The causes of autism are all highly controversial. They should be viewed not as established fact, but as theories and possibilities. However, don’t dismiss them for lack of evidence; it is simply not possible to test them. Toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury are highly toxic to life and are known to cause developmental disabilities. Exposure to these elements may have contributed to your child’s autism.
Lead is a powerful brain cell killer (a neurotoxin). Even short-term exposure to small amounts of lead by a fetus, infant, or young child can cause permanent learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and reduced intelligence. Lead was banned from paint and gasoline in the 1970s, but it still poses a serious threat through contaminated soil, plumbing, old painted surfaces, mini vinyl blinds, and lead in toys. Lead poses a serious threat to all children, but it can be much more devastating in children with a genetic or biochemical predisposition to autism because the pathways to rid the body of toxic heavy metals such as lead and mercury often have serious and ineffective failures in these children. A high level of lead can show up in a blood mineral test that you can give your child with the help of a doctor. If it is taller than average or if you live in a house built in the 1960s or earlier, you should purchase a home lead test kit. These kits cannot accurately detect low levels and can be fooled by dirty surfaces, but if you follow the instructions and consistently get a strong positive reading, it’s time to throw the item away or call in the experts. Almost all cities have lead remediation services that will come to your home. Don’t forget to test plastic and wooden toys, indoor and outdoor painted surfaces, and test anywhere your child spends time, such as at daycare or at friends’ houses. If something changes in the house, like remodeling a room or scraping paint from the carpentry, or if the exterior paint starts to wear off the house, retest! Unfortunately, your child may have a lead toxicity problem and still have a low blood lead level, because many autistic children cannot excrete toxins like lead. This means that it becomes trapped in the tissues of their bodies where it causes great damage and cannot be detected with routine blood tests.
Mercury is a naturally occurring toxic heavy metal that is present around us. It can be found on the ground, in water, and in the air. There is no longer any sensible debate on the facts that; 1) mercury is dangerous to our bodies, 2) mercury poisoning can cause neurological symptoms in humans and other animals, and 3) fetuses, infants, and young children are more sensitive to harm from mercury than adults. Mercury is released into the air by coal-burning power plants, falls in the rain, is absorbed by bacteria where it is converted to the organic form (methylmercury), and is transported through the food chain to fish bodies and then to fish. fishes. dining rooms. Once absorbed, methylmercury becomes stuck in the body and is not easily removed. You might think that it would be easy to avoid mercury poisoning simply by not eating fish. Unfortunately, mercury is also used in a number of industrial processes that can pollute the environment and, more insidiously, it is a component of preservatives used in many vaccines.
Currently, there is a lot of controversy about the link between mercury poisoning and autism. An unbiased review of the scientific literature will point to studies that say there is no connection and studies that conclude there is. Some of the most compelling evidence is a comparison between the symptoms of mercury poisoning and autism. The symptoms are so close that it cannot be argued that many of the symptoms of autism Sight like mercury poisoning. However, from this comparison we cannot conclude that mercury can because autism.
Unless your family eats a lot of ocean fish (like tuna), lives near a coal-fired power plant, or near a factory that spews mercury, the main source of mercury for most of our children will be childhood vaccinations: injections we receive. They are told that protecting our children can be their worst enemy. The villain in this story is a preservative named Thimerosal. It is 50% mercury (by weight) in an organic form called ethylmercury. The saddest part of this story is that it is a totally avoidable risk. We know this is almost impossible to believe, but every time you brought your baby in for routine vaccinations, he was exposed to more than 100 times the amount of mercury considered safe (by the Environmental Protection Agency) for an adult! Her baby’s exposure was even higher if the mother received a flu shot or RhoGAM® injection during pregnancy.
