Association Between Maternal Obesity And Autism

By on September 8, 2012 in Autism

Women are the only human beings on the earth that are capable of giving birth to a child. During the state of pregnancy, a woman should maintain good health so as to be able to give birth to a healthy child. However, pregnant women are not exempt from being obese. Obesity has become a global problem for general health and it is increasing in its prevalence, and it is more common for women to be obese than men.

Maternal Obesity and Autism

Pregnant women can also become obese during pregnancy. This is a bad indication of general health and when a pregnant woman is obese; she has a higher risk of suffering from other medical diseases and may lead to giving birth to a child with a condition like autism.

What is Maternal Obesity?

It is often called parental obesity or overweight or weight gain which is a term that is experienced by a woman during the state of pregnancy. It is known by medical professionals to be a risky condition for a woman that is pregnant. It can cause effects in both the mother and the fetus.

Maternal obesity affects the fetus by causing the fetus to have physical or mental defects. Aside from that it can also affect the mother by her acquiring such conditions as gestational diabetes, blood clots, hyperlipidemia and hypertension which are the common medical conditions linked to maternal obesity.

What is Autism?

Autism is a complex development disability that affects a three year old child. It is characterized with an impairment of social communication as well as interaction. In addition, the child has repetitive and restricted behavior. Medically, the autism condition has the ability to alter the nerve cells and its respected synapses to organize and connect. It has been discovered that there is a link between maternal obesity and children with autism.

What is the association between Maternal Obesity and Autism?

According to a study, women who are pregnant and obese are at high risk of bearing children with the autism disorder. The study concludes that maternal obesity is linked to neurodevelopmental problems which are seen in children, which has serious possible implications for public health.

It has been found that compared to normal healthy pregnant women; women who are obese during their pregnancy are more likely to bear a child with autistic behavior.

Hence, experts are implementing health education that is aimed at informing pregnant women about the importance of having a healthy lifestyle during their pregnancy. They can participate in Flex belt workout exercises that are easy and suitable for pregnant women. They can also follow weight loss diet program like Diet to go which will help them in their goal towards a healthier lifestyle and the prevention of obesity during pregnancy. Every pregnant woman should be aware of the importance of continuing to exercise and diet program while pregnant in order to avoid possible obesity and risk to her unborn child. Visit this page for more details on Flex Belt and Diet to go respectively.

In conclusion, the best way to fight off maternal obesity is to have a firmer grasp of the factors that could lead to it and the possible results when one has it. As they say, knowledge is power. With such, you will be able to determine that too much weight during pregnancy is not good for your baby. When you are pregnant, you should take care with your diet and your body, to be able to bear a healthy baby.

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Reasons Why Obese Mothers May Have An Autistic Child

By on September 7, 2012 in Autism

Pregnancy is the 9 month period during which a woman carries a developing baby inside her womb. This is one of the most important milestones that a woman can experience during her life. During the woman’s pregnancy it is important for her to maintain both a healthy diet and lifestyle because what she consumes or does will affect the baby also. Hence, a pregnant woman should try to maintain herself in the best possible physical state for her own benefit and that of her unborn child.

Obese Mother Autistic Children

Understanding Autism

Autism is a medical condition that affects the behavior and social skills, as well as the language development of a child. It often appears before the child turns three years old. Basically, there is no cure for autism itself. However, early and intensive treatment can work wonders for an autistic child. There are a lot of possible risk factors which may lead to a child to suffer from autism. One such factor is when the pregnant mother is diagnosed with a metabolic problem.

According to studies, autism can be acquired by having a pregnant mother who is obese, or who has abnormal weight gain during pregnancy and has a metabolic disorder at the time of her pregnancy.

The reason behind a mother bearing a child with Autism

Medical experts have pointed out that mothers who have metabolic disorders or those who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus or diabetes during their pregnancies have a greater tendency to bear a child with autism.

Gestational mellitus is a state where a woman has a high level of blood glucose during pregnancy. This leads to the insulin receptor not being able to properly function and the pregnant woman becomes insulin resistant. The hormones that are associated with pregnancy interfere with the normal insulin action.

