OMG! (Oh my god) Our society will never survive.

[KiotiKowboy]

... Look at that trend line. These are the youth who will inherit what we leave them. Do we care....no we don't or we would have solved the autism epidemic. .....

Suggesting a magic cure should have been found for autism is a bit of a stretch. Why not cancer? Diabetes?

I do agree "something(s)" in our environment have created a huge health problem. I'm not willing, however, to jump on the first bandwagon of blame that comes down the pike. Science has proven quite fallible on any number of issues - and health advice changes with the wind. We need to investigate a plethora of issues. Chemicals - certainly. Constant bombardment by microwaves - yes. Pharmaceutical - definitely. Vaccines - especially.

I've never been a fan of shoving the equivalent of a dump truck of some substance into a rat to see if it causes cancer. I don't like pouring bleach into the eyes of rabbits to see if it's an irritant. The point is, we need to be smarter in how we test and we need to take seriously ALL possibilities.

There are other threads where this topic is certainly more relevant ....

 

[MinnesotaEric]

1 in 51 kids have autism today. Not long ago it was 1 in 200. When I was a kid it was less than 1 in 10,000. Look at that trend line. These are the youth who will inherit what we leave them. Do we care....no we don't or we would have solved the autism epidemic. Pollution lowers IQ. Do we care- no because we ignore pollution. We've got problems that are real. but we live for today, ignore tomorrow. What we are leaving for a legacy dwarfs whether a kid knows what the EPA is. How many know of the glysophate cancer link? Does anyone care- nope. Why is our cancer rate so high? We have chemo pills- why worry about it. It is good enough to leave it alone.
Kids are a reflection of the adults that raise them.
We need to look in the mirror when we see a kid do something stupid, or say something dumb.

The high carb, low fat diet that my generation and younger has been taught as children to eat (the SAD, the Standard American Diet) may very well the reason for the rise along with better diagnosis.

Been getting into reading up on food issues for the last couple of years off and on, and since I've stopped paying attention to what I was taught to eat, I've lost 50 pounds without even trying. Not even trying to diet.

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It: Gary Taubes: 8580001041421: Amazon.com: Books

A Low Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet Manual: No Sugar, No Starch Diet: Dr. Eric C. Westman M.D.: 9781482781250: Amazon.com: Books

 

[tcreeley]

The high carb, low fat diet that my generation and younger has been taught as children to eat (the SAD, the Standard American Diet) may very well the reason for the rise along with better diagnosis.

Been getting into reading up on food issues for the last couple of years off and on, and since I've stopped paying attention to what I was taught to eat, I've lost 50 pounds without even trying. Not even trying to diet.

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It: Gary Taubes: 8580001041421: Amazon.com: Books

A Low Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet Manual: No Sugar, No Starch Diet: Dr. Eric C. Westman M.D.: 9781482781250: Amazon.com: Books

:thumbsup:

 

[CalG]

By the way we all know that Nero fiddled while Rome burned refers to his being sexually engaged....don't we?

rumor has it, that NERO was an earnest and devout hedonist.

 

[rtimgray]

I think that reason we have seen such exponential rises in the presence of "diseases" and "conditions" is not because they didn't exist before, but rather because they were not diagnosed as such before. Why? I would say probably the interest and infrastructure to conduct tests to find them didn't exist either.

How many folks, a hundred years ago, died of "natural causes" or "consumption" or similar vague/unknown reason? A lot. The scientific community has come a long way in terms of being able to diagnose various ailments. All of my evidence is apocryphal, so I'm not equipped to argue about it, just my opinion.

Also, with an opinion that is not supported by any factual evidence, so it is only my opinion: the increase in things like autism or ADD or ADHD are the result of people looking for some reason to blame the way their children behave. Could there be chemical imbalances or nerve conditions at work? Sure, in some cases. I feel the answer as to why there are more diseases these days is the same as almost every other topic of similarity:

Follow the money.

There is very little money to be made on a healthy person. If someone is to take their child to doctor because of behavior issues, and the doctor gives the diagnosis of "Looks like your kid is just a knucklehead. You need to do a better job parenting.", then they probably won't be making too much money. However, if the doctor gives them a diagnosis of some sort of behavioral disorder, it's not anybody's fault, and best of all, we can treat it with pills/shots/therapy sessions/etc. All of these things serve as income for some portion of the health care industry.

