Doctor Speedy and ME in search of medical honesty
Showing posts with label Autism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Autism. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, September 30, 2011
Dr. Lynn Mielke finds link between Lyme Disease and autism
wtkr.com, September 29, 2011:
Nineteen-year old Mary Hendricks was diagnosed with severe autism when she was just a baby.
"She had a little bit of language and lost it. A little bit of eye contact and lost it," says her mother Tina.
And that was just the beginning. But the Hendricks' did the best they could and took Mary to doctor after doctor.
A specialist questioned Tina about her own health history and that flipped on the light switch.
"He said the key to diagnosing Mary, is diagnosing you," said Tina.
For years, even before Mary was born, Tina battled colitis, fibromyalgia and just couldn't seem to kick what she says seemed like the flu.
The specialist ordered a blood test for Lyme disease. She tested positive. She got the disease from 2 tick bites she had years before her pregnancy.
"If a child has autism from birth, many times it's because the child inherited an infection from the mother," says Dr. Lynn Mielke.
Dr. Mielke thinks that's exactly what happened to Mary; she calls it "Lyme induced autism.”
Days after Tina’s positive results, ...
Sunday, September 4, 2011
e-petition: stop unfair re-assessments for disabled people
stop unfair re-assessments for disabled people
Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions
Stop the unfair and cruel re-assessments via ATOS for disabled people currently on Incapacity Benefit.
ESA is a flawed benefit, and puts terrible pressure and stress on vulnerable people, putting people who cannot work on lesser benefits and applying sanctions.
Source:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/9834
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Rupert Murdoch, Brian Deer, Dr Andrew Wakefield and fabricated lies
By William Newton, COTO Report, Posted on July 17, 2011:
what has not yet been covered is the media circus Murdoch’s London Times created internationally as it fabricated lies against a respected British doctor, with consequences that could impact the lives of billions of children in the world.
The London Times headlines read:
Callous, unethical and dishonest’: Dr Andrew Wakefield,
MMR scare doctor Andrew Wakefield makes fortune in US,
Andrew Wakefield & MMR – the investigation – by Brian Deer,
London Times: MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield ’abused his position of trust.’
Andrew Wakefield was a respected British gastroenterologist who began research into digestive problems in autistic children in collaboration with other doctors in the UK, after being called by parents seeking help. His work indicated severe digestive issues and he asked for more investigation of the MMR vaccine.
Brian Deer is the reporter who savaged Dr Wakefield from the pages of the Sunday Times, a paper managed by Rupert Murdoch’s son James Murdoch who is on the board of GlaxoSmithKline which makes the MMR. Deer researched his case with the help of Medico-Legal Investigations, a private enquiry company whose only source of funding is the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Deer was both the journalist writing on Wakefield and the person who brought a case of fitness to practice medicine to the General Medical Council, and then wrote about the proceedings as well.
Parents whose children were treated by Wakefield were denied the right to be heard before a real court on claims against the vaccine manufacturers. The High Court judge who denied them was Sir Nigel Davis, whose brother is an executive board member of Elsevier, publishers of the Lancet which removed Wakefield’s 1998 paper on the subject, and is on the Board of GlaxoSmithKline.
Read more>>
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Genome study solves mystery illness
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO | Wed Jun 15, 2011:
(Reuters) - When Noah and Alexis Beery were diagnosed with cerebral palsy nearly 13 years ago, the diagnosis never sat right with the twins' mother, Retta Beery.
Her lengthy search for the true cause of her children's strange collection of symptoms finally led to an answer when a scan of the twins' genomes turned up a genetic defect that caused the children's disorder and finally led to the right treatment.
The investigation offers a rare glimpse at the potential of whole genome sequencing -- now largely reserved for research -- at improving the treatment of individual disease.
Now, the once-disabling disorder that caused involuntary spasms and left one twin unable to walk is all but gone, and both teens are thriving in school and playing sports.
"If you saw them today, you'd say there was nothing wrong with them," said Dr. Matthew Bainbridge of Baylor Genome Sequencing Center in Texas, whose research appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Whole genome sequencing technology allows researchers to read all the little bits of code -- the A, C, T, G sequences -- that are the building blocks of DNA.
At a cost of $10,000 to $20,000 per patient, the technology is still out of reach for most people, but companies such as Illumina, Life Technologies Corp and Roche Holding are working to bring the cost down.
Beery's relentless search previously led the children to Dr. John Fink of the University of Michigan, who diagnosed the children, then age 5, with dopa-responsive dystonia (DRD), a complex movement disorder involving the loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
The muscles of people with dystonia contract and spasm involuntarily. When the twins were given a drug called L-dopa, which substituted for the neurotransmitter dopamine that they lacked, they responded quickly.
SURPRISING FINDING
But there were still some lingering symptoms, and six years ago, Alexis developed a cough that became increasingly debilitating.
"About a year and a half ago it turned from this horrible cough into this massive breathing problem. We were back in the arena of specialists, trying to figure out what was going on," Beery said in a telephone interview.
As luck would have it, the twins' father had recently taken a job as chief information officer for the Life Technologies, maker of gene sequencing machines.
With his wife's prodding, the couple approached the company and asked if their children could have their genomes sequenced through a joint project with Baylor.
"They approached us and asked if we would be willing to do it. We didn't know how it would turn it," Bainbridge said.
When the researchers analyzed raw DNA sequence data from the twins' genomes, they were surprised to find no mutations in the two genes commonly mutated in DRD.
Instead, the team discovered that the twins carried a mutated gene related to serotonin production that made them deficient in both dopamine and serotonin, another neurotransmitter.
Adding a serotonin-inducing supplement called 5-HTP to their dopamine regimen improved their symptoms dramatically after just a few weeks.
"Now, because of the sequencing, Alexis started on this new amino acid and she started back in track in March," Retta Beery said. "She's been winning races."
While the cost of sequencing puts this technology out of reach for most families, Bainbridge thinks it will soon be affordable as sequencing costs continue to fall.
He said currently the price of sequencing is dropping by half every six months.
"It's our hope that in two years or maybe even a year whole genome sequencing will be more widely available," he said.
"We'd like everyone to be able to have this."
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
CHICAGO | Wed Jun 15, 2011:
(Reuters) - When Noah and Alexis Beery were diagnosed with cerebral palsy nearly 13 years ago, the diagnosis never sat right with the twins' mother, Retta Beery.
Her lengthy search for the true cause of her children's strange collection of symptoms finally led to an answer when a scan of the twins' genomes turned up a genetic defect that caused the children's disorder and finally led to the right treatment.
The investigation offers a rare glimpse at the potential of whole genome sequencing -- now largely reserved for research -- at improving the treatment of individual disease.
Now, the once-disabling disorder that caused involuntary spasms and left one twin unable to walk is all but gone, and both teens are thriving in school and playing sports.
"If you saw them today, you'd say there was nothing wrong with them," said Dr. Matthew Bainbridge of Baylor Genome Sequencing Center in Texas, whose research appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Whole genome sequencing technology allows researchers to read all the little bits of code -- the A, C, T, G sequences -- that are the building blocks of DNA.
At a cost of $10,000 to $20,000 per patient, the technology is still out of reach for most people, but companies such as Illumina, Life Technologies Corp and Roche Holding are working to bring the cost down.
Beery's relentless search previously led the children to Dr. John Fink of the University of Michigan, who diagnosed the children, then age 5, with dopa-responsive dystonia (DRD), a complex movement disorder involving the loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
The muscles of people with dystonia contract and spasm involuntarily. When the twins were given a drug called L-dopa, which substituted for the neurotransmitter dopamine that they lacked, they responded quickly.
