tmykland (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tmykland) wrote,@ 2005-04-15 18:21:00 |
|
Biomed for Autism - With very little money, and/or no doctor
UPDATED 4/18/08 tkm
Many of you may be considering starting treatment for the biomedical aspects of autism, but feel that you don't have the gobs of money that everything seems to cost. I wanted to let you know some ways how you can get well started without it costing an arm and a leg.
This is also for those of you in parts of the world where there is just no knowledgeable doctor help available for treating autism biomedically. Many of these measures can be implemented anywhere in the world, with a little creativity and persistence.
How to treat your Autistic Spectrum Child Biomedically for very little money,
1. Buy and read, read, read these two books:
a. Healing Today's Childhood Epidemics by Kenneth Bock, just out in paperback for $11 - buy it on Amazon
b. Children with Starving Brains, by Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless!! If you buy Dr. McCandless' book on her website, http://www.autism-rxguidebook.net,
2. Get your child on some decent supplements.
This alone can make a tremendous start at improving your child's health, as these children typically eat a very limited diet, and don't absorb nutrients very well. Also see my post on this at http://www.livejournal.com/users/tmykla
Here are the main categories:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Probiotics
- Fatty acids
- Digestive enzymes
Houston (enzymes, http://www.houstonni.com) and Nordic Naturals (fish oils, http://www.nordicnaturals.com) and Kirkman (broad range of supplements, http://www.kirkmanlabs.com), have been known to deeply discount their products for people in need. Liquid fish oils are MUCH cheaper per dose than oil in gel-capsules, and there are some great-tasting ones available! There is a place called Angel's Purse, in Arizona, that tries to provide supplements for families in hardship: (520) 287-8808. BrainChild Nutritionals supplements (http://www.brainchildnutritionals.com
3. Clean Up Your Child's Diet
Take gluten & casein, artificial colors & flavors, hydrogenated fats, sugar, and meat with hormones out of your family's diet. Good food without gluten/casein costs a little more than regular food, but everybody's gotta eat! My advice is to try to find simple, whole foods that your child enjoys, rather than trying to prepare complicated things or buying processed junk to 'replace' the lost foods.
Look especially for fresh whole foods other than grains (grains mostly contain gluten, and trying to bake gluten free is expensive and not very satisfying, in my experience) -- meats without hormones or additives, fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits. Organic is preferable of course. To spend your money wisely, educate yourself as to which fruits and vegetables are highest in pesticides, so you know which ones are the best organic investment. One source I found for information on this is http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrit
More ideas on cheap, healthy foods:
-- Go to the Farmer's Market, to get great deals on fresh local veggies, grown without lots of pesticides - also a fun place to go with kids, relaxing, with lots of fresh air and sunshine. They can taste new vegetables and fruits there, and maybe find some new favorites!
-- If you have a Trader Joes near you, this is a good place to find reasonably priced foods with less hormones and pesticides in them (I would not recommend buying vitamin supplements at Trader Joes, by the way)
-- Consider adding other affordable starches like potatoes and brown rice, quinoa and possibly corn (if it's not a problem for your child), to satisfy those carb cravings.
-- Get some beans into your diets. They're inexpensive and great for your health, as well as adding protein and substance to meals. Digestive enzymes can help with digesting them.
-- Good resources for cooking gluten free are Lisa Lewis' book on Gluten Free cooking, Julie Matthews' book Nourishing Hope, and the yahoo group called GFCFKids. A few simple recipes will get you a long way, and soon you'll learn to make large batches to bake and freeze, which makes life much easier!
-- Ask around to other gfcf moms for great food and recipe ideas.
Here's the 'silver lining' to being on a strict budget: The best way to start supplements with an ASD child is very slowly, adding dosages and new things very gradually over time, so you don't shock the child's body. This means that if you're so financially strapped that you can only start a supplement every month or two, that's great! Your child may be doing better than loaded moms who buy and try everything all at once out of overenthusiasm!
