Are Flu shots to blame for the spike in autistim- especially in boys?

Apparently there is a chemical in flu shots called Thimerosol, which has been linked to autism, particularly in boys. I find this REALLY disturbing. In my county since 1998 autistic cases have spiked 300% in the last 10 years! This is proven scientific evidence I read in a scientific journal at the local library. The article stated that the quantity of immunizations have increased drastically from the time I was a kid. I was shocked at the number of immunizations some of these kids received. There was a correlation and connection with # of flu shots and autism and that specific child. There have been theories on boys getting autism at a 4X higher rate because of the XY chromosome. The females have an XX and the deficiency can fall back on the other X to counter it. Thimerosol is essentially mercury when I looked into it. It sure makes a lot of sense to use mercury as a preservative in flu shots when it has been proven to cause brain damage. Seems pretty stupid to me...

No.

The increase in autism diagnoses in recent years is due to changes in the diagnostic criteria: previously children who would nowadays be diagnosed as autistic were undiagnosed, or diagnosed with "childhood schizophrenia" or "mental retardation".

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cg...

The following studies show no connection between thiomersal exposure and autism:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/ful...
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cg...
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cg...

For a critical review of the data on thiormersal and its supposed connection with autism spectrum disorders see
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cg...

"The preponderance of epidemiologic evidence does not support an association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and ASD. Epidemiologic studies that support an association are of poor quality and cannot be interpreted. Pharmacokinetic studies suggest that the half-life of ethylmercury is significantly shorter when compared with methylmercury.

Conclusions. Studies do not demonstrate a link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and ASD, and the pharmacokinetics of ethylmercury make such an association less likely. Epidemiologic studies that support a link demonstrated significant design flaws that invalidate their conclusions."

My 5yo regressed after his 2 flu shots. He went from verbal to non-verbal almost overnight. NOTHING else changed in that period of time.
I don't believe it's just "better diagnostics". I don't remember seeing any kids in any of my years in school that weren't potty trained, non-verbal or spinning and flapping.

No, probably not. No actually knows what causes autism, despite what anti-vaccination scare groups will tell you. The fact is that the autism rate could be rising simply because mental health professionals are getting better at diagnosing it.

Furthermore: correlation does not equal causation.

I'm glad to see that you see the light. More people need to. But thimerosal is not the only toxin found in vaccinations (that is most vaccinations and not just the flu shot). The other is formaldehyde. For more startling info on all this, please see this website: http://www.909shot.com . Really, it all comes down to big bucks for the pharmaceutical companies who make this stuff and then force us to take it in.

Yes, that is what they are saying is causing the autism. You would think that they could use some other chemical...

That "scientific journal" you read seems to be passing on yet another unsubstantiated rumour.
Please bear in mind that we do not yet know any of the many possible causes of autism. Some may be genetic, some environmental and other due to psychological problems.
Autism is a single name for a huge range of cases of varying severity, some autistics are completely cut off from normal human contact, some have limited social abilities whilst others show only mild signs that might not even BE autism at all.
Trying to pin it on flu shots or on the MMR jabs is dangerous and counterproductive, the reduction in children being immunized for MMR has led to an increase in childhood cases of measles and rubella (scarlet fever) both of which can have deleterious effects, more worrying is mumps, which in pre-teen males can lead to sterility as an adult.
Research is going on all over the world to find the causes of autism, don't let urban legend and parents who for religious reasons avoid protecting their children with flu and MMR vaccines prevent sensible people choosing to do the right thing for THEIR children.

I have seen a lot of reports, research, etc. and listened to a lot of parents. The problem is complicated. Yes, putting mercury in vaccines was stupid. But, it appears the live vaccines are more related to autism than the mercury ones. Not that they both aren't the problem, but I think we have gotten very sloppy with vaccines as a whole. Some vaccine manufacturers even state not to give to people with immunity problems, yet doctors are giving multiple vaccines to sick people ALL THE TIME. Thus, the whole vaccine issue is a giant mess. I have seen reports that the higher one is educated, the less likely they give their children vaccines. I think that should be one's first clue. The more one researches the issue, the more apparent how alarming this situation is. There appears to be numerous problems with the vaccine program we have, and we need a lot of changes to stop the drastic decline in health. Frankly, its all about greed, laziness, and dare I say, disregard for humankind. I guess that's just human nature for many.

But, know that there is also great things happening in the medical arena (not mainstream, of course), but doctors who have done research on their own. Thousands of people are being recovered from autsim now by ridding them of toxins and pathogens and restoring their immune fuction. Many of these doctor specifically treat the toxins and pathogens given to us via vaccines, so its actually openly discussed as a big problem in this alternative medical arena. So, if anyone has a mental illness, auto-immune disorder, or developemental disoder, or even spastic cerebral palsey, know that new discoveries are being made to reverse these symptoms by doctors and other health professionals who are sick of thier own family being sick, and so did thier own research to learn real things on how to really help people. You can go to the Yahoo Groups and talk to real people on-line who have made such improvements and ask them who the doctors who know this stuff are. My children no longer have autism.

Just to add to what many of the other posters wrote.

while thimerosol is a type of mercury studies have shown that it has a very quick excretion rate - that is the body removes it via stool very quickly. The more dangerous type of mercury remains in the tissues and cannot be removed easily by the body. In addition, the amount of thimerosol in the flu vaccine is less than tiny. People are exposed to much higher levels of mercury in their food and environment every day.

Again- please be very careful about the "scientific" journals you are reading - they need to be peer reviewed by doctors/scientists in that field. Some of the most reputable ones are : the Lancet, the Journal of the British Medical Association, the Journal of the American Medical Association and so on.

There has been numerous studies that have NOT found a link between vaccines and autism. There has been ONE study that has - the doctor that ran it is currently under investigation by the British Medical Board for not following protocal in running the study (his own researchers are testifying against him).

Metallic mercury certainly causes brain damage, but Thimerosal does not.

Many reputable studies have found no statistically significant correlation between autism and Thimerosal vaccination. Many studies have also found a strong correlation between the age of the parents (both male and female) at the time of conception, and the probability of the offspring becoming autistic.

After the so-called "sexual revolution" of the 1960s, women began entering the workforce in ever-increasing numbers. This led many women to delay having children until later in their lives, in order to focus on their careers. So, many women were waiting to have children until they were 35 years old, in contrast with previous decades, in which it would be rare for a young married woman to have no children by the age of 25.

It does not seem like too much of a stretch to link these two ideas, and say that delaying pregnancy until later in life is at least partially responsible for the steadily increasing rate of autism in children.

Thiomersal hasn't been in vaccinations since 2001, yet there are many autistic kids under the age of seven. I wonder why? There is absolutely NO correlation between vaccinations and autistic spectrum disorders, this has been proven over and over and over again.

The rise in autistic spectrum disorders - and there's the key word, 'spectrum' - is that many kids who were considered to have mental retardation or childhood psychosis in the past have been rediagnosed as autistic, plus they're now including high functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome in the listings. Ten years ago, a kid with Aspergers would have been overlooked as 'weird' or 'eccentric', but now we actually know that they're autistic. They get added in to the stats, and the stats rise accordingly.

There's absolutely NO correlation between ASDs and vaccinations. Be more concerned about antivaxxers trying to stop people vaccinating their kids with the MMR shot! Between 2000 and 2006, three kids died from measles. Between 1950 and 1956? That number was more like three thousand.