HI-TRANSFER

Autism conference to focus on biomedical treatments


DARTMOUTH — It’s important for the parents of an autistic child to know that they are not alone.

The Gottschall Autism Center helps parents locate support services, educational opportunities and health interventions for their child afflicted with the disorder. Next month, the center is sponsoring an autism conference which tackles subjects all too familiar for these families.

“When the Belly is the Beast: How Intestinal Health Impacts Brain and Behavior,” is being held Friday, April 1, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Rachel’s Lakeside in Dartmouth. The event will feature nationally known experts who will address the nutritional and biomedical approaches used in the treatment of autism.

“These parents need help,” said Gottschall Executive Director Cheryl Gaudino. “It can be scary when they don’t know where to turn.”

According to Gaudino, in a recent survey 27,000 parents were questioned about their autistic child’s diet. Seventy-one percent reported that their child was functioning better after they eliminated items like refined sugars and food coloring.

"What happens in the gut affects the brain,” said Gaudino. “There’s a big connection."

In addition to being the Gottschall executive director, Gaudino is the parent of a child with autism. Her son Ryan was diagnosed in 1999 at age of 3. She has witnessed first-hand what takes place when he strays from his eating routine.

“My son gets more autistic when he eats foods that don’t agree with him,” said Gaudino. “Bringing the diet back to where it should be makes a huge difference for these children.”
One of the conference’s scheduled guests is Dr. Martha Herbert, pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. She will speak about “Autism as a Chronic Whole Body Treatable Environmental Illness.” Herbert is an internationally renowned researcher, speaker, author and expert on the genetics and neurology of autism.

Other speakers include Dr. Alessio Fasano, professor of pediatrics, medicine, and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Pamela Ferro, president of the Gottschall Autism Center. There will also be an appearance by Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association.

This is the second autism conference Gottschall has sponsored. The first was held in 2009 and was extremely well attended. The conference was not held last year because of prior commitments, but Gaudino expects to make this an annual event.

For more information about the conference or to register online visit www.gottschallcenter.com. The $65 admission fee includes continental breakfast, lunch, a conference program and an autism resource guide.

E-mail Derek Vital at
dvital@heraldnews.com.


Copyright 2011 The Herald News. Some rights reserved

A gut reaction: Conference to explore intestinal health and its effect on autism
By ALEXIS HAUK
ahauk@s-t.com
March 24, 2011 10:50 AM

Chances are, you've heard the statistics: 1 in 110 children have an autism spectrum disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The estimated lifetime cost of caring for someone with autism is $3.2 million.

But on April 1 in Dartmouth, a group of nationally recognized experts will assemble for the Gottschall Autism Center's conference to address a potential intervention method you're probably not as familiar with. The conference, titled “When the Belly is the Beast: How Intestinal Health Impacts Brain and Behavior,” will explore nutritional and biomedical approaches to treating autism.

“A few years ago, dietary intervention was really looked down upon by doctors. False hope and garbage like that,” says Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association. “We were looked at like crazy parents. Now the science is catching up.”

One method of dietary intervention is the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), a grain-, lactose- and sugar-free meal plan originally designed for people with irritable bowel syndrome. The theory behind the diet is that restricting hard-to-digest complex carbs – found in such high-fiber foods as grains, starches and many fruits and vegetables – keeps harmful microbes in the intestinal tract at bay, relieving stomach distress.

Pam Ferro, RN, president of the Gottschall Autism Center, has tended to children on the autism spectrum for 15 years, during which parents have consistently reported gastrointestinal issues in their children: bloating, pain, diarrhea, as well as behavioral manifestations of this discomfort, like poor sleep, tantrums, repetitive behavior and crying in the middle of the night.

“Who can focus and concentrate and stop humming when you're in so much pain?” Ferro says.

“I think what we're seeing is that a lot of kids with autism have undiagnosed medical problems and it's because they have communication issues,” Gottschall Center Executive Director Cheryl Gaudino says. “You can't tell someone ‘my tummy hurts.' You express it in behaviors.”

These behaviors can include “toe walking” as well as pressing down on a chair to relieve the stomach pressure. Gaudino's 14-year-old son Ryan was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3 and started almost immediately with dietary intervention (gluten-free, casein-free) “cold turkey,” which Gaudino says was rough – three nights of screaming, not sleeping and not eating.

