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Autism rates keep on climbing

garcia

Aristocrat Extraordinaire
Messages
976
Location
UK
ADHD seems to be at the core of a 'subgroup' of ASD (certainly the case here). You hear about all these cases where kids get rid of autism symptoms following treatments etc, and are left with ADD/ADHD like an iron core that just won't budge...

Interesting in the context of InvestinME Baranuik presentation, where he remarked finding exactly the same brain in/activation and 'zoning-out' patterns in ADHD and CFS/ME. If you put brain activity scans done during specific simple+complex tasks in one big pile you could not tell patients apart.

Reminded me of this recent article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140610112812.htm
 
Messages
15,786
Many kids on the Yasko site share the same genes. Haven't you heard of epigenetics? But yes it deflects the real issue if environmental is left out of the equation.
Many perfectly healthy kids have exactly the same mutations. I've never seen anything published which shows those methylation genotypes to be more prevalent in people with autism or ME/CFS or anything else, compared to the general population.
 

brenda

Senior Member
Messages
2,266
Location
UK
Many perfectly healthy kids have exactly the same mutations. I've never seen anything published which shows those methylation genotypes to be more prevalent in people with autism or ME/CFS or anything else, compared to the general population.

Yes but the genes of the 50% of MTHFR have been expressed because of some outside agency.
 

Helen

Senior Member
Messages
2,243
Many perfectly healthy kids have exactly the same mutations. I've never seen anything published which shows those methylation genotypes to be more prevalent in people with autism or ME/CFS or anything else, compared to the general population.

Here is one of the studies showing methylation genotypes to be more prevalent in people with autism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610366/

Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. Dec 5, 2006; 141B(8): 947–956.
doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.30366
PMCID: PMC2610366
NIHMSID: NIHMS68264
Metabolic endophenotype and related genotypes are associated with oxidative stress in children with autism
S. Jill James,1 Stepan Melnyk,1 Stefanie Jernigan,1 Mario A. Cleves,1 Charles H. Halsted,2 Donna H. Wong,2 Paul Cutler,3 Kenneth Bock,4 Marvin Boris,5 J. Jeffrey Bradstreet,5 Sidney M. Baker,7 and David W. Gaylor8
 

manna

Senior Member
Messages
392
See also http://montagnier.org/Autism-the-microbial-track

Success rate is claimed at 60% or thereabouts. We need a proper double blinded controlled study, but I think this will happen.

from the link
60% of cases a significant improvement, sometimes even a complete resolution of symptoms.

hi man, not sure id equate either "significant improvement" or "complete resolution of symptons" with cure. i might be wrong but im gussing these stats are taken whilst the children are on anti-biotics. i guess theyd probably revert after a period of time. possible they may keep speach or something but id guess they'll have some chronic illness.

There was a French study that many were cured by antibiotics a few years back. It was reviewed here on some old thread, I think. Many autism patients were found to have specific pathogenic bacteria, but I forget the details. Please note it was a subgroup with specific markers. Which brings me back to syndrome. Spectrum, in a way, is just a fancy word for syndrome, indicating a range.

If that study was discredited, or whatever, I can't be certain. It might still be going.

Just found this but havent watched it yet:

PS It is indeed about Lyme causing autism, or at least the video is.

2.25 in the vid his teacher says "i can tell when he hasn't had a course of anti-biotics in a while" (approx quote). it is relevant to me/cfs in that anti-biotics have, more or less, proved an infectious component, at least in part. showing that component is all abx will do imo, unfortunately.
 

Cheshire

Senior Member
Messages
1,129
There was a French study that many were cured by antibiotics a few years back. It was reviewed here on some old thread, I think. Many autism patients were found to have specific pathogenic bacteria, but I forget the details. Please note it was a subgroup with specific markers. Which brings me back to syndrome. Spectrum, in a way, is just a fancy word for syndrome, indicating a range.

If that study was discredited, or whatever, I can't be certain. It might still be going.

Pr. Montagnier has been recently disavowed by French "Académie nationale de médecine". He is really isolated in France, where autism is a hot subject (the neurodevelopmental theory is just beginning to be recognized, and autism was mostly considered as a psychotic disorder by Freudian flat earth believers, until recently). But meeting opposition on autism theory in France doesn’t mean anything.

I’m a little bit more worried about his theories on “water memories” whose links with homeopathy are more problematic and seem quite unscientific. It thus muddles a little bit his other works and his credibility. I think he left France and is now working in China.
 

manna

Senior Member
Messages
392
exsqueeze me going ot, but its possible that when referring to the earth being flat, people are talking about 2 dimensional reality.
 
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Messages
15,786
Here is one of the studies showing methylation genotypes to be more prevalent in people with autism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610366/
As they say in the paper, "In the univariate analysis, there were no significant differences in allele frequency or genotype distributions at the p < 0.05 level between autistic cases and unaffected controls for MTHFR 677C>T, MTHFR 1298A>C, GST T1 null, GCP 156C>T, or MTRR 66A>G." They're using a very low threshold, so that's pretty good indication of a lack of significant difference there.

RFC, COMT, and TCN2 supposedly are significant, but they aren't showing the P values, which is dodgy as hell.
Furthermore, for two of those the more common alleles in the general population are the ones they're saying are more common in autistics, so it's pretty useless as a risk factor or major factor in the disease. And for the third one, even the though it's the minor allele that patients have more of, it's still one that's common as dirt. These also aren't SNPs directly involved in the methylation process, but rather more peripheral.
 

barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
If someone is cured of autism by antibiotics, I would think they wouldn't have a true diagnosis of autism but I am certainly curious about this and will read the limks. Thanks, Alex.

