Positive Health Online

#MEAction Denounces Use of CBT in Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Patients with ME/CFS Urge NHS to Adopt Scientifically-Sound Approaches to Treatment

Study Finds No Difference in Treatment for ME/CFS Patients At Long-Term Follow-Up

According to reports in The Guardian and BBC yesterday, hundreds of young patients in the UK suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are set to receive online psychological therapy. FITNET will cost £1million, to be funded by British taxpayers - yet the Dutch study on which the trial is based found no difference in patients at long-term follow-up.  

#MEAction, an international network of ME patients, along with other patient groups and scientists from around the world, condemn the waste of resources on such inherently flawed studies.  Arguing that an intervention that consistently shows null results at long-term follow-up is not worth pursuing further.

The proposed study - known as ‘FITNET’ - shares many flaws with the debunked PACE trial, which was described as “the height of clinical trial amateurism” by Dr Bruce Levin of Columbia University. It was subsequently discovered that scientists misrepresented the efficacy of cognitive behaviour therapy and graded exercise therapy in ME patients - but only after a protracted battle to obtain the open-sourced data.

It’s “more meaningless research based on flawed assumptions and bad studies,” said David Tuller, of University of California, Berkeley.  “What a huge waste of time and money!  When will these people let go of their dysfunctional and delusional belief that CBT is the pathway to ‘recovery’ from this disease?  It’s complete nonsense.”

“Time and again, research has shown that graded exercise and cognitive behavioural therapy are not effective treatments for those suffering from ME,” said L.A. Cooper of #MEAction Network UK.  “To state that it is curative would be misleading, and ultimately very damaging.”

Meanwhile, researchers worldwide continue to forge ahead with ground-breaking discoveries in ME/CFS: Fluge and Mella of Haukeland University have shown that an anti-cancer drug causes remission in a significant percentage of patients; Ian Lipkin and Mady Hornig of Columbia University have shown disturbed cytokine production patterns that differ early versus late in the illness; and numerous researchers in the US and UK have identified metabolic abnormalities in patients that differ vastly from controls, including Naviaux, who memorably stated that patients’ cells appear to be in a form of metabolic hibernation.  Last year’s US Institute of Medicine Report unequivocally stated that ME/CFS is not a psychological illness after critically reviewing over 9000 pieces of scientific literature. The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality downgraded its recommendations for CBT and GET, stating that there was not enough evidence to label them effective treatments for ME/CFS.  

“We can’t continue to feign ignorance and pretend other countries aren’t speeding ahead. The concept that ME can be improved with solely behavioural techniques is decades old, and frankly, an embarrassment to the nation’s scientific and patient community,” added Cooper.

Further Information

Source: Brett Abrams <news@meltwaterpress.com>

CONTACT: L.A. Cooper | la@meaction.net

Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease: llama Antibodies Detect Cerebral Lesions

The major challenge facing physicians treating Alzheimer's is the ability to detect markers of the disease as early as possible. These markers, located in the brain, are difficult to access, hampering diagnosis. Using two types of llama antibody capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm, the CNRS, the CEA, Pierre & Marie Curie and Paris Descartes Universities and Roche* have developed a non-invasive approach to reach brain cells in a mouse model of the disease. Once in the brain, these llama antibodies can specifically mark and show amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, the two types of lesions that characterize Alzheimer's disease. These results were published in the Journal of Controlled Release on October 7, 2016.

 The specific VHH antibody for plaques, labelled with a green fluorochrome, is injected into mice.
The VHH travels along the blood vessels before marking the plaques in the brain.
Photo taken using two-photon microscopy. © Institut Pasteur

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by two types of cerebral lesion: amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid beta peptide (Aβ), naturally present in the brain, builds up over the years as a result of genetic and environmental factors until it forms amyloid plaques. This build-up is toxic for nerve cells: it leads to a loss of neuronal structure and to what is known as "neurofibrillary" tangles (abnormal aggregation of the tau protein), which in turn results in cell death.

In this study, the team led by Pierre Lafaye, Head of the Antibody Engineering Platform in the Citech[1]  at the Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with the Chemistry of Biomolecules and Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems Units from the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS, developed two new types of antibody capable of detecting the extracellular and intracellular targets (respectively amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles) that are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. To achieve this, they turned their attention to camelids, specifically llamas, since their small antibodies are easy to use. They used the variable region of the antibody, known as VHH or nanobodies™ to specifically recognize the markers of Alzheimer's.

