SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism:

No Finer a Cause on the Planet"

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Tuesday, November 26, 2002

FORENSIC

* US Government Asks Court to Seal Vaccine Records

LETTER To President Bush on White House Autism Conference

MEDIA

* Evidence Suggests Autism Begins in Genes: NPR

* Autism Series: III Frequent From Doctors, 'That's Ridiculous. ..

CARE

* A Letter to the M.I.N.D. Institute From a Parent and A Response

* Patient Deaths Raise Debate Over Physical Restraint

EDUCATION

* How Schools Use "Learning Disability" Label To Cover Up Their Failures

SCIENCE

* BOOK REVIEW: Bad Medicine

FORENSIC

US Government Asks Court to Seal Vaccine Records

Reuters Health - Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public.

Department of Justice lawyers asked a special master in the US Court of Federal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released.

Attorneys for the families of hundreds of autistic children charged that the government was trying to keep the information out of civil courts, where juries might be convinced to award large judgments against vaccine manufacturers.

The court is currently hearing approximately 1,000 claims brought by the families of autistic children. The suits charge that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently included a mercury-containing preservative known as thimerosal, can cause neurological damage leading to autism.

Federal law requires suits against vaccine makers to go before a special federal "vaccine court" before any civil lawsuit is allowed. The court was set up by Congress to speed compensation claims and to help protect vaccine makers from having to pay large punitive awards decided by juries in state civil courts. Plaintiffs are free to take their cases to state courts if they lose in the federal vaccine court or if they don't accept the court's judgment.

The current 1,000 or so autism cases are unusual for the court. Because it received so many claims, much of the fact-finding and evidence-gathering is going on for all of the cases as a block.

Monday's request by the Bush Administration would prevent plaintiffs who later go to civil court from using some relevant evidence generated during the required vaccine court proceedings.

Plaintiffs' attorneys said that the order amounted to punishment of the families of injured children because it would require them to incur the time and expense of regenerating evidence for a civil suit.

"Wouldn't it be a shame if at the end of the day our policy would be to compensate lawyers," said Jeff Kim, an attorney with Gallagher Boland Meiburger & Brosnan. The firm represents about 400 families of autistic children who received the MMR vaccine.

Kim accused the government of trying to lower "a shroud of secrecy over these documents" in order to protect vaccine manufacturers, who he said were "the only entities" that would benefit if the documents are sealed.

While federal law clearly seals most documents generated in individual vaccine cases, it has never been applied to a block proceeding like the one generating evidence in the autism cases.

Administration lawyers told Special Master George Hastings that they requested the seal in order to preserve the legal right of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide when vaccine evidence can be released to the public.

Justice Department attorney Vincent Matanoski argued that to let plaintiffs use the vaccine court evidence in a later civil suit would confer an advantage on plaintiffs who chose to forgo federal compensation.

"There is no secret here. What the petitioners are arguing for are enhanced rights in a subsequent civil action," Matanoski said of the plaintiffs. "They're still going to have unfettered use within the proceedings."

Hastings would not say when he would issue a ruling on whether to seal the court documents, but did say that his decision would be "very prompt."

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LETTER

In support for a White House Conference on Autism

Dear President Bush:

I am a pediatrician with 22 years of clinical experience. For more than a decade I directed pediatric education in a residency training program. In 1996 I became concerned about a trend towards increasing incidences of allergic, autoimmune, and chronic illness in children. At the same time, the incidence of attention and learning problems as well as autistic spectrum disorders seemed to be skyrocketing.

It seemed clear that something had changed to cause this abrupt change in pattern of illness. I initiated a collaborative effort among agencies in my community to examine this problem. We established a coalition with the Lynchburg City Schools to undertake medical assessments of children with these problems whose needs were not being met.

For 16 months I worked without a salary and was on call for two years except during rare trips. Currently I am doing the most challenging work of my career for a salary that is one third of my former colleagues. I felt compelled to make personal and professional sacrifices for this crisis in children’s health. In the last two years I have read over 50 books and attending over 150 hours of lectures to try to understand this phenomenon.

