$10,000 raised
A Sister’s Dream: 10-Year-Old Raises Thousands for Autism Research: An Experimental Treatment Helped Her Brother And Inspired Michala Riggle was an autism news headline yesterday. Riggle, who lives in Kentucky, raised the money by making and selling bracelets. The Riggles note that, after the “experimental” treatments, their son Evan was able to dress himself; one wonders what other teaching and therapies he might also have been receiving.
The experimental treatment in question is glutathione. Some who support the theory that mercury poisoning causes autism have claimed that autistic children have glutathione deficiency, and that this deficiency renders the children more susceptible to thimerasol exposure. Glutathione is used as a treatment to “promote detoxification” (according to Talk About Curing Autism). Not Mercury explains what glutathione is and what we don’t know about it and autism (Autism Diva offers further commentary).
That is, this “experimental treatment” that “thousands” have been raised in the name of, is indeed “experimental” as far as treatments for autistic children go.
It’s hard not to feel warmed and heartened by a sister’s attempt to help her brother. But one hopes that her efforts have not been, or will not end up being, in vain.
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POSTED IN: Fundraising, Junk Science, Money, Siblings, Treatment
13 opinions for $10,000 raised
theasman
Dec 5, 2007 at 1:52 pm
What is annoying is to read the essay “Autism Speaks” on that website in the comments section. It was written by Michala’s grandma.
It is bad like murphy’s essay. Sometimes it is like playing a game of whack-a-mole or in this case whack-a-curebie.
passionlessDrone
Dec 5, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Hello friends -
This girl is another Jenny McCarthy waiting to happen. I’d recommend everyone start slamming her now, to get out in front of the crowd. At least the Junk Science tag was applied. Very nice.
Aren’t they making some rather bold assertions in any case? Maybe not being able to dress himself was just part of who her brother was, and he liked being that way? What right did they have to change his personality in this way? Lots of people like not being able to dress themselves, I’m sure.
I’m sure that the fact that Micah’s brother, and the four other people improving after receiving glutathione was a complete coincidence. Also the hundreds of people who report the same thing after seeing a DAN doctor. All just a big coincidence.
LOL!
Take care!
- pD
Eleanor
Dec 5, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Okay, why on earth would glutathione, for which one doesn’t even need a prescription, cost $10,000?
Beth
Dec 5, 2007 at 4:14 pm
If glutathione can hold up in large scale, blind clinical trials then it will no longer be considered “junk science” and just considered “science”. Testimonials prove nothing.
@pD- No one is suggesting that people with ASD do not need help. There is a difference between helping someone with the disabilities associated with ASD and loving and accepting someone for who they are as a person. The stereotype of an empty, soulless shell does not apply to my son or to any person with autism whom I have met.
passionlessDrone
Dec 5, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Hi Beth -
“If glutathione can hold up in large scale, blind clinical trials then it will no longer be considered “junk science” and just considered “science”. Testimonials prove nothing.”
Don’t forget it isn’t just the parents that made the report of great leaps in progress, but indeed a team of physicians, who started the process as skeptical as yourself. Without invoking the gods of coincidence this little boy would not be dressing himself had the physicians at the hospital not tried the glutathione.
“No one is suggesting that people with ASD do not need help. There is a difference between helping someone with the disabilities associated with ASD and loving and accepting someone for who they are as a person. ”
But people do say that applying treatments that reduce autistic behavior are equivalent to changing that person, and that such a change is undesirable. Don’t believe me? Follow the link provided by Kristina to the story, then read comment 46, posted by none other than theasman.
@Theasman - Do you think the little boy in this story would be better off unable to dress himself? His autistic symtpoms have by all accounts ameliorated; his sister appears to be quite pleased, so was this a bad thing?
Perhaps I have misread your statement, and if so, I apologize.
- pD
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 5, 2007 at 5:22 pm
But what kind of teaching was the child receiving? How many years might teachers and OT’s and his parents have been working on skills to dress himself?