SURPRISING FINDING
But there were still some lingering symptoms, and six years ago, Alexis developed a cough that became increasingly debilitating.
"About a year and a half ago it turned from this horrible cough into this massive breathing problem. We were back in the arena of specialists, trying to figure out what was going on," Beery said in a telephone interview.
As luck would have it, the twins' father had recently taken a job as chief information officer for the Life Technologies, maker of gene sequencing machines.
With his wife's prodding, the couple approached the company and asked if their children could have their genomes sequenced through a joint project with Baylor.
"They approached us and asked if we would be willing to do it. We didn't know how it would turn it," Bainbridge said.
When the researchers analyzed raw DNA sequence data from the twins' genomes, they were surprised to find no mutations in the two genes commonly mutated in DRD.
Instead, the team discovered that the twins carried a mutated gene related to serotonin production that made them deficient in both dopamine and serotonin, another neurotransmitter.
Adding a serotonin-inducing supplement called 5-HTP to their dopamine regimen improved their symptoms dramatically after just a few weeks.
"Now, because of the sequencing, Alexis started on this new amino acid and she started back in track in March," Retta Beery said. "She's been winning races."
While the cost of sequencing puts this technology out of reach for most families, Bainbridge thinks it will soon be affordable as sequencing costs continue to fall.
He said currently the price of sequencing is dropping by half every six months.
"It's our hope that in two years or maybe even a year whole genome sequencing will be more widely available," he said.
"We'd like everyone to be able to have this."
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Government Confirms XMRV Testing of Children with Autism
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq., June 07, 2011:
I received the following e-mail a few weeks back from the National Institute of Health concerning my inquiry into XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus) infection and children with autism. Here is the reply:
Dear Mr. Heckenlively:
Thank you for writing to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concerning the presence of the XMRV retrovirus in children with autism. As the Acting Director, Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), I have been asked to respond on behalf of Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director.
NIH is dedicated to addressing the growing public health challenge that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present. In FY 2010, NIH invested $160 million from its annual appropriation in research on autism and another $58 million in funding provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition, NIH issued several funding opportunity announcements to encourage research designed to elucidate the etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and optimal means of service delivery related to ASD.
As you may be aware, NIH intramural researchers are examining the XMRV retrovirus in samples from approximately 100 children in an autism subtyping study: Neuroimmunologic Investigations of Autism Spectrum Disorders. You can access further information on the study via the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools at http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm. Since final analyses of the study are not complete and have not been published, we do not yet have any results to provide. The researchers will share the results in the future after completion of the data analysis.
Thank you again for your interest in research on autism.
Marina Volkov, Ph.D. Acting Director NIMH Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications
I responded on June 2, 2011, asking three questions, based on a series of e-mails provided to me by another autism parent who had made a similar inquiry.
1. What was the testing initially used by the NIH which showed a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?
2. What were the subsequent tests used by the CDC which did not show a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?
3. Is the NIH following the established protocols for blood storage, preparation of the sample, and tests utilized, as detailed by the initial study group of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute, the Cleveland Clinic, and the National Cancer Institute as detailed in their October 2009 article in the journal Science?
When I receive an answer to these questions I will share them with the readers of Age of Autism.
Kent Heckenlively is Contributing Editor to Age of Autism
I received the following e-mail a few weeks back from the National Institute of Health concerning my inquiry into XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus) infection and children with autism. Here is the reply:
Dear Mr. Heckenlively:
Thank you for writing to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concerning the presence of the XMRV retrovirus in children with autism. As the Acting Director, Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), I have been asked to respond on behalf of Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director.
NIH is dedicated to addressing the growing public health challenge that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present. In FY 2010, NIH invested $160 million from its annual appropriation in research on autism and another $58 million in funding provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition, NIH issued several funding opportunity announcements to encourage research designed to elucidate the etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and optimal means of service delivery related to ASD.
As you may be aware, NIH intramural researchers are examining the XMRV retrovirus in samples from approximately 100 children in an autism subtyping study: Neuroimmunologic Investigations of Autism Spectrum Disorders. You can access further information on the study via the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools at http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm. Since final analyses of the study are not complete and have not been published, we do not yet have any results to provide. The researchers will share the results in the future after completion of the data analysis.
Thank you again for your interest in research on autism.
Marina Volkov, Ph.D. Acting Director NIMH Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications
I responded on June 2, 2011, asking three questions, based on a series of e-mails provided to me by another autism parent who had made a similar inquiry.
1. What was the testing initially used by the NIH which showed a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?
2. What were the subsequent tests used by the CDC which did not show a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?
3. Is the NIH following the established protocols for blood storage, preparation of the sample, and tests utilized, as detailed by the initial study group of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute, the Cleveland Clinic, and the National Cancer Institute as detailed in their October 2009 article in the journal Science?
When I receive an answer to these questions I will share them with the readers of Age of Autism.
Kent Heckenlively is Contributing Editor to Age of Autism
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Dr Shepherd: Cell lines used for production of vaccines contain retroviral elements that may be infectious
A. J. Shepherd1, 2, N. J. Wilson1 and K. T. Smith, , 1:
Characterisation of endogenous retrovirus in rodent cell lines used for production of biologicals
1 Q-One Biotech Ltd, Todd Campus, West of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow G20 0XA, UK
2 Biogen Inc., Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Received 5 November 2002; revised 9 May 2003; accepted 18 July 2003. ; Available online 11 September 2003.
Abstract
Rodent cells are used widely to manufacture recombinant proteins for pharmaceutical use in humans and animals. However, all rodent cell lines express endogenous retroviruses that require appropriate testing regimes for identification and characterisation. In this communication we report the results of transmission electron microscopy, reverse transcriptase assay and infectious virus assays for retrovirus in 185 manufacturer cell banks of mouse, rat or hamster origin. The results indicated considerable variability of retroviral expression levels by transmission electron microscopy and reverse transcriptase assay, but nevertheless characteristic features of each cell type were observed. Infectious retrovirus was detected in mouse myeloma and hybridoma cell lines, but not in cell lines of hamster or rat origin. There was no evidence of contamination of cell banks with exogenous retrovirus. The results of retroviral characterisation of the parental mouse cell lines NS0, NS-1 and Sp2/0Ag14 by the above assays were consistent with the results of the survey. Co-cultivation of the above parental mouse cell lines with mouse and human cell lines suggested that the ability to infect human cells was related to threshold susceptibility of cell types and the levels of expression of infectious xenotropic retrovirus by mouse cells.
Rodent cells are used widely to manufacture recombinant proteins for pharmaceutical use in humans and animals. However, all rodent cell lines express endogenous retroviruses that require appropriate testing regimes for identification and characterisation. In this communication we report the results of transmission electron microscopy, reverse transcriptase assay and infectious virus assays for retrovirus in 185 manufacturer cell banks of mouse, rat or hamster origin. The results indicated considerable variability of retroviral expression levels by transmission electron microscopy and reverse transcriptase assay, but nevertheless characteristic features of each cell type were observed. Infectious retrovirus was detected in mouse myeloma and hybridoma cell lines, but not in cell lines of hamster or rat origin….
