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AUTISM SPECTRUM MEDICAL ISSUES
We have been very
busy with the medical end of autism. We did not focus on this when he was
diagnosed in September of 2000 because we had hoped that ABA would
"recover" our child as it did in Catherine Maurice's "Let Me Hear
Your Voice". During my research I found that our
children have a lot of things wrong with medically. Why do some children
recover and others do not? I think this is because some children's bodies
are not as injured or do not have as many problems, therefore their body is able
to overcome a lot of that and then therapies are able to work. I think that if we can
find out what problems our children are having internally, we can work on
"fixing them," thus allowing our children to catch up from when they
were injured. Some problems that families are finding in their autistic
children are: viruses (herpes I-2-3-6, Epstein Barr, Cytomegalovirus,
Stealth, +), heavy metal toxicity, Measles/Mumps/Rubella elevations, Copper/Zinc imbalance,
Vitamin/Mineral deficiency, abnormal Myelin Sheath or Antibodies, abnormal EEGs,
seizures (visible or maybe unnoticeable spiking like an inflamed area of the brain that
causes discomfort), yeast or Candida overgrowth, hypo-thyroidism, sulfur
deficiency and/or sulfur related transporter problems, food sensitivities,
"leaky gut" problems, and more. This list seems so long, but you
can handle them one at a time. I believe in testing for all of these
things, then dealing with the major treatments first. Some treatments may
actually take care of more than just that problem. For example, chelation
may not only rid your body of toxins but may also help the "leaky
gut," vitamin/mineral problems, yeast, and so on.
A great
Yahoo group to join is: The Autism Biomedical Discussion group
but keep in mind they are a SERIOUS group with A LOT of technical
language. I read the posts and research but do not post. The FEAT
organization is good about posting information as is CAN-Cure
Autism Now. The DAN Protocol is another "must-read" for
information to compare things with. You are the manage of your child's
health. Don't expect the doctors to know everything as NO ONE knows enough
about Autism. Keep informed of research, talk to other parents and be
pro-active. Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself and your family.
I would suggest reading one of the
papers that I have read - A
Comprehensive Guide to Managing Autism by Willis S. Langford. It is very
long and can be complicated but it worth reading and free.
You may help your child become healthy. Talk to your doctor before trying things (if this is possible)
I
highly recommend everyone doing one treatment at a time so that you can better
determine what is truly helping. To help judge how much a treatment is helping
go to: http://www.autism.com/atec/ and
answer the questions. You will get a score to compare how things are going. You
may hear other parents talking about an ATEC improvement score for a particular
treatment and this is where you can score things and help Dr. Rimland track
treatments. Under the assessment period I would suggest you say baseline on your
treatment information.
These are the
tests that we have done for Andrew with his results:
1. IMMUNOLOGIC
STUDY- with DR. JAMES & TCART (Texas Center for Autism Research &
Treatment)
results are in and I was VERY surprised by the results-the normal
ranges listed are for his age only (3.5yrs),:
-Human Herpes Virus 6-IgG: result 1:10, TITERS
1:10 to 1:0 usually indicate a previous exposure to HHV-6 & probable
immunity in adults.
-CMV, IgG: result - Normal - less than 1:16.
-Epstein Barr Virus Comp. Panel- IgG, IgM, E.A., IgG: result - all Normal.
-Herpes Simplex Virus 1, IgG: result - 1:10 - range is TITER of 1:10 to 1:100 is
positive for herpes antibody, not diagnostic of current infection. May or
may not confirm immunity.
-Herpes Simplex Virus 2, IgG: result - 1:10 - range is TITER of 1:10 to
1:100 is positive for herpes antibody, not diagnostic of current
infection. May or may not confirm immunity.
-Rubeola (Measles), IgG : result 1:512, therefore
is in the range: A single titer of 1:512 or greater in symptomatic patients is a
strong indicator of current or recent infection (just my note that he did
receive the MMR vaccine at 12 months).
-Rubella, IgG: result 1:512, therefore
is in the range: A single titer of 1:512 or greater in symptomatic patients is a
strong indicator of current or recent infection (just my note that he did
receive the MMR vaccine at 12 months).
-Mumps, IgG: result 1:16, therefore
is in the range: A TITER of 1:8 to 1:128 usually indicates immunity to mumps
infection. Not diagnostic of recent infection.
-Candida AB Profile, IgG, IgM, IgA: result for the 3 were all very low
(good) and in the normal range.
Food specific IgG Ranges are :
<2 is UNDETECTED, 2.0-5.0 (0/1) is /VERY LOW, 5.1-10.0 (1) is LOW, 1
0.1-15.0 (2) is MODERATE, 15.1-20.0 (3) is HIGH, >20 (4) is VERY HIGH.
-IgG Casein: result - 36.9 therefore it is VERY HIGH (4)
-IgG Wheat: result - 10.9 therefore it is MODERATE (2)
-IgG Soy: result 2.61 - therefore it is VERY LOW (0/1)
-Total Serum Immunoglobulins: IgG - 587.5 (normal 442-1139) , IgA - 59.8 (normal
21-150), IgM - 59.4 (normal 43-184)
Therefore IgG, IgA, IgM were all in normal range.
-IgE Total: - result <17.5, normal for his age is <60, therefore his
IgE Total was in normal range.
CBC: result - all in normal ranges except monocytes, which was 13 (normal
is 3-11)
SGOT: result - 31 (normal is 5-43), therefore is normal.
SGPT: result - 12 (normal is 7-45), therefore is normal.
C-Reactive Protein: result - <.4 (normal is <.08)
T & B cell profile: These Natural Killer cell reading are
abnormal-some high and some low.
Homocystiene: result 4.0 (normal 5.0-12.0),
therefore it is low.
Neuron-Specific Enolase : result 6 - (normal range 0-20), therefore normal
-Myelin Basic Protein AutoAntibodies: normal at this time - see Dr.
Tomasovic's study.
-Serum Copper Serum Zinc : Copper 1441 - normal range is 700-1750,
therefore normal. Zinc 869 - normal range is 600-1200, therefore is
normal.
2. SIX HOUR
VIDEO SLEEP
EEG & MRI STUDY-DR. TOMASOVIC-Neurologist-with a blood draw for related issues
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Results:
-Myelin Basic Protein AutoAntibodies blood test - NORMAL
-Chromosomes - NORMAL
-MRI - NORMAL
-EEG-abnormal spiking over left and right ears and in front of that area, most
noticeable on left side.
Treatment: What we are trying for this is a trial of Depakote sprinkles- 1
125mg capsule in the morning and 1 125 sprinkle in the evening. I would
like to note that this is a TRIAL. We may not continue this if we do not
see good results. We have NEVER witnessed a seizure in our son-not even a
staring seizure. This study has shown improvement in around 30% of the
children with similar EEGs and Depakote. We may end up in the 70% range of
non-improvement and discontinue the anti-epileptic drug. For Andrew, there has been an increase in
socialization, language, and temperament. Improvements often occur for
Andrew when we try new things, but they tend to fizzle out or actually cause
regression, so we will see.
3. Fragile X
(SmithKine)
Result: Negative
Treatment: N/A
4. Pyruvate
Kinase, RBC (SmithKine)
Result: DETECTED (this looked like it was bad-out of
range)-not sure what to think of this but some have implied that this may be an
indicator of heavy metal or mercury toxicity impairing the KREB cycle and
related issues.
Treatment: would be to do a trial of chelation with DMSA or DMPS, then to add
ALA, and/or a hair test with DDI using Andy Cutler's counting rules to help see
what metals are high.
5. Amino Acid
Analysis, Qualitative, Plasma (SmithKline)
All came out normal -CYSTINE,HISTIDINE,ORNITHINE,ANSERINE,CARNOSINE
-ARGININE,LYSINE,ARGININOSUCCINIC,SERINE,TAURINE -GLYCINE, ASPARTIC ACID,
HOMOCYSTINE, HYDROXYPROLINE, CITRULLINE -GLUTAMIC ACID,GLUTAMINE,THREONINE -ALANINE,ETHANOLAMINE
-PROLINE,3-AMINOISOBUTYRIC -TYROSINE, QUAL -TRYPTOPHAN, METHIONINE -VALINE -PHENYLALANINE
-ISOLEUCINE,LEUCINE
Treatment: N/A at this time, although this test did not give the actual ranges
so we may have to do this test again.
6. PERIPHERAL
BLOOD (SmithKline)
Result: 46, XY, normal male karyotype
Treatment: N/A
7. PNEUMOCOCCAL
POLYSACCARIDE AB PNL (Scripps)
Result: Polysaccharide 4: .4
Polysaccharide 6B: .1
Polysaccharide 14: .3
Polysaccharide 18C: <0.1 L
Polysaccharide 19F: .3
Polysaccharide 23F: <0.1
Note on test: Interpretation of type-specific IgG antibody response to
pneumococcal and post-vaccination sera. Post vaccination serum should be obtained
30-45 days after immunization. Although protective antibody levels for
pneumcoccal serotypes are not fully defined, someone is generally regarded as a
responder if their post vaccination type-specific antibody levels are >2.0 and
if there has been a twofold or greater increase in their antibody levels.
However, a response to vaccination may not occur in those individuals with high
prevaccination type-specific antibody levels. Although not all normal persons
are expected to respond to any of the antigens. An individual is best considered
a nonresponder to serotypes tested if postvaccination antibody levels are
<2.0.
Treatment: None at this time.
8. 150 Food
Sensitivity Test (from MRT LEAP) Test-Dr.James
Result: Reactive to 40 foods and 1 chemical (caffeine)
Treatment we did: Elimination of those 41 items and only feeding Andrew
the 109 things that he tested non-reactive to. We have since added enzymes
to help with this but we are still on his "customized diet."
9. Yeast Test
(from LEAP) blood test - Dr.James
Result: Positive for yeast
Treatment we did: Diflucan for 30 days with a follow up for 3 weeks of low
dosages of probiotics.
10. Hair Test
from DDI - ordered by phone through
Direct Laboratory Services, Inc. Call 1-800-908-0000Ext. 404
I ordered it without a doctor and used Andy
Cutler's Counting Rules to help judge if his essential elements are possibly
off from heavy metal toxicity. Note: Mercury and other heavy metals
may not show themselves in the hair tests or other tests for that matter.
That is why the "Counting Rules" can help identify other
problems. See Dr.
Holmes' Paper and the
DAN Mercury Paper for other tests that may determine heavy metal
problems.
Results:
Essential
Elements (HIGH IS GOING TO RIGHT, LOW IS GOING TO LEFT):
ELEMENTS
RESULTS
COLOR
HIGH/LOW
REFERENCE RANGE
HIS POTENTIALLY TOXIC ELEMENTS-notice mercury is not high-it hides in
the tissues and organs
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Madore Family's Autism Resource Site