Re: Please don't fall prey to REPOSTING of Dr. Laidler's Very Old Commentary

[Guest guest]

Hi. I'm not even sure if it was Dr. Laidler himself who posted his

referenced commentary. I read this same diatribe months and months

ago on some site (can't remember if it was a group or an anti-

biomed site/blog). While it's certainly Dr. Laidler's right to

believe what he believes (just as it is my right to do the same), I

think whoever posted this (whether Dr. Laidler or another anti-

biomed person) is just stirring the pot. I just thought I'd give

everyone a heads-up about it.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Kathy in Florida

> > Through the Looking Glass:

> > My Involvement with Autism Quackery

> >

> > R. Laidler, MD

> >

> > Ever since I began the Herculean (some might say Quixotic) task

of exposing

> > the quackery and pseudoscience surrounding autism, I have had

people ask

> > me,

> > " Are you the same Jim Laidler who used to talk about chelation

at autism

> > conferences? " To them, the idea that I could once have been an

impassioned

> > supporter of the very thing I am now trying to debunk is hard

to fathom.

> > Well, everyone has something in their past that they are

embarrassed

> > about-and that is mine.

> >

> > I consider myself to be a very scientific person. While growing

up, I was

> > skeptical and inquiring and naturally gravitated to the

sciences. My first

> > brushes with pseudoscience and quackery in medical school left

me convinced

> > that " it could never happen to me. " I was sure that my

background and

> > training would keep me from making the same mistake as " those

people. " I

> > was

> > wrong.

> >

> > A year or so after my son was diagnosed with autism, with no

hope for cure

> > in sight, I was feeling desperate for anything that might help

him. My wife

> > attended a conference about " biological treatments for autism. "

She came

> > back extremely excited, having heard story after story

about " hopeless "

> > cases of autism " cured " by a variety of simple treatments. I

was initially

> > skeptical, but my desperation soon got the better of me. We

started out

> > with

> > the simple therapies-vitamins and minerals-but soon moved on to

the " hard

> > stuff " : the gluten- and casein-free diet, secretin, and

chelation. Some of

> > it seemed to work-for a while-and that just spurred us to try

the next

> > therapy on the horizon. I was " hooked " on hope, which is more

addictive and

> > dangerous than any " street " drug. Meanwhile, my second son

developed an

> > autism-like disability at the age of 18 months.

> >

> > The next year, I accompanied my wife to the autism conference

and was

> > dazzled and amazed. There were more treatments for autism than

I could ever

> > hope to try on my son, and every one of them had passionate

promoters

> > claiming that it had cured at least one autistic child-usually

their own.

> > There were blood tests, urine test, hair tests, saliva tests,

brain wave

> > tests and eye tests, all claiming to be able to find the

specific cause for

> > a child's autism. And they had specific treatments for each of

those

> > causes.

> > Sure, some of them were contradictory, but nobody seemed to

mind that. What

> > really caught my interest was the proposition that thimerosal,

the

> > mercury-based preservative in vaccines, caused autism and

chelation therapy

> > could cure it. Advocates of this idea spoke authoritatively,

with

> > impressive

> > lists of references and well-designed PowerPoint slides. I was

intrigued

> > even though the children I had seen with mercury poisoning did

not behave

> > like my autistic son and the recommended dosage for the

chelating agents

> > made no sense to me.

> >

> > My next step toward the " Dark Side " was to write a review paper

on mercury

> > toxicity and its treatment that might improve what the

chelation advocates

> > were doing. Leading proponents were recommending that the

chelating agents

> > be given every three hours around the clock for up to four

weeks, an

> > obvious

> > source of stress for already overstressed parents. In addition,

many of

> > these chelation " experts " predicted dire consequences if a dose

is missed

> > or

> > even given an hour late. My paper simply outlined the then-

current

> > information about mercury poisoning and chelation therapy for

mercury,

> > using

> > articles from peer-reviewed journals. Among other things, it

debunked the

> > dosing ideas I had encountered at the conference.

> >

> > Before long, I was invited to join a conference to set up

a " protocol " for

> > using chelation in the treatment of autism. I attended and, for

the first

> > time, got to see many of the leading lights in " non-

conventional " autism

> > treatment outside of the conference hall. Most of these people

appeared to

> > hold sincere beliefs but based their assessment of their

therapeutic

> > efforts

> > on anecdotes, surveys, and simplistic studies. I thought they

would welcome

> > a more rigorous scientific investigation of their methods and

results.

