Article A: Bono's new bill would bolster autism fight

$500 million: The legislation would fund early diagnosis and intervention programs.
By CLAIRE VITUCCI / Washington Bureau

Combating Autism Act Legislation introduced by Rep. Mary Bono would authorize $110 million a year for five years to combat autism through research, early screening and education efforts.

WASHINGTON - More than $500 million in federal money would be spent to combat a skyrocketing number of autism cases in California and nationwide under legislation introduced by Inland Rep. Mary Bono.

The Combating Autism Act of 2005 would authorize $110 million each year for five years to fund grant programs for states to develop autism screening, early diagnosis and intervention programs for children.

"I feel it's very important -- it's something that we can find a fix for if we coordinate our efforts," said Bono, R-Palm Springs, who introduced the legislation this week.

The bill would also continue to fund research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reauthorize the Autism Coordinating Committee, which coordinates efforts concerning autism within the Department of Health and Human Services.

A similar bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

Dr. Ron Huff, a psychologist for the state Department of Developmental Services, said California, like other states, has seen an increase in the number of people requesting services for autism.

As of March, more than 27,000 people with autism were receiving services from the state, according to department statistics. That's a 435 percent increase since 1994. In the Inland area, some 2,100 people were requesting services -- a 648 percent increase since 1995.

Funding is needed to train people who care for young children, from teachers and school resource specialists to day-care providers and speech and language therapists, in how to deal with autism, Huff said.

In recent years, pediatricians have begun screening children for developmental disabilities as they do for hearing and sight problems. But more could be done, Huff said.

"There still is a great need for money to orient those persons who come in contact with young children," he said.

More funding is sorely needed to help provide services for autistic children and their families, said Cheryl Hunter, of Yucaipa, whose 11-year-old son has autism.

But she said the money should be spent to help those who are already in need rather than looking for a cure to autism.

"They should be looking to focus on the children who are already here with the disability, to enhance their ability to understand their environment and their ability to relate socially and learn at their own pace," Hunter said, "and in training educators and parents in trying to help them along."

Research shows that the sooner autism is diagnosed and the sooner children and their families have access to services, the better their quality of life will be, said Stan Swartz, a Cal State San Bernardino professor of special education. But older children with autism need services, too.

"We need to be mindful of children who are older and those approaching young adulthood," Swartz said.

"Those are two important groups. We can't forget about them."

Reach Claire Vitucci at (202) 661-8422 or cvitucci@pe.com

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Article B: Brain food for autism

By: Ivanhoe Newswire

Frightening but real statistics about one of the fastest growing disorders to strike American children.

Autism affects one in every 166 children. It's the most common childhood developmental disorder.

Now, changing your autistic child's diet could change his life forever.

These are the faces of autism.

Young boys and girls stuck in a world all their own. A world Lin Schwarzkopf has come face to face with.

Three-year-old Trevor was born with autism. It's a developmental disorder that's difficult to treat. Lucky for Lin, she ended up in the right doctor's office.

Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, who received his medical degree from Stanford, has worked with autistic children for decades, not only using traditional medicine, but also trying alternative approaches.

His treatment for Trevor wasn't a drug, he changed his diet.

Schwarzkopf said, "Trevor's been on a wheat-free, gluten-free, organic diet."

And it's working.

"I could see that he was responding," Schwarzkopf added.

When Trevor stopped eating gluten, found in wheat products, and casein, found in milk, he started walking and talking.

Dr. Mehl-Madrona explained, “I really don't know how to explain that, but it's common when you eliminate these particular substances from the diet."

One theory is that foods containing wheat and milk may actually work as a narcotic and cause some of the behaviors of autism.

"Really the most frustrating thing about working with autism is, for the most part, we don't have a clue what to do. We just have to try different things," Dr. Mehl-Madrona stated.

Susan Haubrock is trying a different approach for her daughter. A video of Reanne when she was four. She refused to wear clothes and was just starting to talk.

Then Susan started Reanne on vitamin therapy.

Susan said, "We were on the vitamins for maybe two weeks and we noticed all the sudden she started cooing."