What happens in cases of gestational mellitus is that with the presence of insulin resistance, the glucose has difficulty entering inside the cell, resulting in more glucose in the bloodstream than normal. In combating this untoward scenario, there is a need to have more insulin. However, because of pregnancy, there is only a little insulin produced in a woman’s body which is not sufficient to able to accommodate the rising glucose level.

The high glucose level in the bloodstream can lead to the baby absorbing it and this will lead to there being too much glucose in the baby’s blood. This will affect the developmental stage of the baby which may be at high risk of acquiring autism if the medical condition is not corrected. Hence, it is important to prevent this occurrence prior to, or during pregnancy.

Preventive action

When a pregnant woman is healthy she is more capable of avoiding or resisting diseases that could affect her and her baby’s health. In addition, a healthy pregnant woman can enjoy life at its best without worrying about spending on medications or hospital expense for her health. Experts recommend that pregnant women invest time in keeping healthy and fit in order to avoid common health problems and enjoy their pregnancy.

Preventing occurrences of mothers giving birth to autistic children ban he helped by maintaining a balanced, healthy diet and lifestyle. Another recommended preventative action is for women to participate in regular exercise such as the 24 hours fitness regime or TRX training which can help in weight loss. Find out more information on TRX training and24 hours fitness at weight loss triumph. There is nobody better positioned to take care of an unborn baby’s health than its mother, but to do this, pregnant women need to care for their own health first as it directly affects the health of their baby.

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Two of a Kind

By on August 15, 2012 in Autism

 

To my 13-year-old Alex I give the command typically heard on a school morning: “Put on pants, socks and shoes.”

 

There’s this thing about the socks. Most people wear a pair that resemble each other. Alex doesn’t.

 

I take inventory of his sock drawer. Balled up: the green and dark-blue “Sunday 7” socks that my wife Jill bought at H&M. Separate: A pale green and a pale blue, each with white stripes. The black and orange I would wear if they were big enough. The “Monday 7.” The blue and black “Wednesday” (how come no number?). The “Tuesday 2,” the brown one with the white stripes. Why is there always this yellow and black “Saturday” without a partner?

 

I collect a pile on my knee of those 10 socks whose partners have been plucked, alone and ragged out, by an autistic young man.

 

Jesus, the other blue and black “Wednesday” in the bottom of the drawer. I ball them up. I find the dark blue ones with the light-blue stripes in the dark confusion of the opposite ends of the drawer, Lovers lost in a way to shatter a heart. I ball them up feeling a little like God. And there’s the light blue one with white stripes! I ball it up with its partner – not that Alex will keep it that way on the school morning of school mornings.

 

I’ve given up trying to match them when doing laundry. I drape the socks over the bars of the laundry cart one by one, each seeming to hope for their old partner or, as we all do in our hearts, hoping for a partner new and thrilling. Why is two of a kind beyond Alex?

 

He’s had clothing obsessions. Once upon a time it was black T shirts. His current one is khaki pants. Next? Some of the garments bear the fading STIMPSON of summer camps over the past few years.

 

How does Alex look to the world in mismatched socks and the old, short Kmart khakis, the only ones he’ll wear until they rag out? Does the world understand that? Does the world understand how he looks, and what do they think of me as I begin to rag out myself?

 

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Autism is

By on August 8, 2012 in Autism

I would like to talk to you about autism. I know, we talk about autism a lot, you and I. But somehow things have gotten off track and I really think that I need to make something very clear. Not for for you or my neighbor or for other people but for me, right here, right now.

I have been living with autism my entire life and didn’t even know it. It wasn’t until I discovered that my son has autism that I truly came to grips with what it really is. And I’m not talking about what I’ve read in medical research studies or transcripts or expert opinions or even public opinions. What I mean is, I know what autism is, to me.

autism isThis may sound a little strange but in a very general sense, autism is everything and it is nothing too.

Autism is the way a person perceives the world around them. It is the way they take it in, interact with it, experience it, process it and live with it. It’s the filter with which all reality flows through before becoming our own reality. It shapes a person’s past as well as their future. With each step forward, all that is involved in that step flows through a vail of autism which invariably alters the course they take towards their next step. Each step being a direct result of the step before it, exponentially affecting further steps ahead. We become a product of our combined experiences, each of which, affected and altered, whether for better or worse, as an effect of autism.

