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Old May 2nd 10, 01:21 AM posted to misc.health.alternative,misc.kids,misc.kids.health,sci.med
Jason[_2_]
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Posts: 6
Default Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy

In article , wrote:

Mike wrote:
Peter B. wrote:


How did he know it was not genetics?

Because it isn't. Part of it is genetics, and part of it is something
else. There are instances of identical twins with only one twin having
the disease. Such instances are not observed with truly genetic
diseases, like Down syndrome.


That's incorrect. There are a lot of genetic diseases where all people
who have a gene (technically an allele which is term for variant of a
gene) for a disease who don't get the disease. For example, there are
people who have the alleles for cystic fibrosis who have perfectly
functioning lungs. Another example is Marfan's syndrome. People can have
the allele for these diseases and not have the disease.

So when a disease is genetic, that means that the disease is affected by
particular alleles, and which alleles a person has influences the
likelihood that a person will get a particular disease.

In addition, in the case of Down syndrome, the accomplishments of people
with Down syndrome range from unable to complete first grade to college
graduates. People with Down syndrome have a variety of physical
problems, like heart disease and decreased muscle tone, but not all
people with Down syndrome get these problems.

Another example of a genetic disease is type II diabetes. If someone has
the alleles associated with type II diabetes, that person may or may not
get diabetes. Whether or not the person gets diabetes depends on many
factors, including the other genes the person has, the person's sex,
number of kids (in the case of females, both biological and adopted),
weight, exercise, diet, lifestyle and other diseases the person has.

Other diseases that are genetic, but not everyone who has the particular
genes get the disease include cystic fibrosis, depression,
schizophrenia, autism and autism spectrum diseases, type I diabetes and
other autoimmune diseases, asthma, ADHD, type II diabetes, alcoholism
and drug dependence, heart disease and most cancers.

James D. Watson, who came to visit the lab in which I was working in
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, knows a bit about the subject. He wrote a
book called, _DNA:_The_Secret_of_Life. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
You might find the book helpful to understanding genetics. There are
also many other excellent books out there about genetics for the general
public. (Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin did the ground-breaking
work that led Watson and Francis Crick to discover the structure of DNA;
Watson, Crick and Wilkins received the Noble prize for this work.)

Jeff


Jeff,
Since you understand genetics so well, I'm shocked that you don't truly
understand the harm that can be done when companies make seeds that have
been genetically changed to the point that they are very different than
the original (normal) seeds that have been used for thousands of years.
When people eat the vegetables that grow from those seeds, you should now
know since you have read James D. Watson's book, the dangers of eating
those types of genetically modified vegetables.
jason