Dr. Arturo M. Volpe

In this small pilot study (Am J Clin Psychiatry 2001 Dec;62(12):936-44) 11 patients with severe bipolar disorder, some of whom did not respond to standard medical treatment, were given a single high-dose multiple vitamin and mineral supplement on a daily basis. After six months on this regimen, researchers found that average symptom reduction ranged from 55% to 66% and the need for medication decreased by more than 50%. In some cases the supplement replaced psychotropic medications and the patients remained well.

According to researchers there are two possible explanations for the effectiveness of the supplement. One is that bipolar disorder stems from an inborn error of metabolism that leads to a critical need for high doses of vitamins and minerals, and the other is that a certain group of people may be especially vulnerable to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the food supply and may develop the condition as a result of inadequate nutrient intake.

This small study is now being followed by a large-scale randomized, placebo-controlled study.

Tags: Mental Health
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Dr. Leo Galland is a board-certified gastroenterologist and the author of an outstanding book entitled Power Healing (ISBN 0-375-75139-4). In it, he outlines a brief history of measles and some of the critical policy choices that modern medicine has faced as well as the decisions that have been made.

According to Dr. Galland, measles was the leading killer of children in nineteenth-century England. During the twentieth century – and long before the measles vaccine had become available – the severity of measles in the West began to decline. By mid-century most children contracted this disease, but very few died. It is now a well-known fact that the declining measles mortality rate in the West was due to an increased standard of living, which made fruits, vegetables and high-quality protein more widely available thereby increasing the amount of Vitamin A in the diet. As Dr. Galland points out, it has been known for over sixty years that Vitamin A deficiency is the main cause of mortality from measles.

In Africa, where malnutrition in children is widespread, measles remains a major killer even today. When aid programs introduced the measles vaccine in an effort to control this tragedy, mortality among children actually increased. This is believed to be a result of immune suppression induced by the vaccine and amplified by malnutrition. On the other hand, simply administering Vitamin A to African children, with no other changes, quickly reduced fatalities from measles by 50%. Measles can therefore be considered a relatively benign disease among well-nourished children that becomes fatal to those lacking a single nutrient. Dr. John Sommer of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health estimates that “improving the Vitamin A status of all deficient children worldwide would prevent as many as three million childhood deaths a year.” The choice facing medical policy makers is between ensuring adequate Vitamin A intake in the overall population and promoting a vaccine as the only solution to the risks associated with measles.

Promoting the vaccine may someday be proven to be an unfortunate one for many children since the vaccine has been linked with the autism epidemic. The extent to which it may be a cause of autism has not been fully established; however, research by Andrew Wakefield, MD (Autism Research Review International, 2002;16:1-3, reprinted from a pre-publication copy of Molecular Pathology, 2002) reveals that autistic individuals have high counts of measles antibodies in their intestinal tracts. The only exposure to measles for these children is through vaccines. These elevated measles antibodies counts are not found in children who do not have autism or intestinal disorders. This study elicited many responses stressing that it failed to prove any causal link between the measles vaccine and autism (BMJ, 2002;324:315), but the search for answers continues.

Tags: Measles, Vaccines
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Dr. Bernard Rimland is the founder of the Autism Research Institute. In an article he wrote for the Autism Research Review International [2001;15(3):3], he gives an account of his 45-year endeavor to find a cure for autism ñ an endeavor that began when his son was diagnosed in 1956. Although he held a PhD in experimental psychology, Dr. Rimland had never heard of autism at the time of his son’s diagnosis. His son’s pediatrician, with 35 years experience in practice at the time, had never heard of it either. As incredible as it may sound today, Dr. Rimland reminds us that autism was once a rare occurrence.

Dr. Rimland first turned to mainstream medicine, but did not receive much help. At the time, it was believed that autism was caused by mothers who could not express their love for their children. Today, medicine has fortunately discarded that opinion but still denies that there is any biological basis in autism, embracing instead an unlikely genetic theory. Since by definition there cannot be an epidemic of a genetic illness, medicine holds that there is no epidemic here, only increased awareness leading to more frequent diagnosis. Although autism was said to affect only one in several thousand children just a few decades ago, recent estimates place it at one in 150 children.

Dr. Rimland first became interested in studying diet modification and nutritional supplementation for children with autism after hearing of the work that nutritionally oriented “orthomolecular” psychiatrists were doing with other developmental disorders, including childhood schizophrenia (see Brain Allergies, by William Philpott, MD, ISBN 0-658-00398-4 and Mental and Elemental Nutrients by Carl Pfeiffer, Ph.D, MD, ISBN 0-87983-114-6). After extensive research, Dr. Rimland and his associates found that supplemental amounts of Vitamin B6 and magnesium were helpful to many autistic children. As of this year, 18 studies conducted in six countries show the effectiveness and safety of this nutrient combination and yet medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have not endorsed it.

Additional research has shown that dietary avoidance of dairy products and gluten (a protein found in wheat and some other grains) is also beneficial for many autistic children.

Although there are numerous studies today confirming the effectiveness of this therapeutic approach, it continues to lack official endorsement as well.

Vaccines have consistently been implicated as a possible cause of the autism epidemic. Even though this is a very controversial topic and research has never found a definite link between vaccines and autism, there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence suggesting that there is a connection. Dr. Rimland points out that, in the past ten years, the number of vaccines required for a child in the United States before the age of two has risen from eight to 22 and that a majority of parents can trace the onset of their child’s symptoms to a specific vaccination. As Dr. Rimland also notes, many vaccines contain thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative. This leads to the direct injection of mercury, “one of the most poisonous substances on earth” in his words, into infants’ bodies.

For more information, visit http://www.autismresearchinstitute.com.

Tags: Autism, Food Allergies, Vaccines
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