Hi Everyone,
I have been posting on Oprah.com's Autism boards for a few days now after finding that someone had mentioned my work. I have been writing mostly about the benefits of the gluten-free/casein-free diet but also covering the secondary issues of vaccines, viruses, and environmental pollutants.
Here is my latest. I would love to know what you all think.
The “Syndrome” of Autism- Food Intolerance, Viruses, Vaccine and Pollutants
My name is John (“DogtorJ”) and I am a veterinarian turned medical literature researcher. I joined the forum after finding my name mentioned in one of the posts. As many of you now know, I am a big proponent of the gluten-free, casein free diet for autism (and epilepsy) and have been studying the benefits of this diet in many other neurological conditions (e.g. ALS, MS, peripheral neuropathy, fibromyalgia, and others) for over 7 years.
I became an Internet medical literature researcher following my own phenomenal recovery on the GFCF diet once I discovered that I had celiac disease (gluten intolerance) and subsequently found out about my concurrent dairy and soy intolerance. I quickly went from a sickly 45 year old on 5 different prescriptions to a bullet-proof 53 year old who has not taken a prescription drug in over 7 years. Within a month of being gluten-free I was a totally different person. Gone were my pain, depression/chronic fatigue, food addictions, insomnia, gastrointestinal distress and much more. I went from barely getting through 9 holes of golf taking my own cortisone to playing 36 holes and not even taking an aspirin. It was amazing to say the least and got my full attention as a patient and as a health professional.
I began applying all that I had learned about gluten intolerance to my canine patients and marveled as miracles happened. The most amazing was the control of seizures. I read that celiac children who also suffered from epilepsy often had dramatic improvements in their seizure frequency and severity once on gluten-free diets. This grabbed my attention and I plunged into how and why this could be. After countless dogs stopped seizing on GFCFSFCF diets, I turned my attention to the rising number of humans who were employing the diet. I have now lectured on this topic at both veterinary and human medical conferences.
I quickly found that there were foods other than gluten grains that played similar roles and as I eliminated these, the success rates skyrocketed. Suddenly, I was talking about the "big 4" or "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" as I lovingly call them when I want to be melodramatic. These are gluten grains (wheat, barley, rye), dairy (casein, lactalbumins, etc.) , soy and corn. These are the primary foods that are capable of inducing villous atrophy (damage to the villi of the intestinal tract, primarily those of the duodenum and jejunum) resulting in the malabsorption of the nutrients that are CRITICAL to the health of the brain, liver, immune system and every other tissue.
The duodenum is responsible for the absorption of the vast majority of our calcium, iron, iodine, B complex, C. and trace minerals (e.g. zinc, magnesium, boron, lithium, manganese, and others.) Wow! Imagine an individual that is deficient in these vital nutrients and you have a celiac, casein intolerant, soy or corn intolerant or a combination thereof. That is why celiacs have staggering rates of every illness that plagues mankind, including cancer, immune-mediated disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. Epileptics with celiac disease are among the absolute worst.
How does this apply to autism? Because, as many of you have stated on this forum, things like thimersol and modified live vaccines are clearly contributing factors but not the sole cause of autism for the reason stated: If vaccines were THE cause, then all who received them would have autism. There has to be a distinguishing factor...or set of factors...that creates the autistic individual while at the same time determining the spectrum of affliction seen in autism. It is not a black or white condition, is it? Like so many other conditions, there is a spectrum of affliction, ranging from mild (“the best of the worst”) to severe (“the worst of the worst”). What determines this spectrum???
Well, as many of you have stated, there are multiple factors at work. BUT, I am a firm believer that the single biggest factor is diet. I have read enough testimonials from mothers of autistic children who employed elimination diets like the GFCF diet or The G.A.R.D. and had miraculous results to say this with all certainty. If the diets were proper (non-harmful and fully nutritious) then the body could better handle the secondary insults/triggers thrown at it (e.g. thimersol, air pollution, fluoride, MSG, NutraSweet, carcinogens, and other known toxins). If the brain were not malnourished and the immune system were fully competent, then things like thimersol and modified live virus vaccines might not have the devastating effects that they do in some individuals.
