Walk Now for Autism Speaks

Walk Now For Autism Speaks  Orlando Together we'll find the missing pieces! Saturday November 12, 2011 Cranes Roost Park, Uptown Altamonte Altamonte Springs, Fl 32701 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Event Information   Now for Autism Speaks is a fun-filled, family friendly event and is  our single most powerful force to fund vital research that will lead us to  the answers we need. Contact information: Chelsea Robinson, 407-478-6330.  Email: Chelsea.Robinson@AutismSpeaks.org Event Location: Cranes Roost Patk at Uptown Altamonte Altamonte Springs, Fl 32701 Event  Schedule: Registration: 9:00 A.M. > 11/12/2011 Walk Start: 10:30 A.M. &gt: 11/12/2011 Fees: Walker Registration: No Fees Rewards: T-Shirt ($150.00 +) Each Regstered walker who raises a minimum of $150.00, will receive a  2011 - Walk Now for Autism Speaks T-Shirt Grand Club ($1,000.00 +) This prestigious group of walkers have raised $1,000 or more for Walk now for Autism Speaks this season. The program was created to give extra recognition and VIP treatment on Walk Day to these top walkers. Our goal is to double the number of Grand Club members in 2011. Want to join us? Start fundraising today! Rewards: VIP treatment - and extra recognition Event Map: http://g.co/maps/2gjwr Event Link: http://bit.ly/kLE8jD  Walk Now for Autism Speaks PORT ORANGE This is a great opportunity for locals of Volusia County to support Autism Speaks. November 19, 2011 Kenneth W. Parker Amphitheater and City Center 1000 City Center Circle Port Orange, FL 32129  Registration opens at 9:00, and the walk starts at 10:30. Very Important Links:  Walk Now for Autism Speaks: http://bit.ly/tBf9Zy Walking A Step in the Right Direction: http://1.usa.gov/WalkingforHealth Caminar, un paso en la dirección correcta: http://bit.ly/caminar

THE ATHLETE'S PAIN

As Sports Medicine Surges, Hope and Hype Outpace Proven Treatments
By GINA KOLATA

Published: September 4, 2011

Until she tore her hamstring a year and a half ago, Tina Basle ran marathons. Since then, she has been on a desperate search for a cure.

It took her from doctor to doctor, cost her thousands of dollars and led her to try nearly everything sports medicine has to offer — an M.R.I. to show the extent of the injury, physical therapythat included ultrasound and laser therapy, strength training, an injection of platelet-rich plasma (or P.R.P.), a cortisone shot, another cortisone shot.

Finally, in February, she gave up.

“I decided this is never going to heal, so let’s get on with it,” she said.

And so Ms. Basle, a 44-year-old digital media consultant who lives in Manhattan, started running anyway. She has lost a lot of speed and endurance. And, she added, “the stupid hamstring is really no better.”

Medical experts say her tale of multiple futile treatments is all too familiar and points to growing problems in sports medicine, a medical subspecialty that has been experiencing explosive growth. Part of the field’s popularity, among patients and doctors alike, stems from the fact that celebrity athletes, desperate to get back to playing after an injury, have been trying unproven treatments, giving the procedures a sort of star appeal.

But now researchers are questioning many of the procedures, including new ones that often have no rigorous studies to back them up. “Everyone wants to get into sports medicine,” said Dr. James Andrews, a sports medicine orthopedist in Gulf Breeze, Fla., and president-elect of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.

Doctors love the specialty and can join it with as little as a year of training after their residency, as compared with the more typical two to four years for other specialty training. They see a large group of patients eager for treatment, ranging from competitive athletes to casual exercisers to retirees spending their time on the golf course or tennis court.

The problem is that most sports injuries, including tears of the hamstring ligament like Ms. Basle’s, have no established treatments.

Of course, some remedies for certain injuries do work: putting a cast on a broken bone or operating to repair a torn Achilles tendon. But patients whose injuries have no effective treatment often do not know that medicine has nothing to offer. And many expect cures.

“They watch ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and think we can do anything,” said Dr. Raymond Monto, a sports medicine orthopedist in West Tisbury, Mass. “And to a certain extent, we allow that.”

Added to that is the effect of sports stars and their doctors. Patients “see a high-profile athlete and say, ‘I want you to do it exactly the same way their doctor did it,’ ” said Dr. Edward McDevitt, an orthopedist in Arnold, Md., who specializes in sports medicine.

The result is therapies that are unproven, possibly worthless or even harmful. There is surgery, like a popular operation that shaves the hip bone to prevent arthritis, that may not work. There are treatments, like steroid injections for injured tendons or taping a sprained ankle, that can slow the healing process. And there are fads, like one of Ms. Basle’s treatments, P.R.P., that soar in popularity while experts debate whether they help.

All this leads Dr. Andrew Green, a shoulder orthopedist at Brown University, to

ask, “Is sports medicine a science, something that really pays attention to 

evidence? Or is it a boutique industry where you have a product and sell it?”

“For a lot of people it is a boutique business,” he said. “But are you still a doctor if you do that?” Continue reading > http://nyti.ms/nbhqwj   

Laura Shumaker, A Regular Guy: Growing up with Autism

Two Autism Speaks employees, Ali Dyer and Kerry Magro, recently read Laura Shumaker’s book,“A Regular Guy: Growing up with Autism.” Each wrote a response to the book, unique to his/her relationship with autism. Ali has an adult brother with autism; Kerry, an adult with autism, is a rising senior at Seton Hall University, majoring in Sports Management. Below is Kerry’s response to the book.

This week I had the pleasure of reading Laura Shumaker’s book “A Regular Guy: Growing Up with Autism.” The book gives her perspective about her son Matthew’s journey from early childhood into adulthood with autism.

