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Here is a short article describing the common medications used for attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactive disorder. The article is a nice 101 regarding the medications used, their effects as well as side effects. Remember that autism spectrum disorders is a spectrum with ADD at the beginning of the spectrum and severe autism on the far end of the spectrum. Also recall, that there is much of mixing and matching of signs and symptoms with regard to the various conditions on the spectrum. That is to say, that there are those with Asperger’s syndrome that have attention and hyperactivity issues and those with autism or sensory integration disorder with compulsive issues as an example. Therefore many of those on the spectrum whether they have a primary diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactive disorder or Tourettes Syndrome are many times on medications for hyperactivity and can benefit from the information in this article. This is also a nice website for you to peruse regarding ADD and ADHD. http://adhdadd.org/?p=64
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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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I found this on this web site http://addhelpsite.com/ the link didn’t quite work for me but I wanted to give them credit. Apparently, this is a free program that is available that can help those with ADHD and LD etc. As always, whenever I find something like this that I thik may help others I try to pass it along. Hope it helps someone. http://theeasyessay.com/
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Just as with autism where the focus seems to be on children, this also occurs with ADD and ADHD. Approximately 50% of children who have ADHD will grow up to be adults with ADHD. I previously provided a website that had screening for autism. Here is a nice link to a website to tests for adults to check for ADHD type symptoms. This is a nice online test quick and easy for those of you that are wondering about yourselves. http://psychcentral.com/addquiz.htm
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Children on the autism spectrum have a tendency to be much more sensitive with regard to interaction with their environment. A major part of this interaction is there diet and overall food intake. Here is a link to a blog post in which the author describes a multitude of detrimental effects to having sugar in your diet. One of the things that I like to do is take information not directly related to autism spectrum disorders and adapt them to these conditions and present them to you. At times, this may require you to take a little bit of a leap or move your thinking a step further. Usually, I try to make this a small step. Thus if sugar is detrimental to a normal and healthy body, we can expect it to be even more detrimental to a child on the autism spectrum. This of course is particularly relevant if the child has or is prone to yeast infections. Here is the link to 76 ways sugar can ruin your health
http://www.freeads13.com/blogs/index.php/20090828-793/76-ways-sugar-can-ruin-your-health/
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The functional neurology and Hemispheric Integration Therapy model for Autism Spectrum Disorders views sensory input as a major factor affecting and influencing those with Autism. I often say that most people are aware of the fact that if you damage the brain you will see changes in the body. We are all familiar with someone that has a stroke and changes in his posture with regard to his arm and his legs when walking. Someone who has had a stroke may also have a drooping of the face. So, we see how the brain can affect the body. Many times people are not aware that the body also affects the brain. That is, we need input and stimulation from the environment in order to drive brain activity. Input comes by way of our senses. The five senses are sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. What is often referred to as the sixth sense is balance. However, balance and vestibular input is a major driving factor to the brain. An animal in the jungle, that cannot balance itself, will not live long. Ask someone who has had vertigo if he would rather be deaf or have vertigo. The answer will be that one can adapt to being deaf although this is limiting. However, if you are continuously out of balance and spinning, you cannot function in any way. Many patients with vertigo cannot get out of bed nor do something as simple as turn their head.
This relates to Autism Spectrum Disorders in that many children with autism in fact do have sensory integration issues with regard to their vestibular system. So, if we look at the fact that the senses feed the brain and we have sensory integration issues then as is often said in the computer world “garbage in, garbage out.” I have many parents that when asked if the child has any vestibular issues respond “Oh no, he can spin and spin and spin and never get dizzy.” They also tell me how they can go to amusement parks and never get dizzy. But is this a normal response? If I take a neuro typical child or adult and spin him in a chair should he not get dizzy and perhaps nauseous? The answer of course is yes. So, this is an actual weakness and not strength with regard to these children. If vestibular input is a strong input to the brain and these children are not getting any vestibular stimulation then it follows that their brains may not be functioning optimally.
