As some of you know, I do a weekly piece on a great radio station, WERU. If you want to hear it, it's on at 7:30AM EST every Weds. at weru.org. Following is a piece I haven't recorded yet but timely.
Good morning and welcome to Earth Sense, thanks for stopping by. Well, the words for today are autism, ADD, glutathione, and thimerosal. I'll do my best not to trip too often in my pronounciation. For some time, a growing community of doctors, researchers, journalists and even members of Congress have claimed there's a link between vaccines using thimerosal (which contains mercury) and nerve based diseases that afflict children. Incidences of autism have multiplied ten fold over the past 20 years. Autism used to be 1 in 10,000 risk. Today it stands at 1 in 166.
A new study sheds light on the mystery of autism and may point the way to a promising treatment. Autistic children seem to have a weakened ability to protect themselves from toxic metals in their bodies, a biochemist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has concluded. Such children have a severe deficiency of glutathione, the body's most important tool for detoxifying and excreting heavy metals such as mercury and lead, Dr. Jill James reported in a recent peer-reviewed in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. James' findings provide new ammunition for those who suspect that mercury-containing vaccines like thimerosal play a role in triggering autism.
As you can guess, the drug companies have long claimed vaccines containing mercury are safe and that there's no proven link to nerve disorders. However, the FDA moved to reduce the amount of mercury in vaccines starting in 1999 and today almost all vaccines are mercury free or have very low levels. Questions remain however regarding who will be responsible for the medical care and pain and suffering of the families. A Republican sponsored bill in the Homeland Security Act has taken care of that nagging problem by indemnifying the drug companies. Currently the price and burden of care falls on families and the State.
To be fair to the drug companies, there could be several environmental factors that have a cumulative effect on children. Pregnant women and children, for example, can be exposed to mercury from fish, amalgam dental fillings and vaccines. Children can also be exposed to arsenic and chromium in pressure-treated wood, lead in paint, and metals in soil and drinking water. There's also a study that shows the closer children live downwind to a coal fired power plant, the higher the rate of autism and ADD. Asa you may recall, Maine gets almost half its mercury burden from coal fired power plants outside its borders.
To be fair to the other side, in 2004 the Institute of Medicine issued a report stating that it did not believe that vaccines contributed to the development of autism. Dr. James didn't look at the vaccine question for the current study. She said that autism is believed to have a genetic basis, but that it "takes an environmental trigger to bring out the genetics." In medspeak that's a powerful statement.
Then there's the case against the triple vaccine known as MMR or measles, mumps and rubella. Mercury free but still linked to possible combinations, informed parents are trying to avoid giving the triple dose. Given one at a time (as they used to be) children can handle excreting the metal carriers, it's the triple dose at one time that may have a causative effect.
So, the debate has gone on for some time. Is autism, ADD and other nervous disorders caused by genetics or environmental factors? Recent studies are not only clarifying that debate but pointing the way to a potential cure. In an attempt to correct their metabolic imbalance, Dr. James (who used to work for the FDA) gave some of the study participants supplements of folinic acid, a form of folic acid, and vitamin B-12. Their glutathione measurements then improved.
Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Virginia Medical School, said she has given similar supplements to many autistic children and noticed a marked improvement in some. "I don't mean to imply that I can cure autism, but for a subset the results can be dramatic," Mumper said. That's medspeak for `try this, looks like it works.'
David Kirby, a reporter for the NY Times, has written a book entitled Evidence of Harm : Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy. This is a well written, balanced look and I recommend it.