There has been a burst of research into the biomedical basis of autism over recent years and this has uncovered a number of metabolic imbalances and nutritional deficiencies that are commonly found in children with autism. The emerging picture is very complex and indicates that the cause of autism is multifactorial with genetic susceptibility playing a major role. Other factors that research has indicated could be involved are:
·
Prenatal toxic exposures
·
Frequent vaccinations with live virus and toxic mercurial content (thimerosal)
·
Abnormalities of sulfoxidation and sulfation that compromise liver detoxification
·
Copper-zinc imbalances implying metallothionein impairment, which could have a negative impact on liver detoxification and on the health of the gut wall.
·
Leaky Gut Syndrome and poor bowel flora leading to food intolerances (e.g. gluten and casein) and opioid intoxication.
·
Immune system abnormalities
·
Chronic inflammation and autoimmunity (e.g. antibodies to myelin basic protein)
·
Blood coagulation abnormalities
Nutritional Therapy and Autism
Nutritional Therapy aims to treat the root cause of ill-health by helping the body to repair and rebalance itself. The root cause of autism will undoubtedly be different for each child and will be a complex interaction of many factors, including genetics. Our treatment approach for children with autism is individual to each child. However we always develop a phased programme of treatment which follows these broad principles: Phase 1 - Optimise a patient's health status by:
·
healing the gut and addressing nutritional deficiencies
·
addressing metabolic imbalances shown by Organic Acids test
·
improving detoxification processes
Biomedical tests will be used to establish the presence of toxic heavy metals, gut dysbiosis, nutrient levels or other indicators of ill-health Phase 2 - Chelation of toxic metals
Initially this will be done with gentle, natural agents such as chlorella and cilantro tinture.
Other chelating agents will be discussed with parents and a protocol agreed jointly. Phase 3 - Target treatment directly on the brain and central nervous system.
There are a number of nutritional and herbal preparations that may help improve neurotransmitter and hormonal activity in the gut, brain and central nervous system. Many already have a good track record of use in autism, e.g DMG,TMG and Methyl B12.
