FEAT: Stress Dramatically Increases Risk for Autism: Study 'Significant' * No Link Between Past Vaccines And Alzheimer's * Common Virus in Placenta Linked To 'Mental Defects' In Newborns

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Stress Dramatically Increases Risk for Autism: Study

'Significant' * No Link Between Past Vaccines And Alzheimer's * Common

Virus in Placenta Linked To 'Mental Defects' In Newborns

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RESEARCH

* Stress Dramatically Increases Risk for Autism: Study 'Significant'

* No Link Between Past Vaccines And Alzheimer's

* Common Virus in Placenta Linked To 'Mental Defects' In Newborns

Stress Dramatically Increases Risk for Autism: Study 'Significant'

NY Women told with irony not to be stressed by finding

[by Colette Bouchez.]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/hsn/20011227/hl/a_mother_lode_of_stress_1.html

HealthScoutNews - A woman who experiences major stressful events

between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy has a dramatically increased

risk of giving birth to a child with autism, new research says.

" These are major stressors we are talking about, like the death of a

loved one, the loss of a job or something extremely traumatic that occurs

specifically during these weeks of the pregnancy, " says lead study author

Dr. Beversdorf, assistant professor of neurology at Ohio State

University Medical Center.

Could the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 be among such major stressors?

Beversdorf says yes, but not for every woman.

" It depends on how each individual woman reacts to stress during her

pregnancy, what her level of stress was prior to becoming pregnant, what it

was during the pregnancy and what upsets her personally the most, "

Beversdorf says.

Dr. Paidas, director of the program of maternal-fetal medicine

at New York University Medical Center, says the study is significant but

that all women, particularly New York City women, shouldn't be frightened --

or stressed -- by the finding.

" There is so much human biologic variability that occurs that to be

able to say that we are going to see some structural change [in the baby]

and then say that this is related exactly to autism is going to be a

stretch, " says Paidas.

However, he says the findings are important, meshing with other

research showing that stress can affect pregnancy, including increasing the

risk of premature delivery.

" I think we are just beginning to learn about the role of stress in

pregnancy, and as time goes on, we will be better able to define what the

true links are, " says Paidas.

Beversdorf says one link may be hormone-related, specifically hormones

like cortisol whose levels rise in the mother's body in direct response to

extremely stressful events. He says a biochemical chain reaction may occur

during a specific time in the pregnancy and may interfere with the

development of the cerebellum, an area of the brain that is structurally

different in children with autism.

This idea is supported by animal data suggesting that stress during a

specific time in a pregnancy causes structural changes in the brain of the

developing offspring similar to what is seen in autistic children.

" It's clear that there is a definite genetic component to autism, but

the condition is such that genes alone cannot explain away the whole reason

why autism exists, " says Beversdorf. Maternal stress may be one of the

missing links, he says.

Autism is a neurological disorder that can dramatically affect

behavior patterns and the ability to communicate.

Beversdorf's study involved questionnaires that asked mothers to

document extremely stressful events during their pregnancies. Researchers

say they defined " extremely stressful " as any life-altering event, such as

the death of a loved one, a divorce or a job loss.

The study included 188 women who had given birth to autistic children,

212 women who had normal children and 92 women who had given birth to babies

with Down's syndrome.

The first result: The numbers of women experiencing major stress

during any four-week period of their pregnancies were pretty much the same

among both the mothers of normal babies and mothers of Down's syndrome

babies. However, the stress levels for mothers of autistic children were

nearly twice that of the other mothers in the study.

" First we thought that a woman who had an autistic child may simply be

more likely to remember stressful events more readily than a woman who gave

birth to a normal child, " says Beversdorf. But continued analysis proved

more than just chance was involved.

The second result: The stressful events always happening between the

24th and 28th week of pregnancy.

" It was clear there was something going on here. The stressors were

all taking place during specific times in the pregnancy, and this time

coincides with the development of an area of the brain that has already been

linked to autism, so it was hard not to see the links, " Beversdorf says.

The findings were presented at last month's annual meeting of the

Society for Neuroscience, in San Diego.

Paidas says the findings are interesting, but he says it's premature

to say for certain that stress is the culprit behind the autistic births.

" Stress is important, and we are now finding some biochemical links

and outcomes. But this is still very preliminary and only one facet of

stress. And each individual person does have their own coping mechanisms and

their own way of dealing with stress, both psychologically and

biochemically. So, it's difficult to draw any definite conclusions based on

just one study, " says Paidas.

