Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Safety Research

Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Safety Research

Accountability in Research. 19:65-88. 2012

Gayle DeLong, Department of Economics and Finance, Baruch College, New York,
New York, USA

Conflicts of interest (COls) cloud vaccine safety research. Sponsors of research have competing interests that may impede the objective study of vaccine side effects. Vaccine manufacturers, health officials, and medical journals may have financial and bureaucratic reasons for not wanting to acknowledge the risks of vaccines. Conversely, some advocacy groups may have legislative and financial reasons to sponsor research that finds risks in vaccines. Using the vaccine-autism debate as an illustration, this article details the conflicts of interest each of these groups faces, outlines the current state of vaccine safety research, and suggests remedies to address COls. Minimizing COls in vaccine safety research could reduce research bias and restore greater trust in the vaccine program.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment for inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and analysis

Daniel A Rossignol

• Correspondence: Daniel A Rossignol rossignolmd@gmail.com

Medical Gas Research 2012, 2:6 doi:10.1186/2045-9912-2-6

Published: 15 March 2012

Abstract (provisional)

Background

Traditionally, hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) has been used to treat a limited repertoire of disease, including decompression sickness and healing of problem wounds. However, some investigators have used HBOT to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Methods

Comprehensive searches were conducted in 8 scientific databases through 2011 to identify publications using HBOT in IBD. Human studies and animal models were collated separately.

Results

Thirteen studies of HBOT in Crohn's disease and 6 studies in ulcerative colitis were identified. In all studies, participants had severe disease refractory to standard medical treatments, including corticosteroids, immunomodulators and anti-inflammatory medications. In patients with Crohn's disease, 31/40 (78%) had clinical improvements with HBOT, while all 39 patients with ulcerative colitis improved. One study in Crohn's disease reported a significant decrease in proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-alpha) and one study in ulcerative colitis reported a decrease in IL-6 with HBOT. Adverse events were minimal. Twelve publications reported using HBOT in animal models of experimentally-induced IBD, including several studies reporting decreased markers of inflammation or immune dysregulation, including TNF-alpha (3 studies), IL-1beta (2 studies), neopterin (1 study) and myeloperoxidase activity (5 studies). HBOT also decreased oxidative stress markers including malondialdehyde (3 studies) and plasma carbonyl content (2 studies), except for one study that reported increased plasma carbonyl content. Several studies reported HBOT lowered nitric oxide (3 studies) and nitric oxide synthase (3 studies) and one study reported a decrease in prostaglandin E2 levels. Four animal studies reported decreased edema or colonic tissue weight with HBOT, and 8 studies reported microscopic improvements on histopathological examination. Although most publications reported improvements with HBOT, some studies suffered from limitations, including possible publication and referral biases, the lack of a control group, the retrospective nature and a small number of participants.

Conclusions

HBOT lowered markers of inflammation and oxidative stress and ameliorated IBD in both human and animal studies. Most treated patients were refractory to standard medical treatments. Additional studies are warranted to investigate the effects of HBOT on biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation as well as clinical outcomes in individuals with IBD.

Neurochem Res. 2012 Feb;37(2):436-47. Epub 2011 Oct 21.

Administration of thimerosal to infant rats increases overflow of glutamate and aspartate in the prefrontal cortex: protective role of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate.

Duszczyk-Budhathoki M, Olczak M, Lehner M, Majewska MD.

Source

Marie Curie Chairs Program, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology of Nervous System, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, 02-957, Warsaw, Poland.

