Why do people believe Autism is related to immunizations?

Question

Would to like to hear oppinions on why some people believe Austim is related to routine childhood vaccinations. I have identical twin boys who have had the same vaccines in the same enviroment, and have ate the same foods (bc I have heard also there is a theory about chemicals used to preserve food contributing to Autism). The first born twin has high-fuctioning Asperger's Syndrome, and the second born does not have any form of Autism. Based on this experience I don't believe Vaccines had anything to do with this. If I had to venture a guess for the cause I would say that it may be an area of his brain did not develop correctly. Anyway, would love to hear oppinions on this subject, what you believe might be a cause of Autism, or other reasons why you may choose to not vaccinate your child. Thanks.

Would like to add that they were tested, and confirmed as being identical. Also that they were born at 29wks premature, and were on the same devolpment level at birth, and through their stay at the NICU.

Answer 1

Hi,
I have twin fraternal 4 yr. old boys who both have autism. I think people blame the MMR vaccine since it is given at 18 months, which is about the same time that autism shows up in many children. I don't believe there is a link to vaccines. As of 2002, vaccines don't contain mercury (except the flu vaccine) and rates of autism continue to rise. Personally, I think it is some combination of genetics and environmental pollution. Interesting question....thank you!

Answer 2

1. Timing -
About 20% of children with autism developed normally until around 12 to 18 months, the child losses what ever words they knew, starts increasing rocking & other such movements, & withdraws from people.
Because the regression takes place around the time of a child's 1 year shots, many suspect the vaccinations caused the autism. Not only is the theory of vaccinations causing autism unproven, it seems quite clear now that Thimerisol, the preservative they used to put in vaccines, DID NOT contribute to the rise in autism. They stopped putting thimerisol in the vaccines in 2001. The last of the old batches that had thimerisol expired in 2003. So of thimerisol was the cause of 20% of the cases of autism, we would be experiencing a close to 20% drop in the rate of new diagnosis's by now. Yet the rate continues to rise

2. Chemicals sound scary
You tell a person that vaccinations contained a preservative related to mercury & it will scare most anyone! (The "Mad Hatter" as in "Alice in Wonderland" was mad (insane) because he used mercury in making felt hats.)

3. Vaccines do have side effects.
Children get fevers & get grumpy for a few days after vaccinations. It is not an unreasonable leap to suspect it might cause other things, too. (Doesn't mean they are right; it just means their reasoning had some logic.)

4. "Let's blame someone."
I think the moment something terrible happens, people look for someone to blame. "Big Bad Drug Companies" are a good scapegoat.


*Genetics*
Genetics are a strong factor in autism. It is somewhat uncommon for there to be a pair of identical twins where one is autistic & the other is not. But it is even more uncommon for there to be a pair of fraternal twins where both are autistic.

But genetics is not the whole story or you would NEVER find a pair of identical twins where one is autistic & the other is not. There seems to be a "trigger" that effects a child with an inherited vunerablity. (Hypothetical example = Maybe at a critical stage in your boys' development they got a fever. But one boy's fever got up to 100.5 & the other got up to 103. And that difference was the trigger - just hypothetically)

Some believe it isn't just one or two genes but as many as 5 or 7 genes "colliding" to create a potential for autism. One parent may have just 2 of the genes, the other parent having 3 genes, & the child inherits all 5.

Answer 3

Hello:
This question has been asked many times by my patients. The literature out there right now is sketchy at best but they think it may have to do with something called "thimersol" a chemical added to immunizations for its preservative effects.
And you are right. Millions of people have had immunizations containing thimersol and had no problems. We just don't know what the possible causes of autism are. 1 out of 150 live births will go on to develop autism or one of its spectrum of related disorders as you mentioned above.
I think if you go to the CDC website or go to ask.com and type in "Can thimersol in immunizations cause autism?" you will get a bunch of websites that you can do more research on this.
But as of now, we just do not know much about the causes. They used to think that the parents (being cold hearted, a term was coined "The refridgerator parent") were the cause. Not so! Some of the most loving parents will have autistic children. My brother-in-law has autism. Because of this and the fact that I have patients with the disorder I have done quite a bit of research on the subject and have never been able to find factual answers on the causes, only possibilites and theories.
I hope this helped answer your question. Sorry I couldnt give you a more definitive answer, but there just isnt anything out there yet that is proven fact.
Regards,
Warren Shaffer, M.D>

Answer 4

Some people believe that there is mercury in vaccines that is damaging their children's brains. This has been disproven, but you know once someone starts saying something like this, it takes on a life of its own. Now there are thousands of parents needlessly exposing their kids to childhood diseases because they believe the myth about vaccines being dangerous.

From the CDC:
"Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), varicella (chickenpox), and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) have never contained thimerosal.

