Reversing Autism with Nutrition

July 23, 2003

Understanding the biochemistry of autism opens a unique treatment window for

targeted nutrient therapy which can lead the child back into a normal life

Is there an alternative to treating autism with high-powered conventional

drugs or so-called behavior management therapies? Precise nutritional

prescribing is an intervention provided that is individually tailored. The

initial causes of the autism are not necessarily the same, but there is

usually a strong nutritional factor involved. More precisely, there is often

an insult to the brain and immune system that will respond to specific

nutrients if given according to the child's altered biochemistry. This is

why it is not possible to create a rote nutritional formula for treating

children with autism; such an approach may not produce the otherwise

beneficial effects.

The path to autism is different for each child. Some are prone to

seizures, some are not; some behave aggressively, while others are overly

passive. However, of the 2000+ children with autism that I have worked with,

all share several factors. There is a deep disturbance in their fatty acid

metabolism, electrolyte balance, production of red and white cells, and

their trace mineral balance is sharply altered.

By looking at the blood chemistry of a child with autism, you gain a

picture of that child's uniqueness, from which you can accurately determine

nutritional factors that have contributed to the appearance of autism, and

thereby need correcting.

You do not often hear physicians speak of children " recovering " from

autism. Conventional doctors usually consider it a hopeless condition, an

abyss from which the child will never emerge. In the 1960's, autism was

labeled a psychological disorder, which was believed result from the mother

not loving her child. The fact is, children with autism have severe

neurological impairment from a biochemical, not emotional, origin. It is an

outrage to say that autism originates from an emotional problem. Although

this view has since been rejected in scientific circles, parents continue to

suffer from this stigma that lingers in the health profession.

The following detailed case illustrates the psychological basis of autism

and the complex nutritional and metabolic factors involved. It also clearly

demonstrates the possibility of its reversal.

The Cloud of Autism Appears

The first year of Alex's life in 1993 was fairly ordinary. He smiled, sat

up, crawled, and spoke his first words-all on schedule. Granted, he had a

few food allergies (peanuts & eggs), and was subject to recurrent ear

infections. Otherwise, he was perfectly fine; there were no signs of any

problems in his development.

When Alex was one year old, he was vaccinated with the standard childhood

shots, a combination of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). However, his

reaction to the MMR shot was going into an anaphylactic shock, a

life-threatening allergic reaction that involves circulation and breathing

stress. Hypersensitive to the egg derivatives that are used in the rubella

shot, he almost stopped breathing from the inflammation and swelling.

Luckily, he survived-except he wasn't the same afterwards.

Before, he was a happy, laughing baby. After the MMR vaccination, Alex

began to slip away into a world of his own. He began to avoid eye contact

with his parents and they couldn't engage him in play. They began to feel as

though there was a glass wall separating them from Alex, as he slipped

further and further away.

Over the following months, he developed pneumonia, repeated viral

episodes, and gastrointestinal distress. His physical movements became

uncoordinated. His doctor attributed his diminishing alertness to his poor

health. Alex also began to show limited food preferences, only wanting milk

and wheat products. He also had an unquenchable thirst. (This indicates a

serious imbalance in his fatty acid metabolism.) Every system of his

body-immune, endocrine, gastrointestinal, liver, kidney, and central

nervous-seemed to be compromised. One month past his second birthday, in

June of 1995, Alex was diagnosed autistic. His parents were devastated.

What His Body Chemistry Revealed

Children with autism often either starve themselves or eat oddly,

including inedible objects. In Alex's case, his diet was quite limited and

not nutrient-dense, and his eating habits became quirky and strange. He was

still on a milk-based baby formula and preferred wheat-based foods. A picky

eater, Alex avoided most protein foods, and predominately ate french fries,

cookies, crackers, pasta, apple slices, ice cream, and other " empty "

carbohydrate foods.

