FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California

"Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet" ________________________________________________________________

AWARENESS

* Mercury Blamed For Autism

CARE

* Fish Oil May Help Fight Autism

FUNDRAISING

* Actress Julia Roberts, Rett Syndrome Families Ask Congress

to Increase Research

ACTION ALERT

* Actress Julia Roberts, Rett Syndrome Families Ask Congress

to Increase Research

Mercury Blamed For Autism

Georgia Power, Drug Companies Targeted By Families

Will Redwood was a healthy, happy baby for the first year of his life. Back then, he cooed, cried, laughed and slept just like a normal infant.

Not long after his first birthday, Will's parents -- Lyn, a nurse, and Tommy, an emergency physician -- perceived something was wrong.

"We noticed he wasn't talking," Lyn Redwood says. "He had been talking when he went to his 12-month checkup. He wasn't talking at the time of his 18-month checkup."

Will also had stopped making eye contact like he used to. He had multiple infections and bouts of diarrhea -- classic symptoms of autism and mercury poisoning.

In 1999, Will, then 5 years old, was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, a form of autism. That was same year the U.S. Federal Drug Administration disclosed for the first time that a common preservative in required vaccines for children was made of 49.6 percent mercury.

Shortly after the FDA's proclamation landed at Lyn Redwood's nursing station, she dug up a strand of Will's hair from his first haircut when he was 20 months old, tucked away with motherly love. She had it tested, and found mercury levels almost five times higher than acceptable safe levels.

Lyn suspected the vaccines were responsible for the high levels of mercury in her son. She went back through Will's medical record and calculated that at 2 months of age, Will received 62.5 micrograms of mercury from only three infant vaccines. A dose of more than half a microgram of mercury exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended levels. In that one day alone, Will was injected with 125 times the safe amount of mercury.

The vaccines were not the only sources of mercury Will was exposed to.

"When I first started going online and reading about mercury and looking at other sources of mercury, I didn't really have any idea about Southern Co. [Georgia Power's parent company] and how close we were to those plants," Lyn Redwood says.

She has a better idea now. The Redwoods live in Tyrone, about 80 miles from four different Georgia Power plants. Coal and gas-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury emitted into the environment in the world, according to the EPA.

The Redwoods filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Fayette County in July 2001 against Georgia Power and some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, including Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Aventis Pharmaceuticals.

Lyn says the goal of the lawsuits is "to stop it all. I don't think I'm really doing anything different than what any other parent would do who had a child that was damaged this way. You don't want to see it happen to another child."

To the surprise of no one, Georgia Power is fighting the lawsuit.

"From Georgia Power's stand point, the consensus of the scientific community is there's no basis for concluding that air emission from power plants cause or contribute to autism, and Georgia Power will defend this matter in a court of law," says Georgia Power spokeswoman Amoi Geter.

Not every scientist would agree with that statement. Dr. Edwin C. Holstein, a lecturer at Boston University and Mt. Sinai Medical Schools and former associate editor of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine testified in the Redwood case that pollution from the four plants "would have contributed to the overall exposure sustained by [Will] during the course of the two to three years of his lifetime."

In fact, Holstein's testimony convinced U.S. District Court Judge Jack Camp to allow the case to continue in Fayette County Superior Court, where a hometown jury would likely look more favorably on a local family, instead of federal court. It was a victory for the Redwoods, and their attorney Roger Wilson, who has filed 17 other mercury-related lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and Georgia Power.

"What we're seeking for them is compensation to help them raise their children, their damaged children, and maintain them for the rest of their lives -- and after the parents die," Wilson says.

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* * *

Fish Oil May Help Fight Autism

Nutritional supplements based on fish oils may alleviate some of the symptoms and behavioural problems associated with autism, a leading biochemist said yesterday.

Gordon Bell said he had found that two-thirds of children with autistic spectrum disorders showed signs of fatty acid deficiency. He will present his findings, based on studies he conducted at Stirling University, at a conference next week.

Dr Bell, himself the father of an autistic child, is urging parents of children with autistic spectrum symptoms to review their children's nutritional status.

One of a number of researchers presenting at a major conference next week in London on tests and treatments for autism, Dr Bell believes fatty acid deficiency may be responsible for some of the behaviour and symptoms associated with autism.

He has been recommending that parents supplement their children's diets with fish oils rich in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), with gamma linoleic acid (GLA) and the antioxidant vitamin E. Recent research found that EPA is crucial for the second-to-second function of the brain and eye.

"In children taking supplements daily, parents have reported less aggression, hyperactivity and improvements in sleep disturbance, which can be a major problem in autism," said Dr Bell.

"In some instances, there have been improvements in speech and basic behaviour as well as the ability of the child to concentrate and attend what is going on." A small sample of red blood cells analysed by Dr Bell suggested patients with autism spectrum disorders had abnormal fatty acid metabolism, resulting in the apparent essential fatty acid deficiency. He plans a larger study to confirm the findings.

He suggests parents should be alert to this and consider supplementation if they observe the following signs of fatty acid deficiency, which may also be a key factor in dyslexia, dyspraxia, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - excessive thirst; frequent urination; dry skin; dry hair; soft or brittle nails; dandruff; and rough, dry, bumpy skin, particularly on the upper arms or legs.

Autistic spectrum disorders are now thought to affect 60 children in every 10,000, an estimate that has grown fourfold in the past 20 years. This is thought to be due at least in part to more frequent diagnosis.

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Actress Julia Roberts, Rett Syndrome Families Ask Congress to Increase Research Funding for Neurological Disorders to $15.5 Million

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Rett Syndrome Gene Linked to Disorders Afflicting MillionsFrom Autism to Schizophrenia

PRNewswire - A small army of parents and friends ofpatients with Rett Syndrome, including actress Julia Roberts, swept intoWashington, DC today to lobby their Representatives and testify beforeCongress about the need for more research on this debilitating neurologicaldisorder that strikes young girls between the ages of six and eighteen months.The International Rett Syndrome Association (IRSA) is asking Congress for$15.5 million in funding for research on Rett Syndrome and related disordersin FY2003.

"Through our work, IRSA and I along with the Appropriations Subcommitteeon Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, were able to leveragealmost $35 million in funding between 1986 and 2002 for research on Rettsyndrome at the National Institutes of Health," said Rep. Hoyer, Congressmanfrom Maryland's 5th District, a member of the Appropriations Committee andCongressional leader on Rett syndrome research.

This event marks IRSA's annual visit to Washington and comes three yearsafter the discovery of MECP2, the Rett syndrome gene, by Huda Zoghbi, M.D., Professor, Pediatrics, Molecular and Human Genetics and Neuroscience, BaylorCollege of Medicine and Uta Francke, M.D., Professor, Genetics and Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine. Important contributions to the genediscovery came from the laboratories of Dr. Carolyn Schanen, M.D., Ph.D. andDr. Eric Hoffman, Ph.D., Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC.

This discovery set off a flurry of excitement among researchers who have since identified the Rett gene in a wide variety of disorders from autism and mentalretardation to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

"The tragedy of this disorder," said Julia Roberts, "is that it strikesgirls who are too young to comprehend what is happening, and leaves themtrapped within their own bodies. The additional tragedy would be for us toignore the recent discoveries about this disease and the implications fordisorders that afflict hundreds of thousands of people. This research mustcontinue now that we're on the verge of major discoveries."

"The discovery of MECP2 was like finding a Rosetta Stone," said Dr. AlanPercy, M.D., Director of the Rett Center for Excellence at the University ofAlabama at Birmingham. "But instead of helping us translate an ancientlanguage, the gene is helping us understand a variety of brain disorders thatafflict both children and adults."

The MECP2 gene plays a vital role in sculpting the complex array ofgrowing nerves in the infant brain into an exquisitely fine-tuned system ableto control or influence virtually all the functions of life. When workingnormally, MECP2 turns other genes in the developing brain on and off in a deftseries of finely choreographed steps.

But the mutated form of the gene stumbles through these steps, disrupting brain development.

Children with Rett Syndrome grow and develop normally for the first six toeighteen months of life. But gradually, they begin to lose the ability towalk, speak and use their hands effectively. One of the most striking symptomsis the loss of conscious control of the hands, which appears as continual, compulsive hand-wringing.

Eventually, these children become incapable of performing the simplest acts of daily living, such as eating, bathing, usingthe toilet and brushing their teeth without assistance. Rett Syndrome alsoafflicts these children with seizures, breathing abnormalities, difficulty inswallowing and chewing, serious gastrointestinal problems, retarded growth,poor circulation, abnormal muscle tone, spasticity, rigidity and decreasedmobility.

