Autism: It's not "speaking", It's Practically Screaming!

Have you noticed those Ad Council announcements on TV lately...the ones about autism? While many facets of the campaign seem disconcerting (we'll get to that in a moment), its numbers are accurate: one child out of every 166 is now diagnosed with autism, up from 1 in 10,000 just over a decade ago.

With stats like that hitting us so hard, even parents with normal, healthy children (like myself) wonder what this unprecedented surge in cases means, and why it is happening.

However, parents of autistic children started asking tough questions years ago.

A visit to the Centers for Disease Control's website to look for answers to those tough questions doesn't yield much help.

Moreover, the site's FAQ page for autism seems to dodge and duck those questions instead of answering them. What is unsettling is that the CDC appears wishy-washy on the subject of increasing cases, and practically denies that the surge in autism cases has anything at all to do with vaccines.

And who is collaborating with the Ad Council on the above-mentioned PSA project, called "Autism Speaks"? Why, it's none other than their big-brother-in-government, the CDC.

How ironic, given the proverbial duct tape that seems to being placed over the mouths of the concerned.

I picked up a local paper, The Jackson Sun, a couple of Sundays ago, and read about the Hazelhurst family. The oldest of the couples' two children, seven-year-old Yates, was diagnosed with autism shortly after his first birthday.

The Hazlehursts have filed a lawsuit, alleging that the vaccinations Yates received after his first year of life caused a gastrointestinal condition and his autism, according to the Sun. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Charlotte, N.C. agreed to hear the family's claim, which was also filed on behalf of 5000 other families.

The Hazelhursts were fortunate that Yates' father, Rolf (who is an attorney), documented the first year of Yates' life with new-dad fervor. The "proud papa" videos made excellent fodder for the family's case. That video documentation made the Hazelhursts the ideal to family to represent the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Videos of Yates' infancy show a healthy, brighter-than-average baby. He made eye contact. He said several words like "please" and "thank you" before age one, and was videoed jabbering into a pretend phone while riding in the back of his cousins' toy car.

Yates changed drastically, however, immediately after receiving the MMR, Hib, Hepatitis B and Prevnar vaccination in February 2001.

His mother, Angela, says in the Sun interview, ""Three days past his vaccine, at his birthday, he's dazed," Angela said. "Twelve days after, he had a red, bumpy rash. We didn't recognize it as a reaction. A month after that, in the bathtub, I'm saying, 'Yates, Yates' and he won't look at us anymore."

Yates was diagnosed with autism.

On the flip-side, Angela Hazelhurst, Yates' mom, said she wanted to clarify her stance on vaccines: "I'm not a mom who's against all vaccinations....but the rise in autism cases has parents worried about what to do," she said.

Do our kids really have heavy metal poisoning? Is it vaccines?

According to the Florida-based watchdog group K.N.O.W. Vaccines, the mercury-containing MMR was added to the vaccine schedule in the late '70s. In 1988, the mercury-containing HIB vaccine was added. Mercury-containing Hepatitis B for newborns was added in the early 1990s. Children receive all these vaccines, plus mercury-containing DTP, in three to four doses during the first year and a half of their fragile lives, and the vaccines are usually administered simultaneously (multiple mercury-containing vaccines on the same day).

It makes one wonder, at what point does a child's immunity reach a saturation point for toxic chemicals in the body? The body will try to process mercury. When it can't get rid of the excess, it travels to the brain where it clings to tissue in the cerebellum (the part of the brain affecting movement and balance), and in other parts of the brain that control emotional processing and the sorting and storage of information.

The vaccine/autism theory gains even more credence when the disease characteristics for both autism and mercury poisoning are compared: sound and touch-sensitivity, inability or difficulty understanding abstract ideas and symbols, clumsiness, rocking back and forth, speech and hearing problems, self-injury, social isolation, gastrointestinal problems...you get the idea.

Many doctors who treat autistic children seem to be aware of the mercury/heavy metal issue in relation to the disease. This is why chelators, substances that remove heavy metals, have become a popular alternative treatment; albeit one that is gaining wide-stream acceptance as well.

Recently, a different kind of chelator was patented, called liquid zeolite. A study is currently being conducted using the liquid mineral, and remarkable anecdotal results have been recorded.

Zeolites could be called "super-chelators", in that they are extremely efficient in removing heavy metals from the body. Zeolite is formed when lava meets ocean water, and it has been used in Asia for hundreds of years as a treatment for overall good health. The unique honey-comb shape of the mineral traps toxins and other wastes from the body and safely removes them, without stripping the body of vital nutrients and minerals.

In one testimonial, available to read online, a little boy named Lucas recovers completely from autism.

Lucas' family had spent $300,000 over three years, and he improved somewhat, having progressed from extremely severe autism to mild autism. But after seven weeks on liquid zeolite at 45 drops per day (5 drops, 9 times per day), combined with several complementary treatments, most of Lucas's autism symptoms just vanished. (The full report can be read at zeolitesource dot com.)

Lucas' pediatrician and the general traditional medical establishment had ignored the fact that he had over six times the toxic level of mercury in his system. And that same pediatrician called Lucas' parents "bleeping morons" for implying that his toxicity levels had any connection to his autism.

At last report, Lucas was a normal, healthy little boy with no signs of autism.

The name, by the way, of the CDC's "autism awareness" program is "Learn The Signs; Act Early". What kind of lame, contrite slogan is that? Any parent with more than noodles for brains would know when something is wrong with their child, and they'd act upon it immediately. The CDC's program almost seems to imply that citizens need the government to tell us what is happening to our kids, and not to worry because they're doing something about it.

As long as the CDC refuses to see the link between autism and vaccines, sugar-coated public service announcements will do no good.