He a very special guy who has an almost supernatural ability to inspire.
I am so grateful that he is mine.
March 11, 2008
Happy 6th Birthday Chandler!
He a very special guy who has an almost supernatural ability to inspire.
I am so grateful that he is mine.
Boyd Haley Comments On Thimerosal and Mitochondrial Dysfunction
Boyd Haley, is the Chairman of the Chemistry Department of the University of Kentucky and has done research into the way mercury behaves in the body. Here he comments on how mercury damages the mitochondria.
I am posting this for those of you who understand advanced biochemistry. I am not one of you.
I am posting this for those of you who understand advanced biochemistry. I am not one of you.
Mitochondria are exceptionally susceptible to mercury toxicity for two very obvious reasons if you are trained in biochemistry.
First, the mitochondrial located pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH) that receives pyruvate from glycolysis (in the cell cytosol) requires lipoic acid as a cofactor. Lipoic acid has two closely placed thiol groups that reduce-oxidize-reduce in a cyclic manner as the pyruvate is converted acetyl-CoA then used to produce citrate in the mitochondrial located citric acid cycle. Lipoic acid is an excellent chelator of Hg2+, but this totally blocks PDH and prevents activity of the citric acid cycle. This inhibits the production of NADH and FADH2 which feed into the electron transport system that makes the pH gradient that is used to make ATP (the high energy compound that is used to synthesis protein, DNA, RNA, glutathione etc.). You get the picture--inhibiting this initial enzyme, PDH, causes a lot of down stream problems. Lack of ATP prevents many biochemical systems from working, including the synthesis of glutathione (which autistic children are low in) that make them susceptible to many other toxins since glutathione needs to be attached to many to have them excreted by the body.
Second, the electron transport system in the mitochondria is rich with iron-sulfur clusters that aid in the transport of electrons and the production of the pH gradient that is needed to make ATP. Mercury would potently inhibit this system due to its attraction to such sulfur complexes.
Conclusion, the young girl in the latest autism story may or may not have had a mitochondrial disorder before receiving her thimerosal containing shots. This would have to be proven by a genetic testing. However, she, nor anyone else getting high doses of thimerosal at an early age, would necessarily have to have an underlying mitochondrial disorder to have a negative reaction to thimerosal exposure. Thimerosal exposure at a young age could definitely be the cause of the mitochondrial problems she had subsequent to the vaccines.
Boyd Haley
Pray for Nate Tseglin Today
Today is Nate's hearing.
Pray that the injustice done to this boy and his loving parents is reversed and that that he is returned home.
Pray that the injustice done to this boy and his loving parents is reversed and that that he is returned home.
The New York Times Wakes Up!
Wow!
The NYT, the most hostile publication to the vaccine/autism connection out there, that has denigrated parents like me for years, has just called for the VCIP cases to be unsealed!
The times they are a-changin!
David Kirby's comments:
The NYT, the most hostile publication to the vaccine/autism connection out there, that has denigrated parents like me for years, has just called for the VCIP cases to be unsealed!
The times they are a-changin!
A Puzzling Autism Case
Editorial
Published: March 11, 2008
The federal government’s concession that vaccines may have triggered brain deterioration with symptoms like autism in a young girl is sure to exacerbate concerns among parents worried about immunizations. It is imperative that the court for vaccine compensation unseal documents involved in this unusual case so that experts, families and their doctors can better understand exactly how Hannah Poling, now 9 years old, came to be harmed after receiving a battery of shots when she was a toddler.
For years medical authorities have been assuring us that sound epidemiological studies showed that vaccines and a mercury preservative once widely used in them were not implicated in causing autism, a condition characterized by lack of social skills, problems with communication and repetitive behaviors. That almost certainly remains true for the vast majority of youngsters.
Hannah’s case was complicated by a rare disorder that can deprive the brain of needed energy and cause neurological deterioration. When Hannah’s case was submitted to a federal vaccine compensation program, the government settled before the evidence was argued in a hearing. Government medical personnel apparently found that the vaccinations aggravated the underlying disorder. An alternative theory — that the vaccines may have caused the disorder — is viewed skeptically by government experts.
Top health officials are still urging parents to get their children vaccinated, and with good reason. All children deserve protection against infectious diseases, and even youngsters with these rare disorders may be at risk of neurological deterioration if they contract one of the diseases that vaccines protect them against.
It will be important to develop the best possible medical guidance for youngsters with rare defects. That effort would be enhanced if the government makes public all relevant documents in this puzzling case.
David Kirby's comments:
Stay tuned, this just got a LOT more interesting
I have been talking to lots of people over there, former colleagues and the like, for weeks
I am not taking credit for this! The Times moves at its own pace. But obviously, someone over there is paying attention
Let’s hope the FEDS release all the Poling documents – I know there will be pressure coming from Congress to do so as well
AND there is other activity going on behind the scenes right now on Capital Hill that will really shake things up, when it breaks.
Last year, an IOM panel warned senior staff at the CDC to get legal counsel. Boy, are they going to need it.
I think this long story is about to begin its final act.
DK
Bush Administration Does Not Want VCIP Cases Made Public
UPDATE: Apparently this was an article from 2002 that was reprinted last week. So if 6 years ago they were trying to get the records sealed, why? There is no link right? What do they have to hide? Why do they need to control the information again? Because there is no link, right?
We see the governments true colors. They have pretended for two decades that there is no link and "pity the distressed parents who need someone to blame" and "shows over, nothing to see here".
But apparently there is something to see!
Because the Department of Justice is going to a lot of trouble to keep you from seeing it.
And what is with their argument "that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released"?
Do they have the right to control the information? Says who? If these families want the information out there, then how can it possibly be legal for them to keep them secret?
