[PEN-L:31559] re Autism etc..

[Hari Kumar <hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Pen-ers:
(1) There is considerable data [A lot of good stuff of which was
provided by CJ] to suggest that the health risks of IVF are
considerable. I am not myself aware of any direct autism links.
(2) JD notes the matter of toxicology. It is simply at this stage -
unknown what the health burden of toxic environments are. Extrapolating
however from 2 directly measurable matters - that of tobacco (measuring
metabolic outcome measures of nicotine - "cotinine") & cocaine - the
likely burdens of "clinically relevant" health outcomes are huge. What
this means for autism - is entirely unclear to me at any rate.
(3) I am not working in the psychiatric field - but it would seem to me
(from reading & my own clinical experiences) that "autism" - is a
syndrome - and not a single disease entity. I bow to JD's superior
knowledge here - but I contend that as the molecular patho-physiological
explanations get sharper, the community will be able to discern a
heterogeneity within the "phenotypic" expression of the same phenomenon
that constitutes the outward expression of "autism".
(4) Simple environment alone - or simple genome alone- explanations
alone - are.......Untenable. Both at an "abstract theoretical" level -
or by the "test of experience". This was in fact, one of the keynotes of
Lysenkoism.
(5) No - please do NOT bother to jump down my throat...... In my own
view, Lyenkoism was the exact reverse and opposite REACTION to
Mendel-Morganism. I AM NOT a Lysenkoist.
See: Lysenko, Trofim, & History of Genetics; & Dialectics in Biology-
"Lysenko,  Nature & Society -Reductionist Biology As Khruschevite
Revisionist  Weapon"  at:
 http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/Lysenko/lysenkotable.html
This book needs up-dating to account for both the milestone of the
genome mapping; & some recent archival data from the Stalin Archives.
But the bones of the analysis are still correct in my own personal view.

Hari Kumar