I have been asked to respond to a critique of my comments regarding the study published in the journal Pediatrics, which was used earlier this week to proclaim (once again) that there is no link between thimerosal and autism. I do not know the identity of the person who responded to my comments, so I do not have a name or title to use to help delineate my responses from his or her responses. The person did self-identify as a one of the "shills," so I will use that term to indicate his/her statements, and MPT (my initials) to indicate mine.
If you haven't read my comments from which this discussion stems, here is a link to the previous blog post: http://4allofyou.blogspot.com/2010/09/cdcs-latest-study-finds-no-link-between.html
SHILL: Let's look at Ms. Piper-Terry's complaints:
"1. Lower functioning children were excluded because their problems were so severe that it made it tough to assess them."
She makes this complaint based on an interview that the author did:
http://www.wellsphere.com/autism-autism-spectrum-article/questions-and-answers-with-the-thimerosal-autism-study-author/1220904
She manages to quote the author's explanation as to why they did a subgroup analysis excluding the more serious cases, but, like any good quote miner, she managed to leave out a key quote from Dr. Price:
Therefore, an outcome category for AD with low cognitive functioning excluded was created and its relationship to exposure was estimated. The results for this subgroup were very similar to those for the overall analysis"
The reason the low-functioning children were excluded was because there was the concern that it could mask a true association. She also seemed to miss the point that the results for this subgroup are no different than the overall analysis (i.e. that thimerosal was not associated with development of autism even in this severe group). This data can all be found in the technical reports that are publically available, but I doubt she or T4TN has read them.
MPT RESPONSE:
It is true that I took the quote from an interview of one of the authors. It is also true that I did not include the entire explanation and omitted the information about the establishment of an "outcome category for AD with low cognitive functioning excluded..." My reason for leaving out this information is simple. I do not know how to quantify or interpret the author's statements that "exposure was estimated" or "results for this subgroup were very similar..." There is no statistical information provided in the article to either back up this statement, or to assist in further analysis of the author's assertion. Apparently, we are just supposed to take his word for it.
As for the exclusion of children with low cognitive functioning "because there was the concern that it could mask a true association," I would like to know more about the specific concerns that led to this exclusion criteria. Since it appears from the article that the researchers employed the ADOS as their sole method of criteria in their direct assessment of case-children, the possibility for over-inclusion could be considered a valid concern for children who were higher-functioning and whose scores may be closer to the neurotypical range of functioning on the domains this instrument adresses. For that reason, Best Practices dictates that assessment of children suspected of having an autism diagnosis must also include review of the developmental history, interview with parents (and teachers, if applicable), and review of previous medical history, including pre-existing diagnoses. The ADOS itself has demonstrated high reliability and validity in the standardization process, including demonstrating very high inter-relator reliability coefficients. At the risk of being accused of "quote-mining" the following may provide further clarification:
"The authors reported good inter-rater reliability estimates on the Communication, Reciprocal Social Interaction, Total, and Stereotyped Behaviors and Restricted Interests domains, with intraclass correlations ranging from .82 to .93 (Lord,
Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 2001). Test-retest reliability was also good, with intraclass correlations ranging from .73 to .82 on the Communication and Reciprocal Social Interaction domains, and .59 to .86 on the Stereotyped Behaviors and restricted Interests domain. Published validity studies also suggest good predictive validity, with sensitivities ranging from 90% to 97%, and specificities ranging from
87% to 94% for autism/ASD versus other clinical diagnoses" (Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 2001).
For additional information about the ADOS, follow this link: http://www.casrc.org/People/Internal_Investigators/Akshoomoff%20CASP%202.pdf
I have not read the technical report. When I looked at the study and wrote out my observations, it was not yet available for review. Whether or not I will take the time to read them remains to be seen. I really don't know what they could possible reveal that would change my mind about the validity of the study. If there is something in the technical report that is significant enough to negate the impact of the design flaws in the published article, then the authors should have included that information in the article.
SHILL: The technical reports are located here:
http://abtassociates.com/reports/Aut_Tech_Report_Vol1_090310.pdf http://abtassociates.com/reports/Aut_Tech_Report_Vol2_090310.pdf
They also include some other interesting information as well including:
1. Mother's who took prenatal vitamins with folic acid had an approximately 2-fold higher risk (p value 0.0176) of having an autistic child. So, a possible non-vaccine related environmental factor right there it would seem.
MPT RESPONSE: First of all... (and this is a pet-peeve of mine), it is difficult for me to take seriously the comments of someone who is attempting to debate such a highly technical and complex issue as thimerosal and autism, when that person does not understand the basic rules of punctuation. For future reference, "Mothers" is a plural word, indicating that there is more than one "Mother" involved. "Mother's" is the possessive term, to be properly used when you are referring to an object or possibly a trait that belongs to a single (1) "Mother."
Now that that is out of the way... The finding that mothers who took prenatal vitamins with folic acid had a higher risk of having an autistic child is very interesting. Without knowing anything further about this, I would hypothesize that it is possible that these women may have had deficiencies of other B-vitamins (folic acid is one of the family of B-vitamins, which work together in concert), and if they were given folic acid without assessing the levels of B-12 and B-6, in particular, they may have problems in their methylation pathways. They methylation pathway is one of two major detoxification pathways in the body (the other being the sulfation pathway). The methylation pathway is responsible for detoxifying heavy metals, including thimerosal from the body. If the methlyation pathway is not working, thimerosal will not clear from the body as it is supposed to, and as vaccine-makers insist it does. When it does not clear the body because the pathways are not working properly (for example, because of a B-12 or B-6 deficiency), thimerosal deposits in soft tissues, including the kidneys and brain. Thimerosal has an especially strong affinity for the brain because it is very attracted to lipids, and the brain is the most lipid-dense organ in the human body. With regard to the folic acid, it is possible that by elevating folic acid in a group of women who have unknown deficiencies of the other nutrients necessary for methylation to take place, the tendency of the body to increase retention of thimersosal was facilitated. This is, of course, all hypthetical, as I am sure none of these women had their B-12 or B-6 levels checked during their pregnancies. This is, however a very important area of future research, that should not be overlooked as a possible contributor to the increase in autism, especially since oral contraceptives, antibiotics, and steroids ALL deplete B-6. Perhaps we could start looking at WHICH subgroups of women might be more prone to have infants that are at an increased risk of autism from thimerosal and other toxins in vaccines, rather than assuming that if it doesn't happen to everyone, it couldn't possibly happen to some.
SHILL: 2. There were COMPLETELY unvaccinated children both in the ASD group and the control group. That would seem to blow the "unvaccinated children can't get autism" hypothesis out of the water, now wouldn't it?
MPT RESPONSE: If this is a reference to my critique of the article, it is out of place. I never said unvaccinated children cannot get autism. (This tactic is called a "red herring" and is often used to steer a discussion off-topic.)
SHILL: 3. They examine the ASD prevalence as a function of HMO and year of birth.
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ABT-prevalence.png
What they find is that the rate of autism per 1000 is pretty flat and quite near the current estimated CDC values (~1.1%). That would certainly argue against any massive increase in overall incidence or an "autism epidemic".
MPT RESPONSE: No, that wouldn't argue against anything, since the explosion of the autism epidemic began in the 1980s and increased exponentially with the addition of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, all of which happened prior to the time frame that included the birth dates of the subjects in the study (1994-1999).
SHILL: Ms. Piper-Terry's other complaint is rather perplexing:
"2. The participants were pre-selected by virtue of mandatory physician's consent before they could be recruited into the study."
Yes, the evils of requiring consent. Only a very small number of potential subjects were removed via this mechanism (3.9%). Hardly suspicious of anything, except to the conspiratorial. I find it interesting though that Ms. Piper-Terry failed to castigate all of the parents who refused participation. This was a far larger proportion (32%) and some survey results are included as to why they refused to participate. Where is the conspiracy suggesting that those parents are involved in covering up the "truth"? But why expect consistency, right?
MPT RESPONSE: My criticism is regarding the mandate that the child's PHYSICIAN had to give consent for the family to be contacted about potentially participating in the study. This is very different from the absolutely necessary practice of obtaining informed consent from study participants, and in the case of children and vulnerable populations, obtaining consent from parents or guardians. There is NO established precident in research supporting the mandate that the physician pick and choose which parents of his patients deserve the right to participate in research. There may well be some reason as to WHY phsyicians were given this power to censor who participates and who doesn't, but the article does not elaborate, and as noted above, the technical report was not available when I wrote out my comments. I would still like to know what the rationale was, and may actually have to invest the time to go through the technical reports after-all. At any rate, the fact that physicians were given the power to pre-select which patients were allowed to consider whether or not to participate presents a HUGE problem with the study design because it means that the cases who were contacted and given the opportunity to participate do not represent a random sample. That fact alone is enough to invalidate the study results.
SHILL: Ms. Piper-Terry also complains about some children not meeting the requirements for the study. The authors are quite clear as to why those children were removed. Eligibility required that a child lived with it's mother since birth, the family spoke fluent English, and that the child did not already have a condition to which autism has been causally linked (in order to reduce the signal to noise ratio and provide a clearly observable signal).
MPT RESPONSE: Actually, the authors are quite clear about the fact that many of the issues raised in the above paragraph were considered before the children were classified as cases. I have no problem with the exclusion criteria listed here. Similarly, I was quite clear in my objections about children who were excluded, either by virtue of low-cognitive functioning or by the denial of access to them at all, by virtue of their physicians' denial of consent to even contact the families. The exclusion of children by either of these means is problematic because in doing so integrity of the study design is compromised, resulting in a lack of validity regarding any results reported.
SHILL: And last, thank goodness
Her final criticism:
"When comparing groups of 49 and 652, there is just a tad of inequality in the number of subjects."
Perhaps Ms. Piper-Terry should stick to being a biomedical consultant since her knowledge of statistical analysis is quite poor. One does not need the number of subjects in two groups to be equal in order to define a statstical difference in the analysis.
MPT RESPONSE: It is true that one does not need the number of subjects in two groups to be equal. However, the closer the groups are to being equal in number, the more power there is in the analysis. Inequality of subject groups influences which statistical analysis can be performed, for example when considering whether to use parametric or non-parametric analysis for comparing differences between groups. This is not a small issue and goes directly to the question of whether or not your results will reveal significance. I'm sure the researchers know this, even if "Shill" does not.
SHILL: Overall, Ms. Piper-Terry's arguments show some good quote mining, poor understanding of statistics, and overall lack of understanding in complex study design. I highly doubt she has read the 400 pages of technical reports detailing the intricacies of the study yet feels confident to comment on all of the details involved. Somehow I think the general acceptance of this study will not be much affected by Ms. Piper-Terry's rather poor commentary.
There you go Time4TruthNow. I guess one of the shills wasn't quite stumped, now was I?
MPT RESPONSE: I don't know this person (who self-identifies as a "shill") and I do not know the extent of his or her education, qualifications, experience, or associations. I am not going to comment on his or her personal strengths or weaknesses. The fact that he or she felt it necessary to attack me personally rather than confining his/her comments to the study design is another tactic often employed as a method of distracting readers from the issue at hand. It's called Ad Hominem and it is the practice of attempting to discredit the message by attacking the messenger. Watch out for this. It's a tactic frequently employed by those who know their arguments cannot withstand the scrutiny of close inspection by unbiased observers.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
CDC's Latest Study Finds No Link Between Vaccines and Autism! What a Relief! (What a bunch of crap!)
The big news yesterday... "There is no link found between vaccines and autism."
Wow. What a relief that is. We can all get back to our lives.
Don't celebrate too soon.
Here's the link to the article put out all over the place yesterday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/13/no-link-found-between-vac_n_715090.html
Here's a link where you can download the full-text article for free:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/peds.2010-0309v1
Here are my comments about this "study" after looking at it for about an hour:
Two problems right off the bat:
1. Lower functioning children were excluded because their problems were so severe that it made it tough to assess them.
2. The participants were pre-selected by virtue of mandatory physician's consent before they could be recruited into the study. Their doctors were the gate-keepers. So, if the doctor didn't want a particular kid in the study, he or she denied consent and that child was never recruited. With doctors not reporting vaccine reactions in the first place, and with the serious objections many physicians have to the mere suggestion that there is a link between vaccines and autism, this is a major design flaw. This is not a random sample.
Of 802 potential cases (children with autism diagnoses), physician's consent was refused in 31 cases (3.87%). With recent autism rates at 1 in 100 children (1%), this certainly raises more suspicion about WHY these physicians automatically refused consent for these families to even be contacted about potentially participating in the study.
Of 777 cases (autism diagnoses) whose physicians gave consent, 103 (13.26%) were deemed ineligible for participation. In the Opposing Views article (http://www.opposingviews.com/i/q-a-with-cristofer-price-thimerosal-autism-study-author) the following information provides insight about why these children were deemed "ineligible":
Question: "As to the paper, I see that the results are the same for autism with and without regression. Are there any other issues of severity which were checked (e.g. level of intellectual disability, seizures) which were also monitored?"
Response: "We did do a sub-analysis where AD cases with low cognitive functioning were excluded (see technical report on Monday for full details and results) Analysis of the subgroup of AD cases where children with low cognitive functioning were excluded was motivated by the following concern. Because children who are non-responsive during the assessment process are more difficult to assess, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether children with severe developmental delay actually have autistic disorder."
MPT: SO... they eliminated a sizable portion of the cases of children with autism on the basis that they were too severely impaired to participate in the assessment. This would DEFINITELY present at least a POTENTIAL for skewed results by eliminating the population of children with the most severe symptoms of mercury poisoning.
In the final analysis, after all of the physicians’ refusals and elimination of children who were "too severe to be assessed" there were only 49 cases (children with autism) that carried the Regressive Autism diagnosis. This represents 19% of the "Case Group" and 6.11% of the original group of 802 children who were potential "Cases" for the study. Ultimately, the exposures to thimerosal of this group of children (n=49) were compared statistically with the exposures of the "Control" group (children who did not have autism diagnoses; n=652), and "no significant differences" were found between groups.
No Shit.
As anyone who has looked at my previous analysis of the MMR study should know by now... The closer your groups are in number, the more powerful your analysis is. When comparing groups of 49 and 652, there is just a tad of inequality in the number of subjects.
This study is bunk.
Try again, CDC.
Wow. What a relief that is. We can all get back to our lives.
Don't celebrate too soon.
Here's the link to the article put out all over the place yesterday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/13/no-link-found-between-vac_n_715090.html
Here's a link where you can download the full-text article for free:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/peds.2010-0309v1
Here are my comments about this "study" after looking at it for about an hour:
Two problems right off the bat:
1. Lower functioning children were excluded because their problems were so severe that it made it tough to assess them.
2. The participants were pre-selected by virtue of mandatory physician's consent before they could be recruited into the study. Their doctors were the gate-keepers. So, if the doctor didn't want a particular kid in the study, he or she denied consent and that child was never recruited. With doctors not reporting vaccine reactions in the first place, and with the serious objections many physicians have to the mere suggestion that there is a link between vaccines and autism, this is a major design flaw. This is not a random sample.