HHS going to claim that they have the RIGHT to keep secrets documents that may incriminate them and prove they have been perjuring themselves over and over???!!!
Not Acceptable!
We see the governments true colors. They have pretended for two decades that there is no link and "pity the distressed parents who need someone to blame" and "shows over, nothing to see here".
But apparently there is something to see!
Because the Department of Justice is going to a lot of trouble to keep you from seeing it.
And what is with their argument "that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released"?
Do they have the right to control the information? Says who? If these families want the information out there, then how can it possibly be legal for them to keep them secret?
HHS going to claim that they have the RIGHT to keep secrets documents that may incriminate them and prove they have been perjuring themselves over and over???!!!
Not Acceptable!
Government Requests Vaccine Records Be Sealed
Posted by Todd Zwillich Thursday, March 6th at 7:00 AM
Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public.
Department of Justice lawyers asked a special master in the US Court of Federal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released.
Attorneys for the families of hundreds of autistic children charged that the government was trying to keep the information out of civil courts, where juries might be convinced to award large judgments against vaccine manufacturers. . . .
March 10, 2008
My Letter To The Whitehouse
Mr. President,
This past week has not only brought the revelation that Hannah Poling's family was paid out of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for her "autism like symptoms", but that at least nine other families in the last 18 years have been paid as well. Despite this, and the mounting evidence to the contrary, government health authorities, lead by Julie Gerberding of the CDC, continue to deny any link between vaccines and autism.
It is becoming clear that the government has been withholding vital health information from parents for almost twenty years that has denied them of right to "informed consent" in making vaccination decisions for their children, and has been misleading physicians all over the world on the information they require to properly treat their patients.
In addition, the advances that could have been made in understanding and successfully treating what are commonly referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders certainly must have been stymied by the governments hiding of these important cases. Who knows how much the scientific community could have learned two decades ago if authorities had shared with them what came to light in the first vaccine/autism case they settled.
Would we even have an autism epidemic today?
US Health Authorities have hidden information that the public had a right to know. It is time to find out who knew what and when they knew it.
I am calling for Congressional Hearings into the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and for the DVIC to release the details of any previous case of a child who received compensation for any vaccine injury that resulted in any symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
In addition I am, along with many other parents, calling for the immediate removal of Julie Gerberding as the director of the CDC.
Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor M.S.
AdventuresInAutism.com
Autism Mom
CC: Julie Gerberding
This past week has not only brought the revelation that Hannah Poling's family was paid out of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for her "autism like symptoms", but that at least nine other families in the last 18 years have been paid as well. Despite this, and the mounting evidence to the contrary, government health authorities, lead by Julie Gerberding of the CDC, continue to deny any link between vaccines and autism.
It is becoming clear that the government has been withholding vital health information from parents for almost twenty years that has denied them of right to "informed consent" in making vaccination decisions for their children, and has been misleading physicians all over the world on the information they require to properly treat their patients.
In addition, the advances that could have been made in understanding and successfully treating what are commonly referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders certainly must have been stymied by the governments hiding of these important cases. Who knows how much the scientific community could have learned two decades ago if authorities had shared with them what came to light in the first vaccine/autism case they settled.
Would we even have an autism epidemic today?
US Health Authorities have hidden information that the public had a right to know. It is time to find out who knew what and when they knew it.
I am calling for Congressional Hearings into the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and for the DVIC to release the details of any previous case of a child who received compensation for any vaccine injury that resulted in any symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
In addition I am, along with many other parents, calling for the immediate removal of Julie Gerberding as the director of the CDC.
Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor M.S.
AdventuresInAutism.com
Autism Mom
CC: Julie Gerberding
Toxic Levels of Mercury in Chinese Infants Eating Fish Congee
More evidence of the link that does not exist:
"A boy aged 2 years and 10 months presented with delayed speech and some autistic features. Since weaning, he had eaten fish (barramundi, sea perch, salmon and rock cod) up to eight times a week. He had no history of herbal medicine use, and his thyroid function, blood lead level, and a DNA screen for fragile X syndrome were normal. The child’s blood mercury level was 350 nmol/L and urine Hg/Cr ratio was 14 nmol/mmol (NR, < 10 nmol/mmol*)."
"A boy aged 2 years and 10 months presented with delayed speech and some autistic features. Since weaning, he had eaten fish (barramundi, sea perch, salmon and rock cod) up to eight times a week. He had no history of herbal medicine use, and his thyroid function, blood lead level, and a DNA screen for fragile X syndrome were normal. The child’s blood mercury level was 350 nmol/L and urine Hg/Cr ratio was 14 nmol/mmol (NR, < 10 nmol/mmol*)."
Toxic Levels of Mercury in Chinese Infants Eating Fish Congee
Stephen J Corbett and Christopher C S Poon
MJA 2008; 188 (1): 59-60
To the Editor: We report elevated mercury levels in three infants, each the only child of Chinese parents living in Sydney. All three children had eaten fish congee (a rice and fish porridge) as a weaning food and ate fish regularly as toddlers. Their parents had sought medical advice for either developmental delay or neurological symptoms in the children.
A 2-year-old boy had demonstrated increasingly aggressive behaviour for the past 6 months. A general practitioner had diagnosed mercury poisoning in the boy’s father 2 months earlier, following investigation for complaints of allergies, rashes, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. The family ate fish (usually salmon, barramundi or snapper) at least five times a week, and had used unspecified herbal medicines in the past. The child had eaten fish regularly since weaning. The boy’s blood mercury level was 158 nmol/L (normal range [NR], < 50 nmol/L), a random urine mercury/creatinine (Hg/Cr) ratio was 9 nmol/mmol (NR, < 6 nmol/mmol*), and his hair mercury level was 1.42 mg% (NR, < 0.18 mg%). The boy’s father and mother (who was pregnant) also had elevated hair mercury levels, of 4.3 mg% and 6.0 mg%, respectively. The father and child were treated with chelation therapy elsewhere.
