SchaferAutismReport: Unique Training Program Improves Autism Research

[Guest guest]

> SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT " Healing Autism:

> No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

> ________________________________________________________________

> Thursday, October 28, 2004 Vol. 8 No. 171

>

> RESEARCH

> * Unique Training Program Improves Autism Research

> * TGen Gets $3 Million Gift from COX

> * Pineal Attrition, Loss Of Cognitive Plasticity, And Onset of

> Puberty During The Teen Years: Is It A Modern Maladaptation Exposed

> By Evolutionary Displacement?

>

> PUBLIC HEALTH

> * Lead Contamination Serious Problem In Dozens Drinking-Water Systems

> * Flu Vaccine Makers Are Few Because of Economics - Not Lawsuits

>

> CARE

> * Concern Over Missing Autistic Man in Ontario

> * Swallowing One Magnet Bad, Two Much Worse

>

> ADVOCACY

> * MMR Banned Aid Back in UK

>

> LETTERS

> * Offit Is Off It

> * CHAMP Letter to FDA Hysterical

>

> MEDIA NOTE

> November Better Homes & Gardens Magazine has autism article

>

>

> RESEARCH

>

> Unique Training Program Improves Autism Research

> UC M.I.N.D. Institute receives $1.5 million to train young

> scientists

>

> [http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute/.]

>

> In what is anticipated to be one of the more innovative projects of

> its kind in the nation, researchers at the UC M.I.N.D. Institute are

> beginning a new program designed to improve autism research by bringing

> together a variety of scientific disciplines to cross-train behavioral and

> biological research scientists in the complexities of autism research.

> Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental

> Health, the UC M.I.N.D. Institute has launched a five-year program

> that exposes new, postdoctoral scientists to a wide range of expertise and

> research in neurodevelopmental disorders. While the institute has always

> taken a broad approach to the analysis and treatment of autism - combining

> everything from biology and human behavior to neurochemistry and

> immunology - officials have long wanted to expand that work.

> " What's really exciting about this project is that we will be

> training

> and creating a new type of scientist for autism research, " said Sally J.

> , professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the UC

>

> School of Medicine and the program's director. " Knowing a textbook

> description of the disorder, having laboratory expertise, or having

> clinical

> experiences working with children with autism -- none of these is enough

> to

> significantly move the science forward. This training program gives us

> opportunities to pool our expertise and create a new wave of talented

> experts for autism research in an area of study might be best termed

> 'clinical neurodevelopmental neuroscience.' "

> said the new program allows young scientists with backgrounds

> in either behavioral or biological science to develop a specialized

> knowledge in particular areas of the disorder, while also being

> comfortable

> and knowledgeable in other aspects of autism such as genetics,

> epidemiology,

> human development, animal behavior and neuroanatomy.

> The new program pairs faculty members from different disciplines with

> postdoctoral students during the course of a two-year training period.

> The

> trainees will develop an expertise in relevant areas of neuroscience such

> as

> magnetic resonance imaging and histological studies of the autistic brain,

> while at the same time also gaining an understanding about the behavioral

> side of autism, which is crucial for designing studies and conducting

> autism

> research in a sensitive manner.

> UC experts point out that studying autism also opens the way

> for

> understanding a much wider area of human development and developmental

> disabilities. Because autism touches most aspects of growth and learning,

> when the behaviors involved in autism are studied, researchers also

> discover

> a great deal about communication skills, social abilities, motor

> development

> and cognitive capacities -- all of which can be applied to research in

> other

> childhood disorders, as well into studies regarding typical child

> development.

> New research into language and movement disorders, fragile X, Down

> and

> syndromes, has been enhanced by the progress in autism studies.

> Creating broad, interdisciplinary training for the study and

> treatment

> of autism could have benefits for a number of neurodevelopmental

> disorders,

> as well as improve knowledge about more typical human development.

> Researchers at the M.I.N.D. Institute say the great advantage of an

> interdisciplinary team approach lies in its ability to address a complex

> disorder like autism at many levels simultaneously. They say finding a

> cause

> or a cure demands a variety of vantage points, from the molecular to the

> behavioral. With the new training program in place, the next generation of

> autism researchers is expected to move much farther and faster by being

> able

> to communicate with each other through the core concepts and language of

> several major scientific disciplines.