In spending your precious pennies, please be aware that buying poor-quality supplements is not a good way to save money in treating these very sensitive children. You can actually make the situation worse this way, without meaning to. It's better to get just the basics covered well, than try to save money by getting cheap off-brand ones. You'll get your best ideas about which supplements are worth your money from other moms who've been there.
4. Contact a Rescue Angel in your area, at the website http://www.generationrescue.com
Generation Rescue was started by a father with the mission of informing parents and practitioners all over the world about the biomedical and heavy metal toxicity aspects of autism, and helping the kids get better. There is a place on the site where you can contact moms and dads from all over the world who've already treated their kids, and have volunteered to serve as "Rescue Angels" -- guides to those just getting started. This is entirely free of charge. You should also read and absorb all the information on this informative website, as part of your homework, by the way!
5. Join some internet groups, so you can get your own answers
Doing your own homework is the best way to get your child better, regardless of your budget! If you have no computer of your own, you can read at a library, or at a friend's house. If you don't have an email address, you can get a free one from Hotmail -- http://www.hotmail.com , so you can send and receive messages with other moms and dads. Some of my favorite autism biomedical groups are EnzymesandAutism and ChelatingKids2, and there are lots of others, some for particular geographic areas, where you can meet other moms. Moms have a lot more time to learn and talk about all this than doctors anyway, so often the most detailed discussions happen in these groups, even among those with the money and ability to find a doctor to help. Many of the groups are run by yahoo, and can be found by searching at http://www.yahoogroups.com .
6. Get a Gut Test (if financially and logistically possible).
You can get it through Direct Labs http://www.directlabs.com (they will give you a discount if you mention autism), and not have to pay for a doctor's visit, etc. They have a Stool Analysis for $279 or an OAT for $266 or a Candida-specific blood test for $153. I'm pretty sure you can do these from outside the U.S. too. I'd lean toward the stool analysis, myself, just for sheer amount of useful gut info. In the U.S., if you have any kind of insurance at all, your regular doc might also be able to run *some* kind of gut testing, if you tell a really sad, sad story of lots and lots of gut symptoms, and that could be some use to you. Try to get them to run one from a good lab such as Doctors Data or Metametrix rather than their standard lab. If possible, try to find a chiropractor or naturopath that takes your insurance, and they will be much more understanding and knowledgeable about how to run and interpret some useful gut testing than an MD would be.
7. Heal the gut, slay the yeast.
Once your child is on some good supplements, including probiotics (with or without test results in hand), you can get some natural antifungals and start to work. Please see my post on this at http://www.livejournal.com/users/tmykla
8. General tips on Lowering your Supplement Costs
One low-cost source of lots of good quality individual supplements is Beyond a century ( http://www.beyond-a-century.com ). You can buy inexpensive bulk powders from them, and make your own capsules or syrups. They carry a little of everything, and can help if you need single nutrients. If you really want to get into it, you can buy herbs in bulk at the health food store and make your own decoctions, extractions or tinctures -- just start reading on the web, it's not that difficult or at all expensive to do. If your child takes pills, you can save a load by making your own caps with a Cap-M-Quik capsule maker, available at most healthfood stores. It's a great, simple and inexpensive tool, and gives you great control over dosing.
9. Clean up Your Child's Environment
Cumulative toxic load is a big issue for our kids. There are many simple and inexpensive steps you can take to make your ASD child's world less toxic. Many of them can save you money.
- Stop buying expensive cleaners. You can do a ton of much healthier cleaning with baking soda, vinegar, Bon Ami and some of that concentrated Citrus cleaner.
- Look for laundry detergent without Dyes and Scents - costs the same as the regular stuff.
- Stop buying scented stuff for your home - many sensitive kids can't tolerate it.
- Buy nice simple liquid castille soap instead of the nasty antibacterial stuff (did you know that the 'antibacterial' ingredient is a nerve poison? At our house, we love Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap!).
- Get a water filter to put on your sink, much cheaper than paying for bottled water, and nicer, as the water doesn't sit in plastic bottles that leach more bad stuff into it. I really like my 10-stage one (about $89) http://www.newwaveenviro.com, but there are probably cheaper ones that are good too. Call the Pure Water people for lots of expertise in water, and help buying good inexpensive countertop water filters you can attach to your faucet or showerhead (http://pwgazette.com/contact.htm).