These antibodies have the rare ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, which generally protects the brain from microbial attacks but also prevents potential therapeutic molecules from reaching it.

This collaborative research project, jointly conducted by scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm, the CNRS, the CEA, Pierre & Marie Curie and Paris Descartes Universities and the Roche Group, led to the development of anti-Aβ and anti-tau protein antibodies that specifically detect amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. These antibodies were subsequently tested in vitro on the brain tissue of Alzheimer's patients.

The antibodies were then tested in vivo in two mouse models, each with one of the two characteristic lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease. These antibodies, labelled with a green fluorochrome, were injected intravenously and crossed the blood-brain barrier, binding to the two targets the scientists were aiming to identify: amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. This made the signs of the disease visible in the brain using two-photon microscopy. The scientists involved in this collaborative project are currently working on the development of an MRI imaging technique to observe the lesions. In the long term this could be applied to humans.

"Being able to diagnose Alzheimer's at an early stage could enable us to test treatments before the emergence of symptoms, something we were previously unable to do," explained Pierre Lafaye. These VHH antibodies could be used in combination with therapeutic molecules so that the molecules can be delivered in a targeted way to the brain.

Patents have been filed for these VHH antibodies and for their use based on their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and bind to amyloid plaques and tau proteins.

This research was partly funded by the Roche Institute, the France Alzheimer Foundation and the Georges Pompidou Foundation.

Notes

[1]. Citech: The Institut Pasteur's Center for Innovation and Technological Research

Source

* Camelid single-domain antibodies: A versatile tool for in vivo imaging of extracellular and intracellular brain targets, Journal of Controlled Release, October 7, 2016. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016836591630788X 

Tengfei Li (a,b,c,d,e,f,1), Matthias Vandesquille (g,h,i,j,1), Fani Koukouli (k), Clémence Dudeffant (b,c,d,e,i,j),

Ihsen Youssef (b,c,d,e), Pascal Lenormand (a), Christelle Ganneau (g,h), Uwe Maskos (k), Christian Czech (l),

Fiona Grueninger (l,) Charles Duyckaerts (b,c,d,e), Marc Dhenain (i,j), Sylvie Bay (g,h), Benoît Delatour (b,c,d,e), Pierre Lafaye (a*)

(a) Institut Pasteur, CITECH, Antibody Engineering Platform, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France

(b) Sorbonne University, UPMC Univ. Paris 06 UMR S 1127, F-75013 Paris, France

(c) Inserm U 1127, Paris, France

(d) CNRS UMR 7225, Paris, France

(e) ICM, Paris, France

(f) Paris Descartes University, Paris 5, France

(g) Institut Pasteur, Chemistry of Biomolecules Unit, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France

(h) CNRS UMR 3523, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France

(i) French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Basic research division (DRF), Institute of biomedical imaging (I2BM), MIRCen, F-92260 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France

(j) French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris-Sud University, Paris-Saclay University UMR 9199, Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory, F-92260 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France

(k) Institut Pasteur, Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems, CNRS UMR 3571, Paris, France

(l) F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development, NORD DTA, Roche Innovation Center Basel, CH-4070 Basel, Switzerland

Further Information

Contacts: Institut Pasteur Press Office

Marion Doucet – +33 (0)1 45 68 89 28

Myriam Rebeyrotte – +33 (0)1 45 68 81 01

presse@pasteur.fr

Study Investigates Interaction between Dietary Fat and Gastrointestinal Microbiota:

Cholesterol an Important Piece of the Puzzle for Fat-Burning

From Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Gut bacteria play a little-understood role in the body’s energy balance, which is influenced by diet. However, the crucial nutritional components are unknown. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) was able to demonstrate for the very first time that mice without gastrointestinal microbiota grow obese when fed with dietary fat from plant sources, but not from animal sources. One of the important findings of the study is that cholesterol from the animal dietary fat plays a crucial role in what goes on in the intestines.

Obesity, diabetes, and related illnesses are among the most widespread health problems in Western societies, and an increasing number of people are also suffering from them in emerging economies. According to a study published in the specialist journal The Lancet in spring, more than 600 million people around the world are now obese.

Besides the well-established fact that obesity is a result of an imbalance between calorie intake and energy consumption, it has been known for a long time that the colonization of the intestines with bacteria (gastrointestinal microbiota) also has an effect on the energy metabolism. More recent studies have shown how changes in the intestinal flora due to differences in diet have an impact on the energy metabolism, thereby facilitating obesity and diabetes.