Of 802 potential cases (children with autism diagnoses), physician's consent was refused in 31 cases (3.87%). With recent autism rates at 1 in 100 children (1%), this certainly raises more suspicion about WHY these physicians automatically refused consent for these families to even be contacted about potentially participating in the study.
Of 777 cases (autism diagnoses) whose physicians gave consent, 103 (13.26%) were deemed ineligible for participation. In the Opposing Views article (http://www.opposingviews.com/i/q-a-with-cristofer-price-thimerosal-autism-study-author) the following information provides insight about why these children were deemed "ineligible":
Question: "As to the paper, I see that the results are the same for autism with and without regression. Are there any other issues of severity which were checked (e.g. level of intellectual disability, seizures) which were also monitored?"
Response: "We did do a sub-analysis where AD cases with low cognitive functioning were excluded (see technical report on Monday for full details and results) Analysis of the subgroup of AD cases where children with low cognitive functioning were excluded was motivated by the following concern. Because children who are non-responsive during the assessment process are more difficult to assess, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether children with severe developmental delay actually have autistic disorder."
MPT: SO... they eliminated a sizable portion of the cases of children with autism on the basis that they were too severely impaired to participate in the assessment. This would DEFINITELY present at least a POTENTIAL for skewed results by eliminating the population of children with the most severe symptoms of mercury poisoning.
In the final analysis, after all of the physicians’ refusals and elimination of children who were "too severe to be assessed" there were only 49 cases (children with autism) that carried the Regressive Autism diagnosis. This represents 19% of the "Case Group" and 6.11% of the original group of 802 children who were potential "Cases" for the study. Ultimately, the exposures to thimerosal of this group of children (n=49) were compared statistically with the exposures of the "Control" group (children who did not have autism diagnoses; n=652), and "no significant differences" were found between groups.
No Shit.
As anyone who has looked at my previous analysis of the MMR study should know by now... The closer your groups are in number, the more powerful your analysis is. When comparing groups of 49 and 652, there is just a tad of inequality in the number of subjects.
This study is bunk.
Try again, CDC.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
VACCINATION DOES NOT PROTECT AGAINST WHOOPING COUGH
News flash! If you haven't heard by now... California is having it's largest outbreak of whooping cough in years. It's a serious situation and very tragically, 8 babies have died. This post is not making light of the problem, but encouraging you to learn the truth about what's going on.
After examining the data from the San Diego health department, authors of the news article below report, "Of the 332 confirmed cases of whooping cough in the county so far this year, 197 of the people who got sick were up-to-date on their immunizations. That's nearly 2 out of 3 cases."
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/07/vaccinated-people-getting-whooping-cough-sd/
The pertussis bacterium appears to be mutating. It appears this is happening in response to vaccination. When you consider the long list of side-effects associated with vaccinations (that don't work); things like seizures, encephalitis (brain inflammation), ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, and death, holding your infant down while he or she is injected with vaccines that don't even work makes NO SENSE.
Educate before you vaccinate.
If you want to know more about this issue, here are a couple of other posts that I recommend reading and sharing:
If you choose to have your child vaccinated, AND you have done your own research about vaccinations, then you are making an informed decision. While it is not the one I would make or advocate for, it is your right as a parent. It is also my right, and I believe fully, my responsibility, to do what is best for my child and to do what I can to inform parents who do not have the research experience or resources at their disposal to find the information they need.
Keep learning.
Educate before you vaccinate.
Note: In my original post I erroneously referred to pertussis as being caused by a virus, instead of by a bacteria.
Thank-you to the individual who commented to let me know of my error.
After examining the data from the San Diego health department, authors of the news article below report, "Of the 332 confirmed cases of whooping cough in the county so far this year, 197 of the people who got sick were up-to-date on their immunizations. That's nearly 2 out of 3 cases."
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/07/vaccinated-people-getting-whooping-cough-sd/
The pertussis bacterium appears to be mutating. It appears this is happening in response to vaccination. When you consider the long list of side-effects associated with vaccinations (that don't work); things like seizures, encephalitis (brain inflammation), ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, and death, holding your infant down while he or she is injected with vaccines that don't even work makes NO SENSE.
Educate before you vaccinate.
If you want to know more about this issue, here are a couple of other posts that I recommend reading and sharing:
http://4allofyou.blogspot.com/2009/05/vaccines-and-autism-your-child-and.html
http://4allofyou.blogspot.com/2008/10/flu-vaccine-is-it-worth-it-cost-benefit.html
And here's one I just came across today, which follows up on the whooping cough article above:
http://thehamblogggerman.blogspot.com/2010/09/whooping-cough.htmlIf you choose to have your child vaccinated, AND you have done your own research about vaccinations, then you are making an informed decision. While it is not the one I would make or advocate for, it is your right as a parent. It is also my right, and I believe fully, my responsibility, to do what is best for my child and to do what I can to inform parents who do not have the research experience or resources at their disposal to find the information they need.
Keep learning.
Educate before you vaccinate.
Note: In my original post I erroneously referred to pertussis as being caused by a virus, instead of by a bacteria.
Thank-you to the individual who commented to let me know of my error.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
IT'S IN THE AIR IN SOUTHWESTERN INDIANA, reposted from 2008
The emissions of heavy metals and other toxins from coal-burning power plants in Southwestern Indiana have increased exponentially since Mitch Daniels took office as governor. Things are not getting better, they are getting worse, and people are dying as a result.
I'm reposting this because it is so important. Please help me to bring attention to this issue.God bless you.
Original post:
Today is August 14, 2008. The air today is unhealthy for sensitive individuals to breathe due to high levels of particulate matter. The forecast indicates we will have another PPM alert tomorrow, too. Unlike forecasting the weather, predicting the air quality here is no challenge. If it’s hot enough, don’t go outside if you are “sensitive.” This includes children, the elderly, and anyone who has asthma, allergies, or cardiopulmonary problems.
A major component of our particulate matter is sulfur-dioxide. It has been my belief for the last few years, that the high level of SO2 plays a major part in the incidence of learning disabilities, ADHD, and Autism in the children of the tri-state. In April 2007 I attended my second DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conference, which was held in Washington D.C. One of the questions I asked was if anyone is doing research to determine if SO2 is a contributing factor in the increase of autism and other developmental disabilities. Dr. John Pangborn, who is a brilliant man and has contributed SO much in the way of research, especially regarding the role of mercury in autism, responded to my question by stating, "Sulfur-dioxide is a noxious, toxic, poison. You can see it in the air, you can smell it, and you can taste it... If you believe sulfur-dioxide is contributing to your child's problems, my suggestion to you is MOVE!"
I was so taken aback by Dr. Pangborn's response that I spent most of that night writing a letter to him. That letter is the bulk of today's post.
Having had time to reflect on this situation, I must now thank Dr. Pangborn for his candor. The message we must internalize is this:
There is no cavalry coming to save us. We, the citizens of Indiana, have to do this ourselves.
LETTER TO DR. JOHN PANGBORN
FROM: MARCELLA PIPER-TERRY, M.S.
DATE: APRIL 23, 2007
Dear Dr. Pangborn:
My heart sank when you advised me to move. Then I got angry. Then I felt sick to my stomach and the tears came.
I know sulfur-dioxide is part of why there are so many sick children (and adults) in Indiana. My daughter is not the only one. Your statement, “…I suggest you move,” cut me to my soul. It’s the very same thing I have been fighting the urge to do since realizing, three years ago, that if I didn’t, I would be continuing to put my daughter’s health in peril – as well as my own – and that of my grand-daughter/adopted daughter.
My husband spent 24 years in the United States’ Air Force and now works managing the prototype Doppler Radar – which he has worked to build – from the ground-up, in a cornfield in rural Gibson County, Indiana. In November 2005, our community of Evansville lost 23 of our neighbors when a tornado hit at 2:00 a.m. We are still recovering and counting our blessings that thanks to the Doppler Radar, many thousands were able to prepare because we were informed and could take action against the threat. If not for the data provided by the radar, many more lives may well have been lost.
Before our move to Indiana my husband and our family lived here in Washington, D.C. Steve was the “Senior Non-Commissioned Officer In-Charge” of the “Ground Radar Maintenance Shop” at Andrews Air Force Base, and traveled worldwide to maintain the Air Force Radar Systems. I stayed at home, raising our daughter and working 3 days-a- week doing neuropsychological evaluations of children with ADHD, LD, ASD, and PDD.
In 2000, I was preparing to enter the doctoral program in Social/Health Psychology at George Washington University, where I had been offered full funding and a teaching assistantship. My studies and assistantship duties were set to begin in September 2000. In May 2000, I learned that the five month-old daughter of my 18 year-old bipolar/ADHD and (I now know) severely gluten/casein allergic son had been exposed to multiple toxins in utero through her 20 year-old mother’s drug and alcohol abuse. My grand-daughter was in an environment of ongoing and worsening neglect, which I could not ignore. She was floppy, exhibited tremors, screamed suddenly and for no reason, and had very poor eye-contact. Her mother was involved in an abusive relationship and her drug use was ongoing. (My son was also using drugs heavily and had been out of the picture since before the birth.)
When information came to light about the baby’s current situation, I could not sit by. I went to the Prince George’s County Courthouse (sans attorney), filed an ex-parte (had no idea what it was) and somehow was able to obtain emergency custody of my granddaughter. One week later the ex-parte was extended for one year. At that point it dawned on me that I needed a clone because there was no way I would be able to raise this baby and do full-time doctoral psychology load and teach and raise my five year-old.
With my husband’s retirement zooming at us in two years’ time and no job lined up for him, he agreed to embark on this commitment with me (after an initial, “You DID WHAT???!!!!”). I think I forgot to mention that he was TDY (Temporary Duty assignment) to Germany and Italy for 30 days when I got the emergency custody order. Anyway, I promised Steve that if he would do this with me, I would go wherever he needed to go, and do whatever I had to do, but I could not turn my back on Leah. The Ph.D. could wait. She couldn’t. It wasn’t even hard to walk into the psych department at George Washington University and tell Dr. Paul Poppen that I was not going to be working with him after-all. It would have been much more difficult if I had not had Rachel by the hand and Leah in my arms, but I knew without a doubt, that I was doing the right thing and I have never regretted it.
We got permanent custody of Leah in August 2001 after her mother deserted her and moved to Utah with the abusive boyfriend. We haven’t heard from her since and formally adopted Leah in May 2005.
On September 11, 2001 I took Rachel to school at Francis T. Evans Elementary, just outside the the gate and then dropped Leah off at the babysitter’s at 9:00 a.m. I heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center when I got back in my car and turned on NPR. When I pulled into the gas station on Andrews’, I heard about the second plane. As I was leaving the base, thinking, “This is NOT good…We’re next…” I saw the military guards with M-16s running toward the gate, beginning to close off the base – as I was driving through – leaving my children and getting onto the beltway to drive to Silver Springs, where I worked. Within minutes, I could see smoke downtown, and my brain just kept playing, over and over, “This is not good…This Is NOT Good…This is NOT GOOD…”
I am thankful to God and all the guardian angels in the cosmos that NPR did not announce, “The Pentagon has been hit” until I had pulled to the curb in front of my office – 45 minutes from Andrews Air Force Base. I don’t know how long I sat – holding my breath – with my hands covering my mouth – trying to keep the first giant sob from coming out. I think it must have been at least 30 minutes before I finally was able to turn off the car and stumble to the door. I don’t remember walking – only falling to my knees as soon as I got inside. Then the shaking started – and the real tears – as it hit me that I didn’t know if Steve was on Base that Tuesday – or if he was at the Pentagon. – My Girls – Leah is on base --- Rachel is at school just outside the gate – and BUSH’s Plane – THE TARGET – is on its way back to Andrews’…
It was four hours before I knew if my husband was alive, and it was 7:30 that night before I could get home because the beltway was gridlocked and people were panicking and running over each other. We were told, “If you’re safe, stay put!”
When I finally got back to the base, it took nearly 3 hours to drive and get through security – every car had to be searched. There were dogs to detect explosives and after that, I drove through what seemed like an endless gauntlet of soldiers lining both sides of the single-lane path, each with his or her M-16 at the shoulder.
Sadly, we got used to the searches and guns every time we took our daughter to school or brought her home – or left the base and returned for other reasons.
Shortly after 9/11, Rachel developed tic behaviors. She was always spacey and “zoned out” but things got a lot worse. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, after ruling out seizures and Central Auditory Processing Disorder at Johns’ Hopkins – I don’t mess around – I insisted Rachel be seen by John Freeman at Johns’ Hopkins Neurology and by Dana Boatman at JHU Cognitive Neurology for Central Auditory Processing testing. Then I took her to Walter Reed where she was evaluated by Stacey Williams, Chief of Behavioral Psychology. Rachel saw Dr. Lowry Shropshire, Head of Developmental Pediatrics at Bethesda – and after he put her on Dexedrine we saw a little improvement in attention – but worsening of tics and emotionality --- and so it goes.
Meanwhile, Leah continues to grow and with daily interventions (e.g., music, reading, pictures, touch, smell, etc…) her Developmental Quotients went from 100 (receptive) and 80 (expressive) at 11 months to 132 (expressive) and 134 (receptive) at 17 months – what can be done with neuronal plasticity!!! Behavior and fears were still issues, but she was (and is) doing great!In
October of 2002, we were preparing for our move to Indiana. I was still working in Silver Springs 3 days/week and was on my way to work on October 3rd – the first day of the Sniper Shootings. For the next 3 weeks I, along with everyone else in this area, lived in a CONSTANT state of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Hyper-arousal as we waited to see who was going to be killed next and where it would happen.
My family and I finally left for Indiana on October 25, 2002 – the day after “John Allen Muhammed” and “Lee Boyd Malvo” were arrested. Since moving to Indiana we have had a lot of adjustments, but life has definitely been quieter – in some respects. I have built a practice through networking and word of mouth. I am now attending my second Defeat Autism Now! conference, with plans to further educate and collaborate with physicians and families in our region so we can help our children heal. I live in Evansville and the closest Defeat Autism Now! practitioner that I know of is four hours away.
The incidence of Autism, ADHD, and PDD in our area is staggering – just as it is in Texas, or California, or New Jersey. My child is not the only one. Rachel has definitely gotten worse with each successive assault on her immune system – Trauma, Viral Infections, and Toxic Overload are hurting MY CHILD – and thousands of other children in the mid-west. (Note: At last night’s dinner and tribute to Bernie Rimland, the Midwest contingent consisted of ONE TABLE. My friend and I – traveling together – were the only two people from Indiana – and neither of us is an M. D.)
There have been MANY times in the last three years when I have told myself – and my husband, “We HAVE TO MOVE away from Indiana! This place is a toxic pit! It’s a cancer cell and the kids here are being poisoned! We are ALL being poisoned!”