Abstract

Thimerosal, a mercury-containing vaccine preservative, is a suspected factor in the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. We previously showed that its administration to infant rats causes behavioral, neurochemical and neuropathological abnormalities similar to those present in autism. Here we examined, using microdialysis, the effect of thimerosal on extracellular levels of neuroactive amino acids in the rat prefrontal cortex (PFC). Thimerosal administration (4 injections, i.m., 240 μg Hg/kg on postnatal days 7, 9, 11, 15) induced lasting changes in amino acid overflow: an increase of glutamate and aspartate accompanied by a decrease of glycine and alanine; measured 10-14 weeks after the injections. Four injections of thimerosal at a dose of 12.5 μg Hg/kg did not alter glutamate and aspartate concentrations at microdialysis time (but based on thimerosal pharmacokinetics, could have been effective soon after its injection). Application of thimerosal to the PFC in perfusion fluid evoked a rapid increase of glutamate overflow. Coadministration of the neurosteroid, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS; 80 mg/kg; i.p.) prevented the thimerosal effect on glutamate and aspartate; the steroid alone had no influence on these amino acids. Coapplication of DHEAS with thimerosal in perfusion fluid also blocked the acute action of thimerosal on glutamate. In contrast, DHEAS alone reduced overflow of glycine and alanine, somewhat potentiating the thimerosal effect on these amino acids. Since excessive accumulation of extracellular glutamate is linked with excitotoxicity, our data imply that neonatal exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines might induce excitotoxic brain injuries, leading to neurodevelopmental disorders. DHEAS may partially protect against mercurials-induced neurotoxicity.

PMID:

 

22015977

 

[PubMed - in process] 

PMCID:

 

PMC3264864

 

Free PMC Article

I Know Why the Caged Bird Screams

by LJ Goes

It's a scream like no other.  You know something is wrong. You search for the cause.  No teeth coming in, no picky fabric irritating her skin, nothing to be afraid of.  In fact you say that over and over again. "It's okay peanut, it's okay, there's nothing to be afraid of." Your friends and family comfort you.  "He's probably just colicky.  Gassy."  You pat and pat and pat that tiny little back.  You coo and bounce, gently.  Nothing seems to stop the screaming. 

The screams eventually haunt your sleep. They chip away at your sense of self. Your family's sense of safety dissipates. You question your sanity.

During a presentation at a local school my friend (Blaze) heard these screams again - thanks to all her hard work, those days are long gone for her and her son P.  The memories came flooding back.  She barely made it to the parking lot in time to vomit. 

While out for a run, my friend  (Mama Mac) recalls encountering a mom with her screaming baby and shouting "Don't vaccinate that baby!" as she jogged passed them. 

It's that powerful - that terrifying - for those of us who know what caused it. 

"Mrs. Goes, today you will get 4 kicks to the stomach.  Looks like just below the ribs to the right.  3 blows to the left cheek.  Only 2 bites on your upper arms.  17 slaps in undetermined locations.  One bloodied lip. You'll be fine, but the iPad screen...looks like you're out another 250.00." 

"Good Morning Mrs. Goes.  Today you will receive two upper cuts to your lower right jaw.  Four head butts.  9 slaps to your calves and thighs.  One glass Pellegrino water bottle hurled at your face.  You'll be fine, but cleaning up the glass will be time consuming.  In the meantime, clean folded laundry will be thrown, your youngest will be slapped, and the Epsom salt will be tossed around your bathroom until the tile is no longer visible.  Only one direct hit to your stomach.  6 bites."

I'd accept either daily scenario readily and repeatedly if it meant an end to the screaming.  

The screaming puts the burden on me.  Is it the mito?  The yeast? Did he get some food he's not supposed to have? His eyes are dilated, he's tearing at his stomach and ripping off his clothes. Is it the PANDAS? Which one of the many systems that don't work is presently causing him the most discomfort? It's up to me to figure it out. It's up to me to take away the pain. I'm mom.  

The hitting, the violence...I'm just the recipient in that deal.  No responsibility on my end.  Plus, I've gotten used to it.  I haven't gotten used to the screaming. 

 I will never, ever get used to the screaming. 

The doctors say,  "Ignore that behavior Mrs. Goes.  If you pay any attention to him you are just re-enforcing it."  I immediately imagine a child  pinned under a car. I can see his body flailing and there's blood everywhere.  

Just ignore it.  

"That's just how it is with some kids.  They scream for no reason.  The spectrum."  More wisdom from the white coats.  They mumble something esoteric and irrelevant  that does not apply to my child.   It's hard for them to understand that all kids are not the same.  They absolutely positively must believe all kids are the same.  This is how current "preventative" medical science works. Someone who weights 5 lbs is the same as someone who weighs 230.  Someone raised in the inner city is the same as someone raised in rural Kansas.  Someone with a history of allergies, asthma and auto-immune disease is the same as someone without. Same.  No testing required.  Just shoot 'em up.  We'll find out if there's going to be a reaction soon enough.  And then we'll pretend it didn't happen.

I would scream too.

