Possible Cure For Autism 431
Henry V .009 writes "Scientists in New Jersey are claiming that children with autism are unable to metabolize key fatty acids that fight brain-damaging inflammations. They have already developed urine/blood tests to identify at-risk children. A preventive cure to autism may be as simple as a 'therapeutic cocktail' of fatty acids. Human trials could start later this year."
Slashdot quoting (Score:5, Informative)
Also, I'm not responsible for the story link that pops up a big Printer Dialog when you click it.
Re:Autism rates (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Autism rates (Score:2, Informative)
What have the studies shown [washingtonpost.com]?
1) There is no difference [nejm.org] in the rates of autism between vaccinated and un-vaccinated children.
2) Rates of autism have increased even though thimerosal was removed from the vaccines [aappublications.org].
3) The increased rate of autism diagnosis is due to better identification and broader criteria [nih.gov], not due to a new cause.
Regardless, this has generated so much controversy that thimerosal has been removed from nearly all vaccines [cdc.gov].
Don't get me wrong: vaccines do have a risk associated with them. But as far as the best science shows, autism is not one of them.
simple explanation (Score:2, Informative)
As a parent of a child with autism who follows the DAN! protocal EFAs are essential to my son's progress. He takes a daily dose of fish oil. This is nothing new or great or even a "cure"....for those of us parents who are working on recovering our children this has been around for a while.
In fact EVERYONE can benefit from a daily dose. Its much better than the cod liver oil of the past, many are flavored now or in gel cap form, my entire family takes them and we're better off for it.
Re:This prevents damage (Score:3, Informative)
Furthermore, taking fatty acids wouldn't even fully prevent the brain from being damaged in an autistic. They would just be... less autistic.
Re:A blood test eh? (Score:3, Informative)
The general argument goes like this:
"It's okay for us to torture autistics, because anyone who can object isn't a real autistic. Therefore no one objects."
http://www.autistics.org/library/whoisautistic.ht
Unlearn.
Re:Autism rates - no relationship to Thimerosal (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Autism rates (Score:4, Informative)
So- of those few vaccines that still contain thimerosal, such as Fluzone (the most I can find in the tables, at 25 micrograms mercury for a 0.5 mL injection), how does that compare with what you eat?
You get twice that much by ingestion from a single gram of chunk white tuna. Or, from the Mercury Calculator [gotmercury.org], two ounces of canned albacore is 180% of what a 40-pound child should eat in a day.
Of course, injection is very different from ingestion- but the example I give is extreme. After the influenza vaccines, thimerosal levels drop off dramatically- and virtually all use of thimerosal was discontinued years ago.
So stop whining about vaccinating your kids. There are low- and no-thimerosal options for everything but straight TT (tetanus toxin), and you can get your kid stuck for tetanus without thimerosal by using Tdap or another vaccine with a tetanus component. And in another 5 years or so, we'll know for sure if the thimerosal was responsible. Until then, your kids get way more exposure from food, water, and air than vaccines.
Re:This is not good! (Score:5, Informative)
But you CAN learn to fit in - or at least to know where you're likely to have problems and make adjustments accordingly.
You know that you can focus on pretty much any narrow subject and become insanely specialised in it. One day I decided to try to broaden my horizons - so I picked a subject far from work or computers. I decided to get interested in 1960's cars - it was interesting - it came easily - but (predictably) because I have Aspergers, I'm now a leading expert in exactly one make of car and can pretty much name every part - every change for every model year...you get the picture I'm sure. It was no harder than learning a new programming language.
OK - so if you can do that, then you can focus on learning how conversations with other humans 'work'. You can study that with scientific rigor - and whilst it won't ever be a 'natural' thing - you'll be able to fake it pretty well. I don't feel comfortable in idle chit-chat - but I can fake it well enough to get by without coming off as being completely weirdo (or at least I think I can - maybe there are subliminal cues that I'm completely missing that say that I can't!).
You need to do some deliberate 'horizon broadening' so you have at least a handful of interesting things that you know well - but it's not hard to do that. Then you need to sharply rein in that awful tendency we have to tell everyone who will listen the difference between the Mk I 2.5" carberettor fuel feed adjustment and the improved Mk II model. Save that for writing Wikipedia articles. Ration yourself to a few high level sentences on your favorite topics "I restore classic cars"..."I'm working on a '63 Mini Cooper"..."They were successful rally cars" - then that's your lot. You have shut the heck up about that subject and only briefly answer direct questions about '63 Mini Coopers until the next topic of conversation comes around. Learn some vapid questions that cause the other person to feel the need to talk. A 'normal' friend said that "...and how does that make you feel?" works great in response to almost anything a woman says to you. It's hard to believe it - but that seems to work really well. You can actually research that stuff.
Make sure that people who are close to you know that you don't do well at picking up subtle cues from speech. It's no use someone dropping subtle hints that they want you to do something - you'll never notice them. Tell them: "You have to tell me directly - no matter what - you won't ever upset me by doing that". This is why we geeks have trouble with women. They are dropping large hints that they like you and want you to make your move *NOW*...you have no clue that they are saying that because they never seem to come right out and say "OK - tonight you're going to get laid" - or "Don't bother, it's never going to happen"...which is a shame because it would make life a whole lot easier if they did.
Being tall is nothing to do with it. Being tall correlates well with success in most fields.
You CAN learn what you need - you just have to care enough to do it. I just wish someone had told me this thirty years before I found out myself.