Dr. Mehl-Madrona said vitamins B12, B6, folic acid, omega3 fatty acids and magnesium have all shown a strong effect on autism.

"When you super-saturate the brain with nutrition, you can override some defects," Dr. Mehl-Madrona added.

Reanne is seven-years-old, home-schooled and learning her three R's.

Dr. Mehl-Madrona admits this therapy does not work for everyone. Many studies have shown the benefits of these nutrients.

In fact, 18 studies that have looked at vitamin B6 for autism have all shown positive results.

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Article C: May Revision to the California Department of Developmental Services

2004-05 - $81.4 million

2005-06 - $61.1 million

Developmental Centers

Current Year

The May Revision includes a net reduction of $2.1 million ($625,000 General Fund) for Developmental Centers. This net change is due primarily to the following adjustments:

 Population - Population in the Developmental Centers is projected to decrease by 105 residents from the level in the Governor's Budget, resulting in $8.4 million ($4.9 million General Fund) savings and a reduction of 119.0 positions.

 Redirection of Population Savings - Population savings of $4.7 million ($2.7 million General Fund) are redirected to fund baseline employee compensation costs and other nondiscretionary costs that exceed available funding. This includes $1.9 million for employee compensation, $800,000 for payment of two legal settlements, $430,000 for janitorial contract costs at a higher blended rate established by the Department of Personnel Administration, and $1.6 million for utilities.

Budget Year

The May Revision includes a net increase of $9.4 million ($6.1 million General Fund) for Developmental Centers. Major changes include:

 Population - Population in the Developmental Centers is anticipated to decrease by 55 residents from the Governor's Budget level, resulting in $6.1 million ($3.6 million General Fund) savings and a reduction of 93.0 positions.

Expenditures: Health & Human Services

May Revision 2005-06 GOVERNOR'S BUDGET

 Agnews Staffing Restoration - Restoration of 43.0 non-Level-of-Care positions and $3.2 million ($1.7 million General Fund) that was reduced in the Governor's Budget in the standard budgeting adjustment for population decline. These resources are essential to ensure adequate staffing of Agnews Developmental Center during the transition to closure.

 Workers' Compensation - An increase of $4.9 million ($2.8 million General Fund) to settle select workers' compensation claims and reduce ongoing liabilities.

 Quality Management - An increase of $664,000 ($369,000 General Fund) for five positions to assist in a comprehensive review of quality management practices in the Developmental Centers pursuant to federal requirements.

Regional Centers

Current Year

Compared to the Governor's Budget, the Regional Centers community caseload is projected to decrease by 1,900 consumers, to an updated caseload of 197,355 consumers. The May Revision includes a net decrease of $62.5 million ($69.6 million General Fund) for Regional Centers as a result of the following adjustments:

 Operations - An overall reduction of $13.5 million ($14.7 million General Fund) for Regional Centers operations reflecting legislative denial of a proposed $10.6 million augmentation for improving Regional Centers case management ratios and a decrease of $3.0 million due to updated caseload.

 Purchase-of-Services - An overall reduction of $49.0 million ($54.9 million General Fund) for Regional Centers purchase-of-services due to updated caseload, utilization, and expenditure data and costs for community placement plan and placement continuation. Temporary cost containment strategies, such as rate freezes, unallocated reductions, and other measures, have slowed the annual rate of program growth.

Budget Year

Compared to the Governor's Budget, the Regional Centers community caseload is projected to decrease by 2,865 consumers, to an updated caseload of 205,155 consumers. The May Revision includes a net decrease of $31.0 million ($78.5 million General Fund) as a result of the following changes:

 Operations - An overall increase of $17.7 million ($4.9 million General Fund) for Regional Centers operations. This net change reflects several adjustments:

* California Developmental Disabilities Information System (CADDIS) - $2 million is set-aside for proposed functional changes to CADDIS with expenditure contingent upon Department of Finance (Finance) approval. Further changes to CADDIS are on hold pending an independent assessment of the project conducted in the current year under the oversight

Expenditures: Health & Human Services of Finance, and the California Health and Human Services Agency. This assessment will determine if the current CADDIS design reflects the project objectives as represented in the original project Feasibility Study Report and Request for Proposal. The review will also consider whether CADDIS will meet Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and Regional Centers business practice requirements and objectives, including objectives related to federal compliance.

