Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Autism and the Amygdala


CNN is reporting the results of a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry where researchers found that the amygdala was 13% larger in children with autism. Advances in medical technology are revealing new things in the science of medicine. This is absolutely fascinating, but I wonder what it means. Could this lead to a cure someday? The topic of autism has received much attention lately, especially in the area of vaccines. So many parents are afraid to vaccinate their children because they fear that vacccines may be linked to autism. As a result, this may lead to some serious public health problems if we have all these kids out there who are not vaccinated. Thankfully, herd immunity should help a bit, but it won't protect everyone. Image source: CNN

1 comment:

  1. While I’m not opposed to much needed vaccinations I do believe the medical community and as a society we need to take a close look at to whether all the vaccination are needed at such a young age. Could not some of these be left until a child is age 5-6 right before school, giving the young brain and body more time to develop? Some of these, such as Chicken Pox, are not even life threatening diseases. From what I can find 27 does/vaccinations are given to a child by the time they are 2 years of age. Or if the mother is not Hep B positive is it necessary to have the dosages so young?

    Again, while these immunizations are important, does it have to all take place in rapid doses at such a young age?

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