My question to you is WHERE SHOULD WE GO?
I spent the first 12 years of my life in Orange, California, where the playground of my elementary school was located on a hill directly adjacent to the 55 freeway – before gasoline was unleaded and before catalytic converters. This was the source of a significant body burden of lead which no doubt contributed to my son’s extreme ADHD and bipolar diagnosis.
In 1972, my parents moved us to Mississippi, where they bought a big white house with pillars, azaleas, a veranda, and a one-acre pecan orchard. The “Big-House” was built in 1875 and my mother absolutely LOVED it. After it was nearly destroyed by fire several years later, my well-meaning but very uninformed sisters and brothers-in-law tried to save my mother some money by doing much of the repairs and renovations themselves. The paint-sanding went on for months, intermittently. None of them wore masks. My mother, who was still living in the house, got sicker and sicker and nobody knew why. She finally got over the “blow-out diarrhea” and constant “stomach virus that just won’t go away,” but she almost never felt well enough to get out of bed for more than a couple of hours at a time.
My mother was a classical pianist. At age 64 she obtained her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance. She was hoping to get her doctorate and conduct. Six months after she got her masters’ degree, she fell and broke her hand when she put it out to catch herself. After several months of rehabilitation therapy, she was finally able to move her fingers well enough to start playing again. That’s when she discovered she could no longer sight-read – something she had been doing since she was five years-old. I will never forget the pain in her voice when I stopped by to see her one afternoon and found her sitting at the piano, fingers on the keyboard, just sitting there – staring at the music. I asked what was wrong and she looked at me and said, “I can’t make my hands do what my eyes see.” (This was the first observable manifestation of the lead that flooded her body once again when she broke her hand, releasing it from bone marrow where it had been stored since shortly after the initial exposure.)
Less than a year later my mother’s thyroid disease was progressing so rapidly she was told she had to drink radio-active iodine. (Lead destroys the thyroid.) The next year, her heart stopped during a cardiac catheterization and she was taken by ambulance to University of Alabama at Birmingham where she underwent emergency open-heart surgery. After they cracked and spread her ribs, the neurological deterioration was very rapid. She could no longer speak and look at me simultaneously because what she saw interfered with her ability to formulate expressive language. When she spoke, it didn’t make sense.
The worst thing was, she was still able to realize that she wasn’t making sense. The last complete sentence my mother ever said to me was excruciatingly difficult for her to get out – and for me to hear. I can still see her face – eyes squeezed shut tightly, forehead and brows furrowed and wrinkled, and her teeth clenched so hard I thought they would break… “I wish…I could…finish…one…thought.”
There was no doubt in my mind that my mother was disintegrating because of lead poisoning. NOBODY would listen. They said her cognitive decline was due to the effects of oxygen deprivation during her surgery, and would get better with time. It wasn't, and it didn't.
“The Big House” is still standing and another family lives there now. Many houses in the Mississippi Gulf Coast town where my husband and I bought after our daughter was born did not survive hurricane Katrina. To our knowledge, no one we knew personally was killed in the storm or as a result of the aftermath. I have not been able to bring myself to visit the Gulf Coast yet. It still feels too raw…like my history has been erased.
My mother died three years ago, at the age of seventy-one. She got her Masters’ Degree at 64. She broke her hand at 65. She had her ribs cracked and spread for 2 open-heart surgeries at 66 and 67. The last word she ever spoke to me was “Dignity” – which she was finally able to say after several minutes of struggling to get it out. I knew what she was asking but I couldn’t help her. She was pleading with me to help her die. That was seven months before she finally stopped suffering.
I begged for someone to please listen to me. No one ever did.
My mother had arranged years prior to donate her body to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, in hopes that from the study of her system, others would benefit. I asked the doctors, when the final arrangements were made, if they would PLEASE test her lead levels and let me know the results. Even that request was denied. We are still waiting for her ashes to be returned to us.
My question about sulfur-dioxide is based on clinical observation and objective data. Over the last four years I have evaluated more than 60 children in Indiana. Between 1999 and 2002 I assisted Dr. Susan Van Ost in evaluating hundreds of children here in the D.C. area. The children are different.
The incidence of visual processing disorders is MUCH higher in Indiana. I believe the Sulfur-dioxide in the air is at least partly to blame and I believe it is also interfering with the sulfation pathway and contributing to the presentation of autism in OUR children. We can’t just move. We have to figure out how to fix it. If we ignore it and run away, who is going to help all the other children? And even if I COULD “just move” – Where do you suggest I GO?
PLEASE LISTEN.
Marcella Piper-Terry, M.S.
Final note: There is no real "safe place." In order to survive, we must assess the situation, do what we can to improve our ability to survive, and work together to begin addressing the things we cannot immediately control. Our children with autism and other biologically based “developmental disabilities” are the canaries in the coalmines. If we don’t learn from them, we will all pay the price.
P.S.: Dear Mom:Today, August 14, 2008 is the five-year anniversary of your death. I miss you terribly but I feel you with me. I love you always.
Marci
I'm reposting this because it is so important. Please help me to bring attention to this issue.God bless you.
Original post:
Today is August 14, 2008. The air today is unhealthy for sensitive individuals to breathe due to high levels of particulate matter. The forecast indicates we will have another PPM alert tomorrow, too. Unlike forecasting the weather, predicting the air quality here is no challenge. If it’s hot enough, don’t go outside if you are “sensitive.” This includes children, the elderly, and anyone who has asthma, allergies, or cardiopulmonary problems.
A major component of our particulate matter is sulfur-dioxide. It has been my belief for the last few years, that the high level of SO2 plays a major part in the incidence of learning disabilities, ADHD, and Autism in the children of the tri-state. In April 2007 I attended my second DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conference, which was held in Washington D.C. One of the questions I asked was if anyone is doing research to determine if SO2 is a contributing factor in the increase of autism and other developmental disabilities. Dr. John Pangborn, who is a brilliant man and has contributed SO much in the way of research, especially regarding the role of mercury in autism, responded to my question by stating, "Sulfur-dioxide is a noxious, toxic, poison. You can see it in the air, you can smell it, and you can taste it... If you believe sulfur-dioxide is contributing to your child's problems, my suggestion to you is MOVE!"
I was so taken aback by Dr. Pangborn's response that I spent most of that night writing a letter to him. That letter is the bulk of today's post.
Having had time to reflect on this situation, I must now thank Dr. Pangborn for his candor. The message we must internalize is this:
There is no cavalry coming to save us. We, the citizens of Indiana, have to do this ourselves.
LETTER TO DR. JOHN PANGBORN
FROM: MARCELLA PIPER-TERRY, M.S.
DATE: APRIL 23, 2007
Dear Dr. Pangborn:
My heart sank when you advised me to move. Then I got angry. Then I felt sick to my stomach and the tears came.
I know sulfur-dioxide is part of why there are so many sick children (and adults) in Indiana. My daughter is not the only one. Your statement, “…I suggest you move,” cut me to my soul. It’s the very same thing I have been fighting the urge to do since realizing, three years ago, that if I didn’t, I would be continuing to put my daughter’s health in peril – as well as my own – and that of my grand-daughter/adopted daughter.
My husband spent 24 years in the United States’ Air Force and now works managing the prototype Doppler Radar – which he has worked to build – from the ground-up, in a cornfield in rural Gibson County, Indiana. In November 2005, our community of Evansville lost 23 of our neighbors when a tornado hit at 2:00 a.m. We are still recovering and counting our blessings that thanks to the Doppler Radar, many thousands were able to prepare because we were informed and could take action against the threat. If not for the data provided by the radar, many more lives may well have been lost.
Before our move to Indiana my husband and our family lived here in Washington, D.C. Steve was the “Senior Non-Commissioned Officer In-Charge” of the “Ground Radar Maintenance Shop” at Andrews Air Force Base, and traveled worldwide to maintain the Air Force Radar Systems. I stayed at home, raising our daughter and working 3 days-a- week doing neuropsychological evaluations of children with ADHD, LD, ASD, and PDD.
In 2000, I was preparing to enter the doctoral program in Social/Health Psychology at George Washington University, where I had been offered full funding and a teaching assistantship. My studies and assistantship duties were set to begin in September 2000. In May 2000, I learned that the five month-old daughter of my 18 year-old bipolar/ADHD and (I now know) severely gluten/casein allergic son had been exposed to multiple toxins in utero through her 20 year-old mother’s drug and alcohol abuse. My grand-daughter was in an environment of ongoing and worsening neglect, which I could not ignore. She was floppy, exhibited tremors, screamed suddenly and for no reason, and had very poor eye-contact. Her mother was involved in an abusive relationship and her drug use was ongoing. (My son was also using drugs heavily and had been out of the picture since before the birth.)
When information came to light about the baby’s current situation, I could not sit by. I went to the Prince George’s County Courthouse (sans attorney), filed an ex-parte (had no idea what it was) and somehow was able to obtain emergency custody of my granddaughter. One week later the ex-parte was extended for one year. At that point it dawned on me that I needed a clone because there was no way I would be able to raise this baby and do full-time doctoral psychology load and teach and raise my five year-old.
With my husband’s retirement zooming at us in two years’ time and no job lined up for him, he agreed to embark on this commitment with me (after an initial, “You DID WHAT???!!!!”). I think I forgot to mention that he was TDY (Temporary Duty assignment) to Germany and Italy for 30 days when I got the emergency custody order. Anyway, I promised Steve that if he would do this with me, I would go wherever he needed to go, and do whatever I had to do, but I could not turn my back on Leah. The Ph.D. could wait. She couldn’t. It wasn’t even hard to walk into the psych department at George Washington University and tell Dr. Paul Poppen that I was not going to be working with him after-all. It would have been much more difficult if I had not had Rachel by the hand and Leah in my arms, but I knew without a doubt, that I was doing the right thing and I have never regretted it.
We got permanent custody of Leah in August 2001 after her mother deserted her and moved to Utah with the abusive boyfriend. We haven’t heard from her since and formally adopted Leah in May 2005.
On September 11, 2001 I took Rachel to school at Francis T. Evans Elementary, just outside the the gate and then dropped Leah off at the babysitter’s at 9:00 a.m. I heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center when I got back in my car and turned on NPR. When I pulled into the gas station on Andrews’, I heard about the second plane. As I was leaving the base, thinking, “This is NOT good…We’re next…” I saw the military guards with M-16s running toward the gate, beginning to close off the base – as I was driving through – leaving my children and getting onto the beltway to drive to Silver Springs, where I worked. Within minutes, I could see smoke downtown, and my brain just kept playing, over and over, “This is not good…This Is NOT Good…This is NOT GOOD…”
I am thankful to God and all the guardian angels in the cosmos that NPR did not announce, “The Pentagon has been hit” until I had pulled to the curb in front of my office – 45 minutes from Andrews Air Force Base. I don’t know how long I sat – holding my breath – with my hands covering my mouth – trying to keep the first giant sob from coming out. I think it must have been at least 30 minutes before I finally was able to turn off the car and stumble to the door. I don’t remember walking – only falling to my knees as soon as I got inside. Then the shaking started – and the real tears – as it hit me that I didn’t know if Steve was on Base that Tuesday – or if he was at the Pentagon. – My Girls – Leah is on base --- Rachel is at school just outside the gate – and BUSH’s Plane – THE TARGET – is on its way back to Andrews’…
It was four hours before I knew if my husband was alive, and it was 7:30 that night before I could get home because the beltway was gridlocked and people were panicking and running over each other. We were told, “If you’re safe, stay put!”
When I finally got back to the base, it took nearly 3 hours to drive and get through security – every car had to be searched. There were dogs to detect explosives and after that, I drove through what seemed like an endless gauntlet of soldiers lining both sides of the single-lane path, each with his or her M-16 at the shoulder.
Sadly, we got used to the searches and guns every time we took our daughter to school or brought her home – or left the base and returned for other reasons.
Shortly after 9/11, Rachel developed tic behaviors. She was always spacey and “zoned out” but things got a lot worse. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, after ruling out seizures and Central Auditory Processing Disorder at Johns’ Hopkins – I don’t mess around – I insisted Rachel be seen by John Freeman at Johns’ Hopkins Neurology and by Dana Boatman at JHU Cognitive Neurology for Central Auditory Processing testing. Then I took her to Walter Reed where she was evaluated by Stacey Williams, Chief of Behavioral Psychology. Rachel saw Dr. Lowry Shropshire, Head of Developmental Pediatrics at Bethesda – and after he put her on Dexedrine we saw a little improvement in attention – but worsening of tics and emotionality --- and so it goes.
Meanwhile, Leah continues to grow and with daily interventions (e.g., music, reading, pictures, touch, smell, etc…) her Developmental Quotients went from 100 (receptive) and 80 (expressive) at 11 months to 132 (expressive) and 134 (receptive) at 17 months – what can be done with neuronal plasticity!!! Behavior and fears were still issues, but she was (and is) doing great!In
October of 2002, we were preparing for our move to Indiana. I was still working in Silver Springs 3 days/week and was on my way to work on October 3rd – the first day of the Sniper Shootings. For the next 3 weeks I, along with everyone else in this area, lived in a CONSTANT state of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Hyper-arousal as we waited to see who was going to be killed next and where it would happen.
My family and I finally left for Indiana on October 25, 2002 – the day after “John Allen Muhammed” and “Lee Boyd Malvo” were arrested. Since moving to Indiana we have had a lot of adjustments, but life has definitely been quieter – in some respects. I have built a practice through networking and word of mouth. I am now attending my second Defeat Autism Now! conference, with plans to further educate and collaborate with physicians and families in our region so we can help our children heal. I live in Evansville and the closest Defeat Autism Now! practitioner that I know of is four hours away.
The incidence of Autism, ADHD, and PDD in our area is staggering – just as it is in Texas, or California, or New Jersey. My child is not the only one. Rachel has definitely gotten worse with each successive assault on her immune system – Trauma, Viral Infections, and Toxic Overload are hurting MY CHILD – and thousands of other children in the mid-west. (Note: At last night’s dinner and tribute to Bernie Rimland, the Midwest contingent consisted of ONE TABLE. My friend and I – traveling together – were the only two people from Indiana – and neither of us is an M. D.)
There have been MANY times in the last three years when I have told myself – and my husband, “We HAVE TO MOVE away from Indiana! This place is a toxic pit! It’s a cancer cell and the kids here are being poisoned! We are ALL being poisoned!”
My question to you is WHERE SHOULD WE GO?
I spent the first 12 years of my life in Orange, California, where the playground of my elementary school was located on a hill directly adjacent to the 55 freeway – before gasoline was unleaded and before catalytic converters. This was the source of a significant body burden of lead which no doubt contributed to my son’s extreme ADHD and bipolar diagnosis.
