Article A: IDEA
Re authorization Update
CA DISABILITY COMMUNITY
ACTION NETWORK
CAPITOL NEWS REPORT #196-2004 NOVEMBER 18, 2004 - Thursday
Linking people to disability rights and unified action
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
HOUSE-SENATE IDEA CONFERENCE REPORT AVAILABLE
SACRAMENTO
- The House-Senate Conference Committee's report that details
the compromise
that reauthorizes the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), the landmark federal special education
law is available on the congressional website. The House-Senate
joint
committee passed the compromise on a strong bi-partisan vote
yesterday.
Both the
Republican and Democratic leaders on the committee strongly
supported the compromise - including Sen.
Judd Gregg
(R-NH), chair
of the senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions;
Rep. John Boehner (R-H), chair of the House Committee on
Education and the Workforce; Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass)
and Rep.
George Miller (D-Ca), the ranking Democrats on the conference
committee.
The compromise,
replaces the original contents that was in HR 1350. The original
version of that bill was
fiercely opposed
by many parent
and family advocates and disability advocacy organizations,
saying it would roll back the rights gained over the years
for children
with special needs. The compromise, while having some areas
that concerned some advocates, was generally well received
- though details
are being reviewed. The reauthorization of IDEA is expected
to be approved with strong bi-partisan support by Congress
on Friday and
sent to President Bush.
A full update
on IDEA will be discussed at the next scheduled Disability
Rights Townhall Telemeeting,
on December 2,
Thursday afternoon at
1:00 PM. The top aide handling the IDEA reauthorization
for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass) will be on hand for
the telemeeting
to
give an update and answer questions. Those interested
in participating should sign up at the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us
or call
Sheri Van Wert at Training Toward Self Reliance (TTSR)
at 916/442-8877 ext 100. Other issues, including Medi-Cal
Redesign
will also
be discussed,
with the State's top Medi-Cal official participating,
providing
a brief update and answering questions.
Here are
the links for documents related to the 2004 reauthorization
of
IDEA:
House-Senate
Conference Report 11/17/2004
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?r108:./temp/~r108lFhNIL
It will also
be posted on the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us under "legislation
- federal"
Reprinted form: Marty Omoto, director/organizer
WEBSITE: www.cdcan.us [new address]
1225 8th Street Suite 480 Sacramento, CA 95814
VOICE PHONE: 916/446-0013
FAX number: 916/446-0026 email: martyomoto@rcip.com
MORE ON IDEA REAUTHORIZATION FROM A CONCERNED PARENT:
As most of you may know by now, the IDEA hearing was
yesterday on Capital Hill. From the reports I read,
the actual hearing
was rather anticlimactic, and the bill will go to the
House & Senate
for approval votes. President Bush is expected to sign
the bill. You may read the bill at
http://www.oclb.info/HR1350(ConferenceReport).htm
I've
been reading the bill. The intent is to make it harder
for parents to use procedural violations to win cases.
The reason counsel
for parents used procedural violations was that they
were easier to prove in court (see Reed Martin's website
for
examples). It
was black/white; the district either did do or did
not do a particular thing whether it be to hold a timely
meeting, provide assessments,
etc. Proving appropriateness of an IEP is much, much
harder.
Parents
must now be more vigilant about ensuring an IEP has goals
that provide an appropriate education for their child.
Goals drive services. If you think that your child has
a need, state it in
the form of a goal rather than a specific service.
EX: 'My child will hold a conversation with a peer for
a minimum of 5 minutes'
rather than my child needs 2 hours per week of Speech.
For
parents, I consider part (5)(A) of the Findings section
is extremely important. It should set the
tone for IEP meetings.
It reads
as follows (emphasis mine):
(5) Almost
30 years of research and experience has demonstrated that
the education of children
with
disabilities can be made more
effective by--
(A) Having
high expectations for such children and ensuring their
access to the general
education
curriculum
in the regular classroom, to the maximum
extent possible, in order to--
(i) Meet
developmental goals and, to the maximum extent possible,
the challenging expectations that have been
established for
all children; and
(ii) Be prepared to lead productive and independent
adult lives, to the maximum extent possible;
My take
on this is we, as parents, must be well prepared
for IEP meetings. For children in K-12, we must ensure
that the
IEP is written with BOTH educational
and developmental goals that meet our
high expectations for our kids. DO NOT let the district
DUMB
DOWN
the IEP.
A personal
note
my daughter is in third grade. She took the California
standardized test last
year and had very
good scores.
