- Virtually every fortified cereal packet broadcasts the
message that vitamin A is vital for good eyesight. But even the most gung-ho
marketing manager would pause before claiming that the vitamin can dramatically
improve the symptoms of autistic children by repairing damage to their
retina. However, this is precisely the claim being made by an American
paediatrician, who has evidence that treating these children with the right
sort of vitamin A is not only highly effective but provides valuable new
insights into some of the most puzzling symptoms of this disorder.
-
- "Once you understand the way autistic children 'see'
their world," says Dr Mary Megson, a professor of paediatrics at the
Medical College of Virginia, "the fact that they don't look you in
the eye and can't bear for things to be changed makes perfect sense."
She emphatically rejects the widely accepted hypothesis that these children
have no theory of mind (ie, no understanding that other people have their
own thoughts, plans, points of view), and that they relate to other people
as just another type of thing.
-
- Instead, she maintains that their seemingly alienated
behaviour is perfectly rational. It is their way of surviving in an extraordinary
and terrifying visual world, the result of damage to a protein pathway
that affects the way that certain specialised cells in their retinas work.
"Imagine that everything appeared to you like a some paintings by
Picasso, flat and two-dimensional, with various features superimposed,"
urges Dr Megson, who has specialised in developmental disorders for the
last 15 years. "Or think of a Hockney collage, digitally remastered
with all the depth cues taken out."
-
- At a conference on nutritional psychiatry in London earlier
this year, Dr Megson described how she has found that a proportion of her
patients have only a tiny visual window on the world where things are reasonably
clear and appear in 3D. All around this they only see colours and vague
shapes. This makes it very hard for them to follow movement, especially
the subtleties of facial expressions. Making sense of a new scene is equally
challenging - hence their desperate insistence that everything should follow
ritualised, predictable patterns.
-
- What concerns Dr Megson, like many other clinicians in
this field, is the massive increase in the number of children coming to
her with this sort of damage. "Since I've been practising, the number
of cases has gone up from one in 10,000 to one in 600, and it may be more,"
she says. "There are officially 1,522 cases in the state of Virginia,
but I've got 1,200 in my practice, which just covers one district."
-
- She is certain that vaccination is at least one of the
factors fuelling the rise. But although she agrees with Andrew Wakefield's
controversial ideas about the effects of the MMR vaccine on the gut, she
is particularly concerned about the vaccine for whooping cough and the
"pertussis toxin" it contains. The evidence that she has seen
has convinced her that certain children have a genetic susceptibility that
makes certain proteins in their bodies vulnerable to damage by the toxin,
which can have wide-ranging effects.
-
- Known as "G proteins", they are found all over
the body, but especially in the brain and guts, and are involved in boosting
or dampening down the signals coming in from our senses (such as sight
via the retina), as well as controlling such vital pathways as those for
fats and glucose. The scary visual world of the children provides a close-up
of how far-reaching the damage can be.
-
- The theory is that receptors in the brain that control
the "rod" cells in the retina have been affected by the whooping-cough
vaccine. Rods are the cells that convey shading and depth, and allow us
to see in black and white in the dark. They are more thickly clustered
around the edge of the retina. "When these children look away from
you," says Dr Megson, "they are turning their eyes so that the
light reflected from your face lands on the outside of their retina, where
the rods still have some function."
-
- Controversial as her theory is, what has made her clinic
in Richmond, Virginia, such a magnet for desperate parents is that it leads
to a form of treatment that seems to be having considerable success. The
key to getting the G-protein pathways working again is a form of natural
vitamin A. "The results can be dramatic," says Dr Megson. "Within
a few days, these children regain eye contact. They may start looking at
their mother and speaking. Watching it happen, you get a strong sense of
something being unblocked."
-
- It is vital to use unsaturated "cis" vitamin
A, as found in cold-water fish such as salmon or cod, as well as liver,
kidney and milk fat. "These are foods that children often don't get
in modern diets," says Dr Megson. "Synthetic vitamin A, the sort
often found in supplements and cereals, can actually make matters worse
because it has to be properly absorbed. This in turn needs a healthy gut,
but many of these children have damage to the gut due to food allergies
and overuse of antibiotics." That is why treatment is usually supported
by removing certain foods from the diet, most commonly wheat and milk,
and giving probiotics - beneficial gut bacteria.