Rodent cell lines have for many years been used as substrates for production of biological therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, vaccines and gene therapy virus vectors. It has long been recognised that such cell lines contain retrovirus elements that may be expressed as particles detectable by electron microscopy. Such particles may be infectious, as in the case of Murine leukaemia virus (MLV), or defective and non-infectious, as in the case of the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell retrovirus.]. Despite the lack of evidence for an association between murine retrovirus and disease in man, the potential contamination of therapeutics with agents associated with oncogenicity and immunosuppression in therapeutic products is a cause of regulatory concern. Detection and characterisation of retrovirus in manufacturer‘s master and end of production cell banks is recommended by regulatory agencies using techniques such as electron microscopy, reverse transcriptase assay and appropriate infectivity or co-cultivation assays. In addition, determination of retrovirus particle load and experimental demonstration of appropriate removal or inactivation of retrovirus during purification is required for each product [ref: Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products. Notes for guidance on quality of biotechnological products: viral safety evaluation of biotechnology products derived from cell lines of human or animal origin (CPMP/ICH/295/95), European Commission, Brussels (1997) – see below
…The study indicated characteristic features of retroviral expression in each cell type tested. All RT-positive cell lines demonstrated preference for manganese-dependent RT, characteristic of the Gammaretroviridae.
Characterisation of endogenous retrovirus in rodent cell lines used for production of biologicals
1 Q-One Biotech Ltd, Todd Campus, West of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow G20 0XA, UK
2 Biogen Inc., Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Received 5 November 2002; revised 9 May 2003; accepted 18 July 2003. ; Available online 11 September 2003.
Abstract
Rodent cells are used widely to manufacture recombinant proteins for pharmaceutical use in humans and animals. However, all rodent cell lines express endogenous retroviruses that require appropriate testing regimes for identification and characterisation. In this communication we report the results of transmission electron microscopy, reverse transcriptase assay and infectious virus assays for retrovirus in 185 manufacturer cell banks of mouse, rat or hamster origin. The results indicated considerable variability of retroviral expression levels by transmission electron microscopy and reverse transcriptase assay, but nevertheless characteristic features of each cell type were observed. Infectious retrovirus was detected in mouse myeloma and hybridoma cell lines, but not in cell lines of hamster or rat origin. There was no evidence of contamination of cell banks with exogenous retrovirus. The results of retroviral characterisation of the parental mouse cell lines NS0, NS-1 and Sp2/0Ag14 by the above assays were consistent with the results of the survey. Co-cultivation of the above parental mouse cell lines with mouse and human cell lines suggested that the ability to infect human cells was related to threshold susceptibility of cell types and the levels of expression of infectious xenotropic retrovirus by mouse cells.
Rodent cells are used widely to manufacture recombinant proteins for pharmaceutical use in humans and animals. However, all rodent cell lines express endogenous retroviruses that require appropriate testing regimes for identification and characterisation. In this communication we report the results of transmission electron microscopy, reverse transcriptase assay and infectious virus assays for retrovirus in 185 manufacturer cell banks of mouse, rat or hamster origin. The results indicated considerable variability of retroviral expression levels by transmission electron microscopy and reverse transcriptase assay, but nevertheless characteristic features of each cell type were observed. Infectious retrovirus was detected in mouse myeloma and hybridoma cell lines, but not in cell lines of hamster or rat origin….
Rodent cell lines have for many years been used as substrates for production of biological therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, vaccines and gene therapy virus vectors. It has long been recognised that such cell lines contain retrovirus elements that may be expressed as particles detectable by electron microscopy. Such particles may be infectious, as in the case of Murine leukaemia virus (MLV), or defective and non-infectious, as in the case of the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell retrovirus.]. Despite the lack of evidence for an association between murine retrovirus and disease in man, the potential contamination of therapeutics with agents associated with oncogenicity and immunosuppression in therapeutic products is a cause of regulatory concern. Detection and characterisation of retrovirus in manufacturer‘s master and end of production cell banks is recommended by regulatory agencies using techniques such as electron microscopy, reverse transcriptase assay and appropriate infectivity or co-cultivation assays. In addition, determination of retrovirus particle load and experimental demonstration of appropriate removal or inactivation of retrovirus during purification is required for each product [ref: Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products. Notes for guidance on quality of biotechnological products: viral safety evaluation of biotechnology products derived from cell lines of human or animal origin (CPMP/ICH/295/95), European Commission, Brussels (1997) – see below
…The study indicated characteristic features of retroviral expression in each cell type tested. All RT-positive cell lines demonstrated preference for manganese-dependent RT, characteristic of the Gammaretroviridae.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Support XMRV/Autism Research NOW !!!
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq., Contributing Editor to Age of Autism:
They call us "warriors."
I'm speaking about the chronic fatigue syndrome/ME community and the way they view the autism parents. When I hear them speak this way I'm proud to belong to our group.
For those who are most severely affected by chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, often needing to lay in bed for most of the day with the curtains drawn, they refer to themselves as "the unburied dead."
My desire to assist this community is borne of simple human compassion, but also by the prospect that in their suffering they hold clues to what is going on with our own children.
Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association are all asking their members to support this effort to aid the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disorders in the Chase Community Giving Program.
Voting ends at midnight, EST, May 25, 2011. This is the last day to vote.
I know how strongly at least two of the autism groups feel because I set up the meeting with Dr. Judy Mikovits to go over her research into the XMRV retrovirus, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, and yes, autism. The discussion lasted more than three and a half hours. Many questions were asked, but the feeling in the room was almost electric. We might be on the trail of an answer which explains what happened to our children, and also why so many mothers seem to have a myriad of health concerns. A retrovirus can explain many (if not all) observations reagrding autism, from co-infection by other pathogens, oxidative stress, mitochondrial problems, vaccines acting as a catalyst for the virus to replicate out of control, and mysterious ailments of the autism mothers.
Dr. Amy Yasko, whom I consider to be one of the brightest minds in autism, is excited about this research because it dovetails with many of her long-term observations and suspicions. The same can be said of Dr. Jeff Bradstreet.
It's time for the legions of the chronically ill, such as the autism, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, Gulf War illness patients, and the hundreds of thousands of children with potentially life-threatenting allergies and their parents to band together in a single forum to raise our voices. Let this be a small step in that direction.
I know everybody is tired. I know there are so many battles to be fought, most concerning how to just get through the day with our sick children. My own daughter just came home a few days ago after spending nine days in the hospital with uncontrolled seizures. But for one last time I ask you to elevate your gaze and take a few moments to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disorders.
Here's how to do it:
1. From your Facebook page, go to Chase Community Giving:
http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving
2. "Like" the Chase Community Giving by clicking on the "Like" button.
3. Now search for Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.
4. Cast your vote by clicking the "Vote Now!" button.
5. Search other organizations for whom you want to vote, up to 5 per Facebook account.
Voting for round two is May 19 – May 25
After "Liking" the Chase Community Giving page you can go directly to the Whittemore Peterson Institute page by clicking this link:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/205904991-whittemore-peterson-institute-for-neuro-immune-disease
They call us "warriors."
I'm speaking about the chronic fatigue syndrome/ME community and the way they view the autism parents. When I hear them speak this way I'm proud to belong to our group.
For those who are most severely affected by chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, often needing to lay in bed for most of the day with the curtains drawn, they refer to themselves as "the unburied dead."
My desire to assist this community is borne of simple human compassion, but also by the prospect that in their suffering they hold clues to what is going on with our own children.
Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association are all asking their members to support this effort to aid the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disorders in the Chase Community Giving Program.
Voting ends at midnight, EST, May 25, 2011. This is the last day to vote.
