Whether or not an overload on the developing system of babies and toddlers given the MMR vaccine is to blame, even partially, for autism, any parent of an autistic child with IBS knows there is, at least, a connection between those two issues.

Baloney.

Read the article carefully. None of this invalidates Andrew Wakefield's hypothesis.

"In an accompanying editorial, Sir Nicholas Wright from the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said "any firm conclusion would be inadvisable." He said several studies have shown a link between inflamed bowels and autism, but too little evidence exists to prove there is a new illness."

And this was not a study. This was a paper written by the infamous "journalist" Brian Deer and published in the BJM. Brian Deer has long and deep ties to the pharmacuetical industry. He has written 'unbiased' articles in the UK press for over a decade in suppport of pharmacuetical giants, including Wellcome. Brian Deer is hardly a source of unbiased opinion.

Again, read what Sir Nicholas Wright states. He states,

"Several studies have shown a link between inflamed bowels and autism."

Autism carries with it immmune system dysfunction. The bowel is the biggest organ of the immune system. Because of the immune system problems autistic kids end up taking a lot of antibiotics. This kills off the good bacteria and they have gastrointestinal problems. It is probably part of the allergies or sensitivities they have with food. It is common for autistic kids to have diarhea. The treatment for this problem is probiotics. This might cause some bowel inflammation.

Remember they said it wasn't caused by a retrovirus either and now we have XMRV. They will do everthing they can to disprove that also.

"Bowel disease tied to autism may not exist"? Even the title is a lie. The body of this article is about the existence of a bowel disease SPECIFIC to autism. Whether or not it's a unique condition makes no difference to either a child or a parent! Wakefield's mere suggestion that autistic symptoms could be linked to bowel disease led me to research it for myself. It saved my autistic daughter a tremendous amount of suffering and improved her quality of life beyond description. And these 'experts' want to discredit him for giving the bowel problems a name specific to autism?

I'm sick and tired of elitist authorities bringing down the hammer on people with actual solutions. Is it about money? Because a medical system or pharmaceutical company stands to gain very little by providing as simple a solution as telling people to change what they eat. The attack on this research is a sham, the name of this article is provocative and misleading, and we're not LISTENING to you anymore, self-proclaimed experts! Our improving autistic children are evidence that you are the liars.

So, Brian Deer is now writing for medical journals and scrutinizing diagnosis? The news wires are now designing titles to mislead the public on the horrific bowel problems experienced by the autism population? This situation gets more and more bizarre every day. Not the credibility of one Dr Andrew Wakefield, but the concerted effort of one very well paid journalist's assault on the availability of proper, thorough and highly appropriate health care of a very fragile population.

Unfortunately for Mr Deer, there are now thousands of bowel biopsies from those affected by autism, despite the loss or destruction of the tissue samples and biopsies of the original 12 children described in the Lancet paper, the suppression of said of evidence documented very well by the parents of those children.

If the bowel conditions in these children were so easily described and identified and do not represent a novel presentation, then there is no excuse whatsoever for the mistreatment, misdiagnosis and failure to appropriately treat all children with bowel issues regardless of their autism diagnosis...except perhaps a specialty-wide incompetence among gastroenterologists.

But to have a headline declare that bowel disease tied to autism may not exist goes beyond a profession-wide incompetence. It represents discrimination against a particuar set of individuals who have suffered long enough. The author of that title deserves a special delivery package from each and every bowel affected individual - be it diaper, or colostomy bag or Depends (used of course). It certainly show this article to be what it truly is - one massive pile of never ending excrement.

Mr Deer also is deserving of deliveries as described, however he revels in excrement and would likely be overjoyed rather than shocked to receive such gifts.

This report coming out of London this morning just disgusts me. I am the mother of 2 Autistic Boys and they BOTH have serious Bowel Issues related to their Autism. This is just another ploy to discredit Dr. Andrew Wakefield. If you want to believe this story, please come to Iowa and visit my boys and you will see the truth!!