"A recent study conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) concluded that mercury levels in the blood of babies that received vaccines with thimerosal remained well below levels considered acceptable by the EPA. Furthermore, ethylmercury (thimerosal) seems to be removed from the body quickly through the gastrointestinal tract (stools)."

This is not enough evidence for some people. But it remains a fact that no one has yet found the exact cause of autism.

Note:
It's true that the vaccines make money for the companies who manufacture them. It's called "business." I don't see anything wrong with a private company making a profit, but it seems like that scares a lot of people. Since people who make bread are making a profit if we buy it, sholuld we stop buying bread? No one is being forced to vaccinate their children these days.

Answer 5

Hi Veggie

There are a lot of opinions out there about vaccines as you mentioned and it all comes down to educating yourself and what you believe. There are spins on every topic known and this is another one (in my opinion). Vaccines make money is the bottom line and us americans have been sold on the concept. Here are a few other opinions.

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/vaccines.htm

Best of health to you and your family

Cheers

Answer 6

Dr. Hugh Fudenberg, MD, the world's leading immunogeneticist and 13th most quoted biologist of our time (over 850 papers in peer reviewed journals), has published that if an individual has had five consecutive flu shots their chance of getting Alzheimer's disease is ten times higher than if they had one, two or no shots.[i] This might be why the people expected to develop Alzheimer's is expected to quadruple in the near future.[ii]

Recently the New York Times’ Lawrence Altman, the dean of American medical writers, reported that 93 children have died from the flu this season in the US. Altman states: "Thirty-three of the victims had not been vaccinated. The disease control agency [CDC] recommends vaccination for all healthy children 6 months and older." This means that 60 of the 93 who died were vaccinated. Would you roll the dice with odds like that?

An accomplished medical doctor recently stated his opinion, after years of research and experience he stated, "Our children face the possibility of death or serious long-term adverse effects from mandated vaccines that aren't necessary or that have very limited benefits.", Jane M. Orient, M.D., Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) executive director. As well as William C. Torch, M.D., Director of Child Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine stated, "This data shows that DPT vaccination may be a generally unrecognized major cause of sudden infant and early childhood death, and that the risks of immunization may outweigh its potential benefits. A need for re-evaluation and possible modification of current vaccination procedures is indicated by this study."

The composition of this year's flu vaccine is as follows;
•Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
•Phenol, also known as carbolic acid (this is used as a disinfectant, dye)
•Formaldehyde, a known cancer-causing agent
•Aluminum, which is associated with Alzheimer's disease and seizures and also cancer producing in laboratory mice (it is used as an additive to promote antibody response)
•Thimerosal (a mercury disinfectant/preservative) can result in brain injury and autoimmune disease
•Neomycin and Streptomycin (used as antibiotics) have caused allergic reaction in some people.
As well as these constituents vaccines are grown and strained through animal or human tissue like monkey kidney tissue, chicken embryo, embryonic guinea pig cells, calf serum, and human diploid cells (the dissected organs of aborted human fetuses as in the case of rubella, hepatitis A, and chickenpox vaccines). Would want any of these vaccine constituents in YOUR bloodstream? All these constituents are dangerous by themselves what makes them safe by combining them into a vaccine cocktail? Next time you see your doctor have them read you the insert that comes with the vaccine. Then have him/her explain why it makes sense to inject harsh chemicals into the human body and how such substances can aid the delicate immune system.
In order to resolve the value of flu vaccines to children, Tom Jefferson, MD, and colleagues at the Cochrane Collaboration looked at over a thousand studies. They then selected 14 high-quality clinical trials in which vaccinated children had been compared with unvaccinated children. The combined results of these 14 trials were reported in the British journal ‘The Lancet’ (2/26/05). Here's the conclusion: “We recorded no convincing evidence that vaccines can reduce mortality, [hospital] admissions, serious complications, and community transmission of influenza.” For more information you can visit, http://www.vaccinetruth.org/, http://www.gwenolsen.com or http://www.mercola.com
Also think about this! Guillain-barre syndrome is an often occurrence where there is pain, loss of function, and/or incoordination in the extremity where the shot was administered. This is caused because the toxins such as the mercury in the vaccinations cause demyelination of the nerve fibers in the arm or leg. Now if these toxins can cause this in that area while it is concentrated and the fact that we know mercury can cross the blood brain barrier then we know that these toxins can then cause problems within the brain and central nervous system thus causing autism.
Chiropractic has had some ground breaking results with children suffering from autism. They have had such great results anywhere from improving the child’s cognitive ability to completely reversing it in some children where they are no longer considered autistic.
Here is a site that you can read about the harmful affects of vaccinations.
http://drcarley.com/
Here is a site that you can read about chiropractic.
http://www.icpa4kids.org/research/chiropractic.htm
Also I would get in touch with Dr. Pompa cause he may be able to help your child or point you toward another chiropractor that can.
http://www.pompahealthsolutions.com/