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




Friday 29 November 2013

what about mum?

Think back to a really busy time in your life, where literally you were in a whirl. When you look back, do you see it with a different perspective, see things in a different light to how you felt they appeared at the time? Well, I kind feel like I am just coming out of my whirl.

Yesterday, Eds school had organised a tasting of a new menu for dinner time. Due to budget constraints, the dinner ladies who have faithfully served our children their lunches over the history of the school, will serve their last Christmas dinner in a few weeks time. The food will now be from a central provider coming hot from a 'hub' school. Of course with the digestive issues that most special children have, I wanted to go along and make sure that they weren't being served - well - crap!
So mid-day finds me shooting off up the motor way to this tasting and question session. The school secretary of the hosting school greeting me with kind perplexity. After about 5 minutes enquiry she informed me very nicely, that I was at the wrong school! They were the hub provider, but, for some reason the tasting session was in Marlowe, another 20 mins down the road. How had I so grossly misunderstood that school letter? Well, I am just recognising quite how high my stress levels are/have been.

A few weeks ago, one of my darling brothers married his long time girlfriend. We set off about 8 in the morning for a noon wedding. Even though I was 'having the day off' (because Lauren had very kindly agreed to look after Ed till we got back the following day), and I was spending time with all my family - who I adore, my black mood (which had settled on me with the stress of getting out of the house) didn't lift till my darling sister appeared at the reception in the same dress as me. Long story short, for some reason we thought it would be a good idea, but she had changed her mind. But, seeing her in that dress,  I just laughed and laughed and had the best of times imaginable. On the drive home, I was going over why had I been so miserable in the morning. This along with lots of other 'little things' has really made me question myself. So there I was, at the wrong place right time. 'Bugger it', thinks I.  On the drive home, the mud settles and I realise that for a few weeks now, Ed has just been amazing compared to his normal self. I can see just how stressed I really have been, but when your right in the middle of it, you just put your best foot forward and get on with it. Over the past few weeks as home life has been less mad, my adrenaline has obviously stopped pumping. I feel like a bear in autumn. just want to eat chocolate and hibernate. I thought about my role in the family, dragging everyone through the day, and thought 'hang on a minute - what about me?' So I had a bath and washed my hair, which may not sound like a big deal, but honest - I can't remember the last time I did that.

You may be thinking what are you saying liz? Well, to those who deal with the families of disabled children, be kind. Just because you told us, doesn't mean we remember. We need constant reminders, clear directions and instructions to cut through our fog. And for my readers, from now on, I intend to publish informative pieces. Because I have been told it helps to back up my finding (as they are generally contrary to everything we are told) it takes up quite a bit of time. So, from January onwards, I intend to publish just once a month. To catalogue the important nuggets that have brought me to the point where I can actually see Ed behave normally - sometimes (and hopefully more often in the future). What about me? I have finally committed to become a certified NAET practitioner. This monday I started on the diploma course which will take me there. I will no longer be so emotionally involved in the outcome of my family -  horse to water and all that! Will still drag them through the day, but have my eyes on the prize of fulfilling my life as opposed to others.

As I have been writing this, Ed has come home. My lovely escort who does such a great job of getting my wee boy to school and home again, told me that the teachers had asked him to tell me that Ed has been great all week. That just goes to prove to me what I had already concluded. My whirl is on the final rinse and spin. The child that had brought me to the very brink, is now slowly becoming a source of joy. He came in happy as a sand boy, changed into his PJ's by himself, is eating his raisins and apples, having dug the Room on the broom DVD of the shelf, and is watching it like any other normal child. As I have less stress from him, its becoming obvious how much I am out of whack, back to the ben and holly analogy of the sun and stars, Ed being the sun of all stress and calming down, all the other ones are becoming visible. Living with 3 boys and a husband, it sometimes feels like I have 4 disable sons. Well, rock on tommy, I am ready to face whatever comes. To all those families still in the bunker battling daily life, take heart. Face your problems full on with faith in your ability to win and you will.

Now, I promise to post next week one about fats just in time for christmas. So, when your pouring your double cream over your clotted cream, and smothering everything in yummy butter, you can feel like your feeding your family a wholesome diet - instead of clogging their arteries! That's just a hint of what to expect. X

Friday 22 November 2013

labels

This Wednesday I went to the monthly Space meeting, it's a self help group for careers/parents/anyone interested, of disabled persons. I have to confess that I don't really like going there, they come from a different place to me, although I am not dissing them, the service they provide it's great if that's what you want. Now that sounds terrible - what I mean is, they listen and understand, and then give you hints to deal with whatever situation your in, so that's great, it's also where it ends. But where I differ, is the why? and what to do about that. They are all coping with their situations and God I admire them for that because you see, I can't spend my life just coping, and that's what has sent me on the mission to find out the why? you see, when you know that, sort that out, then your situation is changed - does that make sense? Anyhow, they have a great resource of books, so I turn up and borrow them.

So, I had borrowed a book just before the summer, and needed to return it, and on the day I turned up, they were doing a show and tell, where anyone confident enough told their story. By the end of it, I felt so sorry for these women ( where are the men?) just as I had at the early bird session I attended at the beginning when Ed was newly diagnosed. None of their children were in special schools, and all their woes were from lack of understanding from school - and lack of their understanding that schools just aren't geared for their children. Their children weren't half as mad as Ed, they didn't have half the problems I have, yet, I felt sorry for them. Ed is 'bad' enough to warrant a place at a special school where he gets all the understanding and support the state can provide, their children slipped through the cracks, and ended up at schools where they are causing havoc in the classroom and then bringing that home - but are just about coping with the academic burden. So, this Wednesday, this lady plain out asks for help. Her son has just moved up to secondary school, sounds like a nightmare, has put two children in hospital, she and her daughter are scared of him, he barley sleeps and is in a constant state of agitation, yet all the professionals have nothing to offer - except pharmaceutical products. And she isn't willing to give them to him!! So here is her dilemma, there is obviously something wrong with her boy, but until she knows what it is, she has nowhere to start to help him, and she has no idea where to turn for help because she has no idea what it is that needs help, a vicious cycle if ever there was one.

When Ed was two and a half, he started pre-school at the same sweet place I had sent Tom. He was a nightmare to leave, the staff had to peel him off me. He rarely settled, I remember turning up an hour early. I was going to have a walk, but when I drove into the playground, he was stood by the door, just looking out for when I arrived. There was also a time, he got the key and let himself out, thankfully, another mum found him and brought him back inside! He played with the toys in an inappropriate way, was unengaged with the staff and children, was completely non-verbal (except for no and mum) and it was obvious that all was not well in his garden. It wasn't till he was just gone four that we had a diagnosis, though looking back it was as plain as the nose on my face. It wasn't till I said to the paediatrician "Do you think that he could be autistic" that she replied 'Well if it looks like it and smells like it, then it probably is" and that was that, diagnosed and rubber stamped and all the services that he had needed from the get go were in play. Now sure, that word brought me to my knees, or rather the 'its genetic, he'll be like that for the rest of his life did,' and I spent the following months weeping on the sofa - but! It gave me answers. When he melted down at the playground I could say to the disapproving faces 'Sorry, he is autistic' and those faces changed to understanding. I could do the same in the supermarket and so on. The label also, when I was ready to stare it full in the face, gave me a place to start. Any weird behaviour he had like toe walking, went into google 'autism and toe walking' and so on, till I reached that place where I finally feel like I KNOW what happened, what is happening to him and what I can DO to reverse it - which is what I have done. And while he is still as mad as a box of frogs, he is a million miles away from the poor little thing he was. And every now and then, I am getting little glimpse. You know this week, we haven't had an angry front door slam, the telly slam, he hasn't hit anyone, and last night - please God don't jinx this - he slept right the way through and woke up in his bed - happy.

There seems to be this 'thing' that labels are bad, but you know sometimes, labels are good. As long as the label isn't written in permanent marker pen, they can be really helpful for all of us. x

Tuesday 19 November 2013

2 rashes and an allergic reaction

A week ago on Friday, Richard came in with his usual bags of Friday rubbish (that we all look forward to) and whilst scoffing away on all the yummy things he bought (none of which can be classed as food) I noticed Ed had developed a nasty red rash round his mouth and cheek. It was still raised red and hot when he went to bed, so in the morning I managed to book a slot with Ann the NAET lady. In the morning the rash had gone down thankfully, and in Anns office I listed all the rubbish he had been eating prior. 'Sounds like MSG allergy' so she tested him and sure enough, he showed a week muscle response in contact with her MSG sample. That day was a 'lets not wear any clothes day' for Ed, so he lay there being treated in his pants and vest. As soon as the MSG sample came in contact with him, his entire body burst out in goose bumps, it was an obvious reaction. He lay there and was treated like a little angle, and sang all the way back home.

The following Friday, none of the crap he ate caused him any bother at all. On Saturday, after Saturday club, in him came. Went straight to the fridge and climbed up the inside shelves to get at the cheese and chowed down on great lumps of cheese and cranberry and kefir water. Well, blow me down if the very same rash didn't appear. Thankfully, Ann had a half hour that was un-booked, so off we went for another treatment. This time, I had an idea of what it was and took samples of the three suspects. It was obviously the cheese, weak muscle response to my cheese sample and strong for the cranberry and kefir. Ann thought it was probably the cultures and moulds they use to make cheese, I said 'But you already treated him for moulds!' but apparently there are loads of them and cheese has a separate list of them. So he lay there and was treated like a little angle again, this time in clothes so no idea if he went all goosey, and happy all the way home.

