For me, the denial that there is an autism epidemic is the medical equivalent of denial of the holocaust. In the spirit of protecting the vaccine industry from any linkage to autism, the pro-vax side not only denies that vaccines may be linked to autism but denies that there even is an autism epidemic. What a wonderful country. If there is no autism epidemic then vaccines don't cause autism. Case closed. March on with impugnity.
But the denial is even more important than that. The pro-vax side has no explanation for an autism epidemic. They have no way to explain the countless number of children who have changed with the sickness brought on by the childhood vaccines from normal and healthy to autistic other than to say that it is a coincidence. They have no way to explain why the autism rate which was so low when I grew up in the 60's to 1/160 now. So, it has always been that way. Problem solved.
I have always kept this tidbit in the same place as the denial of the actual autism rate which the CDC did up until February 2007 when they finally admitted that the autism rate is not 1/2500. My son was in elementary school from 1992 to 1998. At the time in a school of 250 children there were 3 autistic children. The odds agains that happening with the autism rate being 1/2500 are absurd. If it were a statistical test, it would be well beyond significant. (And I should blindly believe what the medical community tells me about vaccines and autism?)
The denial has always fallen into that category. I was thirty years old when I witnessed my first example of autism on sixty minutes. Now if I want to find an autistic person besides my son, I simply look down the street. Just as with the CDC's autism rate, simple observation belies the autism epidemic denier's claim. Still, there are those who try to convince me that the autism rate has never changed. They have always been there. We have always had children change as toddlers from normal progress to autism.
Now the University of California has come out with a study that shows that the autism epidemic is not a matter of diagnostics. It is real. http://journals.lww.com/epidem/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2009&issue=01000&article=00016&type=abstract But the autism epidemic deniers will attack it because it is so important that there is no link between autism and vaccines.
This is what happens when you start with the conclusion and look only for the evidence to support it.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Losing the ability to hold a pencil
At the end of fourth grade, David suffered another setback. He lost the ability to hold a pencil. Prior to this, and on his IEP, we insisted that David write in cursive script because he could. His handwriting, while not beautiful, was legible.
I cannot say how David felt about this since he was not verbal enough to express his dismay. I was ready to cry. I felt like what was David was being stripped away piece by piece by some unknown assailant. While I held my tongue, inwardly I was seething. I had nothing I could do about it. There was no known cause. I had nothing to go after. I was ready to cry in dispair.
It is an interesting side note that David had had the Hepatitis B shot just prior to losing the ability to hold a pencil. I did not know this until later when I examined his shot records. I can only conclude that there is a temporal relationship between the Hep-B vaccine and David's loss of the ability to hold a pencil. I cannot conclude that there is a causal relationship but contrary to what the medical community would have me believe, I cannot conclude that there is no relationship.
On the one hand:
David had had shots before without any apparent side effects.
David had lost abilities before without any shots.
On the other hand:
The loss of ability to hold a pencil occurred within days of having the Hep-B shot.
The medical community has made a dog's dinner of their proof that there is no relationship between vaccines and autism by not taking any measure of the control group, i.e. the people who have never been vaccinated.
In desparation, I started giving David glutathione again. I cannot say that the glutathione is what did it, but by the fall when David returned to fifth grade, David was able to hold a pencil again. His ability to hold the pencil did not compare to what he was able to do before just as the return of his ability to add and subtract did not return to his previous level. Nevertheless, I was grateful for any improvement.
Would David have had any recovery without the glutathione? I concede that this is possible, but I have to say that it is not likely. Glutathione brought about another major change in David at the end of seventh grade. The change was so profound that only a fool would ignore it.
I cannot say how David felt about this since he was not verbal enough to express his dismay. I was ready to cry. I felt like what was David was being stripped away piece by piece by some unknown assailant. While I held my tongue, inwardly I was seething. I had nothing I could do about it. There was no known cause. I had nothing to go after. I was ready to cry in dispair.
It is an interesting side note that David had had the Hepatitis B shot just prior to losing the ability to hold a pencil. I did not know this until later when I examined his shot records. I can only conclude that there is a temporal relationship between the Hep-B vaccine and David's loss of the ability to hold a pencil. I cannot conclude that there is a causal relationship but contrary to what the medical community would have me believe, I cannot conclude that there is no relationship.
