Originally written May 24, 2015
Updated (just the images!) December 2, 2019
Today is my birthday; I’m 57 years old.
I mention this not to solicit “Happy Birthday” e-mails – but to illustrate there is not a single day that goes by in our life where Lead poisoning and its impacts are not omnipresent and a deciding factor in everything we do … birthdays, anniversaries, holidays – nothing is exempt.
The first half of the day was spent trying to get our kids into the car — breaking up fights, negotiating with, bribing and pleading and cajoling and assisting our freakin’ crazy boys into leaving the house so we could go for a walk in the forest as a family … we never made it!
10 years ago – before my children were poisoned – I could not even have begun to imagine how Lead poisoning might enter our lives and change everything forever. Everything. Our ability to work changed; the way we interact with our children changed; our daily routines for how we do everything from waking up to getting dressed to eating meals to going to bed radically changed.
The considerations we have to take into account when simply thinking of going out for a family outing changed – and became more complex than I could possibly imagine they would/could ever be!
It is for this reason my wife has dedicated her life to this cause. She eats, sleeps, and breathes it because she has to deal with this every moment of every day, because of our children.
Lock-em-up!
Of our four sons, three are quite a bit more than “a handful:” They are routinely, randomly driven to apoplexy by the mere touch of clothing, the smell of food (for instance, in a cafeteria or restaurant) that they don’t like, music or voices or other background sounds that are just a trifle loud, an assemblage of more than two strangers, being “interrupted” — or asked to calm down or merely speak in an “inside voice” when required; they have fits when confronted with an unexpected change of plans, unfulfilled expectation, thwarted intention — or merely unanticipated conditions. They have seemingly endless arbitrary and inflexible aversions, peccadilloes, ritual requirements, fetishes, rules of engagement, mandatory/compulsive order of operations, irrational fears, overreactions, irresistible impulses, etc. And whatever you think you have learned about what worked yesterday to possibly lessen the likelihood of a “situation” (as in, “requesting assistance — we have a ‘situation’ here!”) likely won’t apply today! Just think of whatever mischief, pandemonium, and grief ordinary kids can generate and multiply it by 10!
Neighbors and strangers (even some extended FAMILY members — including Tamara’s mother, our kids’ grandmother!) have “helpfully suggested,” upon witnessing the degree of havoc one or another of our kids daily wreak that, “you know, he should really be INSTITUTIONALIZED!” (Yeah, thanks for the clever insight — we’ll look right into that!)
A good friend (Angela) recently brought us some signs that we have prominently posted on our property that read, “This is what Autism looks like. Any Questions Ask My Mom” and, “Hi, I’m Autisitc and need you to be: 1) Patient and 2) Kind to My Parents.” Prior to putting these signs up in our yard, Child Protective Services (CPS) had been called twice (by some “well-intentioned” neighbor) with a report of potential child abuse because our kids were repeatedly heard screaming (at the top of their lungs as though they were literally being tortured). CPS of course instantly dismissed this concern and all other allegations upon meeting with us and with our children and learning more about our boys and their issues.
Ironically, each of the days (one in May of 2011 and another in May of 2014) that CPS called us, were days my wife had just won national awards for her advocacy work helping children! The irony is not lost on us, of course – that “the world” is starting to understand the issue, but the neighbors may not yet for a very long time.
Photo by Avi Rubin, September 2019
However, I must say that once these signs went up in our yard (a year ago in May), my wife painted a mural on the house with “Neighbors Talk To Each Other” and “Say Hello” in the mural … The complaints have 100% stopped and the signs and mural have actually been great ice-breakers and generated several nice conversations with new folks in our neighborhood.
When Angela brought us the signs, Tamara protested a bit: “The kids aren’t Autistic,” she said. “They have Lead poisoning – you know that.” Angela (ever so wise!) said, “Just try it and see — people understand what Autism is, they don’t understand what lead poisoning really means, you still have that fight ahead of you.”
