Mercury Detox Autism Protocol

Autism Panel Report

An enormous, alarming, and unexplained increase in the prevalence of autism is being reported, on an almost daily basis, in the U.S., the U.K., and elsewhere.

California maintains what is probably the world's best and most systematic database on autism and other developmental disabilities. In California the reported increase in the prevalence of autism over a 20-year period is over one thousand percent.

Similar enormous increases have been reported from studies in New Jersey and elsewhere in the US, in the UK, in the Middle East, and in Asia. While the reality of the increase is beyond doubt, there is great controversy over the cause. Many experts believe the primary cause is the increase in the number of vaccines given to children from birth to age two, which has risen from 8 in 1980 to 22 in the year 2001.

The increased number of vaccines has brought with it an increased exposure of young infants to mercury intoxication. The preservative thimerosal, which is used in many vaccines, consists of approximately 50% mercury.

In 1998 the Food and Drug Administration requested the vaccine manufacturers to begin the process of removing thimerosal from the vaccines. Thimerosal containing vaccines are still being used in 2001.

Mercury is highly toxic in even very small doses, and some individuals are exquisitely sensitive to mercury.

Some infants have been given, in one day, as much as 100 times the maximum dosage of mercury permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency's standards, based on the weight of an adult. An infant's system is much less capable of dealing with toxins than an adult's.

In early 2000, parent Sallie Bernard and several other concerned and inquisitive parents began looking into the mercury issue. They learned that thimerosal was used in most vaccines at levels that greatly exceeded the upper limits decreed safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The scientific paper by Bernard et al. may be found on the website of the Autism Research Institute (www.autismresearchinstitute.com).

In her testimony before the US House of Representatives in July, 2000, Sallie, the primary author of the report, testified: "The symptoms which are diagnostic of or strongly associated with autism itself are found to arise from mercury exposure, as described in available literature on past cases of mercury poisoning."

"These similarities," she testified, "include the defining characteristics of autism - and they include traits strongly associated with autism and found in nearly all cases of the disorder - sensory disturbances such as numbness in the extremities and mouth, aversion to touch, and unusual response to noise; movement disorders like toe-walking, hand flapping, clumsiness, and choreiform movements; and cognitive impairments in specific domains like short-term, verbal and auditory memory and in understanding abstract ideas."

In addition, she noted, mercury poisoning can cause many of the same biological abnormalities as are seen in autism, including immune system dysfunction and anomalies in the cerebellum, amygdala, and hippocampus.

Bernard noted that the growing prevalence rate of autism closely matches the introduction and spread of thimerosal-containing vaccines and that autistic symptoms generally emerge at the time the child is given these vaccines.

She added "Our group has also documented a number of cases of autistic children with toxic levels of mercury in hair, urine and blood." In addition, she noted, mercury is more toxic to males than to females, and the male-to-female ratio in autism is 4 to 1.

Noting that low doses of mercury tend to harm genetically susceptible individuals, Bernard pointed out that "autism has been recognized as one of the most heritable of all neurological disorders and is strongly associated with familial autoimmune disorders."

Bernard and her colleagues called for an immediate ban on thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines in October 2000. The meeting was attended by a number of physicians and scientists. One of the physicians, Dr. Stephanie Cave of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told the group that in her experience over a number of years in treating over 400 autistic children with various modalities, she had found no modality which was more effective in a great many autistic children than mercury detoxification.

Other physicians who also had experience with mercury detoxification in autistic children, including several who were themselves parents of autistic children, strongly supported Dr. Cave's remarks.

The Autism Research Institute convened a weekend Consensus Conference on the Detoxification of Autistic Children in Dallas, Texas in February, 2001. The attendees were 25 carefully selected physicians and scientists knowledgeable about mercury and mercury detoxification.

The 15 physicians present included 7 who were parents of autistic children and who had detoxified their own children with good results. The physician attendees present had treated well over 3,000 patients for heavy metal poisoning, about 1,500 of them being autistic children. The chemists, toxicologists and other scientists present had a combined total of almost 90 years of experience in research on the toxicology of mercury.

The purpose of the meeting was to arrive at a consensus document that would delineate the safest and most effective methods of detoxifying autistic children. Nine candidate detoxification protocols, including five submitted by non-attendees, were considered in detail by the conferees.

Source: mercola.com

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