Set it straight!

I want to set something straight right here and now.  And this is regarding the mind set out there that autistic kids are permanently neurologically damaged purely by their genes.  It's to address the number of parents out there who either have no idea that biomedicine exits or they reject it completely either, because they gave it a half-assed (excuse my french) attempt or they haven't educated themselves regarding the benefits and WHY it works!

Genetics
If autism was purely genetic, it wouldn't be an epidemic, genes don't change that fast.  If autism was purely genetic, children wouldn't be recovering completely and losing their previous diagnosis' using bio-medicine.  If autism was purely genetic, there wouldn't be tests proving that the symptoms we are seeing are linked to medical causes.  If autism was purely genetic, treating the medical causes wouldn't result in complete eradication of symptoms.

When the bucket overflows, autism is the result

The cause
I wish people would stop trying so hard to point fingers at ONE cause.  There isn't one cause, there are many and yes, genetics play a role which is why one child reacts to things one way and another child can react to those same things completely differently.  Everything about our being is genetic, but it doesn't end there.  The genetics don't determine our destiny, the way we care for our body does.  Our bodies aren't invincible, we can't eat crap all day every day, smoke and drink without recourse, can we?  So why is it so far fetched to think that feeding our kids processed foods, candies and food coloring and loading them up with highly toxic products is any different?  People, we are seeing the results of changes in our own health choices, in our innocent children.  This epidemic is our fault!  We are trusting the government, doctors and advertising companies to make decisions about our health, decisions that come from money-making tactics!  Do you really think your health is their top priority?  If you put money and long-term health on the table in front of most highly paid executives, I would bet my life on most choosing the money!  The bottom line is that YOUR child is not their first priority, and why do you think s/he is?

Sorry to veer so far off topic, I get heated when I think about how detached we have come from our own health care.  The sad thing is that we believe in what we are doing, we as a society, believe that by calling a doctor when our child spikes a fever, that we ARE doing the right thing.  No one stops to think about what that fever means, why it's happening and what we should do about it, which is often, nothing!

Health status
So back to autistic kids...there are tests confirming that they are bombarded with health issues that stem from autoimmunity problems.  If your child had a kidney disease, you wouldn't ignore it and hire an occupational therapist to help teach them how to behave properly when they are in pain, would you?  Why not?  Because first of all, you would see symptoms that worry you, then you would call that ever-trusted doctor of yours, and the doctor would tell you what to do about your child's illness.  If your doctor tells you to make sure your child takes medication daily, are you going to give it?  You bet your ass you will!  Why?  Because your child's quality and possibly even length of life depends on it and no one wants their child to suffer needlessly or painfully.  Oh and don't forget, because your doctor said so, right?  Ok, so enter the autistic child.  He has GI dysfunction, leaky gut, food sensitivities, chronic diarrhea, lacks good bacteria, is overgrown in bad bacteria, often has mitochondria disorder, decreased glutathione, increased yeast, high viral titers, nutritional deficiencies, dark circles under the eyes, eczema and other rashes, allergies, seizures, this list is literally endless, but do these things look like they aren't medical to you?  They ARE medical, they ARE testable and they ARE treatable!!  And do you think the health of a person doesn't effect his or her neurological condition?  Think about when you've had a cold or the flu.  Your head hurts, you feel foggy, you want nothing to do with chores or work, you are cranky and irritable, you can barely walk sometimes.  These children are feeling like this EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. OF THEIR LIVES!  It's why they scream and yell, it's why they are unreasonable and have tantrums, it's why they head bang.  And we just pass this off as "genetic".  Genetic is not an excuse, it's the reason daily toxic insults (be it from the womb) are causing these outward symptoms we call autism.

Bystander

So when I see autistic children going without the care they deserve, I feel a fury that I can't even put words to.  How would you feel watching your neighbor, a friend or even a family member let their child suffer from a life-changing disease without medical care they so badly need?  You would call them names, you would shed tears for those children, you would offer them advice or the names of trusted doctors, you might even get in their faces and demand that they seek care for their pain-ridden children.  Or, would you just turn your head and walk away thinking, "It's their problem, not mine?" So now, because our mainstream doctors have turned their backs on our kids, because they don't have the answer, we follow suit and we turn our backs on our own kids.  Well not a warrior mom, she never turns her back on her kids!  She fights against the grain, knocking people down in her path!  These are the kids who are healing! 