Avi received his Autism diagnosis in April of 2014 when he was nine years old.
Misdiagnosis?
On Facebook yesterday, Tamara posted an article discussing “the increase in diagnoses of Autism as a possible alternative explanation of the recent [apparent] enormous and steady increase in Autism rates.”
This is not to say there are not a lot of cases of Autism and that it is not a significant and troubling issue for our world (and especially our country today) — there are, and it is.
We are also not in any way trying to be dismissive of the impact that global increases in environmental toxicity can have on Autism rates. We believe (based on our experience and research) that environmental toxicity plays a clear and significant role in Autism and related cognitive and behavioral disorders, and that it is highly likely that environmental contaminants (even in very trace amounts) can act as a trigger for people who may have a genetic predisposition to these specific symptomatic expressions of exposure.
We shared the article because we felt it is a sound and rational argument (based on our personal experience with our children) that perhaps increased awareness – and/or simply increased labeling of this symptom cluster is part of the reason for the increased number of children being diagnosed as Autistic today.
If you haven’t seen a preview screening of our film yet you might not fully understand the reasons we agree with these conclusions, but let’s summarize it by saying that in our opinion (which is a well-researched, scientifically backed, and also personal-experience-based opinion) millions of children who have a symptom cluster generated by early childhood Lead exposure are – in fact – routinely being diagnosed as Autistic.
They are not, rigorously, “exactly” Autistic — but they are nonetheless being diagnosed as Autistic — simply because there is no diagnostic code (in the DSM Manual) for the nearly identical cluster of symptoms caused as an eventual consequence of early childhood Lead exposure/lead poisoning.
Here’s how it works (you may need to read this more than once — as it is intrinsically complex)!
Fact #1: Lead has a 30 to 45-day half-life in the blood. As soon as the once-circulating lead ions have passed the blood/brain barrier and been deposited into brain tissue (when Lead does its initial devastation to the developing brain), as well as skeletal sites, the Lead seemingly “vanishes” — only in terms of significant measurability in blood tests — resulting in the catastrophic invisibility of obvious etiology for “Autistic-like” symptoms.
Fact #2: The brain injury/damage to the developing brain from Lead poisoning cannot be predicted, observed, or fully assessed until the child’s brain has developed past the following three critical cognitive development milestones (and significant/practical quantitative measurement junctures):
1. learning-to-read (~ ages 5-7/kindergarten, first and second grade)
2. required usage of reading to learn (~ ages 8-10/third, fourth, fifth grade )
3. development/required utilization of executive function (~ages 13-25/middle school, right up through young adulthood)
Fact #3: Many outward behavioral markers and cognitive/processing impairments common to both Autism and brain injury/permanent damage* resulting from Lead poisoning are identical/indistinguishable.
So it is inevitable – in the absence of the obvious “smoking gun” of a currently substantially elevated Blood Lead Level – that many children who were Lead exposed/Lead poisoned (an arbitrary distinction based on a number located on the continuum of neurological damage that is “inversely logarithmic,” or the proportionally greatest damage is done at the lowest levels of exposure) and who were typically NOT tested during the critical window of BLL-based detection as crawling babies or toddlers, therefore never diagnosed, are being simply labeled as “Autistic,” having Asperger’s, ADD/ADHD, SPD, OCD, ODD, etc.
In the case of injury to the brain from Lead exposure/Lead poisoning, these labels all point to symptom clusters that are epiphenomenological in nature (i.e. in turn caused by something else). Really, when you think about it, this is almost tautological/borders on unresolvable philosophical epistemological/metaphysical questions – I mean, you could easily take the position that any/every disease is ultimately at least partly the result of some prior other exposure/damage – right?!
Said another way, the later developmental fingerprint of early childhood Lead exposure on a young child (the symptoms generated as their brain develops but after the Lead has left their bloodstream*) can look EXACTLY like Autism (and in other cases, ADD/ADHD and other diagnoses) to both the untrained and even many well-trained eyes.
