The Gillespie Family

After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.

The unprecedented concession was filed on November 9, and sealed to protect the plaintiff's identify. It was obtained through individuals unrelated to the case.

The claim, one of 4,900 autism cases currently pending in Federal "Vaccine Court," was conceded by US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and other Justice Department officials, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, the "defendant" in all Vaccine Court cases.

The child's claim against the government -- that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism -- was supposed to be one of three "test cases" for the thimerosal-autism theory currently under consideration by a three-member panel of Special Masters, the presiding justices in Federal Claims Court.

Keisler wrote that medical personnel at the HHS Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation (DVIC) had reviewed the case and "concluded that compensation is appropriate."

The doctors conceded that the child was healthy and developing normally until her 18-month well-baby visit, when she received vaccinations against nine different diseases all at once (two contained thimerosal).

Days later, the girl began spiraling downward into a cascade of illnesses and setbacks that, within months, presented as symptoms of autism, including: No response to verbal direction; loss of language skills; no eye contact; loss of "relatedness;" insomnia; incessant screaming; arching; and "watching the florescent lights repeatedly during examination."

Seven months after vaccination, the patient was diagnosed by Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a leading neurologist at the Kennedy Krieger Children's Hospital Neurology Clinic, with "regressive encephalopathy (brain disease) with features consistent with autistic spectrum disorder, following normal development." The girl also met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) official criteria for autism.

In its written concession, the government said the child had a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder that was "aggravated" by her shots, and which ultimately resulted in an ASD diagnosis.

"The vaccinations received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder," the concession says, "which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of ASD."

This statement is good news for the girl and her family, who will now be compensated for the lifetime of care she will require. But its implications for the larger vaccine-autism debate, and for public health policy in general, are not as certain.

In fact, the government's concession seems to raise more questions than it answers.

1) Is there a connection between vaccines, mitochondrial disorders and a diagnosis of autism, at least in some cases?

Mitochondria, you may recall from biology class, are the little powerhouses within cells that convert food into electrical energy, partly through a complex process called "oxidative phosphorylation." If this process is impaired, mitochondrial disorder will ensue.

The child in this case had several markers for Mt disease, which was confirmed by muscle biopsy. Mt disease is often marked by lethargy, poor muscle tone, poor food digestion and bowel problems, something found in many children diagnosed with autism.

But mitochondrial disorders are rare in the general population, affecting some 2-per-10,000 people (or just 0.2%). So with 4,900 cases filed in Vaccine Court, this case should be the one and only, extremely rare instance of Mt disease in all the autism proceedings.

But it is not.

Mitochondrial disorders are now thought to be the most common disease associated with ASD. Some journal articles and other analyses have estimated that 10% to 20% of all autism cases may involve mitochondrial disorders, which would make them one thousand times more common among people with ASD than the general population.

Another article, published in the Journal of Child Neurology and co-authored by Dr. Zimmerman, showed that 38% of Kennedy Krieger Institute autism patients studied had one marker for impaired oxidative phosphorylation, and 47% had a second marker.

The authors -- who reported on a case-study of the same autism claim conceded in Vaccine Court -- noted that "children who have (mitochondrial-related) dysfunctional cellular energy metabolism might be more prone to undergo autistic regression between 18 and 30 months of age if they also have infections or immunizations at the same time."

An interesting aspect of Mt disease in autism is that, with ASD, the mitochondrial disease seems to be milder than in "classic" cases of Mt disorder. In fact, classic Mt disease is almost always inherited, either passed down by the mother through mitochondrial DNA, or by both parents through nuclear DNA.

In autism-related Mt disease, however, the disorder is not typically found in other family members, and instead appears to be largely of the sporadic variety, which may now account for 75% of all mitochondrial disorders.

Meanwhile, an informal survey of seven families of children with cases currently pending in Vaccine Court revealed that all seven showed markers for mitochondrial dysfunction, dating back to their earliest medical tests. The facts in all seven claims mirror the case just conceded by the government: Normal development followed by vaccination, immediate illness, and rapid decline culminating in an autism diagnosis.

2) With 4,900 cases pending, and more coming, will the government concede those with underlying Mt disease -- and if it not, will the Court award compensation?

The Court will soon begin processing the 4900 cases pending before it. What if 10% to 20% of them can demonstrate the same Mt disease and same set of facts as those in the conceded case? Would the government be obliged to concede 500, or even 1,000 cases? What impact would that have on public opinion? And is there enough money currently in the vaccine injury fund to cover so many settlements?

When asked for a comment last week about the court settlement, a spokesman for HHS furnished the following written statement:

"DVIC has reviewed the scientific information concerning the allegation that vaccines cause autism and has found no credible evidence to support the claim. Accordingly, in every case under the Vaccine Act, DVIC has maintained the position that vaccines do not cause autism, and has never concluded in any case that autism was caused by vaccination."

3) If the government is claiming that vaccines did not "cause" autism, but instead aggravated a condition to "manifest" as autism, isn't that a very fine distinction?

For most affected families, such linguistic gymnastics is not so important. And even if a vaccine injury "manifested" as autism in only one case, isn't that still a significant development worthy of informing the public?

On the other hand, perhaps what the government is claiming is that vaccination resulted in the symptoms of autism, but not in an actual, factually correct diagnosis of autism itself.

4) If the government is claiming that this child does NOT have autism, then how many other children might also have something else that merely "mimics" autism?

Is it possible that 10%-20% of the cases that we now label as "autism," are not autism at all, but rather some previously undefined "look-alike" syndrome that merely presents as "features" of autism?

This question gets to the heart of what autism actually is. The disorder is defined solely as a collection of features, nothing more. If you have the features (and the diagnosis), you have the disorder. The underlying biology is the great unknown.

But let's say the government does determine that these kids don't have actual "autism" (something I speculated on HuffPost a year ago). Then shouldn't the Feds go back and test all people with ASD for impaired oxidative phosphorylation, perhaps reclassifying many of them?

If so, will we then see "autism" cases drop by tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people? Will there be a corresponding ascension of a newly described disorder, perhaps something like "Vaccine Aggravated Mitochondrial Disease with Features of ASD?"

And if this child was technically "misdiagnosed" with DSM-IV autism by Dr Zimmerman, how does he feel about HHS doctors issuing a second opinion re-diagnosis of his patient, whom they presumably had neither met nor examined? (Zimmerman declined an interview).

And along those lines, aren't Bush administration officials somewhat wary of making long-distance, retroactive diagnoses from Washington, given that the Terry Schiavo incident has not yet faded from national memory?

5) Was this child's Mt disease caused by a genetic mutation, as the government implies, and wouldn't that have manifested as "ASD features" anyway?

In the concession, the government notes that the patient had a "single nucleotide change" in the mitochondrial DNA gene T2387C, implying that this was the underlying cause of her manifested "features" of autism.

While it's true that some inherited forms of Mt disease can manifest as developmental delays, (and even ASD in the form of Rhett Syndrome) these forms are linked to identified genetic mutations, of which T2387C is not involved. In fact little, if anything, is known about the function of this particular gene.

What's more, there is no evidence that this girl, prior to vaccination, suffered from any kind of "disorder" at all- genetic, mitochondrial or otherwise. Some forms of Mt disease are so mild that the person is unaware of being affected. This perfectly developing girl may have had Mt disorder at the time of vaccination, but nobody detected, or even suspected it.

And, there is no evidence to suggest that this girl would have regressed into symptoms consistent with a DSM-IV autism diagnosis without her vaccinations. If there was such evidence, then why on earth would these extremely well-funded government attorneys compensate this alleged injury in Vaccine Court? Why wouldn't they move to dismiss, or at least fight the case at trial?

6) What are the implications for research?

The concession raises at least two critical research questions: What are the causes of Mt dysfunction; and how could vaccines aggravate that dysfunction to the point of "autistic features?"

While some Mt disorders are clearly inherited, the "sporadic" form is thought to account for 75% of all cases, according to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. So what causes sporadic Mt disease? "Medicines or other toxins," says the Cleveland Clinic, a leading authority on the subject.

Use of the AIDS drug AZT, for example, can cause Mt disorders by deleting large segments of mitochondrial DNA. If that is the case, might other exposures to drugs or toxins (i.e., thimerosal, mercury in fish, air pollution, pesticides, live viruses) also cause sporadic Mt disease in certain subsets of children, through similar genotoxic mechanisms?

Among the prime cellular targets of mercury are mitochondria, and thimerosal-induced cell death has been associated with the depolarization of mitochondrial membrane, according to the International Journal of Molecular Medicine among several others. (Coincidently, the first case of Mt disease was diagnosed in 1959, just 15 years after the first autism case was named, and two decades after thimerosal's introduction as a vaccine preservative.)

Regardless of its cause, shouldn't HHS sponsor research into Mt disease and the biological mechanisms by which vaccines could aggravate the disorder? We still do not know what it was, exactly, about this girl's vaccines that aggravated her condition. Was it the thimerosal? The three live viruses? The two attenuated viruses? Other ingredients like aluminum? A combination of the above?

And of course, if vaccine injuries can aggravate Mt disease to the point of manifesting as autism features, then what other underlying disorders or conditions (genetic, autoimmune, allergic, etc.) might also be aggravated to the same extent?

7) What are the implications for medicine and public health?

Should the government develop and approve new treatments for "aggravated mitochondrial disease with ASD features?" Interestingly, many of the treatments currently deployed in Mt disease (i.e., coenzyme Q10, vitamin B-12, lipoic acid, biotin, dietary changes, etc.) are part of the alternative treatment regimen that many parents use on their children with ASD.

And, if a significant minority of autism cases can be linked to Mt disease and vaccines, shouldn't these products one day carry an FDA Black Box warning label, and shouldn't children with Mt disorders be exempt from mandatory immunization?

8) What are the implications for the vaccine-autism debate?

It's too early to tell. But this concession could conceivably make it more difficult for some officials to continue insisting there is "absolutely no link" between vaccines and autism.

It also puts the Federal Government's Vaccine Court defense strategy somewhat into jeopardy. DOJ lawyers and witnesses have argued that autism is genetic, with no evidence to support an environmental component. And, they insist, it's simply impossible to construct a chain of events linking immunizations to the disorder.

Government officials may need to rethink their legal strategy, as well as their public relations campaigns, given their own slightly contradictory concession in this case.

9) What is the bottom line here?

The public, (including world leaders) will demand to know what is going on inside the US Federal health establishment. Yes, as of now, n=1, a solitary vaccine-autism concession. But what if n=10% or 20%? Who will pay to clean up that mess?

The significance of this concession will unfortunately be fought over in the usual, vitriolic way -- and I fully expect to be slammed for even raising these questions. Despite that, the language of this concession cannot be changed, or swept away.

