Autism Treatment – Heavy Metal Testing, Hair Analysis and Treating Autism

I would like to take some time to go over some information related to heavy metal testing. There can be a lot of confusion within both the traditional medical community and the biomedical medical community, which deals primarily with Autism, regarding what some of these tests can mean. Some questions include which tests to do first, which tests to do second and also just how to integrate the results. This topic is going to be broken into several videos so that they aren’t too long. So, let’s get started.

Heavy metal tests come in many different types. Many children with Autism also have heavy metal exposure, this we know. But, much of our general population, and this includes you and I, have also had heavy metals exposure as well. However, many children with Autism also have impaired detoxification abilities which then leaves them more susceptible to the issues that heavy metals bring. Mercury in particular likes to go to the nervous tissues and the brain. But body chemistry disruption comes from other heavy metals as well, we know that lead is problematic along with aluminum and arsenic so the issue is not just with mercury. And there can be an issue of multiple heavy metal exposures.

Usually one of the first things that I do in my practice when screening for heavy metals is to run a hair analysis. Great Plains Labs and Doctor’s Data are two labs that I primarily order from that both do hair analysis. And both of these labs provide basically the same test so I would order from either Great Plains or Doctor’s Data. These tests have a lot of information to back them up. They provide information on the clinical significance of the results along with interpretive knowledge and even what the markers many mean for that specific patient or child. So again, they are basically the same test so either the hair analysis from Great Plains Labs or the hair analysis from Doctor’s Data is fine. If you have insurance coverage, you may want to choose Great Plains, not all labs accept insurance. The next video will go deeper into hair analysis for heavy metals testing.