Comprehensive Guide to Managing Autism - 11

pH

The acid/alkaline balance is one of the most overlooked aspects of health, though Gary Null and others have written much about it. In general, the American public is heavily acid, excepting vegetarians. A too-acid system speeds enzyme activity. Children with autism often are heavily alkaline. A too-alkaline system slows enzymes to a crawl. Minerals have different pH levels at which they can be assimilated into the body. Sodium and magnesium have wide pH assimilation ranges. It narrows somewhat for calcium and potassium, and narrows more for manganese and iron, and yet more for zinc and copper. Iodine, which is HIGH up on the atomic scale, requires NEAR PERFECT pH for assimilation into the body. Iodine as you may know, is one of the most important minerals for proper functioning of the thyroid, but the thyroid doesn’t get access to iodine unless the body pH is near perfect! Obviously, a less than optimum pH will predispose to a deficiency of iodine, zinc, and copper. These three are critical for thyroid function. 

We have just read Kane on the need of carbonates to acidify the system. Elevated citric (due to the glutathione deficiency) with low 2-oxo-gluteric (in urine tests) would affect oxygen getting into the cells. You can compensate by getting some carbon dioxide by using a rebreather mask, and by taking bicarbonates between meals to increase Co₂ as Kane has recommended. The carbon dioxide acidifies the blood, and helps the red blood cells release the oxygen to the cells. Supporting the thyroid helps the cells make more carbon dioxide, so that is something else to do. Obtain a packet of pH paper, and test the saliva and urine as indicated elsewhere in this paper. Dr. Cheney treats Chronic Fatigue (CFIDS) patients.  

Dr. Cheney’s Oxygen Treatment

By Carol Sieverling (slightly edited) 

Dr. Cheney prescribes oxygen for patients with alkaline venous blood. An hour of oxygen in the morning can provide half a day of significant improvement, and numerous benefits. He had seen alkaline blood results for years, but dismissed it as insignificant, based on medical school teaching. His growing suspicion that it was very significant was confirmed when a speaker at an international conference in London began a presentation by announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you that CFS patients are alkalotic.” Blood alkalosis inhibits the transport of oxygen to tissues and organs, constricts the blood vessels, and lowers overall circulating blood volume. 

The putative cause of the alkalosis is the glutathione deficiency that is pervasive in CFIDS. Low glutathione causes an elevation in citrate, which in turn lowers a substance (2,3 DPG) that controls the release of oxygen from hemoglobin. Our blood can be full of oxygen, but without enough of this substance it cannot break free and get into the cells. This causes oxygen deprivation in the tissues (hypoxia), which makes the body switch over to anaerobic metabolism, which can be painful. 

This blood alkalosis is unusual in that Cheney usually sees venous blood pH values over 7.4 and urine pH values under 6.0. When both blood alkalosis and urine acidosis are seen, it’s a metabolic problem not a psychogenic reaction to a needle stick. A blood pH above 7.4 shows impairment, and above 7.5 there is significant impairment, and almost no oxygen transport at all. A urine organic acid test will also reveal this problem. Elevated citrate and/or low 2-oxo-glutaric are markers. The really terrible thing is the vicious cycle. The blood alkalosis further lowers the levels of 2,3 DPG (inhibiting the release of oxygen), causing tissue hypoxia, which then causes blood alkalosis, which lowers 2,3 DPG even further—and around and around we go. 

The ultimate treatment for this situation is Immunocal™ or IMUPlus™, the undenatured whey protein supplements that helps restore glutathione, but some patients cannot afford them, and they do not work for all patients. An immediate solution to the oxygen transport problem is to use a partial rebreather mask set at 35 to 40% FIO2 (Fraction of Inspired Oxygen), which requires a flow rate of about 10 liters per minute. Do an hour a day, broken into one, two, or three sessions. You can do more than one hour a day, but do not do more than one hour at a time. Do not breathe heavily – breathe normally. Most CFS patients have headaches, and this can help those headaches. If a prescription is written for headaches, insurance may cover it. One hour of oxygen a day can run $75 to $100 a month. 

