"Juice Plus+ is the perfect way to ensure that we get more of the whole food based nutrition we really need."

The great autism rip-off ... How a huge industry feeds on parents desperate to cure their children

Bittersweet Farms sows inspiration, Lucas County autism facility serves as model

UCLA: Beyond the Basic IEP: What you don't know CAN hurt you

The Autism Calendar

Low Birth Weight May Increase Autism Risk in Girls

Chlorine in Tap Water Doubles Birth Defects

Crimson Center Seminar: Executive Function

BOOK: The Road Ahead (2nd Edition)

Ventura County ASA, Support Group Meeting

Bounce for Autism in Irvine, CA

AutismLink: Avoid Triclosan

Learn More About Melaleuca

Delia Garcia, M.D.
Home: St. Louis, Missouri

Medical Specialty: Radiation Oncology

Education: Graduated summa cum laude from Western Illinois University (1976). Graduated from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (1979). Internship at University of Wisconsin Hospital (1979-80). Resident/Chief Resident at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (1980-83).

Fellowships and Appointments: American Cancer Society Clinical Fellowship (1981-82). Assistant Professor of Radiation Therapy and Oncology, Medical College of Virginia (1983-84). Assistant Professor of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine (1984-1992). American College of Radiology Fellowship (2001).

Other Professional Accomplishments: Author of over 40 scientific articles. Founding member of a cancer and breast institute in St. Louis (1999). She is a leading expert in breast cancer and was selected by her peers to appear in Best Doctors in America.

Community Service: Professional Advisory Board Member, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation ("Race for the Cure") and The Wellness Community of Greater St. Louis.

Health Advice: "Take responsibility for your health, and you will be astounded by the benefits. Stop smoking; eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; exercise daily; and, drink plenty of water. "Life is not a dress rehearsal! Simple measures can make a huge difference in disease prevention."

Why she recommends Juice Plus+: "Last year alone, I consulted with over 400 new patients diagnosed with cancer. The sad truth is that many of these cases might have been prevented through sound nutrition, stress reduction, and an overall healthy lifestyle. "As a busy professional and mother of three, I realize how difficult it is to eat the way we should, especially day in and day out. Juice Plus+ is the perfect way to ensure that we get more of the good, whole food based nutrition we really need."

Juice Plus+ is the simple, convenient, and inexpensive way to add more nutrition from fruits and vegetables to your diet, every day.

Tony and I have been taking Juice Plus+ daily for almost 5 years and we feel fabulous, and are more healthy. I have Fibromyalgia Syndrome (an inflammation of the nervous system that causes painful muscle spasms and chronic fatigue), and Juice Plus+ reduced my pain level by 90% and doubled my energy level. (Results may vary.)

Juice Plus+ is whole food nutrition and will not interfere with any biomedical treatment that you may be doing with your child, but will actually enhance it. Poor nutrition has been linked to ADHD in numerous studies.

If you would like more information about Juice Plus+, please email me.

To check out my Juice Plus+ website, click here.

Isadore Rosenfeld, MD, and his 'family take Juice Plus+ regularly.'

I never endorse anyone or anything. Opinions expressed in what I send out, may not be shared by me. Everything is for informational purposes only.

People who "advertise" through this newsletter have never been checked out by me. This includes professionals and even people who are interested in babysitting, etc.

Please take the time to thoroughly check out anyone and everyone that will be working with or caring for your child. We are all sadly aware, through news stories and word of mouth, of people who pray upon special needs children because of their extra vulnerability.

Thank you,
Valerie Dodd-Saraf
My enewsletters are archived on my website:
www.ValeriesList.com

By Barney Calman - Daily Mail [UK]
There is little hope given to parents of children with autism.

Mainstream medicine offers no explanation for the cause of this life-long learning disability, thought to affect one in 100, and there are no effective treatments.

Perhaps the most cruel characteristic of the condition, which impairs communication development and ability to relate to others, is that children often develop normally until about two years of age, when they suddenly 'regress', becoming mute, withdrawn, refusing to make eye contact and prone to tantrums.

Many never take part in mainstream education and some require full-time care, even as adults.

In the absence of solutions, desperate parents are increasingly turning to the world of alternative medicine in their search for a cure.

Desperate: Jacqui Jackson, who has five children with ASD, knows the allure of a promised 'cure' all too well.

In this burgeoning market, private doctors and clinics have sprung up across the UK claiming they can treat or even 'reverse' the disorder.

Recent research published in the Journal Of Developmental And Behavioural Paediatrics found that a third of parents of autistic children have tried unproven 'alternative' treatments.

