Old Age Sucks for Women

Male Dominated Research once again points out that it sucks to be a professional woman who didn't get pregnant, make babies and forsake a career. It you waited, you waited too long. Get pregnant before you're 40 or you'll make bad babies. Autism is your fault mom! University of California at Davis (UCD) which found silicon in beer good for you and the best source for it and that calcium is actually good for your bones in supplemental form. UC Davis, the university’s new Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Research Center, that received the three-year, $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. Yes, that University of California at Davis.

Last month U California at Davis found a "cluster" of autism which would tend to contradict their most recent research revelation published in Autism Research (AR). “This is the first time that anyone has looked at the geography of autism births in California in order to see whether there might be some local patches of elevated environmental risk. This method ignores unknown widespread factors (such as a regional pollutant) that could increase autism incidence,” said Karla Van Meter, the study’s lead author. Van Meter is an epidemiologist and was a doctoral student in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and at the Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance when the study was conducted." (UCD)

“In the U.S., the children of older, white and highly educated parents are more likely to receive a diagnosis of autism or autism spectrum disorder. For this reason, the clusters we found are probably not a result of a common environmental exposure. Instead, the differences in education, age and ethnicity of parents comparing births in the cluster versus those outside the cluster were striking enough to explain the clusters of autism cases,” Hertz-Picciotto said."

It let's dad's off the hook no matter how old he is, daddys not to blame. It's all on the mommy! Ignoring the fact that most of the Defeat Autism Now (DAN) blogs are mother run. This type of research will certainly not sit well with the blogsphere. We'll sit on the sidelines and wait to see.

“This study challenges a current theory in autism epidemiology that identifies the father’s age as a key factor in increasing the risk of having a child with autism,” said Janie Shelton, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences. “It shows that while maternal age consistently increases the risk of autism, the father's age only contributes an increased risk when the father is older and the mother is under 30 years old. Among mothers over 30, increases in the father's age do not appear to further increase the risk of autism.”

Which contradicts CBS News report of the research.

"The new research suggests the father's age appears to make the most difference with young mothers. Among children whose mothers were younger than 25, autism was twice as common when fathers were older than 40 than when dads were in their 20s."

"Because of the large study size, the researchers were able to show how risk for autism was affected by each parent's age by holding one parent's age constant and then comparing autism incidence across the age of the other parent across five-year increments. The subtle interaction of how each parent's age affects the risk of autism then became quantifiable even when it was reliant on the other parent's age. This methodology is more efficacious and requires fewer assumptions than the mathematical modeling used by earlier studies, the researchers said." (UCD)

Number do matter and while the increase is substantially greater for women older its no "fait accompli." Is it a trade off most women are willing to make? That too is something each individual woman will have to make. Prenatal testing might be a part of that decision making process for older mothers. What it isn't is an indictment of career women or senior motherhood. What it is, might even not be of any concern of most eaders as well. It certainly was on the mind of one particular editor here in our office. He who edits rules!

Conspiracy Fearies

You seen 'em. They're everywhere. Even notable comedian and social satirist Bill Maher suffers from 'em. From the H1N1 vaccine causes autism because there is mercury in the vaccine. Not True! Well there was mercury in the vaccine. Yes back in 1976 this is a new millennium. "The last swine flu vaccine, killed more than the virus itself. The vaccine program turned into a disaster." Not true! "(T)he virus is not a naturally occurring virus." It's alive! It's alive! Ala Dr. Frankenstein. Which is as fictitious as the monster and the doctor man.

This from the Washington Post last week: "There are other people who feel there is some sort of "conspiracy theory" regarding 2009 H1N1 and the vaccine involving the government/vaccine makers, etc. I can't comment on conspiracy theories, all I can point to is the scientific facts as we know them right now." There's even the "Craigslist" conspiracy about the woman who was buying a baby carriage or some sort of thing and a friend of a friend met this woman who works for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who told her some insider information that they're going to pass on to you.