Its key words are "aggravated" and "manifested." Without the aggravation of the vaccines, it is uncertain that the manifestation would have occurred at all.

When a kid with peanut allergy eats a peanut and dies, we don't say "his underlying metabolic condition was significantly aggravated to the extent of manifesting as an anaphylactic shock with features of death."

No, we say the peanut killed the poor boy. Remove the peanut from the equation, and he would still be with us today.

Many people look forward to hearing more from HHS officials about why they are settling this claim. But whatever their explanation, they cannot change the fundamental facts of this extraordinary case:

The United State government is compensating at least one child for vaccine injuries that resulted in a diagnosis of autism.

And that is big news, no matter how you want to say it.

NOTE: Full text of the government's statement is posted here.

David Kirby is the author of "Evidence of Harm - Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, A Medical Controversy" (St. Martins Press 2005.

SPECIAL REPORT! Cause Of Autism Discovered...... And It's Not The Mercury!
By: Dr. Rebecca Carley Source: http://www.drcarley.com March 8, 2008

This is the update that has gone out to the thousands of people on my list. I await the response of David Kirby and Dr Boyd Haley, who are receiving this e-mail as well. The following is the ammo by which Big Pharma can be brought to its knees. I ask you to circulate it widely. It is time for you to DEMAND that those promoting mercury as the cause of autism respond to what I have written below. If the true intention of these people is to stop this epidemic in our children, then they should let go of their egos and admit that I have figured out the true cause. Let me first encourage all of you to go to http://www.drcarley.com/the_big_picture.jpg ; you will see that I have ALWAYS said it is the BIG PICTURE of assaults to our immune systems (and mercury is there) which combine to cause disease, including autism. But it is the corruption of the immune system caused by the inoculation of viruses which is the root cause of all autoimmune diseases and cancer...and once this information is in the hands of a critical mass of the people, we will put a stop to the biggest epidemic the world has ever known...VIDS (Vaccine Induced Diseases). And the individuals who continue to promote mercury as the root cause in the face of this information will be exposed for being INTENTIONAL disinformers. Below is a verbatim copy of the US Government concession filed last November in a Court of Federal Claims case brought by a family claiming that mercury containing vaccines were the cause of the child's autism that is posted on David Kirby's blog at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/the-vaccineautism-court-_b_88558.html . David Kirby, author of "Evidence of Harm", is one of the individuals who is distracting the public that it is "all about the thimerosol". The take home message therefore is that if the mercury were removed, vaccines would be safe. A BIGGER LIE HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD; and my document "Inoculations the True Weapons of Mass Destruction" posted on www.drcarley.com describes the corruption of the immune system caused by the injection of viruses directly into the body, bypassing secretory IgA (an antibody in the upper GI and respiratory tracts critical for the processing of the germ by the immune system for natural immunity to occur). I was a guest with David Kirby on a radio show which is posted on my website at http://www.drcarley.com/kirby_vs_carley_autism.mp3 , on which I confronted him with the fact that autism is actually a non-fatal case of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis caused by demyelination following vaccine induced encephalitis, and that the name of the condition was changed to autism to hide this self evident fact. I have sent Mr. Kirby copies of the documents on my website, and asked him multiple times to be a guest on one of my internet shows to discuss the "mercury vs demyelination" theories of autism. He will not do so. What is truly amazing is that he is now mentioning live viruses amongst a plethora of other potential problems (see # 6 at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/government-concedes-vacci_b_88323.html)....but is he discussing the live viruses bypassing secretory IgA, causing vaccine induced encephalitis and subsequent demyelination? NO...he is mentioning live viruses as a cause of mitochondrial damage. So once again, we will now be distracted with this genetic mitochondrial defect...perhaps develop a test to find the children with this problem before they are vaccinated, when in fact genetic defects can also be caused by vaccines. More confusion and distraction...rather than admitting that there is no such thing as a safe vaccine...and the practice should be abandoned altogether, and attention placed on strengthening the immune system. Of course, since population reduction is the true agenda of the powers that be, not only will the vaccine push continue...but viruses are being developed to cause disease and cancer. The mad scientists have to be stopped...and this WILL happen once enough people have opened their eyes. I urge all of you to carefully read this decision dated 11/9/07, in which this young girl won her case claiming vaccines caused her autism. Note these important points: 1. 2 days after multiple vaccines (which included the MMR, which has NEVER had mercury), she developed a high fever, high pitched screaming, and was lethargic and irritable. these are symptoms of VACCINE INDUCED ENCEPHALITIS, an inflammation of the brain caused by injection of LIVE VIRUSES (not from mercury). 2. She also began to arch her back when she cried (a sign of vaccine induced encephalitis, NOT mercury poisoning). 3. She developed a POST-VARICELLA VACCINATION RASH (which proves that the vaccination GAVE HER THAT DISEASE). 4. She was diagnosed with vaccine induced ENCEPHALOPATHY (degenerative disease of the brain)...as you will see below, mercury is involved in causing the degenerative disease Alzheimer's, NOT autism). 5. She developed a SEIZURE DISORDER later on (go to the CDC website and look for the vaccine information statement on the MMR vaccine (which has never had mercury), and you will see that one of the side effects is LONG TERM SEIZURES. 6. You will also note that they did genetic testing of the child and found that she has a genetic defect in her cellular energetics (Note that vaccines are known to cause GENETIC MUTATION due to insertion of plasmids of DNA from the viruses or tissues used to culture them; in fact, this is the whole basis on which DNA vaccines are designed). 7. You will notice that although the white coat in this case went as far as to do genetic testing in this child, there were NO ANTI MYELIN OR ANTI NEURONAL FILAMENT LEVELS DONE; this IS the test that demonstrates demyelination before it is massive enough to show up on MRI's; and this IS the test that proves that autism is actually a non-fatal form of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (which is why this test is almost never done). Here is the decision (but please be sure to also read what I have written after it)... IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS OFFICE OF SPECIAL MASTERS CHILD, a minor, by her Parents and Natural Guardians, Petitioners, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Respondent. RESPONDENT'S RULE 4(c) REPORT In accordance with RCFC, Appendix B, Vaccine Rule 4(c), the Secretary of Health and Human Services submits the following response to the petition for compensation filed in this case. FACTS CHILD ("CHILD") was born on December --, 1998, and weighed eight pounds, ten ounces. Petitioners' Exhibit ("Pet. Ex.") 54 at 13. The pregnancy was complicated by gestational diabetes. Id. at 13. CHILD received her first Hepatitis B immunization on December 27, 1998. Pet. Ex. 31 at 2. From January 26, 1999 through June 28, 1999, CHILD visited the Pediatric Center, in Catonsville, Maryland, for well-child examinations and minor complaints, including fever and eczema. Pet. Ex. 31 at 5-10, 19. During this time period, she received the following pediatric vaccinations, without incident: Vaccine Dates Administered Hep B 12/27/98; 1/26/99 IPV 3/12/99; 4/27/99 Hib 3/12/99; 4/27/99; 6/28/99 DTaP 3/12/99; 4/27/99; 6/28/99 Id. at 2. At seven months of age, CHILD was diagnosed with bilateral otitis media. Pet. Ex. 31 at 20. In the subsequent months between July 1999 and January 2000, she had frequent bouts of otitis media, which doctors treated with multiple antibiotics. Pet. Ex. 2 at 4. On December 3,1999, CHILD was seen by Karl Diehn, M.D., at Ear, Nose, and Throat Associates of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center ("ENT Associates"). Pet. Ex. 31 at 44. Dr. Diehn recommend that CHILD receive PE tubes for her "recurrent otitis media and serious otitis." Id. CHILD received PE tubes in January 2000. Pet. Ex. 24 at 7. Due to CHILD's otitis media, her mother did not allow CHILD to receive the standard 12 and 15 month childhood immunizations. Pet. Ex. 2 at 4. According to the medical records, CHILD consistently met her developmental milestones during the first eighteen months of her life. The record of an October 5, 1999 visit to the Pediatric Center notes that CHILD was mimicking sounds, crawling, and sitting. Pet. Ex. 31 at 9. The record of her 12-month pediatric examination notes that she was using the words "Mom" and "Dad," pulling herself up, and cruising. Id. at 10. At a July 19, 2000 pediatric visit, the pediatrician observed that CHILD "spoke well" and was "alert and active." Pet. Ex. 31 at 11. CHILD's mother reported that CHILD had regular bowel movements and slept through the night. Id. At the July 19, 2000 examination, CHILD received five vaccinations - DTaP, Hib, MMR, Varivax, and IPV. Id. at 2, 11. According to her mother's affidavit, CHILD developed a fever of 102.3 degrees two days after her immunizations and was lethargic, irritable, and cried for long periods of time. Pet. Ex. 2 at 6. She exhibited intermittent, high-pitched screaming and a decreased response to stimuli. Id. MOM spoke with the pediatrician, who told her that CHILD was having a normal reaction to her immunizations. Id. According to CHILD's mother, this behavior continued over the next ten days, and CHILD also began to arch her back when she cried. Id. On July 31, 2000, CHILD presented to the Pediatric Center with a 101-102 degree temperature, a diminished appetite, and small red dots on her chest. Pet. Ex. 31 at 28. The nurse practitioner recorded that CHILD was extremely irritable and inconsolable. Id. She was diagnosed with a post-varicella vaccination rash. Id. at 29. Two months later, on September 26, 2000, CHILD returned to the Pediatric Center with a temperature of 102 degrees, diarrhea, nasal discharge, a reduced appetite, and pulling at her left ear. Id. at 29. Two days later, on September 28, 2000, CHILD was again seen at the Pediatric Center because her diarrhea continued, she was congested, and her mother reported that CHILD was crying during urination. Id. at 32. On November 1, 2000, CHILD received bilateral PE tubes. Id. at 38. On November 13, 2000, a physician at ENT Associates noted that CHILD was "obviously hearing better" and her audiogram was normal. Id. at 38. On November 27, 2000, CHILD was seen at the Pediatric Center with complaints of diarrhea, vomiting, diminished energy, fever, and a rash on her cheek. Id. at 33. At a follow-up visit, on December 14, 2000, the doctor noted that CHILD had a possible speech delay. Id. CHILD was evaluated at the Howard County Infants and Toddlers Program, on November 17, 2000, and November 28, 2000, due to concerns about her language development. Pet. Ex. 19 at 2, 7. The assessment team observed deficits in CHILD's communication and social development. Id. at 6. CHILD's mother reported that CHILD had become less responsive to verbal direction in the previous four months and had lost some language skills. Id. At 2. On December 21, 2000, CHILD returned to ENT Associates because of an obstruction in her right ear and fussiness. Pet. Ex. 31 at 39. Dr. Grace Matesic identified a middle ear effusion and recorded that CHILD was having some balance issues and not progressing with her speech. Id. On December 27, 2000, CHILD visited ENT Associates, where Dr. Grace Matesic observed that CHILD's left PE tube was obstructed with crust. Pet. Ex. 14 at 6. The tube was replaced on January 17, 2001. Id. Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a pediatric neurologist, evaluated CHILD at the Kennedy Krieger Children's Hospital Neurology Clinic ("Krieger Institute"), on February 8, 2001. Pet. Ex. 25 at 1. Dr. Zimmerman reported that after CHILD's immunizations of July 19, 2000, an "encephalopathy progressed to persistent loss of previously acquired language, eye contact, and relatedness." Id. He noted a disruption in CHILD's sleep patterns, persistent screaming and arching, the development of pica to foreign objects, and loose stools. Id. Dr. Zimmerman observed that CHILD watched the fluorescent lights repeatedly during the examination and would not make eye contact. Id. He diagnosed CHILD with "regressive encephalopathy with features consistent with an autistic spectrum disorder, following normal development." Id. At 2. Dr. Zimmerman ordered genetic testing, a magnetic resonance imaging test ("MRI"), and an electroencephalogram ("EEG"). Id. Dr. Zimmerman referred CHILD to the Krieger Institute's Occupational Therapy Clinic and the Center for Autism and Related Disorders ("CARDS"). Pet. Ex. 25 at 40. She was evaluated at the Occupational Therapy Clinic by Stacey Merenstein, OTR/L, on February 23, 2001. Id. The evaluation report summarized that CHILD had deficits in "many areas of sensory processing which decrease[d] her ability to interpret sensory input and influence[d] her motor performance as a result." Id. at 45. CHILD was evaluated by Alice Kau and Kelley Duff, on May 16, 2001, at CARDS. Pet. Ex. 25 at 17. The clinicians concluded that CHILD was developmentally delayed and demonstrated features of autistic disorder. Id. at 22. CHILD returned to Dr. Zimmerman, on May 17, 2001, for a follow-up consultation. Pet. Ex. 25 at 4. An overnight EEG, performed on April 6, 2001, showed no seizure discharges. Id. at 16. An MRI, performed on March 14, 2001, was normal. Pet. Ex. 24 at 16. A G-band test revealed a normal karyotype. Pet. Ex. 25 at 16. Laboratory studies, however, strongly indicated an underlying mitochondrial disorder. Id. at 4. Dr. Zimmerman referred CHILD for a neurogenetics consultation to evaluate her abnormal metabolic test results. Pet. Ex. 25 at 8. CHILD met with Dr. Richard Kelley, a specialist in neurogenetics, on May 22, 2001, at the Krieger Institute. Id. In his assessment, Dr. Kelley affirmed that CHILD's history and lab results were consistent with "an etiologically unexplained metabolic disorder that appear[ed] to be a common cause of developmental regression." Id. at 7. He continued to note that children with biochemical profiles similar to CHILD's develop normally until sometime between the first and second year of life when their metabolic pattern becomes apparent, at which time they developmentally regress. Id. Dr. Kelley described this condition as "mitochondrial PPD." Id. On October 4, 2001, Dr. John Schoffner, at Horizon Molecular Medicine in Norcross, Georgia, examined CHILD to assess whether her clinical manifestations were related to a defect in cellular energetics. Pet. Ex. 16 at 26. After reviewing her history, Dr. Schoffner agreed that the previous metabolic testing was "suggestive of a defect in cellular energetics." Id. Dr. Schoffner recommended a muscle biopsy, genetic testing, metabolic testing, and cell culture based testing. Id. at 36. A CSF organic acids test, on January 8, 2002, displayed an increased lactate to pyruvate ratio of 28,1 which can be seen in disorders of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Id. at 22. A muscle biopsy test for oxidative phosphorylation disease revealed abnormal results for Type One and Three. Id. at 3. The most prominent findings were scattered atrophic myofibers that were mostly type one oxidative phosphorylation dependent myofibers, mild increase in lipid in selected myofibers, and occasional myofiber with reduced cytochrome c oxidase activity. Id. at 7. After reviewing these laboratory results, Dr. Schoffner diagnosed CHILD with oxidative phosphorylation disease. Id. at 3. In February 2004, a mitochondrial DNA ("mtDNA") point mutation analysis revealed a single nucleotide change in the 16S ribosomal RNA gene (T2387C). Id. at 11. CHILD returned to the Krieger Institute, on July 7, 2004, for a follow-up evaluation with Dr. Zimmerman. Pet. Ex. 57 at 9. He reported CHILD "had done very well" with treatment for a mitochondrial dysfunction. Dr. Zimmerman concluded that CHILD would continue to require services in speech, occupational, physical, and behavioral therapy. Id. On April 14, 2006, CHILD was brought by ambulance to Athens Regional Hospital and developed a tonic seizure en route. Pet. Ex. 10 at 38. An EEG showed diffuse slowing. Id. At 40. She was diagnosed with having experienced a prolonged complex partial seizure and transferred to Scottish Rite Hospital. Id. at 39, 44. She experienced no more seizures while at Scottish Rite Hospital and was discharged on the medications Trileptal and Diastal. Id. at 44. A follow-up MRI of the brain, on June 16, 2006, was normal with evidence of a left mastoiditis manifested by distortion of the air cells. Id. at 36. An EEG, performed on August 15, 2006, showed "rhythmic epileptiform discharges in the right temporal region and then focal slowing during a witnessed clinical seizure." Id. At 37. CHILD continues to suffer from a seizure disorder. ANALYSIS Medical personnel at the Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation, Department of Health and Human Services (DVIC) have reviewed the facts of this case, as presented by the petition, medical records, and affidavits. After a thorough review, DVIC has concluded that compensation is appropriate in this case. In sum, DVIC has concluded that the facts of this case meet the statutory criteria for demonstrating that the vaccinations CHILD received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, respondent recommends that compensation be awarded to petitioners in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11(c)(1)(C)(ii). DVIC has concluded that CHILD's complex partial seizure disorder, with an onset of almost six years after her July 19, 2000 vaccinations, is not related to a vaccine-injury. Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General TIMOTHY P. GARREN Director Torts Branch, Civil Division MARK W. ROGERS Deputy Director Torts Branch, Civil Division VINCENT J. MATANOSKI Assistant Director Torts Branch, Civil Division s/ Linda S. Renzi by s/ Lynn E. Ricciardella LINDA S. RENZI Senior Trial Counsel Torts Branch, Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice P.O. Box 146 Benjamin Franklin Station Washington, D.C. 20044 (202) 616-4133 DATE: November 9, 2007 PS: On Friday, February 22, HHS conceded that this child's complex partial seizure disorder was also caused by her vaccines. Now we the taxpayers will award this family compensation to finance her seizure medication. Surely ALL decent people can agree that is a good thing. By the way, it''s worth noting that her seizures did not begin until six years after the date of vaccination, yet the government acknowledges they were, indeed, linked to the immunizations of July, 2000, - David Kirby Now I am going to prove to you, BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT, that mercury is a distraction in the case of autism: Please go to http://healthtruthrevealed.com/audio-interviews.php , click on "inoculations the true weapons of mass destruction", and listen to the interview I did on this very subject on 3/4/08. You will hear Greg Ciola mention research done at the University of Calgary regarding mercury's effect on brain neurons, and I thank him for sending me a link to this information. He also mentions an interview he did with John Moore, a researcher in the dangers of mercury who himself was severely injured by mercury poisoning due to multiple amalgam fillings. His interview is posted at http://healthtruthrevealed.com/full-page.php?id=39&&page=news . You will read on page 16 that Mr. Moore states that the research done at the University of Calgary shows "the myelin sheathing simply stripped away from the nerve". Now, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85tgwh3HpsM ; this is CRITICAL. You will hear and see the effect of mercury on brain neurons demonstrated by the University of Calgary which Mr. Moore refers to. Mercury causes DEATH of the nerve's axon, as the actin & tubulin which make up the neurofibrils are destroyed when mercury binds to the tubulin molecules, causing the neurofibril to collapse, and some neurofibrils form aggregates or tangles. THIS IS THE KEY DIAGNOSTIC FEATURE SEEN IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE; NOT AUTISM! You will also notice that these neurons in a culture dish do not have myelin on then; in fact, THE MYELIN SHEATH IS NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO. (Side note - when the brains of Alzheimer's patients are studied microscopically, ALUMINUM is found in the middle of these neurofibrillary tangles). I also encourage you to go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1803137818942286763 , and hear Dr Boyd Haley discuss autism & thimerosol (be sure to watch all 4 videos in this series). Dr Haley blames thimerosol for Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) as well as autism. I have done many shows on GWS, which has many factors; Gulf War PLAGUE (the infectious component of the SYNDROME) is due to mycoplasma incognitas which was in the vaccines given to the soldiers. As explained in my document "Inoculation the true weapons of mass destruction" at www.drcarley.com , the injection of vaccines corrupts the immune system and prevents any infective agent from being eliminated from the body. GWS has many other aspects to it; depleted uranium, pyridostigmine pills given to the soldiers, aspartame in their beverages, etc. To blame thimerosol solely for GWS is disinformation in its highest form. Dr. Haley brings up the work of Dr Andrew Wakefield, whose medical license was attacked because he demonstrated measles virus in the lymphoid patches in the guts of autistic children. DR. BOYD ADMITS HE DID NOT EVEN STUDY THE MEASLES VIRUS. Although Dr Wakefield did not realize that these viruses' significance as a chronic infection is that this leads to a constant production of anti-measles antibody which, through molecular mimicry, then attackes the myelin sheath (causing demyelination), he was attacked because his work supports my work; especially since the MMR has NEVER HAD MERCURY. Dr. Haley's work reinforces the notion that if you take mercury out of vaccines, they will be safe. My work proves there is NO SUCH THING as a safe vaccine, due to the corruption of the immune system caused by injection of live viruses. Dr. Haley also discusses how antibiotics further accelerate the damage in these children. The question he does not address is why are the vaccinated children on antibiotics? Answer...because they have chronic infection caused by inoculation of live viruses; as quoted from Harrison's principles of medicine in my response to the CDC (also on my website), "RARELY IS PREVENTION OF INFECTION PER SE CONSIDERED TO BE AN IMPORTANT GOAL OF VACCINATION. In fact, asymptomatic infection after vaccination can serve to enhance and prolong the immune response". (And this prolonged immune response IS prolonged production of anti-measles antibody which then continue to attack the myelin sheath, causing demyelination). As I also quote from Harrison's in my CDC response the symptoms of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), you will see that autism is a non-fatal form of SSPE. The way Dr. Haley gets around the fact that almost every parent reports their child descended into autism following their MMR shot is by saying that the children received OTHER vaccines containing mercury at the same time as they received the MMR. Dr. Haley also discusses how mercury is more toxic in children with immune disorders. Where did these immune disorders come from? From the corruption of the immune system caused by the inoculation of live viruses. He also discusses that mercury can cause toxicity which affects genetics by decreased methylation of DNA & RNA. However, no mention is made of the genetic mutations caused by injection of plasmids of DNA from the organisms themselves and the tissues that the viruses are cultured on, which is the whole basis of DNA vaccines. That is why this court case focuses on the fact that the child had a genetic defect which caused mitochondrial dysfunction. Where this defect originated is not discussed...injection of foreign DNA in prior vaccines (You will note in the court decision that the parents were not tested for this defect, as that would have proven that this is NOT an inherited genetic defect, but rather a mutation that occurred in this child de novo). Lastly, Dr. also states that oral vaccines would be safer, but does not say this is because of the secretory IgA causing proper handling of the antigen (as also explained in my inoculation paper), leading to life long NATURAL immunity. Of course, if all vaccines were made into oral forms, people may then ask the hard question...SO WHY ISN'T NATURAL EXPOSURE TO THESE VIRUSES THE BEST WAY TO GO? This question would stop vaccine production altogether, which would stop the creation of all autoimmune diseases and cancer, which would shut down Big Pharma. THAT IS THE POTENTIAL OF MY INFORMATION; which is why the medical mafia has gone as far as taking my only child, not just my medical license as they tried with Dr. Wakefield in an attempt to shut me down. Can you handle knowing the fact that all this is being done to the children ON PURPOSE? Then go here and listen to the 2nd hour of my interview on 3/5/08 with Dr. True Ott, where he discusses how the history of MediSIN goes back to the 1600's as detailed in the Magnum Opus, with the creation of amulets by sacrificing animals and mixing their blood with mercurial compounds TO CAST A SPELL AND CONTROL THE MINDS OF THE POPULATIONS (Dr Ott discusses this starting at 13 minutes of the 2nd hour of our interview). He explains how the origins of the word "pharmaceutical" in Latin is "pharmakia", which translates to "SORCERY". Yes, folks...you have now entered the rabbit hole...because nothing has changed since the 1600's. I have been trying for 10 years to stop the vaccination holocaust on people and pets. I have proven, with the quoted studies and works of the "mercury causes autism" disinformers themselves, that it is NOT MERCURY WHICH CAUSES AUTISM. I leave it up to you to forward this e-mail to all the individuals and groups which promote mercury as the cause of autism, so you will see for YOURSELVES who is intentionally misleading you, vs. who was misguided. You will know which is the case by whether or not they respond. SILENCE IS CONSENT that I am right; and if they do not join with me to stop this holocaust altogether, you must then ask yourself WHY. IT IS TIME FOR THOSE WITH HONORABLE INTENTIONS TO JOIN WITH ME TO STOP THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIDS. Let's roll.... Namaste, Dr Carley

