FEAT: , the Ft. Lauderdale Torch Bearer*Studies Fail To Disprove Autism Link To MMR Jab * Evidence-Based Medicine * Autistic Comedian Is A Turn For The Better * Mother Finds Mission As Autism Advocate * Better To Give Than To Receive

[Guest guest]

Studies Fail To Disprove Autism Link To MMR Jab *

Evidence-Based Medicine * Autistic Comedian Is A Turn For The Better *

Mother Finds Mission As Autism Advocate * Better To Give Than To Receive

FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org

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December 9, 2001 News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

RESEARCH

* Studies Fail To Disprove Autism Link To MMR Jab

* Evidence-Based Medicine

AWARENESS

* Autistic Comedian Is A Turn For The Better

* Mother Finds Mission As Autism Advocate

* Better To Give Than To Receive

Studies Fail To Disprove Autism Link To MMR Jab

[by Lorraine Fraser in today's Sunday London Times.]

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F

09%2Fnjab09.xml <-- address ends here.

A report commissioned by the [british] Government has concluded that

the possibility of MMR vaccination causing autism in susceptible children

cannot be ruled out on the current evidence.

The review, from the Medical Research Council, will say the theory

that the triple measles, mumps and rubella jab is to blame in some autistic

children has not been proved scientifically.

However, it will add that epidemiological studies so far of MMR have

been too imprecise to rule out the prospect of the vaccination being

involved in a small number of cases.

The findings, to be made public next week, will create difficulties

for Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary, who asked the MRC last March to look

at all available evidence on the causes of autism and identify any gaps in

present knowledge.

His officials at the Department of Health have heavily publicised

studies that failed to link MMR and autism in their attempts to convince

parents there is no risk.

The MRC's report comes after The Telegraph revealed how the doctor who

first voiced fears about the safety of MMR, Dr Wakefield, has been

forced out of his job at the Royal Free and University College Medical

School in London.

Dr Wakefield claims to have identified nearly 200 children with a new

combination of bowel disease and autism and has pledged to continue his

efforts to find out whether their double illness has been triggered by the

childhood injection. He disclosed last weekend that his university employers

had asked him to leave because his research was unwelcome.

The Department of Health insists parents have no need for concern over

the safety of MMR (recommended for babies and four-year-olds) and officials

have accused Dr Wakefield of needlessly damaging parents' confidence in the

vaccination, leaving children at risk of the illnesses.

However, the report of the MRC Review Group, headed by Eve stone,

professor of psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, will raise new

questions as to why the doctor has been ostracised by the medical

establishment.

While it offers no support for Dr Wakefield's theory that measles

virus from the MMR vaccine may colonise the gut of susceptible children and

cause bowel effects which result in a chemical imbalance, leading to autism,

The Telegraph understands the report will nevertheless make clear that more

research is needed before the hypothesis can be either confirmed or refuted.

The document, which has been sent to the Department of Health prior to

publication, is expected to argue that the cause of autism may differ

between individuals, and future research must try to take account of factors

such as genetics, environmental exposures before and after birth,

infections, and the development of the child's immune system.

In particular, it will take issue with a Finnish study of three

million children which has been widely reported as proof that MMR does not

cause bowel disease or autism.

The MRC conclusions agree with a report from the Institute of Medicine

in the US, which backed the use of MMR but also said research so far could

not exclude the possibility that MMR may be damaging some youngsters.

Dr Buie, a specialist at Harvard General Hospital, has also

announced that he found inflammation of the bowel identical to that

described by Dr Wakefield in 15 of 89 autistic children seen at his

Massachusetts clinic.

He said: " These children are ill, in distress and pain, and not just

mentally, neurologically, dysfunctional. "

Dr Wakefield's departure from the Royal Free Hospital has devastated

parents of children involved in his studies, who are demanding assurances

that their youngsters will continue to be looked after by the north London

hospital.

Dr Wakefield agreed to stand down after a two-year struggle to stay in

his post, hoping that this would relieve the " political pressure " on

clinical colleagues responsible for day-to-day care of the sick children.

Paediatric gastroenterologists at the Hampstead hospital have

developed considerable expertise in relieving the children's bowel pain and

related symptoms, but some sick children are having to wait up to 18 months

to be seen.

Last week angry families established a lobby group, Autism Research

Campaign for Health (ARCH), to push for greater recognition of their

children's problems.