*When a child is exposed to Lead, the Lead bio-mimics calcium in the body. It is absorbed by the brain in the place of calcium and causes neurological (brain) damage. The neurons impacted at the time of the exposure are permanently damaged (permanent brain damage). Some Lead then leaves the body but much of it is absorbed by/incorporated into the structure of other tissue and bones – and is no longer detectible by a blood test (or other easy/cost-effective medical test). So, all that is left diagnostically is the impact of the brain damage caused at the time of exposure. The scope of this impact is usually not noticed until YEARS after the child has been exposed to Lead because the scope impact is only realized as the brain fails to develop normally (in function and complexity) as it otherwise would have at the various stages of neurological development in a young child.
In terms of the common/apparent differences between “‘true’ Autism” and a “Lead poisoning-induced Autistic symptom cluster,” there are often a few distinct markers missing (generally a Lead-exposed child will not have an issue with eye contact that a more typical Autistic child may have, for example, and children with a less acute exposure may be more verbal than a more significantly Lead-exposed or more typical Autistic child) but otherwise, for all intents and purposes, a Lead poisoned child may be indistinguishable from an Autistic child and accordingly, Lead-poisoned children are getting labeled as Autistic by both the medical and educational systems every single day.
This is all an issue primarily because children are not consistently getting comprehensive blood Lead testing as babies. By the time they are diagnosed as Autistic, they no longer have Lead circulating in their blood and there is no evidence that they may have been Lead poisoned, and the intake forms and questions around an Autism diagnosis do not generally ask if a child has (ever at any point in their life) lived in a home built before 1978 and been potentially exposed to dust containing deteriorating Lead paint.
Parents need resources to help their children.
In the absence of diagnostic terminology and standards for the cluster of symptoms exhibited by a particular Lead-poisoned child, a parent who knows their child was Lead-poisoned may resist the Autism diagnosis — but since there are no resources available otherwise (people just don’t understand when you say “my child has a brain injury from Lead poisoning – not Autism”), parents will often reluctantly acquiesce to the Autism diagnosis offered by the medical establishment and the educational system in order to be eligible for services. It’s not “wrong” — the system (pediatricians, social services, educators, administrators, et. al.) perceives it as Autism — but it’s also not quite “right.” That, however, depicts the less common scenario …
Charlie on a plane in January, 2015.
In most cases, there is not a known or documented history of Lead exposure (primarily because so few children are tested — and of those few that are, it may not be early enough or during the most opportune “window,” in terms of an exposure and Lead’s subsequent “half-life” in the bloodstream. This means it’s more typical that a child will – at two, three, four or five years old – be diagnosed as “Autistic” because he or she has several markers on the spectrum and the parent will never know that the genesis was actually Lead exposure.
These parents will (in some cases) think of their children as “different from other Autistic children” — or perhaps (in some cases) as “higher-functioning.” But the underlying diagnosis of a brain injury due to lead poisoning — the diagnosis that could allow for proper interventions and therapies to take place — never occurs, because the parent does not know their child has a brain injury due to Lead poisoning … they just consider them “Autistic.”
Please note: we’re certainly not saying this is true for ALL or MOST cases of Autism, but we do know that for a significant fraction — possibly as many as 1/3 of diagnoses — this may be the case.
Some say that the brains of Autistic children are “different,” “unique,” and that this should not be viewed as a “disorder” in the way it is. Please consider that perhaps the brains (of at least a portion of these children) are “unique” because they have a brain injury due to lead exposure as an infant.
