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Autism now occurs in every 1 in 150 children, according to figures released in February of 2007 by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To illustrate what some term an “autism epidemic” (including three presidential candidates), people regularly compare the prevalence rate of children diagnosed with autism to that of children diagnosed with childhood cancer (1.5 per 10,000 children) or to the rate of children who have three diseases, “pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. (And you can go here to review the NIH’s estimated funding for various diseases, conditions, and research areas.)
The purpose of comparing the autism rate to that of childhood cancer and other diseases is to convey how pervasive autism has become (or seems to have become). An unfortunate side-effect is that some say that having autism is worse than having cancer. A post last year from Not Mercury addresses this comparison head-on:
For those who are new to autism, I strongly advise thinking long and hard about the similarities and many, many differences between having a child diagnosed with autism and learning that your child has cancer.
There have many been great advances in the treatment of pediatric cancers in recent years, and survival rates continue to increase as new drugs and treatment modalities are discovered, but survivors and their families will always live with specter of relapse and secondary health complications from the very treatments that saved their lives. CANCER is a scary word because most people associate the word with DEATH. Another scary word.
Autism, on the other hand, is never a fatal condition, though many autistic people may require extra help to recognize and avoid dangerous situations.
One argument offered for why “autism is worse than cancer” is that people with autism live a normal life-span, and so have to live with this awful disorder for their whole lives: These notions assume that living with autism is so awful that it’s tantamount to a fate worse than death.
It’s certainly possible to read accounts of autism like that, but that is not what you’ll read here. Life raising my son has not been easy and there’s always a lot of sad, painful, wrenching, tough moments—and like I said yesterday in reference to mother guilt, lots of happy, sappiness, fun and good times. Nothing beats watching Charlie turn somersaults in the pool or trying to wheedle me into buying four packs of sushi, or calling out “Dad’s black shoes” and running to put them by his bed.
More b5media blogs on cancer can be read at Help My Hurt.
I know this is an old post but feel compelled to respond. My daughter was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at 6 months old (rare form of infant cancer) & autism at 2.5 years old. I am slightly offended at SOME of the opinions you’ve stated but I try to keep in mind everyone is entitled to their own opinions. After our NIGHTMARE fighting her cancer (Stage 4) for over a year and still living the daily trauma of REMISSION, (NOT CANCER FREE but in a waiting period for it to come back or something worse!!!), being told she was Autistic was NOTHING!!!! They asked if we needed a counselor & my husband & I BOTH laughed out loud, but thanked her profusely for the offer. After explaining WHY from an Oncology standpoint & life or DEATH REALITY CHECK… she said, “Well, I suppose not… I wish you all the VERY best!” And was oddly quiet. To me… there is NO COMPARISON HANDS DOWN… autism is NOT a life sentence to ANYTHING (my daughter is WELL on her way in the right direction in SPITE of the toxins flushed down her with Chemo!! Cancer…. is the word that we will face FEARFULLY for the rest of her LIFE! Just my take on it. And get educated about success stories in Autism Spectrum Disorders, please!
Sincerely,
The Mommy of an Autistic Cancer Survivor… Kickin Cancer’s butt since 2008 & autism since 2010!
1232 days ago
[...] from autism” via homeopathic methods, and autism is discussed as if it were a disease like cancer—which autism is indeed [...]
1306 days ago
[...] in vaccines causes autism often suggest that nothing could be worse than autism; that measles, cancer, any disease is a fate preferable to the dreaded [...]
I find comparing cancer to autism so disturbing and obnoxious as I HAD cancer when I was a baby and a toddler.
it was a horrible experience, even though I remember very little of it.
There’s just no comparison.
Duly noted, sorry for the suggestions.
Michelle and Jen and Lynne,
My thoughts and prayers are with you as your children fight their cancer and for the follow up and/or surveillance.
Karen
@Mike,
I really appreciate your contributions here and thank you for reading and commenting. But, yes, solicitations for products are not really appropriate.
I think of this blog as like my classrooms, where all view points are encouraged and where, hopefully!, we can get a real conversation and dialogue going. Thank you.
Mike -
While I’m sure you have good intentions, I would appreciate NOT being solicited about my daughter’s health care. In this life-threatening situation, we will stay with tried-and-true medical interventions.
It’s ironic you mention Germany; the study used to treat her cancer was actually done in Germany, by German doctors – and yes, it does include chemotherapy drugs. So, be careful when you say alt therapies come from Germany; it’s not as if the entire country is backing these therapies.
Seriously? I laughed out loud when I read that “I sell …” part of your comment. Next time, please keep your agenda to yourself. My child’s health is not when I’ll begin gambling.
I did not comment on this site asking for help, I was only adding my opinion & experience to the mix.
Thanks to everyone else for their well wishes & kind words. Our daughter is doing really well right now with her treatments.
My non-medical advise is to research alt health especially ozone therapy. Anyone can suggest natural health cures, as long as the 1st amendment is still standing. I don’t run a clinic trying to cure disease. I know the law in this regards quite well as a friend (Ed McCabe, Me Oxygen) spent 2 years in jail for touting the effects of ozone therapy as a cure for cancer. What a country, eh? As for “padding my bottom line”, not with cancer patients. I make no money from them, as I stated. This can be easily verified as I am a re-seller for most of the product I sell (except the ozone machines) and anyone can call the manufacture and ask if so and so is the dealer cost for so and so product. End of story, I don’t make money from cancer patients.
Ummm…Mike?
