The UltraMind Solution (68 page)

Next, I want to tell you about the remarkable discoveries of Dr. Andrew Wakefield in autistic children, because they have implications for all of us who have inflamed guts and inflamed brains.

The Gut Immune System and the Brain

Many medical discoveries are made by accident. Some smart doctor observes something and asks why.

For the most part, doctors and scientists have ignored the fact that up to 95 percent of autistic children have intestinal problems, especially big swollen bellies. How can their belly problems destroy their brains, interrupt their language, and lock them in their own private world?

Dr. Wakefield asked why. He happened to notice inflammation (or lymphoid nodular hyperplasia) in the bowels of some children with autism. Could this observation be brushed off as coincidence? Dr. Wakefield dug deeper and discovered this is common in autistic children.

In a study of 148 children with autism compared to thirty normal controls (children without autism), 90 percent of autistic children showed inflamed
bowels on biopsy compared to only 30 percent of controls. This makes me wonder if many nonautistic children have bowel inflammation from poor diet and allergies as well.
²⁶

He also realized that the inflammation was much more severe in autistic children. Food allergens, bacteria, viruses, and toxins (such as mercury) could all be the cause. These same things are the common causes of all disease and create imbalance in every key system of the body—toxins, infections, allergens, poor diet, and stress.

Making Sense of Measles Vaccine Controversy

Other studies have linked the live measles virus from vaccinations to an inflamed gut. Living measles viruses have been identified in people with inflamed guts. How does this happen? And how does it relate to autism?

Normally, when you get a vaccine, even with an “inactivated” live virus, it just stimulates the body’s own immune system to create antibodies, which will defend you in the event of a real infection. But sometimes, as in the case of autistic children, their weakened immune systems can’t handle this “inactivated” live virus, and can’t fight it off. So the live virus hangs around in the body creating inflammation on a low-grade level—both in the gut and the brain.

In fact, a study of children with developmental delay found that seventy-five of ninety-one patients with autism and inflamed bowels had live measles virus detected in samples of their intestinal tissues. Only seven of the seventy normal patients (or controls) were found to have the measles virus in their gut.
²⁷

In another study, DNA analysis was performed on the measles strains found in autistic children and compared to nonautistic children with inflamed bowels. The shocking finding was that the DNA of the measles virus in autistic children came from
vaccine strains
of measles (the ones made specially for vaccines), not wild types (the type of measles virus that comes from a community-acquired infection).
²⁸

This doesn’t mean that
all
children who get vaccinated have problems, but for some reason autistic children are unable to handle the live measles virus used in immunizations, and it triggers an inflammatory response in the gut as well as the brain. These children can’t handle the vaccine (maybe because mercury suppresses their immune system) and then the normally benign live measles virus in the vaccine takes root in the body and sends these kids into an even deeper spiral of brain dysfunction.

What is even more alarming is that vaccine strains of measles virus seem
to migrate into the brains of children with autism. That means it may not be only gut-related inflammation that is causing the problems, but the measles virus may take root in the brain itself. How this all happens is not clear, but the trail from vaccine to the gut to the brain is smoking hot. Vaccine measles strains have been isolated from the spinal fluid of autistic children.
²⁹

Large-scale population studies show no connection between MMR or measles vaccine and autism.
³⁰
That’s because in such large populations the effect on children susceptible to MMR is “washed out.” If you study large groups of people, you won’t pick up small effects on genetically or biochemically unique individuals. Looking at the problem using this kind of statistical analysis is unhelpful for treating individual patients.

Oddly, in the major study “disproving” this connection, the authors noted an
increase
in the diagnosis in the six months after the MMR vaccine but dismissed it as unimportant because “this appeared to be an artifact related to the difficulty of defining precisely the onset of symptoms in this disorder.” If your child had autism or autistic behaviors you would know it and you would know when it started! This is yet another example of conventional science seeing what it believes instead of believing what it sees.

The vaccine probably affects only a few genetically susceptible children who are biochemical and immunological train wrecks because of toxic overload. The methods of these larger population studies are not designed to ferret out the uniqueness of individuals. If they examine all the genetic subgroups in the population, then there can be meaningful data. If they do intestinal biopsies and spinal fluid examinations on affected and unaffected kids as Dr. Wakefield did, then we may get some meaningful information.

