End of Autism: Exciting New Research and Future Directions

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William Shaw, PhD Related seminars and products

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William Shaw, PhD is board certified in the fields of clinical chemistry and toxicology by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry. Before he founded Great Plains Laboratory, Inc., Dr. Shaw worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Children’s Mercy Hospital, University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine, and Smith Kline Laboratories. He is the author of Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD, originally published in 1998 and Autism: Beyond the Basics, published in 2009. He is also a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide. Dr. Shaw is the stepfather of a child with autism and has helped thousands of patients and medical practitioners to successfully improve the lives of people with autism, AD(H)D, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, bipolar disorder, chronic fatigue, depression, fibromyalgia, immune deficiencies, multiple sclerosis, OCD, Parkinson’s disease, seizure disorders, tic disorders, Tourette syndrome, and other serious conditions.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. William Shaw has employment relationships with Mosaic Diagnostics and New Beginnings Nutritionals, LLC. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Shaw receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.
Non-financial: Dr. William Shaw is a member of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry, the Clinical Chemists of Georgia, the Cure Autism Now, the Defeat Autism Now, and the Autism Society of America.

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Objectives

1. Discuss the evidence for the major causes of autism spectrum disorders.
2. Determine the proof that HPHPA is produced by Clostridia bacteria in the intestinal tract in conjunction with human metabolism.
3. Describe the two major human biochemical systems that are disrupted by the Clostridia product HPHPA.
4. Describe how the Clostridia product HPHPA disrupts the major human developmental protein sonic hedgehog, perhaps the major immediate cause of autism.
5. Identify the likely mechanisms by which the popular analgesic acetaminophen (paracetamol) and the common weedkiller glyphosate cause autism.
6. Determine the unique role that fats such as cholesterol and palmitic acid play in the activation of sonic hedgehog.

Outline

Evidence that the autism epidemic is real and that there has been a remarkable increase in autism rates over the past decades

• Autism is caused primarily by environmental triggers acting on a genetically susceptible subset of children and that epigenetics play an important role in mediating how environmental toxins affect gene expression.
• The incidence of autism rose 7- to 8-fold in California, where autism diagnoses are most reliable, from the early 1990s through the present. Other factors cannot explain the magnitude of the rise in autism.

Evidence for the presence of excessive amounts of HPHPA from Clostridia bacteria in the gastrointestinal tracts of children with autism spectrum disorder.

• Phenylpropionic acid, the biochemical precursor of HPHPA, the biochemical in the urine associated with a diagnosis of autism, has only been found in culture media of eight species of Clostridia bacteria.
• Phenylpropionic acid was not found in non-Clostridia species isolated from many stool samples.
• Antibiotics that kill Clostridia eliminate phenylpropionic acid from cultures of stool samples.
• Based on the proof that Clostridia bacteria alone produce the precursor of HPHPA, the clinician can test for the presence of Clostridia bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract by testing urine samples for HPHPA.

Evidence for excessive amounts of dopamine in people with autism spectrum disorder

• Elevated dopamine metabolite, homovanillic acid (HVA) found in cerebrospinal fluid samples of people with autism.
• Multiple studies finding elevated dopamine metabolite HVA in high amounts in urine samples of people with autism and severity of autism related to degree of HVA abnormality.

Evidence that excessive dopamine causes brain dysfunction

• Drugs that are dopamine inhibitors such as haloperidol and Risperdal are widely used to reduce autism symptoms.
• Dopamine added in high concentrations to tissue cultures of neurons causes extensive biochemical damage to the neurons including damage to neuron structural proteins, produces toxic byproducts, and damages neuronal mitochondria.

Evidence that the products of Clostridia inhibit the key enzyme of the brain and peripheral nervous system dopamine beta-hydroxylase

• 4-cresol, a product of Clostridia and perhaps other bacteria, inhibits dopamine beta hydroxylase in vitro and forms covalent complexes with the enzyme.
• HPHPA, although not yet tested in vitro, is associated in autism with extreme increases in the dopamine metabolite HVA with no increase in the metabolite vanillylmandelic acid (VMA). There appears to be no biochemical explanation for this abnormality except in vivo inhibition of dopamine beta hydroxylase.

Evidence that glyphosate weed killer is a substantial cause of the autism epidemic

• There is an almost perfect correlation between the increased use of glyphosate on major food crops and the increase in the incidence of autism.
• Glyphosate, in addition to killing plants and weeds, also kills beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract without killing Clostridia bacteria.
• Glyphosate in the feed of farm animals leads to a substantial overgrowth of Clostridia bacteria in their intestinal tracts.

Evidence that acetaminophen is a substantial cause of autism

• The major metabolite of acetaminophen, abbreviated as NAPQI, strongly reacts with numerous proteins with free sulfhydryl groups. The sonic hedgehog protein responsible for brain development possesses such a sulfhydryl group on the most critical portion of the molecule and would be a target for NAPQI, preventing activation of sonic hedgehog by palmitic acid.
• Several epidemiological studies have documented increased risk of autism with acetaminophen exposure while exposure to comparable pain killers like ibuprofen caused no increased risk of autism.
• The rate of autism declined during a terrorism event in which the most popular brand of acetaminophen was removed from the market.

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals