Rising cases of MRSA in children paralleling rising cases of Autism. (Vitamin D deficiency related?)

[tiptoe]

Dramatic Surge Seen in Kids Hospitalized With MRSA

CHICAGO – The number of children hospitalized with dangerous drug-resistant staph infections surged 10-fold in recent years, a study found.

Disease incidence increased from

2 cases
to 21 cases

per 1,000 hospital admissions from 1999...
2008.

Most infections were caught in the community, not in the hospital.

The study involved methicillin-resistant staph infections, called MRSA. These used to occur mostly in hospitals and nursing homes but they are increasingly showing up in other settings in children and adults. Recent evidence suggests hospital-acquired MRSA cases may be declining while community-acquired cases are becoming more common.
...

It may prove ironic the above initial report of rising MRSA cases in children appeared in Pediatics, the AAP's journal. In 1999, AAP "anti-Sun" guidelines for infants & children first appeared there as well:

AAP Policy on Use of Sunscreen in Infants

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued a new policy statement on the dangers of sun exposure to infants. According to the statement, which appeared in the August 1999 issue of Pediatrics, it may be safe to use sunscreen on infants younger than six months of age when adequate shade and clothing are unavailable.

Previously, the AAP did not advise the use of sunscreen on infants. However, there is no evidence that using sunscreen on small areas of an infant's skin causes harm. Avoiding sun exposure and dressing infants in lightweight pants and long-sleeved shirts remain the primary recommendations of the AAP, but when this is not possible, parents should apply a minimal amount of sunscreen to exposed areas of the infant's body, such as the face and back of the hands, to avoid sunburn.

According to the policy statement, children, including infants, are also at increased risk for eye injury from sun exposure. The AAP suggests that infants and children wear hats with a brim and sunglasses that block at least 99 percent of the sun's rays to protect them from retinal damage. Further recommendations from the AAP include the following:

1. Physicians should incorporate advice on sun protection into their health supervision practices.
   
2. Physicians will rarely see infants and children with melanoma or nonmelanoma skin cancer. Therefore, patients at high risk, such as those with a large number of nevi and a family history of melanoma, should be identified and treated in collaboration with a dermatologist.
   
3. Physicians should encourage schools to adopt safe sun practices, such as shaded playgrounds, allowance of "uniform" hats and outdoor time before 10 a.m.

The AAP also encourages the government and schools to educate the public and raise awareness of the dangers of sun exposure.

Vitamin D Deficiency in children, expressed as weakened innate immune systems -- an iatrogenic consequence of new policy of the AAP in 1999, if Cannell is right about his Vitamin D Theory of Autism* -- might explain rising cases in children both of MRSA and Autism.

Vitamin D, innate immunity, and influenza (On the Epidemiology of Influenza, Jan 2008)

...
The evidence that vitamin D has profound effects on innate immunity is rapidly growing 24.
...
Recent discoveries about vitamin D's mechanism of action in combating infections 26 led Science News to suggest that vitamin D is the "antibiotic vitamin" 27 due primarily to its robust effects on innate immunity.
...
The crucial role of vitamin D in the innate immune system was discovered only very recently 33,34.
...

The Rise in Autism and the Role of Age at Diagnosis  Epidemiology: Jan 2009, 20:1, 84-90

Abstract

Background: Autism prevalence in California, based on individuals eligible for state-funded services, rose throughout the 1990s. The extent to which this trend is explained by changes in age at diagnosis or inclusion of milder cases has not been previously evaluated.

Methods: Autism cases were identified from 1990 through 2006 in databases of the California Department of Developmental Services, which coordinates services for individuals with specific developmental disorders. The main outcomes were population incident cases younger than age 10 years for each quarter, cumulative incidence by age and birth year, age-specific incidence rates stratified by birth year, and proportions of diagnoses by age across birth years.

Results: Autism incidence in children rose throughout the period. Cumulative incidence to 5 years of age per 10,000 births rose consistently from

6.2
42.5

for 1990 births to
for 2001 births.

 

Age-specific incidence rates increased most steeply for 2- and 3-year olds. The proportion diagnosed by age 5 years increased only slightly, from 54% for 1990 births to 61% for 1996 births. Changing age at diagnosis can explain a 12% increase, and inclusion of milder cases, a 56% increase.

