Diet and LDN - Looonng!

[Guest guest]

Listmates: I want to try to clarify my view about diet and LDN. First, it has

been shown in nurmerous studies from noted researchers such as Reichelt,

Shattock, Panskeep, Jayonouchi, Horvath, Vojdani, etc etc that there are

antibodies in our autistic kids' brains that show the reactivity (and now a

recent excellent study by Vargas of the almost ubiquitous brain inflammation) as

responses to the big peptides in the diet that our kids are unable to properly

break down. We all know from the frequency of gut infections of inflammation in

the GI tract that responds to dietary restriction of these foods. Earlier work

showed that these peptides become caseo-gluteo -opioid like compounds in the

brain that correlate with the high pain threshold and spaced out quality of

children prior to being put onto restricted diets. I cannot begin to tell you

the hundreds of posts I have received from parents all over the world relating

how their child first made eye contact and stopped hand flapping within days or

several weeks of starting the GF/CF/SF diet after reading my book.

Except for coeliac (genetic allergy to wheat) patients, adults are not showing

this very often, though more than we realized before the explosion of research

in autism. Starting with the onslaught of so many vaccines with toxins in them,

especially the mandated Hep B in 1991,(the enzyme that is naturally in the gut

to properly break down these large peptides (DPPIV) which was disabled

especially by mercury and further damaged by antibiotics), almost all of our

autistic children given Hep B at birth or in that early newborn period have the

sensitivity to casein and gluten and usually soy too, sometimes corn. So I

would say that any child currently under 15 who got Hep B deserves a

conscientious trial of the GF/CF/SF diet for at least 6 months, with testing IgG

for other foods that could cause the continued inflammation of the gut.

Repeated fungal and bacterial infections of the gut are tip-offs that the diet

needs restriction along with proper nutrients that help the metabolic processes

derive the nutrition from food necessary for good health. Our kids because of

their oxidative stress and toxicity often require much higher doses of vitamins,

minerals and fatty acids than NT children to function adequately; as they start

to recover they need many less nutrients other than a good diet. There are many

who think kids should even at the beginning of treatment go to the SCD because

of the incompetence of these kids' guts to produce the enzymes that will

properly break down these large peptides and the hastening of healing when on

the proper diet.

Though there is still a lot we do not know about LDN and its initial but

short-lived opioid blocking aspect because of the minute dosages we are using,

it is impossible to predict a clear correlation between diet that includes

gluten and casein and reaction to LDN. Reports from the adult group (including

Ann) are that adults seldom need to be on any special diet, as they have not

received the early infantile vaccines that have so damaged our autistic

children's ability to handle (to them) toxic foods. Autism is primarily a gut

and immune system disease, so healing the gut and removing the toxins including

foods and heavy metals that keep causing gut inflammation and suppression of

their immune systems would seem to be the basis of our bio-medical treatment.

The protocol of restrictive diet, anti-fungal/bacterial/viral treatment to heal

the gut, methylation to help the almost ubiquitously damaged aspect of the

folate cycle, detoxification, and helping the immune system improve to be able

to protect the body properly against pathogenic invaders (bacteria, viruses,

fungi) would definitely seem to be the mainstay of treatment of our kids. This

protocol is recovering more and more children every day.

If a child has a very strong negative reaction to LDN, that is a tip-off to me

that they probably do have the opioid-like substances still in their system, and

the diet deserves some close scrutiny. Along with the 15 ASD kids in my

original study, I gave 6 NT kids the LDN, and none of them had any negative

reaction to it, but several showed evidence of immune and allergy improvement

quite quickly and those who have continued have stayed very well compared to

their past history of infections. For them, I believe they were reaping the

benefits of the immune modulation effect we know this low dose has, and were not

affected by the opioid blockage effect, as they do not have the opioids in their

brains. That, of course, is a very small sampling, and I know I cannot proclaim

any scientific fact from such a tiny study.

I believe that as our kids heal, their guts inevitably get better, and many can

be gradually moved into a more regular diet, often with the help of enzymes

through the transitition. Many parents continue giving the enzymes for

" insurance " ; many of us have learned that enzymes are helpful to many people,

not just autistic children, and I have been astonished at the commonness of

bowel problems in the general population of which I had no awareness before my

work with ASD. Some children even after recovery will avoid milk, knowing that

their body does not like it, or just saying " I don't like milk! " I don't see

this as often with wheat, however.

Anyway, if I seem fanatic about diet, I have to say that unequivocally the most

kids in my work over the years who have recovered have had extremely

conscientious parents who adhered religiously to the diet until it was evident

that their child was recovering and could start making the transition to a

regular diet. In the early years, I had two groups of families, the ones who

were dedicated and the ones who just hated the diet and were not willing or able

to learn how to do it adequately. I began seeing a notable difference in those

whose kids were recovering and those who were not, until in the last few years I

won't even take on a child for an evaluation until the parents have stabilized

the child on the gluten, casein, and soy restricted diet. Others may have

different experiences, this is mine. The issue of bad reactions to LDN again

are a tip-off that the child is still putting out opioids to the brain, and

because we all have some endogenous opioids there is an adjustment period, but

this is showing itself to be short lived for most kids, with a real

break-through of positive behavioral and cognitive abilities very often

following this adjustment period, especially so now that I am encouraging

parents to move to the full strength as soon as possible. Note: A very tiny

child may have 1-1/2 to 2mg being their full dose compared to the usual 3 mg for

most kids. For the kids over 100#, I give them 4mg, over 120#, 4.5 like the

adults. The strength of the immune modulation benefit of this medication takes

longer than the cognitive/behavioral/language benefits, but not as long as I

thought when I started the study, so the jury is still out on that one, and the

study I am doing should shed a lot of light on what actually happens to the

immune system over 4 months of taking the LDN. I'm hoping of course that it

correlates with the clinical picture we will be seeing as we continue, and I

will be sure to keep everyone posted. Dr. JM