Well the past week has been reasonable, nothing out of our ordinary. On Sunday, I got the day off to spend it with my niece on her 21st. To add to the days delight, I got to drive down to Wiltshire with my lovely sister, and my Mum and Dad were there too, what could be better. We had a great day together, and I was so glad to get the time off to spend it with my loved ones without the constant distraction of my ginger ninja. However, when I got home (and here dear reader Ed should have been in bed - albeit bouncing) all the lights were blazing. In I go and find a very cross Richard complaining about the products I buy. To cut a long story short, my husband (bless him) takes no notice at all with the interventions I have with Ed. He has no clue what we do, because in his down time, he shuts the door and its him, a Carlsberg and catch up TV or Rome Total War. Instead of Epsom Salts and lavender oil, he poured in about half a bottle of imperial leather citrus burst shower gel, and Ed looked like his body was covered in bubble wrap he was so bumpy. Thankfully, he was in a good mood, and apart from trying to remove his skin, was fine. I had some cream for nettle rashes and stings, so I rubbed that all over him and eventually gone midnight the little fella managed to fall asleep - sorry to all his teacher for that Monday morning! Well, the following day when I clean out the bath, there are still bubbles in the bottom of the bath, and where there was water remaining in his toys, bubbles! No wonder he had such a reaction - so, no prizes for guessing where we are going this weekend!

Here my point is you need to be on alert all the time. You need to know what they are eating and drinking and rubbing up against, and you need to be alert to any change in their mental or physical state. As the list grows of things that he has been treated for, it is getting easier to see the things he reacts to, so at the moment it looks like he is more allergic than he was before. However, before we started this process, its a bit like daylight. During the day, the bright light of the sun blocks out everything else, but once it's night time, the light of the stars are visible - they have been there all the time. (Thank you Ben and Holly for that analogy) So now all the major players have been eliminated, all their little friends are visible playing havoc with my boy. I have them in my sights x



Friday 15 November 2013

A dog for Edward

A few weeks ago, Richards Uncle came to stay for a night. With him he bought 'Clooney" - named so because he is so gorgeous - a working cocker spaniel. Well, you should have seen Ed. Imagine the most excited boy in the world x 1000 and you are about there. "dog! dog! dog!' Poor Clooney was pestered to within an inch of his life, and what a lovely dog, not once did he do anything other than get up and try and get away.

In the morning, Ed woke up in our bed instantly in a bad mood. He sat up, made his 'I am in a really bad mood' noise, was about to kick off when he stopped himself, 'dog!' says he, and down he goes in the best of moods. Here a little glimmer of light shone in his mothers life, because for over a year now, I have been on the waiting list to get on the waiting list for a dog from Dogs for the disabled. A wonderful charity that trains dogs for disabled children and children with autism. In two weeks time, I was almost at the top of the list, which meant a visit from them with a dog, to see how a much bang for their buck they could get placing a dog with us. Clooney showed us at least, there would be a lot of bang! Finally, after a full day of pestering, when Ed trod on his tail, the dog finally growled at him, and Ed kept a better distance.

So when the happy day came for the people from Dogs for the disabled to assess us, it was lovely again to see how Ed reacted. Well, I was told that it could take 6 weeks for them to make up their mind whether they thought one of their dogs would help us, but yesterday, after just a few of weeks, I got a letter saying we had been accepted onto the waiting list - Yeah!! So now, I am just waiting to be 'matched' to a dog, what an amazing difference it will make to our lives, I just can't wait. Through out the assessment, things happened and things were said that I kept apologising for, "Don't worry Mrs Oke, we have seen it all" "Don't worry Mrs Oke, we have heard it all" they were so nice. Finally it came to questions from me.
"We all dress up in fancy dress on Christmas day, as its your dog, would you mind if I dressed the dog up to?"- the pair of them looked at each other,
"We haven't heard that one before!" Oh, how I laughed, but the good news is, as the dog will already be used to wearing a jacket, I would be allowed to dress it up, but just for Christmas.

What will this dog mean for us? Well, as I said, it comes with a jacket. I hold it on the lead, and Ed holds onto a handle on the dogs jacket, so it feels like he is walking it, but in case he runs off (a behaviour know as bolting) there is a belt round his waist that clips to the dog. As the dog has been trained, it means it has the same right of way as a blind dog, so I would be able to take it anywhere, with Ed. This means, that if they find a dog they think matches us, our whole lives are about to make a quantum leap in possibilities. And, as its a rather large dog, (because it needs to put up with a bouncy autistic child), it means I will have no excuse but to walk it and walk off my big belly that has appeared along with my third son.

So all in all, things in our mad household are moving forward. Since I started Ed on the Iodine, he has started coming out with more words ( only at school ) and is slightly more calm. His business end has improved also with the introduction of the kefir water, and touch wood, we haven't touch cloth for a while. The other night as I was rubbing him with coconut oil after his bath, I really looked at him, and noticed fully how has he changed. A year ago, I started him on NAET, at that time he had alopecia (loosing his hair from stress) was pulling his hair out as well, I think from pain, was so skinny you could see his kidneys (not really but you know what I mean) scratched himself till he bled, had dry eczema skin, could s**t through the eye of needle and then would spread it, would bang his head against the floor, would scream and shout randomly, would hardly eat anything, and would bounce all night long if given the chance. Now, most of that has changed. He has thick, glossy hair, beautiful soft skin, has even grown a wee tummy to match his mum, the head banging which is most distressing has stopped, his bum whilst still a work in progress is so much better, and now by about 10-11pm he is all bounced out. He is still as mad as a hatter, but his physical condition gives me hope that as that improves, his brain will start to clear as well, which hopefully, with the new words he is coming out with at school, is already happening. As I have said in previous posts, it has been noted by his short break workers, that he is the only autistic child improving - the others just add more layers to their onion. So to all those warrior mums out there, who have swallowed the party line that they will be like that forever, take heart. It doesn't need to be that way, even if we can't recover them completely from the fog of autism, we can make improvements in their lives and our own x

Thursday 7 November 2013

ABA

Sorry I haven't written for a while, been living my life! The good news is that the lady a mutual friend mentioned (its in an earlier post) who has a wee boy newly diagnosed -  got in touch, and from now on she will be know as 'my new friend'. So I have been quite busy with my new friend who I just think is amazing. She used to work in a special school, so she recognised the signs and managed to get her son diagnosed at two and a half. She instantly set about doing what she could, and put him on a GAPS diet,  and has also managed to bully her GP into action to do some tests on him so she knows where to target her attention. Its been about 4 months since his diagnosis and her interventions, and on re-meeting her Psychologist, this professional said that she was doubting her diagnosis the change in him was so great! I put this in just to illustrate how important early diagnosis and intervention is, as opposed to our NHS policy of "lets leave it as long as possible in case they grow out of it so we don't have to spend any money." This wee lad has - as most ASD children have - bowel problems. She described a particularly nasty pooh to me, saying her Dr's response was that this was normal for her son if thats what was normal for him. I mention this, because our ASD children seem to get the rough end of the stick. Things go for them that wouldn't otherwise go for anyone else. What comes out of the backside of most of our kids is not normal and points to part of their problem, but because this condition is so little understood, it seems like professionals like to sweep these things aside to concentrate on areas that they do know about ( though I doubt they know much at all). This brings me to my topic today of ABA, applied behavioural analysis.

My sister asked me to write my opinion on a programme the BBC ran this week. I had come across ABA in my search to help Ed, but to be honest, it was so labour intensive and didn't seem to answer the question why he was like he was, that I never took it up. But recently I heard a couple of things that made me feel better about this, the first was from our new head at Eds special school. I took him some literature that the charity Treating Autism had produced, and some of my own ideas! I got such a nice feeling from this man, he is really knowledgeable, forward thinking and kind. As we chatted, before I could mention ABA - he brought it up and dismissed it. His reason were basically the brutality of it. The other thing I heard about it was from a talk given by a man with ASD, who referred to it as torture, and the two things combined made me feel ok that my natural laziness hadn't pursued it further. But you know, none of that prepared me for the programme.

My first thoughts were, why are they rewarding them with such rubbish (sweets), and why are they feeding them such rubbish, a burger and fries isn't food! If these children have bad eating habits, why don't they do something useful and introduce them to the joys of real nutritious food, because these children are like the carrot tops you can put in a dish of water - they will only grow so much before they die. The fact that they have such problems with food point to part of the problem. Given a zinc supplement, the sensitivity in the mouth settles down to a point where they are happy to eat. It all brought me back to breaking Eds beige diet, and zinc was one of the things I gave him. Why didn't they  try addressing the why, before pushing forward with the ABA agenda.

I can feel a rant coming on, so do forgive my writing. There was a Swedish couple with their teenage son who they had treated with ABA. He appeared quite normal, you would never have thought that he was anything other than an atypical child. When shown the footage of him receiving his ABA training, with him in tears and the trainer just keeping on till he complied, the boy couldn't watch and asked for it to stop. He said he couldn't remember any of it, and his family and trainer used this to justify what they had done. They had the result they wanted and the boy couldn't remember any of it - but you know, I kind of think that he could, it was more the fact he decided to not remember it than it was forgotten. Watching the children on the end of ABA, the thought really went through my mind that for any other child this would be child abuse. Bullying of the worse kind. An adult in power, and with trust, bullying a younger powerless person. All with the best intent, although you would have to be a special kind of person to do it - I couldn't. And that brings me to another point, the type of person that this therapy attracts to practice it, is there any test they go through to make sure that they aren't sadists because I would think that if you were that way inclined, this would be a top job for you.

There is ample medical evidence to show that ASD children undergo a ton of stress at a cellular level, and that this is part of the vicious cycle that needs breaking in order to re balance their damaged biology. ABA just looks like something that piles on the stress. Head banging is a common feature with ASD children, there again is plenty of evidence that head banging comes from actual pain, seizures are common in ASD, but because a lot of them do it - the 'professional' see it as normal. For any other group of people it would be investigated as a symptom and treated, however for our children its ignored and seen by ABA as unpleasant for us to look at, and so one of the things it seeks to stop like the stims that our ASD children have. These stims are funny physical things they do, like jumping on the spot, hand flapping, spinning - weird odd behaviours that make them look really strange. ABA completely misses the point that our children don't do anything for without a reason. This are self calming measures our children have discovered for themselves to make themselves feel better. There seems to be lot of information out there backing the idea that some people with ASD have no idea of themselves in space, that their senses are out of whack. The hand flapping or what ever movement they make gives them an indication of where their body actually is, so stopping it doesn't make sense. ABA just seemed to mask behaviour, I see behaviour as a clue to what is going on. ABA demands that children look at the 'therapist' - research indicates that some ASD children senses are so overloaded that they can't look and hear at the same time - hence they don't look at you in order to hear you, or they look at you and read your lips because they can't hear you if you get my drift. My heart just bled for the parent and the children. The parents are doing the best they can, they just want their children to be normal and happy - no one who hasn't lived with an ASD child has the right to judge them, and those of us that do know they are just doing the best they can. I watched this program and thought that it typified our western approach to health. Completely ignoring the fact that underlying ASD is the fact that western medicine and industry has poisoned our children, that their little bodies need nourishing with nutrients and love. Not the love that wants something out of the deal, but unconditional accepting love. That they need to be rid of whats causing their systems to malfunction, and rid of the stress of trying to be something they can't be (something which is relevant to all of us.)

