The Autism-Mercury Link… Debunked?

Let us all stand tall and rejoice!  The truth has come down and has set us free!  OK, maybe that’s not how I feel but it seems like that’s how the pharmaceutical companies are feeling after the release of a new “study” that shows that Autism is not linked to thimerosal in children’s vaccines.  That being said, I am not closed minded and am willing to consider the possibility that this “study” actually is based on facts and not just full of crap.  I consider myself to be somewhat intelligent and therefore able to think logically and rationally.  If I was adamant about my position without considering the other point of view then I would be no better than some crazy nut job… like George W. Bush, for example (please read my other posts for my opinion of him).

There have been several studies and many doctors who believe that there is a link between Autism and the mercury based preservative, thimerosal, that is commonly found in children’s vaccinations.  There is a large body of evidence that has been compiled, much of which has been dismissed by the FDA, the CDC, and major pharmaceutical companies worldwide.  They have all spent considerable time and money conducting studies that seem to put the theories of a link in the same category as those who believe Elvis is still alive today.  They have smeared their “findings” all over the media in an attempt to cover their asses and hide the truth from us.  What that truth is we are still searching for.  As a parent of a child with Autism, I hope we find the truth sooner rather than later so that we may help all the autistic children in the world to recover and live normal and productive lives.  That’s not too much to ask, is it?

While reading the latest article this morning debunking the myth, I was reminded of several things that seem to blatantly defy what this study has to say about the link.  For instance, autistic children have been found to contain high amounts (much higher than the norm) or heavy metals, including mercury and lead.  So what does this finding tell you?  Well, it says that autistic kids have high levels of mercury in their system.  Is this true?  Yes, it is true.  So what causes these high levels?  Well, honestly, no one really knows yet.  And if there is no link between mercury and autism then why are the characteristics of autism similar to those of mercury poisoning?

Advocates against thimerosal claim that it is mercury from vaccines, which is a plausible theory; it is plausible because an infants’ immune system is not developed enough until the age of 4-6 months to respond to the vaccine that’s been given, let alone properly and safely excrete the levels of mercury that are injected into its body.  Take the Hepatitis B vaccine, for example: it contains 12.5 micrograms of mercury.  This vaccine is administered without fail to ALL newborns within 12 hours of birth.  Before their immune system can even begin to work, it is being bombarded with a lethal neurotoxin that can have life-long damaging consequences.  This vaccine is given to newborns who are not at risk; they are not born to mothers who have used IV drugs or engaged in unsafe sexual practices.  It is a blanket immunization that is unwarranted and unsafe.

Another vaccine linked to autism is the MMR vaccine (Measles, Mumps, Rubella).  It is known that thimerosal is being phased out and that the majority of MMR vaccines do not contain mercury anymore.  However, I believe there is another factor involved with this vaccine.  The MMR vaccine uses a live virus strain of each disease in order to get the immune system to build up the necessary antibodies to become immune; essentially, the child is infected with three viruses at the same time.  This would put a strain on any immune system, let alone that of an infant.  According to Stephanie Cave, M.D., “Our children are being injected with foreign, disease-causing substances before their immune systems have matured to the point where they can cope with such invasions.  We are also giving our children multiple, simultaneous vaccines, which may cause reactions not seen when a single vaccine is given.”  I’m a hockey playe and will use an analogy here.  Consider your immune system to be a goalie: it is there to protect the goal (the person) from the puck (the disease).  Shoot one puck at the net and the goalie will stop the puck.  However, shoot 3 or more pucks at the net at the same time and the goalie is inadequate in stopping everthing.  Basically, the more live virus vaccines you inject into a still developing immune system, the more likely the chance that one or more of the viruses will not be fought off, causing autoimmune disorders.

The usual immunization of MMR occurs between 12-18 months.  According to the Recommended Immunization Schedule for Person Aged 0-6 Years (2008), a child will receive approximately 23 vaccinations prior to receiving the MMR (at least 3 hep B vaccines, 3 rotavirus vaccines, 4 DTaP vaccines, 4 Hib vaccines, 4 pneumococcal vaccines, 3 polio vaccines, at least 1 flu shot, as well as the possibility of 1 varicella vaccine and possibly 2 Hep A vaccines).  In 1999, the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research (CBER) confirmed that thimerosal was present in over 30 licensed vaccines in the US in concentrations of 0.003% to 0.01%.  According to the agency’s calculations, an infant six months old who got all vaccine doses on schedule would receive 75 micrograms of mercury from three doses of DTaP, 75 micrograms from three doses of Hib, and 37.5 micrograms from three doses of hepatitis B vaccine – a total of 187.5 micrograms of mercury.  According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the safe limit for mercury is 0.1 microgram of mercury per kilogram per day.  So the 12.5 micrograms of mercury in the hepatitis vaccine injected into, say, an eight pound baby newborn (approximately 3.6 kilograms) is dramatically higher than the safe limit of 0.36 micrograms set by the EPA.  It should also be stated that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) do not agree with the EPA’s safe limits and say that the limits are actually higher.  I think, however, it is prudent to air on the side of caution and accept the lower limits in order to minimize adverse reactions and consequences.  Wouldn’t you agree?  If you accept the EPA’s limits, which I prefer to accept, you are injecting your newborn with more than 34 times the amount of mercury that can be processed safely and excreted from the body.  Does it make sense to inject that much of a poison into an innocent, new life?  Perhaps the interaction of the mercury with multiple live virus vaccines plays some part in autism.

