The Chicago Tribune turns over some rocks
May 22nd, 2009
Almost everybody knows what happens when you turn over rocks in the garden - you find slugs, beetles and other slimy and creepy-crawly things underneath.
Well, the Chicago Tribune recently (21 and 22 May, 2009) came out with a two-day series of articles on what they found when they turned over some rocks in the “alternative” autism therapy world. What they found was beyond what I would have expected, and I’ve been critically analyzing “alternative” autism therapy for a fairly long time.
Here are the articles - I suggest you go read them yourselves. Be prepared to be disturbed:
“Miracle Drug” called Junk Science
Physician team’s crusade shows cracks
A Flawed Rationale for Treatment
Autism doctor: Troubling record trails doctor treating autism
Dr. Peter Rosi places blame on some parents for their babies’ deaths
I had to take a shower after reading these articles - I felt contaminated just reading the words of these…….people.
A few excerpts:
On the Geiers’ “Lupron Protocol”:
The blood tests the Geiers use as proof of excessive testosterone don’t show that at all, and other data they cite mean nothing, said Paul Kaplowitz, chief of endocrinology at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and an expert on precocious puberty. They also leave out test results that could help show whether the children are in early puberty, he added.
Looking at the tests, Kaplowitz said he asks himself: “Is Dr. Geier just misinformed and he hasn’t studied endocrinology, or is he trying to mislead?”
………………..
Mark Geier responded that these are “opinions by people who don’t know what they are talking about,” saying the pediatric endocrinologists interviewed by the Tribune don’t treat autistic children and have not tried the Lupron treatment. David Geier said prominent scientists support their work and gave as an example Baron-Cohen…
………………..
Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge in England and director of the Autism Research Center in Cambridge, said it is irresponsible to treat autistic children with Lupron.”The idea of using it with vulnerable children with autism, who do not have a life-threatening disease and pose no danger to anyone, without a careful trial to determine the unwanted side effects or indeed any benefits, fills me with horror,” he said.
Apparently, the Geiers don’t have the support of prominent scientists that they think they do.
Now, I fully expect people in the “alternative” autism therapy business (and their apologists) to “spin” this as a “kill the messenger” response or as the latest act of the “Big Pharma / AMA / Government Conspiracy to Hide the True Cause of Autism”. But this stuff is pretty hard to just “explain” away.
Let’s continue with the curious past (and dubious present) of one of the prominent “alternative” autism practitioners in the Chicagoland area - Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, head of “Home First Health Services”:
Eisenstein, who calls the American Academy of Pediatrics the “American Academy of Pharmaceuticals,” dismisses the many peer-reviewed studies that failed to find a link between autism and vaccines as “fake studies.”
Vaccine proponents won’t admit this because, he said, “Every doctor now essentially in this country has done something as heinous as the Nazis did, unknowingly.”
Where is the Hitler Zombie? Dr. Eisenstein is not coming across as a voice of reason so far. But let us continue…
Eisenstein’s practice has faced at least 19 malpractice cases in the last three decades, and two Homefirst doctors were involved in 15 of those cases — more than what’s typical. In 80 percent of the cases involving those two doctors, a jury either sided with the plaintiffs or the cases were settled, court records show.
OK, doctors get sued all the time. No big deal, right? Let’s read on…
For example, a case filed in 1986 alleged that a Homefirst doctor and midwife failed to diagnose that a mother and her newborn had incompatible blood types, which can lead to a potentially fatal condition if not caught by a routine blood test. The baby suffered kernicterus syndrome, athetoid cerebral palsy and hearing loss. The case was settled for $985,000 in a structured settlement, court records show.
The failure to diagnose incompatible blood types between a mother and newborn was also at issue in the case that netted the $30 million jury verdict. In that case, however, the baby, Na’eem Shahid, died.
A Homefirst doctor took a sample of blood from Na’eem’s umbilical cord that could have been used to diagnose the problem and could have led to prompt treatment, according to court testimony. But instead of dropping off the sample at the lab, the doctor said under oath, he was tired, went home and put the sample in his refrigerator, where it sat the whole weekend.
In an interview, Eisenstein blamed the parents for not taking the baby to the emergency room for a blood test. Na’eem’s parents testified that no one from Homefirst ever told them to go to the emergency room.
Remember that this is the doctor who claims that unvaccinated children do not get autism. To refresh our memories:
He proclaims that he’s seen “virtually no autism” in his patient pool of thousands of unvaccinated kids.
Well, if you don’t look, you don’t find.
Dr. Eisenstein also has strong views about telling the truth:
In his lectures at conferences, Eisenstein often describes a key lesson he learned in law school: falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. Translated “false in one thing, false in everything,” this is a legal principle that if a witness lies about one thing, a jury can disregard anything that person says.
Yet Dr. Eisenstein has fallen tragically short of this standard:
In a different case, Eisenstein said under oath that he was a faculty member at the Hinsdale Hospital Family Practice Residency Program from 1992 to 2003. A hospital administrator testified that Eisenstein “never was” a faculty member. In a recent interview, Eisenstein said that while he wasn’t a faculty member there, he did teach students from that program and kept snapshots of them.
In that same case, Eisenstein also testified he knew little about the College of Health Sciences, where he and some of his doctors received their continuing medical education credits — a requirement for retaining privileges at some hospitals.
“I have no clue,” he said under oath when asked where the school was located.