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Action Alert: Autism Research Funding Request Circulating Congress; Ask Your Representative to Sign On Today!

[From the ASA-Net.]

A letter requesting a significant boost in appropriations funding for autism research is circulating Congress this week for support. Please call your Congressman to urge him or her to sign on to the letter. The deadline for signatures is Thursday, May 9, 2002, so we urge you to call your representative today!

The request letter was drafted by the leaders of Congress's Coalition for Autism Research and Education (CARE) - Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mike Doyle (D-PA). The letter reflects ASA's requests for a boost in research funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Several of ASA's leaders were able to meet with Members of Congress while in Washington recently to build support for the legislative requests the ASA is pursuing this year.

Representatives Smith and Doyle are circulating that letter to every Member of the House this week and are asking them to add their signatures to the letter. Now, Members of Congress need to hear from you!

What We Want

The Autism Society of America is asking Congress to do two things in its annual funding bills this year:

1) Provide an additional $8 million to expand the existing autism program at the CDC. That would bring the funding up to $17 million for next year and provide data collection projects in 20 states.

2) Provide a total of $120 million to NIH to expand autism research as called for in the autism title of the Children's Health Act.

How We Will Get It

Our goal is for every Member of the U.S. House or Representative to get a call from their district asking them to co-sign the Smith-Doyle letter on behalf of autism research. The more people they hear from in their district, the more likely Members of Congress are to add their support to the letter. And the more Members of Congress who sign this letter, the more persuasive it will be to the Appropriations Committee to provide the additional $8 million at the CDD and the $120 million at NIH.

How You Can Help

Call your U.S. Representative and ask them to sign the Smith-Doyle letter. You can reach your Member of Congress by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121 and asking for his or her office. Then ask the receptionist for the staff person who handles health issues.

Your message/discussion can go something like this:

My name is __________, and I am the parent/friend/neighbor of a person with autism.

Autism is a difficult disability that limits the ability of my son/brother/friend to interact with other people or even communicate his needs or feelings. It cam be overwhelming at times for families.

I understand that two Members of the House are circulating a letter that they intend to send to the Appropriations Committee.

That letter asks for more federal support for autism research at both the CDC and NIH.

I'm calling to ask if Representative ___________ would sign that letter.

We need a better understanding of this puzzling disorder and how to treat it more effectively.

I hope your boss can lend his/her support to these requests and add his/her name to the Smith-Doyle letter.

If you need more information on that letter, you can call either Tim Lynaugh in Mr. Smith's office or James Sharp in Mr. Doyle's office.

Can I call back in a few days to see whether the Representative was able to sign the Smith-Doyle letter?

About CDC and NIH Research and ASA's Congressional Requests

We all know that the incidence of autism is on the rise. What we don't know is by how much, whether it is rising evenly across the country, or whether there are geographical hot spots or other factors at play.

In response to ASA, Congress began a few years ago providing money for CDC to develop better data on autism. Once the agency has enough good data, it will provide analysis of the data that we hope will inform policy decisions on early diagnosis, effective treatment, and even prevention.

Right now, CDC is collecting data in nine states. The budget line item for autism activities at CDC next year is approximately $9 million. We are asking Congress to add another $8 million for autism activities, so that CDC can expand its work to 20 states in 2003. That should provide enough information to allow CDC to begin its analysis of the autism data.

Congress does not set aside specific funding levels for disease-specific research at NIH. Rather, Congress provides what it thinks is an adequate amount of funding for the agency and then defers to the scientists to decide where the research needs are.

Thanks to you and the autism community, however, Congress has directed NIH through the Children's Health Act to dramatically expand autism research. ASA is asking Congress to provide $120 million for NIH next year, so that NIH can fully implement the spirit and letter of the autism title in the Children's Health Act.

Thank You

Please understand how important your calls are. Members of Congress want to hear from people whose lives are directly and substantially affected by autism. And they need to hear that people who live in their districts (and vote!) are paying attention to their position on autism research funding.

We recognize that your lives are complicated enough. Thank you for your willingness to weigh in with Congress.

Collectively, our strength is great. But it depends on each of you to be willing to take the time to make a call, and for that, we thank you.

For More Information

If you need more information on these issues, contact one of the following ASA legislative staff:

Jennifer Dyjak jdyjak@autsism-autism.org 202-589-2801

Dave Nichols dnichols@autism-society.org 202-312-7469

Dena Morris dsmorris@autism-society.org 202-312-7413

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