Today, My Brother Talked to Me

Enter an imprisoned mind. Sights and sounds overwhelm your synapses. Everything is moving too fast. You want to tell someone, but you can't. This is the world of autism.

My brother Matt was one of the first out of 250 autistic individuals worldwide who began using facilitated communication. This invention by two Australian scientists was a major breakthrough. Naysayers believe the handler is the one typing out the thoughts. However, Matt has typed out some very intimate information pertaining to relatives' names that his handler wouldn't know, correctly multiplied high numbers without a calculator, and has expressed how he felt at the present time.

Matt is my polar opposite. He loves country living (visits to my grandmother's farmland in Nebraska), country music, and dreadfully sides with my mother's parents as a Republican. Just before last year's Presidential election, he typed out, "I like McCain. Obama wants too much money." Alright, bro, that's a common misperception by Republicans.

Here is a brief article on today's breaking news for identifying a chromosome that is believed to trigger autism. This is encouraging news, but unfortunately, there's more to what might cause this disorder. After you read this brief excerpt, there's an interesting column written by Jim Carey about vaccination injury that has been proven in a court of law to cause autism. The consensus in the autism community believes this disorder is gene-environment based. By no means is Carey, his wife and former goofy co-host of MTV's Singled Out, trying to scare people into not taking vaccines. Their argument is "one size doesn't fit all." You don't administer an adult dosage to an infant. Also, they argue the vaccine schedule should be spread out more. Finally, there were 13 mandatory vaccines listed in 1983. That number is now at 36. It seems the CDC and Big Pharma are in a happy marriage. Here are the two articles:

PHILADELPHIA, PA.; April 28, 2009 (WPVI) -- Three new studies, including the largest ever conducted on the genetics of autism, have identified genes which contribute to the disorders.
One study pinpoints a gene region that may account for as many as 15 percent of autism cases, while another study identifies missing or duplicated stretches of DNA along two crucial gene pathways. Significantly, both studies detected genes implicated in the development of brain circuitry in early childhood. The study leader, Dr. Hakon Hakonarson, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, used automated genotyping tools that scan the entire genome of thousands of individuals. The researchers found that children with ASDs were more likely than healthy controls to have gene variants on a particular region of chromosome 5. Hakonarson's second study also used genetic scans to identify copy number variations, deletions, or duplications that increase the risk of an Autism Spectrum Disorder. The gene discoveries correspond with evidence gathered from functional magnetic resonance imaging that children with autism may have reduced connectivity between brain cells. Anatomy studies have also found that children with autism may have abnormal development of the brain's frontal lobes. Doctors hope the gene findings will not only open the doors to better understanding the brains and behaviors involved in autism, but to more targeted treatment and therapy. Autism Speaks assisted in the research, both with funding, and with access to the DNA of thousands of children affected by autism. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that one out of every 166 U.S. children has autism spectrum disorder.

(The author of this article should make a retraction. The number is now 1 out of every 150 U.S. children. What it also fails to mention is in 1987 it was 1 out of every 10,000.)

Link for Jim Carey's column

I wrote an article nearly two years ago on many issues Carey addresses. It's too lengthy and I believe it might have been copied and pasted to a previous entry on here.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-carrey/the-judgment-on-vaccines_b_189777.html