Why Not Use Nutritional Supplements as a Treatment for Autism? Why Not Research Them?
Posted on March 8th, 2008 by blue collar scientist
The Bad Astronomer recently brought to my attention Jenny McCarthy’s advocacy of using nutritional supplements and dietary restrictions to treat autism. McCarthy has claimed that diet and nutritional supplements help autistic kids, saying:
“I’ve been speaking to moms across the country who are all shouting out the same thing: ‘This (diet and supplement intake) is working.’”
“It’s so heartbreaking to see the medical community not support something called diet and vitamins. And it pains us, city after city after city. I see this heartbreak on these mom’s faces.”
“Autism isn’t covered by [medical] insurance. If things like diets and supplements are working, then why not support it? These kids are getting better and I will not shut up and will not stop fighting about it.”
This parallels a larger set of claims from the DAN and biomedical folks who claim that certain interventions can cure autism. As is well known, Jenny McCarthy and her fellow-travelers are wrong. Diet and supplements don’t cure autism.
There are lots of people who don’t know this, however, and they hear the kinds of crazy things said by McCarthy, the mercury militia, the biomedical quacks, and sundry other nutjobs, and they wonder about this stuff. Occasionally, they ask, well, why couldn’t diet and nutritional supplements help?
When asked, you could trot out the data and go over the statistics. And that would be a great idea in certain situations, such as if you were addressing a conference, or if you were a physician going over the evidence for an interested parent, or if you were a genuine expert blogger who was going over the data for the rest of us.
For the rest of us, though, we encounter these kinds of questions from our acquaintances - those who know we are rational thinkers, who might be under the impression we are knowledgeable or smart, or at least who know we are likely to have an opinion. What’s the best way to respond to these people?
For my part, I admit that diet restriction and vitamin intake could help. Exercise could help. Avoiding sun exposure could help. Wearing special underwear could help. Appealing to a magic sky-god could help.
But then I change the rules of the discussion and take them on a journey through common sense. Here is what I tell them:
The question is whether it is really likely to help.
Let’s have a look at this question rationally. Autism is a neurological disorder caused by disrupted early brain development. Autistic persons’ brains are characterized by differences in size and mass, excess neurons in certain locations, abnormal synapses and dendritic spines, structural differences in mirror neurons, and a differently-functioning cingulate cortex. Genetic differences have been found in autistic persons. The biological evidence suggests the disorder is a result of genetics and environmental interaction during brain development, which results in the fetus “building” a brain which is anatomically and functionally different from that of a typical human.
Now, there are also people who, due to a combination of genetics and environmental influences, develop abnormal hands, feet, palates, noses, kidneys, pancreases, stomaches and other pieces of anatomy.
Do we find those people’s hands/feet/etc attain normality if they consume a specific diet and take vitamin supplements?
No.
As much as it would be nice if nutrients could rebuild a brain into a standard configuration, there’s no reason to think that they could, if they can’t even rebuild other, simpler organs in a similar way.
Another line of evidence makes it unlikely. We do know about thousands of chemicals that can cause the body to reorganize entire organs and body systems into new configurations. Those chemicals are (a) not nutrients, and (b) deadly. The few that aren’t deadly are highly specialized pharmaceuticals that need careful dosing so as to not cause more harm than good - and most of them work despite their tendency to cause organ development to go haywire, not because of it. Potentially, one or a combination of these chemical compounds, if given in the right dosages over a period of time, might possibly result in re-organizing the brain in such a way to ameliorate autism. The problem is, none of these kinds of chemicals are found in any significant amounts in a normal diet, or in supplements.
So the question becomes: why research nutrients? Why think they might work? There’s already tons of evidence that it would be pointless. In the meantime, there are other avenues of research that we have plenty of reason to think could be helpful. Perhaps neurological drugs could result in more-normal brain functioning. Perhaps some kind of surgical intervention could do the same. Perhaps genetic-environmental interaction research could reveal risk factors, resulting in preventive strategies to bar autistic brain development.
All of these techniques have been proven to be effective in other disorders that have origins similar to autism. Whereas nutrition has been proven ineffective in other disorders that have origins similar to autism.
In a world where resources were unlimited, I’d do formal, double-blind, large-n trials of nutrients. In the real world where resources are limited, however, I’m going to spend my money in the place that prior knowledge shows it is most likely to do good. And similarly, I’d be placing my faith in proven or at least plausible treatments, rather than disproven ones that don’t make any sense in the first place.
