Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

The current issue of Discover Magazine includes a cover story (”Autism: It’s Not Just in the Head“) that is to-date likely the best, easy-to-understand overview of the latest biomedical understandings and treatments for autism:

A disparate group—immunologists, naturopaths, neuroscientists, and toxicologists—is turning up clues that are yielding novel strategies to help autistic patients. New studies are examining contributing factors ranging from vaccine reactions to atypical growth in the placenta, abnormal tissue in the gut, inflamed tissue in the brain, food allergies, and disturbed brain wave synchrony. Some clinicians are using genetic test results to recommend unconventional nutritional therapies, and others employ drugs to fight viruses and quell inflammation.

Above all, there is a new emphasis on the interaction between vulnerable genes and environmental triggers, along with a growing sense that low-dose, multiple toxic and infectious exposures may be a major contributing factor to autism and its related disorders. A vivid analogy is that genes load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger. “Like cancer, autism is a very complex disease,” says Craig Newschaffer, chairman of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel University School of Public Health, “and it’s exciting to start asking questions about the interaction between genes and environment. There’s really a very rich array of potential exposure variables.”

“What we’ve got here is a far more comprehensive set of characteristics for autism,” says [Harvard pediatric neurologist Martha] Herbert, “one that can include behavior, cognition, sensorimotor, gut, immune, brain, and endocrine [hormone] abnormalities. These are ongoing problems, and they’re not confined just to the brain. I can’t think of it as a coincidence anymore that so many autistic kids have a history of food and airborne allergies, or 20 or 30 ear infections, or eczema, or chronic diarrhea.” …

Herbert likens autism to a hologram: “Everything that fascinates me is in it. It’s got epidemiology, toxicology, philosophy of science, biochemistry, genetics, systems theory, the collapse of the medical system, and the failure of managed care. Each child that walks through my door is a challenge to everything I ever knew, and each child forces me to think outside the box and between categories.” …

… All this marks a Copernican-scale shift in our approach to the disorder. I myself [the article’s author, Jill Neimark] was irresistibly drawn to the subject when viewing an online video of a heavily affected 11-year-old who, after a series of chelation treatments to remove mercury, announced to his mother, “Mom, I’m back from the living dead.” The statement was heartbreaking in its simple eloquence. Mercury chelation, in this particular child’s case, was a near panacea.

Why should you care?

Well, if you or someone you know has a child affected by autism (and in the U.S. with an estimated 1 out of 150 children diagnosed with autism, millions more affected by ADD and ADHD, and 1 out of 6 children diagnosed with a learning disorder — the odds are increasingly likely that you do or soon will), the article highlights many of the most promising approaches for helping children heal and potentially recover significant function.

And, if you don’t know someone affected? Well, it’s a topic still very much worth reading and caring about.

Why? Because many scientists and practitioners in the field see the potential links between the underlying environmental triggers and biomedical pathways involved with autism and other chronic conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory bowel diseases, allergies, asthma, chronic fatigue, endocrine (hormone) imbalances, and more:

Can we cajole a mysteriously shuttered brain and body back toward normal? And if so, will autism give us new insight into other disorders? Martha Herbert thinks so: “A lot of these metabolic pathways are pretty fundamental to life. If we can crack the puzzle of autism and be clear about how we did it, that may have huge implications for other chronic environmentally triggered systemic illnesses. Autism could be a much-needed wake-up call to us all.”

Other Highlights

The Discover Magazine article mentions the Autism Research Institute’s DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) biomedical treatment approach:

DAN! treatments focus on intestinal issues, detoxification, nutrition, and neuroinflammation. Recommendations include dietary restriction, usually eliminating gluten (present in wheat and other grains) and dairy …

… Other DAN!-recommended treatments include detoxification to remove heavy metals and other suspected pollutants, nutritional supplementation, and sometimes off-label use of anti-inflammatories, antivirals, and allergy medications. These so-called biomedical treatments range from relatively inexpensive dietary changes costing a few hundred dollars a month to doses of antifungal drugs that can cost several hundreds of dollars.

The article also has some excellent exhibits and photos, including:

• Images showing physical changes in the brains of autistic individuals and nerve cell inflammation.
• Maps from a recent study showing the geographic overlap between environmental toxin release and autism rates in Texas.

It’s well worth taking the time to check out the entire article.

Kudos

Jill Neimark did an amazing job spending months interviewing people and synthesizing a large set of complex information to write the article.

Discover Magazine and its management and editorial team should also be commended. No other mainstream publication has covered this topic with such scope and clarity. Hopefully many more will follow their lead.

(One great way to support Discover Magazine would be to pick up a copy of the April 2007 issue that contains the article while it’s still on newstands.)

Resources

More about biomedical treatment approaches and help that I offer for:

• Allergies & Asthma
• Autism & ADD/ADHD
• Chronic Fatigue
• Cognitive Decline (memory loss, brain fog, etc.)
• Digestive Disorders
• Heavy Metal Detoxification

Related Posts

Autism - Questions and More Questions

Industrial Chemicals Impairing Children Brain Development Worldwide

Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease Affecting More People at Younger Ages

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Marc Joseph Nutrition

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 11:23 pm and is filed under ADD/ADHD, Autism, Heavy Metal Toxicity, Inflammation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.