* The two laboratories reported different normal ranges for the urine Hg/Cr ratio.
A boy aged 2 years and 10 months presented with delayed speech and some autistic features. Since weaning, he had eaten fish (barramundi, sea perch, salmon and rock cod) up to eight times a week. He had no history of herbal medicine use, and his thyroid function, blood lead level, and a DNA screen for fragile X syndrome were normal. The child’s blood mercury level was 350 nmol/L and urine Hg/Cr ratio was 14 nmol/mmol (NR, < 10 nmol/mmol*). The boy’s father did not eat fish, and his blood mercury level was 19 nmol/L. The child’s mother did eat fish, and had a blood mercury level of 27 nmol/L. Two weeks after removing fish from the diet, the child’s blood mercury level had fallen to 99 nmol/L and his urine Hg/Cr ratio to 7 nmol/mmol. However, his behaviour did not improve, and he was subsequently diagnosed with classical autism.
A 15-month-old boy presented with delayed development since birth. Fish had been introduced to his diet at 8 months of age, and he had since continued to consume fish four to five times a week. He had recently eaten either ling or salmon. The boy’s mother had consumed ling three to four times a week after the fifth month of her pregnancy. The child’s thyroid function, DNA screen for fragile X syndrome, chromosome karyotype, and urinary metabolic screen were normal. His blood mercury level was 143 nmol/L, but fell to 19 nmol/L over a period of 1 year after ceasing fish intake. His longer-term developmental status is unknown.
Fish congee, made with either freshwater species or locally caught fish, is a common weaning food in coastal regions of southern China and South-East Asia.1 Adding fish to the weaning diet has health benefits,1,2 such as reducing anaemia, and is actively promoted. However, fish, particularly the large pelagic (open ocean) species more likely to be bought in Australia, may also contain mercury. Excessive consumption of mercury has been associated with neurological impairment.3-5
The Box shows that the consumption by infants of fish congee made from portions of large fish species may exceed the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI)7 for methylmercury of 1.6 μg/kg bodyweight/week (the limit considered sufficient to protect a developing fetus). Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s most recent risk assessment concluded that median-level consumers of fish are unlikely to exceed the PTWI for methylmercury,6 but frequent consumers might if all their consumption is of predatory or long-lived fish species, which tend to acccumulate higher concentrations of mercury.
It has been previously noted in the Journal that public health policy regarding fish consumption needs to balance the health benefits for cardiovascular disease and anaemia with the possible ill effects of mercury on neurological development in infants.8
We recommend that multilingual information about fish and mercury be made available to pregnant women and mothers, especially targeting groups who are likely to be frequent consumers of fish and who use fish in weaning and infant foods. Regulatory and health promotion activities could also be informed by surveillance of blood or hair mercury levels in infants from ethnic groups at high risk of mercury intoxication, and of the frequency of fish consumption in this age group (by type of fish).
Estimated weekly mercury intake in infants consuming fish congee
"A well placed source high up in the DC power elite writes ..."
Interesting tidbit from David Kirby.
So when will people start going on the record?
So when will people start going on the record?
"Interesting analysis from an extremely well connected, high-powered official inside the Beltway. This was sent to me last night. .
I am now getting all kinds of fascinating messages from all over the world, ever since the Poling story aired.
Who knew the woodwork could hold so much stuff?
= DK"
I've thought about why the govt would concede. You know there were many many meetings between govt and pharma and all concerned before this concession. It was no oversight or accident. And I believe it's because they know they had lost this strong case (with the dad a neurologist no less) and felt like if they "Lost" one of the "landmark" group of autism cases it would make a bigger splash/precedent. But if they "admitted" it (rather than "lost" it) and get it out of the big group of autism test cases, they could spin it as a strange "exception" not a "precedent" etc.
Either way they were screwed, so they went for the path that they hoped would make the least splash (knowing it would make SOME splash either way). They're probably right. If a "decision" had come down in vaccine court that the govt "lost" a test case it might have been even bigger -- and more difficult to spin. But it looks like either way the genie is out of the bottle. They know this.
I wish I could get to all those emails flying now as to the plans on what to do. Of course that's assuming they haven't had a plan ready for a long long time. I believe they've known since 99 this was coming (if not earlier) and have been working on strategy and presentation for when it all came out.
March 9, 2008
Phil and Misty Hiatt: "We Were Compensated Too!"
I have calmed down from the appoplexia that overtook me when learning that Hanna was not the first autistic child to be paid from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, but at least the tenth, to write about this somewhat coherently.
Since then David Kirby, The Pensacola News Journal, The Schafer Autism Report and the Age of Autism's Dan Olmsted have joined CBS in reporting that there are more families out there who want to go public with their settlement stories.
As you may recall, in reporting on Hannah's story on March 6th, Sharyl Attkisson on The CBS Evening News reported that:
CBS was a day ahead of the Pensacola News Journal that wrote about the Hiatt family that got a judgment in 2002:
I have already discussed the difference between "autism" and "autism-like" symptoms. There is none.
And today the Schafer Autism Report ran a letter they got from the Hiatts saying that when they got their settlement, they had the impression that many other families like theirs had been compensated:
Finally, today Dan Olmsted brings to our attention a passage from an AP story in which Gary Golkiewicz, Chief Special Master for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims who oversees the vaccine court, tells us himself that Hannah's case is not the singular exception that we have been led to believe it is:
And yet in the face of all this, Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC said this about the Hannah Poling case setting a precedent for other cases of vaccine induced autism:
Julie Gerberding is telling us that Hannah is a rare exception. We now know that she is not.
