This week, Huffington Post published John Rodakis’ article, “Autism: Maybe It’s Not What We’ve Been Told.” John is the founder of N of One Autism Research Foundation. In this article, he explores the problem: the “experts” have hinged so much on autism being a hardwired condition, that they have restricted research into other ideas about the causes of autism – for example, could autism be caused by medical or environmental issues that are NOT hardwired?
John discovered this when his 3 year old son with autism started showing signs of recovery after getting sick: “…Our son had an unexpected, rapid, and dramatic improvement in his autism symptoms while taking a common antibiotic prescribed for his strep throat infection.” This illustrates the PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) link to autism, which so many of my friends see in their children – and explains why so many kids who have overcome PANDAS stop showing signs of autism. These inflammation of the brain disorders triggered by an infection or other environmental trigger. Learn more about PANS/PANDAS at the PANDAS Network.
Like anything with autism, there are so many considerations here. When I read John writing about antibiotics, I can’t help but think about gut bacteria, and good gut health. See this article I wrote for Shiftcon and Bio-K probiotics last year.)
Why You Need to Consider Autism Treatments on Your Own
But it also made me think about the reason it’s so important to find the right solutions for our children. Our kids who are struggling do not have time for the science to catch up with what already know: that autism can be medical and that some autism treatments can recover kids and heal problems. Gut bacteria has only played a small role in Zoe’s autism and while I do not believe she has PANS or PANDAS, there are still interventions that we can and have taken to help. I know I’m repeating myself but I’ve decided that this is the perfect launch post for a new section on my blog:
Autism Treatment Interventions 101
I’m still debating whether I want to do traditional ones or just cover alternative autism treatments, but right now I’m leaning that way. My plan is every Friday, to give you an overview of a particular autism treatment therapy, including:
- what it involves
- how to do it or get it (trained specialist required? can do on your own?)
- rough idea of out-of-pocket costs, funding, fees
- dangers/downside/negative feedback on this therapy
- benefits/risk assessment
- what other disabilities or conditions can it benefit (general speech disorders, SPD, broad range of learning disabilities, etc.)
I’m hoping this will be helpful for my readers.
Now it’s your turn: what do you want to see me cover in a series about autism treatment therapies?
