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Lawyers for the families will present three different theories of how vacci
2008-05-12 03:43:00
print this pageFamilies will make case for vaccine link to autismMay 11, 2008 11:27 AM EDTWASHINGTON - Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court.They seek vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots.Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as the test cases that determine whether the children and their families should be compensated. Attorneys for the boys will attempt to show the boys were happy, healthy and developing normally. But, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress and show symptoms of autism.Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except the flu shot. In 2004, a committee with the Institute of Medicine concluded there was no credible evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism.Overall, nearly 4,900 families hav...
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DNA Breakage Copy Number Variations Resulting in Autism/Schizophrenia with
2008-05-09 00:27:00
DNA Breakage and Failure of Apoptosis in Sperm as men ageFertility and Sterility Volume 80, Issue 6 , December 2003, Pages 1420-1430 doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2003.04.002 Copy right © 2003 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Science Inc. Male factor Effects of age on DNA double-strand breaks and apoptosis in human sperm*1 Narendra P. Singh M.B.B.S., M.S.a, , , Charles H. Muller Ph.D.b and Richard E. Berger M.D.b a Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USAb Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA Received 6 February 2003; revised 30 April 2003; accepted 30 April 2003. ; Available online 3 December 2003. AbstractObjectiveThis study was designed to explore the relationship between men's age and DNA damage and apoptosis in human spermatozoa.DesignSemen samples were collected from men between the ages of 20 and 57 years. Sperm DNA double-strand breaks were assessed using the neutral microgel electrop...
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The pros and cons of being an older dad
2008-05-07 19:30:00
Todays health topic: The pros and cons of being an older dad 7/05/2008 Related ArticlesMore Dr MiriamIt's 28 years since Les Dennis held his last baby (son Philip, by his first wife Lynne). And judging by his tired demeanour, looking after 13-day-old Eleanor Grace has been a bit of a jolt.A month ago, the 53-year-old comedian said he felt the happiest and most contented he'd ever been. But snapped earlier this week at a north London cafe, with baby Eleanor and fiancee Claire Nicholson, he looked totally worn out.Some would argue that few men of Les's age have the energy to deal with a new baby. But there are now more older dads than ever - the average age of dads in the UK has increased from 29 to 32 since 1980.But before becoming an older dad, here are a few points to weigh up first... Reduced fertilityIt's not just women whose fertility falls with age. In the US, tests on 100 healthy men aged 22 to 80 found that by the time a man is 40, 60 per cent of his sperm is unhealthy o...
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Not Only Are Autism and Schizophrenia Related They Are the SAME If you chan
2008-05-06 22:14:00
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT VACCINES CAN'T CAUSE AUTIS! AUTISM IS A CATCH ALL TERM THESE DAYS A VACCINES CAN HURT SOME CHILDREN AND CAUSE BRAIN DISORDERSAutism and Schizophrenia May Be Related A new study supports the idea in autism research that people diagnosed with either schizophrenia or autism often share the same rare genetic mutations, Nancy Shute reports. Julie Daniels, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, looked at the health records of the parents of 1,227 Swedish children with autism who were born between 1977 and 2003. Those parents were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia as parents of children who didn't have autism. Other studies of early childhood brain development have shown that in both autism and schizophrenia, the brain development process is accelerated from birth to age 3.In the On Parenting blog, Shute explains why the new study--while scary on its face--is actually good news. Earlier, she reported on evidence ...
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Study finds "having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric pro
2008-05-06 05:30:00
Autism is childhood schizophrenia with a new name so this is not surprising. Since schizophrenia risk increases in non-familial cases with paternal age maybe it would be wise to father all babies earlier in life(25-33) to avoid having schizophrenic/autistic children. This also would also prevent your offspring from having de novo/sporadic early breast cancer, prostate cancer, MS, type 1 diabetes, Alzheimer's etc.A Study links child's autism, parents' mental illness Autism (2008-05-05) CHICAGO (Reuters) - In another sign pointing to an inherited component to autism, a study released on Monday found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child's risk of being autistic."Our research shows that mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia were about twice as likely to have a child diagnosed with autism," said Julie Daniels of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who worked on the study."We also saw higher rates of ...
