Calling All Vaccine-Autism Critics

(PLEASE NOTE: Due to tremendous response, the venue for the NYU event has been moved to the Law School's much larger Tishman Auditorium, at the same address: 40 Washington Square South, Ground Floor. RSVP for this is event is still required at kirbylecture@gmail.com)
In the next two weeks, I will give three public lectures and Q&A sessions, free and open to the public, at Brown University in Providence, NYU Law School in Manhattan, and Northeastern University in Boston. (Other events are to be announced soon for New Jersey, Long Island and Southern California).
I sincerely encourage any and all vaccine-autism skeptics, critics, agnostics and cynics living in the northeastern US to please consider attending one of these talks, armed with all of your most pointed, difficult and critical questions.
For my part, I will present slides showing evidence to support and refute the link between autism, vaccines, mercury & heavy metals, air pollution and other environmental factors.
My only arguments will be that the evidence is NOT conclusive against a link, and it is premature to declare that vaccines and their ingredients have been 100% exonerated as environmental contributors to autism.
I hope to have a reasoned and enlightening public discussion with members of the audience. Among the subjects we will tackle are:
1) The Poling Case - in which the government conceded that vaccines induced autism in one little girl, and updates on other court cases.
2) Brand New Evidence - of a link between mitochondrial dysfunction and autistic regression, and evidence of mitochondrial issues in many ASD kids.
3) Research Underway - at top universities on the connection between environmental toxins, oxidative stress, glutathione depletion, neuro-inflammation and autistic encephalopathy.
4) Declarations - By the US Presidential candidates and the former NIH director that autism is epidemic and calling for more research into vaccines and mercury as possible causes.
5) Recent Studies - Linking autism spectrum disorder with heavy metals and contaminants in air pollution.
Here are the times and locations:
PROVIDENCE: Thursday, June 19 - 6:30-9:00PM Brown University, Salomon Center, Room 101On the Campus Green Hosted By Wendy Fournier, President of the National Autism Association
NEW YORK CITY: Thursday, June 26 - 6:30-9:00PMNYU School of Law, 40 Washington Square SouthVanderbilt Hall, Tishman Auditorium, Ground FloorHosted By Mary Holland, NYU Law SchoolNOTE: RSVP REQUIRED: kirbylecture@gmail.com
BOSTON: Friday, June 27 - 6:30-9:00PMNortheastern UniversityBehrakis Health Science Building (Bldg #26) - Room 10Hosted by Dr. Richard Deth, Northeastern University Professor of Pharmacology
This series was made possible by Generation Rescue, Autism Research Institute, National Autism Association, Coalition for SAFE MINDS, and Talk About Curing Autism. Announcements for each event can be downloaded at http://www.evidenceofharm.com/- please feel free to circulate these electronically and otherwise to all interested parties.
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

The Autism Rights Movement

Wonderful article from New York magazine on the neurodiversity movement. Mr. Solomon also does a brilliant job including the points of view of the bio-medical approach advocates and brushes lightly on the researchers focusing on a genetic answer. If there is a criticism, it's that he doesn't put much weight in the scientific responses to the bio-medical approach or the possible impact of the neurodiverse crowds arguments which would seem to include the suspension of ABA programs nationwide. Below are some choice quotes but I highly encourage you to read the entire article...THE AUTISM RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

“When you know a person on the spectrum, you know one person on the spectrum.”

“When your child is 12 years old and not toilet-trained, or is head-banging at age 15, how much of your acceptance is wise and how much is preventing recovery?” NIMH director Insel

“Why should I force eye contact or hugs on someone for whom that’s just noise?”

“The perception of people like us as lacking emotion is wholly inaccurate,” Ne’eman says. “It’s the failure of society to understand the communication styles of autistics.”

“I’d like nothing more than for her to develop the kind of consciousness that would allow her to join the neurodiversity movement,” Nash said. “If she decides to communicate without speech, that will be her choice, and I would love for her to be capable of such choices. It’s my fantasy that someday my daughter will go to her therapist to say what a terrible mother I was forcing her to do all this ABA. When that happens, I’ll know I succeeded.”

“I protest the wholesale characterization of people on the autism spectrum as toxic. It’s scientifically incorrect and symbolically offensive,” Seidel says.