  

Our kids dwell in cages and the people who caused their imprisonment refuse to acknowledge they still exist. They live in bodies that are rebelling against them every second of the day.  My friends and I are running around them with a box full of band-aids. One for the intestinal dysbiois, one for the mitochondrial disease, one for the auto-immune damage, one for the methylation failure, one for the macrophagic myofasciitis sydrome, one for the metabolic dysfunction, one for the central nervous system damage.

We can't seem to properly apply all the bandages through the bars of the cage, though.  Some stick. Some fall off.  A lot of our little birds end up bleeding out, innocent little victims of iatrogenic illness. I've never heard of a person being burned alive who just silently sat back and allowed it to happen.  My son actually has a condition that at times causes his feet to feel like they are burning.  He's deficient in malic acid and B2.  No doctor told me.  My friends with master's degrees and sick kids...they told me.  Granny Smith apple full of the stuff really helps.  But then there's the cerebral folate deficiency...he can't handle phenols.  Don't get me started on the damage to his Krebb's Cycle! 

Let me stop you right here and ask...do I sound like an idiot to you?  Because, anytime my friends and I are given a platform to speak about our screaming children we are told we are passionate.  Emotional.  Understandably connected to the issue.  This really bothers me because, well, an overwhelming body of scientific evidence indicates our kids have every reason to scream.  They are medically ill. Profoundly, medically ill.  And their illness was caused by their physicians.  Physicians who say we should ignore their screams, like they ignore their pain.  

You'll have to excuse me.  Now I have to go scream.  Because some days when I put it all together like I did for you here, just now, it's too much to for me to take.  SOMEBODY HAS TO DO SOMETHING TO STOP THE MINDLESS IATROGENIC DESTRUCTION OF CHILDREN NOW!!  Do something.  If your child is one of the 54% of chronically ill kids that inhabit this country, it is YOUR DUTY to educate yourself.  Go to http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/ to learn more. 

Much Respect, The Rev (LJ Goes)

Science: The GFCF Diet Works

Effectiveness of the gluten-free, casein-free diet for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: Based on parental report

Authors: Pennesi Christine M.; Klein Laura Cousino

Source: Nutritional Neuroscience

Abstract:

Objectives: Studies on the gluten-free and/or casein-free (GFCF) dietary intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) suggest that some children may positively respond to implementation of the dietary intervention. Other research suggests that children diagnosed with ASD can be classified into subpopulations based on various factors, including gastrointestinal (GI) abnormalities and immune function.

Methods: This study analyzes parental report data collected using a 90-item online questionnaire from 387 parents or primary caregivers of children diagnosed with ASD on the efficacy of the GFCF diet. Parents reported on their child's GI symptoms, food allergy diagnoses, and suspected food sensitivities, as well as the degree and length of their diet implementation.

Results: Overall, diet efficacy among children whose parents reported the presence of GI symptoms, food allergy diagnoses, and suspected food sensitivities included greater improvement in ASD behaviors, physiological symptoms, and social behaviors compared with children whose parents reported none of these symptoms, diagnoses, or sensitivities (P < 0.05). Parental report of strict diet implementation, indicated by complete gluten/casein elimination and infrequent diet errors during and outside of parental care, also corresponded to improvement in ASD behaviors, physiological symptoms, and social behaviors (P < 0.05).

Discussion: These findings suggest that various intricacies related to diet implementation and GI and immune factors may play a role in differentiating diet responders from diet non-responders and substantiate the importance of further investigations into the various, nuanced factors that influence efficacy of the intervention among children with ASDs.

Keywords: Casein; Parental report; Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); GFCF diet; Gluten

Document Type:

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1476830512Y.0000000003

You Do Not Know Them

by LJ Goes

I just put my son Noah to bed. His brother and sister went into his room and showered him with kisses. Then I tucked him in. It went like this.

Me:  Good Night Buddy, I love you.

Noah: Staring at me. Parts lips, exerting air, but, no speech comes out.

Me:  Love you love you love (shower face with kisses)

Noah:  Staring at my eyes, parts lips. Trying to talk, just a squeak comes out. Rests his head on his pillow frustrated.

Me:  Its' okay. I know it's in there. Don't worry. We'll get it out. I know you love me. I know. And you know I love you big man. I am very proud of you today.

