What are Biomedical Treatments?

If you are a parent or carer of a child with an autism spectrum disorder, you are bound to have heard of biomedical treatments for autism, but what are they?

Unlike traditional psychotropic drug therapies, biomedical treatments work by addressing what is triggering or causing the autism in the child, rather than just treating or masking symptoms.

Biomedical approaches are working wonders all over the world and are helping children that some doctors had given up on, and working what many parents would call “miracles”. What could be more miraculous than having eye contact with your child for the first time in years or hearing them say their first word?

A Menu of Biomedical Approaches

In an interview, Jenny McCarthy, autism crusader, writer and mother to Evan, spoke about there being a menu of biomedical treatments to choose from and that you need to work through this menu until you find what works for your child. Every child is unique and has different needs, and the right treatment for your child will often depend on what is actually causing your child’s autism.

Here are some examples of biomedical approaches which are being successfully used to treat autism :-

• Diet – Improving a child’s diet to treat deficiencies and following special diets to remove “allergic” foods have helped many autistic children. A healthy diet will support your child’s immune system, nourish the brain and help your child to function, grow and develop properly. Removing foods like those containing gluten or casein can help the gut to heal, rebalance gut flora and reduce gut inflammation.

• Supplements – Vitamin supplements can help to combat nutritional deficiencies, amino acids can help with the immune system and gut healing, Omega 3 is vital for brain health and melatonin helps to reduce sleep problems. These are just a few of the supplements that can have dramatic effects on your child’s health and behavior.

• Gut Treatments – Treatments to help heal the gut, reduce gut inflammation and help with digestion include digestive enzymes, following an anti-fungal diet, using probiotics and following special diets – the Gluten Free Casein Free Diet (GFCF Diet) or the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).

• Chelation – Chelation treatment helps to detoxify your child’s body of toxic heavy metals which may have built up in the body.

• HBOT – Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a therapy which involves your child going into a special chamber and breathing in 100% oxygen while under pressure. It is a safe pain-free therapy and is having amazing effects on autistic children. See this YouTube Video to get an idea of what this therapy is doing for children and their families.

• Immune system treatment – This type of treatment includes treatment to support and strengthen the immune system, the removal of things that cause autoimmune reactions in your child and treatment to prevent immune system inflammation.

• Environment – You can take simple steps to make your child’s environment less toxic, so that your child’s toxic load is reduced. For example, you could switch to using “natural” household cleaners.

• Thyroid Treatment – Some children on the autism spectrum have been found to have low levels of iodine which causes poor functioning of the thyroid gland. Iodine supplements can help such children.

Don’t Give Up

Like Jenny McCarthy said, there is a whole menu of these treatments, so don’t give up if one or two of them do not work for your child. It is important to be optimistic, to give each treatment time to work and to keep trying – you may just find the treatment that makes a difference in your child’s case!