…article continued:
Case 2. An intrauterine growth-retarded baby girl with birth weight 2.2 Kg at term delivery has recurrent vomiting and poor weight gain within the early weeks of life. The mother frequently ate fish and dried fish bellies (fish maw) during pregnancy. After oral supplementation of a potent antioxidant (alpha lipoic acid around 50 mg per day), the baby showed dramatic catch-up growth starting with the head circumference. It increased from 31.5 cm to 35 cm within a month’s time. Her weight deficit resolved with catch-up gain within a three-month period.
As conventional medicine does not entertain the diagnosis of toxic pollutant overload, the mechanism underlying the idiopathic growth-stunted patients would remain elusive.
Below are illustrative cases of severe neurological handicap reversed through mercury detoxification.
Case 1. A boy, aged 2 years and 4 months, diagnosed with cerebral palsy came for assessment. He had no birth asphyxia, and developmental milestones were all delayed. He walked clumsily with a limping gait and a marked club foot on one side. He was nonverbal with few intelligent words. He showed poor eye contact and could not carry out verbal instruction. The result of his hair mineral analysis and urine porphyrins showed an overload of mercury, xenobiotic, and other toxic heavy metals.
He was advised to abstain from all seafood and freshwater fish. Nutritional supplementation was given, and injectional nutrients and detoxifying medications were given once every two weeks. Injectional medications included phosphatidylcholine, glutathione, and calcium EDTA. DMSA (dimercaptosuccinic acid) 75 mg suppositories were also given twice per week. The clinical progress was dramatic, as evident by marked improvement in his neurocognitive function after each injectional detoxifying therapy. There were no adverse side effects during the course of the three-month period of therapy.
Upon completion of the therapy, he could talk in sentences and answer questions intelligently; he became responsive socially and understood most commands. His gross motor function also improved with no more limping gait and improved coordination. His neurocognitive function has advanced within a brief period of three months to near-age-appropriate developmental milestones.
Case 2. A boy was diagnosed to have intrauterine stroke in early infancy. He was born at 36 weeks gestation by a 32-year-old mother as her first pregnancy. The antenatal and perinatal course were uneventful. The boy’s limbs on the left side were noted to be completely paralyzed a few weeks after birth. CT brain scan showed a markedly shrunken brain on the contralateral side, up to one-third size compared to the normal half. The parents were told that this boy would likely have lifelong physical and mental handicaps, and the cause was an intrauterine stroke of unknown etiology.
The baby was first seen by the author at seven months of age with complete hemiplegia of the left side. He was noted to be hyperirritable and with no social response. His sleep had been fidgety with frequent crying bouts. The mother’s hair was checked for minerals and showed an overload of mercury. The boy was treated continuously for 14 months with nutritional supplements. Mercury detoxification was started at 10 months of age by DMSA (dimercaptosuccinic acid) suppository. The boy responded favorably with resolution of the abnormal symptoms in the next few months. Subsequent provoked urine challenge revealed excretion of mercury. His sleep became peaceful with less interruption. Both physical and neurodevelopmental function improved, and catch-up growth occurred. His paralyzed limbs started to move, and his speech development slightly delayed.
At the age of 5, he was assessed to be appropriate in his neurodevelopmental function and could be relocated to a normal school. He did have a tight heel tendon on the left leg and later required a tendon release operation. The cause of this in utero cerebrovascular accident has never been explored. There are reports of adults with a higher risk of stroke being clustered in areas with excessive consumption of mercury-contaminated fish.
This case illustrated the potential plasticity of the infant’s brain in repairing injuries if given the chance of early elimination of the deadly neurotoxin, mercury. Mercury might be the culprit in genesis of this disease from in utero transfer of the chemical from the asymptomatic mother who got her overloaded mercury from daily fish consumption.
Rational Approach to Management and Prevention of Autistic Spectrum Disorder
In the recent decade, the incidence of autism has risen dramatically worldwide.
Environmental factors have been blamed for this phenomenon, but practical means to reverse this trend have been elusive. As autism is usually diagnosed between two to three years old, there is a therapeutic window for regaining normal neurological function through toxic elimination, nutritional supplementation, and immune modulation. From the author’s experience, the prognosis of radical cure from autism depends on the age of therapeutic intervention. The younger these children are started on this therapeutic regime, the higher the chance of cure, and the shorter would be the duration of therapy. The main reason is the inherent plasticity of the children’s brain. The younger the patient is started on this therapy, the higher the potential of the brain to repair the toxic damage. Toddlers before three years of age presenting with delayed speech, impulsivity, and hyperactivity would be particularly responsive to this therapeutic regimen of detoxification and nutritional supplementation.
Almost all autistic children present with severe allergies, especially the IgG food allergies. The most frequently encountered allergic foods are cow milk proteins, wheat, and egg. This allergic tendency is partially responsible for the neurocognitive dysfunction of the autistic. The management to reverse the allergy is through food abstinence, administration of enzymes, probiotics, and the use of intravenous gamma globulin therapy.
Adjunct therapies to facilitate rehabilitation of these autistic children are hyperbaric oxygen and energy therapy. Acupuncture and neurofeedback are useful to expedite recovery.
Intravenous detoxification of the mother has been carried out to prevent autism from recurring. Ideally, the mother should undergo detoxification before contemplating pregnancy. In practice, this chance of detoxification is frequently overlooked. Dozens of pregnant women have been given intravenous nutritional and detoxification treatment with no adverse effects. In all of them, autism has been prevented, and most of the babies who have undergone intrauterine detoxification show advanced neurodevelopment and superb physical health. From the experience of treating pregnant women to prevent autism, another observation is the prevention of severe allergies of the fetus in utero. This is accomplished through provision of a nontoxic and nutritious intrauterine environment to the fetus. This phenomenon testifies to the fetal origin of adult diseases and the mechanism of epigenetics.3 Further research on a larger scale would be imperative to restore the health of our next generation.
Conclusion
The increasing global population and industrialization in modern times have led to a fast degradation of the environment with pervasive pollutants. The continuing stockpile of these pollutants in the biological systems and its ultimate adverse effects to human health have been daunting. However, this alarming phenomenon has not been appreciated by the government and medical arena. The silent chemical brain drain, related to the ubiquitous environmental pollution, has been described by Dr. Philippe Grandjeans. The world is still skeptical of this entity; but from the author’s perspective, this is authentic—and the trend would be fast worsening. Reformation of the healthcare paradigm with integration of nutritional and environmental detoxification would be imperative. The emerging science of epigenetics3 and nutrigenomics would best be utilized to stem the relentless rise in incidence of non-communicable diseases. Epigenetics stands for the modification of genetic expression by manipulating environmental factors while nutrigenomics is the study of the effects of different food constituents on genetic expression. Nutrigenomics has the potential for preventing, mitigating, or treating chronic diseases. There are political hurdles in introducing this treatment paradigm into the healthcare system. The heavy reliance on pharmaceuticals with a vested financial interest of patented pharmaceuticals would impede the propagation of this innovative disease management plan. Nutriceuticals, even if effective in curing diseases, would not be published after formal research as they cannot be patented. Clinical metal toxicology is a specialty unfamiliar to most medical doctors, and its efficacious potential in abating most chronic diseases has never been appreciated as a useful tool.
References
- Grandjeans P, Landrigan PJ. Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity. Lancet Neurol. 2014:13:330-8
- Clarkson TW, et al. The toxicology of mercury – current exposure and clinical Manifestations. N Eng J Med. 2003:349:1731-7.
- Egger G, et al. Epigenetics in human disease and prospects for epigenetic therapy. Nature. 2004:429; 457-463.