Noah:  Lips open again. Has not yet broken eye contact. Now he does, looks down, and sighs (defeat).

Maybe tomorrow will be the day he says, "nightie night mom, love you too." It happened once. It will happen again.

Dear Pharma and DSM Team,

You know NOTHING about autism. You made up a word for behaviors you didn't like. Behaviors you are too busy and profit-minded to investigate. No one, and I mean NO ONE, likes petulant children. You know this. Let's manage them. Get them to go with the flow. Process them out.

The one thing about autism everyone can agree on is that it consumes everything. Our time, our money, our patience, our families. But, parents, parents like me? We know about the lies you've told. If you think for one minute my son prefers the company of the iPad to interacting with me, you are sorely mistaken. He wants to be with his family. With his siblings. He wants to eat normal food, go on family outings, go to restaurants and parties like normal kids. He wants to do all those things because he is adventurous and smart and funny and loves to laugh.

But, you took all those things away from him when you destroyed his auto-immune function, his bowels and his central nervous system. I will forgive you for those things. Yes, you heard me right. I will forgive you. I will even sign a piece of paper saying I forgive you and you don't have to pay me a penny. But, I will never ever tolerate you saying he does not desire social interaction, that he does not possess empathy or sympathy or that he is incapable of understanding complex human emotions.

Those descriptors belong TO YOU. Your narrow focus and short-sighted children killing science is evidence of that. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, assign these attributes to my child and his friends. Because YOU DO NOT KNOW THEM. We know who are children were before you took them from us. And we are getting them back. So, keep your absurd observations and descriptions to yourself. My friends and I will fix the damage you've done, and our kids will rise up, prove your worthlessness and remove your power. It's how it works. The oppressed always rise to power eventually. But, the people in power are rarely fond of history lessons. No matter. IT. WILL. BE. Count on it.

Sweet, sweet dreams, NOAH's mom

Admitting That Vaccine Injured Children Are Acceptable Losses

by Ginger Taylor

I have actually found something new on the internet.  In seven years of blogging, I have never seen someone actually be honest about their belief that vaccine injured children are "acceptable losses."  I am a little bit stunned.

Now we all know this is true.  Every parent of a vaccine injured child clues in pretty fast that their child is one of the discarded.  As soon as their doc stops actually trying to heal them after their vaccine injury, stops being interested in medical symptoms you report, stops treating the family like a valued customer... you start to get it.  But everyone keeps up the pretense that your kid is still worth something, if only in lip service, while they are given the shaft.

Then along comes Rick Jones at CFO magazine to say what we all know to be fact, in an article entitled, "The Value of Life: Why an ethically complicated calculation can help determine the value of your company’s risk reduction programs."  That vaccine injured children are acceptable losses.

"The lives saved and dollar benefits from vaccines are hard to calculate, but it’s safe to say that these and other immunizations have greatly improved the quantity and quality of life for millions of people -- at the tragic, yet accepted cost of a few. "

Leave it to a heartless financial rag to have the balls to say what Offit and Mnookin and Gorski are to cowardly to say.

"I don't give a shit about your child, I only care about the bottom line, my agenda and 'The Program'."  (what ever their particular program is)

I can't remember the last time I read something that felt so freeing!  You don't care about my children!  Thank you Mr. Jones!  Thank you for admitting that you don't give a damn about my children!

I know you expect me to rail on the morally bankrupt Mr. Jones, but I am not going to do that.  In fact, I sincerely praise the man for speaking the truth.

Because I would rather deal with Voldemort than Delores Umbridge.  You know that Tom Riddle's alter ego is all about his own program and is happy to step over your dead children on the way to his vision of the perfect society, you reject him outright, and are not manipulated one bit into signing onto his value system.  But Umbridge, smiling so pleasantly in her pretty pink dress, pretending to care about your child... she is the true monster in the story, is she not?  She does what He Who Shall Not Be Named could never do... get a naive and trusting public to sign on to the mutilation and death of the innocent in the name of 'order' and 'the greater good'.

So I say this with out an ounce of irony to Mr. Jones:

Thank you Rick for admitting that you don't care that my son was given severe brain damage from the DTaP vaccine.  You might be a bastard, but you are an honest bastard, which makes you a better man than most of the people defending and working in the vaccine program in my book.