You know I have been treating Ed with pro-biotics and iodine, well the other week I put back in earth. Yes, medical clay, I give him about a teaspoon a day hidden in his cranberry juice. Yesterday, he came in so happy from school, he went straight to his pepper pig computer and played with it without stripping off his school uniform for at least an hour. I gave him some organic grapes (organic because grapes are one of the dirty dozen, and grapes because of the reversatol in the skins) which he ate - first time in a long time! He sang, he laughed, he played with hoover - what ever makes him happy, he ate his dinner, we went for a drive, he wanted a bowl of porridge which he had before his bath and up he went happy. This morning he woke happy, ate a bit of ham for breakfast, and whilst we were waiting for his taxi he was playing with his pepper pig ABC thing. It took me a bit to notice, but pepper kept saying 'look for the letter C as in candy cat' at that point the child is supposed to push the button with the C on it ( and the picture of candy cat) and Ed kept getting it right! Pepper would ask for another letter and Ed would get it right again - even if the thing was upside down. I know its not splitting the atom, but its a sign that Ed is in there, fully functioning and fully present. Its our job to help tear down the biological barriers to him being fully himself, and not our job to make him what we want him to be. To sum up ABA I will quote from my new friend 'Its brutal - but it works.' As far as I am concerned, anything that's brutal and involves children isn't right, and anything that is brutal that involves vulnerable children is wrong. I think that in the future we will look back on ABA a bit like the electric shock treatment given out for depression, as something to be ashamed of, but like I said earlier, don't judge the parents who don't know any better. Judge our professional - who should. x

Friday 11 October 2013

can't live with him - can't live without him

Recently, Ed has been a joy. Much, much harder work than a neuro typical child, but for him a joy. The other day I mentioned it to my mum, inside cursing myself incase I jinx it (I am sure that child is psychic) and sure enough, yesterday he flew in a rage from the school taxi. The front door had to be open, all the appliances had to be unplug, books had to be thrown out the door, and he keep going in to Tom and hitting him, in the end I just had to put him in his room. Its amazing how your emotions can turn on a dime. When he is like that, God I wish I hadn't had him! Hate perhaps is too strong a word but my feeling are instantly on that spectrum.

Anyway, he came down a few minutes latter a little calmer and I jumped in the eye of the hurricane and did a bit of hoovering whist playing Mr Men on the Virgin+. Ahhhh! Calm. Latter that night whilst getting his bath ready, I went in his room and found his mattress on the floor. I knew I needed to make his bed because he had brought his duvet down and had the hoover tucked under it in the kitchen and had been loving it for the past hour. On putting his mattress back on the bed I found a very small patch of vomit - great. Maybe though that's why he was so upset, perhaps he had car sickness, or maybe his anger just made him sick - at any rate it needed cleaning and his bed needed changing. So I changed it from the spotty duvet to the green one with dinosaurs on it. And here I come to the reason for this particular post. On getting him out of the bath and on his bed to dry him and give him his coconut rub down, he saw the new duvet and his facial expression just melted my heart. His face was so open, so joyous. His little mouth was open in wonder and his little gappy teeth were showing (lost his two bottom teeth recently) imagine the happiest child in the world with the most open, innocent, angelic face and you come close. He got in bed so happy, and I lay down to read with him. And as I looked at him I thought what other 7 year old would have been so happy for so little, and I was just so overwhelmed with love for him that I think I am becoming bi-polar. x

Thursday 10 October 2013

this is what has gone wrong with wheat

As a mother starting out with bio-medical interventions one of the first things you come across is keep clear of gluten (wheat et al) and casein (milk), and unless you've just landed from some far flung planet, you must have heard the obesity and diabetic problems sweeping the 'modern' world.  Today I want to show you how they are linked through the consumption of a new breed of 'super' wheat.

It all started in Mexico 1942, when a man called Norman Borlaug started working with the Rockefeller foundation pioneering technical assistant program in Mexico. Borlaug was the chief scientist in charge of wheat production. He intensively crossbred wheat and produced a new high yield dwarf variety. By 1963, Mexico had become the net exporter of wheat, and between 1965 to 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in India and Pakistan. This wheat was created to prevent catastrophic mass starvation, and in 1970, he was rewarded for his services to humanity with the Noble prize. He is know as 'The father of the green revolution' and 'The man who saved a billion lives.' Now to be fair to him, he was charged with creating a high yield plant, this he did. But I don't think that it occurred to him at the time, that this plant produces grain which is quite toxic to human health. Now there are two problems. First, its not good for us at all, and secondly and very quickly - its the main wheat crop grown around the world. Its a plant highly dependant on fertilisers and pesticides ( many derived from oil) and because its the main wheat crop, a total failure of the wheat crop is possible. This would in an ironic twist, lead again to mass starvation.

So why is it so bad for us? Well its a three fold whammy. It now contains very high levels of a starch called AmylopectinA - this is the starch that makes our modern breads so light and fluffy. However, just two slices of wholemeal bread (not even the white stuff most of us eat) will raise your blood sugar more than amount 2 desert spoons of sugar (english) or 2 table spoons of sugar (USA)!! This high glycemic food makes you store fat round your belly, triggers inflammation (that means screwing up your bodies cells) gives you a fatty liver and starts the process of becoming diabetic. In the USA, 1 in 3 medicare dollars is apparently spent on diabetes. So basically it makes us fat.

It has many more chromosomes than more ancient varieties, which code for new odd proteins (because they are new to our digestive and biological systems).  When digested they produce shorter proteins polypeptides called exorphins, which are like the endorphins you get from a runners high. They bind to the opioid receptors in your brain giving you a high and making you addicted just like a heroin addict. They get absorbed directly in the blood, and cross the brain / blood barrier. They are called 'Gluteomorphins,' and that is why you want to binge on cakes, biscuits, bread etc and not on say - carrots. So basically its addictive, making you want to eat more of it than you would normally, which again, makes us fat.

Dwarf wheat also has a different gluten peptide know as glia-a9. Gluten is what makes it sticky, and this type of gluten is what most people react negatively to, i.e. celiacs. Whilst celiacs have obvious symptom, most of us will react negatively, but in a hidden way, like inflammation. So it makes us feel ill with symptoms of unknown cause.

Now if if you do your own reading on this subject these are the main three topics about what is wrong with this new variety, but there is another area that needs mentioning and that is phytic acid. Phytic acid is the principle storage system for phosphorus in most plants - particularly the bran portion of grains, nuts and seeds. It inhibits enzymes we need to ingest food, including pepsin which helps break down protein (with out this you can develop little white fatty spots on the skin) and amylase needed to break down sugar (which we have already discussed is much higher in this variety and is a third way it makes us fat). Another problem is its structure. The phosphorus is held tight in phytic acid molecule, which looks a bit like a 6 armed snowflake. Now phytic acid is a serious issue for our health because as well as holding on tight to phosphorus, its arms hang on to other minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc etc, making them all unavailable to the body.  Because of this it has been named an anti-nutrient. Perhaps one of the reasons why this is such an issue with dwarf wheat is because it has depleted levels of minerals compared to its older varieties. We know this because since 1843, agronomists at Rotherstead Research Station in Herefordshire, England, have been conducting experiments over the last 2 centuries with multiply wheat cultivates. Experimenting with different crop rotations, fertilisers and farming techniques, all the while tracking the change in the mineral content of both grain and soil. Between 1843 to the mid 1960's, the mineral content including zinc, copper, magnesium, and iron remained constant. But after that (when planting the dwarf variety) they began to drop - as a point of interest, the mineral level in the soil actually went up slightly. The reason they think is that the dwarf variety has a much shorter root systems meaning that its uptake of nutrient is less, which, if you continue along that line, also means that it is more vulnerable to dry conditions -  and we have another possible cause for total crop failure. While nutrient levels have dropped in the new grain, phytic acid levels have remained constant. I didn't read it anywhere, but joining the dots together, this means more areas in the phytic snowflake not already containing minerals are empty, giving it the ability to suck it up more minerals from your body. Research has suggested that we absorb approximately 20% more zinc and 60% more magnesium when phytic acid absent. A traditional method of dealing with phytic acid is 'soaking' or fermenting. Both these methods are used in the making of traditional sourdough bread, which shouldn't be confused with soda-bread. When it comes to bread though, there are other issues like the speed with which a loaf is made. No time for the gluten to break down in the natural process and the over use of bakers yeast, some of which is genetically modified - but that is another sad story for another time.

Now zinc and magnesium are very interesting minerals particularly for autism, and whilst they deserve a whole page each, lets just summarise. Zinc aids the saliva protein 'gustin' which has a major role in the sensation of taste. Any body got a picky eater? Its also important for cognitive function as it helps protect neurotransmitters. I have read also that it plays a role in our auditory sense, children who are hyper-sensitive to noise cope much better with zinc supplements. Magnesium plays the opposite role to calcium in the body. Calcium causes the muscle to contract, magnesium helps it relax. Magnesium deficiencies can result in disruptive behaviours like restlessness, body rocking, teeth grinding, hiccups, noise sensitivity, poor attention span, poor concentration, irritability and aggression to name a few more important ones. When magnesium levels are low, calcium starts to play mischief in our bodies. Leaching out from where it should be and lodging in places it shouldn't. When it lodges in our joints its called arthritis. It can cause bone spurs, cancer, kidney stones, hardening the arteries, hardening the heart chambers, and those concerned with their looks - wrinkled skin. Dr Carolyn Dean says "Magnesium permits calcium to enter a nerve cell to allow electrical transmission along the nerves to and from the brain. Even our thought, via the brains nervous system, are dependant on magnesium." So you can see how important these minerals are for our children.

