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bloom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:14 AM
Original message
"Why Current Thinking About Autism Is Completely Wrong"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/why-current-thinking-abou_b_275753.html

by Mark Hyman, MDPracticing physician and pioneer in functional medicine


....The real reason we are seeing increasing rates of autism is simply this: Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain. A toxic environment triggers certain genes in people susceptible to this condition. And research supports this position. Today I will review some of this research and explain how imbalances in the 7 keys systems of the body may be the real cause--and thus the real cure--of autism.

A New Understanding of Autism

Dramatic scientific discoveries have taken place during the last 10 to 20 years that reveal the true causes of autism -- and turn conventional thinking on its head. For example, Martha Herbert, MD, a pediatric neurologist from Harvard Medical School has painted a picture of autism that shows how core abnormalities in body systems like immunity, gut function, and detoxification play a central role in causing the behavioral and mood symptoms of autism. She's also given us a new way of looking at mental disease (and disease in general) that is based on systems biology. Coming from the halls of the most conservative medical institution in the world, this is a call so loud and clear that it shatters our normal way of looking at things.

Everything is connected, Dr. Herbert says. The fact that these kids have smelly bowel movements, bloated bellies, frequent colds and ear infections, and dry skin is not just a coincidence that has nothing to do with their brain function. It is central to why they are sick in the first place! Yet conventional medicine often ignores this.

My friend and mentor, Sidney Baker, MD -- a pioneer in the treatment of autism as a body disorder that affects the brain -- often says, "Do you see what you believe or do you believe what you see?" The problem in medicine is we are so stuck in seeing what we believe that we often ignore what is right in front of us because it doesn't fit our belief system. Nowhere is this true more than in the treatment of autism...

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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:14 AM
Response to Original message
1. That's fucking stupid. n/t
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bloom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:18 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. It's fucking stupid to post a reply
before you've read the article.
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hobbit709 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:22 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. I read the article
it's a crock.
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:30 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. No shit. No debate is necessary. Debate imp-lies they have a valid position. n/t
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:44 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. What makes it invalid? nt
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WillYourVoteBCounted Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 10:08 AM
Response to Reply #7
11. debate is scientific. trying to stop discussion reveals a weak position.
But we acknowledge your drive to stop debate and prevent discussion.

Its essential to protect your weak stance.
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 10:59 PM
Response to Reply #11
24. An oft-debunked claim doesn't need to be re-debunked just because the claim is made again
The essential claim of this article has been thoroughly and convincingly debunked. If the claimant wishes to discuss the matter further, then a new claim must be put forth.


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salvorhardin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:23 AM
Response to Reply #2
5. I read the article.
It's fucking stupid.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:20 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Now there's a cogent critique. nt
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Tandalayo_Scheisskopf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:30 AM
Response to Original message
6. Shades of...
Dr. Joseph Cotton.
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lumberjack_jeff Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:32 AM
Response to Original message
8. Exactly right.
It's a systemic disorder. One of the problems is that medical science has been treating it as a purely neurological one.
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LynzM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:46 AM
Response to Original message
10. This was an interesting read.
I don't really know what to think about this... I mean, the inter-relatedness of things makes sense, and my own recent dramatic mood/brain process changes based on adding only a few vitamins/minerals to my diet (B6 and complex and Cal/Mag) make me more receptive to the idea, I think. There certainly is a level of needing to treat root causes of things, as opposed to symptoms, that is largely not done in most Western medicine.
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endless october Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 10:15 AM
Response to Original message
12. how did i know he was going to blame it on vaccines?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5728998.ece

Wakefield faked the data.

any scientist should be disgusted by this kind of behavior. the fact that the writer of this article isn't even informed enough to know the 1998 vaccine / autism link was a hoax makes me distrust anything he writes.
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 10:27 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. That was 10 minutes of your life you'll never get back.
This is why you don't debate the woo-woos.

It wastes your time, and they still don't learn anything.

Fucking stupid shit is all it is.


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lumberjack_jeff Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 10:28 AM
Response to Reply #12
14. He didn't.
He identified a number of systemic problems the child had and worked with those problems individually to reduce the child's Autism symptoms.

The mom reported her child as asymptomatic prior to the age at which vaccines are given. This is common. I don't think that vaccines are THE cause but we know that some sort of environmental trigger is a factor.

You knew what the article was going to say before you refused to read it.
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endless october Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #14
15. yeah, he did.
"Her son, Sam, was born bright and happy, was breast-fed, and received the best medical care available (including all the vaccinations he could possibly have). He talked, walked, loved, and played normally -- that is, until after his measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination at 22 months.

He received diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis A and B, influenza, pneumonia, hemophilous, and meningitis vaccines -- all before he was 2 years old. Then something changed."




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Left coast liberal Donating Member (889 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 10:37 AM
Response to Original message
16. I read the article and a bunch of it rang true for our situation...
...my kid has a severe speech delay, Apraxia. We were spending a fortune on private therapy (still do) but until we realized he had food allergies to wheat/gluten, soy, eggs, rye, barley, peanuts, whey he wasn't really making much progress. As soon as we got his diet figured out, the words began to come.

For someone to say, "it is stupid", is...well... stupid.

There are a lot of families who have been able to help their kids by adjusting their diet. By saying it is "stupid" doesn't acknowledge what all these families have gone through.
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WillYourVoteBCounted Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 11:19 AM
Response to Reply #16
17. some will only accept the "earth is flat" theory -a autism/vaccine connection is heresy
when all of the geniuses said it was flat.

Who was the man who sayed the earth was round?

The ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus is the earliest person known to have written about the heliocentric model of the solar system. Ideas like this do not emerge in a vacuum; there are other, earlier observers whose names have not survived the 23 centuries since, who shared or contributed to the concept.

Aristarchus' ideas were not without some controversy; the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes wanted Aristarchus tried on charges of heresy. And the math-heavy idea-driven concept of the heliocentric theory was considerably at odds with the "You can see it with your own eyes!" geocentric model argued by Aristotle.

Like modern politicians, Aristotle was a good debater, whose simple explanations persuaded people to adopt obviously-true ideas that would not be proven false for another 15 centuries. And yet in astronomy, in medicine, in physics, in chemistry, in everything Aristotle wrote about, his ideas were wrong-headed and blind.

After Aristotle, it took 1800 years for Copernicus to revive the heliocentric model of the solar system.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_was_the_man_who_sayed_the_earth_was_round

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glitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 03:51 PM
Response to Reply #17
20. Excellent post. nt
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trotsky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 08:07 AM
Response to Reply #17
33. There's a huge difference. Unlike the nut in the OP, Aristarchus actually had facts on his side.
As Carl Sagan once said, "But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-19-09 08:36 AM
Response to Reply #33
37. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
Why Syzygy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 09:02 AM
Response to Reply #17
34. Even though he is a board certified MD ...
skeptics will bad mouth Dr. Hyman, MD, because he *gasp* works with the body’s natural forces. Everyone SHOULD KNOW that your body hasn't even the resources of the computer sitting on your desk (which has the ability to recover itself from many mishaps all by itself)!

Your.BODY.must.have.pharmaceuticals.to.get.well. If you think otherwise, you just might be wandering off into the deep dark forest of PLACEBOS. EEEEKK!! Run away! :dunce:

Who is Mark Hyman, M.D.

Respected medical consultant, New York Times -bestselling author, lecturer, and practicing physician Mark A. Hyman, M.D., is a leader in the emerging field of functional medicine.

Functional medicine is ideal medicine made real; it is a new medical model—a more successful way of treating human illness and disease—born of recent technological and clinical advances applied in a fresh methodology.

As Dr. Hyman says, "the future of medicine, available now." Functional medicine moves beyond diagnosis-based medicine to incorporate new research that for the first time allows treatment of the underlying causes of disease.

It works with the body’s natural forces to achieve a state of what Dr. Hyman calls UltraWellness—lifelong good health and vitality. Functional medicine creates UltraWellness by combining a broad range of treatments to help restore and optimize normal function and health, including conventional therapies, herbal treatments, and alternative methodologies, in one encompassing, patient-centered approach.

In his work, Dr. Hyman applies the best of conventional and alternative medicine with cutting-edge science, placing him at the forefront of progressive medical care and education in the United States. A strong and pioneering voice for change in the fundamental way health care is perceived and delivered, as well as for a new paradigm for physicians, he has launched an innovative approach that taps into years of medical research that has not, until now, been translated into clinical practice in hospitals, homes, and the community.

Dr. Hyman is the Editor-in-Chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, the premiere peer-reviewed professional journal in the fields of integrative medicine and alternative medicine; and is the Medical Editor of Alternative Medicine Magazine, which is dedicated to helping consumers improve their health and the quality of their lives. He is on the editorial board of Integrative Medicine : A Clinician's Journal.

Dr. Hyman has testified regarding health promotion and wellness for the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine and has consulted with Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona on his diabetes prevention initiative.

Dr. Hyman was co-Medical Director for eight years at Canyon Ranch Lenox, one of the world's leading health resorts; co-authored the New York Times bestseller Ultraprevention: The 6-week Program That Will Make You Healthy for Life (Scribner), winner of the Books for a Better Life Award, which honors the best self-improvement books published each year; and wrote the New York Times bestseller UltraMetabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weighloss for which Dr. Hyman also created a public television special that is currently airing nationwide.

He is also author of The Five Forces of Wellness: The Ultraprevention System for Living an Active, Age-Defying, Disease-Free Life (Nightingale) and creator of The Detox Box (Sounds True), a unique, easy-to-follow program designed to help people significantly rejuvenate their health and vitality by cleansing their bodies from toxins in the environment, diet, and spirit.

A guest on the Today show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, and The View with Barbara Walters, Dr. Hyman has also appeared on CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR, as well as many other television and radio stations. He is quoted regularly in leading consumer magazines including Parade, Elle, Fitness, Glamour, Family Circle, Health, Natural Health, Self, Shape, and Town & Country.

Dr. Hyman serves on the Board of Directors and faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a pioneering educational center for training health professionals in the science and practice of nutritional biochemistry, molecular medicine, and preventing and treating the diseases of aging. He is on the Board of Advisors and faculty of Georgetown University School of Medicine's Food as Medicine training program.

A popular lecturer, Dr. Hyman speaks on a wide range of topics, including natural approaches to common health conditions, optimal health, cardiovascular health, menopause and women's health, brain wellness, obesity and weight loss, optimal aging, and longevity medicine. His website, www.ultrawellness.com, empowers health care consumers and practitioners, enabling them to benefit from the wealth of information and scientific articles he has gathered on the fundamental causes of illness, wellness promotion, vitamin and herbal supplements, and more.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Hyman worked as a rural family physician in the mountains of Idaho, and in China as the Medical Director for development and planning of an international medical center in Beijing. He also consulted in Hong Kong on medical centers for expatriates in Asia. Before joining Canyon Ranch, Dr. Hyman served in an inner city emergency room in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Dr. Hyman graduated with a B.A. from Cornell University, magna cum laude from the Ottawa University School of Medicine, and from the University of San Francisco 's program in Family Medicine at the Community Hospital of Santa Rosa. He is board certified in Family Medicine, and resides in western Massachusetts with his family.

http://www.ultrawellness.com/about-us/mark-hyman

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trotsky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 09:29 AM
Response to Reply #34
35. Well, good to see that your sole argumentation tactic is doing fine.
Lovely strawman! I guess if you're only going to have one rhetorical tool, you might as well use the hell out of it.
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LeftishBrit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 12:01 PM
Response to Original message
18. Many autistic people do NOT have frequent colds, smelly bowel movements, etc.
Autistic people have a statistically higher chance than non-autistic people of medical disorders; but there is no consistent pattern of ill-health in all autistic people. This is one reason why for a long time autism was regarded as a psychiatric rather than a neurological disorder: unlike children with some other disorders, they do not show consistent physical differences from neurotypical children.

And there is nothing 'new' about this way of looking at autism: it is based on theories which have been put forward at least since the early 90s, and which however have little concrete evidence.
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lumberjack_jeff Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 12:52 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. Autism itself is only a collection of markers
If those markers are present in a sufficient proportion, the person is diagnosed as having ASD.

When my son was diagnosed, the doctor spent as much time talking to us about his eating habits, looking at his skin, and other non-behavioral conditions as he did questioning us about my son's behavior.
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EvolveOrConvolve Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-08-09 09:45 PM
Response to Original message
21. "core abnormalities in body systems like immunity, gut function, and detoxification..."
Is "gut function" a real scientific or medical term? I don't trust anyone who claims to be a scientist while using pseudo-intellectual platitudes like "Do you see what you believe or do you believe what you see." It doesn't really mean anything, and doesn't advance the cause of autism research in the slightest. This jackass's view of science is so backward that I question his ability to apply the scientific method to his "research".
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Sal Minella Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 06:08 PM
Response to Reply #21
22. One of the eminent gastroenterological journals in Europe is called "Gut."
The word is more slang in the U.S., not so much elsewhere.
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EvolveOrConvolve Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 09:23 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. Is the word used in a formal way here in the U.S.?
This appears to be an article from an American doctor. I've seen the gastroenterologist many times and never heard them use the word "gut".

If this guy is seeking legitimacy, why wouldn't he use words that are not slang terms in the U.S.? It's like a urologist referring to the penis as a "cock".
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Sal Minella Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-10-09 12:53 PM
Response to Reply #23
25. To me, the red flags on this doctor pop up at the "Lose Ten Pounds in Seven Days!"
book in the accompanying ad, and at the "Doctors and families can sign up for my conferences!"
(I would guess that one does not attend these autism conferences without payment in advance of registration fees!)

Another red flag for me on this doc is using only one patient to illustrate his course of treatment -- we are all familiar with stories of cancer patients who are told their tumors are so advanced that nothing can be done and death is imminent, only to show up tumor-free six months or a year later -- one case does not prove a course of treatment is effective -- you'll note he mentions no failures of treatment. His rate of success in "curing" autism would be of great interest to me.

I also wonder about where and how the various tests are done -- hair test for antimony, blood test for manganese, urine test for D-lactate, genetic test for glutathione metabolism etc. -- who pays for these tests that desperate parents would want carried out, and who gets paid?

"Gut" is actually a perfectly acceptable word, not at all comparable to using "cock" in medical writing. In formal medical writing in the U.S. I would expect to see the word "gut" used instead of "gastroenterological tract" actually . . .

Frinstance, article in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_gut_syndrome


I would expect American doctors NOT to use the word "gut" when speaking to American patients, precisely for the reason you illustrate -- "guts" is coarse American slang but as far as I know "gut" is not

"Gut" is actually the name of the peer-reviewed journal of the British Society of Gastroenterology.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=Journal+Gut&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&oq=Journal+Gut&fp=9bc71c44470caab7

I didn't google but am fairly sure there is no society of urologists with a peer-reviewed journal called "Cock."
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salvorhardin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-10-09 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #25
26. But there should be!
I didn't google but am fairly sure there is no society of urologists with a peer-reviewed journal called "Cock."


Ah, but there should be.
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Sal Minella Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-10-09 02:12 PM
Response to Reply #26
27. We are not going to discuss journals that may or may not exist
to publish papers by salpingo-oophorectomists. No, we're just not.

:)
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EvolveOrConvolve Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-10-09 10:02 PM
Response to Reply #27
28. LOL, that's the funniest thing I've read in a while
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-11-09 07:18 AM
Response to Reply #28
29. You two are going to get this thread locked.
Naughty naughty naughty...
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EvolveOrConvolve Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-11-09 09:19 PM
Response to Reply #29
30. Hopefully us three are the only ones who get it...
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Sal Minella Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 12:32 AM
Response to Reply #30
32. So . . . tell me what you've heard about aural sex . . .
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Why Syzygy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-11-09 11:52 PM
Response to Reply #23
31. It is a legitimate medical term.
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Kingworld Donating Member (2 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-18-09 09:41 AM
Response to Original message
36. Autism - The boy voted out of kindergarten lawsuit.
http://web.tcpalm.com/2009/08/27/schoolsuit.pdf

This is the PDF of the lawsuit that the mother filed on the child's behalf.
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