A
Comprehensive Anti-Infection Approach
By: Stan Kurtz – Parent/Researcher
This is a DRAFT document – written 07/03/07
updated 10/03/07.
This document is
supported with medical literature, scientific data, clinical observations, and
parental reports. It also reflects
the observations, views and personal experience of the author who is a parent
(not a doctor). Mr. KurtzÕs perspective is driven from his personal experience
including his sonÕs recovery and from an evolving data pool in his online group
with 18,000+ posts from 1900+ families, many of which are sharing information
on what has worked and not worked for their child.
This document is
not intended in any way to be a substitute for professional medical advice.
This document is
an evolving work in progress. For
the latest version please visit www.recoveryvideos.com
Mr. KurtzÕs parental,
clinicianÕs, and researchers group can be found at: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/mb12valtrex/
Mr. KurtzÕs bio can be
viewed at:
The Early Origins of My
Antiviral Research
William Shaw Ph.D. was
the first person to suggest that I research antiviral therapies. My research
began by finding the works of Dr. Michael Goldberg, Dr. Jacquelyn McCandless and Dr. Sidney Baker. Through recovering my son, helping other families and observing a number of reports from families and physicians I quickly realized that a more comprehensive and individualized approach is what seems to work best for
the greatest number of children.
In less than a month after
starting an anti-infection strategy my son looked completely different. To me he looked recovered from his
major symptoms of autism. After my
sonÕs recovery I was quite surprised how very few doctors were treating autism
with an anti-infection strategy and how many of those who did not understand
the critical importance of a simultaneous
and comprehensive approach.
My current position is that
an antiviral (often a prescription but sometimes natural products) in
combination with an azole [24]
antifungal and some other prescription antifungals, as well as supplementation,
dietary intervention, and, at times, metals detoxification, given simultaneously
can successfully improve the health and symptoms of a child with autism and
related disorders.
What is Recovery From
Autism?
You cannot be cured of being
hit by a bus, but you can recover from it. You might even be able to recover enough that you do not
need to park in special parking spaces when you go shopping. If you are fortunate enough you might
recover well enough that you gain back so much of your functioning such that no
one would know you were ever in an accident.
This analogy mirrors my
belief about recovery from autism.
There are several degrees to this analogy. Some childrenÕs symptoms improve well enough that they start
functioning like neurotypical children.
They are still autistic but they are making great strides. To me, this means, Ògreatly
improved.Ó
Some childrenÕs symptoms
lessen to the degree that they lose their diagnosis. They are no longer considered autistic. This is one degree of recovery. Typically you might see children like
this having some residual symptoms of social, verbal, or learning nuances or
ADHD-type symptoms that might alert a specialist to suspect that the child once
had an autism diagnosis. For the
most part they are free of their symptoms and will likely lead what many would
consider a relatively normal life in society.
There is another form of
recovery where if you met the child in a room of his or her peers and did not
know the child had a diagnosis you would not be able to tell there ever was a
diagnosis. When I refer to recovery
I typically mean this level or maybe something arguably close. My son recovered from autism to this
degree.
When I say Ògreatly improved
or recoveredÓ that is a spectrum that means moderate improvement to significant
improvement from the childÕs symptoms all the way through to developmental
gains that make the child seem indistinguishable from his or her peers.
About MB12Valtrex - My
Family and Practitioners Group
In 2005, I founded of
MB12Valtrex, which is a unique group of families, practitioners, therapists,
and teachers (2000+ members and 18,000+ posts as of 8/07) who explore and help
develop these therapies and report clinical observations of children who are
using this comprehensive antiviral approach for individuals with autism
symptoms. This group is a great
way to execute these strategies and obtain direct feedback learn about how
parents and practitioners execute these therapies and what they observe through
the process. You can join this
group by going to the link below.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/mb12valtrex/
About External Therapies
I continue to believe in
Speech, Occupational, Physical, Educational, Sensory Integration, and Behavior
Therapies as being an important part of recovery. I look at biomedical therapies, like this comprehensive
anti-infection therapy, as being similar to putting glasses on the brain and
free the body up to be able to utilize external therapies better.
