Autism One Conference 2006

Arthur Krigsman, MD attended medical school at the State University of New York at Brooklyn, and completed his pediatric residency at SUNY Brooklyn - Kings County Medical Center. Dr. Krigsman has extensive experience in the evaluation and treatment of gastrointestinal pathology common in children with autistic spectrum disorder, and has detailed the symtomatology and endoscopic/histopathologic character of this disease in this unique, poorly understood group of children. His findings have been presented at scientific and lay meetings in the United States and Canada.

Dr. DeMio is a Defeat Autism Now! Practitioner and the father of a child with autism. Prior to medical school he taught and worked in the organic chemistry laboratory at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He graduated from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine with honors in metabolism, women and children’s health, and neurosciences. He has been an MD for over 20 years, including as a faculty member at several teaching hospitals with a career that includes E. R. medicine, with an emphasis on toxicology. Dr. DeMio is accredited for speaking nationally on medical topics including brain toxicology, nutrition, and the use of supplements in health and disease for children and adults. Currently a program host on Autism One Radio, he has previously hosted different health talk radio programs.

Dr. Martha Herbert is a researcher for neuroimaging studies of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, interested in the complex nature of the neurobehavioral problems of the children she treats. Dr. Herbert received her Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of California Santa Cruz in studies of the History of Consciousness, and her M.D. in 1991 from College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Additionally, she is the Director of the Brain Development Initiative and the Cure Autism Now Foundation, and among her many achievements, has received the Cure Autism Now Innovator Award. Dr. Herbert is currently an Assistant Professor, Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Mark Blaxill is the parent of a daughter diagnosed with autism; senior partner of a major strategy consulting firm; Harvard MBA with distinction and Princeton A.B. summa cum laude; and the author of several publications on autism: including "What's Going on? The Question of Time trends in Autism"; "Reduced Mercury Levels in First Baby Haircuts of Autistic Children"; and "Thimerosal and Autism? A Plausible Hypothesis That Should Not Be Dismissed." Chantal Sicile-Kira is the author of Autism Spectrum Disorders (Penguin), recipient of the ASA 2005 Outstanding Literary Work of the Year. Chantal has over 20 years of experience with ASDs as a professional and as a parent raising her severely autistic child (now 16 years old) in three different countries. Chantal is active in various non-profits including the San Diego Chapter of the Autism Society of America, Cure Autism Now, Helping Autism through Learning and Outreach (HALO), and La Casa Center for Autism. Chantal is also a national speaker on autism spectrum disorders, advocacy, and adolescent issues, Her next book, Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum, will be published by Penguin in March 2006. Visit Chantal’s website at www.chantalsicile-kira.com

Mark Blaxill is the parent of a daughter diagnosed with autism; senior partner of a major strategy consulting firm; Harvard MBA with distinction and Princeton A.B. summa cum laude; and the author of several publications on autism: including "What's Going on? The Question of Time trends in Autism"; "Reduced Mercury Levels in First Baby Haircuts of Autistic Children"; and "Thimerosal and Autism? A Plausible Hypothesis That Should Not Be Dismissed."

Mayer Eisenstein, MD, JD, MPH is a graduate of the University of Illinois Medical School, the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Public Health, and the John Marshall Law School. Since 1973 he has been in private medical practice and is currently the Medical Director of Homefirst® Health Services, the largest physician attended home birth service in the country. In his thirty years in medicine, he and his practice have delivered over 15,000 babies at home. He is the author of numerous books including the award winning Give Birth at Home with the Home Birth Advantage. His guest appearances on television include "The Phil Donahue Show" and "Oprah Winfrey Show." Since 1987 his weekly radio show "Family Health Forum," has aired in the Chicagoland area. He is a NOHA Professional Advisory Board Member. Chantal Sicile-Kira is the author of Autism Spectrum Disorders (Penguin), recipient of the ASA 2005 Outstanding Literary Work of the Year. Chantal has over 20 years of experience with ASDs as a professional and as a parent raising her severely autistic child (now 16 years old) in three different countries. Chantal is active in various non-profits including the San Diego Chapter of the Autism Society of America, Cure Autism Now, Helping Autism through Learning and Outreach (HALO), and La Casa Center for Autism. Chantal is also a national speaker on autism spectrum disorders, advocacy, and adolescent issues, Her next book, Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum, will be published by Penguin in March 2006. Visit Chantal’s website at www.chantalsicile-kira.com

Dr. Martha Herbert is a researcher for neuroimaging studies of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, interested in the complex nature of the neurobehavioral problems of the children she treats. Dr. Herbert received her Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of California Santa Cruz in studies of the History of Consciousness, and her M.D. in 1991 from College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Additionally, she is the Director of the Brain Development Initiative and the Cure Autism Now Foundation, and among her many achievements, has received the Cure Autism Now Innovator Award. Dr. Herbert is currently an Assistant Professor, Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. James Neubrander is board certified in Environmental Medicine with special interests in heavy metals and B-12 biochemistry. At his medical practice in Edison, New Jersey, Dr. Neubrander helps patients seeking the Defeat Autism Now approach to autism. An international conference speaker, Dr. Neubrander has greatly contributed to the well-being of children in the autism community as the virtual "father" of methylcobalamin - also known as M-B-12 - therapy, and he is a co-author of the study entitled Metabolic biomarkers of increased oxidative stress and impaired methylation capacity in children with autism, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2004.

