|
Genetic Verses Hereditary ... The Critical Difference!!! The more I read about matters relating to autism, the more something became rather obvious to me... the fact that, generally, we assume that because a disorder is said to be "genetic" that it is "hereditary"... but, indeed, there is a VERY CRITICAL difference here. I first became aware of this issue as I researched how Downs Syndrome (DS) fit into this whole puzzle. As explained in book 3, DS is a "genetic disorder"... and in this disorder, we see something happening whereby chromosome 21 duplicates itself! So, yes, "genetics" are definitely involved... but, does that mean that this "genetic disorder" is "hereditary". No! Note the statement in the link that follows I quote: "Why Down’s syndrome occurs is
unknown. What is known is that the risks of conceiving According to this link, http://www.altonweb.com/cs/downsyndrome/index.htm?page=bettencourt.html the incidence of DS is also very much on the upswing... "In 1997, 7000 children were born with DS in the United
States alone. Worldwide, the and this quote... from the same resource "Twenty-five percenty of all miscarriages are caused by Trisomy 21." [end of quote taken from http://www.altonweb.com/cs/downsyndrome/index.htm?page=bettencourt.html ] and this quote... again, from the same resource... The age of the mother also affects the rate of occurrence. For women between the ages of 35 and 40, the risk of having a baby with Down syndrome increases to one in 350. For women at the age of 40, the risk increases to one in 100. For women at the age of 45, the risk increases to a stunning one in 30; that's the basic Trisomy 21. Fifty percent of the people born with translocation are scattered, and another fifty percent are due to balanced translocation in one parent; thus, it's heredity. To this day, however, the reoccurrence rate is unknown. Down syndrome-Trisomy 21, is not really an inherited disorder but more of a genetic abnormality of the chromosome makeup in the body. [end of quote, http://www.altonweb.com/cs/downsyndrome/index.htm?page=bettencourt.html, Down Syndrome: Trisomy 21, Jonathan Bettencourt, Biology Alive!, 1998, Long Island University Virtual Classrooms].
Amazingly, as I researched DS, I came across more and more information that seemed to indicate that DS was indeed "genetic" but "not hereditary". In less than 1% of cases is DS considered "hereditary" - and for that to happen of course, the parents would have had to have the "genetic mutation" themselves. But, for 99% of cases, that is indeed NOT true! So, the question becomes... what happened ... in the 99% of cases - between the "genes" of the parents and those of the child so that the infant was "born with" DS - a "genetic but not hereditary" condition? Could that "genetic mutation" in the child possibly have anything to do with the fact that, for decades, we have been injecting humans with known gene mutants via vaccines? Things such as - aluminum and formaldehyde - are both found in vaccines and are both known to be "gene mutants"! Let us not forget that by age 35, the DS brain resembles that of - Alzheimer's - what I now believe to be nothing more than "autism in the elderly"! As a result of the information I found and discussed in "book 3", I also very much believe that DS absolutely fits into all of this "autism puzzle" also! Note that a "dual diagnosis" of DS + Autism was "no longer rare"... so much so that this was now a "topic of discussion" on the agenda item at international DS conferences... both past and present. http://www.altonweb.com/cs/downsyndrome/index.htm?page=barcelona2001.html Note that during the Simpsonwood meeting, as attendees discussed the rise in neurodegenerative disorders - in general - , the following comment was made: Dr. Weil, pg. 208: "The rise in the frequency of neurobehavioral disorders whether it is ascertainment or real, is not too bad. It is much too graphic. We don't see that kind of genetic change in 30 years." [end of quote from Simpsonwood transcripts]. In other words, Dr. Weil was stating that "genetic change" in 30 years could not account for the tremendous increases we were seeing in these disorders. Well, I can only say that it appears Dr. Weil considered "genetic" and "hereditary" to be one and the same. Interestingly, Dr. Weil's statement made me think of "something else" though... all we were seeing in all these "other disorders" were but "a mutation here and there"... and yet, in DS, what we were seeing was an entire chromosome replicating itself! So, if indeed Dr. Weil's comment of "changes in genetics" over 30 years was correct, well surely a "change in genetics" consisting of an entire replication of a chromosome was a much greater mutation than just a mutation "here and there" and as