Autism

No one knows exactly what causes autism, but scientists think both genetic and environmental factors might play a role*. In fact, heavy metals burdens and nutritional imbalances or food allergies can exacerbate a child’s symptoms. Analysis of these factors is the first step in finding the most effective treatment regimen. In fact, early intervention can result in a significant increase in IQ and language ability, and a decrease in support services needed later in childhood†. The types of tests provided by DirectLabs can help you narrow down your options, focusing on the specific programs that may work best for your child and family.

* Source: Autism Information Center, Centers for Disease Control
† Source: Autism Center, University of Washington

Autism and Element Imbalances

Concern has been raised over the link between exposure to heavy metal toxins and neurological brain damage associated with learning and behavioral disorders in children. Research shows that exposure to heavy metals such as lead and mercury can impair brain development at very early ages—even at low doses previously deemed harmless.

Children are particularly susceptible to the deleterious effects of heavy metal exposure for several reasons. Their developing nervous systems are more sensitive, their bodies absorb toxins more rapidly, and clear them from the system more slowly, than adults. Also, a child’s blood-brain barrier, the natural protective mechanism which blocks harmful substances from entering and damaging the brain, is not yet fully formed.

Professionals working in the field of autism have expressed concern that some autistic children may have been exposed to potentially damaging levels of ethyl mercury, contained in a preservative used in certain vaccinations. Clinical neurobehavioral symptoms of mercury poisoning seem to closely parallel many common symptoms of autism.

In addition, several studies have associated high lead levels in children with autism. Elevated levels of lead in hair, signifying long-term toxic exposure to this heavy metal, have been correlated with increased behavior abnormalities and learning disorders in children. Based on clinicians’ observations, antimony, a potential toxin found in some fire retardant materials, is also a possible cause for concern.

It is important to remember that heavy metals are pervasive toxic threats in a child’s environment, with air, soil, water and food all potential vectors of exposure. Ultimately, the biochemical individuality of each child may play an important role in influencing whether or not such exposure produces neurological damage. Evidence suggests that autistic children may be less able to detoxify toxic agents they are exposed to from the environment and this inability may predispose the children to suffer neural damage consistent with autistic behavioral traits.

Elemental Analysis (hair, blood, or urine) evaluates body burden of heavy metal toxins and nutritional adequacy of important mineral elements. Each specimen type provides a unique window into element status. A hair sample will reflect chronic toxic exposure and long-term nutritional deficiencies, while blood and urine assessment will gauge the effects of more recent imbalances. Possible treatments for element imbalances include chelation therapy, nutrient supplements, vitamins, water purifying systems, dietary changes and other natural approaches.

Food Allergies Related to Autism?

Autism is not caused by allergy, and yet…
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that “autism is caused by allergy”. I am saying that children who have problems in the autistic spectrum (as well as children who have significant attention problems) are sensitive not just in the area of their senses, but also in their immune system’s reaction to the environment. This association is a lot easier for me to understand if I look at the central nervous system (CNS) and immune systems from a functional, as opposed to an anatomical, point of view.

Anatomically the CNS and immune systems are quite distinct and different. One is made up of stationary long branching permanent cells with a compact headquarters between ones ears. The other is made up of a disseminated population of short-lived mobile cells with no specific organ to call home. Pick up any textbook of anatomy, physiology, or pathology. The CNS and immune system chapters are widely separated as are the experts who wrote the chapters. From the way I see it, however, they are a functional unit.

An important hidden link between the CNS and immune system…
Look at it this way: The cells of both systems arise from the same origin in the neural crest of the embryo. Both systems contain the only cells of our bodies that exist as permanent, undividing cells from infancy to old age. (Such long-lived cells are a subset of the otherwise ephemeral cells, lymphocytes, of the immune system.) Both systems have the job of perceiving the environment. The CNS takes in the big world of our senses, our every day cognitive experience. The immune system takes in the microscopic or molecular world of that has to do with “sensing” the constant presence of friendly or unfriendly (such as cancer) cells, germs, food molecules, and toxins.

The chemistry of the immune system perceiving its tiny environment is not very different from our nose smelling the bread baking in the oven. However we have a direct experience of the bread while our immune system only makes us aware of its activities when something seems to be quite wrong, and the message that something is wrong may be quite delayed or obscure. The memory of your fifth birthday party when your friend Jeffrey spilled purple juice all over your new sneakers is in your CNS. That same week, when the doctor gave you your shot against tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough, the enduring memory of the “taste” of those germs was evoked in your immune system where it remains today. The birthday and the immunization are stored differently in you body, but functionally they are come under the same heading: perception and memory.

Another important link between the CNS and immune system…
Perception and memory are the basis for “recognition”. Recognition is a term we use interchangeably to describe the day to day activities of both our CNS and our immune systems. Finally, both of these two systems share the capacity for this mysterious process called sensitization, which is, in a way, an inconvenient or painful alteration of the memory and recognition process. Viewed from this perspective, it is not surprising that children who have problems with taking in and processing the world express that problem on both the cognitive and immune levels. They are really just different aspects of the same underlying mysterious disorder.

We try to help our children organize and integrate their cognitive world by imposing certain simplified order. Such order may take the form of repetitive behavioral and linguistic exercises or efforts to modify responses (desensitize) to sensory input. On the immune level we try to impose a simplified order by avoidance of, or desensitization to, offending foods and inhalants. This applies whether the mechanism of the reaction to foods, for example, is “allergic” within the academic definition of the word or “intolerant” within a notion that covers a variety of mechanisms, including the mischief caused by certain peptides derived from gluten and casein.

Helping a picky, hypersensitive child…
So you have a picky kid. Your job is to help him or her learn better picking. If he or she chooses to limit his or her activities to monotonous behavior, you try to broaden his or her cognitive experience by picking and presenting other, more useful, kinds of stimuli. If he or she is sensitive to tastes, touch, smells, sights or sounds, you take steps to help him or her integrate and become less painfully sensitive to these stimuli. If your kid’s immune system is picky, your job is to find the stimuli that are bothersome, and present ones that are not mischievous.

How important is the food allergy link to children?
…When you have lots of other things to think about, should you change the diet of a child who has decided to live on French fries, smooshed bagels, chocolate milk, pretzels, Twinkies and diet coke, rejecting all alternatives with an iron will? Yup! And when you get over the hump, you are likely to be rewarded with changes in sleep, behavior, attention and “sensitivity” that make the struggle worth it. There are several ways of checking for food allergy. Trial and error changes in diet are tedious but inexpensive. I have found IgG ELISA blood testing as done at Immuno Laboratories to be a reliable measure both in term of my experience with individuals as well as in research studies done to validate the test.

Food Allergy Assessment in Children in the Autism Spectrum.

Children with a whole range of problems from typical forms of autism to attention deficits frequently have been observed by their parents to have sensitivities to certain foods. The sensitivities are usually not immediate hypersensitivity reactions involving hives, or sudden respiratory or intestinal reactions, but reactions that occur hours to days after exposure, or cumulative exposure, to foods.

A key link between the immune system and central nervous system
It is helpful to keep in mind that the immune system has the same functions as the central nervous system: to perceive and remember the environment. The differences are only in the locations of the tissues involved and the scale of the perception. The brain perceives and remembers the big world of the senses and the immune system perceives and remembers antigens and molecules. The outcome of both brain and immune system processing embraces the resulting function of recognition. From this perspective, it does not seem surprising that children with difficulties in perception and processing at the cognitive level may have parallel difficulties at the immune level. Similarly, just as therapies may be usefully directed at simplifying and integrating a child’s sensory experience, the diet and general antigenic environment may require simplification to suit a child’s particular sensitivities. Desensitization is a word we use with equal comfort in both domains.

Which foods are the right, healthy foods?
Many children have already simplified their diets by refusing a wide variety of healthy foods. The restricted intake of sick children may be limited to foods for which they have an allergic craving or which are not very nourishing, such as potato chips. It is helpful, therefore, to have a test that gives reliable information concerning safe, healthy foods, as well as potentially reactive foods.

IgG ELISA food testing controversy and proven benefits…
Food allergy testing is controversial. Many allergist/immunologists believe that IgE testing for immediate food hypersensitivity and limited use of skin testing and elimination diets is all that can be done to evaluate food sensitivities. I have found IgG ELISA to be a very useful tool for screening for safe foods, evaluating the overall state of immune activation against foods as reflected in the total number of reactive foods in the panel, and spotting reactive foods. I have conducted two double blind, placebo diet controlled studies validating IgG ELISA by showing a significant difference in symptom reduction in subjects avoiding IgG reactive foods as compared with IgG non-reactive foods. I recommend such testing and, at least, a trial of avoidance of IgG reactive foods for children in guidelines in food elimination. Such tests are not absolute arbiters of every food that may be safe or unsafe. This is particularly true for foods for which the mechanism of sensitivity is not immunologic (because they interfere with phenosulfotransferase – chocolate, cheese, banana, citrus, contain fungal antigens and toxins, are a source of peptides, or contain sugar or additives).