Autism affects one in every 166 children living in the United States. Diane and her guests discuss what is known about the disorder, possible treatments, and a new national database to help aid in education and understanding of autism.
Many parents believe their child's autism is linked to vaccines. However, autism symptoms onset at 12 to 18 months; the same time frame as vaccines.
Plus, studies in Europe show some countries have had cases of autism continue to increase after mercury preservative was removed from vaccines (Thimerosal and the Occurrence of Autism: Negative Ecological Evidence).
Autism is clearly genetic. Boys are more likely than girls to suffer from it as are children who have a sibling already diagnosed as autisitc. Parents in the scientific and technical fields appear to be more likely to have autistic children. This seems to rule out primary environmental factors.
Here's my hypothesis: Autism is caused by a recessive gene and has only become more prominent as carriers for this gene have become more socio-economically successful.
According to the Diane Rehm show autism was first recognized in the 1930's and rates have been increasing since then.
This coincides with a dramatic shift from an agrarian to industrial to technical economy. I know two men with autistic sons and I would describe both of these men as nerds. What profession would they have had prior to computers? Whatever it may have been it probably would not have been as economically attractive as working in the computers/networking field is today.
By being paid more these technical workers are more attractive to the opposite sex than they would have been in a different society. -> Marriage -> Kids -> "autistic genese" are passed on when in the past these people may not have married or perhaps not been able to economically support children.
Just a thought...