Before going into the book, I just wanted to say I admire what Laura has been doing to help families with children on the spectrum. I first learned about Laura’s book after she commented about one of my earlier blogs about the Autism Speaks 400 race. It was really great to see that all of this was able to come together.

The best way to describe the book would be a rollercoaster of good times and “learning” times for The Shumaker family. The one main thing that is clear, though, is the loving bond of a mother and family doing everything they can to make sure their son grows up to be okay. Whether it is early on where she is desperately looking for that special “Miracle Cure” or when Matthew gets older and it’s more about accepting him as who he is. This book gives you the whole insight to a mother’s struggle everyday with a child with autism.

Many parents look for answers and Laura’s book is sure to connect with parents with children on the spectrum as it goes through different diagnoses of ASD, school placement, family life, money complications, stress levels, babysitting options, and unforeseen struggles that come often come out of nowhere.

Being diagnosed with autism, I gained a great respect for different individuals with ASD from reading this book. As a young adult on the spectrum it makes me want to learn more about how my early childhood compares to Matthew’s.  It also made me continue to understand that no one diagnosis is the same. Every diagnosis has a different rarity from individual to individual. There are thousands of treatments, yet not one cure.

What we can take from this book in the end, however, is that no one is alone and there is always someone to be there for you – whether it is Autism Speaks’ Family Services, an autism helpline, or even a brilliant author like Laura. Growing up with autism should be an experience of understanding and learning.

(And hey, no one is really “regular” anyway, right?)

Did you read Ali’s post yesterday? If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Your Digestive System and How It Works

El aparato digestivo y su funcionamiento| http://1.usa.gov/l2hw0t 

En esta página:

• ¿Por qué es importante la digestión?
• ¿Cómo se digieren los alimentos?
• ¿Cómo se controla el proceso digestivo?
• Para obtener más información

El aparato digestivo está formado por el tracto digestivo, una serie de órganos huecos que forman un largo y tortuoso tubo que va de la boca al ano, y otros órganos que ayudan al cuerpo a transformar y absorber los alimentos (ver la figura).
Los órganos que forman el tracto digestivo son la boca, el esófago, el estómago, el intestino delgado, el intestino grueso (también llamado colon), el recto y el ano. El interior de estos órganos huecos está revestido por una membrana llamada mucosa. La mucosa de la boca, el estómago y el intestino delgado contiene glándulas diminutas que producen jugos que contribuyen a la digestión de los alimentos. El tracto digestivo también contiene una capa muscular suave que ayuda a transformar los alimentos y transportarlos a lo largo del tubo.

Cuestionan los tratamientos convencionales del CÁNCER

Un grupo de prestigiosos oncólogos pertenecientes a la International Society for Proton Dynamics of Cancer (www.ispdc.net) ha decidido cuestionar públicamente tanto lo que oficialmente se afirma del cáncer como los tratamientos que se utilizan. Para ello decidió enviar a través de Discovery DSALUD una Carta abierta al Dr. Mariano Barbacid -Director del Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO)- en la que le solicitan responda públicamente a una serie de cuestiones de vital importancia en el momento actual de la investigación del cáncer y diga si está de acuerdo en que ha llegado la hora de hacerse un replanteamiento global sobre esta patología, muy especialmente en lo que a la manera de afrontarla se refiere dado el fracaso de los actuales tratamientos médicos en la mayoría de los tumores malignos. La carta --extensa y técnica- fue publicada íntegra en el número 134 de Discovery DSALUD y en ella se denuncia que la afirmación de que la palabra "cáncer" engloba en realidad "a más de 200 enfermedades distintas" es una aseveración que "corresponde a una visión obsoleta del cáncer que se opone frontalmente al moderno paradigma surgido en la Oncología hace escasos años".

El Peligro de la LECHE y sus Derivados

Artículos publicados por la prestigiosa y reconocida revista Discovery D Salud


 
A pesar de la creencia general la leche animal no es adecuada para el consumo humano. Puede provocar numerosas patologías. Y no ayuda a fortalecer los huesos; en Estados Unidos, el mayor consumidor mundial de leche, es donde hay más casos de osteoporosis. Al contrario, la leche animal nos acidifica y desmineraliza pudiéndonos provocar osteoporosis. De hecho las mujeres vegetarianas que no toman leche tienen un 18% de pérdida de hueso mientras las omnívoras padecen una pérdida ósea del 35%. En cuanto a los niños lactantes sépase que éstos asimilan bien la caseína de la leche materna pero no la de la leche de vaca. Ésta puede inflamar el organismo y ser causa de intolerancias y alergias. Además está constatado que los niños que toman varios vasos de leche al día tienen sus arterias en peores condiciones que los que no la toman. Sin olvidar que la leche de vaca contiene 59 tipos diferentes de hormonas que pueden ser causa de muy diversas enfermedades degenerativas. Es hora de que sepa: el consumo de leche -y sus derivados -se ha relacionado ya con la anemia ferropénica, la artritis reumatoidea, la osteoartritis, el asma, el autismo, las cataratas, la colitis ulcerosa, la diabetes mellitus tipo i, los dolores abdominales, la enfermedad de crohn, las patologías coronarias, la esclerosis múltiple, el estreñimiento, la fatiga crónica, las fístulas y fisuras anales, la incontinencia urinaria o eneruresis, las migrañas, los problemas de oídos y garganta, la sinusitis, las reacciones alérgicas, el sangrado gastrointestinal, el síndrome de mala absorción, los trastornos del sueño, las úlceras pépticas, la acidosis, la preeclampsia, la dificultad de aprendizaje en niños, la infertilidad femenina, los linfomas y los cánceres de estómago, mama, ovarios, páncreas, próstata, pulmón y testículos.