It is abundantly clear that we must examine these children objectively and with our best science. It is clear that we must examine the potential causative effects of our vaccination programs, which have saved thousands from acute illness but may have damaged a genetically susceptible population with chronic illness. We must acknowledge the Law of Unintended Consequences.

The vaccine experts who added new vaccines into the routine schedule in the late 80’s and early 90’s have acknowledged that they did not add up the cumulative doses of mercury to which our children were exposed. The CDC ’s own data shows an increased risk of 2.48 for autism in children who received full immunizations by six months compared to a less vaccinated population. Mercury is a known neurotoxin, and has profound effects on the

gastrointestinal and immune system. My patients have objective and

verifiable evidence of immune dysregulation, intestinal dysfunction and biochemical abnormalities which are consistent with mercury toxicity. We cannot assume that these profound abnormalities are not related to thimerosol just because it is too painful to think that we may have harmed a generation of children.

MMR vaccine and other live viral vaccines have always carried warnings about administration to immune compromised individuals. If, as the clinical evidence now suggests, a subset of children had immune and gut dysfunction at the time they were given live viral vaccines, they would have been vulnerable to chronic infection from the MMR vaccine.

It is crucial not to be misled by population based epidemiological studies, which may not have the statistical power to detect associations between vaccines and the susceptible population I describe.

For the sake of these children and their families, please proceed with a White House Conference on Autism as recommended by Congressman Burton. It is vital that physicians with patient care experience be allowed to describe their clinical findings. I suggest that you invite the following physicians and scientists: Sidney Baker, Ken Boch, Jeff Bradstreet, Tim Buie, Stephanie Cave, Jane El-Dahr, Jerry Kartzinel, Arthur Krigsman, Mary Megson, Jon Pangborn, Paul Shattock, and Andy Wakefield. Remember, “no child left behind.”

Respectfully, Elizabeth Mumper, MD

President and CEO, Advocates for Children Associate Professor of Clinical

Pediatrics, University of Virginia School of Medicine

SEND YOUR OWN LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR A WHITEHOUSE CONFERENCE ON AUTISM TO THE PRESIDENT: (And make sure you send us a copy: edit@doitnow.com)

President George W. Bush

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

EMAIL: President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov

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MEDIA

Evidence Suggests Autism Begins in Genes

Researchers studying autism, in this case a Dr. Edwin Cooke from Chicago, say strong scientific evidence suggests the developmental disability begins in the genes. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports. Nov. 25, 2002

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Autism Series: Part III Frequent From Doctors, 'That's Ridiculous. . . That Couldn't Possibly Be

There is no cure, but there's growing consensus that early intervention in the lives of autistic kids can make a huge difference.

News 3's Joel DeSpain concluded his special series on the mysterious neurological disorder with a look at what some are calling a new phenomenon in medicine.

When autism was first discovered in the 1950s, the dominant theory revolved around the "refrigerator mother," that somehow unnurturing, cold parenting is what caused infants to go in to a deep dark shell.

Autistic children were taken from families and placed in institutions.

"In the face of that, parents got angry," said Paul Shattuck, a UW researcher at the Waisman Center. "Parents were saying, "This just doesn't feel right.

The doctor is telling me this is the way it is, but I love my child.'"

Moms and dads pushed forth new research and won -- it turned out kids actually had neurological disorders.

Now a half-century later, frustrated parents are crusading again.

"They are saying, 'You know, what we have is a hunch here. We're just parents, but we think this is worth checking this treatment or vitamin or whatever seems to be helping some of our kids,'" Shadduck said. "And frequently the response from the medical establishment is, 'Well, that's ridiculous. That couldn't possibly be.'"

That's what happened to parent Mike Wagnitz, whose daughter Josie

(pictured) is autistic.

"We're, right now, treating Josie to remove the mercury from her system,"

said Wagnitz, a senior chemist specializing in trace metals analysis.

