Dr. Mark Hyman on HuffPo: Why Current Thinking About Autism is Completely Wrong

By Kim Stagliano

Can you hear the dedicated pharma and genetics and behavioral commenters stampeding to HuffPo? How many harcore ND bloggers just vomited a little in their mouths? 

Please hop over to HuffPo to read and comment on, Why Current Thinking about Autism is Completely Wrong. Here's a taste:

"Autism is caused by poor mothering." That was the belief of the medical community until the late 1960s.

"Autism is a genetic brain disorder." That is what most people -- and most of the medical community -- believe today.

I'm here to tell you that neither one of these statements is true.

Think about it. Rates of autism have skyrocketed over the years, from an estimated 1 child in 3,000 to just 1 in 150 kids today. Sure, wider criteria for diagnosis and better detection might explain some of it -- but not an increase of this magnitude.

The real reason we are seeing increasing rates of autism is simply this: Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain. A toxic environment triggers certain genes in people susceptible to this condition. And research supports this position.

Today I will review some of this research and explain how imbalances in the 7 keys systems of the body may be the real cause--and thus the real cure--of autism.

A New Understanding of Autism

Dramatic scientific discoveries have taken place during the last 10 to 20 years that reveal the true causes of autism -- and turn conventional thinking on its head. For example, Martha Herbert, MD, a pediatric neurologist from Harvard Medical School has painted a picture of autism that shows how core abnormalities in body systems like immunity, gut function, and detoxification play a central role in causing the behavioral and mood symptoms of autism.

She's also given us a new way of looking at mental disease (and disease in general) that is based on systems biology. Coming from the halls of the most conservative medical institution in the world, this is a call so loud and clear that it shatters our normal way of looking at things...

Comments

[Sarah]

Benedetta,

yes, good point re: Alzheimers and Kawasaki also add MS, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Parkinsons in addition to autism these are all related to mitochondrial disease..

Here's a link to an interesting article called the "Spectrum of Mitochondrial Disease" by Dr. Robert Naviaux. Dr. Naviaux is a mitochondrial disease expert. It shows how truly huge this previously obscure area of medicine really is.

Spectrum of Mitochondrial Disease
(see table 3 on Atypical presantations)

http://biochemgen.ucsd.edu/mmdc/ep-3-10.pdf

Also there's a new test developed out of Standford that used to check for Mitochondrial problems (see link):

New test for mysterious metabolic diseases developed at Stanford/Packard

http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2009/february/enns.html

[Benedetta Stilwell]

Sarah and Paul;
You forgot Alzheimers!

Vasculitis Foundation has put autism, OC, and alzheimers in with their growing groups of autoimmune diseases that affect the blood vessels. They also have Kawasaki's in there too.

[Paul Shapiro]

Hi Sarah,
Your speculative response makes sense to my
question: "Why aren't normal adults struck or triggered into Autism???????
Your response:
“. adults are not labeled "autistic" but people who show symptoms later in life maybe dxed: bipolar, Schizophrenic, ADHD or Aspergers. I think many of these traits are the same as childhood autism.”

However, I’d love to see the CDC/FDA put some real force i.e., dollars into some honest effort research so that the cause of this scourge can be unraveled. Those bastards are still in a defensive crouch trying to cover their inadequacies and failure to test approved and released ‘witches brews’ before testing to a standard of, "DO NO HARM".

Wouldn't ya' just wanna' beat the hell out of them, if when the code is broken, not only will our children and those yet to be born will be free of this terrible man made life stealing sickness.

Just think if what you suspect is true,
There are millions of additional adult lives around the world, that they are responsible for ruining!!

I'd love to go down to their hideout and give them a good SLAP, just to get them started!
Paul Shapiro

[Sarah]

Paul Shapiro said: "Why aren't normal adults struck or triggered into Autism???????

Paul,

I think adults are struck but they just given a different label.

I think it has to do with the age when symtpoms first appear. . adults are not labeled "autistic" but people who show symptoms later in life maybe dxed: bipolar, Schizophrenic, ADHD or Aspergers. I think many of these traits are the same as childhood autism. Also, as with autism, these neurological disorders are all related to mitochondrial dysfunction. I believe these disorders can be triggered/ aggravated by outside stressors.

My son has aspects of all these disorders (he self talks, he can be hyper and inattentive, he has a funny lilt to his voice) but because he was dxed at 3 he is considered "autistic". These disorders are all related regardless of the label.

[Paul Shapiro]

The following question has bothered me for a very long time:

Why aren't normal adults struck or triggered into Autism???????

