Thursday 5 June 2014

Have you ever fainted or had an operation? You know that fuzzy sort of other worldly feeling you get as you come round, like the world is one step removed? Well thats kinda how I feel most of the time. Thoughts I used to be able to process relatively quickly, settle like mud in muddy water, and each new thought throws it all up again.

Recently I have had several streams of thought, which culminated last night in a credit card bing that cost me just shy of £400, so a big thank you to the NHS, who let autistic people and their families down every second and every day. So, let me list my thoughts.

1. My friend with the boy who is 3 and fighting to get her sons gut issues investigated properly, finally got to see the gastro specialist and a dietician. They decided not to do any test, but instead put him on brown rice etc to firm up his pooh, because poor child has never had a normal pooh in his life and according to his mum they stink like the devil. To take him off the gluten free diet etc and do all those things that go against all the literature out there that actually helps them. Within 2 days the eczema on her little boys face was weeping on his cheeks and she had to use steroid cream. She left with the feeling they both thought she was a wacko.

2. I watched a presentation listing how autistic adults are doing, and its not good. Suicide, death from being restrained in custody, generally falling apart under the nose of the social services etc.

3.While what I have done for Ed had certainly helped, he is no where near being any where like normal, he will be 8 soon, and I just have that shadow in my mind that to much time has passed and at this rate - God only knows what his fate is. I hit a mighty age this year, and my ability to physically cope with him are not going to improve, quite the opposite. What sort of mess am I leaving my other sons when I die? (and I am not being morbid here, thats just a reality)

4. Heavy metal poisoning just keeps coming up. My dentist I am sure has given me mercury poisoning which I in turn passed to Ed. Its the key stone to his toxic biology. There is no one in this country who will chelate autistic children for metals. The strain that this process put on the body, needs medical monitoring of their liver and kidney function to make sure they can cope with the extra biological burden. Do I just bugger it and do it my self, do the pros outweigh the cons? I am sure that until I resolve this issue, Ed will remain the same.

5. Toxin body build up, like living your life in a house never opening the doors or window, breathing in the same old stale air, is a bit like the cells in your body. Inflammation reduces the ability of the cell to remove waste, leading to a build up of toxins which set off a cascade of unfortunate biological events which lead to more toxins and more inflammation. So I have to detox a child who is very uncooperative, won't swallow anything, after having an aqua-detox - now hits a high C NOOOOOOOO!!! if you mention washing his feet. Can't see him sitting in a sauna, or lying on a bio-mat. What to do.

6. I went to a funeral last week, the father of my sister in law died. My life is so screwed up that I actually had a great day with Ed at the childminders all day, and me out with my family. How messed up is that. I realised how screwed up my relationships are, everything revolves round Ed.

7. My brothers comment when I forwarded a product that might help his wife with ME, as the more I look at it, the more the triggers for autism are triggering a myriad of modern day illness. None of which are being treated properly, my son just got autism, you might get Parkinson's or cancer, or diabetes, or some other disease. "Doctors are all pill pushers and scab pullers."

8. My sons comment on what did I do all day when they weren't there. Well, even when Ed isn't there, my time is still taken up with washing all his pants, he can go through easily 6 pairs a day plus trousers. Then there internet searching for techniques, products, protocols and anything that will help him. Yesterday I got up from the computer and my whole body ached I had sat down all day searching, cross referencing.

So I resolved to find a practitioner and get help - bugger the cost. Only, it isn't that easy. After a week of looking, and seeing what was on offer and the cost, again, I thought bugger that. You can probably tell from the amount of times I have used that word that my mood isn't that of sunshine. There is nothing here in this country that I can turn to for help. Yet, in the news today, we have a death of a wee baby from a contaminated drip with 15 others critically ill. A few months ago, the figure for death from diabetes misdiagnosis and treatment last year almost hit 100,000. So not only is our health service not helping, its harming. What do I do, where do I go for help?