Tags: alternative medicine, autism, BPSDB, developmental disorder, evidence-based, jenny mccarthy, medicine, nutrition, quack, quackery, woo
March 8th, 2008 at 11:16 am
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March 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
If you truly want to look at it rationally, simply listen to a mother who has a child that reversed autism through dietary intervention. You can deny it on the Internet and say it can’t happen with some mumbo jumbo talk, but you can’t deny it when you see it first hand. Every day, kids with autism are getting better through dietary intervention. Believe it or not. :)
March 8th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Oh, I’ve done that. It was very sad. The child wouldn’t speak or interact with anyone, including his teachers, and exhibited most the behaviors that are consistent with autism, yet the mother went on for several minutes about how a special diet had “cured” him. It clearly hadn’t. I don’t doubt for a minute that children eating healthy diets live healthier, happier lives, but the idea that eating cures a neurological developmental disorder is, regrettably, false.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Plus, a lot of people mistake developmental gains for improvement-cure, when it’s simply development as in getter-older and better at doing some things. Developmental disorders are about differences and delays in development, not about developmental stoppage.
andrea
March 9th, 2008 at 4:30 am
Biomeds may not always cure every child,
But you do not know what is going on medically inside, until there are tests done in a lab. When you actualy SEE the results, you begin to wonder… possibly get angry with the more common medical professionals.
Medical “professionals” often refused to treat even simple biological/allergy issue on the premise of ….he has AUTISM…this will not cure him.
People like that are missing the point.
This lab result, should not be here, period.
Often from even your hometown lab the gen physician can not understand there own testing. (Ins co may not treat a simple allergy, becuase…it does not cure autism, again missing th piont.) So then you seek a DAN Dr/Nat Path Phys.This is where it can get expensive if your ins does not cover costs.
Therefore, an already challanged child suffers daily from malodies that you or I would be treated for.(allergies/gluten/casien intolerances…etc)
This is WRONG.What happened to do no harm?
Yes we do biomeds, yes we did lab testing (local/greatplains) every word that proponents speak of showed on OUR son’s labs.
Yes, we have seen IMPROVEMENTS in eye contact, emtions, learning etc. LOGIC would tell me as a parent that GEE….MAYBE HE FEELS BETTER. So he is more available to learn= better able to concentrate.
More interesting was when he had a dietary slip up…..and was therefore doubled over screaming in pain,crawled up our stairs and walked like he was drunk, for the rest of the day. That was enough “proof” for us that he needed to stay away from casien and gluten. Gee, he may have stomache cramping/migraines, be in PAIN. It went away and stayed away with dietary modifications. Gee, this may be working.”mom, I feel better now”
I advocate getting the testing first. You then know what you are treating. When we meet opions like yours, we have no doubts we did the right thing.
March 9th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Lynn,
The barring of people with autism and other developmentally different or disabled people from routine health care in the past, and sometimes in the present, has been and is a big problem. There are strong prejudices in place against such people, and plenty of self-righteous bigots about. As I’m sure you know, the problem is not limited to health care - it is a hindrance to getting almost any service, it impacts employment, and so forth.
It should - regrettably in this society it doesn’t, but it should - go without saying that an person with autism who has strep throat should get an antibiotic, and that any other health problem should be treated as well - whether that’s celiac disease or anything else you’d care to name. And it is really obvious that someone who enjoys good health will lead a healthier, happier life than someone in poor health. Certainly any person, not just a person with autism, will be more sociable and better able to learn if they don’t feel like crap.
However, that doesn’t mean the autism has been “cured.” Or even “treated.” There’s a big difference between “has celiac disease under good regulation” and “autism is cured.” Nothing that has been put forward that has the remotest chance of making brain mass normal, destroying the pathological synapses and dendritic spines and replacing them with healthy ones, changing mirror neuron structure, and restoring cingulate cortex function. And despite some folks’ shrill insistence otherwise, all the autistic people who are subjected to these “interventions” - at least the ones that survive with their lives - are still autistic when all is said and done.
The culture of false hope, false claims, the desire to make money off parents of children with autism, all contribute to the problems that people with autism have in getting taken seriously in our society. While people pursuing these “treatments” have, I’m sure, the best of intentions and motives, the result is the trivialization of disability, and the consequence is encouraging bigoted attitudes toward those who “haven’t bothered” to get a cure for something that in reality can’t be cured (and according to some adults with autism, shouldn’t be cured).
