FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
December 4, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Harvard Clinic Scientist Finds Gut/Autism Link,
·
Message From Andrew Wakefield
·
Commentary on Andrew Wakefield
·
Letters to the FEAT Newsletter re: Andrew Wakefield
·
Autistic Preschoolers Have Larger Brains,
Faces Are Seen Like Photos
·
ASA Mourns Passing of Board Member and Dedicated Parent
Advocate
Dr. Timothy Buie, a pediatric gastroenterologist from
Harvard/Mass General Hospital has performed over 400 gastrointestinal
endoscopies with biopsies, as well as evaluation of digestive enzyme function
in children diagnosed with autism and finding a connection. The results of his
testing are similar to the observations made by Dr. Andrew Wakefield regarding
the presence of chronic inflammation of the intestinal tract, although the incidence
was noted to be less frequent in his group.
Dr. Buie announced his findings last Saturday at the Oasis
2001 Conference for Autism in Portland, Oregon, the day before the announcement
of Wakefield’s forced departure from Royal Free in the UK.
The biopsy results indicated the presence of chronic
inflammation of the digestive tract including esophagitis, gastritis and
enterocolitis along with the presence of Iymphoid nodular hyperplasia in 15 of
89 children. Additionally the results
of the enzyme testing of Dr. Buie’s patients paralleled that of Dr. Karoly
Horvath and colleagues at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Buie found that the autistic children he
examined showed disaccbaride/glucoamylase enzyme levels below normal. Some 55%
of these children had lactase deficiencies (which breaks down lactose in milk)
as well as deficiencies of the enzyme sucrase (responsible for digestion of
table sugar).
The findings also lend support to anecdotal reports of
improvement of some autistic children on wheat and dairy (gluten, casein) free
diets. Buie says that Harvard wants to
do research into the use of protein enzyme supplements, which aid in the
digestion of wheat and milk products for treatment.
Buie echoed the opinion of other a growing number of
clinical researchers and practitioners treating autistic patients, “these
children are ill, in distress and pain, and not just mentally, neurologically dysfunctional.”
[The FEAT Newsletter will provide more details of Dr. Buie’s
research shortly. For more information
on enzyme supplements, contact http://www.gfcfdiet.com/Enzymes.htm#* This is a non-commercial, parent-run website.
–LS]
* * *
[This statement went to Andrew Wakefield’s UK supporters
and parents prior to the press announcements regarding his departure from Royal
Free and University College Medical School over the weekend.]
In view of your previous financial support for medical
research co-ordinated through this charity, I write to inform you of a
development which will undoubtedly appear in the press over the next few days.
For some time, the future of the research at the Royal
Free has been under threat. However, I am pleased to tell you that I have
reached an agreement with the Royal Free and University College Medical School,
whereby members of my team, and the research they are conducting, are protected
for the future as long as sufficient funds are forthcoming to maintain their salaries.
In return, I will no longer be employed at the Royal Free,
but will co-ordinate a broadening of the research effort in order to resolve
these issues as swiftly as possible. However, the Medical School will permit me
to continue close collaboration with my colleagues in Paediatric Gastroenterology
and elsewhere, including full access to all patient records and data, both
present and future. This has not been an easy decision, but has been taken in
order to safeguard the future of this work.
One great benefit of this arrangement is that I shall no
longer have to spend a considerable amount of time in distracting political
negotiations with the Medical School and will be able to devote 100% of my
effort to the research. I anticipate being offered a research position in
another institution once news of this arrangement becomes published, and will
inform you of any offers received and accepted in due course.
Until then, please rest assured that the work is
continuing apace and that the only material change is that the Medical School
will no longer have my name on their establishment or pay my salary.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate
to contact me. I
suggest that the offices of Visceral, the medical research
foundation that
administers, co-ordinates and seeks funding for the projects
underway in six
medical schools in Europe and the United States, is the best
location at
which to contact me. Although I am physically in Visceral’s
offices for only
a few days a month, Robert Sawyer or Nikki Carter should be
able to find me
without too much difficulty. Once again, many thanks for
your support. Yours
sincerely
FRC Path Director, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study
Group Trustee,
Visceral
* * *
[By Barbara Loe Fisher, President, National Vaccine
Information Center
in the NVIC newsletter.]
Whenever ignorance, envy, greed and suppression dominate
the business of a state (or a profession), there will always be heroes who step
forward to challenge the status quo. They are usually individuals who lead
ordinary lives until, one day, they are faced with an extraordinary situation
and make a conscious decision to do the right thing no matter what price they have
to pay.
