Just finished watching Oprah.
The show did a great job of showing people a glimpse inside the life of autistic families. Oprah stated at the beginning that her goal was to spread awareness and compassion for what families are going through. The show did a good job of that.
Oprah didn't shy away from the vaccine issue (Thank YOU!) but they had a dip-shit doctor on who claimed that the autism/vaccine link has been refuted. Refuted by who? The same folks that injected our kids with all kinds of poison? The ones who have worked tireslessly to cover it up? I applaud Oprah for giving one of the mothers on the panel a chance to discredit the doctor. This doctor, Dr. Anshu Batra, represents so many things that are wrong here. Like so many physicians, she refuses to do a little independent digging. It's even more disgusting because she has two autistic kids herself. Of course hers received all kinds of early intervention and are doing well. We couldn't get a doctor to even take us seriously until Riley was 3 1/2, and that includes a developmental pediatrician in one of Baltimore's prestigious medical institutions for children.
The doctor on Oprah also gave early warning signs for autism that included all kinds of things to look for in a one year old child. So many kids with autism are developing perfectly normal and then regress around the age of two. Duh.
This is the big problem. Most of the "experts" in the field of autism, even the ones they pick to go on international television, are not experts at all.
With advocates like them, who needs enemies?
But I digress. Overall, the show was great.
I am grateful.
I think it will help wake people up.
And we have miles to go before we sleep.
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Experts? We laugh. I had the chief of ped neuro tell me my 6 year old had launched into seizures because "She's wired differently. She's autistic." I will never forget that putz. MARK SCHER, UH Cleveland. I used biomed and chiro to STOP her seizures cold. Wired differently - like she was a bum lamp and not a child.
I'd love to see you on the next Oprah show on autism.
Okay. I think Oprah did a good job. The doctor she chose to interview was dismal. I think that there needs to be a follow-up show. Let's talk about the therapies. How about the DAN doctors and Generation Rescue and the vast network (an underground, really) created by families who have taken it upon themselves to heal their children. Lets talk about what the schools are going to do for us as far getting therapy in the schools so we can all afford it. Some states have free ABA therapy. Here, you have to sell your house to get it.
Public education has to get with the program to accomodate our children.
Obviously, there is so much more to the story than what was presented; however, I do hand it to Oprah for allowing the woman on her show to express her feeling that the doctor was wrong and for stating her feelings on the vaccines. I gave out a very loud sigh of relief when she did. You could see how exasperated she was, as we all are. I am glad I watched today. Usually, I don't. I don't have much time for tv, but especially the news I often avoid. With all I have goingon with my son, I have to create my own world and keep my focus and courage and hope. I have to be careful of what I let into my world, my sacred space. The media is full of fear and many times erroneous information. Well, so are well-meaning, misinformed people! Perhaps this show will help begin to educate the general public. There was no new info for parents, though. I have recently found a therapy that is working for my little boy, but I had to dig and dig and it was truly a feat of networking to find something that an OT was quietly doing in this small town, and she said she could not get any teachers or doctors interested enough to listen to her. It was in my own backyard and I never even knew it. I'm writing Oprah today. I appreciate this blog so much. At least we all have each other and without that I would have jumped out the window long ago.
Yes, I so agree. I was getting upset that no one was bringing up that issue, and then when that doctor said it was not a cause-- in SUCH a condescending manner!-- it made me yell at my tv. So I was relieved that Oprah gave that mom the stage and the last word in the matter. I also think it seemed that Oprah herself thinks it may be a reason, and that alone maybe make many parents search deeper. Maybe force the issue more.
I was thinking that if enough people write into the show, as say they want to know more about that point, she may have another show on it. Maybe have some DAN! Doctors and parents who are trying different things. That would be great.
Maybe we could get the bloggy tribe to write?
:)
Heard most of it (except for the parts I had to turn off so I could drive home without crying) and saw that part where she let the mom have her say. So glad she didn't wuss out like everyone else.
I think there are already 800 messages on Oprah's site regarding the show; they are a jumble of stuff, mainly people telling bits of their story. I agree that Oprah seems to know more about the vaccine issue than she was willing to let on. She appeared somewhat well-informed by her comments
I agree with you completely, Michelle. It's not time to sleep, but at least we'll have more warriors among us now!
You can write Oprah by going to the place that says be on the show, then ideas for a show, and there is a place to submit your idea for a follow-up show. Worth a shot maybe if enough people write.
I am sure that airing this on Oprah will bring more attention and debate and hopefully changes, but strangely and unfortunately, it's only the beginning.
Yes, miles to go before we sleep.
Ditto Amber. If enough people wrote responses there might be another show...they did that with The Secret due to viewer response.
