Mercury poisoning is not the same as autism. Ok, this is going to be a long topic with a lot to explain. I'll have to keep getting back to it. There are blogs on this subject alone. First off... I've seen charts comparing the symptoms of mercury poisoning and the symptoms of autism. They tend to put questionable symptoms over on one side, like "leaky gut, " and generalizing symptoms to appear to be the same, such as "abnormal communication" or "abnormal sensations." It's a good example of confirmation bias. Both mercury poisoning and autism can be associated with things like seizures and cognitive delays. Both are associated with communication difficulty. But there are some very different symptoms, too. According to the ATSDR: Mercury's harmful effects that may be passed from the mother to the fetus include brain damage, mental retardation, incoordination, blindness, seizures, and inability to speak. Children poisoned by mercury may develop problems of their nervous and digestive systems, and kidney damage. NINDS on autism: Autism (sometimes called “classical autism”) is the most common condition in a group of developmental disorders known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests. Here's a few differences:
A Different Kind of Mercury Poisoning (or a Different Kind of Autism)Now there are some that will argue that there's more than one kind of autism and one of these kinds is mercury poisoning. Or the other way around - there's another kind of mercury poisoning, and it's called autism.This theory seeks to explain why there's so darn much evidence showing that mercury poisoning and autism are different things. Why, we must be looking at the wrong kids instead of focusing on the subset that is the same! That's terrific, but if it were true, we'd see more arguments tying the two together. We'd see victims of Minamata Disease showing up with autism. We don't. We'd see blindness as an associated risk for autism. It isn't. That isn't to say that people with autism can't also have vision problems. It's just not at a rate higher than that of the general population. People with autism do often have visual processing problems, such as problems recognizing face but that's in how information is interpreted and eye contact, not in how their eyes physically work. So... If Autism Isn't Caused by Mercury Poisoning, Chelation Won't WorkThat's right. If you have a headache, putting your foot in a cast isn't going to help much, either. Chelation warrants its own entry here, but let's just say that it's ineffective at best, wildly dangerous at worst.To further pull down this house of cards, vaccines don't cause autism, and most vaccines don't have mercury in them, anyway! Brain Overgrowth in Infants Linked to Autism MedLine Plus overview of Mercury Poisoning. Continuing Increases in Autism Reported to California's Developmental Services System Mercury in Retrograde Robert Schechter, MD, MSc; Judith K. Grether, PhD Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65(1):19-24. Journal of Child Neurology, Vol. 19, No. 6, 431-434 (2004) DOI: 10.1177/088307380401900606 Mercury Exposure in Children With Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Case-Control Study |