She has now been identified as gifted
because of that. Last year the resource
teacher recommended that she be tested to see if she
qualified for
GATE
(Gifted and Talented
Education). Her classroom
teacher did not submit her name as
her classroom teacher felt that the test would be too stressful.
As parents,
we were not
told of these conversations
UNTIL this week during our parent conferences.
However,
I when informed my daughter that her
test scores put her in
the gifted
range, she has started
doing 100% of the extra credit homework
her teacher assigns. She had refused to attempt it before.
Bottom
line - Demand High Expectations!
-Gina
Levy
PS -
if your school has parent conferences with your classroom
teacher and
your child has support in the
general ed classroom
from the resource teacher,
request a SEPARATE conference
with the resource teacher.
Article B: Treat your
cold Naturally By Dr. Joseph Mercola
Every year
upper respiratory infections such as the common cold and sore
throat send 5 million people
fleeing to their local
pharmacy to stock up on over-the-counter (OTC) medications.
The danger here is that most people don't consider the risks
associated
with these seemingly safe OTC medications.
Since OTC medications
don't require a prescription many people assume that makes
them safer to take than prescription drugs. Also,
easy accessibility is often mistaken for safety.
It's important
not to lose sight that OTCs are still drugs that contain many
powerful ingredients. For example, Bayer,
maker of
the popular Alka-Seltzer Plus cold medicine, was ordered
to pay $400,000 to a consumer who claimed the ingredient, phenylpropanolamine
(PPA), had caused a stroke. The well-known OTC cold medicine
endured
another fizzling blow after a state court jury in Texas found
that the U.S. unit of Bayer produced a product considered
defective
and dangerous.
Create a False
Need for OTC Sinus Medication
Every
year Americans spend a whopping $1 billion on OTCs to treat sinus
headaches. The question this
brings to mind
is, "How
did OTC sinus medications turn into a $1 billion dollar
industry?"
Daily exposure
to TV commercials for sinus headache remedies has created a misconception
among Americans
that sinus
problems cause
headaches. These advertising ploys supported by the
pharmaceutical companies have helped OTCs successfully reach
their goal
-- create a need for OTC medications by convincing
the public they are suffering
from sinus headaches. This direct-to-consumer advertising
is
not only driving people straight to their nearest pharmacy,
but directly
to mistreatment.
These dollars
are not only being wasted but are also going towards treatment
of the wrong condition,
as
97 percent
of the people experiencing
sinus headaches are actually suffering from migraines.
The
Health Costs of Mistreatment
One of the
major consequences of mistreatment by relying on OTC medications
is exposing your
body
to unnecessary
side effects.
Some of side effects of antihistamines and decongestants
include:
Drowsiness
Nervousness
Agitation
Palpitations
Sleeplessness
This doesn't
include the chronic users of certain nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs)
like ibuprofen (Motrin),
which has been linked to gastrointestinal
and liver damage. Also,
the highly marketed acetaminophen (Tylenol),
if taken in excess, has
been shown to be toxic to the liver.
Prevention
-- The Doctor's Orders
It is particularly
important to be highly proactive in the winter months as we have
far less sunshine.
Not getting
enough
sunshine
on our skins in the winter is one of
the
primary reasons that we become sick.
The total amount
of sunshine is
also significantly
decreased in the winter for most of us
which is another major factor.
If you are one of the fortunate subscribers
reading this newsletter in a subtropical
or tropical area
than it
is far less likely
that you and your community will get
sick this winter as one of the
primary reasons for catching a cold,
not enough sunshine, is simply not an issue
for you. So
if you are fortunate
enough to live in
such an area please take advantage of
the sun and get some exposure. But remember
never to
get burned
and
throw away
the
sun screen
as most of the benefits will be avoided
if you use it.
Rather than
putting your health at risk by taking OTC drugs that solely mask
the symptoms
and fail
to treat
the underlying
symptoms,
your best option is taking a preventative
approach.
By far, it
is most effective to be proactive and not get colds in the
first place.
It seems the
major reasons
why
one gets
them to begin with are:
Not following
a proven
healthy diet (It is absolutely vital to avoid
sugars,
sweets,
pastries,
cookies,
cakes and candies
if you
want to avoid colds, but especially
if you are already sick as these
will seriously
impair your
immune response.)
Stress
Not enough sleep
Any combination of the above
So clearly
the first approach is be careful and avoid food choices
that
will sabotage
your health.
