This study and this article must be discussed: Autism Research: Breakthrough Discovery on the Causes of Autism. The study and article hit home hard for me, as my nephew suffers from a deadly mitochondrial disease – Leigh’s disease. He is a strong boy, though, and has managed to be here longer than the regular, mainstream, western MDs thought. Fortunately, he has Dr. Hyman, MD on his side, and Dr. Hyman is open to many healing modalities. The take home message for autism sufferers is that autism can be reversed and the work begins with healing the gut. Actually, that is a message that applies to 99% of America for the vast majority of diseases – so many diseases it blows my mind.
What is Dr. Hyman’s first recommendation for my nephew? Heal his gut. The diet prescribed? A modified Atkins diet, which is very much aligned with the GAPS Diet Introduction diet. What is especially great from a very detached point of view is that Dr. Hyman’s dietician arrived at this diet recommendation with little or no knowledge of the GAPS diet, further verifying that this way of eating can be exceptionally healing.
People are diagnosed with “incurable” diseases too many times every day. Perhaps some of them truly are incurable, but what strikes me hard is the incurable diseases that are cured once someone adds the care of healers who does not just rely on the standard Western medicine inside the box approach. Western medicine has its place, especially when there is an acute problem, such as stroke, aneurism, broken bones, miscarriage, heart attack or other immediately life threatening problems. It has saved my life and I am grateful.
When it comes to healing a chronic problem – well that is another story. An acquaintance recently told me she has so many food allergies and such bad asthma that the doctor told her to eat only processed food because she won’t be exposed to real food that triggers her allergies. Really? Really, really? Fortunately, she immediately walked out, found a healer, and started the Paleolithic diet, which is a GAPS-like diet. She has vibrantly excelled and is now asthma-free.
Modern western medicine has been around for what…400 years to be generous? Somehow it has strangled out other, much older and much more successful types of medicine, such as Chinese medicine (5,000 years) and Ayurveda (10,000 years), when it comes to true healing.
Fortunately, the number of western MDs combining western science with ancient medicines and other powerful modern medicines, such as homeopathy, is growing. I am thankful that Dr. Hyman, Dr. McBride (developer of the GAPS Diet) and other visionaries are leading the way.
Here is Dr. Hyman’s whole article – it is too important to rely on the Internet link alone:
Imagine being the parent of a young child who is not acting normally and being told by your doctor that your child has autism, that there is no known cause, and there is no known treatment except, perhaps, some behavioral therapy. That is exactly what Jackson's parents were told as their 22-month-old son regressed into the non-verbal psychic prison of social withdrawal, disconnection, and repetitive behaviors typical of autism.
While we don't have all the answers, and more research is needed to identify and validate the causes and treatment of autism, there are new signs of hope. A study just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association by researchers from the University of California, Davis called "Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism" (i) discovered a profound and serious biological underpinning of autism -- an acquired loss of the ability to produce energy in the cells, damage to mitochondria (the energy factories in your cells), and an increase in oxidative stress (the same chemical reaction that causes cars to rust, apples to turn brown, fat to become rancid, and skin to wrinkle). These disturbances in energy metabolism were not due to genetic mutations, which is often seen in mitochondrial problems, but a condition the children studied acquired in utero or after birth.
Bottom line, if brain cells cannot produce enough energy, and there is too much oxidative stress, then neurons don't fire, connections aren't made and the lights don't go on for these children. In fact, this problem of energy loss is found in most chronic disease and aging -- from diabetes to heart disease to dementia. Brain function and neurodevelopment in particular are highly dependent on energy.
This is exactly the problem, I documented and found in Jackson when I first saw him. He had a profound loss of energy in his cells (particularly his brain cells), and indicators of severe oxidative stress. This is the same problem many other researchers have found in similar studies. (ii) Despite the evidence, most physicians don't test for mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress or other myriad factors commonly found in autistic children.
Let's look more closely at what this new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association tells us about mitochondrial dysfunction, and how this may lead us to new methods of treatment -- methods similar to the ones I used to help reverse Jackson's autism.
Autism: Brain Disorder or Body-Based Biological Illness?
