David Moore Boulware

Are autistics political or apolitical?

Subtitle: I have no [insert here] idea…

However, I have shifted from apolitical (don’t give a damn) to political (maybe I do give a damn) during this current US Presidential election cycle.

I like to ‘think’ and that requires being objective about others’ opinions in order to formulate my own opinions about topics.

In thinking about a President Hillary Clinton versus a President Bernie Sanders, I have read and thought about a lot of information pertaining to both candidates.

On one hand, I would love to see a woman US President, but on the other hand, I want someone leading the most powerful country on this tiny round small planet that cares about his or her fellow human beings, and represents my interests, not those of large donors.

It appears to me that the US is suffering an epidemic of Dumb Virus.

That has to be the case with so many US citizens attending rallies and supporting Mr. Donald Trump.

In fact, he is so far ahead in the Republican Primary that the Republican Party elite is trying to plot an overthrow at the Republican Convention.

How they plan to pull that off is a mystery! 🙂

However, if they think that they can do that, then the Democratic Party elite might want to consider the same tactic if Secretary Hillary Clinton is the likely nominee.

The reason for doing that is the fact that it is estimated that 30% of Senator Bernie Sanders’ supporters will either not vote or write his name in on the US Presidential ballot.

Should that occur and Mr. Trump survives the plot to overthrow him, he will probably be the next US President.

The result will be a better B-Movie than we’ve been watching for almost a year.

Unfortunately, the genre of that movie has yet to be disclosed.

It might be a comedy, a war movie, a science fiction thriller, or an historical documentary epic!

If the screenwriters of that movie need some ideas, here goes:

a) How the President Lost His Toupee
b) The Battles of World War III
c) The Making of the US Civil War II
d) The iPhone Enigma – cracking the code!
e) The Building of The Great Wall of the United States of America
F) (we’re F**k’d) all of the above 🙂

[To be continued]

Article and op-ed: Nevermind The Election – Bernie Sanders Has Already Won

Autism and early mortality – I should be dead already!

I’m autistic and old, over 60.

Being autistic has certainly had its challenges including a lot of comorbid health issues.

I’ve survived horrendous bullying in grade school and high school, I’ve survived sexual and emotional abuse, I’ve survived a bad marriage and divorce, and I’ve survived a serious autoimmune disease which includes its own comorbid condition of frontal lobe epilepsy.

I’m still alive, enjoying most days, and I plan to be around for awhile.

Therefore, the attached article caught my attention especially since it was posted by numerous websites and my Google Alert newsfeed was inundated by it.

Do you agree? Autistics die younger than non-autistics?

I suspect it is partially true, but I doubt we can generalize with such an ominous prediction.

Furthermore, like many autistics, I suffer depression daily, and this kind of news tidbit could really fuel that comorbid condition.

[To be continued]

Washington Post article:

People on the autism spectrum live an average of 18 fewer years than everyone else, study finds

Breaking news! They figured out what causes autism!

Subtitle: finally………well……….sort of 🙂

In a previous post on February 29, 2016 I wrote about a phenomena that I experienced while taking anti-inflammatory medications. I noticed that some of my autism traits/behaviors were taking a break during that Rx marathon.

Good news! They’re all back and functioning just as usual! 🙂

I’ve also mentioned that I use the Google Alert tool to keep me informed on all articles about autism on a daily basis. And often there is at least one article that is worth investigating.

That happened today but not what I expected.

There was an article on Aging and Autism which also referenced the broad autism phenotype (BAP). The latter was foreign to me so I was hooked on clicking on it.

In the abstract of that research paper it referenced neuroinflammation as a cause of autism.

BINGO!

So I then Google’d “neuroinflammation and autism” and I got a zillion hits!

I’ve already read a dozen of those papers and most are concluding the same thing, that neuroinflammation is the most likely cause of autism and it is now the number one research interest of neuroscientists studying autism.

I bet you’re thinking “So what? It doesn’t change my life!”

And if you are, I agree with you…almost. 🙂

The majority of autistics that I’ve come to know are quite content with being who they are, myself included.

I like my quirky self, I like my routines, I like sameness, I like my obsessions, aka “hobbies”, I like the fact that I’m very detailed oriented, and I especially like my savant skills. I have tons of fun with those! 🙂

However, like many autistics, I have no idea how to make friends nor maintain an intimate relationship should that ever occur again.

And as hard as I try, when I do have the opportunity to have conversations with someone, I still lose control and get off on tangents and onto my soapbox.

Did I mention my Obsessive Compulsive Behavior (OCD) issues? Or my over-the-top Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD)? Or the fact that it took me the first thirteen (13) years of my life to learn how to enunciate words and put them together cohesively to communicate? That’s called Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia.

Being autistic is great, BUT there are a few little annoying characteristics that I wouldn’t mind being left out of the paradigm.

To wrap this vomiting of words up, the neuroinflammation that occurs while being gestated in the womb and during the first few years of life is not going to change who we are at this point in time.

But learning how to mitigate neuroinflammation during the fetal process just might help future autistics, and if so it also might help those of us after the fact if neuroinflammation is affecting our lives as adults.

My attitude: Keep the good autistic stuff and get rid of the crappy autistic stuff, assuming that could be done. 🙂

Therefore, get out that Ibuprofen or Advil and take your daily dose! According to my doctor, one can take 800 mg per day but you might end up with a tummy ache over time! 🙂

[To be continued…]

Paper: Relevance of Neuroinflammation and Encephalitis in Autism

ARC Paper: From molecules to neural morphology: understanding neuroinflammation in autism spectrum condition

Why is my autism related Facebook newsfeed inundated with so many Sen. Bernie Sanders videos?

Subtitle: Because autistics have immense empathy and care about our planet and the people that live on it.

A few years back I decided to be apolitical due to my frustration with the US political system. I concluded that the US is a two party system of Plutocrats and Plutocrats Lite.

However, I have been emotionally uplifted with hope that there is a possibility for change.

And that change is dependent on the leadership of someone special that truly represents the majority of US citizens should you happen to live in the US and be a US citizen.

In my daily Facebook autism related newsfeed I see many posts by members from all around globe posting videos and comments about Sen. Bernie Sanders, all of them reflecting a sincere hope that he will be the next US President.

And they do that because all US Presidents have a significant impact on world politics which can directly affect them and their country.

I am extremely touched that the international autism community has become so involved in the US Presidential election.

We autistics think logically.

We autistics are generally bigot free individuals.

We autistics recognize the truth versus the lies and the pettiness.

We autistics care about our fellow human beings, our fellow creatures, and our tiny small round planet that we all share.

It appears that a lot of autistics feel the Bern!

I feel the Bern and I hope you do too.

Video: Now Is The Time (Bernie 2016)

My autism newsfeed was inundated with this story, “Dad Discovers He Has Autism after His Daughter is Diagnosed!”

Subtitle: Autism, a neurological difference or a snapshot of evolution in realtime?

I use the Google Alert feature to keep up with all of the stories on the internet about autism on a daily basis.

The other day my Google Alert email was inundated with a story about an Australian father who discovered he’s autistic after his daughter was diagnosed.

WTF? Why was this story picked up by multiple news outlets as something worth reporting?

I ask that question because there are thousands of stories just like this one every day.

I’m one of those stories [sort of]. I was 59 years old when I finally learned what the word “autistic” meant which I heard numerous times from the age 6 until I was a teenager. However, nobody, including my mother, ever explained to me what that was all about.

Autism is still a statistician’s dream puzzle to estimate. We keep hearing new updates on the ratio of autism to the general populace annually.

In less than two decades, the statistics have morphed from 1 in 2000 to 1 in 45. Those numbers primarily refer to males, and the ratio of male to female autistics has generally stayed the same, four boys to every girl.

There have been lots of suppositions about those decreasing ratios, and the main argument is that the diagnostic process has improved.

My personal theory is that autism is part of human evolution. If we remove the comorbid condition of Intellectual Disability, most autistics have an above average IQ along with a myriad of special gifts. Those gifts are not universal among all autistics, they are a spectrum just like the negative aspects of autism.

A good analogy is Star Trek and Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock looked similar to humans but he had an amazing ability to problem solve using his gift of incredible logic.

I think pretty logically too, and it is logical to me that autism is a snapshot of human evolution in realtime regardless of what causes it…

[To be continued…]

Story on Parenting.com website

OMG! My autism is missing?

