Summary
This blog describes experimental autism treatment for our 16-year-old son (born in 1992) whom I will call Mike. Mike suffered from very poor impulse control, mania, and generally arguing all the time with authority figures. These behaviors were serious enough to make it apparent that he was likely to never hold a job or carry any responsibility. He also has had impaired ability to understand what another person may be thinking, a hallmark of autism.
I embarked on this blog because I read about children who had been completely cured of their autism. There were enough descriptions and videos of this available that I decided it could be true.
Many parents are refusing to consider alternative treatments because they don’t want to tell their kids there is something wrong with them. I sidestepped this, telling Mike and Shannon that we wanted them to feel better, and taking these supplements might help. Both were already taking meds prescribed by the doctor, and took the supplements in the same vein. Other parents hesitate because their doctors pooh-pooh alternative treatments, telling them to wait for research results. But my kids are not little any more. I don’t have time to wait.
If some kids were recovering, why not mine? And so I named the blog “Curing Autism Blog,” in hope, and set out on a journey, recording what I did, and aided at key points by people who contacted me first through this blog. I made an agreement with myself to never do anything that could possibly harm my children, but otherwise to try things out and see if they worked, budget permitting.
This blog describes how we started out in June, 2007, on the protocol by Dr. Amy Yasko, who was described in a Discover Magazine article as having assisted in the recovery of children with autism. She uses a genetic-based nutrition therapy intended to repair operation of the body’s methylation cycle. The nutrition therapy must be tailored to each individual. Yasko accomplishes that tailoring by asking parents to:
- slowly introduce each supplement and watch for good or bad results; and
- order urine amino acid tests every two weeks, also to look for good or bad results.
We didn’t do the urine amino acid testing because it was too expensive at $285 per test. We gradually loaded Mike up with at least 30 Yasko “step 1″ supplements. But there was no change in him.
At this point I took up a great suggestion from a blog reader: to find an applied kinesiologist chiropractor to test the worth of each supplement.
Our chiropractor, Katharine Conable of the Applied Kinesiology Center of Greater St Louis, was able over the course of a number of weeks to determine which supplements were helping Mike and which were not helpful or even to a degree harmful. She tested them using “muscle testing,” or applied kinesiology. She added some of her own, based on her study of the methylation cycle. By the way, she threw out the most controversial of Yasko’s supplements, “RNA drops” at $75 per tiny bottle.
The chiro visits are covered by our insurance, but even without it they are only $60-$80. I think it took about 10 visits to determine the correct regimen for Mike, so that’s about $700.
As you can tell by looking at the rest of this blog, Mike is doing great. He is off three of his four meds. He is getting all A’s and one B, consistently, at school. He is connecting with friends and with teachers. Once, he constantly resisted authority. Now he never does. Is he “recovered”? Hard to say. But he is a LOT BETTER OFF than he was before we embarked on this big adventure. And he was nearly 15 when we started, which is old for expecting big changes.
If you are thinking of trying this out and if you live near St. Louis, you could also go to Chesterfield Defeat Autism Now! doctor Amy Davis. Davis has a computer apparatus that measures the same thing that muscle testing does (changes in electrical resistance). A first visit to her costs $600, last I checked, and tests the entire range of supplements in one visit, if you are comfortable with this type of testing. The more conventional testing alternatives are much more expensive.
However, if you do this, you miss out on the supplements recommended by the chiropractor. Mike is on several of these.
Yasko starts her protocol by asking patients to submit to a $1,000 genetic test, looking for certain mutations that her research suggests affect the methylation cycle. We had this testing done and learned that Mike has an unusual genetic burden. Therefore he needs a lot of supplements. Your situation may be different. My “rescue angel” (who suggested the chiropractor) has a son who was recovered using just two or three supplements.
No matter what your genetic test results, Yasko starts you in the same place on her protocol, at “step one” on about 30 supplements. While it has been helpful to know what Mike’s genetics are, it hasn’t been required. I think you, my reader, could proceed without a genetic test.
Here’s my “lite” protocol:
- Consider put your child on a gluten-free, casein-free diet. This is the step that DAN! doctors find helps the most kids, at least in the short run. Give it a try to see if it helps, at least.
