Dr. John Cannell of http://vitaminDcouncil.org advises that the co-factors most often deficient in the American diet, and necessary to optimise its absorption, and utilisation are magnesium, zinc, boron, and vitamin K2 ( http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/03/26/the-delicate-dance-between-vitamins-d-and-k.aspx The MK7 variety of vitamin K2 is by far the most biologically active; Mercola have supplies). I recommend using either health food/vitamin stores, or Googling: " ... ; supplies" rather than risking any old, or substandard products at supermarkets, or even on pharmacy shelves. The best dietary sources of vitamin K2 are natto, and tempeh, (free of casein* - from fermented soy - ONLY fermented soy products are safe for females) but any curd cheese, such as mozzarella (contains casein* - check out: http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=mozzarella+cheese%3B+casein&aq=f&aqi=g-v1&aql=&oq= ) also contains useful quantities.
The incidence of autism has increased several hundred percent since WW2, and Dr. Mercola, at www.mercola.com and many others associate it with thimerosal, and vaccines, but note carefully the 2 articles below by Dr. Cannell about vitamin D3, and ensure optimal levels are maintained. I suggest that you enter "autism" in their searchbar, and view some of the many articles. Parents of autistic children would be well advised to go to www.autism-pdd.net and join; watch videos from places like http://www.momsfightingautism.com/ and take part in their regular Webinars, where they can ask questions and they have experts advising parents on their particular problems.
If non verbal: Make photos, or pictures of the things s/he regularly uses, may want, or goes to, such as his/her toys, cup, and ones of someone rubbing their stomach, to indicate hunger, and the toilet, school/special education classes, doctor's, (they may need some reminders, well beforehand, then increasingly closer to the event, to get themselves mentally prepared for these) etc. Put the pictures back to back, and laminate them, then put them on a suitable cord/chain around his, or her neck, so s/he can communicate his, or her needs and wants by showing you the relevant picture. Make similar ones so you can communicate what you want, as well, such as getting in the car, and bathing. See http://specialedandme.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/pecs.jpg and Google: "Picture Exchange Communication System". The above is from http://your-mental-health.weebly.com/w.html about autism. I suggest that you view the rest. ___________________________________________________________ AUTISM: Someone else's previous answer: "Please understand that any of these biomedical treatments will not cure/get rid of/heal the autism. They may or may not help manage the characteristics associated with autism in your child, each treatment whether biomedical, complementary, etc. have to be done on a trial basis because although a treatment may work in some, it does not work in all. Just like how autism affects each person on an individual basis so does the different forms of treatments. You'll have to experiment to see which one(s) are most beneficial to your child . FDA approved medicines for treating autism include: risperidone (Risperdal), clozapine (Clozaril), olanzapine (Zyprexa), and quetiapine (Seroquel). There are other medicines that are used in treating autism and have been helpful, but they are not FDA approved for treating autism but rather other conditions. You can read about the different medicines used here: http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageS… If you go to that link, you'll also want to check out the info about vitamins & minerals. You may want to try the GFCF diet (gluten free - casein free). In some with autism, they can exhibit low tolerance or allergies to certain foods or chemicals which may contribute to behavioral issues. In some cases their stomachs have a hard time breaking down peptides from foods that contain gluten and casein. With the extra peptides in their system, they may cause disruption in biochemical and neuroregulatory processes in the brain, affecting brain functions. However, as with any treatment with autism, it has to be done on a trial basis, the diet may or may not work, but the only way to know is to try it. You must do your research on it because there are certain ways you should implement the diet such as removing casein first then removing the gluten over a period of time, they can go through withdrawal in which their behavior worsens before it becomes better, etc. You have to learn to read labels and such because gluten comes in many different forms and it can also be found in normal everyday household products which can be absorbed into their system. These are some links about the diet: The Official GFCF Diet Support Group Website http://www.gfcfdiet.com Diet Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders, PDD-NOS, Celiac Disease, and Gluten & Dairy Allergies/Intoleran. Website includes lists of food: acceptable & unacceptable foods; list of unacceptable ingredients; extensive list of GFCF products; explanation of the GFCF diet & getting started including the stages of the GFCF diet; understanding how to read labels; hidden ingredients; information about nitrates, phenols & salicylates; gluten intolerance/celiac disease information; GFCF recipes; parent support groups including local dietary intervention support groups; GFCFKids forum; community bullentin board; GFCF diet survey; GFCF diet support; diet counselors; and much more. Autism Network for Dietary Intervention (ANDI) http://www.autismndi.com Since 1995, Autism Network for Dietary Intervention (ANDI) has been helping and supporting parents using dietary and biomedical interventions for autism spectrum disorders. They provide help and support for families using a gluten & casein free diet (gfcf diet) in the treatment of autism and related developmental disabilities. The ANDI mission is simple: 'To help parents understand, implement and maintain dietary intervention for their autistic children.' New Diets http://www.newdiets.com Features gluten free/casein free (GFCF) recipes: basic ingredients; condiments; breads; soups & stews; vegetarian & side dishes; meat entrees; seafoods; & desserts. Information provided on: getting started; product vendors; school lunch menus; problems baking with substitutes. View: http://autism.about.com/od/whatisautism/p/autismcauses.htm & http://www.plantpoisonsandrottenstuff.info/content/toxins.aspx " __________________________________________________________ READ: Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Complete Guide to Understanding Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Other ASDsby Chantal Sicile-Kira and Temple Grandin, & 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching and Raising Children with Autism Spectrum Disordersby Veronica Zysk and Ellen Notbohm, & Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knewby Ellen Notbohm, & Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autismby Temple Grandin, from your bookstore, or www.amazon.com and check out the subject of autism in their searchbar for more.