Of course, this is with the caveat that I whole heatedly reject your value system and hope you will take a hard look at yourself and see if you still have a soul left to salvage... happy to talk with you any time about how destructive this world view is if you are looking to rebuild your humanity.

BUT...

If the bottom line continues to be how you judge what is good and what is bad, you might take a second look at the vaccine program again and really check and see if your cost benefit analysis is actually based on fact.  'Cause if you do your own survey of your own vaccinated v. unvaccinated workers/family members, you might find that the vaccinated are costing you way more due to life long, chronic conditions than even the occasional hospital stay for a child who has the complications from the measles would.  You do know that NO ONE keeps track of vaccine adverse reaction rates or costs, right?  That they are not factored into any risk analysis or cost/benefit ratio in existence anywhere?  That HRSA that runs the vaccine program has released a statement saying that vaccines cause:

"encephalopathy [that] may be accompanied by a medical progression of an array of symptoms including autistic behavior, autism, or seizures.  Some children who have been compensated for vaccine injuries may have shown signs of autism before the decision to compensate, or may ultimately end up with autism or autistic symptoms, but we do not track cases on this basis."

And that there is absolutely no data to back up the claim that the current vaccine program is doing more good than harm?  Your wrote that, "There is no doubt that vaccines have the potential to do harm to a very small portion of the population."  Pediatrics reports that 54% of American kids are chronically ill, developmentally disabled and obese, with no research on how such an aggressive program might be exacerbating this horrid epidemic of sick children... so how do you know that only a "very small" portion of the population is harmed by vaccines?  Did you ask for proof of that claim by those who make it before you wrote this article?  That is what a good CFO does, right?  Checks the facts so risk analysis is accurate as possible?

Either way... feel free to call me and I will be at your disposal.

My comment on his post for CFO.com:

I am the mother of a vaccine injured child (not compensated by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which is largely corrupt and uses every excuse, valid and invalid, to actually prevent from recognizing and compensating vaccine injury), and as shocking as this might be to hear, I am happy to see this article published. 

To actually see in black and white, what parents of vaccine injured children know is true, that our children are not valued by society and are considered "acceptable losses" for the gain you have gotten from the vaccine program, is a refreshing change from the lies usually told surrounding vaccine injury... either that vaccine injury does not exist, or that those who are vaccine injured are valued, while only given feigned compassion and lip service rather than the help they need and deserve. 

To know that you don't care what happens to the minority (including my precious son)  as long as it works out for the fortunate is of course, absolutely morally repugnant... but the fact that you will admit, out loud, that killing children and giving them brain damage is acceptable to you, actually gives people fair warning that this is what they are getting involved in when they choose to participate in the current vaccine program.  It is a huge wake up call that their child is merely a commodity to the world, and the vaccine program, and when they suffer adverse reactions, they will be simply thrown away.

Please take this statement at face value, because I don't mean this sarcastically at all.  Thank you for being honest in your devaluation of my son and of those vulnerable to vaccine injury.  It is going to save the lives and health of a lot of children whose parents will see what the world really thinks of their kids, and prevent them from becoming used for cannon fodder by being drafted into public health's "war on communicable disease".

I wish more people were as honest, so that parents could truly have informed consent before their kids get hurt.

 And just because WAY too many things are disappearing from the internet, a copy of the full article here:

| January 31, 2012 | CFO.com | US

The Value of Life, Statistically Speaking

Why an ethically complicated calculation can help determine the value of your company’s risk reduction programs.

Rick Jones

How much are you worth? I’m not asking about your money or property but your ultimate physical asset -- you. At the individual level, life is valued as priceless. But at a societal or business level, our lives and safety do have price tags. This is the reality associated with having finite resources to reduce risk. So the real cost-benefit question is how much can a society or a company afford to do to save lives and reduce injuries? The statistical value of life is a term developed from answering this question.  

Here’s an example how the value of a statistical life can be computed. Suppose a state government decides to reduce the speed limit on its roads. The general correlation between highway speed limits and auto deaths is well known; highway safety statisticians estimate that if the maximum speed limit is reduced to 50 miles per hour, 20 lives would be saved each year. However, in order to enforce the new law, additional resources will be required, costing the state $120 million per year. So it costs the state $120 million each year to save 20 lives or $6 million per life. This is the value of a statistical life related to this highway risk reduction program.  

