Dr. Mercola’s recommendations for autistic children

I love to share some of Dr. Mercola’s articles since they make a lot of sense to me. Last week, he wrote an article entitled Genes are not the main case of autism (although truthfully, I think that genes still play an important part).

His recommendations for autistic children include many things we are following (or trying to follow) for my sensitive child like:

• Eliminate sugar (particularly fructose) and grains from your child’s diet.
• Avoid pasteurized milk.
• Tailor your child’s diet to whole fresh organic foods for optimal health.
• Optimize vitamin D levels through proper sun exposure.
• Lower microbial burden.
• Lower toxic burdens.
• Reduce EMF exposure.
• Use tools such as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to minimize emotional stress.
• Saying no to vaccinations.
• Homeopathy.

He also discusses Dr. Campbell’s GAPS program, which includes these suggestions:

• traditionally fermented foods, such as kefir, yogurt and vegetables;
• sunbathing without sunscreen for Vitamin D protection;
• avoidance of grains;
• healthy diet, including juicing, animal fats, meat and fresh vegetables;
• omega-3 fats;
• avoidance of processed foods and corn syrups;
• baths with Epsom salts and sea salt, seaweed powder and cider vinegar, and bicarbonate soda;
• digestive enzymes; and
• avoidance of vegetable oils.

Dr. Mercola’s Cancer Prevention Plan

This is too important not to share. Lots of common sense and also these are all things that we are trying to do while raising our sensitive son.

This is Dr. Mercola’s list to get you started on a cancer prevention plan:

1. Normalize your vitamin D levels with safe amounts of sun exposure. This works primarily by optimizing your vitamin D level. Ideally, monitor your vitamin D levels throughout the year.

• Our family supplements with vitamin D. Nonetheless, our chiropractor says that Moses and I are still vitamin D deficient and we are upping both of our vitamin D dosages as a result (from 1,000 to 2,000 IU for Moses and from 1,000 to 3-4,000 IU for me at least for the short-term — quite a lot, but our bodies are asking for it. It’s been ridiculously cloudy and foggy in Newfoundland this summer).

2. Control your insulin levels by limiting your intake of processed foods and sugars/fructose as much as possible.

• We try to reduce processed foods and sugars as much as possible.

3. Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats.

• Moses is allergic to fish, so we haven’t been supplementing with cod liver oil, but we’ve been supplementing with flax seed oil and chia seeds.

4. Get appropriate exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

• Moses has been riding his bike to his dayhome, playing with his friends and he plays soccer during the summer and will be taking Taekwondo in the fall. DH is exercising regularly and I am trying to exercise more.

5. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

• I need to look into this more. I’ve taken Dr. Mercola’s nutritional typing test and I’m a “mixed type”, which I think matches the way that I eat. We also very loosely follow eating for your blood type (Moses and I are Type Bs and DH is a Type O).

6. Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.

• I’ve used emotional freedom technique in the past, and found great benefit from doing so.  I also regularly receive a lot of body and energy work, practice yoga, meditation and pranayama (breathing exercises).

7. Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties. Remember that carb nutritional types may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than protein nutritional types.

• Our family could admittedly be eating more vegetables. We do try to eat as much organic as possible.

8. Maintain an ideal body weight.

• I believe that we are all within the ideal body weight range.

9. Get enough high-quality sleep.

• Moses gets 10-11 hours of sleep and we get 8-9 hours of sleep. I feel that we could all use more sleep.

10. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

• As you know, we try to minimize the use of environmental toxins as possible.

11. Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possible if/when you cannot avoid their use.

• I’m proud to say that I don’t have a cell phone. DH does.

12. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

• We boil a lot of our veggies. We generally don’t fry many things, but we have been bbq’ing a lot of steaks lately.  I do normally fry my eggs (which neither DH nor Moses eat), but I might start poaching them.

Other Reading:

• Environmental Health Trust’s 12 Cancer Prevention Tips

 

Vitamin D deficiency?

I’ve been wondering about whether Moses has been getting enough Vitamin D. It’s one of the vitamins that autistic children are often deficient in. He currently has Vitamin D in the form of his multi-vitamin, but given what I recently read in one of Dr. Mercola’s articles, he’s not getting enough. I’ll ask his naturopath what she think when we see her next week.

According to Healing and Preventing Autism by McCarthy and Kartzinel, they recommend supplementing from 600 IU to 2,000, IU of vitamin D3 daily. Moses is currently getting approx. 600 IU from his multivitamin and calcium supplement, so I thought that he might be okay, but Dr. Mercola’s article recommends 35 IU’s of vitamin D per pound of body weight, which means he probably needs about 1225 IU of vitamin D3 per day.*

Of course, ideally, the best way to get your vitamin D is by exposing your skin to sunlight, but we live in cloudy Newfoundland and I think many people living here supplement their vitamin D. I actually haven’t been on vitamin D myself, but after reading Dr. Mercola’s article, I’m strongly considering it.