[Benedetta Stilwell]

Melissa D

Glazes. All pottery made from clay has lead in it. They fire it and it is rock hard and will not absorb moisture but the lead will still leach out, so it is dangerous to drink or eat off of. To make it safe they glaze it. They brush this powdery liquid on and fire it in an oven. the particles melt forming a glass. This seals off the lead clay and it is now safe to eat and drink from. Some times they will fire a cup but not put a glaze on the inside and that is bad.

My 23 year old son is walking around with a chip on his shoulder. I am thinking about asking the doctor for an anti-depressant. I am going to have to research what if anything happens when you add something like that to Keppra. Shoot!

[Melissa D]

Cherry - I have a question about dishes with glazes. What exactly do you mean? I pretty much only use Pfaltzgraff for my son because I was worried about plastic. I cook in stainless steel, use stainless steel water bottles, but a problem with the dishes I use never occurred to me. My son tests really high in mercury and arsenic. I know this is off topic, but does anyone have any thoughts on safety of dishware?
BTW, I was quite impressed with Dr. Mark Hyman's article - we need more non-autism doctors like him to take up the fight...here is a man who has been published and quoted in a number of mainstream forums (print & TV) on medical topics, so maybe people will take notice about what he says regarding autism.

[LLJames]

Life a red blood cell is four months and life of other cells have different schedules to regenerate and die. When it comes to complimentary medicine by getting at the cause of the problem (the inside out), which is systemic... It takes a lot of time.

It is a life style commitment when receiving knowledge on how to eat, what to supplement with, and how to balance the gut as our immune system begins in the gut. You eat you expel. Without that, you don't live. So in with the good and out with the bad.

[Pamela]

Nessie King

I'm so very sorry to hear that DAN! treatment has not brought more functional recovery for your son. It is a lot of hard work and I can't imagine how heartbreaking it is when it doesn't work.

DAN! brought dramatic recovery for my daughter but my God Son, who was diagnosed with Asperghers, did not respond very well to the DAN! approach either, yet he is recovered today thanks to Yasko and homeopathy.

The fact that your son has not shown dramatic improvement does not mean treating underlying medical conditions can not recover any children. Very complex genetics issues stood in my God Son's way and once his parents learned how to approach those genetics issues, he flourished.

I am at a complete loss as to how you took from Dr. Hyman's article that he is denying that autism is neurological. Dr. Hyman quite clearly defines the neurological component of autism. "Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain. A toxic environment triggers certain genes in people susceptible to this condition." Just because neurology is affected does mean it is not treatable or reversible. Doctors treat and heal all matter of brain injury every day, whether that injury is structural.

It is my greatest hope and prayer that every parent working to recover their child finds the key treatment that brings that recovery, as we have.

[Twyla]

Nessie, I don't think anyone is saying autism is not neurological. But it is not only a matter of defective genes impairing development of the brain and nervous system, causing faulty wiring.

You saw that your son had adverse reactions to the MR and MMR vaccines. Although it is possible that he had a genetic susceptibility, it is also possible that without those vaccines he would be very different than he is today.

And it appears that, while maybe a small number of kids are susceptible to harm from one or two vaccines (as when I was a child 50 years ago, when there were far fewer vaccine reactions and much lower rates of autism etc.), the percentage of kids with "susceptibility" increases a lot when so many vaccines are given (not to mention vaccine ingredients such as mercury and aluminum which are neurotoxins as well as affecting the immune sytsem). Similarly, maybe only a few kids would suffer serious injury from being pushed over by a sibling, but a lot more would suffer serious injury from being hit by a truck.

Of course the brain and nervous system are involved in autism, but the point is that the brain, nervous system, digestion, immune system, and chemical processes in the body are all inter-related. For example, vaccines can cause the immune system to develope auto-antibodies against the myelin basic protein coating the nerve cells. (See http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/02/vaccine-court-hepatitis-b-shot-causes-ms/comments/page/2/ ) And inflammation of the gut can contribute to inflammation of the brain.

Dr. Hyman says that "Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain." He contrasts this with the still-prevalant paradigm that "Autism is a genetic brain disorder." See Dr. Martha Herbert's paper at http://www.clinicalneuropsychiatry.org/pdf/04_herbert.pdf

I'm so sorry that these treatments have not been of more help to your son. Maybe if mainstream medicine and science had spent the past 15 years or so researching the whole-body paradigm of autism, by now we would have better treatments and a better idea of what treatments can benefit a particular child.

Thank goodness some doctors are paying attention -- often because they have a child or grandchild with autism.

I wish you and your family all the very best!

