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zkoc2076
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02 Sep 2014, 6:14 am

Worming our way to autism halt
The Courier - Mail [Brisbane, Qld] 16 June 2014: 12.

"THE humble pig could hold the key to saving people suffering from arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and autism.

It was when I was researching articles about pigs for a paper.

Worming our way to autism halt
The Courier - Mail [Brisbane, Qld] 16 June 2014: 12.

Medical experts are excited at the unlikely new hope a parasitic worm found in pigs is offering across a suite of illnesses and ailments.

University of Melbourne has for the first time mapped the genes of the pig whipworm, which could lead to new drugs and treatments for auto-immune disorders.

The pig whipworm causes death in livestock, but it does not harm humans, and there is even evidence it can lessen symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

Already the pig whipworm is being used as medicine for treating inflammatory bowel diseases.The paper, published in the journal Nature Genetics today, states that understanding the worm's genetic make-up should enable the design of urgently needed drugs to treat the human form of the disease."
8O

Perpatuating the idea that autism needs to be cured and eradicated - and the fact that inside the article mentiones MS athritis and bowel disease, but chooses in the headline to only mention autism is even more disturbing - i.e. I get the impression from it (though I may be misunderstanding) that autism is worse/needs to be eliminated more than MS or athritis?!



AmethystRose
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02 Sep 2014, 4:10 pm

zkoc2076 wrote:
[. . .]
Perpatuating the idea that autism needs to be cured and eradicated - and the fact that inside the article mentiones MS athritis and bowel disease, but chooses in the headline to only mention autism is even more disturbing - i.e. I get the impression from it (though I may be misunderstanding) that autism is worse/needs to be eliminated more than MS or athritis?!

I have a feeling, call it a "hunch," that they chose to put autism in the title because it's attention-grabbing, and then didn't include the medical disorders due to space limitations.
Pretty annoying and ignorant. :-/



Sweetleaf
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04 Sep 2014, 12:05 am

ewww, no parasitic worms for me thank you very much.


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AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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06 Sep 2014, 11:28 pm

I think there's been at least one controlled study that pig whipworms help about 50% of people with some specific inflammatory bowel condition. The thinking is that the worms help to moderate the immune system by evoking a truce response. Okay, so be it.

It's quite a stretch between that an autism. One dad has a web page where he says whipworms help his teenage son who's on the spectrum. Again, it's pig whipworms. They only live about three weeks in a human being. The boy drinks this kind of grainy or sandy drink. So, it's like taking medicince every three weeks. (and the fact that his son is a teenager brings up some real ethical issues)

The pig whipworms aren't going to really hurt a human being. The primary harm with way out medicine is that you might neglect what's useful. You might over hope and overinvest in the long shot and not pursue and work with the positive things which will make a difference.

===========

Now, the really important things about self-advocacy. I want to be appreciated for the human being that I am. I want it understood widely and in the gut that persons on the autism spectrum have a whole lot to contribute. And it will help if society at large takes a deep breath and loosens up overly narrow job criteria and overly narrow criteria and rules about school admissions.

And even if it's the case that for **some** persons on the spectrum, their autism has an autoimmune condition as a quote-unquote cause, I am an adult. Any changes in my personhood need to be my choice. And a doctor would have to explain things a heck of a lot better and a heck of a lot more respectfully than doctors typically do. More realistically, I would take a pause and not make a decision right away. I'd bounce some ideas off other people in the Autism Spectrum community. And maybe a second visit to a second doctor.

And if parents want to pursue a cure, fine, but they shouldn't do this desperately in a hope upon hope manner. They should seek from a position of strength, knowing their child has broad acceptance just as he or she is.



riley
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07 Sep 2014, 4:29 am

There is a subset of autistics that do have auto-immune and gut problems so I am all for anything that may lesson symptoms if there is a medical cause. If there is a medical cause suspected then treating that is helping them be more who they really are.