The Vitamin D Newsletter
New Harvard Paper on Autism
September 23, 2009
Five Harvard researchers accept the Vitamin D theory of autism. Last month, Dr. Dennis Kinney and four of his colleagues at Harvard University accepted the Vitamin D theory of autism and then expanded it by adding five usual suspects. While I was thrilled to see the Vitamin D theory accepted, appreciate them crediting the theory to me, and loved seeing their paper in the same journal that published the original theory, Medical Hypotheses, their five additions are all toxins, the usual suspects. The authors imply these toxins are delivered to our genome by air or water pollution, such as mercury contaminated seafood, where these toxins selectively damage the genome of those silly enough to be Vitamin D deficient.
My problem with the paper is the same problem I have with any of the air and water pollution autism theories, why now? Certainly, if a toxin was causing autism, evidence exists that exposure to that toxin has increased part and parcel with the epidemic of autism.
For awhile, that was one of the strongest arguments for the mercury in vaccines theory; administration of more and more mercury-containing vaccines paralleled the increase in autism. The problem with the vaccine theory is that when they took the mercury out of vaccines, the incidence of autism went up, not down.
What about air and water pollution? Any self-respecting environmentalist will tell you pollution in the USA is at record levels today; that is, American air and water has never been dirtier. However, I am older than sixty, so that nonsense won’t work on me. I remember acid lakes, burning eyes and blazing rivers.
As a child, I remember thinking God wanted me to see the air I breathed. That is, I remember the USA before the clean air and clean water acts of the 1960s. If air and water pollution caused the autism epidemic, then that epidemic began in the late 1940s, climbed dramatically in the 1950s, peaked in the 1960s and then decreased in the late 1970s. Just did not happen.
One could accurately say that cleaner American air and water is associated with increasing rates of autism, but with a significant lag time. Perhaps air pollution from Eastern Europe, India and China, which has been increasing in the last 20 years, has engendered the current crop of autism, the “foreigners did it” theory of autism. However, why would foreign coal-burning air pollution of today do what good old American coal-burning air pollution of the 50s and 60s could not?
Take mercury in seafood, terrible right? As mercury is one of the autism-causing toxins he listed, I assume Dr. Kinney predicts mercury-containing seafood consumption during pregnancy would increase risk of autism. However, I predict the opposite, that is, consumption of mercury-containing seafood during pregnancy would improve the offspring’s mentation, the benefits of Vitamin D in fish overwhelming any detriments of mercury.
Consistent with that prediction, the three largest studies found higher maternal consumption of mercury-containing fish was associated with better, not worse, infant cognition with the greatest benefit for infants whose mothers consumed the most mercury-containing fish. Do not misunderstand me; the three studies below show mercury is bad, Vitamin D-rich fish and mercury is better, and Vitamin D-rich fish without mercury is the best.
If you think the beneficial effect was from omega-3 fats, you’d be wrong. In another Harvard study, the benefits for the child of mother’s fish consumption again overwhelmed the harm from mercury. Omega-3 fats consumption could not explain the beneficial effects of mercury-containing seafood, that is, neither total maternal intake of omega-3, nor omega-3 content of mother’s red blood cells, was associated with the child’s cognition.
In yet a third study, NIH researchers found benefits for mothers who ate mercury-containing seafood during pregnancy. Benefits of fish consumption again overwhelmed the harm of toxins in fish. More importantly, low maternal seafood consumption (and thus low seafood mercury consumption) resulted in children with lower verbal IQs and suboptimal outcomes for pro-social behaviors, fine motor, communication, and social development, that is, autistic symptoms.
So I heartily recommend seafood to expectant mothers and give my highest endorsement to vitamin D-rich, mercury-poor fish like small salmon. (By the way, the omega-3 literature is hopelessly confounded by Vitamin D.) However, the essence of Dr. Kinney and colleagues’ addition to the Vitamin D theory is that at least some of the autism generating toxic genetic damage is done to the father’s sperm, not the mother’s egg.
That is, toxins ingested by Vitamin D deficient men causes oxidative damage leading to genetic mutations in sperm. The authors’ suggestion is to give Vitamin D to men, before they go around impregnating women, to prevent genetic damage by toxins and thus prevent autism. While I certainly agree men should take Vitamin D before they impregnate anyone (and I suspect they will be more successful in their mission if they do), I doubt healthy men will take Vitamin D any time soon.
Even if the new Food and Nutrition Board recommends 5,000 IU/day for healthy adults – and they won’t – healthy men will ignore any new FNB recommendation because most men will not take supplements, unless they think it prevents hair loss, increases sexual abilities or improves athletic performance (Vitamin D has no effect on the first two but certainly improves the third).
However, unlike men, pregnant women will take a supplement, and almost always do so, a prenatal vitamin. Currently, that prenatal contains a meaningless 10 micrograms of Vitamin D (400 IU). Say it contained a physiological amount, say 125 micrograms (5,000 IU). If it did, I predict the incidence of congenital autism (obvious in the first few months of life) would dramatically reduce almost immediately and the overall incidence would begin decreasing in several years. However, it would not affect the autism caused by the severe childhood Vitamin D deficiency that occurs when toddlers are weaned from Vitamin D rich formula to my favorite toxin, natural organic fruit juice.
All in all, I liked Dr. Kinney and colleagues’ paper; I hope Dr. Kinney can wake someone up at Autism Speaks, which funds Dr. Kinney. (If Autism Speaks doesn’t hurry and help fund the Vitamin D Council, they won’t be able to get any credit at all for helping discover the cause of autism.) The authors also listed evidence that strengthens the Vitamin D theory of autism, evidence I discussed in the original paper.
That evidence is: 1) autism is more common in cloudy and rainy areas; 2) dark-skinned immigrants have much higher rates of autism; 3) there are more cases in the northern US than in the South, and 4) autism is more common in urban than rural areas, just like rickets. The authors forgot to add a fifth fact, the NIH found widespread bony abnormalities in autistic kids, abnormalities that look like the effects of chronic low-grade rickets to me.
Also, if Dr. Kinney and colleagues are correct in their revision of my theory, then Vitamin D should not have a treatment effect in children with autism, unless Vitamin D can repair genetic defects. I predict the opposite: Vitamin D will be found to have a treatment effect in autism, as Vitamin D acts quickly to prevent further oxidative brain damage and increases brain glutathione, which promptly dispatches the usual suspects. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below are three more letters I received in response to my last newsletter:
Dear Dr. Cannell:
My nephew was showing signs of delayed development : delayed speech, a slow tongue, rarely smiled, shy, loner, unusually uncommunicative for a toddler. He just seemed sad. After evaluation and confirmation of the abnormalities particularly the poor neuromuscular control of his lower face and tongue, he was enrolled in speech therapy several times a week with some improvement over 6 months or so but he still spoke in one word sentences.
His mother kept him perpetually in sunscreen and sunscreen fabrics and hats with flaps. As he approached his third birthday, I convinced my sister-in-law to try him on some Vitamin D. As he was about 43 lbs (big, not overweight), I told her to give him 2000 IU per day and sent her a bottle of drops to make it easy (2000 IU/day). Six wks later, they came up to our home to go sledding this past December.
They both were ecstatic about the change in him. He was now speaking in complete complex sentences, was smiling, out-going and had finally begun to become toilet trained. She was delighted with the effects but she confided that she was having trouble giving him the Vitamin D, no matter what she put it in; he often refused to eat it. I found this inexplicable, how hard could it be to get one drop into him?
It quickly became apparent that she had been trying to give him one DROPPERFUL per day, roughly 60,000 to 150,000 IU per day, flooding his system with D. She has dropped the D down to 2000 IU/day pending a blood level but he will never be without adequate D again. As they were leaving, he said "Mommy is going to back the car up and then we get in?" His father keeps happily exclaiming that he is a whole new kid.
Dr. Marisa Burrows,
New Hampshire
Dear Dr. Burrows:
Dr. Gene Stubbs, a child psychiatrist from the Oregon Health Sciences University told me of a similar case, accidental Vitamin D overdosing leading to dramatic and rapid improvements in autistic symptoms. However, even if your nephew took 150,000 IU/day for six weeks, I doubt he will be clinically toxic; but he may have high blood calcium, the dose was dangerous. Remember, from 1955 to 1990, every child in East Germany got 300,000 IU at their doctor's office every three months until 18 months of age.I predict the autism epidemic started later in East Germany's former lands (mid 1990s) than it did in the USA (mid 1980s).
Stop all Vitamin D until his 25(OH)D level is around 80 and then restart at 3,000 IU per day, attempting to obtain a level of 80-100 ng/ml, year around. You may notice a rebirth of his symptoms as his 25(OH)D falls precipitously but I believe that his symptoms will again disappear again if you maintain his level in the high normal range.
Dear Dr. Cannell:
I was disappointed to read some of your statements in your latest newsletter regarding autism, although I am quite convinced that Vitamin D deficiency plays a key role both in the development and the continued symptoms of autism.
However, you seem to imply that most, if not all, autistic children could be solely treated and even cured by nothing but Vitamin D. I have two autistic children, a girl age 21 months and a boy age 3 1/2 years, who both tested as Vitamin D deficient (among other things,) and we have been supplementing them with 1,000 IU for the 21-month-old and 2,000 IU per day for the 3-year-old. They have been on the vitamin D for six months. Both of them are now at sufficient levels--74 and 87 ng/ml, respectively--and yet I assure you, while they have improved, they are still very much autistic.
They also take Vitamin A in their powdered multivitamins, including 3,500 IU per day of retinyl palmitate. They've never received a large dose of vitamin A (or anything else) in our DAN doctor's office.
You do a huge disservice to the community when you say,
"The "all autism is caused from vaccinations crowd cannot accept the Vitamin D possibility as it threatens their core beliefs. They simply cannot change their minds."
I would submit that the "all autism is caused by any one thing" crowds are all wrong, and that includes the Vitamin D crowd. I simply cannot change my mind that my daughter's vaccination caused her autism because I watched it happen, starting the very day she received her shot. On the other hand, my son's development did not include a single, major regression following a vaccine, and I know his etiology is completely different and was not caused directly by a vaccine.
Many autistic children show improvement with their Vitamin D supplements, just as they show some improvement with other supplements as well. The woman in your newsletter whose son showed such a complete turnaround with just one supplement is lucky to have found her major puzzle piece. But biomedical parents in the autism community struggle with skepticism enough as it is, and we need to be coming together to find each child's different set of puzzle pieces, not pointing fingers at each other. Sincerely, Mary Nelson, San Jose, CA
Dear Mary:
Your children have subclinical vitamin A toxicity, which blocks the effect of Vitamin D. The 3,500 IU of preformed retinol they are taking would be as if I were taking 25,000 IU of preformed retinol a day. It may take years for the toxic amounts of vitamin A to be removed from their system because, unlike vitamin D, the body has no good system to remove vitamin A quickly.
Vitamin A competes with vitamin D directly at the receptor site. When vitamin A levels are too high, the two retinoic acid molecules bind to each other instead of one vitamin A molecule binding with one vitamin D. When the two vitamin A molecules bind with each other, as occurs with high doses of vitamin A, the two vitamin A molecules then bind to the Vitamin D receptor and weakly stimulate the receptor, and may act as a weak agonist. But, weak agonists block the function of receptors, preventing the vitamin D from working.
Many DAN Doctors use Vitamin A, either as a large bolus dose or the in the powdered multivitamins your child is taking. As such, I predict DAN treated children will be less responsive to Vitamin D until their Vitamin A toxicity clears. For more on the dangers of Vitamin A, see the last part of the paper below, written by 16 experts, warning of the dangers of Vitamin A.
