MD SPEAKS OUT

[Guest guest]

TO THE LOS ANGELES TIMES and INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE (IOM)

REGARDING PANEL ON LINK BETWEEN CHILDHOOD VACCINES AND AUTISM

I am a physician in Southern California, board certified in

Psychiatry and Neurology. I am currently specializing in

bio-medicine of autism from both personal interest and sheer

demand by ever-increasing numbers of parents seeking help for

their children with this diagnosis. I was disturbed by the

report released Monday and published in the LA Times April 23

by IOM. Though I agree that long-term peer reviewed studies do

not yet prove the relationship between the MMR and autism, I

believe the report was mis-leading to the general public and

especially to parents or parents-to-be. There is overwhelming

clinical evidence by those of us out in the fields dealing with

rapidly increasing numbers of autistic children that vaccine

safety needs a great deal more investigation.

As a clinician, my current belief which guides my practice

with these children is that any child given the HepB

vaccination at birth and subsequent boosters along with

DPT has received unacceptable levels of neurotoxin in the

form of the ethyl mercury in the thimerosal preservative

used in the vaccine. In any child with a genetic immune

susceptibility (probably about one in six) this sets off a

series of events that injure the brain-gut-immune system.

By the time they are ready to receive the MMR vaccination,

their immune system is so impaired in a great number of these

children that the triple vaccine cannot be handled by the now

dysfunctional immune system and they begin their obvious descent

into the autistic spectrum disorder.

The histories are very similar in the majority of these children.

Dutiful parents get their child all mandated vaccinations, then

come the multiple ear infections, multiple courses of antibiotics,

development of food sensitivities (especially wheat and milk

products) and allergies, chronic diarrhea/and or constipation,

gradual marked restriction of food intake, and evidence of

cognitive deficits in the form of gaze avoidance, intolerance of

changes in routines, lack of interest in socialization and

interacting with others, and lack of language development. This

latter is finally what gets most parents to seek help for their

child if they are not familiar with the autistic spectrum syndrome,

which most parents are not. The next thing that frequently

happens is that the pediatrician tells the parents that " it's just

toddler diarrhea " (the child hasn't had formed stools in months)

or " he/she looks fine, some children just talk later than others "

no words at 18-24 months), etc. and the diagnosis is further

delayed. THESE ARE MEDICALLY SICK CHILDREN!! Their

gastrointestinal system is so injured first by the injected

toxins, then by the ensuing invasion of pathogens, especially

yeast infections, and then by the ingestion of foods they cannot

process, like milk and wheat, and the end-point is a malnourished

brain that cannot develop and process the world the way a normal

child does. They desperately need special early educational

intervention to help their brains be receptive, and fortunately

this is already well known and happening to some extent.

Concomitantly, these children need early bio-medical intervention

to help the gastrointestinal, immune, and neurological systems

heal and begin to function appropriately. They need dietary

intervention and removal of toxic foods and substances,

including gut and brain pathogens, so their starving brains

can develop properly. They need special vitamins and minerals

to offset the chemical aberrations produced by the toxins and

subsequent neurological malnutrition.

In the last few years thousands of children have been treated

with oral chelation methods to reduce their toxic load of

heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and aluminum in

their bodies, and the results by the clinicians who are willing

to step out of the " medical box " to use this form of treatment

are having good and sometimes amazing results with a therapy

that is very safe. As in all treatment, the earlier the

children are treated, the more likely they respond. The

protocols are still changing for this new kind of treatment, but

children are followed very closely with blood and urinary tests

to make sure they remain in good health throughout the process.

It is a prolonged process; heavy metals that have become a part

of their cellular make-up do not leave easily. The children need

to be monitored carefully and strict attention must be paid to

their nutritional/vitamin/mineral intake throughout this therapy.

In my practice, I have been amazed by the improvement in many

children who are started on a good vitamin/mineral/nutrient

program even before they receive any chelation medications.

Each child is a complex, unique biochemical/psychological system,

and must be evaluated and tested and treated individually.

Therefore this kind of therapy is much more prolonged and

complicated and demanding both on the parents, the child, and

the practitioner than usual forms of medicine dictated by

pharmaceuticals, and is not cost-effective for busy practitioners

particularly dictated by bottom-line-money-saving health plans.

There is a desperate need for doctor education in this arena, as

well as need for insurance carriers to recognize new treatments

that in the long run stand to save them a great deal by helping

early in the course of these disorders. There is a desperate need

for screening clinics where interested physicians and health

workers can evaluate these children and counsel parents on the

best way to prevent life-long disability. At a meeting I recently

attended at the annual NIH conference on children's health in

Bethesda MD, one of the directors at that meeting said that the

estimated life-long cost of educating and treating a child with

autism is $2,000,000! 700 new cases have been added to the

California school system in less than the last 3 months.

Our educational and medical systems are woefully inadequate to

this incredible challenge. Spending most of the millions

allocated to autism on obscure genetic rodent studies in

universities by persons who may have never encountered a child

with autism is tantamount to neglect of many thousands of

children who need medical evaluation and treatment as well as

proper educational intervention RIGHT NOW!!

In my opinion, to take the MMR vaccine out of context of the

entire vaccine program and state that it is safe stands to

create complacency in parents and researchers, and will continue

to endanger many more children before the full truth of this very

complicated picture is understood.

Jaquelyn McCandless, M.D., 21800 lee St.

#48, Woodland Hills, CA 91367,

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