- Avoid MSG and sugary foods.
- Go to an applied kinesiologist chiropractor familiar with optimizing the methylation cycle.
- Ask the chiropractor to suggest supplements and test them. This requires at least several visits. Buy and test the Step 1 supplements on Yasko’s supplement list, under the direction of the chiropractor.
- Let the chiro decide whether to eventually add a lot of Vitamin B-12 to the regimen, as Yasko recommends. This would speed up the methylation cycle and speed up detox, but it is controversial. (In Mike’s case speeding it up isn’t possible. Add more B-12 and he regresses, because of his set of mutations.)
- Include cod liver oil in your supplement list. That alone has apparently recovered some children. Dr. Mary Megson argues that the MMR vaccine depletes the body of a type of Vitamin A that only cod liver oil supplies. Be sure to use molecularly distilled cod liver oil, to avoid adding mercury inadvertently. You can buy distilled cod liver oil in capsule form, or lemon-flavored.
- After some time has elapsed and the methylation cycle is stabilizing, consider chelation. Discuss the need with your chiropractor.
Although our chiro didn’t think he needed it, we did a mild mercury chelation, just to cover all bases. I did this six months into the successful phase of the protocol. We used the chelation protocol of Andy Cutler, PhD. We used just four chelation rounds (weekend treatments every three hours around the clock) with Alpha Lipoic Acid, ALA, which is a lot like Vitamin C. (My first step in researching this was to join the autism-mercury email list, in which people discuss using Cutler’s protocols. There are many kids who have apparently recovered just by using these protocols.)
Results? All four kids and I did the chelation. I was the only one to show any reaction to it. I had a headache for a couple of days, on the first round, when the dose was too high. On the second round at a lower dose, I didn’t. I’m the one who had had a mouthful of mercury fillings. They’re the ones who had thimerosal in their shots. I guess the fillings are worse than the thimerosal. Or something.
Meanwhile we took a shortcut with his older sister Shannon, now 21. Shannon has come along way and does not appear to be autistic when you meet her, but she does have enormous difficulty figuring out what other people might be thinking. The chiropractor had given her a few supplements, but she was not making the progress I had hoped. So in August 2008 I took her to DAN! doctor Amy Davis.
Dr. Davis was able to use her high-tech version of the chiropractor’s muscle testing to quickly evaluate Shannon’s need for certain supplements and even sketch out her genetic profile. Shannon’s genetics are similar to Mike’s, turns out. Apparently Shannon’s estrogen protects her from the more severe effects. Dr. Davis put Shannon on some supplements, skipping the expensive testing. Shannon’s long-standing acne is clearing up, signalling that her body is processing toxins at long last, I believe.
I should mention that I also put myself under the care of the chiropractor, who gave me a number of supplements. I believe I have much the same genetic burden as Shannon and Mike, and that estrogen protected me until midlife. When the estrogen ebbed, things started falling apart. My knees swelled up. I became arthritic. My thinking got fuzzy. My sugar metabolism was all messed up–eating carbs made me feel hungry. I needed 30 minutes of brisk walking in the morning to even be able to function.
Now I feel great, never better, actually. I’m taking a large array of B vitamins and cod liver oil.
A warning on chelation. If you do it wrong, which Andy Cutler says many DAN doctors do, it can be harmful. So check out Andy Cutler’s gentle protocol on the yahoo email group Autism-Mercury. It appears from reading the emails there that there is a REALLY good chance that your child’s autism can be treated simply by gently and slowly getting rid of the mercury in his system, using this mild ALA anti-oxidant.
How did the mercury get there? Well, that’s another subject, which a lot of people are arguing about these days! Are shots to blame? Perhaps these kids got it from their mother’s mercury fillings while in the womb. Perhaps somebody broke a mercury thermometer in their presence. And having impaired systems, they can’t get rid of it.
My daughter, now 9, had her initial exposure to vaccines spaced out one at a time, but she developed Asperger’s anyway. However, second and subsequent shots of series were combined. As it later turned out, the shots may have contained thimerosal; at the time it was widely promoted that thimerosal was not being added to vaccines any more, but not that existing stocks lasted well into 2001.