Subtitle: well not really, it’s just taking a break…

I’ve been pretty sick for the past two months. First it was a nasty Sjogren’s Syndrome flare-up (Lupus Lite) then followed by a sinus infection which turned into bacterial pneumonia.

Yikes! 🙂

Consequently I’ve been cramming anti-inflammatory drugs down my throat to fight these little attackers.

In mid-January I started my ritual steroid protocol (Prednisone) to battle the flare-up, and when the sinus infection/pneumonia kicked in, my doctor put me on antibiotics along with mega doses of ibuprofen (NSAID). I’m still taking Prednisone, one of the first anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant drugs invented.

All of the drugs above assist with immune dysregulation by quieting down one’s autoantibodies along with fighting the pneumonia bacteria.

Last night I was doing my favorite hobby, thinking, and it occurred to me that some of my autistic traits (OCD) have been dormant for the past few weeks and I wondered how that happened?

That triggered my internal computer processor (brain) to tap into my database (knowledge) looking for correlations based on past research.

The first data that popped up in my thought processes were the anecdotal reports by parents of severely autistic children being miraculously cured of their autism by ingesting antibiotics and other anti-inflammatory drugs. To be fair and accurate, those miraculous cures were only temporary during the course of taking those drugs.

However, if those stories are true then it could be inferred that inflammation is a culprit in the autism mystery.

What is inflammation?

Inflammation is the body’s way of fighting attack. Ideally, when a “foreign” substance, a toxin, bacteria, or a virus enters the body, a cascade of inflammatory chemicals and processes ramp up to fight off the invader. When the battle is over, an anti-inflammatory process begins and calms the body down again.

In some people, this process of ramping up and cooling down does not go smoothly. Those people can become stuck in a constant state of inflammation, a state of battle, in which the body produces chemicals such as cytokines. Over time, these inflammatory chemicals can damage the body.

Over the past decade, there have been numerous research studies substantiating a relation between mothers with autoimmune diseases having a much higher chance of having babies with some form of autism. Those autoimmune diseases can be diabetes associated with obesity, asthma, or more severe autoimmune diseases such as Lupus.

When I consider those studies, I think of my own case. My mother had severe asthma and a chronic skin condition that was probably cutaneous Lupus. In addition, she was 39 years old when I was born and other studies point to older mothers having a higher chance of giving birth to an autistic child. And to top it off, she was a daily smoker.

Assuming all of this scientific gibberish, facts, research, and hypotheses are correct, what is that going to tell us?

First we’re not going to eradicate autism nor are we going to stop making babies just because a mother has an autoimmune disease or is over 35 years old. That’s silly.

Second most autistics, myself included, do not want to change the way that we are. We’re comfortable being ourselves and we’re used to the way that our brains function and think.

However it is plausible that we can mitigate some of the autistic traits that most autistics complain about, i.e. our social ineptness and our inability to make friends and assimilate amongst non-autistics, especially if a biological process, inflammation, is playing a part by affecting our brains.

The infamous and vile concept of ABA tries to reprogram our behaviors via the old fashioned reward and punishment methods. Many parents of autistic children swear it works. I practiced this on myself as an adult and it does work. However, in the process I was stressed out so much that it caused immense anxiety.

As an alternative, if my theory might have some credibility, a simple daily cocktail of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs might produce the same results, i.e. Ibuprofen (Advil).

As a scientist I like to run experiments. Therefore, I’m going to continue with this one because I need to in order to mitigate my other severe problem, an autoimmune disease called Sjogren’s Syndrome, and if it happens to tone down my OCD and ADHD propensities, then hallelujah! 🙂

I posed the question in a previous post, “Is autism an autoimmune disease?”

It just might be…

[To be continued…]

Link to Autism Research Institute: Immune Function & ASD

Link to YouTube Video Dr. Judy Van de Water, UC Davis MIND Institute, Biomarkers & ASD

Link to UC Davis MIND Presentation Handout:

PubMed research paper:

A Meta-Analysis of Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy and Autism Spectrum Disorder Risk in Offspring

Sometimes when the shoe fits, it’s quite painful…

Subtitle: Being autistic and getting old is the pits…

I ran across the attached article a few days ago and it resonated with me profoundly.

