AHRP on board the vaccine-autism link - article

[Guest guest]

For those who don't know the Alliance for Human Research Protection:

This may seem like old news but this healthcare blog and the

organization's members are very influential in certain circles. One

board member, Dr. Herbert Needleman, discovered the method of

testing for otherwise invisible levels of lead poisoning from

desiduous baby teeth, a fact that Aposhian cites in Day 1 of the

Omnibus. Another board member, Dr. Ephrem, is an

antithimerosal activist. The founder, Vera Sharav, is involved in

litgation to force Lilly to divulge internal memos divulging what

the company knew about drug risks.

I thought they'd be following the Omnibus and GR's articles, but I

haven't been seeing much from them lately. I'm not sure why they

include the NIH study about BMI and ASD. Maybe something about it

leads back to vaccines as the culprit, maybe not. I'm just glad this

healthcare blog is aiming right at the issue.

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)

Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

http://www.ahrp.org <http://www.ahrp.org/> and

http://ahrp.blogspot.com

<http://ahrp.blogspot.com/>

FYI

This generation will go down in history as the generation that

condemned its

children to suffer neurological damage from commercially dictated,

government-supported (or mandated) medicines and vaccines.

The Center for Disease Control mandated infant vaccinations has more

than

tripled between 1983 (10 vaccines were required) to 2004 (36 vaccines

required by the CDC). During this period, there has been an

explosion in

neurological disorders like ADHD and autism, particularly in boys,

who

represent 4 out of 5 cases.

Families of autistic children are gathering compelling evidence

linking

childhood vaccines to the growing epidemic of autism.

A market research survey commissioned by a parent organization,

Generation

Rescue, found that in a sample of 17,000 U.S. children--vaccinated

boys had

more than a 2.5-times greater rate of neurological disorders than

unvaccinated boys.

-- " Among more than 9,000 boys age 4-17, vaccinated boys were 2.5

times (155

%) more likely to have neurological disorders, 224 % more likely to

have

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and 61% more likely to have

autism. "

-- " For older vaccinated boys in the 11-17 age bracket, the results

were

even more pronounced. Vaccinated boys were 158 % more likely to have

a

neurological disorder, 317 % more likely to have ADHD, and 112 %

more likely

to have autism. "

Handley said he believes the higher results for the older boys are

probably

more complete because not every child in the younger age group would

have

received a formal diagnosis.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., stated: " Generation Rescue's

study is

impressive and forcefully raises some serious questions about the

relationship between vaccines and autism, " Maloney said. " What is

ultimately

needed to resolve this issue one way or the other is a comprehensive

national study of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. "

She has reintroduced a bill first submitted last year calling for the

National Institutes of Health to conduct a study such as this.

" The parents behind Generation Rescue only want information. These

parents

deserve more than roadblocks, they deserve answers. We can and

should move

forward in search of those answers. "

See: http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/070626.pdf

Another study published on line in Clinical Endocrinology, reports

boys with

autism found that boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder had

higher

levels of hormones involved with growth in comparison to boys who do

not

have autism. L. Mills, M.D., a senior investigator in the

Division of

Epidemiology, at the National Institute of Child Health & Development

(NICHD) said that future studies could investigate whether the

higher levels

of growth hormones seen in children with autism could be directly

related to

the development of the condition itself.

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

212-595-8974

veracare@... <mailto:veracare@...>

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science & article=UPI-1-

2007062

6-16403000-bc-ageofautism.xml

The Age of Autism: Study sees vaccine risk

Science Daily

June 26, 2007

by DAN OLMSTED

WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- A new, privately funded survey finds

vaccinated

U.S. children have a significantly higher risk of neurological

disorders --

including autism -- than unvaccinated children.

In one striking finding, vaccinated boys 11-17 were more than twice

as

likely to have autism as their never- vaccinated counterparts.

The telephone survey of parents representing a total of 17,000

children

appears to be the first of its kind -- and contrasts starkly with

several

government- backed studies that have found no risk from vaccines.

