November 5th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs, News
3 Comments »
This news from Gary Schwitzer’s excellent blog:
Dr. Nancy Snyderman of NBC News appeared on the Today Show with Matt Lauer last week, profiling a physician-author who has written that the best science does not establish a causal link between childhood vaccines and autism. 
Lauer, in a followup question, mis-spoke and called it a “casual” link – not causal. One wonders whether he truly knows what the words mean.
Snyderman talked about how the physician-author, Dr. Paul Offit (author of “Autism’s False Prophets”), has received death threats. Snyderman herself said she had been physically ambushed by those who contend that vaccines cause autism.
As Snyderman was wrapping up the segment, Lauer said – in typical anchor throwaway language:
“Controversial subject …”
Snyderman immediately shot back, “Not controversial subject , Matt. …It’s time for kids to get vaccinated. The science is the science. It’s not controversial.”
You can see the video here or here.
Kudos to Snyderman for educating her big-bucks anchor colleague live on-the-air.
For a full review of Offit’s book, please check out this link.
July 11th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in News
3 Comments »
The Wall Street Journal recently described some interesting new research related to the early detection of autism. Some scientists suggest that babies at risk for developing autism have different facial-scanning eye movement patterns. In other words, babies tend to focus on the eyes and mouth of faces in their direct line of sight. Babies at risk for developing autism have difficulty recognizing faces and their eyes may tend to wander. Although this test is not a diagnostic tool, it could be used to predict risk as early as 9 months – which could allow parents to get their children into early intervention programs sooner than they do now.
Researchers at Canada’s McMaster University recently announced that they had developed a computerized test using eye-movement sensors that aims to predict the risk of autism in children as young as 9 months. The system, which administers five eye-tracking tests over 10 minutes, measures the direction and fixation of a child’s eyes when confronted with computerized images, including human faces.
“Children with autism in general have difficulty extracting affective information from faces, and also difficulty in recognizing faces,” says Katarzyna Chawarska, director of the Yale clinic. By tracking eye movements, “we can begin to understand what interests them, how they examine objects they select for processing, and what motivates them intrinsically,” she says.
But eye-tracking won’t pick out all children with autism. That’s because the disorder can manifest itself in a variety of ways at different ages, such as a child not responding when called or failing to exhibit normal body gestures. Some children also won’t cooperate with the eye-tracking equipment.
I think it’s too early to know how valuable this tool will be in the evaluation of children at risk for autism spectrum disorders, but it’s certainly an interesting idea.
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 26th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories
2 Comments »
I spent the last few days in Orlando, Florida with my husband’s extended family. His nieces and nephews were looking forward to the vacation for months in advance, because they were really excited about going to Disney World. However, two of their parents have disabilities – my sister-in-law has stage IV breast cancer with metastases to her hip (making it impossible for her to walk), and my other sister-in-law is married to a man who is hearing impaired. Therefore, navigating theme parks can be a real challenge for the family.
As a rehabilitation medicine specialist, I’m always interested in learning about special accommodations for the disabled. So I contacted Bob Minnick, the Technical Director of Global Accessibility and Facility Safety at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, to find out what Disney had to offer guests with disabilities.
Bob kindly agreed to meet me at his office on the Disney World grounds, and we had an animated 2 hour conversation about all the exciting programs that his team of engineers have designed. I was impressed with the depth and breadth of services they offer and thought I should let my readers know about them – because even if you or a loved one has a disability, you can still experience “the magic of Disney.”
But before I explain the specifics of the special programs at Disney, I wanted to pause to tell you a true story based on some information that Bob shared with me.
***
A young, non-verbal teen with autism (we’ll call him Johnny) was raised in rural America by two loving parents with scarce resources. They spent all their extra income on services for their son, hoping to give him the best chance at social integration possible. Johnny liked to watch cartoons, and was partial to Disney movies. He spent lots of time viewing them, replaying them many times over. His mom would often try to engage him in conversation about the cartoon characters, but sadly, he remained silent.
Years passed and the parents saved up their money to take Johnny on a trip to Disney World since they knew how much it would mean to him. He had been watching Finding Nemo a lot, and they wondered if somewhere inside his mind he could relate to the little fish with the weak fin. So when they were poring over the Disney theme park brochures and found a show at Epcot Center called “Turtle Talk” with Crush (the turtle character from Finding Nemo) they were determined to make sure that Johnny attended.
When they arrived at the auditorium one of the greeters realized that Johnny had special needs and asked if he’d like to sit in the front row. His mom’s heart skipped a beat – this was going to be a great day for Johnny.
As the lights dimmed and the crowd of kids hushed, a large, animated, moving model of Crush floated effortlessly towards the children in the front row. The blue lights and waving seaweed made the stage come alive with ocean wonder. Johnny fixed his eyes on Crush, transported to another sensory world.
As the sea turtle approached Johnny – almost nose to nose – it spoke to him. “Hello dude, how are you today?” Said the turtle.
And with a slow, deliberate voice, Johnny replied clearly, “Hello Crush. Nice to meet you.”
Johnny’s mom burst into tears and glanced at her husband as the two embraced their son – he had spoken his very first words right there in the auditorium in front of hundreds of people. And although no one else understood the significance of his response - to Johnny’s parents, it was the happiest day of their lives.
You might even say it was magical.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
May 12th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in News
5 Comments »
I’ve been following this story with interest and concern. A little birdie told me that Katie Couric has prepared a special report about the potential link between vaccines and autism for the CBS news tonight (May 12th). Sharyl Attkisson will be interviewing Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health, about her perspective. The CBS website has a 5 minute video clip now available on their site.
While I certainly agree with Dr. Healy that science must not be stifled, and that it’s fair game to research any environmental factor that could plausbily be related to autism, I am deeply concerned that the potential harm induced by vaccines (on kids with rare genetic disorders) will be generalized inappropriately and parents will refrain from vaccinating their children. We are already beginning to see Measles make a comeback (a disease with that can be fatal or cause irreversible brain damage) due to lower vaccination rates, and this trend may continue. Unvaccinated kids are not just a threat to themselves (because they’re at much higher risk for developing preventable diseases) but a threat to vaccinated kids as well, since vaccines are not 100% effective.
What do you think about the CBS segment? Watch it with me and we can discuss it here on my blog. Robin Morris, mother of a child with autism and a patient advocate at Revolution Health, will weigh in as well.
*Update: the full script is here*This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