Hey you didn’t get the headache necessarily because the fillings are worse, but because the chelators will pull mercury from the fillings into your system. The fillings may also be worse, but I just thought I’d explain that part so you know why that happened. It’s not a good idea to chelate with fillings in. If you still have them you should get them removed by a doctor with http://www.iaomt.org
Just a note that we, too, are in the St. Louis area and are members of a Yasko support group in Maplewood (there is a meeting about mid-month on Thursdays. It fluctuates a little). We have watched our kids move to the left of the spectrum–from full-blown autism to no diagnosis in some cases, and in my son’s case, move from PDD-NOS to what all who work with him in school and OT say looks like ADD. We still have work to do, but it’s moving in the right direction–his social progress is almost unbelievable!
Yasko’s testing is $495 and includes 4 mutation-specific RNAs. Having this information is immensely important–my husband and I want it for ourselves since having this info can prevent tremendous illness as we get older. For instance, it indicated our son has a CBS snip mutation where the body is turning protein to ammonia. Well, we had previously been relying primarily on protein in his diet since we were avoiding carbs and dairy…now we limit the protein (to an amt about the size of a deck of cards a day) and have moved a little toward the specific carbohydrate diet.
On top of all the Yasko info you mentioned, there is a big movement addressing biofilm in the gut, which is a bear to tackle, but is proving to help remove metals, viruses, and bacteria which was invincible before. One of the pervasive bacterium the biofilm to address in strep, which can cause PANDAS (actually recognized by mainstream doctors, though they are not usually familiar with it). So much of these behaviors we see with our kids is caused by or exacerbated by high strep levels! If people haven’t already, it’s highly recommended to have your strep titers tested.
At any rate, this is a long-term commitment, and one that I can’t imagine not making! There is hope to recover your kids!
Sorry to harp on you Evie, but your son does not have a “CBS snip mutation”. I just want to clear things up for you so you are not misinformed.
Relying on a protein rich diet will ultimately lead the body to try and produce ATP (energy our body uses in the form of high energy phosphate bonds, I apologize if you already know this, but I’m not sure) from proteins, which at their lowest level, their primary structure, composed of a chain of amino acids. In order to transform an amino acid into a usable substance for cellular metabolism, say aerobic respiration, it needs to be in pyruvate form or acetyl CoA form, to enter the TCA cycle. In order to change an amino acid, which are comprised of an amine group, -NH2, (amino) and a carboxylic acid group, -COOH, and some other side chains, the amino group must be removed. and you get -NH2 group floating around. You then have an alpha-keto acid that can be used for energy later. At biological pH the -NH2 group is going to pick up some H+ ions, and become, NH3, which is ammonia. Ammonia is successfully turned into urea by our liver.
Your son needs protein rich food, to build necessary functional units in his body. The body will look to carbohydrates as its first source of energy, so you won’t need to worry about deamination of amino acids. If there’s carbs present, the body will use those first, then lipids, then proteins.
Bottom line, there’s no mutation, it’s how our bodies are supposed to work.
Mike,
That’s an interesting “theory” you have. I urge you to go onto the Yasko board and challenge Dr. Yasko directly on your disbelief in a CBS mutation. After all, she is an expert in Microbiology, Immunology, Virology and the Genetic Methylation Pathway. I would hate for you to misguide anyone from pursuing a protocol that has helped thousands of children by making an inaccurate conclusion. What a shame that would be. In many opinions, she has the most groundbreaking and effective autism recovery program to date.
Please, let’s clear this arguement up publicly…..Here is her website so that you may confront the CBS mutation (which most kids with autism have) in the Methylation Pathway:
http://www.ch3nutrigenomics.com/phpBB2/welcome.html
Oh my gosh, this is so great. We have someone with no a shread of scientific knowledge referring to well documented biochemical fact as “therory.” Anyone that taken biology in the last 75 years should know that one of the byproducts of protein metabolism is ammonia. In fact, there’s no way you can even use injested protein without having ammonia, among other biochemcial compounds, as a byproduct.
