Research summaries for autism therapy: calcium

definition of calcium: Essential mineral found in dairy products and green leafy vegetables. Calcium is important for overall health as well as brain and muscle function.

|

Chelation therapy should only be performed by an expert.

Chelation therapy is sometimes used to treat autism even though there is no scientific evidence to support its use. This article describes three people (two children and an adult) who died from chelation therapy. The patients died because the chelation treatment took the important mineral calcium out of the body. The deaths may have been the result of a medical error where the wrong drug (similar name) was given to the patients. The authors conclude that Na2EDTA should never be given to children during chelation therapy.
Read more...

This article describes a study showing that children with autism may have lower levels of several important minerals than children without autism.... The results showed that magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper, manganese and chromium were all significantly lower in the children with autism than in the children without autism. However, children with autism were most likely to have low levels of four of these minerals: calcium, copper, zinc, and chromium.... Read more...

This article concludes that children with autism on casein- and gluten-free diets are receiving approximately the same nutrition as children with autism not on elimination diets.

This study focused on 37 children with autism; 8 were on gluten- and casein-free diets, and 29 were not. The parents of these children completed questionnaires about the diets of their children. The results showed no significant differences between the dietary intakes of the two groups. However, children on the casein- and gluten-free diets were more likely to be deficient in calcium, copper, iron, and zinc. The authors commented that children on the elimination diets ate more fruits and vegetables than the children on non-elimination diets. Read more...

|