Now newspaper 'journalist' Brian Deer is authoring medical papers in the British Medical Journal? Huh? Is Brian Deer a MD, a medical PhD, or a MPH? [No.] Is he an gastroenterologist? [No.] Then, what are his qualifications for writing a paper for the BMJ???

In addition, Brian Deer has deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Deer has written 'unbiased' articles in the UK press (The Sunday Times) for over a decade in support of the pharmaceutical industry, including Wellcome (The Wellcome drug brand name "disappeared" from the pharma business when GlaxoWellcome merged with SmithKline Beecham, to form GlaxoSmithKline in 2000.) Interestingly, the Wellcome Trust is a major corporate sponsor of the BMJ (take a look at BMJ.com).

In fact, Brian Deer has been employed by the conservative (right-wing) Sunday Times in London for over a decade. The Sunday Times has been owned by pro-business conservative Rupert Murdoch since 1981 (also owner of Fox News, of course). Mr. Deer and Mr. Murdoch are both vigorous pro-pharma advocates. Indeed, Rupert Murdoch's son (James Murdoch) is, among other things, a Director of GlaxoSmithKline! And that is fine. But these are hardly unbiased sources of information on pharmaceutical safety.

Frankly, Brian Deer is a real piece of work. But don't take my word for it. Take at a look at the man for yourself. Alan Golding has made a 60 min documentary entitled, "Brian Deer and the GMC" (see below). Watch. I think you will be astonished. Alan Golding has also just completed an extensive video interview of Dr. Andrew Wakefield MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath, (the UK research gastroenterologist who co-authored the early case report published in the Lancet in 1998). Compare the two men side by side; Brian Deer and Andrew Wakefield. I think you will find it very insightful.

Judge for yourself who is more informed and more independent. Judge for yourself who is more caring and more reasonable; Brian Deer or Andrew Wakefield?

http://goldenhawkprojects.blogspot.com/

Whose medical opinion do you find more valid? That of Brian Deer (who apparently has a BS in philosophy from Warwick University), or...

Dr. Nicholas Wright (MA, DSc, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCS, FRCPath), Professor of Pathology at the Barts and the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London)?

The accompanying editorial in the BMJ by Dr. Wright can be found below. There Dr. Wright states in his conclusion:

"So, does autistic enterocolitis exist? Children with autism often have chronic diarrhoea, bloating, abdominal pain, distension, and abnormal stool consistency.¹⁰ A cross sectional study that compared children with autism with matched controls and children with other developmental disabilities found that 70% of children with autistic spectrum disorder had a history of gastrointestinal problems, compared with 28% of controls (P<0.001) and 42% of those with other developmental disabilities (P=0.03).¹¹ Certainly something seems to be going on. Moreover, several articles describe the association between inflammatory pathology and autistic spectrum disorder ^3"

Let Dr. Wakefield speak for himself-you can hear his account in his own words on Dr Mercola's website. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/current.aspx

I believe there is an awful lot of money invested by vaccine makers who aren't forthcoming about the risks their products are subjecting people -especially infants and young children to. There has been outright persecution of this conscientious Dr. Wakefield in an effort to discredit him and shut him up to keep their products on the market.

The drug companies are over the top. You can't even pick up a magazine without several cards advertising drugs falling out of the magazine. You can't watch TV without noticing how many drug advertisements there are. I can't visit my Doctors without noticing drug company reps coming and going-and frequently providing lunch for the Doctor's office staff on Fridays.

I'm an RN and while I work in the field and I believe in the medical model-I believe in safety first-before profits. I believe that any medical professional has not only the right-but the obligation- to speak up and speak out without fear of being attacked- should that medical professional have concerns about Any Drug or Any Vacccine that they may be prescribing or administering to their patients.

