Autism researchers shifting away from genes - Scoliosis next?

[PNUTTRO]

The role of viruses in cancer has been known since 1964 (Burkitt's lymphoma).

I still don't know what any of this has to do with scoliosis.

[Pooka1]

Children don't spontaneously "get sick" because they have a gene.

Yes they do... emergent Marfans syndrome. One year you don't meet the criteria and the next you need prophylactic aortic root replacement surgery or risk death because you then meet the diagnostic criteria.

And by the way, very "mature" and "adult" of you to refer to me as "Kooka" rather than Pooka on Celia's yahoo group.

Celia consistently mischaracterizes what I've said to the point that I think she really doesn't understand the arguments. And you join her in her hysterical nonsense. Not surprised but something for you to consider.

[Dingo]

childhood genetic disorders

Prevalence of Marfan Syndrome

The prevalence of the syndrome is 7-17/100,000.

That's roughly 1 in 5,000 to 15,000 children which is what you'd expect from a potentially dangerous childhood, genetic disorder.

The rule of thumb is 1 in 10,000 children or less. Only a handful are more common and quite a few hit 1 child in hundreds of thousands or even millions.

[Pooka1]

There have been complaints that this post is essentially too factual so I have edited twice...

Let me just say that anyone who has done a research doctorate and has gotten to the cutting edge and added to the science would say it takes a few years at least to get a sense of the literature in any one small, focused field.

It's best if one approaches it cautiously and slowly at first until they develop an accurate approach and have some good sense of the actual issues.

[Pooka1]

I've toned down the facts in the previous post.

[hdugger]

Deciding if its genetic/AIDS

I know I'm swimming a long way upstream for this, but I had a lot of time to read this weekend while I was waiting for them to activate my account

I was (briefly) an epidemiologist and I know some of the people who worked to pinpoint the cause of AIDS, and this is exactly correct. Things that appear in a cluster (either geographical or behavioral) are mostly suspected to be non-genetic, even if there's quite a long delay for onset. So, because AIDS appeared in people who had the same behaviors (either homosexual relations or drug use) rather than in people who were related, they assumed it was contagious, and that it was somehow contagious through those behaviors. Since it affected the same groups that got Hepatitis C, they assumed pretty early on that it was contagious through blood.

Anyway, go on with your conversation

I'm here researching options for my son who has scoliosis/kyphosis. As far as I can tell, there's no genetic history of this condition in our families, so I'm interested in what the possible causes could be.

pooka1

AIDs often follows infection by ten or more years and researchers still figured out it was HIV and not genes. How do you explain that?

I don't know a lot about AIDS research but perhaps it didn't look random. It hit certain groups particularly hard, it was fatal and it was brand new.

If AIDS had existed for thousands of years and hit every group in equal numbers it might not have looked like an infection.

Society might have grown to accept that 1 person in 250 gradually loses his/her immune system and dies a decade later. Genes certainly play a role in AIDS. If I remember correctly some people are genetically immune to it.

[Dingo]

Common STD blamed for half of Penile Cancers

Common STD Blamed for Half of Penile Cancers

A sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer is also to blame for half of all cases of cancer of the penis, Spanish researchers said on Tuesday.

Once again when young people get sick genes aren't usually the best explanation. That's not meant to discount the possibility of genetic susceptability to troublemakers like HPV or other microbes or toxins.

This type of cancer occurs in around 1 in 100,000 men in North America.

BTW, as a guy I find this really oogy.

[PNUTTRO]

Once again when young people get sick genes aren't usually the best explanation. That's not meant to discount the possibility of genetic susceptability to troublemakers like HPV or other microbes or toxins.

Once again, when kids get cancer, it is almost always genetic. When kids (less than 5 years old) get a serious illness, it is usually caused by some congenital defect--genetic or otherwise.

p

[Pooka1]

Once again, when kids get cancer, it is almost always genetic. When kids (less than 5 years old) get a serious illness, it is usually caused by some congenital defect--genetic or otherwise.

p

I think illness is caused by evil spirits, evil eyes, etc., not germs, not genes.

[Dingo]

cancer always genetic?

