Chelation Therapy Drug Found Safe and Beneficial for Children With Autism

The Autism Research Institute calls for further investigations
into the use of chelation therapy for individuals with autism

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two studies
published by the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in
the October issue of BMC Clinical Pharmacology investigated
the use of oral dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), a prescription
medicine approved by the FDA for treating lead poisoning, and
used off-label in these studies for treating heavy metal
toxicity in children with autism.

In the investigations, DMSA was given to 65 children with
autism (ages 3 -8 years) to determine its effects. The
researchers found that DMSA dramatically increased excretion
of several toxic metals, including a 10-fold increase in
excretion of lead. In terms of safety, the study found that
there was no adverse effect on standard safety tests,
including no effect on kidney or liver function.

Of greatest interest was a surprising finding that DMSA
therapy had a dramatic effect on glutathione levels.
Glutathione is the body's primary defense against toxic metals,
and it was very abnormal in children with autism.
Treatment with DMSA for only 3 days normalized glutathione
levels for at least 1-2 months in almost all children.

DMSA therapy also had promising effects on possibly reducing
some of the symptoms of autism, including improvements in
language, cognition, and sociability. However, a formal
randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study is needed
to confirm those results.

The study was led by Matthew Baral, N.D., Chair of the
Department of Pediatric Medicine and Associate Professor of
Pediatrics at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM)
and James B. Adams, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor in the Division
of Clinical Sciences at SCNM and Science Director for the Autism
Research Institute.

"Toxic metals are a common problem in autism, and I have
personally observed that many of my patients with autism have
greatly benefited from DMSA therapy.
I hope this data answers the question that many physicians have:
whether chelation is safe and effective, and clearly it's both,"
says Dr. Matthew Baral. "This study shows that DMSA therapy is
safe and effective, and should be considered as a possible
treatment for children with autism who have significant body
burden of toxic metals," says Prof. James Adams.

This study was funded, in part, by the Autism Research Institute.
To access the studies go to

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6904/9/16
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6904/9/17



SOURCE Autism Research Institute

James Adams, PhD, +1-480-965-3316, or Steve Edelson, PhD,
+1-619-281-7165

The Ultimate Herbal Remedy: Can Cannabis Improve Autism?

The debate over its risks has split political and scientific opinion in Britain. But American mother Marie Myung-Ok Lee says cannabis isn't only safe enough for her autistic son - it's dramatically improved his condition



My son, J, has autism. He's also had two serious operations for a spinal cord tumour and has an inflammatory bowel condition, all of which may be causing him pain, if he could tell us. He can say words, but many of them - "duck in the water, duck in the water", for instance - don't convey what he means. For a time, anti-inflammatory medication seemed to control his pain. But in the last year, it stopped working. He began to bite and to smack the glasses off my face. If you were in that much pain, you'd probably want to hit someone, too.
J's school called my husband and me in for a meeting about J's tantrums, which were affecting his ability to learn. The teachers were wearing Tae Kwon Do arm pads to protect themselves against his biting. Their solution was to hand us a list of child psychiatrists. As autistic children can't exactly do talk therapy, this meant using sedating, antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal.
Last year, Risperdal was prescribed for more than 389,000 children in the US - 240,000 of them under the age of 12 - for bipolar disorder, ADHD, autism and other disorders. Yet the drug has never been tested for long-term safety in children and carries a severe warning of side-effects. From 2000 to 2004, Risperdal, or one of five other popular drugs also classified as "atypical antipsychotics", was the "primary suspect" in 45 paediatric deaths, according to a review of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data by USA Today. When I canvassed parents of autistic children who take Risperdal, I didn't hear a single story of an improvement that seemed worth the risks. A 2002 study on the use of Risperdal for autism, in The New England Journal of Medicine, showed moderate improvements in "autistic irritation" - but the study followed only 49 children over eight weeks, which limits the inferences that can be drawn from it.
We met with J's doctor, who'd read the studies and agreed: No Risperdal or its kin. The school called us in again. What were we going to do, they asked. As an occasional health writer and blogger, I was intrigued when a homeopath suggested medical marijuana. Cannabis has long-documented effects as an analgesic and an anxiety modulator. Best of all, it is safe. The homeopath referred me to a publication by the Autism Research Institute describing cases of reduced aggression, with no permanent side- effects. Rats given 40 times the psychoactive level merely fall sleep. Dr Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who has been researching cannabis for 40 years, says he has yet to encounter a case of marijuana causing a death, even from lung cancer.
A prescription drug called Marinol, which contains a synthetic cannabinoid, seemed mainstream enough to bring up with J's doctor. I cannot say that with a few little pills everything turned around. But after about a week of fiddling with the dosage, J began garnering a few glowing school reports: "J was a pleasure have in speech class," instead of "J had 300 aggressions today."
But J tends to build tolerance to synthetics, and in a few months we could see the aggressive behaviour coming back. One night, I went to the meeting of a medical marijuana patient advocacy group on the campus of the college where I teach. The patients told me that Marinol couldn't compare to marijuana, the plant, which has at least 60 cannabinoids to Marinol's one.
Rhode Island, where we live, is one of 13 states where the use of medical marijuana is legal. But I was resistant. My late father was an anaesthesiologist, and compared with the precise drugs he worked with, I know he would think marijuana to be ridiculously imprecise and unscientific. I looked at my son's tie-dye socks (his avowed favourite). At his school, I was already the weirdo mom who packed lunches with organic kale and kimchi and wouldn't let him eat any "fun" foods with artificial dyes. Now, I'd be the mom who shunned the standard operating procedure and gave her kid pot instead.
I thought back to when J was 18 months old. We were vacationing on the Cape, and, although he just had the slightest hitch in his gait, I was sure there was something wrong. His paediatrician laughed. I called back repeatedly until a different doctor agreed to see us. J was taken in for emergency surgery, to remove a tumour that was on the verge of inflicting irreparable damage. Sometimes, you just have to go with your gut.
And yet, I still hesitated. The Marinol had been disorienting enough - no protocol to follow, just trying varying numbers of pills and hoping for the best. Now we were dealing with an illegal drug, one for which few evidence-based scientific studies existed, precisely because it is an illegal drug. But when I sent J's doctor the physician's form that is mandatory for medical marijuana licensing, it came back signed. We underwent a background check with the Rhode Island Bureau of Criminal Identification, and J became the state's youngest licensee.
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Fantastic!!! New textbook on autism

