I am not sure of what role this will play in the treatment of Autism. So this is not a recommendation that one should use stem cell for the treatment of Autistic kids. This is informational only.

November 4, 2010; It was announced today that stem cell therapy is now
available in the Dominican Republic. Known as the “Stem Cell
Project”, Dr. Gene Anthony with assistance from Robert Hartsoe have been working on making stem cell therapy affordable for children and adults with various forms of brain injury,especially autism. Different
methods have been studied and Adipose Stem Cell Therapy was chosen as
the primary method to be used. However, one of the problems with some
of the children with CP, and other more serious forms of brain injury is
they do not have the extra fat tissue to extract the stem cells. So,
in addition, it was announced today that bone marrow stem cell will also be available in the Dominican Republic. The costs of both types of stem cell therapy is reported to be less than $6,000 which is over 70% less
than most parts of the world. There is a special yahoo group you can
join to get more information. You can join StemCellDR@yahoogroups.com for more information. The Dominican Republic may become the Stem Cell capital for brain injury. The “Stem Cell Project” is a major breakthrough.

Hello All!
After a wonderful Thanksgiving, and the rush of Black Friday shopping here in the US – many of us are relaxing around the house, recuperating. If you’re at your computer and have a few moments, now might be a perfect time to sign up for the Association for Science in Autism Treatment’s free quarterly newsletter.
You can do so here: http://www.asatonline.org/signup
We have a new issue coming out soon – signup so that you’ll receive it first!
Our goal was to get our newsletter out to 6000 subscribers by the end of 2010. We’re quickly reaching the end of 2010 – and only need a few more subscribers! Will you help us reach it?

If you’re unfamiliar with SIAT, it is a newsletter packed with information (20-30 pages per issue) that include things such as:
Is there science in that? [we take treatments proposed for autism and examine the scientific literature supporting it]
Interview with those in the field [ranging from ASAT board members/volunteers, parents, and scientists in the field]
Article reviews [generally 3 article reviews that provide a quick and easy review of articles germane to scientific treatment in autism]
Upcoming Events that may be of interest to the reader
Treatment Summary [we choose a treatment proposed for autism and provide a very brief summary]

If you are already signed up – we urge you to share this invitation with others that you think might be interested.

Clinic using experimental therapy on autism patients seeing positive results
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Small-So-Ind-clinic-being-called-a-place-where-miracles-happen-110669404.html

”We’re finding places in the brain that don’t work, do work, connected, not connected and finding the best places to stimulate and why,” said Harry Schneider, with the Southern Indiana Clinic. It’s called TCDS; or trans-cranial direct current stimulation. It’s been used for years for stroke, Parkinsons or brain injury patients to re-ignite parts of the brain; specifically dealing with language.

Distinctive Bacteria in Autistic Kids’ Guts Could Enable Urine Test for Autism
Autistic children have distinctive chemicals in their urine, according to a study by British researchers who say the results could pave the way for an diagnostic test for the disorder.
The finding also lends more weight to theories that substances related to gut bacteria may contribute to autism
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-06/study-finds-distinctive-gut-bacteria-autistic-kids-urine

Carol Gray has done a nice job Asperger Syndrome and Bullying.  There are some great resources here:

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http://www.thegraycenter.org/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=29

The web-site above has some wonderful resources to deal with social aspects for Aspergers as well as how to avoid being bullied by others.

Children at risk in food roulette.

By Sam Roe Chicago Tribune Nov 22, 2008

American children with food allergies are suffering life-threatening–and completely avoidable–reactions because manufacturers mislabel their products and regulators fail to police store shelves, a Tribune investigation has found.

In effect, children are used as guinea pigs, with the government and industry often taking steps to properly label a product only after a child has been harmed.

The Tribune investigation revealed that the government rarely inspects food to find problems and doesn’t punish companies that repeatedly violate labeling laws.

Putting the products to the test.

Tests find chemical after normal heating of ‘microwave safe’ plastics

By Susanne Rust And Meg Kissinger
Nov. 15, 2008
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/34532034.html

Products marketed for infants or billed as “microwave safe” release toxic doses of the chemical bisphenol A when heated, an analysis by the Journal Sentinel has found.

The newspaper had the containers of 10 items tested in a lab – products that were heated in a microwave or conventional oven. Bisphenol A, or BPA, was found to be leaching from all of them.

