I routinely check autism websites and chat groups to gauge the landscape and better understand the community of families seeking relief from this devastating epidemic (and if you don’t think that autism is an epidemic, you have been living on Mars).
On one listserv, a parent recently wrote, “I’m looking to start chelation on my daughter. Can anyone recommend a good DAN dr?” This request and the several responses that followed have led me to want to further explain my position about this popular autism respite care.
The first issue that I wish to comment upon is the precarious position that families are facing when THEY are the ones asking for specific treatment regimes, rather than seeking knowledgeable physicians who can offer various options their children.
This is entirely the fault of the medical community who have been so slow to recognize and respond to the condition. When the only explanation for the child’s condition is that “It’s genetic” and the only treatment is “Find some good therapists,” desperate caregivers are sure to explore other options.
What parent of a child who has leukemia, for example, seeks out doctors for radiation treatment, even though the experts may counsel that chemotherapy is preferable? Sure, a sufferer of prostate cancer may choose microsurgery over radioactive seeds. But that is because there is an abundance of choices in a well-known condition, with documented evidence of outcomes in the various treatment alternatives. The patient in that case may wish to choose preservation of function over decreased risk of recurrence. Given so few choices for ASD, and so much information appearing on Internet websites, chelation will surely seem to be a reasonable treatment. The fact that the conventional scientific community is either ignorant or dismissive about removal of poisons only serves to steer the concerned family toward a different medical option.
Read More: Autism and Chelation Therapy
The Lisa Kent Suggest 