"Autism is caused by poor mothering." That was the belief of the medical community until the late 1960s.
"Autism is a genetic brain disorder." That is what most people -- and most of the medical community -- believe today.
I'm here to tell you that neither one of these statements is true.
Think about it. Rates of autism have skyrocketed over the years, from an estimated 1 child in 3,000 to just 1 in 150 kids today. Sure, wider criteria for diagnosis and better detection might explain some of it -- but not an increase of this magnitude.
The real reason we are seeing increasing rates of autism is simply this: Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain. A toxic environment triggers certain genes in people susceptible to this condition. And research supports this position.
Today I will review some of this research and explain how imbalances in the 7 keys systems of the body may be the real cause--and thus the real cure--of autism.
A New Understanding of Autism
Dramatic scientific discoveries have taken place during the last 10 to 20 years that reveal the true causes of autism -- and turn conventional thinking on its head. For example, Martha Herbert, MD, a pediatric neurologist from Harvard Medical School has painted a picture of autism that shows how core abnormalities in body systems like immunity, gut function, and detoxification play a central role in causing the behavioral and mood symptoms of autism.
She's also given us a new way of looking at mental disease (and disease in general) that is based on systems biology. Coming from the halls of the most conservative medical institution in the world, this is a call so loud and clear that it shatters our normal way of looking at things.
Everything is connected, Dr. Herbert says. The fact that these kids have smelly bowel movements, bloated bellies, frequent colds and ear infections, and dry skin is not just a coincidence that has nothing to do with their brain function. It is central to why they are sick in the first place! Yet conventional medicine often ignores this.
My friend and mentor, Sidney Baker, MD -- a pioneer in the treatment of autism as a body disorder that affects the brain -- often says, "Do you see what you believe or do you believe what you see?"
The problem in medicine is we are so stuck in seeing what we believe that we often ignore what is right in front of us because it doesn't fit our belief system. Nowhere is this true more than in the treatment of autism.
This is in the front of my mind, because I see so many behavioral symptoms in kids from learning disabilities to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and even autism.
And I see the rates of medication use skyrocketing for these kids -- from stimulants to anti-psychotics (one of the fastest growing drug categories) to anti-seizure medicine, and more. There is another way ... Let me tell you a story about a little boy I saw recently.
Sam's Case: Autism as a Systemic Disorder
Recently, a mother came to see me, desperate because her 2 1/2 year old son had just been diagnosed with autism.
Her son, Sam, was born bright and happy, was breast-fed, and received the best medical care available (including all the vaccinations he could possibly have). He talked, walked, loved, and played normally -- that is, until after his measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination at 22 months.
He received diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis A and B, influenza, pneumonia, hemophilous, and meningitis vaccines -- all before he was 2 years old. Then something changed. Vaccines may affect susceptible children through different mechanisms. In some it is overwhelming of an already taxed immune system with over 2 dozen vaccinations at a very young age, for some it is the thimerosal (ethylmercury) used as a preservative until recently in most vaccines (although it is still present in most flu vaccines).
He lost his language abilities and became detached. He was unable to relate in normal ways with his parents and other children. And he became withdrawn, and less interactive. These are all signs of autism.
Sam was taken to the best doctors in New York and "pronounced" as having autism, as if it were a thing you catch like a bug. His parents were told that nothing could be done except arduously painful and barely effective behavioral and occupational therapy techniques. The progress would be slow, and his parents should keep their expectations low, the doctor said. Devastated, the mother began to seek other options and found her way to me.
There is much to undo and peel away, like the layers of an onion. But treating autism as a body disorder that affects the brain gives us SO many other treatment choices. Children treated in this way can often have dramatic and remarkable -- if not miraculous -- recoveries.
Before I explain how I found the clues that gave me a means to treat Sam, let me remind you that the whole basis of functional and systems medicine is the concept of biochemical individuality.
That means that if you take 100 kids with autism, each one may have unique genetics, and unique causes or triggers for their autism and need very different treatments to get better. Autism is just a label. Like every condition or illness, the key is to dig into the layers and peel the onion to discover what is really happening. It is not usually one think but a collection of insults, toxins and deficiencies piled on susceptible genetics that leads to biochemical train wreaks we see in these children.