What To Do

Based on existing _________________________________

research, Paidas says women

should not be overly concerned

about stressful events beyond >> DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW <<

their control that might occur

during their pregnancy. Subscribe, Read, then Forward

" One thing we know for the FEAT Daily Newsletter.

sure: Worrying about the

effects of stress will cause To Subscribe go to

more stress. So, if something

stressful occurs at any time www.feat.org/FEATnews

during your pregnancy, don't

panic, but do bring it to the No Cost!

attention of your

obstetrician, " says Paidas. _________________________________

* * *

No Link Between Past Vaccines And Alzheimer's

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2001/12/27/eline/links/20011227elin006.

html <-- address ends here.

Reuters Health - Vaccinations commonly given in childhood to fight off

polio, tetanus and diphtheria do not increase a person's risk for developing

Alzheimer's disease, according to a study by Canadian researchers.

In fact, the study published in a recent issue of the Canadian Medical

Association Journal suggests that those who receive one or all of the

vaccines may be less likely to develop the memory-robbing ailment. However,

it is not clear if the link is due to a healthier lifestyle or some other

factor associated with vaccine use, rather than the vaccines themselves.

" It has been suggested that changes to the immune system could be a

factor in age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, " write lead

author Dr. Rene Verreault of Laval University in Beauport, Quebec and

colleagues. " Our objective was to examine the association between past

exposure to conventional vaccines and risk of Alzheimer's disease. "

In the study, the team of researchers looked at nearly 4,000 healthy

patients who answered a number of questions, including some about vaccines

they had been given in the past. After five years, the researchers compared

183 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in that time period with

3,682 similarly aged healthy adults who did not develop the disease.

" For each type of vaccine, subjects who reported at least one

vaccination were at lower risk for Alzheimer's disease than those who had

never been exposed, after adjustment for age, sex, and education, " the

authors write.

People who received the tetanus or diphtheria vaccine were 60% less

likely to develop Alzheimer's while those who had the polio vaccine were 40%

less likely to develop Alzheimer's.

Verreault and colleagues note that " it might also be argued that

exposure to vaccines is only indirectly associated with Alzheimer's disease,

as a potential marker of a healthy lifestyle. "

It's also possible that the elderly study participants did not

accurately recall the types of vaccines they had in childhood, the authors

note. The researchers call for more studies to confirm their findings.

Alzheimer's, which affects about four million Americans, starts with

memory loss and progresses to profound dementia and death. There is no cure,

although there are a few drugs that provide temporary relief for some

symptoms of the disease.

SOURCE: Canadian Medical Association Journal 2001;165:1495-1498.

* * *

Common Virus in Placenta Linked To 'Mental Defects' In Newborns

[This appears to add some weight to the nuero-immune theory of autism

(see

http://www.healing-arts.org/children/vaccines/vaccines-auto-immunity.htm#aut

o for theory synopsis.)]

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2001/12/27/eline/links/20011227elin023.

html <-- address of article below ends here.

Reuters Health - A common virus that causes generally mild infections in

adults can cause serious respiratory and other problems in infants infected

in utero, researchers report.

In a study of seven newborns with severe respiratory problems and

later neurological problems and developmental delays, the researchers found

signs of a sackie virus infection in six of the seven.

sackie viruses take their name from the upstate New York town where

they were first identified in 1948. Infection with these viruses is

typically mild, although they can cause more severe illness including

meningitis and inflammation of the heart in newborn babies.

Dr. Gerard J. Nuovo from Ohio State University Medical Center,

Columbus, and colleagues analyzed placental tissue from the seven newborns.

They also analyzed tissue from the placentas of 10 healthy infants (the

" control group " ) and from five infants infected with other common viruses in

utero, including cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex and parvovirus.

In six of the seven infants with respiratory failure, genetic material

from the coxsackie virus was found. The other infant was negative for all

tested viruses. However, none of the placenta tissue of the 10 controls or

the five infants with a known placental infection showed evidence of

coxsackie virus infection, the researchers report in the December issue of

Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Soon after birth, the infants affected by coxsackie had severe mental

defects that required physical, occupational and sometimes institutional

therapy. These children also occasionally needed treatment to prevent

seizures.

" This study provides direct evidence that placental infection with

coxsackie virus does occur. It also provides indirect evidence that

coxsackie virus infection of the fetus acquired in utero caused the global

and severe developmental delays that each child exhibited, " Nuovo and

colleagues conclude.

Their findings, they add, underscore the importance of testing the

placenta for viral infection in newborns with severe illness.

SOURCE: Obstetrics & Gynecology 2001;98:1019-1026.

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