do day turn pieces. I have been “in the zone” for months, having time to prepare questions, write, and edit. Getting back to a normal reporting routine is taking some time...but I am getting there.

I print all the emails I get. I am putting them all in a special folder. So many are heart felt. I have cried several times while reading them. So many people have called us heroes...I am not a hero. I simply tell stories and had the honor of covering this.

Words can't express what each email/letter means. I wish I could find the words to express my gratitude for this wave of feedback. It is rare for a journalist to be at a loss for words...but I stand in awe of the power of this series and the people that told us their story.

Your View takes on Autism Responses

2008-01-11T11:13:00.001-06:00

Today at six we address some of the responses from the series... This is the second time Your View has covered the series... I will post a link once it airs and is on our website.

New autism study once again disproves Thimerosol connection.

2008-01-09T16:52:00.001-06:00

Yesterday's Post Dispatch (St Louis for you out of Staters) carried this Associated Press Story on a new study out of California. Seems that Autism rates continue to climb there despite the elimination of Thimerosol from vaccines, several years ago.
Autism cases continue to grow…by AP Science writer Alicia Chang
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080107/ap_on_he_me/autism_cases
Here is the original study article:
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/65/1/19

This is confirming of other studies done overseas showing similar results in Countries which eliminated Thimerosol entirely years ago. Their Autism rates are also climbing at the same rate as Countries which continued to use the preservative.
The "Epidemic that Wasn't" photo is disturbing. Not because, as the blogger suggest, they would have been diagnosed with autism today (who knows), but that at least some of these individuals are very likely suffering from Rubella Syndrome. Rubella Syndrome causes microcephaly, blindness and other birth defects.

In other words, these folks pictured are in the state they are in, because their mother had
a case of rubella when she was pregnant. There are almost no cases of this now that MMR vaccine has become routine. Women in family planning and prenatal clinics are routinely tested for immunity to Rubella and if not pregnant, are vaccinated. Vaccine preventable illnesses as the
photo shows, are NOT pretty.

KOMU has done a great disservice to the public by giving unbalanced air to anti vaccine fanatics trying to make a connection that is just not there. I hope the kid reporters so proudly displaying their photos on the blog page are sleeping well knowing that their "reporting" might result in the tragedy of a child dying of diptheria, or tetanus or being born with Rubella syndrome. They could make up for their error by running an equivalent series showing families dealing with
the consequences of vaccine preventable illness...tho they may have to
content themselves with file footage, decades old. Anyone here old enough to remember polio?
Bill Monroe RN

PS: I will reiterate, that thimerosl has not been used as a preservative in vaccines for children under age 3 in Missouri (andmost others as well) for some time now. This was the result of
irresponsible reporting and junk science testimony to the Legislature. So running local stories in Missouri about the danger to children of thimerosol in vaccines is borders on criminal, in my opinion.

The epidemic that wasn't

2008-01-08T14:44:00.000-06:00

How many of these children might have been labeled autistic when this photo was taken?

Final Thoughts

2008-01-08T00:02:00.000-06:00

I started this series not sure what I was getting myself into. I really didn't have a very good idea of what I would be researching, or what the series truly was. What I was most mistaken about was how huge this series was going to become.

I think everyone started work on this series not really sure what it was going to become or even what direction it was headed in. We began by brainstorming and were all very open to new ideas and ways to get this story across. That's where this blog came in.

We provided a place for all our viewers to come and contribute what they would like to see covered in the series. I want to thank all of you on behalf of the entire team for those contributions, they helped us mold our series into what it became. What I am almost most proud of in this series is the user-directed content and the open dialogue this website provided for our viewers.

My initial research focused on alternative methods to treat autism. This includes bio meds and chelation therapy. Although these are controversial treatments, the fact that parents claim this helps their children makes this newsworthy. I also got to take three trips for this series: I went to Lexington, Kentucky for the interview with Dr. Boyd Haley, Kansas City, Missouri for the interview with Dr. Charles Rudolph, and I went to the Thompson Center in Columbia for the interview with Dr. Judith Miles. I think that even these three interviews show the many different sides of the debate that we showcased in "Combating Autism from Within."

I hope that this series sheds light on the subject matter and judging by the dialogue it created on this website, I know that it did. I encourage everyone to check out all of the extras on http://www.komu.com/. We have extra clips from the interviews, slideshows and behind the scenes footage that will give viewers a more in-depth look at what went into this series.

That being said, the series is not over. There is still a one-hour show left that I encourage everyone to watch. I want to thank everyone who helped with this series, and I want to thank everyone who watched it. I would like to thank everyone we interviewed for sharing their expertise with us and with the viewers. I am especially thankful for those of you who watched the series and came to the site to post your comments. The dialogue you participated in is what I am most proud of in this series.

Frequently Repeated Misunderstandings

2008-01-07T14:12:00.000-06:00

We read the earlier posting on this website about our recent article, Blood levels of mercury are related to diagnosis of autism: A reanalysis of an important data set. The posting on this website linked to a on-line critique of our article. We think readers might be interested to know we have had to address a number of questions that have arisen about the mistake we found in the Ip et al (2004) paper and the subsequent erratum that was published by the journal in November 2007. We appreciate that our research has garnered so much attention, but have become increasingly aware that a great amount of misunderstanding exists and much misinformation is being repeated. For example, one blog site has stated that we did not do analyses which we clearly did do, and made it appear that the only problem with the retracted Ip 2004 article was that a one-tailed test should have been used. Unfortunately, this is the very site that was mentioned on this blogsite. We are troubled that this information about what we wrote is being repeated, since it is not accurate on several counts. It is our sincere hope that interested parties will try to keep an open mind and carefully read our article for what it says -- and what it does not say.
http://www.uni.edu/desoto/desoto_hitlan_autism.html
Catherine DeSoto and Robert Hitlan

2008-01-06T14:03:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to thank , KOMU TV and the news team for inviting me to participate in this blog/discussion and for your covering of the never ending struggle with Autism faced by so many families all over the world.

Each family approaches their children's Autism in their own way. Some may be worried about their child not having descriptive language while other are just trying to get one word out. Some are trying to get their children to eat, while others which they could stop eating so many wrong foods.

Weather we believe that our children are just different, ill, or vaccine injured, Autism is still an unimaginable challenge to each one of the families affected by it.

CDC Questions and Their Response

2008-01-04T16:05:00.000-06:00

Our questions and emails with the CDC are up. Check them out here and comment on this post.
It should be mentioned--the CDC did not send us a hard document in the mail...
The only contact I had with them was by phone and email. In a phone conversation they told me a dialog with Dr. Haley would be counterproductive.

Final Reflection

2008-01-02T20:56:00.000-06:00

When I started work on this series back in September, I never could have imagined just how large it would become and how much I would get out of the experience. I started just helping out with researching background information regarding vaccines mercury, laws and the vaccine debate. This allowed me to travel to Lexington, Kentucky for the interview with Dr. Boyd Haley, to Springfield, Missouri to gather more information on Missouri’s mercury law from Senator Champion and to meet Dr. Frank Engley here in Columbia. In covering the vaccine debate as part of our series, I realized how passionate people involved are on both sides of the debate and how important it is to cover the sides fairly.

For the series I was also able to go on the shoots for Jeremy, an adult with autism, as well as Will and the Miles family. Seeing what autism was like through the families was an eye opening experience. Before meeting these families, I was not quite sure of what living with autism and having a family affected by autism were like. I was impressed to see how much Jeremy could tell his mother about different cable companies and it was great when he wanted to help me and Mark change the tape in our web video camera during our interview. Meeting the Miles family was another great experience for me. Right when we pulled into the driveway Will was fascinated with the car and some of the camera equipment that we brought along. Seeing family members become emotional during interviews showed me just how real this disorder is and how it not only affects the person with autism but also everyone around them.

I hope that the blog posts along with our First Veiw videos, picture slideshows and Behind the Scenes web packages allowed viewers to see even more of what went in to putting this series together as well as even more of the stories that we may not have had the ability to put directly into the on air series. I am grateful for all of the comments that we have received on the blog the feedback has been phenomenal. It is so great to be able to share this series online with people outside of our viewing area not only because of the work that has gone into this series but also because the topic of autism is so large and discussion on it should be encouraged in communities everywhere.

