Let's compare and contrast!

[conuly]

Some of these traits are traits of autism and some of them are traits of cancer. Let's see if you can spot the difference!

This is a disease which is marked by excessive growth, aka tumors. Answer: Cancer. Hard to tell, but the word "tumor" gives it away.

This is a neurological difference/disability which is marked by either gaze aversion or staring. Answer: Autism. People with cancer generally will look you in the eye for the appropriate amount of time.

This can develop later in life. Answer: Cancer. It should not be possible to become autistic later in life.

This can kill you. Answer: Cancer. Contrary to popular belief, autism does not snatch children, nor does it kill them.

Congratulations. You now know the difference between autism and cancer. There will be a quiz later.

Comments

Re: Autism can kill, apparently, but in a very roundabout way ;))

[eofs.livejournal.com]

If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true, that would be a cause of later developing autism.

If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

I have yet to see any indication of that.

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[eofs.livejournal.com]

It was a big scare over here. My Mum had a couple of kids at school whose autism had been connected to it. *Shrugs* I'm not allowed it anyway for entirely different reasons.

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[conuly]

It's the big scare everywhere, but study after study shows no connection.

The fact is that the age most kids get their MMRs is the same age many people start to realize their children are autistic - and, by coincidence, the same age some children begin to display autistic traits. But it's just a coincidence. If it rains every time I wear blue, I can't say that it rains because I wear blue.

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

(You beat me to replying - yer fast!)

I second Conuly on everything she wrote.

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[phoebonica.livejournal.com]

And even if there was a connection, you can't die from autism. You can die from measles. In fact, my mother knew someone whose daughter had a severe reaction to the MMR jab - ended up in a coma - and the doctor told her to be thankful that she'd had the kid immunised, because if she'd caught the actual measles virus she'd have been dead.

Which reminds me of the other thing I don't get about this debate - how is having single vaccines supposed to be better? Isn't it basically the same thing?

(That got a bit off topic, didn't it?)

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Well in my case I'm not allowed the MMR because I reacted badly to the measles jab as a baby. So if single vaccines were easier to get hold of I could actually be protected against rubella. I'm just glad I had mumps as a baby - we've had a couple of outbreaks in English universities over the last 12 months (one of which I missed, the other of which included people I was working with) and my city was one of the worst hit. Our medical centre provided free MMRs, but that's no use to me. As you can imagine, I wholeheartedly support the provision of individual jabs.

As for why - perhaps it's just the body reacting badly to having all three introduced at once. If I recall correctly, when given individually there is some time between them.

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[phoebonica.livejournal.com]

Well, if there's an actual reason why you can't have all three, then fair enough. I really meant why do people think that giving three single vaccines is less likely to trigger reactions than one combined one.

I don't see why having all three being introduced at once would cause problems. When you think of all the germs you breathe in just sitting on the bus or something...

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[conuly]

Actually, I do believe that giving them separately is safer. Normally, you don't get exposed to three dangerous diseases at once. Doing that to an infant is reprehensible.

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[phoebonica.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Well, maybe it is safer in that respect. Still not sure why giving them separately would be considered less likely to trigger autism, since most of the studies that people claim to support that only seem to refer to the measles part.

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[conuly]

Because they can't agree on what part of the MMR causes autism - is it the dead virii? The mercury? The thirmirisol-whatever? The phase of the moon? The letter M?

Re: If the suspected links between the MMR jab and autism are true,

[staircase-wit.livejournal.com]

M-O-O-N, that spells autism!

Themirasol is hard to learn how to spell. Maybe if I heard it pronounced more. Thing is, the people who talk about Themirasol don't talk about Themirosol. They talk about one of the 23 atoms that is in the Themirasol molecule.

As far as the letter M is concerned, I wouldn't rule out milk. In "Unraveling Autism," the authors promote the theory that autism is an allergic reaction to gluten and/or casein, which causes the random brain growth of autism.

While not endorsing anything here, I will say that there seems to be much more to the second theory. The idea behind Themirasol is that other molecules which contain mercury, (which Themirasol has not been shown to metabolize into it within the body), are neurotoxins toxic to neurons. (Hey, if anyone can get away with saying what they meant by "mad" in "mad child disease" was "mercury acquired disease" {which would make "M.A.D. Child Disease" "Mecury Acquired Disease Child Disease"} then I can speak of a neurotoxin toxic to neurons). While in the PDD of Rhett's syndrome the head circumference is smaller, a distinguishing characteristic of autistic heads is that they are often above three standard deviations in the "daz a BIG head" direction. It's not brain cells dying that is causing autism. In fact, Simon Baron-Cohen's latest theory is that unlike neurotypicals, we don't "prune" brain cells as we age, and thus our developmental delays are due to the retention of brain-cell configurations we had in our youth.

Re: Autism can kill, apparently, but in a very roundabout way ;))

[conuly]

Except that all the studies show that there isn't a correlation.

Even if there were, I would call that "vaccine induced neurological disorder" instead of autism. Different cause, different name.

Re: Autism can kill, apparently, but in a very roundabout way ;))

[eofs.livejournal.com]

If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck...

Re: Autism can kill, apparently, but in a very roundabout way ;))

[conuly]

Then it's a kid dressed up like a duck and going quack.

It's nonsense to use the same term for multiple conditions just because they superficially appear the same.

Re: Autism can kill, apparently, but in a very roundabout way ;))

[staircase-wit.livejournal.com]

What a coincidence! Medical Quackery (http://www.autism-watch.org/about/bio2.shtml) is the first thing that I think of when I hear autism compared to cancer, and/or chelation.

Quack!

The whole cancer comparison is realy tiresome to me, and I suspect to people like me, who are more than likely going to deal directly with cancer. My mother had it in her uterus. My uncle and grandfather had it in their colons. My aunt has it in her breast(s). I don't use cancer as a metaphor, and I never compare it with any other disease.

Re: Autism can kill, apparently, but in a very roundabout way ;))

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

Exactly- the first MMR/autisum correlation type thing was based on onkly twelve people, and it was recently discovered that it's much more likey to be a negative correlation in that kids who don't hasve MMR are more likely to be diagnosed as autistic.

I don't think there's a connection at all, personally. But I'm glad that my mum made sure me and my brother both had our MMR jabs- as eofs pointed out there has been a massive mumps epidemic around British universities lately because lots of these people missed out on the jabs while they were kids.

Re: Autism can kill, apparently, but in a very roundabout way ;))

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

In an amusing cooincidence, the ONLY person I know who believed in that imunisation link (for their own autistic kid) was an undiagnosed aspie herself. Zee only real common factor (as of last november when between my mother and I quizzed the hell out of the state expert on AS and autisim) is genetic. And even that's not predictable. It's why i'll never have kids. I dunno what would be worse. Having As kids who I could relate to but noone else could, or having NT kids i had no chance in hell of relating to. I'll just have to settle for spoiling my sisters kids rotten. With books of course. And letting them play wiht my ludicrously oversized toy colections.