Autism parents are going to spend tomorrow calling the White House asking for her resignation.
Either Julie knew about these previous rulings, in which case she is lying to us and should be removed from her post, or she did not know about these previous rulings, in which case she is incompetent and should be removed from her post.
What this means is that for almost 20 years the government has had the evidence that vaccines cause autism and they have buried it and lied to the public. For two decades doctors have been denied the information they needed to make responsible health decisions for their patients. The parent of every child vaccinated since 1990 has been denied "informed consent" in their decision making process on if and how to vaccinate their children. How many hundreds of millions of children is that? Or billions?
What this means to my family is that a full year after paying the Hiatts for their daughter's vaccine induced autism, they were telling me that it was safe to vaccinate Chandler with out fear of having his shots trigger autism, resulting in my son's vaccine induced “Autism-like symptoms”.
In light of all this, I am calling for congressional hearings to find out what the government knew and when they knew it.
I am calling for full disclosure on the part of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to release every case of a child who was paid for their "Autism-like" vaccine injury so we can get to the bottom of the vaccine/autism connection. Because those cases hold vital clues to what has happened to my son, and what treatments might heal him.
If the families involved do not want their details released, the cases can be presented in such a way as to protect their privacy. But if what David Kirby is reporting, that families are coming to him to make their cases known, such privacy measures may not be needed.
I am looking forward to seeing what new information David Kirby and any other journalist that has begun to wake up to this miscarriage of justice can bring us about these other cases.
... and if this pans out the way it looks like it is going to... Kirby is right... some people need to go to jail.
Since then David Kirby, The Pensacola News Journal, The Schafer Autism Report and the Age of Autism's Dan Olmsted have joined CBS in reporting that there are more families out there who want to go public with their settlement stories.
As you may recall, in reporting on Hannah's story on March 6th, Sharyl Attkisson on The CBS Evening News reported that:
CBS News was apparently a few steps behind David Kirby, who on March 3rd posted on an autism list:
"While the Poling case is the first of its kind to become public, a CBS News investigation uncovered at least nine other cases as far back as 1990, where records show the court ordered the government compensated families whose children developed autism or autistic-like symptoms in children including toddlers who had been called "very smart" and "impressed" doctors with their "intelligence and curiosity" … until their vaccinations.
They were children just like Hannah Poling."
"And next week, I just might drop another bombshell – A BIG one, from another case in VICP.
Turns out that people who settled with the government now want their cases to be known as well. They are seeking me out. You would be AMAZED at what the government has secretly admitted.
It contradicts many things that the Feds, AAP, and SWORN government witnesses have been saying publicly, under oath no less -- at least on this one particular vaccine injury related issue.
I love the smell of perjury charges in the morning.
Stay tuned
Cheers"
CBS was a day ahead of the Pensacola News Journal that wrote about the Hiatt family that got a judgment in 2002:
In 1999, Misty and Phil Hiatt of Pensacola, parents of 10-year-old triplets, were among the first to assert a link between childhood vaccines and autism-like symptoms.
Misty Hiatt said she and her husband, a professional baseball player for 16 years, saw their babies' lives change dramatically after they received routine immunizations at 14 months.
She said daughter Madison began suffering from severe autism-like symptoms. Daughters Morgan and Mackenzie also were affected, though less severely.
In 2002, the Hiatts received a settlement from the National Vaccine Injuries Compensation Program, a fund Congress set up to pay children injured by vaccines and to protect makers from damages as a way to help ensure an adequate vaccine supply. Since the fund started in 1988, it has paid about 950 claims — none for autism but some for autism-like symptoms.
"The government settled with our family and accepted responsibility for the injury the vaccines caused my daughter, Madison," Misty Hiatt said.
I have already discussed the difference between "autism" and "autism-like" symptoms. There is none.
And today the Schafer Autism Report ran a letter they got from the Hiatts saying that when they got their settlement, they had the impression that many other families like theirs had been compensated:
"We Were Compensated, too.
We were also compensated by the Federal Government in 2002. Our child suffered the same diagnosis after her routine immunizations. Encephalopathy with autistic like symptoms. I am not sure why people think this is the first case? Maybe they are just the first to go so public. I wonder how many other families have been compensated for the exact same symptoms? When we settled with the government I did not get the impression that we were that unique; quite the opposite as I spoke to the Special Master (the judge for the compensation program). - Misty Hiatt"
Finally, today Dan Olmsted brings to our attention a passage from an AP story in which Gary Golkiewicz, Chief Special Master for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims who oversees the vaccine court, tells us himself that Hannah's case is not the singular exception that we have been led to believe it is:
'Years ago, actually, I had a case, before we understood or knew the implications of autism, that the vaccine injured the child's brain caused an encephalopathy,' he said. And the symptoms that come with that 'all [fall?] within the broad rubric of autism.'
And there are other somewhat similar cases, Golkiewicz says, that were decided before autism and its symptoms were more clearly defined."
Two thoughts on that: We've known the symptoms of autism since exactly 1943. And since the vaccine court is known to be gruesomely stingy, it's quite some admission to say there were other, earlier cases. Maybe some of our befuddled colleagues in the mainstream media ought to find out more about those cases that, according to the top judge, resulted in brain injury and fall "within the broad rubric of autism."
And yet in the face of all this, Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC said this about the Hannah Poling case setting a precedent for other cases of vaccine induced autism:
"This is a complete mischaracterization of the findings of a very simple situation of one child with an unusual disorder, and it would be completely wrong to say that this has bearing to the vast majority of children with autism,"
Julie Gerberding is telling us that Hannah is a rare exception. We now know that she is not.
