Umbilical Cord Blood and Autism

Dr. Brice E. Vickery
©2007 SuperNutrient Corporation

In July 2005, a study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) tested the umbilical cord blood from ten randomly selected newborns and found all of it to be full of toxins. The umbilical cord passageway is where the infant receives its supply of all nutrients from the mother’s blood. If the mother’s body is unable to flush the toxins from her body, it appears from this study that they are passed directly into her child. The undeveloped body systems of a fetus cannot detoxify the way that a fully developed person is able and an undeveloped blood brain barrier leaves the brain at the mercy of any toxins passing through. Nine medical doctors involved with the study stated that this report verifies the conclusions of other studies that show that pre-natal exposure to toxins affect the health of the future human being.

Dr. Brice Vickery has been saying this for years, “I have long suspected that it was heavy metals and other toxins transmitted from mother to fetus that influenced the development of many childhood illnesses such as autism. Many women are unknowingly carrying around huge loads of toxins such as mercury and aluminum and some of the other xenobiotics mentioned in this study (go to this site for the detailed findings of the EWG study: http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/part8.php).”

“We need to treat the women who are having the children, it would be so much simpler than the work we have to do with the children.” Dr. Vickery, a retired chiropractor presently living in Aiken, South Carolina, often consults with the parents of autistic children. He knows that these children are commonly reported to be high in heavy metals such as mercury and low in several essential amino acids as well as the metal and toxin binding proteins, albumin, glutathione and metallothionein. All these proteins are heavily involved in the binding of toxic substances and glutathione is crucial for their removal from the body.

The EWG uses this study to “urge that federal laws and policies be reformed to ensure that children are protected from chemical exposures, and that to the maximum extent possible exposure to industrial chemicals before birth be eliminated entirely.” To the contrary, Dr. Vickery says, “Let’s face it folks, we’ve been through the Industrial Age, there is no going back. It would be wonderful if we could clean up our planet but we cannot count on our governments and businesses to create air, water and food that is clean enough to protect our bodies. Even if we got laws passed in this country, what are we going to do about countries like China, whose industrial practices are responsible for huge amounts of mercury being dumped into the atmosphere, riding the global winds to the United States, where it dumps into our air water and soil? It makes more sense to look at the systems designed by the body to flush these toxins out of us and ask the questions: why aren’t these systems working, and; how can we get them to work better?”

In the 1940’s Vickery was thinking of attending medical school when he happened to receive a chiropractic adjustment, which appeared to clear up a case of hay fever that was plaguing him. “I realize now that it could have been just he concurrent change in seasons that got rid of the sinus problem, but it turned out to be a pivotal decision in my life. If I had decided to attend medical school, I may never have made the discoveries I did about protein deficiency and its role in health and disease.”

While in practice in the 70’s Vickery, working with his wife Marilyn, noticed that many of their patients were not holding their adjustments. Frustrated that existing medical tests would not allow him to ask the questions he wanted, Vickery built on the testing methods of Reinhard Voll and developed the Vickery Method of testing. This method allowed him to discover that the same patients not holding their adjustments, also had degenerative disk disease, in fact 9 out of 10 of all his patients had DDD to one degree or another.

Further testing showed that these patients were also protein deficient regardless of the fact that the seemed to be eating plenty of dietary protein. Vickery concluded that the digestive systems of these patients were not breaking down dietary proteins adequately and so they must be deficient in the essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein that can only be obtained from the diet) needed to create systemic proteins, such as those that comprise the spinal disks. Indeed later studies showed that an imbalance in the amino acid cross-links in disk collagen is responsible for the degeneration of spinal disks1). Studies also show that “Deprivation of even a single essential amino acid causes a decrease in the synthesis of essentially all cellular proteins”2 Vickery then found that people deficient in protein were also always deficient in sulfur. More years of research resulted in Vickery developing a very particular blend and balance of amino acids and sulfur that allowed the spinal disks to repair themselves, thus curing DDD in his patients.

Meanwhile Vickery started to see a new kind of patient, one that had a collection of symptoms then known as Fibromyalgia Syndrome. These patients were mostly women, all of them had high levels of toxic substances such as mercury in their body, many had bacteria and viruses, all had DDD, protein/sulfur deficiency and the lymphatic system that helped move toxins from their blood to their elimination systems was clogged and inflamed. Dr. Vickery found that his amino acid program helped these patients also. He found that there were important co-nutrients such as salt and iodine that were also crucial for the proper operation of proteins and more years of research resulted in the program that has helped thousands of women worldwide, the Vickery Fibromyalgia Program.