The big debate (iii) that ranges in autism circles is about whether or not autism is a fixed, irreversible brain-based genetic disorder, or a systemic, reversible body-based biological condition that has identifiable causes, measurable abnormalities, and treatable dysfunctions. In other words is autism a life sentence or a reversible condition?
Many studies have illuminated the causes and possible treatments for autism, but mainstream physicians or scientists ignore most of this data. This new study, breaks new ground because it was published in one of the world's major medical journals.
In it researchers from UC Davis examined children two to five years of age from the Childhood Autism Risk From Genes and Environment (CHARGE) study in California -- a population-based, case-control investigation with confirmed autism cases and age-matched, genetically unrelated, typically developing controls, that was launched in 2003 and is still ongoing. What they discovered was the aforementioned mitochondrial dysfunction that lead to problems with energy. Interestingly, these abnormalities were not found in neurons on a brain biopsy but from examining white blood cells called lymphocytes. This means the energy deficit was a systemic problem -- not one residing solely in the brain.
This study forces the question: How do children acquire energy deficits that affect their whole system, not just the brain?
The causes of mitochondrial dysfunction are well known, specifically as it relates to metabolism and the brain, and I have documented them in my books "UtraMetabolism" and "The UltraMind Solution." They include environmental toxins (iv) -- mercury, lead and persistent organic pollutants(v) -- latent infections, gluten and allergens (which trigger inflammation) sugar and processed foods,(vi) a nutrient-depleted diet(vii) and nutritional deficiencies.(viii) These are all potentially treatable and reversible causes of mitochondrial dysfunction that have been clearly documented.
I found all these problems in Jackson, and over a period of two years we slowly unraveled and treated the underlying causes of his energy loss which included gut inflammation, mercury, and nutrient deficiencies. Over time, the tests for his mitochondrial function and oxidative stress (as well as levels of inflammation and nutrient status) all normalized. When they became normal, so did Jackson. He went from full-blown regressive autism to a normal, bright beautiful six-year-old boy.
What it Means if Autism Can be Reversed
This is just one story, but if autism can be reversed in one child, if there is any possibility of effective treatments or a potential cure, it forces us to ask critical questions: How did this happen? Can it happen in other children? What were the biological patterns found and how were they treated?
The emotional and financial costs of autism for families and societies is staggering. Now one in five -- or 20 percent -- of children have some neurodevelopmental disorder. How can we sidestep our scientific and moral obligation and sit back and accept the limited resources allocated by the National Institutes of Health ($5.1 billion for cancer, but only $141 million for autism) and society as a whole.
Most neurodevelopmental disorders have common roots. But looking at only one aspect of such conditions will not solve the problem of autism. Current autism research is based on an outdated approach -- one that is something like blind men examining the proverbial elephant. Each researcher works in his or her own silo examining different factors and coming to different conclusions. Research that integrates, synthesizes and examines all the data on causes and potential treatments is practically non-existent.
The mitochondrial dysfunction identified in the JAMA study I've been talking about is ultimately only one downstream symptom of many upstream causes. Other researchers have found systemic inflammation,(ix) brain inflammation,(x) gut inflammation,(xi) elevated levels of toxins and metals, gluten and casein antibodies,(xii) nutrient deficiencies including omega-3 fats,(xiii) vitamin D,(xiv) zinc, and magnesium, and collections of metabolic dysfunction related to quirky genes that make it difficult to perform chemical reactions essential for health in the body such as methylation and sulfation.(xv)
The take home message here is that the answer to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders will not be found in one of these factors, but in all of them taken together in varying degrees in each individual. There is no such thing as "autism." Rather there are "autisms" -- different patterns of biological dysfunction unique to each child that result in multiple insults to the brain that all manifest with symptoms we call autism.
Future research must synthesize current data and design relevant whole systems research studies that don't focus on a single factor, but examine all the factors together. Then we must apply these findings in a comprehensive fashion, as is being done by many practitioners today who work in parallel -- rather than in collaboration with -- conventional approaches and often achieve remarkable results.
To close, I'd like to share Jackson's story, as told by his father. I have documented this case report in a peer reviewed published paper which you can read if you are interested in the details of the case.(xvi) It is called "Autism: Is it All in the Head?" and it can be found at http://drhyman.com.
But more important than my paper is Jackson's story and his beautiful smile.
Comments