Medical Marijuana for Autism and Seizures

Medical Marijuana for Autism and SeizuresI interviewed Thalia Michelle and Amy Lou, co-founders of Mothers Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism (MAMMA) about the use of medical marijuana for autism and seizures. You can sign up for the replay here:

Medical marijuana is NOT the same as recreational marijuana.

We’ll be educating you about the safety of medical marijuana for autism and seizures and its anti-inflammatory and other properties.

We discuss CBD, THC and other endocannabinoids and how the human body has endocannabinoid receptors throughout, and especially in the brain and body.

Children with autism and seizures are typically deficient in endocannabinoids. Medicinal cannabis corrects that deficiency, much as taking vitamins and minerals would correct those deficiencies.

In this webinar, we go over symptoms that medical marijuana can help with. We also discuss what the law is in each state that determines your ability to access it.

Thalia and Amy Lou provide a host of resources, doctors, non-profits, advocates, patent information and medical research that specialize in medical marijuana for autism and seizures.

MAMMA seeks to educate legislators, empower other mothers (and fathers) to become advocates, and bring the message of hope and reform.

MAMMA serves as a resource for other advocates interested in autism as a qualifying condition for the use of medical marijuana.

 

Essential Oils for Autism

I am fascinated with the use of essential oils (EOs) for feeling better physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Even the late Dr. Jeff Bradstreet gave a nod to them during one of his presentations at this year’s AutismOne conference.

In fact, Dr. Bradstreet said that certain essential oils for autism can modify the endocannabinoid pathway, an all-important biochemical pathway that is turning out to be a master regulatory pathway in the body.

Medicine is now seeing that an endocannabinoid deficiency is common in children with autism and other spectrum disorders.

Dr. Bradstreet noted that lavender, rosemary, hops, cloves, cannabis and black pepper essential oils for autism can modify this pathway. Cloves and black pepper EOs are high in beta-caryophyllene, a sesquiterpene.

Look for me to fill you in on more biochemistry of EOs in the future, but in the meantime, if you’d like to experience them yourself, you can click here (use code #1799845) to sign up as a distributor and save 24% off retail (they’ll need your social security number for tax purposes) or to simply buy them at retail (you won’t need to provide your social security number).

If you do sign up as a distributor, you’ll need to purchase $50 of product per month to stay active. Because I have fun playing around with essential oils, I found that I easily met this goal.

Brain Based Physical Therapy with Janessa Rick

Brain Based Physical Therapy with Janessa RickI interviewed Janessa Rick of Body4Brain, a brain-based assessment and therapeutic treatment approach in Greenwich, CT.

Sign up below for the replay:

Janessa’s approach brings together brain based theory with her 25 years of experience as a physical therapist and holistic body worker.

This approach can help children with their academic, behavioral and developmental skills. It can also help children and adults with rehabilitation needs.

Janessa Rick helps individuals with sensori-motor processing disorders such as autism, ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder.

She uses techniques including NDT, Myofascial Release and Pilates. She creates an energetic, fun and most importantly, successful treatment for you and/or your child.

In this webinar, we also talked about hypotonia, retained reflexes and developmental delays. We also discussed the therapy-based school that Janessa plans to open in the fall of 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Safe Sunscreen

Safe sunscreenAs a redhead with blue eyes, I have to be very careful about going into the sun. I don’t tan; I burn!

I’m very wary about the chemicals that are used in typical sunscreens. Many of these chemicals, such as oxybenzone, vitamin A (retinyl) palmitate, fragrance, parabens and phthalates, cause endocrine or neurological damage.

However, I believe it’s important to get some sun so I can activate the cholesterol in my skin and turn it into vitamin D. There’s a vitamin D deficiency in this country that is especially high in kids with autism as well as other autoimmune diseases.

The trick is to get a little bit of sun for maybe 10 minutes or so, right before my skin turns pink, and then put some safe sunscreen on.