Avi (blue hair), Colescott, Charlie & AJ – Summer 2016
Avi says: “I don’t have Autism — I have an Autism Diagnosis”
As an example, Avi (our 10-year-old son who had the most severe lead exposure) is brilliant; he has an I.Q. of 130 (after/despite acute Lead poisoning — the impact of which is generally measured by a loss of I.Q. points). However, his visual memory is in the 4th percentile. He is indeed unique: he is whole, he is complete — he also has a brain injury, and will not develop the skills to become the brilliant scientist or scholar, or philosopher he may eventually become without the proper interventions and academic accommodations needed to address his brain injury.
Avi was just recently rejected from a wonderful private school for Autistic kids — a school with a ratio of close to one teacher for every two children. He was specifically rejected (after a comprehensive evaluation process over several days) because the school’s staff determined that (as we have believed for quite some time) he needs one-on-one educational assistance and interventions to address both his brain injury/learning impairments and his overall very high intelligence and incredible thirst for knowledge.
As a result of this apparent paradox, which does not align with most teaching methodologies — including those targeted at Autistic children — Tamara and I have been in search of an appropriate school for Avi for more than a year. In a “mainstream” classroom, without that kind of highly interactive environment, he became suicidal in 2nd grade and we have been looking at — and applying to — various alternative schools ever since!
But I digress.
We know about this increase in a diagnosis of Autism and the likelihood that it is in part due to increased diagnosis of a cluster of symptoms as Autism (even though these symptoms may not in fact “be” Autism) … And we know this because our own son is part of this statistic – this group of Lead-poisoned children who, for lack of a more sophisticated, nuanced, flexible system, are lumped together and labeled “Autistic.”
In spite of the emphatic, amused/incredulous retort on camera, in the film by Avi’s neuropsychologist (one of the top in the world who works with lots of Lead-poisoned children) that “There is no way that child is Autistic!” — we finally capitulated to the diagnosis last April (2014). This is when the Multnomah County health department diagnosed him as Autistic. This put his symptom cluster into language the school system could better understand, so the IEP for his education has now added “Autism” to his “Other Health Impairment: Brain Injury From Lead Poisoning” labels. The Autism diagnosis has gotten us an allocation of 161 hours a month in free respite care paid for by the county (starting next month). It has made him eligible for services and interventions like practical skills training and other therapies.
We’re benefiting from this “misdiagnosis” (and received absolutely no benefits before … none — because no one knew what to make of the diagnosis of “Lead poisoned” because again, the diagnostic manuals still do not have any designation for the later-in-life symptom clusters/conditions originating from an early childhood exposure to Lead).
The system is broken, and we’re trying to work within it. We’re also trying to fix it, by spreading the word and helping other parents in the same situation.
Why share this with you now?
I just wanted other parents of Autistic children (or children who they think might have Autism) to think back and see if this helps to connect any possible dots for some folks out there:
Does your child have an Autism diagnosis? Did they live in a pre-1978 home as a baby? One in three American children today has had an unsafe level of Lead in their blood in their lifetime, so the odds are that more than 30% of the children of parents reading this did.
Thanks for reading. Please ask questions if you have them.
If you have a child who is Autistic and who you think may have been exposed to Lead as a child, please consider joining our parent-led secret Facebook support group for parents of Lead-poisoned children (send Tamara a message here and she will add you). You might find some answers there.
Leonard Rubin
Father of Lead-poisoned children
Sunday, May 24, 2015
This is the best article I have ever read – hands down – on the Autism and Lead Poisioning issue(s). Thank you for clarifying in an easy to understand format!
Mindy Allen
I love you, dear! <3
Wish we lived closer!!!
Hi! I have a child that has Autism and we recently found out he has lead poisoning at level 45. Can you please private message me or email me?
Will do
Wow, this is very insightful! I’m the father of a 10yr old son who has brain damage due to lead poisoning. Thankfully, he only had mild poisoning (16 lead level) and has received some care and consideration at school due to his diagnosis, and his IEP has helped him. I’ve always wondered if there were more services her could get, to help him adjust socially and emotionally as he gets closer to teenage years.
Tamara, would it possible to add me to the private Facebook group for parents of lead-poisoned children? I would love to connect with others who have gone through this before.