- You can also buy a filter for your shower head, also from New Wave Enviro, about $35, so your whole family bathes in cleaner water, or a bathball, that floats in the bathtub and helps take out the chlorine.
- Next time you want to do something nice for your child's teacher, buy some simple nontoxic handsoap and cleaner for the classroom.
- Ask the school to let you know when they're spraying pesticides on campus, so you can manage your child's exposure.
Moving to the Next Level
If you get this far, you won't be a beginner anymore, and your child will be ready for some more sophisticated treatment, possibly including chelation and more specific supplements to help particular issues (i.e. customized fatty acids, amino acids, metabolism, thyroid, etc.). It will probably be clear to you by this point which areas you need to investigate and learn about next, and you'll have some resources where you can find out about them.
Mercury and Heavy Metals
Heavy metals are a part of almost every autistic child's health picture, in my opionion. I believe that our kids have an impaired ability to detoxify themselves.
There are plenty of very inexpensive things you can do to help the body detoxify naturally. Give more vitamin C, up to the maximum they can tolerate that doesn't cause loose stools. Find a way to get them to eat more green vegetables, particularly broccoli and other cruciferous veggies. Get them exercising, so they sweat. Teach them to be water drinkers, and make sure they drink LOTS of water every day. Cleaning up their home and school environments is part of this, as well, to try to have less bad stuff go in, too.
This is all great, but probably not enough for most kids, who already have significant metals built up in their bodies. You will want to make sure yeast is under control and your child is on good supplements before starting to really work on detoxifying heavy metals. Also, please support your child's liver. Get them on some Gaia Milk Thistle extract every day, available at any healthfood store for about $8.
The best natural detoxification program I know is from BrainChild Nutritionals, but it's expensive to do. If you can't afford it, I recommend that you read and understand their program, and try to follow the basic intentions of each step of it, but without spending so much money. The basic steps are as follows:
1. Get good nutrients in - vitamins, minerals, probiotics, etc.
2. Get yeast under control
3. Support the detoxification organs so the body will be able to stay healthy while dumping heavy metals.
4. Try to raise glutathione levels, to help the body detoxify the way healthy bodies do.
5. Add sulfur to the body, as sulfur is used for detoxification and is often lacking in autistic kids.
6. Start natural detoxification supplements.
My favorite product for Step #6, above, naturally removing heavy metals, is called Natural Cellular Defense (NCD). It's part of the BrainChild program. NCD is made by Waiora (http://www.waiora.com), which unfortunately is kind of an icky MLM company, but makes a great product. NCD comes in a tiny bottle, that costs you something like $35 if you become a "distributor" with them, which is the way to get the cheapest price. You start at one drop a day and work up. It's in flavorless drops that you can put in a glass of water, so it's very easy to give to autistic kids. Follow the directions on the bottle, and remember that the safe dosage for a sensitive child may be way less than that for an adult. Dr. Peter Prociuk has done a lot of work giving Zeolite to autistic kids, so you can google him. BrainChild also has information on how to use it up on their website. I think this is a far preferable approach to the chemical way... much safer, and also less expensive!
The best testing to tell if you have all the metals out is Urinary Porphryin testing. It costs around $130, which is actually cheap for a test, and doesn't require a doctor's prescription. You order it at www.labbio.net. It's a test kit that you collect urine for and ship to Paris. It's most useful to have one from before you started and another later, to see how much you've gotten out. There are other tests that are cheaper, such as hair testing, urine, etc. used by most alternative doctors, but these only tell what is coming out, not what's left in. Most autistic kids can't get rid of metals easily, so these tests don't really mean much when run on them, because they only show how much is leaving the body over a limited amount of time. My advice, after running lots of these tests, is not to waste your money on them.
Hope this helps someone. I've done A LOT of treatment on the cheap and without a lot of doctor assistance over the years, out of necessity. We made some fabulous progress during this time, so I know it can be done!