Coming up we will be putting together an hour-long show for the series and I anticipate that we will be able to share even more with our audience and keep the topic of autism in the spotlight. I am thankful for everyone involved in this series, I hope that we were able to inform the public on issues relating to autism and I am appreciative of this entire experience.

Series Reflection, Mark

2008-01-02T09:21:00.000-06:00

Like all new endeavors, when I joined the research team for this series, I had no idea where our phone calls, researching, weekly meetings and constant brainstorming would lead us.

I truly feel that our team's initial uncertainty as to the direction of this series made the final product that much better, that much more comprehensive. If I were to choose our motto for this series, I would have to say it was to remain open and to stay honest.

If you ask each member of this series, I am sure they would have their own motto, but I am most proud of our remaining open and honest, not necessarily because these are the foundations of journalism, but because I believe these ideals are crucial for positive public change. Being open and honest is what I expect from our journalists, our public and our audience feedback.

I thank each one of our viewer's for their support, comments and most especially their critiques, it truly makes us better. This unfiltered interaction with our audience, which we did by taping our weekly meetings, launching this blog site, and filming behind the scenes web teases, is a fairly new concept, beginning with the rise of this internet age of ours.

As a journalist, it is easy to fall back on self doubt and begin to ask, "will people really care, will they comment?" The comments we received from the viewer's for this series no longer leaves me doubting public sentiment. If we can tell the stories that tap into our humanity, people will always care.

Katie - Final Thoughts

2008-01-01T23:09:00.000-06:00

I'm unable to believe that after so many interviews, emails, posts and comments, the Combating Autism from Within series is over. As I've written before, we have worked hard to not only bring you the viewer coverage of all aspects of this disorder, but to involve you as much as possible in this news-gathering process.

Let's be honest - this series would not be what it is without you, our online audience. Thank you for taking the time to read, watch, defend, and critique our work and the work of each other; we're grateful for your feedback and for the chance to hear (or read) your personal stories. When we geared up for the series in August, we had no idea it would turn into such an expansive project, but thanks to your willingness to participate, it really grew and reached more people than we first imagined.

Thanks again for your help and please watch our hour-long show in February to see clips and hear details about how the series came together!

Dr. Engley Web Extras

2007-12-30T20:03:00.000-06:00

They are up on part four here

Nerdy Mom

2007-12-29T23:42:00.001-06:00

Bloggers-please note

Nerdy Mom is an account through my web director... It is not a person on this blog. It is the account when people email the blog. That is why you constantly see it...it is when people email the blog.

I do not publish comments addressing that name....

I always start posts with "This item was emailed to this blog." This way you know...

A poem

2007-12-29T22:37:00.000-06:00

Someone passed this to me.... I want to share...

Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
All creatures were stirring
Yes, even the mouse

We tried the melatonin
We gave a hot bath
But the holiday jitters
They always distract

The children were finally
All nestled in bed
When a nightmare of terror
Ran through my own head

Did I get the right gift
The right color and style
Would there be a tantrum
Or just maybe, a smile ?

Our relatives we will see
But they don't understand
The pleasure he gets
From flapping his hands.

He needs discipline they'll say
Just a much needed smack
You must learn to parent
On goes the attack

We'll just smile and nod
Because we know deep inside
The argument is useless
Our anger we will try to hide

We know what it's like
To live with the spectrum
The struggles and triumphs
Achievements, and regressions.

But what they don't know
And what they don't see
Is the joy that we feel
Over simplicity

He said hello!
He ate something green!
He told his first story !
He didn't cause a scene !

He peed in the potty
Who cares if he's ten
He stopped saying the same thing
Again and again.

Others just don't realize
Just how we learn to cope
How we barely hang on
To the end of our rope.

What they don't see
Is the joy we won't hide
When our child with autism
Make the tiniest stride.

We sometimes look at others
Without the problems we face
With jealousy, and envy
Longing and even distaste

But what they don't know
Nor sometimes do we
Is that a child with autism
Brings simplicity

We don't get excited
Over expensive things
But we jump for joy
With the progress hard work brings

A child with autism
Tries hard every day
That makes us proud
More than words can say

They work even harder
Than you or I
To achieve something small
To reach their star in the sky

So to those who don't get it
Who don't have a clue
Take a walk in my shoes
And I will assure you

After ten minutes
Into your walk
You'll look at me
With respect, even shock

You will then realize
Daily what is it I go through
The next time you're tempted to judge
I can assure you

You won't say a thing
You'll be quiet and learn
Like the years that I did
When the tables were turned

Heuristic of Complexity in ASD Biochemistry

2007-12-29T20:50:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

For all of those trying to wrap their brain around the complexities of regression and the mix of environmental and genetic influences, I hope this heuristic helps. Its extremely complicated with various genes and exposures implicated in various individual children.

Hopefully KOMU can send this to Dr. Judith Miles and any other UM-Columbia, UM-KC, Washington University and Saint Louis University researchers as well as State Legislators trying to conceptualize the issues on the biochemical and exposure side of things. Remember, in terms of gene-environment interactions, one person's safe dose can be another person's toxin due to a genetic polymorphism that leaves them vulnerable where others aren't.

Classic examples of this in pediatrics include PKU, maple syrup urine disease and these have been successfully identified in neonatal screening tests of metabolism. This type of approach is needed to improve the collective function of those at risk for autism. Maybe these great "Show Me" state universities can be the first to define a screening protocol for newborns who have slow detoxification kinetics so that their environmental risks can be better quantified at birth for the risk of regressive autism.

TEXT PROMPTING THIS POST:Severely dysfunctional children can be helped and part of what makes the clinical science of helping these children so difficult is the genetic and environmental heterogeneity of the population. In addition, looking at the work of Dr. Jill James would indicate that the approach requires nutraceutical rather than pharmaceutical approach as relates to the enzyme pathways in sulfation and methylation that are affected. The neurological side of things may be helped by some pharmaceuticals but much of the underlying problems with detoxification need bottleneck hurdles (neutraceuticals) rather than cascade or pathway blockers (pharmaceuticals). If big drug companies could patent and protect those approaches it would help get more research done but at some level you are dealing with a number of "orphan" drug/nutraceutical issues here as one kids autism is impacted by MTHFR mutation, another by COMT, another by paraoxonase, another by COMT dysfunction, etc. I will post a graphic to help unify the issues for those who are interested in just how complex this is.

Stay Tuned

2007-12-29T17:47:00.001-06:00

We will have blogs from the team in a few days about final thoughts on the series....
We are going to keep this blog going for the show in Feb...
So we will keep you posted on developments with everything all spring....
While the series may be over for a bit on air---we continue it online!

We will most likely put the hour show online...so everyone can watch it!
Thanks!

Comment-Grateful Viewer

2007-12-27T22:59:00.001-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

Thank you, KOMU TV and news team for having the integrity and courage to cover the controversial issues surrounding our children's afflictions. I have been following your coverage closely. I am but another parent of a child with the autism label. Our son also has mercury toxicity. They are one in the same. So thank you Ashley Reynolds and support team for you earnest efforts on our children's behalf!!

May stories and coverage such as this enhance the truth behind the controversy that we may one day end the madness and recover the already injured children and their families.
In all sincerity and with much appreciation,

Lin Wessels
Sam's MAMA (Mom on A Mission for Autism)

Happy Life and Love to All

2007-12-27T00:24:00.000-06:00

I firmly believe {personally} that the holidays we "celebrate" are, on the whole, too commercialized - what we need to truly celebrate is life itself and of its diversity... challenges are not obstacles unless one allows them to be and accepts them as such - and even if most of my life has far too often felt like an "obstacle course", I am glad to have risen to the challenges, leaped the barriers, climbed the walls, walked the tightropes, conquered the chasms, and learned to embrace my autism and its gifts... so I wish you all a Happy, Healthy New Year, Life, Love, Self-acceptance, and Gifts that have meaning far beyond the commercial!

Sharisa Joy

Hour Show in Feb

2007-12-26T23:42:00.000-06:00

I am not sure if I posted this or not...but we do have a show coming up in Feb about the series...We will highlight many stories and feature the team that put this all together.
I will keep everyone posted on here.

Low Dose Naltrexone

2007-12-26T23:30:00.001-06:00

FDA-approved naltrexone, used to block opioids in the brain. Used in a low dose, can also boost the immune system.

Naltrexone itself was approved by the FDA in 1984 in a 50mg dose for the purpose of helping heroin or opium addicts, by blocking the effect of such drugs. By blocking opioid receptors, naltrexone also blocks the reception of the opioid hormones that our brain and adrenal glands produce: beta-endorphin and metenkephalin. Many body tissues have receptors for these endorphins and enkephalins, including virtually every cell of the body's immune system.

It is one medication that according to Dr. William Shaw Ph.D should be added to the anti-yeast and free of casein and gluten diet and Nystatin protocol for children with autism. Naltrexone blocks opioids in the brain. The opioids from milk and wheat may slow the brain down.

At low doses, naltrexone may help clear the brain of opioids which have already gotten into the brain. In the past studies of this protocol have been done using doses that were to high and therefore showed that sometimes naltrexone has the opposite effect of what is intended. The doses used were 25 to 50 milligrams per day, which can cause pain. These studies failed to include the combination of the elimination of dairy and wheat products.

In autistic children where immune deficiencies are present, naltrexone can boost the immune system and given in low doses.

Reicheit KI et al. Gluten, milk proteins and autism: Results of dietary intervention on behavior and urinary peptide secretion. J. Applied Nutrition 42: 1-11, 1990.

Bovard, et al. Low-dose naltrexone effects on plasma chemistries and clinical symptoms in autism: a double-blind-placebo controlled study Psychiatry
Research 58: 191-20, 1995

Roy S, Loh HH. Effects of opioids on the immune system. Neurochem Res 1996;21:1375-1386

Comment-Combating Autism From Within

2007-12-26T19:44:00.001-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

The stunning information presented by Ashley Reynolds and her news team should be setting off alarms everywhere. Our federal health agencies have done little to address the autism epidemic affecting one in every 150 children--specifically one in every 94 boys in the U.S.

For too long the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been given oversight over itself. This is the agency in charge of the vaccine program and the commonly accepted source for information on vaccine safety. It should come as no surprise that every CDC study on vaccines and autism shows no link. Many times reporters go no further but simply give the CDC the last word.

The simple truth is our children have been exposed to a known neurotoxin in their vaccines made from the second deadliest element on Earth. As they received more and more vaccines in the mandated schedule, the autism rate exploded. The CDC has been a constant state of denial and can only present easily manipulated population studies to try and show that injecting mercury into children is safe.

This research can never make up for the fact that thimerosal, the mercury-based vaccine preservative, was never tested for toxicity BEFORE it was allowed in our children's vaccines. The population studies we're continually told about are the same type of science produced by the tobacco industry in the 1940s and 50s as proof that smoking didn't cause lung cancer. The fact is that there isn't a single toxicological study that can show us that thimerosal is safe.

The CDC has left health care professionals with no choice but to defend vaccines as safe, but this heated controversy shows no sign of going away. More and more in the press are presenting the facts about autism and the link to vaccines.

Ashley did the extraordinary. She looked into the studies. She talked to the scientists and doctors who challenge the CDC findings as well as pointing out the financial ties between the people doing the CDC studies and the vaccine makers. She told the public about the difference between epidemiological and toxicological studies. Combating Autism from Within has raised the standard for reporting on the autism epidemic.

Those of us responsible for the AGE OF AUTISM blog are happy to recognize the Combating Autism From Within series in naming the work by Ashley as the best media coverage on autism for 2007! AGE OF AUTISM AWARD: BEST MEDIA Thank you Ashley Reynolds and KOMU-TV!

Anne McElroy Dachel
Media Editor: AGE OF AUTISM

Update

2007-12-26T15:33:00.000-06:00

Hello Bloggers!

I have tons of emails! Thanks for all your comments!

Here is an article about our coverage. Send me any other articles you find about us and I will post them on here.
Best Media Coverage

I am working on web extras tonight and tomorrow... I will post on here when they are up on http://www.komu.com/

Comment-Part 4 ...no better. Yes...we have no Thimerosol!

2007-12-26T10:23:00.001-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

I have read the transcript of Part 4...missed the visuals. Once again we have the "expert" octogenarian PhD as well as a "researcher"talking thru the top of their heads about things with which they have not a clue.

Haley the researcher makes a point of identifying vaccines as the obvious only common factor for autism across different nations. Well... of course there are other common environmental factors affecting children around the world. If you discount that the relaxed diagnostic criteria for autism, could account for increased cases, how about plastic? Plastic is now ubiquitous in the environment of the world. Then there are electromagnetic fields (TV, Cell phones), PCBs, asbestos, pesticides, agricultural use of hormones and antibiotics... the list goes on.

Hmmm...and while thinking of alternative theories, the radiologist who posts here may want to explain how it is that medical imaging...particularly prenatal ultrasound...is not the autism
culprit.

The point is, babies are born into a very different environment today than they were 60 years ago. Lets face it, there are some folks who have been opposed to vaccines from the beginning and who have latched onto autism as a selling point. Some of these people also opposed fluoridation of water (as a Communist plot), and have now, quite unfortunately, sold the idea to
some families affected by autism that they should blame "the mercury in vaccines".

I believe that KOMU and Ashley have been "played" by these same vaccine opponents. As a result, we have this very biased and poorly produced series, which merely adds to the pain of autism sufferers and could easily have the effect of children not receiving life saving
vaccines.

What a missed opportunity to address autism! There are real issues which these families face: Lack of school and community support, health care costs in a world without universal
health care, transition to independent living, etc. Where were the interviews with social service agencies, school officials, health departments, insurance company executives? Now that would have been a productive and informative story.

No Thimerosol in the current vaccine regime: I do appreciate that in the text of the 4th installment, there is mention that current routinely used vaccines for children, do not contain thimerosol. So, it is at the end of the series that we kind of learn that single unit dose vaccines are preservative free. That, only in the context however, of "Parents must decide if..."
Sorry...no deciding needed if the issue is Thimerosol...there ain't any!

Historically multi use vials of vaccine contained Thimerosol in very small quantities as a preservative. Single use vials do not contain any preservative, and the "live" vaccines have ALWAYS been preservative free. These would be MMR (Measles, Mumps Rubella),
Varicella (Chickenpox) and the old oral Polio vaccine.

For real information about vaccines see the Immunization Action Coalition:
http://www.immunize.org/
Check out their pictures and films of the results of unvaccinated children. Vaccine preventable illnesses are not simply normal childhood illnesses that people should experience to improve their immune systems. The microcephally, retardation, and blindness of Rubella syndrome are real. The awful sound of babies with diptheria struggling for breath, and the arched back of children dying of tetanus are real. The effectiveness of vaccines to prevent these
tragic outcomes is real.

So...this KOMU series was much ado about nothing...with a potential
terrible effect.

Bill Monroe, RN

Part Four

2007-12-26T00:00:00.000-06:00

Here is part four...tell us what you think.

Also, web extras will be up soon.

http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/14f72f27-80ce-0971-019e-ca59a7507560

Comment-Prudence and Foresight

2007-12-25T03:39:00.002-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

Any epigenetic disorder arises as mix of environmental insults and genetic predisposition, leaving us the opportunity with expanding science to find the susceptible genetic populations so that we may protect them from unnecessary environmental exposures.

Precautionary principle would dictate that unneeded environmental stimuli such as vaccine boosters should be avoided in such increasingly identifiable children. Vaccinating smarter will improve outcomes.

Edward F . Fogarty, M.D.
Chairman of Radiology
University of North Dakota School of Medicine

Comment-autism bad, but not related to vaccines...sorry

2007-12-25T03:39:00.001-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog -AR

I just saw episode 3 of your series on Autism.I am wondering if KOMU will, in the course of the series disclose that none of the vaccines now routinely used for children contain thimerosol. It has actually been several years since they have. MMR (Measle Mumps Rubella) has NEVER had Thimerosol as a preservative, as it has ALWAYS been preservative free...it being a live virus vaccine.