"We believe autism is an environmental illness."

Jenny McCarthy: My son's recovery from autism
http://punauni.freeblogit.com/2008/04/02/jenny-mccarthy-my-sons-recovery-from-autism/

In light of the recent Hannah Poling decision, in which the federal
court conceded that vaccines could have contributed to her autism, we
think the tide is finally turning in the direction of parents like us
who have been shouting concerns from our rooftops for years.
Actress Jenny McCarthy believes that vaccines could have contributed
to her son's autism.

Autism is a debilitating disorder, which according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, is suffered by 1 in 150 kids, making
it more common than childhood cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined.

Recently, England and Ireland reported that autism is affecting one
in 58 individuals.

Is it any wonder that autism has become many new parents' No. 1 fear?

We've met some of the most amazing moms and dads who are forging
their own path to prevention and recovery. When our son, Evan, was
diagnosed with autism we were lucky enough to benefit from their
knowledge and experience. Evan has been healed to a great extent by
many breakthroughs that, while perhaps not scientifically proven,
have definitely helped Evan and many other children who are
recovering from autism.

There are some who wonder what we mean when we say "recovering" from
autism. They confuse the word recover with cure. While you may not be
able to cure an injury caused in a terrible car accident, you can
recover; you can regain many skills that you once lost. In the case
of autism, we think there are treatments that often bring about such
healing, so that the observable symptoms of the condition no longer
exist. Even though we may no longer see any symptoms of autism, we
can't say a child is "cured" because we do not know what they would
have been like had they never been injured.

We believe what helped Evan recover was starting a gluten-free,
casein-free diet, vitamin supplementation, detox of metals, and anti-
fungals for yeast overgrowth that plagued his intestines. Once Evan's
neurological function was recovered through these medical treatments,
speech therapy and applied behavior analysis helped him quickly learn
the skills he could not learn while he was frozen in autism. After we
implemented these therapies for one year, the state re-evaluated Evan
for further services. They spent five minutes with Evan and
said, "What happened? We've never seen a recovery like this."

Evan is now 5 years old and what might surprise a lot of you is that
we've never been contacted by a single member of the CDC, the
American Academy of Pediatrics, or any other health authority to
evaluate and understand how Evan recovered from autism. When Evan
meets doctors and neurologists, to this day they tell us he was
misdiagnosed - that he never had autism to begin with. It's as if
they are wired to believe that children can't recover from autism.
Video Watch CDC chief on vaccines, autism »

So where's the cavalry? Where are all the doctors beating down our
door to take a closer look at Evan? We think we know why they haven't
arrived. Most of the parents we've met who have recovered their child
from autism as we did (and we have met many) blame vaccines for their
child's autism.

We think our health authorities don't want to open this can of worms,
so they don't even look or listen. While there is strong debate on
this topic, many parents of recovered children will tell you they
didn't treat their child for autism; they treated them for vaccine
injury. Read about latest fight over vaccines and autism

Many people aren't aware that in the 1980s our children received only
10 vaccines by age 5, whereas today they are given 36 immunizations,
most of them by age 2. With billions of pharmaceutical dollars, could
it be possible that the vaccine program is becoming more of a profit
engine then a means of prevention?

We believe autism is an environmental illness. Vaccines are not the
only environmental trigger, but we do think they play a major role.
If we are going to solve this problem and finally start to reverse
the rate of autism, we need to consider changing the vaccine
schedule, reducing the number of shots given and removing certain
ingredients that could be toxic to some children.

We take into account that some children have reactions to medicines
like penicillin, for example, yet when it comes to vaccines we are
operating as if our kids have a universal tolerance for them. We are
acting like ONE SIZE FITS ALL. That is, at the very least, a huge
improbability.

Even if the CDC is not convinced of a link between vaccines and
autism, changing the vaccine schedule should be seriously considered
as a precautionary measure. (If you would like to see some ideas for
alternative schedules, check out http://generationrescue.org.)

We wish to state, very clearly, that we are not against all vaccines,
but we do believe there is strong evidence to suggest that some of
the ingredients may be hazardous and that our children are being
given too many, too soon!

"If this study found there has been no increase in diseases in countries that discontinued the booster shots, as was noted, why is the current policy of over vaccinating our children continuing? Where are the conflict-free studies that prove giving infants and children 49 immunizations - most of them by age 5, are safe and effective? I'm also starting to think that we should follow the lead being set in veterinary medicine. Studies have provided evidence that the over-vaccination of dogs and cats can result in numerous maladies including cancer, skin and ear conditions, arthritis, allergies, diabetes, aggression, behavior problems and other immune system dysfunctions. There is even a name for the conditions caused by animal over-vaccination, vaccinosis and it is note worthy to read what veterinarians' say about over-vaccinating our pets. "Vaccinosis is the reaction from common inoculations (vaccines)...These reactions might take months or years to show up and will cause undue harm to future generations." - Deirdre Imus, Huffington Post (November 19, 2007)

Over Medicated and Over-Vaccinated:
The Unintended Consequences of Medicines Meant to Protect

Several important findings affecting our children's health were reported in the past few months. All of them raising questions about the unintended consequences of widely accepted medical treatments. In September news reports about Prevnar, a vaccine developed to protect against pneumonia in children, along with the overuse of antibiotics, was "having the unfortunate effect of promoting new superbugs that cause ear infections" that are resistant to all antibiotic drugs approved for children.

A month later it was announced that once routinely recommended infant and cold medications were being immediately and voluntarily recalled by many of the country's largest drug companies because the products were being "misused leading to overdosing," particularly in children 2 years and younger. In addition, physicians and public health officials expressed concern that there were no studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the medications.

In responding to the recall, Dr. Steven Czinn, chair of the department of pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine stated, "In the 21st century, it is unacceptable to be marketing medication to infants and children that may not work."

Are they kidding me? "No studies demonstrating the effectiveness of these cold medications"? Don't we have a whole federal agency; the Food and Drug Administration, whose job it is to make sure drugs are safe and effective? If this data was available, why did it take 35 years to notify parents the medications they were giving their sick children may not work? Where is the evidence-based science that should have been here to prove safety and efficacy?

Just a few weeks ago another study called into question long prescribed vaccination recommendations and added more "fuel to the fire" in the on going controversy over our nation's immunization policies.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine [Nov. 8, 2007] the study, funded by the U.S. Public Health Service, suggests we may want to reevaluate and adjust our nation's current vaccination recommendations.

Scientists from the Oregon Health & Science University found many of the vaccines administered to millions of American's may be providing immunity longer than what was first believed, making the need for some booster shots unnecessary.

"Surprisingly, we found that immunity following vaccination with tetanus and diphtheria was much more long-lived than anyone realized, and that antibody responses following viral infections were essentially maintained for life," stated lead author Dr. Mark Slifka, a scientist at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. The study also found similar longer than expected immunity for several other vaccines.

According to the study, "it [a booster shot] may just be unnecessary under certain circumstances." Logically, this would make sense. After all, if vaccines are effective, one should not need another booster shot.

But our kids are getting a lot of booster shots...shots containing heavy metals and viruses. Shots that a growing number of parents, physicians and researchers believe could be contributing to the rise of chronic illnesses and developmental disorders affecting our children. If the booster shots are unnecessary because immunity is present, why expose our children to these toxins?

If this study found there has been no increase in diseases in countries that discontinued the booster shots, as was noted, why is the current policy of over vaccinating our children continuing? Where are the conflict-free studies that prove giving infants and children 49 immunizations - most of them by age 5, are safe and effective?