Gaudino describes the process of weening her son off of gluten and casein (at the time that he was 4, the only biomedical intervention available, according to Gaudino) as similar to coming down off drugs. After the “withdrawal” symptoms subsided and Ryan adjusted, Gaudino began to notice positive changes: Her son could make eye contact, and his “stimming” diminished (stimming is short for “self-stimulation” and is seen in repetitive movements, common in ASD). Ryan has been on the SCD for the past five years.

“It's really a paradigm shift as to how we eat. It's really about getting back to organic foods as much as possible,” Gaudino says. “Before, it was pretty much like, ‘Oh, that's autism.' That weird walk or that weird gait or that diarrhea 20 times a day. ‘That's just autism.' It's not. It's an underlying medical problem that, once addressed and fixed, can really affect the child's functioning.”

In a vicious cycle, kids with ASD often crave the same foods – macaroni and cheese, chips, hot dogs – that make them feel so bad. Ferro says when working with families at the Gottschall Center on switching over to the SCD, “Preparation is key.” She tries to match recipes as closely as possible to what the child is already eating, and encourages parents to put as little pressure as possible around food; even if their kids refuse at first, they will eat eventually.

Ferro began working with her niece, Tonya Silvia, last August, after Silvia and her husband, Marco Ferreira, noticed changes in their 2-year-old son, Brenden, symptoms such as speech delay and stimming by flapping his arms.

“One night I called Pam because (Brenden) was outrageously screaming and crying,” says Silvia of Westport. “(I said,) ‘There's something wrong with him, I don't know what to do.' So then she said, ‘Let's just try this diet.' ”

Though Brenden did not receive an official ASD diagnosis, Silvia says he was borderline enough to begin early intervention treatment and the SCD at the same time. Improvements emerged three weeks later: Brenden's diarrhea got better and he was able to communicate what he wanted verbally, instead of just screaming and crying. And while Brenden's speech hasn't returned fully, he no longer stims.

“I think most of it is the diet,” Silvia says, though Brenden is also still undergoing early intervention. Silvia points to the dramatic shift in demeanor that happens when she occasionally lets her son break the diet and have a slice of pizza at birthday parties – he becomes extremely hyper and turns his ears bright red.

Not that the diet isn't a ton of work for Silvia, who's a stylist at Cost Cutters in Fall River with three kids ranging from ages 1 to 15. Sometimes her mother comes over to help with the cooking. But, “You've got to put your mind to it, because it's your child,” she says.

Fournier, whose 11-year-old daughter has been on the SCD since age 4, believes that the surge in ASD cases is tied to an increase in toxins in the environment, which she says would explain the increase in cases of asthma and attention deficit disorder, as well as autism.

“The big question is, we have kids with autism and their gastrointestinal systems are not working right, so what happened?” she says. “Absolutely it has to be an environmental thing, because the only other option is that it's solely genetic. It's absolutely impossible to have a genetic epidemic. If the genes can mutate to cause the increase that we've seen in autism, it would take, like, a hundred years for that to happen.”

Other speakers at the conference will include Dr. Martha Herbert, pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, presenting “Autism as a Chronic Whole Body Treatable Environmental Illness.” Herbert is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and an internationally renowned researcher, speaker, author and expert on the genetics and neurology of autism.

“Gluten, Leaky Gut, and the Autism Spectrum Disorder: How to Connect the Dots” will be the topic of a workshop led by Dr. Alessio Fasano, professor of pediatrics, medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; Fasano is also director of the Mucosal Biology Research Center and medical director at the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland.

Ferro will present “Gastrointestinal Pathology and the Use of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in Autism” and “Mothers of Children with Autism: Strategies to Improve the Outcome of Health and Relationships.”

Additional workshops will be held on finding resources, legal basics for parents, safety and wandering, and transition to adulthood.

For more information on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Ferro recommends:

* www.pecanbread.com

* www.breakingthe
visciouscycle.com.

CONFERENCE DETAILS
What: “When the Belly is the Beast: How Intestinal Health Impacts Brain and Behavior”

When: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 1

Where: Rachel's Lakeside, 950 State Road, Dartmouth.

Registration: $65, includes continental breakfast, lunch, conference program booklet and an Autism Resource Guide. Visit www.Gottschallcenter.com for complete conference information and online registration.

https://sfari.org/news-and-commentary/open-article/-/asset_publisher/6Tog/content/studies-implicate-gut-bacteria-in-autism

Autism, with its constellation of behavioral and cognitive symptoms, might seem to be all in the brain. But intriguing new studies suggest that some aspects of the disorder might originate in the gut.