Dr. Wakefield's point by point response (in PDF) to the BMJ paper written by Brian Deer (who is utterly medically unqualified) can be found here:

http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/04/brian-deer-in-bmj-and-dr-andrew-wakefields-response.html

This is just semantics used to further discredit Wakefield with bulldog tenacity. This type of disease naming happens frequently in conventional medicine. If that type of correctness is what "they" are truly after then why don't they encompass medicine as a whole?

Because of this: These "people" are not concerned with autism per se. They are concerned with anyone or anything that opposes their ideology for the world. Mass innoculations are the physical representation of that view. The charge that autism can be caused by vaccines, and it can and it has, infuriates this group of elitists.

14 studies, 15 studies, 215 studies whatever. None of these studies let vaccines off the hook in spite of the religious elitist disciples claiming that the "science is in Vaccines don't cause autism."

All of the studies have flaws including industry bias and scientist bias. None of the studies say vaccines CAN NOT cause autism. But that is what the elitists believe first and foremost. Vaccines can cause multiple adverse events. Autism just happens to be the "face" of those dangerous reactions.

They claim that they speak for science. And if they actually do represent science then it is in a poor state of affairs (medical science is having PR issues). What they really speak for is their philosophy of life. It is a natural philosophy based in chaos, uncertainty, anything can happen, fear, and the need to overcome that with cerebral knowledge and risk reduction. Their is no room for God in this belief system.

A technology may be the product of science but when that technology is applied to people, animals, the environment, plants, etc,. then it is no longer a pure science. That application becomes philosophical, moral, ethical, and social. And this is what the elitists can't stand. They want to drag the human protesters into their little lab and beat them with crucibles and test tubes and text books. That is where they like to argue for their little mechanistic view of the world. But they are still arguing for their metaphysical view. Not science.

Science and God are not antagonistic. But natural philosophy and God is. And a naturalistic, mechanistic view of the world is the REAL issue not vaccines.

And another thing. Logical consistency and truth are not necessarily synonymous. This is their trick.

"I just have one question. Why the f- is some hack reporter writing about bowel disease in a medical journal?"

"I am a psychotherapist. I have a Masters in Social Work .... Anyone want a Dental Exam? Advice on a Root Canal? It is that ludicrous."

-Alison MacNeil

“Autistic enterocolitis: Fact or fiction?” Feb 2009

“While genetic susceptibility is an important contributor in ASDs, the exact etiology of these pervasive developmental disorders remains unclear and is most likely multifactorial. Although the idea of a shared path physiology between GI disease and autism remains controversial, the evidence presented so far warrants further exploration at the very least. Be it an immune-mediated connection, versus a ‘brain gut axis’ interplay such as seen in irritable bowel syndrome, the increased prevalence of GI symptoms in this group of patients cannot be denied, nor the added distress that these symptoms could have on an individual who is already communicatively challenged. Clearly, more studies need to be conducted to better define the relationship between ASDs and the GI tract. In the meantime, a heightened awareness and lower threshold for work-up and management of GI symptoms may help improve the quality of life of these patients who may be suffering in silence.”

P. Galiatsatos, MD, FRCPC; Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine; McGill University, Montreal. A. Gologan, MD; E. Lamoureux MD, FRCPC; Department of Pathology, McGill University, Montreal.

Galiatsatos, P et al. “Autistic enterocolitis: Fact or fiction?” Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology Vol 23 No 2 February 2009.
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Are all these MDs friends of Andrew Wakefield?

I believe a valid reason for concern is the sheer amount of parents of children with autism, whom state their child is effected. My daughter with moderate-severe autism has terrible problems that are not only diet related. Her diet is free of allergens such as gluten and dairy, free of anything artificial and low amine. She still has bouts of diarrhea all the time with no apparent explanation. The strictness of her diet has improved her situation, but far from cured it. All I know is, I want to know MORE!

Just wanted to add, she has never taken anti-biotics, so that can't be a factor.

She was vaccinated, not that I'm saying i have a belief either way on that subject. I just know that the bowel problems are there, they are real, they don't run in the family and I hear about them in other kids with autism consistently.