Therefore, fats and their influence on the gut flora were compared for a new study that has been published in Molecular Metabolism. For this study, germ-free mice that did not host any microbiota in their intestines were fed a high-fat diet for four weeks, which was either made using lard or palm oil. As a control, the same feed was given to mice with a normal gut flora.

A Diet with a High Quantity of Animal Fat does not Necessarily Lead to Obesity

The findings led to three crucial conclusions: The first observation was that the germ-free mice which were fed a lot of animal fat (lard) did not gain body fat. At the same time, a different group which received a diet enriched with fats from plant sources (palm oil) fully developed diet-induced obesity.

On the other hand, the control groups with a normal gut flora became obese regardless of whether they were fed lard or palm oil. Hence, it was the type of dietary fat alone which made the crucial difference for the germ-free mice: Diet-induced obesity only occurred with fats from plant sources, not from animal sources.

Impaired Fat Digestion Results in a Modified Metabolism

“The feed with high levels of lard stimulated the metabolism in the body of the germ-free mice,” Professor Martin Klingenspor from the Chair for Molecular Nutritional Medicine at the Else Kröner-Fresenius Center for Nutritional Medicine (EKFZ) at TUM explained, presenting the second, central finding. “What this means is that a large percentage of the nutritional energy is combusted in metabolism,” said Klingenspor. Hence, the basal metabolic rate was increased accordingly in the germ-free mice.

Furthermore, animal fat is harder to absorb and process: “Because they were less able to utilize the feed with the lard, the germ-free mice modified their metabolism to use more carbohydrates because dietary fat was only available in limited amounts,” Klingenspor concluded from the findings of the study.

Microbiota Influences Metabolism of Cholesterol

The two types of dietary fat used in the study differ fundamentally: Palm oil is practically free from cholesterol, while lard is rich in cholesterol. Because it has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack, cholesterol has a negative connotation. But despite this bad reputation, cholesterol, which is a sterol, is also essential for life, because it is a vital component of cell membranes and a precursor to steroid hormones and bile acids.

The plant-based fats fed to the mice in this current study contain phytosterols such as sitosterol, which inhibit the absorption of cholesterol in the intestine. On the other hand, the supply and availability of cholesterol in animal fats is greatly increased. Could the cholesterol in lard therefore lower the fat storage capacity and increase the basal metabolic rate in the germ-free mice?

The accompanying analysis conducted on the metabolites (intermediate products created during metabolism) for this purpose and on the corresponding metabolic paths in the intestines of the mice yielded unexpected results: Steroids, steroid hormones, and bile acids, which are all chemical derivatives of cholesterol, showed noticeable changes which were linked to the intake of the lard-containing feed.

The Steroid Hormone Estradiol Increases Energy Consumption

Higher concentrations of steroid hormones could explain the increased basal metabolic rate: The level of estradiol was increased, which is a steroid hormone that plays a vital role in weight loss, as it boosts energy consumption. At the same time, it also plays a role in the bile acid metabolism, resulting in less fat being stored. A reduction in bile acids in the intestines was in fact measurable.

These changes in the cholesterol and its metabolic products can be explained by the absence of the microbiota. This is because in mice with a normal gut flora, the microbiota are involved in cholesterol metabolism, thereby assisting with the efficient utilization of the animal fats. This, however, leads to obesity.

Therefore, the interdisciplinary team led by Professor Klingenspor, Professor Dirk Haller from the Chair for Nutrition and Immunology, Dr Tom Clavel as the head of the junior research group “Intestinal Microbiome” at ZIEL -Institute for Food and Health, Professor Hannelore Daniel from the Chair for Nutritional Physiology, Professor Karl-Heinz Engel from the Chair for General Food Technology, and Professor Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin from the Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry concluded the study with an investigation on what happens in the gastrointestinal flora and how this influences the metabolism in conjunction with the type of diet.

Gut Flora Regulates Food-Host Interaction

This led the scientists to their third conclusion: In the test groups with a normal gut flora, a comparison of the palm oil group with the lard feed group showed subtle differences in their bacterial composition. In the mice that were fed with lard, the abundance of specific bacterial strains was associated with changes in bile acid levels in the gut. One of these strains is actually known to metabolize cholesterol. Hence, diet-induced changes of the gut microbiota lead to modified sterol and bile acid metabolism. These cholesterol metabolites impact on fat resorption and energy expenditure and play a role in determining whether diet-induced obesity develops - or not.

