Help With Autism

The word bacteria bears a negative connotation, but in truth, there are both harmful and beneficial bacteria. How often have kids heard their mothers mention bacteria as the reason their hands need to be washed before eating? The truth is, a lot of the bacteria found on surfaces are harmful. But there is a plethora of beneficial bacteria contained inside our bodies. These bacteria work to remove toxins and other dangerous elements from our bodies, and promote overall health and wellness. There are even bacteria inside our digestive systems that break down food and ensure that we receive the right nutrients to keep functioning. Having more of these bacteria in our bodies can be quite beneficial because of the removal of harmful toxins our innate bacteria populations might have missed.

We can introduce these additional beneficial bacteria into our bodies with a supplement like probiotics. This supplement, which contains a living culture of beneficial bacteria, is safe to ingest, and the bacteria then add themselves to the existing bacteria and promote better health. Regular use of a probiotics can also be used to treat more harmful conditions, like autism, which is caused in part due to the introduction of toxins into our bodies.

Our bodies contain both beneficial and harmful bacteria, and maintaining the balance of 85% beneficial and 15% harmful is key to personal wellness and health.  Most of the time when the balance of these bacteria is tipped one direction or another it is because of poor nutrition.  With few people receiving the necessary amounts of fiber, vitamins, and minerals from their food, the bacteria are often unbalanced.  Probiotics are designed to replace beneficial bacteria in the body.  Probiotics are ingested like a standard capsule pill, and the bacteria are then released into the body.  Taking probiotics as a supplement is an excellent idea for all people who don’t receive proper nutrition.

Because probiotics are all natural, there’s no need to worry about foreign chemicals or toxins entering the body and causing damage.  Bacteria are necessary to sustain wellness and prevent against serious disease and illness, and with probiotics, it’s easy to maintain the balance of bacteria at all times.  Probiotics has also been used in the treatment of disease an illness, and in treatment of certain disorders like autism.  When foreign chemicals or toxins are the culprit, probiotics is the solution. 

When we think of bacteria, often harmful micro organisms that cause infection, disease, and illness come to mind.  But in truth, bacteria are present within our own bodies and provide several benefits.  Bacteria break down food in the digestive system, eliminate other harmful bacteria, and even provide our bodies with essential nutrients.  The human body maintains a balance of about 85% beneficial bacteria and 15% harmful bacteria at all times.  When this balance is skewed one way or the other, serious problems can occur. 

There are even supplements that provide the body with helpful bacteria.  These supplements, called probiotics, give the body essential nutrients, vitamins, and bacteria that will improve overall health.  Probiotics are even doctor recommended as treatment for several different kinds of disease.

In the human body, there are different varieties of beneficial bacteria that help to combat disease, break down food, and eliminate toxins and pollutants.  Probiotics are supplemental cultures of bacteria designed to invigorate the body and assist the existing bacteria to do their job.  Probiotics have been proven to help eliminate certain diseases, and also to combat the onset of illness.  Taken as an oral medicine and sometimes through injection, probiotics boost the immune system, improve digestive health, and can reduce the growth of harmful bacteria.

In truth, probiotics are as essential as taking vitamins for increased physical and mental wellness.

Before beginning probiotics or a heavy metal detox to treat autism, many researchers suggest starting with a candida cleanse. A candida cleanse, often referred to as the candida diet, is a method that reduces levels of the candida albicans yeast, a bacteria which is naturally present in the body in places such as the mouth and intestinal tract. But the potentially-harmful yeast can grow out of control if you have a weakened immune system or frequently take antibiotics, and lead to a variety of disorders, including headaches, allergies and mood swings, among others.

The candida diet is characterized by cutting off refined sugar for at least a week, and restricting the intake of carbohydrates and fermented foods, all of which encourage the growth of the yeast. Researchers also suggest eating yogurt during the diet, because it is a good source of lactobacillus acidophilus, a bacteria that helps with immunity to cadida albicans.

The candida cleanse is suggested to be done about twice a year, for a length determined by the severity of the condition. People with higher levels of the yeast in their systems should stay on the diet for longer, while those with lower levels only need to maintain it for a short amount of time. The diet should restore health to the digestive tract, allow it to better absorb nutrition, and prepare it for treatments such as the heavy metal detox.

One of the questions I always get, from parents with autistic children, is “Where do we begin?”.  I believe that recovery starts in the gut.  Over 70% of our immune system is from the gut.  When our children are injected with foreign substances and exposed to environmental toxins, their immune systems are heavily taxed.  What can  happen is what I call “Immune System Hyperdrive”.  The system becomes over-worked.  Alot of children with “Immune System Hyperdrive”, who later get the Autism diagnosis, experience ear infections and get antibiotics.  The antibiotics kill all of the good flora in the gut, reducing the ability to eliminate things like Candida Albacans.  Candida, then lines the gut with a film, inhibiting the ability of the stomach and intestinal linings from absorbing proper nutrition from food, further weakening the immune system.  The child develops food allergies, etc.  It is a nasty cycle. 

