The Autism Epidemic is a “Myth”
David Kirby, author of the excellent book Evidence of Harm that discusses the role of the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal in autism, has a great post (There is No Autism Epidemic) on The Huffington Post blog.
Kirby notes that there is a group of people who call themselves “neurodiverse” and appear to be high-functioning autistics (often described as Asperger’s Syndrome). This group strongly resists the autism label and the stigma associated with it. Kirby says that’s fine and entirely understandable.
What isn’t ok, in both Kirby’s opinion and mine, is saying, as neurodiversity proponents do, that autism doesn’t represent a significant and widespread health problem, that children with much more severe forms of autism are “neurodiverse” and should be allowed to just live “as is” without treatment. Kirby goes on to list some of the common traits of these affected children, e.g.:
I am talking about kids who begin talking and then, suddenly, never say another word.
I’m talking about kids who may never learn to read, write, tie their shoes or fall in love.
I’m talking about kids who sometimes wail in torture at three in the morning because something inside them hurts like a burning coal, but they can’t say what or where it is.
I’m talking about kids who can barely keep food in their inflamed, distressed guts, and when they do, it winds up in rivers of diarrhea or swirls of feces spread on a favorite carpet or pet (no one said this kind of “autism” was pretty).
Kirby minces no words in calling out the severity of the situation:
American kids are in huge trouble. One in six has a learning disability. Asthma, diabetes, allergies and arthritis are ravaging their bodies in growing numbers. And little of this is due to “better diagnostics” or “greater awareness.”
It can only be attributed to radical changes in our environment over the last 10-20 years. There is something, or more likely some things in our modern air, water, food and drugs that are making genetically susceptible children sick, and we need to find out what they are.
Mercury remains a logical candidate for contributing to “autism spectrum disorders,” either alone or in combination with other environmental insults. Mercury exposure can kill brain cells. It can cause loss of speech and eye contact, digestive and immune dysfunction, social withdrawal and anxiety, and repetitive and self-injurious behaviors.
Go check out the entire post. It’s a good read. The reader comments are interesting as well.
It’s clear that what today are called autism spectrum disorders are really biomedical disorders strongly shaped by environmental factors, such as toxin exposure, and involve significant damage to the nervous, immune, and gastrointestinal systems. Surely, both scientists and practitioners will continue to push forward in 2007 to better understand the environmental triggers and to refine biomedical treatment approaches.
There’s already quite a bit that can be done today using dietary, supplementation, and detoxification interventions to help individuals affected with autism and ADD/ADHD heal and recover function. You can read more about these approaches here.