Is he autistic?
I have gone as far as to say that my older son is not autistic, but I continue to focus on autism and it's treatments, for my children.  The reason is, because the health issues my children are dealing with mirror those of an autistic child.  We got lucky, we caught it when it was happening and we began the arduous process of reversing it before it got bad.  Many kids have symptoms that don't cross over into the spectrum, but they are teetering VERY close to it.  These kids are labeled as the trouble kids in school, they have ADHD (which IS on the spectrum), they have learning disabilities, mood disorders, allergies, eczema, chemical sensitivities....but they aren't autistic.  It doesn't matter, they are effected by the very same health malfunctions as an autistic child, just not as severely.  We would call them the lucky ones, but are they?  Will their health issues EVER be taken seriously enough to allow them to live normal lives?  I would guess, sadly, that no, they won't.

Awareness is key
If you are reading this blog and know of ANYONE who comes to mind when you read this, PLEASE pass it on.  We need to create awareness, because without it, our future generations are at risk.  No child deserves a life of pain and suffering just, because our doctors lack the knowledge to refer a patient to a biomedical doctor.  Please help me create awareness!

Biomedical markers
These typical biomedical markers of children with autism, Aspergers and/or ADHD are all indications that what we are dealing with is MEDICAL and REVERSIBLE!

 

 

Whose shoes do you walk in?

If you are a bio-mom, you probably get this too, people suggesting that we are extreme and go overboard with our kids.  We are extremists, right?  Wrong.  If you had diabetes and required insulin and dietary changes, you wouldn't take half of your insulin and watch your diet part of the time, would you?  What many people don't realize is that heavy metal toxicity is a real medical condition....you can't remove SOME allergenic foods, and take away a FEW toxins, and give SOME supplements to a child who is in recovery from over-toxicity.  They NEED it all in order to recover completely and in the shortest amount of time possible.  This isn't speculative, it's proven, but I am not here to provide you with all of the science you need to believe me, I am here to take care of my children.  I am a mom, that's me!

Unfortunately, until you are forced to walk in our shoes, you don't know this, nor would you need to.  We don't choose this life, we don't want to force a trillion pills down our children's throats, and spend 3/4 of our time in the kitchen making specialty foods, we don't want to watch our children feel different from their classmates, but we also don't want to watch our children suffer in an inflexible world for the rest of their lives.  Their health conditions cause a slew of symptoms that we consider socially unacceptable, but for this I am grateful, because otherwise, we wouldn't have motivation to get to the bottom of the problem.  If teachers weren't telling us our children are unruly and disturbing others in class or if non-verbal children weren't tainted with the misconception that they are mentally challenged and what about the child who has a very loud and wild tantrum in public beyond the age of two, would we go to the extent that we need to in order to see change?  I think as a society, we are too selfish and proud not to do something about these kids.  It is in our research that we begin to learn that it is more than a tantrum, defiance or hyperactivity, there are MEDICAL reasons why our children are different.  They aren't trying to be difficult, they are in pain, they are confused and they need help! The best news is that this is reversible!  And let me clarify that I am not just talking about autism here, ADHD, allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases all fall under this umbrella.  And in my most recent reading, I am convinced that cancer is the end result for someone who doesn't recognize and address their issues with toxicity.

Diet plays a HUGE role in all of these disorders.  When we eat processed foods devoid of nutrition we starve our body of the nutrients that help our organs function properly.  If those deficiencies go un-noticed for years, we begin to see the degeneration of our bodies in small signs like changes in our physical appearance, GI dysfunction, more rapid aging, mood changes, memory loss....and we have been brainwashed to think this way of aging is normal.  It's NOT!  Combine our nutritional loss with the bio-accumulation of toxins and you have a recipe for disaster!  The symptoms are compounded and you start to see our body attacking itself in diseases like arthritis and Lupus, you develop something doctors have come to call Chronic Fatigue.  It's a way to say, "I acknowledge that there is a subset of people who have similar symptoms, but we don't know what it is or what to do about it."  Now that they have a label for it, that gives you the warm and fuzzies, right?  But what do you do about healing yourself?  Don't think you are going to find your answers at your mainstream doctor's office.

In children, the symptoms differ and we are just learning what they are.   We once thought that learning disabilities, ADHD, autism and allergies were all genetic.  Sure, there is a genetic link, but that is just the seed, once it's planted into an environment, it's that environment that determines how it grows.  Are they bombarded with heavy metals from parents who have amalgam fillings that release mercury into their bodies every day, are they breathing and bathing in strong chemical cleaner residue, is there a mold in their home or school, sleeping in beds that release antimony, phosphorous and other harmful heavy metals, have their foods been so limited that they are developing sensitivities to them, are they drinking from bottles or using formula containers lined with leaching BPA and phthalates, are they getting proper nutrition for healthy physical and neurological growth, are they ingesting chemicals from pesticides and processed foods, food dyes, refined sugars and genetically modified foods.....I can really go on and on and on.  Some would say that our bodies are designed to handle toxins, which is partly true, but not as much as we are exposed to daily.  We have really bombarded our homes with unhealthy levels of toxins and we don't even realize it, it's become second nature for us to trust that everything we buy is made safely.  Think again!

