I am sorry if I offended anybody. However, from the horse's mouth ?
Public release date: 8-Jul-2008
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Contact: Sonja Mak
s.mak@update.europe.at
43-140-55734
European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
The first autism disease genes
This release is available in Spanish.
The autistic disorder, a neurodevelopmental disease first described in 1943, represents a challenge for treatment and a puzzle for research. Alongside Asperger syndrome, a milder form of the disorder, autism is classified in the continuum of various Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), all of which are characterized by deficits in language, social interaction, and a strangely restricted and repetitive behaviour (stereotypy). Disease onset occurs during the first three years of life. The earlier the disorder is diagnosed, the sooner the child can be helped through treatment interventions, but unfortunately detection is often delayed. In a vast majority of cases, no disease causes can be identified.
Recent advances in autism research have been fuelled by an increased interest in genetics, and the latest developments point to genetic factors playing a prominent role in the causes of ASD.
Professor Marion Leboyer of the Psychiatry Genetic Team INSERM and director of the specialized French research foundation for psychiatric disorders, Fondation FondaMental, Paris, will present the compelling neurobiological story of discovering the first autism genes. Thereby she will highlight new findings on the role of gene mutations, their association with synapse abnormalities, and – surprisingly – a connection between circadian rhythms and autism risk. These insights will nurture applied projects on the development of new therapeutic strategies.
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SPEAKER: Professor Marion Leboyer, Psychiatry Genetic Team INSERM, University of Paris; Fondation FondaMental, Paris, France
For further information please come to the press conference on 1 September 2008 in Barcelona, Spain!
I realize it is a condition, but a condition that is brought on by some mutation from what is "normal" Normal is a whole new battle, and I don't consider myself normal. Normal is a statisical average of the population sampled.
However, it is becoming apparent, if you read the scientific journals and releases, that they are also attributing autism to environmental problems.
As for the heavy metals possibly causing it:
Heavy metals may be implicated in autism
30 May 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
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URINE samples from hundreds of French children have yielded evidence for a link between autism and exposure to heavy metals. If validated, the findings might mean some cases of autism could be treated with drugs that purge the body of heavy metals.
Samples from children with autism contained abnormally high levels of a family of proteins called porphyrins, which are precursors in the production of haem, the oxygen-carrying component in haemoglobin. Heavy metals block haem production, causing porphyrins to accumulate in urine. Concentrations of one molecule, coproporphyrin, were 2.6 times as high in urine from children with autism as in controls.
Autism is thought to have a number of unknown genetic and environmental causes. Richard Lathe of Pieta Research in Edinburgh, UK, says he has found one of these factors. "It's highly likely that heavy metals are responsible for childhood autistic disorder in a majority of cases," he claims. The study will appear in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology.
Lathe says these porphyrin metabolites bind to receptors in the brain and have been linked with epilepsy and autism.
The researchers restored porphyrin concentrations to normal in 12 children by treating them with "chelation" drugs that mop up heavy metals and are then excreted. It is not yet known whether the children's symptoms have eased, but Lathe cites anecdotal reports suggesting the drugs might do some good.
From issue 2553 of New Scientist magazine, 30 May 2006, page 21
and
Heavy Metal Toxicity in Autism
Contributing to the greatest number of RECOVERED autistic children (when coupled with good nutrition), metal detoxification appears to be a major piece of the puzzle for autism. Since autistic individuals seem to lack the ability to rid themselves of heavy metal toxins (such as mercury), they may not even test positive for those toxins. Chelation therapy (to eliminate heavy metals) shows that many of these children have a toxic load, because these metals appear to "spike" during subsequent toxicology tests.
I have a hundred other medical references to heavy metals and autism.
BTW, I also have a medical study from Kuwait that shows the link to heavy metals. Right now the Middle East is showing far higher autism for their children than anywhere else in the world. It is rampant, and spiked soon after the first invasion of Kuwait and Saddam burning the oil wells in that country. The belief is the that the toxic spills and fumes from those burning oil wells (hundreds of them) polluted the air so bad that it affected the children and the children to be born.
I am merely pointing out that I might have some method of helping children with this condition and that if anyone knows anybody that wants to investigate it, please have them get hold of me through this forum..There will be proper medical studies done on it and reports, so that people can judge for themselves. Don't expect the main line medical establishment to come out with a cure tomorrow, they are making way too much money off of what they are prescribing and the medical consultations and the research.
I am sorry that the use of autism and disease offended you. Maybe you should yell at the doctors and the CDC and everyone else that uses that term and correct them. Maybe have it removed from the medical dictionary and lexicons that are used by doctors and everyone else.
I believe that the condition of autism is mainly caused by the toxins in our environs, and that people ignore this with their head stuck in the sand. This does no one any good.
05 Sep 2008, 5:06 pm