Worryingly, the study claims one in ten has used what the experts class as 'a potentially harmful approach'.
Jacqui Jackson, 43, lectures around the country on Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The Blackpool-based mother of seven, five of whom suffer from ASD, knows all too well the powerful allure of the promised 'cure'. After the Jackson family - including Matthew, 24, Rachel, 22, Sarah, 20, Luke, 19, Anna, 18, Joe, 15, and Ben, 11 - appeared in the 2003 BBC documentary My Family And Autism - dramatised in the film Magnificent 7, in which actress Helena Bonham Carter played a character based on Jacqui - they were inundated with calls from alternative practitioners.

'You are so desperate in the early stages, you'll try anything,' says Jacqui. 'I bought enzymes and supplements from America, which cost a fortune. I even paid thousands for a special mattress, blankets and pillows with magnets sewn into them that the sales people promised would do wonders but, of course, didn't work.

'Autism is seen by some people as big business. 'I meet parents who want a cure and spend money in the hope they'll have a normal child. I try to warn them that there is no evidence any of these things work, but they'll often go ahead.' Jacqui Jackson and autistic sons Jacqui with her four sons who all suffer from autism - from left, Matthew, Luke, Ben and Joe

To investigate Jacqui's claims and to discover exactly what is being offered to parents, I visited five practitioners of 'biomedical' autism therapies posing as a parent of a three-year-old boy diagnosed with ASD. In each case my story - a 'typical' case of an autistic child, developed with the help of medical experts - was the same: My 'son' Archie was born on September 15, 2004, after an uncomplicated pregnancy and birth. He had all the usual baby vaccines, including the MMR at 14 months, and developed normally until around 18 months old when he became withdrawn and stopped speaking, refusing to make eye contact. Our GP referred us to a specialist who diagnosed him with ASD. I claimed to be seeking help from more 'forward- thinking' doctors.

During my investigation, I was recommended expensive tests, vitamin supplements and special diets, ointments, suppositories and injections to 'flush out toxic heavy metals', bizarre-sounding high- pressure oxygen chambers and intravenous infusions of hormones - and told in each case that they could bring about a complete recovery from autism.

Yet medical experts say there is no evidence to support their claims, and in fact many of the treatments I was offered were potentially harmful, and even possibly fatal.

The experience left me disturbed at the lack of regulation surrounding these practices. The cost of some treatment programmes ran into thousands. Yet some clinics claimed to have six-month waiting lists.

This week, new legislation aimed at protecting consumers from 'rogue traders' came into force, prohibiting businesses from making 'false claims' that a product is able to cure illness.

Although the practitioners stopped short of saying they could 'cure' autism, each described to me instances of young patients who had been transformed by their treatments and were able to lead totally normal lives and participate fully in mainstream education. The doctors I visited are all linked to the highly controversial US-based Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) group - a collection of fringe academics and doctors. DAN! practitioners often recommend chelation therapy - injections intended to detoxify the blood of heavy metals, the treatment that led to the death of autistic five-year-old Abubakar Nadama, a doctor's son from Batheaston, Somerset, in 2005. By speaking to autism experts and GPs, I was able to identify five key players in the DAN! movement in the UK and Ireland.

My first encounter was with Dr David O'Connell, a former GP. His clinic is promoted by the Autism File, a magazine that supports the DAN! approach. Within moments of our first telephone conversation he tells me what, no doubt, every parent of a child with autism longs to hear: 'Your son could recover.' O'Connell claims education programmes for autistic children are like 'teaching a dog tricks' and instead offers injections of 'a harmless, naturally produced hormone' called 'secretin' which he claims can bring about a 'reversal' of autistic symptoms. 'Two thirds will improve by more than 30 per cent,' he states. 'Any gains will be permanent.' So, why have I never been told about this treatment? 'Because doctors in this country are in the dark ages,' comes the reply. During our appointment, Dr O'Connell - tall, balding and tanned, who I guess to be in his early 60s - says: 'Nine years ago, I gave the first injection of secretin to a child. There was a 76 per cent improvement after just one treatment.' He shows me a single sheet of paper covered with columns of numbers written in biro. 'Each number represents a child I've treated. Parents fill out a form measuring their child's behaviour before and after treatment. 'After a single treatment one child, who had never talked, went into his parents' bedroom and started asking questions.' To be absolutely sure, I ask him again if this treatment can cause children with autism to recover completely. 'Yes,' he replies. 'But we don't know why and a few children don't improve.' It sounds incredible but I'm worried, I say, about my child having injections of a hormone that isn't offered by mainstream medics. 'It's totally safe. I've treated more children with autism than any other doctor in Britain,' he replies. 'The only limiting factor is money.'

Treatment is expensive. The telephone consultation cost £240, with the second at the office a further £200. He recommends a battery of blood, urine and stool tests available only from private clinics, at a cost of £1,546.