To sum it up, the wheat we eat today is not the long stalked Einkorn wheat of our fathers, so beautifully described in one of Americas anthems as 'amber waves of corn'.

There is a saying with autism that genetics are the gun that the environment loads, so dwarf wheat is just one of the bullets.

Now if I was more computer savvy, I could pop back in and put a post-script on the article about paracetamol. Forgive me for sticking it here. I forgot to put this in. There seems to be an argument about the results regarding the ratio of autism in France. They also used paracetamol with vaccines but have lower rates than the USA. Again, this is my own conclusion, but your typical french diet is high in onions and garlic and other sulphur rich foods. Knowing the French, they also have a strong tradition for food with flavour as opposed to long shelf life, and tend to buy their fruit and veg fresh from markets, which presumably would have higher vitamin and mineral contents. Having a diet high in sulphur I think it fair to assume that the process of sulfation works pretty well for them, so their bodies don't need to resort to the cytochrome P450 pathway to eliminate the toxin, which is perhaps the nuts and bolts of why the allium family is so good for us - but I am not a scientist so what do I know. Again, this information is presented for information only, I am just a mum trying to find my way out of the autism maze, and hoping as I do to help others. x








Wednesday 9 October 2013

acetaminophen, the link to autism and asthma

There was a point during WW1 that our soldiers were ordered to walk towards the enemy line, despite being shot at with machine guns, history tells us this is what they did. I remember learning the fact and wondering how they could have been so stupid, but you see they were told to do it and they did. It was only afterward, after the deaths of millions that tactics changed. How often have we been told to do something and done it?

When my mum was pregnant with Steve, she had awful morning sickness, she toyed with the idea of taking a wonderful new drug that stopped morning sickness, but my dad said, no, let nature take its course. That wonderful new drug was called - Thalidomide.

When I was pregnant with Ed, I suffered with terrible migraines. I had them before I fell pregnant and the only thing that helped was Migraleve. I took the pack to the Dr to ask if it was safe to take during pregnancy, he looked at he pack and checked it up in his big book of medical facts and gave it the OK.
 My dad said, maybe its best not to take it while your pregnant, I said I had to because I couldn't cope with the pain. Should have been stronger and listened to my dad. Read this yesterday, spent quite a bit of time in tears of remorse, I am putting it in bold because people of the world need to take note.

    'It appears that the marked increase in the rate of autism throughout much of the world may be largely mediated by the marked increase in the use of acetaminophen in genetically and or metabolically susceptible children and perhaps the use of acetaminophen by pregnant women.'
     Dr William Shaw

Now you may be looking at that and thinking thank god I didn't take that, but you see they don't sell it under that name. In the USA its called Tylenol, paracetamol in Europe.

OK, so what does he mean by genetically or metabolically susceptible children? Well we all have various biochemical pathways in our bodies that help remove toxins. Imagine that it's like your waste bin and the rubbish collection. Not all waste bins though are the same size, in this group of children they have little tiny waste bins and the bin men don't come weekly. Imagine this in your house, you produce the same amount of waste, have half the bin size ( or less) and the bin men come fortnightly, or monthly or worse - how much waste would you accumulate. Well imagine now the slow toxic buildup inside your body doing the same thing with your metabolic waste, that's what happens inside these children. And that's without all the man made toxins! Now this is just my theory, but those children grow up generally quite normally till the toxins start to overload their system (every year more and more man made chemicals are released into the environment and ingested or absorbed, be they in your food, your clothes, your personal care products etc) and as they get older the toxic overload manifest itself as Parkinson, Alzheimer etc, like my late father-in-law. These biochemical pathways include Sulfation and Methylation and when they are working correctly they keep you heathy.  Now the picture Dr Shaw paints is very interesting because it includes intestinal bacteria, and I can't tell you how much better Ed has been this week. All I am doing at the moment is giving him about a glass a day of homemade kefir water, Iodine, and Epsom Salt baths.

Back to Dr Shaw and his findings. There can't be many people who haven't heard of a possible link to autism and vaccines, particularly the MMR. Well, Dr Shaw looked at the autism rate in Cuba which was 0.00168 as compared with the Center for Disease Control data published march 30 in the USA at a whopping rate of 1.13 (a 23% increase on the previous study in 2006) In Cuba, the vaccination rate is 99%, more that the take up in the USA of 85%, and by the age of 6, each Cuban child has received 34 shots. The major difference is in Cuba they NEVER give acetaminophen with vaccinations. The cuban medical establishment sees fever as a normal and beneficial side effect of vaccinations, proving that the immune system is working. They do not medicate unless the fever is above 104F or has lasted longer that 2 days. I have tried to bullet point the cascade effect of acetaminophen (aka paracetamol) that Dr Shaw has identified in these genetically/metabolically susceptible children (ie, tiny waste bin, long collection time.)

1 - Because sulfation is often defective in autistic children, they can't detoxify it, it therefore becomes toxic.
2 - This leads to a clostridia bacteria overgrowth. This particular bacteria causes an over production of brain dopamine and reduced brain norepinephrine.
3 - To much dopamine = obsessive, compulsive behaviour.
4 - To little norepinephrine leads to reduced exploratory behaviour.
5 - Because they can't use the sulfation process to get rid of the acetaminophen, their body uses another pathway called cytochrome P450.
6 - Use of the cytochrome P450 pathway leads to an excessive production of N-Acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine (NAPQI) which is a toxic metabolite.
7 - NAPQI depletes glutathione which again reduces the bodies ability to detoxify a host of toxic chemicals from the bodies environment.
8 - In addition, NAPQI creates oxidative stress which leads to protein, lipid and nucleic acid damage from free radicals. It also increases the rate of damage to mitochondrial and nuclear DNA.
9 - NAPQI production has been found to increase in humans at recommended dosage of acetaminophen, and would be expected to be higher in people with diminished sulfation capacity.

Lets fill in some details and I will try to go through the subjects by their numbers above, because it a tricky interwoven cascade of events a bit like a 3D game of chess, and has ramifications outside of those concerned just with autism.

1 - Sulfation is the pathway that helps rid the body of a group of  potentially harmful chemicals known as Phenols. Phenols can be found in highly coloured fruit and veg, like plums, apples , bananas, chocolate etc. The phenols are attracted to the sulfation process like a magnet, but if there is a deficiency of sulfate in the blood stream, instead they build up. A build up of phenolic compounds can interfere with neurotransmitter functions. Dr Warring (School of Bio-Sceince University Birmingham) found that autistic children have 15% of the normal level of sulfate compared to neuro typical children.  Whilst not the prime cause for autism, certainly they are responsible for much of the dysregulation of the biological and physiological process. The Feingold Diet exclude phenols from the diet and can be very useful for autistic, and dyslexic people. However, I took the view that rather than excluding what is an otherwise healthy food, I needed to try and fix the problem. You can aid the sulfation pathway by Epsom Salt baths (yes, granny knew best) or by rubbing in magnesium sulfate cream. Interestingly, a side effect of a phenol problem is headaches and migraines, so looks like I need to sort myself out.

2 - Clostridium. Dr Shaw thinks that clostridium difficile is responsible for the production of HPHPA (its long medical name is so long I will just use the abbreviation) which is a tyrosine derivative. Tyrosine is an amino acid and is the raw material for the production of neurotransmitters "I suspect that this product might be very important in altering key bio-chemical pathways for neurotransmitters in the brain." Patients with values of HPHPA greater than 500 mmol/mol creatinine, almost always have sever neurological, psychiatric or gastrointestinal disorders such as autism, sever depression, psychotic behaviour, schizophrenia, muscle paralysis, colitis and sometime a combination of them. He was interested in HPHPA because, "Structurally its related to the neurotransmitter dopamine and norepinephrin. (To cut a long story short), the possibility of the formation of false neurotransmitters from the abnormal microbial products of phenylalanie, such as 3-hydroxphenylalancie and 2-hydroxyphenylalanine. both these isomes of tyrosine that would form false neurotransmitters when transported into the neurons."

HPHPA is an abnormal phenylalanine metabolite produced by gastrointestinal bacteria of the clostridia species, it produces spores which are completely resistant to drugs. Once the bacteria has been killed by anti-biotics, it re-colonises by its spores. The only way to prevent this re-colonisation is to 're-seed' with good intestinal bacteria, the one particularly mentioned was L acidophilus - perhaps this is why Ed is doing so well, Kefir water is basically a drink of good intestinal bacteria.

On an interesting side note. Richard Jaeckle Md, a psychiatrist and allergist in texas has successfully treated a number of psychotic patients using anti-fungal therapy, "Patients with psychotic behaviours may well have a gastrointestinal overgrowth of both year and clostridia.'

6 - Cytochrome P450 pathway. These enzymes play a crucial role in detoxifying xenobiotics. Xenobiotics are chemical compounds found in an organism but which is not normally produced or expected to be present in it. Compounds such as  drugs, pesticides or carcinogens. Interestingly, fluoride is xenobiotic.

Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Round Up, the worlds most popular herbicide) inhibits cytochrome P450. Interference with cytochrome 450 disrupts the biosynthesis of amino acids by the 'good' intestinal bacteria, as well as impairing the sulfate transport - so glyphosates are a major player in our modern diseases of gastro-intestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer, Alzheimer and Parkinsons.

7 - Glutathione is a major player in the detox system methylation. It is a series of very important bio-chemical reaction in the body responsible for overall good health. It is so important that I intended it be an article all on its own, if your interest is aroused, look it up.

