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AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Saturday January 19, 2002
INDEX:
* NEWS RELEASE from the
United States Department of Defense
* Mercury poisoning
* Website Update: ABCs in ASL
* A Smallpox Shot in the Dark
* TREATING THE BIOLOGY OF AUTISM
* Hearing on the Dental Rules
* Clive Lloyds son harmed by MMR and Childrens charity criticises
jab
program
******************************
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department
of Defense
No.026-02
(703)695-0192(media)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 16, 2002
(703)697-5737(public/industry)
VACCINE BAN FOR PREGNANT SERVICEWOMEN STRENGTHENED
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William
Winkenwerder issued policy guidance today that reiterates and
strengthens long-standing DoD policy to avoid immunization of
servicewomen of childbearing age during pregnancy.
This action was taken because of issues raised about preliminary
data from a non-peer reviewed Naval Health Research Center Study
of women who received the anthrax vaccine.
"Although these study results are preliminary and there are
significant concerns about the database that require further
investigation before any conclusions can be made, we are taking
these steps to reaffirm our existing policies," stated
Winkenwerder.
The preliminary data, which has not been scientifically peer
reviewed and will require further validation, identified a
possible relationship between maternal anthrax vaccination in
the first trimester and higher odds of birth defects. Because
the data supporting the study showed that a number of women
might have received the anthrax vaccine beyond the first
trimester, study data is now being re-validated. The
peer-review publication process usually takes several months.
The final report will be available then.
At the Department's request, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention will issue a report next week in its Morbidity and
Mortality Report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ that provides further
details of the study. Winkenwerder's memo is on the Web at
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2002/d20020116inoc.pdf
[Web version:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2002/b01162002_bt026-02.html]
-- News Releases: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/releases.html
-- DoD News: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/dodnews.html
******************************
Mercury poisoning
DR THOMAS STUTTAFORD
Mercury is
back in the news. Historians investigating the graves of the early Tsars have
found evidence of mercury poisoning, and the journal NUTRI News has
expressed concern about the safety of mercury amalgams as dental fillings. If
this were not enough there is also alarm about the potential risk of eating
fish from areas where the sea may be contaminated by mercury from industry. No
one seems to be proposing that Ivan the Terrible’s female relatives were
poisoned by mercury accidentally. Even so, this has been the most common cause
of mercury poisoning since Roman times, when Pliny described it. Since then
goldsmiths (who used a gold amalgam for gilding), mirror-makers and hatters
have all become accidental victims of mercury poisoning. Mercury is the only
pure metal which is liquid at room temperature, and most other metals will
dissolve in it to form an amalgam. Workers in many other industrial processes
have also been accidentally poisoned, and it is still used in the manufacture
of scientific apparatus, in the electrical industry, as a fungicide and to
prevent barnacles clinging to the bottoms of ships. Even the police were not
exempt from mercury poisoning. As late as 1949 one in four of the Lancashire
police force, which regularly used mercury powder when dusting for
fingerprints, suffered mercury poisoning. The most famous example of the
symptoms of mercury poisoning in literature will always remain the exuberant
insanity of Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. Ivan, the
first Tsar, reputedly became “the Terrible” because he became paranoid and saw
treachery everywhere after his closest female relatives died from what he
believed was poisoning. His fears were dismissed as paranoid delusions, but
historians have recently analysed the sludge at the bottom of the exhumed
coffins of his kin and found that his suspicion of poisoning may be supported
by mercury traces found during the investigation. Most doctors who qualified
half a century ago are familiar with mercury poisoning since we regularly
poisoned our infant patients with calomel laxatives: these were made from
mercurous salts. We were taught that mercurous chloride was relatively safe,
whereas mercuric salts, such as mercuric chloride, were acute poisons giving
rise to a fatal gastro-enteritis with diarrhoea and shock. We were wrong. At
about that time a well-known children’s disease known as Pink disease was shown
to be the result of poisoning from mercury purgatives. These same mercury
compounds were used in teething powders for babies and as a constituent of
various mercury creams and ointments for all ages. Children purged with
mercury, or quietened by mercury teething powders, became listless, cross and
disliked the light. Their extremities, including their hands, were pink and
swollen — hence the name Pink disease or acrodynia. Mercury poisoning is now
more insidious. Those in contact with mercury, or breathing its vapour, may
develop inflamed gums and dribble excessively. They develop a tremor, which is
made worse if they take alcohol, giving rise to the classic shaky handwriting
of someone who is suffering from chronic mercury poisoning. The mad hatters of
Lewis Carroll’s time — the mercury poisoned felt-hat makers — were
appropriately named. One of the symptoms of low-grade mercury poisoning is
depression, loss of memory and a labile mood. With larger doses of mercury the
patient is psychotic, suffers hallucinations and delusions and, like Alice’s
Mad Hatter, becomes demented. Heavy doses of mercury cause a generalised
physical disruption of the central nervous system so that patients become
unsteady on their feet, their talking becomes slurred and they find it
difficult to eat or drink effectively, let alone neatly. Little wonder that
Ivan the Terrible noticed that something was wrong with his mother and feared
that she was being poisoned. Whatever the fears of the general public, even
those with heavy amalgam fillings in their mouth are not going to become mad
hatters. Dental experts deny any risk from the leaking of mercury or its
vapours from amalgam fillings. They deny that it would even make patients
depressed and listless, let alone cause ME. Those who are worried despite this
reassurance can always ask their dentists for mercury-free fillings.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,702-102734,00.html
******************************
Website Update: ABCs in ASL
A long time ago I made a book using watercolors, colored pencils, and
watercolor pencils, of handshapes making the alphabet in sign language. I
have now scanned the book in and placed it on our website.
