Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to I agree, actually...however autism is on the rise...

and asthma, and many forms of cancer
alcaray — (archived)

Some of increase in disease can be attributed to the fact that the population is aging. If you compare health statistics between two populations, one with median age of 40 years and another with a median age of 50 years (for example), the stats will not be identical. Since our population's median age is getting higher, stats taken before compared to stats taken now (with an older population) will seem to show trends that are not really there. Of course, when doing studies like this, it is not impossible to control for the difference in aging. Many studies do. Those that don't are probably trying to sell something.

Another thing that can show false trends is the way that the diagnosis of the disease is done. Doctors follow trends just like celebutants. Official criteria for diagnosing diseases is revised and changes over the years. New diagnostic technology is invented every year and it must have an effect on the numbers. These changes are more difficult to control for than simple aging of the population. Even so, good studies do try to account for them as best they can.

All that aside, and back to your question, my personal belief:

You are right. It is very interesting that some diseases increase. And they do likely have a cause that relates to changes in our lifestyle or environment. Problem is, there are millions of changes to our lifestyle and environment both. We live now in an environment that is very different from the environment that the human body was designed for. It is darn tricky to figure out causes when there are so many variables.

As to mercury in vaccination preservatives being a cause of autism, I would think that the mercury in our fillings and in our diet would be a much larger source. It is true that there is more mercury in our environment than there was when humans were invented. It may be that there are affects caused by long-term, low-level exposure to mercury that are not discovered yet. Time will tell.

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