Biological Treatments for Autism & PDD : What's Going On? What Can You Do About It? - Softcover

Bernard Rimland; Bruce Semon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966123808 ISBN 13: 9780966123807

Publisher: Sunflower Publications, 1998

Synopsis

Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD is an authoritative, comprehensive, and easy-to-read resource guide to a wide range of therapies that have been useful in the treatment of autism including antifungal and antibacterial therapies, gluten and casein restriction, homeopathy, vitamin therapy, gamma globulin treatment, transfer factor therapies, treatment of food allergies, and alternatives to antibiotic therapy. The information in this book may be useful not only in the field of autism but also in virtually any disorder in which some of the symptoms of autism are sometimes or frequently present.

About this title

From the Author:

The purpose of writing this book is to integrate information from the fields of biochemistry, immunology, genetics, nutrition, and microbiology about autism, ADD, and PDD into a form that could be assimilated by both parents, professionals such as nutritionists and dietitians, and physicians who deal with children with these disorders. Long conversations with hundreds of parents of children with autism and PDD, including many who are themselves physicians, have provided me with many clues to these disorders. The wealth of information on the abnormalities of the immune system in autism leads me to the conclusion that the genetic factors in autism appear to be primarily those affecting the immune system. In my view, the anatomical abnormalities in the brain that have been documented may be secondary to abnormal metabolic function caused by abnormal microbial metabolites and/or toxic peptides from wheat and milk, which in turn are due to an impaired immune system. The information in this book may be useful not only for people with autism but also for children with any disorder in which some of the symptoms of autism are sometimes or frequently present including pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), Rett's syndrome, Williams disease, neurofibromatosis, tuberous sclerosis, Fragile X, Down's syndrome, Tourette's syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and attention deficit disorder(ADD). Many of the same abnormalities in autism are also present in these disorders and the therapies suggested in this book for autism may also help children and adults with these other disorders as well. My objectives are to describe the abnormalities in autism and related disorders and to describe some of the therapies that are frequently beneficial for children and adults who have some or all of the symptoms of autism. Although a few children have completely recovered from autism using the therapies outlined in this book (and the parents of two of them include their accounts in this book), I am not suggesting that all children will benefit but hope that many will benefit to some degree. I think that the accounts of the two mothers whose children recovered are very important because of the similarities of the therapies they used. Both mothers obtained information and instituted therapy independently. Both children were diagnosed early about the age of two years. Both mothers independently arrived at the use of antifungal therapy, an antiyeast diet low in sugar and free of yeast, treatment of food allergies, and a gluten and casein-free diet as key cornerstones of therapy but also used intensive behavioral interventions as well. You will note that there are significant differences in the nutritional and antifungal approaches presented by different authors in this book. I realize that this may be confusing but this information honestly reflects the fact that there are still many unknowns. You may wish to experiment with several of the different nutritional and antifungal approaches to determine which ones are most beneficial for your patient or your child. Some of this material may be difficult but I have made every attempt to simplify it without distorting the meaning. Knowledge is power. Much of this information may not be familiar to parents or to medical practitioners. The parent who reads this book should assume that their family doctor or even their neurologist or other specialist may not know nearly as much as they do about autism after reading this book. Most of the information has been available in the form of research papers that have been available only to medical research specialists but was essentially unknown by persons outside the narrow specialty. There has been a tremendous increase in the application of knowledge about autism and PDD that was stimulated by a group of physicians and scientists who met in Dallas in January 1995 as a part of Dr. Bernard Rimland's Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) Conference. My goal for this book is to allow your child to be healthier and function better so that both you and your child will have a better life. I am sure to be criticized for recommending action based on "incomplete" or "anecdotal" data. While acknowledging the great benefits of antibiotics in treating disease, I think the overuse of antibiotics may have been the single most damaging medical treatment of the last half of this century for some of our children. However, I think the dangers to our children are too great to wait until all data are perfect, meaning that we should wait forever. The Red Cross refused to act on behalf of the Jews in German concentration camps in World War II despite numerous reports of genocide because the evidence was "anecdotal" rather than "definitive." It has taken nearly 50 years from the time of the first research linking lung cancer and smoking to get restrictions on cigarette use for minors. It took 25 years from the initial discovery that folic acid supplementation prevented a birth defect called spina bifida until extra folic acid supplements were recommended for pregnant women. The stakes for the safety of our children are too high to wait forever.

About the Author:

Dr. William Shaw received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and human physiology form the Medical University of South Carolina. He is board certified in the fields of Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry. He has supervised large endocrinology, nutritional biochemistry, toxicology, and immunology departments in positions at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Smith Kline Clinical Laboratories in Atlanta. He was Director of Clinical Chemistry, Endocrinology, and Toxicology at Children's Mercy Hospital, the teaching hospital of the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine. He is now the Director of The Great Plains Laboratory for Health, Metabolism, and Nutrition, in Overland Park Kansas, Specializing in urine organic acid testing. Dr. Shaw was a keynote speaker at the Autism Society of America national conference in 1996. He has traveled around the country and overseas to speak at conferences concerning developmental disorders and has been a guest on a variety of radio talk shows.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sunflower Publications
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0966123808
• ISBN 13: 9780966123807
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 303