How do you know if you have a safe sunscreen? Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Sunscreens. The EWG is my go-to source checking the safety rating of personal-care products, cleaning products, cellphones and produce.

About two thirds of the sunscreens tested contain toxic ingredients!

 

Outsmarting Autism

Outsmarting Autism + Patty LemerBeth Lambert, Executive Director of Epidemic Answers, calls Patty Lemer’s second book, “Outsmarting Autism:  The Ultimate Guide to Management, Healing and Prevention”, the “Bible” of autism recovery, and it is.

This book is the soup-to-nuts guide of everything you need to know about recovering your child from autism.

Patty has been working to recover children from autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders for over 40 years, and this book reflects the depth and breadth of her knowledge.

For those of you who don’t know her, Patty is now the Chairman of the Board of Epidemic Answers, which recently joined forces with Developmental Delay Resources, another non-profit that Patty founded with nutritionist Kelly Dorfman back in the 1990’s.

Her self-described “cranky grandmother” style comes out at times in the book, which is what makes it a fun and interesting read.  She tells it like it is!  For example, when addressing the issue of potential over-diagnosis as the cause for the rise in autism cases, she writes, “Many cynics and some scientists actually believe that the rise in autism cases is not real.  Frankly, I find that astounding!”, then quickly explains why the autism epidemic is real.

Given her years of experience, Patty has developed a blueprint for recovering kids from autism.  What’s unusual is that she doesn’t recommend typical therapies until after a child’s total load and correcting foundational issues.  I know from my own and my clients’ experiences that you’ll get more bang for the buck if you follow her blueprint.

Step 1:  Take away the bad stuff, and add back the good stuff

I wholeheartedly agree with Patty’s position that “the multitude of possible causes of autism can all be captured under a single umbrella:  STRESS!”  Stress is the crux of Patty’s Total Load Theory, and it comes under six major categories:  biological, environmental, behavioral, educational, physical and emotional.

It is by removing these individual stressors that allows a child’s body to heal from autism.  Autism is not a mental condition; it is a brain’s response to these stressors, and Patty shows us how to peel this onion one layer at a time.

This also means cleaning up your child’s diet, improving digestion and getting rid of gut dysbiosis. Patty gives specific examples of diets that may help your child.

This also means boosting your child’s immune system by strengthening your child’s immune system, eliminating allergies and infections and lowering inflammation.

One of the unique things about this book is Patty’s discussion of balancing the endocrine system, especially the thyroid and adrenal glands.  In my experience, these issues are typically not dealt with by most doctors and practitioners.  However, these issues can be the basis of autism itself because the toxins and stressors that damage your child’s endocrine system also damage your child’s neurological system.

And because so much of what causes autism is so often due to toxicity, Patty provides a thorough explanation of what it takes to detoxify your child.

Step 2:  Correct foundational issues

After addressing the total load of stressors, Patty recommends correcting foundational issues with therapies such as craniosacral therapy and primitive-reflex integration, which, again, I believe are thoroughly under-addressed in these kids.

Step 3:  Address sensory problems

After correcting foundational issues, then Patty recommends therapies that are a typical starting point for children with autism such as sensory integration, sensory diets, gross-motor therapy, auditory therapy and vision therapy, which is what Patty has been a proponent of for so long.

Step 4:  Focus on communicating, interacting and learning

It just doesn’t make sense to expect that a child whose nervous, digestive and endocrine systems are under constant assault would be able to learn and socialize well.  Think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:  what comes first?  Taking care of basic survival needs.  Only after doing that can higher-order needs like socialization and learning be dealt with.

Patty doesn’t even address ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) until this far into the blueprint, although this is another typical starting point for most children with autism.  Not only that, but many times, it is also the ending point.  So many parents and doctors are not aware that autism is a medical condition with underlying bodily dysfunctions.

Step 5:  Plan for the future

There is a growing number of children with autism who are quickly turning into adults with autism.  Many of these haven’t had any kind of medical intervention – who will take care of them?  Patty gives some well-though-out suggestions in the book.

