Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism is one of those words that strikes fear in the hearts of parents. It was a rare diagnosis years ago and now is a seeming epidemic. Some medical researchers say it’s not an outbreak, just better diagnosing. Autism is a developmental disorder than can disrupt communication, relationships, behavior, and physiology. It strikes seemingly normal infants and toddlers, usually by age three, causing lifelong struggles that range from mild to severe.

Has autism been around a long time in steady numbers or have its numbers exploded? The answer is important because it will determine our approach to treatment. What is clear is that the severe psychological problems are the result of treatable physiological disruptions in the brain. Disturbances may include deficits in speech and sensory, motor, cognitive, and autonomic nervous system functioning, perhaps the result of injury due to toxicity. The brain, when subjected to repeated insults, can experience destabilization of its fine-tuning and sophisticated regulatory mechanisms.

Certain toxins are implicated in autism, including microbial toxins, metals, synthetic chemicals, and electromagnetic fields. There is credible evidence that we live in an increasingly toxic world – atmosphere, oceans, rivers, soils, and food supply. We are straining the limits of tolerability. As many have said, children with autism are the canaries in the coal mine: the unmistakable signal that for those who are most vulnerable, the environment is becoming unsafe. Other conditions on the rise are sounding the same alarm. How else can we explain the rise of so many degenerative and immune-compromised diseases in numbers that were not seen a few decades ago? There is a frightening rise in Alzheimer’s, the legions with chronic fatigue, sick building syndrome, and previously unheard of chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia. In addition, there is an alarming rise in the number of cases of ultra intolerances such as multiple chemical sensitivities, marked allergic hypersensitivities, and easily triggered severe asthma. All fit the toxicity model.

In many ways, autism is the condition that most epitomizes a dysregulation disorder. Varying toxic loads affect different regulatory mechanisms in the brain differently. Children with autism may share any of a number of symptoms, but there is no disorder in the DSM-IV that has such an array of differences. Risk factors for a child developing autism (as well as ADHD) include problems surrounding labor and delivery, such as a breech position or a preterm delivery. The disruptions present in the brains of autistic children are in the regulatory centers.

After treatment, some of our patients have told us that the experience of their condition was one of bewildering, unbearable overstimulation. In many children, this is no doubt what produces the avoidance of touch, unresponsiveness, “irrational” fears, or inability to exhibit fear, or the need for sameness and marked difficulty with any changes. In such a state of overwhelming and intolerable stimulation, the behaviors these children exhibit make perfect sense. Some children are able to focus intensively on a single thing to help reduce stimulation. This likely is a reason some children will spin or rock for long periods of time. Parents and clinicians call this type of repetitive behavior “stimming,” for self-stimulation, but the repetitive behaviors may be more for overall stimulation reduction.

When autism strikes a perfectly normal, healthy, loving toddler, it is painfully evident. When that bright little boy who played dress-up, proudly wielded swords, and pretended to be different movie characters regresses into a nonverbal, easily frightened child who becomes sedentary and reclusive, disruptive events are taking place in that child’s brain. These deteriorations often follow an illness, and many parents report dramatic problems arising in their children after routine vaccinations.

Autism has multiple causes. The level of exposure to a toxic condition, combinations of toxic conditions, the ability of the immune system and the liver to respond, the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and individual genetic variability may all play a role. The usual suspects for causing or triggering autism either damage tissues, suppress immune function, interfere with detoxification, or cause allergic reaction. Some toxins, like mercury, do all four. Metals, including mercury, lead, arsenic, nickel, aluminum, and cadmium, are neurotoxic and immunotoxic. Vaccinations introduce neurotoxins (mercury or aluminum and formaldehyde) and suppress immune function for more than a month. Microbes that produce neurotoxins include yeast-related illness from repeated courses of antibiotics or from immune suppression, allowing an overgrowth of yeast and other fungi in the bowel. The more virulent form of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease can be transmitted by insects other than deer ticks and by human-to-human contact. Nutritional deficiencies and genetically modified foods produce toxins and allergens. Aspartame, monosodium glutamate, artificial colors, artificial flavors, artificial sugars, and artificial preservatives can be neurotoxins as well as casein and gluten in susceptible individuals. In the environment, synthetic chemicals and electromagnetic fields are suspect.

A child with a genetic predisposition to autism has just that – a predisposition and nothing more. Our brains are exquisitely designed. They organize an incalculable amount of internal and external stimuli, process it instantaneously, and encode it for communication to our bodies and brains. Our brains, like life itself, are electromagnetic in nature. Certainly a brain is made up of chemicals, but those are not its essence. A brain functions and regulates itself through vibratory patterns, through timed rhythmic firing of clusters of cells. The rhythmic patterns determine the activity of the chemicals.

Neurofeedback treatment for the autistic spectrum almost always provides recognizable benefits at whatever point in treatment it is used. It is best done at the beginning of treatment, however with any other treatments implemented, the improvements from neurofeedback are often a godsend. A child who sleeps, eats, speaks, interacts, can be held, or is not as rigid about routine – a much more manageable child – not only opens up the ability to do other treatments, but also signals that the nightmare is ending; which energizers parent efforts. Getting a child to sit still during neurofeedback is not nearly as hard as one might think. Often it just takes a bit of patience. When many fidgety children begin getting feedback that promotes a more desirable brainwave state, they suddenly stop the incessant motion and slump comfortably into a chair and gaze at the monitor.

With neurofeedback, we see improvements in most children even who have a stronger genetic vulnerability. The degree of improvement varies. Some have a noticeable decrease in the severity of symptoms or behaviors. Others show new and more appropriate behavior and begin to use words again, sleep at night, and/or show affection. Some are cured. Check our website for more information and to view Testimonials: www.affectiveneurosciences.com.