* Compliance with Home and Community-Based Services Waiver - A net increase of $9.7 million (decrease of $1.8 million General Fund) for Regional Centers to meet federally required case management ratios. This increase is due to increased federal financial participation for the proposed new regional center positions.

* An increase of $189,000 due to updated caseload data. ¡ Purchase-of-Services - An overall decrease of $47.9 million due to updated caseload, utilization, and expenditure data and costs for community placement plan and placement continuation. Cost containment strategies are continued in the budget year to slow the rate of program growth to sustainable levels.

Agnews Developmental Center Closure

There is a reappropriation of $11.1 million General Fund from the current year to the budget year for development of community-based housing related to closure of Agnews Developmental Center. These funds are needed in the budget year pending DDS approval of the three Bay Area Regional Centers housing proposals consistent with AB 2100.

Article A: The Age of Autism: Mercury and the Amish

By Dan Olmsted

WASHINGTON , May 20 (UPI) -- The cases of autism among the Amish that I've identified over the past several weeks appear to have at least one link -- a link made of mercury.

That's not something I expected to encounter. I had been looking for an unvaccinated population to test the controversial idea that vaccines, and in particular the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal, could be behind the apparent rise in autism cases over the past decade.

The concept: If the Amish have little or no autism, it might point a finger at something to which they have not been exposed.

Most of the medical establishment, it must be stated upfront, considers the idea that thimerosal could have played a role in the rise of autism disproven and dangerous. As noted in the last column, however, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says she has "an open mind" about that possibility.

So do I, having come across correlations that made me want to look more closely at thimerosal. For instance, the first child diagnosed with autism in the United States was born in 1931, the same year thimerosal was first used in a vaccine. And autism diagnoses exploded in the 1990s, the same decade children got an increasing number of thimerosal-containing vaccines (it was phased out starting in 1999). Tantalizing, but proof of nothing.

So I turned to the 22,000 Amish in Lancaster County, Pa. I didn't expect to find many, if any, vaccinated Amish: they have a religious exemption from the otherwise mandatory U.S. vaccination schedule. When German measles broke out among Amish in Pennsylvania in 1991, the CDC reported that just one of 51 pregnant women they studied had ever been vaccinated against it.

To cut to the chase, what I've found to date is very little evidence of autism among the Amish in Lancaster County, far below the 1 in 166 rate of Autism Spectrum Disorders the CDC cites for children born in the United States today. I don't discount the idea that they might be more difficult to find or diagnose, and I'm still looking.

I did find three or possibly four children with autism and, weirdly, a possible link to vaccinations. One was a child adopted from China, where she got all her vaccinations before being vaccinated all over again when she got to the states. Her Amish-Mennonite mother said she believes that vaccine load caused her autism. The mother told me about another child who had what she described as an immediate vaccine reaction that left her autistic at age 15 months.

That mother said a minority of younger Amish have begun getting their children vaccinated, though a local doctor who has treated thousands of Amish said the rate is still less than 1 percent.

The pattern I was noticing then took an interesting twist. From a doctor's posting on an alternative health Web site, I learned about several cases of autism among Amish children who had not, in fact, been vaccinated.

I called that doctor, Lawrence Leichtman, at his office in Virginia Beach, Va. A pediatrician and geneticist who has been widely published in medical journals, he told me he was treating six unvaccinated Amish children and adolescents -- three from Pennsylvania, including one from Lancaster County; two from Ohio, and one from Texas.

That seemed to render any relationship between autism and mercury exposure in the Amish less likely. But, not after what Leichtman said next.

"By the way," he volunteered, "four of these six kids all have elevated mercury. The only two that don't, one of them is from Texas and one is from Iowa. But all of the people in Pennsylvania and one of the people in Iowa have elevated mercury."

