Autism and Fevers

[ysabetwordsmith]

This study suggests a link between autism and fevers during pregnancy.  While there are many possible triggers, this is the first I've seen mentioned of fevers.

What snagged my attention is that this could be a temperature-related effect.  (It could also be triggered by immune response, but this seems less likely given that ibuprofen seemed to avoid it.)  If the trigger is activated by temperature, then higher environmental temperatures could produce the same outcome.  Environmental temperatures are rising; autism rates are rising.  This makes me wonder what autism rates would look like if mapped against global temperatures and the availability of air conditioning.

Then I wonder if people with autism are better, the same, or worse equipped to deal with environmental stressors such as excessive heat.  That is, could this be an adaptive response, or is it simply a result of high temperatures during pregnancy?

Another factor, not mentioned in the article, is that this could be a vaccine link that nobody's noticed yet.  Pregnant women are nagged to take vaccines, but the most common result of that is ... running a fever for several days as the body tries to kill it with fire.  If running a fever while pregnant can affect the baby, in this or other ways, then people might want to reconsider that advice or at least equip more informed consent regarding the pros and cons.  Not like medics give a flying fuck about informed consent, or women, but it's a nice fantasy.

Comments

[ayebydan]

Could you not talk about me like some sort of lab rat? This post makes my blood boil to be honest. You talk about people with autism as if we're a different species to be looked at under a scope.

And I read this when more eugenics crap comes out about trying to find and delete the autism gene while once again ignoring the thoughts or feelings of anyine who is actually autistic.

Vaccines do NOT cause autism. I am sick of reading this utter drivel. People with autism have ALWAYS been here. What is happening now is more of us are getting a diagnosis and making sense of our lives instead of feeling like we are broken or having some neurotypican shut us away in an assylum because of THEIR failure to understand us. I don't know what you lot are doing on your side but women here are not nagged to take vaccines. They are encouraged to stay away from people who are NOT vaccinated.

And the flu is a virus that mutates every year into several strains. Smallpox and measles ect tend to remain close enough to the original vaccine strand to remain effective. Basic high school biology. Or at least here it is.

Seriously, this pissed me off. If you want to ponder autism and its causes try to word yourself better.

[dewline]

Amen.

[gingicat]

YES. Ysabet, this absolutely infuriated me.

My mom had a fever occasionally while she was pregnant with me, and I'm not autistic.

I don't ever run a fever, and my son IS autistic.

And if that's your general attitude about vaccines... as we all know, you're a lot better than most people at seeing ramifications down the road, and people who can't see the ramifications will say "Ysabet agrees with me that vaccines are all bad, and she's super-smart" and that will be that.

Not so incidentally, the severe measles epidemic in Samoa is being blamed on the citizens believing American antivaxxers.

Even if fevers and vaccines DID cause autism, I'd rather have a living child (and self) than a dead one.

[gingicat]

Also, pregnancy elevates progesterone, which elevates body temperature. A spike in basal temperature is one of the signs of implantation.

How well-controlled was this study, exactly?

[chanter1944]

What gingicat said, but from me. I'm all out of eloquence. I don't know which dismays me more, the assumption of gross, casual negligence on a grand scale as regards vaccine manufacture (you sound like my sister the antivaxxer, where intelligence gives way to conspiracy) or the turning of the metaphorical microscope on the spectrum and those on it, if not seeking correctable quote unquote defects in a pattern yourself, then certainly doing legwork for those who would, whether or not you meant to. The latter, frankly, surprises me unpleasantly.

... Evidently I was not entirely out of words after all.

[tree_and_leaf]

Hear, hear.