You can view it at:
http://www.dissociativeidentitydisorder.org/ABCs.htm
Emily
P.S. Remember that if your computer or programs are older or do not
have
as much space, or just have trouble opening the pictures, you can also try
right clicking on the red "X" if you get one, and opening that way.
Just a
hint.
******************************
A Smallpox Shot in the Dark
By Henry I. Miller
Anthony Canamucio
Sixty
percent of Americans would opt for smallpox immunization if the vaccine were
available, according to a recent poll, and U.S. health officials have just
negotiated the purchase of enough vaccine for everyone in the United States.
Those two facts may be a prescription for bad medicine.
Medically and epidemiologically, smallpox is the most feared and potentially
devastating of all infectious agents. It spreads from person to person,
primarily via droplets coughed up by infected persons, via direct contact, and
from contaminated clothing and bed linens. Smallpox is fatal in approximately a
third of previously unvaccinated persons who contract the disease.For weeks,
the media have raised the specter of terrorists using smallpox virus as a
weapon. The German government has bought six million doses of vaccine, and
pressure is mounting in the United States for widespread, or even universal,
vaccination. (Routine smallpox vaccinations ceased in this country in 1972.)
The U.S. government has ordered 300 million doses of the vaccine, and at a
recent hearing, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said it is just "common
sense" to make it available to everyone who wants it.But is it really? The
live vaccine consists of live vaccinia virus, which is closely related to
smallpox virus. Impure and crude by the modern standards of recombinant
DNA-derived, or gene-spliced, vaccines such as those that have been
successfully deployed against hepatitis B since the 1980s, the smallpox vaccine
is not very different from the one introduced by the English physician Edward
Jenner in the 18th century. It can provoke various serious side effects,
including rashes; spreading from the inoculation site to face, eyelid, mouth or
genitalia; and generalized infection. Approximately one in every 300,000
vaccinations causes encephalitis, which can lead to permanent neurological
damage; and between one and three in every million die. Thus, vaccinating the
entire population would be expected to kill as many as a thousand Americans,
and maim and disfigure many others. Moreover, that assumes that the newer,
ostensibly incrementally improved versions of the vaccinia vaccine are no less
safe: Federal regulators have been uncharacteristically lax about requiring
evidence of safety and efficacy in a drug intended for healthy individuals.If
the re-emergence of smallpox were likely, vaccination would be appropriate.