" No one has ever compared prevalence rates of these neurological

disorders

between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, " said J.B. Handley,

father of

a child with autism and co-founder of Generation Rescue, which

commissioned

the $200,000 survey conducted by Survey USA, a respected marketing

firm.

" The phone survey isn't perfect, but these numbers point to the need

for a

comprehensive national study to gather this critical information.

" We have heard some speculation that unvaccinated children would be

difficult to locate, " Handley said. " But we were able to find more

than

enough in our sample of more than 17,000 children to establish

confidence

intervals at or above 95 percent for the primary comparisons we

made. "

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., reintroduced a bill

first

submitted last year calling for the National Institutes of Health to

conduct

such a study.

" Generation Rescue's study is impressive and forcefully raises some

serious

questions about the relationship between vaccines and autism, "

Maloney said.

" What is ultimately needed to resolve this issue one way or the

other is a

comprehensive national study of vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

" The parents behind Generation Rescue only want information. These

parents

deserve more than roadblocks, they deserve answers. We can and

should move

forward in search of those answers. "

Both Maloney and Handley said their efforts were sparked by Age of

Autism

columns that found anecdotal, unscientific evidence of less autism

among the

Amish, who have a lower vaccination rate. The column also reported on

Homefirst Health Services in Chicago, whose director said there is

no autism

or asthma among several thousand never-vaccinated children who were

home-delivered and remain patients of the family practice. The U.S.

autism

rate is 1 in 150 children, according to the Centers for Disease

Control and

Prevention.

A spokesman for the CDC, which recommends the childhood immunization

schedule and has conducted studies that found no link to autism,

said the

agency has not seen the Generation Rescue data.

" We look forward to learning more about the survey, " spokesman

Curtis

said. " It's important to note that self-report surveys on topics

like this

often have significant limitations, so one must be cautious with

respect to

interpreting the findings.

" It's also important to note that previous studies involving

hundreds of

thousands of children have failed to find an association. "

Generation Rescue's Handley, however, said those studies never

compared

vaccinated with unvaccinated American children. He also said his

survey took

its cue from the CDC's own phone-survey approach to estimating the

incidence

of such disorders among American children.

" Listening to the CDC talk about the reliability of parent

reporting, we

thought there's a quick way to get a proxy for whether or not

there's any

truth to the hypotheses that vaccines and all these neurological

disorders

are related, " Handley said. His organization believes that mercury,

including a type used for decades in routine childhood

immunizations, is a

major factor in the ten-fold increase in reported autism cases over

the past

20 years.

Handley said the survey, conducted in nine counties in Oregon and

California, asked parents " whether their child had been vaccinated,

and

whether that child had one or more of the following diagnoses:

attention

deficit disorder, ADHD, Asperger's syndrome, Pervasive Development

Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, or autism. "

Results highlighted by Generation Rescue:

-- " Among more than 9,000 boys age 4-17, vaccinated boys were 2.5

times (155

percent) more likely to have neurological disorders, 224 percent

more likely

to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and 61 percent

more likely

to have autism. "

-- " For older vaccinated boys in the 11-17 age bracket, the results

were

even more pronounced. Vaccinated boys were 158 percent more likely

to have a

neurological disorder, 317 percent more likely to have ADHD, and 112

percent

more likely to have autism. "

Handley said he believes the higher results for the older boys are

probably

more complete because not every child in the younger age group would

have

received a formal diagnosis.

Concern that vaccines are linked to the rise of autism and other

neurodevelopmental disorders has been largely dismissed by public

health

officials and mainstream medical groups, especially since a 2004

report by

the respected Institute of Medicine found no such evidence -- and

suggested

research money go to more " promising " areas.

But parents -- some of whom say they watched their children regress

into

autism immediately following physical reactions to vaccines -- have

continued to press the issue. A U.S. vaccine court in Washington is

currently hearing argument over whether nearly 5,000 such claims

should be

paid by a federal vaccine injury compensation fund.

Handley said the fact that his organization could produce such a

study on a

relative shoestring while the U.S. government has not suggests it is

hesitant to confront the possible ramifications.