Given what I had already come across in Lancaster County, I wanted to hear more about that. Were the mercury levels significantly higher? I asked. "Oh yes," he responded.

What did he think was going on?

"The people in Pennsylvania, I've actually tracked back on them," Leichtman said. "There's definitely a plume from one of the coal-fired power plants that just goes right over them. And the one in Iowa, it's a little less obvious because actually he's in the Amana Colonies, but I have seen reports of the area around Amana having elevated levels of mercury in the environment."

As it happens, the Pittsburgh Post reported last week that Pennsylvania has four of the nation's 10 "dirtiest power plants." Mercury is a byproduct of coal combustion.

Leichtman also believes that northern states "get most of the prevailing wind that comes across the Pacific. You get that trans-Pacific flow which is all Chinese mercury. We're getting a load of Chinese mercury, as far as I can tell."

Leichtman's comments meant that the two people I talked to, who knew anything about autism among the Amish, independently brought up mercury exposure -- in vaccines and in the environment-- as the cause of most of the cases.

That's a link others have made, although not to the Amish, whose autism prevalence has apparently never been studied:

- "We believe that thimerosal and environmental mercury -- which are worldwide pollutants -- are behind the surge" in autism in the 1990s, wrote Sallie Bernard in 2002. She is a founder of the group Safe Minds, which wants mercury out of all medical products. Bernard co-authored a controversial 1999 study about thimerosal, "Autism: A novel form of mercury poisoning."

- "In the end it is mercury in the brain that causes such problems, and that mercury can come from several sources," said Boyd Haley, chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky and another maverick on thimerosal.

"Therefore, a logical approach is to think that all mercury exposures are additive, even if some may be more causative than others."

Haley cited a recent Texas study, first reported by United Press International in March, that found an association between autism rates and exposure to industrial mercury emissions in Texas counties. One county with high autism but low exposure to mercury emissions turned out on closer inspection to be the site of a huge abandoned mercury mine, the researchers found.

Leichtman believes the damage to children is being done by environmental mercury, not the mercury in vaccines (my own research makes me think that if it's either, it's both). He said he can detect elevated mercury levels in about half his 500 autism patients.

"Environmental mercury is horrible," he said, "and I think that's where it's coming from. To me, people with autism are the canaries in the coal mine. A lot of them are reflecting the damage from all of that."

Leichtman, like a number of other doctors, is trying to flush mercury out of autistic children through a process called chelation (key-LAY-shun).

Chelation as a treatment for autism is unproven and controversial (what about autism is not unproven and controversial?), and it carries a risk of serious side effects. Chelation has been used for 40 years in cases of heavy metal toxicity, including lead poisoning.

But does it help children with autism?

"The people in Pennsylvania wouldn't take chelation," Leichtman said, and noted the Amish aversion to medical procedures and drugs. "One in Iowa did. He certainly did better."

We'll look at chelation and its implications in the next column.

e-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

Copyright © 2001-2005 United Press International

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Article B: Noah, for one, is peeling back the layers of autism

David Wecker, Cincinnati Post
Publication date: 05-07-2005
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050507/LIFE02/505070319/1007/LIFE
 
The walls inside Terri and Tom Lewis' home in Deer Park are filled with the bright, 2-D crayon art of their three children, 7-year-old Bethany and the 4-year-old twins, Ivy and Noah.

Terri says Noah is emerging from autism. The official word from the medical establishment on autism is that there's no cure. But Terri says the establishment is wrong. She insists Noah is coming back to her, getting better. His drawings suggest she's right.

One he did last Mother's Day is of two jagged slashes of brown and purple. Another he did just two days ago is of a rainbow, beautifully drawn, in neat concentric arcs. Evidence of an emerging?

"He's light years better now," his mother says.

Terri contacted me to take issue with a recent column describing autism as "a lifelong developmental disability resulting from a neurological disorder." The column also said "some evidence" exists that autism may be a side effect of routine childhood vaccinations.

Some evidence? Terri wrote in her e-mail.

"The evidence is blindingly clear and still pouring in," she said.

"You have doctors testifying in Congress. They're calling it the biggest mistake in the history of modern medicine."

