Child Vaccines linked to Disorders

Child vaccines linked to disorders
Preservative increases risk of autism and hyperactivity, U.S. study says
Sharon Kirkey
CanWest News Service
Thursday, February 05, 2004

OTTAWA - After assuring parents that additives in vaccines don't cause brain damage, scientists have found what they believe could be a "smoking gun" linking these additives to autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
In a study published online today, two months ahead of its scheduled release in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, U.S. researchers have discovered an apparent link between thimerosal, a controversial mercury-based preservative once commonly used in childhood vaccines, to an increased risk of neurological disorders such as autism and ADHD.
While most vaccines used in Canada have been thimerosal-free since the early 1960s, the preservative was used in the annual flu shot doctors recommended this year for even healthy children.
In tests on human brain cells, researchers found two natural chemicals -- one compound that stimulates cell growth and dopamine, which transmits nerve signals -- are both key to a process in the brain called methylation. Methylation helps DNA work properly and is crucial to the normal development of the brain. The team found thimerosal, ethanol, and the metals lead and mercury, all interfere with methylation.
What's more, researchers found that thimerosal interfered with methylation even at doses 100 times lower than a child would receive after a shot with a vaccine containing the preservative.
"It was by far the most potent," says investigator Richard Deth, a professor of pharmacology at Northeastern University in Boston.
He said the study, which also involved researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Nebraska and Tufts University in Boston, could account for the rising rates of autism since the early 1980s, when more thimerosal-containing shots were added to a child's vaccine schedule.
A recent review of vaccine-related "adverse events" in the U.S. found a "significant correlation" between shots containing thimerosal and autism, the researchers report.
In a press release, the journal said the new study is "the first to offer an explanation for possible causes of two increasingly common childhood neurological disorders." Glyconutritionals may help with children's health