Causes of Autism

Mayo Clinic ^ | NA | Mayo Clinic Staff

[Neoliberalnot]

Autism spectrum disorder has no single known cause. Given the complexity of the disorder, and the fact that symptoms and severity vary, there are probably many causes. Both genetics and environment may play a role.

Genetics. Several different genes appear to be involved in autism spectrum disorder. For some children, autism spectrum disorder can be associated with a genetic disorder, such as Rett syndrome or fragile X syndrome. For other children, genetic changes (mutations) may increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder. Still other genes may affect brain development or the way that brain cells communicate, or they may determine the severity of symptoms. Some genetic mutations seem to be inherited, while others occur spontaneously. Environmental factors. Researchers are currently exploring whether factors such as viral infections, medications or complications during pregnancy, or air pollutants play a role in triggering autism spectrum disorder.

[Vaquero]

Retired early 8 years ago because of my illness. Got the free flu shot at work back in 1999. Worked in production and then calibration and instrumentation. My wife worked there too. I met her there in 79. She’s the scientist in the family. She helped in discovering of the virus inactivation method . I helped in the scaling up process and early production.

[Strac6]

Two good things to be noticed here:

This is an issue that epidemiologists, statisticians and economists can quickly run some good studies on. Children of married couples with the same level of education within the same or different fields can be studied.

If there is cause and and effect here, that is the first step to treatment/reducing the incidence of Autism.

Have a good week.

[Garth Tater]

Free Republic's resident scientist speaks. Heed her words people for she is a real scientist.

Love ya Mom, but you are always so full of yourself that I just feel obligated to point out the errors you make.


"Vaccines consist of a killed or attenuated pathogen, or of proteins extracted from a pathogen"

I think what you meant to say Mom was that some vaccines consist of a killed or attenuated pathogen, or of proteins extracted from a pathogen. Was there some reason that you left out toxoid vaccines which protect against the toxins made by the pathogen and do not contain the pathogen itself (killed or attenuated) or proteins extracted from the pathogen? Diptheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines are examples of toxoid vaccines - I'm sure you've heard of them.


"The vaccines have no capacity to actually cause disease."

Not true in the case of shingles. Children vaccinated against chickenpox have an increased risk of shingles as adults. One of many cases where having (and surviving) a childhood disease leads to a more informed immune system.

Or how about the ability of tetanus immunizations to cause Antiphospholipid Syndrome?

Here is a study showing this ability in mice but still it refutes your contention that, "vaccines have no capacity to actually cause disease" unless you would like to weasel out by saying a syndrome is not the same as a disease - yes, but it is a harmful condition caused by an immunization.

Vaccine model of antiphospholipid syndrome induced by tetanus vaccine

"Successful induction of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) in two different non-autoimmune prone mouse strains, BALB/c and C57BL/6, was achieved by tetanus toxoid (TTd) hyperimmunization using different adjuvants (glycerol or aluminium hydroxide), and different adjuvant pretreatments (glycerol or Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA))."

Or maybe you would like to discuss encephalitis caused by pertussis and MMR vaccinations?

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program considers encephalitis to be a "table injury" in which the plaintiff has the presumption of compensation and is not required to prove injury by the preponderance of evidence if symptoms occur within 72 hours of the pertussis immunization or 15 days of the MMR immunization. Seems to be a matter of "settled science" by your fellow government employees scientists LOL


"In addition, the toxins from pathogens are detoxified when made into vaccines, so they do not and cannot have the same effect on the body that the actual pathogen has."

No Mom, the attenuated viruses produce less of their toxins but that does not mean they are "detoxified" as some of the toxins are still produced. Lets try to be precise here as befits a real scientist such as yourself.


"Another consideration is that if the immune response to a vaccine were capable of causing autism, then the immune response to the disease being prevented would cause autism."

Poor reasoning Mom. It doesn't have to be the disease being vaccinated against that would be the cause of autism. You fail to take into account the effects that adjuvants included in the vaccine have on the recipient's immune system. Sensitizing the immune system to increase its reaction to the vaccine's included pathogen also sensitizes the immune system to other pathogens or even other biologically active materials that may be in the recipient's body at the time of the immunization and the immune system's heightened response to any of these other pathogens or biologically active materials may be the cause of other diseases or syndromes.

The human body is a soup containing many live and biologically active materials which in small quantities are beneficial or even necessary to health but which in larger quantities are harmful - and an immune system sensitized by a vaccine's adjuvants may not be able to make this distinction and may be trained to attack even the small (necessary) amounts of these microbes and substances.

[Neoliberalnot]

Hey Tater, your responses herein contain several inaccuracies. Tell us how many hours of college level bacteriology, virology, immunology, and toxicology you have completed with at least a grade of C. An estimate will do. It is not hard to detect the education and logic exDemMom has offered.

[Garth Tater]

"Hey Tater, your responses herein contain several inaccuracies"

Well you certainly pointed out the errors in my post well.

Thank you for your very informative corrections!

[Neoliberalnot]

“Children vaccinated against chickenpox have an increased risk of shingles as adults.””

Here is your first major blunder.

How many credits do you have? You didn’t answer my simple questions, did you?

[Tax-chick]

You have a good week, too, and a Merry Christmas and a Happy Pat’s Birthday (that’s Friday ;-).

I agree that some diligent number crunching (Oh, Pat ...) would determine whether the correlation you’re positing, parents with graduate degrees in the same or related subjects, holds up. Hopefully someone will do it, because it would be very informative.

[Garth Tater]

Here is a link that says you are wrong. Can you provide me a link that agrees with you or are you just going to take Mom's word for it because she is a real scientist?

Chickenpox Is Nature's Way of Protecting You from Shingles

Nature has devised an elegant plan for protecting you from the shingles virus.

