If you are a parent, you have hopefully heard of the alarming rise in autism diagnosis of children in the United States and other developed countries. Autism is now the leading concern for children at the CDC, more than cancer, AIDS, and accidents combined. Where rates were once 3 in 10,000, they are now, depending where you look, 1 in 500, 1 in 150, or even more — between a three- and a ten-fold increase. This unhappy reality has researchers, doctors, and of course, parents, totally stunned.
What is causing it?
Well, everyone on a soapbox has a thoery, and everyone else stops thinking for themselves and echoes the latest theory on conservative talk radio. As a new parent, I am very concerned and of course I want to do everything I can to protect my children. Unless that makes me look neurotic (eyes rolling now). The rates have been increasing for quite some time, and now that Oprah has done a show on it things should hopefully be getting the attention they deserve.
So, from what I have discovered so far: it is generally accepted fact that there is a genetic component to autism, it does run in families, but just because no one in the family has ever had it, does not mean your children are immune. It is also accepted fact that there is some environmental trigger that, if a child is genetically predisposed, causes changes in the wiring of the brain which in turn causes autism. 90% of brain connections are formed from conception to the age of six.
From what I understand a few years ago there was a huge concern that childhood vaccines contained an agent that was a trigger. Thermerisol, which contains mercury, was used to preserve vaccines and it is well known that heavy metals accumulate in the body and are not metabolized out. Namely, in the brain. So studies were done using the Amish as a control group, since they use no vaccines and also have autism rates that are not even a blip on the screen. A huge media frenzy then occcured to the point that thermerisol was removed from all vaccines, and yet autism rates continued to rise. So that was pretty much ruled out. But there is another vaccine that is currently being targeted: MMR. I don't know enough about this one to comment on it, but I of course plan to do my ad nauseum research and find out since the twins have another round of shots coming up soon.
Another theory is television. A study was done and using the theory that the rise in cable television, and particulary programming aimed at children, exploded in the 80's exponentially and correlates very nicely with the rise in autism rates. Again, the Amish were used as a control group. Now this makes a lot of sense to me since being a biologist I know something about the brain and its development. Two dimensional, brightly colored, fast paced cartoons, commercials and videos are the norm now on TV. It's so overstimulating sometimes that I can't watch it and I'm an adult. An infant's brain can become wired to process this type of image over and over for 10 hour a day and then cannot process the normal, 3 dimensional, slow moving world. Makes sense to me. Enough sense that I limit the babies TV to one hour a day,and then just Sesame Street. Until I know for sure they can watch more without harm I won't let them any more than I would let them drink Pepsi from thier bottles.
Some believe that food additives and the crappy American diet are to blame, but the jury is still out on this one. Another theory is chemicals in cleaning products and air fresheners and/or indoor air pollution. Still others think it just a reporting error, that caregivers, parents and doctors are better informed and watching children more closely for signs of ADD and ADHD, then autism is diagnosed more than it was in the past. I have a hard time with this one since these children would all be in special eduction and I think it would be obvious there was a problem.
But I actually found out today what causes it. My boss, who is addicted to talk radio, and I don't mean NPR, informed me that it was single parents that were to blame for the rise in autism rates. It's bad parenting, you know, to only have one family member raising kids. He refused to recognize the fact that autism strikes the rich, poor, single parent, traditional family, black, white, brown, asian, all segments of the population. He then went on to inform me that autism is a moral punishment for those who don't have a traditional marriage and so thier kids get sick.
Um, ya.
He quickly added, "Oh, but not you, I know you're a good mother." to save his ass since my jaw was on the floor.
So now you see why I want to leave this awful place. Thanks for reading.