There are several folks in my extended family that have and will continue to "doctor shop". That is, they take themselves or their children to a doctor to find out what's wrong. The first few they try can't find something wrong, so they keep going until they find one who will. It took my Sister in Law seven or eight doctors until she could find a doctor that would help her prove that her 20 year old daughter is "disabled" (I love quotation marks, and parenthesis). After a long fight, my niece will now draw about $750 per month for the rest of her life as a disabled person (she has ADHD). Interestingly enough, my SIL's husband was recently hurt at work. They have had to go through several doctors, once again, to find one that will support his claim of a debilitating back injury so that he can file for disability.

I know that I've gone on a rant here, and perhaps it is the case that I'm the only one who feels this way. However, I honestly don't think that diseases/conditions are really any more common than they used to be. It's that we have both a larger population and more media access that likes to report on cases like these. I feel it is similar to hurricanes - they've always hit coastal areas. A few hundred years ago, these areas were not too populated. Now, lots of folks live there, so when a hurricane comes ashore, it causes more damage and affects more people. It's not necessarily a worse storm than it was 100 years ago - but now there are people there to witness it.

And I always thought that the quote about Nero was euphemistic, not literal.

Good luck and take care.

 

[sseelhoff]

I think that reason we have seen such exponential rises in the presence of "diseases" and "conditions" is not because they didn't exist before, but rather because they were not diagnosed as such before. Why? I would say probably the interest and infrastructure to conduct tests to find them didn't exist either.

How many folks, a hundred years ago, died of "natural causes" or "consumption" or similar vague/unknown reason? A lot. The scientific community has come a long way in terms of being able to diagnose various ailments. All of my evidence is apocryphal, so I'm not equipped to argue about it, just my opinion.

Also, with an opinion that is not supported by any factual evidence, so it is only my opinion: the increase in things like autism or ADD or ADHD are the result of people looking for some reason to blame the way their children behave. Could there be chemical imbalances or nerve conditions at work? Sure, in some cases. I feel the answer as to why there are more diseases these days is the same as almost every other topic of similarity:

Follow the money.

There is very little money to be made on a healthy person. If someone is to take their child to doctor because of behavior issues, and the doctor gives the diagnosis of "Looks like your kid is just a knucklehead. You need to do a better job parenting.", then they probably won't be making too much money. However, if the doctor gives them a diagnosis of some sort of behavioral disorder, it's not anybody's fault, and best of all, we can treat it with pills/shots/therapy sessions/etc. All of these things serve as income for some portion of the health care industry.

There are several folks in my extended family that have and will continue to "doctor shop". That is, they take themselves or their children to a doctor to find out what's wrong. The first few they try can't find something wrong, so they keep going until they find one who will. It took my Sister in Law seven or eight doctors until she could find a doctor that would help her prove that her 20 year old daughter is "disabled" (I love quotation marks, and parenthesis). After a long fight, my niece will now draw about $750 per month for the rest of her life as a disabled person (she has ADHD). Interestingly enough, my SIL's husband was recently hurt at work. They have had to go through several doctors, once again, to find one that will support his claim of a debilitating back injury so that he can file for disability.

I know that I've gone on a rant here, and perhaps it is the case that I'm the only one who feels this way. However, I honestly don't think that diseases/conditions are really any more common than they used to be. It's that we have both a larger population and more media access that likes to report on cases like these. I feel it is similar to hurricanes - they've always hit coastal areas. A few hundred years ago, these areas were not too populated. Now, lots of folks live there, so when a hurricane comes ashore, it causes more damage and affects more people. It's not necessarily a worse storm than it was 100 years ago - but now there are people there to witness it.

And I always thought that the quote about Nero was euphemistic, not literal.

Good luck and take care.

Concur. Well said.

 

[tcreeley]

..............Also, with an opinion that is not supported by any factual evidence, so it is only my opinion: the increase in things like autism or ADD or ADHD are the result of people looking for some reason to blame the way their children behave. Could there be chemical imbalances or nerve conditions at work? Sure, in some cases. I feel the answer as to why there are more diseases these days is the same as almost every other topic of similarity:

The increase in autism is real. Same for ADHD. Just like you can tell pretty much by looking if a child has Downe Syndrome, you can pick out the child with autism. I've just retired from 26 years in the special ed classroom, and before that, MR facility for adults, and a childrens state mental hospital. The behavior of ADHD kids is considerably more extreme today than the behavior of the hyperactive child prior to the ADHD label. Autism was almost unheard of at less than 1/10,000. Today autism is 1/51.