I know how strongly at least two of the autism groups feel because I set up the meeting with Dr. Judy Mikovits to go over her research into the XMRV retrovirus, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, and yes, autism. The discussion lasted more than three and a half hours. Many questions were asked, but the feeling in the room was almost electric. We might be on the trail of an answer which explains what happened to our children, and also why so many mothers seem to have a myriad of health concerns. A retrovirus can explain many (if not all) observations reagrding autism, from co-infection by other pathogens, oxidative stress, mitochondrial problems, vaccines acting as a catalyst for the virus to replicate out of control, and mysterious ailments of the autism mothers.
Dr. Amy Yasko, whom I consider to be one of the brightest minds in autism, is excited about this research because it dovetails with many of her long-term observations and suspicions. The same can be said of Dr. Jeff Bradstreet.
It's time for the legions of the chronically ill, such as the autism, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, Gulf War illness patients, and the hundreds of thousands of children with potentially life-threatenting allergies and their parents to band together in a single forum to raise our voices. Let this be a small step in that direction.
I know everybody is tired. I know there are so many battles to be fought, most concerning how to just get through the day with our sick children. My own daughter just came home a few days ago after spending nine days in the hospital with uncontrolled seizures. But for one last time I ask you to elevate your gaze and take a few moments to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disorders.
Here's how to do it:
1. From your Facebook page, go to Chase Community Giving:
http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving
2. "Like" the Chase Community Giving by clicking on the "Like" button.
3. Now search for Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.
4. Cast your vote by clicking the "Vote Now!" button.
5. Search other organizations for whom you want to vote, up to 5 per Facebook account.
Voting for round two is May 19 – May 25
After "Liking" the Chase Community Giving page you can go directly to the Whittemore Peterson Institute page by clicking this link:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/205904991-whittemore-peterson-institute-for-neuro-immune-disease
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Autism Groups Support XMRV Research !
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq., Contributing Editor to Age of Autism, May 21, 2011:
Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association are teaming up to ask their members to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue for Neuro-Immune Diseases/University of Nevada-Reno in the Chase Community Giving Project, which ends on May 25.
In the first round, the Whittemore-Peterson Institute finished fifth in overall voting. This won them $25,000. The difference between fifth and first place was three thousand votes. In the second round the first place winner will receive $500,000.
Readers of this website know I've written many times about the work of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute and their work with XMRV retrovirus and autism. It's no secret I consider this to be one of the more promising areas of inquiry. Chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism share a number of immune system abnormalities.
However, the fact that Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association have agreed to help with this effort shows that this opinion is not held by me alone. I was also heartened to receive an e-mail the other day from Dr. Amy Yasko, letting me know she was also going to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue.
Let me tell you why I think that this vote is good for our community. We have long needed a world class facility dedicated to studying the problems of our children, staffed by scientists who are not afraid to ask challenging questions. I believe that describes the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue and the people who work in it. For those who believe this to be a worthwhile cause I strongly encourage people to get friends and relatives to vote as well. I have set a personal goal of gathering 100 votes from family and friends. I am currently at 10% of my goal.
After you vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institute you will have four other votes to share among other charities you desire. Here is how you can vote.
STEP-BY-STEP Instructions:
1. From your Facebook page, go to Chase Giving Community:
http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving
2. "Like" the Chase Giving Community by clicking on the "Like" button.
3. Now search for Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.
4. Cast your vote by clicking the "Vote Now!" button.
5. Search other organizations for whom you want to vote, up to 5 per Facebook account.
Voting for round two is May 19 – May 25
Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association are teaming up to ask their members to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue for Neuro-Immune Diseases/University of Nevada-Reno in the Chase Community Giving Project, which ends on May 25.
In the first round, the Whittemore-Peterson Institute finished fifth in overall voting. This won them $25,000. The difference between fifth and first place was three thousand votes. In the second round the first place winner will receive $500,000.
Readers of this website know I've written many times about the work of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute and their work with XMRV retrovirus and autism. It's no secret I consider this to be one of the more promising areas of inquiry. Chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism share a number of immune system abnormalities.
However, the fact that Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association have agreed to help with this effort shows that this opinion is not held by me alone. I was also heartened to receive an e-mail the other day from Dr. Amy Yasko, letting me know she was also going to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue.
Let me tell you why I think that this vote is good for our community. We have long needed a world class facility dedicated to studying the problems of our children, staffed by scientists who are not afraid to ask challenging questions. I believe that describes the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue and the people who work in it. For those who believe this to be a worthwhile cause I strongly encourage people to get friends and relatives to vote as well. I have set a personal goal of gathering 100 votes from family and friends. I am currently at 10% of my goal.
After you vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institute you will have four other votes to share among other charities you desire. Here is how you can vote.
STEP-BY-STEP Instructions:
1. From your Facebook page, go to Chase Giving Community:
http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving
2. "Like" the Chase Giving Community by clicking on the "Like" button.
3. Now search for Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.
4. Cast your vote by clicking the "Vote Now!" button.
5. Search other organizations for whom you want to vote, up to 5 per Facebook account.
Voting for round two is May 19 – May 25
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The HealthWell Foundation
The HealthWell Foundation® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2003 that is committed to addressing the needs of individuals with insurance who cannot afford their copayments, coinsurance, and premiums for important medical treatments. Our vision is to ensure that no patient goes without health care because they cannot afford it.
As patients are required to pay a larger share of health care costs each year, even many individuals with insurance find health care unaffordable. These patients face challenges affording the treatments they need to fight chronic and life-altering medical conditions. The HealthWell Foundation was established to address and alleviate this problem. Read more>>
As patients are required to pay a larger share of health care costs each year, even many individuals with insurance find health care unaffordable. These patients face challenges affording the treatments they need to fight chronic and life-altering medical conditions. The HealthWell Foundation was established to address and alleviate this problem. Read more>>
Friday, April 22, 2011
Autism Guru Fights for His Reputation and Theory
Susan Dominus, nytimes.com
As people streamed into Graceview Baptist Church in Tomball, Tex., early one Saturday morning in January, two armed guards stood prominently just inside the doorway of the sanctuary. Their eyes scanned the room and returned with some frequency to a man sitting near the aisle, whom they had been hired to protect.
The man, Andrew Wakefield, dressed in a blazer and jeans and peering through reading glasses, had a mild professorial air. He tapped at a laptop as the room filled with people who came to hear him speak; he looked both industrious and remote. Broad-shouldered and fair at 54, he still has the presence of the person he once was: a conventional winner, the captain of his medical school’s rugby team, the head boy at the private school he attended in England. Wakefield was a high-profile but controversial figure in gastroenterology research at the Royal Free Hospital in London when, in 1998, he upended his career path — and more significant, the best-laid plans of public-health officials — by announcing at a press conference that he had concerns about the safety of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (M.M.R.) and its relationship to the onset of autism.
Although Wakefield did not claim to have proved that the M.M.R. vaccine (typically given to children at 12 to 15 months) caused autism, his concerns, not his caveats, ricocheted around the world. His belief, based on a paper he wrote about 12 children, is that the three vaccines, given together, can alter a child’s immune system, allowing the measles virus in the vaccine to infiltrate the intestines; certain proteins, escaping from the intestines, could then reach and harm neurons in the brain. Few theories have drawn so much attention and, in turn, so much refutation: a 2003 paper in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, which reviewed a dozen epidemiological studies, concluded that there was no evidence of an association between autism and M.M.R., and studies in peer-reviewed journals since have come to the same conclusion. In Britain, the General Medical Council revoked Wakefield’s medical license after a lengthy hearing, citing numerous ethical violations that tainted his work, like failing to disclose financing from lawyers who were mounting a case against vaccine manufacturers. The Lancet, which published the original Wakefield paper, retracted it. In a series that ran early this year, The British Medical Journal concluded that the research was not just unethically financed but also “fraudulent” (that timelines were misrepresented, for example, to suggest direct culpability of the vaccine).
