Nightline tonight: Parents blame mercury for autism

opus

Silverti wrote: »

.......................Take profit out of health care.....................

sigh

McLoki

I am sure at least some of the cases now (probably a large percentage) are due to both an increased awareness of the disease and the fact that they now consider much milder forms of autism (such as aspergers) as autistic where they used to consider only severe cases (called classic autism - like rain man) years ago.

I am not sure when they started the more general classification of it, but it does show at least one thing. (at least to me) where before there were multiple problems that seemed on the surface to be unrelated and therefore much harder to discover a cause or treatment for (due to the diffusion of time and money in trying to study multiple diseases or issues) - now that it is under the same umbrella of autism, may be easier focus on something that can help to prevent or treat this in the future.

1 in 150 is epidemic propotions for a childhood disease. Whether that disease is new or not should not really be the focus of the debate - finding a prevention or treatment should be. The growth rate is currently being highlighted as the reason to spend money on research. Personally I would have thought that the 1 in 150 would have been reason enough.

Michael

McLoki

Silverti wrote: »

Take profit out of health care.

While on the surface this makes sense - in reality I would consider it a horrid idea. Many of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century have been made in the spirit of making a profit.

To stand a chance of curing a disease - someone has to be able to make a profit at it. Why do you think so many companies are spending millions of their own profits trying to cure cancer? Because whoever comes up with the cure will be holding the patent worth millions of dollars. (if they come up with a preventative - it could be worth billions)

To quote Gordon Gekko (rent the movie wallstreet) "greed is good." What do I care if someone makes a profit as long as the result of that profit helps me and my family? (I will put helping the rest of mankind as a perk at this point... )

Michael

McLoki

One thing my wife just brought up - the increased diagnosis is not (we don't think) profit driven at all. Once your child is diagnosed - you enter into a black hole of help.

There is no drug you can give or single treatment that you can follow to help. All you have is the support of other parents and what they have tried or experienced to help. I assume it is due to the fact that there is no money in autism unless you are a therapist. This is probably a big contributor to the reason that research has been so slow with Autism.

Parents follow other parents advice because that is all we have. The doctors and researchers just say - we don't know yet - wait a few years and maybe we will have something. Our children are here now and help (at least for my child) is not going to wait for someone to say "ok, now we know what to do."

As with every other parenting decision - we will run in the direction we think is best and makes the most sense, all the while hoping that the direction we chose is a good one.

Michael

opus

Good luck and God Bless

McLoki

We all have our crosses to bear. In the grand scheme of things - it could have been so much worse. We truely have been / are blessed.

(but thank you for the well wishes... )

Michael.

Systems

I haven’t seen that new Michael Moore movie on health care but I understand the fundamentals behind it and from the clips I seen, its gonna wake some people up (hell wasn’t he even on Oprah with it?). Specifically the millions of people who actually *think* they have health coverage... until you really need to use it. Aka, you learn quickly what health insurance is about when you face an expensive procedure. Scary ****, I hope I don’t get cancer.

McLoki

The fact that you are willing to sit through a Michael Moore movie shows how far apart our views are. Oh well - you like Polk so we can agree you have taste in something. (apparently it is just narrowly focused.).....

Michael

Nisqually Dave

Did someone actually Quote Micheal Moore? Talk about twisting the facts to sensationalize them.

As my old Professor of statistics told us on our first day of class, you can make statistics prove or disprove any fact with statistics. talk about voodoo math/science. Most crackpots who want to fleece you pocketbook use statistics to do it.

hearingimpared

McLoki wrote: »

The fact that you are willing to sit through a Michael Moore movie shows how far apart our views are. Oh well - you like Polk so we can agree you have taste in something. (apparently it is just narrowly focused.).....

Michael

You beat me to that punch!!!

Seriously though, I've a long prayer list each day and it just got longer. God Bless you and your family, my wife and I have first hand experience with mental health issues. I love your attitude in that we have the same, we are blessed!:)

ben62670

McLoki wrote: »

Ben62670 - Unfortunately, it looks like we are getting close to being able to start an autism support group on the forum....

PM me if you ever want another opinion on anything or need anyone to talk to.

Michael

I might do that. I actually skipped to page two, and found I missed a couple of post. I was thinking of sending you a PM. It is tough having a kid with autism. The hard thing is that it is going to be tough for her. Thats the heart braking part of this disease. I personally don't blame anything, or anyone for this condition. I wish they would do more research. What needs to be done is interview the parents of autistic children, and find out what if any the common denominator is.

Ben

Shizelbs

Silverti wrote: »

If you guys want to see how bad the Medical industry is, look at all them commercials for "restless leg syndrome" which is pretty much a pure marketing scheme by drug companies to sell a certain medication that was designed for different things (was it Parkinson’s?) and they pretty much contrived a minor item into a whole marketing scheme to tell it for peoples who cant stop their legs form moving. All a sudden <gasp> millions of people had it.

Restless Leg Syndrome is a genuine medical condition. It is a movement disorder with some similarities to Parkinson's disease. Physicians and other practioners were prescribing those drugs for Restless Leg patients well before the ads appeared on TV.

The drug company of that drug(s) spend millions and millions of dollars to prove that their drug was effective for the genuine condition that is RLS. Only once they spent that money could they then advertise and promote awareness for people that may not know that what they have is RLS and that there exists a treatment.

Shizelbs

Silverti wrote: »

Clearly Autism is a situation being "diagnosed" more today. But is it being over diagnosed for profit?

No, it absolutely is not.

ben62670

Shizelbs wrote: »

No, it absolutely is not.