> > After

> > the conference, I was asked to compile a " consensus report. " I

readily

> > agreed, thinking that my editing could temper the unscientific

thinking of

> > the rest of the group. However, my editorial control turned out

to be nil.

> > The final report included large tracts of material that were

the pet

> > beliefs

> > of the senior members of the organization. Worse yet, even

though I

> > disagreed with significant portions of the report, my name was

listed as

> > sole author! I have been able to get my name removed from

the " official "

> > document, but Internet copies of the original abound.

> >

> > I was subsequently invited to speak at conferences about

chelation and

> > autism and went, with an increasingly heavy heart, until I

finally could do

> > it no more. Getting to know the big names in " alternative "

autism therapy

> > had exposed me to some ugly truths. What finally changed by

feeling,

> > however, was further observation of my children.

> >

> > After years of " supplements, " restrictive diets

and " unconventional "

> > therapies (too many to list), our boys were improved, but were

a long way

> > from being cured. We were forced to carry their special foods

with us

> > whenever we left the house, lest a molecule of gluten or casein

catapult

> > them back to where we had begun. We were nearly broke, despite

both of us

> > having well-paying jobs, and we were on the verge of

exhaustion. The

> > beginning of the end was when my wife, suspecting that some of

the

> > " supplements " we were giving our older son weren't having any

effect,

> > stopped them all-without telling me. I saw no difference, even

after two

> > months (when she finally told me). We had been chasing our

tails,

> > increasing

> > this and decreasing that in response to every change in his

behavior-and

> > all

> > the while his ups and downs had just been random fluctuation.

My eyes began

> > to open.

> >

> > The final step in my awakening came during a Disneyland

vacation. My

> > younger

> > son was still on a gluten- and casein-free diet, which we both

swore had

> > been a significant factor in his improvement. We had lugged at

least 40

> > pounds of special food on the plane with us. In an unwatched

moment, he

> > snatched a waffle and ate it. We watched with horror and

awaited the

> > dramatic deterioration of his condition that the " experts " told

us would

> > inevitably occur. The results were astounding-absolutely

nothing happened.

> > I

> > began to suspect that I had been very foolish.

> >

> > In the following months, we stopped every treatment except

speech and

> > occupational therapy for both boys. They did not deteriorate

and, in fact,

> > continued to improve at the same rate as before-or faster. Our

bank balance

> > improved, and the circles under our eyes started to fade. And

quite

> > frankly,

> > I began to get mad at myself for being so gullible and for

misleading other

> > parents of autistic children.

> >

> > Looking back on my experiences with " alternate " autism

therapies, they seem

> > almost unreal, like Alice's adventures in Wonderland. Utter

nonsense

> > treated

> > like scientific data, people nodding in sage agreement with

blatant

> > contradictions, and theories made out of thin air and unrelated

facts-and

> > all of it happening happening right here and now, not in some

book. Real

> > people are being deceived and hurt, and there won't be a happy

ending

> > unless

> > enough of us get together and write one.

> >

> > 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. It is really not surprising that people

will buy it

> > even when their better judgment tells them not to do so.

> >

> > I suspect that the majority of the people who

promote " unconventional " or

> > " alternative " treatments for autism truly believe in what they

sell. They

> > deserve pity rather than scorn. Most of them will never realize

what a

> > disservice they provide to the very people they are trying to

help. It is

> > not my intent to make them " see the light. " It is the autistic

children

> > (and

> > adults), their parents, relatives and friends that I am trying

to reach

> > with

> > this Web site, in the hope that they won't have to go through

what my

> > family

> > has experienced. It is to them that I dedicate my efforts.

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

With every illness/disability, there are those who will jump on the bandwagon

and happily clean out the pockets of desperate parents who will do anything to

help their child. I think we have all been there to one degree or another.

What works for one, will not always work for another, autistic or not. Just

as one " medication " is not the standard for every patient, if a doctor is

practicing good, consciencious medicine. To make a statement like that doctor

made is highly irresponsible. YES there are those treatments/supplements/things

that don't work for anybody, but the numbers of children being helped by

alternative/biomedical treatments are far exceeding those that have been treated

by those medically acceptable, " conventional " means. Let's think for a second

about a bad speech therapist. One not worth their salt. Takes your money,

plays Monopoly with your kid for an hour and has no guided plan, and says the

child is doing fine. Is that consciencious medicine? Is that " effective

therapy " ? I would think not. But because the AMA finds it " effective therapy "

that means it works? What is productive is what works for the individual. And

unfortunately in this world of ours, no one can

predict that.