Autism parents are going to spend tomorrow calling the White House asking for her resignation.
Either Julie knew about these previous rulings, in which case she is lying to us and should be removed from her post, or she did not know about these previous rulings, in which case she is incompetent and should be removed from her post.
What this means is that for almost 20 years the government has had the evidence that vaccines cause autism and they have buried it and lied to the public. For two decades doctors have been denied the information they needed to make responsible health decisions for their patients. The parent of every child vaccinated since 1990 has been denied "informed consent" in their decision making process on if and how to vaccinate their children. How many hundreds of millions of children is that? Or billions?
What this means to my family is that a full year after paying the Hiatts for their daughter's vaccine induced autism, they were telling me that it was safe to vaccinate Chandler with out fear of having his shots trigger autism, resulting in my son's vaccine induced “Autism-like symptoms”.
In light of all this, I am calling for congressional hearings to find out what the government knew and when they knew it.
I am calling for full disclosure on the part of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to release every case of a child who was paid for their "Autism-like" vaccine injury so we can get to the bottom of the vaccine/autism connection. Because those cases hold vital clues to what has happened to my son, and what treatments might heal him.
If the families involved do not want their details released, the cases can be presented in such a way as to protect their privacy. But if what David Kirby is reporting, that families are coming to him to make their cases known, such privacy measures may not be needed.
I am looking forward to seeing what new information David Kirby and any other journalist that has begun to wake up to this miscarriage of justice can bring us about these other cases.
... and if this pans out the way it looks like it is going to... Kirby is right... some people need to go to jail.
Evidence of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism and Implications for Treatment
I am really tired of hearing "No Link".
Evidence of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism and Implications for Treatment
Daniel A. Rossignol, J. Jeffrey Bradstreet
International Child Development Resource Center, 3800 W. Eau Gallie Blvd., Suite 105,
Melbourne, FL 32934
Abstract: Classical mitochondrial diseases occur in a subset of individuals with autism and are usually caused by genetic anomalies or mitochondrial respiratory pathway deficits. However, in many cases of autism, there is evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction (MtD) without the classic features associated with mitochondrial disease. MtD appears to be more common in autism and presents with less severe signs and symptoms. It is not associated with discernible mitochondrial pathology in muscle biopsy specimens despite objective evidence of lowered mitochondrial functioning. Exposure to environmental toxins is the likely etiology for MtD in autism. This dysfunction then contributes to a number of diagnostic symptoms and comorbidities observed in autism including: cognitive impairment, language deficits, abnormal energy metabolism, chronic gastrointestinal problems, abnormalities in fatty acid oxidation, and increased oxidative stress. MtD and oxidative stress may also explain the high male to female ratio found in autism due to increased male vulnerability to these dysfunctions.
Biomarkers for mitochondrial dysfunction have been identified, but seem widely under-utilized despite available therapeutic interventions. Nutritional supplementation to decrease oxidative stress along with factors to improve reduced glutathione, as well as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) represent supported and rationale approaches. The underlying pathophysiology and autistic symptoms of affected individuals would be expected to either improve or cease worsening once effective treatment for MtD is implemented.
Evidence of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism and Implications for Treatment
Daniel A. Rossignol, J. Jeffrey Bradstreet
International Child Development Resource Center, 3800 W. Eau Gallie Blvd., Suite 105,
Melbourne, FL 32934
Abstract: Classical mitochondrial diseases occur in a subset of individuals with autism and are usually caused by genetic anomalies or mitochondrial respiratory pathway deficits. However, in many cases of autism, there is evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction (MtD) without the classic features associated with mitochondrial disease. MtD appears to be more common in autism and presents with less severe signs and symptoms. It is not associated with discernible mitochondrial pathology in muscle biopsy specimens despite objective evidence of lowered mitochondrial functioning. Exposure to environmental toxins is the likely etiology for MtD in autism. This dysfunction then contributes to a number of diagnostic symptoms and comorbidities observed in autism including: cognitive impairment, language deficits, abnormal energy metabolism, chronic gastrointestinal problems, abnormalities in fatty acid oxidation, and increased oxidative stress. MtD and oxidative stress may also explain the high male to female ratio found in autism due to increased male vulnerability to these dysfunctions.
Biomarkers for mitochondrial dysfunction have been identified, but seem widely under-utilized despite available therapeutic interventions. Nutritional supplementation to decrease oxidative stress along with factors to improve reduced glutathione, as well as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) represent supported and rationale approaches. The underlying pathophysiology and autistic symptoms of affected individuals would be expected to either improve or cease worsening once effective treatment for MtD is implemented.
Its Not Just The Mercury: Aluminum Hydroxide In Vaccines
When parents began suspecting that their children's autism was triggered by their vaccines, and those parents in the scientific professions began to look at the plausibility of the vaccine/autism connection, one ingredient jumped out at them as the most likely culprit. Mercury. Excessive mercury. So much mercury in one typical shot (25mg)that according to EPA guidelines a person must weigh 550lbs to safely process the amount of mercury that was being injected into a child. And they often got more than one shot at a time.
After all mercury is the most toxic substance on earth that does not set off a geiger counter.
It has taken more than a decade, but the public and scientific community is finally on the same page on the idea that it does not belong in vaccines. And yet is it still in vaccines. We continue to work on the problem.
But now that the mercury message is out there, it is time for the scientific community to begin to turn their attention to the other three well known dangers that are in vaccines. Aluminum, Monosodium Glutamate, and Formaldehyde.
Today we are going to give Aluminum a look.
