Posted on May 24th, 2012 by admin
And they just keep coming. Another one where it’s
mom’s fault. There must be a fever epidemic causing
autism. That’s the only thing that makes sense.

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Filed under: Autism Causes
Posted on May 23rd, 2012 by admin
Another -cide joins the list. Like p
esticides,
fungicides are also now linked to “autistic like” symptoms. These have the added benefit of causing said symptoms for multiple generations.
“We are now in the third human generation since the start of the chemical revolution, since humans have been exposed to these kinds of toxins. There is no doubt that we have been seeing real increases in mental disorders like autism and bipolar disorder,” said lead author David Crews, Ph,D., of the University of Texas.
The Big List of S*%# Linked to Autism

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Filed under: Autism Causes, Enivronment
Posted on May 3rd, 2012 by admin
Posted on March 23rd, 2012 by admin
Serotonin is a brain chemical that carries signals across the synapse, or gap between nerve cells. The supply of serotonin is regulated by the serotonin transporter (SERT).
The researchers conclude that a lack of serotonin during development may lead to long-standing changes in the way the brain is wired.
The second one is a little more out there. Apparently, the psychology department at the University of Bath have lots of time on their hands and/or worked really hard to come up with a reason to look at pictures of voluptuous women and get paid for it. In short, they studied 100 autism dads and found that, unlike normal men who like women with curves, these guys don’t share that preference. This theory could also be known as
The Skinny Bitches Theory.
Men who do not find the shape of the curvier woman most attractive could be more likely to father children with autism, according to a study.
Researchers showed 100 men with autistic children pictures of curvy women, women with athletic frames and more rounded women and found that they do not have a preference on which figure they find more attractive.
The new research from the University of Bath suggests that fathers of autistic children do not share the preference of men across the world for the curvier woman.
Studies show that the waist-to-hip ratio of 70 per cent is what the majority of men find most attractive because it correlates strongly with good health and fertility.
This one is several years old and if it doesn’t sound pervy enough for you, they plan to study the women next and maybe get exact measurements.
‘We wanted to investigate the mechanisms by which these genes come together in a parental pairing, whether it is by chance or if it could be due to different preferences in choosing a mate - so-called assortative mating.
‘This study raises some interesting questions about how the person we are attracted to could impact on our offspring.’
Dr Brosnan said they are now contacting mothers of autistic children to determine whether body shape is a factor in autism.
‘We’d like to include mothers to examine what body shapes both parents of children with autism perceive to be attractive.
‘The next phase will then be to assess the actual dimensions of parents of children with autism.’
Since that was 3+ years ago when the first phase was completed, one can only assume that they are hard at work on this project.
Adding these to the list on the same day also begs a new question that could use some research, “Are male mice who prefer skinny female mice more likely to have autistic mice?”


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Filed under: Autism Causes, Autism in the news, Link Autism, The Big List of S*%# Linked to Autism
Posted on March 15th, 2012 by admin
The K.I.T.E. Center: Wine & Cheese Fundraiser 2012
The K.I.T.E. Center held its first annual Wine & Cheese Fundraiser March 10th at The Crown Winery in Humboldt. The event was an overwhelming success. This was the first fundraiser for K.I.T.E., a premier school for autism, now in it’s third year of operation. The event was the first in a series of events that K.I.T.E. will be hosting over the coming months. K.I.T.E. is located in Jackson, TN.
More information about K.I.T.E., visit their site @ http://thekitecenter.com/

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Filed under: Autism Awareness, Autism Schools, West Tennessee
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 by admin

A new one for the “might cause Autism” list … IMMIGRATION. Specifically in this study, immigrating to Sweden.
“This is an intriguing discovery, in which we can see strong links between a certain kind of autism and the time of the mother’s immigration to Sweden,” says principal investigator Cecilia Magnusson, Associate Professor of epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet. “The study is important, as it shows that autism isn’t governed only by genetic causes but by environmental factorstoo.”
The study, which is published in the scientific periodical The British Journal of Psychiatry shows that children of immigrant parents, particularly from countries of low human development, are disproportionately likely to develop autism with intellectual disability, a connection that appears to be related to the timing of migration rather than complications in childbirth. Children, whose mothers migrated just before or during pregnancy, ran the highest risk of all.
“At this juncture we can but speculate about the causes, but our assumption is that environmental factors impacting on the developing fetus, such as stress, new dietary habits or infections, could lead to the development of autism with intellectual disability,” says Dr. Magnusson.
The Big List of S*%# Linked to Autism


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Filed under: Link Autism, The Big List of S*%# Linked to Autism
Posted on January 12th, 2012 by admin
Posted on January 9th, 2012 by admin

Can’t an autism dad get a break even when unconscious enjoying some rapid eye movements? The dreams I remember when I woke up this morning …
- Being at a relatives house who in the dream had huge collection of ceramic figurines on shelves that covered the whole house. Some were of my daughter’s favorite things, like Shrek and Mickey Mouse. I was rushing around trying to keep her from destroying them.
- One about a group home. That’s all I can remember which is probably good.
- Another in which I dreamed that I awoke to discover that we had accidently gone to bed and left all of the doors and windows to the house wide open.
If I am going to have to worry about the same stuff in my dreams that I worry about in my waking life, can’t Scarlett Johansson at least make a cameo or two? Is that too much to ask?
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Filed under: Misc, Stress
Posted on October 28th, 2011 by admin
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We are attending a Halloween costume party / sensory friendly movie (Monster’s Inc) tonight at a local special needs organization. I have mixed feelings about the sensory friendly movie. We spent a lot of effort getting our daughter to act appropriately at the real movies and the last sensory friendly movie event that we attended was an all out free for all. Kids running around everywhere, the lights left on, and the sound turned down. For my daughter, this means that she will most likely pat attention to anything BUT the movie. On the other hand, it is so much NOT like the regular movie atmosphere, that I don’t know that she will even equate it with going to a movie. It’s more like going to a party where the TV is on in the room.
With that said, I recognize that there are a lot of kids with autism who can never go to a regular movie, so this event is probably a blessing to them and their families.
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Filed under: Autism Fun, Family
Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by admin