[NVIC] Chelation Benefits/Risks: Helping Autistic Children

[Guest guest]

E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION

CENTER

Vienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

#8122

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

" Protecting the health and informed consent

rights of children since 1982. "

 

================================================================================\

==========

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13102473/

MSNBC

 

The unorthodox practice of chelation

No one knows what causes autism, but one theory

has ignited an intense

debate

 

By John Larson

Correspondent

NBC News

Updated: 7:41 p.m. ET June 4, 2006

 

Autism is a mysterious and devastating disorder

that is believed to affect

as many as 500,000 children in this country. No

one knows for certain what

causes autism, but one theory � chelation� has

sparked controversy. Now, Jim

Adams wants to put that theory to the test. In a

desperate quest for

answers, he is using his scientific know-how to

test a controversial therapy

called " chelation. " And he has a special reason

for taking on this mission �

his daughter Kim. This report aired Dateline

Sunday, June 4, 7 p.m.

 

 

 

 

Kim Adams knows every word, every move, every

pause by heart because she has

watched this same video thousands of times.

 

Kim Adams, autistic girl: Barney�s Birthday!

 

Like many diagnosed with autism, she is trapped

in a world of repetition and

ritual.

 

For example, her father Jim knows his daughter

will want two braids because

it is Wednesday. Kim insists on wearing two

braids and a dress to school

every Wednesday.

 

Her need for order is extreme. Even a minute

change in routine, like a spot

appearing on her father's shirt, can make her

world feel frighteningly out

of whack.

 

Kim Adams: Daddy�s shirt�

 

Jim Adams, Kim's father: Oh, daddy�s shirt is

dirty.

 

Kim Adams: Mommy, daddy�s shirt is dirty.

 

Marie Adams, Kims mother: That�s okay.

 

At 13 years of age, Kim is still a child who

needs help with life's most

basic skills. She can't brush her teeth without a

list of directions, or

make her bed without a series of pictures.

 

Jim Adams: My little girl was diagnosed with

autism at age two-and-a-half.

We were told it was a lifelong, incurable

disorder. There was nothing we

could do for her, that it was just a matter of

time until we�d probably have

to institutionalize her. It was absolutely

crushing.

 

Jim and his wife, Marie immediately ruled out

institutionalizing Kim. And

although already raising two other children, they

began doing everything

they could for Kim � special diets, special

teachers, special classes. While

she appeared normal, Kim couldn't speak, couldn't

follow simple

instructions, and made little eye contact.

 

Marie Adams: Then as she got older, you know her

anger, her tantrums, her

aggression � she used to hit, kick, bite. When

she was older, she knocked

holes in the walls.

 

A professor of chemistry at Arizona State

University by day, Jim Adams

studied autism at night, learning about brain

development and damage, how

the brain interacts with vitamins, minerals and

metals.

 

He sought out others concerned with the rising

number of children being

labeled autistic � parents and scientists who

also wondered how a condition

that was diagnosed in only one in 100,000

children in the 1980s was two

decades later diagnosed in as many as one in

every 175 American children.

 

He started hearing stories about damage done to

people exposed to methyl

mercury, the kind found in thermometers and in

polluted environments. There

was the mercury spill in Japan that led to

mercury laden fish and Minimata

disease, affecting many who ate the fish.

 

He heard about Pink Disease, also called

Acrodynia, a mysterious condition

that afflicted children in this country roughly a

hundred years ago. The

symptoms included social withdrawal and lack of

language. The condition

disappeared almost overnight when a certain type

of teething powder which

contained mercury was removed from the market.

 

Jim Adams: There is no doubt that the mercury in

the teething powders was

what caused Acrodynia, and that symptoms of

Acrodynia were pretty similar to

symptoms of autism.

 

John Larson, Dateline correspondent: What�s your

basic idea here? That

mercury causes autism or that somehow makes it

worse?

 

Jim Adams: We think that it�s a combination of a

genetic susceptibility

leading to a decreased ability to excrete

mercury. So that these kids are

not necessarily dosed to high levels of mercury,

but that simply, they are a

small subset of the population that they have

unusual genes, that they just

can�t excrete mercury very well.

 

Larson: Jim�s suspicion that mercury might

somehow be connected to the rise

in the number of children diagnosed with autism

places him near the center

of one of the most hotly contested and

politically charged medical debates

of our time � one that has pitted activist

parents against federal health

officials and vaccine manufacturers, because

mercury in children often comes

from vaccines.

 

Vaccines -- those life-saving miracle drugs that

have successfully fought

back everything from polio, small pox, and

diptheria, to measles, mumps and

rubella. It began to be phased out a few years

ago, but until then, most

infant vaccines included something called ethyl

mercury in a preservative

called thimerasol.

 

Although different from methyl mercury, the kind

found in pollution, ethyl

mercury in high enough doses, can also damage the

nervous system.

 

Jim Adams: Thimerasol was introduced into

vaccines before the FDA even

existed. It was just grandfathered in. And then

as children begain receiving

more vaccines in the vaccination schedule, the

amount they received kept

growing and growing until 1999 when Congress

asked the FDA to evaluate the

amount of mercury in all the pharmaceutical

products.

 

What the Food and Drug Administration discovered

was that along with getting

more shots, by 1992, children were also getting

more mercury. The vaccines

undoubtedly were protecting the children from a

variety of deadly diseases,

but were they also causing autism in some

children?