We have to pay close attention to what we see, and be ready to work with the unexpected according to the basic principles of systems biology and medicine (known as functional medicine).
That is what I did for Sam ...
When I first saw him, this little boy was deep in the inner wordless world of autism. Watching him was like watching someone on a psychedelic drug trip. So we dug into his biochemistry and genetics and found many things to account for the problems he was having.
He had very high level of antibodies to gluten. He was allergic not only to wheat, but to dairy, eggs, yeast, and soy -- about 28 foods in total.
He also had a leaky gut, and his gut was very inflamed. The immune system in his gut showed a high level of inflammation by a marker called eosinophil protein X. He had 3 species of yeast growing in his gut and no growth of healthy bacteria. Urine tests showed very high levels of D-lactate, an indicator of overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine.
Sam was also deficient in zinc, magnesium, and manganese, vitamins A, B12, and D, and omega-3 fats. Like many children with autism, he had trouble making energy in his cells, or mitochondria.
His amino acids -- necessary for normal brain function and detoxification -- were depleted. And his blood showed high levels of aluminum and lead, while his hair showed very high levels of antimony and arsenic -- signs of a very toxic little boy. His levels of sulfur and glutathione were low, indicating that he just couldn't muster the power to detox all these metals. In fact, his genes showed a major weak spot in glutathione metabolism, which is the body's main antioxidant and major detoxification highway for getting rid of metals and pesticides.
Sam also had trouble with a key biochemical function called methylation that is required to make normal neurotransmitters and brain chemicals and is critical for helping the body get rid of toxins. This showed up as low levels of homocysteine (signs of problems with folate metabolism) and high methylmalonic acid (signs of problems with B12 metabolism). He also had two genes that set him up for more problems with this system.
Finally, he also had very high levels of oxidative stress or free radical activity, including markers that told me that his brain was inflamed and under free-radical fire.
This may all seem complicated, but it really isn't. When I see any patient, I simply work through the 7 keys to UltraWellness (based on functional medicine) to see how everything is connected, create a plan to get to the causes of the problems, and then help each patient deal with all the biochemical and physiological rubble that those causes have left along the road.
Having a roadmap, a new GPS system based on functional medicine and UltraWellness, makes this straightforward. You just take away what's bothering the patient. Give his body what it is missing and needs to thrive (based on the individual's biochemical uniqueness). Then the body does the rest.
Here is the roadmap I used to help Sam recover.
Sam's Roadmap to Recovery: A Model for Treating Autism
Step 1: Fix His Gut and Cool the Inflammation There
This step included a number of different tactics including:
• Taking away gluten and other food allergens
• Getting rid of his yeast with anti-fungals
• Killing off the toxic bacteria in his small intestine with special antibiotics
• Replenishing healthy bacteria with probiotics
• Helping him digest his food with enzymes
Step 2: Replace the Missing Nutrients to Help His Genes Work Better
In Sam's case we:
• Added back zinc, magnesium, folate, and vitamins A, B6, B12, and D
• Supported his brain with omega-3 fats
Step 3: Detoxify and Reduce Oxidative Stress
• Once his biochemistry and nutrition was tuned up, we helped him detoxify and reduce oxidative stress.
Improve nutrition, reduce inflammation, heal the gut, detoxify -- this should sound familiar.
As I said before, the keys of UltraWellness can help, no matter what the disease or condition. You see, biology has basic laws, which we have to follow and understand. All the details of Sam's story fit into these laws. We just have to dig deep, peel back the layers, and understand what is going on. When we do this the results are nothing short of miraculous ...
After following a gluten-free diet and treating his gut for 3 weeks, Sam showed dramatic and remarkable improvement. He's getting back much of his language skills and showing much more connection and relatedness in his interactions.
After 4 months, he was more focused, unstuck and verbal.
After 10 months, his bowels were back to normal, he was verbally fluent, mainstreamed in school and he "lost" his diagnosis of autism.