[Cherry Sperlin Misra]

To Nessie King, I am very sad to hear of your sons severe problems. It would appear to me that there is either plenty of mercury left inside your son from his vaccines or he is still getting more mercury from some source. Please examine your home and life very carefully for any source of mercury. Do you eat fish or shellfish? Does your son eat any products that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup? Has any dentist given him mercury dental amalgams? Do you live near any factory or crematourium that may be putting mercury into your air? Any mercury that fell into carpets? Look for sources of other metals too- Are you living in an area of high air pollution from cars? Are you using any dishes that have glazes- a little jug from Mexico for example? Is there lead in your drinking or cooking water or perhaps even your city water has high mercury level.Are you using aluminum foil? Its just my idea, but it would seem that if you could stop all metals from entering his body, perhaps his body could start slowing excreting the old mercury, perhaps aided by more chelation. Something like the night terrors and preference for being alone is such a clear sign of mercury . This is why I think you need to keep looking in this direction.God bless your dear son . Anyone on AOA - Do you have any corrections or additions to this- please let me know.

[Kristin]

I thought this article was wonderful and agree that this type of article should be in every paper and medical journal. Most doctors don't know anything about the medical problems of kids with autism. Treating each child individualy is key and I don't like the "in-fighting" that sometimes happens when biomed is mentioned. I am a Bio-med mom but we also have done/do OT, Speech,ABA,PT and Son-Rise. My kids have benefited from all of these. Even with my two kids on the spectrum, I can't treat them the same. My daughter was more of a GI kid and responded dramatically to dietary intervention. My son responds more to supplements and Cutler's Protocol. All these therapies and treatments work to different degrees for different kids. But I believe they all are intertwined. Cutler's protocol is helping us get oral motor skills back, which help with speech, which makes him happier and less frustrated and work better in his other therapies. And Son-Rise helps me to work with him one on one in a way that he responds best to. Autism is complicated and we can't expect the treatment/recovery to be any different.

[Stagmom]

Julie, I agree on Dr. Weil, I don't know squat about Dr. Oz. Isn't he an Oprah creation? Weil is too busy selling vitamins and hawking his crap to get into childrens' health. At least Dr. Mercola came to the Autism One think tank. I give him props for that. And Dr. Bob Sears is ALWAYS sticking his neck out for our kids.

[Rob Smith]

Gale, what Dr Hyman said is "Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain. A toxic environment triggers certain genes in people susceptible to this condition."

Do you see the difference between this statement and "autism is a genetic brain disorder"?

[julie]

Dr Hyman has a very successful practice with adults (his waiting list is a few months). He doesn't have to enter the autism wars and take all the abuse he's going to get for articles like this. The fact that he does shows that he is sincere and wants to help our community. Other "alternative" popular doctors, like Dr Weil and Dr Oz, stay far far away from the charged topic of autism.

Dr Hyman does devote a few pages to Dr Wakefield in his book, very positively. Dr Hyman's book doesn't really have any new information for the biomed parent, but it covers many of the same concepts as Dr Jepson's book and is a lot easier to understand.

[Stagmom]

Nancy, the HuffPo email alerts are their version of "the Bat Signal." Man your stations! The taxi light is on! It's payday! Now get out there and deny deny deny!!! GO! GO! GO! GO!"

Booooring, aren't they?

[Nessie King]

Would that it were so simple.

To deny that autism is a neurological disorder is as bad as saying "the depressed mother made him this way".

My son has very severe dyspraxic symptoms. His entire left side of his body is deteriorating year on year. Since the age of 12 he has had to use a wheelchair. Now I ask you, since his brain scans show his right brain hemisphere (which controls the left hand side of his body) is smaller than his left, how is this not neurological?

After a reaction with the MR at 18 months and then the MMR at 4 years, he was left with this high functioning autistic spectrum condition (HFASC).

My son has been on a gluten free diet since he was 9 years old, he has tried bacteria replacement (he was also put through the same battery of tests as this little boy and identified with very similar deficiencies) and chelation.

It hasn't made a difference to his health really, except ease the symptoms somewhat. It hasn't helped the autism - he still can't read or write, despite having a tested IQ of over 130. He still has panic attacks and sleeping disorder problems including night terrors and sleep walking. He still finds communication with strangers difficult, has difficulties making and keeping friends, engaging in social activities without support and is still obsessional and compulsive.

His diet merely ameliorates the worst of the bowel symptoms - it is but one stepping stone on the autistic path. It is not the cure nor is it the answer.

And it certainly does not mean that autistic problems are NOT neurological.

