The Truth About Autism: Causes, Care, and What's Next
On this episode of The Vitals, we dive deep into one of the most compelling topics in global health today: autism. Two leading experts from the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai—Drs. Joseph Buxbaum and Avi Reichenberg—lead the audience through the essential facts— autism’s genetic architecture, how environmental exposures before and during pregnancy may modulate ASD risk, the real-world implications for families, clinicians, researchers, and the broader community, and what the future may hold for autism care.
Leslie Schlacter [00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:03]
You know, one of the biggest misconceptions out there and I can say misconceptions because I'm educated to know it's not is that vaccines cause autism.
Leslie Schlacter [00:00:06:03 - 00:00:06:57]
But that is not true.
Dr. Reichenberg [00:00:06:57 - 00:00:09:01]
Vaccines do not cause autism.
Leslie Schlacter [00:00:09:03 - 00:00:13:07]
why do we know that? I want people to hear this. Why do we know that vaccines don't cause autism?
Dr. Buxbaum [00:00:13:07 - 00:00:23:08]
The best researchers in the field and in other fields have looked at it and ruled out an association between receiving a vaccine and triggering autism
Dr. Buxbaum [00:00:23:08 - 00:00:29:51]
there has been not only no evidence, but there's been so much negative evidence. Right. You can't prove a negative unfortunately. Right.
Dr. Buxbaum [00:00:29:51 - 00:00:32:30]
And it just is puzzling why it persists.
Leslie Schlacter [00:00:32:30 - 00:00:36:35]
For the same reason. Lots of things persist with people. They just get stuck on it.
Leslie Schlacter [00:00:40:31 - 00:00:49:57]
Hi, and welcome back to the vitals. Mount Sinai Health systems groundbreaking podcast. I'm your host, Leslie Schachter, a neurosurgery physician assistant here at the Mount Sinai Hospital.