My first course of action was to run a comprehensive blood chemistry and

complete blood count with a biomedical interpretation on Alex, to see the

unique patterns of biochemical disturbance within his system. Armed with

this information, the clinician is able to produce a better prognosis for

those who were once imprisoned in an unyielding haze of degenerative

conditions. Correctly interpreted blood chemistry clarifies otherwise hazy

or seemingly hopeless conditions and charts the way out of them.

Quite possibly, the reason many conventional doctors do not reach for

nutrients as part of their prescription is that they do not understand their

significance as nutrition is poorly covered in medical school. Most doctors

try to understand the problem as a disease, whereas in this approach-

metabolic pharmacology-on the basis of countless blood chemistries, we can

now define disease or disorder according to changes in the blood

composition.

I relied on an inexpensive blood test interpretation called BodyBio Blood

Biopsy Analysis, to provide information on 44 different biochemical levels

in Alex's blood. The BioBio medical data management transforms lab data,

such as blood chemistry and red-cell membrane fatty acids, into a clear

concise format that takes the individual test results and matches the

disturbances in a person's metabolism to appropriate nutritional

intervention, as supported by medical literature.

Alex's blood chemistry clearly pinpointed the nutritional reasons for his

condition, and thereby provided the basis for a precise nutritional

prescription. Alex's system was unbalanced on many biochemical levels, and

within three major categories. First, he had a serious disturbance in his

electrolyte status. Specifically, Alex was deficient in sodium (too low) and

bicarbonate (carbon dioxide: too low). Levels of other electrolytes were too

high, such as calcium and phosphorus.

Electrolytes control what is called membrane traffic-which is what goes in

and out of the cells. This means that there is no point in providing

nutritional supplements unless the electrolyte imbalance is first corrected;

otherwise, nothing will get into the cells and toxins cannot be released.

The delicate balance of electrolytes also controls the electrical activity

within the brain.

For example, for the brain to remove ammonia from its tissues, preventing

an otherwise dangerous buildup, the body requires a sufficient level of

bicarbonate. Too much ammonia in the blood can be toxic, producing symptoms,

such as mental confusion, lethargy, seizures, vomiting, coma. The spacey,

dreamy, lack of clarity state observed in most autistic children, is

directly linked with a low carbon dioxide levels and disturbed electrolyte

status. As bicarbonates were added at an appropriate time Alex was more

alert and totally lost the look of confusion.

Alex's second major imbalance had to do with nitrogen. Nitrogen is a key

component of amino acids, which combine to form protein. Alex was deficient

in three principle nitrogen categories ( " markers " ). Namely, creatinine, uric

acid, and BUN ( blood urea nitrogen).

Bear in mind that Alex avoided protein foods, which means that the amount

of nitrogen and amino acids in his blood were far below normal, as found by

these three nitrogen markers being low in his blood. Nitrogen, derived from

protein, is a major building block of the body, assessing nitrogen retention

tells you if the person is breaking down or building up cells; that is, how

stable nitrogen is in the body. If the individuals body is breaking down

substances (catabolism) faster than it is building them (anabolism), the

nitrogen content is unstable. If the body is generally in a condition of

staying stable than we know that it is appropriately handling nitrogen.

Alex's blood test results clearly showed that his kidneys and liver were

not functioning as well as they should. After we stabilized his bicarbonate

and electrolyte status, his gastrointestinal function normalized and Alex

could handle protein foods. Thus Alex's kidney and liver function normalized

as we stabilized his electrolytes.

The third area of Alex's imbalance was indicated by a sharply altered

hematology. This means, overall, that the status of Alex's red and white

blood cells deviated from the healthy norm (red/white cell levels were too

low). If a child has a low red blood cell count, his system may have trouble

carrying oxygen to the tissues, including the brain.

Alex's immune system was also not functioning at an optimal level. The

activity of one form of white blood cells called lymphocytes was depressed,

while the level of monocytes (another immune white cell) was sharply

elevated above the norm, indicating a response to chronic infection, GI

distress and inflammation.

Finally, Alex had depressed levels of fats in the liquid part of his

blood, both cholesterol and triglycerides were quite low. Lipid levels are

an important factor in determining health because the endocrine system and

its hormones, the brain and its neurotransmitters, and all the immune system

components are derived from lipids (fats).

