Mercury uprising and Arthur Krigsman's woes

Mercury Rising, is an article in Nature Medicine by Virginia Hughes discusses the autism vaccine hysteria. Here are some highlights:

Epidemiologists say the rise in autism diagnoses is instead a result of a broadened definition of autism spectrum disorders. Children with autism are sometimes diagnosed as mentally retarded, eccentric or socially withdrawn. In some parts of the world, autism remains stigmatized or even unknown-and thus undiagnosed.

Various factors, including changes in diagnostic practice, special education policy and even financial incentives-some US states grant Medicaid benefits to children labeled autistic, but not to those labeled mentally retarded-make the increase in prevalence look like an epidemic, says anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker, who began studying autism’s prevalence in 1994 after his daughter was diagnosed with the disorder. “But the current numbers can’t be compared to old ones-they’re like apples and automobiles,” he says.
...

On websites and newspaper advertisements, they tout the benefits of-and profit from-untested approaches, including hyperbaric oxygen tanks, chelation creams and testosterone inhibitors, that supposedly remove mercury and other environmental toxins from the body. “An ever-growing number of practitioners are getting aboard this gravy train because they realize it’s making a lot of money,” [Kevin] Leitch says.

Scientists note that some chelating treatments carry the risk of liver failure and allergic reactions. In July, a UK family whose five-year-old autistic son died of cardiac arrest after a chelation treatment announced that they would sue the Pittsburgh-based doctor who had prescribed the treatment. But many parents who use the treatments say they work wonders. “They are bringing our children back to us,” [Ginger] Taylor says. “Some children are coming all the way back.”


Science on trial

Starting on 11 June, a vaccine court at the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington DC heard the case of 12-year-old Michelle Cedillo, who has autism and suffers from arthritis, grand mal seizures and severe gastrointestinal problems. The Cedillos are one of 4,800 families who are seeking compensation from the government for what they say are vaccine-related injuries.

The Cedillos’ case hinges on a theory proposed by heavy metal toxicologist H. Vasken Aposhian, who testified on the family’s behalf. Aposhian says the thimerosal in six vaccines Michelle received before she was seven months old triggered an “immune dysregulation” that nine months later allowed the weakened measles virus in her MMR vaccination to take root in her gut. Once there, he says, the replicating virus caused neurological damages and inflammation in her bowels. “These are hypotheses,” Aposhian says. “We are now in the stages of trying to find a possible mechanism by which autism is caused by the injection of vaccines.”

The trial concluded on 26 June but deliberations by the three ’special masters’ who oversaw the case are expected to take at least six months.

More about the article here, and here and here.

Someone needs to tell Vas Aposhian that the mercury parents already know for a fact that thimerosal causes autism. There's no need in their minds to "try to find a possible mechanism by which autism is caused by" vaccines.

Speaking of people getting on board the gravy train, making money off of selling big promises to parents. Arthur Krigsman demurred during the Cedillo hearing that he had had to pay the State of Texas $5,000 for not being forthcoming about information that he had been disciplined by Lennox Hill Hospital. If you'd like to see what the Texas medical licensing board said to Mr. Krigsman, the details are available now, here in pdf form. Autism Diva figures most doctors who apply for a medical license in Texas don't end up hiring lawyers in the process. Krigsman appeared before the Medical Board with his counsel. Apparently the Texas State medical board found that Dr. Krigsman had submitted an application with, "false or misleading" statements.

Lennox Hill Hospital, New York, disciplined Respondent by requiring certain procedrues to be pre-approved. The disciplinary action was due to concern that Respondent was using the hospital's facilities to conduct research on pediatric patients without the approval of the hospital's Institutional Review Board (IRB).
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Respondent failed to disclose non-disciplinary action by the Florida Medical Board on February 4, 2004, in which Respondent was assessed an administrative monitory penalty of $1,000, plus $89 in costs, for failure to document a continuing medical education required for initial licensure.
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Prior to being licensed in Texas, Respondent published information on a website, misprepresenting himself as being available to make appointments to see patients in Texas.

Dr. Krigsman testified in the Cedillo hearing. He had been Michelle's doctor. Apparently, Krigsman diagnosed her with inflammatory bowel disease without there being any evidence of inflammation.

Q. And, Doctor, you are licensed to practice in Texas as well as New York and Florida. Correct?

A. That's correct.

Q. And in August of 2005, is it true that you were fined $5,000 by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners for misconduct?

A. That's not correct.

Q. What's incorrect about that?

A. There was no misconduct.

Q. Did you pay a $5,000 fine?

A. We did.

Q. What was it for?

A. The fine was levied -- the reason for the fine was because Thoughtful House Web site, before I was licensed, stated that Thoughtful House was open, and patients can call. That's what the substance of the the Web site said. It gave no suggestion that I was seeing patients because I wasn't. I wasn't licensed. We didn't even know when the license would be coming because it was a very long process to get licensed in Texas.

Dr. Krigsman is or has been a doctor for Bob Wright's grandson. Bob Wright being the jefe of Autism Speaks. Katie Wright speaks glowingly of how her son was helped by Dr. Krigsman's drug prescriptions. We don't know if Dr. Krigsman told Katie if it was the thimerosal or the measles in vaccines that he was treating with the pentasa and 6mp. Katie has another doctor in the New York City area. That one's a homeopath. That doctor prescribes "nosodes." A nosode is where they take some viruses or bacteria from secretions and such and put them in some water and then take some of that water and dilute it, and take some of that water and dilute it and take some of that ... and so on, here's what Wikipedia says about nosodes.

A nosode is a homeopathic preparation made from a disease or pathological product. Substances such as fecal, urinary, and respiratory discharges, as well as tissue and blood products, are used in the fabrication of nosodes. The origin of the word nosode is the Greek word nosos, meaning disease.

The use of nosodes originated as part of the doctrine of isopathy, which replaced Hahnemann's law of similars with the law of sameness ("Aequalia aequalibus curentur"), according to which a disease could be cured by diluted preparations of itself. The term isopathy was probably coined by veterinarian Joseph Wilhelm Lux in the 1830s. ...

Nosodes are extensively used in homotoxicology.

As with other homeopathic remedies, nosodes are prepared by taking very high dilutions of the original material—for example,12X (10-12), 30X (10-30), or 30C (10-60)—in accordance with Hahnemann's principle of the minimum dose.

Maybe the treatment for autism would be to take some runny discharge from the nose of someone infected with measles, or maybe some vaccine strain measles and then dilute, dilute, dilute, dilute... surely this is a very effective cure for autism. Not approved by the FDA, no doubt, but why should we worry what the FDA thinks? Why bother with all this scoping business that requires anesthesia and puts the kid in danger and all when they could make hundreds of gallons of nosodes from one sample of measles virus containing vaccine or some coughed-up lung excretions, maybe, and cure hundreds, maybe thousands of autistic kids. Same with homeopathic thimerosal tinctures. They could make a swimming pool full of homeopathic thimerosal and cure all the autistics in the whole country in no time. Why would Bob Wright be messing with all this research looking for those possible mechanisms and everything when his grandson's doctors have it all figured out all ready?



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