Conclusions: Autism incidence in California shows no sign yet of plateauing. Younger ages at diagnosis, differential migration, changes in diagnostic criteria, and inclusion of milder cases do not fully explain the observed increases. Other artifacts have yet to be quantified, and as a result, the extent to which the continued rise represents a true increase in the occurrence of autism remains unclea

Consider the iatrogenic factors "setting the stage" for prospective mothers AND infants post 1999:

...
"Mothers get as much sunlight as mothers 15 years ago." Post-1995 saw the American Academy of Pediatricians getting into the "avoid the sun" medical act by directly targeting infants with its own special professsional advice -- i.e., another iatrogenic factor, on top of earlier, general "stay out of the sun as much as possible" warnings for mothers and their children from dermatologists and the AMA .

Perhaps a situation of autism tendency in infants due to low vitamin d status 'inherited' from mothers became compounded after 1999 by the unintentional post-delivery continued-suppression of infant innate immune systems through wide adherence to the AAP warnings advising sun-protective clothing and sunscreens and a finer directive to always stay out of direct sunlight and to minimize sunlight exposure altogether. (Presumably paralleling pediatrician 'prescription' of such recommendations beginning 1999 would have been increases in sales and usage of sunscreens not only for babies/infants/children but also by expectant women following skin-protection advice. Maybe mothers are not, in fact, getting as much effective sunlight, i.e. UVB, as 15 years ago.)

"All of the sudden these children are just D deficient?" As per above, after 1999, the situation with children perhaps became something more than 'just D deficiency' transferred from the mother: Already-compromised-at-birth innate immune systems might have remained so (or worsened) widely across the cohort because of AAP sun-protection-for-infants warnings that initiated widespread, highly-effective shielding not only from the negative effects of UV but also from beneficial effects of UVB on vitamin D status.
...

*Finally, expect anger and defensiveness from many in the medical profession. Remember, if I'm right, it was not the evil power plants, or the mercury polluters, or the vaccine industry that caused your son's autism. It was the CDC, the NIH, the AMA, and all the other committees and organizations that fell for the dermatologists' calculations (the cosmetic industry will give me a larger grant if I warn about sunlight) and who then blasphemed the Sun God. That is, the worst charge you can level against medicine, "You have violated your primary duty; you have caused harm." If I am right, the current autism epidemic is the worst iatrogenic disease in human history.

— John Jacob Cannell, MD  Vitamin D Newsletter  April 2010

[d_r]

1. a spectrum

I believe that there isn't one single "cause" of autism, but a combination of factors that result in the symptoms that we call the autistic spectrum. Low vitamin D could certainly be one - I think it is more complex than single factors; maybe a child with genetic susceptibility + low vitamin D + low omega 3's + high mercury, etc. = greater risk. That sort of thing.

[tiptoe]

2. Could be

then again, many of the suspected spectrum factors could reduce to low vitamin d status

lower absorption of calcium (and other nutrients, like, e.g. omega 3?)
lower chelation of mercury and other metals.

Of course, a "spectrum" of causes might relieve AAP pediatricians of the total burden of responsibility for the "damage done" possibly due to its 1999 policy.

I have an autistic spectrum disorder, and I recently found out that I had low vitamin D. I started supplementation and the positive effects were profound and immediate. A blood test a month after I started supplementation showed that vitamin D levels were going up.

Then I hit a wall and started to feel terrible again. There are studies that show vitamin D increasing the levels of lead in the blood (see references below). One possible explanation for this is that vitamin D stimulates the production of glutathione, which some refer to as the body’s master antioxidant. Glutathione is also a natural chelator of heavy metals.

So taking vitamin D could theoretically stimulate an endogenous chelation process, but as with many chelation therapies, symptoms can get much worse before they get better, because the metals that are stored in tissues are released into the bloodstream on their way out of the body.

I have read through Dr Cannell’s theory on vitamin D. It’s important to note that Cannell is a psychiatrist, not a traditional MD. But his theory makes sense. There is other compelling theories on autism as well, including those related to heavy metals such as mercury and lead, and other research showing abnormal zinc and copper levels in autistic children. Not all studies have found a relationship between these metals and autism, but taking vitamin D’s natural chelation abilities into consideration could go some way towards tying these disparate theories together.