I’m old, in my third trimester of life at the age of 64, I suffer depression daily, and my physical health has diminished as well due to a comorbid autoimmune disease, Sjogren’s Syndrome.

It’s hard for me to pinpoint which is worse, the lack of realtime friends and family or the daily struggles dealing with a chronic disease.

It’s also hard for me to figure out whether or not the depression is caused by either of those ancillary aspects or whether or not the depression fuels the physical symptoms and the inability to socialize.

In the end it doesn’t matter. It is what it is and I have to deal with it.

I used to relish spending a few hours every night connecting with others on the various Facebook groups related to autism but lately I haven’t had the physical nor the mental energy to do so.

When I was active either posting or commenting on others’ posts I felt engaged and I did not feel alone nor that terrible abstract feeling of loneliness.

But my physical health has been rather poor for the past few months due to a severe Sjogen’s Syndrome flare-up then followed by a chronic bout of pneumonia; I’m still getting over that one.

Most research is geared towards helping young autistics make it as adults in a foreign world. Immense progress has been accomplished in a very short timespan which enables those individuals to learn how to be self-sufficient and participate in a world that still views autistics as broken.

We have job training programs and large corporations realizing the value that many autistics bring to an enterprise with their gifts of seeing the minutest details and their capacity to do routine and mundane job functions better than non-autistics.

But what’s in store for their future when they arrive at my age, still carrying the baggage of being socially inept, and many without their own families which includes having their own children?

That’s the real puzzle that still needs to be solved and it appears that some researchers are realizing the gap in that support structure.

To be continued…

Spectrum Article: Adults with autism face old age without much support

Spin the wheel for the daily autism “cause du jour”!

Subtitle: Is autism an autoimmune disease? True or false…

I love Google. When I’m connected to the Internet doing research, the Google Search function is my best friend followed by Wikipedia.

I suspect that this ubiquitous software App is taken for granted by any web surfer because it is so easy to use.

Behind the scenes, there are probably thousands or millions of programming code statements that parse and process a user’s search query. The way it works is using what was formerly called Artificial Intelligence, aka Machine Learning.

From the abacus to Smart Phones, mankind has come a long way in developing intelligent tools to mimic the way that the brain thinks and behaves.

However, we have not yet mastered the biological programs (software) that cells use, those tiny little molecules made up of various parts sloshing around in our bodies including the neurons (neuronal cells) in our brains.

That’s what medical researchers are trying to do. They are working diligently to understand what causes autism by attempting to debug the software in human cells, primarily those located in the brain.

Furthermore they need to understand the paths taken by those floating programs and subprograms that wind up sloshing around between the three pound glob between our ears via the wiring (synapses).

One of the features that I use with Google is called the Google Alert function. With my Google account, I can set up key words for Google to search for on a daily basis and send me an email with stories containing those words. I do that with the word “autism” and a few others.

This morning I received my daily Google Alert with several articles on autism. One of those was the daily “cause du jour” which contained a story about asthma drugs causing autism.

The researchers noted that the drugs can affect certain cell receptors (program hooks) and cross into the placenta, thus affecting the fetus. This makes sense to me and is probably true, and it is also probably true for anything that a pregnant woman ingests or breathes.

The subtitle contained a controversial question, whether or not autism is an autoimmune disease.

An autoimmune disease is when the body mistakenly makes antibodies (autoantibodies) that attack the “self” or the good body tissues. In essence, the human immune system is malfunctioning.

What this means in simple terms is that the biological programs and subprograms of cells are full of “bugs” or incorrect messages to other cells, thereby causing unintended consequences, i.e. cell death or apoptosis, and medical researchers are trying to “debug” those programs in cells.

All I can say is, “Good luck!”, because those little biological programs and subprograms embedded in cells work like Google using “Artificial Intelligence” or “machine learning” to change the “code” (programs) as needed.

Fortunately we do have tools to “debug” the software, i.e. interpreting what the cells are doing. The most basic tool is called a Complete Blood Count (CBC). That tool checks our red blood cells (RBC) and more importantly our white blood cells (WBC). The white blood cells are the ones that really give us the clues as to what our bodies are doing correctly and incorrectly.

