We need the legislature and the NIH to light it up blue
Today, April l2, is National Autism Awareness Day. My kids all wore blue to symbolize our support and our "awareness"...but just how aware is the rest of the world?
New stats just released indicated that now 1 in 68 have Autism; 1 in 42 boys. That is two in every grade level in our elementary school.
We haven't gotten better at identifying children with Autism. We have been diagnosing children for a long time...this poor excuse for the alarming increase needs to be laid to rest. There is something out there, something the Western world is doing that is responsible for the increase in these rates. If polio was affecting this many children, the NIH would be putting more effort into finding out the reason why, instead of encouraging other well-known Autism groups to dedicate their funding to studying genetics.
A 30% increase in the last two years of children being diagnosed with Autism.
I received this body of an email from the Autism Action Network- a skeleton email of what we should send to Congress and all others denying the Autism Epidemic.
I request that you immediately fire the three federal employees who have made careers of denying the autism epidemic: CDC’s Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp and Dr. Colleen Boyle, as well as NIHM’s Dr. Thomas Insel. An American child is diagnosed with Autism every 11 minutes – a rate that continues to rise. Until leadership at NIH and CDC realizes that it is impossible to have a genetic epidemic in one generation, there will never be the emphasis on environmental research to address the true causes of autism. Your Federal autism team is at best, misleading you (and the country) and at worst, outright lying.
The truth behind the numbers is that there are real families, real people, and real struggles. For every child diagnosed with Autism, a family is affected- for life.
When I read those numbers this past week, my heart sunk. How depressing that 1 in 42 little boys will most likely never play a team sport, never wrestle or joke around with "the boys," and maybe never have a girlfriend.
I went for a run after reading the article and it pushed me so hard- for every step I took, I promised Hunter and myself that we would beat this disorder. We will show others that there is a medical component, an environmental component...autoimmune disease is on the rise. In the book I am reading, the following stats were given: 2.2 million women have breast cancer, 7.2 million women have coronary disease, but 9.8 million women are affected by autoimmune diseases. However, only 5.4% of the NIH budget goes toward studying Autoimmune diseases.
I truly believe in my heart that Autism is an Autoimmune Disease.
I do believe that genetics play a role, but the Autism isn't turned on until that perfect storm takes place- whether it be infection, vaccinations, environmental toxins...the body starts to turn on itself and attack healthy tissue.
1 in 42 boys.
Light it up blue today- not for awareness, but for the support of those fighting everyday.
New stats just released indicated that now 1 in 68 have Autism; 1 in 42 boys. That is two in every grade level in our elementary school.
We haven't gotten better at identifying children with Autism. We have been diagnosing children for a long time...this poor excuse for the alarming increase needs to be laid to rest. There is something out there, something the Western world is doing that is responsible for the increase in these rates. If polio was affecting this many children, the NIH would be putting more effort into finding out the reason why, instead of encouraging other well-known Autism groups to dedicate their funding to studying genetics.
A 30% increase in the last two years of children being diagnosed with Autism.
I received this body of an email from the Autism Action Network- a skeleton email of what we should send to Congress and all others denying the Autism Epidemic.
I request that you immediately fire the three federal employees who have made careers of denying the autism epidemic: CDC’s Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp and Dr. Colleen Boyle, as well as NIHM’s Dr. Thomas Insel. An American child is diagnosed with Autism every 11 minutes – a rate that continues to rise. Until leadership at NIH and CDC realizes that it is impossible to have a genetic epidemic in one generation, there will never be the emphasis on environmental research to address the true causes of autism. Your Federal autism team is at best, misleading you (and the country) and at worst, outright lying.
In 1981, Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp joined the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The autism rate then was 1 in 10,000. Under her watch, the rate of autism prevalence has gone from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 88 --- increasing 1130% while Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp has been counting. For the past twenty years the increase has been attributed to changes in diagnostic definition and better case finding despite the lack of data to confirm those comforting suppositions. Even worse the CDC has never conducted, or ever even proposed doing, the basic epidemiology that could determine the extent of the increase. Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp also counts the autism rate unbelievably slowly. How is it acceptable for the autism rate to be counted at age eight with a four year time lag to process the data her agency collects?
Dr. Colleen Boyle has been with the CDC since 1984 and has been running the National Center on Birth Defects and Disabilities (NCBDD) since 2004. During Dr. Boyle’s employment the autism rate has increased 1130%. Similarly she perpetuates the false reassurance that there is no real rise while never even proposing epidemiology that could have proved a catastrophic increase years ago. She has held onto her job despite multiple appearances in front of Congress where she made a fool of herself with her inability to answer simple questions about autism and federal policy.
Dr. Thomas Insel has been at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) since 2002 when the autism rate was 1 in 500. The autism rate has increased 500% while he has been coordinating the autism gene hunt. At this point, the genome has been mapped and there is no “autism gene”. Regardless, Dr. Insel continues to disproportionately fund genetic research vs. environmental research.
Please Fire the Deniers as a first step towards being the first President to honestly address the ongoing autism epidemic.
The truth behind the numbers is that there are real families, real people, and real struggles. For every child diagnosed with Autism, a family is affected- for life.
When I read those numbers this past week, my heart sunk. How depressing that 1 in 42 little boys will most likely never play a team sport, never wrestle or joke around with "the boys," and maybe never have a girlfriend.
I went for a run after reading the article and it pushed me so hard- for every step I took, I promised Hunter and myself that we would beat this disorder. We will show others that there is a medical component, an environmental component...autoimmune disease is on the rise. In the book I am reading, the following stats were given: 2.2 million women have breast cancer, 7.2 million women have coronary disease, but 9.8 million women are affected by autoimmune diseases. However, only 5.4% of the NIH budget goes toward studying Autoimmune diseases. I truly believe in my heart that Autism is an Autoimmune Disease.
I do believe that genetics play a role, but the Autism isn't turned on until that perfect storm takes place- whether it be infection, vaccinations, environmental toxins...the body starts to turn on itself and attack healthy tissue.
1 in 42 boys.
Light it up blue today- not for awareness, but for the support of those fighting everyday.
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