Aluminum is known to be associated with degenerative, fatal neurological conditions like Parkinson's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's) and Alzheimer's. And yet according to the CDC, it is in the following vaccines:
Anthrax, DTaP (all brands), DT (all brands), Hib/Hep B (Comvax), Hep A (all brands), Hep B (all brands), HPV (Gardasil), Pneumococcal (Prevnar), Rabies (Biorab), Td (all brands), and Tdap (all brands).
That is most of the vaccines on the CDC's list.
The reason that aluminum is in our vaccines is because it is an adjuvant.
Generally speaking, the way vaccines work is that they contain a virus and substances called ‘adjuvants’ (like mercury and aluminum) that kick the immune system into high gear so that they go on the hunt for the viruses, eat ‘um up, and create antibodies against further infection.
In people with typical immune systems, the body then stands down from high alert. But in some people, it doesn’t, and the immune system begins to behave like early 20th century Germany and attacks what ever is in sight. The result, autoimmune disorders.
A few examples of autoimmune disorders: When the immune system attacks the connective tissue, you get arthritis, when it attacks the mylon sheath around the nerves, you get Guillain-Barré Syndrome (a known side effect of the flu shot that causes paralysis), and when it attacks the pancreas you have Type 1 Diabetes. And on and on.
Because autism was first seen as a psychiatric problem caused by bad parenting, it has taken decades for it to be properly medically investigated, and for the autoimmune features of the disorder (i.e. cytokines in the brain causing swelling leading to cognitive dysfunction) to be recognized. (Which is why even mild anti inflammatory agents like fish oil improve communication skills of so many people with autism, and why parents report that children’s autistic symptoms seem to improve when their kids are sick.)
(When Chandler was diagnosed and we had his immune system tested, viola… hyper drive. I just thought he had rough skin… turns out it was mild eczema. When I started him on fish oil and his rough skin turned back into baby skin and his eye contact and verbal skills improved.)
So the reason that aluminum needs as hard a look as a vaccine component as mercury does, is because we are learning that it also causes cell death. A lot of cell death. In the brain.
Canadian neuroscientist Chris Shaw did not set out to shake confidence in vaccination, but what he and his team found when testing Aluminum Hydroxide, the form used most often in vaccines, really upset them.
"No one in my lab wants to get vaccinated," he said. "This totally creeped us out. We weren't out there to poke holes in vaccines. But all of a sudden, oh my God-we've got neuron death!"
Can I just stop here for a second and point out that in the middle of offering you scientific evidence for the theory that vaccines cause serious and permanent brain damage that I AGAIN have to be faced with someone in medical authority saying, "NO LINK"! How many studies have to find a link before they will stop saying it, "no link"?
There are hundreds of studies, but they don't want to look at them.
I will start writing more about them.
The collective denial is staggering.
Despite the fact that Shaw announced his study in March of 2006, only three months ago, Melinda Wharton, Deputy Director of the National Center of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC, gave an interview to Jaye Watson of WXIA TV in Atlanta and here is what she said about the dangers of aluminum content:
Because we all know that the FDA would never license something that was harmful to people. (Thalidomide is currently an FDA approved drug? What the hell?!)
Shaw's study completed peer review, it was published in in 2207 in Neuromolecular Medicine:
(One note on what Apoptosis is. It is basically when a cell self destructs.
Apoptosis is also the process that is taking place, via mitochondrial dysfunction, when Thimerosal is administered, that came to our attention when Dr. Jon Poling discussed the details of his daughter Hannah's case.
Hanna was the first case of an autistic child paid from the US Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund to be made public, although details are coming to light that she is at least the 10th such child. The other families are currently working to make their cases known.)
So here is the questions that parents are currently beginning to ask: as thimerosal has been in the process of removal from vaccines, have manufacturers replaced it with higher doses of aluminum to added to make up for the adjuvant properties lost when mercury was no longer present? How do we know what a safe level of aluminum is for our children? Does the CDC even care?
After all mercury is the most toxic substance on earth that does not set off a geiger counter.
It has taken more than a decade, but the public and scientific community is finally on the same page on the idea that it does not belong in vaccines. And yet is it still in vaccines. We continue to work on the problem.
But now that the mercury message is out there, it is time for the scientific community to begin to turn their attention to the other three well known dangers that are in vaccines. Aluminum, Monosodium Glutamate, and Formaldehyde.
Today we are going to give Aluminum a look.
Aluminum is known to be associated with degenerative, fatal neurological conditions like Parkinson's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's) and Alzheimer's. And yet according to the CDC, it is in the following vaccines:
Anthrax, DTaP (all brands), DT (all brands), Hib/Hep B (Comvax), Hep A (all brands), Hep B (all brands), HPV (Gardasil), Pneumococcal (Prevnar), Rabies (Biorab), Td (all brands), and Tdap (all brands).
That is most of the vaccines on the CDC's list.
The reason that aluminum is in our vaccines is because it is an adjuvant.
Generally speaking, the way vaccines work is that they contain a virus and substances called ‘adjuvants’ (like mercury and aluminum) that kick the immune system into high gear so that they go on the hunt for the viruses, eat ‘um up, and create antibodies against further infection.
In people with typical immune systems, the body then stands down from high alert. But in some people, it doesn’t, and the immune system begins to behave like early 20th century Germany and attacks what ever is in sight. The result, autoimmune disorders.
A few examples of autoimmune disorders: When the immune system attacks the connective tissue, you get arthritis, when it attacks the mylon sheath around the nerves, you get Guillain-Barré Syndrome (a known side effect of the flu shot that causes paralysis), and when it attacks the pancreas you have Type 1 Diabetes. And on and on.
