Comments on: Autism: More Treatable Than Thought?

Expert: It Is, Along With ADHD, Asthma, Allergies

[shevat57]

I've never heard of alergies having a hard link to either Autism or ADHD. There will always be a rare case wherein a subtle link between one condition & another are linked together.

Doctors tend to forget that we only have one body, not seperate parts linked together.

As to ADHD, I have a question...

What about Adult ADHD?
I belong to the Manhattan Adult ADD Support Group. We've been meeting regularly since 1992.
We have meetings every month, and enough people attend the meetings to sustain the group.

In case Doctors forget.. children to grow into adults:)

[sgbateman]

Most of these disorders that are now being diagnosed in this country are all part, in my opinion, of the Autism Spectrum. From ADD to Severe Autism. It just depends on how damaged their bodies become from the exposure to all the toxins in our environment. The severity of symptons determines what parts of the body and how severely these toxins affect their metabolic pathways, their immune systems, the digestive systems, and ultimately their brain function.

Yes, unfortunately there are doctors in all forms of medicine that are in it for the wrong reasons. It's not fair to past judgement on someone when you are not fully informed of the facts. Dr. Bock has certainely been involved with studies that have been published. He wasn't on the witness stand to defend his credibility, if you have the ability and knowledge you can find that information. This was about bringing forth information to the public about forms of treatment that helped thousands of children.

[apple_m]

Thanks CBS
Our children are medically ill, and not special or wired in a different way. my son has serious Gastro problems and treating these makes him less autistic.
I am in the uk and "treating" my child with GF/CF diet vitamins and supplements and he is doing great.
If you have a similar story post it here.

[Diamonddavej]

I have autism, the milder version Asperger's Syndrome. I was diagnosed when I was 30 years old. I recently finished my Ph.D. in geology. Autism is not more common today then in the past. The goal posts have widened to include milder spectrum from severe to mild (like myself)I have autism, the milder version Asperger's Syndrome. I recently finished my Ph.D. in geology. Autism is no more common today then in the past. The diagnostic criteria have widened to include milder cases, autism is a spectrum from severe to mild (like myself). In fact I don't want to be cured, a feature of autism are "obsessions", mine involved mineralogy and astronomy from an early age, if I were "normal" I would not be the scientist I am. Of course, there is a need to help people deal with their autism where ever they are on the autism spectrum, depression, anxiety and loneliness are all too common. The simple advice is treat a person with autism as different not broken, see their character and do not attribute their behaviour to the label of autism, celebrate their uniqueness, improve their self esteem, encourage development of socials skills and help them make friends. I am always very sceptical of people who ask for money for "curing" autism. I set up and run a social group for people with autism, I don't expect people to pay.

[gaye5]

They can never eradicate the worlds diseases, until every child on the earth is immunised, and that will always be impossible, so why are they practicing on us when over 75% of the world still carries the diseases...could it be money???
They say ??? that they want to eradicate all disease from the world, but how??? when most of the world still have the diseases.. total eradication is impossible..
Perhaps we should also look at why there are still epidemics amongst immunised children... OH sorry that wasn't supposed to be known eh... but of course we would be told that the disease would have been far worse if they were not immunised, well I have seen some rotten cases of chicken pox in immunised children...
As kids we all got the mild child hood diseases, and if they were so dangerious then why did parents do their best to make sure that their kids had them before they went to school, and had measles parties to make sure all the kids got it.. I dont remember any fear, and yes if a child didn't get it when they were small and got it when they were in the first trimester of pregnancy the baby could be born deaf, and or blind, and it was sad, and of course there was the very rare kid who had a complication but 99% of kids flew through it and were back at school within no time...

[gaye5]

Phoenix1218 you hit the nail on the head, one psychologist called it a modern psychiatric disease, and yes all children are expected to act, look and behave all exactly the same way, or else they are put on Ritalin, many could be helped with a jolly good smack..
My very bright grandson was told he was ADD, and if my daughter didn't put him on Ritalin that they would consider taking him off her as they then saw her as an unfit mother if she didn't.. So she took him out of school and I taught him and his sister at our home for 3 years without any problems and when they went back to a (private) school they were top of their classes.. hmmm .bright kids get bored so quickly..but I also feel that there are tooo many poisons in our society thus yes there are far to many children with real problems...
In some areas one in five are dignosed ADD??? or was that autism... When we were at school 50 years ago there was only one child in our large school who had asthma, now when my Husband takes the kids on a school camp, over 65% have to bring their medications of Asthma sprays, and that does not include the huge numbers who have to line up every morning for their ADD tablets etc.... We are allowing the pharmaceutical companies to poison our children under the pretext of mass immunisation and the betterment of society...