So, thats where the £400 comes in. It isn't as effective and quick as a medical chelation, but I found a natural product that as a bonus comes with 10 amino-acids, that appears to be effective at removing and escorting heavy metals from the body. Now that critically important because the last thing you want to do is more it around. I found a pro-bioitc thats coated so it reaches the intestines alive, and its a high enough count to do some good with various strains. I found an amazing magnesium spray to again aid in detox, and also provide enough magnesium to actually help the body (nearly all the enzyme functions of the body need magnesium to function) and as a spray, it means that I can be assured that its actually been absorbed as opposed to just going down the plug hole. I found a fantastic mineral product with this that and the other, to much good stuff to list. I found an amazing B vitamin patch to help with detox and cognitive function, a glutathiamin patch to help detox, a melatoine patch to help him sleep and give his adrenal glands a chance to recover (lord they must be shrivelled up like little raisins) a fantastic mix of cold pressed oil stored finally in a glass container designed to protect it from light, that will help nourish and detox Ed by reducing the inflammation in his cells so that they can finally start working right, and again its got all sort of amino-acids plus a load of vitamins and minerals, and some amazing plankton product that is just full of goodness and trace this and that to really make sure that he is topped off with what he needs, so he can get rid of what he doesn't. And I am racking my brain because I am sure I missed something. Anyway, all I need now is an action plan to put it all in practice because obviously you cant start everything off at the same time. At least the patches will be held up in customs for a few days as they have to come from canada.

And so friend, while I have an anger that seethes about the lack of care from those who are paid to care, and an anger about the Governments who allow us to be poisoned, and I really mean poisoned by untested chemicals and filthy air and water, with foods devoid of nutritional content, an aggressive vaccination plan into little bodies unable to cope with it, I am actually quite excited about the next few months. I bought in a big enough supply to really give this a good go. Now if you are thinking that I have lost it with the poisoning bit, lets just talk GMO real quick. You will be told that they are the solution to world hunger. Actually, they have just been created to be resistant to pesticides, and the crop yield is actually lower than normal crops and, they need more water than normal plants and so are susceptible to drought. Dow chemicals at the moment is asking Obama to pass a law which will allow them to spray crops with Agent Orange (remember that nice chemical they used in Vietnam and the deformities that babies in that country are still being born with) because the round up ready crops, yes they really are spraying our food with round up, are failing because the weeds have become resistant. So just as bacteria are becoming resistant, the weeds are to, and these are super weeds! Breast feeding mothers in the states are now passing through their milk high levels of pesticides. I forget the study that revealed that sad fact, but you can look it up yourself. And I kind of feel like banging my head against something hard, because surely, this is a world gone mad with the tail wagging the dog? Ed may be crazy, but at least unlike our world leaders, he isn't wicked crazy. Rant over. XX










Friday 16 May 2014

Edward meets Omar - our dog!

To coin a phrase, yesterday was the best of days and the worst of days.

At 10.30, we all met Omar. Omar is a 2 year old golden lab and he is going to be our dog. My big boys were to cool for school about it and reacted in the normal 21st century way by posting it on snap-chat and face book, Edward clung to me like a bush baby and nearly broke my neck, and Richard, who had been against us getting a dog till we are rich enough to "live on a farm" (i.e. never!) just went all soppy over him. What a lovely dog, we all just fell in love with him. Ed eventually gathered enough courage for a stroke and with words of "Dog!Dog!Dog!' I think he was happy to see him.

So the day started out really well, after Omar left I took Ed up to school and all seemed well till he came home. I seem to remember describing him all hot and sweaty from all the screaming earlier in the history of this blog. Well, yesterday, you heard him before you saw him. He screamed and tantrumed till teatime, when he happily ate a chicken fajita. Was on again off again till we drove Richard over to Prestwood for a well deserved night out. I stopped in at my friend Bernie's for a quick cup of tea so Ed could see her chickens and maybe calm down a bit. That was great for me and him, but we got home all miserable again, and even hoovering up all the dog hairs only kept him happy for a limited time. He was happy on the drive to pick up Daddy, but back home again his screaming lasted till almost midnight. I can only think that he couldn't cope with the change to his normal day, getting to school at dinnertime, and then leaving after such a short day really upset his apple cart. I fell in bed at 1am thinking OMG!