Wagnitz took a six-month leave of absence from work last year, after becoming convinced his daughter's autism was triggered by childhood vaccinations -- any of which until recently contained mercury.

He consulted six specialists, racking up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.

"There isn't anything anyone could do or offered to do," Wagnitz said. "So right now, I'm corresponding with thousands of parents across the country, and we've been forced to become our own researchers and our own doctors."

Pediatrician John Bohn told News 3 that parents are making some doctors uncomfortable.

"That's a new phenomenon to medicine, at that level -- very threatening to doctors, (it's) not the way it started out," Bohn said. "We were the keepers of the information. We were the ones who told you what's going on."

Bohn said, "It was eerie to hear these stories of parents who never met each other seem so similar."

There are now some in the medical community working hand-in-hand with moms and dads.

"I think that we can make improvement, and if we put the money down in the younger ages, we maybe won't have to put out that much when they grow up,"

said Jeanie Muckian, nurse practioner. "That's my hope."

UW researchers say unfortunately legislative minds have yet to focus on what those studying autism see as a looming health care crisis. They'd like to see Wisconsin follow the lead of other states and start convening a task force.

"(A task force) where they are concerned parents and all the people from the different social service agencies together, and they're doing this intensive planning process, saying, 'You know, there are more and more people with autism in our state needing services, how are we going to meet this growing demand?'" Shadduck said.

You can expect parents, once again, to lead the charge, DeSpain reported.

"You're constantly analyzing, 'What else can I do? What else can I do?'" said Glenda Duncan, who has two autistic daughters.

You probably would be saying the same, for we all have dreams for our children, and right now, "those dreams die," Duncan said. "And they die every day for a parent with a child with autism."

Expect to see families and service providers heading to the state capitol next, as they try to get lawmakers to start focusing on what is so very important to them.

Copyright 2002 by Channel 3000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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TREATMENT

A Letter to the M.I.N.D. Institute From a Parent and A Response

[This letter was sent to Robert Hendren, D.O., Executive Director of the MIND Institute, by John Bowers of Oakland, CA. on behalf of his autistic son, Samuel, earlier this month. Dr. Hendren's response follows. -LS]

Dear Dr. Hendren:

My 8-year-old son, Samuel, is afflicted with an autism spectrum disorder. Earlier this year Samuel's treating pediatrician referred him to the MIND Institute for an evaluation of both biomedical and cognitive/behavioral treatment interventions that might be appropriate for and beneficial to him.

In a letter dated August 22, 2002, the MIND Institute declined even to see Samuel on the grounds that I and my spouse as Samuel's parents were seeking to have Samuel treated with biomedical interventions that, in contrast to "psychoactive and stimulant medications," are not "clinically proven."

In their stark simplicity, the two above-quoted statements from the MIND Institute's letter to me say more about what the MIND Institute is all about than does the entire glossy, 20-some page Annual Report that the Institute recently issued, or than the detailed PowerPoint presentation that you gave last month at Santa Clara University.

I feel obliged to offer the following thoughts in response to the fact that the only biomedical interventions that are available through the MIND Institute are "psychoactive and stimulant medications," as well as to the MIND Institute's asserted justification for this state of affairs, namely, that such treatments are the only ones that are "clinically proven."

Although it is not entirely clear what the MIND Institute means by the term "clinically proven," I will assume for purposes of this letter that it means supported by randomized, double-blind, clinical studies. While such studies of course represent in medical science the highest achievable standard of proof of efficacy, it is not the standard by which the medical profession by in large operates, either in practice or as a matter of law.

In California, the standard of "medical necessity" is satisfied in significant part to the extent the effectiveness of a particular therapy is supported by "peer-reviewed scientific and medical evidence," which may include but is not limited to randomized, double blind studies. See California Health and Safety Code § 1374.33(b)(1). As I am sure you are aware, there are numerous therapeutic approaches to the treatment of the bio-chemical imbalances and systemic disorders that frequently accompany, and may well be etiologically connected to, the complex symptomatology to which we give the name "autism" that find broad support in peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature.

