Viruses Don’t Care About Your View: Why ABC Shouldn’t Have Hired Jenny McCarthy

[mzmolly]

27. No vaccine has ever harmed anyone,

ever. I understand the mindset.

The medical research shows that autism is a result of genetic and environmental factors.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2012/the-new-genetics-of-autism-why-environment-matters.shtml

A third point takes us back to the questions we started with. It is important to understand that de novo mutations may represent environmental effects. In other words, environmental factors can cause changes in our DNA that can raise the risk for autism and other disorders. ........... Is autism genetic or environmental? These new studies suggest it can be both. Genetics will not identify the environmental factors, but it may reveal some of the many syndromes within the autism spectrum (as in other neurodevelopmental disorders), it can define risk (as in other medical disorders), and it should yield clues to the biology of autism (revealing potential targets for new treatments). These three new papers on spontaneous mutations are an important milestone in a long journey. In parallel we need to find environmental factors, recognizing that there will be many causes for the autisms and many roads to find them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/23/environment-genes-autism-turn-on-off-epigenetics-twin-study_n_3136912.html

Environment Interacts With Genes In Autism, Twin Study Shows

....

The number of DNA methylation sites across the genome was also linked to the severity of autism symptoms suggesting a quantitative relationship, said Wong, whose study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry on Tuesday.

"We identified distinctive patterns of DNA methylation associated with both autism diagnosis and related behaviour traits, and increasing severity of symptoms," she said.

Jonathan Mill, of the IoP and the University of Exeter, who led the study, said research into the intersection between genetic and environmental influences was crucial "because risky environmental conditions can sometimes be avoided or changed".

He said the next step was to conduct larger studies to see whether researchers can identify key epigenetic changes that are common to the majority of people with autism and use them to help develop ways of preventing or treating the disorder.