This line of thought (acting on what we know and embracing proactive solutions) applies to all diseases including cancers. How long can we study variants of cancers, subcauses, genetics, variations of attempts at therapy to either “cut it out” or destroy the cancer (without destroying the host—the patient)—without addressing the contributions of stress on the body’s immune system? By recognizing the negative effects of a stressed immune system, the effects of the environment, and multiple other factors we’re exposed to, the common denominator, recognized and discussed at an NIH-sponsored meeting in 1992, is that when our immune systems are stressed, when what are called our NK (Natural Killer) cells are low, we are all prone to chronic viral activations, the risk of cancers, etc. Our bodies naturally produce dysfunctional, cancerous cells quite often, but thankfully most of us stay healthy. Our immune systems were designed to protect us. While many researchers are pursuing ideas of how to use our immune system to try to fight a cancer, maybe it’s time to focus on prevention, avoiding that cancer in the first place.
We live in a unique environment. We live our lives on earth and are protected by the ozone layer above us. If the ozone layer becomes damaged, as it has been in the last twenty–thirty years because of man-made stressors and compounds, science says we become bombarded by dangerous UV rays that can damage our bodies. Our brain’s immune systems are now under attack in a similar way. Whether it’s environmental stressors, a genetically predisposed susceptibility, viruses in hiding, or a combination of these factors—the brains of our children are not healthy. The damage can take years to become evident. It is evident now. And it’s the responsibility of the medical community to take action.
For additonal information please visit www.neuroimmunedr.com and www.NIDS.net.
APPENDIX A
A CASE STUDY
WHEN JENNY FIRST CAME TO ME, and this is typical of about half a dozen children in the practice, she didn’t have any other markers I was looking at as showing that her immune system was activated, some of the things I would look for normally as a virus. But she had one very important one. Her ANA was 1:640 before I even met her. Somehow this was tested, and nobody did a thing.
By the time I graduated from UCLA, I’d learned that “autoimmune disorders” were things that happened commonly in adults. These were the early days of collagen vascular disease, rheumatoid diseases, and lupus. The characteristic was that these patients did not often have a physical diagnosis—they didn’t have a set disease. However, medicine said this was abnormal to have an elevated ANA, and these adults were treated as having a disorder—a disease. Why we can’t give the children the same benefit of the doubt is beyond me.
Jenny’s parents were told she was autistic, so what about her ANA? When I met her, we repeated her value and her ANA was still elevated, but the rest of her blood work was not particularly exciting. As I do with most children, I took her off milk, dairy, chocolate, and whole wheat. Her parents will acknowledge that if she cheats and has a pizza or dairy product, her behavior becomes off the wall.
I started her on an antifungal, Nizoral. The parents already had her on low-dose supplements of N-dimethylglycine (DMG), a food substance found in the cells of the body.
She began to talk a little more. Within a short time I put her on a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which is a compound typically used as an antidepressant. She began to pick up on her speech and was interacting better.
As we went along, we introduced another antifungal. She began to lose some of her “autistic” behaviors. We changed her SSRI to Prozac and repeated a little bit of her blood work. Her ANA, at least as a marker, was coming down. She was still showing signs of allergy with her high eosinophils, but the parents felt this child was improving daily.
By August (a month later), her auditory processing was up; her social skills were up. She was not sick anymore. The parents were obviously very happy. In December, their statement to me was that she was doing excellent. She was on amphotericin and Prozac. In her case, she did well with a little bit of echinacea. She still had behavioral issues.
I want to stress this point because this is something that has really become apparent over the years. Many parents would have been thrilled to have this child functioning at the level she was, but what I’m really looking for now is that cognitive functioning. She was having behavioral issues at home and school because she had never grown through the normal social stages.
It became obvious to the parents and teachers that what they were looking at were behavioral situations. But this child, cognitively, was doing extremely well. Jenny even toilet trained.
Why should she suddenly be able to toilet train after years of being unable? I’ve always been taught as a pediatrician that you don’t rush your child on toilet training. When they are ready, they will learn. This same thing is happening with these children as their brain turns back on, starts moving from that fifteen- to eighteen-month-old to two-year-old to two-and-a-halfyear-old level, at some point the child toilet trains like any other child.