About Autism
Some people talk about the
gifts of autism (or ADHD). If your
child had wonderful gifts but had a persistent pneumonia, recovering your child
from the pneumonia would not take away their gifts, and, in fact, it would
probably enhance them. I believe in the gifts that our children have, and I
also believe in giving them every possible chance to use them to their fullest
potential.
When I speak about autism I
usually mean autism as we understand the symptoms today, but I also believe
that many chronic illnesses often have a similar origin and modality as autism
symptoms. My school that includes
a combination of children with chronic illness, autism with ÒtypicalÓ children
we see many children and parents improve or recover from the symptoms of
illnesses and behaviors typically considered untreatable or incurable. This includes eczema, asthma, chronic
fatigue, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, colitis, chronÕs disease,
diverticulitis, chronic viral infections, speech delay, sensory issues, food
allergies, aggression, sleep disturbance, drooling, chronic runny nose,
aggression, biting, anxiety, separation challenges, and more.
I have observed a surprising
number of parents and children with chronic illness recover from the same
therapies that help many children with autism. I believe that children with autism are some of the most
biologically involved cases of chronic illness. It has been my experience that when we find therapies that
work on children with autism, that the same therapies often improve and/or
preserve the health of many ÒneurotypicalÓ people and help recover some
ÒincurableÓ chronic illness conditions.
About Autism and
Comprehensive Antiviral Therapy
My current belief is that
autism is often a combination of pathogens and opportunistic infections often
combined with toxic body burden that reach a point of expression during
critical times of development in (commonly) a young, susceptible host.
Basically, I believe autism,
for many children, is an infection that interferes with the bodyÕs ability to
detoxify and causes a greater susceptibility to environmental toxins.
The goal of this
comprehensive approach is to disrupt the infectious cycle and allow the immune
system regain control over these intruders and then better detoxify from the
contributing toxins and inflammation that cause the autistic characteristics.
Viral and Other Infections in Autism
In my first search in PubMed,
the main database of peer reviewed medical literature, in 2004, I found 80
peer-reviewed viral/autism involved citations in the medical literature. To check peer-reviewed medical
literature, it is as simple as doing a Google search of ÒpubmedÓ going to that
site and doing a search for Òvirus autism.Ó Many of these papers included references to specific
viruses, inflammation, and autoimmunity.
Several of them specifically state the onset of the disorder surrounded
the onset of the infection. Three
case reports showed late onsets of 11 [1],
14 [2], and 31 [2] years old.
I think the average person
does not think of infections having a neurological effect, but if you just
think about how your brain feels when you have the flu or how a dog acts with
rabies we can begin to see quick examples.
In the case of Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Tourettes Syndrome it was commonly believed to be
brought on by stress. Due to some
wonderful work by Sue Swedo, M.D., at the National Institute of Health many
cases were found to be the immune systems response to a Strep infection
(PANDAS) [29].
Other infections that are
linked to neurological issues include: Rabies, Lyme, HIV, Herpes, Polio,
Coxackie, Rubella, Borna, EpsteinÕs Barr (EPV), Eterovirus, Influenza, Measles,
Westnile - Borrelia, Shingles, Anthrax, Meningococcus, Mycobacterium, Syphilis,
Malaria, Chlamydia, Ricketts, and Candidiasis.
Infections that are in
implicated in the medical literature as causing or triggering cases of autism
include: Herpes, Rubella, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae, Shingella, Borna, Malaria,
Blastocystics, Varicella, Cytomegalo Virus (CMV), Syphilis, Toxplasmosis,
Neurocysticercosis, and Clostridium.
In reference to Clostridium, an interesting study was conducted by Dr. McFabe that showed injecting rats with propionic acid caused the onset of autism symptoms [32]. A main source of proprioic acid is Clostridia, a bacterial infection common in autism. My son had rasied levels of clostridia during his autism.
In my sonÕs case I believe he
was affected quite early on to some degree. He was born with eczema, had pale skin and his development
was at the late end of his milestones through his first 12 months. He then seemed to decline around the
time of his one-year vaccinations.