And to Mike, I wouldn’t try posting on that web-site. I tried in your honor and my post was removed by the “moderator.” Apparrently scientific evidence is not allowed to be posted on that site.
Emily,
I love when people say theory. Unless you do massive experimentation and refute alternate hypotheses to support your hypothesis. You don’t have a theory. Theories are hypotheses that are supported by large amounts of evidence and generally accepted by the scientific community.
Until you experiment, you have a hypotheses, like the hypotheses and theories of why children are autistic.
Take the Law of Gravity. It’s not a fact. We can test the law by watching Yasko’s bank account accrue so much mass that it warps the space-time fabric and exerts a force on us known as gravity.
So let’s focus on my “theory” which is actually biochemical fact.
Hypothesis: Eat a lot of protein and no carbohydrates or lipids, you make a lot of ammonia. Well, you make a lot of NH2-, and then since water can act as a weak acid, H donor, NH2- will pick up a H and turn to NH3, ammonia.
You body relies on carbs first for energy because they can be broken down into simple sugars and go right to glycolysis.
Lipids (fats) have around 100 ATP per gram. I think. somewhere around there. So they’re loaded with the capacity to produce energy.
Proteins. First they’re hydrolyzed to amino acids. Then they are deaminated: the loss of NH2. Here is a good illustration.
http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/632oxdeam.html
Notice the .edu, not .com
alpha-keto acids can be converted to pyruvate and acetyl CoA and into later parts of the metabolism process.
Why does the Atkins diet stress your liver? Because the diet consists of primarily protein rich foods which need to be deaminated, which then puts an extra work load on your liver.
So I did overstep my boundaries, perhaps her son has a CBS SNP mutation. But that still doesn’t explain, no indicate that her son was turning protein into ammonia. That doesn’t happen. All the pieces are there. High protein diet. Ammonia is a byproduct of protein metabolism. you don’t turn an amino acid into NH2-. It’s ridiculous.
The lab yasko uses, i have read, is sketchy too. In her own town, not listed under any name. It’s an excuse to be skeptical.
Let’s examine the function of CBS anyway.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610366/figure/F1/
We see here it is used to permanently remove homocysteine from the cycle. It doesn’t turn protein into ammonia. I produce ammonia from protein metabolism. Everyone does. Unless you don’t eat any protein, but you would have to or you’d die.
Also, B6-dependent cystathionine beta synthase (CBS) is a single nucleotide polymorphism. Which means, one base in your DNA is different from what it’s supposed to be. This is what makes us all unique from the next person. We can also see from this amino acid table,
http://citnews.unl.edu/croptechnology/lessonImages/960324911.gif
that for every amino acid, there is more than one codon that codes for each amino acid. The genetic code is degenerate. Meaning more than one codon will code for an amino acid. I probably have mutations in my DNA, but due to this degeneracy, these mutations cause no change in my phenotype. Your DNA may produce the same protein for B6-dependent cystathionine beta synthase even with a SNP due to degeneracy.
So after reading,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610366/
Yes, there may be impairments to certain enzymes that participate in the cycle that regenerates methionine to be a methyl donor to a variety of molecules which may be a cause to the development of autism in children. No one knows the exact cause. But don’t bring these weak arguments to me. Perhaps the lack of methyl donors contribute to the gene repression due to residues on histones that are not able to be methylated, leading to gene repression. Nevertheless, both environmental and genetic factors have been attributed to autism.
But don’t tell me that a CBS single nucleotide polymorphism in a child is causing him or her to turn protein directly into ammonia. That’s absurd. NH2- is a byproduct of protein metabolism.
You eat a diet high in protein and not other macromolecules(carbs, lipids), you will produce more NH2- as a byproduct of protein metabolism.
You’ll notice the study is from pubmed. A place where researchers publish their work to enrich the knowledge on a given subject. I can’t seem to find any published work from Dr. Yasko anywhere. Unless she published under her maiden name. I’m limited to what I know about her.
Let’s recap.
NH2-, which turns into NH3 in the blood, is a byproduct of protein metabolism.
My previous post was written right from my Gen Bio textbook in the digestion and metabolism chapter. Not a theory. Also from my Organic chemistry book.
