What IS the Cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder?

That’s a question haunting millions of parents worldwide with no apparent answer in sight until maybe now, and because of Dr. Helen V. Ratajczak, PhD, and her insightful article recently published in the Journal of Immunotoxicology. Dr. Ratajczak, retired from vaccine research, looked at a ‘universe’ of possible causes and triggers for ASD and, after reading her published paper, “Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes—A review,” I must say there is more to consider than just vaccines, which I’m not ready—nor about—to leave off the hook.

Even though most parents agree that after a vaccination their child became ill, impaired, and not ‘the same’ as before, Ratajczak’s research opens a ‘vista’ of causes that need to be researched, investigated, traced, studied—what ever science needs to do—but stop obfuscating about ASD. Autism spectrum disorder, or pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs), now affect one percent of the population. There’s an ever-increasing number of children affected ever since the government mandates that children must be vaccinated at birth, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months and ongoing, until an inordinate number of vaccines are pumped into them.

Dr. Ratajczak proffers that vaccine antigens could be the cause: “The vaccine organism itself could be a culprit.” She goes on to tell how “the pertussis toxin in the DPT vaccine causes a separation of the G-alpha protein from retinoid receptors in genetically-at-risk children,” which has been documented by Farfel et al., 1999 and Megson, 2000.

The live measles virus is a valid potential suspect because when “the measles vaccine is given, it depletes the children of their existing supply of Vitamin A, which negatively impacts the retinoid receptors, accounting for the distorted vision in autistic individuals,” as documented by Megson, 2000 and Rosales, 2002.

The vaccine preservative, Thimerosal [49% ethyl mercury], according to researchers, presents the same symptoms in autistic children as are associated with mercury poisoning. They include psychiatric disturbances; increased incidences of allergies and asthma; increases in the presence of IgG autoantibodies against brain and myelin basic proteins; reductions in natural killer cell function; and increases in neopterin levels.

Ratajczak expounds on Thimerosal as being suspect due to the timeline involved: “More evidence linking autism with mercury poisoning to the timing of inclusion of Thimerosal in vaccines in the 1930s closely preceding the discovery of autism in 1943” by Kanner.

However, Ratajczak is not alone in her suspicions. She cites published research that needs to be reiterated: “There are dangerous effects of Thimerosal on the immune system, particularly on T-lymphocytes. Mercury induces glutathione depletion, increased oxidative stress, and apoptosis [death] in these cells (Makani et al., 2002). In addition, Thimerosal causes toxic effects on brain cells (Baskin et al., 2003), inhibits glutamate transport (Mutkus et al., 2005), affects nerve differentiation (Parrant et al., 2005), induces immonoproliferation and formation of autoantibodies to fibrillin proteins (Havarinasab and Hultman, 2005), and depletes glutathione (James et al., 2005).”

So, CDC and FDA, how can you refute that science? Or, are you redefining biochemistry in the fashion that the World Health Organization redefined pandemic, e.g., to suit your purposes.

Despite the claim of removal of Thimerosal from many vaccines, there still is a slight residue in most of them. Dr. Ratajczak feels that human DNA (diploid cells from aborted fetuses) in the MeaslesMumpsRubella II vaccine may be a precipitating cause of ASD.

As Ratajczak puts it, “This is primarily because the number of diagnosed cases of autism continues to increase despite the fact that most childhood vaccines are free of more than trace levels of Thimerosal since about the year 2000 (Schechter and Grether, 2008).”

Also, human DNA in the chicken pox vaccine may have been a cause of the spike in autism during the middle 1990s. The introduction of human DNA into vaccines could cause homologous recombination, which Wikipedia describes as “…a type of genetic recombination in which nucleotide sequences are exchanged between two similar or identical molecules of DNA.”

What Dr. Ratajczak delves into in her paper, and needs more scientific attention I think, is genetics. That’s where many unknowns may reside, which could be part of the answer that either precipitates—or reacts as—the autism spectrum disorder.

No one knows which child is genetically predisposed to various and probable contributing factors such as epigenetic involvement; mitochondrial disease and dysfunction, as was the diagnosis for Hannah Poling; age of parents on genetic traits at conception; pregnancy and placental troubles; environmental toxins; intracellular pathogens; medications pre- and post-conception into pregnancy; phthalates in those ever-present plastics we love to eat and drink from; and organophosphate pesticides we just can’t seem to not use.

If, as some scientists hypothesize, ASD results from a genetic predisposition, then there is a real moral and ethical problem for medicine and vaccine makers, in particular, I think.

Each child, before receiving a vaccine, would need to be tested for his or her predispositions to genetic factors that could result in ASD triggering or resulting from genetic factors—as was argued in the Hannah Poling case in the U.S. vaccine court—thereby ruining a child for its entire life. “It has been determined that autism can be caused by an underlying predisposition to mitochondrial dysfunction (Child Health Safety, 2010.)”

I believe that is the real moral and ethical issue—forcing a person to become ill because of his/her genetic predisposition—that vaccines present, which state laws and federal agencies don’t consider but will have to, since a greater percentage of children are being damaged from an apparent consumer product: vaccines. Read the CDC’s VAERS reports.

Both sides of the vaccine controversy and issue should take seriously Dr. Ratajczak’s exceptional paper. There is much scientific food for CDC and FDA vaccine advisory committees to digest about vaccines and ADS, that’s if they really want to get to the cause of a totally debilitating and escalating national health problem.

In Dr. Ratajczak’s words, “This review cites documentation of causes of autism, including genetic mutations/deletions, viral infections (i.e., rubella and herpes), and encephalopathy following vaccination.” Some encephalopathies often are legally prosecuted as Shaken Baby Syndrome by police and the medical profession.

I heartily recommend your reading Dr. Ratajczak’s paper. Also, write or visit the local office of your members of Congress and state health officials to ask for an investigation of the neurotoxins and other poisons in vaccines. We cannot afford to lose any more children to the autism spectrum disorder.

About the author

Catherine J. Frompovich

Catherine J Frompovich is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting. Catherine is an editor and writing consultant who helps authors get into publication. For numerous semesters she taught several writing courses for a suburban Philadelphia school district’s Adult Evening School. Her passion is assisting and guiding authors into print. Catherine’s latest book, A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, will be available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook sometime in July 2012. Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008).