We bounced her around a little bit on the antifungals with the idea that the amphotericin was probably not holding her. In 1997, again, she kept doing better day by day. She reached a point where she was doing very well by many, many criteria. But it takes years for the brain to evolve. It can’t jump from birth to five or birth to ten. These children have to pick up and learn.
By the following June the parents state she is acting more and more “normal.” We added an antiviral not because she gave me any viral titers, but because by then it had become apparent that many of these children seem to be fighting a background herpes or retrovirus-type process. Whether it’s because their immune systems are stressed, weakened a little bit, and they are more susceptible to these viruses lasting longer, it is not clear. Within five days, the parents saw a significant improvement; motor skills improved, she became more social, and she made a complaint to her teacher that she could not think at times because her brain hurt.
As she progressed the headaches went away. She seemed to go through cycles of growth like any other child—things will be going well, and they’ll seem to plateau, or have a rough drop and then move forward.
By the end of the year she was starting to wake up rested. Whether children are getting enough sleep is a very big factor when I determine whether to treat a child with attention deficit disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, or autism/PDD. I learned in the late 1980s studying chronic fatigue syndrome at the University of California, Irvine, that when your brain was affected with these illnesses, you did not go into a normal sleep cycle. Researchers documented that these adults with an unknown (at that time) presumably psychiatric disorder were going into a stage where they did not enter normal stage 4 REM sleep cycles. You could sleep eight hours, ten hours, twelve hours and still wake up tired. The end goal is for the patient to wake up feeling rested.
By then, Jenny was going to be in a school play (which she did very well in, by the way). I have many reports from parents in my practice who report that after months of treatments their child took part in their first baseball game or performed in their first school play. That’s not something you’re told to expect out of your children—but it’s possible. As we progressed, we switched her medication to Zoloft. Even though this child had been doing very, very well, the parents came in and said she was doing even bettert.
Let’s go back to her diagnosis of autism. This was how she was labeled. I will guarantee you that she does not meet any of those criteria at this point.
Case Study for “H.C.”: DOB 5/93
Large head—could not get down birth canal
Jaundice
Limited success with breast feeding—then formula
Enjoyed interacting with mom and dad
Some words at 9 months
At about 1 yr.—whole milk
Realized not developing language as she should
Sometimes refuses to cooperate
National Nava
l Medical Center—possible “storage problem” in head—decision—nothing abnormal
Didn’t potty train
Lab: Jenny
11/98 ANA—Neg
HHV6 IGG <20
CD4 1180
CD8 502
NK Cells 8 percent
Interferon alpha: 439
Gliadin—Neg.
Folate 11.7
Vit. B12—911.4
3/00 ferritin—43
3/01 HHV6 IGG 1:80
CD4 1144
CD8 506
NK Cells 5.0 percent
5/01 interferon alpha <5
ASO—695
Initial 3-D NeuroSPECT imaging on patient “H.C.” “Holes” are multiple areas of decreased perfusion and decreased function in the brain. This brain scan graphically illustrates the difficulty of normal brain function when “holes” are present.
NeuroSPECT scan 2.5 years later, after treatment with The Goldberg Approach (see chapter 7). While brain function is not normal, it is significantly improved.
Conclusion: this disorder and its complications can be changed.
APPENDIX B
PARENT STORIES
“Ryan”
As parents we belong to a very unique group, the A-club, where only the chosen, crazy, and determined can survive the autism diagnosis. None of us ever wanted to join the autism club, or ever asked to become members. But, because of our kids we were all forced to be in it together. Only another parent understands what it is like to live with this diagnosis day in and day out. The isolation and loneliness this diagnosis brings can be overwhelming. The hardest part is to continue to get up every day and not give up on our kids. What if everything we read or were told about autism is not necessarily true? What if what we are talking about is not a debilitating psychiatric disorder without any hope for recovery? What if it is a medical condition caused in most part by an immune system that is not working properly? What if autism is treatable? My kid recovered and was kicked out of the A-club because of the medical treatment he received from Dr. Goldberg, a doctor who was ahead of his time. I want all your kids to be kicked out too.
Ryan was diagnosed when he was four by the leading authority on autism in the Twin Cities. She told us my son would never be okay and would probably end up in a group home or institution. When my son entered kindergarten at almost six years old, he was in the 3rd percentile for speech. By that time Dr. Goldberg had been treating Ryan medically for about a year. Ryan had a full-time aide in his classroom to help him in school. By the third grade, my son tested in the 85th percentile for speech, and by fifth grade Ryan no longer received any services or assistance at school.
