This February will mark the one-year anniversary in treating my autistic son's physical condition, and not merely treating him with psychology modalities that included speech therapy, Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), and a host of other special education therapies. What's significant about this date is threefold.
First, the infusion of the vitamins and nutrients that had been absent from his diet the day it collapsed at the age of two started the recovery. Second, the evolutionary steps of the treatment plan successfully identified and addressed his core issues. Third, the gradual implementation and phasing of the plan in four waves proved nimble and wise.
What once seemed hopeless—from dropping the wall of denial that autism is a problem the child will outgrow, to securing special education services for the mysterious disorder—now is a journey through a deep valley rather than one trapped in a giant maze. The trek has been long and difficult, but the end goal is in sight and the direction well defined.
The worst part about regressive autism, found in most Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) children, is that it catches parents off guard. The speech goes. The fine-motor skills go, too. The diet shrinks due more to texture of food than taste. The great start to a baby's life in terms of learning and development are turned upside-down. In essence, the body and brain are at once under assault. That's because in many autistic cases, the infants have been unable to filter out heavy metals. In turn, this accumulation has zapped their central nervous system. And that amplifies the senses and yet shrinks their view of the world from panoramic to monocular fritted with chaos.
Finding a doctor who understands the bio-neurotoxin roots of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is crucial. Finding one who will listen without forcing a treatment program prior to identifying the issues of an ASD child is equally important. Still, before the results from a battery of blood and urine tests come back, physicians, whether DAN (Defeat Autism Now!) or internists, can address a collapsed diet by issuing a palette of vitamins and minerals that most likely has been missing in a child.
The tests are done to detect food "sensitivity" (not allergy) and see whether there is an unnatural balance in essential metals, such as copper, iron or magnesium, which are good for you, but not in excess. A red blood cell analysis test or a 24-hour urine "challenge" test will also show if there is the presence of toxic heavy metals, like arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium, which were found in my son, Fridrik.
If that double-edged sword of news—good because the core problem has been identified; bad because the child has been poisoned—returns with harmful metals, it will allow the doctor to take the next key step. And each doctor, depending on his protocol, will handle it differently.
It took a couple of physicians who insisted on treating Fridrik for ailments found in many ASD kids but not him, to find the right doctor. Located in Stamford, Connecticut, one hour outside New York City, an internist who practices environmental or "integrated" medicine stepped to the plate. It didn't bother me that he had never treated an autistic child before. He has been chelating adults contaminated with heavy metals and Alzheimer's patients, using many of the techniques that DAN doctors do. More important, he listened, learned, and quickly adapted his protocol to meet Fridrik's needs.
On top of the vitamins, the doctor prescribed a daily routine of giving Fridrik antioxidants, a formula tailored to my son's amino acids profile, and Phosphatidyl Choline (PhosChol), a brain neurotransmitter. That was the foundation of the first wave.
Since Fridrik's mother is a nurse, we began to give an intravenous glutathione injection, the brain's natural chelator, for a ten-week period every other day at home. During visits to the doctor's office, Fridrik received an injection of glutathione and PhosCol. This second wave ignited a quantum leap progress in his speech. It also confirmed the lab results of heavy metals toxicity. Had his own glutathione been working they way it's designed by nature, then there would be little improvement in his speech and ability to focus in such a short period of time.
The third wave, chelation (DMPS) therapy has been the one weighted with the most risk. The decision came down to knowing that he, likely many other ASD children who have been chelated, would regress for a three-month period or worst. And watching the sad regressive tics resurface was painful to watch. Why does that happen? It is due to the mercury being "declawed" (the Greek word for chelation) and purged as it passes through the brain. Imagine sweeping dust out of the attic. Although you can sweep a lot of it down the hole, much of the dust is kicked in the air. When it settles, the mercury zaps the brain and nervous system a second time. As we begin the sixth month of chelation, knowing Fridrik is "dumping" a lot of mercury, in the long run it was best to interrupt the progress that glutathione made in his speech by making sure that we extract the bulk of the metal out of his system.
By the end of 2005, I learned of a protocol that uses a "methB-12" subcutaneous shot that was developed by a New Jersey DAN doctor. Given every third night, the B-12 subQ has helped Fridrik with speech during the regression caused by chelation, just as glutathione did prior to it. But it also helped his once restless slumber by allowing him to sleep the night through.
This fourth wave, combined with the other treatments over the year have allowed his body to adjust, to heal itself, to take big strides in recovery. These treatments in concert with special education therapies have given him a fighter's chance that one day he will be "mainstreamed" and join his peers in growing up.
Coming home the other day and seeing my son sit in front of the window, pushing his ears forward like radar dishes so he could hear the reflection of his own voice confirmed that we are on the right track. But two years of poisoning by vaccines and other sources has become a two-three year program to detox my son of the heavy metals that have damaged parts of his brain, that have kept him in a dark fog, and that have stolen his childhood.
James Ottar Grundvig lives and works in New York City. He has an autistic child.
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