THE LOST SYMBOL.

THE LOST SYMBOL.

This week I lost my beautiful "circle of life" pendant.  This particular symbol was extremely important to me. I had bought it around four years ago, as a reminder of the difficulties I had risen above. At that particular moment in my life, I was finally beginning to see a light in the darkest of days. It was a very gradual awakening. I was once again feeling more confident in my abilities to withstand everyday challenges. I wasn't afraid any more. It also reminded me to be strong, to never give up and to once again aspire to a future with my children. I guess on the most challenging of days, I would just take a minute for myself..... hold my pendant, that always hung around my neck and just breathe. I immediately knew... I would get through, and as silly as it sounds, it gave me hope.

Now it wasn't a magical pendant... just a plain old gold circle, bought at the local jewellers. But I guess it was the reason behind why I had bought it that made it so unique. I had finally felt for the first time, in months and months of drowning in emotional turmoil, that I had come "full circle" in my life. It was so reflective of what I was experiencing. Starting anew, but this time with two little boys to protect and guide.  It is difficult to make that shift in mindset. From having a partner for so many years, making joint decisions, making joint sacrifices for the good of the family, always having someone by your side, the security..... to being on your own.  I guess that is why I placed so much faith into a meaningless token.  I felt I needed something to believe in again. Every symbol that represented by life and relationships prior, were at the time, meaningless to me..... full of pain and lies. I needed something new. A special token, that I had given to me. Something that I could truly believe in. I had promised myself I would never go down a path of insecurity and disbelief and fear again.... starting my life once more, placing faith into something that I thought would always be there.

So you can imagine the distress I felt this week when I discovered that my necklace had broken and my symbol of hope and strength was gone.  I was so sad. I had retraced my steps, called all the shops and doctors I had visited that day. No one had found it and to this day, it is still missing.  During the week I have been a little low.  Feeling a little lost and vulnerable.  I know this was because I was so disappointed in myself for loosing my pendant.  I failed to rise above particular challenges that presented themselves and basically.... I just couldn't get "my act together." 

 But as with most things in life..... the days pass and time heals.  Just as the previous years have, just as the past week has.  Now that my pendant is gone, I have come to accept the notion that I don't need to wear a symbol of strength... I already have one..... in my spirit, and in me. What has happened I cannot change. The pendant is gone but that doesn't mean that I am not perfectly capable of pulling myself together in times of need. I am still capable of rising above and still strong enough to stand on my feet after being knocked down... going another round....never giving up.

It's ironic really. Whether it's a tattoo on our behind, a wedding ring on our finger, or a pendant around our neck..... it shouldn't make any difference, they are in a sense, just symbols. But what is important to realise is, their special "power"  comes from what we turn them into. Sometimes I think it's easier to believe in a symbol, than to take the time to truly understand how and what we know and accept. It is easier to have faith in something that we can physically see.  Relationships, Life and Communication are powerful things.  How we act in a Relationship, what we Experience and learn from life and how we Communicate... not only to those around us but with ourselves, are powerful attributes. We shouldn't need to wear a symbol to remind us of that. All we need to do is to stop, listen and appreciate what our inner-spirit is telling us.

There is a saying used.....

"Your faith and spirit never abandon you in times of need.  

It is YOU that looses hope and belief.

They are always there..... awaiting for you to find them.

All you have to do is take the time to look."

My Turn: The academic debate over the causes of autism hits home for this family......Environment or genetics? It's probably a combination.

My Turn: The academic debate over the causes of autism hits home for this family

          Environment or genetics? It's probably a combination.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-my-turn-autism-20110711,0,6909944.story

July 11, 2011

By Chris Woolston, Healthkey: Chris Woolston's son has autism. Regardless of the cause, the family deals with the reality of it. (Will Woolston / July 11, 2011)

Autism is an environmental disorder — at least in some cases. Just as lead paint chips can cause learning disabilities and radon in the basement can cause lung cancer, certain chemicals and other outside influences seem to help set autism in motion.

But autism is also a genetic condition. It definitely runs in families, and scientists have identified several specific genes that put kids at risk.

Scientists are trying to understand this complicated push and pull that molds a growing brain. A new study of twins published in the Archives of General Psychiatry makes a case that the disease is about 60% environmental and 40% genetic. Other experts have quickly disputed the finding, claiming that genes are the biggest driver of autism.

This is one academic debate that actually matters to real families. Like mine. My 9-year-old son isn't severely autistic — he has a strong vocabulary, he can bravely tolerate hugs and he can more or less keep up in a mainstream classroom — but he's stuck squarely on the autism spectrum, that hard-to-define neighborhood full of kids who are living in their own worlds.

He almost never makes eye contact, he's reluctant to try new things and he just assumes that everyone else is fascinated with flying things, old Mac computers and the evolution of BBC promos. Seriously, he'll give you the full rundown of promos from the 1950s to today if you ask, which I don't especially recommend.

His mom and I worry about his future in the larger world where social skills matter more than an encyclopaedic knowledge of hot air balloons. Of course, we'd also like to know how we got in this situation. His older brother has some similar tendencies, but he's not as severely affected.

So what happened?

We definitely do not blame vaccines. The so-called link between vaccines and autism has never been scientifically proved, the main study that raised so many fears turned out to be "an elaborate fraud," in the words of the journal that originally published it, and the rates of autism have continued to climb even after vaccine manufacturers removed thimerosal, the mercury-laced preservative that was an alleged autism trigger.

