Lorenzo's Oil for Autism

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Here's ACAM's homepage

http://www.acamnet.org/site/c.ltJWJ4MPI ... D/Home.htm

Frankly, after reading what they say, I'd stick with the witchcraft if I were you.... you're safer with a witch, some of them are damned hot, and if you're lucky they'll do a ritual for you skyclad. It appears to be a nicely designed page for a bunch of "alternative medicine" nutjobs. Now I'll go wait for my check from Big Pharma, since I'm one of their biggest fans... they must be paying me to say good things right? It has nothing to do with the fact they keep me alive....

A nice webpage with impressive graphics and writing doesn't mean they know what the HELL they're doing....

I don't mean to offend anyone, but what gets hurt is the patent's pocketbook.
I work with older folks and their Medicare the old age medical insurance in The States. I hear from their own lips how the chelation therapy is necessary for their health, how it is going to help this ailment or that disease.
They call me because the durable medical equipment for the therapy is paid for by medicare, but the chelation serum is not, and that comes directly from the patient having the therapy.

the singular common thread in all those chelation patients is their nearly rabid desperation because they have been convinced they need the treatment, and secondly, how narrow minded it is that Medicare did not spring for the rather expensive chelation catalyst.

anecdotal, but perhaps 30 calls in the last year, that I remember working with their claims.

Merle

Pbcoll, I agree with both you and Zendell on this topic, even though you are at opposite ends of the argument. How that's possible baffles me, but I agree with you.

I do think modern medicine plays a critical role in healthcare and longevity. However, I agree with Zendell on the point that there are natural ways to heal the body as well. Sometimes, both medicine and natural healing can work together. Since the article is on Autism snake oil, I wanted to mention this. When we got our diagnosis they offered us Ritalin. A good 60% I'd say of the parents we know with spectrum kids have them on drugs. However, we chose to go the dietary/supplement/behavior therapy route and are achieving the same results that Ritalin does. That may not work for everyone, but it works for us.

So, Ritalin (modern med) does a good job for many people we know, but our route serves our kid just as well. Both have their places in Autism treatment and both costs money. Nothing in life is free. I must tell you, however, our route is very expensive. Insurance will pick up the tab for Ritalin, but the dollar figure on the dietary/supplement/behavior therapies would buy you a new car.

How come some children have died from it? It's news to me that a "safe treatment" may cause death. And don't tell me it was an accident, anything safe by definition cannot cause more than a slight allergic reaction.

We do not know how many people suffered a serious mineral deficiency upon undergoing chelation, either.



I respect the opinion of these US researchers. However, I do not live in the US, and I am very much aware that research is carried out elsewhere as well, and that many researchers in other parts of the world (not to mention in the US itself) have a very different opinion. But it seems like you prefer to conveniently ignore it, simply because it doesn't coincide with what you personally believe. This is called bias.

On the whole, I feel this is not a case of "expert opinion" vs. "erroneous beliefs", this is a case of "your experts" vs. "my experts". There are plenty of gray areas in science (autism just happens to be one of them), and within each of these gray areas, one may find many theories which state completely different things. Some may contradict each other. One is basically free to choose any theory one likes and support it until it is proven true (or false).

I am not trying to prove that some types of autistic or autistic-like behaviors are not caused by the rubella virus or some other infection. It's possible. But to try to claim that autism, as a whole, is caused by infections, seems rash at best, especially given the research that suggests otherwise.



People are sceptic for a good reason - few or no no recoveries have been documented in such a way that would actually be believable.



Even the death of that one boy (forget his name - but I am sure you would know, since you have extensively researched chelation) is EVIDENCE ENOUGH.



How about taking pollution into account? The unimaginable combination of chemicals we take in every day (if you live in the USA, just think of the smog over a large city) is enough to cause the widest array of diseases, and it is not at all surprising if cancer rates soared throughout the last century in developed countries. I really don't think it is worth searching for some obscure, mythical causes and forget the plain fact that, quite simply, nothing in our environment is clean anymore.

Besides, I am sure that cancer existed since the dawn of time, and it definitely exists in developing countries as well (where it is fatal far more often than in developed ones due to lack of medical services).

Rob Nijssen not only is sorely lacking in logic, but he also sounds extremely arrogant!

Zendell, if you haven't heard of cases in which chelation was fatal (yes, the case in which they were trying to cure a boy of autism), you don't know what you're talking about. Death seems to me to be a serious side-effect. Using it to 'cure' conditions other than heavy metal poisoning is dangerous quackery.

I think it's interesting that doctors prescribe Ritalin to treat autism because:
1. Ritalin has never been proven effective for autism (although it works for ADHD)

2. Ritalin (brand name of methylphenidate) is dangerous and deadly. It is estimated that Ritalin had killed about 1,240 people between 1990 and 2000. http://www.ritalindeath.com

3. The autism research institute collects parent observations on autism treatments. Of the more than 4,000 parents who gave their autistic children Ritalin, 44% got worse, 26% had no improvement, and only 29% got better. With chelation therapy, which is far more safer than Ritalin, only 3% got worse, 24% had no improvement, and 73% got better.

Ritalin versus Chelation
Neither proven effective
Ancedotal reports indicate chelation is very effective whereas Ritalin doesn't work well
Deaths due to Ritalin - 1,240
Deaths due to chelation - 3 out of over 10 million treatments (1 per 3.3 million). Many prescription drugs kill far more often than 1 in 3 million.

