There is no longer any doubt that the rates of autism has increased. It’s not merely “better diagnosis.” There is clearly something we are doing to our children that is affecting the way their brains function and relate to the world around them.
Years ago, I used to think it was merely something that the child was getting or not getting. Give them the right foods or supplements, or take away the wrong chemicals or foods or vaccinations, and everything would be great. And certainly we hear miraculous stories of kids who were taken off of dairy or given Secretin and became normal again. But, unfortunately, these are anecdotal stories and don’t seem to apply to the general population.
The more I have learned about epigenetic modification by chemical exposure in the womb, the more I have been convinced that, in the vast majority of cases, the way the child’s genes are being expressed is not reversible. The combination of poor nutritional status and / or exposure to some or one of the tens of thousands of FDA approved chemicals alters the DNA of our children in the womb. This forever changes the actions of that gene, much in the same way that a liver cell, while containing ALL of the DNA to be a brain cell, is permanently modified so it is only a liver cell.
This epigenetic modification is likely brought on by a trigger in the early years. This trigger could very well be exposure to mercury containing vaccinations, or even the immune burden from the vaccinations themselves. We just don’t know yet, but it does make sense.
So what happens after the fact? I’ve seen and heard some sad stories of parents who feed their children nutritionally poor and processed foods, soda and candy. The excuse is usually that their child is a picky eater (this is actually a common excuse–parents of autistic children or not). Given what’s at stake, this is an unacceptable excuse.
Why would we NOT give any child’s brain the best nutrients at the optimals levels to function at it’s highest? The brain of a child has a massive level of metabolic activity, and the growth of neurons and the development of learning and language is beyond comprehension.
If the above is not reason enough, this particular article finds that the addition of B vitamins and magnesium lowered the urine levels of dicarboxylic acids in autistic children. Dicarboxylic acids can be used as a marker of oxidative stress and damage to certain fatty acids in the body.
Kryptopyrrole (known as the mauve factor because of the color change that occurs on urine testing) has been long known to be a marker for improvement in both autism and schizophrenia. Niacin, B6 and zinc have been shown to lower levels of this compound, so this study is in line with what has already been studied.
Certainly supplementation with these nutrients will not miraculously turn around the child, but it again supports the use of the highest quality diets as well as targeted supplementation.