The 85% Problem: Autism Disorders and DNA Damaged Sperm In Our Chemical Society

Are autism disorders, and other neurological developmental disorders, caused by DNA damaged sperm?

Concerned heart is a blogger who authors several blogs dealing with paternal age and dramatic increases in a number of disorders including autism, ADHD and schizophrenia. She posts many articles linking paternal age with declining sperm quality and increased rates of disorders including autism, ADHD and schizophrenia.

The CBC documentary The Disappearing Male reports the impact on males of our chemical based society including declining sperm quality. On the accompanying CBC web site page Factsheet: Male Infertility are some of the startling facts from that documentary:

• The average sperm count of a North American college student today is less than half of what it was 50 years ago.
• The quality of sperm is declining. Eighty-five per cent of the sperm produced by a healthy male is DNA-damaged.
• The chemical industry has developed more than 90,000 man-made chemicals in the last sixty years. Eighty-five percent of them have never undergone testing for their impact on the human body.
  

85%? If autism is related to declining sperm quality as suggested by dramatically higher rates of autism amongst children of fathers over 35 at the time of conception and if 85% of sperm is damaged, even amongst college age males, from chemical exposures, is it any wonder that we are seeing increases in autism, adhd, learning disabilities, Tourett's syndrome, cerebral palsy and dyslexia as reported by the CBC?

With 85% of sperm being DNA damaged is the human species already damaged beyond repair?

If we allow the conditions that result in such incredibly high rates of DNA damaged sperm to continue unchecked will humanity as we know it continue to exist?

Autistic children are not just "natural variations". They may quite literally be the canaries in the coal mine of our chemical society.

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Autism and Paternal Age

Paternal age is emerging as a potential cause or causal factor giving rise to autism. On this site, (as a father whose autistic son was conceived when I was 41), I have received several posts from a blogger/poster who has focussed on this issue . In Australia, couriermail.com.au reports that researchers at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research have found:

"adult mice born to older fathers have differently shaped brains and are generally more anxious and less adventurous than those fathered by younger animals. ... brain scans of the mice showed those born to older fathers had thicker cerebral cortexes."

The research team's senior investigator, John McGrath explains that "What we've found in the mice is reminiscent of autism because there's some reasonable evidence about early brain overgrowth in autism". McGrath also stated that the results need to be replicated before they are given scientific validity.

The couriermail.com.au article by reporter Janelle Niles states that previous population studies have found a six-times increased likelihood of autism than those born to dads in their 20's. Unlike my friends at Autism Street I am no statistician but on a common sense level, if the article information is correct, a six-times increased likelihood of autism in offspring for Dad's in their 40's compared to Dads in their 20's would seem to be .... statistically significant ... one which should be the focus of further research.

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