Thimerosal is a very effective chemical. Its microbial contamination prevents it so effectively that vaccines can be produced and sold in multipurpose containers instead of single-dose vials. Per dose, it is a bit cheaper to make it this way. Given the large number of doses produced each year, this adds up to significant savings for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and sell vaccines. As early as 1935, Eli Lilly, the maker of Thimerosal, began receiving scientific reports on the dangers of this preservative. In the 1950s and 1960s, several scientific papers were published that concluded that thimerosal was toxic. In 1971, Lilly’s own scientists concluded that thimerosal was toxic. The company kept a secret, then ignored these findings and expanded the use of thimerosal to a topical disinfectant, resulting in the deaths of 10 newborns. In 1982, the FDA concluded that thimerosal was too dangerous to include in over-the-counter products. In 1991, the use of thimerosal was banned in animal vaccines. In 1999, Public Health Service (PHS) agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure. In 2001, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences declared that the removal of thimerosal from vaccines was “prudent”, but in 2004 it concluded that the connections between thimerosal and autism were only theoretical, since the exact method by which toxin supposedly caused autism was still largely unknown. .
You might think that this embarrassing story would mean that Thimerosal was permanently banned for any medical or veterinary use, but it was not. You might also think that a link between autism and thimerosal was easy and obvious, but it isn’t. There have been a number of other scientific studies that conclude that there is no link between thimerosal and neurological injury in humans, and equally compelling studies that conclude that it is such a bond. The use of thimerosal has been reduced and eliminated from childhood vaccines in many states and countries, yet the rate of autism continues to rise in these places.
Many scientific studies have been done to find out the “why” and “how” of thimerosal toxicity. Thimerosal appears to damage many parts of the body, including brain cells and the immune system, even when it is present in very low concentrations. An interesting study compared the level of mercury in hair after vaccination. He found that the mercury levels in the hair were lower in children with more severe autism and higher especially in typically developing children. This is consistent with what we now know about autism: Many autistic children do not clear mercury and other toxins from their bodies. This study provides a clue to why our children ended up with autism and most of the others did not, although they probably all had the same level of exposure to mercury. Our children may have been born with genes that predispose them to develop dysfunctional detoxification systems unable to efficiently remove toxins like mercury from their bodies. The bottom line is that the best science we have right now cannot PROVE that mercury or thimerosal causes autism. Neither you nor your doctors can be absolutely sure that thimerosal caused your child’s autism. Some children with autism may be MUCH MORE sensitive to ethylmercury poisoning than the general population. If this were not the case, we would be a nation of autistic individuals, because almost all of us have received dangerous levels of mercury through our childhood vaccines and flu shots.
So what should we do as a nation and as parents? It seems sensible to ban thimerosal and other mercury-containing preservatives from ALL medications. The additional cost involved in single-use vials is minimal compared to the price that most consumers end up paying for vaccination, not to mention the lifetime cost of treating a person with autism. We have no reason to believe that the FDA will take responsibility for this, so it is very important that we, as parents, do so. You should insist that ALL vaccines you receive (if you are pregnant) and those given to your autistic child and siblings are mercury-free and in single-use vials or pre-filled syringes. This includes childhood vaccines and flu shots. Your pediatrician or healthcare professional may think you are crazy and try to convince you of the safety of the multipurpose vaccine. Defend your position on this issue! Ultimately, YOU are in charge of your children’s health care and doctors must respect the decisions you make. A good way to ensure that vaccines do not contain mercury is to request this in writing from your healthcare provider and to insist on a written record of all vaccines, including manufacturer, lot, and lot numbers. You can, and should, verify the safety of vaccines before they are given to you by checking the SafeMinds website. If the doctor won’t accept your requests for mercury-free vaccines or doesn’t give you the lot and lot numbers when you ask, you need to find a new one!
You can choose to delay or avoid childhood vaccinations, but this poses a very serious health risk as they will be less protected from some dangerous diseases. You also won’t get much support for this decision from your medical professionals or the school system your child attends. However, in some circumstances, you can officially abstain from childhood vaccinations for religious reasons.