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35 IS ADVANCED PATERNAL AGE AND GENETIC SYNDROMES MULTIPLY BY THEN WE AR
2008-05-04 18:25:00
23-31 are prime years to become a father, that is shocking in this culture to contemplate!"It makes sense that the mutations causing these diseases would occur more frequently in older men, and indeed that's what we saw for Apert syndrome," says Ethylin Jabs, M.D., director of the Center for Craniofacial Development and Disorders at Johns Hopkins. Importantly, disorders linked to advancing paternal age begin to increase rapidly at about the same time as maternal risks increase -- age 33 to 35. Until now, the only evidence for paternal age effects has come from determining how many children with these diseases are born to fathers of various ages. To obtain the first genetic explanation for these effects, the scientists studied sperm from about 60 men of various ages and looked for two genetic changes responsible for 99 percent of the cases of Apert syndrome. They found that men over 50 were, on average, three times as likely as men under 30 to have sperm with at least one of these c...
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Parents of children with autism were more likely to have been hospitalized
2008-05-04 02:01:00
1: Pediatrics. 2008 May;121(5):e1357-62. Parental psychiatric disorders associated with autism spectrum disorders in the offspring.Daniels JL, Forssen U, Hultman CM, Cnattingius S, Savitz DA, Feychting M, Sparen P.Department of Epidemiology, CB 7435, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435. juliedaniels@unc.edu.OBJECTIVE. Autism is a developmental disorder defined by impaired social interaction, communication, and behavior. Causes and correlates of autism are largely unknown, but elevated frequencies of psychiatric disorders and distinct personality traits have been reported among the family members of individuals with autism. Linkage of data from Swedish registries was used to investigate whether hospitalization for psychiatric conditions was higher among parents of children with autism compared with control subjects. METHODS. Data sources included the Swedish Medical Birth Register (child's birth), the Swedish Multi-Generation Register (linking parents to childre...
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"It is also recognized that paternal age is increased among the fathers of
2008-05-03 23:59:00
: Nat Rev Genet. 2008 May;9(5):341-55. LinksAdvances in autism genetics: on the threshold of a new neurobiology.Abrahams BS, Geschwind DH.Neurology Department, and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behaviour, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1769 USA. brett.abrahams@gmail.comAutism is a heterogeneous syndrome defined by impairments in three core domains: social interaction, language and range of interests. Recent work has led to the identification of several autism susceptibility genes and an increased appreciation of the contribution of de novo and inherited copy number variation. Promising strategies are also being applied to identify common genetic risk variants. Systems biology approaches, including array-based expression profiling, are poised to provide additional insights into this group of disorders, in which heterogeneity, both genetic and phenotypic, is emerging as a dominant theme.PMID: 18414403 [Pub...
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If you eat food, you need to watch this documentary:
2008-05-03 20:43:00
Adventures in Autism: Monsanto GMOs: The World According to Monsanto#links#links#links#links#links#li nks#links#links#links#links
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David Kirby on the Case that Replaced Hannah Poling
2008-05-03 19:14:00
Adventures in Autism: David Kirby On The Case that Replaced Hannah Poling#links#links

From Ginger Taylor From David Kirby on" How do i know if my child has a mit
2008-05-03 19:05:00
April 24, 2008Looking for Mitochondrial Disorders In Your Autistic Child So there has been much, "How do i know if my child has a mitochondrial disorder" discussion these days. Here is a blurb from David Kirby on the biomarkers to look for that could point toward mito dysfunction. Discuss them with your doctor."1) Mark Blaxill sent this to me. It is a sample list of some of the higher estimates of mitochondrial imbalances in autism samples. Most of these are elevated relative to a reference range.1. 47% (elevated serum creatine kinase, Poling et al)2. 38% (elevated plasma aspartate aminotransferase, Poling et al) vs. 22% in controls3. 28% (elevated plasma lactate/pyruvate ratio, Correia et al)4. 20% (elevated plasma lactate, Oliveiro et al)5. 17% (elevate plasma lactate, Correia et al)6. 13-16% (two hyperlactidemia markers, Oliveiro et al)7. 65% - Shoffner (I need to check this abstract – DK)2) Another ASD doctor, who does not specialize in mito disorders, went back and looked at ...