Publication

Raphaela Kübeck, Catalina Bonet-Ripoll, Christina Hoffmann, Alesia Walker, Veronika Maria Müller, Valentina Luise Schüppel, Ilias Lagkouvardos, Birgit Scholz, Karl-Heinz Engel, Hannelore Daniel, Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, Dirk Haller, Thomas Clavel, Martin Klingenspor: Dietary fat and gut microbiota inter-actions determine diet-induced obesity in mice, Molecular Metabolism 10/2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.molmet.2016.10.001.  www.molmetab.com/article/S2212-8778%2816%2930189-2/abstract

Contact

Prof. Dr. Martin Klingenspor, Technical University of Munich, Else Kröner-Fresenius Center for Nutritional Medicine

Chair for Molecular Nutritional Medicine

Phone: +49 8161 71 2386  E-Mail: mk@tum.de

About Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe’s leading research universities, with more than 500 professors, around 10,000 academic and non-academic staff, and 40,000 students. Its focus areas are the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, combined with economic and social sciences. TUM acts as an entrepreneurial university that promotes talents and creates value for society. In that it profits from having strong partners in science and industry. It is represented worldwide with a campus in Singapore as well as offices in Beijing, Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, San Francisco, and São Paulo. Nobel Prize winners and inventors such as Rudolf Diesel, Carl von Linde, and Rudolf Mößbauer have done research at TUM. In 2006 and 2012 it won recognition as a German "Excellence University." In international rankings, TUM regularly places among the best universities in Germany. They may be contacted on Tel: +49 89 289 22562;  presse@tum.de web: www.tum.de www.tum.de/en/about-tum/news/press-releases/detail/article/33567/

JB Handley’s Compilation of Autism Vaccination Links

Excerpted from https://medium.com/@jbhandley/7-reasons-cdc-employees-should-be-crying-in-the-hallways-55dd2dc32124#.yktl88myw

The average voter -  even a Trump supporter  -  probably has no idea why CDC employees might be “crying in the hallways,” while the average autism parent (meaning those of us who have children with autism) like me understands it perfectly.

“Frankly, it’s pretty hard for me to write about the CDC without shaking with at least a little bit of rage. On the off chance this is your first time considering this topic, I’ll steady my hands and explain it to you:”

Source: www.learntherisk.org/ 

• The CDC is in charge of recommending the vaccination schedule for U.S. children, which has grown from 5 total doses in the 1960s to more than 70 today;
• The CDC is ALSO in charge of monitoring vaccine safety for those more than 70 doses;
• In an ironic twist (at least for parents like me), the CDC is ALSO in charge of tracking the number of children with Autism in the U.S., a number that has grown from 1 in 10,000 in the 1980s to 1 in 68 today.

For many autism parents, the CDC being in charge of both implementing the vaccine schedule and monitoring the safety of vaccines has always felt like an extreme conflict of interest.

And, we were never alone in that feeling. In my opinion, it’s going to get far worse before it gets better for the CDC, and here’s 7 reasons why:

Reason #1:

The CDC just got outed last month by its own scientists complaining that CDC’s “mission is being influenced and shaped by outside parties and rogue interests.”

From the Huffington Post on October 17, 2016

Reason #2:

CDC has a whistleblower scientist - Dr William Thompson  - alleging that CDC scientists destroyed data that showed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

This is a serious allegation, especially because Dr Thompson is the principal author of a number of the studies used to “prove” vaccines “don’t cause autism” released by CDC.

From former CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson:

A current Centers for Disease Control (CDC) senior scientist has made an unprecedented admission: he and his colleagues - he says - committed scientific misconduct to cover up a meaningful link between vaccines and autism in black boys.

Just as startling, the CDC scientist, Dr William Thompson, says the study co-authors “scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study. The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room, and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into a huge garbage can.”

The…co-authors…brought a big garbage can into the meeting room… [and put the documents]…into a huge garbage can.

CDC Senior Scientist Dr William Thompson

“A huge garbage can”? Did he really say that? Yes, he really did, and one of our Congressmen   Representative Bill Posey of Florida  - repeated Dr. Thompson’s words in Congressional testimony:

Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL)

Reason #3:

CDC has another whistleblower alleging that CDC’s gathering of autism prevalence numbers has been fraudulent

From  The Alliance for Human Research Protection website:

On April 4, 2016, Dr. Judith Pinborough-Zimmerman, the former Principal Investigator for the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM) in Utah, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the U.S. District Court. Dr. Zimmerman charged University of Utah researchers for CDC’s Network with “publishing data under people’s names who had not done the work and that the data contained uncorrected errors.”