Like all moms, Terri wants to do what's best for her children. For instance, she made sure they had all their shots, every one on time. The twins had their first shots when they each weighed 6 pounds. By the way, boys with autism outnumber girls by four to one.

Terri noticed something not right with Noah early on, around his 20th month. Six months earlier, he'd uttered his first sentence, "Take Noah home!"

Then he began going backward, losing speech, drifting away from her. He wouldn't even look her in the eye. Terri could see his twin sister progressing, but not him. In his 25th month, she knew something was very wrong. At 27 months, he was diagnosed with "mild to moderate" autism. She knows she is fortunate to have caught it early.

Terri has since learned that many of the vaccines her children were given contained Thimerosal, a preservative that is nearly 50 percent mercury. After what she said was literally hundreds of hours of research, she has come to believe her family has been swept up in a national tragedy.

"Once a point of great national pride, there is actually extensive evidence ... that our nation's childhood vaccinations have been knowingly and terribly compromised," Terri's e-mail read.

The first vaccines containing mercury - again, as a preservative - began showing up on doctors' shelves in the late 1930s. Prior to that, there was no medical record of autism. The first cases were documented in 1943, in American children. The disease was not seen in Europe until the 1950s, after mercury was added to vaccines there.

In the early days, autism occurred in one in 5,000 children. The number increased in the '80s as more vaccines were added to the childhood medical regimen. Today, even the medical establishment agrees that autism now occurs once in every 166 children.

Terri has learned, too, that the symptoms of autism and the symptoms of mercury poisoning are the same: delayed or absent speech, poor social skills, a lack of awareness of pain. Also, the eye contact goes away. Mercury poisoning touches the mind and the body, as does autism. Mercury damages the body's digestive, nervous, immune and detoxification systems - all the systems under siege in autism.

In his book, "Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy," New York Times writer David Kirby writes:

"Autism has rarely been reported outside of industrialized countries, at least until recent years. A good example is China, where companies such as Merck and Glaxo-SmithKline have began an aggressive pediatric-marketing campaign, selling millions of dollars in vaccines to the Communist government. ...

"On Aug. 11, 2004, the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that children suffering with autism in that country had suddenly and unexpectedly skyrocketed. In a few short years, the number of reported cases jumped from nearly nothing to some 1.8 million children."

In the late 1990s, the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee, reached this conclusion:

"Thimerosal ...in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding injected Thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this neurotoxin.

"Our public health agencies' failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."

According to Terri, studies since then have established a conclusive link between mercury and autism.

"But mercury has always been known to be a neurotoxin," she says. "That's what so bizarre about all this."

This is a mere glimpse of the autism picture. Terri allows that the controversy is hotly debated. Of course it is. Massive amounts of money are involved. But in the small corner of the world where the Lewis family lives, the important thing is that Noah is getting better. His parents are making it happen.

They found a book by another mom of a child with autism, "Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder," by Karyn Seroussi. It persuaded them to eliminate gluten - wheat, mostly - and dairy products from Noah's diet.

They read everything they could find about a growing number of physicians who follow what is called the DAN Protocol, short for Defeat Autism Now. Finally, their research led them to www.generationrescue.org, where they put it all together: The measures they were taking worked because they were helping Noah's body deal with and then detoxify the mercury.

Terri consulted a nutritionist and added digestive enzymes to Noah's routine. She and Tom began taking their son to sessions where a physical and occupational therapist work on him at the same time.

"Also, you do super one-on-one work with these kids, where you're down on the floor with them 15 to 20 hours a week, in their faces, doing different kinds of play therapy," Terri says.

"The latest is called RDI, Relationship Development Intervention. It seems to work. So does one called Greenspan."

After being diagnosed with autism, Noah would wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake for three hours. Now he sleeps through the night. His constant diarrhea has cleared up. Terri says he's almost back to where he should be with his speech. There is eye contact again. And his smile is back.

Noah was going backward. Two years later, he's moving forward, like a regular kid.

