Thank you for the fascinating analysis in this article, as well as other publications. We challenge you to take the analysis one step further and explore factors that may make children more susceptible to immune activation/vaccine injury. For many children, the answer is Lyme Disease, a global pandemic that has been downplayed and grossly mishandled by the CDC. Lyme Disease parent support groups are filled with accounts of vaccine injured children, some of whom present with autism. Often, doctors do not recommend vaccines for children with Lyme Disease due to immune dysfunction and frequent co-morbid mitochondrial dysfunction. Experts believe that children with Lyme are generally more fragile and susceptible to injury or reactions from vaccines, environmental exposures, and other infections.
We invite you to read the Lyme Disease Challenge blog exploring the Lyme Autism connection which can be found under the blog tab under the Lyme Disease Challenge website. Simply stated, Lyme Disease loads the gun (making a child susceptible) and vaccines pull the trigger. Lyme Disease causes immune dysfunction (both immunosuppression and autoimmunity), high inflammation and a plethora of GI manifestations. Sound familiar? While most people think that Lyme can only be spread by ticks, congenital transmission from mother to child during pregnancy is most likely the cause for children with Lyme-induced autism. Largely due to faulty laboratory tests and dogmatic viewpoints, there is a whole generation of women who have been diagnosed with a “label” diagnosis, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune conditions, unexplained inflammation, unexplained immune deficiencies, psychiatric conditions such as depression or anxiety, joint pain or muscle pain who have undiagnosed Lyme Disease infections. Maternal Immune Activation. A scenario where both you and Dr. Hortez can find common ground.
Studies show that Interleukin-6 is expressed at high levels in the CNS for patients with Lyme neuroborreliosis. As aptly stated in the 2007 study “The association between tick-borne infections, Lyme borreliosis and autism spectrum disorders”: “Chronic infectious diseases, including tick-borne infections such as Borrelia burgdorferi, may have direct effects, promote other infections and create a weakened, sensitized and immunologically vulnerable state during fetal development and infancy leading to increased vulnerability for developing autism spectrum disorders. A dysfunctional synergism with other predisposing and contributing factors may contribute to autism spectrum disorders by provoking innate and adaptive immune reactions to cause and perpetuate effects in susceptible individuals that result in inflammation, molecular mimicry, kynurenine pathway changes, increased quinolinic acid and decreased serotonin, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and excitotoxicity that impair the development of the amygdala and other neural structures and neural networks resulting in a partial Klüver-Bucy Syndrome and other deficits resulting in autism spectrum disorders and/or exacerbating autism spectrum disorders from other causes throughout life.”
Most importantly, children with children with co-morbid autism and Lyme Disease improve with treatment for the underlying infections. While the knee jerk reaction may be to cool the immune system based on autoimmunity and elevated IL-6, further immune suppression for a child with underlying infections can cause further damage. For children with an autoimmune presentation with Lyme Disease, often IVIG is used in conjunction with antimicrobials.
For those who have already tested “negative” for Lyme Disease using standard CDC recommended tests, think again. Compare the standards used in China vs. the United States. Consider that the CDC recommended tests were developed to detect a single strain of Borrelia, when there are countless more that infect humans. Logic also dictates that a patient with Lyme induced immunosuppression is unlikely to mount a robust antibody response on standard Lyme tests. Likewise, a child born with Lyme Disease is less likely to mount a strong antibody response on CDC recommended two tier testing. In the paper “Divergent opinions of proper Lyme disease diagnosis and implications for children co-morbid with autism spectrum disorder”, 94% of the autistic patients tested negative using standard labs, yet would have been positive using more expansive standards similar to China. We would love to continue the dialogue. We need funding for further studies, including brain autopsies of deceased ASD patients. We need reliable tests. There is so much more to explore. If you would like to learn more about the Lyme Disease controversy in general, including the unacceptable conflicts of interest for those controlling Lyme policy (similar to those controlling vaccine policies), we recommend the award winning documentary Under Our Skin.