As a result of the medical treatment from Dr. Goldberg, the only institution Ryan is in today is the university he currently attends on a merit-based academic scholarship. Ryan does all the things the doctors told me he would never do. He studies mechanical engineering and is number two in his class. He joined the Sigma Chi fraternity and is president of the Jewish Student Association. Ryan drives, has a ton of friends, and even has a girlfriend. (Who would have seen that one coming?) But more important, Ryan is happy. If anyone would have told me this was possible when he was little, I never would have believed them. Unbelievable as it seems, this is the same child who wanted to spend his days plugging a portable radio into every outlet in the house over and over again. Ryan is an example of what is possible for children with autism when they receive proper medical and behavioral interventions. They can grow up to lead productive and happy lives.
Ryan’s long road to recovery was the hardest thing I have ever lived through. I remember questioning if my family’s sacrifices and efforts were accomplishing anything. I wasn’t sure if I had the strength to be more stubborn than my son. There were mornings I didn’t want to get out of bed just to face another day filled with autism. The worst times were when I didn’t have a direction or a plan. I was just hanging on by my fingernails. But, at the end of the day, I was faced with a choice: let Ryan drift off forever into his own world, or drag him kicking and screaming into ours.
After Dr. Goldberg addressed Ryan’s medical problems, it took years to correct Ryan’s deficits in speech and social skills. Behavioral and educational interventions were needed to help him catch up. Everything he missed while he was autistic had to be taught. The weird behaviors and habits he developed to cope had to be eliminated. It was almost like bringing back a stroke victim.
Those of us who have lived with an autistic child understand the daily struggles associated with our out-of-control kids. We know how putting on a pair of shoes can cause a major confrontation or getting a child into the car can be more than exhausting. The enormous cost associated with the medical, behavioral, and educational treatments for autism is just another obstacle we must overcome.
The kind of medical intervention that Dr. Goldberg provides needs to become common knowledge and what every doctor can do for children with autism. When that happens, we will learn just how “possible” recovery can be for these seemingly “impossible” children. We must not give up on our children no matter how difficult the road becomes or how hard our children try to make us give up. We have work to do to make the world and the medical communities understand that what our children are facing is not a psychiatric disorder but rather a treatable medical immune problem. My hope is that what happened for Ryan becomes the norm rather than the exception. Something must be done, because there are kids not getting better every day.
“Michael”
Michael was always a very sweet and handsome little boy. He always smiled and really had very few wants. He loved watching videos and was very content to play with the things he loved. He didn’t really have much language, but since he was the third child and a boy, we figured he was on his own time line. As he started to get older, around two years of age, he still wasn’t responding to his name, and he was just muttering some “ma ma, da da” syllables. At his first and second birthdays, he didn’t respond when asked to come and sing “Happy Birthday.” He was also preoccupied with lining up train tracks and staring at the wheels of his little school bus and car figures. We would call out his name and got no response. I would ask who wanted to go for ice cream, and my girls would be screaming with excitement, and Michael just looked at me cluelessly as if he were a child that was just brought over from Russia. Soon it became apparent that there was something very wrong! My friends thought he might be deaf, but I wasn’t really sure what was going on. I knew he heard me, since I sang to him all the time and he gave me the sweetest smiles a mom could ever ask for. He only responded to me and barely knew his grandparents and other family members and friends that loved him and wanted so much to be a part of this beautiful boy’s life.
So, time to take him to the neurologist in N.Y.C. I think this was the worst day of my life! I was told that Michael had PDD and that this was something that would be extremely difficult to deal with. I was told to start speech therapy immediately and to do my best. The scary thing is that I didn’t even know what this PDD was. All I knew was Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. I was quite unfamiliar with the word “autism,” and I really didn’t know how I was going to be able to deal with this. Michael was two and three months at the time. Well, after I almost had a nervous breakdown my incredible husband told me it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and time to take care of myself, my three kids, and our family. I seriously jumped into action and started speech therapy and early intervention and worked like a dog to try and keep Michael engaged and to teach him how to become a person. Michael made some nice improvements from the time of diagnosis to the age of 4½ but not enough for me. He was still only using three–four word sentences, and he was still very much involved in his own world unless I pulled him out. We also used ABA as well as speech therapy, and I had him involved in a mainstream nursery school as well. But again, Michael wasn’t making the gains that I knew he could, so it was time for a change!