I'm also starting to think that we should follow the lead being set in veterinary medicine. Studies have provided evidence that the over-vaccination of dogs and cats can result in numerous maladies including cancer, skin and ear conditions, arthritis, allergies, diabetes, aggression, behavior problems and other immune system dysfunctions.

There is even a name for the conditions caused by animal over-vaccination, vaccinosis and it is note worthy to read what veterinarians' say about over- vaccinating our pets.

"Vaccinosis is the reaction from common inoculations (vaccines)...These reactions might take months or years to show up and will cause undue harm to future generations."

"In a general and frightening context, I see the overall health and longevity of animals deteriorating. The bodies of most animals have a tremendous capacity to detoxify poisons, but they do have a limit." These statements made by seasoned animal health professionals have an eerie familiar ring to them.

They bare a striking resemblance to what parents of children suffering from autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders have been claiming. Why is it that veterinarians have a better appreciation of how over-vaccinating with shots containing various toxins and viruses might overload the immune system of the family pet but mainstream physicians can't quite wrap their arms around such a logical premise when it comes to our babies and young children? If vaccinosis can cause maladies in animals, isn't it possible that like animals, over-vaccinating our children might, not only be unnecessary, but may be contributing to the rising rates of chronic diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders affecting our children today?

It is also interesting to note that the mercury- containing preservative [thimerosal] used in vaccines for over 50 years was removed from animal vaccines back in 1992. Unfortunately for the kids, it remained in children's vaccines for another decade and remains in some vaccines like the influenza (25 micrograms) and tetanus vaccine (25 micrograms) today and in trace amounts (3 micrograms) in some immunizations. Add this all up and there's still a lot of mercury being injected into our children.

What most people don't realize is that any liquid waste containing more than 200 parts per billion (ppb) mercury must be deposited at a hazardous waste site and that drinking water cannot exceed 2 ppb mercury. But when the influenza vaccines arrive and are injected into pregnant woman and infants as young as six months, those vaccines contain 50,000 ppb mercury. This is an amount that is 250 times higher than hazardous waste. According to EPA guidelines, this amount of mercury can only be considered safe if a person weighs 550 pounds. Even trace amounts of mercury in vaccines can be anywhere from 600 to 2000 ppb.

The CDC and The Institute for Vaccine Safety claim there are "no biological effects" from trace amounts (.3 micrograms) of mercury. So, where are the evidenced based (conflict free) studies that prove the safety of these "trace" amounts and proof that there are "no biological effects" of any amount of mercury being injected into our children and pregnant moms? Also, where are the evidence based studies proving the safety of vaccines given to pregnant moms and our children that contain other toxins such as aluminum and formaldehyde?

I do take issue with the NEJM study opinion that "over-vaccinating the population poses no health or safety concerns". Where is the hard data showing that giving vaccines, where immunity already exists... is not harmful?

Thimerosal has been proven to be a carcinogen, immunotoxic, genotoxic, nephrotoxic and neurotoxic. One study found thimerosal's lethal toxicity to developing human neurons below 1 part per billion (Parran et al., 2005). Another study concluded, "thimerosal.....has been found not only to render its primary toxic effect, but also capable of changing the properties of cells. This fact suggests that the use of thimerosal for the preservation of medical biological preparations, especially those intended for children, is inadmissible." (Kravchenko et al., 1983).

These and many other studies would suggest over-vaccinating, certainly does pose some "health and safety concerns."

So here we have several recent findings that all contradict previously long held medical beliefs and raise more questions about the unintended consequences of overuse of some medications and over vaccinating and perhaps the over marketing of these treatments by pharmaceutical companies. Far too often we are beginning to see physician prescribed drugs (like Vioxx and thalidomide) and vaccines (like the whole cell DPT and Rotovirus) thrust upon the public that are later found to be unsafe.

While physicians warn the public about the over use of antibiotics, it is the physicians themselves that over-prescribed these antibiotics for every ailment under the sun. And like antibiotics, every time a new vaccine was developed, it quickly found its way onto the immunization schedule along with the recommended booster shots. We are now reaping the unintended consequences of the overuse of these medical interventions. Instead of being healthier, we have a nation of very sick children.

Let's open our eyes to what appears obvious to doctors treating animals... we have allowed ourselves and our children to be overdosed through a culture dominated by drug company marketing influence which has now become dangerously out of control and detrimental to our children's health.

National Vaccine Information Center

WASHINGTON, DC (February 8, 2007) -- This morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released, through its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the latest revised prevalence figures for autism. The report indicates that the prevalence of autism is now 1 in 150, up from the 1 in 166 figure reported by the CDC in January, 2004.

Today's report states, "Findings from this first U.S. multi-site collaborative study to monitor ASD prevalence demonstrated consistency across the majority of sites, with prevalence statistically significantly (p<0.001) higher in New Jersey. ! ; Average ASD prevalence across all six sites was 6.7 per 1,000 children aged 8 years. These results indicate that ASDs are more common than was believed previously."

Speaking at a Capitol Hill briefing about the new data, Dr. Gary Goldstein, Autism Speaks' Scientific Advisory Committee Chair and President of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, said, "These new numbers provide a much more accurate picture of a disorder that has undoubtedly become a major national health crisis. Our dedication to finding critical answers about autism -- potential causes, better treatments and, hopefully, a cure -- must become that much more urgent today."

These new prevalence estimates are the first to come from multiple sites utilizing the same methodology for the same points in time. (Previous prevalence estimates have been from single sites and have relied on differing methodologies). According to the CDC, th! ese data represent the most comprehensive effort to obtain accurate pr evalence figures for Autism Spectrum Disorders to date, and offer important information about the prevalence of these conditions in multiple parts of the U.S.

As part of this study, six ADDM sites evaluated the prevalence of ASDs for children who were eight years old in 2000 (born in 1992): Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and West Virginia.

An additional eight sites determined ASD prevalence for children who were eight in 2002 (born in 1994): Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin.

http://deseretnews.http://deserhttp://deseretnehttp://d

Author focuses on 'new autism'
By Elaine Jarvik
Deseret Morning News

Here's what Dr. Bryan Jepson thought he knew about autism six years ago: that it was a rare, genetic, developmental, untreatable brain disorder. But that's the "old autism," he says.

Jepson, who graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1995, says what he knew about autism then he mostly learned from the movie "Rain Man." Later, in 2001, his lovable, happy 18-month-old baby began to change - to "fade away," as Jepson puts it. The toddler no longer wanted to be read to, wouldn't look his parents in the eye and liked to spin in circles in the middle of the floor.

A child psychiatrist told Jepson and his wife, Laurie, "Prepare yourself for the time when Aaron will need to be institutionalized. Forget experimental therapies." Instead, Laurie Jepson took to the Internet. And before long, her husband - who categorizes himself as a "mainstream" physician - was deep in medical literature about
the biochemistry of autism. Soon he was convinced that autism is a complex metabolic disease that has as much to do with the gut as it does with the brain.

Bryan Jepson, who is now director of medical services at Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas, is back in Utah this week to talk about his new book, "Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians." On Saturday,( July 28) he will speak at a free workshop sponsored by Porter's Hope, a Utah-based company that assists the families of children diagnosed with autism.

"All of a sudden, there's an explosion of autistic kids," Jepson says. As recently as 1980, autism was rare, with a rate of about 1 in 5,000. Now, he says, it's 1 in 160. It's an epidemic, he says, "and there's no such thing as a genetic epidemic." At the same time, the "new autism" is less likely to show up within the first six months or year of a baby's life, and is much more likely to be "regressive, or year of a baby'
months to 3 years to rob the child of previous skills - sometimes almost overnight, sometimes as a gradual decline.

There's a genetic susceptibility for autism. But something else has to explain the sudden rise in numbers - and it's not simply a matter of better diagnosis or a broader definition of what autism means, he says.

The answer appears to have something to do with the increased toxicity of the environment, he says, from food additives to vaccines and antibiotics. Children who are born with a genetic susceptibility for autism have trouble detoxifying, he says. The increase in other chronic diseases such as asthma is evidence that autistic
children may also be proof of what's to come, he says. "It's kind of like the canary in the coal mine."

Already, he says, the treatments he uses have helped children with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, or ADHD, as well as autism. He believes that eventually the knowledge of how autism works will affect our understanding of conditions such as chronic fatigue, dementia and Parkinson's.

Jepson's book is a review of scientific studies conducted by the Autism Research Institute, whose founder, Bernard Rimland, was "the first to put the puzzle pieces together," Jepson says. The book also examines studies done by independent scientists. Many primary-care physicians and pediatricians are not up-to-date on the latest research, he says, "and it's hard to do autism in the 15 minutes" allocated for many doctor
visits. Jepson, who founded the Children's Biomedical Center of Utah before moving in 2006 to Texas, says he knows of only two Utah doctors who are currently treating autism as a medical disease rather than a behavioral disorder.

Calling autism a behavioral disorder, says Jepson, is like calling a tumor a headache. Instead, he says, autism is just one symptom of a disease process that affects the digestive, immune and neurological systems.

The majority of children with autism have gastrointestinal problems, sometimes causing severe pain. Their tantrums and head banging may be a manifestation of pain they can't articulate, Jepson says. If the gut disease is treated - with diet, nutritional supplements and medication - that behavior goes away.

"Your gut is an immune organ, and it can trigger inflammation elsewhere in the body, including the brain," he explains. "And it's a big source of your metabolism. If it's not working right, you're not getting the appropriate amount of nutrients from your food, and you're not preventing toxic exposures as you otherwise would."

The sooner children are put on aggressive gastrointestinal-treatment, the more likely they are to recover, he says. There's still no cure, he says, but the vast majority improve. The Jepsons' son has gone from "pretty severe to pretty moderate."

To order the book or to read excerpts, go to http://thoughtfulhouse.org/pr/jepson_book.htm

The poisonous public attacks on Katie Wright this week--for revealing that her autistic son Christian (grandson of NBC Chair Bob Wright), has recovered significant function after chelation treatments to remove mercury -- surprised many observers unfamiliar with the acrimonious debate over the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal. But the patronizing attacks on the mothers of autistic children who have organized to oppose this brain-killing poison is one of the most persistent tactics employed by those defending Thimerosal against the barrage of scientific evidence linking it to the epidemic of pediatric neurological disorders, including autism. Mothers of autistics are routinely dismissed as irrational, hysterical, or as a newspaper editor told me last week, "desperate to find the reason for their children's illnesses," and therefore, overwrought and disconnected.