"After contracting and recovering from chickenpox (usually as a child), as you age, your natural immunity gets asymptomatically "boosted" by coming into contact with infected children, who are recovering from chickenpox. This natural "boosting" of natural immunity to the varicella (chickenpox) virus helps protect you from getting shingles later in life."

"How many credits do you have? You didn’t answer my simple questions, did you?"

You choose to argue from authority - a logical fallacy - and you wonder why I don't respond? In my experience, only fools and sheep argue from authority. Are you either of those or do you, perhaps, have another reason for not being able to argue your case logically?

Argument from authority

"An argument from authority, also called an appeal to authority, or the argumentum ad verecundiam[note 1], is a form of defeasible[4] argument in which a claimed authority's support is used as evidence for an argument's conclusion. It is well known as a fallacy"

[Albion Wilde]

We are a member racleccase

Huh?

[Albion Wilde]

You are indicating that the fetus, even at 3 months’ development, is somehow aware of the mother’s emotional investment? Wow, I’d better rethink some of the arguments I had with my husband to assemble the crib!

I’m not disbelieving it; in fact, it would explain several families I know. I’d really like to know more.

[Albion Wilde]

I thought it was a sign that Lili was actually quite smart, and I was right, she is. Now 9 years old, she is not at all Autistic but she does march to her own beat, she’s a bit of a tomboy and seems to have inherited her father’s love of all things mechanical, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Knowing a family friend's daughter like this, I do hope this child receives support from her family to ward off any problems, possibly including a reliable therapist. When such children are young, they can indeed sort things out and make order of their rooms, their family pantry or linen closet, the toy room, etc. But as they grow and start to experience the often disorderly way most other individuals and institutions operate, their frustration levels rise and sometimes result in anger outbursts or being known as "crazy", "anal", stubborn or troublesome in school or at work.

The other issue is that the transgender movement is making an effort to "recruit" Asperger kids. Of course, they are putting out a bunch of b.s. "literature" to support their claims that this is an inevitable link. So the choice of a reliable counselor must screen out the danger of indoctrination on this issue.

The Transgender Movement Targets Autistic Children

[Albion Wilde]

Another well thought out comment. Thank you.

And always so polite and kind that one feels eager to take her point of view into consideration.

[Neoliberalnot]

Exposure to wild type varicella zoster puts older adults at great risk for shingles because of the recrudescence of herpes virus. The chances of this from an attenuated vaccine are quite remote.

It has nothing to do with position of authority. It has to do with accumulated knowledge and experience in a field. Too many people out there pretend to be something they are not. It’s easy to do on the internet but very difficult to do in face to face encounters. I’ve dealt with too many clients, have you? You avoided answering the questions that would be revealing of what you are, not what you pretend to be. That’s ok because it is a common practice on the Internet.

[Neoliberalnot]

Whatever. Lol

[Albion Wilde]

"do believe there are a cadre of childhood diseases that vast majority of children weather and in turn, I believe, are stronger for experiencing them.”

Well, yes, if they weather them, but the dead ones don’t. Their survival is based on the same principles of immunoligical response as is the use of vaccines. However, vaccines don’t contain the live agent in most cases or perhaps a much smaller dose of an agent that has low virulence.

Which brings us to the social-demographic aspect of this dilemma. Before birth control, when women were not expected to become educated and usually married young and had many children, there were many more fetal, infant and early child deaths. One of my grandmothers delivered 8 children but only 4 survived early childhood; and the other grandmother delivered 4 and only 3 survived. Parents of course mourned these deaths, but it was much more a part of one's expectations than today.

Biologically, it is better for the species to have "the fittest" survive childhood before they, in turn, reproduce.

Today, with women delaying childbearing, engaging in smoking and drinking, ingesting food and environmental chemicals, applying chemical cosmetics and sunscreen to their bodies' largest organ (the skin) and using birth control chemicals, in addition to delaying marriage and childbearing into their 30s and 40s, it is a wonder that any child is born entirely well.

But because every child is now a cherished specimen, and because the death of a child is an occasion for blaming the medical profession and suing, children whom Mother Nature might not have helped to thrive in the past are now expected to take their place in the gene pool, because Mom is 38 and finally found a man. This is not how it's supposed to be. When I see photos of post-surgical premature infants hooked up to machines and breathing tubes lying exposed in isolettes for months until they can breathe on their own, I feel very concerned for them.

Study: Anesthesia Before Age 3 Linked to Later Mental Problems

Anesthesia: Is it Safe for Young Brains?

Early Childhood Anesthesia Linked to Problems with Language, Memory

Likewise with this inbreeding of brain disorders like autism: there needs to be more emphasis on maternal health and care. I worked a high-pressure job with deadlines and lost my first, greatl-anticipated pregnancy. It changed my habits considerably next time around; however, comparing pregnancies, the first one seemed less attached and more like a "primer." Older friends of mine comforted me by saying their mother lost 6 pregnancies before she had her 5 children. Now, the trend in society is to expect perfection from self and others, including one's doctors and one's infants.

[Tax-chick]

I strive to be nice, although I know that’s not the same as being right or even being good. I want good manners and consideration to be so deeply habitual that those will be my primary characteristics when I have dementia.

[Albion Wilde]

Peter Thiel: Asperger’s can be a big advantage in Silicon Valley

[Vermont Lt]

Damn, I miss the 1920’s.

[Neoliberalnot]

A very, very, insightful comment.

[Neoliberalnot]

One other thought, mothers like you should have 10 kids. The qualities you possess should be passed on to many.

Grandmothers on both sides of my family lost children at early ages. The generation before lost about half their kids to childhood infectious diseases. The grief these families must have endured to too terrible to contemplate.