March 9th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I think the blue collar scientist has missed the mark here. I appreciate cynicism. I am a cynic by nature. Autism is NOT JUST a neurological disorder. It comes with a host of comorbid sympotms as well–diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, suppressed immune system, allergies, epilepsy, insomnia, sensory integration disorder, etc. etc. etc. Nutritionals and dietary interventions address the comorbid symptoms. And, not suprisingly, when the body is able to regain a state of homeostasis, the brain has the ability to heal itself. This fact is well-documented. So, technically speaking, the nutritionals/dietary intervention are not curing AUTSIM, they are healing the comorbid symptoms. Ergo, the brain may heal itself. I suppose it is easy to be a cynic until you have watched a child come out from the behind the veil of autism with just the addition of a probiotic and a digestive enzyme; the watch his first orgininal speech emerge after taking gluten and casein out of his diet, and to observe his first night’s sleep after the yeast overgrowth was killed off. This happens for many children, not all, but MANY. It really takes being willing to look at Autism as more than a DSM IV Diagnosis, but as a very complex neurobiological disorder with multi-system involvement that presents slightly differently in every child.
March 9th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I’m going to pass on going into any detail about the number of autistic people I’ve worked with who do not have the “host of co-morbid symptoms” that Mary claims autism “comes with.” What I’d like very much to be true, is that the autistic brain heals itself if the person eats right. That’s what I’d like to explore.
The clinical evidence that the autistic brain “heals itself” if the person eats the right diet and takes the right supplements is presented in the journal - ….
Oh, wait, that’s right. That claim is just made up.
If I’m mistaken, please cite the sources that show scientific evidence for the claim that alleviating “comorbid” symptoms results in the brain somehow becoming healed. Everyone here is entitled to their opinion, even if it is a silly one, and I don’t even mind them expressing it on my dime. But nobody is entitled to their own facts. The brain morphologies of autism are well-documented; if those are going away as a result of eating right, that will be well-documented too. Let’s see the evidence.
March 9th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
My brother has autism. He has no unusual digestive symptoms.
My cousin has a dramatic case of celiac sprue — as in, a single grain of wheat would send her to the hospital. She is neurologically normal. Her sister, who happily devours wheat and has no known allergies, has a textbook case of ADHD.
Interesting, eh?
My two cents is that as far as I can tell, dietary interventions do nothing to treat autism, with the possible exception that if the child has a particular dislike for a particular food, it may be helpful to omit it from the child’s diet. Autism can also benefit from routine, so it may be helpful to avoid too many unfamiliar foods. But this has nothing to do with allergies, and is more about behavior modification and reducing the amount of emotional stress the child has to cope with. And it’ll only work if the child finds dinnertime stressful; don’t bother restricting your child’s diet if your child will happily eat anything, in other words.
I’ve heard from an adult with autism who remembered being put on a restricted diet as a child. Obviously, this nutritional stuff is not some revolutionary new thing; it’s been around for decades, and so if it really works, it ought to be showing by now. But it’s not. What really struck me was how he talked about the agony of having to endure this diet that he hated, while nothing was done to ease his suffering. He was still overstimulated, still bombarded by impossible expectations from people he simply couldn’t understand.
If your child genuinely has celiac sprue, don’t wait a moment — go gluten free. If your child has a genuine food allergy, restrict that protein from his or her diet. If your child is lactose intolerant, remove dairy or look into enzymes. But don’t expect it to cure autism. It won’t.
The other important thing to remember is that although a lot of medical doctors are lousy at treating autism, they are not the only ones you have to worry about. There are also predators who know how desperate you are for a solution to your child’s problems. And they will take advantage of you. Be ever wary. There are fraudulent labs out there who will provide the test results to convince you to buy into particular therapies. There are fraudulent doctors as well. And not all of the interventions are harmless. The worst of the predators are now recommending chelation to remove mercury (resulting in several deaths; the chemical EDTA is not picky and will just as happily remove the calcium that makes your heart beat) and Lupron for autistic boys (that’s normally prescribed to repeat sexual offenders — it chemically castrates). Be on your guard. It’s bad enough that you have to fight to get medical professionals and educators to give your child the services he or she needs. Unfortunately, you also have to be on a constant lookout for charlatans who will happily milk you of your money.