> * * *

>

>

>

>

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>

>

>

> TGen Gets $3 Million Gift from COX

>

> http://www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=2449691

>

> AP - The Arizona operations of Communications has given a $3

> million cash gift to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

> The Tempe lab is attempting to find cures for genetically related

> diseases such as cancer, diabetes and autism.

> The institute has attracted researchers from across the United States

> and foreign countries who are engaged in " a crusade to change the world --

> to find cures for the diseases which have been with us since the beginning

> of time, " said Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., who is chairman of the TGen

> Foundation's National Advisory Council.

> The institute has been a catalyst for other bioscience projects such

> as the Arizona BioDesign Institute at Arizona State University in Tempe

> and

> a new ASU-University of Arizona medical center in downtown Phoenix.

> It will move into a permanent $46 million headquarters in Phoenix in

> December.

> * * *

>

> Pineal Attrition, Loss Of Cognitive Plasticity, And Onset Of Puberty

> During

> The Teen Years: Is It A Modern Maladaptation Exposed By Evolutionary

> Displacement?

>

> Yun AJ, Bazar KA, Lee PY.

> Stanford University, 470 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA.

> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=pubmed & dopt=Ab

> stract & list_uids=15504560

>

> Cognitive plasticity, a developmental trait that promotes acquisition of

> complex skills such as language or playing musical instruments, diminishes

> substantially during puberty.

> The loss of plasticity has been attributed to surge of sex steroids

> during adolescence, but the phenomenon remains poorly understood.

> We hypothesize that pineal involution during puberty may contribute

> to

> plasticity decay.

> The pineal gland produces melatonin, the level of which declines

> dramatically during onset of puberty.

> Emerging evidence suggest that melatonin may modulate cognitive

> plasticity, independent of the effects of sex steroids, and low sex

> steroids

> and high melatonin may be simultaneously required to maintain cognitive

> plasticity.

> Potential mechanisms by which melatonin may modulate plasticity are

> examined within the sleep and hippocampal long-term potentiation

> frameworks.

> Implications for psychiatric conditions that involve sleep disorders

> and learning dysfunctions such as schizophreni! a and autism are

> discussed,

> and the potential adaptive roles of postprandial and postcoital sleep are

> explored.

> From the Darwinian perspective, development and reproductive maturity

> may represent distinct phases that require tailored cognitive strategies

> to

> maximize fitness.

> While cognitive flexibility and susceptibility to new skills may be

> paramount during development, reduced cognitive flexibility and increased

> cognitive determinism may enable more efficient responses to stimuli

> during

> adulthood.

> Thus, cognitive plasticity and cognitive determinism may represent

> trade-off adaptations and different dimensions of intelligence.

> The decline of plasticity and emergence of puberty during the second

> decade may be relics of prehistoric times when the human lifespan was

> short

> and the environment was relatively simple and static.

> Today, when the environment is more complex and dynamic, and humans

> are living far longer, the early obsolescence of plasticity during puberty

> may repres! ent a Darwinian inefficiency exposed by evolutionary

> displacement.

> Reg ulation of plasticity may be a systemic phenomenon, as

> exemplified

> by the association of learning disability with allergic conditions, a form

> of immune plasticity dysfunction.

> Ramifications for other plastic functions that decline during puberty

> such as wound healing and hyaline cartilage regeneration are explored.

> Like the plasticity of immunity and cognition, the plasticity of

> hyaline cartilage during youth may enable hosts to respond to ecologic

> opportunities and generate the optimally adapted adult phenotype.

> Pineal involution may represent a potential target for therapeutic

> extension or restoration of plasticity after puberty.

> Extending plasticity may have far-reaching consequences for human

> evolution.

> PMID: 15504560 [PubMed - in process]

> * * *

>

> PUBLIC HEALTH

>

> Lead Contamination Serious Problem In Dozens Of Drinking-Water Systems

>

> [From U.S. Water News Online. Thanks to d ayoub].

> http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcquality/4leadcont10.html

>

> Dozens of the nation's largest drinking water utilities have tried to

> hide lead contamination and failed to correct problems, it was reported.

> An examination of 65 of the 3,000 largest utilities found cities such

> as Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Providence, R.I., and Portland,

> Ore., are " manipulating the results of tests used to detect lead in water,

> violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk, " The

> Washington Post said.