He had irregular hair growth, distended belly, dark puffy eyes, and was
hyptonic. In my experience and
opinion, eczema and related symptoms is a fungal infection of the inner layers
of the skin. Many people with eczema
appear to have gut issues that when properly taken care of seem to heal the
eczema almost immediately.
Some video examples include:
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Other evidence of how infectious activity can affect the brain includes three studies that show hypoprofusion (reduced blood flow to the brain) [33,34,35] and inflammation [36,37,38] in the presense of different types of herpes viral infections.
Secondary Symptoms and Observations of Bacteria and Fungus in the Autism Community
When I was younger and had bowel problems I now realize that I had lots of cavities, gum problems and bad breathe compared to other people. If my gums bled a lot in hindsight I wonder about my bowels. I also had adult acne and smelly feet. Additionally it only seemed like one deoderant worked for me, Secret. Hey, it really was strong enough for a man... with all that aluminum and all. Once I started working on my gut and adding MB12 that all went away.
I often hear reports of parents who had many cavities and fillings. Of course, many of us had dentists who used amalgams so not only did we have bacteria that eats away at the mouth but added to that was an almost endless amount of mercury for it to dig in to.
When I used a used an Arizona Instrument mercury vapor meter (Jerome 431-X) on the parents at my school I found that almost all of the parents were leaking toxic levels of mercury from their amalgams. Two of the three parents who did not leak mercury at all were chronic drinkers from my observation. I asked Boyd Haley Ph.D., about this and he suggested that maybe the alcohol broke down the mucosa from the mouth and the mercury was going straight in the skin. I was not getting any mercury excretion out of the hands of these people either, so this explanation did not make perfect sense to me.
My belief is that the alcohol kills off bacteria in the mouth (and possibly parts of the GI tract) and that is why the amalgams of these two moms weren't leaking.
I suspect the bacteria and fungal issue so common in parents of children with autism is doing harm in other ways as well. Since I started on working on my gut with an SCD-like diet (less IGG Food Allergies), antifungals, probiotics and Methyl-B12 Nasal Spray I stopped getting cavities, my gums stopped bleeding, and my incessant need to brush my teeth went away, my feet were much better, I could wear less deodorant and different brands, etc.
Smelly Breathe and Oily Skin Mixed With Dry Skin
There is this common smell on the breathe of many parents with autism. I also notice it at times with the kids as well. I also see a lot of oily foreheads, dry skin and thick rubbery palms. Certain fungus and bacteria make oily toxins and it seems they are often excreted from the forehead and the scalp. It seems the forehead and scalp specfically excrete these types of oily toxins. I suspect these toxic oils may also be blocking fatty acids from getting into the mitochondria. I visualize the cells blocking the fungal oils and at times secondarily causing fatty acid metabolism issues, dry skin, cholesterol and triglyceride challenges, fatty liver and myelination issues in the brain. Myelination happens in part through fatty acids and management of cholesterol. In my opinion, fungal and bacterial toxins could be a cause of some types of autisms.
I treated fungus and bacteria in my son and supplemented with essential fatty acids, l-carnitine, Co-Q10, and low dose niacin (higher doses can cause red ears and flushing).
About Thick Rubbery Palms
This seems to be common in folks with gut issues and/or mercury exposure (quite often amalgams). In a room full of people I can often tell who has amalgams just by feeling their palms.
I discovered this through my mercury vapor experiments. I found mercury is excreted moreso from the hands and feet than any other part of the skin. It seems that over time this exposure damages the palms of the hands and creates these rubbery feeling layers of toxic skin on the palms (and the bottoms of the feet).
There is a wonderful product to remove this type of damaged skin called 18MMM from GP Deva located on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (310.858.6545). I have not found anything like it. In less than a minute you can have all that bad skin removed in a painless, effortless way. Just rub a little on and the bad skin falls right off. It unfortunately is $100 dollars a bottle but luckily a little goes a long way. If you find another product that works as well please let me know. I began using 18mmm on my entire family once I realized how important the hands and feet are at excreting toxins and heavy metals.