However, smallpox virus no longer occurs in nature but is limited to two known,
legitimate repositories, one in the United States, the other in Russia (and
perhaps to illegitimate ones in several other countries). It is, therefore,
very difficult to obtain, and also to cultivate and disseminate.Also, smallpox
is not immediately contagious after infection. It can be transmitted from one
person to another only after a one- to two-week incubation period and the
appearance of the characteristic rash, by which time the victim is prostrate,
bedridden, and probably hospitalized. Therefore, the much-publicized scenario
in which suicide terrorists infect themselves and then spread the disease
widely through the population is not a realistic one. And although universal
smallpox vaccination was phased out throughout the world during the 1970s,
individuals who were vaccinated prior to that time retain significant immunity
from these immunizations, both against contracting the disease and against a
fatal outcome in case of infection. Scientists know a great deal about the
long-term retention of immunity from a landmark study of 1163 smallpox cases in
Liverpool in 1902-1903. Among those infected, 7% of the people 50 or older who
had received the vaccine as children experienced severe disease and death,
while 26% of unvaccinated people in that age group contracted serious cases of
smallpox and all died.Even if an outbreak were to occur, public health
authorities know how to respond. Control depends on early detection, quarantine
of infected individuals, surveillance of contacts, and focused, aggressive
vaccination of all possible contacts—an approach dubbed "quarantine-ring
vaccination." Approximately 15 million doses of smallpox vaccine are
available in the United States, and data suggest that these would still be
effective if diluted fivefold, to yield 75 million.Moreover, the federal
government has taken steps to cope with the possibility of a terrorist attack
involving smallpox by educating doctors to recognize the disease and by vaccinating
small teams of experts who can rush to any part of the country to confirm the
diagnosis and contain and treat an outbreak. The city of New York has begun to
map out various locations where residents would go to be immunized should mass
vaccinations be necessary.In summary, given the difficulty of estimating the
risks and benefits of vaccinating against a nonexistent disease using a vaccine
that carries known, serious, sometimes-lethal side effects, one must agree with
the conclusion of David Busch, head of infectious diseases at California
Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. "It's inappropriate" to
vaccinate the entire country for a disease whose threat is only theoretical,
and immunization should only be given "as needed, not as desired."If
federal officials act otherwise, they will be more in the realm of public
relations than public health. Even the expenditure of upwards of a billion
dollars to stockpile 300 million doses of smallpox vaccine is arguably in the
category of political cover. Far better, surely, to use those resources to
ensure that susceptible Americans are immunized against common and
life-threatening infectious diseases such as influenza, hepatitis, and
pneumococcal pneumonia. (Flu alone kills 20,000 in an average year.)Sherlock Holmes
admonished in A Scandal in Bohemia that "it is a capital mistake to
theorize before one has data." It is worse to make the wrong decision
after one has data.Henry I. Miller (miller@hoover.stanford.edu),
MD, is a
fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of To America's Health: A
Proposal to Reform the Food and Drug Administration (Hoover Institution Press).
http://www.the-scientist.com/asp/checkvaliduser.asp?redir=http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2002/jan/opin_020121.html&EMail=autismawakening@aol.com
******************************
TREATING THE BIOLOGY OF AUTISM
An Approach to Interventions for
Spectrum Disorders
(2nd annual conference by the Autism Society of America Oakland County
Chapter)
APRIL 13-14, 2002
PONTIAC (METROPOLITAN DETROIT), MICHIGAN
Featured Speakers Include:
John Hicks, M.D.
Amy Holmes, M.D.
Susan Owens
Ted Page, Ph.D.
Bruce Semon, M.D.
Paul Shattock
Andrew Wakefield, M.D.
World leaders in autism research will explain why and how biological
issues may have an impact on the physical, behavioral and cognitive
health of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), (PDD-NOS,
Asperger's Syndrome, Tourette's Syndrome), as well as ADHD and other
neurological disorders. Attendees will also learn what treatments are
available to them now and how to determine whether diet, medical tests
and metal detoxification may be beneficial and how to implement these
interventions.
The presentations are geared towards parents, agency and school
personnel, medical professionals and others dedicated to improving the
quality of life for those with ASD.
TOPICS INCLUDE:
-Environmental toxins including mercury and other heavy metals.
-Chelation therapy
-The role of immunizations in spectrum disorders
-Metabolic disorders and treatments
-Sulfation deficiencies in ASD
-Candida
-Yeast free diet
-A systematic approach for treatment
DETAILS:
John Hicks, M.D., A PLANNED APPROACH TO BIOMEDICAL INTERVENTION
Dr. Hicks has 17 years of clinical experience. He currently trains
physicians on the implementation of the Defeat Autism Now (DAN!)
protocol. Dr. Hicks is the director of Intervention, a Chicago area
clinic specializing in functional medicine.
Amy Holmes, M.D., CHELATION OF HEAVY METALS
Recent research indicates that heavy metals, including mercury, play a
role in symptomology in ASD. Dr. Holmes was among the panel of experts
that recently convened to draft the protocol for mercury detoxification
of autistic children. After using good success with chelation for her
son, she joined Dr. Stephanie Cave in private practice.
