Preparing to Be a Help Meet: Knowledge - Tree Frogs and Autism

Today, we get to delve into Debi's understanding of medicine and science in general.  This chapter is jumps around from topic to topic so I have taken the liberty of combining all of the random paragraphs on medical ideas into a series of posts.

Reflection on what Debi learned from the heart-breaking death of a neighbor's child:

Did I learn anything?  That night changed my life.  Never again did I stand in line like a dumb sheep waiting to receive what "professionals" said I needed.  I learned that "professionals" were people who were just following orders from people whose only goal was to make a buck. 

I don't see how following professionals is any different from mindlessly following your husband's orders.  In the Pearl household, after all, an entire series of boring and tedious books have been written so that people can mindlessly follow the Pearl's advice on living and the Pearls can make money.

In other words, Mike and Debi have become the money-grubbing professionals they so despise.

 It is true they might have gone to school a few extra years and and learned a different vocabulary; but they were not my baby's mom, and they couldn't make wise decisions for him.

Public health professionals - the kind Debi is so hell-bent on skewering - get a minimum of a 4-year Bachelors degree from an accredited college or university followed by a Masters degree from an university. AT MINIMUM.  Many are MD/Ph.D holders which is 5 years of study post-Bachelors followed by a 2+ year residency in medicine.

Debi, by contrast, dropped out of Bible college. 

Who do you want to take medical advice from?

  Time has strengthened my resolve.  The older and more "professional" I get, the less I respect the "professionalism" as the voice of knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

Oh, don't worry, Debi.  No professional - with or without quotes - would ever mistake you for a professional.  

Many people gain knowledge, understanding and wisdom without a formal, advanced education.  Based on Debi's statements about education, home-schooling, science and agriculture, though, I can't give her a "wise" rating in any of those fields.  


Now, no matter what the issue, before I submitted, I would LEARN everything I could possibly know for the sake of my children's health and my family's well-being.  The door was open.  I started to learn...really learn.

You need to learn about:
FROGS
Did you know that down in the Amazon there is a tree frog that has horribly toxic poison on its back?  The poison does not appear anywhere in nature except the gut of schizophrenics (people with multiple personalities).  Isn't that weird?  What does the gut have to do with the brain?  This poison is not in the gut of healthy people.  Is it found in any other diseased individuals?

Oh, what fresh hell is this?!? 

Alright, I know that some tree frogs produce poisons; every kid who goes to the zoo knows that.  

I have no idea what Debi is talking about otherwise- so I had to run a Google search.  

Debi has run into Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS).  

Tip One: When a website cites Dr. Andrew Wakefield AFTER he was struck from the medical register in Great Britain for abusive medical procedures on disabled children and had his research retracted from all major journals due to academic fraud, be aware you are reading crap.

Tip Two: PubMed is a free website that lists the abstracts for the majority of published medical research.  Natasha Campbell-McBride has never published a peer-reviewed paper which would have been very easy if she had actual research to back GAPS up.

I am not surprised that Debi fell for this scam.  She doesn't have basic medical knowledge to realize that schizophrenia and multiple personality disorders are different disorders - so how would she realize that the GAPS website is a fraud?

Thanks to a mom and dad who were desperate to find help for their autistic son, we know that the same toxin is found in the gut of autistic kids.  Where did their bodies get it?  Did it develop there from something they ate?  How does the gut relate to a brain disorder called autism?  Right now you are unmarried and autism is not an issue with you, but what about two years from now?  What are your chances of having an autistic child in two years?  Higher than you think?  

That mom and dad?  Natasha Campbell-Brown is the mom according to Science-Based Medicine.

Debi can't answer any of the questions she raises here since the first three would require human medical experimentation and the last three are based on so many different statistics that every person's answer would be different.

I find it pathetic, though, that Debi's trying to bolster her "wise woman" persona by pretending she has a solution to autism.

Once an unknown disease, autism is now destroying the lives of 1 in every 100 children. 

That's pretty insulting to people with autism.   

Plus, this is a woman who recommends hitting infants with tree-branches to promote obedience.  How many lives has SHE destroyed?

Each year a greater percentage of healthy two-year-olds suddenly develop strange digestive disorders and bizarre behavioral problems.  When the disturbed parents have their child tested they are informed he has autism.  Why?  What is causing these children to get sick?  What can you do to avoid the chances of your child developing autism?

Odd.  "Professionals"  like pediatricians and child development specialists have noticed that children with autism often start showing symptoms as very young infants.  This actual insight has lead to better early intervention for children with autism.

What does Debi recommend to reduce your chances of having a child with autism?  

NOTHING.  She never actually answers her own question. 

Maybe there's a method to her slip-shod editing after all.

AntiPearl: To mistrust science and deny the validity of scientific method is to resign your job as a human. You'd better go look for work as a plant or wild animal.

P. J. O'Rourke