I got Dr. Goldberg’s name from a
teacher who spoke very highly of him and told me that when I was ready for drastic changes in Michael’s life, it was the time for Dr. G. She told me he would need major blood work and would have to go on a special diet and begin taking medicine on a daily basis. Truthfully, I was so scared but I was desperate! I needed Michael to get better, and I just knew he was too young to just be given up on. Thus began our journey with Dr. Goldberg. Michael began with Dr. Goldberg at the age of five, and he is now seventeen. It’s so interesting how things start becoming so obvious when looking back. The first thing I realized is that Michael only ate and craved dairy before Dr. G. He would eat three or four yogurts at a time, and it seemed that with each yogurt he became more like a “drunken bum.” All these foods put Michael into a bigger fog than he started in and it is amazing to me how I didn’t realize this until years after seeing how different Michael became after being taken off. I know this to be true since Michael was caught a few times eating yogurt and you could tell almost immediately that something was consumed that shouldn’t have been. This really was incredible. Who would ever have thought that dairy could be such a bad thing for a young child? Well, I learned a lot from Dr. Goldberg, and I changed everything in Michael’s life. No more dairy and foods that were not considered “safe” for Michael, no more allowing Michael to be anything but his best, no more letting people think Michael was “disabled” but teaching them that Michael had a serious illness, and we were working really hard to help him to recover. Everyone in my family along with my closest friends jumped on board to help me with anything I asked them to do. I just did what Dr. G. told me to do and lived through the ups and downs of trying to move Michael forward. The early years were not easy, and there were a lot of tears but there was a lot of joy too! Dr. G. told me I needed to be patient, work hard, and look at Michael’s condition as a medical illness and together we would find a way to help Michael get healthy. Well, Michael worked very hard as did we all, and little by little he started making nice improvements—slowly but surely! He started talking better, began trying new foods, and joined our world at times. Each day was a challenge, but we went from so many days of sadness and frustration to small incremental steps of happiness. Sometimes Michael took three steps back, but then he leaped four steps forward. I really began understanding the importance of keeping to the diet and taking the medicine as directed. I really witnessed what happened if Michael cheated on the diet or I forgot to give him his meds. What a powerful pull these two combinations had on Michael’s body and brain. WE were also doing intensive therapy and really teaching Michael the rules of life, whether he wanted to learn them or not. Dr. Goldberg was a wonderful, caring doctor and friend throughout this process, and I am extremely thankful that he came into Michael’s life (as well as mine!). Michael also had two brain spec scans at the request of Dr. Goldberg so he could really see what was going on in Michael’s brain and figure out what medical changes might be necessary to help Michael move forward. All I can say is that I feel that Michael would not be where he is had he not been a patient of Dr. Goldberg’s. Michael has made such incredible strides over the years. He went from being a nonverbal child, living in his own world with no clue about anything in life, to a young man who is so capable of so many things. Michael is still a sweet and caring young man who is an active part of our world. Dr. Goldberg gave me hope at a time where top neurologists at Columbia Presbyterian in N.Y. were telling me to do my best but the prognosis wasn’t great. The day I met Dr. Goldberg was the last day I ever contacted a neurologist again! Michael is now a handsome, sweet young man who has an opinion; who gets to school on his own; navigates through his classes; enjoys being with friends; loves tennis, biking, and basketball; and adores his family. He is loved by all, and he just has a passion for life. He is such a gift, and I find it so incredibly scary to think that there are so many other kids out there with potential who weren’t lucky enough to have a doctor like Dr. Goldberg who believes that what has been commonly diagnosed as autism today is a medical condition that can be changed. I love this child and I get goose bumps on a daily basis thinking about all the things Michael has been able to overcome as he has gotten healthier. When I get upset with Michael for something and he says he’s sorry, I ask him why he thinks I am upset, and he always says, “I know, Mom, ’cause you want me to be the best kid I can be. I know what I have to do and I will try harder tomorrow.” Then a big kiss and we are on to the next topic. I will never take talking for granted as long as I live. What a gift. I thank Dr. Goldberg for making Michael’s body and brain function better so he can enjoy all the things life has to offer. Looking forward to the next few years! Can’t wait to see all the wonderful things still ahead of Michael.
The Myth of Autism Page 19