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Post a Comment | OCTOBER IS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
Julie K. Silver, M.D.
***An Interview With Breast Cancer Survivor Dr. Julie K. Silver
Book Review: What Helped Get Me Through
Book Review: Taking Care of Your "Girls"
Book Review: From the Heart: Eight Rules to Live By
Are Breast Self Examinations Unnecessary?
***There is No "Normal" With Breast Cancer
Walnuts Slow Breast Cancer Growth
***Cancer Epidemic is Preventable
New Poll Finds Women Unaware of Some Breast Cancer Risks
***Drinking Alcohol Promotes Cancer
Fly American and Help Save Lives
Choices in Breast Cancer Treatment
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DIET BITES
As a forty-year-old woman you don’t often feel that a second lease on life is attainable. As a forty-year-old woman struggling to get up the stairs because of an excess 70 pounds around my middle I knew this just wasn’t an option. I had to turn my thinking around completely and gear up for the greatest challenge of my life as I faced the fact that I was overweight and unhealthy.--Tosca RenoWeight loss remains a tough nut to crack, but with the right match between program and person, the right social support system, a level of determination and commitment, it can be done.--Jonny Bowden
33 percent of Americans – some 71 million people – are on a diet.--Wendy Chant
When weight loss is rapid, there are even more negative effects on body. Sometimes this is only noticed later, after weight loss stops and you hit a plateau.--Cathy WongDid you know that your diet may contribute more to global warming than your car does?--Sally Kneidel
Learning to think like a thin person involves a retraining of the brain known as Cognitive Therapy--Judith BeckTHE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION:
WHAT REALLY MATTERS?
The Debates--Will There Be Assurance?
What Do Barack Obama And John McCain Have In Common?
Who Will Be Our Visionary Leader?
Primary Care Crisis Will Doom Universal Coverage And You
Why We Can't Conserve Our Way Out of High Gas Prices
Who Will Write Our New Energy Laws?
Climate Change: A New President's Challenge
Political Promises, Healthcare, and Our Big Fat American Diet
Turning The Nation Around: From The Bottom Up
Social Security Retirement Age to Climb
Can Obama Save The Endangered Species Act?
With Gustav Republicans And Democrats Show Their True Colors
Conservative Women May Decide The Outcome of the U.S. Election
Where The Presidential Candidates Stand on Social Security And Medicare
Obama-Biden '08: Sounds Like "No We Can't"
Obama's Next Challenge--Going From "Yes We Can" To "Yes We Will"
On Presidential Candidates And National Conventions--Who Do YOU Trust?
Who Will Be President For 1,460 Days?
Poll Speculating On Presidential Politics: How To Pick A Winner
The Big Night--Does Obama Need A Tune Up?
Why Are Americans Waiting For The VP Pick?
Oil Speculators And Presidential Politics
McCain, Obama, And The Politics of Homogenizing Autism
Retirement Professionals Overwhelmingly Prefer McCain To Represent Retirees' Interests
Senator McCain To Share His Cancer Plan
The Creation of The Federal Mortgage Insurance Corporation
McCain Is Clear of Skin Cancer
On The Eve of a New Election--Former Vice President Al Gore Leads The Way Forward
Candidates For President Speak Up On Cancer
Barack Obama's Wholly Un-American Speech
Campaign '08 And The Politics of Meaning
"We" An Idea Whose Time Has Come
How Much Would Universal Coverage Cost Us?
Barack Obama Dares Us To Recover
Who's Winning The Race Online?
Charles Barber
Jonny Bowden
Kate Bracy
Eric Braverman
Brenda Della Casa
Maynard S. Clark
Glenn Croston
Julie Gabriel
Mark Goulston
Trisha Gura
Jessie Gruman
Nancy Grant
Mark Hyman
Annabel Karmel
Dean Karnazes
Shobha S. Krishnan
Matthew Lesko
Davis Liu
Brian Moore
Michael Ozner
Steve Parker
Alex Pattakos
Lucy Puryear
Mark Reinfeld
Arthur Rosenfeld
Stacey Rubin
Fritz Scheffel
Tracey Seaman
David Servan-Schreiber
Tanya Steel
Julie K. Silver
Blog Action Day (October 15th) is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year's theme is Poverty and its ensuing repercussions. Basil & Spice authors will proudly participate in this worldwide awareness effort.
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COMMENTARY ON:
Lisa Lillien
2007 FAVES
Hector Roca & Bruce Silverglade
Aug 7, 2008 William Stillman is a nationally recognized autism self-advocate, speaker, and author of numerous special needs
parenting books including Demystifying the Autistic Experience, The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Asperger's Syndrome, Autism and the God Connection, and The Soul of Autism.