The fact that Alex's lipid levels were distorted highlights another

advantage to knowing the precise blood levels of various nutrients. First,

several of his metabolic problems were due to fatty acid deficiencies. The

body requires specific fatty acids for the smooth running of the

gastrointestinal system, the immune system, the formation of cell membranes,

nerve sheaths, hormones, and proper functioning of the nervous system.

Many physicians (and patients) are eager to suggest antioxidant

supplementation as a general health measure to offset the cellular damage

caused by free radicals. However, children with autism have difficulty

making the correct lipid components from essential fatty acids and

aggressively adding antioxidants worsens their condition. Children with

autism require nutrients that stimulate metabolism, rather than suppress it,

as antioxidants do; this is why a high dose of Vitamin E (a commonly used

antioxidant) often produces negative effects.

Nutrition Restores Alex to the World

With this information in hand, my next step was to develop a nutritional

program to correct all of Alex's biochemical imbalances and, in doing so,

bring him back to the world. I began by slowly introducing changes into

Alex's diet.

To help Alex digest and absorb his foods better, we started him on plant

enzymes that helped him to digest protein, carbohydrate and fats. His

parents sprinkled the contents of one enzyme capsule on his food at each

meal. As a further digestive aid, we gave him small amounts of magnesium

carbonate and sodium bicarbonate powder one hour after each meal. This would

help to stabilize his electrolyte and relieve gastrointestinal distress. His

parents also mixed the contents of an array of vitamins and minerals into

Alex's foods.

We eliminated all wheat, gluten-containing products, and cow's milk

(especially the milk protein casein) from Alex's diet, switching him to rice

cereal and crackers. These changes would help remove the stress on his

immune system and gastrointestinal systems.

To increase Alex's protein intake, his parents started feeding him finely

minced, organically raised chicken. In adding protein to Alex's diet, we

still had to carefully control his nitrogen intake from these foods. If you

increase the nitrogen, you also raise the level of ammonia in the blood; in

a person with unbalanced central nervous system such as Alex had, too much

ammonia could lead to a seizure.

As a general principle, Alex's diet was guided towards pure,

nutrient-dense foods, avoiding processed items such as white flour, white

sugar, margarine, and hydrogenated (solid) fats because they would interfere

with the stability of his blood chemistry. He had to strictly avoid all

foods containing Nutrasweet and monosodium glutamate (MSG), as children with

developmental problems may have grave difficulties handling these chemicals.

The specific problem with Nutrasweet is that is contains methanol, which

produces formaldehyde and formic acid in the body. These, in turn, have an

effect on the myelin sheath (fatty wrapping) surrounding nerve cells and on

the mitochondria, the cells' energy producing organelles. Clearly when the

nerve impulses are already distorted, you don't want to further stress the

nervous system.

Alex had other key nutrient deficiencies, such as iron, molybdenum,

magnesium, zinc, manganese, chromium and the B Vitamins (especially B12),

which we reversed through dietary changes and supplements.

To replenish trace minerals, which are the most difficult nutrients to

re-establish, we used E-Lyte Ionic liquid minerals (such as potassium, zinc,

magnesium, chromium, molybdenum, selenium and manganese) added to fresh

squeezed juice to restore his mineral reserves. E-Lyte electrolyte solution

was added to Alex's food like rice pasta, gluten-free pancake and cookie

batter, almond milk, soups, gravy, mashed potatoes, etc.

Essential fatty acids were added to Alex's supplemental regime as

sunflower oil, primrose oil, wheat germ oil, and butter. Once we had the

omega 6 fatty acids stabilized we later added in the omega 3 fatty acids

from fish oil. All told, between nutrients introduced through foods and

those given as supplements, 25 specific nutrients were given to Alex to

correct his biochemistry. Nutrients were added in individually one at a time

rather than in multiples as children with autism are acutely sensitive. If

each individual nutrient is added in one at a time then the body's response

can be clearly noted.