After 2 years all his abnormal tests were normal including the high metals, gut inflammation and damage to his mitochondria and free radicals.
And more importantly, the child was totally normal. Not every child has such a dramatic recovery but many improve, and some improve dramatically using the approach of functional or systems medicine.
Every child with behavior problems, ADHD, or autism is unique -- and each has to find his or her own path with a trained doctor. But the gates are open and the wide road of healing is in front of you. You simply have to take the first step.
Please visit the Defeat Autism Now website for more information on this subject, including resources and conferences for doctors and parents.
Now I'd like to hear from you...
Are you raising a child with autism?
How is he or she being treated?
Have you tried any of the approaches here? How have they helped?
Please share your thoughts by adding a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, M.D.
References
Because of the interest in this topic and controversies surrounding it, I am posting all the references for the issues talked about in the article.
1. Curtis TR, ed. The London Encyclopedia. London: Griffi n and Co; 1839.
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3. Williams TA, Mars AE, Buyske SG, et al. Risk of autistic disorder in affected offspring of mothers with a glutathione S-transferase P1 haplotype. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(4):356-361.
4. Reddy MN. Reference ranges for total homocysteine in children. Clin Chim Acta. 1997;262(1-2):153-155.
5. James SJ, Cutler P, Melnyk S, et al. Metabolic biomarkers of increased oxidative stress and impaired methylation capacity in children with autism. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004;80(6):1611-1617.
6. Bull G, Shattock P, Whiteley P, et al. Indolyl-3-acryloylglycine (IAG) is a putative diagnostic urinary marker for autism spectrum disorders. Med Sci Monit. 2003;9(10):CR422-CR425.
7. Wright B, Brzozowski AM, Calvert E, et al. Is the presence of urinary indolyl-3-acryloylglycine associated with autism spectrum disorder? Dev Med Child Neurol. 2005;47(3):190-192.
8. Amminger GP, Berger GE, Schäfer MR, Klier C, Friedrich MH, Feucht M. Omega-3 fatty acids supplementation in children with autism: a double-blind randomized, placebo- controlled pilot study. Biol Psychiatry. 2007;61(4):551-553.
9. Johnson SM, Hollander E. Evidence that eicosapentaenoic acid is effective in treating autism. J Clin Psychiatry. 2003;64(7):848-849.
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13. Vargas DL, Nascimbene C, Krishnan C, Zimmerman AW, Pardo CA. Neuroglial activation and neuroinflammation in the brain of patients with autism. Ann Neurol. 2005;57(1):67-81. Erratum in: Ann Neurol. 2005 Feb;57(2):304.
14. Wakefi eld AJ, Ashwood P, Limb K, Anthony A. The signifi cance of ileo-colonic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia in children with autistic spectrum disorder. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2005;17(8):827-836.
15. Millward C, Ferriter M, Calver S, Connell-Jones G. Gluten- and casein-free diets for autistic spectrum disorder. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2004;(2):CD003498.
16. Uhlmann V, Martin CM, Sheils O, et al. Potential viral pathogenic mechanism for new variant infl ammatory bowel disease. Mol Pathol. 2002;55(2):84-90.
17. Kawashima H, Mori T, Kashiwagi Y, Takekuma K, Hoshika A, Wakefi eld A. Detection and sequencing of measles virus from peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and autism. Dig Dis Sci. 2000;45(4):723-729.
18. Hornig M, Briese T, Buie T, et al. Lack of association between measles virus vaccine and autism with enteropathy: a case-control study. PLoS ONE. 2008;3(9):e3140.
19. Bradstreet JJ, El Dahr J, Anthony A, Kartzinel JJ, Wakefi eld AJ. Detection of measles virus genomic RNA in cerebrospinal fl uid of children with regressive autism: a report of three cases. J Am Phys Surgeons. 2004;9(2):38-45.
20. Taylor B, Miller E, Farrington CP, et al. Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiological evidence for a causal association. Lancet. 1999;353(9169):2026-2029.
