Tag Archives: fraternal twins

World Autism Awareness Day: What Do I Need to Know?

This Saturday, April 2, marks the eighth annual World Autism Awareness Day. Make sure you show your support by wearing blue. Many organizations and groups including Autism Speaks and the United Nations will honor the day. Around the globe, historic airports, bridges, museums, concert halls, restaurants, hospitals and retail stores will be marked with blue lighting in an effort to help raise awareness. Unfortunately, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in 68 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with autism, as they account for 1 in 42 cases, while girls account for 1 in 189 cases. At the bottom of this page we have included links to various organizations involved in autism awareness efforts. We hope that someday a cure or direct cause is discovered concerning this disorder, as many people who have autism suffer great…
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New Twin Study Suggests Connection Between Autism and Environmental Factors

Recently, an autism study out of Stanford University’s medical school yielded results that challenge long-held beliefs about autism’s origins. The study, centered on 192 sets of twins with autism, and found that sets of fraternal twins had much higher levels of shared autistic similarities than expected. Previously, scientists had assumed that 90 percent of autism risk was tied to genetics, with only 10 percent tied to environmental risks. Fraternal twins only share half of their genetic material, while identical twins share all their genes, but the findings from the research did not back up the assumed percentages. The high levels of similarities in fraternal twins led doctors and researchers to conclude that environmental factors, not just genetics, may put people at risk for autism. According to the co-author of the study, doctors and scientists should focus future research on events during pregnancy to understand autism’s origins. The researchers in the…
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Researchers Study Multiple Births and Autism Link

According to Baltimore Sun, identical twins John and Sam Fetters could not speak a word at 22 months of age. At two years of age, doctors diagnosed both boys with autism. Their family wondered what could have caused autism in both twins and if perhaps, genetics could be responsible. According to a study at Kennedy Krieger Institute, researches examined 277 pairs of twins and found that when one identical twin had the disorder, the other twin had an 88 percent chance of developing autism as well. Fraternal twins had a 31 percent chance of both having autism. Autism is a neurological disorder that disrupts normal development and medical experts classify it as a pervasive developmental disorder. The cause of autism is unknown, although researchers and medical experts suspect everything from environmental toxins to medication introduced to women while pregnant as possible causes. Complicated births, such as those in multiple births,…
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