I was prepared for the usual bias due to receiving the information from the company and it’s paid researchers, but was pleasantly surprised by a comment from one of the physicians that was speaking. He strongly urged everyone in attendance to do their due diligence and not just take the company’s word for how good the product is. He even made reference to PubMed and its usefulness as a resource. I have used PubMed many times and many of the papers in our repository have come from there so it was reassuring to hear it referenced given the context of the presentation.

We are doing some further research on the supplement, but I think it is safe to say that we will be giving it a try with K. The research indicates that it will address some of K’s physiological challenges; oxidative stress (as indicated by various blood tests he’s had), improved immune function (there is no downside to this), and system detoxification (K takes 300mg of Tegretol daily- a drug that can be hard on the liver). We just need to confirm that it does not contain any casein, or at least an insignificant amount due to K being on the GFCF diet. Also, that their are no contra-indications with his anti-seizure medication.

I received some research on Immunocal and have put it in the documents section as well as linked to it below. I will also include some links to PubMed information I read previously on the product.

• Immunocal in the Compendium of Pharmaceutical Specialties
• A study on the use of Immunocal in autism
• Pubmed entries specifically for Immunocal
• Effect of Immunocal on glutathione levels in athletes
• There are over 84,000 entries in PubMed relating to glutathione!

What I found of interest in the article was that it was a synthesis of many different aspects of the biomedical nature, or current biomedical theories, of autism. The paper also uses a fairly significant list of sources to draw on and is quite broad in its approach yet distills the information down to what the authors think are the salient points.

Some of my notes for further thought and investigation are (as I think they may be relevant to K):

• neuronal cell loss, especially Purkinje cells, due to likely events of ischemia, hypoxia, and cellular edema
  • these are the physiological effects purportedly ameliorated by HBOT
• excitotoxicity (seizures, metabolic insufficiencies) can cause neuronal (Purk. cell) loss
  • K suffers from seizures, do his earlier test results indicate any metabolic disturbances that could be relevant here and can help reduce neuronal insult?
• G protein dysfunction
  • how does this article relate?
• Viral infections
  • do we have any testing evidence of viral/chronic viral infections
• vitamin deficiencies
  • as relates to K’s earlier test results and our commitment to his vitamin “regime”
• Heavy metal toxicity
  • K’s hair analysis (X2) indicate that this may have been an issue
• Chronic malabsorbtion syndrome
  • likely very relevant for K as seen in his test results
    • gluten/casein sensitivity as well as other markers for intestinal inflammation and poor nutritional absorbtion. (Hence this represents a significant portion of our intervention).
• Oxidative Stress information here
  and here as well as here. Looking in our documents section for information on HBOT can also provide some information as this is one of the proposed benefits of this treatment method.
  • Of Purk. cells can be ameliorated by antioxidants, namely Vitamin E and isoindoline nitroxide (Jenn Z to help?).
• Mention of brain volume and head circumference
  • K’s MRI report indicated no evidence of increased brain volume though I am cautious about comparing results across studies when this is not the primary focus of the report and the criteria for comparison may not be valid.
  • K’s head circumference developmentally/historically and currently?

Quote from the article; “Metal toxicity can cause Purk. cell death and increased brain volume”

• this is likely for K based on his multiple hair analyses and the presence of various heavy metals, but is it significantly high enough to account for some of his issues?
• How does his head size compare over the course of his development to date?

Evidence for glutathione deficiency in ASD kids

• our supplementation with glutathione, both orally and lotion.
• is this sufficient to overcome the deficiency? Jenn Z. question
• cysteine is relevant here, can we supplement without impacting Candida growth by using a form other than NAC?
• very good evidence for the importance of glutathione within the article

There is much of the book that will resonate with many parents of ASD kids. For the most part the book was very readable, and only took a few hours to finish. For me this was both a good and bad point. Her sense of humour and openness made her very easy to relate to and I think she endeavored to pass on some useful information but may have been “hamstrung” by her publisher’s legal department. For parents that have been dealing with ASD for some time, and have been doing some research, there is little that will be new here. But, as she mentions in the book this may serve as more of a “my child has just been diagnosed with Autism- Now what?” brochure.

I even found the resources section at the end of the book to be very limited, especially in light of the amount of research/reading she alludes to, and of little help to us at this point. I also took issue with other aspects of the book but as they are my opinions and not really relevant to the information she tries to convey I will keep them to myself, but suffice it to say dads get a bad rap in my opinion.

I do commend her for coming out so strongly in the public. As someone with a certain amount of celebrity, in a culture so focussed on appearance and the perception of perfection it speaks loudly of her resolve and commitment to the subject matter to speak so candidly. I hope, as I’m sure she does, that this will draw more attention (and resources) into this area as it is so badly needed (read some of her statistics).

For someone just starting to investigate ASD this would not be a bad choice. It paints a realistic picture of what is required to not only cope with ASD but to struggle and labour to ensure your child is getting what is required to make as much progress as possible. However, it is definitely just a starting point and much more research and reading would be required to keep your child on the path to improvement.