Thank you,
Leith Knight
Yes – of course! Send me a friend request on Facebook and I can add you to the group (you have to be friends with someone in the group to be added.)
That is not considered “mild” poisoning
Hi. I just brought myself to read this as I was worried about it but i think my son is actually autistic as so is his sister and the only lead exposure that could have been a threat was a nutribullet that I had many many smoothies in when I was pregnant ( sister I had HG and barely ate) anyway thats here nor there. I know i was exposed to some lead as a child. We had fishing sinkers all around and other unsafe things I was touching anyway if lead acts as calcium and you breastfeed and even in pregancy could that lead affect the foetus and baby if breastfed. My thinking is could the genetic component of autism be that the lead was passed on?
It could be – there is some good research about the genetic implications of Lead exposure. Look up the work of Dr. Lidsky for starters.
hello, I am actually working with our county on lead-abatement efforts part of which include education & awareness. We have a pretty awesome Lead Task Force in our county made up of nurses and physicians, realtors, contractors etc… and they’re more informed than most. one thing that continues to come up is awareness: how can we make this so important everyone is talking about it and coordinating efforts to 1) combat it & 2) properly address the effects. I’d love to have a conversation with you about that.
(I know it’s a long shot but this article was very informative and first-hand experience is priceless)
thank you!
Shawna
Thank you! Sent you an email!
My state tests very few children for lead. We have noticed delays and challenges with our kids that so far we have been unable to pinpoint a cause. At what age is it too late to test for lead?
This is a late response, but hopefully it will help someone. I just found out that my 11 year old daughter has a high lead level. She’s always had pica and is prone to picking at things around the house. At her age I assumed that it was confines to chewing on pencils during homework, for example.
We have a 1950’s home and she was picking some paint off the wall. I assumed that at her age she knew better than to do things like eat paint. Recently she stealing bits off coffee grounds to eat out of the grinder so I asked her not too. She replied that she was eating the coffee grounds so she wouldn’t eat the wall. I was shocked and ordered tests for iron and lead. Her lead level came back as 41.5! She has a bit of ADHD, but she is very bright and in all advanced classes.
My message here is if you have any question, test no matter what age the child is. It’s an easy test and there is no downside to testing. I do wonder what other parents are doing to help detox lead after you know it’s an issue. So far it’s just been recommended to increase calcium, iron, etc. and they don’t do any kind of chelation until the level is 45+, but that doesn’t sit well with me.
Please read this (and the linked science) about detox:
https://tamararubin.com/2019/07/click-the-link-to-learn-more-wait-what-is-this-click-bait-what-are-you-selling/
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Please also watch my film if you have not yet seen it:
https://tamararubin.com/2023/01/a-link-to-my-film/
Tamara
Hi Tamara,
I am a school psychologist. There are alot of things, I believe, preventing us from being able to identify students who have been affected by lead poisoning when they present as Kindergartners, rather than labeling them as being on the Autism spectrum.
I have a case currently, that I am not convinced is Autism; and am being pressured by the administration to label the child as Autistic to “get him help asap” in the school setting.
It frustrates me as a practitioner to knowingly misidentify as Autism to get some type of services. I wish there was a better way; there are barriers in terms of schools pigeonholing students into categories, just to get services.
Not only Lead Poisoning; but many neurological and genetic disorders are not being examined fully by medical professionals, and are labeled as Autism by school-based practitioners. Which is especially concerning to me, because some of them can be treated – slowed down. For example, a student with Glutaric Acidemia which causes brain damage; who by all intents and purposes seems to be on the Autism Spectum, had the parents not brought in the diagnosis. This condition is treated through a special diet to prevent the proteins from building-up in the brain. Had the parents been told the child was Autistic in Kindergarten, perhaps the Glutaric Acidemia would not have been discovered.