In addition, ultimately something must be done to halt this epidemic.  So much of that comes down to educating women about the risk factors for children developing autism before these women even think about getting pregnant.  I wish I had known this level of preconception information before I had my boys!

Patty knows just about everyone and everything in the field of autism recovery, and this book is proof of that.  I highly recommend it as the ultimate guide for recovering a child from autism.

An Autism Mom with Cancer Needs Our Help

An Autism Mom with Cancer Needs Our HelpBeing an autism mom is extremely stressful.  It’s like having PTSD:  Perpetual Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Unfortunately, all that stress can really do a number on mom’s health.

One of our own, Melanie Baldwin, aka “Booty Kicker” from The Thinking Moms’ Revolution, now suffers liver, spine, and bone cancer in her other hip after already surviving breast and bone cancer.

She and her profoundly autistic son need our help.  As she struggles to overcome her current issues, her severely affected son, Luke, still requires 24/7 care and attention.  He is self-injurious and quite ill, suffering the lingering effects of severe autism.

Click here to donate: http://tinyurl.com/njeq66s

All funds raised will go directly to assist Melanie and her family.

Healing Hashimotos Thyroiditis

Healing Hashimotos ThyroiditisPlease join me for my webinar replay interview of my guest Jillian Burne, NTC, CHHC, AADP in which we discuss ways of healing Hashimotos Thyroiditis. Sign up below to listen to the webinar replay:

Jillian has become my go-to practitioner for understanding Hashimotos Thyroiditis, which is the most common cause of low thyroid function. However, most doctors fail to diagnose it and treat it properly.

Jillian Burne educates clients on how the body works, what it needs to function optimally, and how to navigate today’s challenging food climate for better health outcomes.

She uses a combination of nutrition and medical diagnostics to get to the root of a client’s health issues. Creating custom diet and lifestyle programs to effectively target weaknesses and rebuild health from a foundational stand point.

Jillian’s Story:
A chance encounter with a functional medicine doctor led to blood work that revealed she has a condition called Hashimotos Thyroiditis.

In an effort to understand what that really means she started researching autoimmune, the role of nutrients and food in regard to the immune system, as well as supplements and alternative therapies for treatment.

The knowledge she gained empowered her to reverse her condition. Now she’s focused on helping others do the same.

Sprouting Nuts, Seeds and Grains

Sprouting Nuts, Seeds and GrainsSoaking and sprouting nuts, seeds, legumes and grains removes phytic acid, a digestion inhibitor. Learn how to do this and more with Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s Raw Foods Guide.

Sprouting increases the nutritional value of raw foods and makes them easier to digest.

Step 1:  Soak your nuts, seeds, whole grains or legumes overnight.

Step 2:  Rinse with fresh water in the morning, and then every 12 hours for 3-4 days.

Step 3:  Store upside down in a glass jar with a cheesecloth over the top or a sprouting bag.

Step 4:  Expose the fresh sprouts to sunlight before eating to increase chlorophyll absorption.

Get the guide here.

Turmeric and Ginger: Two South Asian Power Foods

Turmeric and Ginger:  Two South Asian Power FoodsOne of the great discoveries I made in my health-recovery journey was learning that food can be medicine. Ann Wigmore said it best, I think: “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”

You’re either eating foods that are health-supportive or health-destructive. The Standard American Diet (SAD)’s processed foods are not only virtually void of any nutrients, but they are also typically full of harmful ingredients like artificial colors, artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives and additives like MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and other neurotoxins.

If you’ve read my blogs before, you know that I believe that whole foods are health-supportive. Whole foods are ones that look very much like what they did when they were alive and growing.

For example, instead of thinking that whole-wheat bread is a whole food (it’s not), think instead about where the flour came from: the wheat berry.