So, when I get asked “where do we begin”, I suggest  performing a candida cleanse.  It is crucial to clear the gut so it can absorb nutrition and begin to rebuild the immune system.  Once the gut gets better, then we begin the heavy metal detoxification process.  I will talk about that later…

Probiotics are dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeasts. According to the currently adopted definition by FAO/WHO, probiotics are: ‘Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host’.[1]

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are the most common type of microbes used. LAB have been used in the food industry for many years, because they are able to convert sugars (including lactose) and other carbohydrates into lactic acid. This not only provides the characteristic sour taste of fermented dairy foods such as yogurt, but also by lowering the pH may create fewer opportunities for spoilage organisms to grow, hence creating possible health benefits on preventing gastrointestinal infections.[2]. Strains of the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, are the most widely used probiotic bacteria.[3]

Probiotic bacterial cultures are intended to assist the body’s naturally occurring gut flora, an ecology of microbes, to re-establish themselves. They are sometimes recommended by doctors, and, more frequently, by nutritionists, after a course of antibiotics, or as part of the treatment for gut related candidiasis. Claims are made that probiotics strengthen the immune system to combat allergies, excessive alcohol intake, stress, exposure to toxic substances, and other diseases.[2][4] In these cases, the bacteria that work well with our bodies (see symbiosis) may decrease in number, an event which allows harmful competitors to thrive, to the detriment of our health.

Mike Worthley of www.HelpYourAutisticChild.com has been offering educational aids for parents of autistic children for over a year. Now he has opened www.HelpYourAutisticChildBlog.com, where those parents and other educators can come together to discuss working methods and techniques, as well as sharing their stories about dealing with autism in their families. 

When his daughter Olivia was diagnosed with autism 4 years ago, Mike Worthley dedicated himself to researching the condition and how best to overcome the limitations and difficulties it presents. His years of study on the subject led to the creation of www.HelpYourAutisticChild.com, a storehouse of information and products revolving around the world of autism. “I discovered these products, tried them with Olivia, liked them, and decided I needed to share them with the rest of the world,” explains Mike. “I find something good to share with the autistic community, then I do what I can to get it out there.”

 Autism is a growing issue, with 1 in 150 children being diagnosed with various levels of autism and related disorders. “It’s bigger than any childhood ailment, and no one is paying attention to it,” says Mike, who has grown very active in the online community of autistic parents. “There are things we can do as parents that can really help with the autistic symptoms of our kids. I’m suggesting things that I’ve tried that have had a positive effect on my own child, and I’m bringing them to market. It’s shameful that a lot of these therapies and nutritional items aren’t covered by insurance.” 

As part of his goal to help bring these products to the attention of the autism community, Mike has begun a blog at www.HelpYourAutisticChildBlog.com where his customers can read articles about his products, new studies in the field of autism, and advice from other parents of autistic children. “I’m constantly doing research, taking input from other parents as far as what is working for them,” says Mike, who hopes the blog will be as beneficial to him as it will be to his customers. “I’m hoping to bring access to things like ABA, which is a type of therapy for autistic children. We used a product that is similar to Floor Time, which is another product that’s out there. I’m looking to make sure that people have more than one resource on my site; I want to take it to the point where if you want to have a home speech therapy course, you can come to my site, find it, buy it, or get the information to find out what you can do on your own.”

Mike wants to focus equally on positive stories and informational facts. “I’m going to have a Feel Good section. There are success stories that people aren’t hearing about. My own daughter made the Honor Roll in a normal first grade class –that’s a feel-good story. I want it to be a positive, uplifting experience,” says Mike, who sees community support as vital to his business. “I plan on putting articles up, and I’m trying to put up as much independent research as I can. It’s going to be an opinion blog, of course.”

 One of the major areas of research that Mike has studied is the connection between mercury poisoning and autism. “I think a lot of symptoms of autism match up perfectly with mercury poisoning,” he explains, going into detail with his articles and giving strong opinions on childhood vaccinations and Thimerasol, as well as products like PCA-Rx, which remove harmful mercury from children. “There will be nothing on the site or on the blog that I haven’t tried personally, as a parent,” explains Mike, who focuses always on the welfare of the children. “Everything is thoroughly researched; anything on there will only go out if there have been major testimonials from parents. I’m the parent of an autistic child; that’s the number one thing.”

Autism is a perplexing disorder for which there is no standard and consistently-accepted treatment. Many autistic children are treated with traditionally-used chelation substances (like DMSA and DMPS) to counteract the abnormal effects of the disorder when heavy metal toxicity is suspected as a cause. However, PCA-Rx’s clathrating qualities have been found to work as well or even better against symptoms of autism in kids, without the side effects. PCA-Rx has also shown to be effective against symptoms of other EIs – such as angina, Crohn’s disease, Epstein-Barr virus, fibromyalgia and Parkinson’s disease, to name a few – also thought to be caused by toxic exposure.

It is thought that childhood autism could be triggered by vaccinations that young kids receive for measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) and, to a lesser degree, diphtheria (DPT). Specifically, it is thought that the measles component of the MMR vaccination and the pertussis (whooping cough) component of the DPT shot may be to blame. Most autistic children are normal and functioning well up until the time they receive their MMR and DPT vaccinations, which have been found to leave autism-triggering toxic residues in the body. PCA-Rx has proven to be a safe and effective weapon for finding and removing – through clathration – some of these harmful residues from the bodies of young autism sufferers. PCA-Rx’s additional ability to not remove any of the body’s natural minerals also results in an absence of the physiologically-stressful side effects common to other chelating drugs.

We’ve struggled with Cory and probiotics for most of his life.  Unfortunately the leading probiotic supplements for children just weren’t appealing to him, nor were they tailored to augment his specific nutritional needs.  Since we’ve found Probiotics-Rx things have changed, however.  There’s no more fighting to get him to take them and the general benefits and maintenance of his whole-body health, we believe, helps his days go by with minimum emotional turmoil.

Once again you folks have really come through for us.  There are lots of resouces out there for those of us with autistic or Asperger’s children but it’s nice to find a grassroots community offering the kind of support you do.