I hope that parents know that school psychologists do strive to seek differential diagnoses; often the law and confines that we are working in; are leading to the wrongful categorization of Autism.
Thank you for this very intelligent and well thought out comment. I’m going to ponder it a bit and respond a bit later when I don’t have kiddos underfoot!
– Tamara
Thank you so much for some clarification on this! I have been searching and searching.. I have known for the past few weeks, that lead poisoning was the cause of my sons behavior and developmental issues. I finally “connected the dots,” I guess you could say. They had a “hard time” diagnosing him, a week ago, but finally came back with autism. I knew deep down, immediately that something wasn’t right. So many people just try to “accept” what “wrong” with their children when they’re diagnosed with autism, but it’s more than likely because Lead poisoning is involved. Myself and my entire family have been exposed and we have just found out and are in the process of finding somewhere to move now. It’s a really sad situation and with everything we’ve been through. I have gathered all the medical records and connected everything, so I’m angry with the landlord for not informing me of any of the hazards before we moved in.. Oh lord, I could just go on and on. Anyone who reads this, please pray for us!! I wish more people in the medical field would look into this more, so we can have some help for our children.. I am so unbelievably frustrated and it breaks my heart. Thank you so much for sharing this, I really needed to see it!!
Unfortunately, just because you live in a house built pre-1978 and you have autism like symptoms doesn’t mean that this is the cause. There still could be other causes for the symptoms. I have two children with pans/pandas another ugly sister diagnosis that nobody understands and is purely clinical. There are many children thrown on the autism spectrum who have P/P which is an autoimmune disorder. I’ve been on this journey for seven years and I have seen an explosion of parents with children diagnosed with autism who say They also know that is not their child’s actual diagnosis but they stick with it to be able to receive services and scholarship monies. It’s painful because I feel as though it is slowing down the process for all of us to figure out the causes and cures for our kids. I’m exactly your age. 58 years old and when I grow up none of these spectrum behaviors were a thing. I hope that somebody starts figuring out a way to main stream diagnosing lead poisoning, pans/pandas, etc. So that proper interventions medically and academically will be offered under the correct diagnosis. Great article. Sorry you are living in the same circle of hell as me.
What a great article! Thank you for sharing your experience. My daughter has a diagnosis of chronic toxic encephalopathy and autism. She was exposed to a different neurotoxin but is presenting similarly to how lead poisoned children. Our developmental pediatrician explained it to me in a way that makes a lot of sense. Society used to think ID had one cause or was one disorder it wasn’t until more research was done that it was discovered that ID does not have one cause it has many. I believe that autism will be the same way… Some environmental, some genetic, etc. Because it is diagnosed behaviorally not through a blood test. My girl was given the autism diagnosis because it opened up theapy opportunities and it allows us to get get more services. The way our family has chosen to view it is that being autistic does not define our girl…. Our girl defines being autistic. The label has given her a sense of pride because the spectrum is wide and she knows she is not alone.
I hope you guys are able or have been able to find a school for your sweet boy. Thank you again for sharing your journey and your content.
Wow! I am enlightened! My son had mild/low lead poisoning as a toddler (less than 4 level in his blood). Over the 6 years since, I have always thought he has many autistic symptoms, as well as sensory issues. However, also several indications that he does not have autism (such as great eye contact). After reading this article, I am convinced that he has brain damage due to his poisoning. Thank you for all you do for advocacy. I really appreciate all of it. I am reading up on your website to learn more and be educated on lead poisoning.
Thank you for commenting!
T
Thank you so very much for this information! You are doing amazing work, and I am grateful. I am sorry you had to go through this in order to get here. I am new to your groups and slowly working my way through everything, and not be too stressed out st the same time. We are just over the river in Vancover & we lived (both boys born in & raised until youngest was 5 months old) in CA in a home built in 1955. So I just requested testing from our doctor for both. Just wish I had known sooner. Sigh. Our home now is 1990. My oldest has not been officially diagnosed, but pretty sure he would be diagnosed with autism or spectrum if we went there. He has been diagnosed with SPD & ADHD.