I’d bet 1% of users of the forum actually understand the “methylation pathway”, and are wooed by Yasko’s degrees.
The cited study above does not suggest CBS is the culprit for the malfunctioning of the methylation pathway.
Trying to post on that forum would be ridiculous. I mean, people who don’t understand basic biology, cell biology, molecular genetics or organic chemistry can’t be expected to comprehend these concepts. Emily, you have demonstrated another example of trying to refute my argument without any scientific evidence or support/studies. Same as probably what’s on the forum, Dr. Yasko is great, her treatments work, she knows what she’s talking about, she’s not a fraud and you’re wrong.
Here, I constantly am presenting scientific concepts supported by research in the form of papers and texts. It is funny that I’d have to cite things because to me they are known, such as protein metabolism. It would be a waste to post on that forum. No one would listen. They are too enamored with pseudoscience. I don’t blame them for trying to help their children. I do blame Yasko for fraud and unethical behavior.
Chris, thanks for the support. It’s a shame science is tarnished in this manner.
Yasko is a fraud. Almost all bio-chemical therapies for ASD issues are non-effective. Eary intervention with OT and CBT are most efficacious (with ZERO chance for harm), reduce the stigma associated with extreme diet requirements and can support the child far better than any “natural”, homeopathic or supplement based approach.
Let’s use Occam’s razor – if a practitioner found a reliable, validated procedure for mitigating the symptoms of ASD, they would be lauded from every corner. Yet these individuals seem to languish in relatively obscure corners from which their succes is noted in the form of “anecdotes” and “testimonials”. Let us not forget that one of the connecting factors in all of these “practitioners” is their perosnal experience, typically with one of their own children, that leads them around the bend.
The market will idnetify successes and frauds will continue to reap the benefits from the unwary or desperate. Let’s not forget that ASD also self mitigates to a degree over the development of the child – thus progress can be attributable solely to time vice any hocus pocus.
Not being a biochem major, I am not going to try to argue with you guys. But I believe what Evie was trying to say was that a defect in the metabolic pathway indicated that she should not be feeding her child so much meat protein. Yes, protein is broken down into ammonia but perhaps it is not being properly excreted, I don’t know. I don’t know Evie and I am just beginning to try to understand this whole metabolic pathway business.
Evie’s post struck a chord with me however because we just learned that my son has my MTHFR mutation as well, and he also has high BUN and low creatinine levels. The doctor said “everything’s fine” in relation to the CBC (BUN and creat.) but with a BUN double the normal range, hardly seems fine. I am still not sure what it means but looking at the metabolic pathway here http://www.heartfixer.com/AMRI-N1.jpg it looks like the MTHFR problem is keeping too much urea “on the right” and not making enough creatinine “on the left.”
Since you biochem guys are so smart
perhaps you can make some dietary recommendations so I don’t “fall for the fraud” of Dr. Yasko and go buy her RNA drops.
I had started feeding my son MORE meat because I was worried about the B vitamins (B12) but now since the urea is so high, I don’t know what to do.
However instead of just supplementing what with the regular doctors recommended (more folic acid and more b12) what I (we) need to be supplementing with is the bio-available vitamins.
I actually do put a lot of stock in the relation to autism and metabolic pathways. My kids and many family members all display numerous autistic behaviors without the normal developmental delays (just social/behavior problems) If supplementing with 5-MTHF and P5P will mean some alleviation of these “symptoms,” then I am thankful that Dr. Yasko has gained popularity, whether it is partially fraudulent or not.
And before you discount the “many family member” connection, my son is heterozygous for both MTHFR mutations and I am homozygous for one. Which means both my parents are MTHFR mutated and my husband is as well.
If he’s heterozygous for a mutation he should have one functional allele and one non functional one, that’s how it works in classical genetics. If someone is homozygous recessive for a mutation, and the mutation is recessive you should have no functional alleles, heterozygous, one functional allele, homozygous dominant, two functional alleles. the mutation could be silent and not manifest itself because the single base polymorphism codes for the same amino acid.
