autism (Page 7)

Here on unknowncountry.com, we report regularly on the epidemic of autism in children and the scientists who are trying to find out the cause of this heartbreaking condition. We recently reported a devastating story about researchers who say this is a condition caused by the genetic susceptibility of some children to heavy metal pollution. This could be virtually eliminated in the US by putting catalytic converters on all automobiles and scrubbers on all power plants?things the Bush administration refuses to do. The heavy metal mercury is commonly used as a preservative in children?s vaccines. Due to their worries about this, some parents are no longer having their children vaccinated against basic childhood diseases.read more

There has been a raging controversy during the last fewyears about whether the mercury preservative in childhoodvaccines is the cause of autism, which is reaching epidemiclevels in the West. Some insist it is, while others say thatit only seems that way, because autism begins to manifestaround the age that children receive their vaccinations.It’s known to run in families. Autism has been called the”geek disease” and some researchers say it comes from ahaving a brain that is too “male”?that is, too analyticaland not empathetic enough.read more

Scientists who study idiot-savants, people who are autistic but geniuses in one particular area, think that brain damage in one part of the brain causes other parts to become much more developed than normal. Can a stroke affect the brain the same way?

Tommy McHugh suffered a stroke three years ago. Before then, he had no interest in art, but now he spends most of his time drawing, sculpting and writing poetry. After the stroke, Tommy says, “I didn’t know much about who I was and what I was. My brain wasn’t telling me I was hungry, I was talking in relentless rhymes. Everything was a rhyme?I started writing poetry in rhymes about what I was experiencing. The personalities I was living with at the time were revolving like a chamber in a gun.”
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A fierce fight has been going on for years between the parents of autistic kids and the government and pharmaceutical industry about whether or not the mercury used as a preservative in vaccines causes autism. Over the past 20 years, there has been a huge increase in the number of autistic children, which has led to a lawsuit that parents have lost. However, all that may change, now that a new study shows that exposure to low doses of thimerosal, a mercury preservative used in childhood vaccines, can lead to the development of autism in mice.
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