To Whom it may concern:. October 8, 2007
Re: Autism epidemic - I know the cause and how to stop it...Period.
My name is Dr. Andrew Moulden. I have an eclectic background studying the human brain. An honors B.A. in biological psychology (valedictorian), an M.A. (child development - my thesis was in developmental neuropsychology and language development in children), Ph.D. in Clinical Neuropsychology (thesis was neurophysiology and brain imaging). Concordant with the PhD I completed and extra specialization in basic and applied neuroscience. I was top ranked in the PhD and the M.A.
After the Ph.D. rather than take up a six figure salary, I went on to Medical school, completing electives in Neurology, genetics, physitary, family medicine... and then on to a neuropsychiatry residency at the University of Ottawa and Toronto.
I have not just studied the human brain in academia - my undergrad and graduate course grades relative to the human brain were 98%, 96% and straight A'.
I received 27 scholarships and awards for academic, research, and clinical excellence during the 13 1/2 years of formal University training; I was a regional, provincial, and national scholar as well as an Ontario Mental Health Foundation scholar. I have taught brain and behavior courses at the university level for 12 years during and after my studies. Some have said I am a "born communicator."
I then commenced residency training in psychiatry. That is in addition to my PhD clinical training as a neuopsychologist. I wear the hats of more than one "Brain" Doctor. As such, when it comes to clinical conundrums affecting the human brain, I tend to think outside the box from multiple fronts. I liken it to the Chinese proverb of three blind men feeling different parts of the elephant (the tail, the body, and the trunk) - each describes what they "see" from their unique vantage point. My training has allowed me to place "several" hands on the entire elephant, simultaneously, and describe it as a whole.."an elephant!"..not like a rope, a wall, or a tree trunk.
Beyond the accolades, I am also a high school drop-out (grade 11). I was also adopted as an infant. I met my biological family (3 sisters, brother, parents 50 plus aunts/uncles etc. on March 16th, 2001.
During an elective psychiatry placement 6 months out of medical school (January 2001), I came across two interesting case histories while on an out of town placement. I had just returned from delivering the eulogy for my mother-in-law who had passed away, in my arms, in the ICU in Ottawa after a two week battle with cancer. I was distraught. I was also pleasantly surprised that these two clinical cases, as well as a call from adoption services saying "we found your biological parents - they want to meet you" happened on the same day.
These two cases were an autistic and a schizophrenia case. Both had a similar family history relative to rubella (German measles) exposure and vaccination. Armed with 14 years of formal studies of the human brain, this was the first time I had ever come across a clinical case of autism.
Unlike my contemporary researchers of autism, I had an advantage. I did not come to autism with some preconceived beliefs, a research grant, a singular area of expertise, or a family members illness driving my interests. My area of expertise is the human brain - from a normal, neurodevelopment framework, from multiple "professional" hats I wear simultaneously and ability to interpret diverse research areas relative to the human brain and its functions.
There are some simple rules you learn about brain function, neurodevelopment, and functional deregulation when you have studied the brain as broadly as I have.
When I came across these first two cases (there have been many more since), the mothers stories of being rubella susceptible during gestation with the now autistic child struck a chord; as did the case with schizophrenia. I had studied this neuroviral theory of brain pathology during independent neuroscience seminars in grad school (re: Dr. Fuller Torrey). However, now I was armed with medical physiology knowledge, a neuropsychologists Doctorate, a neurosciences specialist, functional brain imaging scientist, a neurodevelopmentalist’s knowledge specific to language development from infancy to young adulthood (my M.A, thesis received a provincial award for this work in 1993), and an understanding of how clinical medicine is taught and practiced from multiple specialties. Its not so much of knowing something more than "the other guy", I now knew what both groups (PhD' and M.D's) did not know, what they assumed, how they are trained, and the potential errors they could make based on knowledge that was known, assumed, and/or accepted status quo.
Several other autistic cases came to light. Knowing what to look for after my first few case histories, and having my emerging causal model of autism, relative to rubella, receive support when I took the evolving story back to the medical literature in the areas of neuroimmunology, virology, and immunology - the pattern that emerged was consistent across stories and began to explain, quite eloquently, how the rubella vaccine was causally related to autism, why we have been missing it, and what we need to do to stop it. Indeed, it is not even the brain that is being "attacked" as it is the brains blood supply, both prenatal as a "first hit" and the second hit comes from the vaccine (or wild virus) as the infants immune system is uncoupled by re-exposure to the virus post-natal.
I recognized that the mothers stories of rubella susceptibility during pregnancy, and cases where the test we currently use indicated the mother should have been rubella immune were significant. It became clear in my mind that "the hemaglutination" test we use to assure ourselves that woman are immunized against rubella during pregnancy - must NOT always be accurate. Sure enough, the medical literature confirmed this suspicion.
