When I asked Dr. William Walsh, founder of the Pfeiffer Institute what he thought of the Autism One Conference, he shared that “it was wonderful that 700 delegates had come from far and wide to hear such excellent speakers, representing so many different approaches, with a full range from those based on hard science to those that are soft and speculative. He felt the conference met the needs of concerned parents who are evaluating the myriad of treatment options for their child.
Walsh stated that it’s wonderful they had this opportunity to learn at the conference, which provided a “crash course” on the various autism therapies. He pointed out that early intervention is essential in autism-spectrum disorders, and that parents can’t wait eight years for the studies to be formally confirmed and approved by conventional medicine. He also notes that while other conferences have had a very narrow focus in areas of genetics, vitamin therapy, bio-medical or traditional avenues, this conference offered a broad menu of potential therapies, without any apparent favoritism.
Walsh hasn’t always been focused on autism, in fact this reserved gentleman began his career in 1976 in the area of brain chemistry with a mission to reduce crime and violence by trying to help prisoners become law abiding individuals upon their release back into society. While working with the prisoners at Argonne National Laboratory, he compared the body chemistries of violent prisoners and ex-convicts with those of regular law abiding citizens through double-blind controlled studies.
By analyzing blood, urine, and hair, it was discovered that there was in fact a definite difference between the body chemistry of the violent delinquents and the law-abiding citizens. The prisoners exhibited levels of lead and cadmium which were three times higher than the controls. In fact, the violent group broke down into two different chemistry types: Type A displayed a nice personality but would flip to hostile when agitated, and Type B persons who were mean and destructive all the time.
He was surprised to discover that a surprising number of the prison residents came from regular, economically sound, loving households in which the other siblings turned out fine. Eventually, Walsh’s group discovered that individualized nutrient therapy aimed at balancing brain chemistry and body chemistry was usually effective in changing the lives of young children and teens, this type of intervention was relatively ineffective for adult criminals. To learn more reference http://www.hriptc.org/agressive_behavior.html
After eighteen years working in the fields of behavior disorders, ADHD, depression and schizophrenia, Dr. Walsh’s group began studying the biochemistry of children on the autism spectrum. He discovered that the vast majority of the autistics exhibited evidence of a metal-metabolism disorder involving elevated copper, depressed levels of zinc, and a crippled metallothionein protein system. He also found that most autistics were deficient in B6 and magnesium and were under-methylated.. Walsh has made much progress in the autism field and is highly respected and admired in his field for the work he is doing. You can learn more by visiting his website at: www.hriptc.org or by reading the reference article…http://www.hriptc.org/disordered.html