Because autism was first seen as a psychiatric problem caused by bad parenting, it has taken decades for it to be properly medically investigated, and for the autoimmune features of the disorder (i.e. cytokines in the brain causing swelling leading to cognitive dysfunction) to be recognized. (Which is why even mild anti inflammatory agents like fish oil improve communication skills of so many people with autism, and why parents report that children’s autistic symptoms seem to improve when their kids are sick.)
(When Chandler was diagnosed and we had his immune system tested, viola… hyper drive. I just thought he had rough skin… turns out it was mild eczema. When I started him on fish oil and his rough skin turned back into baby skin and his eye contact and verbal skills improved.)
So the reason that aluminum needs as hard a look as a vaccine component as mercury does, is because we are learning that it also causes cell death. A lot of cell death. In the brain.
Canadian neuroscientist Chris Shaw did not set out to shake confidence in vaccination, but what he and his team found when testing Aluminum Hydroxide, the form used most often in vaccines, really upset them.
"No one in my lab wants to get vaccinated," he said. "This totally creeped us out. We weren't out there to poke holes in vaccines. But all of a sudden, oh my God-we've got neuron death!"
Vaccines Show Sinister Side
By Pieta Woolley
Straight.com
March 23, 2006
If two dozen once-jittery mice at UBC are telling the truth postmortem, the world's governments may soon be facing one hell of a lawsuit. New, so-far-unpublished research led by Vancouver neuroscientist Chris Shaw shows a link between the aluminum hydroxide used in vaccines, and symptoms associated with Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), and Alzheimer's.
Shaw is most surprised that the research for his paper hadn't been done before. For 80 years, doctors have injected patients with aluminum hydroxide, he said, an adjuvant that stimulates immune response.
"This is suspicious," he told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview from his lab near Heather Street and West 12th Avenue. "Either this [link] is known by industry and it was never made public, or industry was never made to do these studies by Health Canada. I'm not sure which is scarier."
Similar adjuvants are used in the following vaccines, according to Shaw's paper: hepatitis A and B, and the Pentacel cocktail, which vaccinates against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and a type of meningitis.
To test the link theory, Shaw and his four-scientist team from UBC and Louisiana State University injected mice with the anthrax vaccine developed for the first Gulf War. Because Gulf War Syndrome looks a lot like ALS, Shaw explained, the neuroscientists had a chance to isolate a possible cause. All deployed troops were vaccinated with an aluminum hydroxide compound. Vaccinated troops who were not deployed to the Gulf developed similar symptoms at a similar rate, according to Shaw.
After 20 weeks studying the mice, the team found statistically significant increases in anxiety (38 percent); memory deficits (41 times the errors as in the sample group); and an allergic skin reaction (20 percent). Tissue samples after the mice were "sacrificed" showed neurological cells were dying. Inside the mice's brains, in a part that controls movement, 35 percent of the cells were destroying themselves.
"No one in my lab wants to get vaccinated," he said. "This totally creeped us out. We weren't out there to poke holes in vaccines. But all of a sudden, oh my God-we've got neuron death!"
At the end of the paper, Shaw warns that "whether the risk of protection from a dreaded disease outweighs the risk of toxicity is a question that demands our urgent attention."
He's not the only one considering that.
The charge that there's a sinister side to magic bullets isn't new. With his pen blazing, celebrity journalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. popularized vaccine scepticism with his article arguing that mercury in vaccines causes autism, which ran in the June 2005 Rolling Stone and on-line at Salon.com. So did last year's vaccines-linked-to- autism bestseller, Evidence of Harm by David Kirby (St. Martin's Press). But there's a potential public-health cost to all the controversy, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
"Vaccines have been a victim of their own success," spokesperson Ian Roe told the Straight in a telephone interview from Ottawa. Diseases such as polio, which killed his father-in-law, are almost eradicated and therefore no longer serve as a warning to parents. But the epidemic threat is still real. "If everyone decided to not get vaccinated, we'd live in a very different world."
Canada's last national immunization conference, in December 2004, heard a report that vaccine coverage is sometimes low. For diphtheria, the Public Health Agency of Canada found that just 75 percent of two-year-olds are immunized; the target is 99 percent. For tetanus, just 66 percent of 17-year-olds are immunized, compared to a target of 97 percent.
Dr. Ronald Gold, the former head of the infectious-disease division at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, told the conference that "we will never be without an anti-vaccine movement," but "in reality, there is no scientific evidence for these myths."
Can I just stop here for a second and point out that in the middle of offering you scientific evidence for the theory that vaccines cause serious and permanent brain damage that I AGAIN have to be faced with someone in medical authority saying, "NO LINK"! How many studies have to find a link before they will stop saying it, "no link"?
There are hundreds of studies, but they don't want to look at them.
I will start writing more about them.
The collective denial is staggering.
Shaw acknowledges that there's a lot of pressure on parents to vaccinate their children. "You're considered to be a really bad parent if you don't vaccinate," he said-and your child can't attend public school. "But I don't think the safety of vaccines is demarcated. How does a parent make a decision based on what's available? You can't make an intelligent decision."
Conservatively, he said, if one percent of vaccinated humans develop ALS from vaccine adjuvants, it would still constitute a health emergency.
It's possible, he said, that there are 10,000 studies that show aluminum hydroxide is safe for injections. But he hasn't been able to find any that look beyond the first few weeks of injection. If anyone has a study that shows something different, he said, please "put it on the table. That's how you do science."
Neuroscience research is difficult, Shaw said, because symptoms can take years to manifest, so it's hard to prove what caused the symptoms.
"To me, that calls for better testing, not blind faith."
He pointed out that George W. Bush passed legislation that opens the door for the USA to order a nationwide anthrax immunization campaign, with the threat of bioterrorism.
Shaw's paper is currently undergoing a peer review.