We understand that chemicals could have possibly played a role. Women who are exposed to mercury, cadmium or vinyl chloride before conceiving seem to be especially likely to have autistic kids. My wife didn't exactly spend a lot of time hanging around thermometer factories, but who knows? It's at least theoretically possible that something got into her system and sent our son's growing brain down a strange path.

Interestingly, autism is also more common in the north, perhaps because moms there don't get enough sunlight to load up on vitamin D, a compound that plays a big role in development. We live in Montana, so again, who knows? Perhaps our address played a role.

But we also know that autism is complicated, just like our son. Whether the true balance between genetics and environment is 60/40 or 40/60 or something else entirely, there is no single thing that made him who he is.

I can say for sure that his parents are strange in their own ways. We can see shades of autism in each other; more than shades when we talk about our favorite subjects.

He never had any chance of being especially gifted athletically or socially. But what could he have been if his world had been a little different in the early days? That study will never be conducted. We'll take him as he is, and we hope everyone else is ready for him too.

Woolston is a freelance health, science and travel writer. He lives in Billings, Mont., with his wife and two sons. 

Submissions to My Turn should be 500 words or fewer, are subject to editing and become property of the Tribune Co. Email health@latimes.com. Read more at latimes.com/myturn.

ANOTHER ARTICLE SUGGESTING A LINK BETWEEN AUTISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS.

ANOTHER ARTICLE SUGGESTING A LINK BETWEEN AUTISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS.

Here is another article suggesting a link between Autism and Environmental Factors. I wonder how many more of these articles we really need to read before someone actually connects the dots. An interesting train of thought especially with the current Carbon Tax details being released this weekend in Australia. 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/call-for-answers-as-research-puts-environment-in-the-autism-mix/story-e6frg6nf-1226088429835

Call for answers as research puts environment in the autism mix.

By  Adam Cresswell- Health Editor/ The Australian/ July 6, 2011

AUSTRALIAN experts have called for an urgent acceleration of autism research in the wake of a US study suggesting the devastating condition may be far more due to environmental factors than previously thought.

Earlier studies have found 90 per cent of autism is due to inherited genetic factors, but the new study of nearly 200 sets of Californian twins -- the largest population-based study of autism -- suggests environmental factors may explain 55 per cent of the risk, instead of just 10 per cent.

Australian experts said if confirmed by further research, the findings would "radically alter people's understanding" of how autism should be addressed -- and might for the first time allow for prevention strategies.

The study's authors, from Stanford University, suggested that environmental factors implicated as possibly linked to autism might include low birth weight, multiple births, maternal infections during pregnancy, and women becoming pregnant at older ages. Autism rates in the US have exploded from between four and five cases per 10,000 children in the 1960s to about 40 per 10,000 today. While this is thought to be due to better diagnosis, if the new theory is correct it would also fit with a marked shift towards older mothers, rising obesity and other social trends.

Ian Hickie, director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute at Sydney University, said the prospect that more than 50 per cent of autism was due to environmental factors "raises the question of much more serious prevention strategies". "We need a serious, national autism research agenda," Professor Hickie said.

"We need accurate diagnosis and population sampling, so we can determine if there is a genuine increase in the rate of autism.

"This will also allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of various early intervention strategies."

For the study, published online yesterday by the US journal Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers identified 192 sets of twins born in California between 1987 and 2004 in which at least one twin was diagnosed with autism or a related disorder.

They compared autism rates in fraternal twins versus identical twins, when one twin had it and also when both twins had it. If autism were a completely genetic disorder, both twins in each identical-twin pair would have it, the researchers reasoned. And if it were caused by environmental factors alone, the autism rates in fraternal twins and identical twins would be the same.

The results, showing a far greater environmental impact than earlier thought, showed "clearly that we have to take both environment and genes seriously, and we have to study much more the interactions between genes and environment", said lead author Joachim Hallmayer, psychiatry professor at Stanford University's school of medicine.

In a separate study also published online by the same journal yesterday, another set of researchers claimed to find a moderately higher risk of autism among women who took antidepressants while pregnant.

Autism expert Bruce Tonge, the head of Monash University's department of psychological medicine, said the finding needed to be taken with caution, given recent research showing depressive illness was more common, particularly on the mother's side, in families affected by autism. "It's an important study, but more work needs to be done," he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: SHIRLEY S. WANG, WALL STREET JOURNAL

                                   The other article I suggest you read is;

http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/node/10717

The "Sebree" power plant complex in Robards, Ky., released more than 30 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment in 2009, according to EPA data. A new study of California twins with autism suggests environmental factors are more important than genetics in causing the developmental disability.

New study suggests link between autism, environment

Do Kentuckiana toxic releases cause developmental disability in Ohio River Valley children?A new study of California twins with autism strengthens the case that the epidemic that has swept the nation in the past three decades is related to environmental pollution. The damage, its authors suggest, occurs in the womb and during the earliest days of life.

by Steven Higgs/ July 8, 2011

"Increasingly, evidence is accumulating that overt symptoms of autism emerge around the end of the first year of life," say the authors of the study, which was released online July 4 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. "Because the prenatal environment and early postnatal environment are shared between twin individuals, we hypothesize that at least some of the environmental factors impacting susceptibility to autism exert their effect during this critical period of life."

If that conclusion is true, an analysis of Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data from the six states with Ohio River shorelines show that kids in Indiana and Kentucky are at high risk for autism spectrum disorders.

Industries along an 80-mile stretch of the Ohio from Mount Vernon, Ind., to Hawesville, Ky., reported 166.8 million pounds of toxins released into the environment in 2009. That's more than half the 318 million pounds of TRI chemicals released into the air, water and land by the six states through whose territories the nation's 10th longest river flows.