Andrew Wakefield has become one of the most reviled doctors of his generation, blamed directly and indirectly, depending on the accuser, for irresponsibly starting a panic with tragic repercussions: vaccination rates so low that childhood diseases once all but eradicated here — whooping cough and measles, among them — have re-emerged, endangering young lives.
And yet here he was in Texas, post-career-apocalypse, calmly discussing his work, and a crowd of around 250 people showed up to listen. As people walked into the lobby of the church in Tomball, they passed by a whiteboard with a message that asked attendees to express their thoughts to Wakefield. Many complied with lavish thanks: “We stand by you!” and “Thank you for the many sacrifices you have made for the cause!” When he finally took the podium, the audience members, mostly parents of autistic children, stood and applauded wildly.
In his presentation, Wakefield sounded impatient but righteous. He used enough scientific terms — “ataxic,” “histopathological review” and “vaccine excipients” — that those parents who did not feel cowed might have been flattered by his assumption of their scientific fluency. He also tried to defend himself against a few of the charges laid out in The British Medical Journal — offering defenses that did not hold up before the journal’s panel of editors but were perhaps enough to assure an audience of his fans that he did, in fact, have defenses. Some part of Wakefield’s cult status is surely because of his personal charisma, and he spoke with great rhetorical flair. He took off his glasses and put them back on like a gifted actor maximizing a prop. “What happens to me doesn’t matter,” he said at one point. “What happens to these children does matter.”
After the talk, a line of visitors snaked down the length of the lobby, his followers waiting to have Wakefield sign a book he wrote about his experience and convictions, “Callous Disregard.” “All right, love?” he said, handing the book back to one mother. “Of course,” he said when asked for a photo. A pregnant woman in the lobby told me she was there trying to educate herself. Another woman, with tears in her eyes, blamed herself for not working harder to obtain a separate measles vaccine for her possibly autistic child.
Read more>>
BMJ and Brian Deer left High and Dry Over their Fraud Claims
By John Stone, UK Editor for Age of Autism, April 22, 2011:
“The case we presented against Andrew Wakefield that the 1998 Lancet paper was intended to mislead is not critically reliant on GP records.” So wrote Fiona Godlee (Editor-in-Chief, BMJ) in February, in effect conceding that Brian Deer’s scrutiny of GP notes which had apparently formed the main s basis of his and BMJ’s fraud allegations could not be used to support such a claim.
Back in February Age of Autism and its readers scored a great victory with it letter writing campaign, forcing editor-in-chief of British Medical Journal, Fiona Godlee, to respond to our criticisms both in our columns (HERE) and in the on-line columns of BMJ itself (HERE ). Remarkable though this was we have perhaps not analysed carefully enough how desperate the defence she presented was.
In both versions of her response we find the sentence:
“The case we presented against Andrew Wakefield that the 1998 Lancet paper was intended to mislead is not critically reliant on GP records.”
So, in fact she conceded then and there that a fraud claim could not be based on GP notes, as originally pointed out by ChildHealthSafety (HERE ) as Andrew Wakefield and the other authors of the paper simply did not have access to them. While, we continue to contend that the data in the notes is entirely reconcilable with data in the paper (as Martin Hewitt began demonstrating yesterday HERE ) it was simply not possible for anyone to alter data from material they could not see.
As we have seen Deer responded with seething contempt on the BBC radio programme ‘Science Betrayed’, broadcast in late March, to the cogent explanation that the records referred to in the paper were the Personal Child Health Records of the children (or so-called red books) (HERE ), but by that stage Godlee – who also had a cameo appearance on the programme - had already admitted as much.
**********************************************************************
Meanwhile, BMJ have ducked out of publishing my recent letter which bore on several relevant issues including the shifting opinions of doctor-journalist Ben Goldacre, the anomalous and unexplained fusion by Deer and the GMC of the Lancet paper with a protocol for a Legal Aid Board funded study, and the offensive misrepresentation of myself and this matter by Brian Deer in a comment on Orac’s ‘Respectful Insolence’ blog, which I append for interest: Read more>>
“The case we presented against Andrew Wakefield that the 1998 Lancet paper was intended to mislead is not critically reliant on GP records.” So wrote Fiona Godlee (Editor-in-Chief, BMJ) in February, in effect conceding that Brian Deer’s scrutiny of GP notes which had apparently formed the main s basis of his and BMJ’s fraud allegations could not be used to support such a claim.
Back in February Age of Autism and its readers scored a great victory with it letter writing campaign, forcing editor-in-chief of British Medical Journal, Fiona Godlee, to respond to our criticisms both in our columns (HERE) and in the on-line columns of BMJ itself (HERE ). Remarkable though this was we have perhaps not analysed carefully enough how desperate the defence she presented was.
In both versions of her response we find the sentence:
“The case we presented against Andrew Wakefield that the 1998 Lancet paper was intended to mislead is not critically reliant on GP records.”
So, in fact she conceded then and there that a fraud claim could not be based on GP notes, as originally pointed out by ChildHealthSafety (HERE ) as Andrew Wakefield and the other authors of the paper simply did not have access to them. While, we continue to contend that the data in the notes is entirely reconcilable with data in the paper (as Martin Hewitt began demonstrating yesterday HERE ) it was simply not possible for anyone to alter data from material they could not see.
As we have seen Deer responded with seething contempt on the BBC radio programme ‘Science Betrayed’, broadcast in late March, to the cogent explanation that the records referred to in the paper were the Personal Child Health Records of the children (or so-called red books) (HERE ), but by that stage Godlee – who also had a cameo appearance on the programme - had already admitted as much.
**********************************************************************
Meanwhile, BMJ have ducked out of publishing my recent letter which bore on several relevant issues including the shifting opinions of doctor-journalist Ben Goldacre, the anomalous and unexplained fusion by Deer and the GMC of the Lancet paper with a protocol for a Legal Aid Board funded study, and the offensive misrepresentation of myself and this matter by Brian Deer in a comment on Orac’s ‘Respectful Insolence’ blog, which I append for interest: Read more>>
Saturday, April 16, 2011
The tragic death of Elias Tembenis is another vaccine injury case you won't hear much about
By Anne Dachel:
I found a recent story from the Stanford University Medical School called, A national health challenge: How the anti-vaccine movement threatens us all. It was all about the wonderful job Dr. Paul Offit is doing defending the vaccine program for America’s doctors.
Offit was described as “one of the most public faces of the pro-vaccine movement for childhood immunizations. He's a hero to pediatricians around the country for taking on an aggressive anti-vaccine movement that makes erroneous claims that vaccines are dangerous to children's health and can cause autism and brain damage.”
To parents in the autism community of course, Offit is the constant voice out there in the media challenging anyone who dares to propose that the ever-expanding vaccination schedule is responsible for a host of chronic and debilitating conditions affecting our children, most notably autism.
Offit can explain away anything that happens to kids following vaccinations. I’ve read his books, watched videos, and read countless articles where he’s featured. His message is always the same. Studies disprove serious reactions. Our vaccines are incredibly safe. The public is being misled by the “anti-vaccine movement” that fuels parents’ fears about what vaccines can do their children.