Thank you again!
Very well presented & heart-felt perspectives to support families.
I cannot find your outdoor posters. Where can I buy them?
Stellar article, Bravo!
§ Wow! I have not yet encountered someone who has a similar hypothesis to my own about the various causes of autism spectrum disorder, but now I have. I am behavior therapist and have worked with many children and youth with ASD, and I have read a lot about behavioral interventions for those on the spectrum, and I remember where I was – standing next to a trampoline with one of my clients jumping and having fun at a therapy clinic – when it dawned on me, “‘Autism’ is probably just a blanket term for a general category of symptoms, symptoms that can actually be further subdivided and defined into specific clusters of symptoms. ASD is defined more or less by ‘communication and social impairment with obsessive, repetitive behavior,’ but this is a broad category that can be subdivided into more precise behaviors and descriptions. But, that’s too complex and difficult to do, so ‘autism’ is the most convenient and functional label we can come up with.” I went home and journaled later, hypothesizing that clients A, B, and C with excellent eye contact but extreme fastidiousness in their play with toy trains probably had one unique cause of ASD, and my clients D, E, and F who can’t talk and would rock back and forth and hit their heads likely had another unique cause of ASD. To make the illustration extreme and memorable for myself, I think I wrote something like, “If you’re mom ate tuna at Grandma’s on Sundays during gestational ages 2-3 months, then you’re ASD behavior will include self-injury to the head, but if you got 3 vaccines in the first year out of the womb and went on vacation to Disney world, you would have hand flapping.” That’s an arbitrary and slightly ridiculous example, but the point is that the initial causes of these behavioral subtypes of ASD could be just about anything – it will be very hard to pinpoint…well, at least it’s hard for the average person…I imagine there are scientists and researchers who can figure it out…and I have a suspicion that some already have but are not being vocal about it out of fear or greed. We do know, however, from research that there are various factors related to autism: If the father has it, if the child had Tylenol, if the child was exposed to heavy metals, if the child was exposed to certain pollutants from vehicles (just think of all of the oil, gas, brake fluid, windshield washer fluid, and exhaust pumped out by vehicles), if the child was exposed to pesticides (there are so many pesticides…), genetic predisposition (Greenville Genetics, at least at one time, was working on a genetic test for ASD that was ~80% accurate in diagnosing), and others. So, if all of these things are correlated with ASD, how does one know exactly what caused someone’s ASD? It’s nearly impossible to know exactly. I think this is what motivates people to, logically, start to generally avoid as many possible causes of ASD as they can. Those who choose to avoid vaccines, for example, either certain vaccines or certain vaccination schedules, are justified in doing so because the leaders in science and government say “We don’t know what causes ASD with certainty,” yet these folks read or hear about all of this correlations, and they conclude, “I’m getting as far away as I can from anything that even seems like it could be contributing!” They start eating organic/regenerative food, avoid vaccines, use vinegar to replace the brand-name cleaners, and they start reading Tamara’s site to avoid lead, and many other things like that. I don’t blame them. In fact, I’m basically one of them : )
Some more thoughts:
I think that ASD is more or less a combination of genetics, autoimmune disease, and brain injury.
When the genetic component is considered and you read up on it, it seems unavoidable that there are genetic mutations (caused by toxins and traumatic exposures, probably). When brain injury is considered, even with the plasticity of the brain and the remarkable gains that can be made with things like speech and behavior therapies, it seems to be firm and resilient over time – as this blog post states (brain injury as baby or toddler via lead exposure is permanent). I think the work of Dr. Robert Naviaux with Suramin and cell danger response theory, as well as studies with fecal transplant reducing ASD symptoms, shows there is a strong autoimmune component, as well.
