One of Dr. Stone’s patients provides a summary of a major conference on autism last week:
1. There is an epidemic underway, extensively documented in California, Illinois, the UK and in nation-wide special education statistics.
2. The epidemic has a name, autistic enterocolitis, and has been clinically described by Wakefield and his associates. We all know the symptoms.
3. The epidemic has been created by a massively misguided public health initiative, the MMR vaccine. Wakefield's argument is so powerful here that it moved many of us to tears. What an incredible tragedy this would be if it is proven to be true; how careless they have been with our children!
4. The epidemic has yet to be recognized by the CDC and the official medical establishment, which is completely incapable of communicating across departmental boundaries to solve problems like this.
5. To the extent that progress has been made, it has been made or motivated by parents. Fortunately, there are many parents who are medical professionals, too. Thank God for them, and for the small group of progressive practitioners who are putting results ahead of research ritual.
6. The medical establishment will move swiftly to defend its vaccination program, but will move incredibly slowly to accept effective therapies that are not developed through their own processes.
7. Meanwhile, every day, thousands more children are put at risk with enormous human, social and economic costs. This is a preventable tragedy. Am I overreacting to the conference, fellow attendees? By nature, I am not a revolutionary, but... finding it hard to think about anything else,
This is from Dr. Stone’s posting on Physicians On Line:
This epidemic is NOT being ignored by the public, and particularly by those parents, grandparents, relatives, friends and neighbors of autistic children. Note that this newsletter, and hundreds like it, are communicating to many thousands of people that physicians are oblivious of or insensitive to this epidemic of seriously handicapped children most of whom will have to be cared for by their families for the rest of their lives!
No one denies that children can die from measles. The loss of a child is a terrible tragedy in anyone's life. But nearly everyone eventually recovers (never completely) from such a loss, how does that compare with having to care for a child 24 hrs a day for the rest of your life? Has the LEGALLY MANDATED solution become a worse risk than the disease? Should a parent be able to choose whether to allow you to play Russian Roulette (Vaccination Roulette) or not with their infants?
The focus of the cause for "autistic enterocolitis" on the MMR vaccine ALONE is probably an oversimplification. For example, most physicians are aware that the overuse and abuse of antibiotics has given rise to resistant organisms. What is an even greater tragedy is the gross alteration of the intestinal flora (remember our intestine is our interface with the world where most of our immune antibodies, etc reside). Some cases of "autistic enterocolitis" are probably caused by an overgrowth of organisms - most recently clostridia tetani is very suspect. Yet, as you read in these discussions, some physicians think killing germs is a great idea, whether it is helpful to the patient or not!