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WASHINGTON (AP) — Emery Eversoll and her mother shared a good laugh when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that some autistic children will never write poems.The 16-year-old’s bedroom is full of notebooks featuring her verses. Sometimes, she quietly recites poetry to get through an outburst of anger. Her mother began suspecting she may have autism, in part, because she had memorized every word from a favorite book by age 2.Still, this Kansas family is optimistic about Kennedy’s plans to launch a broad-based study of what causes autism, the complex developmental disorder that impacts the brain...

A research team has unveiled the cause and molecular mechanism of chronic brain inflammation that results in repetitive behavioral disorders. The research team demonstrated that an inflammatory response by immune cells in the brain induces overactivity in certain receptors, which may, in turn, lead to the meaningless repetitive behaviors observed in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The research involved mice with a mutated NLRP3 gene. This gene mutation stimulates a chronic inflammatory response by immune cells in the brain that are called microglia. Prolonged inflammation overactivates N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors, which are important for excitatory...

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, has been a topic in the news a lot recently, yet the complex neurological condition remains widely misunderstood. Autism is a difference in how someone’s brain works that shapes how they interact with the world. Clinically, it’s a disorder that affects brain development and causes social communication and behavioral differences. With such a wide range of traits, autism truly is a spectrum. Gaining a deeper understanding of these nuances is key. We address some common myths and offer guidance on supporting children and families after a diagnosis. What causes autism? There is no single known...

In a nutshell: Left-handed and mixed-handed people appear significantly more often in certain mental and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and schizophrenia, with mixed-handedness showing the strongest association. Three factors predict higher rates of unusual handedness: neurodevelopmental conditions, disorders with early onset, and conditions affecting language function. Not all mental health conditions show this pattern—depression, dyscalculia, and pedophilia showed no significant differences in handedness compared to the general population. Left-handed people appear significantly more often among those with certain mental and neurodevelopmental disorders, according to groundbreaking research that analyzed data from over 200,000 individuals. This connection potentially offers a window into...

A few decades ago, autism was rare, but then it rose meteorically. “Reported rates of autism in the United States increased from 30 per 10,000 children in the 1990s, a 10-fold increase. Since the 1990s, we have seen another tenfold increase. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects an estimated 1 in 31 children and 1 in 45 adults in the United States today.

[MULTIPLE VIDEO EXCERPTS AT LINK] This story originally appeared on vigilantfox.com and was republished with permission. RFK Jr. is perhaps the most impactful HHS Secretary we’ve ever seen—but if you read the mainstream news, you’d think his first 100 days were a disaster. While chronic disease drains trillions from Americans every year, the press can’t stop obsessing over measles. Just look at these headlines: “As measles cases rise, some parents become vaccine enthusiasts.” “US measles cases near 900, outbreaks reported in 10 states.” “Measles may be making a comeback in the U.S., Stanford Medicine experts warn.” It makes you think...

A day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network survey showed a significant increase in the prevalence of autism, United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called for a look at environmental factors that could be causing the neurological disorder.Data from the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Tuesday shows that the prevalence of autism in the U.S. increased from 1 in 36 children to 1 in 31. The data collected in 2022 from 16 sites in the U.S. came from surveys of 8-year-old children born in...

ransomnote: The transcript below contains RFK Jr's remarks made in the first 12 minutes of the recording. Full video is 30 minutes in length.Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. : I'm going to go over some of the key numbers from the report.Overall, the autism is increasing in prevalence at an alarming rate. The study tests 8-year-olds who were born in 2014. And by the way, these studies are two years later than they should be. And one of the things that we're going to do as we move this function to the Administration For A Healthy America to the chronic...

You need to watch every second of this. It's going to BLOW YOUR MIND.

Prenatal exposure to higher levels of bisphenol A, a plastic commonly found in water bottles and packaging and known to leach into our foods and drinks, has been linked to autism spectrum disorder in boys, according to a new study that also identified the biological mechanism underlying this link. The risks of exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial chemical used in plastic manufacturing and found in a wide variety of plastic products, are well-documented. Known to leach out of plastics and into the foods and beverages we consume, studies have linked BPA to health issues primarily because it mimics...