21. Williams R. Biochemical Individuality, New York: McGraw Hill; 1998.
22. Autism Research Initiative. Treatment Options for Mercury/metal Toxicity in Autism and Related Developmental Disabilities: Consensus Position Paper. San Diego, CA: Autism Research Initiative; 2005. Available at: http://www.autism.com/triggers/vaccine/ heavymetals.pdf. Accessed September 17, 2008.
23. Holmes AS, Blaxill MF, Haley BE. Reduced levels of mercury in fi rst baby haircuts of autistic children. Int J Toxicol. 2003;22(4):277-285.
24. Adams JB, Romdalvik J, Ramanujam VM, Legator MS. Mercury, lead, and zinc in baby teeth of children with autism versus controls. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2007;70(12):1046-1051.
25. Thompson WW, Price C, Goodson B, et al. Early thimerosal exposure and neuropsychological outcomes at 7 to 10 years. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(13):1281-1292.
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28. Heyer NJ, Echeverria D, Bittner AC Jr, Farin FM, Garabedian CC, Woods JS. Chronic low-level mercury exposure, BDNF polymorphism, and associations with self-reported symptoms and mood. Toxicol Sci. 2004;81(2):354-363. Epub 2004 Jul 14.
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Mark Hyman, M.D. practicing physician and founder of The UltraWellness Center is a pioneer in functional medicine. Dr. Hyman is now sharing the 7 ways to tap into your body's natural ability to heal itself. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on Youtube and become a fan on Facebook.
Follow Mark Hyman, MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markhymanmd
Autism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Autism Fact Sheet: National Institute of Neurological Disorders ...
My child will never be indistinguishable from his peers, but he went from being unable to call for Mommy to saying "Can I have some milk?" with this biomedical approach combined with therapy. I have no doubt that he would still be a low functioning, not middle-functioning, autistic without the digestive health and immune response approach. The fog was lifted so that he could learn to speak and play, thanks to all the work being done by pioneers in this field, such as Dr. Hyman.
You can read more about my viewpoints on my website here:
"Autism Myths"
http://www.tampaflpsychologist.com/blog/2009/8/27/autism-myths.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-bland/chronic-illness-what-work_b_281228.html?show_comment_id=30827059#postComment
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/VaccinesandRelatedBiologicalProductsAdvisoryCommittee/UCM181361.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-stillman/autism-the-last-human-rig_b_267266.html?show_comment_id=30793598#comment_30793598
Also, the results of the largest, most scientifically sound study of the link between vaccines and autism: "A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism" (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen, M.D, et. al.), published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that there were NO statistically significant differences between kids who had and had NOT been vaccinated! In fact, in terms of raw numbers, more kids who had NOT been vaccinated showed autism than the other group (though the differences were too small to be statistically significant).
PROOF POSITIVE that vaccinations have NOTHING to do with autism!
Try googling words like "alternative medicine" and "naturopathy" . Talk to your local Chiropractor, they are often self-educated in diet-related issues.
Read: http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200
But thanks, abitcrunchy, for insulting Chiropractors as being "self-educated"! Sadly, that's not true either. 60 Minutes ran a program on the education of Chiropractors and how many were taught their "craft" by manipulating children's dolls from Toys-R-Us and the like!
But you cannot tell them that. Just like you can't tell a "birther" that they are looking directly at Obama's birth certificate. They, for whatever reason, feel the need to assume that the government and big pharm is out to get their children. Though logically speaking - having a slew of autistic kids doesn't really make them MORE money...but again - you can't speak logic to those who don't want to hear it.
I'm not sure what causes these fringe few to be so loud, so determined to cut down, shout down, and "destroy" anyone speaking about reality versus far-fetched conspiracy. But the fact that they repeat themselves time and again - regressing to one-line pointless jabs when you prove your points - just proves you're never going to get to them. I hope that just one parent reading this takes the advice to find out for themselves how to help their child. I hope that at least one of them does the research to see there's a difference between a food allergy and full blown autism. If they do, that's one less parent participating in this dangerous fringe movement.
You mean like the Oraccolytes and the vaccine-thugs do?
