Saturday, March 17, 2007

Clinic Notes: Autism Questions Redux

When people find out that I have a clinic for children with autism the first question they usually ask me," Is autism increasing?" And the second question is usually, " What cause autism?" I can throw our some stats and research findings, but, unfortunately, I can't answer either question with any degree of certainty. And I can't do much better on the third question: "Does the mercury in vaccinations really cause autism?" I simply say this question is hotly debated and I am undecided myself at this point. A recent article, (Regressive Autism: Putting Together the Pieces By Michael Wagnitz
(www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=21973)
makes a strong argument for mercury. He cites data from first baby haircuts that find children with autism have seven time higher levels of mercury than normal children. Wagnitz also cites data which finds that monkey brains dosed with mercury have cellular changes which are already known to cause neurodegeneration and these cellular changes are found in autopsies of brains of children previously diagnosed with autism. In the future perhaps I can give better answers