The Rise in Autism

[treehugger]

SageMother - I hadn't thought of the possibility of decline of the
human species in this respect although I have been known to comment on
the rapidly declining intelligence level on average. As a mother to an
child in the autistic umbrella, I don't think there is necessarily a
rise in instance of autism but that children who used to be labeled as
"slow" or "backwards" are now being labeled as autistic. My daughter
is high functioning in many areas but is limited by her emotional immaturity.
She will remain at the level of an eight-year old in that respect.

Guy- interesting theory and quite possibly a factor in the rise of
allergy diagnoses

Carl- I agree that toxic wastes overburdening our own systems. Between
chemicals in our environment and the chemicals we ingest in our food,
I believe we are damaging our bodies abilities to distinguish between
good and bad things in our systems.

[berlinlife06]

I was reading a little bit about the probable causes of autism, and aparently there might be some relation with the vaccines that the kids are getting. Basically, too many vaccinations at the same time for a little body, might cause effects that later translates into autism. I'm not an expert, I read about that somewhere few months ago, after I saw and interview with Jenny McCarthy on CNN.

[GrowYourOwn]

The autism-vaccination link has been investigated and dismissed many, many times. Time and time again we hear that vaccines do not cause autism, and yet-who is it that performs the studies? Pharmacological companies-the very companies whose interests are selling more and more vaccines.

The day that there is a study comparing totally unvaccinated children to vaccinated children-comparing both over health and autism rates-that is the day I will believe that vaccines are not related to autism.

[Sally]

Wow, I hate to think of autism as an "off" switch! Yes, I think many cases of autism are linked to pollution in our environment and our bodies, but autism is not new. I think a lot of it is natural variation. Just because they aren't neuro-typical does not make them a warning sign of impending doom to the human race.