Date:   3/25/2008 7:53:52 AM ( 16 y ago)
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URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1139744

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"The Amish don't get vaccinated so they don't get autism" is a myth.

This myth largely got started when a reporter named Dan Olmsted did a poorly researched article on it.

"Olmsted’s anecdotal evidence is cited ad nauseum as evidence that thimerosal causes autism. The case rests on twin assumptions: that the Amish don’t vaccinate, and that they don’t have autism. But Olmsted never visited the cryptically-named Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, where doctors treat dozens of children who exhibit autistic behavior. It’s not even necessary to visit the clinic. A simple phone call to a staff physician, such as the one I made recently, is enough to debunk “the Amish anomaly”, as Olmsted calls it.

“The idea that the Amish do not vaccinate their children is untrue,” says Dr. Kevin Strauss, MD, a pediatrician at the CSC. “We run a weekly vaccination clinic and it’s very busy.” He says Amish vaccinations rates are lower than the general population’s, but younger Amish are more likely to be vaccinated than older generations.

Strauss also sees plenty of Amish children showing symptoms of autism. “Autism isn’t a diagnosis - it’s a description of behavior. We see autistic behaviors along with seizure disorders or mental retardation or a genetic disorder, where the autism is part of a more complicated clinical spectrum.” Fragile X syndrome and Retts is also common among the clinic’s patients.

Strauss, along with Dr. D. Holmes Morton, MD, authored a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which described a mysterious seizure disorder that resulted in mental retardation and autistic behavior in nine Amish children. The study was publish one year after Olmsted’s mythic voyage, so it would seem a story correction would be in order."


http://autism-news-beat.com/?p=29


"We see autistic behaviors along with seizure disorders or mental retardation or a genetic disorder, where the autism is part of a more complicated clinical spectrum.”

Think about that for a moment. If in fact autism rates are lower among the Amish, it's likely because they are a genetically distinct population. We know autism has a genetic basis, and the Amish do have some genetic basis for autism, but not the same as the non-Amish population.



 

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