In Brief

• The Facts:

  A new study published in Pediatric Health Medicine and Therapeutics concludes that there is "as significant relationship between mercury and autism." Enough for it to be listed as a cause of autism.

• Reflect On:

  Why is our environment so polluted with mercury and other toxic substances and heavy metals? Why do we use mercury in some of our health products and services?

What Happened : A new study published in Pediatric Health Medicine and Therapeutics has concluded that there is “as significant relationship between mercury concentration and autism. Thus, the concentration of mercury can be listed as a pathogenic cause (disease-causing) for autism.  The study also found significant amounts of lead exist within the brains of people with autism.

As the study explains:

In this study, searching Scopus, PubMed, and Science Direct databases, 18 articles conducted in different countries from 1982 to 2019 were collected. Studies’ heterogeneity was investigated using the I2 index. The data were analyzed using R and STATA software.

 In these 18 studies, 1797 patients (981 cases and 816 controls) aged 2 to 16 years were examined. Concentration of the samples (blood, hair, and nails) for both case and control groups was evaluated. There was no significant relationship between copper concentration and autism (SMD (95% CI): 0.02 (− 1.16,1.20); I2=97.7%; P=0.972); there was a significant relationship between mercury concentration and autism (SMD (95% CI): 1.96 (0.56,3.35); I2=98.6%; P=0.006); there was also a significant relationship between lead concentration and autism (SMD (95% CI): 2.81 (1.64,3.98); I2=97.8%; P=0.000).

This is quite a significant finding, and complements other large studies. For example, a 2013 Meta-Analysis published in the Journal Bio Med Research International found that:

“The studies upon which the CDC relies and over which it exerted some level of control report that there is no increased risk of autism from exposure to organic Hg in vaccines, and some of these studies even reported that exposure to Thimerosal appeared to decrease the risk of autism. These six studies are in sharp contrast to research conducted by independent researchers over the past 75+ years that have consistently found Thimerosal to be harmful. As mentioned in the Introduction section, many studies conducted by independent investigators have found Thimerosal to be associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Considering that there are many studies conducted by independent researchers which show a relationship between Thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders, the results of the six studies examined in this review, particularly those showing the protective effects of Thimerosal, should bring into question the validity of the methodology used in the studies.”

Here’s a video from the University of Calgary showing how mercury damages the brain.

In nature, toxic metals generally are bound with other elements rather than being present in their pure form. However, with the advent of large-scale industrial processes to extract metals from naturally occurring compounds, humans let the genie out of the bottle, contributing significantly to the distribution of mercury, aluminum and other heavy metals in the environment. When released from nature’s semi-protective hold, these “invariably toxic” metals wreak havoc on living systems, including humans, animals and plants alike.

Modern-day scientists have been amassing evidence of mercury’s toxicity for decades, with a growing focus in recent years on the metal’s association with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A new review article in the multidisciplinary journal Environmental Research pulls together a wide body of literature with the aim of summing up current research and emerging trends in mercury toxicology. Geir Bjørklund, the study’s lead author, is the founder of Norway’s non-profit Council for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine and has published prolifically on topics related to heavy metals, autoimmune disorders and ASD. – Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Mercury is not the only issue.

A paper published in 2018 discovered high amounts of aluminum in the brain tissue of people with autism. That particular paper has now been downloaded more than 1 million times. The study was conducted by Dr. Christopher Exley, considered to be one of the world’s leading experts in aluminum toxicology. He has looked at more than 100 brains, and the aluminum content in those with autism doesn’t compare at all to “normal” brains.

He and a team of scientists from multiple countries recently published a paper in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology titled “The role of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines raises issues that deserve independent, rigorous and honest science.” In their publication, they provide evidence for their position that “the safety of aluminium-based vaccine adjuvants, like that of any environmental factor presenting a risk of neurotoxicity and to which the young child is exposed, must be seriously evaluated without further delay, particularly at a time when the CDC is announcing a still increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorders, of 1 child in 54 in the USA.”

Why This Is Important: Some people diagnosed with autism may be gifted, it’s a wide spectrum, and others may have suffered actual brain damage and other changes due to environmental factors. Autism has longed thought to be due to predominately genetic factors, but science and the growing prevalence of autism has show that heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and more and should be strongly considered and looked into further.

The Takeaway: Why does humanity live in a way that severely pollutes our environment? Is healthcare really bout healthcare, or does profit come first? What time of influence does the pharmaceutical industry have on medical policy and medical education? Why do we obey instructions handed down from something that has been exposed as extremely corrupt? Why do rely on others to solve our health problems instead of ourselves? How much of what we use as ‘medicine’ is actually necessary? Why do we live the way we live on our planet?