If your son is heterozygous for the MTHFR enzyme, assuming the recessive allele is a non functioning one, he has the gene to make the MTHFR enzyme in every cell in his body.
The whole thing with “bypassing your genetics” is, the MTHFR gene, codes for an enzyme. Enzyme lowers activation energy and makes a reaction happen. If you can’t make the enzyme, you can stuff the reactant, or precursors to the reactant in your body as much as you want, but the enzyme isn’t there, so the reaction isn’t going to happen. You mentioned supplementing with 5 methyl THF, and that is what I’m speaking of. If a crucial element needs to be present for the reaction to occur, and the element is missing, what’s going to happen, not a whole lot.
You can buy yasko’s rna, or go to the supermarket and buy baker’s yeast and eat it. You’ll probably get the same outcome. I can’t suggest anything because i’m not a dietitian, sorry. Only that you can only supplement so much vitamin B since it’s water soluble and most of it will go down the drain so to speak. Just stick to the things that are shown to show efficacy in treating a symptom.
Mike,
My son is double heterozygous. So both 677 and 1298 are effected. As far as I understand it, with a disabled enzyme, you may not be able to reduce folate to folinic acid or further to 5-MTHF.
I am homozygous on 1298 and I think this is not as devastating to one’s metabolism as 677. My homocysteine levels have always been good.
Wow! I haven’t been back here for a while, but I’m surprised at all the comments from the CBS situation. Toni is right, what I was saying is that my son’s CBS upregulation was creating excess ammonia from such a high load of protein I was feeding him, and due to this (and other) snags in his methylation pathway, was wreaking havoc. ‘Sorry to harp on you Evie, but your son does not have a “CBS snip mutation”’ Am I being told that the genetic mutations indicated on my son’s genetic testing are non-existent? Or the testing done through Massachusetts General Hospital on his cousin that virtually mirrored my son’s was just something dreamed up by a huckster? Those wacky charlatans at Mass General? This confuses me. I’m rather sure that these mutations exist. And that there are steps we can take to lessen the effects of those mutations.
It would be futile to argue with the biochemists here on the exactitudes of these reactions, especially since I am not a chemist, but I will say that when we followed Yasko’s recommendations to reduce the protein to the size of a deck of cards a day and to give yucca with proteins, my child who had flapped madly from overstimulation from the time he was an infant COMPLETELY STOPPED FLAPPING. At the time, flapping was the biggest flag to anyone who encountered him to indicate he was on the spectrum–he was doing well socially, though he still had a bit of rigidity in play and had chilled out immensely from removing all gluten, casein, soy, and allergens from his diet. Since adding all of Yasko’s recommendations, he has improved so much I get comments from parents and teachers about what a great kid he is, or how he helped out another kid who was having a hard time…or that he wrote a hilarious story and read it to the class–hardly things you hear about kids with PDD-NOS who have no empathy and no imagination! I suppose if you want to call it hocus-pocus, that’s your right, but it seems extreme to dismiss this sort of recovery!
There is, in fact, a large community of autism families who have utilized biomedical treatments for their kids and watched them heal–if not completely to where they no longer warrant a diagnosis, at least improve to a point where they are more functional and no longer display such severe behaviors. Isn’t function the name of the game?
There are documentaries of some of these kids’ home videos pre-biomedical intervention where they are obviously autistic, then as they are healing, and eventually recovered. These videos are available through Generation Rescue and sites like Amazon. I saw two at an autism convention, and found them very enlightening. No, not chemistry book enlightening. Hope enlightening. I suppose hope might be laughable to some, or that some may think these parents constructed an elaborate hoax, but really, how many people have that kind of mindset–or time and a willing small participant–to pull these things off under the eye of physicians, psychologists, and schools?
I can’t quite understand why some of the nay-sayers out there completely dismiss biomedical intervention by trying to disprove one or two elements scientifically when this disorder is nothing if not multi-factorial. So why dismiss entire therapies that are actually working for some people, and thereby discourage others who may be helped by them? Is it disdain for anything outside of the box? Disappointment that a factor of a therapy that worked for one group did not work for you or for someone you know?