My child has done YEARS of speech therapy, years of occupational therapy, and

we have recently turned to biomedical options. Do I believe my child would have

improved with out therapy? NO, but I do believe in any treatment plan there has

to be a modality of options that work together. I have recently added something

to my child's protocol, and it has worked amazingly. And I want to do better, I

want him to be the very best he can be. Do I believe that more speech therapy

will help him? Heck no. And as a clinician I can say that if he had speech

therapy 5 days a week I don't think he'd have the gains I believe he will have

at the end of our short biomed journey. My child, btw, has always been verbal.

His diagnosis is dyspraxia.

Sorry, Dr., if you are on this list, that statement/posting/commentary was

highly unprofessional as well as irresponsible. I am glad most parents are

strong minded and intelligent enough to move forward responsibly with their

children and not listen to/play into such hogwash.

Amethyst Mueller, MA

katdan98 <katdan98@...> wrote:

Hi. I'm not even sure if it was Dr. Laidler himself who posted his

referenced commentary. I read this same diatribe months and months

ago on some site (can't remember if it was a group or an anti-

biomed site/blog). While it's certainly Dr. Laidler's right to

believe what he believes (just as it is my right to do the same), I

think whoever posted this (whether Dr. Laidler or another anti-

biomed person) is just stirring the pot. I just thought I'd give

everyone a heads-up about it.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Kathy in Florida

> > Through the Looking Glass:

> > My Involvement with Autism Quackery

> >

> > R. Laidler, MD

> >

> > Ever since I began the Herculean (some might say Quixotic) task

of exposing

> > the quackery and pseudoscience surrounding autism, I have had

people ask

> > me,

> > " Are you the same Jim Laidler who used to talk about chelation

at autism

> > conferences? " To them, the idea that I could once have been an

impassioned

> > supporter of the very thing I am now trying to debunk is hard

to fathom.

> > Well, everyone has something in their past that they are

embarrassed

> > about-and that is mine.

> >

> > I consider myself to be a very scientific person. While growing

up, I was

> > skeptical and inquiring and naturally gravitated to the

sciences. My first

> > brushes with pseudoscience and quackery in medical school left

me convinced

> > that " it could never happen to me. " I was sure that my

background and

> > training would keep me from making the same mistake as " those

people. " I

> > was

> > wrong.

> >

> > A year or so after my son was diagnosed with autism, with no

hope for cure

> > in sight, I was feeling desperate for anything that might help

him. My wife

> > attended a conference about " biological treatments for autism. "

She came

> > back extremely excited, having heard story after story

about " hopeless "

> > cases of autism " cured " by a variety of simple treatments. I

was initially

> > skeptical, but my desperation soon got the better of me. We

started out

> > with

> > the simple therapies-vitamins and minerals-but soon moved on to

the " hard

> > stuff " : the gluten- and casein-free diet, secretin, and

chelation. Some of

> > it seemed to work-for a while-and that just spurred us to try

the next

> > therapy on the horizon. I was " hooked " on hope, which is more

addictive and

> > dangerous than any " street " drug. Meanwhile, my second son

developed an

> > autism-like disability at the age of 18 months.

> >

> > The next year, I accompanied my wife to the autism conference

and was

> > dazzled and amazed. There were more treatments for autism than

I could ever

> > hope to try on my son, and every one of them had passionate

promoters

> > claiming that it had cured at least one autistic child-usually

their own.

> > There were blood tests, urine test, hair tests, saliva tests,

brain wave

> > tests and eye tests, all claiming to be able to find the

specific cause for

> > a child's autism. And they had specific treatments for each of

those

> > causes.

> > Sure, some of them were contradictory, but nobody seemed to

mind that. What

> > really caught my interest was the proposition that thimerosal,

the

> > mercury-based preservative in vaccines, caused autism and

chelation therapy

> > could cure it. Advocates of this idea spoke authoritatively,

with

> > impressive

> > lists of references and well-designed PowerPoint slides. I was

intrigued

> > even though the children I had seen with mercury poisoning did

not behave

> > like my autistic son and the recommended dosage for the

chelating agents

> > made no sense to me.

