Dr. Phil TRANSCRIPT of Dr. Sears' vaccine discussion

[Guest guest]

Parents' Ultimate Test: Dealing with Autism

http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/974

[click on "A reason to hope"]

Are vaccinations to blame for a diagnosis of autism?

[W]hat causes autism? Child care expert and pediatrician Dr. Jim Sears weighs in.

Dr. Phil introduces Dr. Jim Sears, pediatrician, child health expert and frequent contributor to Dr. Phil. “One of the things that I know a lot of parents are curious about, Dr. Sears, are immunizations. Have they been found to be a cause of autism? Because we hear a lot about that. It's all over the media.”

Dr. Sears says, “That's a really tough question, Dr. Phil. Unfortunately, we don't have the answer, yet. The bottom line is it hasn't been proven — there's no proven link between the vaccines and autism — but it hasn't been disproven either. You talk to the vast majority of parents with autistic children, [and they] are convinced that it was the vaccines. More than half of them.” and Julio are among them. “And what about the vaccines would trigger this?” Dr. Phil asks Dr. Sears. “Are there toxins? Are there metals?”

“Sure, there are certain ingredients,” says Dr. Sears. “You know, it's hard to argue with a mother that it wasn't the vaccines when one day her child was normal, and the next day he or she wasn't. There are preservatives in the vaccines and, luckily, the companies are paying attention, and they're taking some of these ingredients out. Time will really tell.”

Dr. Phil says, “There is a massive profiling that can be done that looks at, like, over 100 dimensions that involve the child's metabolism.” He asks Dr. Sears to elaborate. “We've heard a lot of that in the news,” he says, “the biomedical intervention that McCarthy has been talking about. A lot of autistic children who — maybe the traditional therapies aren't working — they do this program where they look at allergies and physiology, and the biochemistry of the child, and they do a battery of tests. Some of these tests, I don't even understand what they mean, but you see these children, they come out with abnormal levels of various amino acids and organic acids and enzymes, and we may not understand why they're wrong, but then we try to fix those levels, and many times the child's symptoms then improve simply by normalizing their metabolism.”

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