Is Autism Related to CFS and Fibromyalgia?

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Jacob Teitelbaum MD
Complementary Medicine

Is Autism Related to CFS and

Fibromyalgia?
The nutrient L-carnitine appears effective in treating all three
Posted Jun 30, 2011

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Acetyl L-Carnitine Improves Autism (https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/autism)

Many specialists who work with autism as well as CFS and fibromyalgia
(http://www.endfatigue.com/resources/index.html) - myself included - find that there is a
major overlap between the three conditions. I suspect all three have related underlying
processes and, given a specific genetic makeup, the very same processes that trigger
CFS and fibromyalgia (https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/chronic-pain) in adults
can trigger autism in children.

Because of this overlap, I've also been involved in research on helping children with
autism. Autism is a brain (https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/neuroscience)
function disorder that results in impaired social interaction, difficulty with communication,
and restricted and repetitive behavior. These symptoms start before a child is three years
old and affect four times as many boys as girls. It can be very severe, or in milder forms
called Autism Spectrum Disorder (e.g., Asperger
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/aspergers-syndrome) Syndrome). Like CFS
and fibromyalgia, the prevalence of autism is skyrocketing and is currently present in
almost 1% of our nation's children!

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A new study1 sheds light on the relationship between these disorders by showing that a
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nutrient called L-carnitine, which regulates energy production and is helpful in treating
CFS/FMS (referring to the "acetyl" variety of L-carnitine - see Acetyl L-Carnitine for CFS
and Fibromyalgia (http://www.endfatigue.com/health_articles_c/CFS_FM-acetyl-l-
carnitine_for_cfs.html)), can also help treat autism.

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Study Findings

The study was conducted by researchers at the Institute of Chronic Illnesses in Silver
Spring, Maryland. They treated 30 children with ASD. The children were divided into two
groups, with one group being given a daily dose of 50 mg of L-carnitine for every kilogram
of body weight (e.g., a 60-pound child would have taken 1,364 mg of L-carnitine a day)
while the other group was given a placebo
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/placebo).

After three months, the children taking L-carnitine had "significant improvements" in the
severity of ASD, reported the researchers in Medical Science Monitor.

Improvement was measured in several ways and included improved scores on the
Childhood (https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/child-development) Autism Rating
Scale (CARS), which rates children on their ability to relate to people, body use,
adaptation to change, listening response, and verbal communication; and on the Autism
Treatment Evaluation Checklist, which evaluates children on
speech/language/communication, sociability, sensory/cognitive
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/cognition) awareness, and health
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/health)/physical behavior. (You can download
the checklist (http://www.autism.com/ind_atec_survey.asp) from the Autism Research
Institute website.)

The researchers also linked higher blood levels of carnitine to hand muscle strength,
cognitive scores, and CARS scores.

Another remarkable option for autism is a special acupressure technique called NAET,
which eliminates food sensitivities. After seeing a young autistic girl go from nonverbal to
being a chatterbox with this treatment, we explored the treatment further - and found this
type of remarkable result was common. Our foundation then funded a study in which I was
the lead author using NAET in autism. By the end of one year (100 simple treatments), 23
of the 30 autistic children in the treatment group were back in regular schools (as opposed
to none of the 30 in the untreated control group). The study has been accepted for

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publication (due October 2011). For more information, and to find over 12,000 NAET
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practitioners worldwide, visit NAET (http://www.naet.com/).

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References
1
"A prospective double-blind, randomized clinical trial of levocarnitine to treat autism
spectrum disorders (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21629200)" (abstract), The
Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A. and CoMeD, Inc., Silver
Spring, MD. PMID: 21629200 [PubMed]

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