And we no know that this process can begin before birth. The prenatal effects of celiac disease, for example, are potentially catastrophic as the mother and fetus are both (subclinically) malnourished. Then comes the breast feeding. We also know that gluten, casein, et al pass right through mom's breast milk and can directly affect the nursing infant. If the child is an undiagnosed celiac or casein intolerant and mom is loading up on bread and cheese, then by the time that child is ready for vaccines, their brains can be affected and their immune systems can be incompetent. Those “controversial” vaccines injected into significantly affected individuals can then do severe harm, I believe, not only the thimersol but the modified live viruses themselves. We learned this the hard way in veterinary medicine with numerous cases of vaccine-induced disease with older MLV vaccines in the past. The newer vaccines produce fewer clinical cases of the disease being vaccinated against but often yield immune-mediated diseases in the weeks following administration. MLVs and adjuvants can unleash latent viral infections. That much is clear.
What is the distinguishing factor in autism (and epilepsy). Why does one child develop this condition and the other doesn't, even when they have been exposed to the same basic diet, environment and vaccines? I now agree with researchers who believe that latent viruses are very likely to be the ultimate cause and that everything else is causing/allowing/triggering the virus into causing the severe neurological signs seen in both autism and epilepsy. For example, there are over 25 human viruses that are known to cause seizures, including some of the most ubiquitous ones we see (e.g. measles, mumps, Epstein Barr, Herpes simplex, and Coxsackie). Why they affect some and not others and why they ”wait” to cause epilepsy are very important questions with some surprisingly good answers. Food intolerances can obviously play a major and decisive role.
Everyone should do a search for "autism, virus" and read what researchers already know and what they suspect. Through the eyes of the viral model, the poorly understood starts to make sense, including the role of thimersol, food lectins, environmental pollutants, fluoride and even the sedating effects of the casomorphins and gliadomorphins derived from casein (dairy) and gluten (gliadin) respectively. The testimonials of the mothers who utilize the GFCF and GARD diets also make perfect sense, as do the failures. The best of the worst will respond quickly and dramatically...miraculously. The worst of the worst respond more slowly.
Why? Because the foods that are restricted in these diets are doing so much harm to those who are sensitized to the glycoproteins (lectins) as well as the sedating compounds (casomorphins/gliadomorphins) and stimulants (glutamate, aspartate, and estrogens) they contain. These are the top 4 human, dog and cat food allergens for very good reason, with the allergies being created at the time they damage the intestinal villi. The allergies are screaming out at us to stop eating/feeding them...the acid reflux, chronic throat and ear infections, nasal congestion, IBS, asthma, eczemas, and other warning signs.
And there is one more common sign in the autistic child and that is the food addiction that so many of them exhibit. How many autistic children are addicted to wheat and dairy products? Every time I talk to a mother of an afflicted child or see a news story about autism on TV, I observe them eating foods rich in dairy or wheat...the cereals, breads, pancakes/waffles, milk, pizza, macaroni and cheese, cookies, etc. etc. Sound familiar? I have had numerous moms tell me how hard it is to get them to be in the same room with a vegetable or piece of fruit. They are addicted to the very thing (foods) that are making them sick, just like a drug addict or alcoholic. It is the nature of addiction. And this addiction speaks to the truth about the harm these foods are doing. There are no healthy addictions.
Once that child has the virus(es) that is (are) likely to be the true culprit, then all they need is a degree of immune incompetence and to be bombarded with lectins (dietary glycoproteins from the "big 4"), fluoride, mercury, air pollutants, more (“helper”) viruses, and the sedating casomorphins/gliadomorphins from dairy and wheat and their brain can become severely dysfunctional.
BUT, there is good news. GFCF testimonials tell us that if we stop doing what we are doing, then things can get better...and sometimes in a hurry. We can believe the success stories on GFCF diet sites. The failures are also explainable as strictness is essential in many cases. I tell people to think “peanut allergy” when trying to grasp the sensitivity of some individuals to certain lectins (e.g. gluten, casein).
Hopefully this post will help point some of you in the right direction to help track down the reason for those failures and correct them. We must be strict. I will follow this post with what I call “The Glaring Example”. It is a post from another forum that puts everything in perspective. Lectins are powerful things. The worst of the worst can't tolerate even the smallest quantity. Again, think "peanut allergy" and you will have the right perspective.
I hope this helps,
John
The following is a testimonial that was posted on a casein-related forum and illustrates the extreme degree of sensitivity to dietary proteins that can be realized in some individuals, especially children. Again, think “peanut allergy” but apply the reaction and damage to neurons.
