"Juice Plus+ is the perfect way to ensure that we get more of the whole food based nutrition we really need."

Ensign Aquatics

Autism Speaks 100 Day Kit Now Available

Juice Plus+ For a Healthy Life

Mom has questions about SB 1563-Autism Health Ins.

The Autism Rights Movement

Special Offer- Get your FREE Tickets!

APA: Bipolar Disorder Both Under- and Overdiagnosed

The Special Education Muckrakers

The 2nd Annual Wright Family Community Picnic

UNBELIEVABLE: St. Lucie teacher has students vote on whether 5-year-old can stay in class

"Baby Sibs" Study Finds Early Accelerated Head Growth May Predict Autism

HELP! Mom needs a DAN! doctor

Delia Garcia, M.D.
Home: St. Louis, Missouri

Medical Specialty: Radiation Oncology

Education: Graduated summa cum laude from Western Illinois University (1976). Graduated from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (1979). Internship at University of Wisconsin Hospital (1979-80). Resident/Chief Resident at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (1980-83).

Fellowships and Appointments: American Cancer Society Clinical Fellowship (1981-82). Assistant Professor of Radiation Therapy and Oncology, Medical College of Virginia (1983-84). Assistant Professor of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine (1984-1992). American College of Radiology Fellowship (2001).

Other Professional Accomplishments: Author of over 40 scientific articles. Founding member of a cancer and breast institute in St. Louis (1999). She is a leading expert in breast cancer and was selected by her peers to appear in Best Doctors in America.

Community Service: Professional Advisory Board Member, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation ("Race for the Cure") and The Wellness Community of Greater St. Louis.

Health Advice: "Take responsibility for your health, and you will be astounded by the benefits. Stop smoking; eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; exercise daily; and, drink plenty of water. "Life is not a dress rehearsal! Simple measures can make a huge difference in disease prevention."

Why she recommends Juice Plus+: "Last year alone, I consulted with over 400 new patients diagnosed with cancer. The sad truth is that many of these cases might have been prevented through sound nutrition, stress reduction, and an overall healthy lifestyle. "As a busy professional and mother of three, I realize how difficult it is to eat the way we should, especially day in and day out. Juice Plus+ is the perfect way to ensure that we get more of the good, whole food based nutrition we really need."

I never endorse anyone or anything. Opinions expressed in what I send out, may not be shared by me. Everything is for informational purposes only.

People who "advertise" through this newsletter have never been checked out by me. This includes professionals and even people who are interested in babysitting, etc.

Please take the time to thoroughly check out anyone and everyone that will be working with or caring for your child. We are all sadly aware, through news stories and word of mouth, of people who pray upon special needs children because of their extra vulnerability.

Thank you,
Valerie Dodd-Saraf
My enewsletters are archived on my website:
www.ValeriesList.com

We teach swimming lessons to all ages , levels, and challenged people.

We teach SWIMMING to autistic kids. Please contact us it you are interested in SWIM LESSONS.

Thanks,
Susannah Ensign
EnsignAquatics.com
Swim School
Tel 858-272-0612

The Autism Speaks 100 Day kit is created specifically for newly diagnosed families to make the best possible use of the 100 days following the diagnosis of autism. The kit contains information and advice collected from trusted and respected expers on autism as well as from parents of children with autism. There is a week by week plan for the next 100 days, as well as organizational suggestions and forms that parents and caregivers can use to help with the paperwork and phone calls as they begin to find services for their child.

Newly diagnosed famiies (within six months of diagnosis) can order a kit which will contain personalized information specific to the child's age and location.

Juice Plus+ is the simple, convenient, and inexpensive way to add more nutrition from fruits and vegetables to your diet, every day.

Tony and I have been taking Juice Plus+ daily for almost 5 years and we feel fabulous, and are more healthy. I have Fibromyalgia Syndrome (an inflammation of the nervous system that causes painful muscle spasms and chronic fatigue), and Juice Plus+ reduced my pain level by 90% and doubled my energy level. (Results may vary.)

Juice Plus+ is whole food nutrition and will not interfere with any biomedical treatment that you may be doing with your child, but will actually enhance it.

If you would like more information about Juice Plus+, please email me.

If you would like to order Juice Plus+, click here.

Isadore Rosenfeld, MD, and his 'family take Juice Plus+ regularly.'

Hi Val,
Please post:
Does anyone know what the timeline is on SB 1563 - AUTISM: HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE. If this passes then that means that the insurance companies have to come up with a solution to cover certain ASD therapies? Does anyone know more about this particular bill? What it means? When it could come into effect?
Thanks,
melanielanders@adelphia.net

A new wave of activists wants to celebrate atypical brain function as a positive identity, not a disability. Opponents call them dangerously deluded.

On December 1, the NYU Child Study Center came out with advertisements in the form of ransom notes. One said, "We have your son. We will make sure he will not be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning." It was signed "Autism." Another said, "We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation. It's up to you now," and was signed "Asperger Syndrome." Harold Koplewicz, director of the center, hoped the ads would propel undiagnosed children toward competent professionals. But they repelled and upset a subset of the very population they were meant to assist: people with autism-spectrum disorders.

Best Buddies has just received a LIMITED number of tickets to the:

20th Anniversary Mainly Mozart Festival
Presenting: Martin Chalifour on Violin

At the:
Balboa Theater
868 4TH Avenue
San Diego, CA
Sunday, June 15th at 2:00 PM

Please let me know if you would like to have any tickets and how many you would like.

Tickets are FREE and will be given out on a first come first serve basis!