> >

> > My next step toward the " Dark Side " was to write a review paper

on mercury

> > toxicity and its treatment that might improve what the

chelation advocates

> > were doing. Leading proponents were recommending that the

chelating agents

> > be given every three hours around the clock for up to four

weeks, an

> > obvious

> > source of stress for already overstressed parents. In addition,

many of

> > these chelation " experts " predicted dire consequences if a dose

is missed

> > or

> > even given an hour late. My paper simply outlined the then-

current

> > information about mercury poisoning and chelation therapy for

mercury,

> > using

> > articles from peer-reviewed journals. Among other things, it

debunked the

> > dosing ideas I had encountered at the conference.

> >

> > Before long, I was invited to join a conference to set up

a " protocol " for

> > using chelation in the treatment of autism. I attended and, for

the first

> > time, got to see many of the leading lights in " non-

conventional " autism

> > treatment outside of the conference hall. Most of these people

appeared to

> > hold sincere beliefs but based their assessment of their

therapeutic

> > efforts

> > on anecdotes, surveys, and simplistic studies. I thought they

would welcome

> > a more rigorous scientific investigation of their methods and

results.

> > After

> > the conference, I was asked to compile a " consensus report. " I

readily

> > agreed, thinking that my editing could temper the unscientific

thinking of

> > the rest of the group. However, my editorial control turned out

to be nil.

> > The final report included large tracts of material that were

the pet

> > beliefs

> > of the senior members of the organization. Worse yet, even

though I

> > disagreed with significant portions of the report, my name was

listed as

> > sole author! I have been able to get my name removed from

the " official "

> > document, but Internet copies of the original abound.

> >

> > I was subsequently invited to speak at conferences about

chelation and

> > autism and went, with an increasingly heavy heart, until I

finally could do

> > it no more. Getting to know the big names in " alternative "

autism therapy

> > had exposed me to some ugly truths. What finally changed by

feeling,

> > however, was further observation of my children.

> >

> > After years of " supplements, " restrictive diets

and " unconventional "

> > therapies (too many to list), our boys were improved, but were

a long way

> > from being cured. We were forced to carry their special foods

with us

> > whenever we left the house, lest a molecule of gluten or casein

catapult

> > them back to where we had begun. We were nearly broke, despite

both of us

> > having well-paying jobs, and we were on the verge of

exhaustion. The

> > beginning of the end was when my wife, suspecting that some of

the

> > " supplements " we were giving our older son weren't having any

effect,

> > stopped them all-without telling me. I saw no difference, even

after two

> > months (when she finally told me). We had been chasing our

tails,

> > increasing

> > this and decreasing that in response to every change in his

behavior-and

> > all

> > the while his ups and downs had just been random fluctuation.

My eyes began

> > to open.

> >

> > The final step in my awakening came during a Disneyland

vacation. My

> > younger

> > son was still on a gluten- and casein-free diet, which we both

swore had

> > been a significant factor in his improvement. We had lugged at

least 40

> > pounds of special food on the plane with us. In an unwatched

moment, he

> > snatched a waffle and ate it. We watched with horror and

awaited the

> > dramatic deterioration of his condition that the " experts " told

us would

> > inevitably occur. The results were astounding-absolutely

nothing happened.

> > I

> > began to suspect that I had been very foolish.

> >

> > In the following months, we stopped every treatment except

speech and

> > occupational therapy for both boys. They did not deteriorate

and, in fact,

> > continued to improve at the same rate as before-or faster. Our

bank balance

> > improved, and the circles under our eyes started to fade. And

quite

> > frankly,

> > I began to get mad at myself for being so gullible and for

misleading other

> > parents of autistic children.

> >

> > Looking back on my experiences with " alternate " autism

therapies, they seem

> > almost unreal, like Alice's adventures in Wonderland. Utter

nonsense

> > treated

> > like scientific data, people nodding in sage agreement with

blatant

> > contradictions, and theories made out of thin air and unrelated

facts-and

> > all of it happening happening right here and now, not in some

book. Real

> > people are being deceived and hurt, and there won't be a happy

ending

> > unless

> > enough of us get together and write one.

> >

> > 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. It is really not surprising that people

will buy it

> > even when their better judgment tells them not to do so.

> >

> > I suspect that the majority of the people who

promote " unconventional " or

> > " alternative " treatments for autism truly believe in what they

sell. They

> > deserve pity rather than scorn. Most of them will never realize

what a

> > disservice they provide to the very people they are trying to

help. It is

> > not my intent to make them " see the light. " It is the autistic

children

> > (and

> > adults), their parents, relatives and friends that I am trying

to reach

> > with

> > this Web site, in the hope that they won't have to go through

what my

> > family

> > has experienced. It is to them that I dedicate my efforts.

> >

> >