He’s also very outspoken when it comes to government’s vaccine compensation program. Offit has a whole chapter in his book, Deadly Choices, simply called, “Justice.” His idea of justice is anytime government rulings reject the idea that serious side effects can result from the mandated vaccine schedule.
According to Offit, what can look to parents like direct and immediate vaccine damage, is merely coincidence. He has this mantra so ingrained in his thinking that the most dramatic and debilitating changes following routine vaccinations are dismissed as happenstance. The problem is that when you start to look into the claims of vaccine damage, it’s a little hard to believe that thousands of healthy children would have suddenly gotten sick without the common denominator of being vaccinated at the same time.
A Jan 2011 story from CBS News should have set off alarms everywhere, but it didn’t. Sharyl Attkisson wrote about a bittersweet victory in federal vaccine court involving a little boy named Elias Tembenis. (HERE)
“The tragic death of little Elias Tembenis is yet another vaccine injury case you probably won't hear much about. Yet some medical experts believe it could teach us something about how to make vaccination safer.
“According to court and medical records, Elias was born on Aug. 23, 2000 and appeared healthy until Dec. 26 when he received his second dose of DTaP vaccine. His parents noticed some swelling around the injection site. According to court records:
... Read more>>
I found a recent story from the Stanford University Medical School called, A national health challenge: How the anti-vaccine movement threatens us all. It was all about the wonderful job Dr. Paul Offit is doing defending the vaccine program for America’s doctors.
Offit was described as “one of the most public faces of the pro-vaccine movement for childhood immunizations. He's a hero to pediatricians around the country for taking on an aggressive anti-vaccine movement that makes erroneous claims that vaccines are dangerous to children's health and can cause autism and brain damage.”
To parents in the autism community of course, Offit is the constant voice out there in the media challenging anyone who dares to propose that the ever-expanding vaccination schedule is responsible for a host of chronic and debilitating conditions affecting our children, most notably autism.
Offit can explain away anything that happens to kids following vaccinations. I’ve read his books, watched videos, and read countless articles where he’s featured. His message is always the same. Studies disprove serious reactions. Our vaccines are incredibly safe. The public is being misled by the “anti-vaccine movement” that fuels parents’ fears about what vaccines can do their children.
He’s also very outspoken when it comes to government’s vaccine compensation program. Offit has a whole chapter in his book, Deadly Choices, simply called, “Justice.” His idea of justice is anytime government rulings reject the idea that serious side effects can result from the mandated vaccine schedule.
According to Offit, what can look to parents like direct and immediate vaccine damage, is merely coincidence. He has this mantra so ingrained in his thinking that the most dramatic and debilitating changes following routine vaccinations are dismissed as happenstance. The problem is that when you start to look into the claims of vaccine damage, it’s a little hard to believe that thousands of healthy children would have suddenly gotten sick without the common denominator of being vaccinated at the same time.
A Jan 2011 story from CBS News should have set off alarms everywhere, but it didn’t. Sharyl Attkisson wrote about a bittersweet victory in federal vaccine court involving a little boy named Elias Tembenis. (HERE)
“The tragic death of little Elias Tembenis is yet another vaccine injury case you probably won't hear much about. Yet some medical experts believe it could teach us something about how to make vaccination safer.
“According to court and medical records, Elias was born on Aug. 23, 2000 and appeared healthy until Dec. 26 when he received his second dose of DTaP vaccine. His parents noticed some swelling around the injection site. According to court records:
... Read more>>
Friday, April 8, 2011
The Potential Importance of the XMRV Retrovirus to Autism
Kent Heckenlively, Contributing Editor to Age of Autism, April 08, 2011:
Although I’ve been a science teacher for the past five years I find that when I’m confronted with new information I want to explain to people I fall back on the strategies I used during the fifteen years I was a lawyer. I hope you'll consider this article in that light, as essentially an opening statement.
I think it’s important to note I don’t refer to this as a closing argument. I consider this to be the beginning of a discussion, not the end.
In a typical opening statement a lawyer reviews the evidence, the theories which will be presented, but doesn’t go into exceptional detail to prove every single point. That’s what the trial is for. And so, while each one of the points I want to make could be abundantly expanded upon, my intention is to present a brief overview of the major issues regarding the potential importance of the XMRV retrovirus to autism.
As a reader I think you'll be impressed by the number of observations which can be explained as a consequence of XMRV infection. Similarly, disturbing questions are raised about the role of vaccines in the spread of this retrovirus. When our understanding of how XMRV disregulates the immune system is as complete as ... Read more>>
Although I’ve been a science teacher for the past five years I find that when I’m confronted with new information I want to explain to people I fall back on the strategies I used during the fifteen years I was a lawyer. I hope you'll consider this article in that light, as essentially an opening statement.
I think it’s important to note I don’t refer to this as a closing argument. I consider this to be the beginning of a discussion, not the end.
In a typical opening statement a lawyer reviews the evidence, the theories which will be presented, but doesn’t go into exceptional detail to prove every single point. That’s what the trial is for. And so, while each one of the points I want to make could be abundantly expanded upon, my intention is to present a brief overview of the major issues regarding the potential importance of the XMRV retrovirus to autism.
As a reader I think you'll be impressed by the number of observations which can be explained as a consequence of XMRV infection. Similarly, disturbing questions are raised about the role of vaccines in the spread of this retrovirus. When our understanding of how XMRV disregulates the immune system is as complete as ... Read more>>
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Why was Brian Deer allowed to report on a story which he himself had created?
Posted by Age of Autism at April 04, 2011:
With Brian Deer up for ‘Specialist Journalist of the Year’ tomorrow night at the British Press Awards, which are being held at the Savoy Hotel in London, Age of Autism re-visits the Spectator article of celebrated British journalist, Melanie Phillips. Phillips’s article documents amongst other things how Deer and the General Medical Council came to an agreement that he would not be named as complainant against Andrew Wakefield and the other Royal Free doctors so he could go on reporting the story unencumbered.
Two years on the questions just go on multiplying: how for instance did it come about that the chair of GMC panels, Harvey Marcovitch, went out of his way to endorse Deer’s renewed allegations in British Medical Journal with key parts of the hearing still under judicial review (HERE )?
How is it that the British state in all its manifold guises has turned a prolonged blind eye to how Deer obtained and used confidential medical and legal documents in presenting his allegations both publicly and secretly, and why the British Medical Journal and its editor-in-chief, Fiona Godlee, refuse even to allow the matter to be mentioned in it columns (HERE )?
How can the BMJ go on touting allegations which are not only flawed in detail, but in basic logic (HERE )?
As the British Establishment’s Lord High Executioner arrives at the Savoy for his professional apotheosis, we ask whether the media have been following the real story in the Wakefield affair. Melanie Phillips (Spectator 16 February 2009) Eleven days ago, Brian Deer renewed his onslaught against Andrew Wakefield in the Sunday Times.
I wrote about it here and made the point that, since Deer’s allegations sparked the General Medical Council case against Wakefield which would not have occurred without his involvement, he was effectively a principal player in the story he was reporting — a clear conflict of interest and breach of journalistic standards.