Subsequent consultations cost £150, and each monthly secretin injection is £450. There is also mention of infusions of 'immune globulin' to bolster the immune system at £550. 'The more injections a child has, the better the result,' he says. 'Autism can be a life sentence if you do nothing about it. And the sooner you start treatment, the more chance it will work.' At no point during our conversations does he ask to see any medical records.

A more sympathetic character is Dr Asha Rekha Chagarlamudi, a locum GP who runs 'The Autism Clinic' one day a week from her home, a semi-detached house on a private estate in Bromley, South-East London. She's a parent of a child with autism, so it would be hard to believe her motivations are anything but genuine. Yet she recommends Archie should have intravenous chelation therapy and 40 sessions of Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which would involve my 'son' sitting in a decompression chamber similar to those used by divers suffering the bends.

She takes a medical history and says: 'Archie's symptoms are caused by inflammation of the brain. Chelation therapy will help eliminate the poisons from the blood which cause this - and HBOT will reduce the swelling. 'Chelation is most effective given by intravenous infusion, which you can only get in America because doctors here won't do it.' She does not mention the recent death caused by this treatment.

Harley Street-based Dr Damien Downing, who claims to be a 'leading figure in the field of nutritional health', is also keen on chelation. During our consultation I'm asked to fill in a questionnaire to assess the severity of Archie's condition. 'Toxins are everywhere, rubbish dumps, incinerators, mobile phone masts, microwaves, vaccines - this caused your son's autism,' says Downing, who charges £250 per consultation. 'Chelation in the form of an oil that is rubbed on to the skin will rid him of the toxins, and many children are completely normal after. 'But you must be committed to at least a year of treatment, if not more, before you see results.' The treatment is a cause for debate even among committed DAN! practitioners.

In Dublin I meet Dr Gabriel Stewart, a specialist in chelation therapy for adults, who tells me he tries to dissuade parents from giving their autistic children intravenous infusions 'not because it's dangerous, but because it isn't effective in clearing mercury from the blood'. Consequently, Archie was not suitable for treatment. He also warns that some 'DAN! doctors' are less than reputable. 'All you need to do is attend one conference in the US and you can say you're a DAN! doctor - and many of them aren't medically trained.'

Dr Lorene Amet, of the Autism Treatment Trust in Edinburgh, is one such non-medic. Her doctorate is in HIV biology although she doesn't clarify this during the £120 consultation. Amet takes a medical history, asks about behaviour and diet, and recommends a series of blood and urine tests that she says are not available on the NHS because 'doctors don't know about them'. She continues: 'The tests give us a complete picture of your child's health and what has caused his autism. 'From the results we will design a diet and supplements plan. He could recover completely but early intervention is the key - you must act now or you'll regret it.'

I've been offered a bewildering number of treatments, but could any of them be right? Could any really work? At the end of the investigation I speak to Richard Mills, a director of Research Autism, a coalition of parents, those with autism, academics and medical experts, set up by the National Autistic Society (NAS) and the Institute of Child Health to study new treatments for autism. 'Your experiences are not uncommon,' he says. 'There is no evidence that any of these treatments work. There is evidence that some do not work, and even could do harm.' Mills, who has worked in the field of autism research for the past 30 years, describes the helplessness and despair parents feel when trying one unsuccessful treatment after another. 'Parents often tell us they weren't made aware of possible negative effects and many spend thousands, running up bills on credit cards, on treatments that don't work. 'Many of the practitioners who sell these treatments are no better than snake-oil salesmen. This kind of hard-sell approach is completely immoral. 'Lack of regulation means anyone can set themselves up and claim to be able to successfully treat autism, without any proof that it's actually possible,' he says.

Still, I can't help but think that if Archie were real, I'd be willing to try anything, and pay anything for a chance to help him live a normal life.

Dr Gillian Baird, consultant paediatrician at Guy's Hospital, London, and a leading expert on autism, explains that although autism is incurable, some children can improve.

'We know that there is something biologically different about the brain function of children and adults with autism, but we don't know what that is or what causes it,' she says. 'There are accounts of treatments that have helped but this is not the same as evidence.

'The reason some parents believe they see improvements is because autism is a condition that changes over time. And behaviour in all of us can be altered by environment and what we put into our bodies.'

She warns parents that invasive treatments, such as injections, carry a risk of infection. Mills advises parents to ask to see research to back up any claims and ask for copies of any published studies to discuss with a GP or consultant. 'These practitioners often claim mainstream doctors aren't interested in helping children get better. This is not only completely untrue but hurtful.

'Doctors who devote their lives to working with them every day would like there to be a successful treatment for autism as much as anyone - they know just how desperate parents are for an answer.'

Jacqui Jackson urges parents of children with autism to think again before subjecting them to unproven treatments. 'Perhaps we should begin to look at autism as another way of being, instead of hoping to find a cure,' she says. 'These doctors promise they can make autistic children "normal". But who is to say what normal is?'