This morning he was fine, tired but fine. And in the quite of the house going over the day in my head, I thought to myself, that's how he was almost everyday. Yesterday just reminded me of how bad it was. You know you do all these treatments and supplements, and you try this and that and because he isn't "normal" you can think that all you have done hasn't really made a difference. But yesterday really showed what a difference it has made for him and us. My family, bless them, are so supportive of my efforts, and recently the slow pace of progress has got me down. But yesterday in its awfulness showed how far we have come. I normally meet up with some friends on a Friday at Costa, but this Friday because of all the little ones they have, we meet at a coffee shop just opened in Kings church. One of the ladies hasn't come along for a while, she has celiac disease along with a few other allergies, her husband is allergic to dogs and they have passed these allergies along to their children. Her son has the same restricted sort of life that Ed has, along with being tired all the time, its difficult for him to go out because of all his allergies, her other children aren't so bad. Her story is a little like mine in as much as there is not really anything the medical profession can do or offer. But she managed to make this Friday, she came up to me and grabbed my arm and said, I've started to do NAET with him! She told me how his face had just lit up at the thought that someone could help him, and take away his pain without having to swallow lots of pills or stab him with needles. Her little girl was there with her arm full of pinpricks where they had tried and failed to take blood to test her for celiac. She kept coming up and saying "my arm hurts mummy." My brave friend has gone ahead with this whack-a-doodle sounding therapy out of desperation for something to help, my advice, and her watching hours on you tube of mothers saying how it has helped them. Her husband thinks she has lost it. Little does he know that when she has healed their children, herself and her mother (who has had an allergic reaction and rejected a hip replacement) he is next to be treated for dogs, so they to can finally have a dog in their family, like our Omar. XX

Tuesday 13 May 2014

inflamation

The other day I picked up my address book to call someone, as opposed to using my mobile with all its stored numbers, and out of my address book fell a small 3" square piece of paper. Its laughable now, but this was one of the first pieces of research that I did when I finally hit that wall of realising that if Ed was going to get better I was going to have to do it myself. On that piece of paper was written in red:

defeatautismnow.com
Dimethylglycine (DMG) (food supplement)
+B6 + Magnesium
Elderberry-tablets

In black I had also put B15 and TMG

I had sort of gone off tangent with my research for Ed, and although he has made progress, was stuck in what I was doing for him and had in the back of my mind visions of him going off as a young adult into full time care, I will be 50 this year and looking after a bouncy unpredictable autistic boy who is getting bigger and stronger everyday - well, its tough sometimes!

Anyhow, back to that bit of paper. I never really did anything with the DMG thing, so back to the Internet and once more I got sucked into the DMG v's TMG thing. You see, to heal yourself you need to look at your bodies functions, right at cellular level, and for a layman, its a minefield - no wonder so few parents attempt it. Lets face it, so few Doctors do! This small scrap of paper was the first thing I had noted down, I had no idea that I would fill up piles of A4 on this and that, and how that turns to that, but only if this is present .... Argggh!!! Mine field. The other week, I went to a treating autism coffee morning, and it was really depressing all the things that they had tried and still their kids were severely autistic. But you see, we have to play medical detectives, each child being different. And until the whole puzzle is solved and addressed, in order, change wont happen. That's why I eventually read the book I mention a little latter on. You see, I can't slip into being content where Ed is, he can't have a future where he ends up in a home, I need to build on what has helped and find solutions for things that are still an issue. I know its an American term, but I need to become - Crazy mom!

So anyway, in my quest, I came across some really funky stuff. I came across a therapy called environmental enrichment, which looks totally awesome. It takes about 10 minutes morning and night using household things, and you enrich their senses with smells, textures, tastes, temperature etc, and apparently this creates new neural pathways and helps with left - right brain processing. So, after the summer holidays, that's where we are going. Also, I came across a great company in the states that produces high quality supplements in patches, because getting Ed to actually swallow any pill is about where we are trying to get a man on mars. He is responding slowly with the B patches, the day after, he is noticeably more verbal, and the other night he sat in his room saying "oh no" in all the right places in the book "Going on a Bear Hunt."

So whats that all got to do with inflammation! Well, I finally picked up a book I've been putting off reading. Its a smallish book, but it has the same sort of paper inside as the bible if you know what I mean, nearly 500 pages of medical stuff in tiny print which made it look like a heavy read, and I just wasn't ready to hear what it had to say. The book is called "Healing the new childhood epidemics - Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies"By Kenneth Bock MD. I reached out to it because I need help plain and simple, some of the medical and technical stuff, I just don't know where best to start. Our bodies are complex interactive systems, one thing affects the other and you have to treat the root cause for healing or your just tinkering with the symptoms. I am nearly halfway through and so excited that I just had to pen a few words.

Even to my untrained eye, the same things crop up again when looking into autism. Diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, allergies, rheumatoid arthritis being just a few. At the very heart of all physical maladies, there seems to be one over riding issue and its inflammation, and it wasn't till reading this book that I came back to it, I had got so lost in everything.

