Autism is a neurological, developmental disorder that causes problems with social interaction, communication, inflexible behaviour and obsessive interests. It was first identified by Kanner in 1943.

Autistics and cousins (ACs) typically dislike change, which can lead to rigid routines and repetitive, stereotyped behaviours, and the obsessive interests can get to a point where they interfere with quality of life. However, ACs are individuals like everyone else, and within the diagnostic criteria, there is a huge range.  This can make treatment for autism especially challenging.

Many researchers have the view that autism is a continuum, the Autistic Spectrum ranging from the low-functioning, “classically autistic” (so-called “Kanner’s Autism”, from the first doctor to identify the disorder), who may be profoundly disabled, to the high functioning Asperger’s person, who may be able to function in society independantly, even holding down a job, marrying or have a family. Many ACs apparently “move up” the spectrum as they grow up.

The range of intellectual abilities of ACs is also vast, although their true intelligence may be masked by autistic behaviours. Most are thought to be intellectually challenged, but many have an average or well above average intelligence. People who are at this end of the spectrum, with good verbal abilities, are often referred to as “high-functioning autistic” (HFA).

from TIME Magazine:

What’s unique about Hannah’s case is that for the first time federal authorities have conceded a connection between her autistic symptoms and the vaccines she received, though the connection is by no means simple. A panel of medical evaluators at the Department of Health and Human Services concluded that Hannah had been injured by vaccines — and recommended that her family be compensated for the injuries. The panel said that Hannah had an underlying cellular disorder that was aggravated by the vaccines, causing brain damage with features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

It’s been too long but finally headway has been made.  If you’re a parent of an autistic child check out our comprehensive autism remedies, therapies and support section.

Autism is a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication, and causes restricted and repetitive behavior, all starting before a child is three years old. This set of signs distinguishes autism from milder autism spectrum disorders (ASD) such as Asperger syndrome.  Visit http://www.helpyourautisticchild.com/ for more information.

Autism is highly heritable, although the genetics of autism are complex and it is generally unclear which genes are responsible. In rare cases, autism is strongly associated with agents that cause birth defects. Other proposed causes, such as childhood vaccines, are controversial and the vaccine hypotheses lack convincing scientific evidence. Most recent reviews estimate a prevalence of one to two cases per 1,000 people for autism, and about six per 1,000 for ASD, with ASD averaging a 4.3:1 male-to-female ratio. The number of people known to have autism has increased dramatically since the 1980s, at least partly due to changes in diagnostic practice; the question of whether actual prevalence has increased is unresolved.

Autism affects many parts of the brain; how this occurs is poorly understood. Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their child’s life. Early behavioral or cognitive intervention can help children gain self-care, social, and communication skills. There is no cure. Few children with autism live independently after reaching adulthood, but some become successful, and an autistic culture has developed, with some seeking a cure and others believing that autism is a condition rather than a disorder.

Ernie Els’ son was diagnosed with Autism and the golfer is bringing the news to the public.  Read the Article…

A fever of the mind no more

The author’s son: Fridrik Grundvig (James Ottar Grundvig)

Is there a link between the explosion of the autism epidemic and the sharp increase in the number of elderly contracting Alzheimer’s disease?

For the past few years, I have asked myself that question whenever I took my 8-year-old son, Fridrik, who was diagnosed in 2003 with Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), an increasingly common form of autism, to his physician, Dr. Henry Sobo, in Stamford, Conn.

That’s because Dr. Sobo, an internist who tailors individual programs for patients by using homeopathic therapy, had built his reputation on treating neurological disorders, from children with ADHD to adults with Parkinson’s disease. Although autism was new to him, it was déjà vu.

Do All Roads Point to Toxicity of the Brain?

Since doing research into the cause of Fridrik’s neurological disorder, I have come to an understanding about both diseases. Alzheimer’s, which appears in adults older than 65 years, is the incremental degradation of the brain. Autism is the acute poisoning of the brain in a growing subpopulation of children.

Besides unique genetic flaws in each, the common thread between an adult with Alzheimer’s and a baby at the onset of the regressive form of autism is myelin, the insulation of the brain’s wiring.

Myelin, or the membrane blanket that protects the brain circuitry, doesn’t completely form and wrap the brain in an infant until 18 months old. For the adult, the unwrapping of the protective sheath takes place at mid-age, or about 50. Thus, the brain is vulnerable to toxins during its development and after its primary use, due to the absence of myelin.

Little of this biological fact seems to filter back to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Maybe this will change based on a new study on autism and a new treatment for Alzheimer’s, both of which are currently undergoing more testing, both of which point to the same underlying root cause, with one maybe helping the treatment of the other, and with autism perhaps explaining the therapy for Alzheimer’s.

Fever Reduces Symptoms of Autism

Last December, Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, announced with great fanfare that fever in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) reduced or even eliminated the symptoms of autistic behavior not only during a fever, but also up to a week after it subsided. Dr. Andrew Zimmermann, whose team ran the study for the child neurological institute, which was founded in 1937 to study and treat kids with cerebral palsy, must have wondered: What caused this?

When I first heard the news, it confirmed to me what I always suspected about autism: Heavy metals toxicity is the reason behind the fever-induced, temporary relief of autistic symptoms in children of the autism spectrum.

To me, having worked in the construction industry more than 25 years and having studied the behavior of material properties in college, the fever angle made sense. The first point was due to its simplicity—one event. One global change to the brain explaining the why, how, and what of a very complex neurological disorder, for which modern medicine has failed to find the cause since the first case was diagnosed during World War II.