Stillman has advocated for persons with different ways of being since
1987, and he serves on several advisory boards including Autism
National Committee. He also writes columns for The Autism Perspective and
Children of the New Earth magazines. In his work, Stillman seeks to
passionately transform perceptions of autism from those defined as
"afflicted sufferers" to those with valuable gifts to offer the world.
His Web site is www.williamstillman.com.
What causes autism is the subject of an increasingly-heated debate nationwide that is not likely to refrain any time soon. Most prominent among the multiple theories is too many childhood vaccinations in quick succession—and the toxins therein—induce rapid regressions in children developing typically. Previously it was thought that the mercury preservative, thimerosal, in the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine was the culprit but that was eliminated almost a decade ago. Books and journals have focused on the vaccination theory and certain persons in the public eye have endeavored greater awareness of this issue. It does, though, beg a number of questions. If the vaccines overwhelm the physiology of very young children, does it induce autism or does it accelerate emergence of autistic symptoms already present? Is the experience of those children who become violently ill after receiving certain vaccines (and who appear autistic-like) the same thing as autism? And what of those children unaffected by vaccinations who are later diagnosed with autism. As much as I disdain the puzzling puzzlement of the autism puzzle-piece symbol, it is quite the conundrum.
In addition to the preceding, proposed causes of autism also include a genetic strand that naturally predisposes some children to the autism spectrum. (In my work as an autism consultant, I meet a lot of undiagnosed adults, and they’re the parents of the children for whom I’m consulting.) External environmental toxins to which a fetus is exposed in utero (as inhaled or consumed by its mother) are also proffered, as is more accurate diagnosis of individuals who would’ve been labeled with intellectual deficiency in another era. Other theories range from plausible and worthy-of-research to downright outlandish such as middle-aged fathers; indifferent mothers; mothers who are depressed or have extended ring fingers (I think, I can’t recall exactly which finger was the pre-determinate); too much television; too much cell phone use; a mixing of different ethnic groups (!); even extraterrestrials (!!)—well, you get the picture. We’re purveying paranoia about an “epidemic invasion” of sorts.
As a result, many Americans are panicked into believing that virtually anything—the theory du jour—is culpable for causing autism. Not only that, Americans may be led into thinking that autism is a phenomenon isolated to the United States. It’s not. It is occurring worldwide. It is estimated that there are approximately 1.5 million people with autism here but the numbers are also comparable for what’s being cited in China. Our statistics indicate 1 in 150 children have autism but in Ireland it’s 1 in 110 and in the United Kingdom it’s 1 in 100. Autism shows no signs of slowing down despite research and studies and awareness and fund-raising. In fact, I’m going to predict that within five to ten years, the rate in the United States will jump to 1 in 10 children. And at this rate, concurrent with research efforts, it’s high time we began to focus on not just what causes autism but what autism causes.
Thank goodness human beings are different now than we were as Neanderthals. We’ve made innumerable, extraordinary advances. It’s called evolution. But what’s to say we’ve reached our epoch? What’s to say we’re going to remain as static as we are at present? What’s to suggest that we won’t evolve further still and emerge as differently in contrast as when we compare ourselves with cavemen—and what precisely would that look like if it were to occur? Perhaps there’s a purpose to autism being in the world; a renaissance, a rebirth, and a call to reverence for all of humanity. People with autism tend to have less need for words, desire to live in peace and quiet, and don’t comprehend aggression or competition. I hear regularly from parents of children with autism who, as a result, have been compelled to slow down and really focus upon what’s important in life. Not the highest-paid position, the fastest car, the biggest house, or the most expensive wardrobe but love and compassion for their child with a unique and different way of being. One mom told me that autism made her finally “grow up” and become a responsible adult. Others undergo dramatic transformation such as Bill, father to son Christopher, “I was a violent, angry man until I met my son. Thank God for autism and the changes it has brought about: human beings without prejudice, spiritual beings full of love—what a fantastic epidemic.”
Of course not everyone is in a position to attain such surrender and sacrifice. It may be argued that disagreement and dissension will keep rising in accordance with autism’s very statistics. But be advised that the numbers of children diagnosed with autism will also continue to grow silently and surely and without any singular explanation. Can we entertain unconventional notions in compromise with research for causation? If so, I suspect we might just uncover a strange and remarkable enlightenment.
© 2008, William Stillman
McCain, Obama And The Politics of Homogenizing Autism
Autism: A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry
The Back Room Kids: Shame, Guilt, And The Autism Myth
Autism: A New Cultural Competency
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