July 16th, 2008
In the July 14th Nature is an article about the NIMH chelation study that was put on hold due to safety concerns. NIMH director, Thomas Insel, M.D., says that, due to children being involved, and because the study “carries more than minimal risk and offers no demonstrable benefit to the participants,” it has been referred […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 9 comments
July 8th, 2008
A study on chelation, a controversial biomedical treatment for autism, has been put on hold, today’s Associated Press reports. Chelation, in which heavy metals are removed from the body, is based on the notion that mercury in vaccines can be linked to autism; an autistic boy, Abubakar Tariq Nadama, died in 2005 after receiving chelation […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 27 comments
June 15th, 2008
Main event of the week: Charlie’s last day in elementary school.
And, yes, Tuesday.
In the comments, a link to a Press-Enterprise article about an 11-year-old, Nicholas Dooley, who has autism and possibly another psychiatric disorder.
So Goeth the Autism Epidemic
The June 6th Times (UK) has an article on The autism epidemic commeth, which heralds the publication […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 2 comments
June 14th, 2008
Says Hilary Godwin, chair of environmental health sciences at UCLA and the mother of an autistic son in a June 16th LA Times article about the dangers of over-the-counter chelating products:
“Parental anxiety drives people to try anything.”
Anything and everything (including a certain kind of enema), all in the name of detoxifying autistic children’s bodies of […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 118 comments
May 6th, 2008
Charges have been dropped against Dr. Roy Kerry, the Pittsburgh-area doctor who was accused of causing the death of 5-year-old Abubakar Tariq Nadama, the Associated Press reports. Nadama went into cardiac arrest immediately after receiving chelation therapy in Dr. Kerry’s office in 2005. Dr. Kerry was charged with using the wrong drug and […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 31 comments
April 30th, 2008
“Detoxifying” a child’s body of “heavy metals” via chelation is an alternative, and not uncontroversial, treatment for autism. It is based on the belief that exposure to environmental toxins is one factor behind the increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism in the past decade-plus. This book talks about the dangers of heavy […]
By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 28 comments
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