A Comprehensive Antiviral Approach
By Stan Kurtz, Parent/Researcher
This is a DRAFT document – written 07/03/07 updated 08/27/07.
This document is supported with medical literature, scientific data, clinical observations, and parental reports. It also reflects the observations, views and personal experience of the author who is a parent (not a doctor). Mr. Kurtz’s perspective is driven from his personal experience including his son’s recovery and from an evolving data pool in his online group with 18,000+ posts from 1900+ families, many of which are sharing information on what has worked and not worked for their child.
This document is not intended in any way to be a substitute for professional medical advice.
This document is an evolving work in progress. Read the latest version.
Mr. Kurtz’s parental, clinician’s, and researchers group
The Early Origins of My Antiviral Research
William Shaw, Ph.D., was the first person to suggest that I research antiviral therapies. My research began by finding the works of Dr. Michael Goldberg, Dr. Jacquelyn McCandless and Dr. Sidney Baker. Through recovering my son, helping other families and observing a number of reports from families and physicians I quickly realized that a more comprehensive and individualized approach is what seems to work best for the greatest number of children.
In less than a month after starting an anti-infection strategy my son looked completely different. To me he looked recovered from his major symptoms of autism. After my son’s recovery I was quite surprised how very few doctors were treating autism with an anti-infection strategy and how many of those who did not understand the critical importance of a simultaneous and comprehensive approach.
My current position is that an antiviral (often a prescription but sometimes natural products) in combination with an azole [24] antifungal and some other prescription antifungals, as well as supplementation, dietary intervention, and, at times, metals detoxification, given simultaneously can successfully improve the health and symptoms of a child with autism and related disorders.
What is Recovery From Autism?
You cannot be cured of being hit by a bus, but you can recover from it. You might even be able to recover enough that you do not need to park in special parking spaces when you go shopping. If you are fortunate enough you might recover well enough that you gain back so much of your functioning such that no one would know you were ever in an accident.
This analogy mirrors my belief about recovery from autism. There are several degrees to this analogy. Some children’s symptoms improve well enough that they start functioning like neurotypical children. They are still autistic but they are making great strides. To me, this means, “greatly improved.”
Some children’s symptoms lessen to the degree that they lose their diagnosis. They are no longer considered autistic. This is one degree of recovery. Typically you might see children like this having some residual symptoms of social, verbal, or learning nuances or ADHD-type symptoms that might alert a specialist to suspect that the child once had an autism diagnosis. For the most part they are free of their symptoms and will likely lead what many would consider a relatively normal life in society.
There is another form of recovery where if you met the child in a room of his or her peers and did not know the child had a diagnosis you would not be able to tell there ever was a diagnosis. When I refer to recovery I typically mean this level or maybe something arguably close. My son recovered from autism to this degree.
When I say “greatly improved or recovered” that is a spectrum that means moderate improvement to significant improvement from the child’s symptoms all the way through to developmental gains that make the child seem indistinguishable from his or her peers.
About MB12Valtrex – My Family and Practitioners Group
In 2005, I founded MB12Valtrex, which is a unique group of families, practitioners, therapists, and teachers (2000+ members and 18,000+ posts as of 8/07) who explore and help develop these therapies and report clinical observations of children who are using this comprehensive antiviral approach for individuals with autism symptoms. This group is a great way to execute these strategies and obtain direct feedback learn about how parents and practitioners execute these therapies and what they observe through the process. You can join this group by going to the link below.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/mb12valtrex/
About External Therapies
I continue to believe in Speech, Occupational, Physical, Educational, Sensory Integration, and Behavior Therapies as being an important part of recovery. I look at biomedical therapies, like this comprehensive anti-infection therapy, as being similar to putting glasses on the brain and free the body up to be able to utilize external therapies better.
About Autism
Some people talk about the gifts of autism (or ADHD). If your child had wonderful gifts but had a persistent pneumonia, recovering your child from the pneumonia would not take away their gifts, and, in fact, it would probably enhance them. I believe in the gifts that our children have, and I also believe in giving them every possible chance to use them to their fullest potential.