The Glaring Example
“My son will be 4yo in July. He was a "colicky" baby from day 1. We had difficulty with breastfeeding so he went to a bottle with regular formula. He was just "sick" all the time with the usual runny/stuffy nose and he rarely slept and was chronically fussy. The ped diagnosed him as "formula intolerant" and we ended up on Nutramagen.
He did well and thrived on that,but he still had some chronic upper respiratory stuff and still didn't sleep well. I just thought it was "normal" for him, assuming some babies are simply more difficult than others. He never suffered ear infections or rashes that would tip off a ped to something more serious.
At about 9 months when he was taking more solid foods he seemed to get worse and then the throat infections/ tonsillitis really kicked into high gear. With mobility came new problems that seemed sensory related and then he began the self-injurious/self-mutilative behaviour, banging his head to a bloody pulp, rubbing his skin on the carpet until raw, using sharp object to claw at his arms and legs, etc.
They told me at 14 mos that he probably had a form of autism. He was exceptionally bright so they diagnosed him with Aspergers Syndrome, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and possibly Tourette's Syndrome. Ugggh! I started journaling every breath he took and noted the dairy relation. I eliminated milk (the kind you drink) from his diet and noticed a dramatic change in his behaviour (for the better) but the upper respiratory symptoms still persisted (I didn't know about "hidden" dairy then). So with this evidence I had to fight my way to an allergist. The insurance company was a big pain. Finally at age 2 we got to an allergist and discovered he was allergic to alpha-lactalbumin (one of the proteins found in whey).
We totally eliminated all dairy from his diet and he's been normal ever since. It completely changed our lives.”
It has been asked whether I am against breast-feeding because of my comments in the post above. The answer is “Absolutely not!” I should have made that clear. I would much rather infants be breast fed than receive most formulas, which are loaded with cow milk, soy and even corn proteins in some cases. I guess I was too busy making the point that dietary proteins can pass through breast milk and affect the sensitized child. I want to emphasize that, statistically, parents who have gluten intolerance have a 40% chance of passing that on to their offspring. I believe we will find that casein intolerance has the same (or greater incidence) as gluten intolerance. And it is this kind of food intolerance that helps explain breast milk intolerance. Why would an infant’s immune system reject mother’s milk? There is something in there that it doesn’t like. And now we know more about what those things are.
So, if the mother is eating dairy and gluten and the nursing child is sensitive to one of these protein sources, the problems associated with these glycoproteins can start long before the child begins eating these foods on their own. And when they do start consuming dairy, gluten, and soy in the forms of infant formulas, teething biscuits, cheese, toast, and fast food kid’s meals, the obvious reactions begin in the form of colic, congestion, ear infections, chronic Strep throats, and the like. But then come the less obvious reactions that are associated with the immune system and brain function, which surface when the child is a little older and is expected to be learning, interacting, and fighting off those “typical” childhood maladies they had in the past.
Do many autistic children have medical histories like that of the one in “The Glaring Example” above, exhibiting (an unusual amount of) colic, infections, and allergy signs before the autism becomes apparent? I tell people all of the time “If we don’t like the symptoms we are experiencing now, we are going to like the next set of “warning signs” even less. And we are really not going to like what these symptoms are warning us of (immune-mediated diseases, neurological conditions, and cancer).”
I stopped diary when I nursed our son cause when I ate it he threw up all the time. He wasn't colicy at all. His sister was and has no neuro issues at all. I have neuro issues my self. Mine are from childhood epilepsy.Our kids dad/uncle had severe allergies as baby/kid.Their meme still does as an adult. I strated with Dr.s at 4 mos. with our son. Couldn't find a allergist here that took babies. The one we see now only starts at age2. He's test fine now for diary allergie. our kids immune systems are working good. Mine doesn't now. I learned about this after our son was born. We are to poor to go organic whish we could!The Vaccaine comment you made is untrue. Many of us can't handle this just cause our systems are different than other's. It"'s a gi processing problem!Yes some kids have what I am speaking of. Dan dr's. will check in see if this is a issue for you with the blood work. Not all of us shots are good for! The world is toxic but no way can it totaly be avoided. Some kids disorder's are gentic based also. I don't believe they are all though.