His return has been gradual. Autism, like mercury poisoning, comes off in layers, Terri says. Its behavioral symptoms fade in layers, too.

She is not deceiving herself. She charts out her son's progress in a logical, left-brain process that's highly attuned to self-inflicted baloney. She points out there are now documented cases of children recovering completely from autism.

"I think Noah will be all right - for two years, I have been slowly but surely watching him come back to me," she says.

"But there are still times when I'm gripped with fear."

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Contact David Wecker at (513) 352-2791 or via e-mail at sambets@choice.net.

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Article C: The Age of Autism: Absence of evidence

By Dan Olmsted

LEBANON , Pa. , May 9 (UPI) -- After several weeks of looking, the prevalence of autism among the central Pennsylvania Amish still appears remarkably low, and the few cases I have found suggest an ominous pattern.

In two columns last month I asked, "Where are the autistic Amish?"

My search encompassed Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, and I obtained a tentative answer. After inquiring widely, these three cases emerged:

--a girl, age 3, adopted from China by an Amish-Mennonite family (a very small percentage of Amish do vaccinate their children);

--a girl of about 8, described by the mother of the first child as a clear vaccine reaction at 15 months, and

--a boy of about 10.

Since then, I have become aware of possibly one more case in Lancaster County and a total of five more nationwide -- which will be the subject of a future column.

Meanwhile, there is the question of prevalence. There is no reason to be particularly interested in autism among the Amish -- unless it occurs much less frequently than normal. If it did, it would suggest either genetic immunity -- which is unlikely, because at least a handful of Amish are in fact autistic -- or lower exposure to something that, combined with genetic susceptibility, triggers autism.

In my view, the latter is more likely.

About 22,000 Amish live in Lancaster County, where they first put down roots almost 300 years ago after fleeing religious persecution in Germany. At the current rate of autism among the "English," as they call the rest of us, several dozen of them should be identifiably autistic.

My first Lancaster contacts basically fell into the "absence of evidence" category, which is intriguing, but establishes nothing. The well-known scientific axiom is, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

In the absence-of-evidence category:

--"I've been an advocate for the past five years in Lancaster and I have yet to come across a case where an Amish family is struggling for services," said Jim Bouder of the Lancaster County Autism Support Group. "I haven't seen any."

--"There are a lot of other kids who have autism, but we haven't seen that in the Amish because they're not referring them," said Stu Symons, director of mental retardation and early intervention services for Lancaster County Mental Health/Mental Retardation, a public agency. "There's a lot of birth defects and other disabilities (among the Amish), but we haven't seen, necessarily, autism."

--"That's one of our head-scratchers," said another local person who works with autistic children.

The Amish-Mennonite mother with whom I spoke, Stacey-jean Inion of Leola, said the view from inside looking out is no different.

"Everywhere I go (outside the Amish community) I find children who are autistic, just because I have an autistic daughter -- in the grocery store, in the park, wherever I go," Inion said. "In the Amish community, I simply don't find that."

Though all this seemed intriguing, it did not constitute proof of anything. Because of the insular and unusual nature of the Amish community, everyone outside might just be missing the necessary evidence.

Among the dozens of e-mail messages I read after publishing the previous articles, several made exactly that point.

"I do not know of any Amish or Mennonite children with autism," said one doctor in a neighboring county, "but it would be difficult to assess this because these families rarely come to medical care for that type of problem, nor do they use Early Intervention or IU (Intermediate Unit) services. Thus, the incidence of autism in that population is unknown."

One message board posting even suggested because there apparently have been no studies of Amish people with autism, they must be there.

"Proof? Evidence? Where is it written other than a newspaper article or forum message? A search for 'amish autism' on ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed only comes up with a 'No items found' message. You would think that anything that significant would actually be published."

You would think.

This past weekend, I traveled back to Pennsylvania and met with a person who gave me the best insights yet into autism in the Amish community here. What he had to say was the tipping point between absence-of-evidence and evidence-of-absence.

That will be the focus of the next column.

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This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism aims to be interactive with readers and welcomes comment, criticism and suggestions. e-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

Copyright © 2001-2005 United Press International