1 in 59 children has autism in US, CDC says - 150% increase from 2000

submitted by magnora7 from cnn.com

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[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

What the hell is causing this? This seems quite serious.

Is it simply that autism is being redefined to be broader? Is it that our lack of social interaction due to technology causes more people to eventually qualify as autistic? Is it that our brains are being damaged in some way, by some chemical in the food, air, or water? Perhaps glyphosate is the "lead in gasoline and paint" of our generation. Or perhaps mercury-analog adjuvants will be. Not to mention the widespread use of pharmas on young developing minds. Does it have to do with such a high percentage of our population now living in cities, which was not quite as strongly the case a few decades ago? Or perhaps it is some mix of all these and more?

I feel like the alarm bells should be going off and we should be having a nationwide discussion to try and fix this, but instead there's basically silence.

Is this similar trend happening in other nations around the world? That seems like the next obvious question.

[–]i_cansmellthat 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Was curious, found this: Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children in select countries worldwide as of 2017 per 10,000 children

Thought this article was interesting as well, it's from 2005: Autism Rate - US 1:166, Amish 1:15,000 Seems like most of the comments blame the mercury in vaccines, but these kids aren't exposed to the same food supply as typical American children. Amish families mostly grow their own food. Wonder if they use their own seeds instead of glyphosate resistant seeds?

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Very interesting to use the Amish as a control population. That eliminates chemtrailing as a potential cause also.

There are a lot of things that seem to point to glyphosate (Monsanto's RoundUp) as being the main culprit. I think this is the real problem with GMOs. The plants are all RoundUp Ready, but our human guts are not.

However according to this, they do use pesticides as well as GMO crops. https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/05/23/amish-use-gmos-pesticides-yet-cancer-rates-remain-low/

So I guess it is probably not that. Maybe it is the social stress of a modern lifestyle? Stress hormones cause lots of damage, and our modern lifestyles are more stressful than ever.

Or perhaps it has to do with the drugs used to sedate the mother during childbirth? Or pharmas used by mothers during pregnancy?

[–]i_cansmellthat 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The aluminum/fluoride connection maybe? The aluminum link is interesting, it's now in so much stuff, especially cookware. The bulk of pots and pans cheaply (and some not so cheaply) manufactured has a high content of aluminum. Not sure if Amish populations use local water supplies either.

Pharma would be hard to investigate. Some women won't take anything when pregnant, others take over the counter, others take anything. Interesting though, what studies have been conducted to look at that?

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah thats interesting about cookware. Teflon is known to cause health issues in certain contexts: https://www.ecowatch.com/teflons-toxic-legacy-dupont-knew-for-decades-it-was-contaminating-wate-1882142514.html

Interesting though, what studies have been conducted to look at that?

I imagine not many, as pharma will generally not fund studies that could limit profits by proving products unsafe. I imagine in the next few decades there will be many pharma drugs uncovered to be unsafe that were previously thought to be safe. It's just like cigarettes.

[–]DoKtor 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Its difficult because publicly funded research is behind a paywall, so you have to pay for the research you already paid for, but there are some leads. I have access to the whole thing, but the internet is so messed up I cant find anywhere to anonymously upload anything anymore.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1214021X15300363

What I think is more likely: Advanced maternal age we know is a risk factor for trisomy disorders (Downs, Edwards, trisomy 13) secondary to decreased ovarian reserve. Fact. There is in inflection point in fertility at age 35 where after that point fertility rapidly decreases. The rates of these disorders increases steadily until age 35, where the incidence of Down Syndrome is to the tune of 1/150.

Advanced Paternal age (older dads) - IS associated with higher rates of autism spectrum disorder. Also, male fertility wanes as males age, but not to the dramatic extent that women experience. With the American population aging, and people pushing off having kids later and later (I delivered babies to 40+ year old women on rotations), not to mention the social aspect - Men tend to gain more social power and desirability as their resources increase - often with age - It is not unreasonable to consider that decreased male sperm quality with age, along with yet unknown mutations and epigenetic changes is contributing to increasing rates of ASD.

Just look at the dating scene in NYC - men are starting to get married more often at later ages (30s/40s) and tend to date/marry women 10 years younger than them. Picture this - we have prenatal screening for Downs syndrome, Selective abortion happens. So older women having more babies may not increase the rate of Downs. We do NOT have prenatal screening for autism- it is a clinical diagnosis made often around age 2 or later. So Older men + younger women -> you have a perfect little storm of risk factors to dramatically increase autism rates.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Interesting. So this is positing that aluminum and fluoride are the culprits? I think fluoride is a joke, even WHO studies show that it has little impact on dental health as compared to countries who don't do it. And many countries have started to move away from putting it in their water.

Aluminum is interesting because there's so many sources, like deodorant for example. They've also found aluminum concentrations in the brain are related to Alzheimer's.

[–]DoKtor 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Its interesting, and has potential. They posit that there is a synergistic effect (multiplicative rather than additive) of these toxic insults. WHats more interesting to me is that there seems to be differing genetic susceptibility between people. They did find that people living and who grew up in the same areas can have wildly different levels of fluoride in the pineal gland. There must be a genetic connection as well as an environmental insult.

I try to use as little deoderant as possible for that reason lol, they did NOT like me in the anatomy lab.

I think Fluoride is BS, but can have its place - IN toothpaste- that I spit out, and have the CHOICE of exposing myself to. Its absurd that they put it in the drinking water.

Alzheimers is such a mystery. we have an alzheimers specialist that does brain autopsies where I am and there is a ton of controversy in the field. Its poorly understood by the experts. What is known though is that you are more likely to develop alzheimers if you have less Beta amyloid in your cerebrospinal fluid, which means its not being cleared from the brain. (CSF is the trashman of the brain, and beta amyloid is trash). A

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I agree about topical fluoride. Drinking it makes no sense. Those few seconds it's on the teeth doesn't offset all the potential negatives of running it through the whole body. And I agree there's a biological component to how the toxic elements are processed. If there wasn't, then everyone in a region would have the exact same amount of autism, but clearly that's not the case.

Interesting what you say about the CSF.

I wonder if it's related to people's lack of sleep? Sleeping is when your brain "takes out the trash" and clears out buildups, I've seen new research starting to show this.

[–]DoKtor 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I wouldn't be surprised. Its in the medical industry's best interest that it is not however, so I wonder how much counter research will come out. It certainly would have implications for attendings and residents.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's ironic because medical people are often sleep deprived, despite all the scientific evidence available that shows it increases error rates significantly, often as much as being drunk.

Seems the medical profession often holds tradition over science, despite constantly saying it's not.

[–]DoKtor 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes. You will find that it has its own little culty fraternities too. Went to an ACP (american college of physicians) meeting, which is the second largest group representing the internal medicine specialty. You wouldn't believe the literal communist propaganda they are spewing. "Your labor does not belong to you, it belongs to the community..." with various justifications for the proposed elimination of the sovereign rights of the physicians it "represents." Made me want to start singing the soviet national anthem ;)

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah it's a bizarre culture that loves to self-flagellate but simultaneously sees itself as gods

[–]huhu1 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

White guilt is real holy shit.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

LOL this line from the article:

He noted that the male to female ratio decreased in the new report. "It was 4.5 boys for every girl, and now it's 4 boys to every girl. The decrease in those disparity gaps is a good thing,"

It's a good thing that more girls are getting autism relative to boys? What the actual fuck. People are obsessed with closing gender gaps to insanity