To take just a single example, I have enclosed herewith a response to the claim that "dietary interventions" (principally, the elimination from the diet of grain (gluten) and milk (casein) proteins) in the treatment of

autism are "not proven." There are numerous other therapeutic

interventions to the treatment of autism other than "psychoactive and stimulant medications" that find similarly abundant support in peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature.

If the MIND Institute had taken the trouble to examine Samuel, it would have discovered that he presents the following clinical profile. As documented through a series of laboratory cultures of stool samples, he has a history of significant gastro-intestinal yeast (candida) overgrowths. An organic acid test of his urine reveals elevated levels of arabinose (a yeast

metabolite) and below normal levels of a metabolite of glutathione, an important component of the immune system, and of uric acid. (Depressed levels of glutathione can be an indicator of heavy metal exposure.) A laboratory blood test reveals above-reference range quantities of copper and below-reference range quantities of magnesium, suggesting the presence of a metabolic disorder. Samuel also tests positive for neurofilament - heavy subunit brain autoantibodies, suggesting the presence of an autoimmume disorder. Laboratory tests of both blood (T3) and urine (urinary thyroxine) reveal above-normal levels of thyroid hormones. Finally, and perhaps of greatest significance, a recent urine test reveals elevated levels of both mercury and aluminum.

Is it really the position of the MIND Institute that these laboratory results reveal nothing of any therapeutic relevance to Samuel's neurological disorder, and that, in light of all available medical and scientific evidence, treatment of the biochemical imbalances and systemic disorders indicated by these results has no potential for bringing about an improvement in his condition?

The MIND Institute's double standard is also revealed by the fact that there is very little "clinical proof" (in the sense postulated above) of the efficacy in pediatric patient populations of many if not most of the "psychoactive (e.g., SSRIs, antidepressants, and "atypical neuroleptics") medications" of which the MIND Institute appears to be so enamored. Virtually none of these medications has undergone clinical trials with pediatric populations and, as a result, they almost without exception bear on their label the FDA-required notation "Not approved for pediatric use." Even "stimulant medications," as in the case of methylphenidate, are not approved for children under the age of 6. (A "developmental pediatrician" of unassailable repute diagnosed Samuel at age 3 with ADHD (not ASD) and prescribed Dexedrine for him. Not only did Dexedrine not ameliorate the conditions with which we were (and still are) struggling, it made them

worse.)

Reports of the overuse, misuse, and abuse of "psychoactive and stimulant medications" that have circulated among parents for years have become so prevalent that they have penetrated even into the inner sanctum of mainstream medical discourse. In a seminal editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Joseph Coyle of the Harvard Medical School questions the prevalent use of psychoactive and stimulant medications in pediatric populations "since there is no clinical research on the consequences of pharmacologic treatment of behavioral disturbances of very young children." He concludes with the observation that "very young children are now increasingly subjected to quick and inexpensive pharmacologic fixes as opposed to informed multimodal therapy associated with optimal outcomes."

With about the same amount of effort as would be involved in driving to my local drugstore and buying an over-the-counter medication, I have always had the ability to obtain for Samuel virtually any "psychoactive and stimulant medication" of my choice. The last thing that Samuel needs is yet another provider of these treatment modalities. I and I surmise many other parents of children afflicted with ASD lent my/their political support to the public funding with which the MIND Institute was founded precisely because it offered the hope of obtaining access to forms of treatment of this vile disorder other than those that have traditionally been, and that continue to be, readily available through conventional channels. It comes as a cruel hoax to those of us who looked forward with great anticipation to the establishment of the MIND Institute to discover that it is governed by the same philosophy of medical treatment that has so miserably failed to meet the needs of our children in the past.

If the MIND Institute continues to adhere to a policy under which it provides treatment in the form of "psychoactive and stimulant medications" to the exclusion of all other therapeutic approaches to the treatment of ASDs, then I for one intend to do everything that I can to see to it that the public funding with which the MIND Institute is currently supported is redirected to professionals and institutions more capable of addressing the multifaceted dimensions of what can only be called a medical crisis of epidemic proportions.