The attorney questioning Eisenstein reminded the doctor that he could go to prison for lying under oath. He asked if Eisenstein had any connection to the college. “Not that I know of,” Eisenstein answered.
I won’t go into the sad and sordid case of Dr. Peter Rosi, one of Dr. Eisenstein’s associates at Home First - that story is too disturbing. Go read it yourself.
Despite all this, I fully expect to hear a chorus of defense from the “usual suspects”. They will defend the Geiers, Eisenstein and even Rosi because - frankly - they are all the “alternative” autism therapy supporters have. They’re willing to leap to the defense of the indefensible because the only other choice they have is to face the fact that “alternative” autism therapies are largely a bunch of baloney.
I’d love to be proven wrong, but I doubt I will be.
Prometheus
Filed under: Autism Practitioners, Autism Science, Autism Treatments | 14 Comments »
TVM for Autism
May 15th, 2009
A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a piece she had read on an autism “biomed” forum. In it, a parent was asking about using hydrochloric acid for “digestive problems” in her autistic child. Apparently, her “alternative” medicine provider had suggested it and this mom wanted to know where to find hydrochloric acid that wasn’t “contaminated”.
Now, my friend sent this to me in the spirit of “Have you ever heard of such nonsense?” However, as I read it, I was pretty sure I had heard of this before, but in a very different context.
Going to my bookcases, I quickly found A Textbook of Practical Therapeutics by Hobart Amory Hare (MD, BSc), 5th Edition, published in 1895. On page 205, Dr. Hare writes the following:
In dyspepsia due to faulty gastric secretion, as in typhoid fever, and in gastric indigestion accompanied with fermentation, this acid is of service. In combination with compound tincture of cardamoms, it is of value in intestinal indigestion. (See Indigestion.)
The acid is best used in the form of the of the official dilute acid {Acidum Hydrochloricum Dilutum, U.S. and B.P.), dose 10 to 30 drops in water.
In the sick stomach and gastric distress following an alcoholic debauch, 20 drops of the dilute acid in water are often of service.
[Note: this book is also available on line.]
Amazingly, this appears to be identical to what the “alternative” practitioner was recommending over one hundred years later.
As I read through Dr. Hare’s text, I had frequent episodes of deja vu. Arnica, flax seed, cod liver oil, oxygen (but not hyperbaric oxygen - that came later), saunas (sweating out the “toxins”), colonic irrigation, even acupuncture - all of these “alternative” therapies were discussed at length in this book. And although Dr. Hare curiously omits mention of them, homeopathy was also very popular at the same time (having been invented by Hahnemann in 1796), and chiropractic had just been invented by D.D. Palmer at the time this book was published.
I gradually came to realize that many of the “alternative” therapies for autism - and much of “alternative” medicine in general - would be better described as “Traditional Victorian Medicine” (”TVM”, for these fast-paced times). It only seems appropriate to recognize the debt that current “alternative” practitioners owe to the far-sighted healers of that bygone era and acknowledge that so many of today’s “alternative” therapies were, in fact, “mainstream medicine” during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901).
And besides, look what the word “traditional” has done for the marketing of “Traditional Chinese Medicine”.
The term “Traditional Victorian Medicine” becomes even more appropriate when you consider that medicine during Victoria’s reign was also largely based on the personal beliefs and “experience” of influential physicians - as is current “alternative” medicine. Neither the visonary healers of the Victorian Age nor the modern “alternative” practitioners are the slaves to “data” or “clinical trials” that “modern” physicians are.
Additionally, physicians in the Victorian Era spent much more time with their patients, since there was little else they could do. In these respects (and many more), current “alternative” providers are much more similar to physicians of Victoria’s era than they are to modern physicians.
As Dr. Hare’s text points out, physicians of his day rountinely observed patients recovering from serious illnesses with the help of the remedies contained therein. Even venesection (”bloodletting”, to the uninitiated) was known to be of great help in “extreme” cases, although Dr. Hare laments even then that younger physicians of his time were turning away from this invaluable treament and would come to regret that decision.
Just as the “Traditional Victorian Medicine” practitioners of today have their “testimonials”, Dr. Hare describes how people in the Victorian Era often got “better” after being treated with sandal-wood oil for their gonorrhea (p. 319) or lead acetate for dysentery (pp. 235 - 236). In this light, the anecdotes of autistic children today ”recovering” after (or in spite of) being treated with HBOT or chelation similarly vindicate the use of those therapies.
Remember, too, that when “Traditional Victorian Medicine” was originally practiced, people were much healthier than the sickly, toxin-loaded, pill-popping, latte-swilling populace of our age. Whereas today the life expectancy at birth in England is currently a mere 79 years, people back in the ”Golden Age” of “Traditional Victorian Medicine” could expect to live to the ripe old age of 47 years (in 1901).
It is only fitting that the “Brave Maverick Doctors” (BMD’s) treating autism with “alternative” therapies should acknowledge that they are following in the honored footsteps of Dr. John Watson in their practice of ”Traditional Victorian Medicine”. After all, the Victorian Era was a time of great heroes and these BMD’s are certainly considered heroes by many (thay are also, some might add, practicing “heroic medicine“).
So, all of you “Bave Maverick Doctors”, you “DAN!” practitioners, you “alternative”, “CAM” or “holistic” therapists, be proud of your roots - call it what it is:
Traditional Victorian Medicine
Something to think about, isn’t it?
Prometheus
Filed under: Autism Practitioners, Autism Treatments | 14 Comments »