When I speak about autism I usually mean autism as we understand the symptoms today, but I also believe that many chronic illnesses often have a similar origin and modality as autism symptoms. My school that includes a combination of children with chronic illness, autism with “typical” children we see many children and parents improve or recover from the symptoms of illnesses and behaviors typically considered untreatable or incurable. This includes eczema, asthma, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, colitis, chron’s disease, diverticulitis, chronic viral infections, speech delay, sensory issues, food allergies, aggression, sleep disturbance, drooling, chronic runny nose, aggression, biting, anxiety, separation challenges, and more.
I have observed a surprising number of parents and children with chronic illness recover from the same therapies that help many children with autism. I believe that children with autism are some of the most biologically involved cases of chronic illness. It has been my experience that when we find therapies that work on children with autism, that the same therapies often improve and/or preserve the health of many “neurotypical” people and help recover some “incurable” chronic illness conditions.
About Autism and Comprehensive Antiviral Therapy
My current belief is that autism is often a combination of pathogens and opportunistic infections often combined with toxic body burden that reach a point of expression during critical times of development in (commonly) a young, susceptible host.
Basically, I believe autism, for many children, is an infection that interferes with the body’s ability to detoxify and causes a greater susceptibility to environmental toxins.
The goal of this comprehensive approach is to disrupt the infectious cycle and allow the immune system regain control over these intruders and then better detoxify from the contributing toxins and inflammation that cause the autistic characteristics.
Viral and Other Infections in Autism
In my first search in PubMed, the main database of peer reviewed medical literature, in 2004, I found 80 peer-reviewed viral/autism involved citations in the medical literature. To check peer-reviewed medical literature, it is as simple as doing a Google search of “pubmed” going to that site and doing a search for “virus autism.” Many of these papers included references to specific viruses, inflammation, and autoimmunity. Several of them specifically state the onset of the disorder surrounded the onset of the infection. Three case reports showed late onsets of 11 [1], 14 [2], and 31 [2] years old.
I think the average person does not think of infections having a neurological effect, but if you just think about how your brain feels when you have the flu or how a dog acts with rabies we can begin to see quick examples.
In the case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Tourettes Syndrome it was commonly believed to be brought on by stress. Due to some wonderful work by Sue Swedo, M.D., at the National Institute of Health many cases were found to be the immune systems response to a Strep infection (PANDAS) [29].
Other infections that are linked to neurological issues include: Rabies, Lyme, HIV, Herpes, Polio, Coxackie, Rubella, Borna, Epstein’s Barr (EPV), Eterovirus, Influenza, Measles, Westnile – Borrelia, Shingles, Anthrax, Meningococcus, Mycobacterium, Syphilis, Malaria, Chlamydia, Ricketts, and Candidiasis.
Infections that are in implicated in the medical literature as causing or triggering cases of autism include: Herpes, Rubella, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae, Shingella, Borna, Malaria, Blastocystics, Varicella, Cytomegalo Virus (CMV), Syphilis, Toxplasmosis, Neurocysticercosis, and Clostridium.
In reference to Clostridium, an interesting study was conducted by Dr. McFabe that showed injecting rats with propionic acid caused the onset of autism symptoms [32]. A main source of proprioic acid is Clostridia, a bacterial infection common in autism. My son had rasied levels of clostridia during his autism.
In my son’s case I believe he was affected quite early on to some degree. He was born with eczema, had pale skin and his development was at the late end of his milestones through his first 12 months. He then seemed to decline around the time of his one-year vaccinations. He had irregular hair growth, distended belly, dark puffy eyes, and was hyptonic. In my experience and opinion, eczema and related symptoms is a fungal infection of the inner layers of the skin. Many people with eczema appear to have gut issues that when properly taken care of seem to heal the eczema almost immediately.
Some video examples include:
Severe Eczema and Fa
tigue for 49 Years - 6 mins
• Windows Media Player (.wmv file)
• Quicktime (.mov file)
Crystal hadn’t known a life without excema. She went to more than 100 doctor’s visits and nothing helped her. She came to Children’s Corner and changed her diet and three days later her eczema was gone and it has never returned.