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FDA report shows problems at Merck vaccine plant
2008-05-01 19:58:00
FDA report shows problems at Merck vaccine plantBy Karl Stark Inquirer Staff WriterFederal inspectors documented unwanted "fibers" on the stoppers of vaccine vials at Merck & Co. Inc.'s vast vaccine plant in Montgomery County. They also found instances of contaminated children's vaccines and complaints that were not always investigated at the West Point plant.Inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration spent 30 days at the plant between November and January and cited 49 areas of concern, including a failure to follow good manufacturing practices.The findings are detailed in an unpublished 21-page FDA report obtained by The Inquirer under the federal Freedom of Information Act.Independent experts who reviewed the report say it documents serious concerns in one of the country's premier vaccine plants. They suggested the problems could be a symptom of Merck's cost cutting in the face of rapid growth of its vaccine business."I would fault the management for not providing e...
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Autism and Schizophrenia Identical-- My Words
2008-04-29 23:00:00
Autism and Schizophrenia Have Same Molecular Basis Copyright © 2008 Cell Press. All rights reserved.Neuron, Vol 58, 165-167, 24 April 2008PreviewSchizophrenia: Genome, InterruptedRita M. Cantor1,2, and Daniel H. Geschwind1,2,3, 1 Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA2 Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA3 Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USACorresponding authorRita M. Cantorrcantor@mednet.ucla.eduCorrespondin g authorDaniel H. Geschwinddhg@ucla.edu"The specificity of the identified variantsfor schizophrenia remains unknown. Forexample, CNVs in Neurexin 1 and recurrentCNV on chromosome 16p11 previouslyreported in ASD and other neurodevelopmentaldisorders were alsoobserved in this study. This is not problematic,but rather it presents a...
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establishing an association with rare copy number variants (CNV), which are
2008-04-28 07:50:00
Copyright © 2008 Cell Press. All rights reserved.Neuron, Vol 58, 165-167, 24 April 2008PreviewSchizophrenia: Genome, InterruptedRita M. Cantor1,2, and Daniel H. Geschwind1,2,3, 1 Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA2 Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA3 Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USACorresponding authorRita M. Cantorrcantor@mednet.ucla.eduCorrespondin g authorDaniel H. Geschwinddhg@ucla.eduSummaryStructural chromosomal variation is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to human diseases, particularly those of neurodevelopment, such as autism. A current paper makes a significant advance to schizophrenia genetics by establishing an association with rare copy number variants (CNV), which are over-represented in neu...
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Miley Cyrus Photo Headline News Not OLDER FATHERS CAUSING AUTISM TO RISE
2008-04-28 02:22:00
Miley Cyrus makes the headlines but rising paternal age as a major cause of autism etc Does Not A Topless Photo Threatens a Major Disney Franchise Published: April 28, 2008LOS ANGELES — Fifteen years old, topless and wrapped in what appears to be a satin bedsheet in the June issue of Vanity Fair. Did Miley Cyrus, with the help of a controversy-courting magazine, just deliver a blow to the Walt Disney Company’s billion-dollar “Hannah Montana” franchise?
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North doc calls for probe into jab claims
2008-04-27 21:45:00
North doc calls for probe into jab claimsApr 27 2008 by Phil Doherty, Sunday Sun THE Government has been slammed by a North expert for refusing to fund research into possible links between autism and vaccines when it is top of the agenda for US presidential candidates.Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as well as Republican nominee John McCain last week pledged to provide cash following the case of Hannah Poling, aged nine, from Georgia in the US, if they won the race to the White House.The Sunday Sun revealed a court ruled that Hannah developed autism after receiving a cocktail of jabs.Experts fear her condition might have been triggered by two of the vaccinations which contained thiomerosal, a mercury-based preservative, which reacted with a DNA defect in Hannah’s body.It comes at a time when Dr Andrew Wakefield is before the UK’s General Medical Council facing a charge of misconduct originating from his claims of a possible link between autism and the MMR ja...