Susan Owens, SULFATION IN AUTISM: ITS ROLE IN ETIOLOGY AND ITS
IMPORTANCE IN TREATMENT
One study shows 92% of those with autism have a disturbance in the
sulfate chemistry. Postnatal brain development and gastrointestinal
function, both indicated in autistic symptoms, rely on sulfate. Susan
Owens has been studying sulfate for 6 years and has presented at the
2001 DAN! Conference, Center for Disease Control and the National
Institutes of Health.
Theodore Page, PhD., METABOLIC DISORDERS AS CAUSES OF AUTISM
Theodore Page is a Research Neuroscientist at the University of
California, San Diego. He is a Founding Fellow of the American College
of Medical Genetics. He has identified and devised successful metabolic
therapies for enzyme defects in several autistic disorders.
Bruce Semon, M.D., PhD., AUTISM: CANDIDA, YEAST AND TREATMENT
Bruce Semon is both a child psychiatrist and nutritionist. He was a
Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Nutritional and Molecular
Regulation of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes
of Health. Dr. Semon is a contributing author and co-author,
respectively, of "Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD" and
"Feast
Without Yeast".
Paul Shattock, ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AS TRIGGERS FOR AUTISM:
IMPLICATIONS FOR PREVENTION AND LOGICAL TREATMENT
Paul Shattock, a Pharmacist by training, has been involved for many
years in studies investigating the metabolic problems which may underlie
autism. He is a council member of Autism-Europe and Vice President to
the World Autism Organization. His most recent writings include "The
Sutherland Protocol", a summation and hierarchy of autistic treatments.
Andrew Wakefield, M.D., VIRUS, VACCINES AND THE GUT IN AUTISM
Dr. Wakefield's research has helped to establish the role of measles in
Crohn's Disease and a link between MMR vaccinations and the onset of
developmental regression, usually in the form of autism. His peer
reviewed research has been published in the professional journals
including the Lancet.
Additional Lunch Speaker - Betsy Prohaska, COOKING HEALTHY GLUTEN AND
CASEIN-FREE FOOD FOR CHILDREN
Betsy Prohaska has recently published a book by the same title as her
seminar. She also has released a comprehensive 6 hour video with Dr.
Jeff Bradstreet, Kirkman Labs and GFCFdiet.com on dietary interventions
in autism. A mother of a son with autism, she offers quick and
practical advice on gluten and casein-free dietary implementation.
The conference will be held at Marriott at Centerpointe, 3600
Centerpointe Parkway, Pontiac, MI 48341, (248) 253-9800 or (800)
579-8395,
http://www.marriotthotels.com/dpp/PropertyPage.asp?MarshaCode=DTWPO.
Mention the Autism Society conference for room discounts ($89.00 single
or double). Room discount deadline is March 29, 2002.
A brochure & registration form is located at http://www.asaoakland.org/
in the Events section. Registration fees are $90 ASA member (after
2/15/2002, $125) and $130 non-ASA member (after 2/15/2002, $165).
******************************
Hearing on the Dental Rules
hearing
on the dental rules that were designed to prevent mercury-free dentists from
being able to practice in Florida. I submitted real scientific evidence (with
peer-reviewed references) that 1. based on hundreds of thousands of tests
by medical labs, "those with amalgams on average get daily exposure 10
times those without" (saliva and feces) 2. Most with amalgam have
levels of mercury in saliva far above the EPA guideline for mercury in water
(saliva is water) and daily exposure levels far above the ATSDR/EPA MRLs for
mercury. 3. the level of mercury in the breast milk of women with at
least 7 amalgams is 20 times that of those without, and the level of mercury in
the fetus of those with amalgam is far above that of those without. 4.
