Autism Today Blog

Excitement is building as the first ever autism summit approaches. The speakers are in place; there is a rock concert, exhibitors that are eagerly preparing goods and services to share with attendees and conference go-ers are looking forward to learning and networking!

On Day 1…Friday October 10, 2008, The Science of Autism will commence with:

• ASD’s: Perspectives on Surveillance, Research, and Early Identification with Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp
• Drugs & Medications/Current Studies with Marcie Hall
• Medical Home - Science with Arthur Lavin
• Myths Old & New with Max Wiznitzer
• Early Identification with Zachary Warren
• Scientific Basis of Intervention Choices with Richard Solomon
• Psychological Underpinnings of Autism with Diane Twatchman-Cullen
• Genetics

Stay tuned for more information about day 2 and day 3!! To register for this one of a kind conference, click here. The cost is reasonable for the wealth of information you will take away!

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Art by those with Autism Sought for New Book  Do you have an incredibly beautiful or moving piece of artwork created by someone with autism? 

The creators of the award winning book Artism: Art By Those With Autism!, are seeking new original artwork to include in the next book in this series titled Artism Anew. 

Author and lead editor Karen Simmons said, “People with autism are known to create some of the world most exquisite and detailed artwork.  They are among some of the most gifted artists in the world.”

The first book on Artism was the first-ever Canadian Winner of the Global Book Publishing Award.  The goal of this coffee table book filled with color artwork created by people with autism is to literally transform the lives of readers from all walks of life. 

Some of the world class artists who have already agreed to contribute art for the project include:  Ping Lian Yeak (now age 14); Jonathan Lerman, Seth Chwast, George Widener, Gregory Blackstock, Amanda LaMunyon, Marcy Deutsch, Temple Grandin, and Donna Williams.          

Artwork by 14 year old Ping Lian Yeak.  The project is being spearheaded and coordinated by Karen Simmons, the Founder of Autism Today, and author of the books Artism and Chicken Soup for Soul: Children with Special Needs. 

Debbie Hosseini will be curating and co-authoring the book.  If you or someone you know with autism has a great piece of artwork and would like to be included in Artism Anew, please send your artwork to (please keep copies as we are unable to return materials). 

There are no limits to the number of submissions.  High quality TIFF or PNG files of artwork must be received no later than August 15, 2008.  Artists can send electric files by email to artism@autismtoday.com

For more information please visit www.artismtoday.com

Sensory processing refers to the way the brain takes incoming sensory messages, converts them into meaning message, thenmakes a response.

This article by Karen Simmons, Founder and CEO of Autism Today and Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR uncovers the real value of sensory integration and how to apply it to your child or children!

Click here to read this exciting article!!

Washington, June 30 (ANI): A breakthrough study on mice has shown that mutations in neural stem cell development may be linked to autism.

Reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by experts at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the study showed that mice lacking the myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) protein in neural stem cells had smaller brains, fewer nerve cells and showed behaviours similar to those seen in humans with a form of autism known as Rett Syndrome.

  Dr. Stuart A. Lipton, a clinical neurologist who led the study, claims that his team’s study represents the first direct link between a developmental disorder of neural stem cells and the subsequent onset of autism. ”These results give us a good hint of how to look at Rett Syndrome and potentially other forms of autism in humans. Having identified a mutation that causes this defect, we can track what happens. Perhaps we can correct it in a mouse, and if so, eventually correct it in humans,” said Dr. Lipton.

Working in Dr. Lipton’s laboratory, the research team observed that MEF2C turns on specific genes, which drive stem cells to become nerve cells. 

The researchers also observed a faulty distribution of neurons, accompanied by severe developmental problems, when they deleted MEF2C from neural stem cells in the animals.

They have revealed that adult mice lacking MEF2C in their brains displayed abnormal anxiety-like behaviours, decreased cognitive function, and marked paw clasping, a behaviour which may be analogous to hand wringing, a notable feature in humans with Rett syndrome.  

“There’s a yin and yang to this MEF2C protein. My laboratory recently showed that MEF2C induces embryonic stem cells to become neurons. In this new research, we show that knocking out MEFC2in the brain results in mice with smaller brains, fewer neurons and reduced neuronal activity.