-
- Autistic children are also often hyperactive, they appear
to be running on overdrive. If they were adult, they would be described
as highly stressed, with the "sympathetic" side of their nervous
system going full blast. Their pupils are frequently dilated and their
heart rate and blood pressure is up. This, says Dr Megson, is the result
of another one of the effects of the G-protein malfunction, which leaves
a number of metabolic pathways without an off-switch.
-
- Just as this messes up the retinoid receptors, it also
prevents the proper function of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that
controls the relaxing (parasympathetic) side of the nervous system. To
get this going again, after a couple of months on cis-vitamin A, Dr Megson
may give a single dose of a drug called bethanecol, which mimics the effects
of acetylcholine.
-
- Again, the results can be dramatic. "We suddenly
see these withdrawn children laugh, concentrate, show a sense of humour
and talk after just 30 minutes," she says. A recent placebo-controlled
study of 38 autistic children given cod-liver oil and bethanecol, showed
significant improvement.
-
- Besides treating the damage, Dr Megson has also being
attempting to detect links between the genetic vulnerability of these children
and the diseases suffered by their parents. She has found that, often,
a parent or close relative has one of the rare disorders caused by a genetic
defect in G protein, such as night blindness, which involves damage to
the rods in the retina.
-
- Surprisingly, the same mutation in the gene involved
is also connected to a raised risk of colon cancer, and there is also a
higher incidence of colon cancer among the parents - along with high levels
of fats and cholesterol in their blood, and thyroid problems - all linked
with faulty G proteins. "You'd be amazed at how many times I ask a
parent of a child with autism if they have a dazzle effect when driving
at night - a marker for night blindness - and they say that they do,"
says Dr Megson.
-
- Such findings are all part of the evidence that G-protein
damage is involved, but are far too vague to provide useful guidance on
their own as to which children might be at risk. For now, Dr Megson advises
that parents with such factors in their medical history check the child's
cis-vitamin A level with a blood test before giving a vaccine, and raise
it if necessary.
-
- Currently, there are two places in the UK that are familiar
with Dr Megson's work, and may be able to offer help with treatment. One
is the autism research unit at the University of Sunderland. "Her
approach is useful but not the whole answer," comments Paul Shattock,
the director. "If cod-liver oil were the cure, you couldn't have autism
in Norway." The unit's website features many research papers and an
extensive treatment protocol based on nutrition. The other is the Brain
Bio Clinic in London, which is just starting to use her approach.
-
- None of this has been proved, and much more work needs
to be done to firm up the biochemistry. The official position is that these
vaccines are perfectly safe, and that people such as Dr Megson are scaremongering.
But something is going on, the number of cases is rising, and the treatment
she has developed does seem to help.
-
- Autism Research Unit: www.osirissunderland.ac.uk/autism
-
- Brain Bio Clinic: 020-8871 2949; www.mentalhealthproject.com
-
- www.megson.com
-
- COULD VACCINATIONS DAMAGE YOUR CHILD?
-
- * A new fear about the link between vaccines and autism
is causing concern in the US.
-
- * Thimerosal, a form of mercury, is added to many vaccines
as a preservative and to reduce the risk of infection in multi-use phials.
It is known to be a potent neurotoxin.
-
- * In 1999, an American official calculated that a baby
who had all the recommended vaccines at the two-monthly check-up would
receive 118 times the Environmental Protection Agency's official limit
for daily exposure.
-
- * There have been Congressional hearings about the use
of thimerosal, and an action claiming damage to 3,500 children by thimerosal
is currently being heard before the federal vaccines injury court.
-
- * Thimerosal is no longer used in American vaccines,
but stockpiles of old doses containing it are still being used up.
-
- * Almost alone among Western nations, the UK still uses
vaccines containing thimerosal. If you know to ask for a non-mercury containing
vaccine for whooping cough, you will be given one. Most parents do not
know to ask.
-
- * A report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry this month
traces some of the pathways that can be inhibited by mercury. "This
may lead to serious disorders that manifest themselves during childhood,"
say the authors, "including autism and ADHD."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=512884
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