You do not
need to have any particular view about vaccines and autism; but there are some very
strange connections between mercury and autism.
The autism
trial was to use a chemical called DMSA, while the coronary heart disease trial used a
chemical called EDTA. The 5 year trial
appeared to show EDTA was safe.
The authors
proposed that the kids with ASD must have higher levels of mercury in their
bodies, because they are unable to eliminate mercury like typical children.
So now we
come to teeth. If the ASD kids have low
mercury, it will be claimed that this means they must have high internal levels
since they have not eliminated it in their teeth. If they have high mercury then they will say
that this proves there is a high level of mercury in kids with ASD. Read on and find out.
Since the chelation is like a big anti-oxidant infusion, I would expect to see a big positive improvement, regardless of whether mercury has anything at all to do with it.
Big Sceptics
This paper again shows that urinary
porphyrins are a biomarker for autism, rather than mercury.
I came back
to look at this subject, having noticed that one of the more rational/objective
researchers included a chelating agent in his patent for autism treatment. Chelating agents remove heavy metals like mercury
or lead from the body, but they also remove important elements like
calcium. Very high or low levels of
electrolytes like Ca or K can kill you.
In 2006 clinical trials on chelation therapy in autism were halted by the US National Institute
of Health on “safety reasons”. But in
2012, a much bigger 5 year long, $30 million study called Trial to Assess ChelationTherapy (TACT) in coronary heart disease reported back that this “fringe”
therapy did indeed work, though for reasons unknown.
Measuring Mercury
There are
various ways of measuring for mercury; you can measure for it directly in
urine, blood, hair and even teeth. You
can also measure for biomarkers of mercury and the popular one is called
Porphyrin Testing.
The problem
is that if you have been subject of some serious heavy metal contamination the
metal may no longer be in your blood or urine in elevated levels. This is why forensic science laboratories
look at hair and teeth.
At this point
the bad science and the science start to get mixed up. There is a chemical called precoproporphyrin, an atypical porphyrin
previously identified only in adult humans and animals with prolonged exposure
to Mercury or compounds containing mercury.
It is often present in substantial concentrations in urine of younger
children with autism.
This has
created a nice business with laboratories charging $120 to measure porphyrin in the urine of autistic
children. A handful of researchers keep writing
studies about mercury in autism, using porphyrin to “measure” them.
One of the labs used is surprisingly
in France. It seems many US citizens are
mailing samples to Laboratoire Philippe Auguste in Paris.
But, at the same time, another group
of scientists take the opposite approach and say that urinary porphyrins are
biomarkers of autistic spectrum disorder, because a subset of people with ASD have
disordered porphyrin excretion as a metabolic
characteristic. They have gone so far as
to patent their idea as a test for autism.
By this logic paying $120 to test a kid known to have ASD would be
pretty pointless.
The researcher suggests that the
elevated Urinary porphyrins have nothing to do with mercury
at all.
… Several possibilities might account for these
differences. Not to be bound by theory, Hg exposure appears unlikely to play a
role in this effect, because no significant differences were observed between
NT and AUT subjects for indices of past exposure to Hg from dental or medical
sources, as reported by parents/caregivers. Additionally, urinary Hg
concentrations, measures of recent Hg exposure, were very low among all
subjects in this study (Table 2), and no significant differences between
diagnostic groups were observed …
… the present findings indicate that porphyrin
metabolism, particularly in preadolescent children, may be too disordered or
differently regulated to permit detection of the Hg-mediated changes in urinary
porphyrin excretion that are apparent in adult subjects …
… another factor that may account for the differences in
urinary porphyrin levels between AUT and NT children is mitochondrial
dysfunction, a disorder commonly associated with autism …
Where is the Mercury coming from?
The sources put forward as to where
the mercury is coming from include:-
·
Mother’s
dental fillings containing mercury
·
Any
amalgam fillings the child has
·
Mercury
in the environment
·
Mercury
in vaccines
If your body is unable remove mercury
as fast as it is absorbing it, then the total amount of mercury in your body
will increase. So it is your cumulative
past exposure, minus what you have removed, that is the key figure.
The body’s main antioxidant, glutathione
(GSH), is its key resource to deal with disposing of heavy metals. It has been established for years that GSH
levels are reduced in almost all cases of autism. Incidentally, GSH levels are also reduced in
old age and so those subjects in the TACT clinical trial for chelation in heart
disease that benefited, did do (according to Peter) because the chelator is an
antioxidant. It lowered their
oxidative stress and raised their GSH level.
Mercury in Hair Samples
An
interesting study measured the level of mercury in babies’ first haircuts. This is about when the baby is 17 months old.