Andrew Wakefield, a brilliant young British
gastroenterologist rising quickly in the ranks of his peers, made a conscious
decision in 1997 that he could not turn away from a truth he had discovered
during the course of his scientific research, even though he knew it could cost
him his career. When he realized the lives of children depended upon his having
the courage to refuse to remain silent about the association he found between
MMR vaccine and autism, he chose to do what was right instead of do what was
safe.
Now he is paying the price being exacted by a scientific
profession and militarized public health infrastructure that cannot tolerate independent
thought and scientific investigation for fear it will lead to change. Like all
those involved in perpetuating totalitarian systems that suppress free thought,
expression and action, those who have tried to silence and destroy Andrew
Wakefield have only succeeded in revealing to the people how afraid they are of
what he has to say.
Dr. Wakefield will not only survive what they have
done, he will
triumph over it. The truth about vaccines and neuroimmune
damage, like
autism, will shine bright and clear in the end, no matter
how many try to
hide it because of the courage of individuals like Andrew
Wakefield
* * *
I am very sorry to hear that Andrew Wakefield has been
forced out of his position at the Royal Free. We all know what he has done to
target gut/autoimmune dysfunction as a marker of autism and as an avenue for research.
What can we do to support Dr. Wakefield himself? I’ve
heard him speak in person and on television and he has impressed me with his
honesty, his care and concern for his patients with autism. He is also
incredibly brave to take on the British medical establishment virtually alone.
I am concerned that his brave stance has cost him his
livelihood and career. There must be something the autism community here in the
US can do to help him - at least to write letters of support, etc., if someone
has his address. I write to you because the FEAT newsletter, of course, was
first with this news and I’m hoping you may have some ideas about how to
proceed.
·
Paula Stepankowsky
Dear Paula,
Wakefield addresses some of your concerns in his
message
reproduced above.
You can also reach him by email at
awakefield@rfc.ucl.ac.uk . This account is at Royal Free so
there’s no way of knowing how long it will remain
active. -LS
This is a sad, sad day for all. Having met Andy Wakefield, I can tell you that he is one of the
few in the medical community whose goals are not at all tainted by
establishment’s view of what’s politically correct. He has not wavered in his quest to find the reasons and
eventually a cure for our children.
I am sure that as more and more of the people with power
are affected by autism and bowel problems - and this certainly will happen -
that Andy will find them at his door asking him for help.
Good luck, Andy.
You are a good man.
·
Eric Einbinder, Dad to Jake and Matt, Latham, NY
My god! Where the hell do we go from here? That poor man, he has lost his livelihood
for being our voice, and for researching our children because no one else had
the guts to do it. Who do we put pressure on to sort this out?
The government is so scared of the truth they think it
will all go quiet. Don’t they realise that hospitals from all over send our
kids to Andy Wakefield because they don’t have a clue how to treat them, and
those kids that haven’t been fortunate to be sent to him, have been treated
wrongly and their bowel problems are a hell of a lot worse? This whole thing is
outrageous.
I have a son Klae, who is 6 and he was damaged by the MMR.
I have five children and only he had the vaccine. My other children are fine,
and he is not the youngest and I am not old. I don’t think the government has
many excuses left.
A big thank you to Andy Wakefield.
·
Sandra Russell
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* * *
Autistic Preschoolers Have Larger Brains, Faces Seen Like
Photos
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-12/uow-ahl120401.php
Preschool-age children with autism exhibit no difference
in brain activity when they are shown photographs of faces displaying different
emotions, and their brains are larger than normal, according to new research at
the University of Washington’s Autism Center.
The findings were reported at the first International
Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego last month by Geraldine Dawson,
director of the UW Autism Center and a professor of psychology, and Stephen
Dager, UW professor of psychiatry and radiology. The autism meeting was held in
conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Both studies used the same pool of 3- and 4-year-old
autistic, developmentally delayed and normally developing children. In Dawson’s
study, the children wore bonnets studded with 64 sensors that monitored brain activity.
The children were shown photographs depicting fear and a neutral expression.
The brains of normally developing and developmentally delayed children
exhibited different activity depending on the picture being viewed. However, the brain activity of the autistic
children remained the same when the different pictures were shown.
Dawson said that normally developing infants will notice
their mothers’ facial expressions and emotions in the first six months of life
and that they are able to recognize emotions from facial expressions by age 7 months.
A region of the brain called the amygdala that is associated with emotions
seems to be a center for recognizing and reacting to fear.