Imagine heavy metals on the micro scale embedding tiny specs and flakes in certain regions of the pre-myelin-protected brain, and the child being unable to excrete those particles that most children can. The particles lodge themselves in, around, and between the nodes and nerve endings that make up the neural network, and interrupt the brain’s electrical signals.

As more metals accumulate, they block more signals and break down the brain cells’ ability to process key functions—like a virus-infected computer. For ASD kids like my son that means impairing their ability to speak, rendering fine-motor skills of their fingers useless, flattening arched feet, and amplifying the auditory reception of their ears to the point of pain.

How could a fever help a child suffering from autism?

With heavy metals planted at the exact nodes in the brain where the damage occurred, the fever would heat up the metal particles, and they in turn would bridge the interrupted break points in the neural network.

In other words, metals, being highly conductive of both heat and electricity, would complete what has not been working in ASD (autism spectrum disorder) kids since the first year of their lives. Okay. But then what would cause the temporary connections of the neural network to continue to work for a week after the fever had dissipated?

Again, the answer is heavy metals. Metals consist of a different material makeup than brain tissue and blood. They would retain the heat produced by a fever longer, thus keeping the electrical pulses working well after the fever was gone. But once the heat of the metals matched the body temperature of the brain, the temporary, bridged connections would no longer work, and the full-blown symptoms of autism would return.

The week that I heard the news, I contacted Elise Babbitt-Welker, the communications manager at Kennedy Krieger Institute. I told her what I believed was the answer to the riddle.

She said that the Institute had received many inquiries to its study and that she would pass on my “heavy metals angle” to Dr. Zimmermann’s team of scientists.

In an e-mail, Ms. Babbitt-Welker wrote: “This phenomenon has been widely reported on by parents, clinicians and researchers alike, but this most recent research was the first to study the association using a controlled scientific methodology. That said, [with it] being a study with only 30 children, he and his fellow researchers know that more research is needed to confirm the findings.”

The Alzheimer’s Hat

With Dr. Zimmermann applying for grants to further research the findings, we can only wonder how one would replicate a fever in a child without spiking the core body temperature.

Then, in a stroke of timing, on Jan. 28—seven weeks after the fever study had made news—an answer to that question arrived. On ABC News, a segment on Alzheimer’s disease caught my eye. Dr. Gordon Dougal, along with a team of researchers at the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom, showed the “Alzheimer’s Hat,” which looked like a cross between a football and motorcycle helmet.

In a preliminary testing phase, the Hat, which would be worn 10 minutes per day by an Alzheimer’s patient like Dr. Dougal’s father, pulses the brain with infrared beams—the claim being that the Hat relieved memory-loss and speech-impaired symptoms in his father.

The doctor also tested the Hat’s infrared technology on 30 lab rats, “20 of which were deemed to be experiencing middle-aged mental decline,” for which he stated the “rays improved the memory functions of these rats to that of young rats.”

Many entrenched American doctors and scientists scoffed at and belittled treating the brain with infrared; they should withhold judgment until the findings from both the Kennedy Krieger fever study has run its course, while Dr. Dougal confirms the Alzheimer’s Hat in a wider study. Since the University of Sunderland has an autism department, perhaps the autism-fever study and the Alzheimer’s infrared treatment could start to share information.

With the bulk of the autism epidemic related to some form of heavy metals toxicity, I believe it’s about time that the heat angle as a form of treatment in ASD kids receives the funds to find out whether the jump-start in the damaged neural network of the brain can be produced by heat—whether it’s the body’s own temperature or artificial as in infrared.

Give your autistic child the help they need with time-tested Maxam nutraceuticals.

DOUG FLUTIE, JR. FOUNDATION GRANTS NAA $10,000 FOR BURBACHER/CHARLESTON STUDY Funds to support research into the effects on the brain following exposure to mercury

Nixa, MO  – It was announced this week that The National Autism Association (NAA) will receive $10,000 for the Burbacher/Charleston study into the effects of mercury exposure in the brain. The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, Inc. awarded the grant. Funding will support the completion of a research study relating to the effects upon the brain following exposure to mercury. 

 The mercury study’s primary investigator is Dr. Thomas Burbacher, a University of Washington researcher and long-time investigator into the effects of the toxin. His earlier research found that Thimerosal, best known for its use as an ethylmercury-based preservative in infant vaccines and pregnancy shots, is actually more toxic to the brain than methylmercury. The goal of this particular investigation is to expand the knowledge of a potential link between neurotoxic exposures and the development of autism, which will in turn lead to better treatments.

“As parents of a child with autism, we are concerned about the possible correlation between mercury and autism and are pleased to see NAA continuing to support this very important research that may help resolve the mercury issue,” commented Doug and Laurie Flutie.

 The second-phase study by Dr. Jay Charleston and Dr. Burbacher will look more in-depth at brain tissue, and the effects mercury may have on this tissue once it passes the blood-brain barrier. In his first-phase study, Burbacher concluded:

• Ethylmercury is more toxic because it is less stable as a molecule than methylmercury. Like methylmercury, it gains ready access to the brain across the blood-brain barrier
• Ethylmercury leaves more than double the amount of inorganic mercury trapped in the brain than does methylmercury
• Inorganic mercury trapped in the brain can stay for many years, even a lifetime

NAA applauds The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for its continued support on the project. “This is the second grant they’ve given us, and we’re extremely grateful,” says parent and NAA President Wendy Fournier. “It’s this kind of research that can make all the difference for our children.” 

Monday March 3, 2008

Autism bill put on hold

House panel wants time to study fiscal impact

by Jake Stump

Daily Mail Capitol Reporter

A bill that would have forced health insurance companies to provide coverage for autism has been downgraded to a study resolution, upsetting autism advocates and a state lawmaker who championed the measure.   Read more…