For decades, doctors have heard anecdotal reports that children with autism have frequent gastrointestinal problems, suffering from bloating, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea and more.

The latest research, conducted over the past several years, probes the controversial possibility that whatever is amiss in the gut is not just a symptom of autism, but one of the causes. The work is an offshoot of mounting scientific interest in the human microbiome, the stew of bacteria that make their homes in our gastrointestinal tracts.

A new study, published 31 January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that these microbial residents may direct brain development, ultimately shaping behavior1.

"It's a big eye opener," says lead investigator Sven Pettersson, professor of microbiology at Karolinska Institute in Sweden. "If you would have said 20 years ago that bacteria would have anything to do with brain function, people would have laughed at you."

Healthy guts are home to a vast number of bacteria, of a variety of different species. "You have more bacteria in your gut than you have cells in your body," says Derrick MacFabe, director of the Kilee Patchell-Evans Autism Research Group at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, who was not involved with the study.

Far from being pathological, these microscopic stowaways are critical players in normal biological functioning.

Microbial passengers:
Some studies have found a higher incidence of gastrointestinal disturbances in children with autism. A 2006 study revealed, for instance, that 70 percent of children with autism suffer from gastrointestinal problems, compared with only 28 percent of typically developing children2.

In 2005, Anne McCartney, a microbiologist and senior research fellow at the University of Reading in the U.K., found that children with autism have higher-than-normal concentrations of Clostridium bacteria, a microbial group that can produce neurotoxins. Other researchers have reported similar findings3.

"There does seem to be a case to suggest that both the numbers and types of certain bacteria in the gut are different in autistic and non-autistic children," McCartney says.

Armed with these findings, researchers began to explore whether changes in gut bacteria, rather than being mere symptoms of autism, contribute to the disorder. Anecdotal evidence suggested that might be the case — parents often reported that their children's behavior seemed to get worse when their gut symptoms were exacerbated.

In the new study, researchers set out to determine whether gut microbes can shape brain development. They examined two sets of mice: one group has a normal stew of the microbes, whereas the other has squeaky-clean guts devoid of bacteria.

Comparing the behavior of these two groups, the researchers found that the bacteria-free rodents are more hyperactive and more likely to take risks than those with microbes. The sterile mice also show abnormalities in the expression of dozens of genes and in the way they process several neurotransmitters — including noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin.

To investigate whether gut microbes are responsible for these differences, the scientists exposed bacteria-free pups to a full complement of microbes taken from the normal mice. The sterile mice no longer grew into hyperactive and risk-taking adults. In fact, they acted just like the mice born with normal gut bacteria.

Though Pettersson and his colleagues weren't looking specifically at autism, the study provides compelling evidence that the microbes in our bellies can influence behavior, perhaps by guiding brain development.

"This phenomenon seems to take place very early in life," Pettersson says. Indeed, transfusing bacteria-free adult mice with gut microbes has no effect on their behavior. "One of the striking findings is that in order to change the behavior pattern of the animals, we have to expose the mice at a young age to that bacteria," Pettersson says.

Autism models:
The next step for researchers is to unravel the mechanism underlying this gut-behavior link.

One possibility is that microbes influence brain development by altering the level of hormones circulating in the bloodstream. Alternately, gut bacteria might be communicating with the brain through the vagus nerve, which runs from the head all the way down to the abdomen.

MacFabe is investigating whether gut microbes can influence the brain in ways that explain the symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. He is using rats to study fatty acids produced by the microbes that live in the gut, focusing particularly on propionic acid, which is produced by Clostridia, the bacteria that seem to be present at higher levels in children with autism.

When MacFabe and his colleagues injected propionic acid directly into the brains of rats, they became hyperactive, began engaging in repetitive behaviors and lost interest in social interactions4.

Subsequent studies have reinforced these findings. In young and adult rats alike, propionic acid seems to cause repetitive and antisocial behaviors, cognitive impairments and patterns of brain inflammation that resemble those seen in children with autism5,6,7.

"There are compounds that gut bacteria make that can make animals do some very weird things," MacFabe says, "some very specific things that have similarity to autism."

The research is provocative, but there's still much to do before gut microbes can be established as a real contributor to autism. Even if the connection holds up, it's unclear whether changing the gastrointestinal environment would have any benefits for children with autism. "I'm not convinced at this point that we can say, 'If we modulate the gut flora we can alleviate autism,'" McCartney says.

