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Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD, by William Shaw, Ph.D.

• Summary
• Featured in the Book
• Table of Contents
• About the Book & Contributors
• Excerpt
• Comments
• Order the Book
• Read From This Book Online!

Summary

Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD is an authoritative, comprehensive and easy-to-read resource guide to a wide range of therapies that have been useful in the treatment of autism, including antifungal and antibacterial therapies, gluten and casein restriction, homeopathy, vitamin therapy, gamma globulin treatment, transfer factor therapies, treatment of food allergies, and alternatives to antibiotic therapy. Registered visitors to our site can read from this book online.

The information in this book may be useful not only for those seeking information to treat autism, but for virtually any disorder in which some of the symptoms of autism are sometimes or frequently present, including:

• Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD)
• Rett’s syndrome
• Williams disease
• Neurofibromatosis
• Tuberous sclerosis
• Fragile X
• Down’s syndrome with autistic symptoms
• Tourette’s syndrome
• Prader-Willi syndrome
• Attention deficit disorder

This book answers two very important questions for people dealing with autism and related medical concerns: What is going on? And what can you do about it?

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Featured in the book:

• Dr. Bernard Rimland on Vitamin therapy
• Accounts by Pamela Scott and Karyn Seroussi of their success in the "managed recovery" of their children from autism
• Detailed advice by Lisa Lewis Ph.D. on implementation of a gluten and casein-free diet
• Dr. Bruce Semon on typical cases and how to implement a yeast-free diet  

Table of Contents

• Abnormalities in organic acid and amino acid metabolism in autism
• Immune system abnormalities and vaccine reactions
• The use of IVIG therapy
• Nutritional interventions
• Abnormal gastrointestinal microorganisms
• Role of yeast and antifungal therapies in the treatment of autism and PDD
• Digestive system
• Gluten and casein sensitivity, supplemental digestive enzymes, secretin, and the role of the pancreas
• Ear infections and other frequent infections and their relationship to autism, PDD, and ADD
• Typical responses to therapy
• An account by Pamela Scott of her success in reversing her child’s autism.
• Implementing a gluten and casein free diet by Lisa Lewis, Ph.D.

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About the Book and Contributors

The book was born from a January 1995 meeting of a group of physicians and scientists in Dallas as a part of Dr. Bernard Rimland’s Defeat Autism Now! Conference.

In the book, the authors link the widespread use of antibiotics with increased incidence of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They hypothesize that yeast overgrowth of the intestinal tract caused by antibiotic overuse is one of the main factors that may cause at least some of the symptoms of autism and ADHD. However, since yeast overgrowth and the resulting consequences can be a factor in some many illnesses, people with many different concerns will find valuable information in this book.

• William Shaw, Ph.D. received his Doctorate in biochemistry from the Medical University of South Carolina. He has board certifications in both Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology from the American Board of Clinical Chemistry. He worked for six years in nutritional biochemistry, endocrinology and immunology at the US Centers for Disease Control, for twelve years in the large Smith Kline Beecham Clinical Laboratories involved with specialized medical testing for toxicology (poisons and drugs), chemistry, immunology, tumor receptors and endocrinology. Next, for five years, Dr. Shaw was an associate professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine and Director of Clinical Chemistry, Toxicology and Endocrinology and the organic acid testing for metabolic conditions at Children’s Mercy Hospital, the teaching hospital for the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine.
• Bernard Rimland, Ph.D. is a research psychologist, who has been the director of the Autism Research Institute since it was founded in 1967 and is the founder of the Autism Society of America. His prize-winning book, Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior is credited with changing the field of psychiatry from its "blame the mother" orientation to its current recognition that autism is a biological disorder, not an emotional illness. He was also technical advisor on the movie Rainman with Dustin Hoffman.
• Bruce Semon, MD, Ph.D. is both a child psychiatrist and nutritionist practicing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has practiced nutritional medicine since 1991. He received his MD from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Nutrition from University of California-Davis in 1989. He was a Fellow at the National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute (Laboratory of Nutritional and Molecular Regulation) from 1989-1991.
• Lisa S. Lewis, Ph.D. is the mother of two children, one of whom was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Her formal academic training is in biological anthropology; while earning a doctorate in that field she studied genetic variation and performed studies of blood proteins in several species of non-human primates. This science background laid the foundation for understanding the theories underlying dietary interventions. After her son’s autism diagnosis, she soon found that doctors had little to offer in the way of information or treatment. She did her own research; this resulted in a dietary intervention that began as a trial and has now become a way of life for her son.
• Karyn Seroussi and Pamela Scott are mothers of children with autism who recovered from this condition as a result of using the therapies offered in this book.

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Excerpt from Pamela Scott's chapter (mother of a child with autism):

In a manner you would use to tell someone their child has a cold, he (the doctor) informed us of our son’s suspected misfortune.

"It doesn’t look good for Taylor," was his first statement. The three of us were dumbfounded.

"What do you mean, it doesn’t look good?" I asked.

He proceeded to tell us that Taylor had a neurodegenerative brain disease, that we would have to do extensive testing to determine which disease it was and that these diseases were incurable.

I pressed on, "What do you mean, incurable? Will he die from this disease?" His response was even more shocking.

"Yes. It could take 18 months or 18 years depending on which disease it is. But you better hope for 18 months, because the pain and suffering are unbearable."

Instead of experiencing the joy of watching a child grow and learn, we felt fear and anxiety as we agonized over every developmental milestone that our children did not meet.

As we compared our children to our friends’ children, we became angry. Angry that our lives were different. Angry that physicians and therapists didn’t have the answers to our questions. Angry that the services and programs available did not meet our children’s and family’s needs. Angry that we were supposed to just accept our children’s disabilities and go on with our lives. Just plain angry!

But out of that anger came the energy we needed to fight for our children. We decided to search for our own answers, to see what researchers were working on. We decided to find our own ways to help our children be the best that they could be. We decided to rely on our own judgment of what was right for our family. We decided to not accept the standard form of medical treatment for our children’s disabilities. We took responsibility and control of our family’s future.

You may order the book online.