Re:Autism rates (Score:1, Informative)
Now 3 years into intervention programs I can't shut the little bugger up and he'll be in a regular kindergarten next year (with some time in a resource center). He still has "food issues" and he's still behind developmentally, but he's made progress in leaps and bounds.
Re:This is not good! (Score:5, Informative)
My oldsest friend has actually been diagnosed and is on disability because he cannot perform really useful work and/or interact with people. Unlike the self-diagnosers he can creep people out just by saying hello to them, he isn't just "odd," dislikable or lacking social skills, he's clearly "wrong." People clutch their children to them when he walks by because he even moves creepy in ways that cannot be easily defined.
But here's the thing, even though he can now talk (at tedious length) about being an Aspie he thinks he's charming - while he casually picks up someone's personal diary and starts reading it aloud in a public setting. He would have read the DSM and been absolutely clueless that he exhibited. He can say "I don't fit in," but he doesn't know he doesn't fit in.
The real Aspie does not whine about not fitting in; he lacks the capacity to know he doesn't fit in. That's what makes him an Aspie. He walks around saying "What the fuck is wrong with them?" when people clutch their children to them when he walks by, assuming he even notices (my friend didn't know people do this until one man actually yelled at him "Stay away from my kids or I'll beat the crap out of you, you fucking creep!"). The difference between the socially awkward geek and the socially retarded Aspie is night and day when you put them next to each other. The socially awkward can go to charm school and learn; the Aspie cannot. He does not see what he is supposed to be learning and thus cannot even reproduce it on a purely mechanical level. His eyebrows or something will continue to act fucking creepy.
One may exhibit every symptom of Asperger's to some degree or other without actually having it. It is defined by the incapacity for socialization.If you haven't been diagnosed but think you're an Aspie, you're probably just a jerk who can learn to behave better if you really want to.
The classic Aspie isn't the socially awkward tech geek; it's the socially agressive Robert Johnson who died of trying to pick up other men's wives right in front of them; without the slightest realization that he was doing something risky. He died clueless of why he died, even while the guy knifing him was screaming "Stay away from my woman, you fucking asshole!"
KFG
Re:This is not good! (Score:2, Informative)
I really appreciate you throwing that in there. I really do not have the slightest clue what Aspergers is, but after you mentioned this trait, my younger twenty three year old cousin immediately popped to mind, for he has done the same thing all his life. So, I went here [udel.edu] just for more information. It really is amazing how many of those characteristics he possesses. Shoot, I actually envy him at times for his focused determination and brilliance. Whether all these subtle traits I noticed about him over the years is related to Aspergers or not, I don't know. Either way, your little tippy toe tidbit really gave me food for thought and insight. So thanks.
Re:This is not good! (Score:1, Informative)
My niece is severely autistic - she can't talk (but can now express herself a bit using sign language), and has compulsive behaviours which make life very difficult for herself and for everyone else around her.
Although now 10 years old, she has the behavioural mental age of a 2 year old ( I stress behavioural - if you spend time with her you see that she really is clever, but it's all locked up inside her and that incapacity to express herself and to control her outward emotions and actions is extremely frustrating to herself).
Anything, and I really mean anything, that could help to improve her condition and allow her to lead an even slightly more "normal" life ( I mean, being able to interact, to understand her surrounding and so on) would be welcomed.
If a daily "cocktail" would allow her to dress and wash herself, maybe even to gain proper control of her muscles, it would be madness to discredit such an advance.
J-M
Re:This is not good! (Score:3, Informative)
Anybody who's been around kids with autism for any length of time would quickly realize that it definitely is a real disorder, and not a fad. There's a kid who lives by my parents who spends most days rocking back and forth, and scouring the neighborhood for sticks to put in his wagon. I think he's in his teens right now. When he was younger, he had to wear a special brace to keep his constant rocking from wearing down the bones in his hip. He's not trying to be different because of any fad...he clearly has a disorder/disability.
Re:This is not good! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:This is not good! (Score:3, Informative)
It's hard work, and takes a lot of practice, making a lot of mistakes, but it's not impossible for an intelligent enough person to accomplish.
Re:This is not good! (Score:5, Informative)
There are 2 Aspies in my family. One is my brother, one is my nephew. My brother is absolutely clueless that he doesn't fit in because he absolutely cannot recognize the subtle signs that people show to indicate that he's not being recieved well. While many Aspie people are shy because social situations bewilder them, my brother is not - he will force himself upon all and sundry and he thinks people love him because he's not able to process facial expressions etc. He's starting to get clued in now because he realises he's 40 years old and hasn't ever had a real relationship (never got past a second date) and has come to accept that maybe it *isn't* that everyone else is defective with relationships, but that he's got issues.
My nephew is actually quite charming in a very shy sort of way. My sister told him at a very young age, when she realized that he wasn't "getting" social stuff that she would help him learn how to recognize when people were put off by him. For him, every social encounter is an excercise in observation and processing the results and making guesses - he has done it out loud before, and it is just amazing the stuff he says. "Oh, she is smiling, but her knuckles are white and her tendons are standing out on her hand and she is hunching her shoulders and she hasn't said anything except to nod and look around so I think she is nervous and wants to get away." He's 22 now, and getting better all the time - more subtle about the thinking that goes on - but he's told me that the only reason he thinks he's different from other people is because people tell him that. It just wouldn't occur to him otherwise.
The difference between those two people and those who want to claim to have it is stark. Just being able to have the personal insight to even begin to make the attempt at self-diagnosis is something that can be a differential.
Note: Not saying all aspies are just like my brother or nephew, all comments should be taken as qualified by "in my opinion" or "in my experience" etc. and so on.