There is a woman named Temple Grandin who has Aspergers and invented "the hug machine" which swaddles your body to calm the nervous system. She wrote an autobiography which is absolutely fascinating. She has authored other books as well.

She was first mentioned in a book authored by Oliver Sacks (Awakenings) who some speculate also has aspergers.

Barb
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
"true diagnosis of autism" is pure psychobabble, nothing else. If one was to scratch the surface hard enough in every single case one would find underlying biological/pathological mechanisms instead of that imaginary construct...
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Its a lot like CFS? What is "true" CFS? Does it even exist? Man-invented disease categories often disappear or morph over time. Autism has morphed a lot.

Once upon a time we had the wasting disease. Then cancer. Then, for example, breast cancer. Now breast cancer is a syndrome, a family of different diseases with similar symptoms, and we have specific types of breast cancer, with specific biochemical markers. Some of the drugs only work on specific categories - give them to a generic patient and you don't know if they will respond. These categories get broken down as we understand more.
 
Messages
10,157
That is a self-perpetuating myth, debunked by science a while ago but still peddled by psycho-babblers and flat-earthers.



Same as saying that there is a huge genetic component to AIDS. A red herring statement used to deflect attention from the real issues and justify inaction.

So comparing the brains of autopsied children with the brains of non-autistic children and finding distinct abnormalities in the speech/communication in the majority of autistic children is psychobabble? Autism has been accepted by the medical commumity as starting in-vitro. This has not been debunked by science and if it has prove it. Posting provocative insulting statements weakens any kind of argument.
 
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alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
I think genetic causes of autism, and possibly some others (depending on the mother's health) start during gestation. It is not sure however that autism cannot start in the first years of life ... the evidence appears to be selective, though I could be wrong as since its not my area I do not read much of the science on it.

It must be remembered that the brain changes very rapidly during the first two or so years, and less rapidly for about four more years, and then slowly till the early twenties or something, with moderate changes through the teens. So anything that disturbs this, even if started after birth, might cause a problem. That would be environmental issues, and that includes pathogens.

Problems in methylation genes seem to be risk factor, not a cause, at least at this time. Its associated, but that does not prove causation. It also needs to be replicated independently ... this research is often ignored, I think, rightly or wrongly, because only a very few are pursuing it and they are not publishing studies that would be considered convincing by most doctors and scientists.

However its likely that methylation problems are probably a huge contributor to disease, especially in very young people and very old people. The limited evidence there is suggests that people over eighty have extremely poor methylation pathways.
 

Aileen

Senior Member
Messages
615
Location
Canada
If antibiotics is helping a subgroup and they go downhill every time they go off them perhaps the microbiome is involved. Perhaps they should be investigating probiotics as a treatment for these kids in addition to the meds.
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Kina, my comment was aimed specificallyat that hollow argument that in all cases symptoms appear from birth but are not noticed etc (ie the argument that there is not such thing as regression in normally developed children, 'cos there is solid evidence for that in a large fraction of cases, as well as regressions from mild into severe autism - a brain teaser, yes). Re brain structural changes, yes there are those but again chicken or egg - no evidence that those are pathological (ie not a mere side-effect) as regression cases are never included in those, nor are children who recover/lose their symptoms. Even one of those 'exceptions' can be taken as a proof of concept that 1. those structural changes are not necessary for symptoms of autism to appear (if a normal child regresses at say age 5, did they carry those structural changes all along but they were not causing symptoms, or can one develop symptoms without structural brain changes, here is another brain teaser). Similary with recoveries - a child that loses symptoms never carried those hard-wired structural abnormalities, but still had autism, or they still have the abnormal brain structure but no symptoms of anything. The psychobabble magician claims that these cases are not real, ie no such things as regressions and recoveries - the claim of course is total rubbish and long debunked but still held dear by many. Hope I made myself clear :)
 
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manna

Senior Member
Messages
392
i should think that adult onset is mostly less severe because the body's structure is not conducive to allowing full blown autism,,although theres no one autistic mean. if it occurs in the womb or post natal id guess it can be more severe. i once read of a study that claimed that 90% of autistic children have some form of bowel disease. interesting that they generally mature earlier. this, imo, is because bowel disease gives them a poor physical grounding and so their bones and body grow to compensate for this. if you get to full size in a body that has grown the way it should then its proensity to be negatively affected is less than a baby or young adult.

some pedisposing factors that i think are at play...mothers who smoke whilst carrying their baby. babies delivered using suction--shown to cause personality disorders, supposedly. injections at birth and later, dentistry, in particular merrcury fillings, has now been banned for expectant mothers due to fears of how it affects the unborn, the toxic waste coming from the mother, from her perfumes etc, (men are toxic too of course just not carrying babies)..pesticides in the mothers food, traumatic birth environment. after birth you have the 80.000 chemicals to chose from, wi fi, potentially 69 doses of vaccines, life of pesticides, junk food, mobile phones...all contributing factors. im not a big geneticsa fan but maybe there a part there too but next to the physical onslaught body's have to endure, i don't have it as too high on the list. wheat 2-3 times a day everyday doesn't help at all.