Two years ago CDC Director Dr. Gerberding told UPI that " such

studies

could and should be done " but offered several reasons why they might

prove

difficult, including the variability of autism diagnoses, possible

genetic

differences in the Amish and the small number of never-vaccinated

children

in the United States.

" They haven't lifted a penny since then, " Handley said.

~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627094625.htm

Science Daily

Boys With Autism, Related Disorders, Have High Levels Of Growth

Hormones

Science Daily - Boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder had

higher

levels of hormones involved with growth in comparison to boys who do

not

have autism, reported researchers from the National Institutes of

Health,

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cincinnati

Children's

Hospital and the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine.

The researchers believe that the higher hormone levels might explain

the

greater head circumference seen in many children with autism. Earlier

studies had reported that many children with autism have very rapid

head

growth in early life, leading to a proportionately larger head

circumference

than children who do not have autism.

The researchers found that, in addition to a larger head

circumference, the

boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder who took part in the

current

study were heavier than boys without these conditions.

" The study authors have uncovered a promising new lead in the quest

to

understand autism, " said Duane , M.D., Director of the

National

Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the NIH institute

that

funded the study. " Future research will determine whether the higher

hormone

levels the researchers observed are related to abnormal head growth

as well

as to other features of autism. "

Autism is a complex developmental disorder that includes problems

with

social interaction and communication. The term autism spectrum

disorder

(ASD) refers to individuals who have a less severe form of autism.

The study was published on line in Clinical Endocrinology.

The researchers compared the height, weight, head circumference and

levels

of growth-related hormones to growth and maturation in 71 boys with

autism

and with ASD to a group of 59 boys who did not have these conditions.

The investigators found that the boys with autism had higher levels

of two

hormones that directly regulate growth (insulin-like growth factors

1 and

2). These growth-related hormones stimulate cellular growth. The

researchers

did not measure the boys' levels of human growth hormone, which for

technical reasons is difficult to evaluate.

The boys with autism also had higher levels of other hormones

related to

growth, such as insulin-like growth factor binding protein and growth

hormone binding protein.

In addition to greater head circumference, the boys with autism and

those

with autism spectrum disorders weighed more and had a higher body

mass index

(BMI). BMI is a ratio of a person's weight and height. A higher BMI

often

indicates that a person is overweight or obese. The boys' higher BMI

may be

related to their higher hormone levels, said the study's principal

investigator, NICHD's L. Mills, M.D., a senior investigator in

the

Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research's

Epidemiology

Branch. Dr. Mills and his coworkers also found that there was no

difference

in height between the two groups of boys.

The levels of growth-related hormones were significantly higher in

the boys

with autism even after the researchers compensated for the fact that

higher

levels of these hormones would be expected in children with a

greater BMI.

" The higher growth-related hormone levels are not a result of the

boys with

autism simply being heavier, " said Dr. Mills.

While it has long been noted that many children with autism have a

larger

head circumference than other children, few studies have investigated

whether these children are also taller and heavier, Dr. Mills added.

Researchers analyzed medical records and blood samples from 71 boys

diagnosed with autism and ASD who were patients at Cincinnati

Children's

Hospital Medical Center from March 2002 to February 2004. The

researchers

compared the information on the boys with autism and autism spectrum

disorders to other boys treated for other conditions at the hospital

and who

do not have autism. Children with conditions that may have affected

their

growth - such as being born severely premature, long-term illness,

or the

genetic condition Fragile X were not included in the study. Girls

are much

less likely to develop autism than are boys, and the researchers

were unable

to recruit a sufficient number of girls with autism to participate

in the

study.

Dr. Mills explained that the bone age of the boys with autism - the

bone

development assessed by taking X-rays and comparing the size and

shape of

the bones to similarly-aged children - were not more advanced in the

group

of boys with autism. For this reason, Dr. Mills and his coworkers

ruled out

the possibility that they were merely maturing more rapidly than

were the

other boys.

Dr. Mills said that future studies could investigate whether the

higher

levels of growth hormones seen in children with autism could be

directly

related to the development of the condition itself.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by

NIH/National

Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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