References:
1.Diaz Heijtz R. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Epub ahead of print (2011) Full text
2.Valicenti-McDermott M. et al. J. Dev. Behav. Pediatr. 27, S128-36 (2006) PubMed
3.Parracho H.M. et al. J. Med. Microbiol. 54, 987-991 (2005) PubMed
4.Shultz S.R. et al. Neuropharmacology 54, 901-11 (2008) PubMed
5.MacFabe D.F. et al. Am. J. Biochem. Biotechnol. 4, 146-166 (2008) Abstract
6.Shultz S.R. et al. Behav. Brain Res. 200, 33-41 (2009) PubMed
7.MacFabe D.F et al. Behav. Brain Res. 217, 47-54 (2011) PubMed

February 25, 2011--The Board of Directors of the Gottschall Autism Center is proud to announce that the second "When the Belly is the Beast" Autism Conference will be held on Friday, April 1, 2011 at Rachel's Lakeside in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.  The event will feature nationally-known experts who will address the nutritional and biomedical approaches to the treatment of autism.

Dr. Martha Herbert, Pediatric Neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, will present "Autism as a Chronic Whole Body Treatable Environmental Illness."   Dr. Herbert is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an internationally renowned researcher, speaker, author and expert on the genetics and neurology of autism.

“Gluten, Leaky Gut, and the Autism Spectrum Disorder:  How to Connect the Dots,” will be the topic of a workshop led by Dr. Alessio Fasano, Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  Dr. Fasano is also the Director of the Mucosal Biology Research Center and the Medical Director of the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland.

Pamela Ferro, RN, President of the Gottschall Autism Center will present “Gastrointestinal Pathology and the Use of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in Autism.” This presentation will underscore how intestinal function plays a pivotal role in the behavior, communication, socialization, and cognition of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders.  Ms. Ferro, the parent of a child with autism and the co-founder of Hopewell Associates, Inc. in Mattapoisett, will also present “Mothers of Children with Autism:  Strategies to Improve the Outcome of Health and Relationships.”

Additional workshops will be held on finding resources, legal basics for parents, safety and wandering, and transition to adulthood.

Hosting the conference will be Wendy Fournier, President of the National Autism Association.  Ms. Fournier is the parent of a child with autism, a Gottschall Autism Center board member and a frequent lecturer at local and national autism conferences.

The registration fee of $65 per person includes continental breakfast, lunch, conference program booklet and an Autism Resource Guide.  Please visit the Conference Homepage for complete conference information and online registration.

September 5, 2010--Charlie's Children's Charities announced that the Gottschall Autism Center is the be the beneficiary of a golf tournament to be held on October 4th at the New Bedford Country Club in N. Dartmouth, Mass.  The tourney is held in memory of Charie Winterhalter who lost his battle with cancer in 2008.  Charlie was a long-time supporter and business advisor to the Center. 

For more information or to register for this event, please visit the event homepage by clicking HERE.

December 12, 2009--The Gottschall Autism Center welcomes Cheryl Gaudino of North Attleboro as its new Executive Director.

Ms. Gaudino brings to the Center an extensive knowledge of autism along with strong executive experience. A Founding Board Member of the Center, Cheryl served as Treasurer until her appointment.

Active in the autism and disability advocacy field, Cheryl has served on several Boards including Advocates For Autism of Massachusetts and Massachusetts Families Organizing For Change. As the parent of a child with autism, she has also co-chaired a parent support group for the last six years.

Previously, Cheryl spent 25 years in business management and accounting. She holds a degree in Accounting from Bryant University in Smithfield, RI.

“I am excited to help the Gottschall Autism Center expand its reach into the autism community,” said Gaudino. “With 1 in every 91 U.S. children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, we simply don’t have the luxury of waiting until we have a brick and mortar center before providing services and support. In October, we held a biomedical conference featuring Dr. Martha Herbert, Pediatric Neurologist at Mass. General Hospital, and Pam Ferro, RN ASN, co-founder of Hopewell Associates, Inc. This spring, we are kicking off our Adult Program where we will provide job training and the necessary supports for adults with autism to work on organic farms within their communities.”

The Gottschall Autism Center is committed to becoming a national model of how to treat, nurture, and enrich the lives of individuals with autism by providing an individualized biomedical, nutritional, and parent educational program. In addition, the Center is dedicated to providing tailored supports to adults with autism by offering employment training, job opportunities and campus living in an organic farm setting.

The Center is currently seeking a land donation in southeastern Massachusetts as well as corporate sponsors. For more information, please contact Cheryl at 774-282-0293 or Gaudino@GottschallCenter.com.

