Just Another Day…

Tag: Autism

[External Link] – Pursue medical treatment for autism, ADHD, and other neuroimmune diseases

A Worldwide Medical Crisis

Autism was once so rare that it did not have a name. The renowned American psychiatrist Dr. Leo Kanner described autism in a 1943 paper based on observations of 11 children. For several decades afterwards, autism was thought to afflict 4 or 5 out of every 10,000 children. Over the past two decades, this population has exploded. In March of 2013, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that parent-reported autism spectrum disorders (ASD) now affect 1 in 50 children aged 6-17.

Autism isn’t the only growing problem. The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) shows a 21.8% increase in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) from 2003 to 2007. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections (PANDAS), Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Tourette syndrome, and other neuroimmune disorders are also on the rise.

A diagnosis of autism or a similar condition can devastate families, emotionally and financially. In 2006, Michael Ganz of the Harvard School of Public Health published research that estimated a cost of $3.2 million for lifetime care for a single autistic person. The CDC’s report Mental Health Surveillance Among Children — United States, 2005–2011 estimates a total annual cost of $247 billion.

In light of this crisis, how is the system responding now? Educators and psychologists use the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to determine a diagnosis. The criteria are based on observations of the patient’s behavior, not medical tests. Typical interventions include behavioral modification, speech, and occupational therapy. With heroic efforts from parents and therapists, these treatments can help some, but few of these children will have a normal, productive life until we realize that we have misunderstood what is happening. We are teaching chronically sick kids coping skills instead of trying to cure their illness.

The world must recognize that these children are ill. Genetic predispositions play a role, but genetics can’t cause an epidemic. Are these mental disorders? Researchers have known for decades that most of these children also have physical symptoms, including allergies, gastrointestinal problems, seizures, chronic illnesses, motor issues (clumsiness), and fatigue. A growing number of researchers are finding that these conditions may be related to inflammation and immune system dysregulation. There may be multiple contributing factors, such as environmental stresses or viruses. It is no wonder that these children have trouble thinking, communicating, and relating when they are chronically ill. Many of these children developed normally until they regressed after becoming sick. They were not born with this disease; they acquired it. And some are recovering. Too few. It is time for world governments and medical systems to make curing these diseases a priority!

Please take the time to sign this on-line petition. It only takes a minute but just may change someones life forever.

August 26, 2014
External Link: Can Autism be Cured? – Dr. Mark Hyman
Many people think that receiving a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder is a label you wear for the rest of your life.

We don’t believe that.

This post goes into some of the details that points to the rise in Autism diagnosis being more of an immune disorder, not a brain disorder. Every decision, every treatment and every dietary decision we make for Max is based around this idea. While he is not recovered yet, we have seen great improvements over the last 2-3 years and he continues to improve and inspire us daily.

The original post can be found here. A copy of it is also below.

TODAY MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE that Autism is a genetic brain disorder. I’m here to tell you that this isn’t true. 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.

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.

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.

Recently I treated a 2 ½ year old boy named Sam. He was born healthy but diagnosed with autism after his vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella at 22 months.

Every child with autism has unique genetics, causes or triggers. And it is not usually one thing but a collection of insults, toxins and deficiencies piled on susceptible genetics that leads to biochemical train wrecks we see in these children.

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. Sam was 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.

To create a roadmap for recovery you just take away what’s bothering the patient and 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.

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. 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 was 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.

This is just the beginning. Read the full article on Why Current Thinking About Autism Is Completely Wrong.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD
March 15, 2014
Rosetta, Meet Maximus

We are always trying new things to help Max progress and catch up what’s considered age appropriate. One of the areas I personally feel he needs the most help is with his speech. It’s pretty clear when you talk to him that he doesn’t master the English language at the same level that his twin Andrew does.

One thing that was recommended to us by his doctor in California, Doctor Goldberg, was Rosetta Stone. I like a lot of people are familiar with it as a software program that teaches you a new language. But it never occurred to me that you could use it to learn your primary language.

Because it’s very visual and interactive, it turns out to be a natural for kids. And because it’s also something you do on the computer, while wearing a super cool headphone/microphone setup, Max really looks forward to doing it.

We spend about 20 minutes a night most nights (nights that i’m not exhausted, late getting home and that he’s not crabby) and I can see improvements in him almost day to day. Certainly over the course of a week. It occurred to me recently that maybe I should start recording them just for a record of how far he has come. So, this is the first of those recordings. It’s the cut-down version of what was originally 35 minutes long.

It was a bit of a test for me to figure out how to get all of the different sources, and it turned out that the voice he hears in the headphones was not something I captured successfully. So, as you watch it may be a bit hard to follow since you’re not hearing the voice prompts. But I expect to have this fixed for any future recordings.

If nothing else, it’s fun to watch because he’s so darn cute.

November 8, 2013
Returning to CA and Dr. Goldberg – One Year Later

Photo by red.dahlia on Flickr

It was just over a year ago that we started seeing a new doctor for Max, Dr. Michael Goldberg in Tarzana CA. In just a short 12-13 months we have seen amazing progress with Max and I think we both agree that it was a great decision to start him on the NIDS treatment.

Max from our 2011 trip to see Dr. Goldberg.

Max from our 2011 trip to see Dr. Goldberg.

The big improvements have been with Max being much happier and happier more often. He smiles and interacts with us and his siblings more and in the last 6 weeks or so has had a language explosion that seems to get better daily. His personality seems to shine though more now than ever before. He has improved greatly in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. When I look back at what he as like a year ago when we took him to CA what sticks out the most is that he was much more inside of himself. It was as if you really had to “go to him” to pull any real interaction out of him. Even when I look back at the photos from last year, he looks sad or sick in many of them.

