Post by uscientist on Jun 30, 2009 22:31:28 GMT -5
Havent had a chance to get involved in the woo-fest over at HuffPo, but this article is no exception to this.
Although Dr (?) Karp has outlined some interesting vaccine information in previous articles, with this one, he pretty much puts himself in the camp with the AoA crowd. "Toxins" in the environment is going to be a hot topic and blamed for all sorts, as its a generic revolving subject matter (just like vaccine ingredients - take you pick which one you want to focus on).
I'm not saying that environmental pollution and waste cannot affect human health, but it all boils down to scientific evidence and dose. as for endocrine disruptors, the evidence is not in yet (but the hypothesis is tangible); just look at studies in amphibian development on this issue. there are very few references, and when you read them they are either opinion pieces (the Baron-Cohen link), or not what he says:
"Here is where the very interesting link to EDCs comes into play: EDCs often act as weak estrogens and estrogen feminizines the body, but in a fetus' developing brain estrogen actually has the opposite effect...it causes masculinization." the link is about androgens and mouse brain cells in a dish.
In the end, the article end up pandering to the AoA and anti-vax crowd:
"I support other new studies to look at: 1) the autism risk in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated kids; 2) the metabolism of vaccine ingredients (like aluminum, added to make shots work better)"
c'mon!
now, the most logical major scenario as a cause of autism is:
1. diagnostic changes (autism also isnt a simple "disease" diagnosis as say diabetes
2. genetics
combine 1&2 and autism hasnt actually changed, but we're just more aware of it and it could mainly be a genetic disorder. there may be other rare instances where autism is a symptom of another disease state (eg. mitochondrial disorder).
ok, whats everyone's thought on this?
Although Dr (?) Karp has outlined some interesting vaccine information in previous articles, with this one, he pretty much puts himself in the camp with the AoA crowd. "Toxins" in the environment is going to be a hot topic and blamed for all sorts, as its a generic revolving subject matter (just like vaccine ingredients - take you pick which one you want to focus on).
I'm not saying that environmental pollution and waste cannot affect human health, but it all boils down to scientific evidence and dose. as for endocrine disruptors, the evidence is not in yet (but the hypothesis is tangible); just look at studies in amphibian development on this issue. there are very few references, and when you read them they are either opinion pieces (the Baron-Cohen link), or not what he says:
"Here is where the very interesting link to EDCs comes into play: EDCs often act as weak estrogens and estrogen feminizines the body, but in a fetus' developing brain estrogen actually has the opposite effect...it causes masculinization." the link is about androgens and mouse brain cells in a dish.
In the end, the article end up pandering to the AoA and anti-vax crowd:
"I support other new studies to look at: 1) the autism risk in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated kids; 2) the metabolism of vaccine ingredients (like aluminum, added to make shots work better)"
c'mon!
now, the most logical major scenario as a cause of autism is:
1. diagnostic changes (autism also isnt a simple "disease" diagnosis as say diabetes
2. genetics
combine 1&2 and autism hasnt actually changed, but we're just more aware of it and it could mainly be a genetic disorder. there may be other rare instances where autism is a symptom of another disease state (eg. mitochondrial disorder).
ok, whats everyone's thought on this?