Help With Autism

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.

Great information from the European Union on autism research and autism awareness. Maybe the US could follow suit!
  
This page can be found in its entirety here.

This survey addresses the forms of discrimination to which persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are subject to in health and education and especially access to schooling and appropriate care, which are the very foundations of successful social integration and a meaningful, dignified adulthood.

The questionnaires address crucial issues for persons with autism: the right to appropriate education and health care on an equal basis to other citizens of the European Union.

The aim of these questionnaires is to collect as many testimonials as possible concerning different forms of discrimination in order to combat such discrimination more effectively.

The final objective is to raise awareness of the experiences of persons with autism among policy makers in order to promote positive discrimination for these people in their routine activities of daily life as they access schooling and health care services.

Your testimonials are therefore crucial to exemplify the forms of discrimination experienced and their consequences on the daily lives of persons with ASD and their families.

The questionnaires are intended for person with ASD and their families. Whenever possible, they should be filled out by the person concerned or in concert with this person.

We wish to thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and once again we rely on your support to fill in these questionnaires and to circulate them as widely as possible among your friends and acquaintances. The questionnaires are available in English and French.

The FDA, a wholly owned subsidiary of American pharmaceutical corporations, has behaved as if its recent concessions regarding Thimerosal are gracious and timely. Though the response has been delayed, inadequate and unequivocally inept it is actually nice that they’ve finally stepped forward. After great delays the FDA has come to accept some level of accountability for causing irreversible biological, emotional and psychological damage in children across the country. Given the government’s patterned responses to emergencies their incomprehensible failings should not be surprising.

But yet here I sit, aghast at the almost criminal approach the federal government has taken with respect to vaccines that prevent disease at the cost of children and families everywhere. The unfortunate aspect is that, though completely incompetent, the FDA is a necessary evil. Their part in protecting the citizens of the world from being outright poisoned by pharmaceutical companies cannot be downplayed. Though it is minimal I think they have stopped some doozies along the way.

Perhaps the government should approach the pharmaceutical companies and ask that they sell the FDA back to American citizens and taxpayers via the popular auction site eBay.

Bidding starts at $0.99. Buy now for $8.75

Thimerosal is a mercury-containing organic compound (an organomercurial). Since the 1930s, it has been widely used as a preservative in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines, to help prevent potentially life threatening contamination with harmful microbes. Over the past several years, because of an increasing awareness of the theoretical potential for neurotoxicity of even low levels of organomercurials and because of the increased number of thimerosal containing vaccines that had been added to the infant immunization schedule, concerns about the use of thimerosal in vaccines and other products have been raised. Indeed, because of these concerns, the Food and Drug Administration has worked with, and continues to work with, vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal from vaccines.

Thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine (see Table 1). A preservative-free version of the inactivated influenza vaccine (contains trace amounts of thimerosal) is available in limited supply at this time for use in infants, children and pregnant women. Some vaccines such as Td, which is indicated for older children (≥ 7 years of age) and adults, are also now available in formulations that are free of thimerosal or contain only trace amounts. Vaccines with trace amounts of thimerosal contain 1 microgram or less of mercury per dose.

Autism education a never-ending challenge.

Growth and Maturation in Children with Autism or Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Principal investigator: Mary L. Hediger, Ph.D.
Children with autism and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) suffer from defects in socialization, verbal and nonverbal communication, and response to sensory stimuli. While the cause of autism is unknown, children with autism and ASD have been noted in several studies to have a high prevalence of macrocephaly and appear to be taller on average than the general population. Growth patterns and markers of maturation in autistic children have not been studied in detail. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), a marker for adrenal maturation, is low in early childhood but increases during the mid-growth spurt (about ages six to eight). DHEA-S concentration appeared to be elevated in autistic children compared with normal controls in one previous study, raising questions about the possibility that early elevations of DHEA-S in autistic children may be associated with large head and body size. Other methods of assessing maturation in autistic children, such as bone age and cortical thickness, have not been explored.

This study uses cross-sectional data to assess growth and maturation of children with autism/ASD in three ways:

Height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and head circumference in children with autism/ASD between four and eight years of age will be compared with developmentally normal age-, gender-, and race-matched controls
DHEA-S levels in children with autism/ASD will be compared with the same developmentally normal controls
Bone age in children with autism/ASD will be compared with reference populations. Recruitment of 80 case children and 80 controls has been completed.

Case children were recruited from a clinic where a large number of autistic children are seen. Control children were recruited at outpatient surgery facilities.

A study released Wednesday in conjunction with World Autism Day suggests that premature babies are at greater risk of being diagnosed with autism.

The study looked at 91 babies with an average gestation time of 26 weeks. Researchers in Montreal and Boston performed standard development tests on the babies between the ages of 18 and 24 months.

Of the 91 babies tested, 25 per cent had a positive result on an autism screening test. Researchers say they don’t know what proportion of these high risk children will go on to develop autism and are currently performing more confirmatory tests. Results will be released in 6-9 months.

Babies were at higher risk of scoring positive on the autism screening test if they had been more ill at birth, if they were male, or had a lower birth weight or gestational age at birth and if the mother had a prenatal infection.

“The results suggest the more premature the infant and the greater the complications at birth, the greater the likelihood they will follow up with a positive score for autism,” the study’s lead author, Catherine Limperopoulos of McGill University, told CTV’s Avis Favaro.

“Even more troubling, among preemies who had bleeding in a part of the brain known as the cerebellum, 100% - all of them - developed signs of autism.”

The study, entitled “Positive Screening for Autism in Ex-Preterm Infants: Prevalence in Risk Factors,” was published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics.

Help treat autism in your child with chelation therapies and probiotics at Help Your Autistic Child.