The Age of Autism: Allergic responses

[Celebration]

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/lifestyle/consumerhealth/article_1148985.php/The_Age_of_Autism_Allergic_responses

WAY too much in this article for four paragraphs to summarize--

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- A plausible link is emerging between widely used childhood medicines and the risk of developing allergies and especially asthma. But you`d never know it from listening to federal health authorities or reading the mainstream press.

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Just last week researchers reported a possible link between antibiotics and asthma -- 'A new study has found that infants younger than 12 months who have had antibiotics may be more likely to develop asthma when they get older,' the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

This was not some flaky anti-antibiotic study -- it was done by researchers at the University of British Columbia and published in CHEST, the journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. The researchers reviewed seven studies that compared kids who got antibiotics before age one with kids who didn`t get any, and they were careful to report only an 'association,' not proof of a cause-and-effect relationship.

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A related possibility -- warning, here comes the third rail of American public health policy -- is that vaccines may play a role, and for a similar reason. If the immune system gets stimulated too early and too often but never by the real thing -- say, by the chicken pox vaccination rather than by chicken pox itself -- it could get stuck in battle mode and start attacking its own tissues.