Didn’t someone else just remind you about how you shouldn’t be giving medical advice on this or any site?
Pretty disgusting that you would see Michelle Z’s daughter as a way to pad your bottom line.
Michelle Z, before you decide to treat the cancer with the medical establishment, please take a close look at natural cancer cures that do not have “awful side effects” and are more effective. The medical establishment’s cures cause other problems, even if they kill the cancer, and that’s not a given.
There have been dozens of doctors who have developed natural, non-patentable cancer cures and have paid the price with imprisonment, even death. A page on my website talks about these brave doctors: http://liquidzeoliteplus.com/natural_cancer_cures_FDA_stops_fights_procecutes_ends.html
The best alt cancer cure is ozone therapy. Cancer can’t survive in an oxygenated surrounding so “flood the body with oxygen”. (Ozone is nothing more or nothing less than 3 oxygen atoms) In Germany, they treat cancer with ozone, without side effects, and with a higher success rate than our medical establishment. Yet our medical establishment will not even consider ozone therapy because it’s controlled by the drug companies who want nothing to do with anything that can’t be patented. Sick to put profits before cures, but that’s our medical establishment.
The other thing you can try is to boost her immune system and raise her pH level above 7.5. There are some studies out of japan on the anti-cancer attributes of certain mushrooms and in the us on something in broccoli that cures cancer. I sell a broccoli fortified flax hull powder and an 8 mushroom powder that can be added to cereal or oatmeal undetected and will boost the immune system. I sell these products at cost to parents who have kids with cancer (around 30% off retail) Contact me if you want to try them, they are worth the try. BTW, the liquid zeolite seems to help people with cancer as well. I think it’s because it raises the pH level and detoxes heavy metals, but there’s only anecdotal evidence it works and not my first even fifth choice to deal with cancer. Please do your own research, and oh yes, whatever you do, don’t allow your child to take any drug that contains fluoride. Sorry to report over 50% of drugs contain this toxic substance (Is big pharma trying to cure us or make us sicker?): http://poisonfluoride.com/pfpc/html/index_drugs.html
That comparison makes me physically nauseous- I’ve got kids with autism and one child who is a cancer survivor, and at least to my way of thinking, there is no comparison at all to be made. We are extremely fortunate that my daughter is “cured”, and although there’s always the chance of a remission things look good. I don’t see how anyone can try to make a real comparison between autism and cancer.
Michelle Z- our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
At work my next door neighbors are the parents of a daughter who had childhood leukemia. The chid has been cancer free for 17 years.
The cancer was discovered because their daughter would not stop crying due to the pain from her condition.
She now has a learning disorder stemming from the drugs she was given.
@Michelle Z and Lynne,
thinking and thinking of you and your children. please let us know how they are doing.
Dear Michelle Z:
My thoughts are with you and your daughter. The very best to you both.
Oh, I’m sorry… best of luck for her and you. I’ll be thinking about you both. And, indeed, it’s not a fair comparison.
Cliff
Yeah, moral imperative not to kill aside, “better off dead” usually involves the then next leap to “killing becomes good”. The imperative is strong enough, though, that even if people really don’t believe in it they’re not likely to do it in that kind of way.
And, yeah, I hate these moral judgments about “the value of life”. Existence value based off of difficulty is ridiculous (and, as I’ve argued here before in one of my less-happy moments, it’s no less when arguing about “success” or “happiness”). I mean, is my life difficult? I can’t say it’s been a walk in the park, of course. But does that invalidate it? Almost the opposite.
At base, doing a value judgment based off of perceived quality gets so close to some really horrible acts. I mean, I can use the argument to send nuclear missiles into warzones, because people there aren’t leading “quality” lives, and that “it’s better to be dead than be in distress”.
Just sick.
Oh, and I’ve said enough on the fluoride thesis. But was it relevant to this post? I don’t think so. We weren’t even talking about a culprit here, so please be relevant. I know I shouldn’t play moderator, but it just doesn’t belong here.
Cliff
My daughter is 13. She has autism, and she was diagnosed this past November with a very rare type of ovarian cancer.
I can’t even believe a comparison can be made between the two. Autism is part of her makeup, it’s part of who she is as a person. It’s not a disease, we don’t try to cure her. We try to give her tools to succeed in life – but we do that with our other children, too. Her ‘tools’ just need to be a little different.
Cancer is scary and consuming and life-threatening. Not only is cancer scary, its treatment is harsh and toxic and the side-effects are awful.
Seriously – I can’t even wrap my head around a way to compare the two, and for the past 6 months that’s been our life.
I have been asked if I would have rather not been born. Generally speaking, I think being alive is much better than the alternative.
The overwhelming stress caused by sensory inputs, the frustration with physical pain, and struggles to understand people are not pleasant. Seizures, headaches, palsy episodes, and behavioral ticks that only serve to isolate me aren’t easy to accept, either.
Yet, I would rather struggle from time to time in return for the good days with my wife and my cats.
Morons, including “philosophers” like Peter Singer, would suggest I’m not living a full life. I’m sure when I was considered slow and probably retarded, Singer and his ilk would have suggested my life was taking up valuable resources and causing my family undue misery.
My life is actually pretty good, most of the time. That’s true for most people.
Mike, we know what communities fluoridate their water, and we know when it started. It should be a simple task to compare autism rates before and after weeding out the confounders comparing communities which fluoridate with those which do not.
I doubt you’ll see any difference. There are places which fluoridate with high autism frequencies, there are places which don’t which also have high autism rates