If we dive into “debugging” the software just a little more, we have the technology to check the nucleus of a cell. Those tools are called the Antinuclear test (ANA) and the Extracted Nuclear Antigen Panel (ENA). These blood tests check to see if the immune system is producing abnormal amounts of autoantibodies to fight antigens (bad cells) which in turn give us clues about a potential autoimmune disease.

What medical scientists have determined is that over a third of autistic children have abnormal ANA and ENA tests i.e. elevated autoantibodies.

Since we autistics supposedly have brains that think more logically than non-autistics, it seems to me that it is logical to conclude that autoantibodies (over active good cells) may be the “smoking gun” to solving the autism puzzle.

If that is true, then the software affecting and embedded in overactive autoantibodies (cells) needs to be “debugged” and reprogrammed. We do have some effective immunosuppressant drugs that tell those culprits to take a break, i.e. steroids.

However, the problem is that we do not have a computer powerful enough nor a database full of sufficient algorithms and data to figure out how the most complex machine (human body) fully works, especially those clever cells in the brain.

Mankind has been trying to do this for a long time, it’s called epigenesis, second guessing a cell’s next move and how to alter it is the prize for all of these medical researchers.

I suspect that my daily Google Alert emails will continue to entertain me with all sorts of theories as to the cause of autism, some logical and some just plain silly.

Therefore, what exactly is the point to solving the autism puzzle? I’m confused…

Nevermind, I just figured it out!

If we solve the autism puzzle, then we can figure out a way to engineer a pill to mitigate it.

That’s called pharmacology and it’s good for the economy, especially the Pharmaceutical Economy!

[To be continued…]

About this blog…

I’m working on a follow-up post to yesterday’s after giving some thought to its content and my apparent omission of connecting one aspect of it to the main theme, “why did I bring up my savant skills…” That’ll have to wait.

But about this blog…

This morning I emailed that post to one of my best friends who I consider the ultimate wordsmith looking for feedback.

Instead of critiquing that post, he sent me an email with some advice from a post-career Life Coach that he connected with around six years ago.

My friend:

“Starting first with a networking teleconference she hosted, she and I had several “barter” exchange Skype sessions trading startup advice that culminated in her advice to me that my principal strength—which you, too, noted–was a gift for something I’d never heard of, Meticulous Presentation.

As a certfied master coach in her field, I wanted to share with you this recent email I received from her today about “Living your Great Story for 2016”. She lists three I’d not seen put together in this way.

The three stories (Victim, Overcoming, and Great) that we each live–and how those stories can either lift you up or take you down.

A tool for understanding which story you–and others–are living, at any moment.
This tool can also help you choose the experience that you want.
The breadcrumbs for finding your way back to wholeness, no matter what your circumstance.”

My response:

‘Regarding #1, I don’t think either of my blogs correlate to “the three stories” that she has illustrated, however I suppose that I could map #2 and #3 into what I am doing, but it’s too much work. 🙂

My Facebook blog is a platform for writing opinion editorials with subversive philosophical and teaching tidbits.

My WordPress blog is a mashup of my Facebook blog, an autobiography, information clearing house, opinion editorials which include venting, ranting, and reasonably objective thoughts.

In other words it’s a potpourri of verbosity and in the process, if someone gleans information or is entertained, then I’m satisfied.

You would be surprised at how many people are interested in my opinions, pardon the ego showing. 🙂

When I finally realized that, it was a little bit of inspiration to start both blogs.

My attitude about anything that I write is that I am doing it for myself because I enjoy it, period.

Writing is my preferred art form, and if I’m the only one looking at the finished canvas of dried paint that’s O.K. with me.

In essence, it is very therapeutic and I highly recommend it to everyone.

In your case, since I consider you a brilliant writer, I would like to see you start your blog with the purpose of getting some satisfaction out of it, and simultaneously build an audience to boost your ego which at times is deflated too low.

Perhaps you can distill your friend’s advice in blogging and writing, and subsequently use it as part of your project plan model moving forward to write.

In summary, the three most important words in real estate are, “Location, location, location.”

And the three most important words in the art of writing are, “Write, write, write.”’

Summary:

My friend didn’t understand what help that I was asking for nor did he understand why I exercise my fingers on a keyboard.

I was asking for help in order to communicate my thoughts better, a known deficiency amongst us autistics. 🙂

I also had a subversive motive which I do often with whatever I write.