Such is the case with a 10-year-old boy that I’m currently treating. The most obvious issues that the child has upon meeting him is that he scripts (repeats verbiage from movies and video games) as well as toe walks. This child has wonderful parents who are both hard-working and a great support system relating to their grandmother and aunt. My approach to functional neurology with regard to the nervous system is that the lower areas are cleared up first. That is we look at the nervous system from the outside in, for example, we ask the question, “Is it in the receptor, peripheral nerve, spinal cord, brain stem, etc?” So if you look at comparative anatomy between the species, we see that lower life forms have brain stems and vestibular systems while only humans have well developed prefrontal cortex. The vestibular system is really fairly low on the comparative anatomy scale, as I stated previously, all animals need to balance in order to survive. So, in my opinion in this child’s case, his vestibular system was the starting point. In our office, we sometimes have parents tell us that they see changes after one visit. Perhaps after a couple of weeks or a couple of months. This particular child has been very difficult to treat. His response has clearly been slower than expected. This child has been treating for approximately 6 months. He has shown some small vague type signs of improvement, but has not really made the typical improvements that we are accustomed to seeing in the office. We have seen his scripting going from out of context to in context. That is to say, that previously he might have been scripting a happy birthday scene from a movie while we were doing therapy. More recently he has begun to script a scene where a cartoon character is scared of the dark if we shut the lights off in the treatment room. That’s not what I call huge progress.
His mom is amazing with her compassion and dedication to her children. But what she does most well and is helpful to me, is that she knows when her child is just avoiding behavior and when he cannot do something. She has a great sense of how to motivate him to do the activities necessary to make him improve. She also has been very consistent with this treatment even though the progress has been less than expected. Consistency is a major factor with regard to making changes in the brain using the techniques of Hemispheric Integration Therapy.
Within the last few weeks after vestibular stimulation the child has been wanting to lay on the floor. This is a very typical vestibular response. That is, when you feel you are losing your balance or the world is spinning, you tend to want to get closer to the earth. Those that have had vertigo will be able to relate to this statement. But that was still vague in that we weren’t sure if this was a new behavior or that if he was finally feeling the vestibular stimulation. More recently after his last three visits the child did not want any further vestibular stimulation and was nauseous even vomiting on one occasion. For me, this is a sign to celebrate. This signifies that we have finally reached a threshold with regard to his vestibular system and that our stimulation is finally getting through and registering in his brain.
Again, vestibular stimulation, proprioception (joint position sense) and balance are powerful stimulations to one’s brain. And with this system now providing more appropriate stimulation to his brain, we hope to see more positive changes in the future. So yes, I am celebrating the fact that I was able to make a 10-year-old boy vomit. So if you have a child who is on the Autism Spectrum notice if he ever gets dizzy or if you can make him dizzy. If you cannot, this is not a normal response and is an important sign.
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Those of you that have seen my presentation on ADHD know that among the other negative factors to be aware of with ADHD medication use is the fact that there is potential for abuse of these medications with these children. This applies not only to themselves but also to the fact that at times the medications are sold to other middle and high school teens. The American Heart Association recommends that children be given a hard exam before being placed on any of the stimulant medications. In my experience, I have rarely found a child that was evaluated in this fashion prior to be giving the medication. Was so there are side effects and abuse which must be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to medicate your child. Here is a link to an article in a newspaper regarding teen abuse this group of medications .
http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2009/08/28/r_rstmjgs7srim6ljmlf15ig/index.xml
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If you can’t eat out due to the gluten free diet, here is a restaurant review of a nice meal. Hopefully you live near one of these restaurants. http://glutenfreeislife.wordpress.com/
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Here is something I had not thought about. It is not something I do, but something someone out there might be interested in pursuing. This is an interview with a psychologist who uses hypnosis. It is very brief but for some maybe a good place to start. This seems like it might be targeted more toward adult ADDers. Here is the link http://adderworld.com/blog1/
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As usual they are not aware of Hemispheric Integration therapy but that is my job to get the word out, none the less, this is a concise intro.
http://www.mahalo.com/adhd-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder
