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There is still considerable debate regarding a connection between autism and vaccines. On one side there are those citing that the original Wakefield study has now been deemed to have been fraudulent. On the other side are parents whose children were perfectly fine, but developed a a fever right after the vaccine and were never the same since. Those of us that are involved with the Autism community and treat these children know that the latter is something that we have heard frequently enough to raise suspicion. As I’ve stated previously, my concept is one of total load on the system. It is the sum total of all the stressors on the child that decompensates the child’s health. This would to explain why if thousands of children are vaccinated every year only a small percentage developed symptoms relating to the autism spectrum. It is the child with a latent virus, immature liver etc., that now receives the vaccine with mercury or aluminum which the child, do to other stressors is not able to handle. In this case, the vaccine becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It can be one huge stress or more than likely a multifactorial cause. At this point there’s going to be a lot of resistance from pediatricians to those parents that want to delay or spread out the vaccination of their children. The purpose of this article is to give those parents a rational way to approach your pediatrician with regard to Autism and vaccines. I will attempt to lay out some risk factors and early indicators of autism that would suggest that a parent might want to procede with caution with regard to vaccinations. The more of these risk factors or indicators that your child has, the more persuasive your argument will be.
Is there someone in your family that has autism?
Was your child premature?
Was your child breech birth?
Was your child jaundice?
Was your child of low birth weight, less than 5.5 pounds?
Is your child a boy?
Were you older parents?
Is there less than two years from birth to birth of your children?
Did you smoke while you were pregnant?
Did your child have a low Apgar score at 5 minutes, less than 7?
Were you exposed to toxins during your pregnancy?
Now let’s look at three early indicators of Autism. Obviously, if your child is showing early signs of Autism you may want to moderate additional risk factors. Is your child not looking, vocalizing and smiling at others? Is your child a picky eater? Does your child have issues with joint attention? Joint attention is how we alert others about an object or event in a nonverbal way utilizing techniques such as gaze and pointing with another person. An example would be when you see something interesting and point at it (initiating joint attention ) in an attempt to get somebody else to become engaged. This type of activity should be present at about nine months of age.
So whether or not you are involved in the vaccine debate or have a loved one that is concerned with regard to the Autism crisis, this article should serve as valuable information and a starting point for discussion.
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It has often been said that the best way to deal with a problem is to not have it in the first place. A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In the case of autism, we are always looking for risk factors. Things that someone who is concerned about the possibility of having a child with autism should consider. As the risk factors add up then one becomes mores concerned with an undesired outcome. Previous risk factors such as the maternal or paternal age of the parents have been studied. We know that a boy is more likely to have autism that a girl. Having a familial history of Autism such as another child or relation to the parents increases the probability of Autism. And now, as you will see below, mothers with less knowledge regarding toxic exposure are more likely to have a child with Autism than those that are aware and conscious of potential toxic exposure.That is, mothers who showed a greater possibility to exposure to toxins were more likely than the mother with less exposure to have a child with Autism. Many in the autism community are already taking into account heavy metal exposure however things such as canned foods and plastics were also included in this study. The take home message is be aware of toxic exposure if you are pregnant. Be more aware if you are having a boy, are older and have a history of Autism in the family.
Psychiatry Investig.2010 Jun;7(2):122-7. Epub 2010 May 12.
Exposure to environmental toxins in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder.
Kim SM, Han DH, Lyoo HS, Min KJ, Kim KH, Renshaw P.
Department of Psychiatry, Chung Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Environmental pollutants, especially environmental toxins (ET), may have the potential to disrupt neurodevelopmental pathways during early brain development. This study was designed to test our hypothesis that mothers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children would have less knowledge about ET and more chance to be exposed to ET than mothers with healthy children (MHC). METHODS: One hundred and six biologic mothers with ASD children (MASD) and three hundred twenty four biologic mothers with healthy children MHC were assessed using two questionnaires asking about ET. RESULTS: The total score in response to questions related to knowledge about ET in MHC was higher than that in MASD. The possibility of exposure to ET was higher in MASD than MHC. MASD showed higher sub-scale scores in terms of exposures to canned food, plastics, waste incinerators, old electronics, microwavable food, and textiles. CONCLUSION: The current results show that reduced knowledge about ET and greater exposure to ET may be associated with autism spectrum disorder.
PMID: 20577621 [PubMed - in process]
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Just a reminder that our conference is tomorrow at the Hillsborough County Children’s Board. The Conference is free as everyone including the speakers are volunteering their time. In addition to myself, Dr. Sutton,Suzi Azizi and June Paulsen CLTC. Attorney Mary Greenwood who specializes in special needs planning will also be participating. We have a full house if all the reservations show up but you can call the office , ask for Marilyn and see what the latest head count is. It will be good information for those newly diagnosed as well as more experienced parents.
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We recently had a child who tested positive for Leaky gut syndrome. His mother then endeavored to take on our leaky gut protocol. Part of the leaky gut protocol includes an elimination type diet. Part of this diet includes the elimination of gluten and casein, at least on a temporary basis. Mom was having trouble figuring out what she could feed her child and where to get types of food she needed. One of the other moms in our support group was kind enough to help her navigate this maze for the first time. Gluten-free casein free diets are often a hardship on the family and not just the child is on the diet. With Valentine’s Day coming up I found this recipe for a gluten-free chocolate torte that I thought all family members could enjoy.
http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2008/06/recipe_detail.html?id=7207
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A member of our support group www.hitautism.net sent me this note and I thought I would pass it on to everyone. This is particularly timely as today Lancet retracted the paper linking vaccines to autism. She sounds sincere and like she wants to take some action. Please feel free to comment on this site or contact Arlene directly, below is her contact info.
I am writing because I feel that something may have been overlooked with the connection between autism, and vaccines.
Everybody says that there is no connection between the shots and autism, I beleive that is partially true. What I beleive is that the shot given by itself is not a problem. The shot given along with other shots is what causes the problem.
I am 54 with a grandson diagnosed with autism. When my children were young doctors gave one shot at a time. There weren’t as many shots given, like today. I have heard too many stories including my grandsons where 3 to 4 shouts were give at one office visit. The children were held down by nurses and given a total of 4 shots 2 at a time. This is what I beleive is the cause for the increase in autism. The body cannot handle that amount at once.
I have been listening to young people and their stories,and now want to talk to some doctors who deal with autism and see if multiple shots given at one time could be the answere. I will be doing some research and may even write to newspapers to see if people will write to me. I need and want to find a way to stop or decrease autism especially if one of the solutions would be easy. Stop the multiple shots at once.
Can you ask patients and people in your support group if they remember if their children received multiple shots when they went to their doctors prior to seeing change in their children. Please help me help them. Feel free to call me if there is anything I can do.
Respectfully
Arlene Ridder
727-597-0521
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It is the newer imaging techniques such as functional MRIs and SPECT scanning that is really giving us great clues and insights into how the brain works. This of course will lead us further understand how the brain works in autism or what in essence is the dysfunction taking place. Here is a nice video series regarding a doctor whose son has autism. She scans her own brain as well as her sons and makes comparisons. This is a three part series, however, I thought the third would be the nicest one to expose you to in order to see if you had further interest. Naturally you are welcome to go back and check out parts one and two. The doctors accent is a bit difficult to understand but I still think this is a nice introduction and educational tool for everyone regarding SPECT scans. Hopefully you will find it interesting and not too technical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEoVwFLErIE
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Hemispheric Integration Therapy is becoming increasingly popular due to its success with treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Autism spectrum disorders include A.D.D.,A.D.H.D., Sensory Integration Disorder, Processing Disorders, Asperger’s Syndrome, O.C.D., Tourette’s Syndrome and Autism. Business dictionary.com defines integration as the process of attaining close and seamless coordination between several groups, departments, organizations or systems. Hemispheres relates to the right and left halves of the cerebral cortex, the highest part of the brain that makes us most human and is different from other animals. Thus, Hemispheric Integration Therapy aims to coordinate different areas and systems within the brain both in the cortical hemispheres and between them in order to get the most efficient function possible.
Integrating the cerebral hemispheres in order to optimize communication between the right and left sides of the brain to improve neurological function is part of Functional Neurology. Functional Neurology deals with not just evaluating the nervous system for disease states such as tumors, infections, strokes, etc. but evaluating the function of the nervous system as a continuum that starts with optimal function and ends in a disease state. Thus, the Functional Neurological examination will not only evaluate if a task can be performed but how well that task can be performed. The quality of that performance will give the Functional Neurologist clues as to how close that system or pathway is to optimal functionality. As an example, a Functional Neurologist will evaluate not only if the eyes can move in different planes, as a yes or no, but the quality of those movements. Are the movements synchronized and smooth? Is there any breakdown in these movements? This will give clues as to how well the systems involved in the different eye movements are working.
Based on the findings of the examination, the Functional Neurology practitioner will look to localize a functional lesion. In a functional lesion, “the wires are there but they are not transmitting signals properly or efficiently.” Another example may relate to a nerve center not integrating the information it receives well and thereby passing on the appropriate information. A Functional Neurologist will try to find one area of the brain or pathway that explains all or most of the symptoms that the patient is complaining of.
Similar to looking at a map, the Functional Neurologist is familiar with the neurological pathways/roadways and will find the roadblock that would disrupt function downstream from that roadblock. He will then develop a specific treatment program to stimulate that particular area or pathway of the brain that is under functioning and/or conversely inhibit a pathway or area that may be over functioning.
These types of lesions are termed functional lesions as opposed to ablative lesions. An ablative lesion can be seen on standard imaging such as MRIs. Only with the advent of the SPECT scan and functional MRIs was neuroscience able to localize what areas of the brain are activated while certain functions are being performed. That is, we can ask the patient to do math or sing a song and see what areas of the brain are activated when these tasks are performed on these newer imaging techniques. This type of research, which blossomed more so in the 90s, termed “the decade of the brain,” led to great advances in neuroscience and the clinical application of these findings and techniques to remedy these functional lesions “Functional Neurology.” at present SPECT scans and functional MRIs are typically only available at the research level. In clinical practice, a Functional Neurological examination performed by qualified practitioner should determine where the functional lesion is without the need for the research type imaging studies.
Functional Neurology has its roots in Chiropractic Neurology. Dr. Frederick Robert Carrick created the Chiropractic Neurology program in the late 1980s. Dr. Carrick is considered the father of Chiropractic Neurology and Functional Neurology. Classes in Functional Neurology are taught through the Carrick Institute and can lead to a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Neurology Board. These classes also qualify you toward the newer multidisciplinary American College of Functional Neurology.
With that background and history here are the questions I would suggest you ask a doctor if you are interested in “Hemispheric Integration Therapy” and/or “Functional Neurology.”
1. Is he/she a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Neurology Board? The Diplomate program and Chiropractic Neurology takes approximately 3 years to complete and therefore one of the most important factors for your consideration.
2. How long have they been board-certified?
3. How much of their practice is devoted to Functional Neurology and/or Hemispheric Integration Therapy?
4. Are they a fellow of the American College of Functional Neurology, a newer multidisciplinary group?
5. If you’re looking for a doctor to treat a child on the autism spectrum, ask how long they have been treating children with Hemispheric Integration Therapy?
6. Especially with regard to a child on the autism spectrum, ask if you can speak to a current or past parent whose child has been treated.
I wrote this article because there are very few experienced doctors with this specialized training and therefore, our office gets a lot of calls and e-mails asking if I know of a doctor using Hemispheric Integration Therapy to treat children from places like Iowa and France. I do treat patients that travel from a distance but many times that is not a practical option. With that in mind, these are questions I recommend you consider when doing your research.
