Say Anything Blog

A large portion of severe autism, a la the classical definition of autism, is caused by spontaneous mutation in the sperm making cells of older (34 and up) fathers. Everytime a new study is published finding older paternal age and devastating outcomes for offspring the information
is downplayed in the media. I believe it is time to change that and see the male biological clock for what it really is for the neural developmental normality of offspring. If one reads the existing research on the topic one will find over 50 years of papers reporting on the effect. 1/3 of all schizophrenia is said to be due to to older paternal age. Mental retardation, diabetes 1, MS, Alzheimer’s etc. etc. in sporadic non-familial forms is due to spontaneous mutations in spermatagonia. These disorders and others are all defects in the genes of the nervous system, including diabetes 1 (Hans Dosch). The affected children are not given a ghost of a chance at a normal life, I would say the diabetes 1 and MS are not as deleterious as autism, schizophrenia, and mental retardation. Shouldn’t everyone know of this effect? Isn’t this the right time to talk openly about it after Jonathan Sebat and Michael Wiggler led a study which actually showed that some children with autism had copy number variations in their DNA that was not in their parents. Have they checked the spermatagonia of the fathers yet?

This paper by Dr. Dolores Malaspina explains some of the research on neural developmental disorders and paternal age: http://www.schizophreniaforum.org/for/curr/Malaspina/default.asp

We can do something about this cause of neural developmental disorders. We can decide to cryopreserve sperm in client depositor sperm banks for any fathering of children past the age of 32. There is no possible cure for these severe neuro developmental disorders, but the sporadic/non-familial versions can be prevented, in most cases by fathering all babies by 32 or with semen that is stored from ones 20s-32.

First people have to know the facts about the vulnerability of the genes that control the development of normal myelin and the nervous system and brain.

George Bartzokis, myelin researcher said:
“The issue is that the older man will have sperm that has undergone more divisions and therefore had more chances to have mutations.
The COMPLEXITY of the myelination process makes it more vulnerable to mutations.  I am not talking of one specific mutation.  Many things could MANIFEST in the myelination or myelin breakdown process because it is so vulnerable - something going slightly wrong will impact it while it will not impact bone growth or the heart.  A good example is ApoE4 - whatever else it may affect, it manifests in the reduced capacity of myelin repair and earlier onset of AD.”
For some abstracts and musings about the male biological clock: paternal age and human genetic disorders here are some sites to explore:

http://autism-prevention.blogspot.com/

http://how-old-is-too-old.blogspot.com/

http://ageofthefatherandhealthoffuture.blogspot.com/

http://fathersageandsinglegenedisorders.blogspot.com/

We don’t really want to cure autism do we? I mean where will MIT get their students from if we cure it?

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

Samantha,

Thank you so much for this post.  I’ve spent a few years studying brain development and thought processing.  It’s a great place to have all this information linked in one spot.

Leslie,

Good information… If legit.

What’s the suggested recourse?  Do you suggest that men stop trying to have kids after 35?

Sparkie,,, or where would MIT hide it autism professors… ie. Noam Chomsky!

Communism is evil

The MIT comment was more directed at the physics and math depts there where they have buildings full of geniuses with no social skills whatsoever. we joke that an interview for acceptance is best handled by running away and hiding… then they know you think enough to have no other skills at all.

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

Sparkie, thanks for that acknowledgement about MIT.  It used to be a revered institution.  No more.

Communism is evil

The MIT comment was more directed at the physics and math depts there where they have buildings full of geniuses with no social skills whatsoever.

Maybe Sam can answer this better, but I think the MIT folks you refer to have Aspbergers Syndrome.

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”
- John Adams

Number one Noam Chomsky is not a classical autistic or is Bill Gates.These men may have social deficits, but they have nothing like classical paternal age derived autism. Of course familial autism like familial schizophrenia can be very severe also. There is a very murky reason for changing the definition of autism in the DSM IV. This was done in 1994, when it was known that the number of men who were fathering babies 35 and over was steadily increasing. There was not a doubt that all this later fathering was going to cause an upswing in neuro-developmental disorders on a population level. It had to be for the benefit of the the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industries. For the elucidation of these very varied conditions, lumping them together has been a disservice to possibility of intellectual understanding. It is like putting the common cold together with the ebola virus and trying to discuss them rationally.