Terri
UPDATED 4/18/08 tkm
Many of you may be considering starting treatment for the biomedical aspects of autism, but feel that you don't have the gobs of money that everything seems to cost. I wanted to let you know some ways how you can get well started without it costing an arm and a leg.
This is also for those of you in parts of the world where there is just no knowledgeable doctor help available for treating autism biomedically. Many of these measures can be implemented anywhere in the world, with a little creativity and persistence.
How to treat your Autistic Spectrum Child Biomedically for very little money,
and/or without a Doctor to help you
1. Buy and read, read, read these two books:
a. Healing Today's Childhood Epidemics by Kenneth Bock, just out in paperback for $11 - buy it on Amazon
b. Children with Starving Brains, by Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless!! If you buy Dr. McCandless' book on her website, http://www.autism-rxguidebook.net,
2. Get your child on some decent supplements.
This alone can make a tremendous start at improving your child's health, as these children typically eat a very limited diet, and don't absorb nutrients very well. Also see my post on this at http://www.livejournal.com/users/tmykla
Here are the main categories:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Probiotics
- Fatty acids
- Digestive enzymes
Houston (enzymes, http://www.houstonni.com) and Nordic Naturals (fish oils, http://www.nordicnaturals.com) and Kirkman (broad range of supplements, http://www.kirkmanlabs.com), have been known to deeply discount their products for people in need. Liquid fish oils are MUCH cheaper per dose than oil in gel-capsules, and there are some great-tasting ones available! There is a place called Angel's Purse, in Arizona, that tries to provide supplements for families in hardship: (520) 287-8808. BrainChild Nutritionals supplements (http://www.brainchildnutritionals.com
3. Clean Up Your Child's Diet
Take gluten & casein, artificial colors & flavors, hydrogenated fats, sugar, and meat with hormones out of your family's diet. Good food without gluten/casein costs a little more than regular food, but everybody's gotta eat! My advice is to try to find simple, whole foods that your child enjoys, rather than trying to prepare complicated things or buying processed junk to 'replace' the lost foods.
Look especially for fresh whole foods other than grains (grains mostly contain gluten, and trying to bake gluten free is expensive and not very satisfying, in my experience) -- meats without hormones or additives, fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits. Organic is preferable of course. To spend your money wisely, educate yourself as to which fruits and vegetables are highest in pesticides, so you know which ones are the best organic investment. One source I found for information on this is http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrit
More ideas on cheap, healthy foods:
-- Go to the Farmer's Market, to get great deals on fresh local veggies, grown without lots of pesticides - also a fun place to go with kids, relaxing, with lots of fresh air and sunshine. They can taste new vegetables and fruits there, and maybe find some new favorites!
-- If you have a Trader Joes near you, this is a good place to find reasonably priced foods with less hormones and pesticides in them (I would not recommend buying vitamin supplements at Trader Joes, by the way)
-- Consider adding other affordable starches like potatoes and brown rice, quinoa and possibly corn (if it's not a problem for your child), to satisfy those carb cravings.
-- Get some beans into your diets. They're inexpensive and great for your health, as well as adding protein and substance to meals. Digestive enzymes can help with digesting them.
-- Good resources for cooking gluten free are Lisa Lewis' book on Gluten Free cooking, Julie Matthews' book Nourishing Hope, and the yahoo group called GFCFKids. A few simple recipes will get you a long way, and soon you'll learn to make large batches to bake and freeze, which makes life much easier!
-- Ask around to other gfcf moms for great food and recipe ideas.
Here's the 'silver lining' to being on a strict budget: The best way to start supplements with an ASD child is very slowly, adding dosages and new things very gradually over time, so you don't shock the child's body. This means that if you're so financially strapped that you can only start a supplement every month or two, that's great! Your child may be doing better than loaded moms who buy and try everything all at once out of overenthusiasm!
In spending your precious pennies, please be aware that buying poor-quality supplements is not a good way to save money in treating these very sensitive children. You can actually make the situation worse this way, without meaning to. It's better to get just the basics covered well, than try to save money by getting cheap off-brand ones. You'll get your best ideas about which supplements are worth your money from other moms who've been there.
