Metaphors, Mitochondria, and the MMR
March 9, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
“It wasn’t like a switch being turned off….It was more like a dimmer switch being turned down.”
I’ve read this quote from Dr. Jon Poling, the father of Hannah Poling, in more than a few news stories and most recently in one today in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Dr. Poling uses the metaphor of a dimmer switch to describe how his daughter changed after receiving five vaccines at the age of 18 months:
Almost immediately after, she was screaming, feverish and irritable. Then her behavior gradually changed so she would stare at fans and lights and run in circles.
Dr. Poling’s choice of metaphor—-that the change in Hannah was gradual, like a “dimmer switch,” rather than sudden, as when a light is turned off and a room goes dark—is somewhat different from how some parents describe the reaction of a child after receiving a vaccine. Many parents talk about how their child went from being a normal child “overnight” to an autistic one:
“Two of my kids developed autism overnight after getting multiple vaccines…stopped speaking and looking us in the eye, cold.”(comment by aluminumfree on SFGate.com)
“This isn’t just one parent saying that their child developed the signs of Autism overnight. This is thousands, if not millions of parents who are saying [this]…..) (from a messageboard about the Hannah Poling case)
To say that a child develops autism “overnight” would suggest that a child suddenly developed autism—more of a “the lights suddenly went out” kind of comparison. But Dr. Poling seems to be taking care to use a different metaphor, that of a “dimmer switch” that is “being turned down.” The change in his daughter, his choice of words seems to suggest, was gradual, rather than sudden. I gather that he is using the “dimmer switch” metaphor to show how his daughter was originally typical; the word “bright” has also been used to describe Hannah, prior to her receiving the vaccines.
Not the biggest distinction, but—as has been noted before—-words matter a lot when we’re talking about autism. Especially important are the words that a parent uses to represent an autistic child, who may well not be able to (literally) speak for her or himself.
Here are two bloggers who do some careful reading and shed some light on the case of Hannah Poling. Over at Grey Matter/White Matter, Sullivan carefully reviews the rules for the vaccine court and notes some errors in statements made about this by David Kirby. At Stop.Think.Autism, S.L. looks at a paper with the suggestive title of Evidence of Mitochondrial Dysfunction In Autism and Implications for Treatment and finds that the treatment suggested is the biomedical DAN! Protocol (DAN! as in “defeat autism now”) ; the authors of the paper are DAN! doctors in Melbourne, Australia, and suggest that experimental biomedical treatments like chelation and hyperbaric oxygen therapy be used.
Now it’s getting clearer and clearer why Kirby was trying to reclassify autism as “mitochondrial disorder” in his first piece about Hannah Poling a few weeks ago; that article, and his subsequent posts, are (S.L.) writes, are further attempts to suggest that “autism is in fact a physical disease, an illness, which requires treatment or a cure,” and one caused by some environmental factor.
Finally, here’s one article in the Sunday Sun with one of the most misleading headlines yet: “Court links MMR to autism.” No, that’s not what the court said, and you don’t have to read the fine print to know that.
Hi Kristina,
I think it’s Melbourne, FL.
Huh. I think I would read the mito references cited in the Rossignol, Bradstreet paper before assuming that the paper itself is the full and unvarnished picture, esp. of treatment. At least one of the other papers identifies caveats in differential diagnosis of MtD. Some of the supplement suggestions also appear in the mito literature. That HBOT thing appears completely novel–or at least I didn’t see it in the other papers. I also note a lot of “potential” and “possibles” within the paper but not any actual outcomes or case studies.
I don’t take offense or exception with Jon Poling’s description of a dimmer switch. That seems apt to our experience. Eleanor was not precocious and was slow meeting some milestones but she did have some skills and predictable social interactions that eroded slowly starting rather than suddenly at 22 mos until they no longer existed at 28. Part of her evaluation was early videotape and videos we took during the regression. The developmental neurologist diagnosed late-onset/regressive autism. He didn’t seem to see anything out of line with the progressive rather than sudden nature. Even in retrospect I don’t recall any significant events associated with vaccination other than the slight fevers which her “NT” sister also had…no vomiting, seizures, etc.
Mitochondrial science seems to be in early days, and certainly what disorders, differences and dysfunctions that might manifest as “autism” are as well. Continuing research on what those might be suits me.
Speculation without data is only speculation. Some civil law might require 50% and a feather, but it doesn’t decide what mechanisms or biochemistry is at play.
OMG.
That Sun article is a piece of work…do they have copy editors?
I’ve thought about that metaphor a lot for similar reasons, just because I’ve so often heard phrases like “changed overnight,” etc…but we have no experience at all of the “thief in the night” kind of autism regression. If anything, with our kids, it’s more like someone turning up the “weirdness” dimmer as time passed. They simply got more intense with their symptoms as they got older.