[gaye5]

cedarbearnat, As I read the heading above I thought to myself that I bet it was a counteraction drug for the drugs that they were already pumping into our babies and children and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was something about helping a person/child naturally..
In talking to a few mothers whose child became autistic, I asked at what age did this become evident,, and they generally said about 2 years old... well isn't it about two that they have one of their immunisations??? they said that their children were progressing very normally, laughing playing talking etc then after their immunisation, it was all down hill and within no time the light went out of their babies eyes... so sad... but we are told that yes there are the casualties of immunisation and that the good outweighs the tragedies, but surely the number of children who die from immunisations and or are badly affected are important also, there seems to be so many more children dying of leukaemia/cancers or have some ADD, ADHD, Asthma, Autism, etc but they dont count this in their stats.. compare these life long horrors with the very odd child who died from what used to be called the mild childhood diseases and is it worth it???

[gaye5]

tdam2 said...I believe that most 'diseases' of our times are raging nutritional deficiencies.
I totally agree with you tdam2, couple that with the ever increasing chemicals in our food, water, and air, along with the chemicals and poisons in immunisations, our children really dont have much of a chance... it appears to be one huge experiment to me and we are the guineapigs..well, why not, they experimented on orphans and intellectual handicaped children to see what effects drugs (mainly for immunisation I gather) had before it was given to the public.
Governments world wide are trying to bring in leglislation that a smack is child abuse, but on the other hand they say that it is child abuse if we will not allow them too pump our children with immunisations. Adult bodies have problems coping with all the poisons we stuff into them. but our babies are expected to cope with many diseases pumped in by injection all at the same time plus all the poisonous ingredients like mercury, formaldehyde, antifreeze, aluminium and many other toxins, and they wonder why children are sick and or dying. Our bodies cannot cope with all the poisons in our life, but what the heck the pharmaceutical companies get rich and bring our yet more poisons to counteract what they have caused to make more money and the governments keep the population down..

[phoenix1218]

I believe that there is such a thing as Autism and ADD/ADHD and allergies. However I think that a lot of these cases are misdiagnosed. My 7 year old sons school tried to tell me that he had ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder) and told me to bring him to the ER to have him evaluated right away. The ER Shrink laughed and our family doc had never heard of ODD. It is in the medical books of disorders (DSM??), the school showed it to me. All the symptoms of ODD were things I would call normal childhood behaviour. I think that a lot of these misdiagnosed cases are diagnosed ONLY because the more children diagnosed with something wrong the more money the school system gets per child. I think it is a lousy thing for schools to do. One school in Andover, MA has more medications per child in one elementary school. Not every student is on medication but some students are on more then one medication and I think that is just plain wrong to have more meds then students.

[sgbateman]

I need to edit the last sentence of my post,..... When will mainstream medicine stop ingnoring the fact that these children are getting better?

[vance231]

It is very presumptious of this guy to think he is the first to think of a connection between these syndromes. He has not controlled clinical trials of his 'treatment'. The treatment consists of a number of nonspecific interventions with only tenous connections between the behavioral syndrome and the 'cure'.

This kind of agenda has been pushed for years by people willing to take money for treatments or books and foist diet and other non-proven causes on unsuspecting parents. They charge alot, then produce little or nothing, yet in a disorder that is mysterious --like Autism-- find devotees.

The theory is tenous at best. Then to suggest that chelation --a potentially fatal treatment-- is beneficial is ridiculous. Let this guy publish well designed, well controlled scientific studies before he goes around braggin about cure.

[sgbateman]

It is obvious to those that continue to use the word "Cure" were not paying attention to what Dr. Bock was talking about. He never used the word cure, recovery is not cure. And recovery for each child is a different thing. Also chelation is used by mainstream doctors, who use the same drugs, at a much more aggressive manner than DAN doctors. Please educate yourself about chelation, it is obvious that you do not have all the facts. Are you familiar with the side effects of the prescription drugs being handed out by these mainstream doctors? Can you tell me what the are the long-term benefits that they pose to our children? There are none, but what DAN doctors do can heal the damaged systems, and restore function, not cause further harm to our children. Thank you Dr. Bock and CBS for bringing to light some of the most successful treatments that have helped thousands of children across this country. When will mainstream medicine continue to ignore that these children are getting better?

[margevmd]

Thank you, CBS and Dr. Bock, for bringing more info to the public about possible treatments of autism. With an 800% increase in autism in the U.S. since 1985 and a similar alarming increase in ADHD, something is severely wrong in our country and we need to get at the bottom of it in order to help our children and their families who suffer from these epidemic illnesses. We need to look at this not only from a treatment aspect but at a level of cause. For those who are interested, please consult the Autism Research Institute's website for an enlightening article at http://www.autismwebsite.com/arri/v062/page1.pdf and take note of the info aired in a 20/20 news report in 1992. It makes a compelling argument for autism being created by environmental toxins such as improper waste disposal from manufacturing processes and from dioxin exposure (the latter found in the defoliant Agent Orange and in weed killer for lawns). The article further points out that the evidence pointing to genetic damage resulting from these exposures--at least in some cases (Such a determination would seem to profoundly impact both treatment and prevention!) And what about the effect of toxins injested daily from foods that are loaded with additives and preservatives? It's time for a national commission, composed of doctors, alternative medical people, researchers, nutritionists, biochemists and environmentalists--anyone who can shed light on a scourge that needs to end as soon as we can figure it out!