Indeed, when you break this all down, there are 6-18% of the populations whose rubella immune status based on our current hemaglutination antibody tests, are falsely reassuring us. These women are NOT immune to rubella, even though the antibody tests suggest they should be.
If such women are exposed to German measles during pregnancy, and they are in the first trimester, the fetus will be hit as the virus crosses the placenta, but protective antibodies do not. More over, if a person (adult or child) receives an attenuated live rubella virus vaccine, or exposure to the wild rubella virus, and is one of these 6% to 18% with an immune tolerance to rubella - they will show no outward signs of rubella infection, will evidence "protective" antibody titers with our currently used rubella immune assays, yet they can actively shed the virus, asymptomatically, for a protracted period of time (several months to a year). This will not be picked up statistically on a population level study as the signal (the few who exhibit this profile) is buried in the noise (the majority who are vaccinated do not have this profile). So we assume that the vaccine virus is not transmissible - that is incorrect...on multiple levels, which I will not explain here.
I had shared my work with Dr. Bernard Rimland (the founder of the Autism Research Institute in San Diego, a co-founder of Defeat Autism Network (DAN), the expert consultant for the movie rainman, and author of the definitive text in the 1960' showing autism to be a brain disease not something from "cold mothers." Bernard knew I had this figured out (I have a letter to this effect from him). I asked me repeatedly to share this publicly. However, I informed Bernie that, its no help to come out and complain about a vaccine - the public health department will defend vehemently, and many may get hurt if parents opt to NOT vaccinate as a fear of vaccines in general. It was important to come out with not only the cause, but a way to test for it, and a solution that does not undermine the public health vaccine protocols. I told Bernie I was working on these areas, and I would need more time.
Bernard reluctantly acquiesced and I did keep him in the dark on a few key things. Nevertheless, I informed him that by the summer of 2007 I would be ready to bring the entire model to public awareness with the cause of the autism epidemic, what’s happening to the brain, how the rubella vaccine is causing this autism epidemic(it is not as simple as give the vaccine and the child develops autism - which is another reason why this is being missed), and with an immunology test that will show who should not receive the rubella vaccine (a contraindication test) - that covers adults as well as children.
The cause of autism is a double hit: they first get hit in utero with the virus which alters the fetal immune system, and can cause subtle brain deficits, which may be seen clinically before the send hit, which comes from the immunization with rubella at 12 and 18 months of age. In essence, we de-couple the immune system and unleash an autoimmune attack.
In the end, the sub-group that gets vaccinated (currently 1 child in 150) who develops regressive autism, is having the "brain" attacked (its not actually the brain that is being hit the hardest as it is the blood supply routes to the brain) when we de-regulate a rubella specific immune deficit that was set-up during the first trimester of pregnancy by a prenatal exposure to the virus.
I am not going into all the details, but its is really quite eloquent and simple to explain with analogies and examples but it is necessary to describe basic "rules" of fetal, immunological, neuropsychological, and neurodevelopment.
Dr. Bernard Rimland was anxious for me to come forth with what I had discovered. Sadly, Dr. Rimland passed away several months ago. I have lost him as an advocate, and it too an inordinate amount of effort to hold him at bay while I was zeroing in on the solution.
Today, I now have the model nailed down to both the cause, and the solution, and a test that can identify, in advance, who should get the rubella vaccine, and who should not. Basically, I have an immunological test that has the capacity to identify which women of child-bearing age, and which infants should not be vaccinated and who should avoid exposure to rubella infected sources (a hard thing to do now that the attenuated illness looks like a common cold). Rubella has a 100% attack rate, is spread by sputum, feces, nasal secretions, and urine...and the test we currently use to assure "immunity" is falsely reassuring for many.
I could spend the next three years messing with this in one lab study - which needs conforming by another lab study and another lab study. This will play out as it has between the vaccine manufacturers, the public health departments, and the parents of autistic children both arguing "cause-effect" and "no-cause effect." However, the public health problem here is so vast, and the morbidity and costs to society are so significant, that it would be irresponsible of me to slow down the wheels of knowledge by not putting the information I have to the public forum now that I have a solution in addition to the cause of the problem.
I assure, that what I have to share, you have never heard before. I assure, and I am willing to put my career and my Faith in God on the line for this, that I DO have the cause of this autism epidemic, I now have a test that can identify who will develop autism if vaccinated, and I have the means by which we can stop this epidemic from progressing.