But my experience with these women is inconsistent with those patronizing assessments. Over the past two years I've met or communicated with several hundred of these women. Instead of a desperate mob of irrational hysterics, I've found the anti-Thimerosal activists for the most part to be calm, grounded and extraordinarily patient. As a group, they are highly educated. Many of them are doctors, nurses, schoolteachers, pharmacists, psychologists, Ph.D.s and other professionals. Many of them approached the link skeptically and only through dispassionate and diligent investigation became convinced that Thimerosal-laced vaccines destroyed their children's brains. As a group they have sat through hundreds of meetings and scientific conferences, and studied research papers and medical tests. They have networked with each other at meetings and on the Web. Along the way they have stoically endured the abuse routinely heaped upon them by the vaccine industry and public health authorities and casual dismissal by reporters and editors too lazy to do their jobs.

Many of these women tell a story virtually identical to Katie Wright's -- I have now heard or seen this grim chronology recounted hundreds of times in conversations, e-mails and letters from mothers: At 2-1/2 years old, Christian Wright exceeded all milestones. He had 1,000 words, was toilet-trained, and enjoyed excellent social relations with his brother and others. Then his pediatrician gave him Thimerosal-laced vaccines. He cried all night, developed a fever and, over the coming months, this smart, healthy child disappeared. Christian lost the ability to speak, to interact with family members, to make eye contact or to point a finger. He is no longer toilet trained. He engaged in stereotypical behavior--screaming, head-banging, biting and uncontrolled aggression, and suffers continuously the agonizing pain of gastrointestinal inflammation.

After hearing that story a couple dozen times, a rational person might do some more investigation. That's when one encounters the overwhelming science -- hundreds of research studies from dozens of countries showing the undeniable connection between mercury and Thimerosal and a wide range of neurological illnesses. In response to the overwhelming science, CDC and the pharmaceutical industry ginned up four European studies designed to disguise the link between autism and Thimerosal. Their purpose was to provide plausible deniability for the consequences of their awful decision to allow brain-killing mercury to be injected into our youngest children. Those deliberately deceptive and fatally flawed studies were authored by vaccine industry consultants and paid for by Thimerosal producers and published largely in compromised journals that neglected to disclose the myriad conflicts of their authors in violation of standard peer-review ethics. As I've shown elsewhere [see www.robertfkennedyjr.com ], these studies were borderline fraud, using statistical deceptions to mislead the public and regulatory community.

The CDC and IOM base their defense of Thimerosal on these flimsy studies, their own formidable reputations, and their faith that journalists won't take the time to critically read the science. The bureaucrats are simultaneously using their influence, energies and clout to derail, defund and suppress any scientific study that may verify the link between Thimerosal and brain disorders. (These would include epidemiological studies comparing the records of vaccinated children with those of unvaccinated populations like the Amish or home-schooled kids who appear to enjoy dramatically reduced levels of autism and other neurological disorders.) The federal agencies have refused to release the massive public health information accumulated in their Vaccine Safety Database (VSD) apparently to keep independent scientists from reviewing evidence that could prove the link. They are also muzzling or blackballing scientists who want to conduct such studies.

Ironically, it is the same voices that once blamed autism on "bad parenting," and "uninvolved" moms that are now faulting these mothers for being too involved.

Due to this campaign of obfuscation and public deception, Thimerosal-based vaccines continue to sicken millions of children around the world and potential treatments -- like the chelation that benefited Christian Wright -- are kept out of the hands of the mainstream doctors now treating autistic kids with less effective tools. Like thousands of other mothers of autistic children, Katie Wright knows what sickened her child. Her efforts to spare other families this catastrophe, deployed with a cool head and calm demeanor, are truly heroic. Maybe it's time we all started listening. Maybe it's time to start respecting and honoring the maternal instincts and hard work of Katie and her fellow mothers by aggressively funding the studies that might verify or dispute them.

I had been involved in pediatrics for a decade by the time I saw this boy and it wasn't as if I had no experience working with rare disorders. I had been able to identify a boy with Fragile-X syndrome and his mom ending up starting the Fragile-X support group at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles.

I had noticed there was a strange upswing in children with attention disorders and impulsivity problems. I wasn't a neurologist, but had studied with one of the finest at UCLA. While I was still a pediatric resident I spent time in his office where he helped me study the parade of unusual maladies that was starting to afflict children. I considered myself a closet neurologist, because that was what I had really wanted to specialize in -" not pediatrics, but during my neurology rotation in medical school I learned some discouraging news. The attending neurologist, whom I greatly admired, had taken me on rounds for the first time and I watched him brilliantly explain to the family of a stroke patient how he had figured out where in the brain the blood clot had lodged. Then he stood up and walked out of the room and ! I asked him what therapy he was going to prescribe for the patient so he could recover from his stroke, "therapy?" he said, "there is no therapy."

Well, I scratched neurology off my list.diagnosis was only meaningful if you could offer a treatment and it seemed neurology had few treatments to offer.

My second patient with autism came to me in the mid 1990's, but to my relief the purpose of the visit was only to treat worms. I dutifully prescribed the medicine for pinworms and went on to my next patient. Later that afternoon I received a call from the autistic boy's mom who wanted to know what was that medicine I had given her son for pinworms..her boy was starting to make eye contact, show affection and communicate with his family. She said it was amazing! I told her I didn't really didn't know what was in the pinworm pill but immediately prescribed enough pills for her son to take everyday for a month (normally you only take one or two pills to treat pinworms).

I called up the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the pinworm pill and spoke to one of their technical staff. They told me the pill worked by blocking the transport of molecules of a certain size from crossing cell membranes, so in the case of the hapless pinworms they were unable to absorb the sugars they feed upon in the lower intestines of their victims.

What did that have to do with this boy's newly found improved behavior? Either one of two things were going on: 1) the drug was either blocking a molecule that shouldn't be passing across the gut to the blood and then the brain and that molecule was having a drug-like affect on the brain, or; 2) the drug was blocking a molecule that normally crossed from the gut into the blood but in certain children these molecules had a strange drug-like affect.

I made several calls across the country to find a researcher who might be interested in this serendipitous finding which could be an important clue into this disease, because no where had I found anything saying that the guts of these children were involved in their disease. Unfortunately, no one I talked to was interested.

In May 2004, I had been invited to testify in front of the Government Reform Committee to discuss new developments in treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. I had been invited because of the work I was doing with hyperbaric oxygen in treating brain injured children, including fetal alcohol syndrome. Hyperbaric oxygen is where oxygen is given under pressure in chambers that are used to treat scuba divers who get the bends. I and several other physicians had found that hyperbaric oxygen was returning functionality to the brains of affected children.

Sitting next to me was a physician who told the story of his son who had become autistic after receiving vaccine and how he discovered his son was retaining toxic heavy metals, specifically mercury. Over the course of a year this physician had given his son a chemical to pull out the mercury and his son began speaking again and in fact jumped on his dad's lap and addressed the Committee members having been restored to be a healthy boy without any signs of his autism.

In the 1990's I had known there was a problem with many of the vaccines because they contained the preservative Thimerosal (50% mercury) and I had discouraged many parents from getting vaccine containing Thimerosal -" there is no safe level of mercury, and it didn't make sense to inject the most toxic non-radioactive element on the planet into children, but I never made the connection between autism and mercury. I knew what Thimerosal was because while I was in college my brother had a very bad reaction to the Thimerosal that used to be used in contact lens solution.

I was taken aback that something so obvious had not registered with me, but I didn't realize that I and my physician colleagues had been subjected to a disinformation campaign to make us think there was no connection between mercury and autism. It has been known for sometime that mercury was causing autism, but someone was running interference. The question was who was running interference?

In February 2007, the watchdog agency on America's health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), made the official announcement that a breath-taking one in 150 kids is autistic in the U.S. If you go to the CDC website on autism ( http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism ) you'd see lots of pictures of smiling happy children with autism and we'd be told that autism spectrum disorders are "a group of developmental disabilities defined by significant impairments in social interaction and communication and the presence of unusual behaviors and interests."

You won't be told that for many parents autism is a nightmare from which they never wake up. "Significant impairments" can mean that a child is violent and self-abusive, non-verbal, and physically sick. You won't be told that this is a medical disease where most autistic children have significant inflammation in both gut and brain including colitis, super-infections and severe food allergies.

           Pass along your purchased copy of Discover to care providers
      who may only occasionally access the internet. You can also subscribe
      to Discover magazine at http://discovermagazine.com/-editor.