Since cancer survival rates after chemotherapy are not near 100%, do you spend this much time discouraging people from even trying–or scoping the sites of people who use Gerson therapy to tell them they’re wasting their time? I would never assert that Yasko’s methylation pathway approach will “cure” all autism. But has it gotten my kid to where he’s not only functioning but has a great personality, friends, and excels at things he would never have tried a couple of years ago? Yes. Have I seen kids in our support group go from non-verbal autistic to undiagnosed, attending schools where there are no services needed for them? Yes, I have. This trumps your chemistry extrapolations for me and any other sane parent. I’m glad you’re out there knowing your chemistry, but it certainly doesn’t disprove that all the counseling and OT in the world would not have calmed down my child’s immune system to allow him to heal like biomedical treatment has. I am truly sorry for those who are jaded, or those who tried for a couple of months and gave up and didn’t turn over all the rocks to find the answers, but it is such poor form to try to convince others not to try.
On causation: to believe that autism is simply genetic is absurd–no such “genetic epidemic” has ever existed in human history. And what are our numbers of late? 1 in 110 is what Autism Speaks reports, and the number for auto-immune disorder diagnoses in the US is 1 in 6 children! To believe it’s simply environmental is equally silly since many kids are exposed and do not exhibit neurological harm.
I do think it a shame that the only testing done on this matter deals with testing for associations–associations do not test causation. Why have little to no resources gone into studying susceptible populations? Especially when two federal court cases have done nothing short of saying two kids’ (Hannah Poling and Bailey Banks) autism was caused by vaccines. In Poling’s case because of mitochondrial disease, which hasn’t received enough investment considering the latest studies indicated its incidence at 1 in 200; and that only reflecting a testing on 10 of 37 possible known mutations, and in Banks’ case because the immunizations caused acute demyelination of nerve cells in his brain. If we can conservatively assume that 1 in 200 kids is going to be harmed by vaccines to the point of neurological incapacitation, shouldn’t a community whose motto is “do no harm” at least try to find out who those kids are instead of maintaining a blanket policy and accepting those children as collateral damage for herd immunity?
Beyond this, the scientific community has not done appropriate studies of the in-utero environment (Environmental Working Group has studies on their site indicating approximately 200 known toxins present in the umbilical cords of 10 babies chosen randomly from mothers at the Red Cross). Surely we do not think the body burden of those toxins, plus possible genetic susceptibility, plus viral loads within 12 hours of birth, plus a spate of other factors have nothing to do with what we’re seeing?
Time Magazine had a fantastic article regarding epigenetics and the ability we have to alter what appears at first to be our genetic destiny, and I’ve cut and paste a little of it here:
How to Make a Better Mouse
As momentous as epigenetics sounds, the chemistry of at least one of its mechanisms is fairly simple. Darwin taught us that it takes many generations for a genome to evolve, but researchers have found that it takes only the addition of a methyl group to change an epigenome. A methyl group is a basic unit in organic chemistry: one carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms. When a methyl group attaches to a specific spot on a gene — a process called DNA methylation — it can change the gene’s expression, turning it off or on, dampening it or making it louder. (See more about DNA.)
The importance of DNA methylation in altering the physical characteristics of an organism was proposed in the 1970s, yet it wasn’t until 2003 that anyone experimented with DNA methylation quite as dramatically as Duke University oncologist Randy Jirtle and one of his postdoctoral students, Robert Waterland, did. That year, they conducted an elegant experiment on mice with a uniquely regulated agouti gene — a gene that gives mice yellow coats and a propensity for obesity and diabetes when expressed continuously. Jirtle’s team fed one group of pregnant agouti mice a diet rich in B vitamins (folic acid and vitamin B12). Another group of genetically identical pregnant agouti mice got no such prenatal nutrition.
The B vitamins acted as methyl donors: they caused methyl groups to attach more frequently to the agouti gene in utero, thereby altering its expression. And so without altering the genomic structure of mouse DNA — simply by furnishing B vitamins — Jirtle and Waterland got agouti mothers to produce healthy brown pups that were of normal weight and not prone to diabetes.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1951968-2,00.html#ixzz0odQwuG5i
So to any parent out there who is considering giving Yasko’s genetic treatment of their child’s methylation pathway, know that it could help. What this protocol offers is in line with what was occurring in the Duke study–not a non-scientific guessing game. As a mom who *never* thought she’d see her child thrive, I can say that this intervention, without exception, the biggest gift I could have ever wished for. A healthy kid who is getting better every day.