“Depositions from Zimmerman and her former colleagues suggest that the alleged data errors were serious and have the potential to produce major differences in reported Utah autism rates. In the 2008 ADDM Network Report, Utah autism rates were the highest in the country at 1 in 47. In the 2012 report released today, Utah rates plummeted nearly 20% to 1 in 58 as most other ADDM Network sites reported either rising or stable autism rates.”

Health Choice, an advocacy organization, explains why Ms. Zimmerman’s allegations are so serious:

“The CDC has been misrepresenting the alarming rise in autism rates since the late 1980s,” says Health Choice Executive Leadership Team Chairman Mark Blaxill. His Health Choice analysis, “The Autism Emergency Continues”, released today outlines a number of criticisms of the CDC’s surveillance program. “They have selected a partial and unrepresentative sample of states to track, changed the sample in a biased fashion over the years, and then take too long to report out the data. Today’s 2012 report is over a decade behind the problem, giving us autism rates for children born twelve years ago.”

“If the sharp increases in autism rates began in the late 1980s,” asks Blaxill, “why would CDC design a tracking survey beginning with the 1992 birth year? Elsewhere, they’ve published data with very low rates from the late 1980s in New Jersey and Georgia but don’t connect the dots in the ADDM publications from today’s 1 in 68 rate back to these earlier numbers.”

“Health Choice is very worried that the CDC’s ADDM Network reporting is not accurately representing the seriousness of the autism epidemic. For most affected individuals, autism is a lifelong disability, a condition that frequently wreaks havoc on families, school systems, and state resources.”

Mr Blaxill went on to say, “since 1990, autism rates have exploded: something new and terrible is happening to a generation of children. It’s time to for the CDC stop sugar coating the inconvenient facts and confess that we have a national emergency so we can finally get to the bottom of this tragic problem.”

Reason #3A:

One of the authors of the “Danish Studies” exonerating thimerosal’s (a mercury preservative) role in Autism is wanted by the CDC for embezzlement

Researcher who dispelled vaccine-autism link: “Most-wanted fugitive”

This is on the US Department of Health & Human Services HHS website, right now!

“A former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) researcher, best known for his frequently-cited studies dispelling a link between vaccines and autism, is still considered on the run after allegedly using CDC grants of tax dollars to buy a house and cars for himself.

“Most wanted fugitive” CDC researcher Poul Thorsen published studies dispelling a link between vaccines and autism

“Poul Thorsen, listed as a most-wanted fugitive by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, was discredited in April 2011 when he was indicted on 13 counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money laundering. Some have argued that his alleged fraudulent behaviour calls into question the validity of his studies. There is no indication the studies have been retracted to date.”

Reason #4:

Two Merck whistleblowers are alleging that the Mumps vaccine doesn’t work very well, and that Merck knew that and fudged the data

“A U.S. judge rejected Merck’s attempt at a dismissal after determining there was plausible grounds for the claims. Therefore the medical giant is being forced to defend themselves and their vaccine in at least two federal cases. Merck could also be forced to defend itself in Congress. Representative Bill Posey (R-FL) -  a known critic of the CDC whom is investigating the link between autism and vaccines  - is reviewing hundreds of documents turned over by the CDC whistleblower.”

According to the whistleblowers’ court documents, Merck’s misconduct was far-ranging: It “failed to disclose that its mumps vaccine was not as effective as Merck represented, (ii) used improper testing techniques, (iii) manipulated testing methodology, (iv) abandoned undesirable test results, (v) falsified test data, (vi) failed to adequately investigate and report the diminished efficacy of its mumps vaccine, (vii) falsely verified that each manufacturing lot of mumps vaccine would be as effective as identified in the labelling, (viii) falsely certified the accuracy of applications filed with the FDA, (ix) falsely certified compliance with the terms of the CDC purchase contract, (x) engaged in the fraud and concealment describe herein for the purpose of illegally monopolizing the U.S. market for mumps vaccine, (xi) mislabelled, misbranded, and falsely certified its mumps vaccine, and (xii) engaged in the other acts described herein to conceal the diminished efficacy of the vaccine the government was purchasing.”