If you
are stressed
you can use
an amazing effective energy psychology
tool like EFT, to address the
foundational and
core reasons
as to
how the
stress is impairing
your immune system. It only takes
a few minutes to learn this technique
with
my free
on-line manual.
Many people
struggle with getting a good
night sleep. If you struggle
with
this
please read
my
sleep guidelines.
Please also understand
that improving your melatonin
levels are key to getting a
good night's sleep, so make sure you
have exposure to bright sunlight
in the
daytime and sleep
in absolute
darkness
at night. I
strongly recommend installing
black
out shades and/or curtains
in your
bedroom.
If you don't
have them already installed you can go
to the
grocery store and
cut out some
large
pieces of cardboard
to fit your window.
It is important you sleep
in cave like darkness and not
be able to view your hand
in front
of your face. Remember no
night lights
or clock radio lights and
never turn on the light should
you need to get up and use
the rest room.
Any small amount of light
will
instantly shut off your melatonin
production. Please also remember
that any alcohol
use is a sure fire
way to stop
your body's
production of melatonin for
that night.
Another practical
prevention tool is proper hand washing,
as it is
critical
to keeping
colds and
other viruses
at bay. One
word
of caution is avoid using
antibacterial
soaps. These
soaps are completely
unnecessary and
could easily
cause more
harm than good.
The antibacterial compounds
found in most of these
soaps sold in
the United
States
are likely
contributing
to
the spread
of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria.
In my practice,
I have found the best
way to maintain
the ultimate
hygiene
and protect
your
immune system
from colds
is by using
the Clenzology
Advanced Hygiene
System. This hygiene
kit is simple to use and only
takes
a matter
of
minutes, which makes
it ideal for families with
young children.
Most importantly, the
Clenzology soap is not
antibacterial
and it is capable
of
reaching the tens of
thousands of germs on
the
backs and palms of the
hands, on the fingers
and under
the fingernails
that
are breeding
grounds
of infections
such
as the common cold.
Treating
Your Cold Naturally
If, for whatever
reason, you have come down
with a cold,
my personal
recommendation
would
be to
use zinc
lozenges.
I have
been using
zinc in my practice
for over 15 years, far before
it was
popular.
When using
zinc lozenges, it is important to
recognize that
they
need to be
sucked on, NOT
swallowed,
and smaller doses
more frequently
seem to work better.
I usually advise
patients to suck
on
a quarter lozenge
every 30 minutes.
If started
early,
this
approach
seems
to work well for
the clear
majority of patients.
A word of caution
should be heeded though; if
the lozenges
make
one nauseous
they should be stopped
immediately
as that is a
sign of zinc toxicity.
One
of the most exciting, simple
and inexpensive
natural options
to treat
a cold once
you have it is to
use hydrogen
peroxide
in your ear
canals. It is amazingly
effective
especially
if used
at the first
sign of a cold.
Don't
ask me how
it works, but it
seems to
help more
than
75 percent
of those that use
it. Please
be sure
to review the
peroxide
page for
more information.
Article C: Scientists
target drugs and other environmental agents that may
play a role
Diana
Parsell
Beth
Crowell remembers the day in 1989 when her triplets, Casey, Andrew,
and Erin, were about 15 months old.
Crowell put Erin down
on the floor to crawl. "But she just sat there, fixated on
the red shag carpeting," says the Housatonic, Mass., mother
of four. The toddlers were often sick, and "none of them made
eye contact," Crowell recalls. A medical evaluation was
devastating: All three babies had autism. Children with autism
typically have
trouble communicating, interacting socially, and controlling
their behavior. Those most severely affected seem to live in
a world
of their own. Various treatments sometimes reduce symptoms, especially
if children are diagnosed early. But there is no cure for autism,
which has baffled the medical community since the disorder was
first described in 1943.
STEADY
PROGRESS. Ben Bakter, who has autism, works with therapist
Denise Jennings.
C.
Bakter, NAAR |
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently estimated
that 1 of every 1,000 children may have autism, or 1 in 500
if those
with autism-related
disorders such as Asperger syndrome are included.
For
years, Crowell combed the medical literature trying to figure
out what might have gone
wrong in her triplets. She doubted that a genetic mutation
was solely
responsible. Crowell came to suspect that terbutaline, a drug she had
taken during pregnancy to prevent premature labor, might have
played a role.
A
team of researchers in Baltimore found her assertion plausible.
They knew of experiments showing that rats exposed
to terbutaline before birth
had
brain abnormalities.