Marla
Dec 5, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Great. One more thing people will be asking me, “Have you tried…..I just heard that a child was so much better after having taken it.?!” I get so tired of answering those questions. I totally would agree that over time therapy and parents working with a child can show great progress. We have seen it with our daughter. Why do people not consider all the factors involved?
Leila
Dec 5, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I think there’s a difference between raising money for someone’s individual experimental treatment, and what this kid is actually doing - raising money for research, where mainstream (and not DAN) doctors are going to test this treatment to see if works or not. That is a wonderful initiative and I wish more biomed people sought the opinion of REAL doctors and reputable institutions instead of relying on DAN/alternative “research” alone.
Peony
Dec 5, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Leila, I agree. Michala is not donating the money to DAN doctor organization. The recipient is Kosair Children Hospital whose doctors are actually skeptical of the treatment. I’m glad that the research teams consist of mainstream doctors who seems understand how to design an appropriate experimental study.
I also agree with the doctors that a conclusion cannot be made from four-five samples. There are other impact such as other therapies that may influence the result. The research team will take all of these factors into account when designing a study.
passionlessDrone
Dec 6, 2007 at 10:56 am
Hi Kristina -
“But what kind of teaching was the child receiving? How many years might teachers and OT’s and his parents have been working on skills to dress himself?”
Do you honestly think that this kind of question didn’t occur to the physicians at Kosair? Yet their skepiticism has been replaced with something else; interest and a belief that the glutathione was to blame. Why do you suppose that is?
Also, this story isn’t just about how a child learned to dress himself, but rather, about a variety of improvements made; dressing himself being a single example given. Would the physicians at Kosair really be likely to want to try a 50 person trial based on the child getting better in a single, narrow area, dressing himself? Please consider this genuinely. According to his parents, sister, and the physicians, this child changed; he didn’t simply pick up one self help skill.
In any case, what does it matter how many years OT and other therapies had been tried with this child? Plug in any number of years up of therapy up to seven you would like; it doesn’t change the fact that improvements were noted in many areas only after glutathione was started. Zero years of therapy? Great. Therapy had nothing to do with his improvement. Three years of therapy? Now we must invoke the gods of coincidence; the three years of therapy were what made the difference, he just happened to show amazing improvements right after glutathione was administered. What is our evidence for this? Of course we have none, other than the mantra of coincidences do occur. Five years of therapy? We simply make therapy look even less effective, and the coincidences probabilities stack up even higher.
What’s more, if we are to presume the glutathione had no effect, we need to start ignoring physiology. Children with autism have been shown to have abnormal glutathione ratios,
their levels of oxidized vs reduced glutathione are much different than normal populations. As a result, the ability of the body to appropriately mitigate oxidative stress is affected; there simply isn’t as much antioxidant availability as their is in someone without autism. Oxidative stress, the result of energy production or other normal metabolic processes has been shown to be increased in autism. One mechanism for reducing oxidative stress is antioxidants; of which glutathione is a major player. So, we now know that oxidative stress is increased in autism and antioxidant levels are reduced in autism.
So, we add an antioxidant, something known to be low in autism, and which is known to affect a factor known to be damaging to cells and increased in autism. Suddenly, we observe significant improvements. You now must start coming up with reasons it isn’t responsible for helping, up and above looking for reasons why something else might have helped.
If this is sound reasoning, I must be crazy.
Take care!
- pD
Regan
Dec 6, 2007 at 4:25 pm
This is not utter skepticism, but when I read accounts that sound almost too good, a reminder from the past pops into my mind, not to count the chickens before they are hatched:
Secretin.
I think that Michaela is sweet to want to help other children, and for her interest in her brother.
As for the glutathione trials, I think that I will wait until a large(r) scale study is done and will probably want to look at where, who and how. Depending on the results, it could be something, as Beth noted, science rather than junk science, or it could be another hypothesis or experimental treatment that doesn’t pan out.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 6, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I’m afraid that it’s not unusual for those who find “remedies” for autism to discount, and not to mention, other “treatments” (even ones as every day as education). One that is often forgotten is that as a child grows up, she or he is sometimes able to do things that had before seemed impossible.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 6, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Secretin……. I do remember……
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