Our paper this week talked about environmental effects and how they play into theories for how autism starts in kids. One factor that is thought to cause autism is the toxicity of heavy metals. A few examples of these metals and where they are commonly found are:
Lead – petrol, paint, batteries, certain water mains
Mercury – fillings in teeth, fish, paint, some appliances, nasal sprays and eye drops, certain vaccines.
Cadmium – Cigarettes, tires, metal plating
Arsenic – Pesticides, chicken feeds, rice, treated wood
Antimony – Carpets, flame retardant clothes
It is believed that Methyl Mercury contributes mainly to autistic development in children.
(see our class wiki)
So how then do we treat heavy metal poisoning?
Just like any other illness, we treat it with pills! Current treatments involve chelating agents. These agents bind with the heavy metals selectively and then the complex that is formed is expelled from the body by the kidneys. Some examples of Chelating agents are EDTA, DMSA, DMPS, and TTFD. EDTA however, is not used for treating autism because it can be harmful to children, and EDTA is not good for binding mercury, what is thought to be the main heavy metal poison in autistic children. DMSA and DMPS are both used and given orally. They both chelate mercury, lead and cadmium well. So they are the pills of choice for treating autism in children.
Other treatments for autism
Dr. James Neubrander has injected methlycobalamin (a form of Vitamin B12 pictured above) into patients and they have shown improvements in language ability social skills as well as in attentiveness. http://www.drneubrander.com/index.php
So there is still hope out there for parents with autistic children. It is still hard guarantee improvement however, and I’m not sure which direction we should be going with treatment. However, from what I understand, this seems to be the best hypothesis for the origins of autism. There also seems to be some treatments available that keep this theory in mind. We will see what the future brings us.
Further information can be found at http://www.autism.com
Heavy Metal Autism