But in the absence of that we are duped into a false sense of security by studies that are destined to fail because of how they were designed. You only get the answers to the questions you ask. Don’t ask the right questions and you won’t get clear answers.

Roger Williams, the author of
Biochemical Individuality
, said that, “Nutrition [and medicine] is for real people. Statistical humans are of little interest. People are unique. We must treat people with respect to their biochemical uniqueness.”

Functional Medicine and the model of treatment used in this book offer a method to do that.

In addition to all the potential digestive problems that autistic children face, it also seems they are more susceptible to allergies and gut inflammation triggered by certain foods such as gluten and casein.
³¹

The extreme inflammation in the guts of autistic children contributes to
their inflamed brains.(For more specifics on how inflammation in the body leads to inflammation in the brain, see chapter 8.)

The bottom line is that the guts of these genetically susceptible autistic children are damaged for many reasons—live measles vaccinations, toxic metals, overuse of antibiotics, abnormal gut flora, and food allergies.

The net result is that their digestion breaks down. Digestive enzymes don’t work properly. Food particles (especially from gluten and dairy) are partially digested and become brain-fogging toxic compounds (like the peptides mentioned above). The immune system in the gut is switched on and activated by toxins, viruses, bacteria, and food allergens, leading to brain inflammation. Toxic bacteria and yeasts take over, releasing compounds that change normal brain operations. All this overwhelms the system and creates chaos between the brain and the gut immune system.

While this whole discussion on digestive problems in autistic children is interesting, you might wonder how this relates to depression or Alzheimer’s or just feeling a little brain fog.

Through the extreme example of autism we can see one end of a spectrum of disorders that affects millions in small and large ways, from full-on psychosis and dementia to mild anxiety and a little depression. Dealing with gut inflammation is a back door into healing the brain.

People who have celiac disease
³²
or inflammatory bowel disease are more likely to get dementia. And even schizophrenia has been linked to bowel inflammation and autoimmune response to gluten.
³³

Learning what causes brain inflammation and how to heal the gut are central to the UltraMind Solution.

One of the key causes of this inflammation is food allergy. We covered food allergies in chapter 8, where I discussed inflammation, but they are so connected to gut inflammation specifically and are so important in healing the brain that we need to revisit how damage to the gut leads us to become so allergic—and how to fix it.

Food Allergies Revisited: More Mischievous Molecules

Why do we become sensitive or allergic to foods?

In the last chapter we learned that food allergies cause inflammation and that this occurs because of imbalances in the gut. So what sends our gut out of balance? Why do we become allergic to the foods we normally should be able to digest easily?

All the factors that cause imbalances in the other keys—a poor diet,
inflammation, overuse of medications, environmental toxins, and the rest— damage the surface of our intestinal lining in the small intestine.

You will remember that this surface, if laid out flat, would be the size of a tennis court, but it is only one cell layer thick. When this delicate surface is damaged, inflammation spreads throughout the brain and body.

Damage to this delicate barrier creates a
leaky gut
(known in medical terms as increased intestinal permeability).

Our digestive enzymes reside on this delicate one cell layer of intestinal cells. When it is damaged we cannot digest our food properly. Suddenly we have partially digested food particles from normally innocuous foods “leaking” into our bloodstream through the leaky gut.

Since 60 percent of our immune system is located right under that one-cell layer of intestinal cells lining our digestive tract, our bodies react by increasing our immune response and generating inflammation. Our immune system, normally used to seeing fully digested foods (like proteins broken down to amino acids, fats broken down to fatty acids, and carbohydrates broken down to simple sugars), suddenly “sees” foreign (meaning partially digested) proteins.

So the immune response does what it is designed to do—attack and defend—and this is how we create antibodies and develop IgG allergies to common foods. This is what makes us sick and fat, toxic and inflamed, depressed and anxious, forgetful and foggy.

It is sometimes helpful to get blood tests for IgG allergens and work with a doctor or nutritionist trained in dealing with these delayed and often hidden food sensitivities.
³⁴
But following the basic six-week plan in
The UltraMind Solution
may help you find out if your mood, behavior, attention, or memory problems or other brain fog are related to food allergies.

Eliminating food allergens from your diet for six weeks, and taking digestive enzymes, zinc, and probiotics can all help repair the damaged intestinal lining and bring your digestive system, and your brain, back into balance.