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The Next Big Autism Bomb: Are 1 in 50 Kids Potentially At Risk?



 
 
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Old March 27th 08, 05:30 PM posted to misc.kids.health,talk.politics.medicine,sci.med.nursing,misc.health.alternative
Ilena Rose
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Posts: 1,139
Default The Next Big Autism Bomb: Are 1 in 50 Kids Potentially At Risk?

Note from Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal:
www.ilenarose.blogspot.com

What a financial coup for the Snake-oil Vac Shills! They'll have lots
and lots of new work now spinning their lies to defend the enormous
Vac Industry (at the expense of children's health.)
www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/Snake-oil.htm
Most likely, the disbarred (Mark S Probert) & the "MD" who has no med
license after having his restricted one pulled (Jeffrey P Utz) .. and
other Snake-oil Screamers ... will come out to continue the industry's
insults & cover-ups.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-...b_b_93627.html

On Tuesday, March 11, a conference call was held between vaccine
safety officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
several leading experts in vaccine safety research, and executives
from America's Health Insurance Plans, (the HMO trade association) to
discuss childhood mitochondrial dysfunction and its potential link to
autism and vaccines.

It was a sobering event for all concerned, and it could soon become
known as the Conference Call heard 'round the world.


The teleconference was scheduled by a little known CDC agency called
the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Network, a
consortium of six research centers working on "immunization-associated
health risks," in conjunction with the CDC's Immunization Safety
Office and the health insurance lobby -- whose companies cover some
200 million Americans.

The hot topic of the day was mitochondria - the little powerhouses
within each cell that convert food and oxygen into energy for use by
the body. Recent news events have implicated mitochondria in at least
one case of regressive autism, following normal development.

Some researchers on the call reported that mitochondrial dysfunction
is probably much more common than the current estimate of 1-in-4,000
people. The potential implications for autism, then, are staggering.

"We need to find out if there is credible evidence, theoretically, to
support the idea that childhood mitochondrial dysfunction might
regress into autism," one of the callers reportedly told participants.

"THE CLOCK IS TICKING"

One person on the call (those interviewed for this article asked to
remain anonymous) told me that, "the CDC people were informed, in no
uncertain terms, that they need to look into this issue immediately,
and do something about it." The clock is ticking, they were told, and
if they don't respond, the information will be made public.

Still, the doctor said, he was enormously impressed by the
"seriousness" with which CDC officials treated the possibility of a
link between mitochondria, autism and possibly vaccines as well.

In the recent landmark Hannah Poling case, filed in Federal "Vaccine
Court," officials conceded that Hannah's underlying mitochondrial
dysfunction was aggravated by her vaccines, leading to fever and an
"immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic reserves."

But on March 6, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding claimed that
Hannah's case was a rare, virtually one-of-a-kind incident with
little, if any relevance to the other 4,900 autism claims currently
pending in the court -- or to any other case of autism for that
matter.(There were conflicting accounts about whether Gerberding was
on the call or not).

Since then, however, Dr. Gerberding and other CDC officials were made
aware of a Portuguese study, published last October, which reported
that 7.2% of children with autism had confirmed mitochondrial
disorders. The authors also noted that, "a diversity of associated
medical conditions was documented in 20%, with an unexpectedly high
rate of mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders."

"Apparently, the Portuguese study really got their attention," one of
the participants said. "It's a highly significant finding. And it's
worrisome enough to definitely look into. I think the CDC people know
that."

They also know that some reports estimate the rate of mitochondrial
dysfunction in autism to be 20% or more. And the rate among children
with the regressive sub-type of autism is likely higher still.

Vaccine safety officials on the March 11 call may have been open to
discussing mitochondria and autism, but they were probably highly
unprepared for what was to come next.

One doctor reported his findings from a five-year study of children
with autism, who also showed clinical markers for impaired cellular
energy, due to mild dysfunction of their mitochondria.

The biochemistry of 30 children was studied intensively, and in each
case, the results showed the same abnormalities as those found in
Hannah Poling, participants said. Each child had moderate elevations
or imbalances in the exact same amino acids and liver enzymes as
Hannah Poling.

All thirty children also displayed normal, healthy development until
about 18-24 months of age, when they quickly regressed into clinically
diagnosed autism (and not merely "features of autism"), following some
type of unusual trigger, or stress, placed on their immune system.

Researchers explained on the call that some data show that
mitochondrial dysfunction can convert into autism "in numbers that
make it not a rare occurrence," one participant told me. They
explained this as "a distinct syndrome; not a mixed bag at all. Every
kid had mild mitochondria dysfunction and autistic regression."

Another surprise came when one researcher announced an "inheritance
pattern" that linked each case through the genetics of the father: In
families where two cousins had autism, the genetic link was always
through the father.

This unexpected discovery would clearly implicate nuclear DNA
inheritance, and not mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only
through the mother.

Gerberding and others had previously insisted that Hannah and her
mother, Teri Poling, both had the same single point mutation in their
mitochondrial DNA. CDC officials asserted that Hannah had a
pre-existing disease, a rare genetic glitch in her mitochondria, that
may well have manifested as "features of autism" on its own, perhaps
even without an environmental trigger.