You know I used to think that inflammation was just a bit of swelling, nothing to bad. But actually, to understand inflammation you need to picture your cells. So, imagine a circle within a circle. Your cell had two wall, one that keeps the inside in, i.e., all your mitochondrial which makes ATP (your energy) and one outside that keeps the outside out and has little receptors on it so that your hormones can tell that cell what to do next. Both this walls are made of bio-layers of lipid fats, and when healthy you have "cellular fluidity" i.e., things that need to get in do and things that need to get out can. Each cell has different receptors on it depending on the cell function, but they all have receptors for thyroid and Vit D. So just to be clear, those receptors will only recognise the element that they are specific to, like a jigsaw. However, when the cell becomes inflamed, the cell wall becomes hard and damaged, and the receptors stop working so well. If you have heard of insulin resistance, it means that the cell wall receptors for insulin are not working so well. So the conventional treatment is to give you more insulin, throwing more in the hope that some will stick. This happens to all our hormone receptors, our vitamin receptors, our mineral receptors etc. Inside on that second wall, same thing, only now the waste from all the ATP production can't get out, and a bit like a car in a garage with the door shut, things start getting toxic. As this happens, your whole bodies ability to detox gets compromised as your glutathione production slowly shuts down. This amazing compound is the foundation of health, and so you have a slow decline in your bodies function and basically everything goes tits up. Your particular lifestyle and genetics will be responsible for how it manifest. Eds is autism. To address any health problem you have to have a detox, but a detox at a cellular level which isn't easily achieved by over the counter things, and you have to remove toxic and inflammatory items from your life.

So, when you read that certain foods are inflammatory, a big red light should go on. Grains, dairy and vegetable fats are all inflammatory. Yes, all those veg oils and sunflower seed oils we swapped to instead of butter, lard, are actually really bad for you. And by butter and lard of course I mean fat from A2 outdoor pasture raised animals. So, this was a quick off the top of my head intro to my good fat bad fat post that I promise to fully research and back up and have ready for you by the end of next week. In the meantime, why not treat yourself and load up your veggies with melted butter and some nice sea salt and really taste the difference!

Now that I have renewed enthusiasm, and am learning more things I didn't previously know, I have renewed hope that I can make a real and lasting difference in my sons life, and via him, anyone else who is crazy or desperate enough to listen. XX








Tuesday 29 April 2014

Party time autistic style!

Last year I heard a talk by an non-verbal autistic man. He introduced himself as being non verbal by nature, but he had been told that what he had to say was of interest, and so was happy to share. I am so glad he did, one of the things he said was a typical greeting between 2 autistic people would be to totally ignore each other. That meant that they were each totally comfortable with the other being there. They felt no need for small talk, or any of our social routines. If they weren't comfortable that's when the bad behaviour would come in.

So because of various Edward related issues, we were a bit late to the party. I am so glad we went, because out of the 15 invites, Harry only had 2 friends turn up. They had 3 replies and 1 no show. I am sure this was more of an issue for his parents, because Harry happily played completely independent of his 2 friends, and his friends did the same. They must have only just put the sand out because it still had the moist quality it has straight out of the bag, and Harry was quick to scatter it all over the garden. Edward found the trampoline, and the other boy (how awful - I have forgotten his name!) never left the side of his parents. Harry had a little sister who had a friend over, and she was just as sweet as can be. The parents all spent the afternoon apologising for their children, and the children just did what ever they wanted in their own orbit, other than the sister and friend who played fairy princess. I was so proud that Ed sat and ate some tea while the others ignored it. Over tea and cake we discussed their eating habits, and they were both on the beige diet. I didn't get all alternative on them, because I am beginning to see how unusual I am that I think I can change it. Anyway, Ed ate his tea and then disappeared upstairs and found the hoover. Harry kept taking me by the arm to show me that he wanted me to sweep up all the scattered sand, which I did, and he immediately scattered it again, and then I had to sweep more up and it went on like that till Ed found me walking funny. I knew immediately he needed the toilet which had a lock up high so Harry couldn't flood the bathroom - again, otherwise he would have gone by himself. When we got in I found that Ed had done a pooh in his pants, so thank God for clay because at least it wasn't a runny smelly mess. And so that was our party, 3 apologetic parents, 3 unconnected boys, 2 fairy princesses and 1 pair of pooh pants wrapped up in my handbag. And you know what, I had a great time. Sometimes it helps to see the cards other parents have been dealt, and its always nice to get out and do something normal with him.

