Autism/Biomedical

Our Approach to Autism Recovery

In 1999 I was in my last year of clinical training in Minneapolis when I was offered the opportunity to finish my training under the tutelage of a private practice doctor with 30 years of experience.  I felt this would be a good opportunity to harness his experience, but I had no idea how that decision would change the path of my life and career.  I learned how to evaluate a patient from the cellular level first, work my up through the organs, through the systems, through the symptoms, and then the overall person.

What most people don't realize is this is exactly the opposite of the way we doctors are taught to evaluate our patients.  We are taught to begin with the symptoms, apply a name to those symptoms (this is called diagnosing), and then treat those named symptoms, now called the disease.  This approach works very well when the symptom itself is eminently life threatening, but has no effect on reversing or curing the underlying cause of those symptoms.  This is why so many diseases are labeled incurable or to use the medical term, CHRONIC.

Through my functional approach I do not view any condition as chronic, but rather I see the patient in need of repair. This unique approach has been coined Functional Medicine and is now being championed by doctor groups including Defeat Autism Now (DAN!).

By utilizing special blood and urine lab tests, I am able to detect underlying functional disturbances that contribute to conditions such as Autism, PDD, ADD, ADHD and other cognitive disturbances not amenable to drug therapy.  My primary areas of measurement are:

• Metabolism of organic acids, fatty acids, and amino acids.
• Mitochondrial and cellular capacity.
• Dysfunction of the digestive tract.
• Impairment of the detoxification capacity of the liver and kidneys.
• Toxic and nutrient metals
• Fungal overgrowths.
• Parasitic infestation.
• Vaccine history and schedule.
• Underlying immune reactions to foods and additives beyond gluten and casein.
• Neurotransmitter production and regulation.
• Blood and tissue levels of key vitamins and minerals.

I focus on these areas for two reasons.  First, these are the core elements regulating the body's ability to control brain function, repair itself, rid itself of environmental toxins, and coordinate internal physiology. Secondly, these are the areas we can repair in order to restore proper function.  Incidentally, these metabolic areas are not amenable to drug therapy, so they are not evaluated by pediatricians.