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Asperger’s syndrome may not lead to lack of empathy
2008-04-27 06:25:00
Asperger’s syndrome may not lead to lack of empathy By Tina Hesman SaeyApril 24th, 2008Web edition Text Size People with autism can feel others’ pain, two new studies show.Autism robs people of social and language skills and locks people in their own worlds. Scientists thought that the social defects were due in part to an autistic person’s inability to determine what other people think and feel and adjust behavior accordingly. But new research from scientists in Switzerland and the Netherlands shows that the brains of people with Asperger’s syndrome or other high-functioning autism spectrum disorders do respond with empathy to others’ pain or emotion.Tania Singer of the University of Zurich in Switzerland and her colleagues studied people who have trouble identifying their own emotions, a condition known as alexithymia. “You need to understand your own feelings to understand the feeling of other people,” Singer says.The disorder isn’t well known and often doesn’t...
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More Evidence of the Harm of the Ageing Dads to Offspring
2008-04-27 02:18:00
Eur J Epidemiol. 2008 Apr 25 [Epub ahead of print]Paternal age and mortality in children.Zhu JL, Vestergaard M, Madsen KM, Olsen J.The Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark, zjl@soci.au.dk.Background Since paternal age correlates with some diseases that have a high case-fatality, a paternal age effect on offspring's survival is expected but unsettled. We examined the association between paternal age and mortality in children in a large population-based cohort taking maternal age and socioeconomic factors into account. Methods From the Danish Fertility Database (1980-1996), we identified 102,879 couples and their firstborn singleton children. Information on childhood death (N = 831) was obtained by linking the cohort to the nationwide register on cause of death (1980-1998). Results We observed a U-shaped association between paternal age and the overall mortality rate in children up to 18 years of age. Adjustment for ...
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"I don't want there to be a panic, but I think it's safe to say that the fa
2008-04-25 16:09:00
equation when planning a family.Thursday, April 24, 2008The biological clock may no longer be ticking on just the woman's side of the bed.If current research is correct, a man's baby-making alarm may start to ring not too long after a woman's chimes its final warning toll -- around age 40."I don't want there to be a panic, but I think it's safe to say that the father's age should be one of many factors couples should put into the equation when planning a family," says Karine Kleinhaus, MD, PhD, a researcher at Columbia University who recently spearheaded a study on paternal age and miscarriage.Over the past decade -- and particularly during the last five years -- studies have been mounting indicating that the age of the father may affect the health of the offspring in more ways than one.Risk of Birth DefectsAssociations have been made between paternal age and the risk of birth defects and developmental disorders such as autism and Apert's syndrome, as well as mental illnesses...
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The Next Hannah Poling
2008-04-25 02:22:00
Green our VaccinesThe Next Hannah Polingby David Kirbyspectrumpublications.com - The Next Hannah PolingIn February, I leaked news of the Federal government’s admission that vaccines had triggered autism in a little girl named Hannah Poling. The stunning revelation, though still reverberating around the world, was roundly downplayed by US officials, who insisted that Hannah had an extremely rare, genetic case of “aggravated” mitochondrial disorder, with zero bearing on other autism cases.Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rushed to the airwaves, exhorting parents to adhere the nation’s intensive and virtually mandatory immunization schedule, and brushing off their legitimate anxieties by saying: “We've got to set aside this very isolated, unusual situation.”Well, the days of setting aside are over: Hannah Poling is neither isolated nor unusual.In fact, the boy who was selected to replace Hannah Poling as the first-e...

Nassau County To Hold Vaccine Autism Hearings
2008-04-24 19:49:00
Adventures in Autism : Nassau County NY First Municipality to Hold Vaccine Autism Hearings#links#links
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Autism controversy clouds immunization decisions
2008-04-24 17:09:00
Last modified 4/24/2008 - 6:52 amOriginally created 042408Autism controversy clouds immunization decisions The potential link has parents questioning the safety of the shot series.By Jake Armstrong, The Times-UnionATLANTA - Childhood vaccinations have helped stamp out a number of debilitating infectious diseases.For most parents, protecting children from polio or measles is as easy as a few trips to the doctor's office.But as the federal and state governments press to improve vaccination rates, especially this week during National Infant Immunization Week, the cloud of controversy hovering over a potential link between vaccines and autism in children may have some parents questioning whether the doctor's needle is a double-edged sword.While statistics show the prevalence of autism is higher than previously thought - one in 150 children had some form of the developmental disorder in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - research has yet to definitively...
