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Dear Friend,
I would like to take the opportunity this month to address something that deeply concerns me as a health practitioner—a critical issue that leaves the health and happiness of our children hanging in the balance. I’m talking about the rising autism epidemic in this country. And while awareness of this crisis has gained a great deal of momentum in recent years, theories regarding its possible causes—and treatments—remain the subject of heated national debate.
This month in particular has seen a lot of developments on this front. In the first half of February alone, the issue has grabbed at least two major headlines.
First, news broke that Andrew Wakefield—the author of one of the most compelling studies linking childhood MMR vaccination with the onset of autistic symptoms, published in The Lancet back in 1998—may have fixed many of his findings. Even more recently, we learned that a Federal court rejected the claims of three parents who believe that the MMR shot, along with mercury-derived vaccine preservatives, contributed to their child’s autism.
I have no doubt that vaccine manufacturers consider both of these developments to be a triumph. But they don’t change the fact that cases of autism have exploded in this country in the last decade. And a single tarnished study cannot possibly invalidate the large body of research that continues to implicate toxins, heavy metals, and current vaccination practices as a driving force behind this disturbing trend.
The evidence speaks for itself, and I’d like to address that in this newsletter. But first, let me take a moment to review just what autism is, and what we currently know about its origins...
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