Wow, Evie, thank you for that wonderful summation! Well said!!!
MTHFR C677T is not a risk factor for autism spectrum disorders in South Brazil.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20440228
It’s just peculiar that I cannot find any studies with the words MTHFR and autism or CBS and autism or even cystathionine beta synthase and autism on pubmed.
The mouse study in indeed cool. To simply supplement methyl groups and activate or repress gene expression is very interesting. But there’s’ more to the ASD spectrum than one gene and there are several mechanisms that induce repression or expression of genomic material, for example, acetylation, ubiqination and a few others. The biological mechanisms that are drawn on to conclude that such bio med interventions will have therapeutic efficacy have been overstepped to say the least. Far too many conclusions have been drawn without any study to provide support that such conclusions can be successfully made.
the only two studies with bio med and autism on pub med were
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10686565
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11121182
It should also be taken into consideration that although the mouse model is used quite frequently, it is still just a model. Cancer therapies work quite well in the mouse model. Mice are being cured of cancer constantly. But they do not always translate well in human trials. In the 70’s interferon and LAK cell were the next big thing in immunotherapies for cancer. Worked great in mice, not so well in humans.
If you think the therapies work, great. My bone to pick is with the yasko RNA and therapies that have no studies to show their therapeutic efficacy or treatments that have shown to have no efficacy, and people still choose to use them.
I will write more when I’m done with my final, but since there is such skepticism with regard to immunological attacks leading to autism UNLESS there is published work in PubMed, I wanted to share this man’s work. I was fortunate enough to have a long conversation with him in Chicago last year, and I think he could hardly be called a fraud. Yasko’s work is entirely in line with this:
http://sackler.tufts.edu/Academics/Degree-Programs/PhD-Programs/Faculty-Research-Pages/Theoharis-Theoharides.aspx
Sorry for the drive-by comments, but I’m finishing up a program with Boston University and in-between study sessions I think about some of the points brought up on this blog…I wanted to quickly type out the different snips that are addressed through Yasko’s Methylation Pathway Analysis, as it seems there is a perception there are only a few (CBS, MTHFR C677T, and MTHFR 1298C) that are addressed. The overriding approach with this protocol is that these neurological disorders are multi-factorial, and therefore the person being treated should know what mutations (and their functional or dysfunctional effects on methylation) are needing support. Not that we can change our genes or that doing ONE thing can magically fix everything – but the idea of not using this invaluable information seems ludicrous. Why would we not supplement to help our bodies function more smoothly if we know, by proof of our genetic testing, that there are snip mutations representative of certain dysfunctions?
I also want to add that I don’t know anyone using this protocol who isn’t working in concert with an MD (mine is both an allergist and a PhD in biochemistry). In fact, out of our support group, there are several RNs, a chiropractor, and a biochemist from India. So again, this is not a practice devoid of science or scientists!
Here are the snips from my son’s MPA. I’m not listing his mutations; just the snips that were tested:
COMT V158M
COMT H62H
COMT 61
VDR Taq
VDR Fok
MAO A R297R
ACAT 102
ACE (deletion 16)
MTHFR C677T
MTHFR 3
MTR A2756G
MTRR A66G
MTRR H595Y
MTRR K350A
MTRR K350A
MTRR R415T
MTRR S257T
MTRR 11
BHMT1
BHMT2
BHMT4
BHMT8
AHCY 1
AHCY 2
AHCY 19
CBS C699T
CBS A360A
SUO S370S
SHMT C1420T
NOS D298E
All this, including the information on RNA base support, is available in Yasko’s new book, titled “Autism.” It explains, in layman’s terms (as opposed to the biochemist jargon in her books “The Puzzle of Autism,” and “Genetic Bypass,” all of the methods of supporting the faulty areas of our methylation pathways.