Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Age of Autism: The Amish anomaly
The Washington Times ^ | April 18, 2005 | Dan Omstead

Posted on 04/20/2005 8:26:42 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amish; autism; cooksbrains; mercury; rx; vaccines
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 441-457 next last
To: walden

This may be true. My stepson, who is 27(I married his mother when he was 18), is so typical of many in his generation. He has had TV, MTV, Walkmans, MP3 players etc available all his life, and now can't stand his own company. He needs constant stimulation either electronically or of the human kind. I find it very interesting how many kids today are like that. I used to and still do love my quiet time.


81 posted on 04/20/2005 9:35:05 AM PDT by redangus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Orgiveme
but I'm sure most doctors would (and what does that tell you?)

It tells me that you put your faith in doctors, and most people do....It does not tell me that they are correct, however.

82 posted on 04/20/2005 9:35:58 AM PDT by colorcountry (All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They. ...Rudyard Kipling)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: TomB
No, ALL CHILDREN's vaccines (the flu vaccine isn't on the child vaccination schedule, you are not required to get it) have had thimerosal removed from them for years.

Please read items 3 and 4 from your own cite, and tell me again why we should believe anything put out by the medical community.

Sigh.

83 posted on 04/20/2005 9:37:05 AM PDT by Egon (Liberals: The only group of people they don't want to kill are those that kill others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: hobbes1
Yes, they have. and they are going down steadily.

Autism rates are going down?

Link please?

84 posted on 04/20/2005 9:37:35 AM PDT by TomB ("The terrorist wraps himself in the world's grievances to cloak his true motives." - S. Rushdie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Wuli

Correct on correlation/causation. A major flaw in pop-ed articles these days in Time, Newsweek, the NY Times .....


85 posted on 04/20/2005 9:37:59 AM PDT by dennisw ("Sursum corda")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: expatpat
I have set up an elephant defense system, and not one elephant has penetrated it in 30 years!

Wow!! I need one o' them thangs too! Did you know that 75% of people who died last week ate carrots the week before they died? Guess I'd better give up eating carrots and I'll live forever.

It's scary to see the number of folk out there who "truly believe" and no study can prove otherwise to them. It's a religion to them.

Dang, I need to give up clicking on these threads.

86 posted on 04/20/2005 9:39:00 AM PDT by Spyder (I'm in the WPPFF)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: TomB

thanks for being level-headed.


87 posted on 04/20/2005 9:39:12 AM PDT by peacebaby (I have hope.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: redangus

Your stepson is trapped in the short attention span theater


88 posted on 04/20/2005 9:39:26 AM PDT by dennisw ("Sursum corda")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: TomB
Many of the people on this thread are throwing out disinformation and do not know what they are talking about.

Please be extremely careful of calling the kettle black.

89 posted on 04/20/2005 9:39:39 AM PDT by Egon (Liberals: The only group of people they don't want to kill are those that kill others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: colorcountry

I did the whole childhood illness thing too. Measles- German and 3 day, mumps, chickenpox etc. Not only did I survive, but I am very healthy today. My mother believed that you vaccinated for the big stuff, Polio and Smallpox, but other than that what didn't kill you made you stronger.

She also encouraged me to play in the dirt, which according to my wife would have horrified mothers of 10-15 years ago.


90 posted on 04/20/2005 9:39:58 AM PDT by redangus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: TomB

The argument is not the MMR vaccine alone, it is the toxic mercury, in the system making one susceptible to having their body invaded by the measels in the vaccine.....It generally manifests in the abdomen.


91 posted on 04/20/2005 9:40:05 AM PDT by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you dont have to...." ;)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: netmilsmom

A correlation (nothing more apparently) has been found between watching TV and becoming a bully. The more a kid watches TV, the more likely he will turn into a bully. Same for the use of drugs - that finding goes way back.


92 posted on 04/20/2005 9:40:05 AM PDT by Dante3
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: agsloss

Keep me posted on part II if you please.


93 posted on 04/20/2005 9:41:25 AM PDT by Mark in the Old South (Sister Lucia of Fatima pray for us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Spyder
It's scary to see the number of folk out there who "truly believe" and no study can prove otherwise to them. It's a religion to them.

Indeed. On both sides of the fence.

Some of us would be satisfied if the "experts" would simply agree to acknowledge that going from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 166 does, in fact, bear looking into.

94 posted on 04/20/2005 9:42:25 AM PDT by Egon (Liberals: The only group of people they don't want to kill are those that kill others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: agsloss

It's actually because the Grays leave the Amish alone. Truman knew about it but conspired with the Bilderbergers to cover it up. Kennedy was about to spill the beans which is why they had him killed.


95 posted on 04/20/2005 9:42:31 AM PDT by Redcloak (But what do I know? I'm just a right-wing nut in his PJs whackin' on a keyboard..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redangus
Yes, but you didnt get nearly the amount being given today.

According to the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research (CBER) calculations, an infant six months old who got all vaccine doses on schedule would receive 75 micrograms of mercury from three doses of DTaP, 75 micrograms from three doses of Hib, and 37.5 micrograms from three doses of hepatitis B vaccine - a total of 187.5 micrograms of mercury.

Starting the day after birth.

96 posted on 04/20/2005 9:43:00 AM PDT by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you dont have to...." ;)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: agsloss

Jumping to that conclusion based on this anecdote is a bit reckless; the Amish don't watch MTV either.


97 posted on 04/20/2005 9:43:17 AM PDT by Old Professer (As darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good; innocence is blind.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Egon
Please read items 3 and 4 from your own cite, and tell me again why we should believe anything put out by the medical community.

There is almost none of the old stocks remaining, considering we went to unit-dose containers in the mid-90s. So while there still may be some around the fact is that all vaccines produced since 2000 have no thimerosal in them.

Now, please deal with the main point, considering thimerosal has been declining in use since the mid-90s, why hasn't the autism rate gone down as well?

98 posted on 04/20/2005 9:44:17 AM PDT by TomB ("The terrorist wraps himself in the world's grievances to cloak his true motives." - S. Rushdie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: Koblenz
Read Jeremiah 29:

5": Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
"6": Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
11": For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
"12": Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
"13": And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

99 posted on 04/20/2005 9:44:35 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (It was a joke. You know, humor. Like the funny kind. Only different.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: redangus
She also encouraged me to play in the dirt, which according to my wife would have horrified mothers of 10-15 years ago.

Oh yes, play in the dirt by all means....and if you do get cut, soap and hot water followed by sunshine was the prescription of the day. (and one I still follow)

100 posted on 04/20/2005 9:45:44 AM PDT by colorcountry (All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They. ...Rudyard Kipling)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 441-457 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson