Re: Ban Sesame Street & Barney; Not Thimerosal in Vaccines

[Guest guest]

Why do some of these researchers persist in raising B.S. questions? What other "associations" could they come up with? The authors looked at indirect views such as weather and cable penetration rates because there was no data to track autism against how much time children spend watching TV. If they can't track autism against how much time children actually spent watching TV, why do this study at all? It's like Fombonne doing an "ecological" vaccine study to rule out an association between thimerosal in vaccines and ASD, without actually looking at the vaccine records of the children who were diagnosed with ASD's, and going by what the current immunization schedule was at the time.What can a study like that tell you? Only what you want to read into it! Aasa http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/1/e139 " J. Krakow" <rkrakow@...> wrote: "The analysis shows that early childhood television viewing could be an environmental trigger for the onset of autism and strongly points to the need for more research by experts in the field of autism,"[i am sure the NIH will get right on this lead to another "environmental trigger"] rjkhttp://www.nbc6.net/health/10088353/detail.htmlTV Watching Tied To Autism, Study SaysPOSTED: 3:01 pm EDT October 16, 2006 Researchers from Cornell University said they have discovered a link between TV watching and autism.The authors looked at county-by-county information on when cable TV

entered an area, as well as precipitation rates. The analysis showed that children from rainy counties watch more television and that areas with high precipitation also had higher autism rates."The analysis shows that early childhood television viewing could be an environmental trigger for the onset of autism and strongly points to the need for more research by experts in the field of autism," said Waldman, a professor of economics at Cornell's Graduate School of Management.A news release from Cornell reported that the autism rate was 1 in 2,500 children 30 years ago, but has increased to as high as 1 in 166 as TV viewing has increased. The authors looked at indirect views such as weather and cable penetration rates because there was no data to track autism against how much time children spend watching TV. "Our analysis is not definitive, but it certainly raises

questions that seem to have gone unasked in autism research to date," said Nicholson, an associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell.

[Guest guest]

> They're not necessarily irrelevant.

> Many are designed to mislead.

Yep, in a court of law they speak of " beyond a reasonable doubt " etc.

Studies like this help cast that shadow of doubt.

Can't you hear the closing arguments in the thimerasal proceedings

now....

" Seriously jurors, just what is it that causes autism? Is it tuna

fish? is it mercury emissions? is it chemical xyz? is it vaccines? We

just don't know for sure...and there are plenty of studies to cast a

serious doubt that vaccines play any role....

I don't have an autistic child, and my vaccine-injured child is NT

today, thus I have no legal or insurance interests in this...it's just

so unbelievable to watch the EOH battle play out.

Hope I live another 60 years to see what the historians write on this

topic then. Maybe by then the truth will finally emerge and be

accepted by all.

[Guest guest]

They've learned well from tobacco and asbestos litigations.

And they control the information!

Re: Ban Sesame Street & Barney; Not Thimerosal in Vaccines

> They're not necessarily irrelevant.> Many are designed to mislead.Yep, in a court of law they speak of "beyond a reasonable doubt" etc. Studies like this help cast that shadow of doubt. Can't you hear the closing arguments in the thimerasal proceedings now...."Seriously jurors, just what is it that causes autism? Is it tuna fish? is it mercury emissions? is it chemical xyz? is it vaccines? We just don't know for sure...and there are plenty of studies to cast a serious doubt that vaccines play any role....I don't have an autistic child, and my vaccine-injured child is NT today, thus I have no legal or insurance interests in this...it's just so unbelievable to watch the EOH battle play out.Hope I live another 60 years to see what the historians write on this topic then. Maybe by then the truth will finally emerge and be accepted by all.

[Guest guest]

I wonder if wearing disposable diapers could be an environmental

trigger, or eating Gerber baby food? Hmmmmm...someone should do a

study...

>

> " The analysis shows that early childhood television viewing could be

an

> environmental trigger for the onset of autism and strongly points to

> the need for more research by experts in the field of autism, "

>

> [i am sure the NIH will get right on this lead to another

> " environmental trigger " ] rjk

[Guest guest]

Who feels like doing the research: are the authors ( Waldman

and Nicholson) dirty, or is it Cornell?

[Guest guest]

The School at Cornell University does have several pharmaceutical companies as "corporate partners". Aasa http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/corporate/visitingexec.html <jw4994@...> wrote: Who feels like doing the research: are the authors ( Waldman and Nicholson) dirty, or is it Cornell?

[Guest guest]

The School at Cornell University does have several pharmaceutical companies as "corporate partners". Aasa http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/corporate/visitingexec.html <jw4994@...> wrote: Who feels like doing the research: are the authors ( Waldman and Nicholson) dirty, or is it Cornell?

[Guest guest]

Including Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer and Wyeth.

> Who feels like doing the research: are the authors

( Waldman

> and Nicholson) dirty, or is it Cornell?

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Remember this goofy study by Cornell University economists about a

year ago that correlated higher rates of autism with watching more

TV. Well, the authors never actually measured the amount of TV those

kids watched. They knew from prior research that children tend to

watch more TV on rainy days. (Kids also tend to wear raincoats on

rainy days and step in puddles on rainy days and I think those

factors are no more ridiculous to consider as contributing to autism

than the TV watching theory). According to an article at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061017150526.htm

about that dumb study,

" When autism rates were then compared between rainy and drier

counties, the relationship between high precipitation and levels of

autism was positive. "

and

" They find that current school-aged children who live in California,

Oregon, and Washington counties that received large amounts of rain

and snow when the children were young are more likely to be

diagnosed with autism. "

Maybe the lack of sunshine and vitamin D is a contributing factor.

A new group about vitamin D and autism started this week at

AutismD3

Some other interesting articles regarding vitamin D and issues

common in kids with ASDs.

Effect of Vitamin D on the Utilization of Zinc,

Cadmium and Mercury in the Chick

N. A. Worker and B. B. Migicovsky

Journal of Nutrition Vol. 75 No. 2 October 1961, pp. 222-224

Free full-text at

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/75/2/222

Interesting that supplementing D helps absorption of zinc and cadmium

(as well as calcium) but not mercury according to this old study.

The last line of the abstract below is especially interesting given

that the s Hopkins autism autopsy analyses point to microglial

activation as their most consistent finding. A summary of the

Hopkins research is at

http://www.neuro.jhmi.edu/neuroimmunopath/autism_faqs.htm

Biochem Soc Trans. 2005 Aug;33(Pt 4):573-7.

Evidence that vitamin D3 reverses age-related inflammatory changes

in the rat hippocampus.

ME, Piazza A, McCartney Y, Lynch MA.

Department of Physiology and Trinity College Institute of

Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.

One of the major challenges in neuroscience is to identify the

changes which accompany aging and which contribute to the well-

documented age-related deterioration in cognitive function. This is

a particular challenge in the light of the vast array of reported

changes, which include morphological changes like synaptic and

perhaps cell loss, alteration in membrane composition and the

resultant changes in function of membrane proteins, modulation of

the hypothalamo-pituitary axis, impaired calcium homoeostatic

mechanisms, alteration in enzyme function and decreased

neurotransmitter release. In the past few years, evidence suggesting

that an aged brain exhibits signs of oxidative stress and

inflammatory stress has been accumulating, and recent evidence using

microarray analysis has added support to this view. In this paper,

we provide evidence to suggest that vitamin D3 acts as an anti-

inflammatory agent and reverses the age-related increase in

microglial activation and the accompanying increase in IL-1beta

(interleukin-1beta) concentration.

PMID: 16042547

and finally

J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2000 Nov;106(5):981-5.

Additive immunosuppressive effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and

corticosteroids on TH1, but not TH2, responses.

Jirapongsananuruk O, Melamed I, Leung DY.

Division of Pediatric Allergy-Immunology, National Jewish Medical

and Research Center, Denver, and Department of Pediatrics,

University of Colorado Health Science Center, Denver.

BACKGROUND: The biologic role of the vitamin D analogue 1, 25-

dihydroxyvitamin D(3), such as antiinflammatory functions, reduction

of cytokine production by T cells, and immunoglobulin production by

B cells, has been reported. Such immunomodulatory effects may be

potentially useful in dealing with autoimmunity and transplantation.

However, whether this hormone has an additive immunosuppressive

effect when it is used with corticosteroids has not been

investigated, although these agents are commonly used together.

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to investigate the additive

immunomodulatory effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) on lymphocyte

proliferation and cytokine production when used with

corticosteroids. METHODS: To investigate the additive effects of 1,

25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) and dexamethasone on suppression of

lymphocyte proliferation, normal PBMCs were cultured in anti-CD3

with or without different concentrations of dexamethasone (0-10(-7)

mol/L) plus or minus different concentrations of 1, 25-

dihydroxyvitamin D(3) (0-10(-6) mol/L). After 3 days, lymphocyte

proliferation was assessed by [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation. To

investigate the additive effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) and

dexamethasone on cytokine production, PBMCs were cultured for 3 days

in the presence of anti-CD3 with or without 10(-6) mol/L

dexamethasone plus or minus 10(-6) mol/L 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3).

IFN-gamma, IL-5, and IL-13 production in supernatants were measured

by ELISA. RESULTS: Our study demonstrated that, at concentrations of

10(-8), 10(-7), and 10(-6) mol/L, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3)

significantly decreased lymphocyte proliferation compared with an

ethanol control (P <.05). The IC(50) for dexamethasone was 4 x 10(-

9) mol/L in culture without 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3.) When 10(-9)

mol/L of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) was added to cultures with

dexamethasone, IC(50) became 2 x 10(-9) mol/L. Moreover, when 10(-

6), 10(-7), and 10(-8) mol/L of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) were

added in culture with dexamethasone, IC(50) became less than 1 x 10(-

9) mol/L. IFN-gamma production in culture with either dexamethasone

or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) was significantly decreased compared

with media or ethanol control (P <.0001). Moreover, when both agents

were added in the same culture, IFN-gamma production was further

decreased compared with either agent alone (P <.05). In contrast,

1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) significantly (P <. 0001) increased IL-5

and IL-13, whereas dexamethasone significantly decreased these 2

cytokines (P <.0005). When 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) was combined

with dexamethasone, IL-5 and IL-13 production was increased compared

with dexamethasone alone (P <.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results

demonstrate that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) has significant additive

effects on dexamethasone-mediated inhibition of lymphocyte

proliferation. This hormone also has additive effects on inhibition

of T(H)1 cytokine production when combined with dexamethasone.

However, this hormone upregulates T(H)2 cytokines and inhibits

steroid-mediated suppression of cytokines. These findings

demonstrate the potential use of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) as an

immunosuppressive agent when combined with corticosteroids in T(H)1,

but not T(H)2, immune responses.

Vance

>

> " The analysis shows that early childhood television viewing could

be an

> environmental trigger for the onset of autism and strongly points

to

> the need for more research by experts in the field of autism, "

>

> [i am sure the NIH will get right on this lead to another

> " environmental trigger " ] rjk

>

>

> http://www.nbc6.net/health/10088353/detail.html

>

> TV Watching Tied To Autism, Study Says

> POSTED: 3:01 pm EDT October 16, 2006

>  

> Researchers from Cornell University said they have discovered a

link

> between TV watching and autism.

> The authors looked at county-by-county information on when cable

TV

> entered an area, as well as precipitation rates.

>  

> The analysis showed that children from rainy counties watch more

> television and that areas with high precipitation also had higher

> autism rates.

>

> " The analysis shows that early childhood television viewing could

be an

> environmental trigger for the onset of autism and strongly points

to

> the need for more research by experts in the field of autism, "

said

> Waldman, a professor of economics at Cornell's

Graduate

> School of Management.

> A news release from Cornell reported that the autism rate was 1 in

> 2,500 children 30 years ago, but has increased to as high as 1 in

166

> as TV viewing has increased.

>  

> The authors looked at indirect views such as weather and cable

> penetration rates because there was no data to track autism

against how

> much time children spend watching TV.

>  

> " Our analysis is not definitive, but it certainly raises questions

that

> seem to have gone unasked in autism research to date, " said

> Nicholson, an associate professor of policy analysis and

management at

> Cornell.

>

[Guest guest]

A friend has had her 13 yr old daughter on 40,000A/1,600D3 from fish

liver oil for about a month. She has been so amazed she calls me every

couple of days to tell me something knew she's doing.

Incidentally, I started taking half that daily about 2 wks ago and my

psoriasis is SIGNIFICANTLY better. It cycles every so often so hard to

tell if it's the FLO or not, but I'm leaning toward yes, time will tell.

Debi

> Maybe the lack of sunshine and vitamin D is a contributing factor.

> A new group about vitamin D and autism started this week at

>

>