In 1972, my parents moved us to Mississippi, where they bought a big white house with pillars, azaleas, a veranda, and a one-acre pecan orchard. The “Big-House” was built in 1875 and my mother absolutely LOVED it. After it was nearly destroyed by fire several years later, my well-meaning but very uninformed sisters and brothers-in-law tried to save my mother some money by doing much of the repairs and renovations themselves. The paint-sanding went on for months, intermittently. None of them wore masks. My mother, who was still living in the house, got sicker and sicker and nobody knew why. She finally got over the “blow-out diarrhea” and constant “stomach virus that just won’t go away,” but she almost never felt well enough to get out of bed for more than a couple of hours at a time.
My mother was a classical pianist. At age 64 she obtained her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance. She was hoping to get her doctorate and conduct. Six months after she got her masters’ degree, she fell and broke her hand when she put it out to catch herself. After several months of rehabilitation therapy, she was finally able to move her fingers well enough to start playing again. That’s when she discovered she could no longer sight-read – something she had been doing since she was five years-old. I will never forget the pain in her voice when I stopped by to see her one afternoon and found her sitting at the piano, fingers on the keyboard, just sitting there – staring at the music. I asked what was wrong and she looked at me and said, “I can’t make my hands do what my eyes see.” (This was the first observable manifestation of the lead that flooded her body once again when she broke her hand, releasing it from bone marrow where it had been stored since shortly after the initial exposure.)
Less than a year later my mother’s thyroid disease was progressing so rapidly she was told she had to drink radio-active iodine. (Lead destroys the thyroid.) The next year, her heart stopped during a cardiac catheterization and she was taken by ambulance to University of Alabama at Birmingham where she underwent emergency open-heart surgery. After they cracked and spread her ribs, the neurological deterioration was very rapid. She could no longer speak and look at me simultaneously because what she saw interfered with her ability to formulate expressive language. When she spoke, it didn’t make sense.
The worst thing was, she was still able to realize that she wasn’t making sense. The last complete sentence my mother ever said to me was excruciatingly difficult for her to get out – and for me to hear. I can still see her face – eyes squeezed shut tightly, forehead and brows furrowed and wrinkled, and her teeth clenched so hard I thought they would break… “I wish…I could…finish…one…thought.”
There was no doubt in my mind that my mother was disintegrating because of lead poisoning. NOBODY would listen. They said her cognitive decline was due to the effects of oxygen deprivation during her surgery, and would get better with time. It wasn't, and it didn't.
“The Big House” is still standing and another family lives there now. Many houses in the Mississippi Gulf Coast town where my husband and I bought after our daughter was born did not survive hurricane Katrina. To our knowledge, no one we knew personally was killed in the storm or as a result of the aftermath. I have not been able to bring myself to visit the Gulf Coast yet. It still feels too raw…like my history has been erased.
My mother died three years ago, at the age of seventy-one. She got her Masters’ Degree at 64. She broke her hand at 65. She had her ribs cracked and spread for 2 open-heart surgeries at 66 and 67. The last word she ever spoke to me was “Dignity” – which she was finally able to say after several minutes of struggling to get it out. I knew what she was asking but I couldn’t help her. She was pleading with me to help her die. That was seven months before she finally stopped suffering.
I begged for someone to please listen to me. No one ever did.
My mother had arranged years prior to donate her body to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, in hopes that from the study of her system, others would benefit. I asked the doctors, when the final arrangements were made, if they would PLEASE test her lead levels and let me know the results. Even that request was denied. We are still waiting for her ashes to be returned to us.
My question about sulfur-dioxide is based on clinical observation and objective data. Over the last four years I have evaluated more than 60 children in Indiana. Between 1999 and 2002 I assisted Dr. Susan Van Ost in evaluating hundreds of children here in the D.C. area. The children are different.
The incidence of visual processing disorders is MUCH higher in Indiana. I believe the Sulfur-dioxide in the air is at least partly to blame and I believe it is also interfering with the sulfation pathway and contributing to the presentation of autism in OUR children. We can’t just move. We have to figure out how to fix it. If we ignore it and run away, who is going to help all the other children? And even if I COULD “just move” – Where do you suggest I GO?
PLEASE LISTEN.
Marcella Piper-Terry, M.S.
Final note: There is no real "safe place." In order to survive, we must assess the situation, do what we can to improve our ability to survive, and work together to begin addressing the things we cannot immediately control. Our children with autism and other biologically based “developmental disabilities” are the canaries in the coalmines. If we don’t learn from them, we will all pay the price.
P.S.: Dear Mom:Today, August 14, 2008 is the five-year anniversary of your death. I miss you terribly but I feel you with me. I love you always.
Marci
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
IT'S MINDBODY, NOT MIND-BODY
Last week I was interviewed by Steve Higgs of The Bloomington Alternative. We met for about three hours and talked about Biomedical Interventions for Autism, and about environmental toxins. Mr. Higgs is especially interested in the role of toxins here in the state of Indiana, and how our unique environment impacts the children in this state (and those beyond our borders).
Last night I couldn't sleep. So I got up and fired off a few emails to Mr. Higgs, including copies of some PowerPoint Presentations I gave in April of this year. Among them was a presentation I put together in which I researched some of the specific toxins we have in abundance, here in Southwestern Indiana.
This morning I received an email from Mr. Higgs, with a few questions. Among them was the question of what to call those who seek out my services. Patients? Clients? and how to refer to their diagnoses: ASD?
The result of that email turned into a lengthy response, which I think makes a good blog post, so here it is:
As far as what to call those who seek my services...clients is more appropriate, I think. I wish I had given you one of my business cards. The tag I use on them (and my "letterhead") is "Family Coaching for Fragile Children." I work with kids (and adults) who have received any number of diagnoses, from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia in adults to autism, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and Learning Disabilities in kids.
I was thinking about this a lot last night/this morning, and feeling so discouraged because there is SO MUCH to do and often feels like only me to do it.
I had another parent email and call yesterday, with questions about how to get her physician to order the labs we need. This is a 17 year-old with chronic GI pain, upper respiratory infections, strep, bronchitis, etc. (immune system dysfunction) since infancy. At 17, he now has pre-cancerous lesions in his gastroinstinal tract and the parents have been told that things will probably not ever get better for him; he'll just have to learn to live with the pain. The primary care physician has seen this kid probably 100 times in the last 12-13 years and has made numerous referrals to other specialists (GI docs, allergists, therapists, etc.). He has also collected many thousands of dollars from the family and their insurance company over that time. I saw this kid and spent more than 50 hours going over his medical records, abstracting them, putting everything in chronological order, researching and documenting everything that had happened to him since conception. I also spent about 5 hours with the family (and drove almost four hours round-trip to do so). When I wrote up the report, I did it in such a way that everything flowed and made sense. It was this kid's life story. The reason I did this was to be sure to make the case for the doctor, so he would understand the rationale behind what I was asking him to do. He had no problem with it. Said he would order the tests. However, he will not take the time to pick up the phone and call (or have his staff call) the labs to request the test kits. I even provided interactive links and telephone numbers at the end of the report, to make things as simple as possible. All it would take is five minutes and unfortunately, that's something he or his staff has to do. I can't order the kits and neither can the parents. (There are some labs - Great Plains, for example, that make this process much easier by allowing parents to order kits and take them to the doctor for his/her signature. Others are not as user-friendly, but the information provided by the labs is worth the effort, in my opinion.)
This is the most frustrating thing for me. Even when they finally begin to see why this makes sense, it's like pulling teeth to get physicians to change the way they do things. I don't think I explained this blatantly in my powerpoint about Biomedical Interventions, but this is why I talked about the two doctors (Marshall & Warren) who discovered H. pylori bacteria and its role in ulcers. They made the discovery in 1982 and it wasn't until 1995 that "Standard Medical Practice" finally changed from the mantra of "stress causes ulcers" to recognizing that if a bacterial infection was the cause, then it makes sense to treat with an antibiotic. As a result of the extremely slow awakening of the medical community, hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people suffered with ulcers that could have easily been treated. It took 13 years for them to wake up. How many children will we lose in 13 years? (This may be a good time to read the first post on my blog: AUTISM IS TREATABLE)
When we talk about biomedical interventions for autism and other "spectrum disorders" like ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, bipolar disorder, etc., we are talking about a "whole-body" affliction. That's the major problem with why the medical community is not "on-board." This is completely the opposite of what medical schools have taught for the last few generations, at least. The medical system has moved almost exclusively to specialty care, where you see one doctor for your feet, another doctor for your gut, another doctor for your ears, another doctor for the fungus under your nails, and another doctor for your "mental" or "cognitive" difficulties. Each one sees only a part of the patient, rather than looking at the entire person. The biomedical approach to autism (and other whole-body afflictions) is a systems approach that emphasizes the fact that there is no such thing as mind-body. It's mindbody. All one child; all one word. There is nothing physicially separating the mind from the rest of the body and we need to stop treating our children as if they have been decapitated. What happens in the body affects the brain and vice-versa. This is another reason why the impact of environmental toxins is so important to consider. Lead, mercury, and other heavy metals negatively impact the entire body by damaging enzymatic processes. They cause disruption everywhere. Until we start assessing and addressing the damage caused by environmental toxins, everything else we do is just bandaids.
Marci
Last night I couldn't sleep. So I got up and fired off a few emails to Mr. Higgs, including copies of some PowerPoint Presentations I gave in April of this year. Among them was a presentation I put together in which I researched some of the specific toxins we have in abundance, here in Southwestern Indiana.
This morning I received an email from Mr. Higgs, with a few questions. Among them was the question of what to call those who seek out my services. Patients? Clients? and how to refer to their diagnoses: ASD?
The result of that email turned into a lengthy response, which I think makes a good blog post, so here it is:
As far as what to call those who seek my services...clients is more appropriate, I think. I wish I had given you one of my business cards. The tag I use on them (and my "letterhead") is "Family Coaching for Fragile Children." I work with kids (and adults) who have received any number of diagnoses, from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia in adults to autism, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and Learning Disabilities in kids.
I was thinking about this a lot last night/this morning, and feeling so discouraged because there is SO MUCH to do and often feels like only me to do it.
I had another parent email and call yesterday, with questions about how to get her physician to order the labs we need. This is a 17 year-old with chronic GI pain, upper respiratory infections, strep, bronchitis, etc. (immune system dysfunction) since infancy. At 17, he now has pre-cancerous lesions in his gastroinstinal tract and the parents have been told that things will probably not ever get better for him; he'll just have to learn to live with the pain. The primary care physician has seen this kid probably 100 times in the last 12-13 years and has made numerous referrals to other specialists (GI docs, allergists, therapists, etc.). He has also collected many thousands of dollars from the family and their insurance company over that time. I saw this kid and spent more than 50 hours going over his medical records, abstracting them, putting everything in chronological order, researching and documenting everything that had happened to him since conception. I also spent about 5 hours with the family (and drove almost four hours round-trip to do so). When I wrote up the report, I did it in such a way that everything flowed and made sense. It was this kid's life story. The reason I did this was to be sure to make the case for the doctor, so he would understand the rationale behind what I was asking him to do. He had no problem with it. Said he would order the tests. However, he will not take the time to pick up the phone and call (or have his staff call) the labs to request the test kits. I even provided interactive links and telephone numbers at the end of the report, to make things as simple as possible. All it would take is five minutes and unfortunately, that's something he or his staff has to do. I can't order the kits and neither can the parents. (There are some labs - Great Plains, for example, that make this process much easier by allowing parents to order kits and take them to the doctor for his/her signature. Others are not as user-friendly, but the information provided by the labs is worth the effort, in my opinion.)
This is the most frustrating thing for me. Even when they finally begin to see why this makes sense, it's like pulling teeth to get physicians to change the way they do things. I don't think I explained this blatantly in my powerpoint about Biomedical Interventions, but this is why I talked about the two doctors (Marshall & Warren) who discovered H. pylori bacteria and its role in ulcers. They made the discovery in 1982 and it wasn't until 1995 that "Standard Medical Practice" finally changed from the mantra of "stress causes ulcers" to recognizing that if a bacterial infection was the cause, then it makes sense to treat with an antibiotic. As a result of the extremely slow awakening of the medical community, hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people suffered with ulcers that could have easily been treated. It took 13 years for them to wake up. How many children will we lose in 13 years? (This may be a good time to read the first post on my blog: AUTISM IS TREATABLE)
When we talk about biomedical interventions for autism and other "spectrum disorders" like ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, bipolar disorder, etc., we are talking about a "whole-body" affliction. That's the major problem with why the medical community is not "on-board." This is completely the opposite of what medical schools have taught for the last few generations, at least. The medical system has moved almost exclusively to specialty care, where you see one doctor for your feet, another doctor for your gut, another doctor for your ears, another doctor for the fungus under your nails, and another doctor for your "mental" or "cognitive" difficulties. Each one sees only a part of the patient, rather than looking at the entire person. The biomedical approach to autism (and other whole-body afflictions) is a systems approach that emphasizes the fact that there is no such thing as mind-body. It's mindbody. All one child; all one word. There is nothing physicially separating the mind from the rest of the body and we need to stop treating our children as if they have been decapitated. What happens in the body affects the brain and vice-versa. This is another reason why the impact of environmental toxins is so important to consider. Lead, mercury, and other heavy metals negatively impact the entire body by damaging enzymatic processes. They cause disruption everywhere. Until we start assessing and addressing the damage caused by environmental toxins, everything else we do is just bandaids.
Marci
Friday, October 30, 2009
MY CAUTION ABOUT SAMBUCOL HAS INCITED ITS OWN STORM
I am following up on a post from a couple of weeks ago, in which I cautioned about using Sambucol (Black Elderberry) for treatment of H1N1 virus.
I have gotten more comments about this post than any other previous post, including the one in which I cautioned about getting the seasonal flu vaccine because of concerns about mercury.
As I noted in my post, Sambucol has been shown to produce a 44.9 FOLD increase in TNF-Alpha, which is usually a very good thing in fighting the flu, but concerned me because TNF-Alpha increases have also been associated with "Cytokine Storm."
Here are the two articles I referenced in the previous post:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518
http://immunology.suite101.com/article.cfm/h1n1_influenza_and_the_cytokine_storm
The above article on Influenza and the Cytokine Storm was written by Stephen Allen Christensen, M.D. For more information on Dr. Christensen, here is a link:
http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/docsteve53
I am not a doctor and have never claimed to be one. I care very much about the people I work with and about those I have never met but who may read this blog. I would never want anything I write to be the cause of harm coming to anyone.
I have published all of the comments that I have received about the Sambucol post, including those that accuse me of possibly being responsible for deaths if someone does not use Sambucol for treating the flu.
I have been tempted to remove the post and even take down the blog, because as I said, I definitely do not want to be responsible for misinformation - mainstream media, the AAP, and the AMA are already doing a good job of that.
Please read the original post, and follow the links to the articles I have provided, as well as those that have been provided by folks who have commented. I have no idea of the extent of the education or experience of those who have commented as they have, for the most part, chosen to remain Anonymous.
I do know that there is at least one physician in my area, whose opinion I respect greatly, who disagrees with my concerns regarding Sambucol. That is why I am posting this update.