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Flea a Pediatrician Wrote
2008-04-24 03:35:00
Flea: Old Fathers There are many studies with data on conditions that are associated with increasing paternal age. To not take seriously, the Reichenberg study of more than 318,000 offspring, born in the 1980s, showing that men over 40 were almost six times more likely to father an autistic child as those under 30, is a mistake. The risk goes up to nine times with fathers over 50.There's a 5-year old I know from our neighborhood playground. I know only two things about her: Her father was 84 when she was born, and she is profoundly autistic.I know that anectdotes are meaningless and data are everything, but I couldn't help think of this precious little girl when I read of this study in the Archives in General PsychiatryData are everything, but I can't help wondering what this study will do to the conversation about autism.My guess is it will do nothing. Could delayed parenthood be partly responsible for the "autism epidemic"? Americans don't want to hear that their lifestyle cho...
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Obama Climbs On The Vaccine Bandwagon
2008-04-22 18:46:00
Get Email Alerts Similar Bloggers Obama Climbs On The Vaccine Bandwagon Posted April 22, 2008 | 11:29 AM (EST) ----------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------Br eaking Home News Barring some big Clinton blowout in Pennsylvania today, the next President of the United States will unequivocally support research into the growing evidence of some link between vaccines and autism.Republican John McCain has already expressed his belief that vaccines and the mercury containing preservative thimerosal could be implicated in what he has rightly termed an "autism epidemic."Yesterday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Barack Obama had this rather surprising thing to say:"We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it."

I think the public has the right to know that Higher Paternal Age is a Caus
2008-04-22 17:03:00
In general science does not usually inform the public of the research that will save lives, prevent disease, prevent vaccine and drug related injuries, or in general help people have healthier babies or lead healthier lives.Scientific Misconduct Blog: Whistleblowing 101
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Dad's Hidden Influence A father's legacy to a child's health may start befo
2008-04-21 02:20:00
Dad's Hidden Influence A father's legacy to a child's health may start before conception and last generationsTina Hesman SaeyPregnant women know the drill. Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't eat too much fish. Take vitamins. Mothers have long shouldered the responsibility, and the blame, for their children's health. Fathers don't usually face the same scrutiny. How a man lives, where he works, or how old he is when his children are conceived doesn't affect their long-term health, scientists used to think. But growing evidence suggests that a father's age and his exposure to chemicals can leave a medical legacy that lasts generations. Animal studies demonstrate that drugs, alcohol, radiation, pesticides, solvents, and other chemicals can lead to effects that are handed from father to son. Human studies are less clear, but some show that fathers play a role in fetal development and the health of their children. Teenage dads face increased risk that their babies will be born pr...
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Why call Paternal Age Childhood Schizophrenia Autism? Why 36 required Vacci
2008-04-20 18:43:00
Scientific Misconduct Blog: Telling it like it is (Procter and Gamble)
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Chandler's Progress
2008-04-20 18:39:00
Adventures in Autism: Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Almost Specified#links#links Biomed
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Autism is a Heterogeneous Syndrome
2008-04-19 18:29:00
Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 341-355 (May 2008) | doi:10.1038/nrg2346Advances in autism genetics: on the threshold of a new neurobiologyBrett S. Abrahams1 & Daniel H. Geschwind1 Autism is a heterogeneous syndrome defined by impairments in three core domains: social interaction, language and range of interests. Recent work has led to the identification of several autism susceptibility genes and an increased appreciation of the contribution of de novo and inherited copy number variation. Promising strategies are also being applied to identify common genetic risk variants. Systems biology approaches, including array-based expression profiling, are poised to provide additional insights into this group of disorders, in which heterogeneity, both genetic and phenotypic, is emerging as a dominant theme.Author affiliationsPrograms in Neurogenetics and Neurobehavioural Genetics, Neurology Department, and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behaviour, David Geffen School of Medicine, Universit...
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The Sad Truth About Scientific Research --Autism Too
2008-04-18 05:36:00
Scientific Misconduct Blog: Money and accountability (Procter and Gamble)
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