These people will attack someone who has been in the field and suffered with true autism their entire lives in order to try to further their "it's just that easy" agenda. These people will trust a playboy playmate quicker than someone with real knowledge (anecdotal and scientific). These people are either lucky enough to be dealing with a food allergy - or they're hanging on by a thread to another easy fix that will eventually drain their pocketbooks and worse - destroy their hopes.
How about you start with just one good reason for giving a newborn baby a Hepatitis B Vaccine and then prove it will protect them when they are of age to have sex or do drugs. Note, I'm not asking you to prove any "negative" here so I can't wait to hear what you come up with. (And don't play the *Mother may have it* card, that's ridiculous unless you simply don't trust big pharma's test that proves whether Mother has it or not.) I'm in the US, so I don't care to hear about babies who are born on the dirt in Nigeria either!
Just one example of the lies - and its offered by respected media. Pay close attention because these sort of pieces RARELY get published!
This one tells all about "science-based medicine" and studies done on antibiotics.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/3/252
Results: "Among 74 FDA-registered studies, 31%, accounting for 3449 study participants, were not published."
Humm - wonder why they publish some and leave others out!!! Yeah, that's "science-based" alright!
First you say chiropractors are "self-educated" (though if they were, they might be better at their quackery than if they'd been educated by other loons), but not only is the article you cited NOT about antibiotics, it's actually about the well-known "file drawer problem"!
The phrase "file drawer problem" or "effect" was coined to refer to psuedo-scientific nutjobs who hide their null-hypothesis and other failures by stashing them at the bottom of a "file drawer" rather than revealing how ignorant and gullible they actually are. See, for example:
http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/meta-analysis_and_the_filedrawer_effect
While it's true that the study did properly expose that the effect has regrettably been seen in the frightfully difficult effort to determine whether a given anti-depressant helps more people than it doesn't (a staggeringly complex and vexing task since it has to rely so much on self-reporting rather than readily measurable data), in reality the effect is FAR more prominent and frequent in anti-scientific crackpottery such as the lies that vaccines are related to autism!
(Continued in Part 2)
It will ONLY get worse!
It may not be the conscious motive of the doctor, but the incentive is still there. The reward still dangles, carrot like. If you heal them all you go out of business. Make them sick young and you've got a lifetime of profits. Until the financial incentive is removed, anyone who has vested interests must be suspect, especially when they claim that vaccines are not problematic.
I know people who would like to talk to her, they will pay her for her time.
Thanks!
"Autism And Anorexia: What's The Relationship?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-collins-lystermensh/autism-and-anorexia-whats_b_278323.html
That is a fact.
We stopped my son's diet and supplements two weeks ago to get back to a "baseline". All his symptoms returned.
Hugs to you & yours,
Marsha
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/347/19/1477
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/118735419/HTMLSTART
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/596476
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/124/2/680
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16818529
So what.
Dieting helped my child.
(Archives of Virology, 1983 - Glycopolypeptides of rubella virus; Toivonen, Rainionpaa, Salmi, Hyypia - Finland, Turku University). - Morbillivirus
http://www.google.fr/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIC_frNL246NL268&q=branka+horvat+rougeole+mannose
Obviously, if your MBL is low, your immune defense response is low and you're more predisposed to have rubella, as well as Epstein-Barr and Measles! And that may explain why even single vaccinations with these viruses leads to autism. Studies on MBL and vaccinations were done already
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannose_receptor
(Mannose receptor-targeted vaccines
Tibor Keler, Venky Ramakrishna, Michael W Fanger
Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, December 2004, Vol. 4, No. 12, Pages 1953-1962
(doi: 10.1517/14712598.4.12.1953))
When you have low MBL, you have antibodies in the body for a longer period (several days) rather than 1-2 days for normal MBL
http://www.biomedexperts.com/Abstract.bme/18996748/Deficiency_of_mannose-binding_lectin_greatly_increases_antibody_response_in_a_mouse_model_of_vaccination
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18996748
They researches argues about mercury and alluminium in vaccins effect and toxins in additives, but there are cases when parents find autistic sympthoms after separate vaccins applications, when mercury or alluminium is not used. In that case, obviously, would be nice to check if there is a link between a viral component itself and an immune status of the person with autism.