> State and federal regulators helped utilities avoid expensive ways of

> reducing lead in drinking water, the paper said.

> U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.)

> sent a letter to EPA Inspector General Nikki Tinsley, requesting a prompt

> examination of EPA enforcement. They asked Tinsley see whether testing

> data

> were manipulated by water utilities and whether EPA officials ignored

> evidence of improper testing and reporting.

> Pregnant women and infants are the most vulnerable to lead, which can

> cause kidney and brain damage and, in some cases, death.

> The Environmental Protection Agency has required drinking water

> utilities since 1991 to reduce contamination if lead concentrations exceed

> 15 parts per billion in more than 10 percent of taps sampled.

> About 54,000 community water systems supply water to 268 million

> Americans, or about 90 percent of the U.S. population, according to

> American

> Water Works Association, a trade group.

> The Post said its analysis of EPA data identified 274 water systems,

> serving 11.5 million people, that had reported unsafe lead levels since

> 2000.

> Problems with lead in drinking water surfaced in 2002 for thousands

> of

> residents in Washington, D.C., but only gained widespread attention this

> year. Residents complained that the District of Columbia Water and Sewer

> Authority did little to alert them.

> EPA said only four large water systems, together serving 1.1 million

> people, had unsafe lead levels in the past three years: Washington, D.C.;

> St. , Minn.; Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Ridgewood, N.J.

> * * *

>

> Flu Vaccine Makers Are Few Because of Economics - Not Lawsuits

> Liability Has Nothing to Do With Flu Vaccine Shortage, Public Citizen

> Finds

>

> [This appears on the website, Common Dreams, a liberal publication

> edited by Craig Brown. This could also work as a rebuttal to the Weekly

> Standard editorial, La Grippe Of The Trial Lawyers: Guess Who's To Blame

> For

> The Flu Vaccine Fiasco, which was reprinted here in last Monday's

> newsletter. -ed.]

> http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1027-18.htm

>

> Lawsuits are not the reason that so few drug companies make the flu

> vaccine - few lawsuits have ever been filed over the flu vaccine. Instead,

> the problem is based on a lack of profit and the economic risks associated

> with making the vaccine, according to a Public Citizen fact sheet released

> today.

> The production of flu shots is a complex process based on 50-year-old

> technology and fraught with the potential for error. Because doses cannot

> be

> used from year-to-year, excess doses must be discarded.

> " Profits, not lawsuits, are the driving force behind the decision of

> flu vaccine manufacturers to drop out of the business, " said Public

> Citizen

> President Joan Claybrook. " Although President Bush has argued that it is

> the

> fear of being sued that deters companies from making the flu vaccine, the

> truth is that there is little economic incentive for them to do so.

> Lawsuits

> have nothing to do with it. "

> In a full-page New York Times ad today, the business-funded Club for

> Growth erroneously claims that flu vaccine manufacturers have been

> crippled

> by hundreds of lawsuits. But that is wrong; only a few lawsuits have been

> litigated over the flu vaccine in the past 24 years. According to research

> by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, since 1980, there have

> been

> just seven cases involving the standard flu vaccine reported in state and

> federal appellate courts. In five of those cases, the defendant prevailed;

> the results of the other two are unknown. Seven cases in 24 years does not

> make a liability crisis.

> The Club for Growth also cites in the ad a case in which $30 billion

> is being sought against the vaccine industry. The implication is that this

> case is partly responsible for the flu vaccine shortage. However, the

> cited

> case is unrelated to the flu vaccine; instead, it involves the use of the

> preservative thimerosal in childhood vaccines.

> History shows that shielding flu vaccine makers from lawsuits would

> do

> nothing to ensure a steady supply of vaccine. Manufacturers of childhood

> non-flu vaccines have been shielded from lawsuits through the Vaccine

> Injury

> Compensation Program, enacted in 1986. Under that program, people who want

> to sue vaccine makers must first file for federal compensation. They

> cannot

> sue unless their request for a reward is rejected, or they reject the

> award.

> Still, this hasn't prevented shortages in eight of 11 of the vaccines

> covered by the program.