"It's not in the mitochondrial DNA, and it's not rare," one
participant confirmed. In fact, he said, many people probably carry
the nuclear DNA mutation that confers susceptibility to mitochondrial
dysfunction, they just don't know it.

1-in-50 GENETIC RISK?

On the call, speculation on the prevalence of a genetic mutation that
could confer mild mitochondrial dysfunction in the general population
ranged from about 1-in-400, to a staggering 1-in-50, or 2% of all
Americans.

There was talk about the urgent need to do mapping studies, and find
the locus of this gene. Some of the researchers said they want to test
all 30 children for the actual DNA mutation. There was some
expectation that they might discover that the mutation goes back
generations, so parents and grandparents might be tested as well.

One belief is that a particular mutated gene may have become prevalent
over the centuries, because of selective advantage. Mild mitochondrial
dysfunction reportedly has been associated with intelligence, because
it can increase activity of the brain's NMDA receptors. A large number
of receptors can produce increased intelligence, but it can also
increase risk of brain disease, one doctor explained to me. It's
possible that increased receptor activity acts in same way.

But not everyone agrees that mitochondrial dysfunction is a purely
inherited affair. Some researchers believe that, while a
susceptibility gene for mitochondrial problems certainly exists, some
type of environmental trigger, or "adversity," as one doctor put it,
is needed to turn the mutation into a dysfunction.

The medical literature is replete with studies on mitochondrial health
and the adverse impact of mercury, aluminum and other toxins. Even
AIDS drugs like AZT and prenatal alcohol consumption can damage
mitochondria and impact cellular energy.

The mercury-containing vaccine preservative, thimerosal, for example,
"can definitely kill cells in vitro through the mitochondria," one
teleconference participant told me. "And some people are beginning to
suspect that the dose of hepatitis B vaccine given at birth might be
interfering with proper mitochondrial function in certain children."

While the cause of mitochondrial dysfunction is up for the debate, so
too is its potential effect on regressive autism.

All the researchers I spoke with agreed that, in many cases, there was
an underlying, asymptomatic mitochondrial dysfunction, aggravated by
some other stressful event imposed on the child's immune system,
resulting in autism.

Such "metabolic decomposition" occurs when a child's system simply
"cannot meet the energy demand needed to fight the stress of illness,"
one doctor explained.

But what causes the stress? That is a very big question.

Apparently, in only two of the 30 cases, or 6%, could the regression
be traced directly and temporally to immunizations, and one of them
was Hannah Poling. In the other cases, there was reportedly some type
of documented, fever-inducing viral infection that occurred within
seven days of the onset of brain injury symptoms.

All 30 of the regressions occurred between one and two years of age,
at a time when the still-developing brain is particularly vulnerable
to injury.

But if a significant minority of autism cases was caused by
mitochondrial dysfunction aggravated by common childhood illnesses,
then shouldn't we see fewer cases today than, say, at the beginning of
the 20th Century? And wouldn't developing countries likewise show far
more prevalence of autism than the United States?

Not necessarily, some experts said. They noted that many viral
infections are still quite prevalent in modern-day America, and many
children still get these types of viral infections about once a month,
on average.

If that is the case, then why doesn't every child with "mito"
dysfunction regress into autism? Surely, they must encounter viral
infections during their yearlong window of neurological peril.

Again, not necessarily: Some doctors said it would depend on the
severity of the dysfunction, the type of virus encountered, and
perhaps other factors that are still not understood.

But at least two of the 30 kids with mito deficiencies were pushed
over the edge into autism by their vaccines, and some researchers feel
the number is probably much higher than that in the larger population.

"Vaccines, in some cases, can cause an unusually heightened immune
reaction, fever, and even mild illness," one participant said. "A
normal vaccine reaction in most kids would be very different in a kid
with a metabolic disorder. We know it happened to at least two kids in
this study, and I'm certain there are many more Hannahs out there."

One theory currently in circulation about what happened to Hannah and
other children like her, is an apparent "triple domino effect."
According to this hypothesis, it takes three steps and two triggers to
get to some types of autism, and it goes like this:

STEP ONE: Child is conceived and born healthy, but with an underlying
nuclear DNA genetic susceptibility to mitochondrial dysfunction,
inherited from dad.

TRIGGER ONE: An early environmental "adversity" occurs in the womb or
during the neonatal period, perhaps caused by prenatal exposure to
heavy metals, pollutants, pesticides and medicines. Or, it occurs in
early infancy, through environmental toxins, thimerosal exposure, or
even the Hepatitis B vaccine "birth dose." This trigger results in:

STEP TWO: Child develops mild, usually asymptomatic mitochondrial
dysfunction (though I wonder if the ear infections and eczema so
common in these cases might also be symptoms of mito problems).

TRIGGER TWO: Child, now with an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction,
suffers over-stimulation of the immune system beyond the capacity of
his or her metabolic reserves. This stress is either via a viral
febrile infection, or from multiple vaccinations, as in the Poling
case. This trigger results in:

STEP THREE: Acute illness, seizures, encephalopathy, developmental
regression, autism.