“The fraudulent activities, say the whistleblowers, were designed to produce test results that would meet the FDA’s requirement that the mumps vaccine was 95 percent effective.”

Reason #5:

Just yesterday, a local Atlanta TV station explained to the world what the vaccine court is and that it’s not working

Definitive book on the vaccine court. Never heard of the Vaccine Court? You’re not alone. This is the first news story I’ve ever seen mentioning and criticizing the court, and it’s from an Atlanta TV station!

From WSB-TV:

“A federal program designed to help victims suffering from life-altering reactions to vaccines is falling short on promises made when it started. It’s called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a $3.6 billion fund created to take care of victims with catastrophic reactions to vaccines. But a Channel 2 Action News investigation found it also protects vaccine-makers from being subject to lawsuits. And they don’t pay for the program  -  you do.”

Reason #6:

A published study shows that 83 cases from vaccine court (see above) compensated children with autism for vaccine injury

So, let me get this straight:

• A senior scientist from the CDC who authored many of the studies “proving” vaccines don’t cause autism says they threw away data in a big garbage can that showed a connection between vaccines and autism…
• A group of lawyers then reviewed records from the vaccine court and found children with autism are being compensated by the court for vaccine injury causing their autism…

…Are we sure vaccines can’t cause autism?

Read it for yourself!

“For over 20 years, the federal government has publicly denied a vaccine-autism link, while at the same time its Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has been awarding damages for vaccine injury to children with brain damage, seizures and autism. A new investigation, based on verifiable government data, breaks ground in the controversial vaccine-autism debate. The investigation found that a substantial number of children compensated for vaccine injury also have autism and that such cases have existed since 1989, the year after the VICP was formed.”

SafeMinds’ Executive Director, Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN comments, “This study dramatically shifts the debate on autism and vaccines. The question is no longer, Can vaccines cause autism? The answer is clear. Now, we have to ask, How many cases of autism have vaccines caused and how do we prevent new injuries from occurring?” The government has asserted that it “does not track” autism among the vaccine-injured. SafeMinds responds that not looking is the easiest way not to find something. SafeMinds is calling for immediate federal research into the mechanisms of injury in these children in an effort to protect other children from harm and Congressional action to reform the VICP.

Reason #7:

President-Elect Trump appears to know the truth about vaccines and autism, and he’s not afraid to say it!

Yes, I saved the best for last. If you’re an autism parent, you already knew this one. But, Donald Trump has been speaking the truth about what happened to our kids for years. The first I heard of President-elect Trump’s understanding of this issue was back in December 2007:

Trump Speaks: “I Think It’s The Vaccinations”

What if you were a large national autism charity and you held a fundraiser at a billionaire’s house and the billionaire told reporters he thought autism was caused by vaccines? What if your large national autism charity was wildly dismissive of vaccines as a cause for autism, had scientists on staff who had worked to produce faulty research exonerating vaccines alongside the CDC, and had no research dollars allocated to exploring the vaccine-autism relationship? Well, then you would be Autism Speaks holding a fundraiser at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion. As THIS article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

“At a news conference Thursday in a gold-trimmed Mar-A-Lago ballroom, Trump’s wife, Melania, noted her 22-month-old son, Baron, and said: “I cannot imagine what the mothers [with autistic children] and mothers all around the world go through. … Let’s get rid of autism.”

In an interview, Donald Trump said he thinks the rising prevalence of autism is related to vaccinations of babies and toddlers. One in 150 children is now diagnosed with autism, with the prevalence higher among boys.

“When I was growing up, autism wasn’t really a factor,” he [Trump] said. “And now all of a sudden, it’s an epidemic. Everybody has their theory, and my theory is the shots. They’re getting these massive injections at one time. I think it’s the vaccinations.”

As you may know, President-elect Trump’s statements have only gotten bolder since then.

Or how about his words during this appearance on Fox News?

Thank you for your honesty, President-elect Trump.

About JB Handley

J.B. Handley is the father of a child with Autism. He and his wife co-founded Generation Rescue, Jenny McCarthy’s autism charity. He spent his career in the private equity industry and received his undergraduate degree with honours from Stanford University. He is also the author of “The Only Vaccine Guide a New Parent Will Ever Need” and “An Angry Father’s Guide to Vaccine-Autism Science”

Mr. Handley has started a podcast called “How to End the Autism Epidemic” — you might enjoy his first four interviews: