Tv triggering autism study
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| Tue, 11-07-2006 - 1:34pm |
I'm sure many of you heard about this study so I'm not bothering posting it. I didn't even really regard this study as it's an unscientific, unpublished study so I just dismissed it. Also to mention, the study has many other flaws. But the real kicker is now it's circulated as bona fide news. I have had so many people bring this up to me. "Did you know autism is caused by watching too much tv?" Seriously, folks. I can't believe out of everything there is to learn about autism, that people have been repeatedly bringing this up to me and dh. I'm talking family, friends, and coworkers. There has been a loss of thinking skills, despite being in an information age. People just want to be spoonfed information just like they want their food tossed to them through a window. (Okay, I'm guilty of doing the window thing on occasion, just to out myself). Still, it's an apropos analogy. They don't ask questions or analyze.
There IS something to the correlation between rainy states and autism. The numbers are indicative of something...but cable subscription rates? This just smacks to me of STILL trying to blame the parents. Refrigerator mothers all over again. We just stick our kids in front of the tv. I know for a fact I watched way more tv than my kids and I don't have epilepsy or chronic diarrhea. Oregon and Washington also have a higher rate of meningitis...maybe that's from watching television too. Maybe those few Amish kids with autism were secretly watching tv when they were 6 months old too.
I am angry. I am angry of years of defending my parenting being the cause of my children's issues. The innuendo from relatives and teachers who work to exacerbate a family problem instead of problem solving. I am angry that it's viewed as a mental disorder and not a bona fide medical issue. I am not telling these people the depth of my anger since I know they really are ignorant and don't understand. Maybe I would have been one of the too. But it still hurts.

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LR,
Excellent
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Someone posted a link to that "study" on my forum for July 2005 babies.
My response was not very nice.
I really don't like it when anybody says that anything is caused by something that the majority of people have or do.
So--will the next study declare that breathing will lead to someone's inevitable demise?
Also, why "cable" tv? Are the cable providers sending out special autism rays through the atmosphere? We've had "free" network-only tv until about 2 weeks ago. So I guess Henry is the obvious exception to the results.
Anyway, I agree with you that the study is ridiculous, and people need to find better things to do with their time than tell you (or me or anybody) what caused differences in our children.
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I'm not even going to comment on the TV thing because it's just so stupid but unfortunetly many people,mostly parents without ASD kiddos will believe. Something else in your post caught my attention, rainy States and higher rates of Autism. Could you explain more? I know I read before that Ireland had a high suicide rate and it was linked to the fact we get so much rain.I have nevr heard anything like that related to Autism. I have noticed an increase this year and last in Jakes behaviour going from Summer to Fall.Do you know how weather effects behaviour? I hope you don't think it's a stupid question but it really interests me.
TIA,
Teresa
Oh no...my MIL was right. It is all the TELETUBBIES fault!
Amy
Sorry, that info was in someone else's post.
But it *is* a good question.
We've been having lots of icky rainy days around here, and I know Henry's behavior is on the more-horrid side. I think it's just because he can't go outside and jump on the trampoline or play outside at recess at school.
Edited because I realized that LR also stands for littleroses. lol.
Edited 11/7/2006 4:01 pm ET by lydia_rain
I was thinking along very similar lines as your response--that children with autism might be more likely to watch more tv for a variety of reasons.
Yeah, I agree, I thought it was silly so I didn't even have an emotional response to the study...until people started coming out of the woodwork about it. Sheesh. It wasn't even postworthy, figuring it'd be like preaching to the choir and all that, but wanted to put a thermometer out there and wonder if it was just me getting this outpouring of "info".
Well, living in Oregon, I've known for some time we've had the highest ASD rate. We are not Oregon natives, tho. We moved here from AZ when my youngest was 8 months old. (We are not AZ natives either, but that is a long story). I did believe there was something to it. My dh suffers from sinus allergies and anxiety/OCD. He lived in very dry climates and when we moved here is when it all came up on him like gangbusters. When fall hits, is the worst time around here. My oldest dd has a significant lapse in behavior, increase in hyperactivity,etc. I am not generally a depressed person, but I feel a distinct difference for a couple of months. It's not depression like one might think as being sad. It's a loss of reward. Definitely something going on with the reward neurotransmitters like dopamine. I find it hard to find pleasure in anything. I did suffer a bout of this for a few years when I was younger. It was hellish. I would have traded feeling sad over feeling nothing. The interesting thing to me, even at the time, was that I had really no exterior reason to feel this way, great husband, nice life, etc. so I knew there was something "off" within me. I turned a certain age and it pretty much went away...with only a hint of recurrence in the fall. Nothing of the severity I felt for a certain stretch when I was in my mid-late 20s. (All this history will add up to something in a minute).
I've researched suicide a bit. There is an overwhelmingly strong trend of it in my family. Numerous attempts, a few successes and others who "suicide slowly by drugs/alcohol." I found some interesting notes on MAO levels. I will post it below, but basically MAO's are enzymes that are responsible for the rate of breakdown of neurotransmitters. This rate of breakdown can be increased or decreased on varying factors. The bottom line is that they found a commonality of people who commit suicide to have low levels of MAO-B.