Statistical life values can be useful tools to help measure the value of your risk reduction programs either through direct calculations or by comparing your calculations with other industry estimates. The comparison can provide a valuable benchmark with various situations that you can use to judge and perhaps justify programs to others in senior management and the board.  

The methodologies used to compute these cost-benefit statistics vary, but they all stem from two basic components: the estimated lives saved and the costs associated with the programs. The calculations are a blend of science and statistics that often require detailed research and analysis, and they can also be interpreted and applied differently depending on the activities involved. For example, in a 2010 report relating to engine emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency applied a mean value of a statistical life at $9.1 million. The Food and Drug Administration works with a figure around $8 million, and other government agencies use numbers around $6 million.

The fact that these numbers differ makes sense. Not all risk reduction programs are equally efficient at reducing risk and, of course, the calculations contain statistical uncertainty. Yet in addition to these sources of variation there can be ethical issues that have the potential to transform the technical analyses into philosophical debates.  

Are all lives saved worth the same amount? Is saving the lives of children equivalent to saving senior citizens? Is it worth saving or extending the life of a person for a period of years if that person requires ongoing and intensive medical care? In dealing with saving lives, the “type” of life being saved and the quality of remaining life may be variables in the analysis. The point is, depending on the situation, ethical judgments can be included in the analyses that in effect, answer these questions.  

While making these decisions on the surface may sound unfair or elitist, they are made one way or another when only finite resources are available to reduce risk. And since this is always the case, virtually every health, safety, or other risk management program contains decisions related to these ethical issues.  

For example, either as a parent or a child, most likely you have been exposed to programs that contain some of these issues. Inoculating children to prevent infectious disease transmission is good for society from both health and financial perspectives, but some initially healthy children may suffer adverse reactions, injury, or even death. For vaccines, the enormous societal benefits trump the tragedies of the few. And in order to keep the vaccine costs affordable, the U.S. government administrates and pays all vaccine compensation claims through its Vaccine Lawsuit Injury Compensation program. Inoculation requirements and the accepted reasons to opt out vary by state. In 2011, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program received over 1,000 new claims and awarded 250 plaintiffs more than $228 million for injuries and deaths from the vaccines administered to both adults and children.  

There is no doubt that vaccines have the potential to do harm to a very small portion of the population. But just look at what vaccines have done for us. Polio is no longer a threat in most of the world. Measles, chicken pox, pertussis (whooping cough), and of course smallpox, the former serial killer, have been virtually eliminated. The lives saved and dollar benefits from vaccines are hard to calculate, but it’s safe to say that these and other immunizations have greatly improved the quantity and quality of life for millions of people -- at the tragic, yet accepted cost of a few. 

Value of statistical life and also statistical injury calculations provide metrics you can compare with other industry or government produced calculations. Together these results can help you answer the question “Are we doing ‘enough’ to reduce risk with our available resources?” And perhaps more importantly answer the question: “Should we do more?”

Rick Jones has spent the past 30 years applying risk analysis and management techniques to industrial and business problems. He has presented at several conferences and is the author of numerous articles and technical research papers. His third book, 20% Chance of Rain: Exploring the Concept of Risk, was recently published.

Found Man, Lost Country

By LJ Goes

Richard Catlett, a missing adult with autism from Naperville, Illinois, has been found.

As I write this, I watch from the window in my study as a young woman walks with seven disabled adults around the pond behind my house. I can tell three of them have the false diagnosis of autism. As I read the story, I am thrilled to see Richard has been found. I actually became very excited at the idea of him being a good runner, that he was about to begin a job in food service. Of course, I hold in my heart the hope of a full recovery for my Noah. But, I can't help but wonder if the moms of these adults walking around our pond, thought the very same thing.

I also, cannot help but feel great despair at the idiocy of the closing comment on the attached report. "...Richard Catlett has “no other underlying medical condition that we are aware of other than autism."

 "Autism" is not technically a medical condition. It is a made up word for several severe medical illnesses that cause (which means RESULTS IN) profound neurological damage. Autism is a disease that has at it's cellular core, greed and destruction. It is a man made illness that is taking our children's health. The same greed that created autism also creates asthma, allergies, adhd, arthritis, and diabetes--daily. The big dogs like nagalese and mycoplasma I'll save for another day--unless you live in our world--the world of non-pharma funded research--these very real and very sad medical conditions could terrify you. I don't want that. If you're scared you can't help me. And I need your help. People like Richard need your help. We cannot do this alone.