 

In order to answer that question, the Centers for

Disease Control and

Prevention commissioned two reports into the

issue, both of which dismissed

thimerasol as the problem. Dr. Tanya Popovic is

the CDC's Associate for Science Research.

 

Tanya Popovik, CDC Associate Director for Science

Research: Top-notch

scientists have reviewed everything and anything

that is available and have

really in their latest report said that they

reject causal association of

thimerasol in vaccines and autism.

 

The American Academy of Pediatrics and many other

scientists also reject the

link between vaccines and autism and are

concerned the debate over mercury

will discourage parents from vaccinating their

children.

 

 

Click for related content

Producer: Why do a story on an unorthodox

practice?

 

 

 

But despite the stance of mainstream science,

thousands of parents, and even

some scientists, claim there is a growing body of

evidence to suggest there

might be a connection between mercury and autism.

 

And they point to the benefits of a radical new

treatment to help make their

case.

 

Julia Berle, mother of autistic child: It saved

my child.

 

This mother and thousands of other parents have

turned to a process called

chelation.

 

Chelation involves ridding the body of metals,

including mercury. In its

most aggressive form, it is done intravenously,

but most parents give their

autistic children a milder oral medication, or as

in this case, a cream that

is absorbed through the skin. The chelation agent

binds to the mercury,

which is then passed through the system.

 

Originally approved for treating lead poisoning,

there are parents who claim

chelation has helped cure their children's

autism.

 

The parents share stories and home videos of what

they describe as their

children's recoveries.

 

Some report their children going from agitated

repetitive behaviors to

simply being calmer and able to focus. From being

unable to use language, to

being able to express themselves� from almost

complete withdrawal, to

interacting with their families again. But most

doctors aren't buying those

stories of near-miraculous recovery.

 

Dr. Jay Berkelhamer, presidnet of American

Academy of Pediatrics: The

usefulness of chelation therapy in treating

autism is nil.

 

Dr. Jay Berkelhamer is the President of the

American Academy of Pediatrics.

Like most doctors Dateline spoke with, he pointed

out the process can be

dangerous. Performed intravenously, it even led

to one death.

 

Dr. Berkelhamer: Chelation therapy is potentially

toxic. The chelation

material that are used to remove these metals

from the bloodstream can

affect the liver and the kidney.

 

The reason most doctors agree with the American

Academy of Pediatrics is

because they don't believe mercury from vaccines

is the problem in the first

place. They say some autistic children may just

outgrow the problem, or

improve from behavioral and other therapies, but

that autism isn't cured by

removing metals from a child's system.

 

CONTINUED: Testing the theory

 

But despite the position of mainstream science on

chelation, for Jim Adams

and some other scientists, the verdict is still

out.

 

Jim Adams: It�s a very controversial topic. There

have been a number of

epidemiology studies looking at it, Some showing

absolutely no link, some

showing a very strong link. It depends, I think,

very much on who does the

research. I think the most critical issue is

looking into thimerasol.

 

So Jim Adams has decided to do just that. Along

with Dr. Matt Boral of the

Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine � an

accredited school of

alternative and integrated medicine � he has

designed the first

double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of

chelation. The mission: to

answer the question of whether chelation really

works, or whether it's just

the wishful thinking of desperate parents.

John Larson, Dateline correspondent: You�ve got

strong feelings about the

connection between mercury and autism. Are you

the guy who should be doing

this study? Will critics come out and say, �Well,

here, he just proved what

his suspicions were?�

 

Jim Adams: I think that if someone else were to

do the research, I�d be

thrilled. But the fact is no one else has done it

and thousands of families

are out there using it. And so, because it�s

pretty much the most highly

ranked treatment according to a survey of 23,000

families, I think there�s a

lot of good reason to do it.

 

But he already knows chelation does not work for

everyone.

 

Chelation did not help his daughter, Kim, perhaps

Jim says because it was

done too late. But regardless of why it didn't

work, he wants to know if

chelation can help any autistic children. After

all, he is not just a

chemist in search of knowledge, but a father who

knows the desire for a

cure.

 

John Larson: What happens in the end, after all

this hard work? If you find

that there really is no relation between mercury

and autistic behavior. Will

you be disappointed?

 

Jim Adams: Disappointed, yes. But whatever way it

turns out, we�ll report

it. If it doesn�t help, we�ll report it. And if

it does, we�re gonna report

that, too.

 

Public health officials stress the need to

vaccinate children against known

diseases. Today most American children under the

age of two years are

automatically vaccinated with mercury-free

vaccines, and parents can ask

their pediatricians about getting thimerasol free

vaccines for their older

children. Some experts also suggest requesting

mercury-free flu shots for

pregnant women, infants and children.

 

Jim Adams predicts he'll have the final results

of his study by the end of

the year, and we'll have them first, here on

Dateline. You should know that

most children under the age of two are now

automatically given mercury-free

vaccines, and parents can request those shots for

their older children as

well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

=============================================

News is a free service of the National

Vaccine Information

Center and is supported through membership

donations. Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how

to protect your informed consent rights

http://www.nvic.org

 

 

" To be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to

make me everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being

can fight, and never stop fighting. " -e.e. cummings-