Eczema and Speech Delay at 2 Years Old – 2 mins
• Windows Media Player (.wmv file)
• Quicktime (.mov file)
Samantha suffered from from eczema, speech delay and energetic challenges. Her family was shocked when they realized that foods were at the center of her chronic illness. She recovered in just a few days.
Eczema and Fatigue – 6 mins
• Windows Media Player (.wmv file)
• Quicktime (.mov file)
Margaret was suffering from eczema and fatigue for several years. She began with our starter diet and then through IGG Testing learned that asparagus was also a problem for her immune system. She recovered in days and her eczema has not returned.
Other evidence of how infectious activity can affect the brain includes three studies that show hypoprofusion (reduced blood flow to the brain) [33,34,35] and inflammation [36,37,38] in the presense of different types of herpes viral infections.
Secondary Symptoms and Observations of Bacteria and Fungus in the Autism Community
When I was younger and had bowel problems I now realize that I had lots of cavities, gum problems and bad breathe compared to other people. If my gums bled a lot in hindsight I wonder about my bowels. I also had adult acne and smelly feet. Additionally it only seemed like one deoderant worked for me, Secret. Hey, it really was strong enough for a man… with all that aluminum and all. Once I started working on my gut and adding MB12 that all went away.
I often hear reports of parents who had many cavities and fillings. Of course, many of us had dentists who used amalgams so not only did we have bacteria that eats away at the mouth but added to that was an almost endless amount of mercury for it to dig in to.
When I used a used an Arizona Instrument mercury vapor meter (Jerome 431-X) on the parents at my school I found that almost all of the parents were leaking toxic levels of mercury from their amalgams. Two of the three parents who did not leak mercury at all were chronic drinkers from my observation. I asked Boyd Haley Ph.D., about this and he suggested that maybe the alcohol broke down the mucosa from the mouth and the mercury was going straight in the skin. I was not getting any mercury excretion out of the hands of these people either, so this explanation did not make perfect sense to me.
My belief is that the alcohol kills off bacteria in the mouth (and possibly parts of the GI tract) and that is why the amalgams of these two moms weren’t leaking.
I suspect the bacteria and fungal issue so common in parents of children with autism is doing harm in other ways as well. Since I started on working on my gut with an SCD-like diet (less IGG Food Allergies), antifungals, probiotics and Methyl-B12 Nasal Spray I stopped getting cavities, my gums stopped bleeding, and my incessant need to brush my teeth went away, my feet were much better, I could wear less deodorant and different brands, etc.
Smelly Breath and Oily Skin Mixed With Dry Skin
There is this common smell on the breath of many parents with autism. I also notice it at times with the kids as well. I also see a lot of oily foreheads, dry skin and thick rubbery palms. Certain fungus and bacteria make oily toxins and it seems they are often excreted from the forehead and the scalp. It seems the forehead and scalp specfically excrete these types of oily toxins. I suspect these toxic oils may also be blocking fatty acids from getting into the mitochondria. I visualize the cells blocking the fungal oils and at times secondarily causing fatty acid metabolism issues, dry skin, cholesterol and triglyceride challenges, fatty liver and myelination issues in the brain. Myelination happens in part through fatty acids and management of cholesterol. In my opinion, fungal and bacterial toxins could be a cause of some types of autisms.
I treated fungus and bacteria in my son and supplemented with essential fatty acids, l-carnitine, Co-Q10, and low dose niacin (higher doses can cause red ears and flushing).
About Thick Rubbery Palms
This seems to be common in folks with gut issues and/or mercury exposure (quite often amalgams). In a room full of people I can often tell who has amalgams just by feeling their palms.
I discovered this through my mercury vapor experiments. I found mercury is excreted moreso from the hands and feet than any other part of the skin. It seems that over time this exposure damages the palms of the hands and creates these rubbery feeling layers of toxic skin on the palms (and the bottoms of the feet).