I totally agree. If you know early enough you can try to teach the child ASAP as much as you can. Its amazing how quickly kids pick things up when they are young. I do think a lot of stuff is miss labeled when it comes to behavioral problems. I don't think that medication is the answer for a lot of these types of problems. While some problems can be helped I think a lot of hard work by the parents needs to be done. My kid is going to basically a speech therapy. I think that more of that is for the parents to teach them how to teach their children than anything else.

Ben

schwarcw

The Treffert study (1970) concluded that for people born between 1954-1964 the rate of autism was 3.1 per 10,000

The Burd study (1987) concluded that for people born between 1967-1983 the rate of autism was 3.26 per 10,000

The Ritivo study (1989) concluded that for people born between 1960-1984 the rate of autism was 2.47 per 10,000

The current rate (as determined by a February 2007 multi-state study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention) is now 67 per 10,000. (1 in every 150 kids born today)

This is the real point!!! Autism is a worldwide epidemic of staggering proportions, environmental factors are the most likely the cause. The point is, we need to find out what is doing it and how, FAST!!! Children are being irreparably harmed.

And yes Cathy, someone is going to pay (insurance companies - Sorry!). This is going to be a bonanza for the lawyers. Ever read Erin Brockovich? Early on during the discovery, most people had the same consensus about hexavalent chromium. "No way is this causing all these problems"

cfrizz

Michael, I'm sorry you and your family are going through this. You are in my thoughts.

Cathy

zombie boy 2000

jdhdiggs wrote: »

Damn those flouride barons and their damn lobbiests!

WAAAAAA!!!! I usually stay out of these threads, but this is one of the funniest quotes I have ever heard on this forum:D

Jstas

Autism Reversed in Mice At MIT lab:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/27/1749233


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6245742.stm

McLoki

For those curious about the show last night. (the point of the thread, remember?) I watched it and it made me feel wholly uncomfortable. The fact that one woman (the mother) would be so willing to potentially sacrafice her child to the beliefs of one person that every other scientist he has met considers a crackpot, is just scary.

The scientist I just didn't believe in (especially considering how strongly he has been vilified by his peers) and the mother just had the look and actions of someone who has gone off the deep end. Of course I felt sorry for the child and his situation, but there has to be a point where experimenting with drugs on your child in hopes of fundamentally changing him has be considered child endagerment.

It would be different if it was part of a controlled study that had shown benefits in other animals and they are ready to move testing to the next step. But to just say "here - try this and see what happens" as drug cocktails that were put together and tested in a basement - are injected into your child, is just wrong.

I hope, for her sons sake, that what she is allowing to be done to her child does not cause further harm and heartache down the road.

You have to reach a point where your friends and family are willing to step in and say "what the hell are you thinking? I know things are bad but this is your child, not a lab rat - stop treating him like one."

Personally, I found the entire show really disturbing.

Michael

Systems

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19361022/site/newsweek/?GT1=10056

candyliquor35m

Here's one clinical trial going on for dmsa. It appears their goal is to prove that it doesn't work.

http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/show/NCT00376194?order=1

hearingimpared

Silverti wrote: »

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19361022/site/newsweek/?GT1=10056

He's the epitomed picture of health!

Systems

hearingimpared wrote: »

He's the epitomed picture of health!

Isn’t that like shooting the messenger?

Couple of you guys are interesting. Pull the blinders off man. I’m not really a Moore fan (I’ve only watched one of his movies) but at least I'll full the blinders off and objectively watch something like that. I’m secure enough in my mental ability and education to be able to take the info he presents (in his case, not charts and data, but actually peoples stories) and critical think it from all sides and make my own judgment. At least in the end, If I think he’s a quack and his arguments are invalid, I can come here and actually post an objective retort on it instead of just trashing it because I can trash it... right? But this is the internets and that’s what people do and trying to reason to people with blinders on don’t work any ways but it’s always fun.

In any case, it might actually get you to realize that this is all extremely complicated being worked on by millions of variables… just maybe your simple idea of it working isn’t true!

jdhdiggs

Silverti wrote: »

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19361022/site/newsweek/?GT1=10056

For just a "little" balance: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010266

PhantomOG

Silverti wrote: »

Isn’t that like shooting the messenger?

Calling Mikey Moore a messenger?? Now that's funny.

hearingimpared

Silverti wrote: »

Isn’t that like shooting the messenger?

Couple of you guys are interesting. Pull the blinders off man. I’m not really a Moore fan (I’ve only watched one of his movies) but at least I'll full the blinders off and objectively watch something like that. I’m secure enough in my mental ability and education to be able to take the info he presents (in his case, not charts and data, but actually peoples stories) and critical think it from all sides and make my own judgment. At least in the end, If I think he’s a quack and his arguments are invalid, I can come here and actually post an objective retort on it instead of just trashing it because I can trash it... right? But this is the internets and that’s what people do and trying to reason to people with blinders on don’t work any ways but it’s always fun.

In any case, it might actually get you to realize that this is all extremely complicated being worked on by millions of variables… just maybe your simple idea of it working isn’t true!

I've seen everything Moore has done and contrary to your incredible insight, I find him a fat buffoon!!! Period, no blinders, no trashing, I find him to be nothing but a buffoon! A hateful buffoon at that! That is my retort.

McLoki

Moore is a film maker, not a documentary expert. To base any argument on the content of his fims is like showing Star Wars as proof of life on other planets.

Personally I think his films suck because they do not contain the facts to be a documentary nor the story to make them worth my time.

Michael

Shizelbs

I saw Moore on Letterman a few years back. David was asking him some very pointed, challenging questions, and did not back off when Moore tried to work around the questions. I was really dissapointed how incapable he was at constructing a proper response to defend his position.