I hope you are well, and I hope you stay that way.
Blessings,
Marci
I have gotten more comments about this post than any other previous post, including the one in which I cautioned about getting the seasonal flu vaccine because of concerns about mercury.
As I noted in my post, Sambucol has been shown to produce a 44.9 FOLD increase in TNF-Alpha, which is usually a very good thing in fighting the flu, but concerned me because TNF-Alpha increases have also been associated with "Cytokine Storm."
Here are the two articles I referenced in the previous post:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518
http://immunology.suite101.com/article.cfm/h1n1_influenza_and_the_cytokine_storm
The above article on Influenza and the Cytokine Storm was written by Stephen Allen Christensen, M.D. For more information on Dr. Christensen, here is a link:
http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/docsteve53
I am not a doctor and have never claimed to be one. I care very much about the people I work with and about those I have never met but who may read this blog. I would never want anything I write to be the cause of harm coming to anyone.
I have published all of the comments that I have received about the Sambucol post, including those that accuse me of possibly being responsible for deaths if someone does not use Sambucol for treating the flu.
I have been tempted to remove the post and even take down the blog, because as I said, I definitely do not want to be responsible for misinformation - mainstream media, the AAP, and the AMA are already doing a good job of that.
Please read the original post, and follow the links to the articles I have provided, as well as those that have been provided by folks who have commented. I have no idea of the extent of the education or experience of those who have commented as they have, for the most part, chosen to remain Anonymous.
I do know that there is at least one physician in my area, whose opinion I respect greatly, who disagrees with my concerns regarding Sambucol. That is why I am posting this update.
I hope you are well, and I hope you stay that way.
Blessings,
Marci
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Treating the Flu Naturally - Priceless
My nine year-0ld has been sick with the flu.
Leah came home on Tuesday with a cough and fever. She spent Tuesday night and Wednesday in bed - sleeping, watching TV, eating popsicles and crackers, and occasionally blowing her nose and coughing.
I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday checking her fever every 30 - 60 minutes (round the clock), administering supplements, running up and down the stairs with 7-up, popsicles, crackers, books, paper and colored pencils. I also spent every waking moment in fear, hoping I was right about what I was doing, and praying that her fever wouldn't spike and we wouldn't have to go to the hospital.
Thankfully, Leah has had a mild case of the flu (which is what most people experience), and today her fever is gone. It never got above 102 degrees, so I never gave anything to reduce the fever (which probably has something to do with why she is doing so well now). I did give her several things to help modulate her immune system, and to help her fight off the infection. Call me conceited (please don't) but I believe the steps I have taken with Leah have really made a difference, and I would like to share them with others.
As a side note, yesterday afternoon I made a quick trip to the health food store to pick up some Turmeric (curcumin) and Colloidal Silver. I think my friend, the owner of the store, was surprised to see me. A few weeks ago I received an email from her asking if I had fallen off the face of the planet. I explained to my friend the reason I haven't been in is because when I first heard about the "Swine Flu" in the spring of this year, I spent more than $400 stocking up on everything I thought I might possibly need to fend of the virus. The photo below shows what I purchased for my own family's use in anticipation of this year's flu season.
I am well aware that not everyone can afford to shell out $400 on supplements to fight the flu. I can't really afford it either, but if I'm going to recommend things to others, I want to make sure they work. Therefore, I use these things myself (and I give them to my guinea pigs...I mean my kids).
So, for those who cannot shell out the money to cover every possible scenario (or for those whose OCD is not as severe as mine) - what are the most important things to buy, if you want to protect your family from the flu this year? The next photo shows what I actually used to treat Leah's flu.
Leah came home on Tuesday with a cough and fever. She spent Tuesday night and Wednesday in bed - sleeping, watching TV, eating popsicles and crackers, and occasionally blowing her nose and coughing.
I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday checking her fever every 30 - 60 minutes (round the clock), administering supplements, running up and down the stairs with 7-up, popsicles, crackers, books, paper and colored pencils. I also spent every waking moment in fear, hoping I was right about what I was doing, and praying that her fever wouldn't spike and we wouldn't have to go to the hospital.
Thankfully, Leah has had a mild case of the flu (which is what most people experience), and today her fever is gone. It never got above 102 degrees, so I never gave anything to reduce the fever (which probably has something to do with why she is doing so well now). I did give her several things to help modulate her immune system, and to help her fight off the infection. Call me conceited (please don't) but I believe the steps I have taken with Leah have really made a difference, and I would like to share them with others.
As a side note, yesterday afternoon I made a quick trip to the health food store to pick up some Turmeric (curcumin) and Colloidal Silver. I think my friend, the owner of the store, was surprised to see me. A few weeks ago I received an email from her asking if I had fallen off the face of the planet. I explained to my friend the reason I haven't been in is because when I first heard about the "Swine Flu" in the spring of this year, I spent more than $400 stocking up on everything I thought I might possibly need to fend of the virus. The photo below shows what I purchased for my own family's use in anticipation of this year's flu season.
I am well aware that not everyone can afford to shell out $400 on supplements to fight the flu. I can't really afford it either, but if I'm going to recommend things to others, I want to make sure they work. Therefore, I use these things myself (and I give them to my guinea pigs...I mean my kids).
So, for those who cannot shell out the money to cover every possible scenario (or for those whose OCD is not as severe as mine) - what are the most important things to buy, if you want to protect your family from the flu this year? The next photo shows what I actually used to treat Leah's flu.
I have been giving (and taking) vitamin D3 for prevention (2,500 iu daily for my kids and 5,000 iu daily for me). We also take fish oil daily (1-2 grams). When Leah got sick, I increased her D3 to 20,000 iu/day (for adults, the recommendation is up to 50,000 iu/day for 3 days). I gave 2 grams (2,000 mg.) of fish oil and 2 grams (2,000 mg.) of Vitamin C, in divided doses (morning and night). I gave 1 capsule of Virastop (from Enzymedica) 3x/day on an empty stomach. I gave Oscillococcinum (available at Walmart or CVS) 3x/day, and a squirt of colloidal silver 2x/day.
On a shoestring budget, the first thing I would buy is Vitamin D3. If you don't have a shoestring budget but know someone who does, buy a bottle and give it to them. We're all in this together.
Final words:
Purchasing enough supplements to cover every possible scenario during the flu season: $400.
Cost of Vitamin D3, Fish Oil, Vitamin C, Oscillococcinum, ViraStop, and Colloidal Silver: $95.
Cost of buying a bottle of D3 for your neighbor who can't afford it: $10.
Treating the flu without worrying about Mercury or Squalene from vaccinations: Priceless.
Blessings,
Marci
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sambucol Good for Prevention BUT NOT Treatment of H1N1 Flu
Hi everyone:
I just had to send out a warning about Sambucol (black elderberry). This is a very good anti-viral for use with many strains of the flu. It works to prevent infection (including with H1N1) by preventing the virus from attaching to cells. It also works in reducing the duration of illness and severity of symptoms IN SEASONAL FLU because it stimulates the production of inflammatory cytokines.
The increase in inflammatory cytokines is usually a good thing for treating the flu because it "kicks in" your immune system to fight the virus.
Here is a link to a PubMed article about the benefit of Sambucol (black elderberry) for treating the flu:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518
Here's the gist of the abstract: "Adherent monocytes were separated from PBL and incubated with different Sambucol preparations i.e., Sambucol Elderberry Extract, Sambucol Black Elderberry Syrup, Sambucol Immune System and Sambucol for Kids. Production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8) was significantly increased, mostly by the Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract (2-45 fold), as compared to LPS, a known monocyte activator (3.6-10.7 fold). The most striking increase was noted in TNF-alpha production (44.9 fold). We conclude from this study that, in addition to its antiviral properties, Sambucol Elderberry Extract and its formulations activate the healthy immune system by increasing inflammatory cytokine production."
HOWEVER, THE H1N1 VIRUS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE SEASONAL FLU BECAUSE IT CAUSES A CYTOKINE STORM.
http://immunology.suite101.com/article.cfm/h1n1_influenza_and_the_cytokine_storm
This is what is making kids SO sick so fast. With H1N1, the kid generally gets a mild form of flu, with fever, cough, and other "flu-like symptoms." Then, they start to get better and seem like they are getting over it, when suddenly their fever shoots up and they get VERY SICK VERY FAST. This is the cytokine storm happening. The immune system has done it's job by reacting to the virus and sending out the troops! Unfortunately, in some people, with H1N1 the immune system goes into Hyper-Drive and it doesn't know when to stop. This is why so much mucus is produced and pneumonia results. Mucus is the body's shield - it's trying to protect itself from the invasion. In cytokine storm, there is actually too much protection from too many cytokines, including IL-6 and TNF-a.
So, you definitely do not want to use a treatment that INCREASES those cytokines any further. (Remember, the above study found that black elderberry (Sambucol) increased TNF-a by 44.9-fold - THAT's a HUGE increase!) If you (or your child) has H1N1, you want to give things that DECREASE inflammation (fish oil, curcumin, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, including aspirin [adults] and motrin/ibuprofen in kids).
Sambucol is still great for PREVENTING H1N1 and for treating seasonal flu, but once someone has symptoms, they should not use Sambucol unless they are sure it's not H1N1.
Finally, I always encourage others to do their own research before simply taking anyone's word (including mine), especially when it comes to the health of your children. Please check out the things you are giving to your kids - and that includes anything you allow others to inject into their bodies or spray up their noses. And when it comes to researching treatments for H1N1, remember that this IS NOT the same as the seasonal flu. You cannot make generalizations about things that we know work for seasonal flu. This is different.
So go to PubMed, and do your research, but be sure to check the date on the publication and remember that nothing in the literature about "influenza" or seasonal flu applies to H1N1 if the study was published before 2009.
Please spread this around to anyone you believe may benefit.
Blessings and stay well!
Marci
I just had to send out a warning about Sambucol (black elderberry). This is a very good anti-viral for use with many strains of the flu. It works to prevent infection (including with H1N1) by preventing the virus from attaching to cells. It also works in reducing the duration of illness and severity of symptoms IN SEASONAL FLU because it stimulates the production of inflammatory cytokines.
The increase in inflammatory cytokines is usually a good thing for treating the flu because it "kicks in" your immune system to fight the virus.
Here is a link to a PubMed article about the benefit of Sambucol (black elderberry) for treating the flu:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518
Here's the gist of the abstract: "Adherent monocytes were separated from PBL and incubated with different Sambucol preparations i.e., Sambucol Elderberry Extract, Sambucol Black Elderberry Syrup, Sambucol Immune System and Sambucol for Kids. Production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8) was significantly increased, mostly by the Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract (2-45 fold), as compared to LPS, a known monocyte activator (3.6-10.7 fold). The most striking increase was noted in TNF-alpha production (44.9 fold). We conclude from this study that, in addition to its antiviral properties, Sambucol Elderberry Extract and its formulations activate the healthy immune system by increasing inflammatory cytokine production."
HOWEVER, THE H1N1 VIRUS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE SEASONAL FLU BECAUSE IT CAUSES A CYTOKINE STORM.
http://immunology.suite101.com/article.cfm/h1n1_influenza_and_the_cytokine_storm
This is what is making kids SO sick so fast. With H1N1, the kid generally gets a mild form of flu, with fever, cough, and other "flu-like symptoms." Then, they start to get better and seem like they are getting over it, when suddenly their fever shoots up and they get VERY SICK VERY FAST. This is the cytokine storm happening. The immune system has done it's job by reacting to the virus and sending out the troops! Unfortunately, in some people, with H1N1 the immune system goes into Hyper-Drive and it doesn't know when to stop. This is why so much mucus is produced and pneumonia results. Mucus is the body's shield - it's trying to protect itself from the invasion. In cytokine storm, there is actually too much protection from too many cytokines, including IL-6 and TNF-a.
So, you definitely do not want to use a treatment that INCREASES those cytokines any further. (Remember, the above study found that black elderberry (Sambucol) increased TNF-a by 44.9-fold - THAT's a HUGE increase!) If you (or your child) has H1N1, you want to give things that DECREASE inflammation (fish oil, curcumin, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, including aspirin [adults] and motrin/ibuprofen in kids).
Sambucol is still great for PREVENTING H1N1 and for treating seasonal flu, but once someone has symptoms, they should not use Sambucol unless they are sure it's not H1N1.
Finally, I always encourage others to do their own research before simply taking anyone's word (including mine), especially when it comes to the health of your children. Please check out the things you are giving to your kids - and that includes anything you allow others to inject into their bodies or spray up their noses. And when it comes to researching treatments for H1N1, remember that this IS NOT the same as the seasonal flu. You cannot make generalizations about things that we know work for seasonal flu. This is different.
So go to PubMed, and do your research, but be sure to check the date on the publication and remember that nothing in the literature about "influenza" or seasonal flu applies to H1N1 if the study was published before 2009.
Please spread this around to anyone you believe may benefit.
Blessings and stay well!
Marci
Monday, August 31, 2009
Dateline NBC: A Dose of Controversy and a Dash of Conflict of Interest
For those of you who took the time to watch last night's Dateline NBC program (as I did), you may have come away from the show (as I did) saying to yourself, "That seemed one-sided."
You may be asking yourself the following questions:
1. Did they present the whole story?
2. Was important information edited out?
The answers to these questions are (1) NO. and (2) YES.
My own impressions of the show were that it was grossly biased in favor of Brian Deem and Paul Offit. For example, Brian Deem has made a big point of accusing Dr. Wakefield of being guilty of "conflict of interest" because he was paid "a quarter of a million dollars" for his work as a paid expert in a court case. Mr. Deem said nothing of his own conflicts of interest or those of his employer on behalf of Glaxo Smith-Kline (Big Pharma).
As for Dr. Offit (a.k.a. "Dr. Profit"), while Matt Lauer did mention that Dr. Offit was involved in vaccine development, nothing was said about the $182 Million dollars that was paid in royalties for the Rotavirus Vaccine, of which Dr. Offit received "an undisclosed amount." I'm just speculating, but I'm sure it was more than "a quarter of a million dollars."
There was also no mention of the fact that while Dr. Offit was developing and selling vaccines, he was also sitting on the board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) - the very same group that was charged with "reviewing the research" on vaccine safety, and ultimately pronounced there was No Connection between vaccines and autism. I think that's a conflict of interest that bears mentioning.
To learn more about Dr. Offit and his conflict of interest issues, as well as COI issues involving the American Academy of Pediatrics, click the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Hw-Q23S_s
To learn more about Dr. Offit and the licensing of his Rotavirus Vaccine, click the following link:
http://www.nvic.org/nvic-archives/pressrelease/licensingpolicy.aspx
It is also worth mentioning that the increased incidence of measles infection in the last few years consists of a majority (more than 50%) of cases that developed in children as a result of vaccination. (This was part of the increase in "vaccine-preventable illnesses" Dr. Offit spoke about during last night's program - he just failed to mention that most of the measles infections were BECAUSE the kids were vaccinated, or came into contact with a child who had been vaccinated within five days and was shedding the virus.)