I should mention, we totally get the “stares at fans, runs in circles thing.” Our baby, who just turned 18 months, has been doing that since he could walk. He’s been stimming on lights and fans since infancy, something his pediatrician noticed when the baby was <4 months old. Of course, we were watching him closely, anyway, and that’s why we noticed these things. I couldn’t begin to tell you if our oldest son did that when he was an infant or not.
@Regan,
I remarked on Poling’s dimmer switch metaphor precisely because of what you note about Eleanor. The “dimmer switch metaphor led me to wonder if Hannah’s decline was more gradual and more part of a pattern of regression that may already have been going on.
@Emily,
Charlie didn’t stare at fans or run in circles —he didn’t run at all, actually, as he walked when he was 16 months old.
People should videotape their kids, I guess, to prove their vac points. Hindsight is now 20/20 for me. My girl was clearly born wide-eyed, uncrying, unresponsive to anything, which is pretty much how it’s been now for many years. I personally never saw ‘regression.’ It was always missing milestones, a baby that was totally different than other babies. Sure, in some ways easier, when she’d stare at something or when older, line up things for hours. But I for one can’t say some shots made her this way.
Charlie had plenty of responses but (in hindsight) not in the “typical” ways. Always looked slantwise out of the corners of his eyes. Always liked being held and carried and attended too. Could stare at a sunbeam or a page in a book for hours. Always had interested hyper episodes (especially after eating).
Hi B:
You wrote:
“Hindsight is now 20/20 for me. My girl was clearly born wide-eyed, uncrying, unresponsive to anything, which is pretty much how it’s been now for many years. I personally never saw ‘regression.’ ”
Did you know that Bettelheim theorized that precociouis babies–babies born with their eyes open–are prone to autism? The reason is that they experience the birth trauma without a safe mode. The horror of it makes them wish to return to the womb.
In my own experience, I have never met a supergenius who isn’t at least a wee bit autistic.
Your child may not act like a genius, but I’ll bet she has an amazing inner life. I assume you read Kristina’s item on Amanda Baggs…
Kristina, our youngest walked at ~13-14 months. He didn’t run until about 15 months. That’s when the circle running started. The oddest occasion of that was when a woman who was a stranger to him came to visit. He suddenly fired up and started running and did it the entire time she was at our house. It was pretty odd. Now, he has epic meltdowns if a strange person is too near him.
Larry, I found that bit of information very interesting and would like to know exactly where you found that at. Who is Bettelheim? My oldest grandson who is 3 and has Asperger was a wide awake newborn. We have video tape of him not even 24 hours old stretched out in his mom’s arms looking around at us and at the video camera with an amazing amount of intelligene in his eyes. It was an awesome experience. It may sound strange but it felt like he already knew us and that he was “older” than newborn.
Mispelled…”intelligence in his eyes”
My brother did the running in circles, hours on end. We all thought it looked pretty fun so we joined in. After a while he started realising people were participating or copying him so he started purposefully doing things like extending one arm, to see us both (3 kids, he is the youngest) doing it too. It developed into a real game, but he kept running in circles on his own too. We also did a lot of spinning in circles. Much fun was had by all.
@ Regina,
A little information on Bettelheim here:
http://unstrange.com/bettelheim.html
Norah, that’s a pretty funny story, and the same thing happens here. The baby is the youngest of three brothers, and the other two will often join in the circle running, which makes the baby think he’s totally in charge. There’s just something irresistible about a circle.
That was one-sided and out of context Kristina. The article was written by ideologues. Here is a neutral biography:
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/bruno-bettelheim/
Anyway, to Regina: Bettelheim wrote about precociousness at birth in “The Empty Fortress.”
You can buy it in paperback.
Also, anyone who has read my posts around here will know I take issue with the encyclopedia article somewhat. Therefore I’m being fair I think in referring you to it. I could have referred you to a rosy adoring report on Bettelheim’s life. There are some who admire him for refusing to knuckle under to pop neurology which insists that autism is a neurological disorder.
Has anyone found a neurological test for it yet???
What’s more, psychotherapy in the form of “Floor Time” seems to be having a definite healing effect.
Anyway, there are many strange things about autism that finally make sense in light of Bettelheim’s theories. These scarcely see the light of day anymore because of the damned politics of autism.
Incidentally; I don’t believe all autism is caused by mothers. And I don’t know about Bettelheim in this respect. He would get enraged at his critics and make intemperate remarks–even publish such things–but in Empty Fortress and Truants From Life, he was generally cautious and agreed with Kanner that it was unknowable whether or not the coldness observed in some mothers was due to coping with an unresponsive child.