Seth, depending on your genetic heritage, I do suggest caution, if one is 35 and already has a family. The child conceived at 35 might have a higher risk of prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s and all the genetic disorders, etc The interesting fact is that daughters conceived at 35 have more genetic problems than sons in many cases. 35 is much better than 38 etc. Have you had time to read all the abstracts? We have been mislead in thinking that 35 for a male is a young for biological parenthood. We have been mislead by a industries that profit from older males fathering babies, these industries know about the paternal age research and fight to have it suppressed. We have also been, I think, indoctrinated into thinking that the over all risk of fatherhood at 35 is very small to the offspring. It could be proved that the reason people get non-familial cancer is because of tiny copy number variations or labile sites due to mutations in sperm due to having had an older father(33-35 and up) and also due to our father’s exposure to toxins. Even drinking more than 3 cups of coffee per day causes double strand breaks in DNA in men regardless of their age. To me the very worst outcomes are the disorders of the brain and nervous system which seem most susceptible to the paternal age effect. It will be found, or it could be found, that autoimmune disorders are really, at the root, disorders of the genes of the nervous system. That is why diabetes 1 and MS and probably lupus etc. seem so identical to some researchers.

Seth, just read as much as you can and decide what the research implies.

Thank you for being open-minded.

Leslie.  Classical Autistic?  Three cups of coffee.  Now we are talking.  Cite the scientific statistical source paper.

Communism is evil

The lines between things like autism, Aspergers syndrome, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and very fuzzy. It’s like trying to find the exact point in the visible light spectrum where one colour ends and the next begins. That’s why more and more often you see this group of disorders referred to as autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

It has been observed that the hyper-focus that is often a hallmark of individuals with an ASD serves them well in advancing to the highest and most technical levels of their areas of interest. The mastery of their areas of interest probably helps to take the sting out of wise cracks about their social skills.

I’ll include the DSM IV and IDC 10 criteria for diagnosing an ASD as well as information about companion conditions in subsequent posts.

DSM IV and IDC 10 criteria

That should be ICD 10. Cheers.

Asperger’s syndrome “sufferers” make great software coders. Their attention to detail assists the endeavor. So much of the Internet’s code, and online communities for that matter, are filled with these people. The Internet’s means of communication doesn’t use the facial and tonal cues that trip so many of them up, so they thrive without this handicap.

Incidentally, the diagnosis rate of Asperger’s syndrome along with the more serious autism is skyrocketing for unknown reasons.

I work with special needs children and many of them are autistic. I also work with their families. After considerable study and much direct observation, I have found no sure answers, either as to cause or treatment. What I do find is an epidemic, a growth in numbers diagnosed that are staggering.

I have also seen many of them grow, mature and become able to function in society with varying degrees of success. I have also seen some wonderful self-sacrificing parents and extended families pulling together to surround these special people with love and hope.

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

It used to be a revered institution. No more.

What? What rock do you hide under? Ever heard of math?

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

RZ,
Here is the abstract concerning the effects of male age on sperm DNA damage and the effect of more than 3 cups of coffee per day on sperm regardless of age.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17053003&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum

Hum Reprod. 2007 Jan;22(1):180-7. Epub 2006 Oct 19.  Links
The effects of male age on sperm DNA damage in healthy non-smokers.Schmid TE, Eskenazi B, Baumgartner A, Marchetti F, Young S, Weldon R, Anderson D, Wyrobek AJ.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA.

BACKGROUND: The trend for men to have children at older age raises concerns that advancing age may increase the production of genetically defective sperm, increasing the risks of transmitting germ-line mutations. METHODS: We investigated the associations between male age and sperm DNA damage and the influence of several lifestyle factors in a healthy non-clinical group of 80 non-smokers (mean age: 46.4 years, range: 22-80 years) with no known fertility problems using the sperm Comet analyses. RESULTS: The average percentage of DNA that migrated out of the sperm nucleus under alkaline electrophoresis increased with age (0.18% per year, P = 0.006), but there was no age association for damage measured under neutral conditions (P = 0.7). Men who consumed >3 cups coffee per day had approximately 20% higher percentage tail DNA under neutral but not alkaline conditions compared with men who consumed no caffeine (P = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that (i) older men have increased sperm DNA damage associated with alkali-labile sites or single-strand DNA breaks and (ii) independent of age, men with substantial daily caffeine consumption have increased sperm DNA damage associated with double-strand DNA breaks. DNA damage in sperm can be converted to chromosomal aberrations and gene mutations after fertilization, increasing the risks of developmental defects and genetic diseases among offspring.