> In its definitive 2003 report on ensuring the availability of

> vaccines, the Institute of Medicine did not cite liability as a cause of

> vaccine shortages. The Institute instead recommended mandating that all

> insurance plans cover vaccines, that the government subsidize vaccine

> providers and insurers, and that the government provide vouchers for

> uninsured patients to receive vaccines. Public Citizen's fact sheet, " Flu

> Vaccine Shortage: Another Example of How Bush Dis-Torts the Truth About

> Lawsuits, " is available at http://www.citizen.org/documents/ACF7D6.pdf.

> Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy

> organization

> based in Washington, D.C.

> * * *

>

> CARE

>

> Concern Over Missing Autistic Man in Ontario

>

> http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=b1f99

> 506-3e8a-407c-8148-f8986e061ea4

>

> Police and his family were increasingly anxious Tuesday to find a

> missing autistic man. Randy Mogridge, 46, walked away from the Oaklands

> Regional Centre in Oakville, Ont. on Sunday evening and hasn't been seen

> since.

> His mother, Gloria Mogridge, issued a statement Tuesday as Halton

> police urged the public to help find her missing son.

> The missing man suffers from autism, epilepsy, is bipolar and has the

> mental capacity of a young child.

> Halton police " have great concerns " about his safety, Sgt. Jeff Corey

> said Tuesday night. " He could be anywhere from Grimsby to Hamilton to

> Toronto. "

> * * *

>

> Swallowing One Magnet Bad, Two Much Worse

>

> [by Karla Gale.]

> http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=01ECCIP4LABGECRBAEOCFEY?

> type=healthNews & storyID=6632187

>

> Reuters Health - If a child swallows a magnet it might pass without

> incident, but if two or more magnets go down, urgent surgery should be

> considered, according to Dr. Alan E. Oestreich.

> " The point is, it's simple physics, " Oestreich told Reuters Health.

> " When more than one magnet is ingested and they're in different bowel

> loops,

> they can attract each other. " If that happens, the intestines might be

> clamped tightly together causing perforation or serious tissue damage.

> Oestreich, a radiologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio,

> noted that swallowed magnets are usually quite small and do not cause

> symptoms right away. He recently treated a 12-year-old boy with autism who

> had had several days of abdominal discomfort. An X-ray showed multiple

> metallic objects throughout the small intestine.

> " Until proved otherwise, this represented multiple small magnets, " he

> writes in a letter to the medical journal Radiology.

> When the boy was operated on, a large number of small magnets from a

> toy were found in areas of extensive damage.

> Toys are not the only source of magnets, Oestreich said. There are

> folk remedies for which magnets are applied to the body or even swallowed.

> Also, think of what's sticking to many a refrigerator.

> When small children are involved, there may be no sign that magnets

> have been swallowed " other than a perceptive parent or caretaker noticing

> something is missing, " he pointed out.

> If a parent thinks a child has swallowed more than one magnet, they

> should immediately notify their doctor.

> This situation poses particular danger if someone is scheduled for an

> MRI, which involves powerful magnetic fields.

> There is a long list of things to look out for when patients are to

> have an MRI scan, such as orthopedic implants and pacemakers, said

> Oestreicher. " But so far as I know, that list does not include, 'has the

> patient swallowed a magnet? " ' If this is a possibility, MRI should be

> strictly avoided, he added.

> SOURCE: Radiology, November 2004

>

>

>

>

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> * * *

>

> ADVOCACY

>

> MMR Banned Aid Back in UK

>

> [Private Eye, 29th October 2004. Not available online.].]

>

> The high court battle over the MMR vaccine looks set to move to the

> next stage after legal aid was restored to 11 of the families who are

> fighting the vaccine manufacturers in court.

> In a blanket move earlier this year, aid was withdrawn from every

> child; but for 11 children that decision has now been reversed on appeal.

> None of the 11 children have been diagnosed with autism (by far the

> biggest

> number of claimants) but they include children suffering with other kinds

> of

> brain damage, as well as arthritis, bowel disease, epilepsy, encephalitis

> and transverse myelitis (an immune disorder affecting the central nervous

> system). Some of these are acknowledged, if rare, side effects of the

> triple

> vaccine.