The commonality is the protein’s association in making new neurons,” said Dr. Lipton. (ANI)

A bill to mandate private insurance coverage of autism treatments passed a crucial test Thursday, but state senators attached two amendments unrelated to battling the neurological disorder.House Bill 1150 now includes regulatory authority by the state over the proposed merger of Highmark and Independence Blue Cross, the two largest health care companies in Pennsylvania.

Senators on the Banking & Insurance Committee passed House Bill 1150 unanimously. The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The committee vote came after a recent study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containtment Council, which reported an increase of $1 per month in premiums for every insurance customer if the autism mandate became law.

The mandate caps private insurance coverage at $36,000. Businesses employing 50 people or less would be exempt from having to provide autism coverage.

Stay tuned for more information on this potentially ground breaking case!

“Days of Our Lives” head writer Dena Higley has decided to give Abe (James Reynolds) and Lexie Carver (Renee Jones) a true-to-life battle to fight. It is a battle Higley knows all too well. Like young Theo Carver, her son Connor was diagnosed as autistic at age 3.

Lexie is aware that all is not perfect with her son. Abe, on the other hand, refuses to believe the diagnosis. Soap fan Joan Tibaldi, whose grandson is autistic, knows the feeling. “My son wanted to accept every diagnosis but the truth. It did not help that several diagnoses (were) given,” she relates. “One day he was said to be autistic; another, he was not. In the end, autism was the correct diagnosis. Charlie is an amazing child. All of us have learned so much from him. Some days are beautiful. Some days not so much, but you could say that on any given day about any of my five grandchildren.”

Higley promises the story will be realistic. “We will not need dramatic overdrive to tell this story,” she explains. NBC suggested the story line. “We were talking at a story meeting and the idea was tossed out. I told them about my own experience and they said, ‘Let’s do it.’ My son is now 19 and getting ready for college. It was not an easy trip for anyone to get to this point, but the arrival was wonderful. Connor wants people to know that his condition is not easy, but it is possible to lead a complete life.” Connor has played track and football, and graduated from high school. “Doing a story like this,” Higley admits, can be tough. “There are painful memories and memories of joy.”

Days of our Lives airs on NBC.

The newest breakthrough in medical treatment is the drug  Rapamycin.

Rapamycin, a drug already approved and in use for organ transplant reipients, targets enzymes that are produced by the same cells that cause mental retardation in persons afflicted with a disease called tuberous sclerosis complex, UCLA officials said.

This affliction is closely associated with autism, and the drug breakthrough provide some relief for people with autism.

It is possible that this drug could reverse some of the developmental delays that are associated with autism by repairing pathway in the brain.

LOS ANGELES, June 24 (UPI) — U.S. researchers say a drug approved to prevent tissue rejection reverses brain dysfunction in mice caused by genetic disease.

The drug — rapamycin — reversed brain dysfunction caused by a genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis complex, or TSC. Because half of TSC patients also suffer from autism, the findings offer new hope for addressing learning disorders due to autism.

The University of California-Los Angeles researchers studied mice bred with TSC and verified the animals suffered from the same severe learning difficulties as human patients — half of whom also suffer from autism. The researchers traced the learning problems to biochemical changes sparking abnormal function in the brain structure — the hippocampus — that plays a role in memory. After three days of treatment, TSC mice learned as quickly as healthy mice.

“These findings challenge the theory that abnormal brain development is to blame for mental impairment in tuberous sclerosis,” first author Dan Ehninger said in a statement. “Our research shows that the disease’s learning problems are caused by reversible changes in brain function — not by permanent damage to the developing brain.”

The study is published in the Nature Medicine online.

A new and exciting food documentary that addresses many needs and many diets. 

Food Matters Documentary

You are what you eat. This new documentary is imperative learning for all who are nourishing hope through special diets.  Whether addressing autism, ADHD, digestive disorders, heart disease, cancer, or other disorders of the body - food matters! The breakthrough film is a fast paced look at our current state of health.