At the same time, autism is nothing, neither tangible or quantitative in it’s existence any more than any other thought, memory, expression, synaptic response or neurological interpretation to stimuli that every living thing is privileged with in it’s existence. It’s a unique perception unlike any other making it exactly the same as any other. It’s a tasteless, touchless, odorless, inaudible and invisible anomaly that isn’t really there.

There’s more, and this is important. So hear me out.

Autism is not a fight between parents. Autism is not a battle with the school board. It’s not about who is functioning higher or lower than someone else or even about what “functioning” even means nor is it about who should and shouldn’t be cured.

Autism is not about what a person looks like and it’s most certainly not about tendencies that a person might have, homicidal or otherwise. It’s not about taxing the system or making life hard on a parent and it’s definitely not about organ transplant bureaucracy.

Autism is not politics. It’s not religion. It’s not about you or me and it’s certainly not about you versus me.

I am tired. I’m tired of all of this.

I’m tired of reading stories in the news about mothers killing their autistic children. I’m tired of people making horrendous and false claims in the name of autism. I’m tired of the fighting, I’m tired of the name calling and I’m tired of the people who can’t admit when they’re wrong. I’m tired of people that are judgmental and I’m tired of the people who think it’s funny. I’m tired of people telling me what I should and shouldn’t believe, what I should and shouldn’t say and what I should and shouldn’t think.

I’m really, just tired. Very tired.

So here it is, as simple as can be.

Autism is me. It’s my son. It’s the little girl who can’t speak but screams with every breath she takes. It’s the little boy that completely loses control one moment but creates his own computer operating system the next.

Autism is the man that needs a heart transplant to live. Autism is the young woman that goes to Washington to fight for people she doesn’t even know but loves.

Autism is the life taken far too early by the parent that didn’t know what else to do. Autism is the life that wandered away from safety, scared and unknowing of the dangers around them.

Autism is not a disease. Autism is not a battlefield. Autism is not an opinion.

Figure it out. Work it out.

Because autism is a lot of people.

Autism is the perception, the experiences and the reality that effects and shapes what is to become a person’s life and yet, it’s nothing too, for all the same reasons.

It’s people.

It’s lives.

Autism is.

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Placing a value on a life

By on August 7, 2012 in Autism

Bullies see some people as having less value than others.
Racists see some people as having less value than others.
Sexists see some people as having less value than others.
Doctors see some  people as having less value than others.

Yes. Doctors.

Early this year, a mom named Chrissy Rivera wrote a blog post called Brick Walls which chronicled her battles with the children’s hospital there. Her daughter Amelia was being denied a life saving kidney transplant on the grounds that she was “mentally retarded.”

The doctors, using what ever measuring stick they had at their disposal, decided that young Amelia’s quality and potential length of life was of lesser value than other people that could use a good kidney.

The special needs community all around the world talked about Amelia’s story, signed petitions and even bombarded the hospital with angry phone calls and emails.

It’s been a long 8 months since that blog post was written but Amelia will be receiving a brand new kidney from her mother.

The story should end there, in triumph but sadly, it does not.

Paul CorbyPaul Corby, a young man of 23 is going to die unless he has a heart transplant. He knows this because his father died at the age of 27 from the same condition.

But doctors are telling his mom, Karen Corby, they won’t do the surgery because he has autism.

Actually, they claim that they don’t know how the steroids will react in his system, how he’ll handle multiple procedures and that taking care of himself afterwards is complicated.

In other words… because he has autism.

Again, doctors are using an imaginary measuring stick to place a value on a human life and determining whether or not it’s worth even attempting to save.

Here’s the problem with placing a value on a human life… it lessens all of humanity.

It’s sad and pathetic enough when your random low life does it to further their own gains but when a well educated and respectable person that has sworn to practice medicine ethically and honestly, to save all lives, does it, it really speaks volumes to just how much of a greedy, barbaric and filthy society we’ve truly grown to become.

Dr. Suess said it best when he said “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

It doesn’t matter if you see a child, a senior, a disabled person, man, woman or anything else that you perceive a person to be; a person’s a person.

What you should be seeing is a life. A human life.

There is no measuring stick and there is no value.

All life is priceless.

It can not be measured.

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Please sign Karen Corby’s petition to get her son the surgery he needs: http://www.change.org/petitions/help-my-autistic-son-get-a-life-saving-heart-transplant

 

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