New Autism Cure - breakthrough treatments and cures for autism

Despite its discovery over 100 years ago, the H1N1 virus came alive 5 months ago. Prior to that, talk of the virus, more commonly referred to as “Swine Flu”, was reserved for medical journals and text books until the massive outbreak in April 2009. By the middle of this year, over one-million cases of the Swine Flu had been diagnosed.

When word of a vaccine was heard, there was a nationwide sigh of relief. Millions of doses of the vaccine were produced and sent off to various medical facilities for immediate use. Men and women rushed to get both themselves and their children vaccinated.

When introduced to a medication or vaccine that can treat or prevent illness, it is a rarity that we do much more than quickly glance at the side effects. For example, it is common knowledge that taking over-the-counter pain-killers can cause stomach irritation. However, if a severe toothache needs treatment, it is often the case that one would rather deal with minor stomach pains than the agony of a toothache. What happens though, when a vaccine used to prevent an illness carries the same side effects and potential dangers as the illness itself?

Along with the common flu symptoms of coughing, fatigue, nausea and body aches, Swine Flu can also cause neurological damage. This is especially true in young children and unborn babies. If a pregnant woman develops Swine Flu, the virus is known to attack the genes that control growth, often resulting in the newborn developing Autism. That being said, It seems to be a no-brainer that pregnant women and parents of young children should head directly to their doctor and get the vaccination, right?

Maybe not.

One of the ingredients in the Swine Flu and most all vaccines is Mercury; more specifically Thimerosal which serves as a preservative. It has already been determined that Mercury and many of its forms can cause Autism and other neurological disorders just as the flu itself does.

This poses the difficult question: Do you avoid the vaccination due to its damaging side effects and live on the hope that your child will not get the often deadly flu? Or, do you get the vaccination and inject yourself and/or your child with an element known to cause neurological damage and autism?

The answer to the question simply depends on your personal opinion. Does the risk of the vaccine outweigh the risk of the flu? The benefits and risks are definitely something to bring up with a trusted physician so you can more accurately make the decision based on your individual situation.

With another flu season quickly approaching, the first batches of the Swine Flu vaccine will be hitting doctor’s offices by mid-October. 195 Million doses of the vaccine will be distributed and administered. It is said also that each person will need two doses of the vaccine to be properly protected against the flu.

The Center for Disease Control claims that there will be a Mercury-free vaccine in both injection and nasal spray forms, though it is uncertain when it will be available.

Last week, I looked at how genetic abnormalities may be linked to autism and today I’m going to take that a bit further and look at the link between the genetic codes, autoimmune diseases, autism and gluten - an interesting recipe!

Some researchers are suggesting that there is a link between parents who suffer with auto-immune diseases like lupus, type 1 diabetes, Graves’ Disease or Hashimoto’s Disease, celiac disease and autoimmune adrenal insufficiency, and children who have autism spectrum disorders. These scientists believe that a parent’s autoimmune deficiency can make their child more susceptible to autism spectrum disorders in the following ways:-

• Toxins or pathogens may be able to damage the developing brain of the developing child.
• A pathogen may trigger an autoimmune response that could interfere with normal brain functioning.
• In utero, the mother’s immune deficiency may allow a pathogen to damage the brain of the fetus directly or by triggering an immune response in the mother that then “creates pathogenesis in the fetal brain” - see Utah State University’s Study “Possible Immunogenetic Basis for Autism” http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/79073/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0.

Two studies - “Familial Clustering of Autoimmune Disorders and Evaluation of Medical Risk Factors in Autism” by J Child Neurol (1999) and “Increased Prevalence of Familial Autoimmunity in Probands with Pervasive Developmental Disorders” T L Sweeten et al. (2003)suggested that there is a link between a family history of autoimmune disorders and autistic children because autistic children are more likely to have a family history of autoimmune disorders than healthy children in a control group. It was found that over 40% of families with an autistic child had two or more close family members with an autoimmune disorder and that those with first-degree relatives, particularly their mothers, were most often affected.

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If you have read my previous blog posts, you will know that I do not believe that autism is caused by just one thing but that it is a multifactorial condition which can be caused by a number of factors -so, is genetics one of these factors?

Research Linking Genetic Defects and Autism

There is a significant amount of research out there that links autism spectrum disorders with genetic defects. Here’s what studies have found:-

