PLT Test Blog

As we have seen at various points in this blog, there is mounting evidence to support the use of steroids in autism, particularly in regressive autism. Since long-term steroid use has side effects, there have been no large long-term trials.  There is plenty of anecdotal evidence, particularly from the US.  We saw a paper on Immunomodulatory Therapy, by Michael Chez, which discussed the benefits of Prednisone , a very cheap oral steroid. Immune Therapy in Autism: Historical Experience and Future Directions with immunomodulatory Therapy In the days before inhalers for asthma, it was low dose oral prednisone that kept many sufferers from an early death.  It did result in reduced height, but this is probably a price worth paying to stay alive. A paper was recently published by specialists at Harvard Medical School on the subject of steroids and regressive autism. Corticosteroid therapy in regressive autism: a retrospective study ofeffects on the Frequency Modulated Auditory E...

Several people have mentioned to me a supplement called L-Carnosine, so I thought it was worthy of its own post. The first thing to note is lots of supplements have very similar names and indeed two entirely different substances are abbreviated to NAC. ·         Carnosine ·         Carnitine ·         L-Carnosine ·         L-Carnitine ·         N-Acetylcysteine    ( abbreviated to “NAC”) ·         N-Acetylcarnosine  (also abbreviated to “NAC”) In this blog, and in most literature on autism, NAC refers to N-Acetylcysteine. This post is about Carnosine and L-Carnosine, but there is also research on the use of Carnitine and L-Carnitine regarding autism and Retts syndrome.  So double check what is on the label, if you do indeed order some. Vladimir Gulevich...

This blog is about science rather than medicine, and believe me there is a much bigger difference than you might hope for. Many aspects of the research literature indicate the potential of certain calcium channel blockers, like Verapamil, to be useful in treating autism.   As we have seen, there are many different causes of autism and what treatment works in one type may be totally ineffective in another type. For almost a year Monty, now age 11 with ASD, has taken Verapamil to control the behavioural effects of allergy that are driven by so called “mast cell degranulation”.   His pollen allergy makes his summertime behaviour dramatically worse; a reaction that is almost entirely reversed by Verapamil. In my page in this blog on Allergies and Autism I raised the question as to whether Verapamil would be effective in treating the many people with autism who have food allergies leading to gastrointestinal (GI) problems.   Many people with autism have symptoms like Irritabl...