Family link to autism

Parents of children with autism have double the odds of having been hospitalized for a psychiatric condition than parents of children without autism, a comprehensive review of Swedish medical registries found.

The findings by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were published in the May issue of Pediatrics.

The study incorporated data on 1,237 children who had been diagnosed with autism before age 10, as well as about 31,000 controls. Both mothers and fathers with schizophrenia were roughly twice as likely to have a child with autism, the study found. Mothers (but not fathers) with depression and neurotic and personality disorders had an increased risk of having a child with autism.

"This study might help us pinpoint some more genetic ties to more cases [of autism]," said study lead author Julie Daniels.

Thanks to everybody who is helping...

Wow! I can't tell you how wonderful it's been hearing from everyone. While I deeply appreciate those of you who clicked the donation button and sent me some of your hard-earned money it's been amazing to hear from everyone sending me their support. I laughed at some notes and cried at others. I was really scared but I'm glad I sent the email out...I am a very lucky guy.

adam

For those of you who didn't receive an email. I sent out the following email to everyone in my contacts folder. Again, apologies to all who didn't wish to receive the email...I didn't mean to offend.


========================================================

Hello All-

I hope this email finds you all well. I am doing very well and for those of you who don't know, I am currently attending Columbia University's Teacher's College in New York City. I am enrolled in their intensive Special Education Master's program with a specialization in Applied Behavior Analysis. I know, it's a mouthful. Essentially what it means is I am being taught how to teach children with a wide range of language, social and emotional deficits/disabilities. More importantly, I am being taught how to induce missing capabilities in these children. Teaching children who can't speak how to speak, can't read how to read, can't make eye contact how to make eye contact. It's an exhilarating and exhausting journey. I'm going to include more on the program below but the reason you're getting this email is simple. I left a fairly lucrative career in television/media production to embark on this path. While I am enrolled in this program I am working full-time as a Teaching Assistant so the math is simple. Take one six-figure job, subtract 85% of the income and the result is obvious. I could use a little help from my friends during this change.

***The help I am requesting is simple. If you can donate a few dollars, a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars or a few million dollars it would go quite a long way to helping me out. If you can't, won't, shouldn't, mustn't then that's fine. I'd still love to hear from you.

How do I adopt a special education teacher (donate to the cause)?
Easy. Just go to my blog at marvelouschildren.blogspot.com and click on the 'Make a donation' button below my picture on the left side of the page.

Is this a joke?
A fair question considering my sense of humor but no, I could really use some help...jelly belly donations are also welcome. Have you seen the cost of jelly bellys lately?

Why am I on this list?
An even better question. You are on this list because you have somehow made your way into my 'Contacts' folder. When this idea first popped into my head the idea was to send to everyone in my list. A couple of days passed and it occurred to me, belatedly as most things do, that there would be people in my contacts list whose receipt of this email would be embarrassing to me. The more I thought about it the more horrifying the prospect seemed so I began a mental editing. I soon realized that the only reason I was considering taking this person or that person off is the personal embarrassment I might suffer which stuck me as more of a fear-based decision than one grounded in common sense. So if you're upset or find this in poor taste I am sorry. It's not my intention to embarrass myself or make anyone uncomfortable, it's simply to ask for help. I am generally really bad at asking for help so this is pretty huge for me.

What's this program you're enrolled in?
The best question yet. Applied Behavior Analysis is "the science of applying experimentally derived principles of behavior to improve socially significant behavior." I am enrolled in a program at Columbia that focuses on the application of these principles to classrooms and more broadly to education. There are millions of children in the United States falling behind or falling through the cracks. Our methodology is proven to work with the special education population (So far I have worked with emotionally disturbed middle schoolers and children with profound deficits such as autism and intellectual disabilities (Can't write, can't talk). You can find out a lot more in an article that appeared in the Teacher's College Magazine HERE.

What's with your blog?
My blog is a work in progress so feel free to give me any criticisms you want to. I also have a website marvelouschildren.com. Both are designed to help me if I decide to do private work and to give me a platform to put my views out there. The blog is primarily a place to post interesting stories and videos I come across. It is no way affiliated with Teacher's College.

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be."