8 - Oxidative stress and lipid damage. Each and every cell in your body has 2 layers of lipid fats making up the cell membrane. When toxins come in and attach to the cell membrane they cause the membrane to inflame. This causes another cascade of unfortunate events because now the cell has a decreased cellular fluidity, ie, nutrients can't get in and waste produced by the mitochondrial (your energy source) can't get out. This is the actual meaning of inflammation, when they tell you for instance that white bread is inflammatory, that's what they mean. The hormone receptor sites on the cell stop working and so the cell stops hearing what the body wants it to do. In the case of diabetes for instance, doesn't matter how much insulin is floating around if it can't attach to the cell wall, the cell can't use it. This is another big subject that I was going to cover individually, because one of the toxins that your cells don't like funnily enough is vegetable oil. Your cells actually prefer grass-fed butter, and other fats that you have been told are bad for you. If you want to investigate this yourself a really easy way is to youtube Dr Dan Pompa, who makes a complicated subject easy to understand, and he is quite easy on the eye too!

Now remember, all of this is just the reaction to the painkiller, haven't even mentioned what the vaccine does to your body. All that on top of dealing with whatever they just injected you with! So there you have it, I am sorry again for mis-spellings, poor grammar, etc. I haven't read this through as Ed is due home any moment. I present this information not as Doctor or scientist, but as a mother whose life and family has been blighted by autism. And so far, none of the 'professionals' have managed to help me at all. What has helped is my own "quackery"(ie. natural interventions like NAET, epsom salts, vitamins, minerals etc) and other like minded, blighted mums.

On a side note, Dr John McBride (a paediatric pulmonologist at Akron childrens hospital ohio) was stunned by the link between asthma and acetaminophen.
"The more acetaminophen somebody takes, the more likely it is that they have asthma. Also, theres an incredible consistency. Everybody around the world who's looked for this association has been able to find it."

Now I know there was a story in the British press a while ago about this link, which has been dismissed by the NHS. But I can't help feeling that the whole truth hasn't come out. I remember giving Ed Medised, 7 years ago, you could give it  to children from 3 months onwards. Now, its for children 6 years and up! How much has really changed since they handed out thalidomide? That was something with a concrete physical manifestation. How long will it be before someone joins the dots and tells us what causing autism - or have they just done it?

Anyone really interested hop over to www.greatplainslaboratory.com and sign up for a free webinar from Dr William Shaw PhD himself, 30th October 2013

Love to the world x





Thursday 3 October 2013

the ups and downs of detox

Sorry for not posting earlier. What a week last week was! Ed was off the chart, and I was so tired that I took myself off to bed for a couple of hours nap after the boys were off to school. So we achieved nothing at all and this one has been all about catching up.

On Thursday last week, Ed came out of the taxi hot and sweaty, screaming, no shoes, he had already thrown them in the car, and in he came like a whirl wind. The plugs were pulled from their socket, the TV was turned round and all the wires pulled out, things were thrown, things were thrown out of the window... What the hell had gone wrong? On Friday morning I wrote in his school book 'What the F happened, he was a nightmare!' By nightmare I mean he screamed and thrashed till I went to bed about midnight, when he came in bed with me and settled - sort of. I spent all Friday trying to figure out what was wrong when a light bulb went off. Both he and I have been having regular iodine doses. I give Ed some on his wrist before he goes to school and by the time he comes home its gone. So I give him another lot which has gone by bed time and if I remember to, I give him another lot. Mine tends to have disappeared by the morning. You know sometimes you are so close to a problem its invisible, our problem I am sure was we were both detoxing. Mine resulted in tiredness, his unleashed the yeast beast, because of course the iodine will be killing all those nasty pathogens and their remains are poisoning his system till they are excreted.

He was seven on Sunday and we had a lovely weekend spent in the company of my sister and nanny and baba. I had told him on Friday night that his birthday was coming and he really seemed to understand, and trust me, you would have to travel far to find another child who enjoys the song 'Happy Birthday' more. When we were all up, I asked Ed if he would like to open his presents. "Yes" he said getting up and going to the other room without prompting, and boy does he like a bit of wrapping paper, not so much the birthday card!

This week we have been much better, my energy level is back to normal, and Ed is more settled. It only takes him a few minutes bashing with the hoover and throwing something out the door to settle. We have even managed to have a couple of walks before tea round the village to feed the ducks and home. His is babbling more than before, and using words such as 'more', and initiating contact. The other day he gave Richard a 'eskimo kiss' where you rub noses - very sweet, and lovely for Rich to have some nice contact with his son.

Trying to rid the house of toxic items, I bought some fluoride free toothpaste from the health food shop. It tastes surprisingly nice.  Ed does have a tendency to eat toothpaste, and the relief that its not harming him now is enormous. In fact, since the iodine experiment, he hasn't eaten toothpaste really at all, whether is coincidence or not I am not sure. Also he has managed to get to the toilet without an accident this week, so despite his violent behaviour, there have been some steps forward. I haven't found time this week to back up with quotes, names and dates what I know about conventional toothpaste and tooth care, but intend to post something next week. It will also cover good and bad fats, and you may be surprised to find out which are which, and, the fact they have a direct relationship to how strong your teeth are. Till then xx

 

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Down but not out

Maybe its that time of year, but over the past couple of days my energy has been low. I am writing this post for any mothers of autistic children out there, searching for help, reading all about 'warrior mums' and thinking - I can't do that. We all have moments where the weight of our challenges exceeds what we think we can bear. This applies to everyone, even those leading a relatively 'normal' life. Quite tears of hopelessness are shed by us all. Looking round my house at the broken curtain rails, the small smears on the walls EVERYWHERE, the light hitting the small hand prints on the windows, the broken glass in the clock, the torn books and strewn CD's, the builders dust settled everywhere (we have finally had the hall ceiling re-plastered) the broken bits and bobs mingled with the strewn toys, my body feels like lead as I carry yet again the duvet upstairs, negotiating round the hoover wires and pipes. Once put away, they are instantly strewn again leaving a hopelessness around the mess. There really is only so many times a day you can put something away, so many times you can challenge a behaviour. Mopping up the endless rounds of wee, this morning I don't think any of it went in the toilet, scrubbing out another soiled pair of pants ... endless, endless rounds of fruitless activity. Its very easy to get disheartened and slip to that place where the Doctor says, 'I think your a little depressed, lets give you something to help.'

Sometimes you just have to pull yourself together as you slide, and nothing does it better for me than laughter. Let me share the two things that put the bounce back in me. Sunday morning, when I open the front door, a massive orb spider had woven a web across our porch. The dew from the morning mist and the light from the sun shone on the web making it clear to see. The spider really looked like he was trying to catch us - nothing quite like aiming high! It made me and Tom laugh, which is quite something because I am not good with spiders normally to say the least. The second thing that tickled my fancy was in the back garden. I never really got on top of the garden this summer, which is why a plant I hadn't planted was growing in an empty container. It had a bit of soil in the bottom from the last plant, but I never got around to doing anything with it. However, something had self seeded there, and its leaves looked familiar so it never got pulled up with the normal round of weeding. Well, Sunday I figured out what it was and how it came to be there. Its a tomato plant. The pot is the one Ed did a pooh in over the summer, at the time he was eating loads of cheery tomatoes. So yes, its a pooh plant - you have to admit that's funny. That's all it took to cheer me up, I love it when nature holds her hand out to you. You know, your born you die, and all that matters is that you never gave up and did your best in-between. So take a deep breath, invoke feelings of I can do this, and put your best foot forward with whatever problems your life offers up to you, and try to see them as lesson. Before you know it, you'll have graduated on to something better. X


pineal gland - have you heard of it? well you should

You know Friday night I had the best night sleep I can remember. When I woke, I was so comfortable that I was entirely unaware of my body, as I lay there I felt like just a thought in bed. I suppose if you want to get all zen on me, that's all we really are. Ed had actually slept in his own bed and when I woke him in the morning, for the first time in weeks he still had his PJs on. He had a great day at school, and when I dropped him off at the childminders, arrived to find she was still not back from her school run (Ed finishes early on Fridays) As I pulled up, I heard him un-buckle his seat belt ready to charge out, but she wasn't there. Now this could have gone two ways, I turned round to him and said, "Oh Ed, she isn't here yet. Get in your seat and we will have a little drive." Well blow me down if he didn't without a murmur jump in his seat and then put his own seat belt on! This from the boy who has had to literally be tied in his seat to keep from getting out.

Before I fell asleep that night, I just so happened, for no particular reason, to read a couple of emails from that day, I opened up one which had the fantastic title of "The mighty Pineal Gland." I was still buzzing in my head about how amazing iodine is, and all the bits and bobs it supports, with the pineal gland being one of them, so of course I had to read it. When I woke up, I thought ' I need to read up on my pineal gland!' and this is what I found, I hope that when you finish reading it you go get yourself a bottle of iodine and make all your family take it, because this little raisin sized gland, stuck in the middle of your head is probably has a role in the amount of people with mental health issues and all those problems resulting in a lack of sleep, not to mention a role in breast and prostrate cancer with a helping of Alzheimer on the side for luck. Let alone its implication in autism. Again, lots of big words which I will do my best to spell properly and medical sentences which I hope read OK. Forgive me for any glaring mistakes and do your own research on this.

Your pineal gland is about the size of a raisin and shaped like a pine cone - hence its name. It is located at the very centre of your brain, but is exempt from the blood/brain barrier. Blood flows through your pineal gland at the same rate as it flows through your kidneys, which is more than any other gland. So whatever is in your blood will be in your pineal gland. It is in part of the brain called 'diencephalon'. The main structures of the diencephalon include the hypothalamus, thalamus, epithelium (including the pineal gland) and sub thalamus. The diencepahon relays sensory information between brain regions and controls many autonomic functions of the peripheral nervous system.  It also connects the structures of the endocrine system with the nervous system and works in conjunction with the limbic system. Part of the diencephalon is also included in the limbic system which helps manage our emotions such as fear, anger, emotions, sexual behaviours, memories and the strength of an emotional response to an event.

