Posted on 03/29/2014 6:42:23 AM PDT by Star Traveler
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by:
Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts;
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities;
Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (typically recognized in the first two years of life); and,
Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.
The term “spectrum” refers to the wide range of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment or disability that children with ASD can have. Some children are mildly impaired by their symptoms, while others are severely disabled. The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) no longer includes Asperger’s syndrome; the characteristics of Asperger’s syndrome are included within the broader category of ASD.
Information on ASD can also be found on the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development website and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
> Why does it affect boys at such a high rate?
That’s a very good question, and one I couldn’t immediately find any leads on. I suspect it just part of the wider question of how boys and girls are different.
Looking at the various papers below and linked from
http://www.drperlmutter.com/learn/studies/
none of them address the question of why this affects males more than females.
autism later
Yes I have a son who is 21. He will never drive a car or obtain employment and will need support for the rest of his life.
We and many other families simply don't know what to do when we are to old to care for them. The idea of shipping him off to some group home fills me with dread.
The state, local and federal programs work about as well as ObamaCare.
I just don't want him to end up living under some overpass.
I just don't know what we are going to do. As of now there are no good options and the prospects are bleak.
They still don't know what causes it or how to effectively treat it. All the medical docs can do is throw different meds at him.
Bmkflr
I do wish that society would approach some things differently. I can imagine something like an almshouse where people could go and be cared for. Food, a bed, some simple level of care. It's better than living under an overpass.
Unfortunately, many people feel that a sparkling hospital setting, with a big, highly-trained staff, lots of equipment and lots of expensive medication is the only way to go. And then it's either "We're taking everyone's money in order to pay for this" or else "We just can't afford to help you".
I'd like to see some sort of middle ground where people can just be looked after. But that almost seems illegal these days in which the only acceptable solutions are Big Government solutions.
You wrote the quote "(1) those who are totally ignorant of the subject and what is going on, and post from their IGNORANCE, and/or post solely from an "agenda" or political motive -- and " and so I am trying to find out what your position is. If you choose not to clarify YOUR position then I still will have no idea what you are referencing.
Of course, there's no money in that...
Yes, possibly. I have an oldest daughter with Asperger's and two children who do NOT have it, so this diet issue must affect one and not the others? They all have the same diet.
When one child walks around the perimeter of the playground over and over again ... I could go on and on. We started homeschooling after first grade. She's also gifted.
One thing that intrigues me is gut bacteria. My oldest daughter was slammed with Roseola when she was a year old. It made her eyes bug out (I think one is damaged to this day) and caused a high fever spike. She had a round of antibiotics for that and then later two more rounds for ear infections.
I WISH I'd known then what I know now about probiotics. The poor child was never given any. :-( I did give them children's yogurt, but that's about it.
Now, many parents are giving their children probiotics regularly.
Psychologists are starting to treat anxiety, depression, and OCD with probiotics.
It was meant only in the framework, “if the shoe fits, wear it” - otherwise “forget it” ...
If you don’t think the shoe fits ... forget it ... :-) ...
THEN ... you can discuss with the others here who deal with their own Autism issues and offer information that may help them with their ASD kids, or even learn something new from these Freepers who are dealing with it everyday.
And are Eric Holder and Chris Christie going to bust up these criminal schemes? No, of course not.
What about soy formula?
I have a son with Asperger’s and I’ll tell you exactly why there are more diagnoses now than in the past.
Before the era of no hit, no taunt discipline, either parents, siblings or school mates of the milder cases would beat, berate, belittle or otherwise coerce a suppression of the ‘aberrant’ behaviors.
I know from personal experience that high functioning kids can learn how to internalize or rechannel their behavior dramatically under these conditions.
We are sheltering our son as best we can, and trying to help him steer his choices rather than dictate them to him. We see glimpses from time to time that he understands he is going to need to learn how to find a niche in larger society. I hate that there are no easy answers to any of this.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
In order to be diagnosed with a mental disorder, the patient must be tested by a qualified psychological examiner. A family doctor might suspect a mental disorder, but cannot give a legal diagnosis of a mental disorder. Also, one symptom included in a mental disorder cannot be used to make a diagnosis as there are a number of qualifiers (symptoms) required before a diagnosis can be given.
People are different. We can say “most” people react “this way” to “x” but we can’t say a person who doesn’t act that way, is defective (however some are labeled anyway). Some people are outside that norm, and highly intelligent people is one group who frequently are outside the norm. These people tend to have an IQ of over 130. They are usually in the 99 percentile which would be in the area of 140 IQ and up. That means they are smarter than 99 people out of 100. That means one person out of 100 would be able to well follow and understand that brilliant person. As a result, people would tend to not include that brilliant person in their group of friends – and that tends to isolate the brilliant person. If we slapped a label on this brilliant person due to “his/her” lack of social interaction, we would be wrong. The group of people are the ones who isolated the brilliant person, the brilliant person did not intentionally isolate him/herself.