I wonder, how many of those adults that just passed my window will have access to the services they are getting right now, due to the changes in the DSM? I wonder if this walk, probably the only break their aged parents get in a day, will be taken from them? While other countries are battling autism and winning, America is still trying to figure out what to call it. America is still trying to hide the real numbers. Creating the illusion of a "spectrum". Kids are healthy or sick. If they are on maintenance medications to stay healthy, they are not healthy. They are sick. The spectrum, instead of provoking medical and research professionals to enthusiastically study causation, has done nothing but create a bunch of parents who are fighting to get their kid to the top of the food chain, "high functioning." Then they get there and realize their still sick kid, because he looks less sick than the others, doesn't get any help for his illness because he is better at disguising it.

They are on their second lap. An incredibly handsome african american man with very smart glasses and a pea coat with animal hair all over it folds his hands in front of his face as he walks. He is staring at his fingers. "Nice hands." I mumble. He is trying to control his temper. My son Noah does the exact same thing. He is 5.
No one wonders why. They just sit around in ivory towers spending all your money trying to figure out what to call it. Your country. Our children. Aren't you the least bit curious?

My Yearly Birthday Donation Drive

by Ginger Taylor

Happy Birthday to me.  Another year older, wiser and infinitely hotter.  ;)

If Adventures In Autism has been of service to you this past year, I hope you will consider putting a little birthday gift in the tip jar.

Thank you for being my community and my support.  

Girls Night Out

By:   LJ Goes

"Hey, get together tonight!" My friend reminded me.  I could barely hear her over my son's screaming.  

Ugh, I thought.  I hadn't showered all day.  We just started a new regimen to help with our son's complex adrenal dysfunction and he'd been off all day.  By "off" I mean he hit me a total of 27 times (mostly open hand slaps with a sprinkling of fist poundings, always aiming for the face), we could not successfully redirect him from walking on the counters and touching the stove, and his general disposition was surly.  So, along with a paid helper, I'd spent my day thus far preparing his special food, trying to keep him from launching himself out the kitchen window, burning his toes and landing a left hook to my jaw.

"Uhm...yeah...I don't think it's gonna happen." I mumbled over his piercing screams. My husband looked at me quizzically.  I explained I had a meeting he didn't have to worry, I wasn't going to actually go.  A gesture of mercy ensued and he told me I needed to go. I had to get out even if it was just for a couple hours.  This is why I love this man.  Pure selflessness.  Autism (and a nation folding in on itself) teaches you this, if you let it.  

After rushing through a shower I scooted out the door. On the way my mother phoned to tell me her best friend of 68 years died after her first in a series of several chemo treatments scheduled to treat her liver cancer. Broken words through sobs, "so unexpected...her poor grandbaby...she was going to fly in for a visit in June..."  We shared a good cry and I sat in silence the rest of the way.  Even when dense with sadness I've grown to appreciate silence like breath.  

Upon arrival I was warmly welcomed along with several others toting wine and snacks.   Like veterans heading to the VFW for a fish fry there is no nervous anticipation, no anxiety, just the comfortable acceptance expected when one weathered soldier greets another.  

I know, my friend. I know. It did happen. Come in and rest awhile. 

Unlike most girls nights, ours spans culture, socioeconomic status, race and religion.  The discussion is cerebral but folksy.  We are at ease with one another and there is no small talk.  All of it, every word, is big and meaningful and the right combination may save a child's life.  I know I'm supposed to drink wine and relax but I always bring a notebook and a pen.  I don't want to miss anything.  

No talk of Ashton's abandonment of Demi during her stint in rehab or rejuv or whatever it's called when celebrities can't cope with disappointment.  No yammering on about who wore what to the last big awards show.  

Hey, can you help me with this porphryin test? What's the latest on your son's cerebral folate test? What did the muscle biopsy reveal? Do you think it's mitochondrial dysfunction that's causing the cerebral folate deficiency or is CFD a condition of mito disease in idiopathic autism?  Hey, did anyone read Eric London's chapter on the biopsychosocial model for autism treatment?  Groundbreaking!   How about that study on inflammatory cytokines compromising the integrity of the blood brain barrier?  Did anyone happen to bring a hard copy of the Kennedy Kreiger paper?