We made nutritional changes over the course of six weeks, and watched for

results. Soon his father noted that Alex was more alert, with more eye

contact and social interaction, and he began to use words again. He was able

to eat more and was willing to have his diet expanded; his general health

improved, as did his physical coordination.

One of the unmistakable signs that Alex was improving was his own interest

in diversifying his diet. He went from being a picky eater with a poor

appetite and strange food behaviors, such as being bothered by food odors,

to choosing a healthier range of food. The healthier he became, the more

varied his diet expanded. He could now eat meals and other protein foods,

that previously were rejected because he could not digest them.

After Alex began the oral electrolyte solution, his improvement began to

take off. The solution is added to food thus goes unnoticed, as it just

tastes a bit salty. Previously, Alex would tire easily, his gait was stiff,

and when he did try to walk, he would give up and be carried by his mother.

Soon after starting the oral electrolytes, his mother said he began to run

for the first time in his life.

His physical therapist also noted the changes. Alex was receiving regular

training in Sensory Integration Therapy, using play-like movements in which

the child performs motions such as spinning, rolling, jumping, and swinging.

These regulate the muscles and brain, providing the nervous system with

sensory experiences. Alex's ability to do the exercises increased, and after

about two months on the electrolyte solution, liquid trace minerals,

essential fatty acids and nutrient therapy, he lost all of the stiffness in

his gait. His movements were well coordinated and fluid.

After a total of three months on the nutritional program, Alex had shifted

from a complete absence of speech to being able to say 48 different words.

Alex's father called me weekly with updates on his son's progress, almost

shouting his excitement about the tremendous gains.

There is one crucial point to make here: the earlier you start working

with a child after having received the diagnosis of autism, the better the

results. If you let the condition go on, the damage becomes deeper and the

imbalance of the nervous system becomes more complicated, making the way

back towards normality much more difficult. All of the children with autism

I have worked with have made dramatic improvements, 12 having totally been

recovered to date, but the older the child, the slower the changes. Adults

with autism, however, do surprisingly well with nutritional intervention.

Certainly no recoveries but speech, behavior, muscle, digestive and immune

function are greatly improved.

Alex continued to soar in his development. His parents, naturally excited

by the progress, were overjoyed at getting their son back. In the spring of

1996, eight months after beginning his targeted nutritional regime, it was

clear that Alex had responded remarkably well to metabolic intervention. His

social interaction, eye contact, imaginative play, and speech all appeared

to be well within normal range.

It must be stressed that Alex did not suddenly snap out of autism, but

slowly got better over time. When his parents took Alex back to the

pediatrician, who had originally diagnosed him as autistic, the doctor was

speechless. He said that in his eighteen years of practice, he had never

seen a child with autism change so drastically. In June of 1996, Alex was

selected by the Children's Miracle Network to appear on television as their

" poster boy " . In the photo shoot Alex told the photographer, 'I'm Awesome

Alex, the Adventurer'.

Today, nearing his eighth birthday Alex, is a delight to his parents,

family and friends. He is a little boy lost no longer but instead has spread

his wings and developed into a beautiful, highly intelligent, imaginative

little boy. When Alex was three I sent him some Star Wars characters for his

birthday. His parents must have wondered why I sent the toys that Alex was

not quite ready for. My own son at age three loved Star Wars and played

endlessly with the characters. I knew that Alex would one day play with

those characters just as my son had and it would be the hallmark of his

recovery to play imaginatively. I waited patiently to hear Alex's parents

tell me that Alex was playing with the toys I had sent. Finally, that event

occurred and then they understood clearly why I sent the characters and what

it meant. Their little boy was free of autism forever. On Alex's 7th

birthday his parents threw a huge Star Wars party for him complete with

rice-almond birthday cake and soy ice cream (no junk food or margarine or

gluten in the Vaughn household). As you can see Alex (Skywalker) and his

girlfriend Princess Leia had a delightful time. Today, Alex attends

Montessori school, expertly manipulates the computer, plays soccer, loves to

read and best of all loves to imagine himself as - Alex Skywalker, a Jedi

Knight.

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