Comments on: Chelation study to be ‘released’?

By: Ms. Clark

Ms. Clark — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:38:20 +0000

blech. t.insel wouldn’t dare talk about children with Tourette or anxiety disorder or Down syndrome the way he talks about autistic children. He’s been totally co-opted by the likes of Jon “My kid’s an empty shell” Shestack and Lyndelle “My kid was viciously poisoned and cruelly obliterated in a desperate case of toxic PDD,NOS” Redwood.

By: Kev

Kev — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:00:27 +0000

Not at all – the more accurate the better. I just wish Insel might’ve listened :/

By: Ms. Clark

Ms. Clark — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:37:53 +0000

Dr Brent was answering a question from one of the Special Masters. I hope Kev doesn’t object to me being pedantic… I’m going add to his transcription a couple of words I heard: “Dr. Brent: Well, I’d have to, in truth, we don’t follow urine/leads because the correct test is blood/lead so I haven’t looked at many urine/leads in children that I have chelated. So I can’t speak to that in my experience. But I have seen a number of patients now come to me because of these ‘doctor’s data’ type of laboratories which are based on urines – chelated urines – and they always have high leads in their chelated urines and I tell them ‘well, lets just do the gold standard test, lets get a blood/lead level and so far, 100% of the time they’ve been normal.

SM: Let’s get back to mercury then. Are the post chelation mercury levels in either of these two boys in excess of what you would see or in excess of … I take it that there’s no reference range…

Brent: No standard reference range, you do tend to see small increases, they’ve had some minor increases in their mercury excretion over the reference range for the nonprovoked, it’s certainly not very dramatic. And it’s certainly well within the range that you wuld expect to see. ...”

By: Newsweek Article Highlights Chelation Study - Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy

Newsweek Article Highlights Chelation Study - Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:14:01 +0000

[...] Kevin Leitch of the UK-based blog Left Brain Right Brain wrote on the same topic today – check out his take on things: Chelation study to be ‘released’? [...]

By: María Luján

María Luján — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:54:42 +0000

Joseph, Jennifer and Kev It is not so simple

Much more research is needed on transport and metabolism and excretion, especially in autistic chidren/teens and adults and how protein restriction impacts toxic elements management. At the present situation the experts on the classical toxicology- that apply concepts of acute poisoning- and some proponents of the rush to diagnose toxic elements accumulation- without the care and the needed research/proper testing because it is a topic of ongoing research-are not helping a bit- and did not in my personal experience. However, people like Dr Insel did.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:47:37 +0000

There is no reason to chelate autistic children.

I’d put that a different way. There’s no more reason to chelate an autistic child than there is to chelate a non-autistic child. Presumably, both autistic and non-autistic children do become heavy-metal poisoned occasionally.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:37:14 +0000

It's hard to understand how someone in Dr Insel's position could make such statements. Doesn't he think autistic children deserve ethical treatment, and not to be treated as guinea pigs? I sounded off about this stuff a minute ago.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:13:48 +0000

Thanks for this. You didn’t mention the series of studies that looked at children with real, moderately high, blood levels of lead (20 and 44 microg/dL). Those children were treated with DMSA chelation, and while their lead levels dropped faster than untreated children, their cognitive performance did not improve more than the placebo group. Indeed, there was some evidence that chelation could impair cognition. And as a consequence, it is no longer recommended that children with these moderate levels of lead in their blood be treated by chelation.

http://pediatrics.aappublicati...../110/4/787

Of course, children with autism do not have high levels of mercury in their blood. So, the rationale for treatment is very skimpy indeed.