Why a brilliant person sometimes, or most of the time, intentionally socially isolates him/herself:
This person thinks at a very high level and his/her brain likely is always working on problems and solutions to problems, creating diagrams, building objects, working on changing how something works, creating poetry, developing and studying intense math problems, figuring out how one chemical reacts with another chemical, etc.. This interests this person so much, they keep working mentally and physically most of the time. This work is not work to them – it is their relaxation and their joy to create. They are marvelously different than others. We have a tendency to label someone as “weird” if he/she doesn’t fit into the mainstream. So, we develop a label and stick it on that person for being different. These different people have enriched our world with great accomplishments.
Here is a list of some people suspected to have Asperger’s (Asperger’s no longer exists in the DSM V, so these people would now be suspected of having the new label of Autism Spectrum Disorder). As you read these names, consider what they have in common: Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, Carl Jung, Emily Dickinson, George Bernard Shaw, George Washington, Henry Ford, Henry Thoreau, Isaac Newton, Jane Austen, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mark Twain, Michelangelo, Richard Strauss, Thomas Edison, Thomas Jefferson, Vincent Van Gogh, Alfred Hitchcock, Hans Asperger (Austrian pediatric doctor after whom Asperger’s Syndrome is named), Isaac Asimov.
These brilliant people were intensely concentrating on solving problems and creating, and how they did create! But, hey, they were different and missed social gatherings, likely had few friends except those who understood what they were doing. They could not relate to the vast group of “normal” people because they were different. I suspect normal people stayed away from them on purpose, too. If all they were going to talk about was some weird thing like a light in a bulb instead of an oil lamp or gas light, who would want to be around that? And, what about why something falls down instead of going up – stay away from that nut case, Isaac Newton.
Who wants to visit that nut case woman who constantly write words that rhyme – I’m not having tea with Jane Austen, ‘cause she is touched in the head. There is a guy who lives in the next block, and all he does is write math numbers and weird signs on the wall – Albert Einstein needs to be put in a mental hospital and I’m staying away from him.
I know a few brilliant people who are different and at least one has been suspected of having Asperger’s. He doesn’t.
I’ll post this and post more, zeroing in specifically on what it takes to get an Autism Spectrum Disorder “label”. We’ll look at the actual symptoms a person must have before getting that label.
Just remember, because some people are different does not mean they are defective.
> One thing that intrigues me is gut bacteria.
If you browse around on Perlmutter’s site, you’ll see that it also intrigues him. He’s even starting a professional journal just for that topic. (The other thing you’ll see a lot is recommendations for Vitamin D supplementation, which I neglected to mention earlier.)
Gut biome is definitely on the radar in LCHF/paleo/primal circles. And a lot of what’s in standard diet is destructive to beneficial gut bacteria: high glycemic foods, gluten-bearing grains, antibiotics in meats, insecticide residues (and actual insecticide in Bt GMOs), glyphosate uptake in RR crops, etc. Some may not be a big deal, but all are worth avoiding. You can add them back later as a challenge.
The leading edge of gut biome research is FMT, which no one would consider except that it has striking results.
> Yes, possibly. I have an oldest daughter with Asperger’s and two children who do NOT have it, so this diet issue must affect one and not the others?
If it’s a gut biome issue, it could simply be the difference in the mother’s microbiota for each birth, because that’s where the kid gets their starter dose. I’ve also read that Cesarean Section leaves the kid quite deficient, which is not surprising.
It could also be infant antibiotics.
> I WISH I’d known then what I know now about probiotics.
Yep. I recently had a course of antibiotics, and chose to follow that up with a month of PBs, suspecting that the AB would trash my gut, and it appeared to, and it’s returning to normal.
> Psychologists are starting to treat anxiety, depression, and OCD with probiotics.
Anyone doing this on their own needs to know that most retail room-temp PBs are worthless (consumerlab.com tests PBs, if you have a subscription). If it doesn’t come out of the pharmacy fridge, don’t buy it (or just order VSL#3 online, which ships refrigerated).
The statistical formulas can always be fudged for money. It starts with samples. Who is being tested, how, and who is going to do the assessment of the results. The one looking for something will see what might not be there. We all do it. just search for “flawed statistics.” Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, just that not as many people should be included.
A big problem is with initial research and the almighty grants. Just read that there are 20,000 tests created every year. BIG money for universities.
I was just thinking last night that basic statistical analysis (bell curve) may in itself be flawed. The originator was also the founder of eugenics. Worrisome to me.
I meant to ping you to my post 93.
Glad to get more of your writings ... :-) ...
This is what should be applied to those with PTS and also those with suicidal tendencies. Healing the brain, like physical therapy. Exciting stuff. Thanks for the post.
> What about soy formula?
I’ve never looked into commercial bady formula products. I’d expect to be horrified by most them (high glycemic).
This might be worth a look:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/soy-baby-formula
I personally don’t eat unfermented soy anymore, and very little of that.
My son was also fascinated with fans, a spinner, started talking late, and had problems communicating what he knew. He had senior level reading skills in 6th grade but couldn’t write a stitch. Other than being told he was borderline ADD, and being hated by his lesbian principal, no other major issues. He does hate math, too. He is very mechanically inclined (so am I) and does have problems with friends. He is now 22 and a Marine. A great rifleman and aRtistic (but doesn’t do it anymore-I kept all his work).
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