The Philosophy Behind The
Philosophy – Autism As An Environmentally Involved Infection
I do not personally
believe that vaccinations are the only cause of autism, but, as scary at it is
for some people to believe, in some children they seem to be a factor [15]. Many people talk about ÒtheÓ factor as being a genetic
predisposition, and for some that may be, but I believe that a transmittable
viral, fungal and/or bacterial infection at times combined with an exposure to
environmental toxins or vaccines may be a more frequent onset framework for
many children. If that is the case, then genetic patterns of children with autism is secondary to better understanding and treating the infections these children have.
There was a study in Kuwait
that showed that children with autism had much higher uranium levels than
controls, which were often their siblings. It is fair to say they had similar genes, and similar
exposure to toxins but ended up with dramatically different levels of uranium
in their hair [17]. This concept was very interesting to me
considering my son had uranium levels in his hair in excess of 14 times the
ÒsafeÓ levels of exposure. He also tested with high levels of candida (a
fungus) and clostridia (a ÒbadÓ bacteria) in his intestines. My belief is that my sonÕs raised
levels of fungus, bacteria, and possibly viral infection , which is quite common in children with autism,
made him more susceptible to environmental toxins.
In 1975, there was an interesting mouse study that showed if a mouse was exposed to coxsackie virus and cadnium that raised levels of metals could be found in the brain [31].
This is a common framework of
how the crossing of an infection and environmental toxins might lead to autism.
While trying to better understand how mercury is excreted by the body I did a mercury containing flu shot experiment. I injected myself with a flu shot and used an Arizona Instrument 431-X mercury vapor meter to track my mercury excretion. What I expected to see an immediate increate in mercury vapor, similar to what I had seen when I ate sushi which was an increase in minutes. With the mercury containing flu shot my levels dropped to practically zero. The levels went lower than just prior to the flu shot and they stayed near zero about the same amount of time I felt like I had flu symptoms which was about 7 hours. As soon as I felt better the mercury started pouring out of me.
It was a lesson learned by accident, but it seems to me that nature decides to worry more about infection than toxins.
My child may have had some
type of genetic predisposition, sure, but when I helped him take care of his
nutritional, fungal, viral, bacterial and toxic issues, he recovered. The Autism Research Institute has documented more than 1,000 cases of autism recovery through approaches that include infection and toxin management.
I believe if society weighs
genetics too heavily we may miss the opportunity to remove the
infectious and toxic issues commonly involved in many of our children with symptoms of autism.
A challenge for many parents
is to consider genetics as an element of the issue and not the cause,
especially when many pathogens, bacteria and fungus (some that we may understand
and some that we do not) can easily be passed down by sexual intercourse, birth and other transmissions.
I speak quite often to parents with chronic infections and toxins who blame the symptoms on their genetics because other family members are suffering from the same symptoms. "My whole family has allergies" or "We all have autoimmune issues," etc. Sadly, there are a lot of companies and organizations who benefit from other people not knowing they are chronically ill and that those ill people can recover.
I believe it is time for all of use to take responsibility for our own health and to not leave this critically important task in the hands of people who benefit from our illness.
In my experience, autism is
often a family illness with many family members having chronic energetic,
immunological, physiological, infectious and toxic issues. It should not take much effort to see
ADHD, OCD, autoimmunity, viral/bacterial/fungal infections, chronic anxiety,
depression and cancer within the immediate family of a child and/or the parents who are
affected by autism.
I often see families racing
to help their child only to lose sight that the child has the best chance of
recovery if the individuals in their family learn from and treat their own biological
issues.
Cases Of
Children Improving and Recovering
When I starting speaking to
the few doctors who treated their patients with autism I was quite surprised to
hear how many of their patients improved from antiviral therapy especially
considering how uncommon it was to hear of doctors treating children with
antivirals. I was also hearing
reports from doctors who said that many of their patients in the autism
community Òreact negativelyÓ to antivirals so they stopped using them.