• The work of geneticist Thomas Bourgeron - Bourgeron, a French geneticist, published a study in 2003 that showed that families of several autistic children had mutations in the NLGN3 and NLGN4X genes which led to a complete loss of function in these genes, triggering autism in the children. These two genes are responsible for the manufacture of neuroligin proteins which are needed by the body for the structure of nerve cell contacts.
• Gottingen Study - A study in Gottingen, published in the scientific journal “Neuron” and in Science Daily in September 2006, like Bourgeron’s work, showed that neuroligin proteins are essential for transmitting signals between nerve cell functions and that the brains of genetically altered mice, which did not have neuroligins, did not function properly because the synapses (the contact points at which the nerve cells communicate) never matured. The researchers of this study concluded that autism patients suffer with similar malfunctions due to neuroligin mutations.
• The work of Mark J Daly - Research headed by geneticist Mark J Daly of Massachusetts General Hospital has found that the risk of autism is increased one-hundredfold by “deletions or duplications of a specific small segment of chromosome 16″. The research team found this genetic defect in autistic children but not their parents, which suggests that sometime after fertilization there was spontaneous mutation in the location 16p11.2, a location known as a “genetic hot spot” because it is so susceptible to mutations.
• A defect in the CNTNAP2 gene - Three different research groups all reported in January 2008 (in the American Journal of Human Genetics” that a defective CNTNAP2 gene (also known as contactin-associated protein-like 2) was linked to autism and that it increased the risk of autism by 20% in children who inherited the gene from their mothers, although a mutated gene could be inherited from the father too.
• The work of Eric Morrow and Christopher Walsh - Morrow and Walsh, who led a research team from Harvard University, found that a set of six genes that are linked to brain development in the first year of a baby’s life are abnormal in many children with autism. The researchers also made the breakthrough that these 6 genes were not always completely deleted in children with autism, but that in some cases mutations in the surrounding control regions of the children’s DNA were keeping the genes “switched off”. This was encouraging as it could mean that therapy or medication could be used to activate the genes and allow normal brain development.
• Mitochondrial Disease and Autism - Dr John Shoffner, president of Medical Neurogenetics and an associate professor of biology at Georgia University, completed a “retrospective analysis” of 37 autistic children and found that 65% of them had mitochondrial defects. In other large studies, Shoffner says that 20% of children with autism have been found to “have markers of mitochondrial disease in the blood”.
• Gene mutations in 27 different genetic regions linked to autism - Research by geneticists from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and other institutions, found that there are 27 different genetic regions in autistic children where there are missing or extra copies of DNA segments, but that these are not found in healthy children. It is thought that the combination of genetic deletions and duplications interferes with gene function, disrupting the production of the proteins needed for proper brain development.
• US National Institutes of Health Research - A report by BBC News stated that research funded by the US National Institutes of Health found that genetic factors play a strong role in autism and that autism cases could be cut  by 15% if one common genetic variant was corrected. The research found that genetic variants of two genes found on chromosome 5 were linked to autism spectrum disorders.

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We’ve all heard the saying “breast is best” and it is fantastic that women are being encouraged to breastfeed their babies because it has so many benefits for both mother and baby.

This month has been chosen by the US Department of Health and Human Services as National Breastfeeding Awareness Month and the department has launched a campaign to highlight the benefits of breastfeeding .

Breast fed babies are at a lower risk of:-

• Allergies
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Urinary tract infections
• Childhood leukemia
• Respiratory infections
• Ear infections
• Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus
• Necrotizing enterocolitis
• Obesity
• Infections

Women who have breastfed/are breastfeeding their babies:-

• Have a lower risk of contracting breast cancer, ovarian cancer and Type 2 Diabetes
• Are at a lower risk of Postpartum Depression
• Burn 500 calories a day by breastfeeding alone and so can return to their pre-pregnancy weight quicker
• Can save a significant amount of money when compared to those who buy formula - It is estimated that a breastfeeding mom can save between $1,160 and $3,915 depending on the brand of formula the comparison is made against.

Moms are advised to give their babies breastmilk alone for the first 6 months of life (i.e. no weaning) and to try and breastfeed for the baby’s first year.

Breastfeeding and Autism

But hasn’t breastfeeding been linked to an increased risk of autism?

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As you know, it is not known exactly what causes a child to develop an autism spectrum disorders and many doctors and scientists, myself included, believe that autism is a multi-factorial disorder, meaning that it can be caused by a number of different factors or a combination of factors. These factors can include environmental factors, genetics, vaccines, food intolerances and pregnancy and birth complications.

Today, I’m going to examine evidence that points to autism spectrum disorders being caused by complications at birth. In their book ” A Parent’s Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High-functioning Autism”, Sally Ozonoff, Geraldine Dawson and James McPartland talk about the link between complications in pregnancy, labor and birth, and autism spectrum disorders, saying that:

“A number of pregnancy, labor and delivery complications have been noted in the histories of children who later turn out to have autism spectrum disorders, such as maternal bleeding during pregnancy, high blood pressure in the mother leading to toxemia, prematurity, and oxygen deprivation during or shortly after birth.”

However, Ozonoff, Dawson and Mc Partland point out that these complications are also found in the birth histories of children with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, speech and language difficulties, and learning disabilities, so they wonder if actually these birth complications cause differences in the brain, rather than autism specifically, or whether actually it is the autism that causes the birth complications.

You might think that it is very strange to believe that it is the autism that causes the pregnancy and birth complications, rather than the other way round, but Ozonoff et al. point out that in the case of Down Syndrome (a disorder that is determined at conception), mothers of babies with Down Syndrome have a higher than average rate of experiencing pregnancy and delivery complications - interesting!

Studies into Birth Complications

There are, however, a number of studies which suggest a link between pregnancy, labor and delivery complications and autism. Here are four examples:-

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