such - how did the CDC possibly explain what we saw in DS - the "genetic but not hereditary condition" in which a much greater mutation occurred - potentially - over a much shorter period of time - because children with DS were certainly also being born to mothers under the age of 30! Given the statement made above that "25% of all miscarriages might be caused by Trisomy 21" - was it not "rather odd" that a "genetic but not hereditary condition" could be resulting in so many miscarriages today? What in the world was causing "all these mutations, all these disorders, all these premature deaths"? Hum... My guess was that prenatal vitamins - loaded with iron - very much played a role into all this - again, see book 3 for more on this issue! Note that DS, Alzheimer's, Autism, and many others were considered "iron overload" disorders. Note that iron and insulin were now known to "modulate" one another... my son - Zachary - was born "low on glucose" - a clear sign of a problem with insulin from day one! Note also that those with DS were said to have a higher incidence of diabetes and leukemia... much, much more on all this in book 3 - also discussed briefly in following links: http://www.altonweb.com/cs/downsyndrome/index.htm?page=bettencourt.html (general overview of DS) http://www.drgreene.com/21_1072.html http://www.dsmig.org.uk/library/articles/dsa-medical-series-5.pdf (DS and diabetes) http://www.edelsoncenter.com/Diseases_Treatment/down_upd.htm (DS and iron) Note also that heart problems, leukemia, diabetes, ear and eye problems - as indicated in second link above - were also common in DS... how interesting again... given these were also, so often, very much issues in - autism! My nephew, diagnosed with PDD - on autism spectrum - also had heart problems and required heart surgery at age 5!... and again, my own son was born "low on glucose"... a clear sign of a problem with insulin from day one! Iron and insulin modulate each other... and iron, was very much known to impact - the heart! How very interesting indeed that "genetic" DOES NOT mean "hereditary" - and that "genetics" appeared to be rather "stable" over time... and therein - was a critical issue - because, obviously, being "born with" a disorder did not mean that the damage could not have been "environmental"! Indeed, the more I learned, the more I believed that perhaps in most disorders what we were seeing were indeed "genetic mutations" that may very well be "genetic but not hereditary"! So, yes, "genes" were involved... because "mutations had occurred"... but, those "mutations" were not necessarily "hereditary" ... at least not AT FIRST... then, they may very well be "hereditary" as the "bad genes" or "genetic mutations" were passed on to the offspring. But, again, even if "hereditary"... what caused the "original mutation"? To call something "hereditary" because the offspring received a mutated gene from the parents does not mean that "the original mutation" was "hereditary" also... again, what caused that mutation in the parent? If 99% of cases of DS are "non-hereditary"... call me crazy... but, I suspected that 1%, truly was not "hereditary" either! ... and in my opinion, there was simply no denying the TRUTH that: "GENETIC" DOES NOT EQUAL "HEREDITARY"!!! and that... just as "mutations" could occur on any chromosome, the fact that a mutation appeared on the X chromosome did not necessarily, in my opinion, mean that this mutation could not have been caused by environmental factors... and as such, I looked rather skeptically upon research that too often automatically stated a disorder was "hereditary" or "genetic" because of a mutation on the X chromosome. Quite frankly, I saw this as nothing more than "blame it on the mother disorders" - disorders where when man could not explain the mutation, the likely explanation was to "blame it on the mother's genetics"... kind of like the old "blame it on the cold mother" excuse for autism! It certainly seemed to me that we had all - as a society - been conditioned into thinking that "genetic" meant "hereditary"... and that "hereditary" meant "its a problem with your genetics"... and that this meant the "genetic or hereditary problem" could not possibly be "environmental"... but, certainly, this little insight into Downs Syndrome appeared to very much indicate otherwise... Downs Syndrome... the genetic but not hereditary condition that could, in my opinion - like autism - shed a great deal on all these issues of "genetics" and "mutations" and whether or not they could be the result of environmental factors such as viruses themselves, iron, mercury and aluminum . As the old saying goes... If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough and often enough... the people will believe it! Adolf Hitler |
|