As far as the voice of reason, NBC did a hatchet job on their interview with Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former Head of the National Institutes of Health. To their credit, NBC has posted more of the interview with Dr. Healy on their website. I urge you to watch it by clicking the following link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32584905#32584905
After watching what Dr. Healy REALLY said to NBC in preparation for last night's program, PLEASE go to the following link and listen to what the former Director of NIH had to say on this subject in May 2008: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/12/cbsnews_investigates/main4086809.shtml
Thoughtful House has posted their response to last night's program. You can read it here:
http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/newsletters/2009-08a.pdf
Here is Dr. Wakefield's response to the program: http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/newsletters/2009-08b.pdf
Finally, regarding the link between autism and gastrointestinal disease: Dr. Wakefield is not the first, nor is he the only researcher to observe this association. While I would never presume to count myself as worthy of keeping company with a researcher of his caliber, in April 2009 I put together and delivered several PowerPoint presentations about Autism. One of those presentations was entitled, "Gastrointestinal Illness in Autism" and involved my own literature review and observations from the last several years of working with families of children with Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, and other Developmental Disabilities. If you would like a copy of the presentation, email me at marcellaterry@hotmail.com and I'll send you a copy.
In closing, I hope you watched the show last night. It was an excellent lesson in whether or not to believe everything we see or read from the media. I also hope you will take the time to check out the links in this post and educate yourself and those you care about.
The truth is out there, we just have to work a bit harder to find it. We cannot rely on clicking the remote to give us the information we need.
Blessings 4 all of you!
Marci Terry
You may be asking yourself the following questions:
1. Did they present the whole story?
2. Was important information edited out?
The answers to these questions are (1) NO. and (2) YES.
My own impressions of the show were that it was grossly biased in favor of Brian Deem and Paul Offit. For example, Brian Deem has made a big point of accusing Dr. Wakefield of being guilty of "conflict of interest" because he was paid "a quarter of a million dollars" for his work as a paid expert in a court case. Mr. Deem said nothing of his own conflicts of interest or those of his employer on behalf of Glaxo Smith-Kline (Big Pharma).
As for Dr. Offit (a.k.a. "Dr. Profit"), while Matt Lauer did mention that Dr. Offit was involved in vaccine development, nothing was said about the $182 Million dollars that was paid in royalties for the Rotavirus Vaccine, of which Dr. Offit received "an undisclosed amount." I'm just speculating, but I'm sure it was more than "a quarter of a million dollars."
There was also no mention of the fact that while Dr. Offit was developing and selling vaccines, he was also sitting on the board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) - the very same group that was charged with "reviewing the research" on vaccine safety, and ultimately pronounced there was No Connection between vaccines and autism. I think that's a conflict of interest that bears mentioning.
To learn more about Dr. Offit and his conflict of interest issues, as well as COI issues involving the American Academy of Pediatrics, click the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Hw-Q23S_s
To learn more about Dr. Offit and the licensing of his Rotavirus Vaccine, click the following link:
http://www.nvic.org/nvic-archives/pressrelease/licensingpolicy.aspx
It is also worth mentioning that the increased incidence of measles infection in the last few years consists of a majority (more than 50%) of cases that developed in children as a result of vaccination. (This was part of the increase in "vaccine-preventable illnesses" Dr. Offit spoke about during last night's program - he just failed to mention that most of the measles infections were BECAUSE the kids were vaccinated, or came into contact with a child who had been vaccinated within five days and was shedding the virus.)
As far as the voice of reason, NBC did a hatchet job on their interview with Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former Head of the National Institutes of Health. To their credit, NBC has posted more of the interview with Dr. Healy on their website. I urge you to watch it by clicking the following link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32584905#32584905
After watching what Dr. Healy REALLY said to NBC in preparation for last night's program, PLEASE go to the following link and listen to what the former Director of NIH had to say on this subject in May 2008: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/12/cbsnews_investigates/main4086809.shtml
Thoughtful House has posted their response to last night's program. You can read it here:
http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/newsletters/2009-08a.pdf
Here is Dr. Wakefield's response to the program: http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/newsletters/2009-08b.pdf
Finally, regarding the link between autism and gastrointestinal disease: Dr. Wakefield is not the first, nor is he the only researcher to observe this association. While I would never presume to count myself as worthy of keeping company with a researcher of his caliber, in April 2009 I put together and delivered several PowerPoint presentations about Autism. One of those presentations was entitled, "Gastrointestinal Illness in Autism" and involved my own literature review and observations from the last several years of working with families of children with Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, and other Developmental Disabilities. If you would like a copy of the presentation, email me at marcellaterry@hotmail.com and I'll send you a copy.
In closing, I hope you watched the show last night. It was an excellent lesson in whether or not to believe everything we see or read from the media. I also hope you will take the time to check out the links in this post and educate yourself and those you care about.
The truth is out there, we just have to work a bit harder to find it. We cannot rely on clicking the remote to give us the information we need.
Blessings 4 all of you!
Marci Terry
Friday, August 21, 2009
Vaccines and Autism: Your Child and "The Greater Good"
I have not posted in a while, and I apologize for that.
I am not going to offer anything new today, but instead will repost a very long, detailed article I wrote in May 2009. I am reposting this because I believe it is exceptionally pertinent and needed. If it helps save one child, it is worth it.
There are several links in this post, please take the time to view the videos as they are essential to the message as a whole. After viewing the videos, please click the "back" arrow to return to the post.
Blessings for all of you.
Marci
This article originally posted May 7, 2009:
Yesterday's episode of "The Doctors" was worth watching, if only because it is sure to stir more debate and controversy about the link between vaccines and autism. Hopefully, this will help to keep the vaccine/autism connection from fading away as the AAP and "99.9 % of pediatricians" (according to Dr. Stork) would like. For anyone who did not see the show, let me set the stage.
Jenny McCarthy, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, J.B. Handley, and Stan Kurtz were guests. Probably everyone knows by know that Jenny McCarthy is the mother of Evan, a little boy who was diagnosed with autism and who is now recovered. He no longer has autism. Dr. Jerry Kartzinel is the Defeat Autism Now! Pediatrician who helped Jenny McCarthy and Evan by utilizing the Biomedical Approach to address the underlying medical problems that led to the autism diagnosis. Jenny Documented Evan's recovery in her book, "Louder Than Words." Jenny and Dr. Kartzinel have recently written a book together, "Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide." J.B. Handley and his wife Lisa founded Generation Rescue, a non-profit organization that provides information and support to families who are working to recover their children from an autism diagnosis.
I don't usually watch "The Doctors" and wouldn't have seen it yesterday if I had not been given a heads' up via email from a friend who is also the parent of a child diagnosed with autism. I don't know anything about "The Doctors" other than the two who were most involved in the debate were Dr. Stork and Dr. Sears.
At the beginning of the show, Dr. Stork introduced the topic by saying, "Some of the theories you’re about to hear we may not agree with, but we know as doctors, this is an important issue to discuss."
As the discussion began, Dr. Lisa Masterson was supportive of Jenny McCarthy's work and gave her kudos for standing up, not only for her own kid but for so many other kids in this country and beyond. However, as the discussion heated up, Dr. Masterson disappeared from the stage and we were left with Dr. Sears and Dr. Stork. Dr. Sears, a pediatrician and member of the AAP, was reasonable and asked thoughtful questions about the science behind the GF/CF diet, specifically questioning, "Why doesn't it work for ALL kids?" Dr. Kartzinel responded that while the GF/CF diet does not work for ALL kids, it DOES work well for a significant percentage, and we CAN test to see if children have allergic reactions to certain foods and we CAN TEST to see if an individual child is making opiates from gluten and casein proteins. This is what medicine is supposed to be about. You base the treatment on the results of laboratory tests.
Dr. Sears then asked Dr. Kartzinel about his opinion with regard to whether or not there is a genetic component to autism. As Dr. Kartzinel responded, we talk about a "genetic predisposition" - something that makes an individual child more vulnerable to having a bad reaction to particular environmental insults - including toxins, and including toxins that are injected into the child's body via vaccinations.
Dr. Kartzinel: "What thing can we do in medicine to an entire population, and not expect a certain small group not to do well with? There is nothing in medicine that we do…lidocane, anesthesia, certain surgical procedures...Why would we think that we can give every child in the nation not one vaccine, but multiple vaccines and not suspect anything to go wrong with them. So, genetically, whether it be penicillin, or vaccines we have to understand there are going to be some children who will not do well with it…That’s probably one big reason we have a problem with this…we don’t look at the children as individuals…we look at them as a population."
As Dr. Kartzinel pointed out, in medicine, nothing works for everyone, so why would we expect that a universal vaccine schedule would work for ALL kids, without a certain percentage of them having problems as a result? Jenny joined in to say that the message is, there are too many, too soon and that the increase in the number of vaccines from 10 in 1983 to 36 in 2009 is unwarranted and IS related to the increase in autism. This is when things turned ugly. Here is a link to a discussion you may want to see (or see again): http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/procedure_list/269
What I noticed is that when J.B. Handley stated that he is tired of physicians telling parents that vaccines are safe when the physician has not personally looked at the science, Dr. Stork blew a gasket. Dr. Stork began yelling at J.B. Handley and accusing him of "antagonizing me" and "personally attacking me on MY stage." Dr. Stork then switched the topic away from vaccines and started talking about environmental toxins and dietary changes that may be contributing to autism. He was willing to entertain the idea that there are other toxins and seemingly benign things that may be problematic for our kids, but to question vaccines? That is out of bounds. Wait...I thought he wanted to have an open debate...
Here is a link to the next segment of the show: http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/procedure_list/271
Again, let's have an open discussion, but not about vaccines, since we "Know the Truth" that "Vaccines have been studied and scrutinized" so let's stop talking about that. Did anyone else hear Jenny McCarthy, Jerry Kartzinel, and J.B. Handley saying over and over again "They've looked at 2 vaccines and only one ingredient (mercury)." Drs. Sears and Stork continued to talk over their guests as if they could not hear what they were saying. They just continued to tow the party-line, from the AAP and the CDC. During the break, after the above "discussion," Dr. Stork stated that they contacted the AAP and had recieved a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is the official party-line:
Why don't we ask Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Click here to see what Dr. Healy has to say. Please be patient and wait for the advertisement at the beginning to play through. Dr. Healy's interview is well worth the wait.
According to the former director of NIH, not only has the question NOT been answered, it has not even been addressed. Injured children have not been studied because the government is afraid of what they will find. “The public health officials have been too quick to dismiss…”
Aha! you may say...Dr. Healy is only ONE physician and she is no longer the director of NIH anyway. Why should we believe her?
The problems with mercury have been known for decades, and it's not just mercury. Aluminum does many of the same things that mercury does. If you want to learn more about this read the article by Dr. Russell Blaylock, reporting on the cover-up at the Simpsonwood Conference.
If you have read much about vaccine safety, you may be familiar with Dr. Paul Offit; the biggest proponent of vaccines, and member of the Institute Of Medicine (IOM), which has declared with a great degree of certainty that vaccines are safe. I encourage you to watch this video clip of Dr. Offit, promoting his latest book about the subject.
Dr. Offit is pretty impressive. Unfortunately he doesn't understand neuroscience. If he did, he would realize that his argument about problems with the synapse being the cause of autism, he is actually MAKING the CASE for vaccine injury, since mercury and aluminum (both vaccine additives) are both NEUROTOXINS and damage the ability of one neuron to communicate with another by way of the SYNAPSE.
Dr. Offit makes a big point of the fact that in the last year there has been the largest oubreak of measles in decades. 135 cases of measles, and 10% of those children had serious complications. For clarification: 10% of 135 is 13.5, meaning that when Dr. Offit is cautioning about the impact of measles, he is talking about complications that impacted less than 14 children in the United States in the last year - which was "the largest measles outbreak in years." What Dr. Offit doesn't tell you is that more than 50% of the measles cases he talks about have been determined to be from the vaccine strain of measles, meaning the children who got measles either got them from the vaccine, or from being exposed to someone who was shedding the virus after being vaccinated. This is the same thing that happens with many of the polio cases, but Dr. Offit is not going to tell you that. Why would he want to be...less than honest about these facts? Watch this video clip and draw your own conclusions.
Remember the American Academy of Pediatrics' statement on "The Doctors?" Why would they declare 36 vaccines "safe" when only "a dozen or so" studies have been done and none of them have included children with autism? Follow the money.
Fifty-five doses of vaccines by age six. Wait, you might say...I thought it was 36! Thirty-six vaccinations or shots, but because so many are multi-dose shots (DTaP, MMR) when you add them all up, it's actually 55 doses of vaccines.
Remember, it's not just mercury that is neurotoxic, aluminum is a huge problem that most people haven't even considered at this point. Here is a link to a very informative article about aluminum, and why we should be concerned. This article is written by Dr. Robert Sears. Dr. Robert Sears happens to be the brother of Dr. James (Jim) Sears of "The Doctors." Both are pediatricians, but they apparently have some different views on the issue of vaccine safety. If you saw the episode of "The Doctors," you may have noticed that at one point after being asked by Dr. Jim Sears about "the scientific studies" showing that diet is effective in treating autism, Dr. Kartzinel spoke about how so many doctors are questioning if diet works, but they are not coming to his clinic and actually talking to parents of kids who are improving. He also made reference to Dr. Robert Sears, saying something along the lines of, "Those who are saying there are no studies are not talking to your brother about what he sees at the clinic." My hunch is that the reason Dr. Jim Sears appeared more rational and reasonable than Dr. Stork on the subject of vaccine safety is because he has had this conversation many times within his own family. Unlike Dr. Stork, who seems to be married to his position of "Devil's Advocate." Interesting choice of terminology.
Dr. Stork is okay with talking about ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS as a possible contributing factor in autism, but he adamantly denies that toxins in vaccines (which are injected directly into the bloodstream of a tiny infant) could have anything to do with autism. Let's ask another pediatrician (one of the .1% who disagrees with Dr. Stork, according to his own estimate) about her experience with autism. Dr. Stephanie Cave is a Defeat Autism Now! pediatrician in Louisiana. She is also author of the book, "What Your Pediatrician May Not Tell You About Vaccinations." In an interview with Mothering Magazine, Dr. Cave stated:
To read the interview with Dr. Cave in its entirety, click here.
So, what is the source of the mercury and aluminum? There are many environmental sources of mercury and aluminum, especially here in the midwest. We have a lot of coal-burning power plants, and they put a lot of heavy metals into our environment. When it's in the air, water, and soil, it's hard to avoid it, which is exactly why it is so important to be able to detoxify. If your metallothionein is depleted, that's not going to happen and metals are going to build up in your system. As a side-trip, this might be a good time to mention that when we talk about genetic predisposition and considering which children might be most at risk, we need to consider where the parents live and how many toxins are built up in the mother before she gets pregnant. The message is, "It's all ADDITIVE." It's not JUST the vaccines, but if the mercury and aluminum that is injected into an infant on the first day of his or her life shuts down the baby's ability to detoxify AND that infant lives in an area with a lot of toxins, ENVIRONMENTAL toxins are going to pose more of a problem for that child.
