Autism parents are highly vulnerable to pitches for quack "cures."
In The Politics of Autism, I write:
The conventional wisdom is that any kind of treatment is likely to be less effective as the child gets older, so parents of autistic children usually believe that they are working against the clock. They will not be satisfied with the ambiguities surrounding ABA, nor will they want to wait for some future research finding that might slightly increase its effectiveness. They want results now. Because there are no scientifically-validated drugs for the core symptoms of autism, they look outside the boundaries of mainstream medicine and FDA approval. Studies have found that anywhere from 28 to 54 percent of autistic children receive “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), and these numbers probably understate CAM usage.
Larry Cook, a prominent anti-vax activist who was banned from numerous social media platforms including Facebook for spreading QAnon conspiracy theories, has returned to Twitter, where he is using his verified status to sell expensive “vaccine cures.”
A longtime anti-vaxxer, Cook is a former naturopath who resigned as executive director of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association in 2016 to “educate as many parents and others as possible about the dangers of vaccination.”
Among Cook’s many inflammatory claims, he has said vaccines kill babies and children. “Not only can any vaccine given at any age kill your child,” Cook wrote in one ad, “but if this unthinkable tragedy does occur, doctors will dismiss it as ‘Sudden Infant Death Syndrome’ (SIDS)”
Biomedical treatment seeks to uncover these root problems associated with Autism symptoms and to then treat these autistic symptoms with biomedical treatments that treat the many underlying causes of Autism symptoms. Some of these treatments may include things that will help with detoxification, such as chelation therapy, mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy, B12 injections and glutathione injections. Other treatments may include nutritional supplementation, Vitamin D3 supplementation and the adoption of a gluten free casein free diet. The use of digestive enzymes, probiotics, anti-fungal drugs and the adoption of the Body Ecology Diet (fermented foods) may be employed. And there are many, many other medically valid treatments that will help treat the root causes of Autism and Autism symptoms so that the body can start to heal itself and repair the damage that’s been done.