The filmmakers interviewed several world leaders in nutrition and natural healing who claim that not only are we harming our bodies with improper nutrition, but that the right kind of foods, supplements and detoxification can be used to treat chronic illnesses as fatal as terminally diagnosed cancer.`Food Matters’ seeks to uncover the business of disease and at the same time explore the safe, cheap and effective use of nutrition and supplementation for preventing and often reversing the underlying causative aspects of the illness.

With the premise of the film being: access to solid information helps people invariably make better choices for their health.  The filmmakers independently funded the film from start to finish in order to remain as unbiased as possible, delivering a clear and concise message to the world. Food Matters.

Click here to view the movie trailer.

The jury is still out on whether autism is environmental, genetic or a combination of both, but the jury is IN on how we can best provide and support families in the very early stages that may prevent or delay the severity of autism.

From proper pre-natal care to early diagnosis, support and treatment, there are many ways we can all help educate, inform and help others.

FAIR (Foundation for Autism Information and Research) has provided an excellent grouping of videos that speak to these issues and more.

Click here to see the list of speakers and topics

PRESS RELEASE |  June 12, 2008                

CoMeD President [Rev. Lisa K. Sykes (Richmond, VA) 804-364-8426]   |  CoMeD Sci. Advisor [Dr. King (Lake Hiawatha, NJ) 973-263-4843]                

WASHINGTON, DC – A newly published study in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences,[1][1] the official journal of the Worl d Federation of Neurology,[2][2] links mercury from the Thimerosal in vaccines with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. This study represents six years worth of effort by independent researchers to gain access to hidden US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD).  In 2003, the Government Reform Committee of the US House of Representatives asserted, “(a)ccess by independent researchers to the Vaccine Safety Datalink database is needed for independent replication and validation of CDC studies regarding exposure of infants to mercury-containing vaccines and autism.” 

Nonetheless, this new analysis of some of the data in the carefully guarded VSD database, documenting the mercury poisoning of a generation of American children, would never have been possible without the intervention of Congressional leaders, parent autism advocacy groups, and legal experts.  Ironically, only a few independent researchers have gained even this limited level of restricted access to the VSD database, despite the fact that the VSD Project is funded by hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. The new study, led by Dr. Heather Young, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, examined the CDC-supplied medical vaccination records from the VSD of 278,624 children, born from 1990 through 1996. 

This study calculated the average mercury exposure children incurred from routine childhood Thimerosal-containing vaccines, by year of birth, during their first year of life.  After calculating average mercury exposure by year of birth, the study then estimated the prevalence rates of various medical diagnoses for children born in each of the years examined. The prevalence rate of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders correlated with the average mercury exposure children received: increasing/decreasing levels of mercury exposure from routine childhood Thimerosal-containing vaccines resulted in corresponding trends in prevalence rates of these diagnoses.  By contrast, medical outcomes presumed to be unrelated to mercury exposure did not correlate with the average levels of mercury exposure from routine childhood Thimerosal-containing vaccines. 

Depending upon the specific neurodevelopmental disorder examined (autism, autism spectrum disorder, tics, emotional disturbance, attention deficit disorder-hyperactivity disorder, and developmental/learning disorder), the observed overall risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders was significantly higher (about 2- to 6- fold) following an additional 100 micrograms of mercury exposure.  For autism alone, the overall risk was about 2.5-fold higher following an additional 100 micrograms of mercury exposure. These results demonstrate that the suspicions of those serving on the Government Reform Committee were correct: “…(t)o date, studies conducted or funded by the CDC that purportedly dispute any correlation between autism and vaccine injury have been of poor design, under-powered, and fatally flawed.  The CDC’s rush to support and promote such research is reflective of a philosophical conflict in looking fairly at emerging theories and clinical data related to adverse reactions from vaccinations.” 

To financially support further research conducted by independent investigators in the VSD, please use the PayPal link on CoMeD’s website, http://www.mercury-freedrugs.org, for your tax-deductible contributions.  CoMeD, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(C)(3) corporation actively engaged in legal, educational and scientific efforts to stop all use of mercury in medicine, and to ban the use of all mercury-containing medicines.