But you know the 12 invites that hadn't replied have been eating at me. I just can't figure it out, why would you not even reply? The other family at the party lived in the same village that Ed goes to for his holiday play scheme, and I can tell you those ladies have saved my life many a time. They were unaware that there was even a scheme that would take their boys, and it reminded me of the meeting that I went to where I was the only parent who turned up, 1 parent, 3 professionals. It was there I found out about the play-scheme to include disabled children. As I told them about it they all made up excuses why not to send their children, that they were to difficult etc. And I can't figure it out. And then in the news recently there was that tragic family where the mother has been charged with 3 counts of murder on her disabled children. And I think what it is is that we are drowning not waving. That families with disabled children are so stressed, that the least bit of movement out of their comfort and routine is so stressful that they can't cope. And so their homes become their world, and everything shrinks down to just getting through the day. That I can understand because I was there not so long ago. When your ship sinks you have the choice to sink or swim. The woman who killed her children sank, the families behind closed doors are swimming, and I couldn't face either so I made it to a life-raft. With Gods blessing we will make it to the Island.

So how did I do it? I made the decision to make a change, and I am not alone. Last week I went to a treating autism coffee morning. I thought that it would be full of helpful advice, but most of the ladies were still battling with their children's condition. I had come across a couple of supplements that looked interesting, and this one lady had tried them all and none had worked. It hadn't put her off keep trying. I drove home quite down, can I really do this? And then it occurred to me that while her child may not be a-typical now because of her interventions, she is probably better than she was. Ed is still quite bonkers, but the madness has gone, the self harm has gone, and in his good moments he is a happy, funny little boy, and that is something he was not before. Small steps, small changes in the end will add up to big changes. In the meantime, my heart goes out to that poor mother who saw no other way out other than to end her childrens' lives. Because, truly, until you have walked in her footsteps you can't judge, and for all my brave talk, I would perhaps have done the same thing put in the same situation. XXX





Wednesday 16 April 2014

Edward makes a friend

One of the hardest things about being a parent of an ASD child is that they are so isolated. With an a-typical child, you normally get invites to birthday parties, play dates, invitations to tea, you know the sort of thing. With an ASD child what you get is nothing. A few years ago, at a meeting for parents with a disabled child, I turned up and was the only parent to 4 professionals all there to help and inform. At this particular meeting, one of the ladies there was from the council, and the point I made above is the one I made to her. Eds whole world was school and home, nothing else, except the odd visit to family. From that, I was put in touch with an after school play scheme, that the lady from the council had just commissioned, that included children with special needs, (thats where he is at the moment). I also shook the tree and Action for children fell out, so Ed has a group he goes to every other Saturday morning, and a one to one respite carer comes every other Sunday to take him out for four hours. So I have done my best to try and broaden his social horizons. But I still wanted more for him.

Just before they broke up for the easter holidays, in his book bag I got this note. It says:

"Hello,

This is an invitation for our son Harrisons 8th birthday party. This year we decided to invite his classmates and friends from school to our house to enjoy party games, dancing, something to eat and hopefully if nice weather to play in the garden.

Due to his ASD he doesn't get to enjoy many play dates with school friends and the fact that the school generally has the children dropped off its difficult to know them and you the parent of his friends. As such your are invited to stay on the day to facilitate a fun time and to ensure your child is comfortable in their surroundings.

We hope you can join us."

You know sometimes you just get wrapped up in yourself and your immediate surroundings, and it kind of made me shed a wee tear that here was another woman going through exactly what I am, and to see it outside of yourself it really brings home how sad ASD can be. Of course I immediately called her, and on the day, we are both going to sit down with our diaries and bash out some play dates together (fingers crossed they get on) so that is a nice little social gathering on the horizon, and it made me really happy.

And then the other Sunday, something else happened that REALLY, REALLY made me happy and cry at the same time. Lauren who takes out Ed on a Sunday had just come back with him from Odds farm. Its a play-farm that I bought two annual tickets for. Apparently he had be playing in the sandpit with out his shoes and socks, and just got up and ran off. Lauren quickly got his shoes and socks and as she turned to run after him, found him hugging a mans legs. The man asked Lauren nicely if Ed had any issues, and she said he was ASD. By this time the mans son had come up to see what weirdo was hanging on his Dad. The man told his son that Ed was like xxx's son. "Oh," says the boy, holding out his hand, "Come on Edward" and they both ran off and played hand in hand. The family must have been meeting friends because more children came on the scene, Lauren heard the boy say "He's like xxx's boy.'' "Oh,'' Say the other children, and just like that they all understood and adapted for my wee weird boy. Both Lauren and I stood crying in my kitchen for the big step that Ed had taken and for the kindness of strangers.

