I noted a few days ago that causes for autism seem to proliferate like wildflowers: Look away for one moment and there is another one springing up. It is the same with treatments for autism; perhaps it would not be unuseful to feature an “autism treatment of the week,” if only to underscore how many there seem to be. The latest is stem cell therapy, as noted in a July 11th Business Wire press release: “The Institute for Cellular Medicine (www.cellmedicine.com) announced today what appears to be the first publication in a peer reviewed journal outlining scientific rationale for the use of stem cells in the treatment of autism.” The Institute for Cellular Medicine has a clinic in Mexico; its director, Dr. Frank Morales, is listed as “board certified” in “Hyperbaric Medicine” and “Oxidative Medicine,” both of which are connected to some “alternative” and unproven treatments for autism. Dr. Morales is one of the authors of an article, Autism Stem Cell Therapy, which was published in the June 27th Journal of Translational Medicine.
Or, if not to Mexico for stem cell treatment, you can go to China: The July 2nd Wall Street Journal reported on parents who are taking their autistic children to China for stem-cell injections at a cost of $10,000. (The article is only available via subscription; a WSJ blog contains a summary of the article.)
Dozens of foreigners a month, many of them children, have been flying to a handful of hospitals in China, seeking stem-cell injections for a variety of conditions. There is no widely accepted scientific evidence that the procedures work or are even safe. Nonetheless, desperate patients are spending thousands of dollars, hoping to find cures for brain injuries, cerebral palsy and even autism — a developmental disorder with uncertain origins and a range of symptoms, from the failure to develop language skills to the inability to sense the feelings of others.
Some stem cells have the potential to turn into different cells, including muscle, blood and brain cells, leading scientists to believe that they may be useful in treating medical disorders. In the U.S., embryonic stem cells have been hugely controversial because researchers must destroy a days-old human embryo to harvest them. Chinese doctors use different, more mature stem cells from umbilical-cord blood, brain tissue of aborted fetuses and other sources.
These types of treatments aren’t allowed in the U.S. The National Institutes of Health supports research on adult and embryonic stem cells as therapy for a variety of disorders, but Naomi Kleitman, program director for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, notes that the cells “are still being investigated at a basic level in animal models.”
Last March, Bruce Dobkin, the medical director at the neurologic rehabilitation and research program at the University of California, Los Angeles, published a report in a peer-reviewed medical journal on the work of a Chinese spinal-cord researcher who has offered stem-cell therapies to foreigners for years. Dr. Dobkin’s study said none of the seven spinal-injury patients who were observed experienced significant improvements, and five suffered potentially dangerous complications.
The article profiles the experience of Christina Bogert of San Jose, CA, an aerospace engineer for Lockheed Martin Corp; in June 2006, she took her 10-year-old autistic son Douglas to receive five injections at a hospital in Shenzhen, a city not far from Hong Kong.
After the month of injections, Ms. Bogert and Doug waited for their flight home in Hong Kong’s airport. Doug was running circles around his mother. Somehow, he had lost his shoes. Ms. Bogert was hopeful the treatments would help, but unsure if they would return for more. “I’ve played guinea pig so many times with my kid already,” she said. “I don’t really want to do it again.”
Back home in San Jose, Calif., she watched her son’s behavior closely, looking for hints of progress. There were some hopeful signs. Doug’s handwriting, which used to be barely legible, began to improve, according to his mother. When his parents tried to teach him his telephone number, they figured they would have to break it into three parts. But the first time they showed him the number in full, they say, he memorized it immediately.
But since these “encouraging surprises,” Bogert has not seen any progress and does not plan a return trip to China. And I’m wondering what will be the next headline-making “cure-all treatment” for autism?
Dianne,
I have a child with ASD just like you. We tried stem cell treatment and it has shown good changes in my child.
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My 3 yr old son has been diagnosed with Autism. We have banked his cord blood and I would like to know the risk of using these stem cells to treat him. I believe his autism was caused by the 6 months of antibiotics he took from 6-12 months old for chronic ear infections. I’ve tried emailing anyone I can find that would have some knowledge, finding no leads, but am still trying…
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hemasaravanan, I have a son who needs help. could you give me details?
