Autism Spectrum Disorder: Chelate Me Now
In the autism community, vaccinations are a huge issue. This is due to potential heavy metal toxicity such as those relating to mercury and/or aluminum. Thus, as a functional medicine practitioner and one who does biomedical interventions for autism spectrum disorders, many times parents present to the office wanting to have their child tested for heavy metals and perhaps even to undergo chelation. In reality, many parents want to have their child undergo chelation many times without even having tested for heavy metals. That is, they assume that since their child worsened after vaccinations, mercury and/or aluminum toxicity is the key. Using this reasoning they want to chelate immediately. However, chelation is not something that can be entered into lightly. Chelation as defined by Wikipedia “is the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. For the most common forms of heavy metal intoxication — those involving lead, arsenic or mercury — the standard of care in the USA dictates the use of dimercaptosuccinic acid DMSA” or other chelating agents depending on which metal you are trying to remove. This article is to point out some preparatory steps and contraindications to chelation. When heavy-metals are chelated from the body many minerals are also removed from the body. Therefore, a period of remineralization has to be implemented. Thus, if the patient has a leaky gut syndrome and therefore possible malabsorption, it will be difficult to remineralize the patient in order to bring him back to optimal health and not cause further damage to the patient. The removal of toxins in the body takes place through the liver, the kidneys and the skin. Therefore, in any type of detoxification procedure including heavy-metal detoxification test involving liver function and kidney function should be performed prior to engaging in chelation. There is also the question of whether the lab work is being interpreted on a functional basis or a normal basis. That is the reference ranges used to interpret some of the testing on a functional basis are usually more stringent in order to verify optimal organ function as opposed to acceptable organ function. Clearly, if you’re going to engage in a detoxification process in which you’re going to strain the organs of detoxification you would want them to be functioning optimally rather than just functioning acceptably prior to engaging in the chelation. Much of the waste and toxins are eliminated through the urine and feces. The feces are eliminated through the colon. If the patient suffers from constipation then he more than likely has an increase in absorption of toxins in the colon. Therefore, it would make little sense to increase that toxic load with chelation in a patient who is constipated. In functional medicine, we are always describing a term called “total load”. That is the total sum of all the stresses on the body. That could be things such as heavy-metals, oxidative stress, dysbiois and yeast infection as well as malabsorption and malnutrition. In the case of a child with autism we know that something decompensated the system or increased that total load beyond capacity. As such, we would not want to do anything to increase the load further by creating a greater release of toxins in the body of which it is not able to process and eliminate. Thus, even if your child has tested positive for heavy metals, chelation is not something that can be rushed into. There are other processes which should be evaluated prior to engaging in chelation. Things such as leaky gut, liver and kidney function as well as general gastrointestinal health should be evaluated. From a parent standpoint, if your child suffers from constipation I would be concerned with proceeding with chelation. If you suspect your child has the leaky gut or has tested positive for leaky gut I would also be concerned with proceeding with chelation. As always this is general information for parents and patients and I always recommend that you seek out a qualified functional medicine practitioner who should be aware of these issues prior to engaging in any type of heavy-metal detoxification and/or chelation.
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