Buoyed by this leap forward, I took him to the park during a play session the local church was running. Edward helped lots of children down the slide and then followed up by two knees in the kidneys as he came down while the other children were still on the slide, and them got stuck up a play-frame that I had to fireman lift him off. I came home feeling like 100!

But at least there are big steps forward happening, and if it happens once it can happen again. At the moment he is a lot more calm, and the ladies from the play scheme have all commented on how much better he has been emotionally and socially.

I had thought that I had cut back on his intervention treatments, but actually I have him on quite a bit. He gets about 5 grammes of benzonite edible clay which has settled his tummy, He has a B12 + 10 other B vitamins patch, he has 2 grammes of VitaminC, a multi-mineral, iodine, Kefir Water, magnesium oil rub and coconut oil rub after school, we are still doing our NAET, and last but not least we have a session of reflexology every other sunday, which he absolutely loves.

Will let you know how the party goes. XXX


Wednesday 2 April 2014

Horizons 'living with autism'

Well I can only apologise for not posting earlier. Over 3 months and not a peep from me, and I had promised to talk about good fats bad fats before Christmas! Well, I am sorry, but I hope you all had a great time over the holiday period.

Life here has continued, slowly things ease up. I have Ed at a place where I am happy that slow improvements are occurring and within myself have reached a place of understanding of this condition. You may have already guessed that its not the understanding that all the paid professionals have. I have just watched last nights horizon on living with autism, and feel the need to speak. Combined this with meeting another new mother of an autistic boy at her wits end about to put him on Ritalin, and talking with a couple of mums at the horizon sports club for disabled children in Wycombe, and a new post was forming.

So how and where do I start, because I am at total logger heads with the states version of things. But unlike the states version of things, my theory answers all the question they are still pondering and will never answer because their whole starting point is wrong. Its a pretty bold statement I know, coming from stay at home mum who got her degree in colouring in! (graphic design to those in the know.) But sometimes the cleverest people can be the most blinkered, or plain stupid.

Albert Einstein famously said "You can not solve a problem from the same mindset that created it." So when the opening statement on the horizon program contains the words, its a condition for life, you have to have the understanding these professional aren't looking for a 'cure',  the idea that it can be changed hasn't entered their heads, when they talk about genetics and brains being different, they are already set in a mindset that the cutting edge of science has already disproved. Epigenetics has proven that according to your mindset or environmental factors you can switch on and off your genetic makeup. Outside of the autism context of this blog I hope that anyone reading this has a little WOW! go off in them, because it means that you can be whatever you choose to be, you are not fettered by your genetic material, which also means on a side note that everything you hear about, obesity, diabetes, cancer etc is wrong. This mindset is a bit like a little islander, no idea of anything off the island, and not even imagining that there is anything else out there. I thought the program was excellent in trying to portray the difficulties our autistic communities have but they only scratched the surface because it followed the very narrow special interest of the professor involved. Not a soul talked about any sensory issues, or the co-morbid physical issues to mention just two. Its like me thinking the whole world is my little town of Amersham.

There are two main points that I would like to give a different slant to. On the brain scans, the autistic children had very low brain oxygen levels. Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is one of the bio-medical intervention that has a level of success in my alternative world. Oxygen is a funny thing that is overlooked all the time. If you know anyone with cancer for instance I can tell you their bodies are deficient in oxygen. A nobel peace prize was handed out for the discovery years ago that when cells can no longer find enough oxygen to survive they turn to sugar and start fermenting it, this is when a cell turns cancerous. (So why isn't there a cure for cancer yet?) This is why exercise is so good for you, when you exercise your body make new blood pathways in your body to increase your oxygen levels, and oxygen is death to unhelpful viruses, bacteria and fungi. In our modern world of sitting on our bums inside, our oxygen levels are pretty low, we don't even breath properly using only our top half of our lungs. This leaves our bodies uncleansed to a large part of the co2 that we exhale including any toxic gases given off by our modern interiors which are almost hermetically sealed with double glazing and insulation. A quick google search on breathing techniques will show you all sorts of breathing exercises that can help with a whole range of conditions that would amaze you. Why autistic children have this is, is probably due to a genetic disposition triggered by an environmental cause.

