The Age of Autism: The Amish anomaly

The Washington Times ^ | April 18, 2005 | Dan Omstead

[agsloss]

Lancaster, PA, Apr. 18 (UPI) -- Part 1 of 2. Where are the autistic Amish? Here in Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, there should be well over 100 with some form of the disorder. I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism. The mainstream scientific consensus says autism is a complex genetic disorder, one that has been around for millennia at roughly the same prevalence. That prevalence is now considered to be 1 in every 166 children born in the United States. Applying that model to Lancaster County, there ought to be 130 Amish men, women and children here with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Well over 100, in rough terms. Typically, half would harbor milder variants such as Asperger's Disorder or the catch-all Pervasive Development Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified -- PDD-NOS for short. So let's drop those from our calculation, even though "mild" is a relative term when it comes to autism. That means upwards of 50 Amish people of all ages should be living in Lancaster County with full-syndrome autism, the "classic autism"...

-snip-

I have identified three Amish residents of Lancaster County who apparently have full-syndrome autism, all of them children. A local woman told me there is one classroom with about 30 "special-needs" Amish children. In that classroom, there is one autistic Amish child. Another autistic Amish child does not go to school. The third is that woman's pre-school-age daughter. If there were more, she said, she would know it. What I learned about those children is the subject of the next column.

[hobbes1]

Do you not understand the difference between the two...?

epidemiolgical methodology studies the distribution and determinants (e.g., risk factors, protective factors) of disease and other conditions related to health in a population....

We already know, that the effect is restricted to a subset of that population. Therefore, any accurate accumulation of data, has to morph towards culling from the affected subset.

[SoftballMominVA]

I can bring in just as many, and just as well documented Studies saying the exact opposite thing... Place the Root cause properly before your knees jerk out of socket and allow the Childhood Killers(Polio....WHooping Cough...etc..) to come back and kill humans by the millions...

My 15 year old daughter came down with whooping cough this winter. She only received one dose of her DPT shot--bad reaction to the first, so we only did DT after that.

The doctor said she was a lucky girl. Without that partial protection she would have been much sicker than she already was. I was scared out of my mind for her.

[Egon]

What does making a vaccine for a disease that doesn't have one have to do with vaccinating kids with current vaccines? And why would that create "more demand". Once they are vaccinated, they're vaccinated. There's no more demand.

The argument I was addressing has to do with creating a demand for stemcells.

According to an earlier post, you stated that only when creating a new vaccine are stemcells used.

I'm saying that drug companies typically do not stick with one vaccine and just make that forever.

They invent new vaccines, thus creating a demand for stemcells.

Hope this does the trick, 'cause I'm not sure I can make it any plainer.

...and by the way, "Once vaccinated, always vaccinated" doesn't wash either. Vaccinations, in many (if not most) cases, have an effective protection-giving period in the body. After that, you have to be re-vaccinated. Doesn't create stemcell demand in and of itself-- just pointing that out.

[SaltyJoe]

VermiciousKnid, I know where that name comes from.

Did you know that Willy Wonka is a compassionate conservative? It's obvious that he uses little brown men for union busting, but he also extends a helping hand to 3rd world nations by employing them. Perhaps over zealous conservative patriots don't like having guest workers in their country, but how can one reject the work ethic and generous souls of the oompa lumpas? Many kind-hearted Christians would embrace this form of social justice.

The creator of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl) hated the Willy Wonka movie. Read fact #10

http://www.borg.com/~superman/Facts.html

But the uncredited script goes mostly to David Seltzer. It will be interesting watching the journey of his soul's work:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/davidseltzer.html

Personally, I don't think that Wonka would like any title that assumes human respect (liberal, conservative, etc.). He's just a man with a vision, a guy that has a compassionate heart for sharing that vision, and a guy with a great recipe for chocolate. I've never tried, but if it's anything like Lady Godiva, then it's got to be good, right?

[Orgiveme]

The 'discovery' of autism by an American physician coincided with the increasing availability of the pertussis vaccine in the '40s. At that point, autism was unknown in other countries.

I like this history; can you give a source? This would explain a lot.

I, personally, have seen a clear connection in many cases to Pitocin-induction deliveries -- not just autism, though, but the autistic spectrum disorders, so called, including ADHD. I have also seen a connection between autism and other (non-autistic) family members with so-called lazy eye. I think Stanford's latest research indicates a genetic weakness for autism, and have nailed it to a specific gene or genes, which would explain what I have observed with the lazy-eye connection.

I think that causes for autistic spectrum disorders are probably going to be found to be muli-factoral, but I do believe that the med/pharm industry is heavily and dishonestly promoting the belief that vaccination has nothing to do with autism, and I think that's patently untrue.

