Autism successfully treated - latent Lyme disease the culprit - energy levels lifted

Interesting video about a french doctor who has successfully treated some autistic children with courses of antibiotics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOno_2m_8LY&feature=youtu.be

Early on in the video, it mentions that Lyme disease bacteria was found to be the problem, but then it doesn't say any more about Lyme disease. Later in the video, the researcher says he doesn't want to talk about the bacteria he has detected. So it's a bit confused, and we need further info. Also, latent infections are mentioned.

It's interesting that the video mentions autism, Lyme disease, latent infections and low energy levels... All things that have been associated with ME in various ways.


Here are some quotes from the video:

"He discovered the culprit of his problems: Lyme Disease due to bacteria transmitted by ticks."

"The researcher devised a novel method which enables him to detect latent infections in blood of young people with autism"

Theory: "Bacteria come from the intestinal mucosa which, when inflammation is present, will seep through the very fragile mucosa into the bloodstream, which in turn, produce toxins which can reach the brain."

I haven't come across any more info about this yet.

Hi Bob, there is one study where they found levels of bacterial endotoxins in the blood directly correlated severity of autism. (Exactly the same thing found in HIV+ with neurological symptoms)

Low-grade endotoxemia in patients with severe autism

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20097267

Thanks natasa. Interesting. I wonder if any research has been done with ME and endotoxins. I don't recall ever having seen any.

I can only find these two by Maes, both measuring IgA and IgM responses

Increased serum IgA and IgM against LPS of enterobacteria in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): indication for the involvement of gram-negative enterobacteria in the etiology of CFS and for the presence of an increased gut-intestinal permeability
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17007934

Normalization of leaky gut in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is accompanied by a clinical improvement: effects of age, duration of illness and the translocation of LPS from gram-negative bacteria
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19112401

Thanka for posting Bob.

Good viewing - thanks Bob. And personally all these new discoveries are confirming what I instinctively knew 12 years even before rapid decline about the compromised Gut.

Autism now infection too! - hooray they can now treat. And remove permanently the pathetics in Psychiatry.

Don't forget de Meirleir's study on CFS patients. He found higher than normal amounts of d-lactic acid producing bacteria in the stool's of CFS patients, compared with healthy controls. This type of bacteria ferment carbohydrate's that have escaped digestion, and produce d-lactic acid as a consequence. D-lactic crosses the BBB and causes neurological changes that are said to be strikingly similar to CFS symptoms eg severe lethargy, cognitive changes such as disorientation, confusion, difficulty in speaking or slurred speech, the feeling of being drunk, blurred vision, weakness and other symptoms. It is a condition usually but only rarely seen in short bowel patients, as they lack the bowel necessary to digest carbohydrates. I wonder whether some kind of carbohydrate malabsorption might produce similar symptoms, and how this would present in patients with a complete bowel, rather than a shortened bowel.

Here is the de Meirleir study:

http://www.cfids-cab.org/rc/Sheedy.pdf

This study is being followed up in Australia, here is a link to the application, with a little info:

http://sacfs.asn.au/download/Lactic acid study 2008 - Ethics Application.pdf

As far as autism is concerned, here a a couple of more studies that point at bacterial involvement. Here is the recent Ian Lipkin study which found carbohydrate malabsorption problems in patient's with autism (carb's being fermented by bacteria):

http://www.plosone.org/article/info...onid=C335DF30F9D78C2F7E964FEDC6C0C4D9.ambra02

Here is a study which talks about improvements in autistic behaviours when on vancomycin:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10921511

This next one talks about difference's in gut flora in autism compared with control's, and says that in this study a higher than normal amount of lactobacilli were found (though I know this is not what is normally seen). Lactobacilli are also d-lactic acid producer's.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10921511

This one is about the ketogenic diet used to good effect in autism ie. a carb free diet.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12693778

Hope these are of interest. I believe that autism and CFS have a great deal in common, the main one being the fact that the conditions are controlled by psych involvement. Which is why there is a dearth of biomendical research into these conditions.

Glynis x

Another thing in common is the biased reporting of research by the media, in that the really good and important research rarely gets a mention. When it is reported, it is always 'balanced' by put-down comments by the dark side (so called experts).

Let's hope so Enid!

I'd really like to find some more info about this...
It might only be a subset of Autistic children who benefit from the treatment...
And we would need to see a proper clinical trial carried out before we can be certain of the results.

I've just noticed that it says that 4 out of 5 children, who received the antibiotics, saw their symptoms "regress dramatically or disappear altogether."


Googling for: "autism, philippe raymond, luc montagnier" brings up some further info.

Yes Bob - it's all now coming together at last from so many disciplines in medicine - chiefly those on the front line caring for patients, open to research findings, free from any UK psycho bias. My own brother (Prof Neurology) took off for the States many years ago with the words "they even believe each other though they know it's wrong". So we watch happily all findings like this and so many more not from the UK but most welcome from overseas. Scrabbling to catch up here.

I also know of a GI in the UK who was doing this type of study, unfortunately, her funding ran out before she got the study published (so she told me). She said it had shown to be an effective treatment, with great improvements made in autistic behaviours. Her name is Dr Sophie Rosseneu. Here is a link to the work she was doing, but it is from another website about autism and gut bacteria, LPS etc. You will need to scroll down to the bottom of the page for the info.

http://www.microbialinfluence.com/SCD.html

I checked him out on Wikipedia, and he has actually been awarded a Nobel prize for the discovery of the HIV virus.

On the other hand, he is somewhat linked to the whole homeopathy realm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Montagnier

Some critique from a sciencebloger:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/11/luc_montagnier_the_nobel_disease_strikes.php

Didn't he state in an interview that his research actually does not give credit to homeopathic principles, because the signal they observed in his lab in diluted solutions would be lost each time long before they would reach those dilutions used in homeopathy?

Antibiotics improving symptoms of autism is nothing new really, but this is the first time it is been talked about on national TV and by high profile figures. And the first time a larger scale study is in the making. Sussed out docs and parents have been using them for a long time. The trick is figuring out which antibiotic for what child. Also which probiotic, which type of digestive enzyme, what type of diet etc. It is all highly individual and I sincerely hope they have found a way of figuring it out relative to design of the study. Having said that the fact that they report 4/5 kids responding makes me think they know how to pick the right antibiotic in most cases

That's why I used the word "somewhat". Very many scientists claim that he is linked to it. I am not going to argue that he is a proponent of homeopathy, but it seems like he is somewhat linked to that realm.

That's interesting... Did you notice that, in the video, they said that the featured autistic child had itching problems that would exhaust him... The antibiotics relieved the itching along with all his other symptoms.

I think this is definitely worth investigating further.

I guess an easy first step would be to think about anti-inflamatory diets, vitamins, minerals and supplements etc...
And then to investigate pharmaceuticals that might heal or correct the faulty tight junction barriers.

I have reason to believe that my own ME could possibly be related to gut damage as well... In my case it could be toxin related, pathogen related or both.

Does anyone know which antibiotics was used?