UC Davis Study Authors: Autism is Environmental (Can We Move On Now?)

I have always said there may be a small percentage of people with autism spectrum disorder (perhaps those with Asperger Syndrome) whose symptoms are a result only of their genetic makeup, with no environmental factors involved at all.

But a new study out of UC Davis' MIND Institute says that it's time to abandon science's long, expensive, and not very fruitful quest to find the gene or genes that cause autism alone, without any environmental triggers.

"We need to keep (environmental) studies going," Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the co-author of the study and professor of environmental and occupational health and epidemiology at UC Davis, said in a statement.

"We're looking at the possible effects of metals, pesticides and infectious agents on neurodevelopment," Hertz-Picciotto said. "If we're going to stop the rise in autism in California, we need to keep these studies going and expand them to the extent possible."

Autism is predominantly an environmentally acquired disease, the study seems to conclude. Its meteoric rise, at least in California, cannot possibly be attributed to that shopworn mantra we still hear everyday, incredibly, from far too many public health officials: It's due to better diagnosing and counting.

The autism epidemic is real, and it is not caused by genes alone: You cannot have a genetic epidemic. It really is time that we, as a society, accept that cold, hard truth.

"It's time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California," Dr. Hertz-Piccotto said.

The study results suggest that "research should shift from genetics, to the host of chemicals and infectious microbes in the environment that are likely at the root of changes in the neurodevelopment of California's children," the statement added.

The UC Davis Study, funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) found that the rate of autism among six-year-olds in California mushroomed from less than 9 per 10,000 among the 1990 birth cohort, to more than 44 per 10,000 for kids born in 2000.

This increase, "cannot be explained by either changes in how the condition is diagnosed or counted," the statement said, "and the trend shows no sign of abating."

(It is important to keep in mind that almost every child born in 2000 would have received many vaccines that contained the mercury preservative thimerosal, which was not completely phased out of most - but not all - childhood vaccines until at least 2003.)

Of the 600-to-700 percent increase in autism reported in California between 1990 and 2000, fewer than 10 percent were due to the inclusion of milder cases, the study found, while only 24 percent could be attributed to earlier age at diagnosis.

There was only one logical conclusion: some thing or things in the environment had to be at play here.

I have always said that all environmental factors should be considered in at least some subgroups of autism. This position has been met with considerable ridicule. I believe that opponents are afraid that, if we start looking at toxins like heavy metals, it might one day lead back to thimerosal. Likewise, if we consider live virus triggers, we may have to take another look at the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (which thousands of parents swear was the trigger than sent their children tumbling into autism).

Now, it's always been easier and more reassuring to tell ourselves that autism was almost purely genetic, that it was always with us at the rate of 1 in 90 men (1 in 60 in New Jersey) and that, gee, weren't doctors doing a great job these days of recognizing and diagnosis this disorder.

This pathetic groupthink has helped create hugely lopsided funding priorities in autism, where genetic studies get lavishly funded, while environmental ones are lucky to even pick up the dollar scraps left behind

"Right now, about 10 to 20 times more research dollars are spent on studies of the genetic causes of autism than on environmental ones," Hertz-Picciotto said. "We need to even out the funding."

I agree.

Yes, we must continue to look for the susceptibility genes that make some kids more vulnerable to environmental triggers - possibly through a diminished capacity to detoxify themselves.

But the sooner our best minds in science and medicine come to grips with the fact that these poor, hapless kids have been exposed to the wrong environmental toxins and/or infectious agents at the wrong time, the sooner we can find out how to best treat what really ails them.

It is illogical for us to oppose the study of, say, mercury exposures and autism, because it might somehow implicate thimerosal, and by extension, vaccines.

After all, heavy metal studies into autism could very well incriminate background environmental sources, but exonerate metal sources found in vaccines, such as mercury and aluminum.

And that would be a good thing for everyone.

Comments

[Kim Stagliano - Huffpost Blogger]

Will someone please pop over to Yale and pick up their genetics researchers? They've all fallen down and bumped their heads. Zip over to Autism Speaks too. Clean up on aisle 12 at Two Park Ave. Their lead scientists feel like Bernie Madoff just paid them a visit.

For God's sake - can we now please turn our attention the real causes of autism. Not Elmo. Not old sperm. Not chilly Mommies with anger issues dating back to the choosing of their first bra (Sears, it had a bumblebee on it.) OUR KIDS ARE SICK. And autism parents who live in this reality are damn sick of the genetics apologists. That includes most of the "mainstream" autism centers, research programs and "charities­." Enough.

Kim

[CraigWilloughby]

LOL...Kim.­.....hyste­rical!

High 5!!

[StarBaby77]

This made my morning!! Kim~ You def tickled my funny bone this morning.. But in all seriousnes­s.. will this help jump start a Unvaxed vs Vaccinated Study?

They claim they can't find enough children to place in a study.. I'll volunteer my two and the thousands of unvaccinated that are easliy found.. I think they would be shocked to know how many we really are.. But hey.. some one has to be left to run the country in 20 yrs..

[sleeplessmom]

Kim,
I couldn't agree more! Cheers to you!

[autmarfcvsmom]

If I could, I would reach through my monitor and kiss you. Thank you.

[Kim Stagliano - Huffpost Blogger]

I'm wiping lipstick off my cheek as I type!

Hey, are you autism, marfan and cyclic vomiting syndrome all in one??????? CVS is responding very well to carnitine and CoQ10 (yes, mito issues.) A dear friend has been involved with CVS for over 20 years.

Or maybe you just work for the drugstore?

Feel free to email me at [e-mail]

KIM

[JeffMOM]

Yes Kim. Its time to look at ALL factors... including that sacred cow vaccines. (How about a look without pharma ties for a change?)