The pineal gland helps in the regulations of the Endocrine system (all glands and their hormones) and is
responsible for secretion of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is a sub hormone of Seratonin which is your happy hormone. Melatonin maintains the bodies sleep-wake cycle, regulates the onset of puberty in females and the helps protect the body from cell damage by free radicles. Breast cancer and prostate cancer patients alongside those with Alzheimer show lower than normal levels of melationin. Scientists at Tulane University School of medicine in New Orleans grew some human breast cancer cells in laboratory and added melatonine to the culture. They found the cancer grew one-fourth to one-half as fast as the non-treated cells. The fewer oestrogen receptors the cancer cells had, the more melatonin was needed to retard their growth. Dr Hill concluded that "Melatonin my be a naturally occurring anti-cancer compound. The more a breast cancer is Oestrogen receptor positive, the more dramatic the response." Alzheimer patients also show an unusually high level of calcification in the pineal gland, this calcification is caused in part by Fluoride. In 1997 a british scientist Jennifer Luke discovered that fluoride accumulates in the pineal gland at strikingly high levels that have a major impact on its function. Without going into the fluoride debate, there are 2 types of fluoride, one is natural and the other is a waste product of nuclear industry. Guess which one they put in water. On an interesting side note, and one I put in because it shows that the people we trust our health to are not acting in our best interest, President Obama in his first week of office (second term), passed a law increasing the acceptable level of radioactivity in Americas drinking water. In a win for the nuclear industry, Obama gave approval for dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil, following 'radiological incidents'. PEER executive director Jeff Rush stated, 'This is a public health policy that only Dr Strange-love could embrace.' In soil, the new PAGS (protective action guides)  long term public exposure to radiation increase the long standing 1 in 10,000 cancer rate to 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30 years period!

The pineal gland is super sensitive to light. Lucas RJ et al published a paper in 'Science' where an experiment was carried out on mice which had been genetically bred to have no photo receptors in their eyes. Their pineal gland responded normally to light stimulus, which left the scientist at a loss to explain the results. In humans, when light hits your eye, it travels via a nerve to the gland. When its dark, it sends a signal to begin secreting melatonin which makes your system go into sleep mode. Here are my thoughts - there seems to be a modern day boom in problems associated with sleep, young girls starting their periods earlier and earlier, endocrine (hormone) problems, and mental health problems. When the pineal gland plays such an important role in all of them, and is known to have calcified by the time we are 20, where are the studies to help reverse this or are we just expected to swallow all the pills from big Pharm. and soldier on. I am a big fan of Judge Judy, she has a saying that if it doesn't sound right then it probably isn't true. Most of what I am told by people 'in the know' about autism (cancer and all those other thing going wrong with us) doesn't sound right, that's what set me on my path to find out for myself, and that's why I am sharing what I found - because most people are far more trusting than I. If iodine can help your pineal gland, let alone the other things it does, then you should take it. The iodine patch I put on Ed in the morning has completely disappeared 6 hours latter, this would indicate his bodies hunger for it, my patch lasts just over 24 hours and the rest of the family slightly less.

On a final note, which I put in because I found it curious, your pineal gland is your 'third eye' according to the mind, body spirit lot. They have long understood that it needs clearing, and have yoga positions, sounds and sunlight protocols to do just that. Your third eye controls your spinal chakras which interestingly are also places where a lot of other 'glands' are located. Now before you brush this off as rubbish, consider this, one of the 4 types of cells that make up the pineal gland are Pinealocytes. These cells in non-mammalian vertebras have a strong resemblance to the photo receptors in the eye (rods and cone to you and me). In the mature mammalian cells, they express a known photoreceptor protein known to have implications in the visual cascade. Some evolutionary experts think they share a common evolutionary ancestry with retinal cells. In birds, the pineal gland has a magnetic quality not yet quite understood, but it is this little gland (they think) that is responsible for birds being able to navigate their way round the world, and for pigeons to home.

My family asked me where I get my iodine from, and the truth is I bought it off the internet ages ago, I bought Nascent iodine from LL magnetic clay, if you tap it in google I am sure that you will find somewhere you can trust to get it from.


Thursday 19 September 2013

Iodine, why havent we heard more?

We have had a mixed bag from Ed this week, glimmers of normal-ness followed by his kind of normal-ness. For the past two weeks, at some ungodly hour, I am woken by a sack of potatoes jumping on me and then crawling in between Richard and I. The pooh bucket alas is not quite full, so my hopes of its demise are dashed. The good news is, although its very selfish to say, is that he does it a school now or with Lisa, the angel who minds him for a couple of hours on a Friday, and that he only filled his pants once with me so far, although we have had the brown crayon out more than a few times. Sorry guys, back on that old waggon. I have been thinking really hard about it, am I not giving him enough kefir, is it too much fruit, not enough protein, was it because he licked a pig? WHAT! Yes, he licked a pig just before it all started again, so it might be that. But, you know having researched todays post, I think it might now be a bit of the above, but more likely the fact that I am being much more attentive in giving him daily iodine. I get post from all sort of people and read all kinds of stuff in my quest to reverse Eds autism, and one kinda throw away line at the bottom of one of these posts made me sit up and take notice about a condition caused by Iodine deficiency.

"Pregnant women with hypothyroxinemia in the early stages of gestation, have nearly a 4 fold increased risk of having a child with autism" according to a study done recently in Holland with 4,000 Dutch mothers and their infants.

My sister has asked me to back up my ideas and findings, I hope you all found it helpful in my milk article, so this week I set out to back up Iodine. I thought it would be relatively simply, but its taken ages because this particular subject seems to touch on everything that is wrong with us today, hence my question why haven't we heard more about it. I wish I had a penny for every time the daily mail heralds some new medical wonder drug (mainly statins - which you should stay away from) but not a word about Iodine. And here's why, Iodine is not patentable. That means there is no money to be made from it. Before I list all the wonderful things that Iodine does in out bodies, whilst drilling down in the subject I came across a really disturbing article, and I think its so important that I am going to stick it in here now (and hopefully come back to vaccines latter)

At the 2009 4th International Public Conference on Vaccinations held at Reston Virginia on October 2nd, Dr Diane Harper who lead the research in the development of the human papilloma virus vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix announced "About 8 in every 10 women who have been sexually active will have HPV at some stage in their lives. Normally there are no symptoms and in 98% of cases clears itself. Those cases where it doesn't and isn't treated can lead to pre-cancerous cells which may develop into cervical cancer." She basically said, they aren't necessary, they don't work, they weren't tested properly and are dangerous. She said she had to come clean because she couldn't sleep at night. She did this on the platform her bosses had hoped she would sing the praises of their new products. So does anyone remember that in the news because I don't, maybe its because the vaccine industry makes over $34 billion dollars in profit a year. If you know anyone with a daughter of injectable age, get their mothers to do their own bit of research and come to their own conclusions about whether to do this or not. So far, officially 44 girls have died from it, and a further 15,037 have reported (via all the hurdles) adverse side effects.

Anyway, lets stop corporate bashing and big up Iodine.

Iodine fell out of favour in 1969 in America when a study done in 1948, known as the Wolff-Chaikoff study, was published for a reason I didn't find, causing a media scare. This study which was unsubstantiated and unreplicated, claimed that hypothyroidism could occur as a result of excessive iodine. At this time, iodine was a supplement put in bread. After the scare, iodine was replaced by Bromine in bread production in the USA. Bromine is one of the 12 most harmful toxins and carcinogens on the planet. It forces iodine out of your body by a system of "competitive inhibition" as does fluoridated and chlorinated water. They are know as toxic halogens. There are 5 halogen elements, Fluorine, chlorine, bromine (or bromide) iodine and astatine. Bromine is found in pesticides and insecticides, bread and baked goods in the USA, some medication and some energy drinks including 'Mountain Dew'. Chlorine is used as a disinfectant. Fluorine as fluoride is added to drinking water and toothpaste to protect teeth from decay, which is controversial as there are arguments that it does more harm than good. Fluoride has a long well know history as a poison, it was used by AG Farben in the German death camps experiments to perfect extermination gases on human prisoners in WW2. Harold Hodges had the idea of putting fluoride in water in 1946 when he became head of newly created International Association for Dental Research, which up until them had been part of the Atomic Energy Commission. In his article 'We love it for what it is not' Thomas Lee NMD puts it really nicely, "We love Iodine for NOT being a poisonous halogen."

The thyroid used the iodide form of iodine which occurs in sea life and is found is soils located on ancient seabeds. Due to modern farming methods most soils are depleted of their mineral content and are also depleted of iodine. According to the WHO, 72% of the worlds population are iodine deficient, and 96% of Americans are according to a recent study by Dr Abraham. "Iodine deficiency is one of the top two causes of mental retardation. Associated with this is a 690% increase in cretinism, mental retardation and ADHD in the last decade." There doesn't seem to be anywhere or any function in your body that doesn't need or use iodine. The easiest way to list them is to list them, so here we go.

1 Iodine helps synthesize thyroid hormones and prevents both hypo and hyperthyroidism.

2 Iodine sufficiency helps reverse the above conditions

3 Iodine helps support apoptosis (programmed cell death of unhealthy cells) ie cancer cells.

4 Iodine activates hormone receptors, according to Dr Daniel Denny from Canada, there are active thyroid hormone sites in all mitochondria (the working bit in every cell) According to Dr Brownstein the primary reason for mitochondrial failure is iodine deficiency.

5 Iodine protects ATP function and enhances ATP production (this basically is your vital life force)

6 Iodine prevents fibrocystic breast disease.

7 Iodine decreases insulin needs in diabetics.

8 Iodine supports protein synthesis and activates enzymatic activity

9 Iodine destroys pathogens, molds, fungi, parasites and malaria. It is the most powerful anti-biotic we have (but as its not patentable there is no money in it for big pharma) As early as 1905 the effectiveness of treating TB was mentioned in the NY Times.