PMID: 17053003 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

It is really interesting that the articles in classical autism in Pub Med currently are in French, German or Japanese. Here is the best I can do at this point in English. It is a very severe condition found today in quite a number of very unfortunate childen and adults.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=10858914

1: Encephale. 2000 Mar-Apr;26(2):38-44. Links
[Early signs of autism and family films: a new study by informed evaluators and those unaware of the diagnosis][Article in French]
Zakian A, Malvy J, Desombre H, Roux S, Lenoir P.
Service Universitaire de Pedopsychiatrie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Tours, France.

Since the initial individualization of infantile autism by Kanner, subsequent work has attempted to define the age at which disorders appear, their symptomatology and their specificity. Initially, retrospective studies based on questionnaires and interviews with parents were conducted in order to determine the age of at which the first signs appeared. Combined with interviews, clinical observations have provided incontestable aid for describing the early signs of autism. The study of home movies taken by parents before their infant’s disorders were recognized has led to a new approach to the initials signs of autism. Our study is a continuation of work in our Child Psychiatry Unit under way since 1984. The aim of this work is the symptomatological and comparative analysis of home movies of 14 autistic and 10 normal infants, during the first two years of their life. Each film was scored for the 0-8, 9-17 and 18-24 month periods. Based on the use of the Infant Behavioral Summarized Evaluation (IBSE), this study confirms prior data and also shows the emergence of very early disorders, perceptible within the first few months even by blind evaluators: a docile baby, showing no overt manifestations, not seeking contact, with an absence of pre-language. Even so, the results require caution when interpreting for methodological reasons which are discussed.

RZ,

Eureka, I found the description of what autism was before 1994.

http://www.neurodiversity.com/library_kanner_1943.pdf

Thank you for getting me to do this research.

Leslie

Chief RZ,

Here is some information about classical autism.

http://www.neurodiversity.com/library_kanner_1943.pdf

and

http://www.angelfire.com/amiga/aut/authist.html

Kanner concluded these children had a psychological disorder called “Infantile Autism”.

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LEO KANNER’S AUTISTIC TRAITS
Leo Kanner noticed that the children all had the same traits. I have listed most of them below.

1. “Extreme Autistic Aloneness”
The children Kanner observed all failed to relate to people in a ‘normal’ fashion and appeared to be at their happiest when left alone. This lack of social responsiveness appeared to Kanner to start early in life as the Autistic infants failure to put his arms out to the parent who was about to lift him up.

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2. “Anxious and obsessive desire for the preservation of sameness”
The children were extremely upset by changes of routine or surroundings. A different route to school, a rearrangement of the furniture or moving of belongings would cause a severe temper tantrum. The child would not be calmed until the familiar order was restored. Some of the children would perform some of their rituals at the same time of day.

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3. “Excellent Rote Memory”
The 11 children Kanner observed all showed an ability to memorize large amounts of effectively meaningless material such as an Encyclopedia index page. This ability was out of line with their apparent severe mental handicap, or so it was believed.

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4. “Delayed Echolia”
The children repeated language they had heard but failed to use words to communicate beyond their immediate needs. The echolia probably explains the pronouns which Kanner remarked upon - that the children would use “you” when referring to themselves and “I” to other persons. The latter aspect would nowadays be classed as having Semantic-pragmatic disorder today. This usage would follow from a direct repetition of the other speaker’s remarks.

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5. “Hypersensitivity to Stimuli”
Leo Kanner noticed that many of the children reacted strongly to certain noises such as voices, vacuum cleaners, banging and bus engines.

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6. “Limitation in the variety of spontaneous activity”
This was shown in the children’s repetitive movements, verbalisations and interests. Kanner reported that 3 of his 11 patients never spoke at all and that other children did not use what language they had to communicate. He also reported clumsiness in only one case of the Autistic children he saw and remarked upon the dexterity of four of the patients. He concluded that “Several of the children were somewhat clumsy in gait and gross motor performance but all were very skilful in terms of fine motor co-ordination”. Kanner felt that the children showed a good relationship to objects and often showed surprising dexterity in spinning objects or solving jigsaw puzzles.

Other behavioural habits noticed by Kanner were a profound lack of emotion and a marked abnormality of speech. He was also struck by their alert, attractive and intelligent appearance.