- John Bowers, Oakland, CA

Dr. Hendren Responds

Dear Mr. Bowers,

As I understand it from your letter and from talking with the people you spoke to in our clinic, your wish was to have the MIND Institute prescribe a biomedical intervention other than psychopharmacologic agents, perhaps a casein-gluten free diet. As you were told, we do not currently have expertise in this area, nor do we have a research protocol in this area and therefore we are not able to offer you this consultation.

As you know, the mission of the MIND Institute is "to find effective treatments and ultimately a cure for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders". The purpose of our clinic is: 1) to serve as a site to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in developing better understandings of neurodevelopmental disorders, 2) to recruit research subjects and carry out prioritized research, and 3) to serve as a high-quality, consultative resource to our community. When I listed the broad array of potential treatments for autism spectrum disorders including diet therapy in my recent talk, it was to illustrate how bewildering it is for parents and providers to choose effective treatments for a particular child when there is so little research on which to base our judgements.

We are very interested in the role of diet in exacerbating and ameliorating the symptoms of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders and have begun to design a treatment protocol that will lead to a better understanding of which children benefit from the casein-gluten free dietary approach to treatment. We are working with the departments of pediatrics, nutrition and child psychiatry to design a double blind, placebo controlled study with "phenotypically" well-characterized children. We are also interested in developing studies of other promising treatments that are both "mainstream" and "alternative" medical and psychosocial treatments.

If you would like, we will enter Samuel's name and your particular clinical interests in our research database and contact you once our casein-gluten free research protocol is approved and funded. Thank you for your thoughtful review of the literature in this area. I appreciate your passionate commitment to helping your son and hope you understand our need to keep our focus on basic and clinical research and "traditional" consultation at this point in the development of the M.I.N.D. Institute.

- Robert L. Hendren, DO

Professor of Psychiatry

Executive Director

M.I.N.D. Institute

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CARE

Patient Deaths Raise Debate Over Physical Restraint

A 16-year-old girl dies after being physically restrained by staff members during a disruption in a Katy facility for troubled kids. Officials defend the control technique, called the "basket hold," and say it will remain in use.

Meanwhile, authorities look into possible criminal charges.

An autistic 23-year-old man dies after being restrained on the floor at a Missouri City special-needs facility. A lawyer for the facility terms the death accidental, but a criminal investigation begins.

Three teenage girls die in connection with physical restraints at youth facilities in a span of nine years. Two cases are recent, but one involves a 16-year-old in 1993. Her death of heart failure, first ruled natural, is revised later to accidental, rekindling criminal investigations into all three cases.

These five victims from the Houston area are examples of fatalities that occur nationwide year after year during or after the use of physical restraint at mental health and treatment facilities.

No state or federal agency aggregates deaths or injuries related to restraints -- a gap noted in 1999 in a report to Congress by the U.S. General Accounting Office. However, the Hartford Courant documented 142 deaths across the country during or after restraints performed between 1988 and 1998.

In Texas, Austin-based Advocacy Inc., a federally funded program serving the interests of the disabled, has counted at least 15 fatalities over the past three years in hospitals and treatment centers across the state.

All such incidents raise questions about the physical restraint of patients or residents who become violent. Proponents say restraint is a necessity in the clinical and institutional world where some confrontations can be handled no other way. Critics say the practice is barbaric and should be banned.

At the very least, say skeptics, the practice needs tighter controls and safeguards. They point out how many restraints seem to go wrong and to the lethal consequences.

The restraint method most commonly used today is the basket hold, so named because it serves to contain the patient in a more or less basketlike position. Dr. Jack Zusman, a professor at Florida Mental Health Institute in Tampa and author of a book on clinical restraint and seclusion, says a sort of consensus favoring the basket hold came about over the past generation or so.

"When I was in training, the accepted practice was the chokehold," he says.

"At least we're past that."

In theory, the basket hold calls for a staff member, working from beside or behind the patient, to crisscross the patient's arms across the latter's chest and hold them firmly at the patient's waist. A second staffer is to hug the patient's legs.