Dr. Mercola’s article is worth a read as it discusses how vitamin D helps with your immune system and also how 33 different diseases are linked to a vitamin D deficiency (including autism, eczema and asthma).

You may be wondering why Moses is deficient in so many vitamins. Given his extreme food sensitivity, his food selection is very limited. Furthermore, his gut is out of whack, which also affects the absorption of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. As I was reading through Healing and Preventing Autism, I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the information, but I’m just going to go step by step, and as I go through these steps, I’ll let you know what we’re doing and how it’s going for us.

* By the way, one IU (International Unit) is equal to 0.025 micrograms (mcg or ug) of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).

Update: I was at the health food store today and purchased Vitamin D Drops (“Ddrops“). The adult formula contains 1000 IU in an oil base, and the baby formula contains 400 IU in each drop. Just one drop — you can add to water, juice or just take it on its own. Very easy to take! I like easy, especially since Moses is on so many other supplements. Everyone in the family will take one drop a day.

Also, according to the Ddrops website, ”A  recent study… demonstrated that 9% of children were Vitamin D deficient and 61% were Vitamin D insufficient.” Yikes!

I also found out on the Ddrops website that people with darker skin take longer to make vitamin D in the skin through the sun (and both Moses and I have darker skin as we are of Asian descent – well, Moses is a mix, but he’s still darker than most). Interesting!

Update (September 3, 2010) – Read Healing Autism & ADHD’s article about Vitamin D here.

Dr. Mercola’s article linking medications with tooth decay

Today I came across another interesting article about Dr. Mercola linking allergy / antihistamine medications with:

•  sores / skin split at side of mouth,
• oral thrush, and
• and tooth decay.

Moses has all three of the above symptoms.  We actually have a second day surgery scheduled for Moses’ teeth within the next couple of months. Yet another reason to minimize use of medications (which we try to as much as possible, though it’s hard when he’s having trouble breathing).

Dr. Mercola’s advice for eczema

Since I’m on a roll with talking about Dr. Mercola’s website, I also wanted to mention that he has some effective and inexpensive ways to deal with eczema on his website here. These include:

1. Saltwater compress
2. Omega 3 fats
3. High quality probiotic
4. Avoid highly allergenic foods (e.g., gluten, dairy, eggs).
5. Getting sufficient sun exposure or taking a quality Vitamin D supplement.

We have Moses on a high quality probiotic, are avoiding highly allergenic foods, and have him on a quality multivitamin that contains Vitamin D.

I’ll have to remember the saltwater compress to address itchiness. Currently, we just use a wet washcloth to sooth his skin when he’s itchy, but want to try the saltwater compress. Dr. Mercola suggests using a high quality, natural salt.

I know that Moses is low on Omega 3s — partly because he’s allergic to fish, so I need to find other good sources. Hemp seed oil is a good alternative, I believe (although Dr. Mercola mentions that the plant-based omega 3 sources aren’t as good as the fish-based omega 3 sources). Dr. Mercola also mentions that evening primrose oil (as a source of gamma linoleic acid) works well for eczema. We’ll give it a try.

I should also mention that since last year, Moses’ eczema has lessened tremendously and we no longer need to use hydrocortisone regularly. (He has the occasional flare up when we do use it). So I believe the diet changes and other measures have helped.

Dr. Mercola’s Nutrition Plan

Recently, I’ve been reading some of Dr. Mercola’s articles.

Today, I came across his step-by-step nutrition plan here.  He has three levels to his plan: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The first part of the beginner plan is:

1. Eliminate all gluten.
2. One third of your foods should be uncooked.
3. Eat more vegetables.
4. Keep your vegetables fresh.
5. Limit sugar.
6. Avoid artificial sweeteners.
7. Avoid hypoglycemia.
8. Learn to distinguish physical food cravings from emotional food cravings.

Out of all of the things on this list, the only thing that I currently do is avoid artificial sweeteners. And, my sugar intake is relatively low.

Lately, I’ve been getting the message that I need to address my nutrition — in particular, remove gluten and dairy from my diet. As I’ve mentioned, gluten and dairy have already been removed from Moses’ diet, so you’d think it would be relatively simple for me to take this step. Plus the fact that I was on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet when I was breastfeeding Moses. But, my relationship with food is very emotional — I’m an emotional eater.

For me, my “drug” is food — in particular, gluten and dairy! My naturopath mentioned to me that if I crave a food, it’s generally because the food isn’t good for me and is causing inflamation in my system.

Interestingly, Dr. Mercola also suggests using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to help with emotional eating. I’ll start trying that, and see if that helps. I have found that my chocolate cravings have been less over the last month and last time I went grocery shopping, I didn’t buy cheese.

Let’s see how I do. I’ll be gentle with myself, but I’ve been getting a lot of internal nudges to feed my body well.

Of course, what’s interesting about Dr. Mercola’s nutrition plan is that many things that are restricted in his nutrition plan is restricted in Moses’ diet. Like Moses’ body came with a set of instructions that said: don’t put anything in my body that’s not good for me.