The Gottschall Autism Center

When the Belly is the Beast: How Intestinal Health Impacts Brain and Behavior

Featuring Dr. Martha Herbert and Pamela Ferro, RN
Conference Books and DVDs are now available!

Parents of autistic children envision a SouthCoast care center

By Deborah Allard
Fall River Herald News Staff Reporter
Read the article here.

DARTMOUTH — Cheryl Gaudino wants what every mother wants for her child, but for her, it’s more difficult. Her 13-year-old son Ryan was diagnosed with autism at age 3.

“I want my son to be productive and to enjoy his life,” said Gaudino, treasurer of the board of directors of the Gottschall Autism Center.

Autism is a developmental disorder that can affect communication and social interaction. Symptoms may include repetitive behaviors, little or no eye contact with others, a lack of interest in playing or making friends, fixation on certain objects, and a delay in or lack of speaking, according to the Autism Society.

But the causes of autism are poorly understood, leaving many unanswered questions for families dealing with the disorder.

“You become a detective,” Gaudino said.

She and a group of parents have been working for the past two years to establish a brick-and-mortar Gottschall Autism Center somewhere in southeastern Massachusetts. The group currently meets with parents of autistic children, offering help and support, but is trying to do much more.

The group envisions a center where parents could learn about autism and how to treat it, where conferences could be held, and where autistic children could get job training and learn about daily living. It would also offer campus housing on an organic farm where autistic children could learn about healthy eating.

“We’re hoping to become a national model,” Gaudino said.

Gaudino and a growing number of parents and caregivers in the autism community are learning more about the role food plays in autism. More than 50 percent of children with autism have gastrointestinal symptoms and allergies. They’re using the specific carbohydrate diet, which they say has helped their children tremendously.

The diet isn't low in carbs but restricts the proteins gluten and casein. Gluten is found in all wheat, rye, barley and some oat products, while casein is found in dairy products. The two proteins have been found to “drug” autistic children like a “morphine drip,” acting as opiates would in the system.

Gaudino can attest to these findings with her own son, though the diet is not yet a recognized medical treatment for autistic children.

“He’s been on the diet since diagnosis,” she said.

Before Ryan was diagnosed, he went from being a healthy toddler who was walking and talking to a child that could do neither. He was sick, had constant diarrhea and basically stopped developing.



Gaudino said his problems started after he received his vaccinations and had to undergo several courses of antibiotics. He had a fever of 107 degrees.

“It was horrific,” Gaudino said. “We almost lost him.”

Ryan began the specific carbohydrate diet, which substitutes ingredients like white flour and sugar for almond flour and honey, and regained much of what he lost. The diarrhea stopped and he was potty trained within a month.

On Friday, Gaudino and other members of Gottschall presented “When the Belly is the Beast: How Intestinal Health Impacts Brain and Behavior,” at Rachel’s Lakeside on Route 6. It featured lectures and a luncheon of specific carbohydrate foods.

Pamela Ferro, president of Gottschall and co-founder of Hopewell Autism Associates in Mattapoisett, offered hope to the crowded room of attendees in her lecture about the specific carbohydrate diet.

“There have been more treatments in the past three years than in the past three decades,” Ferro said.

She said there is a brain-stomach connection at work that is making autistic children sick and exacerbating their symptoms. She celebrated the emergence of “strong, scientific support” to back those beliefs.

Children with autism cannot break down certain foods, which leads to malnutrition and the inability to absorb nutrients. Processed foods like snack cakes, cereals, potato chips, and other ready-made foods are not digested and cause gastrointestinal toxins that affect the body and the brain.

Ferro, the mother of an 18-year-old autistic child, said the diet has made a huge difference in her son’s life.

“We know that what we eat can affect our health,” Ferro said.

Attendees were given recipes and a cooking video about the specific carbohydrate diet.

The rate of autism diagnosis has grown from one in 100,000 children about a decade ago to one in about 100 today. More boys are afflicted than girls.

Some parents and physicians of autistic children attribute this to the growing number of toxins ingested today. Some also suspect certain vaccinations can contribute to autism.

The Gottschall Autism Center is named for the late Elaine Gottschall, who worked with people suffering from digestive diseases. For more details, visit www.gottschallcenter.com, call Ferro at 508-941-4791 or phone Gaudino at 774-282-0293.

The group is currently accepting donations at P.O. Box 979, Mattapoisett, MA, 02739. They are also looking for a land donation to build the center.