The staffer behind the patient is to slump or fall backwards onto the floor, using his or her body to cushion the fall of both people. The leg-holding staffer follows them to the floor.

Finally, the arm-holding staffer is to roll the two together onto their side.

Both restrainers should be verbally urging the patient to cooperate and calm down in order to be released. Afterward, the patient is to be released into a "quiet room" or other seclusion to regain composure.

The maneuver goes better with several restrainers working as a team, and often staff members are discouraged from initiating the restraint without someone to help out, according to Scott Lundy, executive director for foster care for Lutheran Social Services of the South, or LSSS.

He contends restraint is a necessary last resort for controlling youngsters whose violent conduct threatens others or themselves, then adds, "Almost every child we deal with has a history of violence to themselves or others.

There's no way to work with these kind of kids and not do (restraints)."

+ Article continues at:

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EDUCATION

How Schools Use The "Learning Disability" Label To Cover Up Their Failures. Special Education Confidential - December 2002

The handmade flashcards were not helping my nephew Clayton. My sister Linda confided: "He’s not reading. We practice, but he can’t remember the words the next time. He gets frustrated."

Although it seemed overwhelming, Clayton’s problem was fairly simple. "If Clayton is reading the word cat," Linda explained, "he just says the letters c, a, t. He doesn’t recognize the word." Clayton wasn’t connecting the letters to the sounds they represent. Children often are taught the names of letters first, which can make it hard to learn how they’re pronounced. For these kids, the letter c has no relationship to the sound k in cat.

Compounding the problem, Clayton’s kindergarten teacher was giving him word lists to memorize, failing to recognize that he didn’t know the basic letter sounds. She kept sending home new lists even though he hadn’t learned the words on the previous ones. It’s not surprising that Linda and Clayton were frustrated.

I was worried for Clayton because I know what happens to kids when they don’t learn to read. Comprehensive research by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development shows that children who cannot identify word sounds in kindergarten often cannot read by third grade. If Clayton failed to learn the relationship between letters and sounds in kindergarten, chances are he would be assigned to special education by fourth grade, which would spell his doom in the public school system. He probably would never become a proficient reader. Despite attending a solidly middle-class school, rated 7 out of 10 by the state of California, Clayton could easily end up as yet another child labeled "learning disabled" because his school failed to teach him how to read.

This winter Congress is scheduled to reauthorize the Individuals With Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), which dispenses $60 billion a year to school districts around the country. While there’s no question that IDEA has provided legal protections and services for students with handicaps, it has also created perverse incentives that encourage schools to call kids disabled as a way of attracting more funding and masking instructional failures.

Instead of restructuring the program to mitigate these unintended consequences, Congress is set to simply throw more money at the problem.

Disability As an Excuse Nearly 12 percent of American students in kindergarten through 12th grade are assigned to the special education system. Children with severe disabilities, such as mental retardation, autism, blindness, and deafness, account for only a tenth of these students. The remaining 90 percent are described as suffering from conditions that are less obvious and harder to verify objectively, such as specific learning disability (SLD), speech and language delays, mild mental retardation, and emotional disorders. SLD is the most common label, accounting for more than half of all students covered by IDEA.

SLD diagnoses, which have risen by 34 percent since 1991, are the main factor contributing to the dramatic increase in special education enrollments since 1976.

In a recent Education Week commentary, Manhattan Institute education analyst Jay Greene observes that the SLD category "has more than tripled from 1.8% of the student population in 1976–7 to 6.0% in 1998–9. All other categories of special education combined…have actually declined from 6.5% to 5.8% of the student population during the same period." Greene sees these trends as cause for skepticism about the validity of SLD designations. "If a general increase were truly underway in the proportion of students with learning problems," he writes, "then it should be evident in more than just one category of special education."

Federal law defines SLD as "a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations."

To prevent overuse of the label, federal regulations stipulate that it be limited to students who show a "severe discrepancy" between their achievement in one or more subject areas and their intelligence, usually as measured by an IQ test. For example, a child who scores lower on a standardized reading test than on an IQ test might be classified as having a reading disability.