The second point I would raise is the different levels of autism amongst the sexes, with boys making up 4:1 in the autistic community. And this comes back in my mind to the fact that autism is a neurological disorder brought about by a toxic body environment. I don't know this for a fact, this is just my logical conclusion, but I believe it comes down to girls being genetically better predisposed to detox than boys, because in latter life they will have the double burden of detoxing the waste from not only their own bodies, but of their unborn children.

We have various detox pathways in our bodies, breathing is one of them. Yesterday the news was full of the Mediterranean diet, and how we should eat not 5, but 7 pieces of fruit and veg to stay healthy. Its almost like they have no memory of history. Our diet just pre-second world war and post second world war, which was almost devoid of fresh fruits and veg, and full of bread and dripping produced a very healthy generation, which totally contradicts the health advice today. So perhaps the mediterranean diet is something else altogether, and heres my thoughts, perhaps its because its nice and warm and sunny, and people spend more time in the fresh air and sunshine, oxygenating their bodies and making lots of lovely Vitamin D (a vitamin whose role in the body has really not been acknowledged).

Another is the sulpha pathway which is why the allium family is so good for you, they are very high in sulphur (again - in the mediterranean diet). Iodine is the master detoxer, which is perhaps why the people of Japan are noted for their good health, they eat lots of seaweed. They also eat lots of fermented foods which produce lots of lovely bacteria. Did you know that bacteria or lovely, or are you one of the millions in the western world waging war on them with your anti-bac this and that? Well, bacteria cell in your body outnumber your body cells 3:1, they actually produce all sorts of necessary things for you, just off the top of my head Vitamin K and Vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 if injected in non-verbal autistic children gets them talking, its vital for healthy brain function, all the B Vitamins are. If you have followed the advice of the health service today, you will be deficient in this vital vitamin. Brain Fog is one of its least side affects. At worst you get pernicious anaemia or to top that you could be diagnosed with MS! And actually its a B12 deficiency masked by fortified cereals using the cheap synthetic variety of Cobalamin. When they do blood test this show up and they think you aren't deficient because its masking the fact that actually you are deficient in methylcobalamin, which is the only form your body can actually use. You find it in whole free-range eggs, outdoor reared cows full fat milk and butter, etc so you can see if your trying to be healthy according to the government guidelines your deficient in it, especially if your vegetarian. Anyway, that all for another day and another post because I am going off piste here!

There are other pathways that our bodies use to detox, and all of them work on building blocks scarce in our modern eating habits, combine that with modern faming practices that our leaving our foods almost devoid of nutritional content, throw in the mind boggling fact that according to a study reported in the lancet in 2006, there are '85,000 different chemical which have been released into our environment (by that I mean food, clothing, paint, plastics etc) which we have little or no idea of their impact on our health.' and you have a recipe for disaster. This explains all the weird differences, the imbalance between the sexes, the sheer variety of different ways autism presents itself, why some children have a 'descent' into autism and why and how, those children with parents pig headed enough not to believe the genetic lie, can reclaim their children and lose their diagnosis. It also explains the explosion our modern day health issues. It also explains why your more likely to have an autistic child the older you are, because you have as an adult a much higher toxic burden to stew your baby in.

So anyway, I was talking to these mums as I said yesterday. One of them had a child with a very rare form of cerebral palsy, her mum said it was a genetic condition. I didn't tell her, but actually its because she didn't have enough folic acid (one of the B vitamins) during the early part of her pregnancy when her babies nerves were first forming. The second has a boy with autism who also has heart complications, he was born with bits missing from his heart and had needed surgery when he was a tiny wee boy. Now I am sure that the medical profession puts it down to genetics, but what if his mother was deficient in Iodine? If you remember my Iodine article there is proof that an iodine defeceint mother is more likely to have and autistic child, couple that with iodine playing a major role in apoptosis (programmed cell death) which occurs in the developing foetus more than at any other time of life, and you can see how perhaps his bodies blue print got a bit messed up.