> One child to have his legal aid restored is Pickering, 15, who

> suffers from severe epilepsy. He had been a healthy toddler but eight days

> after his MMR jab, he suffered an allergic reaction - he had a rash over

> his

> entire body - and four weeks later suffered the first of the dreadful

> seizures that became worse and were to blight his life.

> It was while was undergoing brain surgery in an attempt to stop

> these life-threatening seizures, that the Pickerings found the evidence

> they

> believe links their son's condition to the triple jab. Vaccine strain

> measles virus was found in tissue from his frontal lobe and he was

> diagnosed

> with frontal lobe brain damage.

> Although ' mother is pleased to have her legal aid back

> to

> pursue her claim against the vaccine manufacturers, she is furious that it

> was stopped, and the action stalled, in the first place. 'It was a waste

> of

> our time. It was quite clear that there had been a decision to stop all

> the

> cases, irrespective of their individual merits, I am quite convinced

> '

> case wasn't even looked at.' Francis Hamlyn, who at 20 is one of the

> older

> claimants, has also had his legal aid restored. In 1994, he was caught up

> in

> the controversial Operation Safeguard, in which seven million school-age

> children were given a combined measles and rubella MR shot in an attempt

> to

> head off a predicted measles epidemic. Francis was then 10, a keen

> cricketer

> and rugby player and a chorister at St 's, Windsor Castle. Four

> weeks

> after vaccination he started complaining about severe pains in one leg.

> Soon

> he was in agony and could barely walk. Tests showed that he had juvenile

> arthritis and his consultant registered it with the Communicable Diseases

> Surveillance Centre as a side-effect of the vaccine.

> Francis also started to develop severe bowel problems, since

> diagnosed

> as Crohn's disease, which led to the removal of large sections of his

> intestines. His mother Sue, said: 'My son's illness - initially crippling

> arthritis - was diagnosed 10 years ago by a consultant paediatrician as

> being caused by the vaccine. Our legal aid should never have been

> withdrawn.' The success of the 11 cases should now reopen the

> litigation

> door to many similar non-autistic cases - like that of Fletcher,

> son

> of Jackie Fletcher who runs Jabs, the organisation which supports parents

> who believe their children have been damaged by vaccines.

> , who suffered a massive seizure 10 days after his MMR

> vaccination, is now severely epileptic and brain damaged. But his appeal

> to

> have legal aid restored was turned down - not on the merits of his case

> but

> because it was claimed that the appeal came outside a 14-day time limit.

> But what of other families who share at least some similar factors

> to

> those of, say, Pickering? The measles virus found in his brain was

> also detected in his gut. Other children involved in the litigation were

> also found to harbour the measles virus in the gut. But because those

> children went on to develop what has been described as an atypical

> regressive form of autism, they are not to have their legal aid restored.

> * * *

>

> LETTERS

>

> Offit Is Off It

>

> Once again, Dr. Offit is wrong. He states: " The task for

> vaccines

> is simple. The benefits must clearly outweigh the risks. This is what the

> word 'safe' means. "

> Here is how Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary: defines

> " safe " :

> 1. " Free from harm or risk. "

> How many children will Offit risk before he alters his arbitrary

> definition? Must more than half of our kids be injured before he listens?

> - Hokkanen Minneapolis

>

>

> CHAMP Letter to FDA Hysterical

>

> This paragraph from the CHAMP letter to the FDA is so misleading as

> to

> be hysterical. The very poor reasoning is: since thimerosol was first

> used

> in vaccines in the 1930's and Kanner, it would appear, discovered the

> never

> before seen disease of " autism " in the 1940's, it follows that thimerosol

> created autism.

> I'm sure the " MMR as the cause of the increase in autism " camp would

> beg to differ. I beg to differ. The schizophrenias used to be " demonic

> possession " , when it became labeled schizophrenia did it cease to be

> demonic

> possession? Did the schizophrenias not exist before they were named?

> The

> genes that are the root cause of autism have been in the gene pool for a

> very long time, thousands of years.

> The demands that more research be done to track down what it is in

> vaccinations that is " causing autism " are foolish. The evidence is that

> " the autisms " begin before birth in the way the neurons migrate (as

> neurons

> do in babies) and the way the connect to each other when they get to where

> they end up.

> + Complete letter here: http://www.sarnet.org/lib/cclark.doc

>

>

>

>

>

>

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