From Autism Research Institute's newsletter:

In his 2007 book Changing the Course of Autism, Dr. Bryan Jepson wrote, "We need to redefine autism as a multi-organ metabolic disease that should be removed from the DSM-IV, placed in the medical textbooks instead, and routinely taught in medical schools and residencies."

ARI is thrilled to see a new medical school textbook titled Autism: Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Immune Abnormalities, recently published by CRC Press, and edited by Abha Chauhan, Ved Chauhan, and W. Ted Brown.

The book covers a variety of biomedical and neurological topics such as oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, membrane and metabolism abnormalities, and signal transduction (read the chapter headings here). The writers also discuss possible implications for treatment.

Many of the contributors have received research funding from ARI, participated in our Think Tanks, and/or presented at our conferences, including Drs. Paul Ashwood, Tapan Audhya, Manuel Casanova, Richard Deth, Martha Herbert, Harumi Jyonouchi, Woody McGinnis, Judy Van de Water, and Stephen Edelson.

The book is a bit pricey, but it is a significant contribution to the field of autism; it is available at Amazon.com. Encourage your local library to buy a copy!

The Real Voice of Autism

I recently found this site; I think it's a fantastic resource and had to share it.


"Who we are

The purpose of the autistics.org project is to connect autistic people with the services we need to live whole and happy lives. The immediate goal of autistics.org is to build a global database of information and resources by and for persons on the autistic spectrum.

The autistics.org project is by and for autistics, not parents of autistic children, though family members and professionals may find this website helpful.

The autistics.org project is a project in the spirit of the various Linux development projects: created by volunteers, it's not so much an organization as it is a constructive anarchy.

* The One Community Pledge
* The autistics.org project

About our slogan

The Autism Society of America, an organization composed almost entirely of non-autistic people and controlled entirely by non-autistic people, which performs few if any useful functions for autistic people, and which on numerous occasions has advocated against the best interests of autistic people, has started to call itself "The Voice of Autism".

In our judgment, such hubris demands a response. So we've changed our tagline to "The Real Voice of Autism"

When we call ourselves "The Real Voice of Autism", we mean by that that we autistics are the real voice of autism, not that we in particular at Autistics.org are. Every autistic, whether he or she contributes to this site, doesn't know this site exists, or hates what we do here, is also "The Real Voice of Autism". If you are autistic, feel free to join us in proclaiming yourself "The Real Voice of Autism"

Autism Button

Honest Food Guide-A healthy food pyramid

Dear readers,

Confused about what you're supposed to eat? That's because most
nutritional advice comes sources that have sold their souls to the
giant food companies. Even the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid is heavily
influenced by food lobbyists, and it offers lousy nutritional advice
that's decades behind the cutting-edge nutritional principles we now
know to be true.