Even though we don't know all the answers there is some sanity in the minds of the mental. Most of the all but most harden skeptics still when reviewing all the evidence don't quite reach the conclusion of mad scientist. From the third of a three (3) part article: "They are not saying not to vaccinate by the way, I want to make that clear. They are saying SLOW DOWN. Let’s look at what is going on. We went from 10 vaccines to 36 and kids are getting hurt."

Defeat Autism Now (DAN) has articles in its newsletter with heading like: "Study Shows Newborn Monkeys Given Vaccines Do Not Develop Normally" except the vaccine is a Thimerosal-Containing Hepatitis B Vaccine not the H1N1. If it's true for Hep B it must be the same for H1N1 after all doesn't it contain Thimerosal also? You'll have to wait until this week's conference presentation to find out who to blame. You might want to know that the presenters say: "While thimerosal is no longer used in Hepatitis B vaccines given to American infants, thimerosal-containing Hepatitis B vaccines are still widely used in many countries." You could travel there next. Boooo HAAAHAAA! Very scary!

The Age of Autism website has the very scary headline: "School Children Receiving H1N1 Vax without Parental Consent" and what happens next will chill your bones: "Two children were given the vaccine without their parent's consent. One mother said her daughter ended up in the emergency room after getting sick. It's a major mistake that could've cost one little girl her life." The story is reprinted from the NY CBS affiliate channel 2 reporter Jay Dow. It could turn out to be bad. It hasn't but it could!!!!!!

Just in time for Halloween! "Don't be afraid all I want is to" make you afraid. Our job is to take the fear of conspiracy "fearies!"

Autism Isn't Epedemic

Which brings us to the point of the local news station WJLA-TV 7. They're reporting on the epidemic called AUTISM. It's another not quite true news report that's had us doing the search and checking our facts. We had to leave the comfortable confines of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and run all over the National Vital Statistics which directs me to the EXCEL spreadsheet that we don't completely understand but gave us the information we needed to compile the table of deaths in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia jurisdictions.

All while investigating the connection between Autism and the flu vaccine. The unrealistic fear is giving your child the vaccine will give them autism. Of course the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there is no connection. Their the government and their distributing the vaccine. "Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza (flu) vaccines, thimerosal is not used as a preservative in routinely recommended childhood vaccines."

Speaking of getting things wrong the big boys at the New York Times (or rather reporter Roni Caryn Rabin) misreported the story that The Philadelphia Inquirer correctly reported connecting autism with higher mercury levels. The Philadelphia Inquirer gets it completely right while they leave it out: "The children with autism actually had lower levels of mercury. When researchers adjusted the results for fish consumption - autistic children tend to be picky eaters and so consume less fish, which contains mercury - their levels were comparable to those with typical development, as well as a representative national sample."

The epidemic that WJLA-TV 7 is reporting comes from a report that estimates in excess of the numbers given by the CDC. "It is estimated that between 1 in 100 and 1 in 300 with an average of 1 in 150 children in the United States have an ASD." To support WJLA the CDC uses from 2000 data in its 2007 opinion.

To be critical of WJLA the report uses parent-reported diagnosis and we accept that it doesn't matter how infrequently a piano falls on a persons head if you're the person that has a piano falling on your head. The odds don't matter when its happening to you. From the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): "The prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of ASD among US children aged 3 to 17 years was estimated from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (sample size: 78037). A child was considered to have ASD if a parent/guardian reported that a doctor or other health care provider had ever said that the child had ASD and that the child currently had the condition. The point-prevalence for ASD was calculated for those children meeting both criteria. We examined sociodemographic factors associated with current ASD and with a past (but not current) ASD diagnosis. The health care experiences for children in both ASD groups were explored."

Since the report is published in AAP we thought they might be the source of epidemic fear but a search of recent documents from the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (APP) doesn't produce those results. APP considers childhood obesity and asthma at epidemic levels but not autism.

The real death statistics are the standards: cancer, heart disease and Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in Maryland and Virginia. The number three (3) cause of death in the District is accidents CVD (strokes) are fourth. Accidents are the fourth (4) cause of death in Virginia based on 2006 data. Though they actively kill more residents than anything other causes none are considered epidemic. That's the real news.