[cedarbearnat]

Many years ago, my husband, a nutritional herbalist, developed an Herbal Minerals formula from whole herbs, and a formula we call Focus-H that have helped many children, including my own with Tourette's Syndrome, to become more functional and healthier. My oldest was diagnosed as a child with an autism-like condition. Through a nutritional approach he has done amazingly well, he served 6 years in the navy, and now has a beautiful family of his own. Don't discount these people just because they aren't AMA maintream. They are on to something! Results speak for themselves.

[sbreeze2]

Bravo Vance 231! What is happening to our country? Pretty soon they'll want to stop teaching evolution in the schools...oops, I guess that's already happening. I would like to know what this guy is getting paid. We know that insurance companies definitely will not reimburse his patients for their "de-tox" expenses so he's getting full fee on top of lecture fees, royalties, etc. He will be a rich man if he isn't already.

[vance231]

It is very presumptious of this guy to think he is the first to think of a connection between these syndromes. He has not controlled clinical trials of his 'treatment'. The treatment consists of a number of nonspecific interventions with only tenous connections between the behavioral syndrome and the 'cure'.

This kind of agenda has been pushed for years by people willing to take money for treatments or books and foist diet and other non-proven causes on unsuspecting parents. They charge alot, then produce little or nothing, yet in a disorder that is mysterious --like Autism-- find devotees.

The theory is tenous at best. Then to suggest that chelation --a potentially fatal treatment-- is beneficial is ridiculous. Let this guy publish well designed, well controlled scientific studies before he goes around braggin about cure.

[redjuice73]

WOW-- I read the excerpt from the book and was crying.

At 3, I started my son on the feingold diet (no artificial colors, flavors, sweetners, certain preservatives and naturally occuring salicilates). His cronic, acidic diareah went away immediately and over the next year, he was weaned off all his asthma medicine. Before feingold, he was sick 10 of 14 weeks during the winter plus an asthma attck that put him in the hospital for 6 days. This year, we had one ear infection.

As I read, I just kept thinking, "What would have happened if I had not found and started feingold?" I also know that my son's skin could be clearer and that I am missing something. I am hoping that this book gives me some clues.

Thank You for doing this story. As a parent, my son's health is my number one concern and I know that I need to be a researcher as much as anyone else, nothing works for everyone, but soem stuff works for some.

[katahdingirl]

Well, I am happy that Autism is in the headlines.
I am concerned for those parents , that , are doing everything to help their child and wasting thousands of dollars on all the natural remedies and putting alot of hope for a "cure" or "recovery". I believed that If I followed the gluten , milk, perservatives, yeast, food coloring, secretion injections, vitamin therapies, 30 hours of ABA instructions, speech , O.T.for over 3 12 years that this would have some kind of amazing results. Instead, I was left thousands of dollars in debt , grieving (again), and realizing that not all children with Autism will benefit from this . So, please , please be careful when airing these therapy options , that , you are causing desperate and guilty parents to try ALL options because if not , then they will be forever and always asking "what if I tried this" or "maybe if we tried that" My son is now 11 years old and not able to go to public school. Parents please pace yourselves this is a marathon not a "sprint" and you need to take care of yourselves , these "professionals" are making big money from our child's diability and we are being drain emotionally and financially!
Thank-you,
Jodi
Northern Maine

[valeria10-2009]

I am very happy that CBS had Dr. Kenneth Bock on their show. It is totally amazing to me that people in this world would rather ingest toxins in their bodies and have their children do the same thing and think that no harm will be done. When God made this earth he did not add toxins and poisons to it. WE did that to ourselves and now we are all paying the price for it. Rather than criticizing Dr. Bock, we should take stock in what he is saying and try changing our terrible eating habits to a more healthier one. Stop using chemically-based products in our home everyday and see the results. Do the research yourselves before you criticize Dr. Bock's research findings. Why not try eating healthier and detoxifying your home for 30 days? You will be absolutely amazed how much better you will feel. Thank you Dr. Kenneth Bock for your insight. I, for one, appreciate it very much and please keep up the great work.

[gmommy1]

If any doctor had listened we could have had this out a long time ago. That he writes books to make money off of our kids infuriates me -- put it on the web for free!!!! My daughter says I diagnosed my grandson at 2 the doctors at 4. I have been treating him as if he had an immune/toxin problem since- he is now 12. Lecithin, makes them talk, be potty trained, sleep, straighten out digestive problems, helps clean the liver and produce glutathione in the liver. simple, cheap. and does amazing things. Milk thistle to help clean the liver, amino acids, alpha lipoic acid for detox sublingual B vitamins and sublingual methylB12 (sublingual avoids the digestive system) None of the things I have used are expensive and no johnny-come-lately-lets-make-a-quick-buck doctor will tell you straight out .. they know how desperate parents are for the lives of their children. If it's "a cure" then publish it for free!!