Recently, the rule has been to give the MMR with the varicella vaccine, another live virus vaccine combating the chicken pox.  Now, perhaps I am being cynical but I believe the best antibodies you can have come from actually having the disease and fighting it off naturally; this is the purpose of our immune system as it has continued to evolve over tens of thousands of years.  I’m not against vaccines that help save lives but a childhood ailment that guarantees never having the ailment again sounds better that having multiple vaccines only to push the onset of a disease into adulthood where it can actually prove to be fatal.  This is the trend we are seeing with the varicella vaccine: it tends to protect into adulthood but then you become susceptible to contracting the disease, which in adulthood can prove to be much worse than had you had it as a child.  So why create such a vaccine?  Simple… money. 

According to Stephanie Cave, M.D., “the reason is that the government was looking for a way to save businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production time, because mothers had to stay home when their children got sick.  The solution: develop a vaccine for chicken pox so moms could keep working instead of taking time off to nurse their kids.  The savings, calculated by Merck Laboratories, the makers of the only chicken pox vaccine on the market, were estimated at $400 million.  Apparently marketing the vaccine to every child in the United States does have a cost benefit.  So the bottom line is that Americans have yet another vaccine mandated in many states as a requirement for children to get into school.”  Does this mean that the true origin of the varicella vaccine isn’t one of protecting our children from the “deadly” childhood disease of chicken pox, but rather one that helps to ease the burden that businesses must bear when their workers take sick leave to help their children recover from an illness?  Perhaps.  But again, maybe I’m just being cynical when I think that the government does not have the public safety in mind.  It is not right that a government dictate to its citizens that children be vaccinated with 37 vaccines before the age of 6, just so they can attend school.  They use this threat as a means to ensure that everyone gets vaccinated.  Sounds a little like communism to me.  What happened to the freedom of choice?  I mean, a woman can still have an abortion if she chooses and she won’t be shunned from society, so why should we shun our children who’s parents have decided that they should not receive all their vaccinations?  Does every child not deserve an education in this country?  Why force parents to immunize their children with vaccines that prevent diseases that they could just contract and be done with for the rest of their lives?  I have had chicken pox and measles and I am not afraid of ever catching them again because I have the natural immunity now.  Isn’t that what we are trying to accomplish with vaccines?  I understand the desire to protect our children from harm and pain, but without allowing the immune system to do its job and continue to evolve naturally, without the aid of 40-50 vaccinations throughout childhood and adolescence, won’t we be dooming them instead to a life of sickness and poor health with an immune system that is incapable of properly defending itself?

Back to mercury.  So if there is mercury in the system and it hasn’t come from vaccines, as the evidence always seems to point to, then where does it come from?  Some researchers believe that the mercury comes from fish.  While it is true that fish does contain mercury (approximately 17 micrograms in a 6 ounce can) there is a big difference.  First, how safe is a poison?  Mercury is toxic for everyone, including people who eat tuna or have mercury filling in their mouth (called amalgams).  High levels of mercury can cause brain cells to die; lower, chronic levels can result in silent, insidious effects that affect the immune system at the cellular level.  The first signs of low level mercury poisoning may be an inability to get rid of the flu, bronchitis, or a yeast infection, or it may lead to cancer.

Much more important to this argument is the second point: the ethylmercury in the vaccine is being injected into the bodies of infants who do not have a fully developed immune system, and their bodies can’t get rid of the mercury properly.  The mercury from the tuna, on the other hand, is not injected into the bloodstream; it is eaten, which means it goes through the digestive tract, and the liver has the opportunity to help rid the body of this poisonous toxin.  In infants, the blood-brain barrier (a membrane between circulating blood and the brain that prevents certain harmful substances from reaching the brain) is not yet able to keep out toxins that can damage the brain.  This means that mercury sent directly into the bloodstream enters the brain and converts to a form of mercury (inorganic) that remains in the brain, where it does the damage.  Once in the brain, mercury gathers in the areas that affect motor skills and attacks the nerves, affecting emotional and mental functioning.