There is a wonderful product to remove this type of damaged skin called 18MMM from GP Deva located on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (310.858.6545). I have not found anything like it. In less than a minute you can have all that bad skin removed in a painless, effortless way. Just rub a little on and the bad skin falls right off. It unfortunately is $100 dollars a bottle but luckily a little goes a long way. If you find another product that works as well please let me know. I began using 18mmm on my entire family once I realized how important the hands and feet are at excreting toxins and heavy metals.
The Philosophy Behind The Philosophy – Autism As An Environmentally Involved Infection
I do not personally believe that vaccinations are the only cause of autism, but, as scary at it is for some people to believe, in some children they seem to be a factor [15]. Many people talk about “the” factor as being a genetic predisposition, and for some that may be, but I believe that a transmittable viral, fungal and/or bacterial infection at times combined with an exposure to environmental toxins or vaccines may be a more frequent onset framework for many children. If that is the case, then genetic patterns of children with autism is secondary to better understanding and treating the infections these children have.
In an unpublished study by Jim Adams Ph.D. and Sophie Rossenu Ph.D. children with autism and bowel issues had and average of 10,000 times the amount of e-coli than controls. E-coli, strep, staph, and yeasts can methylate mercury [16, 27] and other metals making the exposure more toxic.
There was a study in Kuwait that showed that children with autism had much higher uranium levels than controls, which were often their siblings. It is fair to say they had similar genes, and similar exposure to toxins but ended up with dramatically different levels of uranium in their hair [17]. This concept was very interesting to me considering my son had uranium levels in his hair in excess of 14 times the “safe” levels of exposure. He also tested with high levels of candida (a fungus) and clostridia (a “bad” bacteria) in his intestines. My belief is that my son’s raised levels of fungus, bacteria, and possibly viral infection , which is quite common in children with autism, made him more susceptible to environmental toxins.
In 1975, there was an interesting mouse study that showed if a mouse was exposed to coxsackie virus and cadnium that raised levels of metals could be found in the brain [31].
This is a common framework of how the crossing of an infection and environmental toxins might lead to autism.
While trying to better understand how mercury is excreted by the body I did a mercury containing flu shot experiment. I injected myself with a flu shot and used an Arizona Instrument 431-X mercury vapor meter to track my mercury excretion. What I expected to see an immediate increate in mercury vapor, similar to what I had seen when I ate sushi which was an increase in minutes. With the mercury containing flu shot my levels dropped to practically zero. The levels went lower than just prior to the flu shot and they stayed near zero about the same amount of time I felt like I had flu symptoms which was about 7 hours. As soon as I felt better the mercury started pouring out of me.
It was a lesson learned by accident, but it seems to me that nature decides to worry more about infection than toxins.
My child may have had some type of genetic predisposition, sure, but when I helped him take care of his nutritional, fungal, viral, bacterial and toxic issues, he recovered. The Autism Research Institute has documented more than 1,000 cases of autism recovery through approaches that include infection and toxin management.
I believe if society weighs genetics too heavily we may miss the opportunity to remove the infectious and toxic issues commonly involved in many of our children with symptoms of autism.
A challenge for many parents is to consider genetics as an element of the issue and not the cause, especially when many pathogens, bacteria and fungus (some that we may understand and some that we do not) can easily be passed down by sexual intercourse, birth and other transmissions.
I speak quite often to parents with chronic infections and toxins who blame the symptoms on their genetics because other family members are suffering from the same symptoms. “My whole family has allergies” or “We all have autoimmune issues,” etc. Sadly, there are a lot of companies and organizations who benefit from other people not knowing they are chronically ill and that those ill people can recover.
I believe it is time for all of use to take responsibility for our own health and to not leave this critically important task in the hands of people who benefit from our illness.
In my experience, autism is often a family illness with many family members having chronic energetic, immunological, physiological, infectious and toxic issues. It should not take much effort to see ADHD, OCD, autoimmunity, viral/bacterial/fungal infections, chronic anxiety, depression and cancer within the immediate family of a child and/or the parents who are affected by autism.
I often see families racing to help their child only to lose sight that the child has the best chance of recovery if the individuals in their family learn from and treat their own biological issues.
