News Stories relating to "autism"

But we're learning more - Scientists have determined that people often look like their dogs, now a canine chromosome explains why they sometimes ACT like them too. This chromosome, which confers a high risk of the person who has it developing a compulsive disorder, may be linked to both human autism and dogs. Researchers are...

The bad news: there are lots more autistics out there than we thought, because the kids with mild versions of this disease often slip through the cracks. The good news: most of them (in Utah, anyway) are functioning just fine as adults. And "Rain Man" savant type skills, such as astounding memory, perfect pitch or the ability to multiply very...

This theory is based on a comparison of autism with the weather records from three West Coast states: California, Oregon and Washington State. Researchers found that rates of autism were higher in children who lived in states where it rained a lot during their first 3 years.

How can this be? Since we suspect that autism is caused by a...

...And May Affect Adults as Well! - US researchers studying hospital records in Sweden have discovered that parents of children with autism were roughly twice as likely to have been hospitalized for a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, than parents of other children. Doctors know that autism is genetic, although it is...

Autism is believed to be a disease that is triggered when genetically susceptible children are exposed to an unknown toxin. This was originally thought to be the mercury in thimerisol vaccine preservatives, but autism rates have continued to rise, even though thimerisol and mercury have been largely phased out as vaccine preservatives. Now...

The mercury-containing preservative thimerosal has been eliminated from most childhood vaccines, but autism cases have continued to increase, providing evidence that vaccines are not the cause. Fevers?especially high fevers?can damage the brain, but the behavior of children with autism may IMPROVE during a fever, giving researchers a clue to...

Autism has become epidemic in the US and the rest of the world as well. One in 150 children in the United States has been diagnosed with this condition. In Wisconsin alone, a new survey reports that approximately 5 out of every 1,000 Wisconsin children born in 1994 display symptoms of autism. The alarming numbers continue to climb. Researchers...

Here on unknowncountry.com, we report regularly on the epidemic of autism in children and the scientists who are trying to find out the cause of this heartbreaking condition. We recently reported a devastating story about researchers who say this is a condition caused by the genetic susceptibility of some children to heavy metal pollution. This...

Scientists who study idiot-savants, people who are autistic but geniuses in one particular area, think that brain damage in one part of the brain causes other parts to become much more developed than normal. Can a stroke affect the brain the same way?

Tommy McHugh suffered a stroke three years ago. Before then, he had no interest in art...

The artist Michelangelo may have had a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome, and Albert Einstein, Socrates and Jane Austen may have had it too. Psychiatrists describe Michelangelo as "strange, without affect, and isolated" and "preoccupied with his own private reality." Other potential Asperger's cases are Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton,...

Author Michael Fitzgerald says that Socrates, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein may have had a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome. Artists and writers such as Andy Warhol, Lewis Carroll and the poet W.B. Yeats may have had it as well.

Autism is increasing at an alarming rate in the U.S. and in Europe. Mercury preservative in vaccinations (which is no longer used) has been blamed, but then why don't all children develop this problem? Now researchers think that children who become autistic have genes that make it harder for them to process mercury, and they may be getting it...