4. Contact a Rescue Angel in your area, at the website http://www.generationrescue.com
Generation Rescue was started by a father with the mission of informing parents and practitioners all over the world about the biomedical and heavy metal toxicity aspects of autism, and helping the kids get better. There is a place on the site where you can contact moms and dads from all over the world who've already treated their kids, and have volunteered to serve as "Rescue Angels" -- guides to those just getting started. This is entirely free of charge. You should also read and absorb all the information on this informative website, as part of your homework, by the way!
5. Join some internet groups, so you can get your own answers
Doing your own homework is the best way to get your child better, regardless of your budget! If you have no computer of your own, you can read at a library, or at a friend's house. If you don't have an email address, you can get a free one from Hotmail -- http://www.hotmail.com , so you can send and receive messages with other moms and dads. Some of my favorite autism biomedical groups are EnzymesandAutism and ChelatingKids2, and there are lots of others, some for particular geographic areas, where you can meet other moms. Moms have a lot more time to learn and talk about all this than doctors anyway, so often the most detailed discussions happen in these groups, even among those with the money and ability to find a doctor to help. Many of the groups are run by yahoo, and can be found by searching at http://www.yahoogroups.com .
6. Get a Gut Test (if financially and logistically possible).
You can get it through Direct Labs http://www.directlabs.com (they will give you a discount if you mention autism), and not have to pay for a doctor's visit, etc. They have a Stool Analysis for $279 or an OAT for $266 or a Candida-specific blood test for $153. I'm pretty sure you can do these from outside the U.S. too. I'd lean toward the stool analysis, myself, just for sheer amount of useful gut info. In the U.S., if you have any kind of insurance at all, your regular doc might also be able to run *some* kind of gut testing, if you tell a really sad, sad story of lots and lots of gut symptoms, and that could be some use to you. Try to get them to run one from a good lab such as Doctors Data or Metametrix rather than their standard lab. If possible, try to find a chiropractor or naturopath that takes your insurance, and they will be much more understanding and knowledgeable about how to run and interpret some useful gut testing than an MD would be.
7. Heal the gut, slay the yeast.
Once your child is on some good supplements, including probiotics (with or without test results in hand), you can get some natural antifungals and start to work. Please see my post on this at http://www.livejournal.com/users/tmykla
8. General tips on Lowering your Supplement Costs
One low-cost source of lots of good quality individual supplements is Beyond a century ( http://www.beyond-a-century.com ). You can buy inexpensive bulk powders from them, and make your own capsules or syrups. They carry a little of everything, and can help if you need single nutrients. If you really want to get into it, you can buy herbs in bulk at the health food store and make your own decoctions, extractions or tinctures -- just start reading on the web, it's not that difficult or at all expensive to do. If your child takes pills, you can save a load by making your own caps with a Cap-M-Quik capsule maker, available at most healthfood stores. It's a great, simple and inexpensive tool, and gives you great control over dosing.
9. Clean up Your Child's Environment
Cumulative toxic load is a big issue for our kids. There are many simple and inexpensive steps you can take to make your ASD child's world less toxic. Many of them can save you money.
- Stop buying expensive cleaners. You can do a ton of much healthier cleaning with baking soda, vinegar, Bon Ami and some of that concentrated Citrus cleaner.
- Look for laundry detergent without Dyes and Scents - costs the same as the regular stuff.
- Stop buying scented stuff for your home - many sensitive kids can't tolerate it.
- Buy nice simple liquid castille soap instead of the nasty antibacterial stuff (did you know that the 'antibacterial' ingredient is a nerve poison? At our house, we love Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap!).
- Get a water filter to put on your sink, much cheaper than paying for bottled water, and nicer, as the water doesn't sit in plastic bottles that leach more bad stuff into it. I really like my 10-stage one (about $89) http://www.newwaveenviro.com, but there are probably cheaper ones that are good too. Call the Pure Water people for lots of expertise in water, and help buying good inexpensive countertop water filters you can attach to your faucet or showerhead (http://pwgazette.com/contact.htm).
