All About AutismAutism is a disease that severely impairs a person's ability to communicate, interact socially, and think. Autism also impairs many chemical processes throughout the body. It affects the brain and central nervous system, and a growing body of research indicates that the immune system and the digestive system may also be affected. Some children seem to have autism from birth. Another group appear to develop normally up to sometime between 12 to 30 months and then lose abilities such as language and social skills. People with autism have great difficulty learning from the natural environment as most people do. Autism strikes in the first few years of life. A child with autism frequently shows little interest in the world or people around them. Many children with autism never learn to talk. Autism inhibits a child's growth and development to such a degree that a large portion of people with the disease require lifelong support. How common is autism?Autism is an out-of-control epidemic growing at a rate of about 20% per year. Twenty-five years ago autism was an extremely rare condition--now it is the leading disabling disease of children in the United States. Twenty-five years ago autism afflicted 1 in 5,000 children, now 1 in 150 have it. What causes autism?Up until the 1970s organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) blamed autism on bad mothering. Fortunately, this scientifically invalid theory was completely discredited through the efforts of the parents of autistic children. Now the AMA and APA favor another theory unsupported by any evidence that genetics and genetics alone causes autism. There are significant problems with this idea. First, if genetics was the only cause in all pairs of identical twins in which one sibling had autism the other would as well. This is what occurs in Down Syndrome and other disorders known to have a genetic cause. In some studies, however, as few as 40% of identical twin siblings both have autism. Another fact that weighs against this guess is that there has never been a genetically-based epidemic in recorded human history, which is why one will frequently find that the advocates of a genetic cause for autism also argue that there is also no epidemic, despite all indications to the contrary. Many objective researchers without financial ties to pharmaceutical companies and the federal health bureaucracies, believe that the evidence indicates that genetically susceptible children acquire autism through early exposure to some insult from the environment such as viruses, heavy metals (such as mercury), or possibly even vaccines. Is there a cure?There is no known wonder drug or treatment that can cure reliably cure autism. There are a wide variety of treatments and methods that have relieved some of the symptoms in some autism victims. Some people with autism can improve to the extent that they can attend ordinary schools, hold jobs and have relatively normal social lives. Some of the medical interventions that have helped some people with autism include: · Chelation therapy |
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