10 Iodine supports immune function. It plays a role in the physiology of inflammatory response. Iodine increases the movement of granulocites into areas of inflammation ( granulocytes are a type of white blood cell which help fight bacterial infections)

11 Iodine eliminates toxic halogens from the body. With the first dose there is a 78% increase in bromine discharge, and a 50% increase in chlorine discharge. It also helps chelate (remove) mercury, lead, fluoride and cadmium. This is a mega deal, at the moment Fukushima is still leaking radioactive waste into the air and sea. Don't think it doesn't affect us here in the UK, its being carried round the world in air and water. Radioactive I-131 is the most critical health issue facing us all. Healthy iodine (I-127) can help provide significant protection to and push out I-131 from the thyroid. Your thyroid will literally suck up any iodine available, whether it be radioactive or not. Unlike Chernobyl, Fukushima still has not been sealed. Large quantities of contaminated radioactive water is seeping into the Pacific Ocean. 150,000 tons of radioactive waste is in the open. According to an article by the BBC 1.9.2013, Tepco originally said the radiation emitted by leaking water was around 100 millisieverts an hour. However, they were using equipment which had a maximum reading of 100 (seriously, how dumb are they!). New recordings on more sensitive equipment show it to 1,800 millisieverts an hour. However, this Wednesday, the countries nuclear regulation authority said that radiation reading near the water storage tanks have increased to a new high 20% rise on previous readings. A person standing close to the contaminated area would in several hours receive a fatal radiation dose. It has had its 4th major leak since it all happened March 2011 - over 2 years ago! Iodine can also reverse damage done to the pineal gland by fluoride, which is said to 'calcify' it, the pineal gland is important for producing serotonin and melatonin, serotonin is a neurotransmitter. It plays an important part in learning, mood, and sleep to name a few. Melatonin is a hormone which helps you sleep (all things lacking in general in an autistic child)

12 Iodine regulates estrogen production int eh ovaries. Both the ovaries testes and adrenal glands all produce estrogen. Estrogen dominance is associated with miscarriage and infertility.

13 Iodine is anti-mucoytic (reduces mucus and catarrh) in both the intestines and sinus's. It help cleanse and detox the lymph system

14 Iodine can help make you smarter, According to Dr Jorge-Flechas iodine prevents lead from lodging in the body, and helps push out fluoride which helps the lead accumulate (why do we put fluoride in our toothpaste and water?) Bleichrodt in 1994 did a meta analysis and found iodine sufficiency increased IQ by 13.5 points. Iodine deficiency is the main cause of decreased intellect. Research ah shown that parasites in the gut eat up serotonin, 95% of which is produced in the gut. When the parasites are destroyed by iodine there is more serotonin available for mental functions.

15 Iodine can help prevent heart disease. The thyroid regulates hear rate. Dr Broda Barnes (father of the pro-iodine awareness movement) did research with 1000 people, and showed that high use of iodine resulted in extremely significant reversal and prevention of heart disease, out performing on many levels the framingham study.

16 A study published by the international journal of radiation biology, vol 86 No12 December 2010 stated that radiation from cordless phones, cell phones and smart meters can induce hypothyroidism, iodine can prevent that.

17 Iodine supports pregnancy as the foetus undergoes more apoptosis than at any other developmental stage. As previously stated, apoptosis is programed cell death. According to the Department of Embryology and Teratology, Sackler school of medicine, Tel Aviv University Israel, 'Programmed cell death plays an important role in the process of gamate maturation as well as in embryo development, contributing to the appropriate formations of various organs and structures. Teratogen induced excessive death of embryonic cell death (not programed cell death) is undoubtedly one of the most important events proceeding the occurrence of structural abnormalities regardless of their nature.'

18 High doses of iodine may be used to reverse certain disease, at 6 grams daily, iodine has been used to cure syphilis, skin lesion and chronic lung disease. In micrograms levels it can prevent and cure cretinism and goitre, at milligramme levels it helps prevent and cure cancer, fibrocysitc breast disease and Alzheimer.

19 Iodine in high doses may be used to wounds, bed sores, inflammation and traumatic pains, and even restore hair growth if topically applied. It can also eliminate toenail fungus (Nick!)

20 Helps diminish scar tissue

I hope that I haven't overburdened you, but in trying to clarify the info about the 4 fold increase in the risk of having an autistic child if you were iodine deficient, I kind of hit a gold mine of info.

Back to the study of the dutch mother. The lead investigator Gustavo Roman MD said in an article published on line August 13 in the annals of neurology, of a study done by the Methodist Neurological Institute in Texas in conjunction with colleagues from Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands,

"It is increasingly apparent to us that autism is caused by environmental factor in most cases, not by genetics. That gives me hope that prevention is possible." "The increase in Autism could be at least partly the result of an iodine starved diet, and or exposure to toxins which interfere with normal thyroid function."

WOW!!!

Back to Ed and his runny bum. I give him a dose of iodine before he goes to school, on his wrist topically, it stains his skin orange. By the time he comes home it has been completely absorbed which is a sign he is deficient. So he gets another dose. Maybe the onset of the pooh bucket is one to be celebrated, that its a sign he is detoxing. He certainly seems happier, and this week he said 'pooh' clear as a bell in the correct context (I showed him his pants and asked him what it was!) and today apparently has been saying 'more'. He seems to have more interest in interacting, and before he went to bed, played in an appropriate way with his gruffalo. A glimmer of hope hits me, and I am trying to figure out how I missed this in my initial mega trawl of info. Did I miss it, or is it not widely known?
I had been trying to treat his various problems with all sorts of things and all I really needed to do was give him iodine? You know, I have gone back over a list of things used to chelate on various sites, and I don't see iodine. Thank you Dr Sirus. The iodine I use is Nascent iodine from LL Magnetic clay. It is in an atomic rather than molecular form, with an incomplete number of electrons which means it can hold an electro-magnetic charge. It is recognised by the body as the same produced in the thyroid, so is   easily absorbed and used by the body.

I apologise now for any spelling and grammar mistakes, I have used a lot of words unfamiliar to me, and have pages written down from my research. If I have made any inadvertent mistakes that someone more cleverer than me can see, then again, sorry. As I have said before, don't take my word for all this, do your own investigating. What is important is the truth, and not the 'line' from some big multi million pound business who is interested in poisoning us for profit.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

all things milk

Well, we made it through the last days of the summer holidays, sorry for not posting for a while but I was in need of a couple of days of therapeutic 'watching paint dry' or 'wall staring'. Hidden within my darling child is an 'on-switch'.  I have no idea what triggers this. In the on position many things are randomly thrown around and out the house, things are bitten, broken and pulled down. One of the main casualties was our kitchen clock which now has broken glass, the TVs also came in for a pounding luckily my husband caught him trying to pull the kitchen telly off the wall. Night time changed to, from going to bed happily (admittedly bouncing for a while) to general screaming and coming down stairs, screaming and trying to destroy whatever was in front of him. Richard said to me, 'We really need to find out whats going on' - no kidding! Let me translate for you, 'Find out whats going on and sort it.'
Well, I think that basically he was bored, other than hoovering and pushing him in the hammock swing, there is little else he does with me. Once I told him he was going back to school, he actually stopped mid-tantrum and looked happy. This isn't from my choice but his, so on my to do list I now have search out things to do with autistic children, will post once I have some info.

In the meantime, lets get down to whats wrong and right with milk. If you have a child with autism and you are trying to address it, chances are that nutrition will be top of your list. Top of that list, chance are are cut out dairy (casein) and gluten, other wise known as the CGF diet (casein, gluten free). I did toy with the idea but as I have said in earlier post, I really wanted to know what had happened to these past staples of life, we have all heard the sayings bread is the staff of life and the land of milk and honey. Our ancestors had no problem with them so what had we done that had changed this. Well, grab hold of your seat Dorothy because Kansas is going bye bye. What I found rather shocked me, I instantly changed my buying and eating habits and hope that you will do the same.

All milk isn't created equal. They (scientist) think that about 20,000 years ago cows underwent a genetic mutation. This lead to two types of milk, you may have already heard of A1 and A2 milk. The genetic mutation, or whatever it was gave rise to A1 milk. I always bought organic milk, but now I specifically by milk from Guernsey cows or failing that Jersey cows. These cows produce A2 milk as opposed to the black and white Holstein cow which produces A1 milk. I am guessing that most farms use Holstein cows because they are economically more viable, but more isn't always better. A1 type milk or to be precise Beta Casein A1 milk has the peptide BCM7 which has been linked to heart disease, type I diabetes, and recently mental health conditions including autism. As a note of interest, Human, Goat, Sheep and buffalo milk are all A2.

Professor Robert Cade and Dr Zhongie Sun from the University of Florida, Paul Shattock from the Autism Research Unit at University of Sunderland and Dr Kalle Reichelt from the Pediatrics Research Institute at the University of Oslo, Norway, have all published papers suggesting that many of our symptoms of poor mental health are related to the way we metabolise our food. Specifically, that many of the symptoms of autism and schizophrenia show similarities to the know symptoms caused by opioids which can be formed by the digestion of certain foods particularly gluten and casein. Many autistic children have been found to have high levels of BCM7 in blood and urine tests. However, its only recently that it has been found to happen only from A1 Beta Casein (Holstein) and not A2 Beta Casein (Guernsey, Jersey).

The Guernsey cow doesn't digest and break down Beta carotene, this is what gives the milk its lovely creamy yellow colour, it also has a better Omega 3 balance, being 1 part Omega 3 to 2 parts Omega 6. All other milk is 1 part Omega 3 to 6 parts Omega 6. Yes, this lovely milk has that essential fatty acid Omega 3 which is found in oily fish, and Flax seed oils etc. Guernsey milk has been tested for Beta Casein A2 at between 80-90%, Jersey milk 40% and Holstein milk 15%.