      "There were days I considered shutting the garage door and letting the
car run until I was dead," says Colorado mom Erin Griffin, of the time nine
years ago when she learned that both her boys-not just her
firstborn-suffered from autism. Brendan, her angular, dark-haired older
child, was diagnosed in 1996 at age 4. Kyle, her round-faced, hazel-eyed
younger son, was diagnosed in 1998 at age 2 1/2.
      But Kyle and Brendan's story does not have a tragic ending. After
interventions that included occupational and speech therapy, as well as
dietary change and nutritional supplements, both boys improved
significantly. Their tale of slow, steady recovery reflects the changing
landscape of autism today. The condition, traditionally seen as genetic and
originating in the brain, is starting to be viewed in a broader and very
different light, as a possible immune and neuroinflammatory disorder. As a
result, autism is beginning to look like a condition that can, in some and
perhaps many cases, be successfully treated.
      That is astonishing news about a disorder that usually makes headlines
because it seems to be growing rapidly more widespread. In the United
States, the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders has increased about
tenfold over the past two decades, and a 2003 report by the Centers for
Disease Control suggests that as many as one in every 166 children is now on
the autism spectrum, while another one in six suffers from a
neurodevelopmental delay. This explosion of cases has raised countless
questions: Is the increase real, is it the result of increased awareness and
expanding diagnostic categories, is it due to environmental changes, or all
of the above? There may be no single answer. But the public concern about
autism has caught the ear of federal lawmakers. The Combating Autism Act,
approved last December, authorized nearly $1 billion over the next four
years for autism-related research and intervention.
      Meanwhile, on the sidelines of that confusing discussion, a disparate
group-immunologists, naturopaths, neuroscientists, and toxicologists-is
turning up clues that are yielding novel strategies to help autistic
patients. New studies are examining contributing factors ranging from
vaccine reactions to atypical growth in the placenta, abnormal tissue in the
gut, inflamed tissue in the brain, food allergies, and disturbed brain wave
synchrony. Some clinicians are using genetic test results to recommend
unconventional nutritional therapies, and others employ drugs to fight
viruses and quell inflammation.
     Above all, there is a new emphasis on the interaction between
vulnerable genes and environmental triggers, along with a growing sense that
low-dose, multiple toxic and infectious exposures may be a major
contributing factor to autism and its related disorders. A vivid analogy is
that genes load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger. "Like cancer,
autism is a very complex disease," says Craig Newschaffer; chairman of
Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel University School of Public
Health, "and it's exciting to start asking questions about the interaction
between genes and environment. There's really a very rich array of potential
exposure variables."
      In one way, the field seems like a free-for-all, staggeringly
disordered because it is littered with so many possibilities. But one can
distill a few revolutionary insights. First, autism may not be rigidly
determined but instead may be related to common gene variants, called
polymorphisms, that may be derailed by environmental triggers. Second,
affected genes may disturb fundamental pathways in the body and lead to
chronic inflammation across the brain, immune system, and digestive system.
Third, inflammation is treatable.
      "In spite of so many years of assumptions that a brain disorder like
this is not treatable, we're helping kids get better. So it can't just be
genetic, prenatal, hardwired, and hopeless," says Harvard pediatric
neurologist Martha Herbert, author of a 14,OOO -word paper in the journal
Clinical Neuropsychiatry that reconceptualizes the universe of autism,
pulling the brain down from its privileged perch as an organ isolated from
the rest of the body. Herbert is well suited to this task, a synthetic
thinker who wrote her dissertation on the developmental psychologist Jean
Piaget and who then went to medical school late, in her early thirties.
      "I no longer see autism as a disorder of the brain but as a disor¬der
that affects the brain," Herbert says. "It also affects the immune system
and the gut. One very striking piece of evidence many of us have noticed is
that when autistic children go in for certain diag¬nostic tests and are told
not to eat or drink anything ahead of time, parents often report their
child's symptoms improve-until they start eating again after the procedure.
If symptoms can improve in such a short time frame simply by avoiding
exposure to foods, then we're looking at some kind of chemically driven
'software' -perhaps im¬mune system signals-that can change fast. This means
that at least some of autism probably comes from a kind of metabolic
en¬cephalopathy-a system wide process that affects the brain, just like
cirrhosis of the liver affects the brain."
      In 1943 Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist Leo Kanner first
described autism as a now-famous collection of symptoms: poor social
engagement, limited verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive
behaviors. Back then, autism was considered rare; Kanner first reported on
just 11 patients, and Johns Hopkins still has records of about 150 patients
he examined in total. Even within this small group of patients, other, less
visible symptoms were evident. In his 1943 paper, "Autistic Disturbances of
Affective Contact," Kan¬ner noted immune and digestive problems but did not
include them in the diagnosis. One reads with a shiver sentences lifted out
of vari¬ous case histories: "large and ragged tonsils. . she was tube-fed
five times daily. . . he vomited all food from birth through the third
month. . . he suffered from repeated colds and otitis media. . . ."
      Herbert believes that the clues linking the obvious behavioral
symptoms to more basic, but less obvious, biological dysfunction were missed
early on. "What I believe is happening is that genes and environment
interact, either in a fetus or young child, chang¬ing cellular function
allover the body, which then affects tissue and metabolism in many
vulnerable organs. And it's the interaction of this collection of troubles
that leads to altered sensory processing and impaired coordination in the
brain. A brain with these kinds of problems produces the abnormal behaviors
that we call autism."
      Herbert's full-body perspective helps make sense of the contu¬sion
surrounding the diagnosis of autism and helps justify the in¬creasingly
common use of the plural "autisms" to describe the wide variations in this
disorder. As Newschaffer points out, "Children with Asperger's syndrome
certainly share a lot of the behaviors of those with more severe autism. But
is it the same disease, and is it caused by the same thing? A number of
significant features of autism are not part of the diagnostic schema right
now, but eventually, those features may end up distinguishing one causal
pathway from an¬other. How is a child sleeping? Does he or she have
gastrointestinal symptoms? By looking at those things we may see risk-factor
as¬sociations pop out that we've never seen before."
      Herbert likens autism to a hologram: "Everything that fascinates me is
in it. It's got epidemiology, toxicology, philosophy of science,
biochemistry, genetics, systems theory, the collapse of the medi¬cal system,
and the failure of managed care. Each child that walks through my door is a
challenge to everything I ever knew, and each child forces me to think
outside the box and between categories."
      Each child's path to autism may be distinct, she says, but they may
share common inflammatory abnormalities. She has shown through morphometric
brain imaging that white matter-which car¬ries impulses between neurons-is
larger in children with autism.
      "It was the most absolutely outstanding piece of information in all
the brain data looked at," Herbert recalls of the years 2001 and 2002, when
she was analyzing this brain imaging data. "People were saying, don't look
at the white matter, look at the cerebral cortex, but I knew we had an
important finding."
      Could white matter become chronically inflamed? It may well be,
according to new research from Carlos Pardo, a neurologist at Johns Hopkins.
In a 2005 study in the Annals of Neurology, he found inflammation in
immune-responsive brain cells of autistic pa¬tients. "Patients with autism
report lots of immunological problems. We looked for the fingerprints of
those problems in the brain," says Pardo. "We had brain tissue from autistic
individuals as young as 5 and as old as 45 and we found neuroglial
inflamma¬tion in all of them. Neuroglia are a group of brain cells that are
iljPOl1ant in the brain's immune response. This inflam¬matory reaction
appears to happen both early and late in the course of the disor¬der. If it
happens early, it could dramatically influence brain develop¬ment. We're
very excited about this research because one potential treatment approach,
then, is to downregulate the brain's immune response." To study that
approach, Pardo is collaborating on a pilot study funded by the NIH to test
minocycline, an anti-inflammatory antibiotic drug, on autistic children.
"Minocycline is a very selective downregulator of microglial inflammation,"
he says. "Neurologists already use it in multiple sclerosis and
Parkinson's."
      "What we've got here is a far more comprehensive set of
char¬acteristics for autism," says Herbert, "one that can include behavior,
cognition, sensorimotor, gut, immune, brain, and endocrine abnor¬malities.
These are ongoing problems, and they're not confined just to the brain. I
can't think of it as a coincidence anymore that so many autistic kids have a
history of food and airborne allergies, or 20 or 30 ear infections, or
eczema, or chronic diarrhea."
      All this marks a Copernican-scale shift in our approach to the
dis¬order. I myself was irresistibly drawn to the subject when viewing an
online video of a heavily affected 11-year-01d who, after a series of
chelation treatments to remove mercury, announced to his mother, "Mom, I'm
back from the living dead." The statement was heart¬breaking in its simple
eloquence. Mercury chelation, in this particular child's case, was a near
panacea.
      Lisa Beck, of Oviedo, Florida, tells a similar story. Her son Joshua
was diagnosed with autism in 2004 at about age 2. After 18 intensive months
of treatment that involved chela¬tion-a treatment that draws heavy met¬als
out of the body-and dietary changes, among other therapies, Josh appears
neurotypical. "We took him to Dr. Leslie Gavin. a specialist at . Nemours
Children's Clinic, who administers the ADOS test, a diag¬nostic test to see
where on the spectrum a child falls," she says. "After the two-hour
evaluation, Gavin said he did not see the criteria for autism. In her words.
he was 're¬sponsive, curious, and active, able to en¬gage in. the test
without a problem, able to express himself clearly.'"
      But fascinating anecdotes aside, does hard evidence exist of specific
vulnerabil¬ity genes or how they might impair the im¬mune system. brain. and
gut-and most important, do we have any rational, reliable approached to help
repair the damage?
      The answer is a provisional yes.
      "We're beginning to understand that genetics is really about
vulnerability," says neuroscientist Pal Levin, director of the Vanderbilt
Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. Levitt and his colleagues
recently discovered that a com¬mon variant of a gene called MET doubles the
risk of autism. The finding was widely regarded as a breakthrough because
MET modulates the nervous system, gut, and immune system-just the kind of
finding that matches up with the emerging new view of autism.
      "Everyone was focusing on genes ex¬pressed in the brain," says Levitt,
"but this gene is important for repair of the intes¬tine and immune
function. And that's re¬ally intriguing because a subset of autistic
children have digestive and immune prob¬lems." Equally interesting is that
the gene variant occurs in 47 percent of the popula¬tion -in other words. it
is just one contribut¬ing factor, and it probably works in concert with
other vulnerability genes. And finally, in a twist that intrigues other
researchers, the activity of the gene is affected by what is known as
oxidative stress - the kind of damage one sees with excessive exposure to
toxins. "As we identify other vulnerability genes like this," says Levitt,
who hopes to engineer a mouse model of this gene variant for study, "we may
be able to develop effective interventions for children."
      In other provocative research, Jill James, director of the Autism
Metabolic Genomics Laboratory at the Arkansas Children's Hos¬pital Research
Institute (and professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for
Medical Sciences) has found that many children with autism do not make as
much of a compound called glutathione as neurotypical children do.
Glutathione is the cell's most abundant an¬tioxidant, and it is crucial for
removing toxins. If cells lack sufficient antioxidants, they experience
oxidative stress, which is often found with chronic inflammation.
      In her most recent study, published in the American Journal of Medical
Genetics in 2006, James found that common gene vari¬ants that support the
glutathione pathway may be associated with autism risk. Intriguingly, this
pathway is linked metabolically to the methylation pathway. Methylation is a
fundamental biochemical process that helps regulate which genes are
expressed; abnormal methylation can cause disease. Because the pathway
provides the precursors to glutathione, impairments in methylation can also
called oxidative stress. "It's very provocative," James says. "It suggests
that some autistic behaviors are a neurologic manifestation of a
ge¬netically based systemic, metabolic derangement." Some of the
ab¬normalities James saw in this study have already been associated with
gastrointestinal and immunologic dysfunction.
      The good news is that oxidative stress in some autistic children may
