Re: Fringe Autism Treatment Could Get Federal Study

[Guest guest]

On the positive side, these studies will show that chelation and other treatments don't work and could also reveal the harm they could do. That will be a good thing. Still, some parents will continue to complain, but that is just par for the course really.

In a message dated 7/9/2008 11:05:59 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

If there is one thing that needs to be chelated out of the world, it is bad parents.

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[Guest guest]

" Actress McCarthy, whose bestseller " Louder Than Words " details

her search for treatments for her autistic son, Evan, told thousands

of parents at a recent autism conference outside Chicago that she

plans to try chelation on him this summer. "

Isn't this the woman who believes autism is cured by crystals and in

indigo and crystal children? If so and a crystal cured her son, why

does she need to subject him to chelation too?

>

> Here we go again. It's been proven by 137 researchers in 50

locations in

> 9 countries worldwide that autism is genetic. This research was

backed

> up by subsequent studies and peer review during which it was stated

by

> the researchers that because autism is definitively genetic in

origin,

> no possible environmental agent can be implicated.

> On the heels of this research, a number of different genetic tests

for

> autism are being developed, and the Dsm V is being revised to define

> autism in terms of genetics.

>

> Now we have a bunch of parents -the kind that have seen trees pull

up

> roots and walk, no doubt- pushing for a study of chelation therapy,

> something that cannot cure a genetic diagnosis.

>

> I'd like to know what these people think they are doing, wasting

> research dollars on this type of thing when their hypothesis has

been

> disproven over 50 times already. The genomes of 1,600 families with

> autistics in them were mapped and the commomn autistic genes already

> isolated and analyzed. It was deternmined that these genes were

present

> from birth.

>

> The fact is, over 16,000,000 families with autism in them could have

> been analyzed and there would be people insisting that the 137

> scientists in 50 locations in 9 countries were in collusion with one

> another, and everyone in the world knows that autism is caused by

> mercury poisoning.

>

> If there is one thing that needs to be chelated out of the world,

it is

> bad parents.

>

>

>

> Administrator

> http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Autism/wireStory?id=5337943

> <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Autism/wireStory?id=5337943> Fringe

> Autism Treatment Could Get Federal Study US researchers want to

study

> alternative treatment for autism; chelation called quackery By

CARLA K.

> JOHNSON Associated Press Writer

> CHICAGO July 9, 2008 (AP)

> Pressured by desperate parents, government researchers are pushing

to

> test an unproven treatment on autistic children, a move some

scientists

> see as an unethical experiment in voodoo medicine.

>

> The treatment removes heavy metals from the body and is based on the

> fringe theory that mercury in vaccines triggers autism — a theory

> never proved and rejected by mainstream science. Mercury hasn't

been in

> childhood vaccines since 2001, except for certain flu shots.

>

> But many parents of autistic children are believers, and the head

of the

> National Institute of Mental Health supports testing it on children

> provided the tests are safe.

>

> " So many moms have said, `It's saved my kids,' " institute director

Dr.

> Insel said.

>

> For now, the proposed study, not widely known outside the community

of

> autism research and advocacy groups, has been put on hold because of

> safety concerns, Insel told The Associated Press.

>

> The process, called chelation, is used to treat lead poisoning.

Studies

> of adults have shown it to be ineffective unless there are high

levels

> of metals in the blood. Any study in children would have to exclude

> those with high levels of lead or mercury, which would require

treatment

> and preclude using a placebo.

>

> One of the drugs used for chelation, DMSA, can cause side effects

> including rashes and low white blood cell count. And there is

evidence

> chelation may redistribute metals in the body, perhaps even into the

> central nervous system.

>

> " I don't really know why we have to do this in helpless children, "

said

> Ellen Silbergeld of s Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of

> Public Health, who was invited to comment on the study to a review

board

> of the national institute.

>

> Despite lawsuits and at least one child's death, several thousand

> autistic children are already believed to be using chelation

(pronounced

> kee-LAY'-shun), their parents not content to wait for a study.

>

> Among those parents is Blakey of suburban Chicago, who

uses

> chelation and a variety of other alternative therapies, including

> sessions in a hyperbaric chamber, on her 8-year-old son, Charlie.

>

>

>

> Before he started chelation at age 5, Charlie suffered tantrums.

When

> she took him to school, she had to peel him off her body and walk

away.

> But three weeks after he began chelation, his behavior changed, she

> said.

>

> " He lined up with his friends at school. He looked at me and waved

and

> gave me a thumbs-up sign and walked into school, " Blakey said. " All

the

> moms who had been watching burst into tears. All of us did. "

>

> There is no way to prove whether chelation made a difference or

whether

> Charlie simply adjusted to the school routine.