Oxygen through nasal prongs will not work. Oxygen alone in a mask will not work. It has to be a partial rebreather mask, which has a bag attached. This allows you to rebreathe your expired carbon dioxide along with the oxygen that is flowing into the mask. It is important to the function of the rebreather that the bag contract and expand with the breathing cycle. It’s not working properly otherwise. Breathing increased levels of both carbon dioxide (CO₂) and oxygen (O₂) at the same time is essential. The CO₂ breaks the cycle. It corrects the alkalosis and frees the O² in your blood to move into your cells. With proper functioning, vessels dilate and you start perfusing your brain and tissues, bringing out the toxins and bringing in the nutrients. Raising oxygen levels will also help kill off yeast and other pathogens. Lack of oxygen allows them to multiply. 

The speaker at the London conference sends his patients to breathing experts like Teresa Hale, who wrote “Breathing Free”. Most patients are walking around over breathing, and thus becoming more alkaline. Learning to under breathe can help increase oxygen perfusion and transport.  

Two problems can be seen in some patients on a rebreather mask. (1) Rapidly correcting blood alkalosis or overcorrecting (i.e., acidosis) can provoke vasodilation. If there is significant blood volume contraction some patients will become hypotensive and feel dizzy or faint. This problem can be prevented by taking oxygen lying down, and by expanding blood volume with an isotonic electrolyte drink such as Gookinaid ERG (Electrolyte Replacement with Glucose) (http://members.aol.com/Gookinaid) (1-800-283-6505). You can also address this problem by reducing the time spent on the mask rebreather. (2) Patients with a history of migraine may provoke a migraine in the moments just after going off the rebreather. Again, expanding blood volume and reducing the time of the rebreather can help this side effect.  

The ultimate treatment mentioned (whey) has little or no casein, but it can be dangerous to some with sulfation problems (PST), so several other ways to build glutathione are suggested herein. Use them rather than the expensive, time consuming breather mask or expensive, long term, hyperbaric oxygen. These both have value in short term, but do not “cure” the basic problem of alkalosis. To learn more about balancing the pH, see the Chapter “Digestion and Utilization” in my Electronic book, “Self-help to Good Health”, 34 Chapters, 535 pages, $21.95 US. .   

More than 25 years ago, IAHP was the first to recognize that among the various adverse environmental conditions which affect the brain-injured child the most important is chronically insufficient oxygen supply to the brain. In their experience, this is almost universally present to some degree in brain-injured children, although not ordinarily in obvious form. The shallow and erratic breathing patterns and small chests seen in the majority of our brain-injured children are primary indications that such subclinical, oxygen deficiency exists. 

Associated with oxygen insufficiency in various combinations are other adverse environmental factors contributing to seizures as well as other problems of the brain-injured child. Among these factors are: 1) blood sugar levels too low or unresponsive to the brain’s changing needs 2) nutritional imbalances or deficiencies, very common among children, most of whose diets are extremely poor both quantitatively and qualitatively, and 3) increases in pressure within the skull due to intake of liquids and water-retaining substances, such as salt, in amounts beyond the child’s needs or capabilities for handling. Additionally, magnesium, vitamin B₆ and dimethylglycine (DMG) all have strong anti-seizure properties, and can be effective even when other anti-seizure medications fail. The deficiency of vitamin B₁, has also been reported as a cause of epileptic seizures. Magnesium is an essential cofactor in the conversion of thiamine into active diphosphate and triphosphate esters. There have been reports of thiamine deficiency aggravated by magnesium depletion with refractory response to thiamine until magnesium was given. It seems plausible that magnesium depletion could provoke Wernicke's encephalopathy, possible by suboptimum thiamine phosphorylation. Pyridoxine, too, is only phosphorylated into its coenzyme (P5P) in the presence of magnesium. Some 70% of the enzymes are dependent on magnesium.  

During the first week of magnesium deficiency, Substance P and CGRP are increased. The second week, histamine is increased, along with PGE2 (inflammatory), and TBAR molecules. The third week, cytokines IL-1, IL-6, TNF alpha are increased (Weglicki & Mak, 1994). The cytokines, IFN gamma, IL-2, 4, 5, 10, 12, and 13 are also increased in magnesium deficiency (Weglicki, 1996).  