More recently, they completed a yet-unpublished clinical study that
found a higher-than-expected incidence of autism in both children
in sets of
fraternal twins whose mothers
also took terbutaline during pregnancy. The investigators are Andrew
Zimmerman of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, independent researcher
Susan Connors, and
researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
This
research reflects a shift in scientific thinking about what causes
autism, and
a push to look harder at potential environmental influences.
"For
years, the emphasis [in autism research] has been on neurobiology
and genetics," says
Michael Cuccaro of Duke University in Durham, N.C., a psychiatrist
specializing in autism. "It was thought we could identify
the causes if we could understand those connections, but we're
still left searching for causes.
There was a missing
piece of the puzzle, which was the environment."
Some
scientists are convinced that environmental factors must be at
play because
autism appears to be increasing rapidly. They argue
that
genetic
factors alone
can't account for such rapid growth. For example, California
Department of Developmental Services data show that autism cases
in the state
more than
doubled between 1987
and 1998. Scientists from the CDC found a 10-fold increase in
autism in Atlanta from 1986 to 1996.
However,
perinatal epidemiologist Lisa Croen of Kaiser Permanente's Division
of Research in Oakland,
Calif., says that some of the
apparent increase
probably reflects inconsistencies in data-reporting methods
and changes in diagnostic
criteria over the past 15 years.
A
highly controversial piece of the autism picture in the past
decade has been the issue of
whether childhood vaccines can
trigger the
disorder. Suspicions
arose because autism is often diagnosed around the time when
children receive a series of routine vaccinations. A mercury-based
vaccine
preservative called
thimerosal seemed a likely culprit.
In
the past 5 years, thimerosal has been phased out of most pediatric
vaccines, and
a committee of the National Academies'
Institute
of Medicine in Washington,
D.C., has consistently found no conclusive evidence for
an autism-vaccine connection. But two new studies are reviving
the argument that
thimerosal can act as an environmental
factor promoting autism in certain children.
Geneticist
Thomas Wassink of the University of Iowa in Iowa City says
that most researchers studying the genetics
of
autism now
assume that
the disorder
is caused
by interplay between genes and factors from outside the
body. He speculates that environmental factors trigger
the disorder
in children
in whom
5 to 15 genes
have created an underlying susceptibility. Gene hunters
are homing in on several autism-related genes, he says.
Much
of the current research on autism is in early stages. Payoffs
in treatments or preventive measures are likely
to be years to
decades away.
Maternal
Mediation
Environmental
agents under scrutiny in autism research include drugs, vaccines,
viruses, and poisonous substances
such as
lead and mercury. "There certainly
isn't a shortage of environmental suspects that
may play a role in autism," notes
Andy Shih, chief science officer of the National
Alliance for Autism Research in Princeton, N.J. "But
these are not all necessarily artificial or manmade
and may have to do with influences in the womb."
Zimmerman,
a pediatric neurologist, is one of many specialists
who think that environmental influences
in utero may
contribute to autism
by disrupting
normal
early development. To a fetus, any effect from
outside the wombhormones triggered by a mother's
stress,
for exampleis environmental. "It's anything
that affects pregnancy," says Zimmerman.
Isaac
Pessah, director of the Center for Children's Environmental Health
and Disease Prevention Research
at the University
of California, Davis,
agrees. He also points out that newborns and
infants are especially vulnerable to
the
damaging
effects of toxic exposures because the human
nervous and immune systems "undergo
considerable remodeling in the first 2 years
of life."
Some
scientists suspect that maternal viral infections are one of
the principal
non-inherited
causes
of autism. Epidemiological
studies
have
found a significantly
increased risk of autism in the offspring
of mothers exposed to the rubella, or German measles,
virus
early in pregnancy.
In
the Jan. 1, 2003, Journal of Neuroscience, scientists led by
Paul H. Patterson
of the
California Institute
of Technology in
Pasadena
reported that when
pregnant mice were infected with a modified
human-flu virus, they produced offspring
that, as adults, behaved in ways similar
to those
of
many autistic children. Compared with a
control group,
the affected
mice interacted less
and were unusually
anxious under mildly stressful situations
and around unfamiliar objects.
The
scientists also found unusually low numbers of critical signaling
components,
called
Purkinje cells,
in brain
tissue of the affected
mice. Autopsies of
people with autism have revealed fewer
than normal of these cells.
In
an upcoming International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience,
Patterson's
group reports that
altered brain development
in the mice doesn't appear
to occur as a direct result of viral
infection
in the fetus. Instead, "there's
evidence it's related to a natural
immune response in the mother, [but
the] mechanism
is something we're still working on," says
Patterson.
Some
of the molecules that the mother uses to fight the virus
may be crossing
the
placenta and affecting
brain
development
in the
fetus, he explains.
If
so, the problem wouldn't be specific to the flu virus. "Lots
of kinds of infection could lead to the same
effects," Patterson
says.
Immunity
Role?
Support
is growing for the idea that immune system problems in
a pregnant
woman or
developing child
set the stage
for autism.
Zimmerman
and his colleagues recently found that rheumatoid
arthritis
and other autoimmune
disorders,
in which
the immune system attacks
parts of the
body, are
unexpectedly common in families
of autistic children. Zimmerman
says
that other studies
have shown
that from 30 to 70 percent
of autistic
children
have subtle
immune system abnormalities,
although such children aren't
exceptionally
vulnerable to everyday infections.
To
study whether impaired immunity might put some children at risk
of developing
autism after being
exposed to
thimerosal, Mady Hornig
of Columbia
University
and her colleagues did
experiments
using mice
vulnerable to autoimmune
diseases. The researchers
injected newborns of this
susceptible
strain and of two
other strains with thimerosal
alone, with a thimerosal-vaccine
combination, or saline
solution. The doses were
comparable to those that
children receive
in typical
vaccinations.
In
the September Molecular Psychiatry, Hornig's team
reports that virtually
all the mice
in the immune-compromised
strain
that received
either
form of thimerosal
showed autism-like symptoms.
They behaved oddly and
had delayed growth
and brain
abnormalities. The other
two
strains of
mice showed no
such effects.
Some
scientists caution against reading too much
into the
findings. Epidemiologist
Craig
Newschaffer
of Johns
Hopkins
says that
animal experiments
such as this are important
to determine the physiological
effects of
exposure to
toxic
substances. But, he
notes, it's impossible to say
with certainty
that lab animals
exhibiting certain
kinds of behavior have autism
or that what
happens in lab animals
translates to people. "We
have to keep in mind
that these are largely
preliminary studies," he
says.
Potential
Pathways
As
in other diseases, finding the roots
of autism is
challenging because
things can
go awry at
so many points
on the long
and complicated
road to normal human
development.
In
the April Molecular Psychiatry, neuropharmacologist
Richard
Deth of Northeastern
University in
Boston and his colleagues
described a biochemical
pathway that
they say is an
avenue by which
thimerosal and
other compounds could cause
neurodevelopmental
disorders
such as autism.
When
the researchers exposed human neuronal cells
to
low doses of
thimerosal,
the chemical activity
called
methylation
dropped
significantly.
Deth
explains that
methylation,
in which single
carbon atoms
are
transferred
from one
molecule to
another, plays a central
role
in normal
patterns of
gene expression. Therefore,
he says, "it
is no wonder
that [agents]
capable
of interfering
with
DNA methylation
could cause
developmental
disorders such
as autism."
On
Oct. 5, Deth
described
his
findings
to a House of
Representatives
Labor
and Health
and
Human
Services
subcommittee in Washington,
D.C.
He told
the
panel
that his
team recently determined
the specific
molecular
mechanism by which
thimerosal
inhibits
methylation. An enzyme critical
to methylation,
methionine
synthase,
uses an active
form
of vitamin
B12 to complete
its chemical
function,
Deth explained.
Thimerosal
interferes
with
the conversion
of dietary
forms of
B12 into
the active form
and so impedes
DNA
methylation
and
disrupts
some normal gene
actions.
The
work, Deth
says,
suggests
that children
with mutations
in genes
that encode
methylation-related
enzymes
are at higher
risk of
damage from
toxins.
The
researchers found that exposing
neuronal
cells
to lead,
ethanol,
and aluminum
also
disrupts methylation,
but through
different
mechanisms.
Meanwhile,
Connors, Crowell,
and
their
Baltimore
colleagues
hypothesize
that
the
drug terbutaline,
which
is
usually used
for
asthma,
leads
to
autism by interfering
with
beta
2
adrenergic
receptors,
cell-membrane
proteins
that
play
a
major
role
in
brain development.
Animal
studies
of
terbutaline
have
shown
that
it
over stimulates
beta
2
receptors,
says
Connors.
As
a
result, she
explains,
the
receptors
produce
excess
cell-to-cell
signals,
confusing
the
development
process.