Despite the fact that Shaw announced his study in March of 2006, only three months ago, Melinda Wharton, Deputy Director of the National Center of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC, gave an interview to Jaye Watson of WXIA TV in Atlanta and here is what she said about the dangers of aluminum content:
Q. Aluminum is used in vaccines. This is a question I bring with me from attending the conference and seeing a panel of 3 doctors or so talk about aluminum and the amount in vaccines. One said that the aluminum exposures for the vaccine’s recommended of the 2 month visit exceed the suggested safety limits set by the FDA. Has the CDC tested the toxicity of aluminum in vaccines?
A. The vaccines are licensed by the FDA, and the vaccines meet FDA standards, so no, CDC hasn’t looked at that particular issue, but that is handled by the Food and Drug Administration’s part of vaccine licensing.
Q. So, that would almost be counter productive….
A. It wouldn’t be licensed if it was toxic.
Because we all know that the FDA would never license something that was harmful to people. (Thalidomide is currently an FDA approved drug? What the hell?!)
Shaw's study completed peer review, it was published in in 2207 in Neuromolecular Medicine:
Aluminum adjuvant linked to gulf war illness induces motor neuron death in mice.
Neuromolecular Med. 2007;9(1):83-100.
Petrik MS, Wong MC, Tabata RC, Garry RF, Shaw CA.
Department of Ophthalmology and Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Gulf War illness (GWI) affects a significant percentage of veterans of the 1991 conflict, but its origin remains unknown. Associated with some cases of GWI are increased incidences of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neurological disorders. Whereas many environmental factors have been linked to GWI, the role of the anthrax vaccine has come under increasing scrutiny. Among the vaccine's potentially toxic components are the adjuvants aluminum hydroxide and squalene. To examine whether these compounds might contribute to neuronal deficits associated with GWI, an animal model for examining the potential neurological impact of aluminum hydroxide, squalene, or aluminum hydroxide combined with squalene was developed. Young, male colony CD-1 mice were injected with the adjuvants at doses equivalent to those given to US military service personnel. All mice were subjected to a battery of motor and cognitive-behavioral tests over a 6-mo period postinjections. Following sacrifice, central nervous system tissues were examined using immunohistochemistry for evidence of inflammation and cell death. Behavioral testing showed motor deficits in the aluminum treatment group that expressed as a progressive decrease in strength measured by the wire-mesh hang test (final deficit at 24 wk; about 50%). Significant cognitive deficits in water-maze learning were observed in the combined aluminum and squalene group (4.3 errors per trial) compared with the controls (0.2 errors per trial) after 20 wk. Apoptotic neurons were identified in aluminum-injected animals that showed significantly increased activated caspase-3 labeling in lumbar spinal cord (255%) and primary motor cortex (192%) compared with the controls. Aluminum-treated groups also showed significant motor neuron loss (35%) and increased numbers of astrocytes (350%) in the lumbar spinal cord. The findings suggest a possible role for the aluminum adjuvant in some neurological features associated with GWI and possibly an additional role for the combination of adjuvants.
(One note on what Apoptosis is. It is basically when a cell self destructs.
Apoptosis is also the process that is taking place, via mitochondrial dysfunction, when Thimerosal is administered, that came to our attention when Dr. Jon Poling discussed the details of his daughter Hannah's case.
Hanna was the first case of an autistic child paid from the US Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund to be made public, although details are coming to light that she is at least the 10th such child. The other families are currently working to make their cases known.)
So here is the questions that parents are currently beginning to ask: as thimerosal has been in the process of removal from vaccines, have manufacturers replaced it with higher doses of aluminum to added to make up for the adjuvant properties lost when mercury was no longer present? How do we know what a safe level of aluminum is for our children? Does the CDC even care?
March 7, 2008
Jenny McCarthy Calls For Julie Gerberding's Resignation
And she is not alone.
A number of different people have been calling for her ouster for a while now. Most significantly many from inside the CDC
A number of different people have been calling for her ouster for a while now. Most significantly many from inside the CDC
I’m asking all parents and autism groups to join me in demanding Julie Gerberding’s immediate resignation as Director of the CDC.
On Monday, March 10th, beginning at 9:00am Eastern Daylight Time, let’s all start calling the White House and ask President Bush & Laura Bush to demand Julie Gerberding’s resignation for incompetence during the autism epidemic. The White House switchboard can be reached at:
202-456-1414
Also, on the same day, please call your local Congressperson and Senators from your state and ask them to call for her resignation, too.
Julie Gerberding has led the CDC for 6 years during a time when the autism epidemic has only gotten worse. Despite tens of thousands of children who declined just like Hannah Poling, Ms. Gerberding stood before cameras yesterday defiant, cold, and defensive. Where is her humanity in the face of such tragedy? Why couldn’t she have said, “We at CDC want to make sure what happened to Hannah doesn’t happen to any other children, we want to make vaccines safe”?
Rather than listen to the heartbreaking stories of so many parents, you can be sure that Ms. Gerberding is spending her time right now trying to get the Spin Machine up and running to minimize, confuse, and deceive the American public.
The autism epidemic won’t end until we fix the vaccine schedule by reducing total vaccines, separating shots, waiting until our kids are older to begin shots, greening our vaccines, and screening for at-risk kids. Ms Gerberding has stood by and watched self-interested parties more than triple our vaccine schedule and I’m certain her inactivity to help our kids will continue.
The chances of Ms. Gerberding taking the radical steps to reform the CDC and reform our vaccine schedule to make it kid-safe are zero! We need a new CDC Director who is an open-minded reformer and who recognizes that we are experiencing an epidemic of autism, which Ms. Gerberding has never publicly admitted.
Please, parents and national autism organizations, let’s all help make our voices heard on Monday.
Thank you,
Jenny McCarthy
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