* * *

Evidence-Based Medicine

" Some experts estimate that only 20 percent of medical

practices are based on rigorous research evidence. "

[ By Jack Hitt.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/09/magazine/09MEDICINE.html

When visiting our family doctor, most of us feel secure in the belief

that modern science has purged medicine of such practices as cupping and

bloodletting. But according to a recent article in the journal Patient Care,

" Some experts estimate that only 20 percent of medical practices are based

on rigorous research evidence. " The rest are based on what has been

published in books repeatedly without independent testing – or what doctors

have always said should work. In other words, it’s a kind of folklore.

A revolution is erupting in the wards of practical medicine these

days, one defined recently by The British Medical Journal as " the

conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making

decisions about the care of individual patients. " The revolution is called

evidence-based medicine, or E.B.M., and many traditional treatments are

being run through the machinery of the scientific method – and being found

wanting.

One common E.B.M. approach is meta-analysis: collating data from

far-flung studies to come up with a definitive answer to a medical question.

Such studies are overthrowing some conventional wisdom. Mammogram

screenings? They don’t save lives. Remember the placebo effect? It doesn’t

exist. E.B.M. is also credited with validating some simple cures. Most

people know that if you have a heart attack, you should immediately take an

aspirin. Thank an E.B.M. study for proving that this works.

After colds, the second-most-common reason for a visit to the doctor

is lower-back pain. The " treatment " has always been bed rest. Why? Because,

as a recent article explained, " The notion that rest is therapeutic and will

relieve pain dates back to Hippocrates. " But now that E.B.M. studies have

used science instead of oral tradition to test this notion, they have found

that bed rest " may delay return to functional status. " What works better?

Light exercise and getting back on your feet. This past June, the Agency for

Healthcare Research and Quality integrated the no-bed-rest approach into its

guidelines. This new standard of care, which will probably save billions of

dollars in unnecessary sick leave, marks the end of 2,400 years of misguided

treatment.

E.B.M. is yet another idea that can be credited to the computer

revolution. Doctors have long known that they learn very little after med

school when their exhausting schedules and the baffling profusion of 4,000

monthly professional journals make it nearly impossible to keep up with

innovations in treatment. The E.B.M. movement began when six doctors in

Canada came up with the idea of skimming the most dependable studies and

crunching the results into an accessible, reliable database.

Indeed, in the wake of E.B.M., journals are filling with terms that

sound almost anthropological to describe longstanding treatments: " local

custom, " " witch-doctoring, " " myth. " Or as one article this fall put it,

" This process of examining beliefs that have been based primarily on

teaching and empirical experience rather than evidence has been compared to

stripping the curtain away from the Wizard of Oz to reveal an ordinary man.

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* * *

Autistic Comedian Is A Turn For The Better

[by Helen Rumbelow.]

Sport http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001563416,00.html

A young woman from Essex who suffers from a form of autism has broken

new ground by having a comic play performed professionally.

Most comedians draw on a fund of unhappy childhood experiences, but

Nita ’s condition, Asperger’s syndrome, meant that she grew up with

such continual and violent bullying that she was on the verge of suicide.

Help from the National Autistic Society (NAS) was the first step to

saving her life, Nita, 18, said. The Times Christmas Appeal is aiming to

raise money which the NAS needs to help more than a tiny fraction of

children with autism. Diagnosis and support allowed Nita’s talent to

flourish: her autobiographical novel is to be published in the new year

after her sell-out run at the Brentwood Theatre in Essex two weeks ago.

Instead of considering herself “a freak and a weirdo”, she can now poke fun

at the curious ways of the “mainstreamers” or “neurotypicals” without her

condition.

Nita was fortunate because the NAS has the funds to help only 120

youngsters with autism to find work. For many of the hundreds of thousands

of people like Nita with Asperger’s, there is no hope of a productive life

and their usually high intelligence is wasted.

“I knew something was wrong from the first moment because I remember

an all-encompassing fear of the world, I was scared of everything and

everyone, "

she said at her home in Ilford, East London. “While the other kids

found solace in friendship, I was coming home to my mum, saying, ‘How do I

make friends?’ ” Nita had characteristics that are typical of Asperger’s,

such as having to climb the school steps in ten seconds, or colour-coding

all her possessions, which earnt her ridicule. By the time she was 14, she

had changed school three times and the stress of isolation had reached

breaking point.

She said: “I thought I was insane. I seriously thought I should be

locked up, and the bullying had become so bad that I couldn’t go into school

any more.

They would hold a knife to my throat, singe my hair, attack me with

Bunsen burners. "

Her mother, Carolann, said that at the end of one call to the NAS

helpline, she knew what was wrong. “The NAS have been brilliant because

there is no statutory provision for Asperger’s — it’s like it doesn’t

exist,” she said.

With support from the NAS, Nita performed well in her GCSEs and A

levels and went on to do work experience with the scriptwriters’ workshop at

the BBC.