Connors
and
her
colleagues
suggest
that
this
effect
alters
nervous
system
growth,
putting
some
children
at
risk
of
developing
autism
when
exposed
to
various
environmental
insults.
"
We don't want to emphasize terbutaline exposure per se [because]
there isn't only one mechanism that can over stimulate beta 2
receptors," says
Connors. She notes that stress hormones,
for example, bind to beta 2 receptors,
which suggests that unusually
high maternal stress during certain
stages of pregnancy might also contribute
to some cases of autism.
Crowell,
whose triplets
are now
teenagers, has
been a
co-investigator of
the Baltimore
studies.
She
says that
life as
a parent
of autistic
children "continues
to be challenging. Our children can
learn, so we're constantly
having to advocate for education.
Being vicious in advocating for
our children pretty much
consumes my day."
If
you have
a comment
on this
article that
you would
like considered
for publication
in Science
News, send
it to
editors@sciencenews.org. Please
include
your name
and location.
Article D: Autism linked
to overactive immune system, study finds
By ANDRÉ PICARD
PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER
November 16, 2004 -
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041116/HAUTISM16/TPHealth/
Autism, a mysterious and increasingly common disorder, may be
caused, at least in part, by a malfunction in the immune system,
a new study suggests.
Researchers studying the brains of people with autism say they
have found strong evidence that parts of the immune system were
overactive, causing chronic inflammation. This inflammation appears
to cause damage to the brain in a manner similar to what is seen
in other neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease,
Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's
disease). Autism is a brain disorder that appears in early childhood.
The cause, or causes, are unknown, though immune reactions have
long been suspected as playing a role.
"These findings reinforce the theory that immune activation
in the brain is involved in autism," said Dr. Carlos Pardo
Villamizar, a neuroimmunologist at Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine in Baltimore, Md.
There are a number of theories about what triggers the damaging
inflammation, including birth trauma, exposure to toxins, childhood
vaccines, diet and viruses.
The new research throws cold water on a number of these notions,
suggesting strongly that immune system problems begin in the womb
-- likely in the second trimester when the nervous system is developing
-- and continue throughout life.
The study, published in today's edition of the Annals of Neurology,
was conducted using the brain tissue of 11 people with autism,
aged 5 to 44, who died from accidents or injuries. The victims'
brains were donated to a large U.S. autism tissue program that
promotes research.
Researchers measured a number of immune-system proteins called
cytokines and chemokines, and found abnormal patterns that suggested
chronic inflammation. These measures were compared to those conducted
on non-autistic victims who died in similar circumstances, which
showed no such inflammation.
"The pattern of cellular and protein findings indicated that
they are part of the innate immune system and do not appear to
be caused by immune abnormalities outside the brain," Dr.
Pardo said.
He said the inflammatory response -- which is one way the immune
system responds to threats -- indicates the brain is fighting back
against some other process that is damaging brain cells.
What is not clear is what is triggering the immune system to become
overactive during fetal development. The cause could be genetic,
environmental, or a combination of the two, Dr. Pardo said.
He said the finding opens the door to the possibility that once
the mechanism is unraveled, a simple measure may exist to prevent
autism, perhaps one as devilishly simple as folic acid supplementation,
which
has virtually eliminated neural tube defects like spina bifida
and anencephaly. Those devastating neurological conditions turned
out to be caused by a deficiency in one micronutrient.
Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning symptoms can vary broadly
in those who are afflicted, from mild to disabling. Generally speaking,
children with autism have difficulty with social interaction and
communication, can display repetitive behaviours and develop unusual
attachments to objects and routines.
Autism is often complicated by the presence of other neurodevelopmental
conditions, such as Fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome (both common
forms of mental retardation) and epilepsy. It is estimated that
between two and five in every 1,000 children born will develop
autism before school age. The Autism Society of Canada estimates
the incidence rate in this country is one in every 286 births.
The condition is about four times more likely in boys than girls.
As part of their study of the immune-system response, researchers
also examined the cerebrospinal fluid of some autistic people,
where they found corroborating evidence of chronic inflammation.
Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a pediatric neurologist at Kennedy-Krieger
Institute in Baltimore and a co-author of the research, said this
means it may be possible to diagnose children with autism by testing
the
spinal fluid.
He said it is also conceivable that autism could be treated with
anti-inflammatory drugs (such as over-the-counter painkillers)
but he stressed that is highly speculative.
Currently, there are no medical treatments for autism. Rather,
children are treated with intense cognitive therapies, but this
approach is expensive and controversial.
*
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