One of the most frustrating things about blogging the unfolding vaccine>mitochondria>autism hypothesis is that a lot of the doctors who are experts in the field of mitochondria don’t want to publicly comment. A lot of them feel quite rightly that there is a certain element who are not the most balanced of individuals and they don’t really want to expose themselves to these people. That I can definitely empathise with.
However it does, as one of them has admitted themselves, leave the field wide open to (and I quote directly from one of these doctors):
….legions of mountebanks eager to pad their retirement funds at the expense of desperate parents…
So when a very well respected mitochondria researcher says the following all I can do is post it and not attribute it and hope that it can be read and believed. Of course, the fact it appears on this blog will no doubt cause some to dismiss it entirely but I would urge them not to do so. Please remember that kids with mitochondrial issues are a whole new ball game. Talking their parents out of vaccinating them could very well kill them.
…..I do not know of any evidence connecting mercury and mitochondrial disease. There is no evidence connecting vaccination with mitochondrial diseases: certainly vaccinations do not cause mitochondrial diseases. Whether they may act as transient stressors, like intercurrent URIs do, remains to be determined. Clearly, energy-challenged children with mitochondrial diseases need to be protected from potentially deadly infections through vaccination.
Left Brain Right Brain 
That is convenient, that Liz Spear mentions a great suggestion from her pediatrician that is sold at a website that just happens to have her name!
Perhaps this is spam?
Hey, I learned a new word! Mountebanks…how did we ever get along without it?
I hope the mitochondrial fad won’t just turn into another excuse to treat autistic kids like pincushions (or worse, in the case of muscle or brain biopsies).
Kev,
Our docs have, and continue to, tell us the same. I don’t think you’ll find a “mito doc” who would discourage immunizing (despite how the others want to twist & turn it!). We’ve seen firsthand how important our daughter’s vaccines have been to her. Thanks again for sharing this!