So where does my Eds problems come from? Well, I was an ancient 42 when I conceived him, I had had some major mercury filling fiddled about with, I suffered from migraines and on my dear Drs advice carried on taking paracetamol during my pregnancy, I got as big as a whale and stayed indoors because I couldn't walk properly (which meant I didn't get any sunshine or fresh air), and we had re-done our house a few years ago with all new paint and carpet giving off god knows what gases etc. Add that to the fact that on my husbands side I think we have poor genetic detoxing, and that I had been following the healthy diet with lots of vegetable oils (which are toxic) and no animal fat and I think thats the recipes that made my Ed. The good news is, that once you know how you got somewhere, you can retrace your steps. So I am trying to detox my boy at the moment whilst introducing a dose of transdermal B12+ 10 other B Vits into him. I forgot to say, that B12, as its a product of bacteria in your gut, doesn't do very well through the digestive system, so pills wont cut it. Really you need to have it sublingual (under your tongue) transdermal ( through your skin) or via injections.

So in homage to the title of this post, I would love it if they ran a sister program, 'living without autism' where they aired those families who didn't settle and took on this disorder and won! But that would bring down the house of cards built on the 'genetic life time condition' lie. Whilst I accept that perhaps I might not be ever able to fully recover my boy, because who really knows what the future hold for us, I have already vastly improved the quality of his life and will strive to continue doing it till he is either better or I am dead!

Again Mum, I apologise for the mental red pen anyone has had reading this correcting my spelling and grammar, and the lack of facts figures and dates backing up what I said, but I really don't have time to do anymore or even read this through to see if it makes sense because tonight I am having a life with some friends coming over - and at the moment they have nothing to eat! So, I hope this all makes sense and you find my mad musing interesting. XXX





















Tuesday 3 December 2013

grabby

There I was, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and I could see the glimmer of light ahead in the dank tunnel I had got stuck in, as I fought my way ahead, the light grew brighter slowly but surely. Hope grew, dreams were dreamt. Then, there he was, like a ghastly potter. I was 10 seconds too late. Pooh all over the floor, in his pants, he was picking it up and trying to put it in the toilet. As I tried to wipe him down so he wouldn't spread it all the way upstairs to the bathroom, he stepped in it all. JOY! The perfect end to the perfect weekend. By all accounts he had pulled hair at his Saturday club. Then we had a treatment booked, in an attempt to rid him of the rash that appears round his mouth when he eats coloured things, like tomatoes or fish fingers, ketchup. Got that sorted, he was reasonably happy. Bounced till midnight, why did I allow myself to run out of melatonin?

Sunday. The lovely Lauren came to take him out for his fortnightly session. What a session she had at the play farm. He had the goat by the neck and cuddled it for quite a long time, then gave it a lick. She had been worried about the outcome, because both of them were capable of biting the other, but it ended with Ed licking the goat. Several Christmas trees had also felt his wrath, and some chap watching him eat his fish fingers, had a handful of peas thrown at him. In soft play, Ed also managed to climb out of the top through a hole in the net, which thankfully, didn't end badly. I think next time I'll send them somewhere else, Lauren said that wherever they were, she noticed a member of staff watching them! I guess that having let the pigs, the sheep, the goats out, strangled a rabbit, and poked a sheep in the eye - you get a reputation! Once home, his boots were full of sand, which mingled nicely with the sugar he ate straight out of the jar (new one). So Sunday ended with a gritty floor, gritty bed, gritty door handles, the pooh on the floor, and jumping till midnight.

'Grabby' That's the comment from our Monday school / home book. 'He has been very grabby.' Dear reader, that means that with lightning speed and no warning, he'll reach out and pull your hair, or snatch  / scratch something. Monday, we had uncontrollable tears, the front door was a target again, as were the computers and TV. He finally fell asleep at midnight, having had his bottom smacked from jumping on his bed and keep coming downstairs. This left us both feeling - not great. This morning however, he went off happy again. Here's hoping to a good day.

Why share this? This is how everyday used to be. This is what most of the families living with autism go through, all the time. And while I am glad that weekend is over, I am sure that there are more of them out there waiting for me. But, and here is the big but (no pun intended) those sort of days are slowly becoming less, and the actions I have taken are paying off in our calm happy days. So, if you are a carer of an autistic child and you recognised anything of this in your life. If you haven't already, take action, read up and find a place to start. And start to make your difference now, clean up their diet and their environment, find a treatment that works for you and a therapist you like and trust. And you'll find that even at the end of your worst day, instead of being on your knees in despair, you'll be on your knees in gratitude that your reality has changed and it isn't like this all the time. You know, that would work for any problem. Albert Einstein said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results." So if you don't like your life, change it, trust me - things CAN get better! And the sh**ty weekend I have just had proves that. X

PS Love you Lauren xx