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While the scientific evidence refutes a link between autism and vaccines, parents of young children can’t seem to stop worrying about this and (as a June 18th CNN story reports) are wondering: Should they vaccinate their baby? Should they space out the vaccines and have a child receive their immunizations for measles, mumps and rubella […]
About one-third of those with Fragile X also have autism. My son was tested for Fragile X around the time that he was being evaluated for autism, and Charlie does not have Fragile X (go here to read about a new gene that was found for Fragile X earlier this year). A recent study in […]
The April 1st CNN Money.com reviews the “recent brouhaha about 9-year-old Hannah Poling,” whose family received a settlement under the federal government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program “based on their claim that childhood vaccinations aggravated a rare metabolic disorder in Hannah, triggering autism symptoms.” Writer David Stipp notes that, in a 2006 survey, 54% of families […]
The previous post considered a physiological marker for autism that draws on research on the brain responses of adolescents with Asperger Syndrome playing an interactive game. Drs. G. Bradley Schafer of University of Nebraska and Nancy J. Mendelsohn of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota have published an article in the January issue of Genetics […]
A new gene linked to Fragile X has been found by researchers at the Scripps Research Institute. More than sixteen years ago, scientists linked Fragile X to another gene FMR1: When FMR1 gene expression is inactivated, there is a lack of a protein known as the fragile X mental retardation protein, which is involved in […]
A “group of German researchers” has announced that they have “perfected the method for inducing autism.”
??!!!?!?!???
They have also, it is parenthetically noted, figured out how to “cure” autism (this study on reversing symptoms of autism and Fragile X is cited). Cure being a fighting word in discussions about autism, I’ll note that this “autism-inducing drug” […]
Katie Wright, whose parents Bob and Suzanne Wright are the founders of Autism Speaks, praises their efforts “to bring attention to the needs of our families” and criticizes the organization for not funding “impactful, breakthrough science”—-that is, “biomedical grants on GI disease, methylation pathways and toxicity, vaccinated and unvaccinated siblings.” Wright distinguishes between such biomedical […]
Back in June, scientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) genetically manipulated mice to have Fragile X Syndrome: Then, by inhibiting a brain enzyme, p21-activated kinase, or PAK (which “affects the number, size and shape of connections between neurons and the brain”), the scientists found that […]
As has been noted, I write a lot of posts here—-and, as each post needs a title, sometimes I go for the straightforwardly descriptive; other times, inspiration strikes and something a bit snazzier (to my ear) results. One knows not to “judge a book by its cover” nor, in the same vein, a blog-post by […]
There’s been some (heated) (impassioned) discussion in the autism community of late (go here for one exchange) about research that focuses on possible environmental factors connected to autism “versus” research that focuses on genetics (and perhaps the publicity surrounding the vaccine court hearings has contributed to this). Now that Autism Speaks has announced (on […]
Autism mother gets on her soapbox.
Written by Kristina Chew, PhD [email] for b5media.
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