The study
showed much lower levels of
mercury in the ASD babies than in the control babies. This is probably the opposite of what you
might have expected. There is also a
nice chart correlating the level of mercury in the control babies with the
number of amalgam fillings in the mother.
“If reduced
overall mercury elimination is related to hair elimination, then autistic
infants will retain significantly higher levels of mercury in tissue, including
the brain, than normal infants.”
A later study
has some equally surprising findings.
The study in Poland, looked at kids aged 3-4 and also 7-9. They found, as in the baby study, that the
youngest kids had lower levels of mercury in their hair than the typical
kids. But the older kids had higher
mercury levels in their hair than the kids in the control group.
The conclusion was that:-
The results suggest that
autistic children differ from healthy children in metabolism of mercury, which
seems to change with age.
Mercury in baby teeth
Well the
study tells us that baby teeth are a good measure of
cumulative exposure to toxic metals during fetal development and early infancy. They found that 6 year old children with
autism had twice as much mercury in their teeth as neurotypical children.
This study determined the level of
mercury, lead, and zinc in baby teeth of children with autism spectrum disorder
(n = 15, age 6.1 +/- 2.2 yr) and typically developing children (n = 11, age = 7
+/- 1.7 yr). Children with autism had significantly (2.1-fold) higher levels of
mercury but similar levels of lead and similar levels of zinc. Children with
autism also had significantly higher usage of oral antibiotics during their
first 12 mo of life, and possibly higher usage of oral antibiotics during their
first 36 mo of life. Baby teeth are a good measure of cumulative exposure to
toxic metals during fetal development and early infancy, so this study suggests
that children with autism had a higher body burden of mercury during
fetal/infant development. Antibiotic use is known to almost completely inhibit
excretion of mercury in rats due to alteration of gut flora. Thus, higher use
of oral antibiotics in the children with autism may have reduced their ability
to excrete mercury, and hence may partially explain the higher level in baby
teeth. Higher usage of oral antibiotics in infancy may also partially explain
the high incidence of chronic gastrointestinal problems in individuals with
autism.
How much Mercury is bad for you?
Mercury is definitely
not good for you, but just how much is actually bad for you?
Eating a lot
of fish will raise maternal levels of mercury, so in the US women are advised
to eat less fish during pregnancy.
In the
Seychelles (islands in the Indian Ocean) the diet included 10 times as much
fish and since they eat big fish, mercury consumption is 20 times higher. The level of vaccination was near 100% and
the vaccines contained thimerosal.
Using
linear and nonlinear regression analyses, the researchers found no consistent
correlation between prenatal exposure to methyl mercury and scores on ASD
screening instruments.
Parent feedback
If you look
on the web, it is pretty clear that many parents think their chelation therapy had a positive
impact. There is even a very
unscientific survey showing this somewhere; I cannot find it today.
Here is a
typical chelation approach.
Since the chelation is like a big anti-oxidant infusion, I would expect to see a big positive improvement, regardless of whether mercury has anything at all to do with it.
There are
some big sceptics about chelation. Here
is one site called chelation watch
and here is
an interesting article by a Doctor who followed ”his dark side” into the world
of alternative therapy and emerged a big sceptic.
James R. Laidler, MD - My Involvement with Autism Quackery
My personal journey through the looking glass
has ended. I stepped into “alternative” medicine up to my neck and waded out
again, poorer but wiser. I now realize that the thing the “alternative”
practitioners are really selling is hope—usually false hope—and hope is a very
seductive thing to those who have lost it.
Other research
There is
plenty of other research on the subject of my post. Normally you can tell by who funded the study
or who worked on it, what the likely conclusion is to be.
This paper repeats the story
about urinary porphyrins indicating high mercury in autism
Conclusion
If the US National
Institute of Health removed its ban on the clinical trial of chelation in
autism, then there would be some high quality facts to judge. Sadly, this all seems to be linked to “big
brother” trying to halt the debate about autism and vaccinations, all for the
very sound reason of public health.
I think it
is quite possible that the culprit is oxidative stress and low GSH and that the
bizarre results of mercury levels in hair, teeth and urine are in fact no more
than a consequence of low levels of GSH.
The oxidative stress is clearly damaging, perhaps the slightly elevated
levels of heavy metals are themselves harmless.
Perhaps the
best thing would be to measure the level of GSH (GSH redox) in babies, children
and then again after middle age. High
levels of oxidative stress, whether linked to autism or other conditions could
then be treated.
There is a
cheap and effective antioxidant called NAC (N-acetyl cysteine), it is known to raise GSH. If you want to
call it a chelating agent, you would also be correct.
Since mercury is known to be a very harmful substance, we should of course try to minimize it in humans.
Since mercury is known to be a very harmful substance, we should of course try to minimize it in humans.