I have read a little about Autism, but I am still learning. I thought it was interesting that the British Physician responsible for the first studies showing a link between autism and vaccinations turned out to be a fraud. So the search for answers continues....
This article from AutismToday.com was interesting to me. I would be curious to read the findings from the official research study on the 15,000 births they mention that will be included in their statistical analysis. Its a fascinating thought they are considering.
Here are a few quotes from the article:
"Public health authorities have identified an enormous increase in the incidence of childhood autism.[...]A recent news report on National Public Radio noted 775 news cases, a 33% increase over the previous quarter in which only 550 new cases were identified.[...]Autism is now thought to affect one person in 500, making it more common than Downs syndrome or childhood cancer. According to Dr Marie Bristol Power from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, it is a not a rare disorder but a 'pressing public-health problem'.
[...T]here is data associating autistic disorders with the use of an artificial hormone (Pitocin) which is given to pregnant women to induce or speed up labor.[...]Dr Eric Hollander of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, a physician who specializes in treating autistic kids[...] reported that several years ago he noticed that 60% of the autistic patients in his clinic had been exposed to this drug as a fetus. Material published by the World Health Organization also notes an association between the use of Pitocin and autistic disorders.[...]
In spontaneous labors the mother's pituitary gland makes an endogenous (i.e. internal) oxytocin that triggers the physiological onset and progress of labor. The hormone oxytocin is also produced during breastfeeding (causing the let-down of breast milk) and it accompanies sexual orgasm. For this reason it is referred to as the "love hormone" by obstetrician Christianne Northrop, MD as each of these biological events are associated with experiences of great emotional bonding and include meaningful social interaction between the individuals involved. Since autistic disorders produce an inability to make or maintain affectionate bonds or have normal social relationships, one cannot help but wonder if perhaps there is an causal relationship between these disorders and exogenous sources of an artificial form of oxytocin.[...]
The use of Pitocin to induce or augment labors and concomitant use of epidural anesthesia has been steadily climbing for the last 20 years - about the same period that the increase in autism has been reported.[...A] 1992 survey by a medical anthropologist at the University of Texas found that 81% of women in US hospital receive Pitocin to either induce or augment labor. Epidural use is as high as 95% in many urban hospitals. When one factors in a Cesarean rate of 23% (acknowledging some overlap), the proportions of these facts is staggering as virtually 100% of medically-managed births are subjected to a high level of pharmaceutical interventions that have never been approved for use in fetuses. It certainly seems prudent to research the possible association with pharmaceutically-augmented labors in an attempt to discover the cause of the rising tide of autistic disorders. It may be necessary to amend our current obstetrical practices to prevent an epidemic of this expensive and emotionally-crippling disorder."
For research purposes it seems only logical to utilize the subset of healthy childbearing women who received physiological management of the intrapartum and experienced no medical treatments during the labor and birth (i.e. - no Pitocin or other labor-inducing drugs, no narcotic pain medications, no general or regional anesthetics and no operative deliveries, etc) as a control to determine if intrapartum medical treatments are causative or contributory to the development or exacerbating of autism disorders. In the early 1990s the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) embarked on a retrospective statistical study of domiciliary birth outcomes.[...] To date they have compiled statistics on about 15,000 births.This would provide the demographic data for follow-up questionares to ascertain the rate of autism within this substantial group of babies who were unmedicated during the labor.[...]
An informal survey among the dozen or so community midwives practicing in our geographical area and spanning the last 20 years, failed to identify any babies born at home who have since been diagnosed with autistic disorders.[...] Admittedly this is not a rigorous scientific study but it does raise questions as to whether strict adherence to physiological management of intrapartum events, either alone or in combination with the self-selection of healthy women choosing home-based midwifery care, may confer some protective effect relative to autistic disorders."
You can read the full article HERE.
Also, there is another great article: "Is Pitocin Associated with Childhood Autism?" found HERE.
Here are a few quotes from the full article: "[...]Oxytocin is already being used therapeutically in a nasal spray for autistic adults.[...]The findings of a recent study published in the February 16, 2010 issue of The Washington Post explored the implications of oxytocin-based therapy. When inhaled by autistic adult patients, the hormone has been found to have a positive effect on social behavior, sensitivity, generosity and trust. In other cases, it has been demonstrated to increase eye contact, facial recognition, social cues and identification of emotions.
Previous research has demonstrated that people with autism generally have low levels of oxytocin; and Dr. Eric Hollander, Director of the Compulsive, Impulsive and Autism
Spectrum Disorders Program at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, stated, 'All the data seem to suggest that manipulating the oxytocin system has a powerful effect on the core symptoms of autism.' He suspected then that “Pitocin somehow messes up the newborn’s oxytocin system, producing the social phobias of autism.” While oxytocin replacement therapy may be beneficial to autistic adults, perhaps we need to question why the natural oxytocin balance went wrong in the first place. Humans first experience oxytocin in the womb. What happens when the natural flow of natural oxytocin is interrupted by synthetic Pitocin? If autism presents symptoms of oxytocin deficiency, could that be connected to synthetic Pitocin?"
No comments:
Post a Comment