The amounts detected were at levels that scientists have found cause neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. The problems include genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands. The changes to the mammary glands were identical to those observed in women at higher risk for breast cancer…

[excellent article at url]
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/34532034.html

– – – – see also:

• To test ‘safe’ products for bisphenol A, Journal Sentinel reporters sent items to Vom Saal’s laboratory for testing, one of the few laboratories that has repeatedly looked for BPA levels leaching from food containers.

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin

Here is a tragic story:

“Dear Friends,

As I train police officers about autism and share with them the high risk drowning poses to children and adults with autism, I had hoped to not know that painful loss on a personal level.

This morning, I received the heartbreaking news from my very dear friend from Lexington, Kentucky–Michele Brock– sharing the tragic news of the loss of her daughter’s life on Sunday evening.  Ashley had autism and struggled with the lack of danger and safety awareness that so often accompanies this diagnosis.and which many of our loved ones with autism share.  Drowning is the number one cause of death among persons with autism.

The Brocks are amazing and careful and dedicated parents.  They gave up their lovely home in Kentucky, careers, families and friends to move to Maine to seek help for Ashley as she struggled to speak and battled the most serious biomedical issues I’ve ever seen in a child with autism–a great sacrifice to them personally, emotionally and financially.  Michele left her successful career to remain home with Ashley and her twin sister, Alexis.  Barry recently lost his job and was struggling with a national job search to find employment AND an area with schools suitable for Ashley.

Their message:  Michele has asked everyone with a child with autism to get them swim lessons ASAP!  Their neighbors had just put water in the pool and began to swim in it the day before Ashley’s death.  And, yes, the Brock’s yard was fenced.  Ashley was an incredible escape artist.

Please keep the Brock family in your thoughts and prayers.

Sharing this story in hopes that you will never share this pain~Michelle

*************************************************************************************************************************************
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:41:49 AM
Subject: Sad News

As I sit here agonized by the thought of closing my eyes, yet hoping I am in the middle of some nightmare that I may still wake up from, I realize that I can no longer put off the inevitable.  I somehow thought that if I didn’t write it, it wasn’t true.  Our angel, Ashley Brock, was taken from us in a drowning accident on Sunday, May 18th at 7:25pm.  While we mourn the loss of our beloved daughter, we also celebrate the truly unique and wonderful gift that she was.  We thank God for every day that he has blessed us with her presence and pray that he gives us the strength to survive this horrendous ordeal.

Arrangements are being made at the Brackett Funeral Home at 29 Federal Street in Brunswick, Maine for later in the week.   To learn more about our special girl visit our dear friend’s website www.adventuresinautism.com.

Thank you for all your love and support.

Michele”

This is a medical disclaimer: Please remember that this not meant as medical advice but as a desire to share information. Please always implement treatments under medical supervision. We are cannot be held liable for any of this information.

Here is something interesting:

“Most of the time the color is from flora on the teeth – usually presumably bacterial – but recently I had an adult woman patient who was about to go to a dentist to have her teeth whitened at a very high cost becaue she had had brown teeth for more than a year. Two weeks of Nizoral (anti-yeast medication) and her teeth were white again. Many bacteria and fungi are pigmented. 500 species of bacterial live on and around the teeth and gums so it’s pretty much the same deal as dysbiosis further south in the GI tract.”

This is a medical disclaimer: Please remember that this not meant as medical advice but as a desire to share information. Please always implement treatments under medical supervision. We are cannot be held liable for any of this information.

This is from an anesthesiologist who has an autistic child, and lots of experience with kids”

“For sedation dental surgery, I would use versed and propofol (dipravan) drips in the IV to titrate to the effect and they sleep through the whole thing breathing on their own with nasal cannula as long as the dentist is not using any cautery or fire-hazard equipment during the procedure, it works great.  We use alot of ketamine (family of angel-dust) for kids which vets use all the time on animals (cheap, keeps spontaneous breathing active, hemodynamic stability) but I find ketamine questionable on ASD kids since it is “dissociative anesthetic” agent (disconnects the sensory part of brain form recognizing pain), it might worsen their sensory disintegration postop.  Ketamine tends to result in nightmares and all kinds of psychiatric issues with patients postop.  Many pediatric anesthesiologists recommend Ketamine to be the choice of anesthetic for these kids and I strongly disagree.  These kids cannot complain of nightmares and strange sensations postop for days since most of them cannot communicate their intelligence appropriately as you and I know well. Please warn parents of it. Since they do not have knowledge of ASD kids or refuse to believe what we know, I find myself practicing very differently than most of the “specialists.”

This is a medical disclaimer: Please remember that this not meant as medical advice but as a desire to share information. Please always implement treatments under medical supervision. We are cannot be held liable for any of this information.