competition keeps us solo...

When you have to scrap for services the way we do here in Australia, you don't get time to join forces and push for change.

The wait for services is typically six months, sometimes a year. The only way I've acquired services for Milli is to jump the queue with letters spelling out our extreme need. I'm sure others are in extreme need too, but when you're drowning, you're hardly capable of noticing who else is in the water.

Maybe if the government found money to fund more respite care and intervention, we'd all have a moment of rest. And in that moment I'm sure parents of disabled children would see ourselves in others' eyes, and maybe even join hands. And then we'd really start to get something done.

For instance, we might think about the current scientific paradigm and ask ourselves whether it's normal for a genetic illness to increase in the population over time? No, it isn't.

Or we might question why the Hepatitis B jab introduced mercury to a host of newborns exactly as it was being phased out of vaccines for older children?

Or we might ask why government and commercial funding is being poured into finding the genes involved and no money (to my knowledge) is being channelled toward finding and removing the environmental factors?

Something causes autism. But prevention doesn't bring shouts of 'Eureka!'

So you thought bird flu was bad...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/26/Were-Tainted-Vaccines-a-Conspiracy-to-Provoke-a-Pandemic.aspx

If you can't access the link, in brief it's an article by Dr Mercola about American-made flu vaccines that turned out, once they arrived in the Czech Republic, to be pure H5N1 (avian flu) instead. Fortunately for the Czechs and probably the world, the 'mix-up' was discovered before the contaminated vaccines were released to the public.

Mercola argues that if the bird flu jabs had been administered to patients who also developed ordinary flu, the result might very well have been a new flu that not only caused high mortality but spread massively more efficiently than the original avian disease. Notably the US had also begun to buy huge stocks of avian flu vaccine in the expectation of a pandemic. The article suggests that the companies likely to profit by sales of avian flu vaccines may have deliberately attempted to engineer their required use.

Weird, and almost unbelievable... And yet I'm reminded of the feeling I had when I first read that autism may be linked to heavy metals in vaccines. I thought, 'Oh it couldn't be true.' Yet when I chelated Milli to remove heavy metals, it brought back her swallowing reflex and allowed her to eat and drink.

'Oh it couldn't be true' is a knee-jerk reaction to something that threatens to upset deep-held beliefs, whether it's the belief that our authorities would never allow dangerous substances in vaccines, or that corporations would never release deadly epidemics in order to sell drugs. These beliefs are all we have been system and chaos; but sometimes, just occasionally, maybe the chaos is real.

More and more each year, something causes autism.

The gene hunt goes on...

Autism researchers go to great lengths to contain autism within a 'genetic' paradigm.

Early on, researchers said there might be one or two mutations involved.

When the search for those lone genes failed, the number of 'genetic risk factors' was extended to include hundreds. In keeping with the 'genetic' paradigm, researchers have suggested that each family may have its own form of autism unique to its genes. (http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/639982.html)

If every case of autism has its own 'genetic risk factor', then in what way is the syndrome genetic? By this logic, breaking your leg could be seen as genetic. A family where broken bones happen fairly often would almost certainly have 'genetic risk factors'. Of course, it could be that their staircase is uneven. If you choose to locate the weakness in their genes, you'd never know.

Welcome to the 'everything is genetic' age... Of course, blinkered thinking is probably genetic too.

Are paid 'pro-vaxers' dumping on alternate voices?

It used to be that when you googled 'autism and mercury' you found a host of well argued and researched papers, websites and personal accounts. Where are they now? Submerged by the deluge of websites run by medical experts, scientists or pro-science 'sceptics' poking fun and ridicule at anyone they call 'anti-vax'.

If I had my time again I'd still give my girl the DTP and Hib vaccines but I'd definitely hold back on the mercury laden Hep B newborn jab.

Is that anti vaccine? Nope. It's just informed choice. But you wouldn't know it reading the anti-choice blogs.

When science shields science, you have to worry about the world...

autism and politics

In 'Facing Autism in new Brunswick', Harold L Doherty talks eloquently about voting for a candidate most likely to improve facilities and treatment for people with autism.

If autism affects one in 100-160 (depending on source of figures) children in Australia, then that's a large number of voters who might make a difference.

Years ago I wrote a long letter to a Greens candidate here about autism and possible causes, but unfortunately that was in the days before the Greens had any Federal representation and therefore input on health. Now they do have representation, but the story of autism is so complex and so caught up in pharmaceutical, commercial and government interests that obtaining funding for 'environmental' causes seems unlikely. But perhaps improved treatment and support are obtainable.

Maybe now's the time to start talking as a group. Something causes autism.

gene spleen

Yet again I'm annoyed at the mainstream news for pussyfooting around dispensing the usual 'autism is linked to genes' spiel.
Yes, yes, linked to genes: but only at the level of a sensitivity to something environmental. Sometimes they grudgingly admit there are environmental factors, but only as 'triggers'. The image given is of autism as a genetically loaded gun just waiting to fire.

I'm currently working in schools, and in some schools, every class of about 25-30 students has at least 2 diagnosed spectrum children and a handful of others I'd be tempted to want to run by a good paediatrician. Something's badly rotten in the state of Denmark.

Actually, after reading the full report of the most famous study that supposedly exonerated Thimerosal, I'm not just speaking figuratively... Denmark was the site of the study. Every criticism I've read of the report seemed borne out when I looked at the source material: they changed the diagnostic parameters to include a wider range of patients, thus inflating the numbers. At the end of the study they were able to say that despite Thimerosal being withdrawn, the autism rate had climbed.

So next time you read that the Danish study was 'badly flawed', rest assured, they're not exaggerating.

I'll try to dig out the links I browsed...

autism and hepatitis B vaccine in newborns...

An interesting link that suggests a finding of triple autism rates in Hep B vaccinated boys. Sorry but you'll need to copy and past the URL into your browser...

http://philsbackupsite.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/new-study-hepatitis-b-vaccine-triples-the-risk-of-autism-in-infant-boys/

My son, who isn't autistic, was not vaccinated as a newborn; my daughter was. We lived in 2 different houses for both births, so this doesn't necessarily indicate a link. But the study, if accurate, gives reason to look further into vaccination and autism.