I think we like our illesses. Pharma and the medical community like the money we make off our illnesses and are always developing something to sell us. But I do think we are more seriously ill than we used to be. Medicine just keeps you going where before you would have stopped earlier.
Cancer is so prevalent that we consider it normal, heart disease as well.
I think it is the crap we eat that is processed, preserved, contains unnatural ingredients - plastics in vitamins, titanium pigment in foods as a whitener, We consume pesticides on a regular basis, herbicide residues are in our foods, vegetables. Roundup is showing up in women's breast milk. 90% of our corn, all of our beet/cane sugar, soy, (canola) is gmo.

It is about money- follow the dollar. Corporations make it, buy off the FDA, get it labelled safe and we eat it. No wonder we have new weird illnesses. And that is without even dealing with pollution. - A woman pregnant and having a baby in New York city will deliver a baby with an IQ 4-6 points lower than she would have if she lived out in the country due to smog pollution.

Follow the dollar. Fixing these problems costs money, lowers profits. So they are not going to ever be fixed.

 

[gladehound]

The increase in autism is real. Same for ADHD. Just like you can tell pretty much by looking if a child has Downe Syndrome, you can pick out the child with autism. I've just retired from 26 years in the special ed classroom, and before that, MR facility for adults, and a childrens state mental hospital. The behavior of ADHD kids is considerably more extreme today than the behavior of the hyperactive child prior to the ADHD label. Autism was almost unheard of at less than 1/10,000. Today autism is 1/51.

I think we like our illesses. Pharma and the medical community like the money we make off our illnesses and are always developing something to sell us. But I do think we are more seriously ill than we used to be. Medicine just keeps you going where before you would have stopped earlier.
Cancer is so prevalent that we consider it normal, heart disease as well.
I think it is the crap we eat that is processed, preserved, contains unnatural ingredients - plastics in vitamins, titanium pigment in foods as a whitener, We consume pesticides on a regular basis, herbicide residues are in our foods, vegetables. Roundup is showing up in women's breast milk. 90% of our corn, all of our beet/cane sugar, soy, (canola) is gmo.

It is about money- follow the dollar. Corporations make it, buy off the FDA, get it labelled safe and we eat it. No wonder we have new weird illnesses. And that is without even dealing with pollution. - A woman pregnant and having a baby in New York city will deliver a baby with an IQ 4-6 points lower than she would have if she lived out in the country due to smog pollution.

Follow the dollar. Fixing these problems costs money, lowers profits. So they are not going to ever be fixed.

There are too many potential causes to these problems. While I agree that the quality of food is a health problem and to a lesser extent the quality of air, to attribute the health and behavioral problems mentioned entirely to these is unfounded. There are so many confounding life style and environment changes over the years and this makes teasing out causal relationships difficult. What about having children later (more genetic problems)? What about a tax system the incents the income challenged to have as many children as possible (opposite of natural selection)? What about the video games (reduces playing outisde)? The lack of exercise (obesity, disease, ADHD), the lack of discipline (possibly diagnosed as ADHD)... the potential list goes on and on.

I, like you, am fed up with the world. I realize that I have a voice. However, I'm realistic about how much influence my voice has. And while I still speak up hoping that changes will be made on a broad level, I take it upon myself to make changes for my family and try to educate all those I can influence.

- We eat all organic and restrict processed foods
- We live away from high traffic areas (less pollution)
- We home school (and my 9 year old knows all the presidents, has a good grasp on history, and can recite the bill of rights by memory, completed 3rd grade math in 3 weeks etc.)
- we restrict electronics time
- the kids are expected to work on the property and play sports.

I am fortunate to be in a position to do this for my family and only share as an example. I realize the current circumstance can change one's ability to control how your family lives.

There seem to be a lot of decent people on TBN. So let's all take it upon ourselves to educate and influence those around us. If enough family units change the market demand will change and that will drive better quality for everyone. Once our spheres of influence start to overlap, we'll be getting someplace.

