CuringAutismBlog

Mike's big sister, whom I will call Shannon, went to see the applied kinesiologist chiropractor yesterday for the first time. The chiro was able to determine that Shannon does NOT have the ammonia problem that Mike and I have. The chiro gave Shannon a whiff of ammonia and then tested her muscle responses. They were fine and normal. For Mike and me, they are weak for a long time, indicating that the body can't deal with the stuff (although having some ammonia in your cells in normal, having too much is a big problem).

Shannon has a diagnosis of Asperger's and is functioning fairly normally at age 20. Unfortunately she can't tell what other people are thinking, which hampers her.

There are plenty of people on the autism spectrum who do not have the ammonia issue, especially people under the age of 10 or so, accordng to Yasko. Those without ammonia issues are easier to treat.

Well, we are having some ups and downs. Mike is chafing at the restrictions of his low-protein, low-sugar diet. When he guzzles a 10-oz glass of cran-grape juice, his behavior worsens markedly. Violating the protein restriction also produces bad behavior. In addition, there are apparently some of these supplements that are causing bad behavior. So, he is not an angel. But I have hopes.

He has visited the applied kinesiology chiropractor once. We will go again on Friday. She works methodically, and has a set of things to check first, so we are doing that. I hope that soon we can "muscle test" most of these supplements to see which are helpful and which are not. I did do some testing on my own on Saturday and decided that phosphatidyl serine, which I purchased at the recommendation of Dr. Mullan, causes very hyper behavior. Yasko says to expect some of the supplements to cause reactions, so I am not surprised.

We now have a case manager from the state, having applied for some state money to pay for "respite care," also known as babysitting. (Can't leave Mike by himself, he gets into trouble, or leave him with his brothers, so we pay for care.) I talked to this case manager, Karen, for a long time this morning. She has some suggestions for behavior mod that I would like to try. Need to discuss them with my husband first.

I am also on a restrictive diet (high protein low carb), and it helps me stay on it to know I will go off it on Friday evenings, so I don't feel so deprived. So I told Mike the same, and he did get a big ice cream yesterday and then ate a lot of pizza. Well, his behavior was really terrible. He was very loud and angry after eating the ice cream. Don't know if he noticed. But it was really obvious to us! This of course confirms the low-protein diet as very helpful.

So, I guess I'll let him eat Thanksgiving dinner, and expect bad behavior :(

So, since Mike is a different child on a low-protein diet, you might ask me exactly how I am defining low protein.

If you got to a Polycystic Research Foundation Web site, you get this definition: "Your body on average requires .6 gms. of protein / per kg. of bodyweight / per day. This can vary from a low of .45 gms. to a high of .8 gms. of protein (Polycystic Research Foundation Newsletter)."

For Mike who weighs 170 pounds, divide by 2.2 to get 77 kilos, multiply by .6 grams of protein per kg of body weight, and you get 46 grams of protein per day. Other Web sites say to be sure to get adequate supplementation on a low-protein diet, which of course we are!!
And how.

So the trick is to count protein grams. I got a dry erase board to keep track of all his protein and starch servings in a day (green vegs and fruit are free).
We are also not drinking milk or eating white flour. Whole milk yogurt only. Read food labels for protein content.

2 slices bread=7g
1 cup pea soup=12g
1 cup unhomogenized yogurt=10g
1 bite meat, cheese: 4g
2 tablespoons peanut butter: 7 g
1 cup rice milk=1g
1 cup beans= 4g
1 cup brown rice = 2 g
peanut butter and jelly sandwich=14g
2 tsp peanut butter= 7g

There is an organization of parents whose children have been recovered from autism, who are willing to mentor other parents. This group can be found at http://www.generationrescue.org/. So if you know of someone who wants to embark on the same journey as I am taking, you can contact someone for mentoring. I haven't arrived yet so wouldn't make a good mentor. Notice I said "yet." I am very hopeful.

Mike was doing well on his very low-protein diet until Day 4, yesterday, when we went out to a club meeting and he was presented with a table full of food. He ate about 12 inches or more of sub sandwich with meat inside. Immediately afterward he started picking a fight with his brother and generally being out of control. So I think this confirms the need for the diet. I need to find the right herb that will help him deal with protein on occasions like this. I am thinking that since yucca made me sick, it may not be good for him either. There are some other possibilities--quercetin and butterbur. We will try both. I did give him some quercetin when we got home last night, and he did calm down. Perhaps coincidence.

For detox we will try NAET, another alternative health practice using energy fields and whatnot. I understand it works. So, we'll try it. Turns out I actually know someone who is a practitioner! Supposedly there are only 400 practitioners in the country.

I am developing a Yasko-type protocol that requires less money spent. I am going to call it Yasko Lite. Here's the situation: Amy Yasko's protocol requires that you spent about $500 every two or three months on supplements, plus another $250 every week or 10 days on urine tests to monitor what is going on. This is on top of about $500 in initial testing, and that doesn't count the $1,100 genetic analysis review that starts it all off. Only some of this is covered by health insurance. So, the bottom line is ... too big!! Yikes!!! And it never ends! And what if you have multiple people who should be on the protocol, like I do?

The family needs inexpensive feedback on how the child is doing. Guess what! There is a way to get it. This is using a chiropractor who is trained in applied kinesiology, also called muscle testing. You use Yasko's genetic test to identify your child's genetic susceptible areas, you look at Yasko's methylation cycle charts to see what compounds are needed to get the injured cycle going, and you have the applied kinesiologist determine whether each supplement is helpful for your child.

Applied kinesiology (AK) is kind of like acupuncture--they talk about meridians and energy fields, and so on. But the bottom line is, it does work. I was taking yucca a lot recently, figuring I eat a lot of protein and must have ammonia issues, since Mike does. Yucca is supposed to soak up the protein somehow, according to Yasko. But I got headaches. Was it from yucca or too little protein or something else? I went to an AK chiropractor, and she used AK to determine very quickly that the yucca was bad for me. I stopped taking it, and the headaches went away. Yasko also endorses AK, I am told.

So how do you find the right chiropractor? You could look for one trained by the Brimhall Wellness Center (in Mesa, AZ) in applied kinesiology. There are such people all over the country -you can call Brimhall at (480) 964-5107 to find one in your area. These people are very familiar with the methylation cycle and getting it to run optimally, so they really understand Yasko's protocol--it is right up their alley.

The great thing is, the chiropractor is covered by medical insurance, and the fees are less than $100 per visit. This is a lot less than the Yasko protocol, which can run into many thousands of dollars with no end in sight. There you have it--whatever you are doing for your child, you will need to keep doing, because none of this is going to actually fix his mutations. He just has to learn to live with them.

Meanwhile, Mike is on Day 3 of his low-protein diet. He seems to actually like it. His behavior is milder.

The remaining question is, what about detox? Mike surely has some mercury and so on sitting around in his tissues, not flushed out because his methylation cycle hasn't been working. Yasko does detox by revving up the methylation cycle (applying methyl donors such as B12), but I have heard that that isn't always a great idea. There are other chelation protocols out there, so I guess I will scare one up, eventually. I am thinking about NAET, another alternative health procedure.