I also assure, that prior to 1969, the incidence of autism was 1 child in 10,000. When I first pulled this model together, and wrote the first manuscript draft on June 13, 2001, the incidence was 1 child in 500. I stated back then, as I continue to state today, that this autism epidemic will continue to climb until it plateaus at a rate of 1 child in 20 - that’s just predictable once you know the incidence of the immune deficit I refer to and can now test. ;-)
I would very much like the opportunity to speak wit someone from the Oprah Winfrey Show. This vaccine story, and my story within it, is fascinating, frustrating, amusing, contemporary, and amazing on multiple fronts.
I pray, and I shall continue to pray, that the producers of the Oprah Winfrey show will recognize how important and sensitive this topic is as a global issue around the world and that I would not be coming forward unless I was certain I have this nailed down, and have the solution.
Imagine how you would feel if you were me? You knew the answer to this autism epidemic and how to test for and stop it. Today! With every 1 1/2 minutes that elapses, another child is diagnosed with autism....I am asking for your help, sincerely, in getting my message to the public and the scientists as soon as possible - I have the immunology test they need and an explanation as to how to stop this.
Analogy:
- The public health department deems it advisable that it become mandatory that all children in North America must receive a "peanut butter" shot at 12 months of age, and 18 months of age. If an adult is found to not have any protection against peanut butter, he/she as well must have a "peanut butter" shot.
Here is but one problem from the scientific method eyes. If you give peanut butter to 1000 children, when only 1 child in 150 will have allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) - you will conclude, based on scientific methods and probabilities, that these 1:150 kids are chance occurrences and not causally related - they are a signal (peanut butter allergy) buried in the noise (the majority of kids who are not allergic peanut butter).
However, if I was to separate the signal from the noise for you, and provide you with a test that shows who is likely to have a peanut butter allergy and who is not: then you truly have an experimental design that is meaningful. You now compare the incidence of anaphylaxis (allergic reaction) between the group who is normal on the "peanut butter allergy test" to the incidence of allergic reaction in those who showed susceptibility on this same test - you would separate the signal from the noise and conclude "Cause and effect."
That is what I now have, just such a test. With this immune assay test, the groups of children can be separated into those who are safe to receive the rubella vaccine (and no autism) whereas those who show the abnormality on this immune assay test - if vaccinated will develop autism....
This is important information that should not be held back for two to three years through the science channels when the incidence is 1 child affected (for life) every 1 and a half minutes.
The point here as well is that you can never give the same medical treatment to everyone and not expect problems - we are all different in subtle ways. When the "hit" rate is sufficiently small (i.e. 1:150) you will lose the signal (cause) in the noise (coincidence) - I have the means to separate this now - and the test costs 1 dollar per person to save a lifetime of disability.
Kind regards
Andrew J. Moulden
1-647-202-6131
1-647-477-6959
drmoulden@rogers.com
101 Subway Crescent, #2302
Etobicoke, Ontario
Canada M9B 6K4
my cell no. is the easiest way to reach me.
Name: James
Oprah's 4 interviews with Jill Bolte Taylor were the first that Oprah did after Eckhart Tolle and they take everything Tolle talks about to another level. Oprah's copy of Jill's book, MY STROKE OF INSIGHT, was dog-eared and all marked up and kept reading from it the way she read from A New Earth and recommended it highly.
Oprah's recommendation was enough for me. I read My Stroke of Insight and I loved it too. This story is as inspiring as The Last Lecture or Tuesdays with Morrie - and even better, it has a Happy Ending!
I bought the book on Amazon because they have it for 40% off retail and they also had an amazing interview with Dr Taylor that I haven't seen anywhere else - Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0670020745/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211471755&sr=1-2
I read "My Stroke of Insight" in one sitting - I couldn't put it down. I laughed. I cried. It was a fantastic book (I heard it's a NYTimes Bestseller and I can see why!), but I also think it will be the start of a new, transformative Movement! No one wants to have a stroke as Jill Bolte Taylor did, but her experience can teach us all how to live better lives. Her TED.com speech was one of the most incredibly moving, stimulating, wonderful videos I've ever seen. Her Oprah Soul Series interviews were fascinating. They should make a movie of her life so everyone sees it. This is the Real Deal and gives me hope for humanity.
NEW MEDICAL BREAK THROUGH FOR AUTISM.
As Dr Andrew Moulden has explained in a previous post named "Re: Autism epidemic - I know the cause and how to stop it...Period.",
You can do more research on his findings at his new website
http://www.amassnetwork.com
Listen to the broadcast from the Republic Broadcasting Network, recorded August 6,2008.
In this broadcast he tells you why we have a rapidly increasing rise on Autism, What the cause of Autism is, How He can end new cases of autism. Please visit the site, and lets make Autism a disorder of the past.
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