>

> Autism is a spectrum of disorders that hamper a person's ability to

> communicate and interact with others. Most doctors believe there is

no

> cure.

>

> Conventional treatments are limited to behavioral therapy and a few

> medications, such as the schizophrenia drug Risperdal, approved to

treat

> irritability.

>

> Frustrated parents use more than 300 alternative treatments, most

with

> little or no scientific evidence backing them up, according to the

> Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in

> Baltimore, Md.

>

> " With a lot of mothers, if they hear about a treatment, they feel

like

> they need to try it, " said project director Dr. Law. " Anything

that

> has a chance of benefiting their child, they're willing to give it a

> shot. "

>

> More than 2 percent of the children tracked by the project use

> chelation. If that figure holds for the general population, it would

> mean more than 3,000 autistic children are on the treatment at any

time

> in the United States.

>

> Chelation drugs can be taken in pill form, by rectal suppository and

> intravenously.

>

> Dr. Swedo, who heads the federal institute's in-house autism

> research and wants to study chelation, gained notoriety by

theorizing

> that strep throat had caused some cases of obsessive compulsive

> disorder. The theory was never proved.

>

> She proposed recruiting 120 autistic children ages 4 to 10 and

giving

> half DMSA and the other half a dummy pill. The 12-week test would

> measure before-and-after blood mercury levels and autism symptoms.

>

> The study outline says that failing to find a difference between

the two

> groups would counteract " anecdotal reports and widespread belief "

that

> chelation works.

>

> But the study was put on hold for safety concerns after an animal

study,

> published last year, linked DMSA to lasting brain problems in rats.

It

> remains under review, Insel told the AP.

>

> Insel said he has come to believe after listening to parents that

> traditional scientific research, building incrementally on animal

> studies and published papers, wasn't answering questions fast

enough.

>

> " This is an urgent set of questions, " Insel said. " Let's make

innovation

> the centerpiece of this effort as we study autism, its causes and

> treatments, and think of what we may be missing. "

>

> Last year, the National Institutes of Health spent less than 5

percent

> of its $127 million autism research budget on alternative therapies,

> Insel said. He said he is hopeful the chelation study will be

approved.

>

> Others say it would be unethical, even if it proves chelation

doesn't

> work.

>

> Federal research agencies must " bring reason to science " without

> " catering to a public misperception, " said Dr. Offit, chief of

> infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and

> author of an upcoming book on autism research. " Science has been

trumped

> by politics in some ways. "

>

> Offit is concerned vaccination rates may fall to dangerous levels

> because some parents believe they cause autism.

>

> Dr. Myers, former director of the federal National Vaccine

> Program Office, said he believes giving chelation to autistic

children

> is unethical — but says the government can justify the study because

> so many parents are using chelation without scientific evidence.

>

> " It's incumbent on the scientific community to evaluate it, " he

said.

>

> Actress McCarthy, whose bestseller " Louder Than Words "

details her

> search for treatments for her autistic son, Evan, told thousands of

> parents at a recent autism conference outside Chicago that she

plans to

> try chelation on him this summer.

>

> " A lot of people are scared to chelate ... but it has triggered many

> recoveries, " she said

>

> But those claims are only anecdotal, and there are serious risks.

>

> Of the several drugs used in chelation, the only one recommended for

> intravenous use in children is edetate calcium disodium. Mixups with

> another drug with a similar name, edetate disodium, have led to

three

> deaths, including one autistic child.

>

> A 5-year-old autistic boy went into cardiac arrest and died after

he was

> given IV chelation therapy in 2005. A Pennsylvania doctor is being

sued

> by the boy's parents for allegedly giving the wrong drug and using a

> risky technique.

>

> No deaths have been associated with DMSA, which can cause rashes,

low

> white blood cell count and vomiting. It is also sold as a dietary

> supplement, which is how some parents of autistic children get it.

>

> A Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said the agency is " is

> looking into how these products are marketed. "

>

> ———

>

> On the Net:

>

> National Institute of Mental Health: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/

> <http://www.nimh.nih.gov/>

>

> Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This

material

> may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

>

[Guest guest]

" Isn't this the woman who believes autism is cured by crystals and in

indigo and crystal children? If so and a crystal cured her son, why

does she need to subject him to chelation too? "

Her followers are too stupid to make that realization. Maybe her son

will die because of the chelation and that will shut her up. Sorry to

be flip about it, but I am in a bad mood.

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