The problem is, Dr. Stork is thinking just like a traditionally trained physician who practices traditional western medicine and is not open to considering any other points of view because that would be inconsistent with the party-line. He does not see the cumulative effect of toxins, but only wants to attribute the effects of poisons to those he is not involved in administering. This is the same kind of thought process behind his statement that there are increases in autoimmune diseases and all kinds of other diseases, and using that argument to establish as "truth" the "fact" that there is no connection between vaccines and autism. As Jenny McCarthy and Jerry Kartzinel pointed out, those other diseases are ALSO related to vaccines.
I found it interesting that nobody on the show brought up aluminum, or the increase in Alzheimer's disease since the administration of yearly flu vaccination (which not only has a lot of aluminum, they also contain mercury). On this subject I encourage you to go to PubMed and search for "aluminum with alzheimer's" - I just did and I got 775 studies.
Do you know anyone with Alzheimer's Disease? or "Alzheimer's type dementia?" If you do, I would ask you to envision that older person as a young child with the same problems: memory problems, communication problems, disturbed sleep and wake cycles, anxiety and irrational fears, behavior problems, etc... Sounds like autism, doesn't it?
Many pediatricians will tell you there is "No mercury in the childhood vaccines" anymore. This is not true. For a list of childhood vaccines that still have mercury (thimerosal) click here. When you are evaluating how much poison is safe for your infant to have injected into his or her body, the following information may be helpful: 12.5 mcg. of ethyl mercury (thimerosal) is 25 times the EPA "safe level" for an adult. When Dr. Cave gave her interview in 2002 she talked about the vaccine schedule at that time, pointing out that at 2 months of age, children were receiving 62.5 micrograms of ethyl mercury from just two vaccinations (Hep B & Hib). 62.5 micrograms in a 10 pound infant is up to 125 times the EPA "safe level." Dr. Cave went on to explain that mercury is a neurotoxin and as such, inhibits brain function. It also suppresses the immune system.
Dr. Cave relates, "When Hepatitis B began to be administered at birth during the 1990s, we started seeing ear infections beginning around two weeks of age, which was almost unheard of before that…they have antibodies to the basic myelin protein in brain tissue. These antibodies disappear after the children are treated and the mercury is eliminated.”
As noted, this interview was given in 2002, and according to the current information from the FDA and AAFP (American Academy of Family Practitioners) there is no longer 62.5 mcg. of ethyl mercury in the Hep B and HiB vaccine combination. However, as you will see if you check the information for yourself, there is still plenty of mercury to damage your child's brain, particularly if you follow the newest "guidelines" and get the flu shot every year, beginning in utero. If 62.5 mcg is 125 times the "safe limit" for a 10 pound infant, I wonder how many times the "safe limit" 25 mcg is to a 1 or 2 pound fetus.
Okay, so you now know that mercury is a neurotoxin and it also damages the immune system. If you watched "The Doctors" show yesterday, you will recall that the first thing Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Kartzinel talked about was dietary changes - specifically the Gluten Free/Casein Free Diet. Jenny stated that when she removed casein from Evan's diet "his eye-contact returned."
I am not going to offer anything new today, but instead will repost a very long, detailed article I wrote in May 2009. I am reposting this because I believe it is exceptionally pertinent and needed. If it helps save one child, it is worth it.
There are several links in this post, please take the time to view the videos as they are essential to the message as a whole. After viewing the videos, please click the "back" arrow to return to the post.
Blessings for all of you.
Marci
This article originally posted May 7, 2009:
Yesterday's episode of "The Doctors" was worth watching, if only because it is sure to stir more debate and controversy about the link between vaccines and autism. Hopefully, this will help to keep the vaccine/autism connection from fading away as the AAP and "99.9 % of pediatricians" (according to Dr. Stork) would like. For anyone who did not see the show, let me set the stage.
Jenny McCarthy, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, J.B. Handley, and Stan Kurtz were guests. Probably everyone knows by know that Jenny McCarthy is the mother of Evan, a little boy who was diagnosed with autism and who is now recovered. He no longer has autism. Dr. Jerry Kartzinel is the Defeat Autism Now! Pediatrician who helped Jenny McCarthy and Evan by utilizing the Biomedical Approach to address the underlying medical problems that led to the autism diagnosis. Jenny Documented Evan's recovery in her book, "Louder Than Words." Jenny and Dr. Kartzinel have recently written a book together, "Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide." J.B. Handley and his wife Lisa founded Generation Rescue, a non-profit organization that provides information and support to families who are working to recover their children from an autism diagnosis.
I don't usually watch "The Doctors" and wouldn't have seen it yesterday if I had not been given a heads' up via email from a friend who is also the parent of a child diagnosed with autism. I don't know anything about "The Doctors" other than the two who were most involved in the debate were Dr. Stork and Dr. Sears.
At the beginning of the show, Dr. Stork introduced the topic by saying, "Some of the theories you’re about to hear we may not agree with, but we know as doctors, this is an important issue to discuss."
As the discussion began, Dr. Lisa Masterson was supportive of Jenny McCarthy's work and gave her kudos for standing up, not only for her own kid but for so many other kids in this country and beyond. However, as the discussion heated up, Dr. Masterson disappeared from the stage and we were left with Dr. Sears and Dr. Stork. Dr. Sears, a pediatrician and member of the AAP, was reasonable and asked thoughtful questions about the science behind the GF/CF diet, specifically questioning, "Why doesn't it work for ALL kids?" Dr. Kartzinel responded that while the GF/CF diet does not work for ALL kids, it DOES work well for a significant percentage, and we CAN test to see if children have allergic reactions to certain foods and we CAN TEST to see if an individual child is making opiates from gluten and casein proteins. This is what medicine is supposed to be about. You base the treatment on the results of laboratory tests.
Dr. Sears then asked Dr. Kartzinel about his opinion with regard to whether or not there is a genetic component to autism. As Dr. Kartzinel responded, we talk about a "genetic predisposition" - something that makes an individual child more vulnerable to having a bad reaction to particular environmental insults - including toxins, and including toxins that are injected into the child's body via vaccinations.
Dr. Kartzinel: "What thing can we do in medicine to an entire population, and not expect a certain small group not to do well with? There is nothing in medicine that we do…lidocane, anesthesia, certain surgical procedures...Why would we think that we can give every child in the nation not one vaccine, but multiple vaccines and not suspect anything to go wrong with them. So, genetically, whether it be penicillin, or vaccines we have to understand there are going to be some children who will not do well with it…That’s probably one big reason we have a problem with this…we don’t look at the children as individuals…we look at them as a population."
As Dr. Kartzinel pointed out, in medicine, nothing works for everyone, so why would we expect that a universal vaccine schedule would work for ALL kids, without a certain percentage of them having problems as a result? Jenny joined in to say that the message is, there are too many, too soon and that the increase in the number of vaccines from 10 in 1983 to 36 in 2009 is unwarranted and IS related to the increase in autism. This is when things turned ugly. Here is a link to a discussion you may want to see (or see again): http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/procedure_list/269
What I noticed is that when J.B. Handley stated that he is tired of physicians telling parents that vaccines are safe when the physician has not personally looked at the science, Dr. Stork blew a gasket. Dr. Stork began yelling at J.B. Handley and accusing him of "antagonizing me" and "personally attacking me on MY stage." Dr. Stork then switched the topic away from vaccines and started talking about environmental toxins and dietary changes that may be contributing to autism. He was willing to entertain the idea that there are other toxins and seemingly benign things that may be problematic for our kids, but to question vaccines? That is out of bounds. Wait...I thought he wanted to have an open debate...
Here is a link to the next segment of the show: http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/procedure_list/271
Again, let's have an open discussion, but not about vaccines, since we "Know the Truth" that "Vaccines have been studied and scrutinized" so let's stop talking about that. Did anyone else hear Jenny McCarthy, Jerry Kartzinel, and J.B. Handley saying over and over again "They've looked at 2 vaccines and only one ingredient (mercury)." Drs. Sears and Stork continued to talk over their guests as if they could not hear what they were saying. They just continued to tow the party-line, from the AAP and the CDC. During the break, after the above "discussion," Dr. Stork stated that they contacted the AAP and had recieved a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is the official party-line:
- “It is upsetting for families not to know what caused their child’s autism. While it is likely that there are many environmental factors that influence the development of autism, because of very careful and repeated studies we know that vaccines do not cause autism. We share the concern that additional research is needed to investigate genetic and environmental factors that may affect the developing brain.”
J.B. Handley: "It’s maddening for them to put out a statement like that…scientific dishonesty."
Who are you supposed to believe?
To boost The Doctors' position that vaccines have been proven safe, Dr. Stork showed a clip from a previous episode where the expert, Harvey Karp, M.D. declared: "A dozen or so large studies that have shown zero association between vaccines and autism."
That might be pretty convincing, IF any of those studies had included children with autism as part of the subject pool. But wait...this "expert" is declaring that 36 vaccines have been "proven" safe and to have "zero association" with autism, and ALL of that information has been gleaned from "A dozen or so" studies. In order for that to be true, each study would have had to cover 3 different vaccines, since "a dozen" goes into 36 (the number of childhood vaccines) 3 times. I would like to see those studies because I've looked at PubMed and they aren't there.
Why don't we ask Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Click here to see what Dr. Healy has to say. Please be patient and wait for the advertisement at the beginning to play through. Dr. Healy's interview is well worth the wait.
According to the former director of NIH, not only has the question NOT been answered, it has not even been addressed. Injured children have not been studied because the government is afraid of what they will find. “The public health officials have been too quick to dismiss…”
Aha! you may say...Dr. Healy is only ONE physician and she is no longer the director of NIH anyway. Why should we believe her?
The problems with mercury have been known for decades, and it's not just mercury. Aluminum does many of the same things that mercury does. If you want to learn more about this read the article by Dr. Russell Blaylock, reporting on the cover-up at the Simpsonwood Conference.
If you have read much about vaccine safety, you may be familiar with Dr. Paul Offit; the biggest proponent of vaccines, and member of the Institute Of Medicine (IOM), which has declared with a great degree of certainty that vaccines are safe. I encourage you to watch this video clip of Dr. Offit, promoting his latest book about the subject.
Dr. Offit is pretty impressive. Unfortunately he doesn't understand neuroscience. If he did, he would realize that his argument about problems with the synapse being the cause of autism, he is actually MAKING the CASE for vaccine injury, since mercury and aluminum (both vaccine additives) are both NEUROTOXINS and damage the ability of one neuron to communicate with another by way of the SYNAPSE.
Dr. Offit makes a big point of the fact that in the last year there has been the largest oubreak of measles in decades. 135 cases of measles, and 10% of those children had serious complications. For clarification: 10% of 135 is 13.5, meaning that when Dr. Offit is cautioning about the impact of measles, he is talking about complications that impacted less than 14 children in the United States in the last year - which was "the largest measles outbreak in years." What Dr. Offit doesn't tell you is that more than 50% of the measles cases he talks about have been determined to be from the vaccine strain of measles, meaning the children who got measles either got them from the vaccine, or from being exposed to someone who was shedding the virus after being vaccinated. This is the same thing that happens with many of the polio cases, but Dr. Offit is not going to tell you that. Why would he want to be...less than honest about these facts? Watch this video clip and draw your own conclusions.
Remember the American Academy of Pediatrics' statement on "The Doctors?" Why would they declare 36 vaccines "safe" when only "a dozen or so" studies have been done and none of them have included children with autism? Follow the money.
Fifty-five doses of vaccines by age six. Wait, you might say...I thought it was 36! Thirty-six vaccinations or shots, but because so many are multi-dose shots (DTaP, MMR) when you add them all up, it's actually 55 doses of vaccines.
Remember, it's not just mercury that is neurotoxic, aluminum is a huge problem that most people haven't even considered at this point. Here is a link to a very informative article about aluminum, and why we should be concerned. This article is written by Dr. Robert Sears. Dr. Robert Sears happens to be the brother of Dr. James (Jim) Sears of "The Doctors." Both are pediatricians, but they apparently have some different views on the issue of vaccine safety. If you saw the episode of "The Doctors," you may have noticed that at one point after being asked by Dr. Jim Sears about "the scientific studies" showing that diet is effective in treating autism, Dr. Kartzinel spoke about how so many doctors are questioning if diet works, but they are not coming to his clinic and actually talking to parents of kids who are improving. He also made reference to Dr. Robert Sears, saying something along the lines of, "Those who are saying there are no studies are not talking to your brother about what he sees at the clinic." My hunch is that the reason Dr. Jim Sears appeared more rational and reasonable than Dr. Stork on the subject of vaccine safety is because he has had this conversation many times within his own family. Unlike Dr. Stork, who seems to be married to his position of "Devil's Advocate." Interesting choice of terminology.
Dr. Stork is okay with talking about ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS as a possible contributing factor in autism, but he adamantly denies that toxins in vaccines (which are injected directly into the bloodstream of a tiny infant) could have anything to do with autism. Let's ask another pediatrician (one of the .1% who disagrees with Dr. Stork, according to his own estimate) about her experience with autism. Dr. Stephanie Cave is a Defeat Autism Now! pediatrician in Louisiana. She is also author of the book, "What Your Pediatrician May Not Tell You About Vaccinations." In an interview with Mothering Magazine, Dr. Cave stated:
- We started testing hair, urine and blood samples…we found low levels of mercury in the hair and high levels of several other metals like aluminum, antimony, arsenic, and tin in the blood and urine. These children retain mercury, which is toxic to them.
…these children don’t have to be around a high exposure to metal – they just have to be around metal, per se, because they do not have the biochemistry to aid them in the removal of metals. I believe that’s because we have overloaded them with metal through the vaccines. We give them so much metal early in life, specifically through the hepatitis B vaccine given at birth, that their bodies keep producing metallothionein, which is what helps us to remove metals from the body. After their biochemistry is depleted, they end up with an inability to handle any metal at all.
Biochemist Bill Walsh of the Pfeiffer Treatment Center tested 503 autistic children…91% had deficiency of metallothionein. Neurotypical children did not.
To read the interview with Dr. Cave in its entirety, click here.
So, what is the source of the mercury and aluminum? There are many environmental sources of mercury and aluminum, especially here in the midwest. We have a lot of coal-burning power plants, and they put a lot of heavy metals into our environment. When it's in the air, water, and soil, it's hard to avoid it, which is exactly why it is so important to be able to detoxify. If your metallothionein is depleted, that's not going to happen and metals are going to build up in your system. As a side-trip, this might be a good time to mention that when we talk about genetic predisposition and considering which children might be most at risk, we need to consider where the parents live and how many toxins are built up in the mother before she gets pregnant. The message is, "It's all ADDITIVE." It's not JUST the vaccines, but if the mercury and aluminum that is injected into an infant on the first day of his or her life shuts down the baby's ability to detoxify AND that infant lives in an area with a lot of toxins, ENVIRONMENTAL toxins are going to pose more of a problem for that child.