My problem with conventional Western medicine is that doctors recommend dangerous and ineffective treatments while warning their patients to avoid safer, more effective treatments.

When it comes to vitamins and minerals, doctors demand extensive proof (which will never occur because they can't be patented so they will never be fully studies). Yet when it comes to dangerous drugs, no evidence of effectiveness is required.

Vitamin B6, vitamin C, and magnesium have been found effective in treating autism, have virtually no risks or side-effects and are inexpensive. Conventional doctors warn their patients to avoid vitamins (saying they haven't been conclusively proven effective) and then recommend unproven dangerous drugs instead that only benefit the pharmaceutical companies.

I may rattle cages here but a lot of people think that the hyperactivity that occurs in autism is due to a secondary diagnosis of ADHD. I don't believe it. I don't believe it because I saw my son before we introduced schedules and methods of communication. He presented in a very disorganized manner, jumping around, unable to focus and having tantrums that could go on forever if left unchecked or redirected by a camera flash.
Sounds like ADHD, huh? But it wasn't. It was very disorganized thinking and a lack of communication. He was 2 1/2 and we were offered Ritalin. Parents that were given the stuff sung its praises for about 3 weeks, then took their kids off it silently. It had stopped working.

Once my son was able to communicate, he became a lot more focused and organized. Able to ask for wants and needs rather than tantrum.

Zendell, Ritalin is commonly prescribed for Autistic kids with the most severe cases of sensory overload and attention deficits. Some may say these are comorbids, but they come with the territory of Autism. If you pick up any book on Autism Treatment, Ritalin is normally one of the drugs listed in that book to treat it. It wakes up the brain and stimulates the central nervous system. It shows good effects in some kids because it arouses the pathways responsible for focus and attention and we personally know many families that have success with it or a generic.

We don't know anyone who's been on it for years and years, but that's definately a consideration of safety when taking any drug long term. The route we took is a natural one, but that won't work for every person with Autism.

I'm not saying there is a specific time of life, but one has the right to live as long a life as possible. Things happen of course - you could be struck and killed outright by a car for example, amongst a plethora of other things. But that's beyond your control.

What about the things WITHIN your control? THAT is where I'm talking about lifetime - and choices. What I'm saying is that it is the wrong choice to do something that threatens your own life or that of others when what you are trying to achieve can be achieved by other less threatening ways.

Just throwing that out there.

As for Zendell - he finally hit the bottom of the barrel believing that cancer may not have existed 100 years ago. Sorry! It did. It just hadn't been discovered yet. 100 years ago there would have been plenty of death certificates that would have been incorrect because they don't really know what caused the death.

Heck, I just heard a story on NPR this morning about yellow fever in 1878. People didn't know what caused it-that doesn't mean there weren't viri!

Some people are narrow in their focus, that is true. In 1908 my grandfather was alive, my father was born in 1912, so it really wasn't back in the dark ages ( I promise!) The idea that cancer is some new disease is just one of those things you shake your head at while trying not to chuckle - not at someone's ignorance, but at the idea someone would not just do one little Google search to keep from being chuckled at.

one pass of Google gave me 10,600,000 hits just for history of cancer, alone.

Oldest Descriptions of Cancer (because I like to document)

Cancer has afflicted humans throughout recorded history. It is no surprise that from the dawn of history doctors have written about cancer. Some of the earliest evidence of cancer is found among fossilized bone tumors, human mummies in ancient Egypt, and ancient manuscripts. Bone remains of mummies have revealed growths suggestive of the bone cancer, osteosarcoma. In other cases, bony skull destruction as seen in cancer of the head and neck has been found.

Our oldest description of cancer (although the term cancer was not used) was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 B.C. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, or writing, describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization, with a tool called "the fire drill." The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment."

Origin of the Word Cancer

The origin of the word cancer is credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.), considered the "Father of Medicine." Hippocrates used the terms carcinos and carcinoma to describe non-ulcer forming and ulcer-forming tumors. In Greek these words refer to a crab, most likely applied to the disease because the finger-like spreading projections from a cancer called to mind the shape of a crab. Carcinoma is the most common type of cancer.

Some doctors who practiced at the time stated that it wasn't until vaccines were introduced that cancer started becoming a problem.

Even if some said that, that's quite obviously bogus from everything we know. I mean maybe it's more of a "problem" because you have a better shot of living to be older, but other than that...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! !! !!

I'm sorry - but that is hilarious such is the sheer.....no I won't say it!

I'll tell you two things (that have nothing to do with vaccines) that created bigger problems with cancer.

Smoking
Smaller bathing costumes (skin cancer)

Of course it's not that by itself - it's the attached attitude as well.

In 1978 the sale of lead based paint was banned.... in 1996 the sale of leaded gasoline was banned.... Autism rates are rising... WOW!! ! Autism is caused by a lack of lead pollution in the environment!! ! Maybe we should introduce lead into the vaccines... prevent all those nasty autism diseases and make Jenny McCarthy shut the hell up....



Who wants to get in on the start of a NEW conspiracy theory?? Just step right in and repost that out to the conspiracy theory sites. Hmmm... maybe we should donate it to Autism Speaks, they can fund a $12 million study.