The charity also arranged work experience at the Brentwood Theatre

where a producer heard about her writing and agreed to stage her first play,

Detained. In the new year her book Standing Down, Falling Up will be

published.

Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.

* * *

Mother Finds Mission As Autism Advocate

.. . . to carry the Olympic torch

[by Glenn , gmiller@....]

http://www.news-press.com/news/today/011207torchharris.html

received the news about her son’s autism when

was 2 1/2.

“They said he’d probably be mentally retarded and there was not a good

chance of him speaking and not to expect a lot,” said.

“I completely refused to acknowledge that as true. I went around the

area and found a lot of people in the area who had done a lot with autism

already. And so I found people who had been there and pooled all the

information.”

is now 7 and a first-grader at Hancock Creek Elementary

School.

’ friend Pam Few nominated her to carry the Olympic torch.

, 32, will tote the torch at 11:24 a.m. Saturday in Fort

Lauderdale. Her husband, , 31, will be there.

For Few, ’ refusal to allow autism to define is

inspirational.

“It was really difficult to accept it and for her to deal with it but

they did,” Few said. “She’s worked quite extensively with the autism

society. She’s gone to Tallahassee for legislation to get autism educators

into schools. It’s been really hard for her to have a child that is hard to

communicate with. With her constant diligence and working for autism and the

plight of autistics, has just blossomed. He’s in regular

classrooms. He’s communicative. You can talk to him and he responds.

“A lot of autistic children don’t. They don’t have any depth or

dimension to their thought process or communicative abilities.

has blossomed because of ’s diligence and working with him. She’s an

amazing person.”

is a voracious reader of novels, biographies and histories.

“This girl is constantly cheerful,” Few said. “She’s amazing. She is

the most thoughtful person I’ve ever met and the most giving person I’ve

ever met. She never dwells on the negative. I think she’s a pillar of what

the torchbearer should stand for.”

and her husband are both Navy veterans. They met when they were

stationed in the Philippines. They also have a 1 1/2-year-old son, Hank.

is stunned she’ll carry the torch. “I’m not worthy,” she said.

She believes the honor is more about others.

“That I have a wonderful family and friends,” . “I’ve been lucky

to pick really good people to be around. I’m honored and surprised.”

* * *

Better To Give Than To Receive

[by Payton, Indiana Daily Student, Indiana U.]

http://news.excite.com/news/uw/011207/university-128

Bloomington, Ind. U-Wire - is 19 years old. Battling autism, her

mental capabilities are that of a 6-year-old. She is stuck in the second

grade, where she has been for the past two years. I try to show her how to

put together the same pattern of blocks over and over again, and as she does

her very best we start to talk about Christmas.

I ask her what she wants from Santa and after only moments of

deliberation she announces with an innocent grin that all she wants for

Christmas is for me to get all the presents I want for Christmas.

She already has her robotic dog and she would rather that I get a new

car, the one that I showed her in the magazine at lunchtime.

With the mentality of someone a third my age, smiles at me with

an innocence I haven't had in years. She reminds me of the real message

behind the holiday season.

This was four years ago, and not much has changed in the way I view

the holidays since my meeting with . Although I try to have the

Christmas spirit, so much of my true spirit is consumed with arguing with my

mom about the price of a Yurman bracelet that I just have to have.

On the heels of Sept. 11 you'd think as a nation we would all turn to

giving rather than receiving... if only it were so simple.

A society of consumers who need and want and just have-to-have, even a

national tragedy can't shake most of us from the mindset that we must have

the best presents under the tree or beside the menorah.

Less than two hours ago I sent my mom an updated list of what I wanted

with no intention of donating a portion of the money that she will spend to

a family in New York or the local Red Cross or United Way.

This mentality carries over into other aspects of life as well.

Listening to a guest speaker from the Opportunity House (a local Goodwill

organization) in a journalism class, I realized how sick it is when I take

clothes to Plato's Closet for $10 for five pairs of Gap jeans when I could

donate it all to an organization that has people who depend upon it. Is the

$10 really that important to me? The answer to that is: it can't be.

There is more to life than having a new leather jacket or an X Box.

There are families without fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers on this

holiday and now is the time to donate in remembrance of those lost.

It doesn't matter if you are a poor college student like I am, with

thousands of credit card bills, give what you can, how you can. If you can't

donate money, donate time or a service; this is just as valuable. Spend a

few hours at a local shelter; realize how stupid it is for you to complain

about only getting two little blue boxes from 's this year.

If there is no other time you ever give, give now. It is only,

afterall, when you truly give that you can receive.

And receive you will, a thousand times over.

© 2001 Indiana Daily Student via U-WIRE

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