LA Doc Talks

TO THE LOS ANGELES TIMES and INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE (IOM)
REGARDING PANEL ON LINK BETWEEN CHILDHOOD VACCINES AND AUTISM

I am a physician in Southern California, board certified in
Psychiatry and Neurology. I am currently specializing in
bio-medicine of autism from both personal interest and sheer
demand by ever-increasing numbers of parents seeking help for
their children with this diagnosis. I was disturbed by the
report released Monday and published in the LA Times April 23
by IOM. Though I agree that long-term peer reviewed studies do
not yet prove the relationship between the MMR and autism, I
believe the report was mis-leading to the general public and
especially to parents or parents-to-be. There is overwhelming
clinical evidence by those of us out in the fields dealing with
rapidly increasing numbers of autistic children that vaccine
safety needs a great deal more investigation.

As a clinician, my current belief which guides my practice
with these children is that any child given the HepB
vaccination at birth and subsequent boosters along with
DPT has received unacceptable levels of neurotoxin in the
form of the ethyl mercury in the thimerosal preservative
used in the vaccine. In any child with a genetic immune
susceptibility (probably about one in six) this sets off a
series of events that injure the brain-gut-immune system.
By the time they are ready to receive the MMR vaccination,
their immune system is so impaired in a great number of these
children that the triple vaccine cannot be handled by the now
dysfunctional immune system and they begin their obvious descent
into the autistic spectrum disorder.

The histories are very similar in the majority of these children.
Dutiful parents get their child all mandated vaccinations, then
come the multiple ear infections, multiple courses of antibiotics,
development of food sensitivities (especially wheat and milk
products) and allergies, chronic diarrhea/and or constipation,
gradual marked restriction of food intake, and evidence of
cognitive deficits in the form of gaze avoidance, intolerance of
changes in routines, lack of interest in socialization and
interacting with others, and lack of language development. This
latter is finally what gets most parents to seek help for their
child if they are not familiar with the autistic spectrum syndrome,
which most parents are not. The next thing that frequently
happens is that the pediatrician tells the parents that "it's just
toddler diarrhea" (the child hasn't had formed stools in months)
or "he/she looks fine, some children just talk later than others"
no words at 18-24 months), etc. and the diagnosis is further
delayed. THESE ARE MEDICALLY SICK CHILDREN!! Their
gastrointestinal system is so injured first by the injected
toxins, then by the ensuing invasion of pathogens, especially
yeast infections, and then by the ingestion of foods they cannot
process, like milk and wheat, and the end-point is a malnourished
brain that cannot develop and process the world the way a normal
child does. They desperately need special early educational
intervention to help their brains be receptive, and fortunately
this is already well known and happening to some extent.
Concomitantly, these children need early bio-medical intervention
to help the gastrointestinal, immune, and neurological systems
heal and begin to function appropriately. They need dietary
intervention and removal of toxic foods and substances,
including gut and brain pathogens, so their starving brains
can develop properly. They need special vitamins and minerals
to offset the chemical aberrations produced by the toxins and
subsequent neurological malnutrition.

In the last few years thousands of children have been treated
with oral chelation methods to reduce their toxic load of
heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and aluminum in
their bodies, and the results by the clinicians who are willing
to step out of the "medical box" to use this form of treatment
are having good and sometimes amazing results with a therapy
that is very safe. As in all treatment, the earlier the
children are treated, the more likely they respond. The
protocols are still changing for this new kind of treatment, but
children are followed very closely with blood and urinary tests
to make sure they remain in good health throughout the process.
It is a prolonged process; heavy metals that have become a part
of their cellular make-up do not leave easily. The children need
to be monitored carefully and strict attention must be paid to
their nutritional/vitamin/mineral intake throughout this therapy.
In my practice, I have been amazed by the improvement in many
children who are started on a good vitamin/mineral/nutrient
program even before they receive any chelation medications.
Each child is a complex, unique biochemical/psychological system,
and must be evaluated and tested and treated individually.
Therefore this kind of therapy is much more prolonged and
complicated and demanding both on the parents, the child, and
the practitioner than usual forms of medicine dictated by
pharmaceuticals, and is not cost-effective for busy practitioners
particularly dictated by bottom-line-money-saving health plans.
There is a desperate need for doctor education in this arena, as
well as need for insurance carriers to recognize new treatments
that in the long run stand to save them a great deal by helping
early in the course of these disorders. There is a desperate need
for screening clinics where interested physicians and health
workers can evaluate these children and counsel parents on the
best way to prevent life-long disability. At a meeting I recently
attended at the annual NIH conference on children's health in
Bethesda MD, one of the directors at that meeting said that the
estimated life-long cost of educating and treating a child with
autism is $2,000,000! 700 new cases have been added to the
California school system in less than the last 3 months.
Our educational and medical systems are woefully inadequate to
this incredible challenge. Spending most of the millions
allocated to autism on obscure genetic rodent studies in
universities by persons who may have never encountered a child
with autism is tantamount to neglect of many thousands of
children who need medical evaluation and treatment as well as
proper educational intervention RIGHT NOW!!
In my opinion, to take the MMR vaccine out of context of the
entire vaccine program and state that it is safe stands to
create complacency in parents and researchers, and will continue
to endanger many more children before the full truth of this very
complicated picture is understood.

Jaquelyn McCandless, M.D., 21800 Marylee St.
#48, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, 818-716-0565