b5media.com

Advertise with us

Enjoying this blog? Check out the rest of the Health & Wellness Channel Subscribe to this Feed

Autism Vox

Archive for the ‘Epidemic’ Category

May 18th, 2008

This and Last Weeks Top Posts: Life on the Road with Charlie Means You Have to Pay Attention

I never got around to making a list of last week’s top posts last week so here’s two weeks of “top posts” about autism. Rather than arrange them in chronological order, I’ve arranged them by topic:
My son Charlie turned 11 last Thursday, on May 15th. Life on the road with Charlie is my constant theme […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 3 comments

May 16th, 2008

About This Vaccine Issue: Previous Posts

With another round of vaccine court going on this week, the question of whether there’s a link between vaccines and autism is again getting a lot of discussion. Here’s five past posts on this blog  that suggest how this one hypothesis about the cause of autism has become entwined in debates about research, the understanding […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 3 comments

May 12th, 2008

The So-Called Autism Pandemic

There’s been plenty of debate about whether or not there is an epidemic of autism; about whether or not the increase in the prevalence rate of autism (now 1 in 150) is due to our being better able to diagnose and count cases of autism, or whether there is some actual something that can be […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 22 comments

May 9th, 2008

Where Are All the Autistic Adults?

The British government has announced that it is planning to calculate the number of autistic adults in England. The £500,000 project is the first to specifically study the number of adults who have autism, the BBC reports.
It will be interesting to see how the study is conducted: The tools for diagnosing autism in adults are […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 111 comments

April 30th, 2008

On Autism Detox

“Detoxifying” a child’s body of “heavy metals” via chelation is an alternative, and not uncontroversial, treatment for autism. It is based on the belief that exposure to environmental toxins is one factor behind the increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism in the past decade-plus. This book talks about the dangers of heavy […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 28 comments

April 29th, 2008

Autism Info Vacuum?

Is there a “vacuum” of information on autism, as Karin Klein writes in today’s Opinion LA?
Klein suggests that this “information vacuum” is one reason why, when it comes to autism, “people tend to rush in with theories, wild or otherwise” about the causes of autism (such as these), and especially theories about the supposed “autism […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 11 comments

April 28th, 2008

In Search of Another Hidden Horde, Autistic Children with Mito?

In the past several months, more and more scientific studies have added evidence that disputes a link between thimerosal and rising autism rates, and that link autism to mercury. Concurrently, a number of studies offer further evidence about genetic of factors and autism. Also at the same time, proponents of the view that some external, […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 25 comments

April 26th, 2008

Last Week’s Top Posts

After a lot of hesitation about riding his new bike, Charlie hoisted himself up, put his left foot on the left pedal, put his right foot on, and zoomed off with Jim easily catching up—that’s the image in my mind after a full week here.

Parents Going Back to School
Some parents of autistic children are returning […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 0 comments

April 25th, 2008

Politicking, Pandering, and Paranoia

Considering how many pressing issues there are to talk regarding children and adults—education, employment, housing, to name a very few—-why do we keep getting stuck talking about the hypothetical claim of a link between vaccines and autism?
Here’s some thoughts towards why the whole issue seems to have devolved into something approaching paranoia, not to mention […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 42 comments

April 23rd, 2008

Autism and Cancer

Autism now occurs in every 1 in 150 children, according to figures released in February of 2007 by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To illustrate what some term an “autism epidemic” (including three presidential candidates), people regularly compare the prevalence rate of children diagnosed with autism to that of children diagnosed with […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 35 comments