Thursday, April 16, 2009

Autism awareness month and Earth day

I love that Autism Awareness month also coincides with Earth Day. I firmly believe that the two are connected. If our world (and hence our bodies) were not so polluted, I don't think our rates of Autism would be as high as they are. Our food supply is produced largely by Monsanto, who created agent orange and roundup. How smart is that? Now they are the ones producing most of our seeds for crops? And that they have made them into terminator seeds which means they cannot be propagated the following year, the farmer MUST buy new seeds each year. Our crops are mainly genetically modified (GMO) which increases inflammation. Then you can address the actual pollution of our air and waters and then get into the other toxins like cleaning supplies, drugs, vaccines, etc. It is no wonder we have hit a tipping point and the fallout is felt by this new generation.

The statistics for Autism are scary these days. It always galls me when I hear someone flippantly say "well WE drank out of the garden hose with lead in it and WE are just fine" (or whatever in response to any safety mechanism that is now in play that wasn't 20 years ago). Really??? Maybe not. Did you know, if your grandmother smoked while she was pregnant with your mother, YOU are more likely to have asthma, cancer, etc. You run a greater chance of ill effects if your grandmother smoked while pregnant than if your own mother smoked while pregnant. These problems often jump generations, making changes in your DNA that are only realized once you bear your own children and something in the environment flips that switch. Again I talk about inherited disease. Maybe we aren't "just fine" like many in the previous generations say, you know that generation that drank out of that leaden garden hose. And now our future generations are showing the signs of the pollution. I think if we talk about Earth Day and more importantly do something about Earth Day and also the pollution in our bodies we can make an impact on our world AND our children. We need to connect the dots on what we do to our Earth and our bodies and the impact it is having on our functionality.

I hear "scientists" talk about how Autism is not an epidemic, it is just better testing.....right. I live with Autism everyday and when I was growing up, I knew just 1 kid (and even that is a stretch) who even remotely resembled my son in behavior. He was "that kid", you know, the one that got hyped out on Kool-Aid, couldn't have food coloring, was always bouncing off the walls and in his own world, missing those social cues. Do you know how many of "that kid" there are (or will be)? The statistic is rising and by some recent estimations in the UK the numbers have jumped to under 1 in 50 boys!! Staggering for something that is "just better detected now". And, I know plenty of boys who probably are borderline or fall under PDD-NOS (pervasive development delay-not otherwise specified) who don't qualify for services because they aren't bad enough. I can't tell you how many women I have become friends with who either have a child with Autism or PDD-NOS and not because we met in a therapy clinic waiting room either. What are those odds? Certainly not coincidental I don't think.

This disorder called Autism is getting worse. Their guts, immune systems and their detox pathways are broken. When you can't detox, it builds up. It negatively impacts behavior as a result. When we were able to aid my son's methylation process through Methyl B-12 injections, aid his immune system through use of Low Dose Naltrexone, get the yeast and Clostridia bacteria somewhat under control, removed wheat and dairy from his diet and funny enough but many of those "Autistic Behaviors" faded away. Huh.....isn't that interesting. Talk to many people doing biomedical intervention and you will hear the same things. Not to the same level or in the same ways necessarily since each child is different but they can and do get better. My son's speech has improved so dramatically since starting biomed that he is in danger of losing his therapy. This is a child who was hardly speaking a year ago.....the only thing that changed in that time was seeing Dr. Woeller and starting a DAN! protocol. Pollution is not just a concern for our world, but for ourselves and our future. We reap what we sow and unfortunately, this next generation of kids is paying for decades of abuse.

Although maybe we just might get some help. I read something just yesterday about big pharma doing a clinical trial on the use of enzymes to help children on the Autism spectrum. Wow!! Truly groundbreaking, cutting edge stuff here. Way to go big Pharma. And if you hadn't guessed, that is my sarcasm showing. Most parents doing ANY sort of biomedical intervention with their children have been using enzymes for years.....we all know that MANY of these kids lack the enzymes to breakdown wheat and dairy which then leads to all sorts of gut dysbiosis and behavioral ramifications. Maybe at least we can get some of these "alternative" treatments covered by insurance and to get a mainstream ped to learn a little something about this disorder that more families will face than any other childhood disease out there. And maybe, just maybe we can have a little respect for the research many parents have done to understand and help their child thrive and be the very best they were meant to be.