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy may trigger autism in babies

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy has been shown to cause many type of abnormalities including, but not limited to neurological damage, growth deficiencies, abnormal facial features and behavioral problems. See THIS link for more information on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. It is unknown what amount of alcohol consumption is considered 'safe' so most doctors recommend total abstinance during pregnancy. Now, one of the leading FAS researchers is publishing his findings that alcohol consumption during pregnancy may be a contributing factor in causing autism. Read more below. You can also contact the doctor directly through the information below:

Dr Raja Mukherjee
SpR / Honorary Lecturer
Department of Mental Health Learning Disability
St Georges Hospital Medical School
rmukherj@sghms.ac.uk

London, Mar 23 (ANI): A new study, led by an Indian researcher, has suggested that women who drink alcohol during pregnancy put their babies at risk of developing autism.

Raja Mukherjee, a consultant psychiatrist at Surrey Borders Partnership NHS trust, earlier found that drinking while pregnant can give babies a condition called foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

He has now come up with his latest finding suggesting that the consumption of alcohol by expecting mothers can also cause autism.

This is the first research to cite that autism may be triggered by the child’s mothers alcohol intake during pregnancy.

Mukherjee said that the findings of this study might elevate concerns about the increasing alcohol consumption among women of childbearing age.

For the past 18 months, Mukherjee was examining children who have been damaged by their mother’s drinking during pregnancy and discovered that a high proportion of them have autism.

“Genetic conditions are by far the most common cause of autism but that is not to say that other things cannot cause it, and prenatal alcohol appears, possibly, to be [a cause]. Unlike genetic conditions, this is 100% preventable, Times Online quoted him, as saying.

While the Department of Health noted that more than half of all mothers drink alcohol while pregnant, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will issue a new warning about the dangers.

The findings of a recent survey suggest that 8 percent of women aged 18 to 24 had consumed at least 35 units of alcohol, i.e. about 15 glasses of wine, during the previous week. Binge drinking among young women has caused number of alcohol-related deaths in women aged 35 to 54 doubling between 1991 and 2005.

The British Medical Association warned earlier this year that the increase in alcohol consumption by young women will be seen in a rise in drinking during pregnancy thereby putting more babies at risk of being damaged by alcohol while in the womb.

In fact, Mukherjee has also warned earlier against any drinking during pregnancy as he thinks that even low levels of alcohol may endanger babies.

Drinking during pregnancy can cause foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which includes disorders ranging from minor anomalies such as low birth weight to severe FAS, the symptoms of which include mental retardation and facial abnormalities such as a short nose.

The findings of this research have been presented at scientific meetings. (ANI)

FRONTLINE: The Medicated Child

'Take meds, take meds, take meds.'"

"The rates of bipolar diagnoses in children have increased markedly in many communities over the last five to seven years," says Dr. Steven Hyman, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "I think the real question is, are those diagnoses right? And in truth, I don't think we yet know the answer."

"We're dealing with developing minds and brains, and medications have a whole different impact in the young developing child than they do in an adult," says Dr. Marianne Wamboldt, the chief of psychiatry at Denver Children's Hospital. "We don't understand that impact very well. That's where we're still in the Dark Ages."

Frontline aired a somewhat balanced look at the issue of children and medication. Those of you involved in this field for any length of time will notice an absence of alternative therapies or a thorough look at what environmental issues may be contributing to these behaviors.

In my experience that is what is usually being medicated...behaviors. You never hear of a well-behaved child being medicated. Find a diagnosis that allows for a medical approach and run with it...that's what I see.

You can watch the full show HERE.

Let me know what you think.

Adam

Children and Medication

As most of you know, I am pretty firmly in the no medication camp when it comes to treating children. I will concede that in rare cases medication is necessary but those cases are very very rare. What I see most of the time is medication being used to treat behavioral issues and those are almost always treatable through the application of behavioral techniques that have been proven to work thousands of times. As far as medication goes, I am most unnerved by the blindness with which we subject our children to what are, in effect, uncontrolled clinical trials. Zyprexa, which has been shown to have some devastating side effects in adults is going to be used in children. Check out the first video to see a report on that. The second is probably much more controversial but it's my belief you are laregly only getting the drug companies talking points from the press so a little dose of 'alternate programming' is a good thing. As always, I advise parents to discuss all medical issues with their doctor but remember that your doctor MIGHT NOT KNOW. Most doctors receive most of their 'education' on drugs from drug company representatives. My goal is always to help inform the debate, not yell fire and run from the room...

adam