Clinical symptomology of magnesium deficiency is dominated by neuromuscular hyperexcitability (Rayssiguier, 1990; Durlach, 1997) exhibiting latent tetany (Durlach, 1997) and spasmophilia (muscle cramps and spasms) (Galland, 1991). Hyperarousal (Galland, 1991) with sensitivity to noise, bodily contact, and excitement (Langley, 1991; Goto, 1993) in the precipitation of neuromuscular hyperexcitability has been described in magnesium deficiency. Choreiform and athetoid movements can be produced by magnesium deficiency (Holvey,1972). Some tics may be forms of atypical latent tetany (Ploceniak, 1990). A chronic tissue magnesium deficit is found in HLA B35 individuals (Zeana, 1988; Henrotte, 1990; Durlach, 1997). A few clinical disorders that can be associated with magnesium deficiency are: migraine (Thomas, 1994), bruxism (Lehvila, 1974; Ploceniak, 1990), restless leg syndrome (Popoviciu, 1993; Hornyak, 1998), asthma (Fantidis, 1995), seizures (Galland, 1991; Goto, 1993), hearing loss, TIA (Galland, 1991), heart arrhythmia (Burtis, 1994), and mitral valve prolapse (MVP) (associated with HLA B35) (Rybar, 1989).

Mercury binds to Hemoglobin in the red blood cell and will reduce the amount of oxygen that can be carried in the blood—a major cause of fatigue. Mercury at a level of 1 part per ten million will actively destroy the membrane of red blood cells. Hyperbaric oxygen has been used with great results, but at great expense in time and money, and may be contraindicated where mercury toxicity is present due to oxidative damage. A simple way to increase oxygen in the cells is through addition of 2 drops of tasteless Cell Food™ Eden’s Secret (888-755-7715, 1 oz, $21.95) to water being drunk. Another that builds oxygen in the blood is OxyCharge™ (800-800-9119, 2-oz spray bottle, $29.95 plus shipping), a tasteless spray into the mouth. Each bottle will last about a month. I have seen these work in my grown son who was greatly anemic from multiple transfusions, and gasping for oxygen! It gave almost instant relief of breathlessness, even though deficient of red blood cells! The Cell Food™ supplies 78 trace, colloidal, ionic minerals, 34 enzymes, and 17 amino acids.    

Live Blood Analysis is a method of prescreening the blood that can be most revealing of a condition usually ignored. That is, the clumping of the blood. Blood clumps or sludges for several reasons. Platelets can become sticky. Red cells can fail to repel one another, especially following a high fat meal that lacks sufficient lipotrophic factors (chiefly lecithin, and vitamins B-complex, E, and C). It will show undigested carbohydrate particles circulating in the blood (signaling a need for digestive enzymes). It has been shown that when these clumped platelets, red cells, or undigested carbohydrate particles reach the small capillaries, they create a slowing or stoppage of blood flow robbing the cells in that area of necessary nutrients and waste removal. Additionally, a deficiency of glutathione tends to cause red cells to deform or burst, white cells decline in functional activity, and an alkaline condition of the blood ensues that constricts the blood vessels and reduces blood flow and oxygen transport. All this is evident by looking at one drop of blood under the electron microscope! Further, mercury binds to oxygen-carrying sites on hemoglobin reducing oxygenation of cells. All these causes of reduced oxygenation of cells lead to undesirable symptoms, many classed as autistic. Very low mercury concentrations block intestinal vitamin B₆. 

Garlic, vitamins E and C, bromelain, and the flavonoids (with rutin) all “thin” the blood. Use these in preference to aspirin. Recent studies by Dr. John Folts, Ph.D., who first touted aspirin, shows these nutrients reduced activity of platelets about 52%, the same as aspirin, without the side effects. Ginkgo Biloba effectively increases circulation and nutrient supply to the brain that is desperately needed by these children, however, because it enhances Phase I liver enzymes, it should be used for only a few months. It should not be used at all by one with a lack of fatty acids or with the PST problem. See my Electronic Book, “Self-help to Good Health”, Chapter titled “Sludged Blood” for additional details of how to improve circulation and oxygenation.