Poll: Reason for the rise in autism spectrum (1 Viewer)

[Drew Bethel]

My buddy did eliminate these things from his son's diet. He is also supplementing with Vitamin B-6, zinc, manganese and magnesium and has noted a big improvement.

 

[Chris]

Drew-

In your effort to do the research on Mercury, you might also do research on Red Dye #13, Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) and heavy Lysine, and refined processed sugar, artificial preservatives, aspertaine, etc.. all of which have people who can be found on the WWW with studies linking them to autism.

 

[Peter Burtch]

Hi Drew/Jay,

A couple of friends of mine both work with/give therapy to autistic kids in Chicago/Northern IL. I found the following related to one conversation we had regarding diet being a potential cause. There are some similar articles cited on WebMD.com & MEDLINE from reliable medical journals. I don't think there's any uncomplicated answer, that's for sure.

http://www.cairn-site.com/documents/...s/inter11.html

-P

 

[Drew Bethel]

Chris, if you can point me to some objective peer-reviewed scientific studies I would be happy to take a look.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Objective peer-reviewed studies mean nothing, because "anything is possible". Just see the "Star Trek Transporters" thread.

 

[Chris]

Some of the links from BGH to Autism and other problems:

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/bgh.htm

Ruling out big chunks of US meat and most milk product.

Aspertame and other studies are found here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...ehealingcenter

Which notes how Aspertame converts to formaldyhyde, so those drinking diet sodas, etc. during pregnancy are warned against those containing such items..

Anyway, there are plenty of research and theories, Drew, that's all I'm trying to point out.. There are also studies on Autism as a Vitamin A imbalance during pregnancy and early first months.

Once again, I'm not saying any of these theories are 100% valid, but I find them to have the same scientific credibility as anything else. Moreover, as I try to point out, the "epidemic" is largely because of our new classifications, better understanding, etc. then any other outside factor.

 

[Drew Bethel]

Man, the organization of this site gives me a headache! Besides, we drink Silk!

 

[Quentin]

I have done extensive research on immunization when deciding whther or not to immunize my girls. The mercury exposure is negligible.

As for all the other ideas/theories...I would look more into what the mother is doing/consuming. Hormones, aspartame, preservatives, etc. Autism manifests quite early in infancy. I have a friend with two autistic children. While the final/absolute diagnosis of autism was not given immediately (Doctors are very cautious not to jump the gun on such a diagnosis), the signs were very clear early on. So, it would likely have to be something the mother exposed the fetus to, since the child hasn't likely been around to consume a lot of the things discussed herein.

 

[Drew Bethel]

That's awesome. Kudos to you for making an informed decision!

 

[Jay Taylor]

As an owner of a natural health shop, I try to find dietary & lifestyle reasons for various health problems as well as natural alternatives to remedy the problem.

You may Google the words autism and gluten for a wealth of information on this "nonsense". (Thanks for the follow-up post Peter, and Drew for your post on gluten & dairy products.)

 

[Joseph S]

But you would have more fun googling monkey porn autism to read about the study of Monkey Porn at Duke as part of Autism research.

If you suspect a child has gluten intolerance you can test for antibodies and confirm with biopsy. There's no need to waste money and time on putting the kid or anyone else on a gluten free diet.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Which, studies have shown, can give you abnormally large man-boobs.

Seriously, though, we used soy-based formula for a time with my daughter, after breast-feeding (my wife is lactose-intolerant, and we were concerned our daughter might be, as she seemed to be), and I happened upon a few studies that showed the plant estrogens to create their own sorts of issues down the road. To be frank, I don't remember the full crux of it, I'm sure Google would turn it up.

Todd

 

[Chris]

Yep, there is nothing in the world that will not kill you or do damage to you in one way or another. So give up and surrender to it, or just live life without being haunted by it. We are in the end, a being built to die by design, and we will all be coffin stuffers at one point.

 

[Peter Burtch]

Hi Jay,

That's great- I couldn't encourage that sort of thing more. Anything which doesn't require multiple doctors visits, blood samples, needles and pill popping is all good . More people should drink green tea, eh? I have recently started tp open my eyes to the benefits of a south indian diet that's supposed to be one of the best.

I would still prefer to put it in perspective for the here and now, there's nothing concrete yet that proves gluten intolerance is a cause of autism. Perhaps the studies which link it to autism are on to something which relieves some of the behaviors/discomfort. I certainly don't fault anyone for giving that a whirl. It's nice to see kids enjoying life because they clearly feel a little better.

-P

 

[Jay Taylor]

Another suggestion floating around the natural health community to reduce the chance of having an autistic child is to not have the umbilical cord cut immediately upon birth.

We are all aware of mentally retarded children resulting from an oxygen deprived brain as a result of problems during birth. Yet it is a common practice for the doctor to immediately cut the umbilical cord and dash off to the next delivery as if it was some kind of calf roping competition.

If one of my family members was about to give birth to a child, I would suggest that they work with whoever is going to deliver the baby to insure the following: Have the doctor insure that the baby is breathing normally, place the baby on the mother’s chest, let the baby breath normally for a couple of minutes, then cut the umbilical cord.

There is no exact amount of time to wait that can be applied to all deliveries. The amount needed varies with the difficulty of the delivery.

 

[Micheal]

Just curious, where did you hear this?

My daughter was born almost a year and a half ago. I'm not sure about the exact amount of time but she was allowed to lay on my wifes chest to bond with her and the umbilical cord was cut a few minutes later. At least that's how I remember it.
The labour did last over 24 hours so I'm a little fuzzy on the details...

Is there any research on this theory?

 

[Jay Taylor]

At a natural health seminar.

 

[Jay Taylor]

Sorry Michael, I don't know & haven't searched to find out. However, it seems like a common sense approach to reduce the incidence of brain damage during childbirth.

They also mentioned the possibility of administering oxygen to the baby after problem deliveries.

 

[Micheal]

No problem Jay, sounds interesting.

 

[Drew Bethel]

You shouldn't cut the umbilical cord until minutes or even hours after birth - you will know that it's time to cut it when it stops pulsating. A significant portion of the baby's blood is still in that cord upon birth and if you clamp and cut it right away...you get the picture.

We had specific instructions not to cut the cord but due to meconium staining (baby pooped in utero) we had to clamp and cut it right away. I've never heard of an autism link though - but you can't rule anything out at this point.

We also declined the vitamin K shot - our baby was 100% breast fed. They got the silver nitrate in her eyes before I was able to protest. Oh well.

We had a 100% natural child birth - no drugs. Now, before someone decides to crawl up my arse let me go on the record by saying medical interventions are there to save lives - but sometimes they are abused for the convenience of the medical staff.

As Chris said, there are a million different combinations that would set you crazy. What about the use of all the other medical interventions: pitocin, c-section, fetal monitoring, amniosythesis, epidurals, ultra sounds, doptones, fetal monitoring, etc, etc, etc.