A few years ago the hue and cry among autism/vaccine conspiracists was that MMR was the autism culprit as it is given at 12 to 15 months andAutism is first usually noticed after that time. I have read of people testifying to the Missouri legislature that the mercury in MMR gave their child autism. I am afraid that can not possibly be true. Studies have shown that Autism is detectable by persons familiar with its symptoms in infants prior to, or at, their first birthday.

As an example see the retrospective first birthday videotape study:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m024230v47531118/

MMR is never given before age one...again, it is not responsible for autism.

As others have noted in your blog, the upsurge in autism cases is in all likelihood a matter of the broadened diagnoses of cases. It can also be related to any number of environmental factors. Some environmental factors combined with genetics are undoughtedly at work with autism and much research is needed. It is a classic fallacious argument however, to assert that vaccines are to blame simply because they are given in infancy around the time that autistic symptoms
manifest. There are plenty of substances and effects in our environment to which humans have never before been exposed. Plastic, for instance, is something that our ancestors never had to deal with, or electromagnetic fields such as are produced by microwaves, cell phones and televisions broadcasting KOMU TV.

You can always find an "expert"somewhere to back up whatever theory you want. Good reporting does not mean rooting around for fringe views. The CDC is not in the business of making people sick. Whenever a problem is found with any vaccine or medicine the CDC pulls it
immediately. (You may remember the rotavirus vaccine which was pulled a few years ago.)

Also...reporting like this has consequences, as in children dying or being born with birth defects due to decreased vaccination rates. Will KOMU be running a month long 14 part series on childhood vaccine preventable diseases?

I think the public deserves to see persons with Rubella syndrome and hear from their families. Seeing an infant with diptheria struggling for each breath should make for a good B roll, and the ascites condition associated with Hepatitis B is also quite dramatic. Perhaps you can find some children with hepatitis. (One of the principle reasons infants are given Hepatitis B in the newborn nursery is to protect them from possible infection from their mothers.) Of course to
film someone dying or ill with polio or living with its effects, they would have to go to India or Africa...not sure if the KOMU budget could get behind that. Finding smallpox would also be a problem...
This website has some pictures and video you could use:
http://www.vaccineinformation.org/

As an aside...
I wonder about the quality of education being afforded by our much touted J School. Seems to me folks are being prepared for a career with the Enquirer, the Globe or some Rupert Murdock outfit and perhaps the taxpayers are not getting their money's worth.
Disappointed in KOMU,

Bill Monroe RN,
Fulton MO

I was interested in seeing how you would present the "CDC view" in the great "debate" on vaccines and autism. You have got to be kidding! So...the CDC did not have the time to address questions of the "When did you stop beating your wife..." variety from student "reporters".
Wow...big "news". You really got them, didn't you! Here is some news for you....that was NOT news.

The fact that vaccines are used safely by most of the world's population and have been studied thoroughly and found to be safe preventing thousands of deaths, suffering, miscarriages and birth defects, does not become a "debate" because a handful of people have chosen to point to vaccines as the cause of their children's autism.

Where were the local vaccine experts? Did you ask to interview anyone at the Health Department, or Dr Cooperstock at MU? Apparently not.

Instead we get more of the Octogenarian PhD (thats NOT a medical Doctor folks), who is satisfied to pass along info based on "...what they tell me". Truly pathetic. And sad.

I think I will skip the next installment in which we learn that Rep Cynthia Davis, and Matt Blunt and the Republican Party are sure to protect our little ones from these nasty vaccines.
Just what IS the agenda of KOMU?
Where are your ethics?

Bill Monroe RN
Fulton MO
--
"Voting is not enough..."
Gov. Howard Dean

Part three

2007-12-24T23:18:00.000-06:00

Our third part of the investigation airs tonight. Tell us what you think. You can see it here.
http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/0fcbcb66-80ce-0971-014a-e9d7f410a3e1

Comment-Ethyl and Methyl Mercury not the same thing!

2007-12-24T10:17:00.001-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

I find it interesting that in the report(s) concerning mercury and autism no mention was made of the fact that thimerisol contains ethyl mercury not methyl mercury. This leads me to believe that either a poor job of research was done, or the researcher had a bias ingrained that vaccines cause autism and chose not to give information that challenged that belief.

http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2005/7712/abstract.pdf

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/thimerosalqa.htm

also it is very telling that no mention was made of the fact that Denmark removed all thimerisol from vaccines in 1992. Danish children were thimerosal-free by 1995. Autism prevalence in Denmark has risen in exactly the same fashion as in the United States and the United Kingdom. http://www.autism-watch.org/general/thio.shtml

this series on autism makes me extremely leary of the validity of KOMU’s research on stories and make me much less likely to trust information from your station in the future.

As a parent it is comforting if you can find something, ANYTHING, to blame for your childs conditons or illness. Unfortunately too often the only thing to blame is your childs own genes.

As for the epidemic? Better and much more inclusive diagnostic criteria. The majority of kids now diagnosed with autism 50 yrs ago would have been considered extremely shy and/or backwards/slow, etc. Now they are diagnosed as autistic.

PFL

Evidence Based Medicine

2007-12-22T22:01:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

The double edged sword of vaccines is that as we increase their use we will increase adverse events particularly as relates to autoimmune phenomena. Where is the simple science that assesses the rates of autoimmune disease as a function of number of vaccinations received?

For the protection of the children of this country and improved health outcomes without threatening herd immunity we have to do more checking of vaccine efficacy rather than assume we need 3 boosters in every child in some series of vaccines. Where is the safety data that ensures giving multiple vaccines at one clinic visit is as safe as separating them. Where is the safety data with a normal saline (NOT ADJUVANT) placebo control on the hepatitis B series?

Participants in such a study who got placebo after safety assessments were in for day of birth immunization would have plenty of time to get catch-up vaccination, I never got hepatitis B shots until college clearly such a disease that have a major behavioral component to transmission could be intensely scrutinized for safety in childhood; there is no medical literature, no documented evidence that indicates these safety assessments have been done.

Focused, smarter protocols with titer checks will easily accomplish this. Concerned parents and a growing number of concerned physicians can develop a congress of "the evidence based" schedule. In the end it will be more appropriate to make decisions on clinical evidence of need. Boosters are inappropriate in those who have documented immunity, titer levels are all I ever had to prove immunity to the diseases of childhood when I started medical school (my vaccine records were lost). Grassroots public awareness campaigns can get the word out that titer level documentation of immunity is actually more appropriate documentation of immunity than a written record of shots that could be forged anyway. Such social nightmares for both sides of the arguments of safety and need such as occurred in Maryland recently could easily be avoided with this simple information.

Nothing is 100% safe and I do think the risks of certain diseases at certain ages warrant vaccination with serial titers for follow up, why waste the shot though if you don't need it? If parents don't want to pursue that slightly more arduous course they can make the assumptions of safety similar to the CDC, but the atmosphere needs to change so that patient education leads to this consideration of this approach as a primary discussion point.

Teasing out the small percentage of vaccine-intolerant kids on the basis of biochemical screening is the goal that government research dollars should be driven towards-it is the HONORABLE thing to do, admitting that there are vulnerable patients who will have a discordantly high risk of injury due to a universal mandate is not easy, those with character will at least admit this goal should be pursued.

I see this same point being made in other areas of medicine with much less angst. Why is this goal ignored, is it conditioning? I have on many occasions turned a friendly colleague around in their thinking on this after getting through the conditioning of medical culture.

We can come together and improve the lives of children in both areas of safety and immunity by taking these simple steps. Even if hubris prevents it coming from the CDC, the culture of pediatrics, and academia; the grassroots efforts of many Great Americans can pull this idea together for the good of our nation's health.

Its hard to argue against this approach in a way that can be justified on truly medical grounds. Simple fact is we have no good evidence of what the rates of vaccine-related iatrogenesis are because there are no prospective controlled studies on this liability issue, the onus is
on the CDC to provide that evidence; is it 1/100, 1/1000, 1/10,000 or 1/1,000,000?

Even at a 1/1,000,000 rate of adverse contrast reactions ,radiologists are still going to be put to task for how they attempted to avoid an ill fated injection by patients, lawyers and health advocates. I am glad we are; we continually improve our safety, most often by the prodding of our colleagues outside of our specialty.