To further illustrate my point that mercury is linked to autism, I will now compare the characteristics of Autism and mercury poisoning.  I will list the characteristic, followed by symptoms of autism followed by symptoms of mercury poisoning.  Let’s begin:

Movement disorders: Autism – arm flapping, jumping, spinning, rocking, circling; abnormal posture and gait; clumsiness, uncoordinated; difficulties crawling, lying down, sitting, walking; difficulty swallowing or chewing; walking on the toes.  Mercury Poisoning- arm flapping, ankle jerks, rocking circling; uncoordinated, clumsiness; inability to walk, stand, or sit; difficulty swallowing or chewing; walking on the toes.

Sensory abnormalities: Autism – oversensitive to sound; abnormal sensation in the mouth, arms, and legs; doesn’t like to be touched.  Mercury Poisoning – oversensitive to sound; abnormal sensation in the mouth, arms, and legs; doesn’t like to be touched.

Speech, hearing, language problems: Autism – Delayed language or failure to develop speech; mild to severe hearing loss; problems with articulation; word use errors.  Mercury Poisoning – Loss of speech or failure to develop speech; hearing loss; deafness at very high doses; problems with articulation; word retrieval problems.

Cognitive problems: Autism – borderline intelligence, mental retardation: may be recovered; poor concentration, shifting attention; difficulty following multiple commands; difficulty comprehending words; difficulty understanding abstract ideas and symbols.  Mercury Poisoning – borderline intelligence, mental retardation: may be reversed; poor concentration and attention; difficulty following complex commands; difficulty comprehending words; difficulty understanding abstract ideas and symbols.

Visual problems: Autism – poor eye contact; blurred vision.  Mercury Poisoning – poor eye contact; blurred vision.

Physical problems: Autism- decreased muscle strength, especially in upper body; incontinence; rash, dermatitis; abnormal sweating, poor circulation, high heart rate; diarrhea, constipation, gas, abdominal discomfort; anorexia, feeding problems; seizures; tendency to have allergies or asthma; family history of autoimmune symptoms, especially rheumatoid arthritis.  Mercury Poisoning- decreased muscle strength, especially in upper body; incontinence; salivating; rash, dermatitis; abnormal sweating, poor circulation, high heart rate; diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain; anorexia, nausea, poor appetite; seizures; sensitive individuals more likely to have allergies, asthma; more likely to have autoimmune symptoms, especially rheumatoid arthritis.

Unusual behavior: Autism – sleeping difficulties; injures self, such as head banging; staring, unprovoked crying, social isolation.  Mercury Poisoning – sleeping difficulties; injures self, such as head banging; staring, unprovoked crying, social isolation.

Seeing autism and mercury poisoning compared side to side, do you still have doubts that there is a connection?  You might, I won’t deny you that, but you have to admit that there are similarities between the two, which does suggest some sort of a link between the two.

So what does this mean?  Well, for starters it means that there is a lot about autism that we still don’t know or understand.  The key right now is to not eliminate any possibilities when it comes to causes.  Does mercury play a role?  I tend to think it does.  Mercury poisoning and autism share similar characteristics and autistic children test for high levels of mercury in their systems.  Does the mercury come from the vaccines?  I think there is a connection, seeing as how there has been a mad scramble to eliminate thimerosal from vaccines.  But other factors could play a role.  For instance, California reports more cases of autism that any other state.  They also happen to be down-wind from China’s coal fired power plants, which happen to release mercury into the atmosphere.  Do genetics play a role?  Possibly.  Autism incidence is 4 times higher in boys than girls.  Obviously there is/are some genetic factor(s) involved in autism.  Would stem cell research help in the fight against autism?  I don’t think it would hinder it, that’s for sure.  There are so many opportunities for stem cell research to help in a vast array of medical conditions.  Ethical bias aside, it is a step in the right direction for medicine.  Besides, stem cell research uses unwanted embryos; it’s not like we would be impregnating women and forcing them to have abortions in the name of medical research.

One thing is sure: autism is an epidemic and the first step is understanding it.  Once we understand what causes it, we will be better equipped to find a cure for it.  In the meantime, we need to improve services for autistic children while increasing access to the same services.  ABA therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy: these have all been proven to help autistic children learn and become able to interact socially.  With the estimated cost to the government associated with autism approaching $5 million per person over their lifetime (including social cecurity payments, medicaid benefits, etc.), and an incidence rate of 1 in 150 children being diagnosed, can we really afford not to do whatever we can to treat autism and lessen the effects of the disease, thereby enabling our children to function somewhat normally, resulting in a smaller cost over their lifetime?  If we properly rehabilitate autistic children, they will have a much better chance of becoming productive members of society, thereby reducing the amount of government assistance they will receive.  Spend a little now or wait and spend a lot later?  Until we know for certain what causes autism and how to cure it, we need to address their behaviors while providing them with an environment that is conducive to learning.  It is no different than sending a non-autistic child to school.  And if you’re unsure of what to do, ask a parent of a child with autism what they want.  Who else is better equipped to know what their autistic child needs?