Exposure to heavy metals is part of modern life. These heavy metals are in many common household products as well as the petrochemicals in our air and waterways. If toxic levels of heavy metals, including mercury, are being found in many children with autism and blamed for their autism, what if the problem was not the heavy metals at all but something else? What if that something else suppressed production of an enzyme responsible for detoxification leading to these children being unable to detox from heavy metal accumulation that others in the population were able to naturally detoxify? What if that something else was being used daily by a large percentage of the world’s population and ends up in the air, soil, waterways, in our food chain and our bodies?

Here’s a tour:

Phthalates are toxic to the liver and kidneys. The liver is responsible for the PRODUCTION of enzymes necessary for detoxification. The kidneys are the bloods main detoxification organ. It’s not rocket science to realise that regularly ingesting and absorbing toxic household phthalates through the skin, lungs, nose and gut are going to impair liver and kidney function and, therefore the production of detoxification enzymes.

Phthalates are linked to birth defects, behavioural disorders and immune suppression and they are in the very products not only used, sprayed, injested, rubbed on, soaked in and flushed into the waterways of houses daily but are in the fundraising products given to disability charities by cosmetic companies seeking to raise their profile.

Although regularly not listed in the ingredients of perfumed products phthalates are almost always present when tested in personal care products and are in our plastic containers and cling film which leaches phthalates into our food. These phthalates inhibit the production of detoxification enzymes in the body. In plain English that means a toxic body, leading to impaired immune function, a systemic inflammatory state and a vulnerable brain.
Then there’s Quarternium which is formaldehyde, which also suppresses immune function. Why stop at daily exposure to one toxic chemical when you can multiply the effect and line the pockets of big business in the process. Formaldehyde (yes the same stuff they use to preserve dead bodies and in antifreeze) is in bubble bath, baby shampoos and baby lotions, including those labeled unperfumed. Those advertisments that ask ‘how much do you love your baby’ may never sound the same again.

Our waterways are also choked with billions of discarded cigarette butts washed down stormwater drains which leach an abundance of highly toxic chemicals into the water over the 12 years they take to decompose, killing animals, fish and birds along the way and doubtless not doing us much good either.

The world of natural medicine (and high cost behaviour therapy programs) will take your money as quickly as the pharmaceutical companies, but will they help you detox rather than tell you what you’re already doing to block natural detoxification processes or help you discover your own expertise and advocacy skills in helping your child on the journey to personhood?
Whilst not all people with ASD have gut, immune or metabolic disorders, there are those with a (possibly inherited) metabolic disorder, a deficiency in Phenolsulphurtransferase. A deficiency in this leads to reduced detoxification processes in the body can lead to suppressed immunity, and ultimately a chronic inflammatory state, including gut inflammation. One of the natural plant toxins we have in daily diets world wide is Salicylate. It’s the ingredient in Aspirin, its also 18 times the high level in things like Vegimite and yeast extracts, honey, almonds, stone fruits, berries, most concentrated fruit juices as well as artificial colorings, flavourings and preservatives.

This natural plant toxin is good news for farmers because it is produced by the plant to combat attacks from insects and pests. So selective breeding lead to higher and higher levels of salicylates in fruit, veggies and nuts. Not a bad thing for those who have the enzyme to metabolise salicylates, but pretty bad news for the percentage who don’t. What happens to them is these natural, usually harmless, plant toxins, build up and up and burden liver function so the person becomes even worse at producing the detoxification enzymes. And by strange co-incidence, around 80% of people with autism are Salicylate intolerant, meaning their bodies can’t metabolise high levels of salicylates… they get poisoned.

Now, what happens to a salicylate intolerant person, on a high salicylate diet when they live in a household where phthalates in perfumes and (even unperfumed) personal care products are regularly rubbed on their skin, used on their hair and have leached into their vegies, meat and water from plastic packaging and containers? Detox function would be well at risk.

Fluoride is a chemical byproduct of many manufacturing industries. They needed to dump it somewhere so it gets sold as rat poison (yes rat poison) and the remainder is put into our waterways even though it is known that fluoride in water and the gut has negligible impact on dental health, that eating fluoride toothpaste can kill, and that build up of fluoride in people unable to detox from such levels causes a type of poisoning called fluoridosis.
Enter heavy metals.

Fifteen percent of the mercury found in domestic wastewater comes from common household cleaning products and amalgam fillings leaching mercury. Wastewater ends up in our soils and food chain and is a significant toxic burden on liver function. Our waterways are also the flushing ‘toilet’ for industry who use a range of highly toxic chemicals, including mercury, in their production processes to please for our daily consumerism.
Mercury was banned in vaccinations in 1999 and massive studies after its removal actually found autism rates rose after it stopped being used. Vaccinations save the lives of millions world wide some of whom would otherwise die, be brain damaged or paralyzed by some of the dangerous diseases vaccinations have almost wiped out. But there will always be a minority with serious and debilitating allergic reactions to things and sometimes that allergic reaction may be set off by vaccinations and there are medical journal articles of such cases.

There will always be those with undiagnosed primary immune deficiencies whose immune system is not ready to cope with the jolt of vaccinations until it is boosted and this too is documented in medical journal articles. Instead of spending millions on yet another study of mercury in vaccinations, perhaps its time to make standard preliminary testing for immune function to screen out any minorities who might be vulnerable to the impact of vaccinations and get sensible about the many unnecessary ways consumers have been brainwashed into poisoning ourselves, children and the environment on a daily basis.

The most important source of toxicity is what we do to each other’s souls.

People with autism are not just walking bunches of toxicity. They are diverse, colorful, humans with their own individual personalities and potential, with or without being science experiments or toxicity victims. Never underestimate the power of self esteem, belonging and acceptance as one of the most important nutrients to the quality of a human life. When a life is put on hold in pursuit of a ‘cure’, it isn’t the person with autism who has closed the door, it is those who stopped seeing the person through fixating on the condition to the exclusion of a child’s soul.

… Donna Williams

autistic author, public speaker and autism consultant.

http://www.donnawilliams.net