Even with these criteria, an SLD diagnosis remains subjective. In addition to the federal standard, there are 50 different state definitions of learning disability, and the methods used to determine intelligence vary widely.

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SCIENCE

Bad Medicine

Book Review

Homeopathy is based on a 300-year-old mistake and magnetic therapy is simply fraudulent. As for oxygen-fortified drinks ... Christopher Wanjek appears to debunk some popular medical myths

Ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the centre of thought and the brain cooled the body. The Romans reckoned a bad uterus caused hysteria. And you know about London's blood-letting days. Yet myths about the body and health linger on today, some astoundingly ludicrous but pervasive none the less. Often it is said, for example, that we use just 10% of our brains. Magician Uri Geller readily spreads this myth as an explanation for why he can bend spoons; he claims to use more of his brain than the rest of us. Truth be told, we use 100% of our brains - even while watching a silly Uri Geller magic show. That 10% figure was invented in the 30s by ad men in America selling self-help pamphlets. "Scientists say you only use one-tenth of your brain," the ads said. "Wake up to your true potential."

In the 19th century, scientists did indeed determine that certain parts of the brain didn't seem to have any obvious function (such as moving a limb) when stimulated by an electrode. They called these regions "the silent cortex" and later learned that these regions were responsible for the very traits that make us human: language and abstract thought.

How can we be sure that Geller is not even 10% right about the brain? For one, commonsense: never has a doctor said, "You'll be fine.The bullet is lodged in the 90% part of the brain you don't use." Biologically, any part of the body will deteriorate without use. Legs shrivel in a cast, and neurons in the brain die as a result of diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. And if you want proof in pictures, modern scans all show that the entire brain is active.

Some body myths still show up in biology textbooks. The tongue is not mapped out to taste sweet, salty, bitter and sour in select locations. The tip of the tongue is said to be reserved for the sweet taste. Yet place salt on the tip of your tongue - or anywhere, for that matter - and you will taste it.

The tongue map developed around 1900 merely suggesting that certain regions might be more sensitive than others for certain types of tastes, which itself isn't so true either. A misinterpretation of the data over the years led people to think that taste buds only existed in delineated regions. French wine glass makers are still hooked on the idea.

Slightly lower in the body we come to the liver, which detoxifies poisons from food and medicine. A million-dollar industry has grown from the notion that the liver itself becomes toxic and must be cleaned, or banged out like a lint screen, with a vitamin and herb regimen. Not true. Aside from vitamin A, nothing ever accumulates in the liver. What the liver cannot detoxify, it allows to pass.

Alternative medicine thrives on these types of myths. Magnet therapy, with its claim that it manipulates blood flow, is just plain fraudulent. The therapy is based on the notion that the iron in our blood is magnetic. Makes sense, but it's wrong, because iron is bound to haemoglobin. If the blood were magnetic, then we would blow up when placed under the powerful magnets of an MRI machine. If you do notice redness under that magnetic bracelet you are wearing, that's not magnetism. You merely have a chunk of metal irritating your skin.

Homeopathy is based on a 300-year-old mistake. Homeopathy's foundation lies on the premises of "like cures like" and "the law of infinitesimals." Nappy rash, for example, is cured with a diluted solution of poison ivy. Homeopathy founders when it comes to dilution. A typical dilution level is times 30, which in homeopathy-speak means one-part medicine and 1030 part water. Such dilution is implausible, developed before the concept of Avogadro's number, which determines the number of molecules in a given solution. You would need to drink 8,000 gallons of water to get one molecule of medicine.

Other homeopathic cures are set at 100 to the power of 30. You would need an entire solar system worth of matter to mix with one molecule of medicine. At least homeopathy is safe because it is, indeed, just water.

On the topic of thirst, a new trend is oxygen-fortified drinks to replenish your body with oxygen. It shouldn't surprise you that breathing works better. Oxygen best enters the bloodstream through the lungs, not the stomach. You would need to drink about a litre of oxygenated water every 30 seconds to get a deep breath's worth of extra oxygen, and this assumes you don't pee.