In Friendship,
Annelise Cohon
Citizen Program Manager
619-584-5450 work
www.bestbuddiescalifornia.org

WASHINGTON, May 8 -- More than half the patients who were told they have bipolar disorder may have been misdiagnosed, even as it goes unrecognized in a substantial number of those who really do have it, a researcher said here. Action Points

In 145 psychiatric outpatients who said they had been previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the condition was ruled out in 56.6% after they underwent the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, the diagnostic "gold standard," said Mark Zimmerman, M.D., of Brown University in Providence, R.I.

The structured evaluation also revealed that, of 555 other patients who had not previously received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, 27 actually did have the condition, Dr. Zimmerman told attendees at the American Psychiatric Association meeting.

The Special Education Muckrakers are people who care passionately about what happens to disabled kids in the public schools. We are researchers and scholars; lawyers; advocates; parents; related service providers; special educators and administrators.

We believe that all publicly-funded special education programs, placements and services should be required to be effective and efficient and humane. We know that many, at this time, are "none of the above."

We believe that public school administrators, employees, contractors and their allies should be held as responsible, and in the same way, as administrators, employees, contractors and their allies are held in the private sector. Employment in a public school district is not an excuse: that their students or clients have disabilities does not invoke blanket amnesty.

We realize that many speducators, speducrats and spedservice providers are well-intentioned, kind people. But we also know that the old adage "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" is as true of the American special education industry as it is everywhere else.

Public special education programs, placements and services have for too long been the sacred cow of government and media: " just too complicated," and replete with built-in and manufactured excuses. We believe that this singular immunity from legislative and public scrutiny, and prosecution, is inappropriate and unwarranted.

benefiting
The Autism Tree Project Foundation

Date: Saturday, July 12 2008
Time: 12 - 4 PM
Lunch served noon-2 pm
Location: Westminster Park, Point Loma
3598 Talbot Street
San Diego, CA 92106
Corner of Talbot Street and Cañon


It's Carnival Time!
"We are thrilled to treat the ATPF families, our friends & family, our neighbors, and the entire San Diego community to a fantastic, good old-fashioned, patriotic family picnic, packed with Red, White and Blue Fun!

This event, benefiting the Autism Tree Project Foundation, will include an autism awareness table, raffle with giveaways for families, picnic lunch, music , arts and crafts, a jumper and climber, and party favors for kids. Come join us!"

For more information call Karen & Tim Wright 619-405- 0176

PORT ST. LUCIE - Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son's kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class.

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the class voted him out of the class.

May 23, 2008 (London, United Kingdom) - Infants with an older sibling with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) (high-risk infants) who were subsequently diagnosed with ASD themselves had accelerated early-life head growth compared with infants who had no family history of ASD (low-risk infants).

These preliminary results, from a prospective study by the High-Risk Baby Siblings Research Consortium, were revealed by Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, MD, from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, in an oral presentation at the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research.

But Will This Be Clinically Useful?

"Overall, our analyses suggest that there is genuinely an increased rate of head growth in children who go on to develop a diagnosis of autism and that this difference is detectable in the first year of life," said Dr. Zwaigenbaum.

There are, however, a number of caveats, he added.

First, the differences were relatively small, and the results are preliminary, so it remains to be seen how useful this information will be in clinical practice to identify individuals at increased risk of autism.

Second, although this is the largest prospective study of head growth in ASD - which includes autism, Asperger's syndrome, and related conditions - some of the differences between the risk groups might be due to measurement and other discrepancies between the different sites.

"That being said, I think the opportunity to work with a large group of children from infancy who go on to develop a diagnosis of autism will give us a much better sense of who are those infants who present with much more accelerated head growth, and hopefully that will lead to certain clinically useful information that will both help with early detection as well as our understanding of the origins of autism," he said.

Head circumference is 1 of the most consistently replicated and promising biological markers for autism, said Dr. Zwaigenbaum, adding that roughly 20% of children with autism have a head circumference above the 97th percentile.

Longitudinal retrospective studies have suggested that children with autism are born with a head size that is roughly average, but their head growth accelerates over the first few years of life, so that a significant number of these children are macrocephalic by age 2 or 3 years, he noted.

To date, however, there are no prospective data on whether atypical trajectories of early-life head growth can predict autism, the group writes.

Large Collaborative Effort

The High-Risk Baby Siblings Research Consortium is a collaboration among researchers at 17 sites in the United States, Canada, and Israel who are studying high-risk infant siblings of autistic children to better understand this disorder.

The current report aimed to prospectively determine whether high-risk infants had accelerated early-life head growth compared with low-risk infants. The researchers hypothesized that increased head growth in the first 2 years of life might predict autism.

Researchers at 11 research sites in North America studied head-circumference data from 761 high-risk infants and 400 low-risk infants. These data were supplemented by health records in 25% of the cases.

ASD was diagnosed at 24 months from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed (DSM-IV) clinical best estimate based on developmental history and from symptoms observed on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).

Preliminary 24-month outcome data were available for 428 high-risk infants, including 70 who were diagnosed with ASD at age 2 years, as well as 257 low-risk infants.

The researchers compared head growth in 3 groups:
>High-risk infants who were subsequently diagnosed with ASD at 24 months.
>High-risk infants who were not subsequently diagnosed with ASD.
>Low-risk infants.

They found that the mean head circumference at birth was very similar in the 3 groups.

The rate of head growth in the first 2 years, however, was 0.06 cm/month faster (a significant difference) in the high-risk infants who were later diagnosed with ASD than in the infants who did not develop this disorder.

"We don't have the final word yet, and it may be that this information does contribute to early detection, but I think that we have to be very conservative in making that prediction," Dr. Zwaigenbaum cautioned.

The High-Risk Baby Siblings Research Consortium is funded by Autism Speaks and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research: Oral Presentation 151.2. May 15-17, 2008.