Lets move on to the modern scourge of homogenised milk, something which they generally don't do to Guernsey milk. Milk is homogenised basically for longer shelf life. Homogenised milk is where the fat particles are broken down so that they are evenly placed through the milk. If you didn't like the cream on top of your milk and like homogenised milk because of this, listen up. Natural cows milk has fat particles so big that they can't go through the intestinal mucosa, and are therefore naturally eliminated by the body. The fat particles of homogenised milk are so small that they can travel through your intestinal mucosa and from there pass directly into your blood stream. This is an added stress to your body which stores these undigested fat particles in your arteries, joints and heart. According to Dr Oster and Dr Donald Ross of Fairfield University Delaware,
"Homogenising allows the enzyme xanthine oxide to pass intact into the bloodstream. There is attacks the plasmologen tissue of the artery walls and parts of the heart muscle. This makes the body, trying to heal itself, put down a protective layer of cholesterol. The end result is scar tissue and calcified plaques with a build of of cholesterol and other fatty deposits." According to these experts, homogenised milk is the main culprit for heart attacks - not natural milk (or cream for you cream lovers!)

Lets move on to pasteurised milk as opposed to raw milk. This is such a big topic with such a wealth of information that its hard to know where to start. We have all been brought up to believe that milk straight from the cow is hazardous and full of harmful bacteria, and that pasteurising it makes it safe for us. We first started pasteurising milk after the industrial revolution when cows came in from the field to the city and were fed on the by-products of beer and other such things as opposed to grass and hay. This caused the cows, very much like our factory farmed cows fed corn and soy, to have upset tummies. This in turn led to un-healthy milk, which killed some and made many more ill. Since then, milk has generally been pasteurised. The idea is that pateurisation kills off any harmful bacteria in the milk, but it also kills of all the pro biotic ( good bacteria). It also destroys all the helpful enzymes in milk including the enzyme Lactase which breaks down the lactose in milk. (On a side note, if you are intolerant of milk ie lactose intolerant, you are actually pasteurised milk intolerant, try some raw milk). Pasteurising also destroys the Vit C, Vit B12, Vit A, Vit D, Lactobacilli, enzymes, and minerals, which is why even if you drink lots of pasteurised milk, you can still suffer from Osteoporosis. After pasteurisation, any bad bacteria which gets in the milk is free to flourish as opposed to the compounds in raw milk which actually destroy pathogens. Tests have been done where both pasturised and raw milk was left out, the pasturised milk went bad and was rampant with pathogens, the raw milk was still OK. Raw milk is also milk raised on grass and hay, which makes an enormous difference to the cows digestion. Near where my Mum and Dad live is a lovely little farm producing raw milk. This holiday, we had a walk round the farm, even in the yard where the cows come in for milking, the air smelt of nothing but meadows and hay. It was a far cry from the stink of a 'traditonal farm' feeding corn and soy. The life span of a cow fed on grass is about 12 years as opposed to 3.5 in a feed lot. So lets talk bad bacteria. In 2003, the Journal of Dairy Science noted that 80% of dairy cows carry the bacteria 0157. They conducted a small experiment which showed that when they switched the cows to grass from grain for only 5 days, 0157 declined 1,000 fold. In 2006 in the New York times, Michael Pollans wrote in response to an outbreak of food poisoning,
"The lethal strain of E.Coli know as 0157:H7  responsible for this latest outbreak of food poisoning was unknown before 1982. It is believed to have evolved in the guts of feedlot cattle. These animals stand around all day in their manure, eating a diet of grain that happens to turn a cows rumen into an ideal habitat for E.Coli 0157:H7. The bug can't survive long in cattle living on grass."

When I first research raw milk I was delighted to find a wonderful farm about 30 minutes from my Mum and Dad. They milk their cows 3 times a week as opposed to our corn raised, hormone injected, anti-biotic up to the eyeball factory cows of twice a day. The first time I drank it, I must admit that I did so with a little trepidation, but that first taste put paid to all of that. It is so delicious, it doesn't taste at all like the milk I had had before. I knocked back a pint in no time, and I hate drinking milk! I remember giving the first glass to my 90 year old Dad who was raised on raw milk.
"Does it taste how you remember it Dad?"
"No."
"Oh! Whats different?"
"The milk I had as a child was warm, straight out of the cow!"

People take note, even if you don't take the step of going raw, swap your breed of milk, and buy one that isn't homogenise, and in doing so, you'll find that you are supporting small farmers, doing what they have been doing for hundreds of years, as opposed to putting more money in big agriculture, and their spin off by-products and industries. As a post-script, if you filter this down and change your type of butter too, and find it difficult to source Guernsey butter, most New Zealand cows are grass fed and a mix of Guernsey/Jersey cows, ie Anchore butter.
Hope this was interesting x

Friday 30 August 2013

eye poking, toe walking, osteoporosis and Vit K

Well we have had a really exciting week. My dear sister and mum and dad, came over to look after Ed for a day while the rest of us had some 'normal' family time which we spent with my dear brother and sister-in-law on their amazing boat - great fun. The good news was that Ed was apparently really well behaved and all had a good time. Latter in the week I took Ed and Tom for a visit to my parents, after all, Ed appeared to have turned a corner. How wrong can you be, he was so destructive, pulling things down, throwing things on the floor, screaming and crying for reasons unknown, the house and garden looked like a bomb hit it. In a weird way I was kinda glad, because it reminded me how he used to be everyday, and the difference now is extraordinary - not all the time - but its growing. I used the time at my parents to go to the 'farm' and buy some lovely raw milk. I mention it because milk will be my next post, and whilst I was there to calm him down I took a walk round the farm, as they suggested on a poster on the shop door. It was just heavenly, Ed had space to run off which he did happily. And we had a nice little wander around looking at their organic harvest and chickens. What struck me other than the peace and all the Little creature was the smell. I have been round cows and they stink, but not here. All I could smell was warm meadows and chamomile, even treading through the cow muck, it was unbelievable how nice it smelt. The reason is they feed their cows on grass and hay in the winter, not corn like the rest of the milk you buy, and trust me when I say it, their s@*t don't stink! In the world of autism, as you may have noticed, a lot of attention is paid to what comes out because its a good indication of what is happening inside. Well what is happening inside these cow and their milk is different to your normal intensively farmed animals.

Now on to a subject that literally made the hair on my neck stand on end with an eureka moment.

I talked about sensory things very briefly last post, two sensory thing Ed did that I didn't mention where toe walking and eye poking. Just as it says, he would walk on tiptoe even in shoes, and poke himself in the eye really hard, not in the eyeball but between the eye and eyelid. To see this behaviour is very distressing - because something is obviously very wrong, but the powers that be just say, well, some of them do it. It was at this time I found that google did a better job than the NHS. As I researched it I came across blood crystals, the bodies of our autistic children are very different inside, and the blood works done on some of them show crystals slightly smaller than a blood cell. This really got my interest and I research blood intensively. Apparently our blood cells are shaped in the way they are so they can bend and twist through very tiny capillaries in our bodies to nourish all of us. In autistic children, their blood cell are sometimes not so flexible and have a hard time moving round, they also have these weird crystals floating around, from what I read it was common in our children. This got me to thinking, if these crystals pooled in your feet like fluid does in all of us, wouldn't they pool in the bottom of your feet? would this feel good? or would it feel like walking on broken glass? and if you had to walk through broken glass wouldn't you do it on tiptoes? Also if they were moving round round the wee vessels in and around your eyes wouldn't it hurt and maybe you would poke it to ease the pain. If you could get rid of the crystal would this behaviour go? So me and google got together, there are all sorts of ideas about why these crystal form, but the one I went with actually made the hair on my neck stand up when I read it, it was a scholarly article written about the many roles of vitamin K. I spent some time this morning to find it but couldn't, so I will post the link to it latter when I find it (and by that I mean when the children are back at school!)  In the meantime, the main thrust of the article was that calcium leaks out of the bones if there isn't enough Vit K to keep it in place and forms crystals in the blood. If you have enough Vit K, it escorts it back to your bones. Now, there are some natural sources of Vit K that you eat, but generally its something that is made in your body not by you, but by your friendly intestinal bacteria. The sources of food you find it in are animal fats, cream, full fat milk, lard (not the crappy store bought rubbish but the nice homemade stuff) etc. So, lets look at not just our autistic childrens diet, but the diet that we are all being recommended which is low fat, hence low in Vit K. I have a 30 year old friend with the bone density of a 60 year old, it's something that modern women suffer from today, its called osteoporosis, where there isn't enough calcium in the bones to make them strong. Even if you take your calcium supplements if you don't have Vit K, it will just leach out of your bones. We are not making it ourselves anymore because our internal gut flora is messed up with anti-biotic and unhealthy diets. Dairy is the one of the first foods you are recommended to remove when your starting an intervention with an autistic child, and by doing so, you are cutting out the main supply of Vit K. Within those animal fats you also have all your fat soluble vitamins that your eyes and teeth need to be healty,  just look around at our children and you can see they are not getting enough. I haven't put this very well, its a complicated interelated subject, but I hope you can all think round this  and see how far reaching and important it is. I completely understand that some people are intolerent of dairy products and so can't eat them, and to them I urge you to supplement this important and overlooked nutrient, I am sure as time goes on they will discover all sorts of other functions that its does.

So Richard was very happy when the clotted cream was back on the table, instead of telling him he was going to have a heart attack, I was telling the other children to eat up because it was good for them. So the full fat milk and proper block butter in a butter dish came back. The roast potatoes went in goose fat, and that was all about a year ago. I also introduced Vit K and Vit D supplements (because the two work together, and by the way, you dont make Vit D with sunscreen)  in Eds diet to give him a boost, and the eye poking stopped and hasn't come back. The toe walking stopped as well, very rarley he will toe walk in the morning, but not for long. I see it as proving exactly that the toe walking was because the crystals were pooled in his feet, which is why if it happens, its in the morning. I don't supplement anymore with these vitamins, just rely on a natural source and I don't put sunscreen on him unless he will be out in the sun all day. Believe it or not, I just rub virgin coconut oil in my red headed angel, and dispite the fact he is out more than he is in, he hasn't burned this year. I read on one of my many heatlh blogs that other people have found that they have stopped burning in the sun once they started consuming these animal fats back in their diet. So, next time you go shopping, don't feel guilty putting that butter and cream in your basket, look at those poor folk doing what they are told, eating their awful margarine getting fatter and iller and feel sorry for them. X

As a post script, sorry for the grammer - I think it and type it, and spell check isn't working again!