PNUTTRO

when kids get cancer, it is almost always genetic

If you are talking about cancers that hit roughly 1 in 10,000 children or less they certainly could be the result of heredity. If the cancer is more common than that you are probably talking about genetic susceptability to some other factor.

[hdugger]

I'm not seeing that in the literature. Everything I see says around 5% of cancers in children have known genetic causes.

Even were it 100%, though, I presume our interest here is in understanding how environmental factors can change the course of the condition, regardless of its cause.

Dingo, I've been looking at the Melatonin studies. My son (kyphosis and scoliosis, onset around age 15) slept every night with *all* of the lights in his room on from about age 14 until 17. He has lots of other possible contributors - hypermobility, lack of balance, and some asymmetry in his muscles from an early age - but I do wonder now if that had some affect on him.

The question for me, with a now adult child of 21, is what I can do to give him the best long term results. Something I was reading at the University of Washington site (which I absolutely can't find tonight) said that while fusing addressed some of issues of scoliosis, it put new pressures on the spine which were likely to lead to arthritis above and below the fusion. I do wish there was something he could do which did not cause its own set of problems.

Once again, when kids get cancer, it is almost always genetic. When kids (less than 5 years old) get a serious illness, it is usually caused by some congenital defect--genetic or otherwise.

p

[Dingo]

What to do now

hdugger

The question for me, with a now adult child of 21, is what I can do to give him the best long term results.

I'm not an expert but it probably depends on how severe your son's cure is.

A mom forwarded me some information about an adult woman with Scoliosis. I'm not sure how bad the woman's curve was but she was in pain and was considering surgery. At some point she decided to give strength training a try. Lifting weights dramatically reduced her pain so she stuck with it. That was many years ago and today she feels great and wouldn't consider surgery. I've read that weak trunk muscles are a significant risk factor for back pain in healthy adults. Maybe the same is true for adults with Scoliosis.

Another treatment that may hold promise for adults with back pain is Ozone therapy. It's used around the world and should be in the USA soon. This isn't really designed for Scoliosis but I don't see why it wouldn't help.

If your son's back is healthy enough to hold out another decade or two advanced technology may be able to dramatically improve his Scoliosis. There are a few different internal braces in development right now. Dental braces used to be for kids but today adults use them as well. Maybe back braces will be the same. Like dental braces internal spine braces are removed after the job is done.

BTW when my son was diagnosed with Scoliosis at age 5 he was sleeping with tons of lights on as well. He had a night light, hall light, bathroom light and a street light shining through his window. I had no idea that was unhealthy. Exposure to light at night (melatonin disruption) is a risk factor for all sorts of cancers including childhood Leukemia. It's an easy problem to fix but very few people are aware of it.

[Pooka1]

The question for me, with a now adult child of 21, is what I can do to give him the best long term results. Something I was reading at the University of Washington site (which I absolutely can't find tonight) said that while fusing addressed some of issues of scoliosis, it put new pressures on the spine which were likely to lead to arthritis above and below the fusion. I do wish there was something he could do which did not cause its own set of problems.

Could you please post that when you find it?

Thanks in advance,
sharon

[Dingo]

herpes virus linked to premature birth

PNUTTRO

Once again, when kids get cancer, it is almost always genetic. When kids (less than 5 years old) get a serious illness, it is usually caused by some congenital defect--genetic or otherwise.

Speaking of congenital defects...

Herpes Virus Link To Preterm Birth And High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy

Their work demonstrates, for the first time, that exposure to viral infection -- especially viruses of the herpes group -- may be associated with pregnancy-induced hypertensive disease (pre-eclampsia) and also with pre-term birth.

The research discovered the presence of viral nucleic acid in heel-prick blood samples from 1326 newborn babies, taken over a 10-year period. More than 400 of these babies were diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

"We are just beginning to understand the interaction and importance of exposure to viruses and genetic susceptibility to infection both in pregnancy and the newborn," says Associate Professor Paul Goldwater, the virologist of the team.

Once again a common set of childhood disorders comes back to genetic susceptability and environmental damage.

[Ballet Mom]

Hi Dingo! Keep it up, love ya!