“If a person is protein deficient, he or she becomes a wide open gateway for disease,” says Vickery, “toxins and pathogens will enter the system and not get flushed out by the usual mechanisms. Eventually, the load will get heavy enough to cause the clinical symptoms we call disease.” Three systemic proteins that help keep the system clean of toxins are glutathione, metallothionein (MT) and albumin. All three of these proteins contain large amounts of organic sulfur, an element in which Vickery found most people deficient. Glutathione is one of the oldest proteins on the planet. It is made up of three amino acids, one of which is an essential. Every living organism contains glutathione. In humans it acts as a master antioxidant which destroys free radical compounds in the system by breaking them apart before they can do any damage and forming a water soluble compound that can be transported through the lymphatic system to the kidneys for excretion from the body. Glutathione works with the protein metallothionein to flush toxic metals from the system. It allows metallothionein to bind metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead, allowing for their removal from the body, MT is a protein comprised of 61 amino acids, 50% of these are essential. Albumin is a blood plasma protein that carries glutathione through the body and also binds toxins and heavy metals, preventing the damage they might otherwise cause. Studies show that depletion of one or more amino acids in this protein results in a modified albumin protein that loses the ability to bind metals 3. More recent studies have shown that a deficiency in even one essential amino acid can cause the genetic production of proteins to malfunction4. Autistic children often test low in all three of these proteins as well as essential amino acids5. A recent report of an autistic child on Dr. Vickery’s Program shows that before starting the Program he was low in essential amino acids, glutathione and metallothionein. He had high levels of arsenic, mercury and aluminum. After being on the Program for one month, his levels of amino acids increased and balanced out to the point where the levels of albumin, glutathione and metallothionein rose and the levels of toxins fell to nothing.

If umbilical cord blood is testing high in toxins, then the body’s toxic waste removal systems are not working well enough in the mothers. If toxins are entering the undeveloped systems of fetuses, they are putting the future health of these children at risk. According to Dr. Vickery, this is not a risk worth taking. “Often women will contact me, asking if I think it would be safe to take my product while pregnant. I tell them that in my opinion, it is safer to flush the toxins out of the body than keep them circulating in the blood at this point. Of course the decision is theirs, but in the future I will direct them to this EWG study.”

Dr. Vickery consistently found his fibromyalgia patients to be low in systemic protein, high in toxins, and inflamed in their lymphatic system of toxin drainage. “I found that when I increased a person's ability to raise their levels of systemic protein and sulfur, the body began to flush toxins like crazy.” Vickery has the charts to back up this incredible statement, showing how cadmium, mercury, lead and arsenic levels in patients drop quickly to nothing after being on the Vickery Program for a short period of time. “I believe that in helping women fibromyalgia patients of childbearing age I am also protecting the health of future generations,” he says.

“The basics components for life are air, water, and protein.” says Vickery. “All my years as a health practitioner have led me to one conclusion: The root cause of disease in people is protein/sulfur deficiency. A protein deficient person is going to be a sick person. Our modern day environment is a very toxic place to live and we need to protect ourselves and our children by making sure we are able to make all the proteins we need to sustain a healthy body.”

References

1. “Collagen Crosslinks in Human Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Aging” Pokharna, Hemlata K. PhD; Phillips, Frank M. MD. Spine. 23(15):1645-1648, August 1, 1998.
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2. “Regulation of Global and Specific mRNA Translation by Amino Acids” Scot R. Kimball, Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Course # 056-962, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA.
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3. “IIschemia-Modified Albumin: newest cardiac marker” Michael Weilert, M.D. Medical Director at Community Medical Centers-Fresno
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4. “Amino acid regulation of gene expression.” Fafournoux, Pierre Bruhat, Alain and Jousse,Ce!line Unite! de Nutrition Cellulaire et Mole!culaire, INRA de Theix, 63122 Saint Gene's Champanelle, France.
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5. Converse, Judy, “Diet, Supplements and Autism Spectrum Diagnosis: Is There Theraputic Value?,” April 1, 2002
“Glutathione :GSH” Woodlands Healing Research Center, September, 2002
“Autism, A Holistic Approach” Baral, Mattew, ND. Southwest College of Naturopathic Medecine and Health Sciences, Bulletin, 2003.
“Doctor Issued Patent on Biomarker Linking Autism, Add, and ADHD.” PR Web March 20, 2003
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