I would stop all vitamin A and increase the Vitamin D to 2,000 IU/day for the 21 month old and 4,000 IU/day for the 3-year-old until your children have 25(OH)D levels around 100 ng/ml, which is perfectly safe, and keep their levels that high for the rest of their childhood. By that time, my prophecy will be fact.
Dear Dr. Cannell:
You said the "all autism is caused from vaccinations crowd cannot accept the Vitamin D possibility as it threatens their core beliefs. They simply cannot change their minds."
How does Vitamin D deficiency explain an autism epidemic starting about 1990? How does your sunshine/Vitamin D theory of autism explain the absence of autistic children with rickets working all day long in the sunless factories of Victorian England? Since the current aggressive vaccination schedule has never been tested for safety against a less aggressive one, how can you so smugly deride the possibility of the damage from it? How do you explain the recent studies showing clusters of autism in California with higher rates among parents with higher education?
How open-minded are you about your own "core beliefs"?
Thomas R. Widden,
Professor Emeritus,
Bay State University, Maine
Dear Professor Widden:
The autism epidemic began in the mid 80s and tracks the sun -scare very closely, as it does the sale of sunscreen.
The neuropsychiatric symptoms of rickets have never been studied in the modern era, as, once the diagnosis of rickets is made all attention is paid to bones and the rickets is aggressively treated. However, as far as the mental condition in rickets, at least two old papers have addressed it, both published before the diagnosis of autism was common.Hallerhan, M.M. The Effect of Rickets on the Mental development of Young Children. Archives of Psychology, July, 1938 vol 229, pp 1-67.
Gilmour A. The Mental Condition in Rickets. School Hygiene 1912;9:222 pp 6-16
Both papers describe "weak mindedness, feeble minds, mental dullness, and unresponsiveness" as being common in rickets. Gilmour found delays in speech were common. Developmental delays were common in both papers.
Hallerhan reports previous authors found "withdrawal, and negativism" as well as "tantrums, selfishness, depression, and narrowing of interests." However, both authors report that the mental condition in rickets improves with Vitamin D; that is the Vitamin D improves the brain as well as the bones.
The controlled study by Hallerhan was conducted in 1938 where some control children, and not just the rachitic children, would have been on cod liver oil as that was a common hygienic practice in that day. In spite of that, differences were noted in verbal development and significant differences noted in motor development, mental development and social adjustment.
As far as "mass vaccinations," that is, giving multiple vaccinations all at once, you are correct that it has not, to my knowledge, been studied and may trigger autism in vitamin D deficient children. However, triggering and causing are two different things. Remember the co-occurrence of vaccinations and autism may reflect the fact that children are weaned from Vitamin D rich formula to the empty calories of juice, even breast fed infants get formula, around the time of their 12 to 18 month vaccinations, thus precipitously dropping their Vitamin D levels. Shopping malls are full of toddlers drinking my favorite toxin: pure, 100%, organic, fruit juice.
As for your final point, Professor Widden, I assume you are referring to Dr. Karla Van Meter"s study from the MIND Institute, just published.
The main finding was that college educated parents, especially women, had an increased risk of having a child with autism. Actually, this is not a new finding. As I discussed in my 2007 autism paper, this has been known since the early 1980s but was dismissed as being caused by ascertainment bias, or how you pick your samples. Dr. Van Meter's findings correlated well with CDC researchers who found a similar risk for the well-educated, findings that are difficult to dismiss as being entirely due to ascertainment bias.
What is known is the relationship between sun-avoidance and sun-block use, which is strongly correlated with higher education and socioeconomic achievement.
What a tragic sight, all those rich kids in LA, clothed from head to toe and lathered with sunblock by their highly educated mothers, banging their heads on the swing set while professors miss such obvious clues. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At age 2.5 years, between December 2007 and January 2008, my son experienced a fairly dramatic onset of symptoms that led to his diagnosis of autism. His symptoms (many of which we did not even know the terminology for at the time they first occurred) included:
--The inability to sleep at night, we would put him to bed at 8:00 or 8:30 p.m. following his normal bedtime routine
--Development of anxiety and refusal to leave the house even to do preferred activities
--Obsessive-repetitive questions and monologuing/run-on speech
--Sensory issues (refusal to wear jeans or any fabrics other than fleece, screaming hysterically at bath time, complaining and covering eyes in sunlight, covering ears for everyday noises that had not bothered him before (toilets flushing, pulling pots and pans from cupboards, etc.)
--Toe-walking
--Flapping and self-stimulating behaviors (repeatedly tapping his cheeks and eyes with all ten fingers, continually twisting up his fingers in pretzel-like configurations, holding objects in his peripheral range of vision and straining to see them from the corner of his eyes)
--Development of an unusual pattern of stuttering/vocal tic at the end of words,he would repeat the last sound/syllable,"I don't want to go to the store-or-or-or-or-or-or. It won't be fun-n-n-n-n-n-n-n." He would make sounds even in his sleep "n-n-n-n-n-n" or "s-s-s-s-s-s-s"
--Loss of muscle tone (stopped walking up and down stairs and began crawling/sliding instead, decline in balance and motor skills)
--loss of handedness (began switching left to right hand, after seeming predominantly left-handed)
--Marked increase in hyperactivity
--Frequent spacing out/unresponsive episodes
Our son and his twin sister were born at 36 weeks, 5 days on March 17, 2005 after four months of bed-rest. As early as their 8 week appointment, I mentioned to our pediatrician that we had concerns about our son's eye contact and social responsiveness (in comparison to his sister). I felt that I was having more difficulty bonding with him. We were told "don't worry, but don't wait" and were referred to our state's Early On intervention program. At the end of June a physical therapist and speech pathologist from our intermediate school district came to our home to evaluate our then 3 month old son and told me that he was doing just fine and that I was worrying too much. I agreed that by the time they saw him he had begun smiling and making better eye contact.
We didn't worry again about our son until fall 2006. He had walked just before his first birthday, but by 18 months+ he still seemed clumsy and prone to falling compared to his sister. We took him back to the intermediate school district for evaluation and were told that all of his development seemed to be in the normal range and that we shouldn't worry. We were advised that we could take him to music and gym classes to work on his coordination and told that we could pay for private physical therapy if we elected. We followed all of the recommendations.
For a year, we didn't notice any other changes until the sudden onset of symptoms listed above when he was 2.5 years. With the sudden onset of symptoms above, we took our son to see a number of specialists during the winter of 2008 including a neurologist (who diagnosed him with Asperger Syndrome), a psychologist (who diagnosed with autism), and a second psychologist who specialized in the treatment of autism (who diagnosed him with Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not-Otherwise-Specified). All three diagnoses are on the autism spectrum. He also began seeing an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, a behavioral specialist, and a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctor for dietary interventions. We saw a dramatic improvement by April/May of that year. Nearly all the symptoms on the list above had resolved. We assumed the improvements were due to diet but he started to go into the sun around that time. Our son slept well and spent many peaceful, happy and anxiety-free months during the spring and summer after turning three.
In mid-November 2008, I sent the following e-mail to the DAN doctor who had been helping us with our son.
"You saw our son Jonathan Switzer a few times regarding his autism diagnosis and diet issues, etc. He had a regressive period last winter from about December through April when his autism was diagnosed, then did pretty well all summer. Nursery school started off okay, too, but now he seems to be having another regression.
Main symptoms:
--Great difficulty getting to sleep (fidgets for 2 plus hours most nights while he had been falling asleep easily for several months prior to that)
--Marked increase in anxiety (again refusing to leave the house even to do things he loves, frequently shaking/clenching and telling us "I'm scared)
--Onset of OCD-like behaviors (afraid to get hands dirty, get extremely upset if he gets even tiny drips of water on himself)
--Increase in self-stimulatory behaviors (flapping, fidgeting, noise-making)
--Frequent crying jags and telling us he's just giving up on everything
We have had other parents tell us that their kids on the spectrum have a worsening of symptoms during the winter months and we feel like we are observing this same pattern. We've done some reading about light therapy for depression/anxiety and to help correct disturbed sleep patterns and would like to give it a try for Jonathan.
Wondering if you have ever prescribed a light therapy box for pediatric patients before. Our insurance told us they will cover it with a diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I don't even know if that is something that can be diagnosed in children. Guess we're willing to try anything at this point. Do you know much about this type of therapy?"
Neither the DAN Doctor nor our pediatrician would write a prescription for a therapy light, so we purchased one on our own and found it made no discernible impact on his symptoms.
By December, our son's symptoms had worsened further and we decided to put him in a very expensive and intensive autism treatment program through our local hospital. He made slow progress during his participation in the program from January through April. He was also involved in speech and occupational therapy during the winter months. At his IEPC meeting at school in March, we were encouraged to put him in the district's program for children with developmental delays. We instead elected to register him for regular pre-school for the following year.
During that winter, I was crying to some friends about my son and describing his seemingly seasonal pattern of symptoms. We had just seen a second neurologist searching for help, and I was extremely frustrated when, after listening to my son's symptoms and history, he told me bluntly, "There is nothing seasonal about autism," then suggested that we put our son on an anti-depressant. We refused the medication. One of the friends I was crying to is a research librarian and the other is a medical researcher. After our conversation, they located and e-mailed me a few journal articles they thought might help, one of the articles was by Dr. Cannell and discussed his vitamin D theory of autism. Reading the article was one of those "Aha!" moments and I felt hopeful that Dr. Cannell was on to something.
By June our son was released from both speech therapy and occupational therapy and we were told that he no longer showed any delays for his age. When he had begun occupational therapy in January, the OT had been astonished at our son's lack of muscle tone. She recommended that he also receive Physical Therapy services, so we went on a long waiting list. Our initial OT was in a car accident, and in May we were transferred to a new OT. When the new OT first saw our son, she said could not believe he was the same child described in the notes. By May the low muscle tone, hyperactivity and distractibility noted in his file, were no longer evident. His turn came up for physical therapy and we were told he no longer needed it.
Our son has always spent a lot of time outdoors in the summer, without sunblock. He had a happy and relaxing summer. As fall/back-to-school approached, I began to fear the onset of another regression and again read the article by Dr. Cannell my friend had sent. I visited his website and decided we would try a vitamin D supplement. Our pediatrician did not encourage any dose higher than 400 i.u. (that found in a typical multivitamin) but did write a script to have his 25-hydroxy level tested. In August his level was 37, so we started him on 5,000 iu daily and had his level retested on October 21st. By October his level was 96. The pediatrician was concerned that this was too high and told us he should not have more than 400 iu per day.
Knowing that Nov-March are typically his worst months, we reduced the dosage down only to 3,000 iu from October through mid-December. At an appointment in December our son was doing wonderfully (none of his usual fall/winter symptoms yet evident) and the pediatrician told us 3,000 iu was too much and that we should be giving no more than 400 iu. In mid-December we reduced the dose to 1,500 iu. By the beginning of January we noted a marked loss of eye contact. We also noted that our son was again interchanging his right hand for writing and eating (after using his left hand exclusively for 8+ months). We increased his vitamin D level to 4,000 iu daily in early January. On January 11 we had his 25-Hydroxy level checked on January 11 and found that it was 89. By the end of January, we and his grandparents noted improvement in his eye contact.
In January 2010 we attended his preschool conferences. The teacher had marked cards with the following code (1=age appropriate, 2=developing, 3=area of concern). Our son received 1s in all areas with the exception of hopping on one foot and balance beam where he received 2s. We were told that he is on par with or ahead of his peers in all areas (academic, fine motor, etc.), and that his teacher had noted no unusual symptoms or concerns.
