I got a comment from Lloyd recently:
Bravo, I follow a real cheap version of Yasko’s protocol ,”invented” by Fred Davis and Richard von Kennenberg on Phoenixrising.me. I had CFS/fibromyagia f0r over thirty ears. Supposedly cfs/fm is on adult onset version of autism. I love the theory. Cured a huge chunck of most if not all of my symptoms. May I suggest looking at Freetheanimal.com, resistant starch + soil based probiotics. This proved as valuable as methylation upstart for me. Peace.
Our son “Mike,” who has been doing NAET treatments for more than two years now, is doing much better in every way and plans to leave home to go to college in the fall. (He’s 20, transferring from the local community college.) He’s also been taking supplements from the Yasko protocol, but in the past couple of months decided not to take them for his own reasons (checking to see if he really needs them?). He has decided he’s better off taking them, and is starting up again. He’s on a much-abbreviated list of them, as determined by our chiropractor who muscle-tests each one to see whether his body responds positively or negatively to it.
When we started on this journey, at the beginning of this blog in 2007, I wondered whether he would always have to take the Yasko supplements, since they seemed to remediate a genetic deficiency in the way his body works. Or would taking them somehow improve the biochemistry in his body over time? The answer seems to be clear: his biochemistry has improved. He can get along without the supplements now, but he’s better off taking a few of them. The most important one for him is phosphatidyl serine, by the way. Without that one, he can get irritable. Note that his genetic burden differs from other people’s, so you can’t assume what works for him will work for you.
NAET is a treatment that uses Chinese medicine theory (meridians, energy flow). How it works I wonder; I think it has to do with bioelectricity. I can see that it does do some amazing things. Don’t pooh-pooh it just because you don’t understand it!
There’s a lot of discussion among researchers these days about why so many people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have mitochondrial issues.
What are mitochondria? They are energy-producing organs inside each cell of our body. They take inputs from the blood stream and from previous mitochondrial processes and create outputs that keep the body going in a number of ways. Most importantly, the Yasko protocol that has so helped my Asperger’s son addresses malfunctions in these mitochondrial processes using a variety of supplements.
Anyway, Dr. Amy Yasko, the researcher whose protocol many autistics have benefited from, has authored a paper with an MD, Nancy Mullan, looking at why these mitochondrial processes are disrupted in so many people with ASD, those with genetic markers for this, and those without.
In brief, what could be causing the autism epidemic? Take a look.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/118974801/Aluminum-Toxicity-in-Mitochondrial-Dysfunction-and-ASD
In this 2008 video, the head of the CDC admits that people with genetic mitochondrial dysfunction can become autistic after vaccination. But she then dances around the subject, and we wonder whether we heard her right.
Funny thing, this mitochondrial dysfunction isn’t as rare as she wishes it were. The Yasko protocol uses genetic testing to identify people with genetic mitochondrial dysfunction, for one thing, and suggests supplements that provide missing inputs for the mitochondrial processes that aren’t working right. (Mitochondria are little energy factories in each cell.) A recent study concludes that autism spectrum disorders and mitochondrial dysfunction are linked.
(Guess what, this head of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, has left that job and is now president of vaccines at Merck.)
Take a look:
Are you wondering what’s happening at the Wheelers’ with NAET? “Shannon,” our 24-year-old daughter with Asperger’s, continues to blossom after a year on NAET treatments and some Yasko vitamin therapy. I get so many comments from people who have known her and are delighted that she is now interacting with them. It really is a miracle. She is continuing NAET treatments but less intensively.
“Mike,” our 19-year-old son with Asperger’s, has been doing NAET treatments for a year. We’re cautiously reserving judgment on results at this time.
And, there’s me! I just started NAET too, because I have been getting more and more allergic to things, and that’s driving me nuts. I had a choice: spend money on allergy shots, which aren’t guaranteed to help, or try NAET for about the same amount of money. I decided to try NAET.
I am supposing that the genetics that made my children susceptible to autism are also part of my body. Makes sense–my brother is autistic, so I must be the genetic carrier. Being female, and having grown up in an era with fewer environmental insults, I am not autistic. But I am very allergic. Perhaps our genetics involve faulty removal of toxins from the body, which are building up as I grow older and make me more and more allergic? For example, I have been limited in the lotions I can use on my face for 20 years. I had found one with just three ingredients that seemed to work well, and used it for 20 years. But a few months ago I found it was giving me a rash. Grr. So now I’m down to one ingredient, coconut oil.
I started NAET with the new year, after taking some money out of an investment to invest in my health. It’s too new for me to provide you with any feedback, other than to remark that avoiding certain substances for 25 hours after a treatment is in fact a pain!
“Shannon,” my 24-year-old daughter, was unable to tell what others were thinking, because of her Asperger’s. The world was a confusing and unpredictable place to her. It’s the reason I homeschooled her from grades 8-12.
But now, after some vitamin therapy under the Yasko protocol and more than a year of NAET treatments, she CAN tell what others are thinking. She’s a responsive and caring individual. In my book, that means she’s not autistic any more.