The conflicting reports were initially
puzzling, but once my child began improving on this therapy I began to
understand the unique roller coaster process of improvement antiviral therapy
can provide for many children. I
focused on the nuances of this therapy in relationship to what works with
special consideration to some of the co-infections, toxins, and metabolic
challenges commonly found in children with autism.
I found that when addressed
comprehensively, antiviral therapy (really anti-infectious therapy) can often provide a child with symptoms of
autism the opportunity to experience a remarkable improvement and at times a seemingly complete recovery from their
symptoms.
Testing for Viral Therapy
You can ask your primary care
physician to order a viral titer analysis, which can be completed by any
regular laboratory and is often covered by insurance. Many people have run these tests and they can be helpful for
some children who do not respond to a trial of this therapy. However, many
children who respond well to antiviral therapy have had negative viral test
results, meaning they did not appear to have a testable virus. My son was one of them
Some people say these
children have difficulty creating antibodies to viruses. Some people say the therapy might be
affecting a virus that we are not yet aware of. Some people believe that this therapy is doing something
other than fighting viruses.
The bottom line is that there
is a real group of people who respond wonderfully to this therapy that never
test positive for a virus before, during, and after the therapy.
Who Should Try This
Therapy?
My conclusion, after
experiencing first hand and seeing many families report gains without positive
viral testing, is we do not yet know all the modalities that will benefit
children with autism and related conditions. The best way to see if your
child will respond, in my opinion, is a trial of the therapy.
How Long Is A Trial?
Based on reports from our parent and physician
group, it typically takes up to 50 days to see if a child will be a responder
to the therapy. Many times it is
much less and sometimes, although rarely, it can be longer.
The Healing-Regression
According to an ongoing
MB12Valtrex group poll, 38% of the families who try this therapy report what I
call a Òhealing-regression.Ó I use
the term healing-regression to best describe what sometimes happens when this therapy
is first put in place. Typically
the childÕs specific symptoms of autism will worsen for a period of 14 to 50
days and then is often immediately followed by developmental gains.
This response is different
than a herxhiemer response in that you typically see some small underlying
gains along with the regressive symptoms.
Since it seems
counter-intuitive that a short regression is a common part of this important
healing process, I spend a good deal of time observing and explaining the healing-regression.
Case Example
Here is a case example of a
4-year-old boy named Joseph who was doing biomedical interventions for 18
months with some mild gains but then tried the comprehensive antiviral approach.
Mom writes: ÒThe
regression began on day 4 with gains along with it. He became extremely
irritable, throwing things and tantruming and hitting people. While he
was hitting and tantruming we noticed he was actually looking us in the
eye. He rarely would look us in the eye without being prompted.
Since we began Valtrex [and the combination anti-infections along with it] in January 2006, his eye contact has been excellentÉ.
[Now two months later] he is about 80% recovered with expressive language
delay. Now he is basically
indistinguishable among the kids in the neighborhoodÉÓ
Not everyone who improves
does as well as Joseph, but a suprising number of children do.
Not everyone has the healing-regression either, some just improve.
Here is an open poll in our
group that asks about improvements and the healing-regression.
Healing-Regression Poll – 121 Responses
A Fungal-Eczema Rash
Compared to The Antiviral Rash
If there is not a proper
fungal strategy in place, the rash that may appear when you start your
antiviral therapy could be a fungal, eczema-like rash. This type of rash can interfere and
mask the underlying gains from the antiviral therapy.
Why do children with
autism have these fungal/bacterial flares so often?
It seems there is a
biological warfare going on within these children,
We received many reports of eczema-like fungal symptoms from our group when we first started tracking antiviral therapy. This was before families began combining antiviral therapy with antifungals, supplementation and dietary interventions. I have not found another community that reports a rash of this nature from viral therapy.
There is some evidence in the medical literature of a symbiotic relationship between viruses and bacteria, meaning that when you have a latent viral infection it seems to keep bacteria in check [30].
My belief is that within our childÕs intestines a battle rages between high levels of pathogens, fungus, and bacteria. If we disrupt one element we may allow another to propagate more freely. This theory in combination with the larger number of positive gains reported in our group is why I advocate for a comprehensive approach to antiviral therapy that includes antifungals, supplementa