On any given day, dozens of emails come to me, from gmo-free activists and researchers around the globe. For the most part the story remains the same.

Monsanto and the Biotech Brigade somewhere are waging war on human health, the environment and Sovereignty. Attacks focus on targets down to the lowest levels, as they legislate loopholes to perpetuate a taxpayer funded Business Plan, privatizing the seeds of life and putting Nature to work for the petrochemical companies benefit.

The assortment of notices from items like the secret clause in this year's 2007 farm bill stripping the rights of States to make their own food laws or legislate limitations where Monsanto chooses to grow Roundup Ready crops.

A full range of variations to the same theme arrive, each noting ways the newest ways the Biotech Brigade are assembling their forces to destroy critics, suppress studies showing harm, pay pundits and form front groups to keep focus on drug treatments. The goal is to somehow spin skyrocketing rates of illness into a discussion point for medication, rather than interfere with the profitable implementation of a global mono-culture, rent a crop system.

From the standpoint of studies the content generally focuses on animal feeding studies but this was different for several reasons. First was the link between autism and hormone levels which has never crossed my radar before.

While there has been a growing belief that growing rates of autism were somehow tied to external factors, this is the first time a suspected cause intersected with a Monsanto product effect that I track.

In this case its the rBGH milk from cows treated with Monsanto's Posilac. Studies banning the genetically altered, hormone milk including increased risks for diabetes, cancers and gastro-intestinal problems, have kept the Monsanto milk banned around the globe since 1994. Here in America we see organic dairies sued for adding statements about milk from untreated cows, but that's another story.

There is no link to the article summarizing the study's findings but it is critical enough to the health of our children that it is added here.

There's no doubt the study will come under attack by the corporate cabal who continue to maintain that petrochemical enhancements have benefits without negative health consequences, but to my view that's a choice consumers should be free to make, after arming themselves with all views.

Washington, D.C.-- Boys with autism and related disorders had higher levels of growth hormones than other boys, which may explain why children with the condition often have larger heads, according to government researchers.

Boys with autism and autism spectrum disorders were also heavier than boys without these conditions, the teams at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital reported.

Other studies had already shown that children with autism have very rapid head growth in early life.

Dr. Duane Alexander/ Dir. National Institute of Child Health & Human Development

"The study authors have uncovered a promising new lead in the quest to understand autism. Future research will determine whether the higher hormone levels the researchers observed are related to abnormal head growth as well as to other features of autism." "

No one knows what causes autism, a complex developmental disorder that includes problems with social interaction and communication.

Symptoms range from mild awkwardness seen in Asperger's syndrome, to severe disability and mental retardation. A recent CDC survey found that 1 in every 150 U.S. children has autism or an autism spectrum disorder, a less severe condition related to autism, such as Asperger's.

Writing in the journal Clinical Endocrinology, Dr. James Mills of the NICHD and colleagues said they compared the height, weight, head circumference and levels of growth-related hormones to growth and maturation in 71 boys with autism to a group of 59 healthy boys.

The boys with autism had higher levels of two hormones that directly regulate growth — insulin-like growth factor-1 and IGF-2. The boys also had higher levels of hormones that indirectly affect growth.

The researchers did not measure the boys' levels of human growth hormone, which for technical reasons is difficult to evaluate.

The boys with autism and those with autism spectrum disorders had a greater head circumference on average, weighed more and had a higher body mass index than the other boys, although there was no difference in height between the two groups of boys.

Girls are much less likely to develop autism than boys, and the researchers were unable to recruit enough girls with autism to participate in the study.

Several genes have been linked with autism, but environmental factors may also play a role, experts say.

Sources: Heather Van Nest & Reuters

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written by P Drew, August 21, 2007

What a tough job to parent a child with special needs, of any kind. Being "just a mom" is as close to an expert as anyone can get. There is so much conflicting information, in part because no one knows what the causes are and like the rest of us, every child is unique in what their bodies react to and what the results are.

One child may get a rash from the gmo soy and corn while another has reflux from the pesticides produced from inside the plant and yet another has something else from the novel proteins or antibiotic levels in the dairy. The variables are almost endless.

I'm not a doctor either but have done enough research on diet and front groups to know that much of the conflicting information is created by front groups promoting unhealthy, chemically altered varieties as equal to nature's own.

We are all very delicately balanced chemistry sets that can go awry with a few minor changes. Unfortunately we are left with guessing as Moms and Dads who have the responsibility to do our best without much more feedback than what we see in our own kitchens and what other parents see as well. There's no doubt many more children are reacting to foods with allergies and other health problems and there's no where near the research needed to explain why.

We do know healthy immune systems and strong bodies are essential and for that reason my own kiddies were never allowed to eat any non-organic dairy products or foods that had added hormones, ie fast food chicken and beef. Is that why they've never had ear infections or digestive problems and never been on antibiotics when cla*smates live on the drugs? It is impossible to know, we guess as parents, every day and my guess just leans toward trusting centuries of Natural evolution for the nutrients we need as opposed to the companies selling additives and drugs from two sides of the business.

We are all experimenting in our kitchens with every child we try to feed and we as parents make our best guesses, it is unfortunate that the Congress is so corrupt that dangerous additives are allowed and we as consumers ar3e left to navigate by trial and error to identify the problem foods and real consumer advice from carefully created front groups trying to pose as consumer information.

Another great source of food information with medical input is AllergyKids who also deal with ingredient issues and have honest MD input. What we could all use is reform of oversight so we can be confident that when foods are changed to include elements not found in Nature, someone is testing for safety and following up for possible effects over time. Until then, we need to try to stay closer to what God and Nature have created and keep pressure on Congress to work for the public not corporate interests. We need to look for causes for a whole spectrum of illnesses that are epidemic because without the tests, it's just a hunch.

My hunch is like yours, the adulterated foods aren't making things better and may even be linked to causes, so it's certainly time to investigate the possibilities scientifically and until then the "experimental" foods come into our homes at our own risk.

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written by Mom, August 17, 2007

I would like to know if there has been any research done on rbst in a*socaition with Autism? Perhaps rbst does affect children with lowered immune systems?

I know they are saying there is a link between autism and yeast overgrowth in children. My son has autism and in trying to find natural ways to help him, I keep coming across so much conflicting data on yeast and rbst. Here are my thoughts:

I got to thinking (now mind you I'm not a doctor - just a mom), what if because of his problems with his stomach and earaches (he had reflux and was on antibiotics because of ear infections), his immune system was already low. He was very intelligent as a 2 year old and then by kindergarten had regressed socially. Perhaps his 'good yeast' was not present and when he started on cows milk at 1 1/2 to 2 years, this caused the IGF levels to increase and cause development problems? They have found a yeast connection with autistic children, and most have had stomach problems of some sort or were on antibiotics. Could these type of children be susceptible to the hormone in cows milk. The reports talk about an increase in antibodies in humans drinking milk from hormone injected cows. I don't know if there is a connection either, as I'm not a scientist, but I wanted to know if studies had been done. We could blame antibiotics, but as I learn more about the growth hormone it got me thinking. It seems that rbst use started growing just as Au tism cases started to become epidemic.

Anyway food for thought