Many thanks again to the KOMU staff and the University of Missouri
School of Journalism,

You have provided a brave investigation that others with a greater
audience could never endeavor!

Edward F. Fogarty, M.D.
Chairman of Radiology
University of North Dakota School of Medicine
Father of a great kid who is slowly beginning to speak.

Making stuff up: a novel form of evidence

2007-12-22T16:56:00.002-06:00

Of all the whoppers told by the autism bio-med/conspiracy buffs, none may be easier to refute than that chestnut which tells us that the symptoms of mercury poisoning are "exactly the same" as autism. This line is repeated over and over with great certainty, as if it is as obvious as the setting sun.

The talking point was supersized in 2000 when Medical Hypothesis, a fringe journal for junk scientists, published Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning. When somebody writes Dandruff: A Novel form of Skin Cancer, it will also find a home in Medical Hypothesis. The 2000 paper was widely quoted by parents who needed something to blame. Mercury seemed so obvious - it is known to attack the nervous system, and it's present in thimerosal, and the symptoms of autism present right around the time that infants are immunized. So there ya go - case closed!

Yet a simple comparison of the clinical symptoms of mercury poisoning and the diagnostic criteria for autism shows they are quite distinct.

As Pediatrics tells us, the characteristic motor findings of mercury poisoning are ataxia (gross incoordination of muscle movements) and dysarthria (motor speech disorder).

The outcome of fetal methyl mercury poisoning in severe form also included spasticity. In contrast, in autism, the only common motor manifestations are repetitive behaviors (stereotypies) such as flapping, circling, or rocking. Persons with Asperger syndrome may be clumsy, and hypotonia has been noted in some infants with autism; the frequency of clumsiness and hypotonia in autism spectrum disorders is not established. No other motor findings are common in autism, and indeed the presence of ataxia or dysarthria in a child whose behavior has autistic features should lead to careful medical evaluation for an alternative or additional diagnosis.

Fetal exposure to mercury frequentlyt leads to microcephaly - a small head. But prenatal exposure to lead, alcohol, PCBs and other neurotoxins, for example, also tend to decrease head size. "In contrast", notes Pediatrics, "in autism increasing evidence indicates that head size and, as measured by volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, brain size tends to be larger than population norms."

I guess that's where the "novel" part comes in.

Cross posted at AutismNewsBeat.com

Comment on ANB note of style

2007-12-20T02:45:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog-AR

A Note on Knowledge:
As a licensed health care professional who knows the profoundly deficient working knowledge of chemistry and physics that nowpermeates U.S. medicine from decades of neglect of basic science understanding in pursuit of easily written scripts from large pharmaceutical companies, I can tell you that Dr. Boyd Haley's knowledge on the subject of heavy metal toxicology dwarfs that of allbut a few MDs or DOs in this country. The cultural distance of the best and brightest PhDs from MDs on the campuses of this country's universities is growing at the peril of our healthcare system. Your"note on style" appears to be a weakly veiled attempt to diminish this man's accomplishments by the title behind his name. Most of the advances of our healthcare system are pioneered by PhD's who get the willing ear of visionary MDs to creatively problem solve for the benefit of society and ultimately, many of the Pharmafia corporations that run this country.

ANB: Don't you have some connections with companies that might be interested in my ELISA in home vaccine titer check idea? We couldmake a killing on that one and short sell vaccine companies who will undoubtedly lose tons of money on having no reason for all those unnecessary boosters once we get our test kits out on the market ;-)You in?

Edward F. Fogarty, M.D.

Investigation Part 2

2007-12-19T22:35:00.000-06:00

just aired part 2 of the investigation. Tell us what you think! Should be online shortly...
http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/f5b41a1c-80ce-0971-0041-101cdd239ff4

A note on style

2007-12-19T20:21:00.003-06:00

Boyd Haley, PhD, is technically entitled to be addressed as "Doctor" with a capital "D," but considering that KOMU is quoting his statements about a medical subject, it's misleading to begin the article by identifying him as a "doctor" with a lowercase "d". Doesn't this imply that he is an MD or DO – a licensed health care professional? He is not.

"Professor Haley" is equally respectful, and eliminates ambiguity regarding his professional status.

Air Dates

2007-12-19T11:32:00.000-06:00

Tonight at Ten- Part 2
Monday (the 24th) at Ten- Part 3
Tuesday (the 25th) at Ten- Part 4

Comment-Dr. Miles

2007-12-19T11:13:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

If you read Dr. Miles' paper, they make a blanket statement in the discussion that their study confirms no link between thimerosal and autism. Problem is they never stratify or control for all the other potential thimerosal doses received subsequently by children who's mothers got thimerosal-free Rhogam.

If you keep selecting the right subsets you will never find statistically significant data in this issue, just keep finding larger heterogenous populations with only one vaccine exposure controlled for and you will never find statistical significance. Its all the vaccines as little hits along the way with and without thimerosal in the wrong envrionmentally challenged populace (aluminum and other toxins will still be slowly removed) that is causing the problem and thimerosal is adding a additional fire to the situation. You can't look at one insult at one point in time on this spectrum of repeated insults along the way and then conclude there is no relationship.

But for clarity, let me model her approach in a similar way in which I could convince people that radiation is not associated with cancer by analogy (follow the parenthetical relations)
Some of you may know there is a recent publication indicating that medical diagnostic radiation is potentially going to be linked to or causative in 2% of US cancers in the next several decades. Thats a very disturbing thing and as a radiologist, I will not do as a so many pediatrics colleagues and tell you that radiation (vaccination) is without harm, in fact its is over used just like vaccines in a myopic world of convenient medicine rather than a thoughtful judicious way in many cases.

But lets say I published this research to prove radiation in medical imaging is safe would you believe me?"We studied kids with childhood leukemia (autism) {who also had 36 x-rays of various body parts (vaccines) in their first 3 years of life} who were in utero during an abdominal X-ray (Rhogam with Hg) and compared them to another group of children {who also had 36 x-rays in the first 36 months} who had an in utero exposure to a maternal abdominal gamma-scintigram (rhogam without thimerosal). We find there is no difference in the rates of leukemia, therefore we conclude that X-ray radiation is not associated with childhood leukemia." Yeah, right what about the percent insult difference of 36 similar insults versus 35 plus one sightly different insult. The degree of insult change or index is not significantly different therefore we conclude that you were not insulted.

Medical radiation is similar to vaccines, it has a risk and should not be pursued unless there is a clinical need. Boosters are never proven to be needed before being given in individual cases, simplest point to keep making; there is no clinical evidence on individual basis that any of my kids ever needed more than one dose of a vaccine, the labs were never checked. There clearly never needed hepatitis B at birth, mumps could have waited etc.

That whole hep B thing really burns me up, its like me telling you to have your daughter get a mammogram at 3 (want to get a good baseline now don't we?)!!!! OH and by the way if you are a BRCA carrier who has a genetic impairment of DNA repair enzymes that affect the breast increasing the risk of cancer, there is NO way radiation to your breast at a critical development period would ever increase your risk of cancer (just like there is no way a vaccine or heavy metal at the right time in development would be linked to adverse outcomes). MEDICINE IS LITTERED with analogies where protective action were made for much fewer people to avoid continued iatrogenesis, the recent gadolinium (heavy metal) toxicities in MRI in THOSE WHO CAN'T DETOXIFY HEAVY METALS is the same damn issue.

I wish I had time to debate the ninnies that keep denying the need to protect the vulnerable by screening them simply because it would appear to be an admission of guilt.

Edward Fogarty, M.D.

Investigation Part 1

2007-12-18T21:43:00.000-06:00

We air the first of the four investigations for the series tonight.
Tell us what you think!

Specific Carbohydrate Diet-Gut Issues in Autism

2007-12-18T21:24:00.000-06:00

Of the many issues affecting Autistic individuals none is more prevalent then the gut issues. In my son's case it was diagnosed as malabsoption. I was given this diagnosis when he was five and sent home with no information that could help him.

I had an immune panel done and found out he had an Immunoglobin A deficiency and high inmunoglobin E. I took the results to a gastroenterologist who told me that due to his high IgE could not have any dairy and that his immune deficiency made him prone to gastrointestinal infections.

