Medically, all we have are effects, no cause is known.

I do not doubt the genetics involved in autism. I also do not doubt that there is a genetic connection between ADHD and autism. Still, there is “something in the water”.

This is a problem for the pro-vax community. “Something in the water” and epidemic are such that if there is an epidemic then there is “something in the water”. That something has to meet the criteria of geography and the timing of the epidemic. Nothing meets that criteria like vaccines and the pro-vax community has nothing else to fill the vacuum that “It is not the vaccines” leaves. Therefore, no amount of proof by the medical community will be sufficient to quiet the feelings that vaccines and autism are linked. Note that none of what I have said so far proves that autism and vaccines are linked. I am just saying that the pro-vax arguments loose their punch without something to fill the vacuum. For me this is the reason that the argument that there is no epidemic is out there.

Now let’s suppose that the argument that there is no epidemic is true. There is no epidemic. The rate of autism never changed. It is all in the diagnostics. Logically, if the rate of autism never changes then it is logical to say that autism is genetic with no environmental cause or trigger. Now if autism rates never changed then there should be the same number of autistics in the previous generations as there are in this generation. So where are they? Autism is genetic. They have to be in the same families as the families that have autistic children. You can expect to have the same rate of autism among your siblings and your husband’s siblings as are in your family. Does that fit for you? Does it fit for other autistic families that you know?
Imagine if the same thing were said about AIDS. There would be outrage. Autism deserves the same reaction.

There much to be hopeful about in this area

In autism MRI, PET and CA scans do not examine the brain microscopically. Autopsy reports over many decades have found a variety of stuctural abnormalities including a severe loss of cerebellar Purkinje cells, in the limbic system (amygdala and hippocampus) there are too many cells and they are too small, other structural abnormalities include cerebral cortex , brainstem and frontal lobes which is an indicator of a disruption of early brain development. None are specific to autism

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17971078?

The synapse connectivity problems appear to be secondary to the abnormal brain structure. Treatment to ‘rewire’ synapse connectiviness for people with ASD’s and stroke are remarkeably similar, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy are all the most proven interventions for improving synapse connectivity.

Ed, I always take those kinds of tests with a grain of salt now- my 3 kids are all over the spectrum, and generally the MRIs, CT, and PET scans that we’ve had over the years for studies have shown that they don’t even vaguely correspond to what’s accepted as “typical autism” scans. My one daughter who would appear “recovered” to anyone who doesn’t know her definitely has the most structurally abnormal brain in the house (abnormal as in not corresponding to typical brain structure, not abnormal as in bad), while my son who is still mainly non-verbal and has a host of other challenges has what appears to be a completely typical brain (more typical than mine, and I’m generally considered fairly functional if it’s not morning). My other daughter is kind of in the middle in terms of “autistic structure”, but she has other differences in her brain that should apparently be limiting her in ways that aren’t apparent at all.

While I think that all of these scans are worthwhile as they are contributing to our basic knowledge, and I think that this new study is extremely interesting, I think that a lot of the studies are meant to be seen as contributing to the general pool of knowledge rather than being applicable to each individual, if that makes any sense.

The synapse connections theory is useful to me as well- for a long time we’d been told that there was a chance that the prenatal steroids I’d been given to mature my kids’ lungs are they were likely to be very premature (triplets) had likely caused thinning of their myelin sheaths which interfered with synaptic connections. While I think that particular theory may have been debunked now, just watching my kids in action often leads me to think that there must be something that does interfere. They seem to get that “A-Ha! moment” after struggling to do a task or complete a thought much more so than other children do (at least when they were younger- now they rarely sit still long enough for me to see that moment). But again, that could just be something that I’m reading into their behaviour- I’m the first to admit that my interpretations may be completely wrong.