Why is it that so many of us are tied emotionally to our food selections?  If we know we can begin to heal ourselves with simple changes to our diet, why is it SO hard for many to make those changes?  But if you were told you had to cut off an arm to remove a deadly flesh eating bacteria, you will jump on the table to live, won't you?  Why does the AMOUNT of time we have on this earth put us in panic mode?  What about the quality of your life?  You are still killing yourselves with poor food choices, just at a slower pace.

When we take away as many foods as our children require, and yes they ALL need complete removal for very specific and medical reasons, they require nutrition that they aren't always getting from their acceptable food list, so the supplements are necessary.  Also, children with gut problems have mal-absorption issues causing the need for additional supplements, and higher amounts of them.  When you delve into the holistic approach to caring for a person who is deficient in many ways, you also learn little tips such as splitting the supplementation up into three doses a day, in order to increase absorption, etc.  The list goes on and on.  When you do your homework, you end up where we are.  You will find that what we do with our children doesn't differ very much for any other bio-medical family.  There is a reason for that, it works!

So next time you think about cracking a joke about or to your bio-medical friend/brother/neighbor/co-worker or you think about questioning the extremity of the things they do with their children, think again.  If it were you, how would it make you feel?  And remember, as long as you are still in your child bearing years, it still CAN be you, this effects well over 1 in 90 children now!  Those are just the diagnosed cases!

Bio medicine, just for the autistic?

I'd like to talk a little bit about bio medicine and something that tends to confuse many parents. Right now, much of the biomedical research being done is on the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) community and the results achieved with biomedical treatments. Why is that? Probably because they are the most effected and we are reversing what was once considered a purely genetic and irreversible condition known as autism. But do I think these are the only people who would benefit from bio medicine? Absolutely not! We are seeing more and more research on bio medicine effecting those with autoimmune disorders like Lupus and Arthritis, Lyme Disease, and they are even reversing cancer! The rise of ASDs is an epidemic, so it's drawing attention and rightfully so. Twenty or so years ago, ASD afflicted 1 in 10,000 kids. Now? 1 in ONE HUNDRED at best! In the UK, it's 1 in 60!

So what is bio medicine, you ask? Well, let's dissect the word, it pretty much makes sense....bio, like biology and medicine, hmmm, ok so here is the medical definition:

bi·o·med·i·cine (bīˌō-mĕdˈĭ-sĭn)

noun

1. The branch of medical science that deals with the ability of humans to tolerate environmental stresses and variations, as in space travel.
2. The application of the principles of the natural sciences, especially biology and physiology, to clinical medicine.

So we are treating illnesses with nature, it's that simple. Anyone, wait no, EVERYONE can benefit from that.