· For information about autism treatments, visit www.researchautism.net.

On an idyllic spring morning near Whitehouse, the farmers were up and about. One rode a mower across a pasture. Another chopped wood: fragrant cedar and oak. Others were in the stable, tending to and playing with the animals. It was another day at Bittersweet Farms, a care center for autistic adults and teenagers that has become one of the most influential in the world.

UCLA Tarjan Center and UCLA Lili Claire Family Resource Center are pleased to present the workshop:

Beyond the Basic IEP: What you don't know CAN hurt you, with Brigitte Ammons, Senior Advocate, from Protection and Advocacy, Inc.

The workshop will cover how to be more effective, knowing when you should push and when you shouldn't, and making sure the IEP plan turns into reality!

Please see the following link for more information:
http://www.liliclairefoundation.org/documents/IEPwksh p_6_14_08.pdf

The workshop will be presented Saturday, June 14, 2008 from 11am-1pm, at UCLA, 300 Medical Plaza.

RSVP is necessary due to limited space. Please RSVP to: bstark@mednet.ucla.edu

click below

Autism strikes low birth weight baby girls at a higher rate than similar-sized boys when the infants are compared with larger children, according to a study that suggests risk factors for the disorder vary by sex.

Baby girls weighing less than 2.5 kilograms, or about 5.5 pounds, had 3.5 times increased risk of autism and baby girls born more than seven weeks early had a 5.4 times increased risk. Boys born small or early didn't have a significant difference in their risk of being autistic, the according to a report in the journal Pediatrics.

Pregnant moms who live in areas where the drinking water has high levels of chlorine almost double their risk of having babies with birth defects, including heart problems, major brain defects or a cleft palate.

The threat to unborn babies is caused by chemical by- products called trihalomethanes, or THMs, which are formed when chlorine is added to water. THMs can be absorbed through the skin and then pass into the womb. Moms can expose their babies to the dangers of chlorine by drinking tap water, bathing, or simply standing close to boiling water.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham analyzed the birth records of almost 400,000 babies. They found that anencephalus (partial or complete absence of brain and spinal cord), hole-in-the-heart, and cleft palate increased between 50 and 100 percent in areas where the drinking water was heavily chlorinated to disinfect it. The risk of urinary tract defects and Down's syndrome was also raised.

Earlier studies have linked chlorinated water to other problems, including stillbirth, miscarriage and bladder cancer.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

June 25, 2008
6:30-8:00 P.M.

Executive Function and Its Relationship to School and Social Success for Students with Language or Learning Difficulties

Executive function (EF) is a broad term that refers to a related set of skills necessary to achieve goals. Skills such as working memory and planning/organization comprise EF abilities, and are critical for academic and social success. They develop throughout adolescence and into early adulthood, and play a crucial role in helping a child manage increased academic demands, especially during school transitions.

Presented by
Deanna M. Hughes, Ph.D.
Speech Language Pathologist/Researcher
Clinical Faculty, San Diego State University

Discussion Topics
1.) Definition of executive function
2.) Development of executive function and language skills in adolescence
3.) How executive function can impact academic and social success
4.) How these skills can be fostered in students

Crimson Center for Speech & Language
9606 Tierra Grande #107
San Diego, CA 92126
Miramar Area

Please call 858 695 9415 to reserve free seating
Sorry-No childcare is available

Transition to Adult Life for Persons with Disabilities Keith Storey, Paul Bates, and Dawn Hunter, Eds.

Transition from school to adult life has been particularly difficult for youth with disabilities. The vast majority are either unemployed or underemployed with low wages and no benefits. This new resource provides strategies and ideas for improving the lives of people with disabilities, from assessment and instructional strategies, to career development, supported living and postsecondary education.

It features 21 experts in 11 chapters that include transition planning, assessment, instructional strategies, career development, adult employment, community functioning skills, social life, quality of life, supported living, and post-secondary education. Each chapter begins with a group of key questions that are addressed in the text. The Road Ahead provides strategies for helping students have a meaningful life after school and improving the lives of people with disabilities.

VCAS Community Talk Night

June 20th, 2008 7:00 pm
Speech & Language Therapy for Children With Autism
Mindy Newhouse

Location:
Channel Islands Social Services
900 Calle Plano, Suite K, Camarillo, CA 93012
MAP IT- click here
Note: When you go down to the end of Calle Plano, it is the last building on your left.

The Autism Society of America recently unveiled an exciting new family event that benefits families living with autism today. Kids, grown-ups and friends of all ages can bounce at Pump It Up, America's #1 inflatable party zone, while raising money and awareness for autism care, support, treatment and research.

July 26,2008
Irvine, CA
16871 Noyes Ave
Irvine, CA 92606

Click here for