One of the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle ?
There have been some very important discoveries made this year by research workers trying to discover why some children develop Autistic Spectrum Disorders and others do not.
Researchers at Northeastern University, Boston and the Johns Hopkins Institute, Baltimore think that they may have unravelled the mystery, or at least part of it.
You can check the scientific paper by going to www.nature.com/mp and clicking on ‘Advance online publications’ and then selecting the paper entitled ‘Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor-1’
The paper goes on to discuss the normal development of brain cells and how they are ‘instructed’ by the DNA in the cells to develop into normal healthy brain cells. It also gives a scientific explanation as to what may go wrong and why.
Basically we start life as a fertilised egg – one cell. We then develop into a ball of cells all derived from the original fertilised egg. As we get bigger, some of these cells are ‘instructed’ by the DNA inside them to develop into brain cells, skin cells, bone cells and so on.
It is the ‘instruction’ of these cells – or DNA methylation as it is called – that is stopped by various agents including heavy metals such as Mercury and Aluminium. Once this signalling is interrupted no further cell development can occur; and some cells actually die off.
This could explain the reason why in Regressive Autism, skills that a child had, are lost and new skills fail to develop.
Many things will follow from this pioneering work, but already this understanding of the mechanisms of development of (some, maybe not all) aspects of ASD has led to a number of new therapeutic opportunities.
DAN ! Physicians have suggested a new treatment programme designed to address the process of DNA methylation – or cellular signalling – and to try to restore it to normal. If this can be done then lost skills could be regained and because we have a huge store of ‘spare’ nerve cells these could be kick-started to develop into replacement nerve cells to take over the normal function of the cells that have been previously damaged.
Before this therapy can be fully effective, other issues such as toxic metal overload, mineral and vitamin deficiencies and dysbiosis need to be corected. In this way we create the best environment for normal cell development and function to occur.
New tests available
Genomic profiling
For parents worried about the risk of their child developing ASD, there is a new test available which evaluates the likelihood of this condition developing in certain circumstances. The test involves collecting a sample of saliva from the inside of the cheek, using a cotton-wool swab on a stick – easy to do. This will allow the laboratory to check the child’s DNA profile and this will in turn provide a ‘risk assessment’ of the likelihood of that child developing ASD. This test is particularly useful in a brother or sister of an ASD-affected child.
Other tests we recommend (also detailed elsewhere on our website)
Hair analysis
Those children who have been exposed to heavy metals, such as Mercury, Lead and Aluminium don’t progress well until these are removed from the body by a process called Chelation.
Chelation is simple to perform, although it does take some time to remove these metals, depending on the level of toxicity.
Hair analysis is an accurate and simple way to test for heavy-metal toxicity and can be repeated after some time on chelation therapy to assess the response to chelation.
Stool analysis
Many children have bacteria growing in their intestine which produce toxins (poisons) which worsen the symptoms of ASD. ( see ‘Dysbiosis’ on our website )
Finding and identifying these bacteria and eliminating them can result in amazing progress in a child’s symptoms.
The test is easy to do and results take about a week.
For more information about any of these tests please contact us at Secrenase, by e-mail or ‘phone.