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Hi, I have an 8 year old beautiful boy. Diagnosed with Autism at 4 1/2
He was born with no complications two weeks early, started walking unassisted at 11 months and reached all necessary milestones. At 18 months he started to wear nappies only at bed time. (He would see his older brother use the toilet and he would want to as well).
He loved playing games with us and would get excited when other children would come to play. He would sit in at kindergarten with his brother and enjoy taking part in activities.
He knew the alphabet and could name the letters even when they were not in order. When I named the animals he would make the noises. He could point to things and could follow simple instructions, eg; where are your shoes?
He would play hide and seek with his grandfather and understood both Greek and English.
We had no problems or any reason to doubt his development. However,
When he was 18 months he was immunised. He had a very bad reaction, for over a week he had temperatures over 40, we were at the hospital every day and the doctors just kept on sending us home. He became very lethargic,did not move from the couch and lost his appetite.
Once this episode was over he was never the same. For the following months instead of gaining words he started loosing them, he then started wearing nappies all the time. He lost his smile and eventually lost all eye contact and words. He could no longer say ‘mummy’. His face was like a blank canvas.
By the time he was 3, my baby was never the same.
For the last 3 1/2 years we have done early intervention, speech therapy, OT, changed his diet, Kinesiology, and attends an Autistic based school.
He loves playing computer games; he can master a new game within seconds without needing to refer to instructions. Another interest of his is cars. He loves to film them on his camera and show us.
He does have some words now and limited eye contact, however, I have to force him to look at us and use his words. We have a long way to go to get him back to what he was before he got sick.
We are investigating whether a stem cell transplant can help him.
If anyone can help me with their advice or if they have treated their child to let me know of progress.
Much appreciated.
Dianne (located in Australia)
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hello,
I am mother of a cerebral palsy child who got bone marrow stem cell injections. and improved in his speech tremendously, because of seizures he couldnt make out to walk but know trying to do so. So dont lose hopes on stem cell therapy because it is the only solution for all brain damaged children. Dont leave those children without treating with stemcells. there are improvements which are seen in recent world.Therapy itself would work good for the child. So please dont leave the child only with therapy, do something very recently developed for good of the child.
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Embroyonic Stem cells are a hoax. The real cures are with Adult Stem Cells.
http://www.recoveringMatthew.blogspot.com
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why did US Govt lock the Doors of Embroyonic Stemcell Research which will lead to cure those millions of innocent Americans with non-curable Diseases under current Medical standards. I wish people who are against Embroyonic Stemcell Research to suffer those terminally ill diseases to understand & feel the pain of others. I hope, oneday these ruthless Pharma companies fearing about loosing their Drug sales due to stem-cell therapy,stupid politicians fearing about votes due to stem-cell support and Ignorant/ruthless religious fanatics will be thrown out to pave a way to Stem-cell research.
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Seriously Concerned how dare you say the things you have said.
My son Matthew is recovering from autism thru Adult Stem Cells from cord blood. We have been to the clinic in Costa Rica in Feb 2008 and June 2008 and think they are the greatest Drs we have ever met. You can watch all of our news stories and read our blog at http://www.recoveringMatthew.blogspot.com
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http://www.recoveringMatthew.blogspot.com
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@k, some other parents have noted similar experiences—-choosing not to vaccinate a second child (after an older one had a diagnosis) and the second child also being on the autism spectrum.
Yes, not an easy road; knowing others like you are out there has made a tremendous difference.
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I have two children on the spectrum – the elder received vaccinations and the younger has not. I have experienced the wide range of emotions that most parents do – it is not an easy road. However, does my own experience on some leves refutes vaccinations as the main cause of autism……
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respected dr,
i am renuga occupational therapist, from india city of coimbatore. i would like to ask some doubt regading stem cell therapy, we have a plan to do our indian childern, so please reply for my mail how can i contact you.
thank you.