Where we seem to get hung up, as parents, is hearing the term autism used in conjunction with this form of treatment. We conclude that, if we need to use bio medicine to help ourselves or our kids, it MUST mean they are autistic, right? WRONG! I think the only reason we see this connection is, because this disorder is single-handedly bringing bio medicine to the forefront of medicine. When we were first looking for natural ways to address what was going on with Grayson, I would see the word autism and turn around, change my path, just to come back to this dreaded word yet again. I kept saying, " but I don't get this, he's not autistic"....and no, he has never been diagnosed as being autistic, but why do I keep ending up here? Because it's working for kids of ALL degrees. Because it's basic biology people!! Remember, something as common as ADD is actually on the autism spectrum, and I repeat "spectrum".....there are all degrees of illness associated with this particular disorder. Label or no label, what it comes down to is there is a set of "symptoms" that come with the illness we are dealing with and whether they put your child on the spectrum or not is not what is important. What IS important is that you recognize these symptoms as something that needs attention. So is my child autistic? No, he's not. He's social beyond words, he's funny and he reads body language better than some adults I know, he is bright and very aware of his surroundings. Did he have symptoms of an autistic child? He sure did! He hand flapped, he started to loose eye contact at the worst of it (and still does when his health takes a turn for the worse), he has tantrums that aren't reasonable, he used to line up cars incessantly, he was and still sometimes is a sensory seeker (when his gut dysbiosis flares), he bounces off the walls and couches, he traces outlines of our cabinets with his hands, he has moments sometimes DAYS of being highly emotional....does any of this sound like it could be your kid? They sound like normal childhood behaviors, but what really is normal? Are we becoming accustomed to these behaviors over time, because they are more common and because the child isn't "autistic"? And when you clump all of these "behaviors" into one child, do they take on a different definition? Yes, they become symptoms of something that is very hard for parents to grasp. It's not necessarily autism, because what is going on inside of an autistic child's body can also go on inside of a neuro-typical child, which will then cause the very same symptoms that are often seen (to a more severe degree) in autistic children. I truly believe that the severely inflicted children who are at the far end of the autism spectrum are just the most fragile kids alive. Everyone handles things differently. Just think of how you handle a cold, your neighbor might have completely different symptoms with the same cold strain and allergies, you have one to mold and your cousin reacts to dogs, your child might react to milk!....These kids can't handle toxins, they cannot handle the pesticides, the heavy metals, the plastics, the cleaners and bleaches, the injections, the viruses, the EMFs, the radio frequencies, the chemicals in mattresses and fire retardant pajamas, the parabens in soaps and lotions and even TOOTHPASTES.....they are breathing, absorbing, eating....toxin after toxin and what is the one common thread they all have? More than 90% of these kids have low glutathione. This is a naturally occurring peptide in the body, a natural antioxidant. It drives our ability (or lack thereof) to detox these toxins that we encounter increasingly every day. You might be interested to know that Tylenol (our teething best friend at one point, right?) reduces glutathione. So a child who might have already been on the brink of low glutathione, give him or her Tylenol and you have just enabled his or her body to hold onto more toxins. Is it that simple, no it's not, there is a lot more that goes into this vast system, but this is one of the many things we are seeing more and more often with children these days. Do parents realize this when they reach for the Tylenol, because they just want their poor achy child to be comfy, no they don't! Do they realize that the reflux and ear infections are commonly from dairy allergies, probably not! Do they know that colic and loose stools often accompany gut dysbiosis and that their children probably need probiotics, I bet they don't!

So I am going on and on, and it's so easy to do once you get into the biology of it all, because it's all so connected, but my point is that every child could be effected to some degree. I see children in grocery stores and I think...."I wonder, if his parents know that those behaviors mean something more than "he's a boy". Having a child inflicted with a weak immune system that allowed him to accumulate more toxins than he can handle has made me hyper sensitive to those signs. They are universal and I believe that at some point, knowledge will expose the truth about our children's health. I honestly believe that we are at a state of emergency with our kids. If we don't start eating differently, cleaning our homes differently, reading the ingredients we put into our children's bodies, using water filters, washing produce, buying organic meats, we are going to see an incredible increase in autoimmune diseases in this generation and the generations to come. It is a documented fact that babies today are born with over 500 identifiable toxins already in their system, as tested in the umbilical cord fluids. So I encourage you, when you see a behavior that troubles you, or a rash that a doctor can't tie to an illness, or even a continuing sleep disturbance, consider this possibility. It's time to learn what we can do for our kids and their futures.

So now you are probably thinking, ok this is crazy, YOU Are crazy and what do we do about it anyway?! Well there are some really basic and simple things we can all start doing, like always washing your produce thoroughly, even thick skinned produce which will likely infect the protected inside when you slice through the dirty bacteria laden skins, you can shop organic as much as financially possible, you can clean with something as simple as vinegar and water, it's so safe you could drink it! And what about nutrients, get your kids tested for nutritional deficiencies, supplement with things like probiotics (always) and omega 3s. Switch to natural toothpastes without fluoride (you do NOT need fluoride for dental hygiene even though successful marketing schemes will have you believing that), replace your soaps, shampoos and lotions with natural and organic products to avoid the nasty chemicals our bodies don't know how to process (your skin is the largest organ of your body and you shouldn't apply anything to it that you wouldn't be able to eat), eat a healthy wholesome food diet and watch for reactions to foods (which isn't always easy since you can react up to FIVE days after ingesting a food), avoid ALL preservatives and colorings. If you can't pronounce an ingredient, avoid it! These things are simple, they take some time and thought, but the health of your child is a stake. If this doesn't fix the concerns you might have, keep searching for your answers. They don't call us Warrior Mothers for nothing!

Amazing video about autism

This video covers it all and in such a thorough fashion! Dr. Masson is a Harvard-trained pediatrician with extensive knowledge of the causes and biomedical treatment of autism. Her practice is focused on autism and the biomedical approach to treating it. She also has a video on the prevention of autism, during pregnancy. Of course, for us, it's too late for that.

http://vegsource.com/articles2/media_leila2.htm