On the one hand:
David had had shots before without any apparent side effects.
David had lost abilities before without any shots.
On the other hand:
The loss of ability to hold a pencil occurred within days of having the Hep-B shot.
The medical community has made a dog's dinner of their proof that there is no relationship between vaccines and autism by not taking any measure of the control group, i.e. the people who have never been vaccinated.
In desparation, I started giving David glutathione again. I cannot say that the glutathione is what did it, but by the fall when David returned to fifth grade, David was able to hold a pencil again. His ability to hold the pencil did not compare to what he was able to do before just as the return of his ability to add and subtract did not return to his previous level. Nevertheless, I was grateful for any improvement.
Would David have had any recovery without the glutathione? I concede that this is possible, but I have to say that it is not likely. Glutathione brought about another major change in David at the end of seventh grade. The change was so profound that only a fool would ignore it.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Finally, a small break
My hat is off to Dr Rosemary Waring. She was the first I saw who identified something different about autistic children. I am not saying that she was the first to do so, only that she was the first one whom I saw who showed that there really is something medically different about autistic children. She showed that autistic children are statistical outliers when it comes to processing tylenol through the system. It is this discovery and my desparation that led me to try glutathione.
I was, and to a huge extent still am woefully ignorant when it comes to anything medical. When I tried glutathione, I tried it with glutamine. I had read that glutamine helped retarded children so I thought it might help David. I also read that autistic children had low levels of glutathione. My thought at the time was that the reason for slow processing of tylenol through the system was that autistic children have low levels of glutathione. So I gave him glutathione at the same time. This was done after researching the toxicity of each of these. They are not toxic. I figured that I did not really have a chance of any of this working, but I also knew that none of this would cause any harm.
And yet David started to do arithmetic. He was actually adding and subtracting numbers. He was slow. But slow is a huge jump from not able at all. I will not even say that he was as far as he was in the first grade. He wasn't. At the time, I figured that it must be the glutamine. After all, that was what was supposed to help retarded children. I stopped giving David glutathione and continued with glutamine. It was wonderful. David did not stop adding and subtracting. I was hopefult that the glutamine was doing something. It was not much of a change. David still needed constant supervision to do his homework. David still needed ritalin to stay under control in class. David still was no bright star in class. He still had trouble associating with other children. He was still my "W'appen boy". But he could finally add and subtract. What a change.
Before any reflexive detractors start, let me beat you to it. It is entirely possible, maybe even likely that David would have started adding and subtracting without glutamine and glutathione. Of course. I was not convinced that anything I gave David did anything for him. Now, though, I have reason to think that the glutathione might have helped.
I was, and to a huge extent still am woefully ignorant when it comes to anything medical. When I tried glutathione, I tried it with glutamine. I had read that glutamine helped retarded children so I thought it might help David. I also read that autistic children had low levels of glutathione. My thought at the time was that the reason for slow processing of tylenol through the system was that autistic children have low levels of glutathione. So I gave him glutathione at the same time. This was done after researching the toxicity of each of these. They are not toxic. I figured that I did not really have a chance of any of this working, but I also knew that none of this would cause any harm.
And yet David started to do arithmetic. He was actually adding and subtracting numbers. He was slow. But slow is a huge jump from not able at all. I will not even say that he was as far as he was in the first grade. He wasn't. At the time, I figured that it must be the glutamine. After all, that was what was supposed to help retarded children. I stopped giving David glutathione and continued with glutamine. It was wonderful. David did not stop adding and subtracting. I was hopefult that the glutamine was doing something. It was not much of a change. David still needed constant supervision to do his homework. David still needed ritalin to stay under control in class. David still was no bright star in class. He still had trouble associating with other children. He was still my "W'appen boy". But he could finally add and subtract. What a change.
Before any reflexive detractors start, let me beat you to it. It is entirely possible, maybe even likely that David would have started adding and subtracting without glutamine and glutathione. Of course. I was not convinced that anything I gave David did anything for him. Now, though, I have reason to think that the glutathione might have helped.
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