Such a scenario might help explain why autism has increased right
along with the addition of more vaccines to the national schedule.

And it might help explain why autism rates are not plummeting now that
thimerosal levels have been significantly reduced in most childhood
vaccines.

It's possible that exposures from the flu shot, and residual mercury
left over in other vaccines -- perhaps in synergistic effect with
aluminum used as an "adjuvant" to boost the immune response - might
"contribute to the toxic mix that causes childhood mitochondrial
dysfunction in the first place," one of the doctors said.

But like many hypotheses, this one has competition. Some researchers
believe that the modern American diet is largely to blame for an
increase in the number of children whose underlying mitochondrial
dysfunction is "triggered" into autism by febrile infections.

The answer, they hypothesize, is corn.

The American diet has become extraordinarily dependent on corn oil and
corn syrup used in processing, these experts contend. They say that
corn oil and syrup are inflammatory, whereas fish oil is
anti-inflammatory. Could our diet be a factor in making this mutated
gene become more pathogenic? It's a biochemical defect that leads to
biochemical disease, supporters of this theory say: The gene itself
becomes more of a problem.

WHAT NOW?

This information raises so many questions it makes your head swim.

First and foremost among them: What to do about vaccinating children
with known mitochondrial dysfunction?

In many respects, these kids should be first in line for vaccination,
to prevent some illnesses that might trigger an autistic regression
during the window of vulnerability. On the other hand, with multiple
vaccinations, such as the case with Hannah, there is also a risk of
overtaxing the immune system, and likewise triggering regression into
autism.

What's needed most urgently, if possible, is a quick, affordable and
efficient method of testing children for low cellular energy, perhaps
before vaccination even begins.

There was some discussion on the conference call about altering the
vaccine schedule in some way, to lower the risk of immune
over-stimulation in susceptible children. Certainly, pressure will
grow for a change in the schedule - the question is how, when, and if
such changes will be made.

Some of the suggestions may not be popular among public health
officials. They include:

1) Establishing a maximum number of vaccine antigens to which any
child could be exposed on any given day.

2) Permitting the option of separating out the measles-mumps-rubella
(MMR) live virus combination vaccines into three distinct "monovalent"
shots.

3) Not giving the varicella vaccine (chicken pox) on the same day as
the MMR injection - the CDC recently withdrew is recommendation for
the Pro-Quad MMR+Varicella vaccine because it doubled the risk of
seizures.

Another option is to create new "recommendations for administering
multiple vaccines to children who have fallen behind in the
recommended childhood immunization schedule," according to the website
of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health.

Hannah had missed some shots and her doctor decided to "catch up" with
the schedule by administering five shots, containing nine vaccine
antigens, at once. But some autism activists have pointed out that
giving five shots in one day is not that uncommon.

Moreover, they claim, many children regressed into autism following
normal vaccination, when the parents religiously adhered to the
official schedule.

According to the Johns Hopkins site, "Additional research is needed to
determine if other children with autism, especially those with 'the
regressive form' of autism, have the same or similar underlying
mitochondrial dysfunction disorders."

It adds that, "the advisory groups who make recommendations regarding
vaccines will undoubtedly examine this case carefully and make
decisions regarding the potential need for changes."

That day may come sooner than you think. It was just announced that,
on April 11 in Washington, DC, the National Vaccine Program Office at
HHS will convene a meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory
Committee's Vaccine Safety Working Group. The Working Group was
established to go over the CDC's Immunization Safety Office draft
research agenda, and to, "review the current vaccine safety system."

The meeting is open to the public, and I have my seat reserved. But I
honestly don't envy the Working Group's very tricky task at hand.

It remains to be seen how all this plays out. And many important
questions still lie ahead.

For example, if mitochondrial dysfunction turns out to be as common as
200-per-10,000, and autism is now at 66 per 10,000, did anything bad
happen to any of the other 134-per-10,000 children, apart from autism
(i.e., ADD, ADHD, speech delay, etc.)?

Moreover, if 10-20% of autism cases can actually be traced to an
underlying mitochondrial dysfunction, then what about the majority of
autism cases where this did not come into play?

And, if 20% of autism cases are mito related, and 6% of those cases
regressed because of vaccines, that would mean that at least 1% of all
autism cases were vaccine related. Some estimates of autism go as high
as a million Americans - that would mean 10,000 people with
vaccine-triggered autism, and billions of dollars in the cost of
lifetime care.

(While we are on the subject, isn't it time to fund a study of
vaccinated and unvaccinated children, to settle this debate once and
for all?)

Finally, the goals of the CISA Network, (which convened the
teleconference) are rather progressive and far reaching. It remains to
be seen how well the Network fulfills its stated mission, which
includes:

Conduct research into "the role of individual variation" on
vaccine injury;


"Empower individuals to make informed immunization decisions;"

Help policy makers "in the recommendation of exclusion criteria
for at-risk individuals," and;

"Enhance public confidence in sustaining immunization benefits for
all populations"

Let's see how long it takes before Network members hang out the
proverbial banner: "Mission Accomplished."
 




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