I remember that I took him off milk and cereals. That diet change, stopped the chronic diarrhea,which he had suffered with, since his first birthday. I thought that would be the end of that, but no. He then developed constipation, which caused him a lot of pain.

For eight years my Mickie woke up during the night, giggling, crying screaming or running through the house. During the last three years or so, he has slept very little. He could not lay flat on the bed, but slept sitting up. To me this was the most troublesome part of his issues.

He stimmed constantly and had horrible tantrums or meltdowns.

While networking with other parents I learned about a special diet called SCD diet or Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This diet is described in detail in the book "Breaking The Vicious Cycle" Intestinal Health Through Diet, by Elaine Gottschall. The reason behind this diet is simple. It is supposed to starve the yeast in the stomach, by depriving it of fermentable carbohydrates.

I heard from other parents of the benefits of this diet had brought to their autistic children's health. I decided to implement the diet with Mickie about one month ago. At about two days into the diet, while I was dressing him, he gave me a spontaneous hug. I remember just staying really still. Up to that point this kind of behavior meant that he was going to pull my hair or tug at my clothes and try to hurt me, but his big sister that could see his face said.....___It's Okay mom, he's smiling. I think he just wants a hug. So I hugged him back and proceeded to dress him once more, then he did it again.

The last time Mickie gave me hug was so long ago, I had forgotten how it felt.

A few more days went by and he stopped stimming, seemed more aware of his surroundings, started to notice our pets and even attempted to talk. By the 15Th day he was sleeping through the night. He was no longer sitting up, but was laying flat on the bed.

I have not seen change like this in him since I took him off Casein and Gluten five years ago. Slowly but surely.........

www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info

Reply for ANB

2007-12-18T03:14:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

TO AUTISM NEWS BEAT:

Producing a study with protocol comparisons for efficacy and safety between current high dose over-vaccination techniques and a more appropriate approach that is evidence based wherein we vaccinate when titer levels are zero or inappropriately low would go a long way for your argument against people concerned about vaccine safety. Frankly, it would end the debate as to whether there is or isn't an associate between autism and vaccinations and it hasn't been done yet-actually that study is decades overdue at this point. I hope you will join the conversation in regards to that idea and review the food for thought below. This all seems pretty simple, protocol comparisons are nothing new in medicine-but are oddly missing from this arena.

We need to vaccinate smarter, not quit vaccinating. The increase in all auto-immune disease in U.S. children in the last 20 years seems to have one major untested variable: an overly intense early-life vaccination protocol. We really haven't fully tested the idea that we can vaccinate against all these diseases in just as an efficacious way with less boosters and less side effects. To do that now is the mature approach to address the the concerns of parents and medical professionals (the number is growing in ranks outside of pediatrics). A paper last month in the New England Journal of Medicine would suggest we have massively underestimated the decay rate of antibodies after childhood vaccination (Amanna, Carlson and Slifka).

The side effect profiles in a study between current high-intensity vaccination protocols and a lower intensity approach should be prospective monitored, not dependent on the weak reporting statistics in the VAERS database. As soon as such a study exists, we will have a much better idea as to the relationship between vaccines and autism. There is no universal mandate in medicine that occurs without some untoward events in the population, and in this instance, when the lives of millions could be affected, harming 1/500 seems like a small number but in 10,000,000 kids thats 20,000 children. Really the more mature approach would be to admit that we may harm 20,000 kids out of 10 million and the progress of science will learn how to avoid or protect the at-risk population so as to further lower those caught in the "friendly" fire of the war on infectious disease. Vaccine compensation program may help those affected, but the onus is on making this public policy measure safer each year.

The immune system is the most sophisticated of all biological systems due to molecular epitopic variability and the ability of each cell to undergo genetic rearrangements of MHC genes for protein expression; playing with this fiery system too much as we are by over-vaccinating only risks unnecessary side effects. Most auto-immune reactions take several stimuli to really upregulate a deleterious and difficult to control response resulting in clinical disease expression. Although understudied, there is significant immune system dysfunction in autistic individuals and autoimmune markers are often present in autistic children.

So wouldn't it be interesting to do some protocol comparisons? We could keep over-vaccinating some children plus add the thimerosal as preservative again on the full schedule and give others a number of protocols of lesser intensity without thimerosal. A prospective approach would appropriately actively monitor all vaccine recipients for acute side effects. The risk assessment for the development of all auto-immune phenomena over a 10 year window of follow-up could be robustly defined in this fashion. JRA, asthma, childhood MS, autism, and juvenile diabetes all seem to be on the rise in the last 15 years-maybe we are just better at diagnosing these diseases, although last I checked diagnosing diabetes is pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, there are few physicians with prestigious positions in public health and pediatrics in this country who have the guts to even try to find the grant money for a study that would connect the dots between auto-immune phenomena in children and number of vaccines received. Should such a study be performed one would bet it comes from outside such vaccine-entrenched camps, so don't blame Mrs. Weinmaster for the med-speak faux pas and what you would consider as citing seemingly inappropriate researchers, there simply are few who have any moxy for taking on the CDC with an MD behind their names and titleship and position should not detract from important observations, recall that a farm boy in Idaho actually invented the television.

Those who's salary and departmental funding is tied into the current dogma would consider doing the above study occupational suicide. Looking collectively at these auto-immune diseases in the context of vaccination intensity in childhood is really what is needed as anyone can parse out subtypes of auto-immune disease to the point that it appears there is no connection to vaccines so long as the prevalence of disease is below the threshold of statistical significance in the individual diseases. Group the diseases as variations on the same theme and then things get a bit more illustrative of a connection.

On a more progressive note, hopefully someone will pursue this multi-million dollar concept using the same idea for home pregnancy testing (modified ELISA or EMIT) for checking vaccine immunocompetency: One could simply create test strips for finger prick blood samples to give a "yes" or "no" titer check on all the various pediatric vaccines. This would allow us to easily check the need for various boosters annually without the need for more invasive and problematic phlebotomy. There is a probably a large market for this and the sooner it gets done the more likely it is the we will progress in our understanding of auto-immune diseases that are induced by unwarranted boosters. This approach would clearly be more scientific and evidence based, it may eventually render the current CDC schedule like the tobacco ads I have in my office at the hospital from the early 20th century glorifying the brands of cigarettes that are physician favorites; sadly amusing chaff of an older generation of MD's misguided dogma.

Edward Fogarty, M.D.

HERE's THE ORIGINAL POST:

AND YE SHALL KNOW THEM BY THEIR WORDS

A recent letter to the editor in the Lawrence Journal-World tells us everything we need to know about opponents of childhood immunization, most of whom cling to the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.The letter contains all the half truths, insinuations, and flat-out confabulations one would expect from a movement that long ago jettisoned science in favor of guerrilla marketing.To the editor:Health of our children under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to decline. The United States is ranked 41st in infant mortality. Who are the 40 countries that have lower rates of infant death?One in four children has asthma. One in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability. Could it be that we inject infants, on their day of birth, with hepatitis B vaccines that still contain up to three micrograms of neurotoxic mercury as well as aluminum?Where are the front page headlines when major autism researchers re-examine their research and say "oops" or when the Department of Justice conceded that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism?Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan both have a Ph.D. in medicine and had the courage to admit in the Journal of Child Neurology, "We have reanalyzed the data set forth originally reported in 2004 and have found that the original P value was in error and that a significant relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, the hair sample analysis results offer some support for the idea that persons with autism may be less efficient and more variable at eliminating mercury from the blood."We are failing our children's health. It is time to help stop poisoning kids.Linda Weinmaster,LawrenceSigh.First, the hepatitis B vaccine does not contain "up to three micrograms" of mercury. From the CDC's own website we learn:All hepatitis B vaccines intended for use in infants and children are free of thimerosal as a preservative, and an adequate supply of these vaccines is available for all infant and childhood vaccinations. This vaccine should be administered to all newborn infants and is a major cornerstone in the prevention of a potentially fatal disease in children and adults.A Google search for "hepatitis B vaccine" +thimerosal yields a bumper crop of quack medical sites, including Mercola.com which tells us Hep B contains up to 25 micrograms of mercury. This is nonsense. Anybody can spin a defamatory yarn, and some will continue to as long as newspapers publish them.Moving on, Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan are not "major autism researchers", nor were they the authors of the original paper they criticized, as letter's author wants us to believe. DeSoto and Hitlan do not each have a PhD in medicine because there is no such degree. They are PhD psychologists. Why does Weinmaster feel it is necessary to make stuff up? Did she not research her letter first? Or is she relying on fabrications to cover up a lack of evidence for her claims? Falsely proclaiming the two psychologists as medical experts confers a level of respectability that Weinmaster's claims do not deserve. The DeSoto paper does not prove that mercury causes autism. You can read a detailed critique of the DeSoto paper here.Despite what Weinmaster and her fellow travelers tell us, the Department of Justice did not "concede that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism" because there is no sound evidence that mercury in any form causes autism. This slur was lifted from fringe anti-vaccine groups who deliberately misread the respondent's notice in the ongoing Vaccine Court Hearings. The respondents told the special masters that vaccines caused a significant aggravation of an underlying condition in one of the petitioners' test cases. Serious adverse reactions do happen from time to time, which is why the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund was created 20 years ago.The oft-repeated claim that "one in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability," is a self-serving interpretation of normally distributed data on a bell curve. It's akin to saying that half of all children are below average. Here's a graphic explanation of the "one in six" canard.One in six children are below the standard deviation, and one in six are above.Yes, the US infant mortality rate is far too high, but there is no evidence that vaccines are to blame. Infant mortality tends to be a proxy for extreme poverty, and few developed countries with lower infant mortality rates have poverty rates close to that of the US. The best way to combat infant morality is with more prenatal screening and counseling, low cost or free health care, and education. Scaring parents into foregoing vaccinations for their children does not prevent deaths.We are failing our children's health. It is time to help stop poisoning parents' minds with phony conspiracies and fear mongering.

Dr. Miles Airs Today

2007-12-17T23:12:00.000-06:00

Our package about Dr. Judith Miles airs today on KOMU. I'm really excited for you all to see it. Dr. Miles works at the Thompson Center which we featured earlier in the series here in Columbia. We thought that it was important to feature Dr. Miles in the series because she presents a side of the causation argument we've yet to feature. Also, it was a story on Dr. Miles' RhoGAM study that started this whole series. You can look at that study which found no link between thimerosal and autism on KOMU's website.

Go to the website to check out the story on Dr. Miles and take a look at our extra web features including a slideshow and a behind the scenes video.

You will also see Dr. Miles featured in the investigation portion of the series which will air next week.

Haley Airs Tonight

2007-12-16T17:21:00.000-06:00

The package that introduces Dr. Haley airs tonight. The trip to Lexington, Kentucky was the first trip that the team took for the series, and it's nice to finally see the story air. We decided to include Dr. Boyd Haley in our series because we are addressing the vaccine debate and quite a bit of his research is regarding mercury toxicity, so he is a source for one side of the vaccine debate.

Check out Dr. Haley on the KOMU website to see what we've already posted and check back after the show tonight for more KOMU.com extras as well as a slideshow and a behind the scenes look at the trip.

And this isn't the only time you will see Dr. Haley. We feature him in our investigation portion of the series next week.

And ye shall know them by their words

2007-12-16T16:00:00.000-06:00

To the editor:

Health of our children under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to decline. The United States is ranked 41st in infant mortality. Who are the 40 countries that have lower rates of infant death?

One in four children has asthma. One in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability. Could it be that we inject infants, on their day of birth, with hepatitis B vaccines that still contain up to three micrograms of neurotoxic mercury as well as aluminum?

Where are the front page headlines when major autism researchers re-examine their research and say "oops" or when the Department of Justice conceded that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism?

Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan both have a Ph.D. in medicine and had the courage to admit in the Journal of Child Neurology, “We have reanalyzed the data set forth originally reported in 2004 and have found that the original P value was in error and that a significant relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, the hair sample analysis results offer some support for the idea that persons with autism may be less efficient and more variable at eliminating mercury from the blood.”

We are failing our children’s health. It is time to help stop poisoning kids.

Linda Weinmaster,
Lawrence

Sigh.

First, the hepatitis B vaccine does not contain "up to three micrograms" of mercury. From the CDC's own website we learn:

All hepatitis B vaccines intended for use in infants and children are free of thimerosal as a preservative, and an adequate supply of these vaccines is available for all infant and childhood vaccinations. This vaccine should be administered to all newborn infants and is a major cornerstone in the prevention of a potentially fatal disease in children and adults.

A Google search for "hepatitis B vaccine" +thimerosal yields a bumper crop of quack medical sites, including Mercola.com which tells us Hep B contains up to 25 micrograms of mercury. This is nonsense. Anybody can spin a defamatory yarn, and some will continue to as long as newspapers publish them.

Moving on, Dr. Catherine DeSoto and Dr. Robert T. Hitlan are not "major autism researchers", nor were they the authors of the original paper they criticized, as letter's author wants us to believe. DeSoto and Hitlan do not each have a PhD in medicine because there is no such degree. They are PhD psychologists. Why does Weinmaster feel it is necessary to make stuff up? Did she not research her letter first? Or is she relying on fabrications to cover up a lack of evidence for her claims? Falsely proclaiming the two psychologists as medical experts confers a level of respectability that Weinmaster's claims do not deserve. The DeSoto paper does not prove that mercury causes autism. You can read a detailed critique of the DeSoto paper here.

Despite what Weinmaster and her fellow travelers tell us, the Department of Justice did not "concede that thimerosal contributed to a child's autism" because there is no sound evidence that mercury in any form causes autism. This slur was lifted from fringe anti-vaccine groups who deliberately misread the respondent's notice in the ongoing Vaccine Court Hearings. The respondents told the special masters that vaccines caused a significant aggravation of an underlying condition in one of the petitioners' test cases. Serious adverse reactions do happen from time to time, which is why the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund was created 20 years ago.

The oft-repeated claim that "one in six children has a neurobehavioral and/or developmental disability," is a self-serving interpretation of normally distributed data on a bell curve. It's akin to saying that half of all children are below average. Here's a graphic explanation of the "one in six" canard.

One in six children are below the standard deviation, and one in six are above.

Yes, the US infant mortality rate is far too high, but there is no evidence that vaccines are to blame. Infant mortality tends to be a proxy for extreme poverty, and few developed countries with lower infant mortality rates have poverty rates close to that of the US. The best way to combat infant morality is with more prenatal screening and counseling, low cost or free health care, and education. Scaring parents into foregoing vaccinations for their children does not prevent deaths.

We are failing our children’s health. It is time to help stop poisoning parents' minds with phony conspiracies and fear mongering.

Hey Bloggers

2007-12-15T02:02:00.000-06:00

We are gearing up to start week three of the series!

Sunday we have our story with Dr. Boyd Haley.
Tuesday we have our story with Dr. Judith Miles.

Then we proceed to our investigation portion. As of right now we have four parts. We will most likely air two this week and two the following... but I will keep you posted.

I am flooded with emails and phone calls. I appreciate all of the feedback, but as you can imagine, I am very busy...Email is the best way to get into contact with me:

Areynolds.autism@gmail.com

Thank you so much for all your emails and comments!

Comments Air

2007-12-14T23:34:00.001-06:00

We have an ombudsman project at KOMU. We discuss your comments this week. You can watch it here.

Your View

Local Resources

2007-12-13T21:51:00.000-06:00

Today we featured local resources we have in Columbia to combat autism.
Check it out here
Resources

Dr. Rudolph Airs

2007-12-12T17:25:00.001-06:00

Our segment about the trip to Kansas City just aired. We talk to Dr. Charles Rudolph about chelation therapy. Though this is a controversial topic, we thought it was important to show you because some people use it to treat autism.

Check out the story here.

You can also look at a behind the scenes video and a slideshow.

Hello from an Insider!

