House of Eratosthenes

Contrary to conventional medical wisdom, the cause of autism is not primarily genetic, but is a complex combination of genetics and environment. Genetics, so to speak, load the gun, and environment pulls the trigger.

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies. The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders, Kenneth Bock, M.D., and Cameron Stauth, ISBN: 978-0-345-49450-4, p. 17.

I think that right there is one of two big ways we are screwing up with our children, particularly our male children. We think it has to be all-environmental or all-natural. All-nature or all-nurture. One or t’other. How these little idiosyncrasies can be any kind of blend, is something we adults tend to forget. Easily. Even the intellectual giants among us.

The other mistake we’re making, is in assessing what is “busted” in the first place. Things that used to be synonymous with plain ol’ masculinity are — nowadays — thought to be indicative of some kind of disease. Not good…not good at all.

Especially when, all the stuff that we use nowadays that supposedly makes life worth living, we have thanks to the contributions of people like Nikolai Tesla and Thomas Edison and Isaac Newton. People who would surely have been diagnosed with this-thing or that-thing, if they were children nowadays in our ultra-pure and ultra-pasteurized world…

Kind of like the analogy I make about my addictive behavior; three strikes and you’re out. First strike is a genetic predisposition, second strike is the development of a desire to escape reality, and the third strike is actually using.
- chunt31854 | 01/06/2008 @ 21:43
As the father of a child with “autistic-like tendencies,” I have become absolutely horrified at what is being done with the autistic spectrum. You have what is represented in that movie everybody saw, which is (in my terminology) “core” autism. It is neurological damage. You either have it or you don’t. When you “diagnose” a subject as having this, you’re saying something about their physiology.

Then you have the “softer” stuff like Asperger’s and ADHD. These are disorders whose definitions exist entirely within the symptoms. Behavioral experts noticed some kids behave in certain ways, someone wrote up some descriptions of these behavioral traits and stuck a name on it…and since then, all that’s happened is further refinement of the symptoms.

I’m not a doctor, but it seems to me this is an important distinction. If we’re going to start building a “spectrum” of disorders I think the spectrum ought to show respect to that boundary, and not creep across it, lumping behavior disorders with known physical causes together with other disorders that are lacking in any. The problem, which I think should be obvious to everyone, is in potential over-diagnosis.

There are far too many parents out there, I notice, who seem to think guilt is a worthwhile emotion that can accomplish something. And they’re pressuring the docs to give them a diagnosis, not so much about what is “wrong” with their child, but more about whether they the parents should feel guilty — preferably, toward the negative. And so the docs are giving the customers what the customers want, which is a big ol’ fistful of statements about this-or-that malady being genetic. To the point where just about EVERYTHING is.

So now we have all these kids diagnosed and the numbers are so overwhelming, it’s given us a brand new mystery. Why the skyrocketing statistics? I’ll tell you why, we’re patronizing our behavioral professionals to tell us sweet little lies. It’s a national disgrace. And I don’t understand the emotions behind it. You want to tell me my kid acts weird because I didn’t interact with him enough when he was a baby, well go ahead. I can handle it. It’s the only way I can resolve the damage in the future. But don’t start calling out perfectly normal and healthy kids as if they’re genetic freaks, so they can spend their entire lives on specialized educational programs and medical regimens they don’t really need.

That’s why I love that quote up there. Genetics and environment work together, each agent contributing somewhat to the entire stewpot. It’s slowly become a truth we can’t handle anymore, but that doesn’t mean it’s stopped being a truth.
- mkfreeberg | 01/07/2008 @ 11:34
There’s more here too. My son was originally diagnosed as PDD-NOS which has become the kitchen sink diagnosis for children with developmental delays and more so for kids with global delays. The widening of the diagnosis is also due to doctors who are better informed (i.e. previously autistic kids would be labeled “retarded”) and also it’s about funding. Getting a child labeled “special needs” releases all sorts of dollars (by law) that schools would never get otherwise. Frankly, they love the diagnosis because they get more money. Sometimes the kids who are labeled “special needs” are in typical classrooms for everything except, say, gym. That gives them N% more money per pupil w/o having to strain their resources any further.

I do, however agree that the attempt to force the cause of autism into a binary choice of environment/genetics is foolish and shortsighted. You have the Thimerisol warriors many of whom have $$$ in their eyes and just know that if they win the product liability suit they’d be in the money. Others point to teflon or processed food or aspertame or whatever. None of this explains why identical twins, raised in the same home would have one with autism and one without. If they’re genetically identical and raised in the same environment it stands to reason that they would have the same condition. Why there isn’t a study focusing on that group is something that makes me scratch my head.
- Duffy | 01/08/2008 @ 10:28

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