[J Mac]

Someone needs to seriously re-examine the entire practice of administering Tylenol before vaccinations. Tylenol depletes glutathione, which is necessary for the removal of toxins, including mercury from the body. This stuff is handed out like candy, and everyone thinks it's perfectly safe, but do we know that for certain? What if that "environmental trigger" for autism has been innocently sitting in our medicine cabinets all this time? Look at when the autism spike started...­it was after aspirin was linked to Reye's Syndrome, and Tylenol became the drug of choice for treating fever and pain in children. In addition, after the whole DPT scare in the 80's, pediatricians starting recommending Tylenol BEFORE vaccination. Is it just a coincidence that we now have an epidemic of autism on our hands? I think not!

[Gatogorra]

A lot of us think you're absolutely right. Tylenol isn't a cause per se but it probably amplified metal toxicity for countless children. I tend to think that the monster truck that hit our kids was probably vaccine mercury...­but the big checkered flag in the cross walk inciting the truck to go faster (Tylenol) didn't help our kids, nor did the grease in the road (body burden, other toxins), nor the fifth of vodka in the truck driver (aluminum), or many other facilitators.

Johnson and Johnson won't be lining up to support our cause.

[lightandlove]

Very good point, J_Mac.

Something else that depletes glutathione is glutamate. This is an 'excitotoxin' - a neurotoxin. It is found in foodstuffs - wheat and dairy (& thus in part the value of a GF/CF diet), MSG, hydrolyzed soy products, chewable medicines & vitamins, aspartame (half of which the body converts to glutamate) - and also in vaccines: those with live viral components, eg the MMR. So not only does the MMR have an aspect of risk in the gut damage reportedly done by the measles virus component, but also from this excitotoxin (& thus a double whammy to the body, with the inflammatory reaction induced by the vaccine by its nature); and not only that, but if it's given at the same time as vaccines with mercury or aluminum, it will cause them not to be able to be excreted properly.

But there's more: it turns out that the autism genes code for - glutamate (synapse formation). So kids with these genes are particularly susceptible to damage from glutamate. That means not only taking it out of their diets, but sparing them from vaccines with it in them.

Hopefully the MIND Institute will look into all this, since its brief is the genes-environment connections.

(Sources: for the ASD genes: www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/Autism/tb/5082
for info on glutamate: www.msgtruth.org)

[camsmom]

Thanks, David. The strategy of pharma to deny the autism epidemic existed was ridiculous. But, really they are just trying to protect their profits. Let's face it vaccines have caused most autism. Let's not forget the other pharma products that cause autism - valproic acid, tributelene, thalidomide, and postnatal rubella vaccination of breastfeeding mothers. Funny - all arrows point to pharma.

[leopoldmozart]

I don't think any knowledgable student, clinician, or researcher even remotely thought that autism was caused by genes alone, without any environmental triggers. Not sure who exactly this article is directed against.

[lmarkssmith]

Doctors, researchers, reporters have been claiming for years that autism is genetic. Gardiner Harris of the NY Times told me that autism is not caused by vaccines, ever. (guess he missed the Hannah Poling case) They refuse to admit any other possible factors. Ask them if they believe chelation can work for autism. They will tell you absolutely not and in fact it is dangerous. What if some children cannot excrete metals. But now with this study there is a chance they will look at whether mercury, chemicals, maybe air pollution, the list goes on, is causing damage in susceptible children. We cannot continue to ignore the problem.

[leopoldmozart]

I'm afraid that Gardiner Harris is correct: autism is not in general caused by vaccines. But I agree with you: autism is almost certainly triggered by environmental toxins like metals, organic compounds (especially neuroactive ones like pesticides and the flame retardants that are still used in the U.S.), air pollution, or perhaps even a new bacterium or virus. We have to find out what it is and be ruthless about preventing whoever is profiting from its creation and improper disposal from continuing to endanger our children.

[ObjectiveAutismDad]

I think you missed this point: "Right now, about 10 to 20 times more research dollars are spent on studies of the genetic causes of autism than on environmental ones," Hertz-Picciotto said. "We need to even out the funding."

[leopoldmozart]

HuffPost's Pick

Well, if the point of Mr. Kirby's article was that research funding is tilted toward genetic predispositional studies and short-changes studies of environmental triggers, and that environmental triggers should get more focus and funding, then I agree and I stand corrected. To be honest, that figure of "10 to 20 times" amazed me, and I didn't take it seriously. (Perhaps the imbalance is because molecular biological studies are much more expensive and "sexy" than epidemiological studies that compare environmental assaults between population­s.) Nevertheless, my own bias is as a clinician (I'm in medical school training for family practice medicine), and it seems obvious to me that we get way more treatment bang-to-the-buck if we can identify environmental triggers and prevent them or heal the damage they cause. So, again, if your take on the point of the article is correct, then I agree.

But, as usual, I have to dispute the notion that autism is caused by vaccines. If there is an imbalance of focus favoring genes over environment, then there is a gigantic imbalance of epidemiological focus favoring vaccines over everything else put together. The data is in: vaccines do not, except possibly for a very small sub population, cause autism. We must vigorously look elsewhere.

[CraigWilloughby]

Offit repeatedly claims that Autism is genetic. So do many of the so-called doctors and scientists who make up the abusive and ridiculous Quackosphere (aka Quack-Watch), and even the Neurodiverse movement claims that it is simply genetic and that we need to love our kids for their unique and special gifts (DuH! Of course I love my son. I also want him to stop having stomach problems and quit having seizures and learn to speak more than a few words...I must be an awful parent).

Well, it isn't solely genetic. They need to get that into their heads. Also, this is the first study that shows that all of this talk that the prevalence of autism has always been the same is more than likely wrong....y­et another nail. As we all know, there is no such thing as a genetic epidemic.