I enjoy helping people whether they know it or not and I consider it a game with the most challenging obstacle, figuring out how other people think, or don’t. 🙂

In this case, my friend missed the point and simultaneously interjected another obstacle for himself to get started as a writer, trying to figure out what crap somebody else says to do and shoving that crap down my throat! 🙂 [it didn’t work]

For the past ten years, I have been working really hard to get this friend to start writing. I have given him tons of ideas including offering to help him construct either a Blogger blog, a WordPress blog, or a really simple Facebook Page that functions like a blog.

I have not succeeded yet! 🙂

What he didn’t pick up on was my intention to use this ploy of asking for help to inspire him to do something, WRITE!

In essence, if some of my dribble either entertains a reader or provokes a feeling or thought that will better their lives, then I’m happy and I’ve succeeded.

That is why I write besides exercising my fingers. 🙂

To be continued…

What are the best autistic traits to have and what is the worst comorbid autoimmune disease to have?

Subtitle 1: ‘Focus’ = the ability to block out a lot of extraneous input and attempt to solve a problem

Subtitle 2: ‘Savant Syndrome’ = a comorbid autistic trait/phenomena

I have been missing in action (MIA) on Facebook and blogging regularly due to feeling like crap and a personal problem, trying to figure out just what autoimmune disease that I have in order to manage it correctly.

After sixteen plus years of dealing with severe health symptoms that originally bestowed the label of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on me, I finally have the correct label, ADIOS, and I’m the one that had to solve this complicated puzzle.

What a [insert here] relief! 🙂

ADIOS is the acronym for Autoimmune Dysfunction Idiopathic Overlap Syndrome.

In a way I should feel special. 🙂 Some people only have boring autoimmune diseases that affect one organ of the body, either the skin, the adrenal glands, the kidneys, or the brain. I have one that can affect any and all of them! WOW!

My only competition that I’m aware of are those that have the label (diagnosis) of Lupus, Sjogren’s Syndrome, or a combination of both.

That’s O.K. because most of those folks are women, only 10% of men win those labels, and the men need to have their own special label to brag about. 🙂

It was quite an arduous journey over the last few months sifting through the megabytes of research reports and case studies to reach this enlightenment. As a result, I had to stop and think about how I accomplished that.

It’s called ‘focus’ with a little bit of savantism thrown in, specifically the savant skills called ‘lightning calculation’ and ‘prodigious memory’.

I have a few other savant skills but these are my favorites because they’re useful.

Some autistic savants with the ‘lightening calculation’ skill can do all sorts of math tricks like solving Pi really fast.

That’s cute and entertaining but I prefer the ability to process data like a supercomputer using Mathematical Logic, and that requires ‘focus’, ‘association’, and stored data (‘prodigious memory’), and together they work like a finely tuned motor. 🙂

One of my favorite autistics and fellow autistic savants is Dr. Temple Grandin. She speaks and writes frequently about the autistic traits of ‘focus’ and ‘association’ in order to empower parents and caregivers to recognize these traits in autistic children. The reason is to provide them with ideas on how to effectively teach those children to utilize those traits/skills to be valuable contributors to society.

What does this all have to do with ADIOS? Plenty…

When you recognize the positives of a negative (autism) and say, “Screw you! I’ll build a castle out of that sand…”, you might just end up with the most elaborate sandcastle on the beach, and in the process find all sorts of tools that can be made out of crap lying around in order to construct it.

In this case referring to Dr. Grandin’s message to parents and caregivers, she often goes on to say that when the child is taught to use those gifts, he/she might be the next Nobel Prize winner in Physics as an adult.

That’s a powerful message to think about.

If you’re like me, an autistic adult, it’s never too late to build that sandcastle and gain all sorts of new insight about the latent or dormant skills that one has.

Since I discovered the new autoimmune disease, Autoimmune Dysfunction Idiopathic Overlap Syndrome (ADIOS), I intend to write a very long scientific research paper using me as the case study participant and get it published.

You heard it here first! 🙂

In the meantime, attached to this silly post is an interesting article about a young man who is an autistic savant and a gifted musician. I hope you enjoy it.

To be continued…

Article: Extraordinary Minds – the link between savantism and autism