Autism Intensive Care

Intensive Care Medicine or critical care medicine is concerned with providing greater than ordinary medical care and observation to people in a critical or unstable condition.

Intensive care usually takes a system by system approach to treatment, rather than the SOAP (subjective, objective, analysis, plan) approach of high dependency care.

Autism ICU intervention is required for children with severe symptoms, poor dietary intake, neuroimmunological problems, and failure to respond to routine DAN! interventions.

Autism ICU
Specific Dietary Intervention
IV Therapy: Vitamin C, Minerals, Vitamins, Glutathione, Chelators (DMPS or CaEDTA) – Dose and Frequency Varies
Frequent Secretin IV
IVIG if indicated or other immune agents
HBOT once or twice daily for 1-3 months
Behavioral, Sensory & Auditory Integration

What We Know -

Autism is an epidemic!!!

Why does it matter?
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GENETIC EPIDEMIC. AUTISM MUST HAVE AN ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENT!!!!
This should guide research.
Gives hope for prevention, treatment and cure!

Do children with autism have gastrointestinal problems?

What We Know -
Many autistic children have severe constipation.
Many autistic children have evidence of abnormal intestinal permeability.
Many autistic children have inflammation that can exist anywhere in the GI tract.

Autistic Enterocolitis -
Autistic children with GI symptoms have a bowel disease distinct from other chronic inflammatory bowel disorders.

What We Think -

Undiagnosed abdominal issues are the cause of many of the behavior symptoms of autism.
The inflammatory process in the bowel may result in secondary inflammation in the brain.
Addressing GI issues decreases autistic symptoms.

A New Paradigm in Autism -

Autism is an environmental illness with a genetic component.
It is a complex metabolic disease, not just a developmental disability.
Autism is treatable, but . . .
We must continue fighting for a cure.

Sensory Processing is "The organization of sensory input for use. The “use” may be a perception of the body or world, or an adaptive response, learning process, or development of some neural function." -A. Jean Ayres, PhD, OTR, FAOTA

Sensory Processes take place at an unconscious level. All sensory systems work together to help us learn-attend, read, write, math and participate in daily activities.
Inhibition vs. Facilitation = MODULATION
Effects attention & behavior
Sensory overload causes a “Fight, Flight, or Freeze” reaction.
Autonomic Nervous System (sweat glands, heart rate, digestion, blood vessels, release adrenaline & cortisol)

Visual System: Characteristics
Focusing, eye-movements, eye-hand coordination, visual perceptual skills.
Low Vision Online - home
Has neuronal connections to vestibular system.
Over-responsive: Visual defensive (sensitive to fluorescent lights, bothered by objects close to face), difficulty finding materials in desk/backpack/locker, difficulty focusing on books or puzzles.
Under-responsive: Does not notice detail, written work incomplete.
Illegible handwriting, cuts off lines, colors outside boundary lines, visual perceptual delays could effect reading skills (reversal errors or loses place on page), difficulty copying from chalkboard.

Practical Strategies:
Decrease wall decorations
Adjust lights/ Cozy shades
Visor
Table easel /slant board
Window “guide” for reading
Adapted handwriting paper
Avoid copying from the board/copy from page on desk
Thicken cutting lines
Tactile boundary for coloring
Sticky note spacer b/w words
Be careful of glare on reading surfaces
Tape letter strip to desk for handwriting reference
Write on white board with thick black marker for contrast
Sit child close to chalkboard facing squarely

The Top 10 Things food companies don't want you to know...
Written by Mike Adams
UTHealth Magazine, September 2006
www.uthealth.com

The giant food corporations have one mission: selling more food and beverage products to consumers. Succeeding with that mission depends on keeping consumers in the dark on certain issues such as the presence cancer-causing chemicals found in popular food products. Here are ten things the food corporations, whose products dominate grocery store shelves across the United States and other countries, absolutely do not want you to know.

1. The ingredients listed on the label aren't the only things in the food. Cancer-causing chemicals such as acrylamides may be formed in the food during high-heat processing, yet there's no requirement to list them on the label. Residues of solvents, pesticides and other chemicals may also be present, but also do not have to be listed. The National Uniformity for Food Act, currently being debated in the U.S. Congress, would make it illegal (yes, illegal) for states to require cancer warnings on foods that contain cancer-causing chemicals (such as California's Proposition 65.)

2. Monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is added to thousands of food and grocery products through a dozen different innocent-sounding ingredients, imbalances endocrine system function, disabling normal appetite regulation and causing consumers to keep eating more food. This chemical not only contributes to nationwide obesity, it also helps food companies boost repeat business.

3. MSG is routinely hidden in foods in these ingredients: yeast extract, torula yeast, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and autolyzed yeast. Thousands of common grocery products contain one or more of these chemical taste enhancers, including nearly all "vegetarian" foods such as veggie burgers (read labels to check).

4. ADHD in children is caused almost entirely by the consumption of processed food ingredients such as artificial colors and refined carbohydrates. [Diet and nutrition may be the cause and the remedy of a learning disability or the behaviors associated with the ADD/ADHD label]. [Research has shone that as many as] eighty percent of so-called ADHD children who are taken off processed foods are cured of ADHD in two weeks.

5. The chemical sweetener aspartame, when exposed to warm temperatures for only a few hours, begins to break down into chemicals like formaldehyde and formic acid. Formaldehyde is a potent nerve toxin and causes damage to the eyes, brain and entire nervous system. Aspartame has been strongly linked to migraines, seizures, blurred vision and many other nervous system problems.

6. Most food dips (like guacamole dip) are made with hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and monosodium glutamate. Many guacamole dips don't even contain avocados.

7. Plastic food packaging is a potent health hazard. Scientists now know that plastics routinely seep the chemical bisphenol A into the food, where it is eaten by consumers. Cooking in plastic containers multiplies the level of exposure. Bisphenol is a hormone disruptor and can cause breast formation in men and severe hormonal imbalances in women. It may also encourage hormone-related cancers such as prostate cancer and breast cancer.

8. Most milk produced in the United States comes from cows injected with synthetic hormones that have been banned in every other advanced nation in the world. These hormones help explain why unusually young teenage girls develop breasts and menses at such a young age, or why hormone-related cancers like prostate cancer are being discovered in unprecedented numbers. Strangely, the USDA currently bans organic milk producers from claiming their milk comes from cows that were not treated with synthetic hormones. Even organic milk is now under fire.

9. Most grocery products that make loud health claims on their packaging are, in reality, nutritionally worthless (like meal replacement shakes, instant chocolate milk, etc.). The most nutritious foods are actually those the FDA does not allow to make any health claims whatsoever: fresh produce.

10. Food manufacturers actually "buy" shelf space and position at grocery stores. That's why the most profitable foods (and hence, the ones often with the lowest quality ingredients) are the most visible on aisle end caps, checkout lanes and eye-level shelves throughout the store. The effect of all this is to provide in-store marketing and visibility to the very foods and beverages that promote obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other degenerative conditions.