As for myself, I continue to take vitamin D in the hope that I will get through a rough patch that is theoretically being caused by increased serum levels of lead and other metals that were in my system.

Search for these studies to read about the relationship between lead and vitamin D:

Elevated Blood Lead Concentrations and Vitamin D Deficiency in Winter and Summer in Young Urban Children

Effects of vitamin D on the absorption and retention of lead

Effect of Lead Ingestion on Functions of Vitamin D and its Metabolites
http://www.newautismcure.com/does-vitamin-d-deficiency-cause-autism/423/

More on Mercury and Omega-3 arguments

...
For awhile, that was one of the strongest arguments for the mercury in vaccines theory; administration of more and more mercury-containing vaccines paralleled the increase in autism. The problem with the vaccine theory is that when they took the mercury out of vaccines, the incidence of autism went up, not down.

What about air and water pollution? Any self-respecting environmentalist will tell you pollution in the USA is at record levels today; that is, American air and water has never been dirtier. However, I am older than sixty, so that nonsense won’t work on me. I remember acid lakes, burning eyes and blazing rivers.

As a child, I remember thinking God wanted me to see the air I breathed. That is, I remember the USA before the clean air and clean water acts of the 1960s. If air and water pollution caused the autism epidemic, then that epidemic began in the late 1940s, climbed dramatically in the 1950s, peaked in the 1960s and then decreased in the late 1970s. Just did not happen.

One could accurately say that cleaner American air and water is associated with increasing rates of autism, but with a significant lag time. Perhaps air pollution from Eastern Europe, India and China, which has been increasing in the last 20 years, has engendered the current crop of autism, the “foreigners did it” theory of autism. However, why would foreign coal-burning air pollution of today do what good old American coal-burning air pollution of the 50s and 60s could not?

Take mercury in seafood, terrible right? As mercury is one of the autism-causing toxins he listed, I assume Dr. Kinney predicts mercury-containing seafood consumption during pregnancy would increase risk of autism. However, I predict the opposite, that is, consumption of mercury-containing seafood during pregnancy would improve the offspring’s mentation, the benefits of Vitamin D in fish overwhelming any detriments of mercury.

Consistent with that prediction, the three largest studies found higher maternal consumption of mercury-containing fish was associated with better, not worse, infant cognition with the greatest benefit for infants whose mothers consumed the most mercury-containing fish. Do not misunderstand me; the three studies below show mercury is bad, Vitamin D-rich fish and mercury is better, and Vitamin D-rich fish without mercury is the best.

Oken E, et al. Maternal fish consumption, hair mercury, and infant cognition in a U.S. Cohort. Environ Health Perspect. 2005 Oct;113(10):1376-80.

If you think the beneficial effect was from omega-3 fats, you’d be wrong. In another Harvard study, the benefits for the child of mother’s fish consumption again overwhelmed the harm from mercury. Omega-3 fats consumption could not explain the beneficial effects of mercury-containing seafood, that is, neither total maternal intake of omega-3, nor omega-3 content of mother’s red blood cells, was associated with the child’s cognition.

Oken E, et al. Maternal fish intake during pregnancy, blood mercury levels, and child cognition at age 3 years in a US cohort. Am J Epidemiol. 2008 May 15;167(10):1171-81.

In yet a third study, NIH researchers found benefits for mothers who ate mercury-containing seafood during pregnancy. Benefits of fish consumption again overwhelmed the harm of toxins in fish. More importantly, low maternal seafood consumption (and thus low seafood mercury consumption) resulted in children with lower verbal IQs and suboptimal outcomes for pro-social behaviors, fine motor, communication, and social development, that is, autistic symptoms.

Hibbeln JR, Maternal seafood consumption in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood (ALSPAC study): an observational cohort study. Lancet. 2007 Feb 17;369(9561):578-85.

So I heartily recommend seafood to expectant mothers and give my highest endorsement to vitamin D-rich, mercury-poor fish like small salmon. (By the way, the omega-3 literature is hopelessly confounded by Vitamin D.) However, the essence of Dr. Kinney and colleagues’ addition to the Vitamin D theory is that at least some of the autism generating toxic genetic damage is done to the father’s sperm, not the mother’s egg.
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