During the fall/winter 2009-2010 our son has been free from nearly all of the most troubling symptoms that plagued him the previous two winters. The following example may demonstrate the improvement in his daily life since last winter.
One of our son's low points was a Christmas party we attended in December 2008. Before leaving the house to attend the party our son screamed and yelled about having to take a bath and because we would not let him wear sweatpants to the party. He then begged us not to make him leave the house. During the 40 minute trip to the party our son asked us repetitive questions and talked incessantly. Upon arriving at the party, he immediately walked into an unoccupied room adjacent to the room where the party was occurring, and put his face into the corner. Despite much coaxing by my husband and me, he refused to come out of the corner.
After approximately 45 minutes of standing in the corner we managed to get him out through the promise of some food rewards. He proceeded to walk around and around the perimeter of the living room where all of the other kids were playing. He rubbed himself along the walls and covered his ears as he walked. He finally settled into playing alone in a corner of the room. All of the kids at the party participated in a book exchange. Our son refused to come to the area where the other kids were gathered. We coaxed him over only to have him throw the book he received and refuse to thank the parent who had purchased it for him. He spent much of the evening in time-outs for that and other inappropriate behavior.
In June of 2008, after playing in the sun for several months, we met for a picnic with the same group of friends at a local park. Our son ran up to the other children and joined right in playing bulldozers in the sand with them. He behaved and interacted in a completely appropriate and typical way during the picnic which lasted several hours.
This year (2009) we attended the same Christmas party at the same house. Our son got ready and left for the party without anxiety or incident. He chatted normally during the drive to the party. He walked into the house, said, "Hey, check out my new train," to some of the kids already playing and settled in to playing happily with the other kids. During the book exchange, he received a book, smiled and gave a big hug to the person who gave it to him.
In December of 2008, I took a leave from my job so I could get my son to the intensive behavioral treatment program he was in and to all of his other therapy appointments. I dedicated 40-60 hours per week to my son's various appointments and home therapy program.
This winter (January 2010), a former colleague asked me what Jonathan's current therapy program consists of. I told her I spend about 30 seconds each day opening the jar of vitamins and giving him his chewable vitamin D. In my opinion, the 3 minutes or so I spend each week giving him his vitamin D have been much more effective, and much less expensive, than any other treatment we have pursued.
Thank you.
Jeannette, Wisconsin
Dear Jeanette:
You're welcome. Several things need comment. First, the symptoms are typical of autism. Second, the seasonality of symptoms suggest a vitamin D deficient disease. Third, the treatment in the spring of 2008 seemed effective but, in hindsight, it was simply due to spring sun exposure. Fourth, as you may now know, light boxes for seasonal affective disorder make no vitamin D. Fifth, your pediatrician knows little about Vitamin D other than what committees tell him; your decision to ignore his advice probably saved your son's brain from further injury, as autism is a progressive inflammatory destruction of brain tissue. Sixth, the fact that you needed bed rest and gave birth prematurely suggests you were Vitamin D deficient during your pregnancy.
Seventh, his twin sister has never had autism, despite the same intrauterine environment. This is consistent with my theory, that autism is caused from a quantitative, not qualitative, variation is one of the enzymes that metabolize Vitamin D. That is, there are no structural differences in these enzymes in autism, only a genetically determined difference in the amount present. These enzymes are responsive to estrogen; estrogen protects the brain from being damaged by low Vitamin D, probably by increasing the amount of activated Vitamin D present, explaining why boys are four times more likely to have the disease.
The report that your son deteriorated when his dose was reduced from 3,000 to 1,500 IU suggests autistic children need adult doses of Vitamin D. When you reduced the dose from 3,000 to 1,500 IU/day he worsened although his level on 1,500 IU/day was probably still greater than 50 ng/ml. This makes me think that dosage needs to be stable and suggests that Professor Reinhold Vieth's theory of a detrimental seasonal resetting of the intercellular metabolism of Vitamin D may even be true at levels above 50 ng/ml, where the body is storing the parent compound, cholecalciferol, in muscle and fat.
His current dose of 4,000 IU per day is perfectly safe and will give him a level of 80-100 ng/ml, inside the reference ranges of American laboratories. Toxicity (asymptomatic high blood calcium) begins somewhere above 200 ng/ml. Generally speaking, autistic children should take 2,000 IU per every 25 pounds of body weight for six weeks, then have a 25(OH)D blood test and adjust the dosage to get into the high end of the reference range, 80-100 ng/ml.
Although I first published the Vitamin D theory of autism theory 3 years ago, few autistic children are currently treated for their Vitamin D deficiency. This is due to several reasons. One, those who think, correctly, that autism is a genetic disease, stop thinking after that, reasoning that genetic diseases are untreatable. Such thinkers do not understand epigenetics (upon the genome). Vitamin D is probably the heart of epigenetics, as nothing works upon the genome like vitamin D.
Secondly, the "all autism is caused from vaccinations" crowd cannot accept the Vitamin D possibility as it threatens their core beliefs. They simply cannot change their minds.
Finally, as you now know, organized medicine would say you should stop the vitamin D and watch your son deteriorate, which is why slavery to evidence based medicine is fine for scientists and unethical for practitioners.
__________________________________________________________ AUTISM: For infants, see: http://www.signsofautism.com/ & http://www.generationrescue.org/ For children, it may be a good idea to change them over, gradually, over at least several days, by progressively increasing the proportion of rice, soy, or almond milk (for those with no allergy to nuts) to milk, until they are consuming 100% rice, soy, or almond formula. I would regard these as being unsuitable for infants (except on medical advice) until weaning.
Almond milk is one that would actually prefer to soy, unless allergic. Nearly all soy produced in the USA these days is GENETICALLY MODIFIED. Genetically modified foods tested on laboratory animals have shown adverse health effects (from www.mercola.com which is the most visited natural health website in the world). See http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Almond-Milk and http://drbenkim.com/almond-milk-recipe.htm
Here is the reason for soaking nuts and seeds for several hours before eating them. The outer covering (brown part on almonds) contains phytates that prevent your body from absorbing minerals, thus acting as an anti-nutrient. There are also other inhibitors, meant to prevent premature sprouting, which are nullified by soaking. The same applies to grains. Be sure to throw out the soaking water and rinse the nuts or grains before using.
You'll find more information on this in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. Fallon recommends you soak all nuts and seeds, then, if you're not using them to make a milk, dry them slowly in the very lowest temperature oven with the door propped slightly open, or dehydrator, until they are crispy. This will take a day or two.
Also, be sure to remove the hard seeds from dates before putting them into your blender - even a Vita Mix.
For an amazing whipped cream substitute, soak a few dates separately from a cup or two of unroasted cashews. Save the date soaking water, but rinse the soaked nuts. Place them in the powerful blender with a bit of the date soaking water. Then blend until creamy. Add the dates one at a time and continue blending. For more creaminess, add a bit more of the date soaking water. You can add vanilla or cacao nibs or other flavorings to this and it makes a wonderful frosting or topping for berries or fruits served as dessert. It keeps in the fridge for a week or so.
NOTE: For that small proportion of children for whom soy acts as a trigger, use rice, or almond milk instead, gradually reducing the percentage of regular milk in the mix. Go to www.mercola.com and type in the taskbar: "the darker side of soy", so you are making an informed choice (I've recently switched to rice milk! Nearly all soy in the USA is genetically modified, and studies have shown GMO's cause adverse health effects on animals). The idea here is to get them on a diet which is free of casein, so this would include all dairy products: milk, cream, yoghurt, butter, whey, and cheese. Also recommended is the change to a gluten free diet, by eliminating wheat (bread, pasta, cookies, doughnuts, waffles, etc.), also rye and barley. Rice is fine. Substitutes can be made, using powdered, roasted soybeans (if not a trigger), almond flour, chick pea flour, rice flour, acorn flour, (for those with no allergy to nuts) and/or coconut flour (use searchbar at http://www.mercola.com/).
Join various groups on autism at Myspace, Google or Yahoo!: groups. Use the WebFerret search engine, which consults several others, presenting the results, as well as your own search engine, the Google and Wikipedia websites, Amazon.com, the various autism organisations in your country, as well as your library, and doctor. Much remains to be done in this area, and too little research is being done, but if people try various treatments, find one that works in their situation, and communicate that information, then many others may be helped. ______________________________________________________________________ Take at least 4 Omega 3 fish oil supplements, daily: (certified free of mercury) it is best if consumed with an antioxidant, such as an orange, or its FRESHLY SQUEEZED juice. Children may need less, but Omega 3 is very safe. If vitamin E is added, it should be certified as being 100% from natural sources, or it may be synthetic: avoid it! In the winter months, if not getting sufficient daily exposure to strong light, see http://www.mercola.com SEARCHBAR: enter: "vitamin D3".
Go to a doctor and ask for a 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, blood test. When you get the results, don’t follow the typical “normal” reference range, as these are too low. The OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is 45-52 ng/ml (115-128 nmol/l)". The company which tests your levels has to be one of those using the correct form of test, and this topic is addressed via the searchbar at Mercola.com - "vitamin D3; testing". See http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/16/my-one-hour-vitamin-d-lecture-to-clear-up-all-your-confusion-on-this-vital-nutrient.aspx ______________________________________________________________________ Overview: While there is no one cure or prevention of autism, genetics and environmental factors seem to increase the risk of autism. Autism is a spectrum of developmental disabilities that cause social, behavioral and communication problems. There is hope for reducing autism symptoms with behavioral and communication therapies, dietary changes and medication. Early intervention services are the best way to prevent autism symptoms from worsening.
Step 1 Know the risks of developing autism. Avoiding viral infections in the third trimester of pregnancy, such as rubella, may help prevent autism. Studies show viral infections to have a possible link to autism. Kids with Fragile X syndrome or tuberous sclerosis also have higher probability of getting autism. If you have children with either of these, make sure you avoid other risks factors associated with autism.
Step 2 While there is a lot of controversy over a link between autism and vaccines, you can look for safer vaccines. Toxins such as mercury do impair brain development. Talk to your doctor about getting only vaccines that are free of thimerosal (mercury preservative) and other potentially hazardous preservatives. Thimerosal has been taken out of children's vaccines, but is still common in vaccines given to pregnant women, such as flu shots.
Step 3 If you have a history of autism in your family, avoid environmental toxins. Talk to your doctor about protecting yourself from environmental exposures during pregnancy. Avoid things that are known to impair brain development, such as fish with high mercury content. Also consider avoiding mercury in other forms and aluminum in vaccines. You may also consider water filtration and checking with your dentist about the safety of amalgam, or tooth fillings.
Step 4 If there are any red flags for autism, seek behavioral or communication therapies as soon as possible. Increasing a child's ability to communicate and reducing problem behaviors can greatly reduce autism symptoms.
Step 5 Some parents have been able to reduce symptoms of autism with diet interventions. The theory is that food allergies and a lack of vitamin absorption greatly increase autism behaviors. Many parents have seen success in treating their child with dietary restrictions or supplements. Check with your doctor to make sure your child gets adequate nutrition in any preventive diet. http://www.livestrong.com/article/27130-prevent-autism/ ______________________________________________________________________ An autistic person's view:
Autism is a social disorder where you have trouble understanding social rules, have trouble with language processing (understanding what people are saying even though you hear them)
problems with sensory intergration (in layman terms...it means you can get easily overstimulated by alot of noise, sights, touch) ppl with autism get overwhelmed in large crowds, hate loud noises, and some ppl with autism dont like the way certain things feel..like certain fabrics can itch or burn...even some ppl with autism dont like being touched since it is painful)
easily excitable, easily distracted, Have trouble reading facial expressions and body language. Have alot of problems understanding figures of speech ( like idioms and slang) Dont like change...and thrive in the familiar Having trouble relating to other's point of view
You would prefer to go in your own thoughts...and stay there if you could but ppl around you wont let you do that
However there is a hidden bright side to autism that most non-autistic people dont know about. Autistic people have a unique way of seeing the world...seeing the beautiful and amazing in things that most people dont take time to notice...like the way a shadow looks on a wall or the way the grass sways when the wind blows. The world with all its evil and corruption can still be full of wonder to an autistic person. ______________________________________________________________________ SUPPORT GROUPS: www.autism-society.org/ & www.nationalautismassociation.org/ & http://www.childrensdisabilities.info/autism/groups-autism-asperger.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Yahoo!Answers: Check out: Applied Behaviour Analysis therapy. Google it. Some kids see a WAY way way significant decrease in symptoms with ABA. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vitamin D Council
May 19, 2011
On July 1, 2011, the Vitamin D Council is planning to begin a free clinic for children with autism. My time will be free, the autism assessment scales will be free, the blood tests will be free, and the vitamin D for the kids will be free (due to the generosity of Ddrops). We estimate 3-4 clinic visits will be needed. Anyone in the world with a child with autism can call and get an appointment to see me. The Vitamin D Council will sponsor this clinic as long as we can afford it, which means as long as we have enough donors, members and especially enough lifetime members. From now on, a lifetime membership also means that such membership sponsors one autistic child to come to the free clinic and we will encourage that family (if the donor wants) to call and thank the donor in person.
We are taking a risk, as our financial situation is – as it is too often – precarious. In order to have a free clinic we must hire an administrative assistant to organize and help with the free clinic. Therefore, I will no longer be getting any salary from the Vitamin D Council. This also helps with conflicts of interest. However, we still have to pay a full time web director, a science advisor, a controller, another 6 months on our $40,000.00 contract with Minervation to finish the new website (coming any day), and a commitment to fund a $20,000 preliminary study on autism and vitamin D by the University of California at San Francisco, a study I will tell you more about in a future newsletter. We will soon post our 2010 tax returns for public scrutiny. Why can’t we attract the attention of a wealthy foundation or donor? Sometimes, I make myself sick worrying over the finances of the Council.
Please consider donating or joining as a member. If you cannot afford $50.00, then donate whatever you can afford. We now have the ability to process donations via credit cards – not just PayPal – so the $5.00/month option is even easier.
The senior author in the above review was Christopher Gillberg. I should say thee Christopher Gillberg, as he is famous as a prolific author, editor and the recipient of numerous awards. Dr. Gillberg is especially well known across the world for his autism research. When I saw his name, I knew it was just a matter of time before the entire theory was under the microscope, so to speak.
If you remember, we are offering a free autism program to help parents vigorously correct vitamin D deficiency in their children with autism. As long as the Council can afford it, everything is free for the families: the vitamin D blood tests, the vitamin D, the scales, and the help from me (If you’re interest in enrolling your own child, email us at [email protected]).
The entire goal is to raise vitamin D levels from the very low levels that we find initially (< 20 ng/ml, if they’ve never supplemented), to high normal ranges (around 80 ng/ml). The “normal” range for most labs is 30-100 ng/ml, so all the parents are doing is raising their children’s levels to the same levels some lifeguards have at the end of summer. With our help, the parents use a combination of sunlight (when it is available) and supplements to do so.
The most common problem we have run into is parent’s unwillingness to give enough vitamin D to their child to obtain high normal levels. Too often, the child’s pediatrician tells the parents that the dose is too high – in spite of the normal blood levels – and the parents withdraw from the program. We never give advice contrary to the child’s doctor; in fact, we try to work with the doctor when possible.
If you remember, for more than 30 years, most of the infants in East Germany received 600,000 IU every 3 months. Many had a total dose of 3.6 million units by age 18 months, with transitory mild high blood calcium being the only side effect in one-third of the infants. The authors commented on how healthy the infants appeared. While the East German doctors gave way too much vitamin D, it demonstrates that even infants tolerate high doses of vitamin D with few serious side effects. Again, our kids are all older, receive much less vitamin D and are maintained in the normal range.
Unfortunately, some autistic children have taken 50,000 or 100,000 IU of vitamin A repeatedly or take cod liver oil. As vitamin A has no known catabolic (breakdown) pathway in the human body, these children may have subclinical vitamin A toxicity and in theory, vitamin D might not help. I try it anyway, but it does not help very much. The parents ask how long it takes to get the excess vitamin A out of the system, and I have no answer to their question.
However, in the children who obtain the high normal blood levels and who have not taken vitamin A, the response has been very satisfying. I believe the vitamin D’s mechanisms of action in these autistic children is through a combination of its antioxidant capabilities, glutathione and superoxide dismutase upregulation, increased Tregs (cells that help prevent autoimmunity), increased production of the proteins that repair DNA, and reduction of inflammation via multiple mechanisms. I have sometimes found that levels of 75 ng/ml work in children while levels around 50 ng/ml do not. I can’t explain that and would welcome some theories.
Parents have reported that vitamin D may have beneficial effects in autism on meltdowns, tantrums and sleep. One mother, who works outside the home, was so thankful when her child no longer woke at 3 AM, wanting to play. Surprisingly, parents have reported that vitamin D also seems to benefit shyness, eye contact, speech and sometimes, compulsiveness. Several parents have commented on the neuromuscular improvements after vitamin D. Most of the children enrolled require around 5,000 IU/day to obtain a 25(OH)D of 80 ng/ml, but all are different. We try to use D-Plus as studies show that many autistic children are deficient in magnesium as well as zinc.
Our autism program has been a great success, personally rewarding for all of us here at the Council, and is ongoing. So, if you have a child with autism and want to participate in it, contact us at [email protected]. As long as our money lasts, everything is free.