Vaccines, God’s Middle Name, Black Chickens, and other autism stories
For a report on Day 2 of the Autism Omnibus hearing (”vaccine court“), see Autism Diva (and go here to read the transcript of Day 2). If you are already feeling like it might not be a bad idea to talk about something else besides vaccines and mercury in regard to autism, you can read about a new play about an autistic boy and his parents, God’s Middle Name; it will be performed on Saturday in Ottawa (interesting to me is that the same actor plays both the son and the father).
Would you like to be autistic for a day? The June 14th Moonee Valley Community quotes Val Gill as saying this. Gill is the principal and chief executive of the Western Autistic School and was awarded a “Public Service Medal for outstanding service in the field of Autism Spectrum Disorder, including Asperger’s Syndrome.” (I’m not exactly sure why she makes a reference to “suicide” and nine-year-olds, though.)
On a different note, you can also read about black chicken from China (who have black skin, meat and bones but white feathers) are being touted as—–you guessed it, being possibly useful “to improve muscle strength and alleviate the effects of autism (and aging, and diabetes) due to the chickens’ containing a “powerful anti-oxidant,” carnosine. You can see a photo of the quite white chickens on this website, which also lists the ingredients for Wu Chi Pai Feng Wan, which are “black chicken, white phoenix” pills; deer antler, ginseng, mantis egg case, and honey. Or, you can also just check out the lyrics to Chicken in Black:
“For two long years my head hurt bad
So a doctor checked me an he shook his head
He said I’m sorry to tell you
But your body’s outlived your brain…………
And if you’d rather get back to a more familiar topic in the autism world, read Freakonomics on why, while it may be “more comforting to have a tangible villain, like vaccines, to blame for this disorder,” we should be very wary in speaking (if at all) about there being an “epidemic of autism.”
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POSTED IN: Drama, Education, Epidemic, Food and Diet, Health, Vaccines
8 opinions for Vaccines, God’s Middle Name, Black Chickens, and other autism stories
Minnie Matta
Jun 14, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Epidemic or not, we have schools being overwhelmed by children with special needs, and the schools can’t meet the demand service-wise or money-wise.
My personal opinion is that it certainly can’t hurt to get the neurotoxins out of vaccines.
Additionally, I’m very curious to know why so many of these children have high levels of mercury and/or measles in their gut.
Taylor
Jun 14, 2007 at 5:13 pm
As someone with experience with Autistic children, I rely on your site on a pretty regular basis. Thank you for the fine work that you do.
I noticed you are nominated for the Best health blog over at the Blogger’s Choice Awards (http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/14718) but that you do not have a badge here to promote yourself.
You should definitely grab the embed code and throw up a badge to promote yourself. You’ve got my vote today, but you’ll need to promote yourself a bit to mobilize the rest of your readers! I am pulling for you, this site deserves it!
Suzanne
Jun 14, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Schools are being overwhelmed with special needs children because laws have given these kids the right to be there, starting mid 70’s and especially post 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Guaranteed, teachers have not been adequately prepared unless they have taken the initiative to keep current. Many of my colleagues(till 1996) did not make any effort or adaptations when parents sought inclusion for their kids. They tended to stick them all in a group with the TA and ignore them.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jun 14, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Taylor, you’re too kind—–
We just had Charlie’s IEP today and the team of seven-plus professionals in the room would not have existed even ten years ago—–teachers and therapists who know what to do for a kid like Charlie, and who have helped him to have his best school year ever.
But I shiver to think that, not so long ago, no one would have tried—would have been able or willing to think that a child with regular SIBs could become the happy school boy of today. I think more and more that Charlie would have been institutionalized at a fairly young age had he lived in a previous generation; I am thankful everyday that teachers and teaching methods exist to help him. The question is, how to help all kids who need them have access to them.
kcsmommy
Jun 14, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Big Brother is hanging over my shoulder and has just read on your blog “black chicken from China” he’s totally wanting to kick me off the computer and read about it , he he. You should definitely put up the badge Kristina! You have done so much for the Autism community and having Autism Vox and bringing us the news and all the wonderful things you do! We love reading about that handsome fella Charlie!
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jun 14, 2007 at 8:25 pm
The black chicken reminded me of another Chinese food (this one I have eaten), thousand year old eggs—black and gelatinous.
Award Winning
Jun 15, 2007 at 12:36 am
[…] best parenting blog—–thanks to Hsien Hsien Lei of Eye on DNA for nominating me and for Taylor for enjoining me to tell you about […]
Grace
Jun 15, 2007 at 1:32 am
If you back up and look at the larger picture, even the CDC is sounding the alarm about the increase in neurological disorders among children. So why waste time arguing if autism is just a re-shuffling of the diagnostic deck when the overall group of impaired children is clearly growing?
I have 5 children, all of whom have immune system issues, but I was 5 mos pregnant with the one who is autistic (PDD-NOS) when I had a dental amalgam replaced with a new filling. Inhaled mercury is the most dangerous form of ingestion (some would have aerosolized with the drilling plus there were bits of metal still in my mouth afterward).
I have looked at the PubMed studies & the EPA’s report on mercury and tons of stuff (including the ceaseless, vitrolic arguing on both sides) about the issue. What to believe? Who to trust? My autistic son’s issues correlate completely with the EPA report on mercury toxicity (impairments in language, memory & attention) and there are studies at PubMed that confirm the high exposure of mercury in the replacement of a filling. If my son could be damaged by mercury in that way resulting in his autistic-like symptoms (and both biological as well as epidemiological studies support that he likely was), what makes thimerosal such an implausible villain in the autism story?
Additionally, my oldest son (conceived 2 mos after I had another filling put in) has NVLD and Tourette’s - his symptoms also mirrored some of those noted in the primate studies mentioned in the EPA’s mercury toxicity report.
Additionally, even the study reviews done that claim to exonerate thimerosal (using European studies which even they admit were exposures of only about a third the amount that US children are getting and not including hep B at birth), have shown a correlation between thimerosal and tics as well as attention deficit.
Genetic research has already shown that Tourette’s and autism are closely related. And attention deficit is frequently part of the autism package. It all seems to tie together too neatly to be attributable to coincidence.
This isn’t about assigning blame - and it sure as heck isn’t about looking for a handout since we haven’t received any help and we haven’t asked for any nor have any of the struggling families we know. You can’t find a cure for something - or at least a way to prevent it from happening to others -unless you first have a cause.
(And for the extremists in the neurodiversity crowd I have to add that autism may be affecting my son’s life and shaping who he is, but it does NOT define him any more than a broken leg or diabetes defines who a person is. He is the light & joy of my life and if there were a cure found for autism, he would still completely be the wonderful person that he is.)
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