Even breathing in pure oxygen won't help you catch your breath because haemoglobin (which carries oxygen in the blood) is nearly saturated with oxygen with every normal breath we take at sea level, where the air is about 18% oxygen.

Alternative medicine proponents have also latched on to the antioxidant fable, this notion that heroic antioxidant supplements fight sinister free radicals out to wreck havoc on the body. This is an oversimplification. Free radicals are molecules with an unpaired electron, making them highly reactive. Yes, they destroy cell walls and lead to disease. And yes, antioxidants neutralise free radicals. Yet free radicals are crucial for the body to make energy, a process that occurs in the cell's mitochondria. Also, free radicals, such as hydrogen peroxide, are a key component to the body's immune system. Too many antioxidants - that is, megadoses of supplements - disturb this natural process.

Indeed, antioxidants such has vitamin C and beta carotene have been shown to fuel cancer growth, and selenium can be toxic. Conversely, there is no evidence that high doses of antioxidants help the body in any way - except (a big maybe here) vitamin E.

The myth of brain cancer from mobile phones is steeped in society's irrational fear of radiation. For radiation to cause cancer, it must break chemical bonds in the body. Only certain types of radiation, called ionising radiation, can do this. Ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays are the culprits. Visible light and radio waves are always safe.

Radiation travels as photons. Imagine a chemical bond as a window across the street. A high-energy X-ray photon is like a golf ball that smashes the window. Radio photons from mobiles, millions of times less energetic than X-rays, are like puffballs. You can throw as many radio puffballs as you want, you will never break that window. This is the essence of quantum mechanics.

If your ear feels warm after a cellphone conversation, remember that y ou are holding a machine with a battery pack against your head. If you get a headache, remember that talking on a mobile is much more annoying than talking on a traditional phone.

Vaccination also worries people today, particularly the MMR vaccine thought to be related to autism. Several major studies in America and England have found no association between the two. Autism merely appears at the same time in life that a child gets the MMR jab. The myth lives on, though, fuelled by a back-to-nature crowd who simply don't understand the importance of vaccines. We have a false sense of security: because our children are immunised, they do not contract measles, whooping cough, and other potentially deadly diseases. Those children not immunised are relatively safe because everyone around them is immunised. Drop immunisation, and we're right back to the 19th century.

The anti-vaccine crowd doesn't understand that 25,000 people will have died of measles alone in Afghanistan this year, according to World Health Organisation. That's a world without vaccines. Likewise, Britain, feeling confident, dropped the whooping cough vaccine in 1974, and by 1978 there was an epidemic of 100,000 cases, with 36 deaths.

The vaccine worry highlights the core myths associated with alternative medicine. First, the ancient "natural" world was somehow a better place, less polluted and with less stress. Second, ancient peoples knew how to care for themselves with natural remedies that "restore balance" by channelling unseen energy forces in the universe. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Life was much harder as little as 100 years ago. Children died. Disease wiped out entire cities. For most of humanity, indoor air was filled with soot and faeces. Families constantly stressed over where the next meal would come from. No herbal medicine or incantation routinely worked to cure disease. Few lived past the age of 50, no matter if they practiced yoga and thought happy thoughts, as Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil teach us.

Surprisingly, many in this modern world subscribe to the idea that disease is not caused by pathogens but rather an "unbalance" or "negative energy". They take untested herbs, much like medieval Europeans, to restore this balance. Or they practice qigong to move so-called qi (chi) energy through the body to initiate some mystic healing practice.

Only people in the wealthiest of nations are subscribing to ancient practices, often banned in developing countries. We seem to be so content, so caught up with myths, that we have forgotten how the advances of real science through the 20th century - the germ theory of disease, for one - have made life that much more pleasant.

· Christopher Wanjek's book, Bad Medicine, is published by John Wiley & Sons, priced £11.50. To order a copy phone: 0800 243407

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