Do you think Autism can be cured? Vote now.

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Larry King

The difference between a diesease and a syndrome is that a diesease is theoretically curable. I personally feel that Autism is 100% genetic and it is not preventable.

What the...? Voting is about even. The ignorance of the public is astounding.

It probably can be "cured". All human beings could be reduced down to vegetables through lobotomy.

well, Jim Carrey seems to believe so, and being a fan, I should support him, so what he says must be true.

I suppose this 'vote' is fuelled by parents wishing they could have 'normal' kids. I for one would not want a severely autistic child. I do have a problem with the term 'cured' I doubt an ASD will ever be cured but may be prevented.

Who says that the disorder is genetic? Is there definitive proof or is the theory as subjective as the MMR thesis.

There has also been some study done into a possible link to lack of Vit D and the disorder. This of course would explain the recent increase in ASD diagnoses with everybody covering up their kids in fear of skin cancer.

Once if you had said that cretinism or spina bifida could be prevented through diet you would be laughed at. So until we find the cause of ASD's lets keep looking.

Saying this I do suspect that it is genetic; but this is still to be proven.

Autism and Asperger's have a higher heritability than any other disorder in the DSM. The MMR theory was a pile of BS made up by a guy who falsified his data because he was being paid by a law firm that was trying to sue vaccine manufacturers.

Pretty close.

Individuals can't be cured of autism, but all autistic people could be removed from the population (selective breeding, perhaps, or by more sinister means.) But would society at large really want this given the benefits that have been provided to humanity by many of its autistic members?

Hmmmm, now that I think about it, maybe there are a lot that would. They could join those that want to eliminate blacks, jews, catholics ..........

In principle, I am sure its possibly to fundamentally alter somebody's neural wirings. So, in one sense, you could get a completely different person whose behavioural symptoms would not fit an autistic spectrum diagnosis.

Of course, it is out of the realm of practicality now and their would be serious ethical questions about even trying to change the way someone processed the world.

There are people like myself who have some AS characteristics and find losing them would be very undesirable. There are others who find it very difficult to care for themselves without much help from others. These people need whatever help they can get.

It's not 100% genetic. There is a genetic disposition, which can be rather strong, or relatively weak.



If it was 100% genetic, then all pairs of identical twins would either both have autism or both not have autism. But 40% of the identical twins who have a sibling with autism do not have autism....not 100% genetic.



So for 'autism related traits' (and probably some syndromes diagnosed as asperger's), environmental modifiers (diseases, immune stress, etc) are important.

(all quotes from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15121991)

Just for clarification, where is the proof that autism is genetic?

I've been searching for it, but I haven't found anything clear cut. Post links. I've also heard that autism come from environmental causes, despite the fact that they have connected some genes to the condition. Kind of like how they have connected genes to depression or alcoholism, but there are millions of people with that gene who aren't depressed or alcoholics, because their gene hasn't been activated by outer or internal forces.

The science of epigenics might bring a cure to autism, if it is genetic.

EDIT: Monty just gave me the clarification I need. It appears it isn't completely genetic.