Then I found this statement, forgot the source:
"MAO-B levels hit lifetime low around puberty and last for the next 15 years. From about age 30 to 80, MAO-B activity in both sexes double."
Which really seemed to fall in line with what happens in my family, the ages at which the suicides occur. It seems once they made it past a certain age, there was no more attempts. I'm German/Irish, btw.
I don't know if anyone knows about the OCD/strep link...but two doctors from Rockefeller University found that children and adults with OCD had an increase in d8/17 antibodies. These are antibodies created against strep. Which doesn't necessarily mean all people with OCD are producing excess d8/17, but it is interesting.
http://www.psych.org/pnews/97-01-17/ocd.html
Now to bring it all together, it makes more sense to me that in a damp chilly environment like the NW and I guess,Ireland/England, may be a perfect brew for viruses and bacteria to thrive. The host could already have a weakened immunity for a variety of reasons, sensitivity to mold/fungus, impaired histamine regulation, impaired hormone regulation (and hormones do play a role in immunity). A virus/bacteria is opportunistic, taking advantage of a host who is weakened in combination to being in an ideal temp/moisture setting.
Insulin is a hormone and also has a role in immunity. Children with ASD almost always have some sort of iron issue. They are likely overloaded...yet at the same time, deprived of it. Here is a crosspost from open blooms
"Iron accumulates in the pancreas and will knock the islets of
Langerhans out
of action. Moreover, it causes insulin resistance."
Hemochromatosis is common in those with any Irish ancestry. People today consume a lot of iron in fortified foods and vitamins. An infant is born with a 6 month supply while a mother's milk (lactoferrin) is designed to help with the iron transport until the infant gets on solid food (at about 6 months of age) for an exterior source of iron. Viruses need iron. Iron is very tightly controlled because it's so essential, although potentially toxic.
It does not mean I think only Irish get ASDs. I think the key here is iron/viruses/bacteria affecting the brain. I've noticed a number of Russians and Jewish people with dark under eye circles (which means iron regulation issues in my book). Also India and Middle Eastern people. I think the damp/cold really must put an exclamation mark on the situation though.
Iron regulates hormones (and hormones affect immunity). Sulfur and Iron regulate eachother and mercury impairs the sulfur system which then displaces iron. Some people who may not have iron issues may not be affected.
Back to the MAO's. MAO's breakdown dopamine (the reward neurotransmitter). The rate of breakdown is what is critical here. Too slow or too fast is not good. Dopamine is made up of tyrosine (to be short). Tyrosine is an amino acid, the only PHENOL containing amino acid. It also helps regulate iron transport, is a precursor to the thyroid hormone and melanin pigment. ASD kids are often noted by parents to be affected by phenols. And estrogen is a phenol containing hormone. Many ASD kids are found to be highly estrogen imbalanced. Estrogen increases autoimmunity, progesterone lowers immunity (so that the fetus won't be rejected for impregnation). Girls have more progesterone than boys.
Messed up MAO's can cause aggression, prone to suicical tendencies, impulsivity, sensation seeking, hyperactivity, etc.
There is a bit more that is harsh so I'm hesitant to share it, but I moved about 600 miles away from Chernobyl a month after it happened as a young teen. One thing the government could have given it's people was iodine. This iodine helps to prevent radioactivity from affecting the thyroid by blocking its uptake. What occurred is a generation of children after being born with cretin-like disorders. Also, thyroid cancer, tumors and such. This is not something which was seen in Hiroshima as they had feared. Chernobly was much stronger than Hiroshima for one thing, but also the Japanese do eat a lot of seafood, which has high iodine.
Here are some photo essays which are really hard to watch. Don't watch them if you don't want to cry, but in watching them, I can see some "cretin" like physical differences from Chernobyl. I notice my daughter shares some of the facial features and taught muscles, etc. I know cretin is not a pc word, but it does express a certain set of features in specificity to the thyroid imbalance. I often see these similar features in SOME other ASD kids (not all). Which really made me wonder if my thyroid was messed up.
http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay%5Fchernobyl/
http://www.pixelpress.org/chernobyl/
I know that's a lot to think about, but the gist is I think the cold and damp make a perfect storm for an underlying already existing viral/bacterial infection which affects an already unsteady iron issue which affects hormones that help regulate the MAO rate. And that's kind of what I think the rain&cold has to do with the increase.
Although, to be honest, I think there's another factor missing. I can just "feel" it, but I'm not sure. Many things occur in the fall. For example, the vitamin D type sun is gone. It goes back to the equator for the winter so we are not getting the full spectrum of light, but I think it's even more than that. I don't feel that's the missing piece. One more thing I can feel in the fall I can't put my finger on. I am not sure, it could be barometric pressure or something else, something I can't explain and is just "missing" that I will have to really observe for awhile and hopefully notice a pattern. I don't think you sound crazy at all for noticing that. I may be a little nutty though. I at least feel the fall as being a catalyst which doesn't really make me look forward to autumn very much.
This is very interesting.
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