When the libations really start flowing we talk about doctors.  Mostly, their incompetence.  We talk about how we all saw our children decline, many of us saw a correlation to their vaccinations, and most of our physicians said we saw nothing.  They told us changing their diet was useless and that after months and months of prodding on our part, an evaluation by a government funded institution known as "early intervention" could point us in the right direction.   Of course, early intervention is where most of us get our first autism diagnosis disguised as "developmental delay".  A bunch of therapists come in and tell you they can't really tell you anything at all, except, your kid is delayed across the board in all categories and he needs therapy.  The doctors echo this sentiment. Our mainstream pediatricians and our government's evaluation facilities partner in the proliferation of the greatest ponzi scheme of our time, the ridiculous theory of Better Diagnosis. While they pat themselves on the back for "catching it early" us moms saw the damage a year ago but kept right on listening and vaccinating; thereby exacerbating our children's mitochondrial disease and wasting precious time that could have been spent treating all the metabolic and methylation issues our children's raped and weakened immune systems could not remedy on their own.  

When one of my friends discovered her son exhibited several characteristics of the bowel disease that Andy Wakefield lost his license for discovering, she was told by her physician that she was mistaken.   How can a mother be mistaken about bowel obstructions, bowel disease, infected excrement and the resultant neurological illness she observes in her child?  Not only does she live it, but she's flown all over the country seeing the only research physicians capable of diagnosing it.  She has study after study test after test to PROVE his illness.  Her mainstream pediatrician and his remarkable ego told her she needed to "go to church" to figure out her problem.  She did.  She went to the church of higher thinking, the church of research physicians who listen to parents and treat real medical symptoms.  Then she came back to enlighten her doctor so he might help her child and countless other patients that suffer as her son does.  It was an act of good will on her part. 

Go to church, he says. 

We all have a good laugh at the expense of my friend's doctor and his "scientist friends".  Their remarkable egos.  Their thoughtless comments.  They are--well, they're idiots.  Puppets.  Fools.  Every last one of them.  And, criminals, really--when you think about it.  Every single doctor who refuses to listen to a parent after that parent reports a reaction to a vaccine needs to be held accountable.  It is my belief this will soon happen.  The thing about my mom friends and I is, we are very smart.  Our families, our babies, have been harmed.  Our precious innocent children. We are not going away.  We are women.  We talk...and talk, and talk and talk. But, we don't talk about Jenny, Andy Wakefield, or even mercury anymore.  We talk about macrophages, auto-immune-mediated tissue damage, IgG, IgA and IgM immunoglobulins in neuroglial cells.  We talk about disturbances in the homeostasis of the human body.  We talk about chronic illness in our children and it's iatrogenic causes.  

We are amused by Nancy Snyderman, Marc Seigel, Paul Offit, Seth Mnookin and their tragic confederates who will be studied by Macolm Gladwell.  They'll  soon take their place in history along side executors of Christians and Holocaust denialists.  Once hailed as heroes, they will be mocked and disgraced for their arrogance and ignorance. It's not that we haven't tried!  Lord knows, we have tried! Representatives of the highest casts in autism research have done everything in their power to educate our doctors, our congress, the public. Their sage tutelage falls on the deaf but powerful and extravagantly perfumed ears of the Sadducees. If their science is too compelling, their case too strong, they are destroyed. Merck and their buddies descend upon our learned and honest researchers like a pack of wolves.  They take away licenses, destroy reputations, disembowel practices.  We, the moms, laugh.  Do you really think that is going to stop the truth?  Do you really think we don't see?  I tried explaining to my son that Dr. Wakefield's paper was fraudulent but it didn't stop his violent diarrhea and painful bowel disease as I'd hoped.  I also ordered him to stop having vaccine encephalopathy when my doctor said it couldn't happen because it was so "rare".  Gosh darn if his little head didn't swell even bigger.  

Sometimes ya just can't teach stupid no matter how hard you try.  No matter.  The moms have arrived.  We are in every neighborhood.  And WE. are. taking. OVER. 

The Beginning. lj goes