If you want a REAL guide to which foods you should eat, check out my
Honest Food Guide, an easy-to-use nutritional reference chart that
will help you make the best choices at every meal. The "Honest Food
Guide" is based on real nutrition, not politics or special interest
groups, and it illustrates the nutritional principles that will keep
you healthy for life.

Because this information will help you live a healthier lifestyle,
I'm giving away downloadable copies at http://www.HonestFoodGuide.org

The "Honest Food Guide" provides information like:

* Which common food ingredients promote diabetes
* Which foods promote mental disorders and depression
* How to avoid hydrogenated oils
* Which grocery products and foods promote outstanding health
* Why high-sodium snacks are harmful to your health
* Where to find healthy protein
* Mineral-rich supplements to add to your diet
* How MSG interferes with body function and appetite control
* What foods to add to your diet for a strong immune system
* Why breakfast cereals are often health saboteurs
* How to ensure you're getting enough healthy oils
* Why sunlight is vital for good health
* Key nutrients for good health
* How to select vegetables with a variety of nutrients
* Healing superfoods
* How to achieve clear, smooth skin
* Which carbs to eat and which to avoid
... and much more.

If you want the straight truth about which foods to consume and which
foods to avoid, download the Honest Food Guide today.

Learn more at:
http://www.HonestFoodGuide.org

Book: For Families of Children with Autism

The emotional trauma that families go through when they find out their child has an autism spectrum disorder can feel like being plunged into darkness. Francesca Bierens is on a mission to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel. “The purpose of this book is to provide families who have a child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder with feelings of hope,” writes Bierens. “It is also my intention to provide people who do not have first hand experience, with increased understanding of how autism affects the child and the family."

Over a period of fourteen years, Bierens interviewed ten families of children on the autism spectrum. The result is her new book, A Spectrum of Light: Inspirational Interviews with Families Affected by Autism (December 2009, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 192 pages, paperback, 978-1-84905-013-5, $19.95). This book records how each of the 10 families answered the challenge of autism: how they felt, how they coped, and what gave them strength and solace.

Each family discusses how they reacted when they found out their child had autism, and their feelings leading up to diagnosis. They share their positive and negative experiences of professionals, and describe the support that they received, often from grandparents, respite care givers, support groups and other parents. Two of the original children, now in their 20s, also talk about the experience of growing up with autism, and describe how their lives are now.

Experts: Prepare now for autism's rising flood

"When you've seen one child with autism, you've seen one child with autism," said Brenda Smith-Myles, ASA's chief program officer. "No two children on the autism spectrum have the same needs."

Top ten reasons to home school

Many parents after a tiring year in traditional school start to wonder if home school is an option for them. Home school is a wonderful opportunity for parents and kids, but it is not for everyone. Here are the ten top reasons to home school your children.

1) No one has more interest in your child’s success than you do. Raising children involves teaching them on a daily basis.

2) You are qualified to teach your child. If there is a subject that you are unfamiliar with, that is what curriculum is for.

3) Homeschooled children consistently outperform their traditionally schooled peers on standardized tests. This superior test performance is across all socio-economic and ethnic lines.

4) Children who are home schooled have superior social skills to their traditionally schooled peers. Traditional school children learn gang mentality and bully tactics on unsupervised or poorly supervised playgrounds. Homeschooled children are supervised. Anti-social behaviors are quickly corrected. Homeschooled children interact better with adults than traditionally schooled children do.

5) With individualized attention home school children accomplish more in a day than most traditional public schools do in a week.

6) According to the US Department of Education, 1.5 million US families home school their children. The numbers are growing as more and more families are tired of a broken public school system that is barely able to teach.

7) Special needs children receive superior support services at home. This includes needs such as speech, vision, occupational therapy, gifted, autism and other support services. I have had 4 children with various needs in the public school system in 3 different states. Not one of them ever received the services promised in their IEP or those mandated by the Federal Disabilities Act.

8) The number of affluent Americans homeschooling their children is rising. This is due to frustrations over classroom behaviors, lack of learning and the desire to teach their children as they see fit.

9) Home school offers superior educational experiences to traditional schools. Field trips and travel are just a few of the things homeschoolers offer their kids.

10) Children who are homeschooled work at their own pace. They are not bound to state mandated curriculums and can advance to higher level work when ready. The same holds true for children who need more work in some areas. Home school children work on mastery of a subject, not just passing grades.

New Research Study Shows Developmental Delays in Monkeys Given Hepatitis B Vaccines

"A new research study published today in a leading scientific journal, NeuroToxicology, found that a Hepatitis B vaccine containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal caused significant delays in the acquisition of critical survival reflexes in newborn rhesus macaque monkeys. In this first-ever study comparing vaccinated animals with unvaccinated controls, thirteen of the animals were given a Hepatitis B vaccine containing a standardized amount of thimerosal to match that given to babies; four received a saline placebo, and three were not given any shots. The unvaccinated animals developed normally. Delays in vaccinated infants involved three critical reflexes associated with feeding, which are essential for survival in the wild."

Understanding the Anxious Mind

Mandatory Flu Shots Hit Resistance

Critics, however, say the decision to get vaccinated should remain individual, especially for the swine flu vaccine, which was rushed into production to try to blunt the pandemic's second wave.

"I don't want to be a guinea pig," said Orne Banks-Hopkins, 55, a clerical worker at Washington Hospital Center. "I don't think I should be forced to take something I don't want to take."

Some doctors and nurses in Britain have also expressed resistance to getting the swine flu vaccine. A survey of 1,500 British nurses conducted in August by the Nursing Times found that one-third would not get the vaccine because of safety concerns.

F.D.A. Reveals It Fell to a Push by Lawmakers

The agency has never before publicly questioned the process behind one of its approvals, never admitted that a regulatory decision was influenced by politics, and never accused a former commissioner of questionable conduct.

“The message here is that there were problems with the integrity of F.D.A.’s decision-making process that have solutions,” Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the agency’s principal deputy commissioner, said in a conference call with reporters.

Girls' autism signs miss early diagnosis

Getting Kids In Sync ONLINE November 2009

Announcing an innovative online seminar:Getting Kids In Sync: A Sensory Processing Approach to Challenges Associated with Autism, ADHD, Learning and Behavioural Disorders

Presented by international speaker Genevieve Jereb, OTR

For the first time ever, you can learn at home (broadband Internet connection required) how to apply these practical and powerful tools that help support children to “learn and thrive from the inside out.” This online experience comprises seven hours of Gen’s acclaimed methodology over a two-week period from November 1 to 14, 2009.

Autism may include aptitude for analogy

Children with autism have difficulty forming social relationships. But they discern relationships among objects in visual scenes surprisingly well, indicating a fundamental grasp of analogical reasoning, according to a new study.

Youngsters diagnosed with autism, or autistic disorder, reason about the relations between objects and people on a par with kids free of any developmental problems, psychology graduate student Kinga Morsanyi of the University of Plymouth, England, and psychologist Keith Holyoak of the University of California, Los Angeles report in an upcoming Developmental Science.

"Our findings indicate that the basic ability to reason analogically is intact in autism,” Morsanyi says.

read more

Can children with autism recover? If so, how?

Although Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are generally assumed to be lifelong, we review evidence that between 3% and 25% of children reportedly lose their ASD diagnosis and enter the normal range of cognitive, adaptive and social skills. Predictors of recovery include relatively high intelligence, receptive language, verbal and motor imitation, and motor development, but not overall symptom severity. Earlier age of diagnosis and treatment, and a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified are also favorable signs. The presence of seizures, mental retardation and genetic syndromes are unfavorable signs, whereas head growth does not predict outcome. Controlled studies that report the most recovery came about after the use of behavioral techniques. Residual vulnerabilities affect higher-order communication and attention. Tics, depression and phobias are frequent residual co-morbidities after recovery. Possible mechanisms of recovery include: normalizing input by forcing attention outward or enriching the environment; promoting the reinforcement value of social stimuli; preventing interfering behaviors; mass practice of weak skills; reducing stress and stabilizing arousal. Improving nutrition and sleep quality is non-specifically beneficial.

Parents weigh the risk of vaccinating children for H1N1

Brain structure invests us with sense of personal space

"Washington, Aug 31 (IANS) Neuro scientists have pinpointed the brain structure regulating our sense of personal space, possibly opening the way to a better understanding of autism and other disorders.
The structure, the amygdala - a pair of almond-shaped regions located in the brain - was previously known to process strong negative emotions such as anger and fear and is considered the seat of emotion in the brain.

However, it had never been linked rigorously to real-life human social interaction."

How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?

"The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of Pediatrics for conferences, grants, medical education classes and even helped build their headquarters. The totals are kept secret, but public documents reveal bits and pieces.

A $342,000 payment from Wyeth, maker of the pneumococcal vaccine - which makes $2 billion a year in sales.

A $433,000 contribution from Merck, the same year the academy endorsed Merck's HPV vaccine - which made $1.5 billion a year in sales.

Another top donor: Sanofi Aventis, maker of 17 vaccines and a new five-in-one combo shot just added to the childhood vaccine schedule last month."