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In an interesting story I got from a friend, a neurologist/father of an autistic child claims that there are probably various types of autism with different causes. He believes his daughter's autism was the result of vaccines interacting with her mitochondrial dysfunction.
With a Portugese study finding that mitochondrial dysfunction is present in at least 7% of autism cases, there might be something to that vaccine theory after all. I'm curious if a parent could get a pediatrician to test for it before starting the shots.
He's scientist enough to not make any crazy claims. He thinks he's found a link that needs to be researched. While it's not a great budget year for it, who doesn't like plausible sounding research?
quote:He believes his daughter's autism was the result of vaccines interacting with her mitochondrial dysfunction.
I see here an emotional interest that may very plausibly be interfering with the impartiality of his interpretation in the desire to find a cause.
I will believe that there's something to the vaccine/mercury/whatever theory once we actually get some hard data back that isn't postulation.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Well, the Department of Health and Human Services seems to agree with him. I'd think they'd need some form of proof before coming to that position. Or some reason to think they'd lose the lawsuit, anyway.
Plus, the Portugese study found this mitochondrial thing in at least 7% of the autistic kids they studied. They think it could be present in as much as 20%. While the cause could certainly go the other way (the mitochondria got messed up by the combination of autism and shots) or be completely unrelated, it does sound like it's worth looking at.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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This blogger is a mother of an autistic child, who seems to think the whole mercury->autism industry is a scam.
A few hours ago, I happened on her blog because she has been hit by a SLAAP-like subpoena.
I'm with Sam: I'll believe it when there are credible studies showing it. Isn't there already a mountain of data negating the link of vaccines to autism?
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Great links, Morbo. It's too bad that lawyer's such a jerk. The idea that we shouldn't be sticking mercury into peoples' bodies on purpose is an idea most people could get behind.
And I agree about vaccines not causing the majority of autism. I'm just curious if they might be on to something and in a minority of specific cases it could be a trigger.
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My sister-in-law has high mercury. I'm puzzled as to why mercury was ever put in vaccines.
My guess is autism's etiology will eventually be considered as similar to cancer: very complex, with social environment, genetics, environmental chemicals and possibly other biological agents like virii, bacteria or prions all interacting.
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I still don't totally buy the vaccine theory. I think in some cases, it could be a cause, but I also think it's more important to help autistic children and adults get the services they need to thrive in the world
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I did a little research on this myself, and if you look at the amount of mercury in vaccines, it's comparable to the amount of mercury you'd drink in a week from your municipal water supply. In other words, a very tiny amount.
I agree with those who have said that they want some hard data backing up the vaccine connection, especially when you consider that we all have minimal mercury exposure every day in the air, water and food.
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As I recall, thimerosal has a form of mercury that's not as bioavailable as some other forms (like methyl mercury, which is found in fish). It's less likely to accumulate in tissue, less likely to get into the brain in large quantities in the first place, and leaves the body more quickly.
quote:The idea that we shouldn't be sticking mercury into peoples' bodies on purpose is an idea most people could get behind.
The FDA agrees -- thimerosal has been eliminated from a lot of vaccines, particularly ones given to young children. Link.
In fact, since it's been 7 years since thimerosal was eliminated, you'd think we'd have seen a drop in autism cases by now. My largely uninformed guess is that autism probably has a significant genetic component. We'll see.
Edit to add:
quote:I'm puzzled as to why mercury was ever put in vaccines.
There have been cases where people have died from contaminated vaccine, so in general, a preservative of some kind needs to be used. As for why vaccine is sometimes kept in multi-dose vials which raise the chances of contamination -- I would guess it's to keep costs down. I don't know why thimerosal specifically has been used. It may be safer than any of the alternatives (or may have been the safest at some point), or it may be less expensive.
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