Is there a comment caught in the spam queue by chance?

Not any more!

Anyway, the gist of it was that if you simply search “pink disease mercury” or “acrodynia mercury” prior to 1960 over at Google Scholar, you’ll see that the Yahoo poster’s “tale” is just that – a tale, one with no basis in reality.

“I also learned, according to the national institute of health, by the way, that celiac disease is associated with epilepsy, lupus, lymphoma, thyroid problems and a bunch of other stuff. Since my grandmother died from complications from late-diagnosed celiac disease, her brother died in an institution due to epilepsy, my dad died of lymphoma, I (and an aunt, a cousin, and my grandmother) have thyroid problems and my dad’s sister has lupus, yeah, I pretty much went gluten free right away because at that point it seemed kind of obvious that my family is allergic to gluten.”

If there is celiac disease in your family, it is a good idea to learn more about it. One of the first things you need to learn is that it is not an allergy. It’s an autoimmune disorder, and allergies are also autoimmune disorders, but it’s more complex than your typical histamine reaction. Rather than a systemic reaction as in the case of, say, your typical nut allergy, the reaction in celiac sprue is confined to the villi of the small intestine. They get relentlessly attacked by antibodies. The damage leads to varying degrees of gut problems, which usually resolve just fine once gluten is removed from the diet. But since this is usually the only symptom, it can go undiagnosed for a long time, especially if the person has a relatively mild case. (Some can tolerate oats, and just get bowel discomfort if they eat wheat. Others end up with a completely shut-down digestive tract from the slightest bit of gluten.)

The reason celiac disease is connected to those other things is because it is an autoimmune disorder, and those can definitely run in families. They can be hard to diagnose, so while I wouldn’t stay up at nights worrying about them, it might help your doctor diagnose one more quickly if they know there’s a family history.

Oh, and about going gluten-free? You may already know this, but in case you don’t, be warned that it can be harder to avoid gluten than it looks. It’s not just bread that you have to worry about. Whiskeys and most beers are problematic.

Read these for some more information:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/.....5-overview
http://www.csaceliacs.org/

I found this an astonishing tale and wondered that anyone in favor of keeping thimerosal in vaccines would point to this as any sort of evidence in their favor.

It is an astonishing tale. Like most altie tales, it appears to be mostly revised and exaggerated. It’s kind of like the tale that scientific evidence favored the tobacco companies.

Let’s see evidence that scientific consensus was against the mercury etiology of pink disease, for example. If you simply search Google Scholar for “pink disease mercury” prior to, say, the year 1960, it’s clear that mainstream science was on the case.

It’s a poor historical analogy for other reasons. The main difference is that pink disease mostly went away after removal of mercury from teething powders. Additionally, medical findings in pink disease are completely consistent with mercury poisoning.

As for the dentists error..my bad. I misread the information about what type of mercury dentists used when I checked. I blush in shame and admit that chemistry is not one of my stronger subjects. Thanks for the correction.

Back to the coal mines.

That one is truly baffling because mercury in everything else is considered toxic (dental fillings, tuna) – I’m no scientist, but how is a substance potentially toxic in one thing and not another? Is it the amount of mercury as in a little won’t kill you or make you sick? How about the size of the person ingesting the mercury, infants – can they take all amounts safely? How about medically fragile babies – same question? I would also not be so skeptical if there wasn’t so much money tied to removing blame from vaccine companies. Also, how about the work of Robert Kennedy Jr – is he also full of it? And the vaccine injury court that awarded damages to 2 families in the last year – they just gave up and went along? I’m not trying to incite, but there does seem to be some conflicts in thinking.

So if everything biomedical is wrong or a waste of time, how do I explain the gastrointestinal distress my son continues to have? Do I continue to rely on ABA, TEACH, Floortime, RDI, Social Thinking and the countless other behavioral interventions available? Believe me you can go just as broke relying on those approaches too also with little or no scientific justification. Or do I just give up because they’re all crooks preying on the desperation of parents with too little time and not enough support?

The internet can be a wonderful thing, bringing people together to share information and support. It can also be a cold heartless place reminding us all the time how truly screwed up this world is.

Autism is a complex disorder – too complex to explain on line. The children with autism are also so different that to say that one thing based on your understanding and your child is true for all others. I just wish that I could find that voice of reason, like the writer above, who is above reproach that would take the time to understand my child’s particular brand of autism and make recommendations that I could believe in and as a bonus – I wouldn’t have to go bankrupt in the process.