Scientists studying mice have uncovered a delicate protein rivalry in the brain that, when thrown off balance, may cause autism-like behaviors. This discovery opens up a potentially powerful new path for autism treatment by targeting how nerve signals are regulated at the molecular level. Protein Imbalance Tied to Autism Symptoms Autism-like symptoms in mice appear when the balance between two key brain proteins is disrupted, according to a study published today (April 1) in PLOS Biology by Dongdong Zhao of Wenzhou Medical University, Yun-wu Zhang of Xiamen University, and their colleagues in China. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects about 1%...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links. The CDC's move comes amid one of the largest measles outbreaks the U.S. has seen in the past decade, with more than 200 cases and two deaths in Texas and New Mexico. The outbreak has been fueled by declining vaccination rates in parts of the United States where parents have been falsely persuaded that such shots do...

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said he would support a "broad scientific agenda" to get answers on what's causing rising autism rates in children.Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, on Wednesday appeared to be open to funding new studies investigating links between vaccines and autism — a theory that has been debunked by decades of research. Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine, said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that he doesn’t “generally believe” there’s a link between vaccines and autism. However, he didn’t rule out...

Melania Trump has addressed claims that her son Barron has autism for the first time in her new book. The former First Lady quashed the rumors, which began in the wake of her husband Donald Trump's election in 2016. Barron was just ten-years-old when one of the former president's biggest critics, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, sparked speculation Barron may have the condition. Melania said that the 'bullying' he was subjected to afterwards made it impossible to accept O'Donnell's eventual apology and accused the her of acting in 'sheer malice'. But she also revealed how it inspired her to focus her child-centric...

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - The United States will identify the cause of autism by September, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday, setting a deadline for an answer that has eluded scientists for decades. Autism diagnoses in the United States have increased significantly since 2000, intensifying public concern. By 2020, the U.S. autism rate in 8-year-olds was 1 in 36, or 2.77%, up from 2.27% in 2018 and 0.66% in 2000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "At your direction, we are going to know by September. We've launched...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a televised presidential cabinet meeting Thursday that his agency will investigate and identify the cause of rising autism rates in the U.S. by September, though scientists have said a large part of the jump in rates are linked to improvements in autism awareness and diagnoses. Kennedy said the Health and Human Services Department has started a “massive testing and research effort” involving “hundreds of scientists from around the world” that will allow the government to know by September the cause behind the jump in autism rates, adding “we’ll be...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: HHS RFK Jr announces by September we will know EXACTLY what caused the EXTREME Autism Epidemic in the US. 12:50 PM · Apr 10, 2025

Children exposed to fluoridated water in the first 10 years of life had a lower risk for tooth decay but a higher risk for several serious neurodevelopmental disorders, according to a peer-reviewed study published Wednesday in BMC Pediatrics. Autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disability and specific delays in development were all found at higher rates among children exposed to fluoride during their first decade of life. “It appears from this study that the public health intervention of fluoridated water may have traded brain health for tooth health,” Children’s Health Defense Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski said. The

I am; the scandal they want you to forget. This is so BIG. And here’s the punch line—there is no way the Senate wanted Dave Weldon to take the slot as CDC director. Why? Because Dave knows stuff. Bad stuff. HEAVY stuff about the CDC. Dave knows some CDC crimes that’ll make the American people jump off their couches with their hair on fire as they’re watching the TV news. And if Dave won confirmation and went over to the CDC as chief honcho, one day a lying vaccine researcher could walk into his office and start spouting a mountain...

Bryan Kohberger has autism, according to his lead defense lawyer, who is arguing the diagnosis means he should not face the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted of the murders of a group of University of Idaho students who were killed in a 4 a.m. home invasion attack in November 2022. “Bryan C. Kohberger, by and through his attorneys of record… hereby moves this Court to strike the death penalty as a sentencing option in his case because Mr. Kohberger’s autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reduces his culpability, negates the retributive and deterrent purposes of capital punishment, and...