After I noted this, an American TV show last week accused Deer of journalistic misconduct in reporting a story in which he was a major player without acknowledging this fact. Deer has been trying to deny this ever since. Read more>>
Anonymous said...:
Take a look at this film about the "specialist Journalist of the year" and his part in the trial:
With Brian Deer up for ‘Specialist Journalist of the Year’ tomorrow night at the British Press Awards, which are being held at the Savoy Hotel in London, Age of Autism re-visits the Spectator article of celebrated British journalist, Melanie Phillips. Phillips’s article documents amongst other things how Deer and the General Medical Council came to an agreement that he would not be named as complainant against Andrew Wakefield and the other Royal Free doctors so he could go on reporting the story unencumbered.
Two years on the questions just go on multiplying: how for instance did it come about that the chair of GMC panels, Harvey Marcovitch, went out of his way to endorse Deer’s renewed allegations in British Medical Journal with key parts of the hearing still under judicial review (HERE )?
How is it that the British state in all its manifold guises has turned a prolonged blind eye to how Deer obtained and used confidential medical and legal documents in presenting his allegations both publicly and secretly, and why the British Medical Journal and its editor-in-chief, Fiona Godlee, refuse even to allow the matter to be mentioned in it columns (HERE )?
How can the BMJ go on touting allegations which are not only flawed in detail, but in basic logic (HERE )?
As the British Establishment’s Lord High Executioner arrives at the Savoy for his professional apotheosis, we ask whether the media have been following the real story in the Wakefield affair. Melanie Phillips (Spectator 16 February 2009) Eleven days ago, Brian Deer renewed his onslaught against Andrew Wakefield in the Sunday Times.
I wrote about it here and made the point that, since Deer’s allegations sparked the General Medical Council case against Wakefield which would not have occurred without his involvement, he was effectively a principal player in the story he was reporting — a clear conflict of interest and breach of journalistic standards.
After I noted this, an American TV show last week accused Deer of journalistic misconduct in reporting a story in which he was a major player without acknowledging this fact. Deer has been trying to deny this ever since. Read more>>
Anonymous said...:
Take a look at this film about the "specialist Journalist of the year" and his part in the trial:
Friday, April 1, 2011
New scientific review shows that autism is the result of genetic defects and/or inflammation of the brain
by CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, March 31, 2011:
Vaccines and autism: a new scientific review
For all those who've declared the autism-vaccine debate over - a new scientific review begs to differ. It considers a host of peer-reviewed, published theories that show possible connections between vaccines and autism.
The article in the Journal of Immunotoxicology is entitled "Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes--A review." The author is Helen Ratajczak, surprisingly herself a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm. Ratajczak did what nobody else apparently has bothered to do: she reviewed the body of published science since autism was first described in 1943. Not just one theory suggested by research such as the role of MMR shots, or the mercury preservative thimerosal; but all of them.
Ratajczak's article states, in part, that "Documented causes of autism include genetic mutations and/or deletions, viral infections, and encephalitis [brain damage] following vaccination [emphasis added]. Therefore, autism is the result of genetic defects and/or inflammation of the brain."
The article goes on to discuss many potential vaccine-related culprits, including the increasing number of vaccines given in a short period of time. "What I have published is highly concentrated on hypersensitivity, Ratajczak told us in an interview, "the body's immune system being thrown out of balance." Read more>>
Vaccines and autism: a new scientific review
For all those who've declared the autism-vaccine debate over - a new scientific review begs to differ. It considers a host of peer-reviewed, published theories that show possible connections between vaccines and autism.
The article in the Journal of Immunotoxicology is entitled "Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes--A review." The author is Helen Ratajczak, surprisingly herself a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm. Ratajczak did what nobody else apparently has bothered to do: she reviewed the body of published science since autism was first described in 1943. Not just one theory suggested by research such as the role of MMR shots, or the mercury preservative thimerosal; but all of them.
Ratajczak's article states, in part, that "Documented causes of autism include genetic mutations and/or deletions, viral infections, and encephalitis [brain damage] following vaccination [emphasis added]. Therefore, autism is the result of genetic defects and/or inflammation of the brain."
The article goes on to discuss many potential vaccine-related culprits, including the increasing number of vaccines given in a short period of time. "What I have published is highly concentrated on hypersensitivity, Ratajczak told us in an interview, "the body's immune system being thrown out of balance." Read more>>
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
One very last chance for you to stop the harsh new ESA test
Steve Donnison, Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd, 28 March 2011:
In spite of the fact that the harsh new work capability assessment (WCA), the medical test for employment and support allowance (ESA), became law today, there is still a chance of getting it cancelled.
But it does depend on you urgently attempting to persuade your MP to get off their . . . seat and do something useful before they go off on their Easter holidays next week.
Labour leader Ed Miliband and 7 Labour MPs tabled an early day motion on 23 March ‘praying’ for the new WCA to be annulled. New regulations like these can be overturned by a vote for up to 40 days after they were laid. Because the DWP messed up the laying of the regulations and had to lay them again, the 40 days does not run out until 6 April.
There is a huge irony in the labour party challenging the harsh new WCA when they actually drew it up themselves, but didn’t have time to implement it before being booted out of power. The line labour is taking to justify their u-turn is that the recommendations in the Harrington report should be implemented before any consideration is given to further changes to ESA.
And, whatever the reason for labour’s change of tactic, there is a chance that there could be a debate, a slim possibility there could be a vote and a tiny chance that the government could be defeated. We know that a similar process in the House of Lords ended in feeble surrender last week, but a tiny chance is better than no hope whatsoever.
So, please consider contacting your MP as a matter of urgency and ask them to support EDM 1651 to try to halt this shameful new test which discriminates against many seriously sick and disabled claimants including, for example, blind people with guide dogs. Read more>>
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Is autism a disease of synaptic function?
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2011:
The synapses are areas in the brain that permit messages to travel from cell to cell through chemicals called neurotransmitters. A study published this week suggests that autism may caused by faulty synapses.
The new study was launched with the knowledge that some genes seem to contribute to autism, including a gene called shank3 that is found in the synapses. Researchers led by Guoping Feng, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, decided to test the concept that autism may be caused by dysfunctional synapses. By mutating just the shank3 gene, they were able to produce mice that possessed two key autism traits: compulsive, repetitive behavior and avoidance of social interaction.
"They're just not interested in interacting with other mice," Feng said in a news release.
Developing an autistic mouse is an important step in research because doctors can now study the specific neural circuits that seem to be involved in the behaviors. Moreover, the mouse model allows for testing drugs before trying them on human patients.
Not every person with autism has a shank3 mutation, the study's authors noted. However, it's possible that other gene mutations found in people with autism impair synaptic function. If future studies verify that autism is a problem of faulty synapses, then medications that restore synaptic function may help resolve some symptoms.
The synapses are areas in the brain that permit messages to travel from cell to cell through chemicals called neurotransmitters. A study published this week suggests that autism may caused by faulty synapses.
The new study was launched with the knowledge that some genes seem to contribute to autism, including a gene called shank3 that is found in the synapses. Researchers led by Guoping Feng, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, decided to test the concept that autism may be caused by dysfunctional synapses. By mutating just the shank3 gene, they were able to produce mice that possessed two key autism traits: compulsive, repetitive behavior and avoidance of social interaction.
"They're just not interested in interacting with other mice," Feng said in a news release.
Developing an autistic mouse is an important step in research because doctors can now study the specific neural circuits that seem to be involved in the behaviors. Moreover, the mouse model allows for testing drugs before trying them on human patients.
Not every person with autism has a shank3 mutation, the study's authors noted. However, it's possible that other gene mutations found in people with autism impair synaptic function. If future studies verify that autism is a problem of faulty synapses, then medications that restore synaptic function may help resolve some symptoms.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Are the current epidemics of ME/CFS, autism and GWI related to vaccines?
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.:
I've been spending a good deal of time recently on chronic fatigue syndrome/ME websites. I don't know if you're aware of this, but lately they've been striking some pretty good blows for the autism community. There has been preliminary data linking both autism and chronic fatigue syndrome/ME to the XMRV retrovirus and it has some of the traditional opponents of the autism community concerned. I've mentioned it before, but both my daughter with autism and my wife have tested positive for the XMRV retrovirus.
The other day there was a web-chat with Chicago Tribune reporter Trine Tsouderous and Dr. Paul Offit regarding vaccine safety. Dr. Jamie Deckoff-Jones, a chronic fatigue patient asked the following question of Trine and Dr. Offit.
Dr. Deckoff-Jones: Are you concerned that the current epidemics of ME/CFS, ASD (autism spectrum disorders) and GWI (Gulf War illness) are related to vaccines? These neuroimmune disease cohorts are all of mysterious etiology and share many clinical similarities: sensory and cognitive processing deficits, susceptibility to and inability to clear certain infections, an unusual susceptibility to stress, increased oxidative stress, glutathione depletion, methylation blocks, mitochondrial defects, high levels of heavy metals, inflammatory bowel issues, hormone abnormalities and a suspicion that vaccines are implicated in pathogenesis. The pathology in humans is extremely similar to what is known of simple retroviral infections in animals. We have evidence that xenotropic and polytropic MuLVs are infecting humans (Lombardi et al Science Oct 2009, Lo et al PNAS Sept 2010). Given the history of the use of mouse and chick embryo cells for vaccine production coinciding with the history of Epidemic Neuromyasthenia (as documented by Henderson and Shelokov, NEJM 1959), the known presence of animal retroviruses in those cells, and the documented ability of these viruses to infect human cells, aren't you the least bit concerned?
Trine Tsouderos: Hi Jamie: I don't agree that problems like glutathione depletion, methylation blocks, etc are associated with ASDs. A study here, a study there, some of dubious quality. I wrote about this last year: (HERE). These ideas are promoted by folks who sell a lot of therapies to "fix" these things when it is not clear they are even there. So I don't think there is good evidence for that.
Paul Offit: The xenotropic murine retrovirus story as a cause of neurologic disease, including chronic fatigue syndrome has clearly fallen apart. And for those of us old enough to remember, many careers have fallen off a cliff claiming retroviruses as a cause of a variety of illnesses: most noteworthy, MS and Kawasaki's disease. Retroviruses are so ubiquitous and such a frequent lab contaminant that they're the Sirens of the lab.
Trine Tsouderos: The heavy metal connection is especially poor. It comes from a study that found less mercury in the hair of children with autism and concluded that that was proof they had trouble excreting it. A dubious conclusion.
It's interesting that both the chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism communities seem to have picked up Trine Tsouderous and Dr. Paul Offit as enemies. I find it especially revealing that Dr. Offit doesn't even see fit to mention the epidemic retrovirus story which played out for decades in our nation's history, that of HIV-AIDS, a monkey retrovirus which somehow jumped species into the human population. Read more>>
I've been spending a good deal of time recently on chronic fatigue syndrome/ME websites. I don't know if you're aware of this, but lately they've been striking some pretty good blows for the autism community. There has been preliminary data linking both autism and chronic fatigue syndrome/ME to the XMRV retrovirus and it has some of the traditional opponents of the autism community concerned. I've mentioned it before, but both my daughter with autism and my wife have tested positive for the XMRV retrovirus.
The other day there was a web-chat with Chicago Tribune reporter Trine Tsouderous and Dr. Paul Offit regarding vaccine safety. Dr. Jamie Deckoff-Jones, a chronic fatigue patient asked the following question of Trine and Dr. Offit.
Dr. Deckoff-Jones: Are you concerned that the current epidemics of ME/CFS, ASD (autism spectrum disorders) and GWI (Gulf War illness) are related to vaccines? These neuroimmune disease cohorts are all of mysterious etiology and share many clinical similarities: sensory and cognitive processing deficits, susceptibility to and inability to clear certain infections, an unusual susceptibility to stress, increased oxidative stress, glutathione depletion, methylation blocks, mitochondrial defects, high levels of heavy metals, inflammatory bowel issues, hormone abnormalities and a suspicion that vaccines are implicated in pathogenesis. The pathology in humans is extremely similar to what is known of simple retroviral infections in animals. We have evidence that xenotropic and polytropic MuLVs are infecting humans (Lombardi et al Science Oct 2009, Lo et al PNAS Sept 2010). Given the history of the use of mouse and chick embryo cells for vaccine production coinciding with the history of Epidemic Neuromyasthenia (as documented by Henderson and Shelokov, NEJM 1959), the known presence of animal retroviruses in those cells, and the documented ability of these viruses to infect human cells, aren't you the least bit concerned?
Trine Tsouderos: Hi Jamie: I don't agree that problems like glutathione depletion, methylation blocks, etc are associated with ASDs. A study here, a study there, some of dubious quality. I wrote about this last year: (HERE). These ideas are promoted by folks who sell a lot of therapies to "fix" these things when it is not clear they are even there. So I don't think there is good evidence for that.
Paul Offit: The xenotropic murine retrovirus story as a cause of neurologic disease, including chronic fatigue syndrome has clearly fallen apart. And for those of us old enough to remember, many careers have fallen off a cliff claiming retroviruses as a cause of a variety of illnesses: most noteworthy, MS and Kawasaki's disease. Retroviruses are so ubiquitous and such a frequent lab contaminant that they're the Sirens of the lab.
Trine Tsouderos: The heavy metal connection is especially poor. It comes from a study that found less mercury in the hair of children with autism and concluded that that was proof they had trouble excreting it. A dubious conclusion.
It's interesting that both the chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism communities seem to have picked up Trine Tsouderous and Dr. Paul Offit as enemies. I find it especially revealing that Dr. Offit doesn't even see fit to mention the epidemic retrovirus story which played out for decades in our nation's history, that of HIV-AIDS, a monkey retrovirus which somehow jumped species into the human population. Read more>>
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The CDC studying vaccines and autism is like McDonalds studying Big Macs and obesity
By mogrammy:
Having the CDC take on a study of whether or not vaccines contribute to autism would be like having McDonalds carry out a study on whether or not their Big Macs cause obesity and diabetes in children. It must be an independent study-not the CDC that already runs the mandated vaccine program.
And 5 years-can we really afford to wait that long?
Regarding the vaccinated v unvaccinated study of children--the comments by the CDC are very troubling.. They want to have an expert panel to decide if this study would be feasible. doesn't sound very promising to me.
I have my doubts about this whole thing-seems they want to push old age and freeways onto the pavement too.
Maurine Meleck SC
See also: CDC to Study Vaccines and Autism
Having the CDC take on a study of whether or not vaccines contribute to autism would be like having McDonalds carry out a study on whether or not their Big Macs cause obesity and diabetes in children. It must be an independent study-not the CDC that already runs the mandated vaccine program.
And 5 years-can we really afford to wait that long?
Regarding the vaccinated v unvaccinated study of children--the comments by the CDC are very troubling.. They want to have an expert panel to decide if this study would be feasible. doesn't sound very promising to me.
I have my doubts about this whole thing-seems they want to push old age and freeways onto the pavement too.
Maurine Meleck SC
See also: CDC to Study Vaccines and Autism
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