Wednesday, January 28, 2009

This Woman Is Going to Help a Lot of People


I recently finished working on Jenny McCarthy's new book, Healing and Preventing Autism, written with her pediatrician, Jerry Kartzinel. I haven't read any of McCarthy's other books, but I found this one to be groundbreaking, educational, and sensible (as opposed to New Age-y). In a nutshell, I believe it is going to help a lot of people, maybe even me.

The authors cover a lot of territory in this tome, but they point out that a lot of people may have conditions that are lying dormant in their bodies. Children with autism have those, and when they are vaccinated or otherwise innoculated (such as with the flu shot), those dormant conditions are awakened. Those conditions could include allergies, neurological problems, and digestive issues (oh yeah, lots of digestive issues). The problem lies with thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines, and heavy metals such as mercury, which is apparently still used in flu shots. Children's exposure to such things essentially causes autism--and by attacking autistic symptoms with a multipronged approach, autism can be healed (perhaps even defeated!), which may help explain why some children seem to "get over" it or "outgrow" it, and others don't.

If you or someone you know is affected by autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASD), such as Asperger's Syndrome, you owe it to your family to read this book. That said, here are four of my favorite pointers from Healing and Preventing Autism:


  • Many children on the autism spectrum tend to have digestive issues, particularly bowel disease. As we all know from the classic joke, the bowel is the body's boss (not the brain), so treat this first.

  • Autisic behaviors often can be traced to inflammation in the body, such as from allergic reactions to food or environmental factors (including fragrances, pollen, inhalation of chemicals, etc.) To find out if this is an issue for your ASD child, test him for immunoglobulins. (There are lots of different ones, with names like IgA, IgG, and IgM.)

  • Autism is a collection of metabolic disturbances, and different with each child. Keep in mind that your physician is going to develop protocols based on her own clinical experience and findings. It is up to you as a loved one to get informed and, if needed, present other possible avenues of exploration to your physician.

  • In general, don't bother with flu shots. These days there's either a shortage or overstock of flu shots, and their effectiveness is about as predictable as the weather. (How often do people still get sick because "a different strain" wasn't included in the shot? Very often!) Because flu shots are half their weight in mercury, they often do more harm than good.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

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