Max trying on new frames for his 2012 fall look.

Now, he is much more likely to come to you, ask questions, show you something he did, ask for help or just want to sit with you. Those all sound so basic, but it’s all new ground for Max. Even as I type this he’s playing with his brother Andrew in ways that he wouldn’t have a year ago. He now engages Andrew instead of it only being the other way around. It’s really amazing.

Max and Andrew having a debate on Global Warming.

The down side would be the mood swings he has from time to time. When he gets angry or frustrated it can take a long time to get him out of it. And when he’s in one of those moods it causes the whole house to be tense. In that area he has been a puzzle because we make changes that seem to help, only to see him have a bad day for no obvious reason a few days later.

Some of the changes that we have made in the last year that made a noticeable difference (and are still hard to believe) include having him drink only purified water (non-tap), and eating only organic foods. I wouldn’t have believed it without seeing it, but he has a pretty extreme reaction to drinking tap water or eating some non-organic vegetables. But while making those changes helped, it’s obvious there’s still more that effects him – so we continue to look for more pieces to the puzzle.

One note on our tap water – we actually tested it and found that it’s high in some chemicals that are bad for anybody, even adults. And it started to make sense why I was having some bad reactions to drinking our tap water as well.

Max at Santa Monica Beach, Augist 2011

But overall, Max is doing a lot better than one short year ago – so later this week we continue our journey by returning to CA for a annual visit. And this time, Andrew is coming as well. He’s excited about his first trip on a airplane. I’m excited because it’s my first flight on Virgin America. While we do 4-6 week follow ups with the doctor over the phone or via video, we need to see him in person once a year.

While it is only a 3 day trip (only 2 nights) we’re looking forward to having a good time with the boys. Sydney and her broken arm will be staying with Grandma and Poohpa in Michigan and having fun of her own with her cousins.

Sydney heading to MI for the rest of the week. Mulling over the menu.

Last year when we went we visited Santa Monica Beach and really liked the area. This year we have a hotel located walking distance from the Santa Monica Pier so that should be fun for the boys.

The fun starts at 5am tomorrow!

September 18, 2012
Maximus – Week 7

It hit me in a unexpected moment. While watching Max and Andrew interact at the eye doctors office this past weekend (we were there to get new glasses for Max), it became clear as day the distance Max still needs to go just to catch up to his own age. For a long time the boys were the same in so many ways, or at least close when it came to development, but now Andrew has sprinted far ahead. Or maybe it’s more that Max slowed down to a walk. Either way, it was a moment of clarity, because for the first time the difference seemed so tangible. I found myself just taking a moment to think about it. While Max is making progress and we like to celebrate the little victories, it suddenly became clear to me just how long the road ahead of him still is.

So even more reason to be excited that we are seeing Dr. Goldberg. Max has made noticeable progress since our visit to CA. The two biggest changes we see are that he is becoming more verbal by not only saying more words, but starting to put together sentences better. We’re getting more eye contact. But not just more eye contact, eye contact that really shows a sparkle in his eyes. This past week I when I picked him up to school he looked at me in a way I’ve never seen before, with a bright sparkle in his eyes and a smile, and said “Hello Daddy. Mommy at work?” He then gave me a big warm hug and walked with me to get the other kids. To most parents this sounds like no big deal. But what is more typical is for him to get mad when he sees me there for him (instead of mom) because he doesn’t like changes in routine, he throws a tantrum right there on the floor in front of everybody, and then starts in with his OCD tendencies. He loves to run into any room he can and flip the light switches on and off, or go for the bathroom and either use the sink or flush the toilet. That doesn’t happen every time, but you never knew for sure what to expect.

Another big changes has been the way he wakes up in the morning. In the weeks leading up to our trip to CA he would wake up at his usual time (between 5 and 6am) and before he was awake 30 seconds he would be mad about something and yelling. Let me tell you, when you yourself are just jumping out of bed from a dead sleep, it’s no way to be greeted in the morning. But now he wakes up smiling, he says hello and if you’re lucky will even sit with you on the couch and just snuggle.

Not only do we see the positive changes, but others do as well. Both at school and in his therapy class teachers have commented that they have noticed he’s calmer, talking more and participating more in group activities. All of these are things that have been a challenge for Max.

He still has his moments where he can’t keep it together, and we had one of those this weekend too while out at the park. He wanted to walk instead of riding in the wagon, but at one point we just needed him to sit in the wagon but he kicked and screamed as we put him in, and then screamed almost all the way back to the van (a nice 10 minute walk through what is otherwise a nice quite park). Yea! Fun at the park! 🙁

About a week ago we had our first conference call with the Dr to discuss test results and the weekly reports that we send to the doctor. He was also able to answer questions that we had and start us down the next phase of the treatment.

Max started a new medication this week (in addition to his current one) and once again we’re seeing small improvements. We are also getting more blood tests done (this will be a regular occurrence to keep him closely monitors) because the last round of tests that we did while in CA showed that he may have a thyroid problem. It will take another test to tell for sure. It’s also possible that the stress of the trip and the fact that he was sick for part of the trip to CA had thrown the test a bit. But that too is something that will need to be addressed if it is in fact a problem.

This Wednesday it will be 7 weeks since our trip to California to see Dr. Goldberg. What’s important to me is not just that we’re seeing improvements, but that he’s being treated in a very thoughtful and measured way. Dr. Goldberg is following a protocol that he’s been refining for over 20 years, but at the same time he’s taking into account that Max is a unique child and needs any treatments customized for his needs. Max will not be recovered overnight – it’s a long journey . But I do feel like we’re onto something good with Dr. Goldberg’s treatment.

September 18, 2011