“The ability to react to fear is either innate in humans
or develops very early in life,” she said. “It is a selective advantage for our
brains to be able to pick up fear, an ability that comes from our early human ancestors.
“Children with autism do not appear to be able to pick up
facial signals and notice other people’s emotions. They can’t read the signals
or facial expressions of emotions in a normal way. This tells us the problem with
the brain likely emerges very early and involves very basic brain systems,
those responsible for encoding emotions.”
Understanding this deficit in reading facial expressions
and noticing emotions should help parents understand the behavior of their
autistic child and why the child doesn’t respond with empathy for others,
according to Dawson.
“It also points to the importance of interventions, such
as behavioral interventions that reward children for paying attention to facial
cues. Computer programs are being
developed at the UW that help children pay attention to proper cues and teach
them what facial signals mean,” she said.
New research at the UW Autism Center is finding out how
much impact early intervention programs have with these recognition systems and
whether they can help rewire the brain to process faces and emotions more
normally. Dager’s work found that the
amygdala is disproportionately larger in preschool autistic children than in
normally developing and mentally retarded youngsters.
“We looked both at brain structure and brain chemistry,
using a specialized form of magnetic resonance imaging called PEPSI, or Proton
Echo Planar Spectroscopic Imaging, that was developed at the UW,” Dager said. “We
measured the volumes of different regions of the brain and found that the kids
with autism had about 10 percent bigger brains on average.”
Dager added that both boys and girls with autism exhibited
increased brain volume, in comparison to normally developing children of the
same gender. Typically human males have larger brains than females, but Dager says
that bigger is not necessarily better.
“Additional studies that we are conducting measuring brain
chemistry suggest that the brain cellular composition is altered in the
autistic children. This is potentially a very important finding, although we
are still trying to better understand the functional significance of these abnormalities,”
Dager said.
He said it’s puzzling that this region of the brain that
is so closely involved with the normal expression of emotion should be enlarged
in this particular group of children who have difficulty expressing normal
emotional engagement.
Dager and his colleagues also are trying to determine what
enlargement of the amygdala means in relationship to the clinical course or
prognosis of autism and how brain developmental processes these children
undergo as they grow older affect their brain chemistry. The children are being
studied at ages 6 and 9 to evaluate the progression of these brain structural
and chemical findings.
Dager cautions that enlargement of the amygdala or of the
brain in general cannot be used as a diagnostic tool to determine if a child
has autism.
* * *
[From the Autism Society of America.]
It is with deep regret that we announce that ASA and ASA
Foundation Board Member Laura Robertson passed away on December 3, 2001. Laura,
who was 53, died unexpectedly, but quietly in her sleep while on vacation.
She is survived by her husband of 32 years, Talbot (“Tal”),
and her sons Turner, 24, who has autism, and Lane, 19.
Laura will be remembered for her tireless work on behalf
of the autism cause at the local, state, and national levels and for her caring
and warm personality.
“Laura was among the most devoted ASA members I have ever
met. Her wit, her passion for the Autism cause, her love for her children and
her love and respect for her husband were inspiring to me. Words cannot
describe the loss I feel and how much I will miss her,” ASA President Lee
Grossman said today.
Laura was a member of the national boards of both the ASA
and the ASA Foundation. She was elected to the ASA board in 1998, and served as
chair of the conference committee for two years, and as 2nd vice
president since July 2001. She also served on the board of the ASA Foundation,
a position to which she was appointed in 2000.
Laura was also involved in the Acadian Chapter of the ASA
in Lafayette, Louisiana, for more than 16 years, including 11 years as chapter president,
as well as other leadership roles. In addition, she was a member of the board
of the Louisiana State Chapter of the ASA for many years, as well as a member
of the Louisiana State Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities and on
various committees and task forces within the council.
“Laura was always proud of her southern heritage and never
attended a board meeting without a generous supply of local cookies and sweets.
I will miss her happy and positive presence and her friendship. The Autism community
has lost a very special person,” Robert Beck, executive director of the ASA,
said.
In addition to her leadership roles, Laura was a hands-on
advocate on behalf of autism and anyone in need. She participated in autism
awareness training for staff and parents at schools across Louisiana, helped
raise funds at the local and state levels, was involved in due-process training
for individuals with autism and other disabilities, and volunteered her time
with the local junior league.
When she wasn’t fighting for the cause, Laura, a trained
chef, enjoyed entertaining and spending time with her family and friends.
She will be missed by all who knew her.
Information about memorial services and donations will
follow as soon
as it is available.
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