Chelation based on faulty premise -- latimes.com

Chelation based on faulty premise -- latimes.com

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This is an important article about an "alternative therapy" which I hope parent's consider before becoming involved in anything as dangerous and unsubstantiated as Chelation therapy. The most effect treatments for ASD remain Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and related social communications therapies. If your here in BC and you search the web for treatment options for your child surprisingly what comes up first on many Google or Bing searches are alternative therapies for which there is very little scientific evidence. These include Chiropractic therapy, naturopaths, homeopathic interventions and DAN doctors who make diet advise that is not supported by mains team medicine. Again, I urge you to check out mainstream resources, including the ACT website in BC, information from the US National Institute of Mental Health, at your local school ask for a consult with the POPARD consultant (Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders) or, even better, talk to your medical doctor. My favorite resource is Science Based Medicine, edited by Dr. Steven Novella. Quack Watch is another good resource for science / researched based information.

More recently the Lancet, which originally published the article falsely linking autism to vaccines withdrew the article by Andrew Wakefiled, the doctor who proposed the "link" many of these theories and interventions are based upon. There were several other authors of the article, and all of them had withdrawn their names, except Dr. Wakefield. Dr. Wakefield has been found guilty of fixing the data, and creating the link between autism and vaccines to support his own plan to provide an alternative. In spite of the overwhelming evidence, legal cases won and disciplinary action taken against the doctors who started this line of false thinking, some practitioners still make claims that are contradictory of the weight of scientific evidence, and offer to take your money to provide treatments based upon those false claims. Beware. Check with your own medical provider, check with your POPARD consultant at your child's school. What you shouldn't do is obtain information from newspapers who often mis=report data, and not accept information from the internet (including me!)

Look for professional advice, and don't think your getting professional advice from anyone in the field of "alternative" treatments. Usually alternative means unproven or unaccepted by the scientific community.