- You can also buy a filter for your shower head, also from New Wave Enviro, about $35, so your whole family bathes in cleaner water, or a bathball, that floats in the bathtub and helps take out the chlorine.
- Next time you want to do something nice for your child's teacher, buy some simple nontoxic handsoap and cleaner for the classroom.
- Ask the school to let you know when they're spraying pesticides on campus, so you can manage your child's exposure.
Moving to the Next Level
If you get this far, you won't be a beginner anymore, and your child will be ready for some more sophisticated treatment, possibly including chelation and more specific supplements to help particular issues (i.e. customized fatty acids, amino acids, metabolism, thyroid, etc.). It will probably be clear to you by this point which areas you need to investigate and learn about next, and you'll have some resources where you can find out about them.
Mercury and Heavy Metals
Heavy metals are a part of almost every autistic child's health picture, in my opionion. I believe that our kids have an impaired ability to detoxify themselves.
There are plenty of very inexpensive things you can do to help the body detoxify naturally. Give more vitamin C, up to the maximum they can tolerate that doesn't cause loose stools. Find a way to get them to eat more green vegetables, particularly broccoli and other cruciferous veggies. Get them exercising, so they sweat. Teach them to be water drinkers, and make sure they drink LOTS of water every day. Cleaning up their home and school environments is part of this, as well, to try to have less bad stuff go in, too.
This is all great, but probably not enough for most kids, who already have significant metals built up in their bodies. You will want to make sure yeast is under control and your child is on good supplements before starting to really work on detoxifying heavy metals. Also, please support your child's liver. Get them on some Gaia Milk Thistle extract every day, available at any healthfood store for about $8.
The best natural detoxification program I know is from BrainChild Nutritionals, but it's expensive to do. If you can't afford it, I recommend that you read and understand their program, and try to follow the basic intentions of each step of it, but without spending so much money. The basic steps are as follows:
1. Get good nutrients in - vitamins, minerals, probiotics, etc.
2. Get yeast under control
3. Support the detoxification organs so the body will be able to stay healthy while dumping heavy metals.
4. Try to raise glutathione levels, to help the body detoxify the way healthy bodies do.
5. Add sulfur to the body, as sulfur is used for detoxification and is often lacking in autistic kids.
6. Start natural detoxification supplements.
My favorite product for Step #6, above, naturally removing heavy metals, is called Natural Cellular Defense (NCD). It's part of the BrainChild program. NCD is made by Waiora (http://www.waiora.com), which unfortunately is kind of an icky MLM company, but makes a great product. NCD comes in a tiny bottle, that costs you something like $35 if you become a "distributor" with them, which is the way to get the cheapest price. You start at one drop a day and work up. It's in flavorless drops that you can put in a glass of water, so it's very easy to give to autistic kids. Follow the directions on the bottle, and remember that the safe dosage for a sensitive child may be way less than that for an adult. Dr. Peter Prociuk has done a lot of work giving Zeolite to autistic kids, so you can google him. BrainChild also has information on how to use it up on their website. I think this is a far preferable approach to the chemical way... much safer, and also less expensive!
The best testing to tell if you have all the metals out is Urinary Porphryin testing. It costs around $130, which is actually cheap for a test, and doesn't require a doctor's prescription. You order it at www.labbio.net. It's a test kit that you collect urine for and ship to Paris. It's most useful to have one from before you started and another later, to see how much you've gotten out. There are other tests that are cheaper, such as hair testing, urine, etc. used by most alternative doctors, but these only tell what is coming out, not what's left in. Most autistic kids can't get rid of metals easily, so these tests don't really mean much when run on them, because they only show how much is leaving the body over a limited amount of time. My advice, after running lots of these tests, is not to waste your money on them.
Hope this helps someone. I've done A LOT of treatment on the cheap and without a lot of doctor assistance over the years, out of necessity. We made some fabulous progress during this time, so I know it can be done!
Terri