 

[Silvic]

Boy I really enjoy how this thread has morphed. Keep it going guys.

As to the Autism issue.

The increase in autism is real. Same for ADHD. Just like you can tell pretty much by looking if a child has Downe Syndrome, you can pick out the child with autism. I've just retired from 26 years in the special ed classroom, and before that, MR facility for adults, and a childrens state mental hospital. Autism was almost unheard of at less than 1/10,000. Today autism is 1/51.

The numbers are increasing in a near exponential rise. If the current rate of autism increase continues, it will not be long before nearly every child born will be autistic. While the autism spectrum is diverse and children on the spectrum have vastly different capabilities and how severe their symptoms are and the limitations that result, we have a long term critical problem. If not checked, controlled, stop in the exponential rise of autism, I will leave it to the reader to figure out the result if the current rate rise continues.

Three years ago and for 10 years before that there was a very significant higher rate for children of military members. I have not seen the data breakout in the last three years so do not know if it is still a significant difference. Why was that so? A very interesting piece a data. Of course it is only data unless you are personally involved then it is not data anymore it is very personal.

The medical community in general (AMA, CDC, etc) as well as the vaccine drug companies explicitly state that their research has proven there is no link between vaccines and autism. This is despite the fact that the increase in autism has tracked the increase of giving vaccines for every malady (not really but hyperbole seems appropriate here). This has fed a large segment of the population's fear of vaccines and their refusal to have their kids vaccinated. There was an additive in the old vaccines that may have been linked but it has not been used for long time so that has been discounted as well.

What to the best of my knowledge has not been addressed, is the way vaccines are administered. The age at which inoculation occurs and the quantity given at each time.

In animal health sciences there has been a major shift in the protocol that many/most veterinarians use in how vaccines are administered in dogs and cats. Not that the animals had been getting autism but other health related issues had arisen over the years.
Vaccines are still recommended, none have been deleted in most cases, but they don't recommend inoculation at as early an age and not as frequently and not all at the same time as was the protocol of not that many years ago.
The human medical community knows that people being people, there is a resistance to having to come back on a "frequent" cycle with their kids so they inoculate a lot stuff when they can because who knows when the kid will be back for the rest of the shots. Who wants to take your kid in every three weeks for another vaccine or who wants to go to the vet with your dog every three weeks for another visit?

I have seen no studies that have evaluated how the medical community and the drug company's vaccine protocols might impact the rise in autism. They may be out there but the only thing they state is "there is not link between the vaccine and the rise of autism." A fine point but a point non-the-less. Now back to the military higher rate. For those in or who were in the military they know this, but others may not be aware. Military members often would be given as many as 8-10 vaccines in one day. Lots of reasons why, not always the 8-10 number but that did occur prior to deployments quite frequently. Any studies about the parent's potential link to the increase in autism? Could the military's higher rate of autistic children come from the father's (in most cases but sometimes mother's) having vaccines administered the way the military often does and that somehow causes a gene modification that is transferred via the sperm to the embryo and thus the child?

No data/studies that I am aware of but has it been looked at and evaluated?

What about father's use of steroids? We have had in the same period of radical rise in autism rates, a radical rise in the use of steroids by young men (for various reasons).
We have two cases of autism in our connected family. In one case the father almost definitely used steroids (not for certain but highly likely, you know the type and the change in body shape that often is the result). The other child, both parents have drug related issues, especially the father. He may or may not have been on steroids (probably, again body changes) but the other drugs are a definite given.
Again how much is autism tied to parental drug issues both legal and illegal?
Again no studies that I am aware of that have looked into this.

We need to step back and evaluate what has caused the increase. It is not, we detect/diagnose it better, as has been stated by many so called experts. You can tell by looking at the older generations and see no matter how you might fit on the spectrum the increase is not because we detect it better.

 

[Redneck in training]

When I was a kid I had ADHD by today's standard so few other classmates. The teachers just put up with it because "that is how the kids are". Or they just hit you with a ruler over your head. It never crossed anybodys mind to medicate for it.
If the majority of population is ignorant and stupid there a great chance for the smart people to succeed. As the billionaire founder of Alibaba said: "If you are still poor at 35 you deserve it". Then he goes on to explain why. You need to google it. It sound ignorant and harsh but there is a lot of truth in what he says.