One thing that all of these touch on is: nutrition. It seems too simplistic, I know, but I have encountered this over and over again as a conclusion, no matter what angle I come at. Even in this blog, notice that a key nutrient is named, “calcium.” Leonard writes, “Lead bio-mimics calcium.” Anyone familiar with Drs. Abraham, Brownstein, and Flechas (optimox.com/education/ and read “the historical background of the iodine project” if you’re curious) will know that iodine displaces bromine, fluoride, lead, cadmium, mercury, and aluminum in those who take certain doses of iodine – along with some other nutritional supplements, like selenium and sea salt to name a few, to aid iodine – for certain periods of time. If we are nutrient deficient, then those slots and spots in our body where the good nutrients should have been will get filled up with the bad stuff that shouldn’t be there (but is because of consumer products, contaminated water, and contaminated food).
I suppose, then, that a good way to protect against toxin damage is not only avoidance – which is key, and why I love Tamara’s work – but also nutrient density in the diet and via supplementation. Intracellular testing (not merely blood serum, but blood cell testing) of key nutrients, finding out what nutrients we lack, and then eating the foods that have those nutrients and supplementing with pills and liquids as necessary is going to be key to both resilience in the face of toxins and traumas and to healing as much as we can from them. Supplementation often takes 3-6 months to see an effect, usually requiring rather high doses of nutrients before titrating down to a lower maintenance dose schedule for the rest of one’s life. I wish I had the time and space to write about the work of the Bionutrient Institute and John Kempf on our food supply, but I’ll let the reader research them as they see fit.
A final thought on nutrition: The recommended daily allowances and tolerable upper limits set by the National Institute of Medicine are often too low, and they openly admit this if you read the chapters on each nutrient. I don’t necessarily blame them, they do seem to be doing the best they can with the data they have and the millions of people they have to take into consideration in the populace, but I do wish they would be more open and public with the tentativeness and conservative nature of their recommendations. Boron, for example, is too low, and they more or less say so when they state that they don’t actually know what the level should be, and they invite researchers to experiment with higher doses and find the sweet spot! Read up on Rex Newman and you’ll see that we need quite a bit more boron than the NIM says we do.
Wonderful, comprehensive and articulately written article. Should be “required reading” for all medical students going into pediatrics. Thank you so much for posting it.
Thank you. I appreciate your comment so much! Have you watched the film yet? I often do presentations where doctors and nurses get CEUs for attending the presentation and watching the film (and participating in a post-screening discussion on the subject – with me and other parents of lead poisoned children + local experts on the subject). I love it when people in medical professions learn new things… it’s so important.
Here’s the link to my film:
https://tamararubin.com/2023/01/a-link-to-my-film/
Research is increasingly pointing to a very strong genetic basis for autism and ADHD, which are both highly correlated with each other and likely involve same of the same genetics. In fact, many parents first learn of their own ADHD and/or autism only after their child receives a diagnosis. 30 years ago, there simply was not the understanding and diagnosis of autism and ADHD that there is now, and many adults, particularly those with more mild symptoms and women who were often able to “pass” better, were never diagnosed as children. I learned that I had ADHD after my daughter was diagnosed. My brother was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, but myself and my two sisters were not diagnosed until adulthood. I believe if my brother were assessed today, he likely would also be diagnosed with ASD. My sister’s two children both have autism. My parents have never been diagnosed, but I realize now that they both have symptoms of ADHD and my father shows symptoms of ASD.
I mention this, because I wonder if there have been studies in which the parents of children who have both an autism and lead positioning diagnosis are screened for autism or ADHD themselves. It would actually be very valuable research it it could be shown that parents of children with both a lead poisoning and autism diagnosis are less likely to have autism/ADHD themselves than are parents of children who have autism/ADHD without lead poisoning. That would speak strongly to potential mis-diagnosis. The other possibility, as you brought up, is that autism may not be a mis-diagnosis, but may have been brought upon by the lead poisoning. Either way, I think that type of research would be very valuable.