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I realize that this conversaton concerns stem cell treatment for autism. That is why I was reading it. But I wanted to mention hyerbaric oxygen therapy.
My daughter has a diagnosis of Landau-kleffner syndrome. But if you put her into a giant paper bag with a bunch of autistic kids and gave the bag a good shake, you couldn’t pick her out of the bunch just by lookjing at her.
I took her for Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy years ago and it has changed our lives.
Before, she was barely human–biting herself and us, wearing more food than she ate, smearing feces, no sense of danger of pain…she had no idea who I was and didn’t care.
She also had a seizure disorder that was so severe that she would always stop breathing during seizures and never started breathing on her own. Rescue breathing is terrifying.
She had 200 mono-place hyperbaric oxygen treatments.
She is sweet and loving. She is in school and she has friends. She has a wicked sense of humor. And I have not had to resuscitate her since her first treatment 6 years ago. She didn’t even have another seizure until last year, but I was told that she would probably need 20 or so “refresher” treatments every few years.
She still cannot speak. And she seems more like a rather high-functioning autistic. But she is a miracle none the less.
the catch is that The mono-place hyperbaric chamber is supposed to be more effective for this kind of thing. And in America, it is insanely expensive–which is why I have not taken her back for more treatments. And, you have to do 200 treatments.
Huge commitment. Tons of money.
But I wanted to put it out there for anyone who might be interested. There really aren’t terrible side effects, either.
There is a website called the parent-to-parent network (AKA MUMS mothers united for moral support) that is pretty interesting.
My child has come a very long way. But I’m still looking for that Holy Grail.
Charly
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A must read, peer review paper on why you don’t need to suppress the immune system when giving cord blood stem cells
http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/pdf/1479-5876-5-8.pdf
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David H. Payne thank you for your post .
For the past few days I researched umbilical blood stem cells , and I’m convinced it may work .I learned that stem cells with a proper handling and culturing (pre treatment with Mannitol etc) can really help.
As a parent of 10 yo girl I took many avenues , and NO regrets!!Today we use homepathic potenties DPT/POLIO/HIB remedies , and this only prooves that this is a key to my child problems .
But to recover I need to REPROGRAM whole cell membrane , as pertussin toxin has blocked AMP.
Look forward to hear /read your new blog
Monika
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@David V. Payne,
Thanks very much for your thoughtful criticism. It is noted on this blog that these are the writings of a parent and not medical advice. As a parent of older child, I have been concerned to see the ever-increasing number of “treatments” proposed for autism; some of these I have myself tried and, in more than a few cases, had much reason to question. Thank you for noting your future blog and look forward to more discussion of important issues. Very best——
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Kristina Chew,
As a physian surgeon and father of an autistic child I am more than a little surprised that you have a blog where you criticize a scientific discipline that you have absolutely no knowledge training or credentials to even intelligently discuss let alone critique. This devastating disease has been vary plausibly linked to vaccines and most likely represents a multifactorial combination of events that involves in some cases heavy metals like mercury and most likely an autoimmune response that causes demylenation and possibly ischemia and cell death. The mirror neuron cells in the brain (see Cognitive Brain Research 24 (2005) 190–198) have been shown to be dysfunctional as reflected in mu wave activity in comparative
EEG’S in ASD children and control groups. The idea that stem cell research may or may not contribute to the improvement of ASD can be directly evaluted with these same tools. Your baseless opinion and flippant remarks add nothing intelligent to the discussion of stem cell therapy as this is not classical Greek literature. Parents such as myself that have knowledge and resources are definitely looking into to stem cell research as possible way to improve our childrens life and hope.
There are some serious people looking at this disorder now and we will be asking hard questions of drug companies that produce these vaccines in third world countries and hospitals and peditricians that administer these vaccines without truly informed consents from both parents.
I will be starting my own blog soon so people can come and get a real education at a forum that offers hope and new knowledge. As you do not have any training at all in this field of discipline it is not appropriate for you to try to distinguish hype and hope. Taking away peoples hope for there childrens improvement serves no purpose.
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