[discostu]

I'm touting the line of logic. The definition of autism has expanded dramatically in the last 25 years as we've gotten a better understanding of it. Childhood behavior that never would have been called autism 25 years ago is now autism, when definitions expand you expect the rate of diagnosis to expand with it, that's simple logic. Don't need hands on experience to apply simple logic, autism is by no means the only thing that's gone through a similar growth in definition and diagnosis in the last 25 years, ADHD and obesity have gone through the same process of becoming synthetic "epidemics".

I've read the studies and there's absolutely nothing that indicates a causative link.

[TheBattman]

Except the fact that the fetus line only has a usable life up to 20 years before a new line must be used. But that info is available at the same sites already posted. Where do new lines come from? More aborted fetuses.

[hobbes1]

THE DOSE MAKES THE POISON.

Thats right. And that is exactly the argument.

As Vaccines Containing thimerosal were added to the NIP schedule, someone was asleep at the switch in calculating the cumulative dose of Mercury that newborns were receiving.

Since the mid-1980s the agency has doubled the number of vaccines children get, up to nearly 40 doses before age 2.

[hobbes1]

Dr. Neal Halsey was in charge of the vaccine program at the American Academy of Pediatrics from1995 to 1999. When asked about the mercury that babies received under his watch, he told a reporter, "My first reaction was simply disbelief... what I believed, and what everybody else believed, was that [mercury] was truly a trace, a biologically insignificant amount. My honest belief is that if the labels had had the mercury content in micrograms, this would have been uncovered years ago. But the fact is, no one did the calculation."

[Orgiveme]

http://www.danconference.com/index.htm Defeat Autism Now There are some very interesting findings coming out that indicate the children who do not have good pathways to rid their bodies of heavy metals are the ones who are susceptible to Autism from heavy metal exposure. They concentrate it in their tissues - gut, brain, etc. There have been some improvements in their disease by chelation and methyl-B12 injections. New book out by David Kirby: Evidence of Harm : Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy by David Kirby

Removing mercury fillings is very tricky and important (in preventing cancer, as well). Cilantro, the herb, is a very effective mercury chelator. All chelation efforts should be very carefully done and monitored. Learn all you can about all forms of chelation before trying it, but absolutely don't discount it.

Also keep in mind that not all autistic symptoms may be the result of mercury directly, per se, but may have to do with other effects: auto-immune effects from other drugs (Pitocin), closed-head-type trauma from birth, etc. Additionally, any brain insult can result in mercury not being blocked at the gut-level as a secondary effect.

[Egon]

You have to admit that it isn't likely that there are many tech nerds among the Amish population.

For some reason, that reminded me of a gift my father-in-law gave me: A Norwegian calculator. It's a piece of wood with five-finger holes in it, and an available piece of string for "memory".

Life is good.

[ran15]

"Even the medical authorities are (slowly) being forced to admit that autism and its related disorders are now pandemic (not an epidemic but no longer just incidental, either)."

Someone earlier in the thread said 1 out of 160 or so kids are now autistic. That seems ridiculusly high for a naturally occuring genetic disease. That would mean in America 2 million people would be autistic.

And asking the pharmacuetical companies or the doctors if it is safe seems suicidal to me. Its like asking the butcher and the beef farmer if the meat they are selling is safe to eat. Like you say, the people questioning it are other parts of the system who are bearing the huge costs.

Also I wonder how many people were affected by whatever the cause is, but not to the point where they were debilated.

[Egon]

Shalom.

...and to you!

I've admired your work on the OFST!

[TigerTale]

My parents, of somewhat conservative Mennonite background...

What branch of Mennonitism are (were) your parents? My family was General Conference Mennonite before the recent unification of the GCs and the Mennonite Church into the new Mennonite Church U.S.A.

Just curious.

[Orgiveme]

The gene pool is shallow.

That may be the cause, but not necessarily.

[Marysecretary]

If they're having a study,they might do that but I don't think the older Amish had much truck with doctors. They preferred homeopathic medicines. Interesting group of people.

[Marysecretary]

I think we are all toxic waste dumps!

[js1138]

Autism rates are going down? Link please?

I don't think so. Else why all the threads about autism on the increase. Mercury in vaccines has all but been eliminated and the diagnosis of autism and Aspergers is on the increase.

[Orgiveme]

The MMR vaccine never, ever had thimerosal in it.

Please cite your source as you did above, but please be more specific.

FYI, thimerosal is not the ONLY problem with modern vaccination practices: too-early vaccination and ganging them up is also problematic.

Again: do you have personal exposure to the autism problem, like a family member or a friend?

Just curious.

[rightwingmomX2]

you are fighting a whooping cough epidemic because the vaccine deosn't work. If it did it would not matter if a child had it and wasn't vaccinated if your kid was. if it worked your kid wouldn't get it!! There is alot of evidence that vaccines do more harm than good and alot of Dr.s are coming around and admitting this.