[NAK]

Great article. Very true, wonderful, brought tears to my eyes. Individualized treatments is the key. I wish every doctor would treat autism as a medical problem instead of psycological disorder. I know the treatments are very expensive. The hardest part for any parent was to know there is a treatment that could improve my child's quality of life and I couldn't afford it. Its gut wrenching and heartbreaking. I promised I would die trying though. My daughter is a big responder to the treatments. I actually squeeze every dollar and max out credit cards. I hope someday somewhere somebody will read this article and say "hey its possible" Yes autism is treatable. At least the kind our kids who broke out with the diesease starting in the late 80's and 90's and continues today. Remember it wasn't studied as intensely as it has been in the last ten years. it was considered rare and doctors slept through the classes on autism. (that's what I was told by 3 doctors in the 90's) Need to stay awake for everything that will hit you in the face. But again thank you for saying it right. God bless you and keep you and continue to lead and guide you.

[nhokkanen]

AutismDeadBeat is over there, proving that he, too, suffers from reverse G.I. outflow. Rhetorically speaking, that is.

[Paul Shapiro]

Hey Doctor Mark,
How come no mention of Dr Wakefield. He has been working along the same lines for ten years or so. Are going it alone and reinventing the wheel????

Paul Shapiro

[Anne McElroy Dachel]

This story about the work of Dr. Mark Hyman made me immediately think of the words of Dr. Andrew Wakefield on Dateline. He said solemnly, “Now there are many more doctors who are telling the same story and doing the same thing.”

I have long had a dream …

...that I will no longer go on my computer every morning and see autism covered only in stories about bowling fund raisers and calls for greater awareness.
...that health officials will stop lying to us about "safe mercury," "no evidence of harm," and "better diagnosing."
...that the AAP will no longer pretend that having one percent of children diagnosed with autism is normal and acceptable.
... that parents will be given hope for recovering kids with effective treatments like diet, chelation and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
... that doctors will finally start speaking out en masse about the damaging effects of vaccines that they've seen firsthand.
…that the members of the press will start doing their job and report this issue in a truly fair and balanced manner, letting us hear from experts on both sides.

After eight years being active on this issue, I’m sure I’ve heard hundreds of personal stories of children regressing after routine vaccinations. Doctors have seen it too, yet they somehow convince themselves that it’s nothing more than coincidence. They see concomitant health issues like bowel disease, severe allergies, asthma, seizures, and sleep disorders, yet they deny any connection.

If the press reported on the autism epidemic with only a fraction of the coverage they’re giving to the H1N1 “pandemic,” the public would realize the damage that’s been done.

NBC Dateline falsely presented Dr. Wakefield and Dr. Krigsman as lone crusaders treating autistic kids for a bowel disease. Other doctors supposedly see no connection between the MMR, autism, and bowel problems.

Dr. Hyman’s account of Sam’s health issues and his recovery prove Dateline wrong.

“Her son, Sam, was born bright and happy, was breast-fed, and received the best medical care available (including all the vaccinations he could possibly have). He talked, walked, loved, and played normally -- that is, until after his measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination at 22 months.
"He also had a leaky guts, and his gut was very inflamed. The immune system in his gut showed a high level of inflammation by a marker called eosinophil protein X. He had 3 species of yeast growing in his gut and no growth of healthy bacteria. Urine tests showed very high levels of D-lactate, an indicator of overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine.

“After following a gluten-free diet and treating his gut for 3 weeks, Sam showed dramatic and remarkable improvement. He's getting back much of his language skills and showing much more connection and relatedness in his interactions.
“After 4 months, he was more focused, unstuck and verbal.
“After 10 months, his bowels were back to normal, he was verbally fluent, mainstreamed in school and he 'lost' his diagnosis of autism.”

Why isn’t Dr. Hyman on Dateline?
Why isn’t the mainstream media giving us the story of hope that parents read about only on Internet blogs?

How long will our country turn its back on a generation of children?

[Pat]

I was initially thrilled when I read this on Huffington Post. An hour later, I was angry. This type of content should be written in the New England Journal of Medicine, not on Huffington Post. Basically, if we want to be respected and embraced by science, we have to "speak their language." Continuing to post seemingly groundbreaking and exciting treatment of autism such as this on blogs just continues to add fuel to the fire of our critics. Please DAN doctors, get together with the best and brightest of your colleagues, gather all of your clinical data, create a solidly based scientific peer-reviewed article and publish it in a respected medical journal. Then science will take notice.

[Gale]

Autism is a "genetic" brain disorder." That is what most people -- and most of the medical community -- believe today.

I'm here to tell you that neither one of these statements is true. NOT TRUE

toxic environment triggers certain "genes" in people susceptible to this condition. TRUE

So it is genetic as in "susceptibility in some people" but a "systems" impact on a more fragile genetic makeup...possibly one that is very common but only "some" people get impacted because its where their system meets the road?

Okay I'm confused. Now I read.