The problem is, Dr. Stork is thinking just like a traditionally trained physician who practices traditional western medicine and is not open to considering any other points of view because that would be inconsistent with the party-line. He does not see the cumulative effect of toxins, but only wants to attribute the effects of poisons to those he is not involved in administering. This is the same kind of thought process behind his statement that there are increases in autoimmune diseases and all kinds of other diseases, and using that argument to establish as "truth" the "fact" that there is no connection between vaccines and autism. As Jenny McCarthy and Jerry Kartzinel pointed out, those other diseases are ALSO related to vaccines.
I found it interesting that nobody on the show brought up aluminum, or the increase in Alzheimer's disease since the administration of yearly flu vaccination (which not only has a lot of aluminum, they also contain mercury). On this subject I encourage you to go to PubMed and search for "aluminum with alzheimer's" - I just did and I got 775 studies.
Do you know anyone with Alzheimer's Disease? or "Alzheimer's type dementia?" If you do, I would ask you to envision that older person as a young child with the same problems: memory problems, communication problems, disturbed sleep and wake cycles, anxiety and irrational fears, behavior problems, etc... Sounds like autism, doesn't it?
Many pediatricians will tell you there is "No mercury in the childhood vaccines" anymore. This is not true. For a list of childhood vaccines that still have mercury (thimerosal) click here. When you are evaluating how much poison is safe for your infant to have injected into his or her body, the following information may be helpful: 12.5 mcg. of ethyl mercury (thimerosal) is 25 times the EPA "safe level" for an adult. When Dr. Cave gave her interview in 2002 she talked about the vaccine schedule at that time, pointing out that at 2 months of age, children were receiving 62.5 micrograms of ethyl mercury from just two vaccinations (Hep B & Hib). 62.5 micrograms in a 10 pound infant is up to 125 times the EPA "safe level." Dr. Cave went on to explain that mercury is a neurotoxin and as such, inhibits brain function. It also suppresses the immune system.
Dr. Cave relates, "When Hepatitis B began to be administered at birth during the 1990s, we started seeing ear infections beginning around two weeks of age, which was almost unheard of before that…they have antibodies to the basic myelin protein in brain tissue. These antibodies disappear after the children are treated and the mercury is eliminated.”
As noted, this interview was given in 2002, and according to the current information from the FDA and AAFP (American Academy of Family Practitioners) there is no longer 62.5 mcg. of ethyl mercury in the Hep B and HiB vaccine combination. However, as you will see if you check the information for yourself, there is still plenty of mercury to damage your child's brain, particularly if you follow the newest "guidelines" and get the flu shot every year, beginning in utero. If 62.5 mcg is 125 times the "safe limit" for a 10 pound infant, I wonder how many times the "safe limit" 25 mcg is to a 1 or 2 pound fetus.
Okay, so you now know that mercury is a neurotoxin and it also damages the immune system. If you watched "The Doctors" show yesterday, you will recall that the first thing Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Kartzinel talked about was dietary changes - specifically the Gluten Free/Casein Free Diet. Jenny stated that when she removed casein from Evan's diet "his eye-contact returned."
You also heard Dr. Kartzinel talk about how some children produce opiates from certain foods (gluten and casein) and how removing those foods from their diet often leads to improvement in the "symptoms" associated with autism. Here is an explanation of how all of this is related to mercury:
- Mercury and other heavy metals deactivate DPPIV
- DPPIV is an enzyme that breaks down gliadomorphin and casomorphin peptides in the body.
- Casomorphin comes from casein, the protein in milk and dairy products.
- Gliadomorphin comes from gluten, the protein in wheat, oats, barley, and rye
- Casomorphin & gliadomorphin are endogenous opiates – morphines – that make children spacy & irritable
- Children with autism are spacy & irritable
This is why the GF/CF diet works. It is also why it is necessary. Mercury and other heavy metals deactivate the enzyme that breaks down the peptides that are formed from gluten and casein. When they are not broken down, the kid is making his or her own opiates and is therefore spaced out and irritable - just like any other drug addict. This is also why so many kids on "the spectrum" are such picky eaters - they will often ONLY eat things that contain gluten and casein (bread, pizza, pasta, cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.). The reason is because they are not seeking food for nourishment, they are drug-seeking. Just like any other drug addict, they are not interested in eating, they are only interested in obtaining their fix - and they get it from foods that supply gluten and casein. BUT, the important thing to remember, in this conversation, is that mercury inactivates the enzyme that breaks down those two proteins, so if it weren't for the mercury, would these kids be addicted in the first place? Probably not.
The explosion of autism cases coincided with the doubling and then tripling of the number of childhood vaccines during the 1990s. Mercury was finally removed from the "childhood" vaccine schedule in 2002-2004, although there were still stockpiles of vaccines in doctors' offices after that time. The only way to know if your child was given vaccines containing mercury is to review the vaccine insert information. But, remember, if you are giving the "recommended" annual flu vaccine, your child is still getting 25 mcg. of mercury each year, unless you specifically request a mercury-free vaccine. And there is still mercury in a number of other vaccines, but you have to really look to find it. The language has been changed. Sometimes it is referred to as "a trace" amount that is used in the manufacturing process, but NOT as a preservative. What does that mean? It's still there - it's just not labeled as a preservative. So, get the vaccine insert and read it BEFORE you allow anyone to inject anything into your child.
Back to aluminum:
Remember Dr. Offit said that delaying or altering the vaccine schedule would expose more infants to disease...Of particular concern is the Hepatitis B vaccine given at birth. This has whopping amounts of aluminum, which hyperstimulates the immune system and shifts the balance from TH1 to TH2 - towards hyper-responsiveness (allergies, asthma, RSV, ear infections, and autoimmunity). One primary way to avoid this is by not giving the Hepatitis B vaccines unless Mom is positive for Hep B.
But you just heard on "The Doctors" that delaying vaccinations during the first year will expose millions of babies to diseases that are preventable by vaccines. What to do????!!!!
What to do is research for yourself and not buy into the hysteria promoted by those who have so much to gain, monetarily, from vaccinating your children.
Remember, mercury and other metals (including aluminum) damage the immune system and impair the body's ability to detoxify, making it more vulnerable to damage from environmental toxins and viral and bacterial infections.
The Hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for ALL children on the FIRST day of life. Does your child REALLY NEED to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B as an infant? If you (mother or father) are positive for Hepatitis B, then the answer is "Yes." If someone in your immediate family, or someone who will be caring for your child on a consistent basis and from whom your child might be exposed to infected blood, then the answer is "possibly - your child is at increased risk." Otherwise, the answer is "No."
INFANTS ARE NOT AT RISK FOR HEPATITIS B! In 1991, there were 18,003 cases of hepatitis B reported in the U.S. out of a total U.S. population of 248 million. According to the October 31, 1997 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the CDC, in 1996 there were 10,637 cases of hepatitis B reported in the U.S. with 279 cases reported in children under the age of 14 and the CDC stated that "Hepatitis B continues to decline in most states, primarily because of a decrease in the number of cases among injecting drug users and, to a lesser extent, among both homosexuals and heterosexuals of both sexes."
But Dr. Offit wants ALL babies vaccinated for Hepatitis B, not once but three times. I wonder if that's because if they are going in for their Hep. B shots, they are also more likely to receive the Rotavirus Vaccine, for which HE developed the patent, which sold for 182 MILLION dollars. Hmmmnnn....
If you think babies should be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease at birth, with a vaccine that contains up to 125 times the "safe" limit of aluminum (according to the EPA regulations), watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNy5VmeaGNw
and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b1rFJgyXI
Wow! That's some scary stuff. It must be the media exaggerating things, right? Yes. And No.
Remember when Dr. Kartzinel talked about how there is nothing in medicine that can be utilized universally without some percent of the population having problems? This is an example of what he was talking about. Aluminum is a neurotoxin and it damages the immune system.
So just how much aluminum is in vaccines that are "recommended" for ALL infants living in the United States? And what is the "safe level" of aluminum?
According to the FDA, the "safe level" of aluminum for full-term babies with healthy kidneys is 5 micrograms per kilogram per day. As Dr. Robert Sears points out, using this "safe level" determined by the FDA, a 12 pound, 2 month-old infant should be able to handle "at least" 30 mcg. of aluminum in one day. A 22 pound one year-old infant should be able to handle "at least" 50 mcg. of aluminum in one day. As Dr. Robert Sears states, the FDA "safe level" was determined from studies of premature infants with immature kidneys, so full-term infants with healthy kidneys should theoretically be able to handle more than the "safe level." However, we don't know because there haven't been any studies done - at least none Dr. Sears (or I) could find.
Okay, so how much aluminum is really in the childhood vaccines?
- DTaP (for Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis): 170-625 mcg, depending on manufacturer
- Hepatitis A: 250 mcg
- Hepatitis B: 250 mcg
- HIB (for meningitis; PedVaxHib brand only): 225 mcg
- HPV: 225 mcg
- Pediarix (DTaP/Hepatitis B/Polio combination): 850 mcg
- Pentacel (DTaP/HIB/Polio combination): 1500 mcg
- Pneumococcus: 125 mcg
The above information is from Dr. Robert Sears' article, "Is Aluminum the New Thimerosal?"
So what does this mean for your child, living in the United States and complying with the "recommended" childhood vaccine schedule?
Dr. Robert Sears does the math:
- Newborn gets Hepatitis B injection on day one of life would get 250 micrograms of aluminum.
- Repeated at one month of age with the next Hep B shot.
- When a baby gets the first big round of shots at 2 months, the total dose of aluminum can vary from 295 micrograms (if a non-aluminum HIB and the lowest aluminum brand of DTaP is used) to a whopping 1225 micrograms if the highest aluminum brands are used and Hep B vaccine is also given.
- These doses are repeated at 4 and 6 months.
- A child would continue to get some aluminum throughout the first 2 years with most rounds of shots.
Okay, so going back to the issue of metals depleting metallothionein, and basically shutting down the body's ability to detoxify other environmental toxins, you may want to ask yourself, is the Hepatitis B vaccine really something my child needs, if I do not have Hepatitis B?
Is your child really at risk for Hepatitis B? And is the risk worth the consequences of injecting aluminum (a neurotoxin and immunotoxin) into your child at levels that are exponentially higher than the "safe level" determined by the FDA?
Question: Is your child really at risk for Hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B
- Is not common in childhood and is not highly contagious.
- Is primarily an adult disease transmitted through infected body fluids, most frequently infected blood
- Is prevalent in high risk populations such as: needle using drug addicts; sexually promiscuous heterosexual and homosexual adults; residents and staff of custodial institutions such as prisons; health care workers exposed to blood; persons who require repeated blood transfusions; babies born to infected mothers.
According to the CDC Guide to Action publication on Hepatitis B (1997):
"the sources of [hepatitis B] infection for most cases include intravenous drug use (28%), heterosexual contact with infected persons or multiple partners (22%) and homosexual activity (9%).”
Although CDC officials have made statements that hepatitis B is easy to catch through sharing toothbrushes or razors, Eric Mast, M.D., Chief of the Surveillance Section, Hepatitis Branch of the CDC, stated in a 1997 public hearing that: " although [the hepatitis B virus] is present in moderate concentrations in saliva, it's not transmitted commonly by casual contact." (National Vaccine Information Center)
Once again, you as a parent are faced with a difficult question: "Who am I supposed to believe?"
Another question you need to ask yourself is "Just how serious is Hepatitis B?" You need to ask this question in order to make an informed decision about whether the risks associated with vaccination outweigh the risks of actually contracting the disease. The following information comes from the National Vaccine Information Center.
Hepatitis B is not a killer disease for most people.
Symptoms of Hepatitis B infection include nausea, vomiting, fatigue, low grade fever, pain and swelling in joints, headache and cough that may occur one to two weeks before the onset of jaundice (yellowing of the skin) and enlargement and tenderness of the liver, which can last for three to four weeks. (YUCK)
Fatigue can last up to a year. (Again, YUCK)
Translation: You will feel REALLY YUCKY for 6-8 weeks, and it may take you a year to recover your energy level to pre-illness status.
According to Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (1994): in cases of acute hepatitis B most patients do not require hospital care; 95 percent of patients have a favorable course and recover completely; case-fatality ratio is “very low (approximately 0.1 percent).” (1/10th of 1% or 1 out of 1,000); and Those (95%) who recover completely from hepatitis B infection acquire life-long immunity (this is a good thing).
According to Robbins Pathological Basis of Disease (a medical textbook published in 1994), of those who do not recover completely, fewer than 5 percent become chronic carriers of the virus with just one quarter of these in danger of developing life threatening liver disease later in life.
Translation: Of the 5% of people who do not recover completely from hepatitis B infection, 5% will become chronic carriers and ¼ of them will eventually die from Hep B related liver disease.
What does this mean? It depends on which statistics you look at. Let's take the worst-case scenario and go with the "200,000 new cases yearly" cited in the 1999 video from ABC's 20/20 show.
- 200,000 x .95 = 190,000 will recover completely (95% will recover completely)
Of the 5% of people who do not recover completely from hepatitis B infection, 5% will become chronic carriers and ¼ of them will eventually die from Hep B related liver disease.
- 10,000 will not recover completely
- 10,000 x .05 = 500 will become chronic carriers
- 500 x .25 = 125 will die in later life due to liver disease
Are we over-reacting and over-vaccinating as a result? Remember, it's not just the Hepatitis B we have to worry about, it's the aluminum. We, as parents, have to weigh the actual threat of disease against the cost of "protection." Given the amount of Aluminum contained in Hepatitis B vaccinations, AND the very low risk of young children becoming infected (if Mom is not infected), this particular vaccine does not seem worth the risk.
If Hepatitis B is not worth the risks associated with injecting aluminum directly into the bloodstream, AND if those who adamantly state that by delaying the Hepatitis B vaccines we, as parents are putting our children's health at risk, maybe we should start questioning further the advise we are getting from those who rigidly follow the party-line put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Despite the declarations of the AAP and the CDC that the huge amount of money they recieve from the vaccine manufacturers does not influence the advice they give to parents, delving further into the facts about Hepatitis B (one vaccine out of MANY the AAP and CDC have declared as "safe") leads me to believe that these sources may not be completely vested in the best interest of my child - or yours.
PLEASE - do not follow blindly everything you are told by your pediatrician or family physician. Ask first if he or she has actually looked at the science, or if your trusted health advisor is simply following the party-line. And remember - ultimately you, as the parents, are the ones who are responsible (and who will live with the consequences) for the decisions you make about your child's health. The pediatrician may order the shots, but he or she is not the one who will be raising your child for the rest of his or her life.
Educate before you vaccinate.
Marci
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