Do the research. Go beyond Google; it’s all too easy for the charlatans to play the numbers and get their “research” to show up first. Go to libraries. Look for both pros and cons to every therapy. Remember that no therapy is truly harmless, so if someone tells you that it’s totally without side effects, they’re probably either a fraud or an incompetent with an inflated ego.
I’ve gone on quite long enough, so I’ll close now. As you can see, this is a subject which is near and dear to me.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:11 am
[...] that caught my attention included the ‘Parable of Christian at Free Thinking Joy“; Blue Collar Scientist (on autism!); Bad Idea Blog on CNN Repeating a Lizard-Man Myth; Hyphoid Logic (what a great name!) [...]
March 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome when I was…I don’t remember how old. That’s the funny thing, I can’t remember many things I don’t really care about. But in any case, I have no interest in even the prospect of a “cure” for it. Not a faintest idea why I ever should. Not having communication problems when speaking face-to-face, mild compulsive behaviour and a variety of quirks, strange habits and a tendency to talk to myself in my head…it just wouldn’t be the same. I take a silent, withdrawing pride in being plain weird.
Oh, and having a relatively high IQ with a knack for mathematics is nice, too.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:44 am
The brain is much more plastic than “hands/feet/etc”, and is quite capable of healing and adapting when given the opportunity.
Nutrition is imperative to any form of healing. There is a wide range of disease that are known to be alleviated by providing adequate nutrients like retinol, vitamin D, vitamin C, B vitamins, minerals, etc. The list of diseases of deficiency is long and has been known for a long time.
Epilepsy can be effectively cured in some people by following a low-carb diet. This is supported by science, not just anecdotes.
It amazes me how some “scientists” can dismiss diet and nutrition so easily. *Grrr, feels anger, frustration… and acceptance that the motives for writing such fodder were important and necessary as tools for survival, but which can now be better utilized with understanding, humility, and respect rather than ignorance*.
It also amazes me that someone could discuss the issue of autism and be apparently blind to the fact that everybody is adapted to a different diet, and that providing the wrong mix of micro and macro nutrients can induce disease.
A huge difference in one’s health will be found between eating a diet of processed fructose-heavy, carb-heavy, anti-biotic laced, mineral-deficient, vitamin-void, stale, factory foods… compared to fresh nutrient-rich organic, naturally raised/fed, animals and plants foods that meet your own biochemical and lifestyle needs.
October 4th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I have a 23-year-old son with autism. About a year ago my ex-husband abruptly changed his diet after hearing Jenny McCarthy. I had nothing against the idea, since the foods are certainly healthy (although he has never had gut pain or any other evidence of food allergy, and was never a “picky eater”.)
I shared this with my son but also advised him that he shouldn’t put all his eggs into one basket, so to speak, and that dietary changes do not work well for everyone. His response concerned me very much, as it gave me a lot of insight into my ex-husband’s mindset. My son said, “Well, I know it may not work, but it’s worth a try; do you want me to be an autistic monster for the rest of my life?” (I assured him that he was NOT a monster, but my heart did go out to him; he is fairly high-functioning and does become depressed at times because he wants so much to “fit in”.) We made sure to offer foods that were compatible with his diet when he was planning on coming over to visit (fresh veggies, fresh fruit, unseasoned meat, etc. etc.) but he always brought his own food, saying he could only eat foods prepared by his father. We told him our food was fine for him to eat; no gluten, no casein, and my son informed me that the diet was very complicated… in his words, “like rocket science.”
The family not only noticed no significant improvement, but actual deterioration in his behaviors after some months. He was particularly manic at one family gathering a couple of months ago; everyone there was quite concerned.
He was recently fired from his job as a dishwasher after having an argument with a co-worker; the co-worker threatened my son, and my son threatened to bring a gun to work. Shortly after this, I discovered that my ex-husband had taken my son off of all his meds. When I asked the ex about this, he stated, “He doesn’t need meds anymore; this diet is doing wonders!” I was of course thinking about the incident at work (he is now considered un-rehirable); and simply said, rather sarcastically, that I was glad to know he was doing so “great”.
After this conversation, my ex took away my son’s cell-phone. My ex seems to believe that I was “against this diet from the beginning” and is apparently trying to “protect” my son from anyone who might suggest that my son consider getting back onto his meds.
The diet itself is not dangerous….. but its zealots certainly can be. It has now been more than two weeks since I have had any communication with my son.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Keep up the good work.