Autism or mercury poisoning? If my child has high-functioning autism, then maybe it’s not really autism at all, but, instead, mercury poisoning.
Dear readers, thanks for tuning into the latest chapter of Luke’s autism saga. I’m dedicating this post to Luke’s twin, who died shortly after birth. His tiny body was damaged beyond repair, and we had to let him go. The doctors never were able to figure out what happened to him, and not knowing haunted me over the years.
Luke received his first vaccine while he was struggling to stay alive, hooked up to a breathing machine. Being a registered nurse, I knew a little about the controversy over vaccines and autism. I questioned the doctor as to why he deemed it necessary to pump my baby full of poisons in the form of thimerasol, a mercury-based preservative found in childhood vaccines in the early 1990s, which is when Luke and his twin were born. The doctor laughed and told me that it was required by law for every newborn, regardless of state of health, and that the mercury in the vaccine was harmless.
Who am I to refuse a doctor’s order? my naive self thought at the time.
Shortly after Luke was discharged from the hospital he started displaying the behavioral tendencies of autism: he didn’t establish eye contact with us, he didn’t coo or cuddle, or point his finger, and when the words should have started flowing, he remained mute. He also had constant ear infections, which were treated with antibiotics, and then more antibiotics, which caused leaky gut, a serious health condition in which the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged, allowing undigested food to leak through the lining and into the blood stream, wreaking havoc on the central nervous system, as well as causing inflammation and allergic reactions. He received his autism label when he was three, or PDD, pervasive developmental delay, to be exact, which, in those days, meant high-functioning autism.
“If Luke is so high-functioning, then why can’t it be something else?” I asked the doctors who evaluated him.
One of the doctors shrugged and said, “We don’t know what else to call it.”
“By golly, I will find out what else to call it!” I cried. “And I’ll tell the world what it really is.”
And that, my friends, is why I’m here.
We lived in an Antebellum home, which was surrounded by hundreds of acres of cotton fields. A decrepit barn leaned precariously over an old well, which was our source of drinking water.
One dreary winter’s day I pulled up in our yard, exhausted from yet another battle with Luke’s principal, and stared at the well, my brain numb. Suddenly, a light went off in my head, as though a fog had been lifted and I could finally see clearly.
I realized then what was wrong with Luke, and what had killed his twin.
I turned off the ignition and ran inside the house, giddy with hope. With shaking fingers I tapped into the computer “environmental doctors.” I called the number on the screen and made an appointment.
Luke and I hadn’t gotten both feet through the doorway of the doctor’s office, when the doctor, a white-haired, bespectacled man, bellowed, “He’s not autistic. he’s toxic!”
My heart pounded as visions of a healthy, normal child danced through my head. “Do you really think so?” I asked in a breathless whisper.
“I know so,” the doctor replied. “Look at his posture. At the glazed look in his eyes. We’ll do some testing, just to be sure. But I’m positive that we’ll find heavy metals, most importantly mercury, in his body.”
“But we had a blood test done for heavy metals when he was little,” I said, shaking my head. “And the test came back negative.”
“That was because the heavy metals were already stored in his soft tissues,” the doctor said. “Those blood tests only show positive results for acute heavy metal poisoning, which means that they were ingested very recently.”
The doctor did a heavy metal challenge, where he administered DMSA, which is a chelator that pulls the heavy metals from soft tissues, such as bones and kidneys and the brain. He called a few weeks later, crowing into the phone, “I knew it! He has mercury poisoning; his body is full of it.”
“M…mercury poisoning?” I stammered. “How in the world could he have gotten so much mercury in his body? I know the vaccines have mercury in them, but it’s supposed to be a miniscule amount. Not enough to do any damage.”
A swift “hmph” greeted my ear. “Get your well water tested. Back in the old days the farmers used pesticides, which were full of mercury, on their crops. And they stored them in barns, like the one you said you have next to your well. Over the years the poison seeps into the ground and gets into your water.”
“But we had our water tested when we moved into the house,” I cried.
“Get them to test it again,” the doctor advised. “And make sure you specify testing for heavy metals. In the meantime, we’ll start him on DMSA to pull those heavy metals out. But I need to warn you: his behavior will get much worse as those metals are coming out. The worse his behavior will be will indicate how much his body is burdened with heavy metals.”
So we battened down the hatches for the wild ride we were about to embark on. Stay tuned…
In the meantime, I’m leaving you with an article about heavy metal challenge.
http://www.visceralsynergy.com/assets/challenge-testing-for-heavy-metals.pdf
‘Til next time! Scarlett
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My son had high levels of lead in his blood when we received custody of him. He has suffered from petit mal seizures, and learning and behavior problems. He’s mid twenties now, is there something that might help him?
hi sherri did he get treated for the lead? my son had lead poisoning as well as the mercury poisoning. he was treated with edta for the lead.