For a health-supportive diet, a whole-foods diet is the basis for feeling better. I recommend that, in addition to this, you look at foods that are anti-inflammatory in nature. These are typically herbs and spices, as well as brightly colored fruits and vegetables.

Traditional Diets

In my love of cooking and search for health for myself and my family, I have also discovered that traditional diets are very health-promoting. Think about it: before people had refrigeration and preservatives, how did they eat?

They ate foods that had been preserved with salt, fermentation or by drying. They also ate foods that were only in season, which is a core tenet of the macrobiotic diet. And they also prized herbs and spices not only for their strong flavors, but also for their medicinal properties.

In fact, most, if not all, ancient medicinal traditions use herbal medicine. Some of these herbs and spices are ones that are eaten daily, and some are used for medicinal purposes only.

Anti-Inflammatory Spices

South Asian foods from India are examples of foods that contain a lot of two of my favorite anti-inflammatory spices, turmeric and ginger.

Turmeric is not only anti-inflammatory, but it’s also anti-fungal, anti-aging, anti-cancer (anti-mutagenic), anti-diabetic and lowers symptoms of dementia. It’s great for the pains of arthritis and headaches, protects against damaging effects of radiation, protects against heavy-metal toxicity.

What’s not to love about turmeric besides the fact that it’ll stain your hands and clothes yellow if you’re not careful?

Ginger is another powerhouse food that has been used in both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years. In Western cultures, we typically think of ginger as a nausea reliever, but ginger is a powerful anti-inflammatory spice as well.

Ginger also reduces symptoms of dementia seen in Alzheimer’s (likely because of its anti-inflammatory properties), and it’s also anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic and anti-viral. In addition, it decreases the pain from working out too hard as well as from migraines. Consumption of ginger has been proven to lower blood pressure, too.

You don’t have to eat South Asian foods to get these spices into your diet, although I will say I love Indian and Asian food! To get you started in incorporating turmeric and ginger into your diet, I’ve provided a couple of my favorite recipes:

Emotional Stress Impact on Health

I think a lot of people underestimate the emotional stress impact on health. Stressful emotions like anger, frustration and hopelessness can cause immune dysfunction and inflammation.

I experienced the effects of this personally a few years ago when I no longer had help for my two young sons, the older of whose Sensory Processing Disorder became severe because he was so stressed at having to share me with his baby brother.

My older son’s constant, and I mean non-stop, crying and screaming sent me over the edge.  I couldn’t deal with the fact that no matter what I did, he couldn’t be consoled.  That’s when I really began to know that there really was something wrong with him; he wasn’t just having normal tantrums.

The frustration of not being able to help him left me feeling rather hopeless, and it was made worse by the fact that no one I knew had a child going through this.

That’s when I developed severe irritability, middle-of-the-night insomnia, shingles (twice), bronchitis, recurrent infections, a case of poison ivy so bad I needed steroids (or thought I did at the time; now I know better), irregular cycles, severe adrenal fatigue, ovarian cysts and uterine fibroids, all within the space of a year or so.

Yes, stress can really do a number on your health!

The good thing is that I’ve learned how to overcome these health challenges and get my health back, but I will tell you that stress can cause all of these problems and more because it causes a constant “fight or flight” feeling that screws up your hormones, causes inflammation and leads to severe nutritional deficiencies and immune dysregulation.

I recently read the book “Healing the Gerson Way:  Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases”, and there was an interesting point made in there:  that typically, but not always, there is an extremely stressful event that occurs in a person’s life 18-24 months before they develop cancer.

I can think of a real-life example of that in a woman I know who recently developed breast cancer.  A couple of years ago, her house burned down, and she lost everything.  Although her family built a gorgeous new house, that was still a lot of stress for her to go through.

The more I learn about health, the more I understand that it’s not just about eating whole foods, although that plays a primary role in maintaining and/or recovering health:  Health is also about having the tools to cope with emotional stressors in our lives, whether that’s having a strong support network, a spiritual and/or meditation practice, exercise and a purpose in life.