be treatable with targeted nutritional intervention. James and her
colleagues have tracked eight autistic children who were taking supplements
of key nutrients in the methylation pathway-folinic acid, trimethylglycine,
and methyl-B12-and found a significant in¬crease in important markers of
methylation and glutathione synthe¬sis. The next step is to see if the
symptoms improve as well.
      James and her colleagues just received a $2.4 million grant from thA
NIH. Part of which will be the sorting out the relationship between
metabolism, genes, and behavior. "What would be incred¬ible is if we could
correlate individual differences in behavior with specific abnormal
metabolites," James says. They will then look at children between 18 to 24
months old, which is usually before autism is diagnosed. That could help
identify the causes of the disease, as well as permit earlier intervention.
      "We also plan to look at mitochondrial dysfunction," she says. "Since
mitochondria are the energy powerhouses of the cell, they're also the place
where the most free radicals (which playa role in oxidative stress) are
produced. If the electron transport chain in the mitochondria is faulty and
you're not efficiently making ATP, you'll produce more free radicals and
deplete your glutathione. If this hypothesis turns out to be correct, we can
give nutrients like coen¬zyme Q10, magnesium, and acetyI-L-carnitine to help
stabilize the mitochondria. Now, this is just a hypothesis, but that's the
risk you take with science. You make your best guess and you carry out your
study and you see."
      "It's interesting to see metabolic abnormalities addressed this way,"
says Isaac Pessah, chairman of Molecular Biosciences and director of Center
for Dis¬ease Prevention at the University of California at Davis. "I think
glu¬tathione balance in the kids is potentially very important in terms of
toxic environmental exposures."
      There is a growing sense, Pessah adds, that our heavily
indus¬trialized, chemical-soaked environment-and the way it acts on
vulnerable genes in some individuals-may be a major culprit. In December
2006, Harvard researchers boldly announced in The Lan¬cet that industrial
chemicals may be impairing the brain develop¬ment of children around the
entire world. And at a November 2006 conference at the University of
California at Davis's M.I.N.D. Institute, Pessah gathered experts to discuss
the clinical implications of environmental toxicology in autism. Says
Herbert, 'We discussed the enormous number of chemicals in our environment
and how little we know about chronic, low-dose, multiple exposures and
their effect on diseases like autism. Maybe the many autism cases we are now
seeing are a new illness of the current generation."
      Several large-scale, federally funded epidemiological studies are
-under way to pinpoint possible environmental triggers, as well as early
biomarkers of autism. 'We have to build a large enough study to be able to
look at both genes and environment together," says Newschaffer, who is a
principal investigator on a study by the Cen¬ters for Disease Control that
will look at 2,700 children over the next five years.
      In another ambitious study, called the Autism Birth Cohort, Co¬lumbia
University and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health will follow 100,000
pregnant women for 72 months, studying their health and genetics and testing
everything from blood to urine samples. The hope is to discover
environmental factors that contribute to autism risk, from diet or infection
to toxins like heavy metals, pesti¬cides, and the countless synthetic
molecules in products today.
      Other large, NIH- and EPA-funded studies are teasing out immune
abnormalities that may contribute to autism. In research on more than 700
families with an autistic as well as a neurotypical child, Pessah and his
colleagues have found in the autistic child a signifi¬cant reduction in
immunoglobulins and an abnormal profile of cyto¬kines, which are critical to
immune response. "The immune system is involved in important aspects of
neurodevelopment," says Pessah. "We've found the presence of immune
antibodies that we think may influence brain proteins. In the next five
years, as the study continues, we hope to reach about 1,600 families total.
We need that many to get real statistical power. We hope to find out what
type of skewed immune response the typical autistic child has and to isolate
toxic exposures, such as proximity to highways or toxic waste dumps."
      Herbert argues that "we can address the disturbed pathways now, before
me gene hunters have definitive information. Genes, af¬ter all, don't
specify behaviors. They make regulatory factors that in¬teract in highly
complex ways. And as far as the impact of chemicals on neurodevelopment,
only about 20 to 30 of the 85,000 chemicals made have been studied. We can,
at the very least, try to modulate autism by treating the tissue
inflammation."
      In other words, treat now, before the gavel of science strikes a final
judgment, which might be decades away. That's what Erin and her husband,
Michael, did for Brendan and Kyle: They blended mainstream treatments like
speech and occupational therapy with the best biomedical approaches
available. I was told to take my boys home and love them," recalls Erin.
"The neurologist said don't ¬waste your time on alternative treatments,
nothing about them is proven. My boys could have ended up institutionalized,
or my hus¬band and I would have had to take care of them their whole adult
lives. When your child gets a diagnosis of autism, you lose the child you
were dreaming about, the one who will go to college, get mar¬ried, become a
parent. That just wasn't an option."
      The boys first saw an alternative Colorado practitioner who had been
trained by group called Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!). DAN! was co-founded in
1995 by the psychologist Bernard Rimland, whose own son was autistic. DAN!
treatments focus on intestinal is¬sues, detoxification, nutrition, and
neuroinflammation. Recommen¬dations include dietary restriction, usually
eliminating gluten (present in wheat and other grains) and dairy.
      "For weeks after Kyle stopped drinking milk, he had welts allover his
body," Erin recalls, "as if he were going through a detoxification reaction.
At the same time, he had his first formed, regular bowel movement. His sleep
improved."
      Other DAN!-recommended treatments include detoxification to remove
heavy metals and other suspected pollutants, nutritional supplementation,
and sometimes off-label use of anti-inflammatories, antivirals, and allergy
medications. These so-called biomedical treatments range from relatively
inexpensive dietary changes cost¬ing a few hundred dollars a month to doses
of antifungal drugs that can cost several hundreds of dollars. Many DAN!
supplements play critical roles in the pathways studied by scientists like
Jill James. DAN! practitioners are, of course, leaping into the deep end of
the pool before science has truly proved these treatments effective, but
there are many anecdotal cases of improvement. [NOTE: See PUBLIC SERVICE
ANNOUNCEMENT regarding the upcoming DAN! Conference following this article.
- editor].
      Not surprisingly, there has been criticism of the biomedical
ap¬proach, especially when doctors promise too much or parents hope too
desperately for recovery. As James notes, one mother killed herself after
seeking every possible treatment for her autistic daughter to no avail,
causing a furor among parents with autistic children.
      Some children just do not get better, no matter what the
inter¬vention. Elizabeth Mumper is CEO of a group called Advocates for
Children and former director of pediatric education at the Lynchburg Family
Practice Program affiliated with the University of Virginia. Of the 2,000
children in her practice, about 400 have autism spectrum disorders. She
describes one boy whom "I have not helped despite my best efforts. He is 17
and still nonverbal and has horrible, erosive esophagitis in spite of the
fact that he works very closely with a gastroenterologist. He has to sleep
standing up and leaning over his dresser because of the pain, and he has
very id¬iosyncratic reactions to medications. And even though he is
nonverbal, he can type anything to me. He's alpha-smart. The horror is that
he's trapped in a body that doesn't work."
      "I hate the term 'full recovery,'" James adds, "because of this false
hope. Some children do lose the diagnosis, but that's rare. I don't think
that should be out there as a goal. We need to accept [the kids) and love
them for who they are-because they are lovable. They're quirky."
      Erin's boys benefited from their DAN! doctor, she says, but it was in
2003, when she switched to a highly unconventional molecu¬lar biologist and
naturopath based in Maine, Amy Yasko, that she began to see more striking
changes. Yasko blends the new findings on methylation with a scientist's
background in the finer steps of fun¬damental detoxification pathways in the
body. However, she largely favors herbs, dietary change, and nutritional
supplements over pre¬scription medications. She monitors biomarkers of
detoxification in the urine as often as every week or two and tweaks
supplements accordingly. Her program is intensive and steeped in molecular
biology; her twice-yearly conferences are extremely dense, scien¬tific, and
intended to help parents become at least semiproficient in the biology and
chemistry themselves. It is a far cry from the old doctor-patient model -
Yasko works primarily on the internet now -- with phone consultations, to
interpret test results. She decided to do this when her waiting list for
individuals stretched to five years, and, she says, she felt she was not
helping enough children. Erin e-mailed me about 40 charts of metal "dumps"
for both of her boys-urinalyses Yasko had ordered and charted on a graph to
show the excretion of everything from arsenic to aluminum, mercury, and lead
over time. "All these lit¬tle things started clicking after we started with
her," says Erin.
      "I call this approach biomo¬lecular nutrigenomics, after Bruce Ames, a
professor of biochemistry and molecu¬lar biology at the University of
California at Berkeley," says Yasko. "He said that someday it would become
routine to screen individuals for polymorphisms and that nutritional
interventions to improve health were likely be a major benefit of the
genomics area." Yasko tests for common polymorphisms in the methylation
path¬way, even though these findings are still preliminary. This has made
her controver¬sial among her peers. Yet several doctors and scientists with
autistic children ad¬mitted privately to using Yasko's services while being
unwilling to go on the record to support her.
      Yasko, who says she moved her hus¬band and three daughters from
Connecti¬cut to a rural area of Maine to "hear the snowflakes fall on the
snow and get to that quiet place inside where I can think," seems immune to
the controversy. "I was in a re¬search environment for a long time, where
you had to publish. Then I was in biotech for a long time, where you had to
keep ev¬erything quiet. When I began to focus on autistic children, I made a
decision that in¬stead of publishing in peer review journals, I was going to
go directly to the moms and help them. I knew in making that decision I was
going to get flak. That's OK. It was like I was on those cliffs you see in
the movies, and you're going to jump. You don't know if there's water below,
or enough momentum to get to the other side, but you just jump."
      Today Erin's boys participate in individu¬alized programs at school
and are being monitored in two national studies of families with more than
one autistic child-one at the Duke Center for Human Genetics, an¬other at
the University of Washington. Kyle has, in addition, been tested three times
at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center's toddler development
program. Both are still on the autism spectrum-but the incessant tantrums,
digestive problems, and infections have vanished. Brendan no longer chews on
his shirt, flaps his arms, and grinds his teeth. In fact, he made honor roll
in his classes last year. Kelly Swift, the boys' schoolteacher since the
autumn of 1996, describes them as "sociable and on the whole very happy,
with a great sense of humor. Kyle is probably the most changed of any
autistic child I've ever worked with."
      Kyle, who stopped speaking entirely at age 2, is now a font of
creative language. I know this because Erin and the boys spent a weekend at
my house. At lunch, Kyle poured a Vesuvius of ketchup onto his plate and
began transforming his french fries into boats that sailed across the
ketchup before they were disposed of in his mouth; he then began to
entertain us by pretending he was an announcer at a regatta, where he, of
course, was winning the race. What had once been autism had erupted into a
gey¬ser of quirky creativity.
      The boys' blossoming, according to their mom, is one not easily
measured on tests. "It's the length of their sentences, their empathy and
sense of humor. Last night we went by a house that was all lit up for the
holidays and Kyle joked, 'Does that guy want to be seen from space?' When we
used to take Kyle to the den¬tist, he would scream bloody murder and we'd
try to papoose him-put him on a board and wrap him in sheets, but even that
didn't work. so they put him to sleep just to clean his teeth. Last year we
went to the dentist. and he heard a little boy crying, walked over to him,
rubbed his back, told him it wouldn't hurt, and not to worry. My heart was
melting."
      Can we cajole a mysteriously shuttered brain and body back toward
normal? And if so, will autism give us new insight into other disorders?
Martha Herbert thinks so: "A lot of these metabolic pathways are pretty
fun¬damental to life. If we can crack the puzzle of autism and be clear
about how we did it, that may have huge implications for other chronic
environmentally triggered systemic illnesses. Autism could be a much-needed
wake-up call to us all".
*******************************************
The ECHO Foundation
Educating on Children's Health Options
www.TheEchoFoundation.com
******************************************

AUTISM STATISTICS.

WHY THE AUTISM SPEAKS BLACKOUT ON JENNY AND DAN!?

Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court - Now What?