2007-12-12T01:35:00.000-06:00

Hi from snowy Colorado - I have found your blog interesting so far - for those who don't know me, I'm 29, have autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, anxiety, am non-verbal, communicate via keyboards, am a graduate of Denver University with a dual degree in Psychology and Sociology, am President of Autcom aka the Autism National Committe, a member of the Panel of Advisors on the Spectrum for ASA, an advisory board member of Autism Perspective, on the Executive and Legislative Committees as well as the board of The Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council, an author, composer, award winning advocate, public speaker and consultant, and so much more! I will gladly share my story if you'd like and want to help children and adults with disabilities and their families, professionals, and other caregivers. Please feel free to ask me anything.

Sharisa Joy
sharisajoyshares@gmail.com
sharisajoy@aol.com
sharisajoyshares@comcast.net
sharisajoy@yahoo.com

Updates

2007-12-11T21:05:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone!

Tomorrow we air our the story on chelation at 5pm.
Thursday we air our story on resources in Columbia at 5pm.

Also we have an ombudsman project at KOMU. We are going to go over comments we have gotten from the series via emails and here on the blog. This will air Friday and be online at http://www.komu.com/

Story from KOMU News at 10 - December 9, 2007

2007-12-10T00:56:00.000-06:00

This story is now on http://www.komu.com/ on the series page.

This is part two of the Weinmaster family. We show you what Linda is doing to help Adam with his autism by alternative and natural treatments...

You can watch the story here

You will find video, script, and web extras...in the meantime... comment here about it!

For our Bloggers

2007-12-09T03:28:00.000-06:00

Comment-Thimerosal (49.55% Hg) causes Hg Poisoning

2007-12-08T19:46:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog.-AR

Please consider the following realities about Thimerosal:

THIMESOSAL CAUSES MERCURY POISONING: AN OVERVIEW

Sub-acute mercury poisoning by Thimerosal manifests as clinical symptoms that include the set of symptoms used to diagnose autism. Thimerosal toxicity is a matter of the specific dose and Thimerosal's persistence in the parts of the body in a form that is toxic to thoseorgans, tissues, and/or fluids in which it ispresent at a level high enough to exert its toxic effects.

Moreover, because: · Thimerosal (49.55% mercury by weight), Thimerosal's initial mercury-containing solvolys is products (ethylmercury chloride [75.66 % mercury by weight] and ethylmercury hydroxide [81.28% mercury by weight]), and its final metabolites (tissue- incorporated "inorganic" mercury ("complexed" Hg2+") have all been proven to be highly toxic in short term.

Recent peer-reviewed published research studies [1] have clear established that some young children with a diagnosis in the autism spectrum ARE mercury poisoned and that their principal mercury exposure was from the Thimerosal-preserved vaccines they and, in some cases, their mothers' received and passed to them during pregnancy and breast feeding, and · Apparently, in Hanna Poling v. Sec. HHS (vaccine court case: 02-1466V), a "Thimerosal as a causal factor" test case in the vaccine court's Autism Omnibus, the federal government has conceded that the Thimerosal in the vaccines Hannah Poling received was a causal factor in the neuroencephalopathy-generated autism spectrum disorder symptoms that characterize Hannah Poling's vaccine injuries, there is no question that Thimerosal can causesub-acute mercury poisoning in some children injected with Thimerosal-containing vaccines to the point that the mercury-poisoned child will exhibit mercury-poisoning symptoms that include that set of symptoms used to diagnose an autism spectrum disorder.

Thus, the real question is when are vaccine apologists going to stop raising questions that have been answered and start admitting that Thimerosal-containing vaccines have mercury poisoned and are mercury-poisoning our children and ourselves to the point that some children and adults are sub-acutely mercury poisoned, and exhibit those symptoms that are used to in the diagnosis of a wide variety of neurodevelopmental (e.g., autistic disorder, pervasive developmentaldisorder - not otherwise specified [PDD-NOS],Asperger's, attention deficit disorder [ADD] andattention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD])and other disorders (asthma, diabetes, obesity, multiple sclerosis (MS), and food allergies) inour children, and, for those old enough to missthe prenatal and early childhood Thimerosal-poisoning, "dementias" (e.g., Alzheimer's) inourselves.

References:
1. a. Nataf R, et al. Poryphyrinuria in childhood autistic disorder: implications for environmental toxicity. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2006; 214: 99-108.

b. Geier DA, Geier MR. A prospective assessment of porphyrins in autistic disorders: a potential marker for heavy metal exposure. Neurotox Res 2006; 10: 57-64.

c. Geier DA, Geier MR. A case series of children with apparent mercury toxic encephalopathies manifesting with clinical symptoms of regressive autistic disorders. J Toxicol Environ Health A 2007; 70: 837-851.

Hopefully, the preceding realities have settled the issue of whether Thimerosal is a major causal factor in most children who have adiagnosis in the autism spectrum.

Respectfully,
Dr. King

Science Advisor for CoMeD, the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs:

http://www.mercury-freedrugs.org/

Comment-Autism and Journalistic Integrity

2007-12-08T15:34:00.000-06:00

This item was emailed to this blog. -AR

To Ashley Reynolds and KOMU,

Thank you for delving into one of the most controversial areas of medicine and pediatrics with an open mind and a fair voice for individuals to share their stories. Autism is probably the most
complex neurobehavioral developmental disorder we will ever know on such a grand scale in our society. Dysfunction in the immune system, the gut and within critical hepato-renal detoxification enzyme pathways are making this an enigma for medicine and science. Focusing on one variable in such a multi-variate problem is in large part why its understanding is so elusive.

In a small but ever growing population of people, vaccines can have deleterious effects. There are small populations for which many seemingly innocuous insults to others are, in these individuals, quite deleterious. An average medical student can name one of the classic examples of such subpopulation susceptibility; xeroderma pigmentosa, in which individuals who have a genetic impairment that prevents correction of DNA damage suffered by ultraviolet light.
Miniscule amounts of UV light in these individuals leads to skin cancer. So too it is with autism, miniscule amounts of heavy metals are in many instances creating the initial havoc that leads to this derailment of development. Global intra-body increased half-life of heavy metals appears to exist in these children because one or a couple of a many genes involved in methylation and/or sulfation are poorly functioning.

Mercury and aluminum in vaccines are implicated in potentiating the derangement in this subpopulation, in addition to ambient heavy metals and other toxins in the environment. Its the heavy metals that medical science controls that are really the most important, simply be the fact that they are controllable exposures. Those who have the funds and research capabilites to prove this association definitively have yet to investigate the connection thoroughly in the
susceptible population for obvious legal and ethical ramifications of ignoring mothers for 20 years on this issue. Recall that for the first 20 years of autism being a named syndrome, the mothers were blamed for being the causative factor, that was when medical students were lucky to ever see an autistic child during their training.

Now that the epidemic is upon us, medical professionals need to pull our collective head out of the sand that keeps getting piled up by the last great American industry (pharmaceuticals) and start doing the brave science that will help these children. In many ways this could re-instill confidence by pursuing safer vaccinations and in particular safer vaccination protocols. The current protocols have NEVER be tested against lighter schedules even using the same vaccines (decreased boosters, more age appropriate timing of vaccines, etc). This comparison will lead to saving money in healthcare as a direct result of decreased vaccine purchasing and administration as well as indirectly through decreased incidence of side effects, speech delay being the most obvious and easiest to test as a safety indicator against the current ever burgeoning protocols.

Last month the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper by Amanna, Carlson and Slifka that indicates the duration of coverage of many vaccines exceeds the life span of the study population, by centuries in a longitudinal regression analysis of titer decay rates. This is good science to say we need to cut back on early life vaccinations. One shot may be all many children may need for coverage until much later in life on many of these childhood diseases. Boosters are likely causing much more harm than good for the profit of vaccine corporations.

The hypothesis that there really is a connection between vaccines and speech delays as well as an acceleration of autistic behaviors in a subpopulation that is susceptible to immunodysfunction and high heavy metal half-lives is a valid one that needs urgent study. The CDC and the FDA will be the last "watchdogs" to protect that science, for it is the very hypothesis that will prove a connection once the appropriate at risk population is selected. Thank you for protecting
the collective conversation and thought that can lead to such a hypothesis through investigating the stories of those like the Weinmasters who have legitimate concerns that this hypothesis may be correct, as do I.

Edward F. Fogarty, M.D.
Chairman of Radiology at the University of North Dakota School of
Medicine

Promo

2007-12-08T03:26:00.001-06:00