My first cousin had the opportunity to get to know Shannon this fall, when Shannon went traveling. She hadn’t known Shannon previously. Here’s what my cousin said:
“I have to tell you I had such a good time getting to know ‘Shannon’ when she was out here … What a treasure she is! I was wondering about her autism; she really has emerged from it hasn’t she! How wonderful! Have you ever heard of that happening?”
Personally I haven’t heard of recoveries like this for others her age, although there probably are some. There are many reported recoveries from more severe autism for kids who are much younger, like under the age of 5 or 10. All these recoveries come from the alternative medical treatment world.
Comments used by my cousin’s and Shannon’s permission.
I’m getting a lot of agreement from people who are in close contact with my daughter, whom I am calling “Shannon” on this blog. She is no longer exhibiting the hallmark of autism, inability to know what others are thinking. She is delivered from her Asperger’s, which she had from the age of four. She’s now 23.
I emailed a well-known researcher about Shannon’s cure. He politely refused to believe me. Many individuals with autism spectrum disorders, he said, perhaps 10 to 15 percent, gradually “progress to a level that is actually sub-clinical and this may be the case with your daughter. The characteristics were more apparent in childhood but now she can perhaps be described as having an unusual personality but not the classic characteristics associated with an ASD.”
There are two arguments here: gradual transformation and persisting unusual personality.
Shannon is transformed from the person she was just one year ago. This is not a gradual change.
As for unusual personality, a mental health professional who is in Shannon’s small group Bible study told me that she believes Shannon is interacting totally normally with others in the group. The professional is amazed, knowning Shannon’s history.
I hope those who know “Shannon” and are seeing her these days will feel free to comment on this blog post. Please don’t use her real name at this point, in case she wants privacy in the future.
Shannon herself feels an enormous difference, as referenced in my previous blog post:
http://phylliswheeler.com/CuringAutismBlog/?p=404
By the way, NAET uses Eastern medicine theory including acupressure to desensitize an individual to substances that are causing allergies or, in this case, other problems. In treating autism, I think NAET allows the body to strengthen itself against the environmental contaminants that must be triggering autism in genetically susceptible individuals. Our NAET practitioner is Becca Skrainka.
Our son “Mike” started NAET treatments in January, and we are hopeful that after a year of them he will see more improvement. He has improved greatly from being on supplements from the Yasko protocol, but he still is unable to understand what others might be thinking.
Today I attended a support group meeting in St. Louis for parents of autistics who are using the Yasko protocol on their kids. The group is run by an occupational therapist with an interest in advising families.
The Yasko support group draws several women from western parts of Illinois, as well as others from the St. Louis area. Most of those who came take their kids to see an DAN! doctor and allergist in the Kansas City area, but they also are using supplements and advice from the Yasko protocol. Those who had been using the Yasko/DAN! protocol for a while were reporting positive results.
We had an interesting discussion, that’s for sure! I hope there are other groups like this around the country that help parents navigate the protocol.
“Mike” is now a junior in high school. He took algebra his freshman year and totally flunked it. He couldn’t focus on his work, was obsessed about a variety of non-scholarly subjects, couldn’t relate to peers, and generally was a total emotional wreck. He has Asperger’s, a mild form of autism.
At that time we had begun to treat him with supplements from Amy Yasko’s protocol. But they weren’t working. Then in December or so we were able to figure out which Yasko supplements help him, and had him only on those. He has been doing better and better ever since. He’s taking algebra again this year.
At his teacher conference yesterday his algebra teacher told me she thinks he has gift for math. He asks penetrating questions. He does all his work. He is organized. He interacts appropriately with his peers in the class. He is getting an A.
This is something I thought I would NEVER see. Perhaps he is living up to his heritage from his grandfather the CalTech Ph.D. and rocket scientist.
The news recently has had two disturbing items in it relating to the health of our children.
One was the results of a phone survey of families of 78,000 children. The surveyors asked how many children aged 3-17 in the household had ever been diagnosed with autism. The answer: 1 in 91. This is a marked increase from the previously accepted level of 1 in 150, which was a huge increase from the level of one in thousands, 50 years ago when my autistic brother was born. Something is very wrong and getting worse, and it started in the early 1990s.
The second disturbing item was a clip of an Oprah Winfrey show describing the life of a 7-year-old schizophrenic. Lo and behold, she has a little friend who is also a very young schizophrenic. There are two of them. Generally, schizophrenia comes on in late teens or early adulthood. Childhood schizophrenics are one in 10,000 or one in 40,000, depending on which Web page you are quoting. So is this becoming more common?
Yes, there is a link between autism and schizophrenia. Autistics are about twice as likely to become schizophrenic as normal people are. No one knows why, of course.
Amy Yasko, a pioneer in applying genetics research to autism treatment, has called the children of the autism epidemic “the canaries in the coal mine.” She contends that we are living in a soup of toxins, and that the children are most susceptible and affected first.
I certainly hope that someone does major research soon examining the possible environmental triggers of autism, including exposure to so many vaccines. (The research that has been going on is underfunded and focusing on genetics rather than environment.)
We need to know what is causing this. It is a disaster.