There are thousands of peer-reviewed studies that document that mercury damages
most organs of the body and causes lots of chronic conditions. 5. It is
well documented by peer-reviewed studies and large numbers of clinical cases,
that those with autoimmune conditions like oral lichen planus, chronic fatigue,
fibromyalgia, lupus, etc. have the majority who are immune reactive to mercury
and the reactivity is reduced when mercury exposure is reduced, and
symptoms/effects reduce significantly as well. This is not controversial. No
one has disputed the science, and dental publications have published articles
documenting this(most of the PRS on OLP were published in dental journals and
amalgam replacement is the accepted cure in the dental world). The same
is true for other conditions like pain/discomfort/other effects from oral
galvanism. Dental publications document this and what to do about it, my paper
includes such references. I don't think there is any serious controversy
of whether easily measured immune reactivity(MELISA, ELISA, etc., even patch
test) to mercury causes at least 10 immune reactive conditions like OLP,
eczema, CFS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis; etc. and reducing exposure to what
one is immune reactive to improves the condition. The case is even strong for
MS, its well documented. And there are peer-reviewed studies that like the
other conditions, most of those immune reactive improve when the exposure is
reduced. (but the non immune-related mechanisms like neurological and
hormonal are well documented as well by peer-reviewed research and I submitted
documentation on that also- there really is no real scientific controversy here
over causes and effects- only about how many are affected- and its clear that
it is a lot) As someone who works at a real regulatory agency that has
workshops and hearings every week, I can tell you that this process was a
joke(whatever they call it). The Board seems to have an agenda on many issues,
that they find a way to pursue, irrespective of the facts and science. And
their process is just a facade to get by with what they want to do. It was clear
they weren't interested in the science or in determining whose science is
valid(when 2 cases are diametrically opposed, someone is likely wrong- there is
a process for determing which side's case has the predominant credibility- that
didn't happen- though it was clear) If I gave the transcript of the
hearing to every professor in the FSU Chemistry and Physics and Biology
Departments and asked them to assess who has the predominant scientific
evidence on their side, the result would be overwhelming. Just as that of the
FSU chem prof and Dr. Haley and myself all stated. Dr. Meeter has had enough
science to see the obvious also. How can they get away with this on a serious
issue that is affecting a lot of people. FDB didn't seem phased when I
told them that the sewer sludge in every sewer plant in Florida is toxic waste,
by official EPA definition, because of amalgam. But this is a serious issue for
every city and sewer company in the U.S. and implies billions of dollars to
deal with it. Is the FDB going to pay the bill for the problem in Florida. Can
they be individually sued by cities for making a problem worse, when they had
documentation of what the results of their action would be? There isn't any
controversy over this. The level of mercury in sewer sludge is easily measured,
and has been. And the air in sewer plants has been documented to have high
amounts of mercury that affect sewer plant workers. And the land fill gas that
comes off all landfills where sewer sludge is dumped has extremely high levels of
extremely toxic di-methyl mercury, and the rain all over Florida is documented
to have high levels of this mercury. The FDB and FDA have a serious problem on
this issue. And its not far away. Bernie
******************************
Clive
Lloyds son harmed by MMR and Childrens charity criticises jab program
'MMR jab ruined my life'
WRECKED DREAMS: Jason Lloyd
THE SON of
cricket legend Clive Lloyd believes the controversial MMR jab destroyed his
dream of following in his father’s footsteps.Jason Lloyd was struck by a rare
illness, which attacked his nervous system and left him temporarily paralysed,
within days of being given the vaccination at the age of 13. He had been due to
play for England’s under-15s, but was forced to give up the sport as he spent
months of agony in hospital. Jason, now 20, from Stockport, is joining others
who allege the triple vaccine damaged their health in a huge lawsuit against a
number of manufacturers.His father Clive, who starred for West Indies and
Lancashire, feared his son would die. He reveals his distress during an
interview for TV’s My Favourite Hymns on Sunday. His wife, Waveney, warned
other parents to think carefully before allowing their children to receive the
triple vaccine. She said: ‘‘We feel so strongly about this that when it
recently came time for our one-year-old grand-daughter to be vaccinated, my
daughter paid for her to receive single vaccinations privately. Angry‘‘
It makes me angry that the authorities claim it is perfectly safe when my
son is living proof of the harm it can do.’’ Mrs Lloyd said her son developed
symptoms of the rare Guillain-Barre syndrome eight days after receiving the MMR
jab. His weight fell by more than two stone and he suffered severe inflammation
of the nerve-endings, cramps and weakened limbs. She said: ‘‘He went from being
a sporty and active teenager with dreams of playing cricket for his country to
living in agony. He used to scream at me to chop off his hands and feet because
he could not bear the pain. ‘‘It was eventually brought under control through
medication, but then Jason developed ME — which we also believe was connected
to the vaccine. This again affected his education and ability to take part in
sport.’’ Jason is studying biology at the University of Miami and hopes to
become a specialist in treating sports injuries. At 6ft 9in he is a keen
basketball player, but still regrets the fact his illness prevented him for
pursuing a professional cricketing career. Jason’s claim will be lodged with
the courts following his 21st birthday in June. His is one of hundreds of
claims being made against a number of manufacturers of the vaccine. The first
test cases, expected to be heard in October 2003, will set precedent for the
remaining cases.
claire.hindley@men-news.co.uk
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/content.cfm?story=168352&ref=emtaf&archiv
******************************
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