<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Recently, I had the occasion to attend a conference on autism and
vaccinations.  The speakers were Dr. Bernard Rimland of the Autism Research
Institute, and Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist who
published a paper on the relationship of the MMR vaccination and autism.

I have to relate what Dr. Wakefield said from memory, as he spoke very
rapidly, but he 'scoped 160 autistic children and in maybe 150 of them,
found lesions that were similar to Crohn's disease.  The damage was to the
submucosa.  If you can imagine a cross section of a portion of the large
bowel, the submucosa is the bottom layer of the cells that make up bowel.
We celiacs have damage in the upper layers of of this imageined cross
section.  He mentioned that the incidence of Crohn's disease is increasing
in the Britisn Isles, but not one word was mentioned about celiac disease.

Both Wakefield and Rimland mentioned that there are two types of autism:
early onset, where there seem to be problems with the child's development
from birth; and late onset, where the child was developing normally until
15 -18 mos.  Something happens, and then the child regresses, loosing
speech and socialization.  Most parents relate that the trigger is the MMR
vaccination, which is administered at about 15 - 18 mos. of age.

Dr. Rimland explained that for years, the incidence of early onset autism
was higher than the incidence of late onset autism, until the late 1970's,
when the MMR shot was developed.  Then the incidence of late onset autism
started to increase.  This new MMR was introduced into Great Britain in the
middle 80's, and the same pattern occured, according to Dr. Wakefield.  The
incidence of late onset autism markedly increased in the years following.

Dr. Wakefield empasizes that he is not anti-vaccination, but rather against
administering the measles vaccination at the same time as the mumps
vaccination.  For some reason, these two entities can sometimes combine
lethally.  In some autistic patients, evidence of measles virus have been
detected in the brain.  Dr. Wakefield reccomends administering the measles
and mumps vaccinations a year apart, to prevent the two viruses from
"double teaming" in the body.

Another thing that might be happening is that mom may have been vaccinated
repeated for rubella, as she doesn't seem to be holding the titre (?).  She
passes the antibodies along to her child, and when the child gets his/her
MMR, there is a reaction between what is already in the child's
bloodstream, and what is given in the shot.

The gist of the conference was more about late-onset autism than early
onset.  Again, neither Rimland nor Wakefield stated that celiac children
were at higher risk for damage from vaccinations.

We can only conjecture about early onset autism.  Personally, from what
I've read and experienced as the parent of an early onset child, (who
wasn't diagnosed as celiac until after the child was born) there may be
problems with trace mineral absorption, absorption and use of Vitamin A,
problems with thyroid that have not adequately been explored, because the
focus is more on the issue of vaccinations and late onset autism.

Bec
[log in to unmask]


On Mon, 29 May 2000 15:25:38 -0700, Mary <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I talked to a pediatrician today who said there is a connection between
>celiac and an adverse reaction to vaccination.
>
>He said his autistic patients have names like Ian, Patrick, Sean, and other
>Irish/Scottish names.