On Sat, 29 Aug 1998, Mary wrote:

> I would like to discuss paleo diet and autism and treatments. There is
> apparently a kind of "miracle" treatment we are hearing about, calling secretin.
>
> Apparently, the flood of antibiotics given to babies, destroys their
> digestive tract, esp their secretin.(some children, not all of course, and
> particularly those labelled autistic or learning disabled.
>
> My question is, would a paleo diet slowly heal the digestive tract and the
> body restore gradually its own secretin?

Mary, I don't think anyone knows the answer to this, but I don't
think it is necessarily true that a paleo diet can reverse all
damage that might have occurred to the digestive organs.  To take
a different example, there is no evidence that I am aware of that
a paleo diet, or any other kind of diet, can cure diabetes. It
can be of great value in *managing* diabetes, but it does not
appear to restore the pancreas's lost or diminished ability to
produce insulin.

In this case, I don't think there is any way to know whether the
damage to the secretin system can be reversed by diet, other than
by some fairly sophisticated clinical investigations.  Short of
that, we have only more or less educated guessing.

> Do you withhold a treatment that others find
> promising, or pursue it?

My own view is that I will try *anything* if the risks of the
treatment appear low.  As the apparent risks go up, so does my
caution.  A few years ago there was much hysteria in the autism
community about Landau-Kleffner Disease being perhaps the cause
of much autism, and about its being treatable with prednisone.
Parents were clamoring for their kids to be put on prednisone.
But this is a *very* potent drug, with many side-effects.  I
wasn't too thrilled.  I feel the same way about the psychotropic
drug Risperdal, although it is well tolerated by many (although
large weight gain is a common side effect).  I don't know the
risks of secretin treatment, so I can't comment.  If they are
negative, I would not hesitate to try it.

Another point is this:  The older your son gets, the less control
you will have over what he eats.  And ironically, this is even
more true as his condition improves.  Currently, my son is pretty
good about asking if things have wheat in them and refusing them
if they do, but I don't know how long that will last.  If I
thought that there were a medication that would help him to
resist the effects of the occasional dietary lapse, I would go
for it.

Ask any physician about how well type I diabetics comply with
their dietary restrictions.  They will roll their eyes and tell
you about the happy-go-lucky "diabetic personality" and the
willingness to flirt with foods that they can't really tolerate.
I had a friend who was a severe type I diabetic.  He produced no
pancreatic insulin at all and was therefore completely dependent
on insulin injections.  His dietary guidelines were strict, but
he was simply not that keen on observing them, despite a lifetime
of being instructed in what to do.  He died at age 35, an
unfinished can of Pepsi beside his chair.

As you already know, the rest of the world will *not* play diet
police for your son either.

I still believe in dietary intervention, and if an all meat/fat
diet helps your son, so much the better.  But if there is
something that can help him to cope with a world that doesn't
exactly support that sort of diet, I would not ignore it,
especially if it is a low-risk kind of treatment.

Todd Moody
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