Dr. Andy Wakefield, MB BS FRCS FRCPath, is an academic gastroenterologist. He graduated in Medicine from St. Mary’s Hospital, part of the University of London, in 1981, and pursued a career in gastrointestinal surgery with a specific interest in inflammatory bowel disease. He qualified as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985, and in 1996 he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Traveling Fellowship to study small intestinal transplantation in Toronto, Canada. Discoveries made during his time in Canada led him to pursue the scientific investigation of inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In 1998, he and his colleagues at the Royal Free Hospital reported a novel inflammatory bowel disease in children with developmental disorders such as autism; the condition later became known as autistic enterocolitis. No stranger to controversy, Dr. Wakefield resisted pressure to stop his research on the possible links between childhood immunizations, intestinal inflammation and autism, and left the Royal Free School of Medicine in 2001. He is involved in many scientific collaborations in the U.S and Europe. The main focus of Dr. Wakefield’s research is an investigation of the immunologic, metabolic, and pathologic changes occurring in inflammatory bowel diseases such as autistic enterocolitis, links between intestinal disease and neurologic injury in children, and the potential relationship of these conditions to environmental causes, such as childhood vaccines. During the course of his work on childhood developmental disorders, Dr. Wakefield became increasingly convinced of the need for a research-oriented, integrated bio-medical and educational approach to these disorders in order to translate clinical benefits for affected children into measurable developmental progress; this is the driving aim of Thoughtful House. Dr. Wakefield has published 132 original scientific articles, book chapters and invited scientific commentaries and was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2001. He is medical advisor to the United Kingdom charity, Visceral, and sits on the board of the U.S. charity, Medical Interventions for Autism.

Dr. Richard Deth is a molecular neuropharmacologist and Professor of Pharmacology and at Northeastern University in Boston. His research interests are directed toward elucidating the molecular events that cause neuropsychiatric disorders in which impaired attention is a prominent feature. Dr. Deth’s laboratory has discovered a new signaling pathway involving the D4 subtype of dopamine receptor that is linked to the risk of ADHD, autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. A key aspect of his work is the role of folate-dependent methylation reactions, including their regulation by dopamine and growth factors and their inhibition by neurodevelopmental toxins. Dr. Deth is the author of a recently published book entitled: "Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-Folate Connection".

Betsy Hicks interview - A few parents attending the conference talk about their experiences.

Dan Rossignol, MD, who will soon be joining the International Child Development Resource Center (ICDRC), is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia Department of Family Medicine and a Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) physician. He received his Doctorate of Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia and completed his residency in family medicine at the University of Virginia. He is the father of two children with autism, ages five and three. One of his clinical interests is the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in neurodevelopment disorders, including autism. Dr. Rossignol and Lanier Rossignol, Dr. Rossignol's wife who is a family nurse practitioner and who is involved heavily with the research, authored the study entitled Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may improve symptoms in autistic children, published in Medical Hypotheses. Another study is close to completion (as of May 2006), which is a trial on 18 children using hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and a placebo controlled trial will begin in the next few weeks, to be sponsored by the International Hyperbarics Association. The Rossignols will also be involved with research in the future and are in the planning stages for several other research studies. http://www.icdrc.org/

Robert Nataf, MD, director and founder of Laboratoire Philippe Auguste in Paris, France holds a Docteur en Medecine from the Universite de Paris VII and received certifications in clinical bacteriology and virology, general immunology, hematology, and clinical biochemistry. At the Laboratoire Biologie Medicale Philippe Auguste, Dr. Nataf set up over 40 specialized panels on functional and preventive medicine, including those pertaining to autism, chronic fatigue, and oxidative stress and protection. He is co-author of the study in press entitled, "Porphyrinuria in childhood autistic disorder."

Narrated by Robert Krakow, Esq, Jim Moody, Esq. and John Gilmore.

Dr. Megson is a developmental pediatrician in private practice in Richmond, Virginia. She is board certified by the American Academy of Pediatrics. She was director of Developmental Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Richmond for nine years. Her current private practice is devoted to diagnosing and treating developmentally delayed children, specializing in autism. Research area is use of vitamin A and Bethanecol in treatment of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. She conducted a clinical trial to investigate her hypothesis that G-alpha protein defect is a high risk factor for developing autism after vaccination.

Robert Nataf, MD, director and founder of Laboratoire Philippe Auguste in Paris, France holds a Docteur en Medecine from the Universite de Paris VII and received certifications in clinical bacteriology and virology, general immunology, hematology, and clinical biochemistry. At the Laboratoire Biologie Medicale Philippe Auguste, Dr. Nataf set up over 40 specialized panels on functional and preventive medicine, including those pertaining to autism, chronic fatigue, and oxidative stress and protection. He is co-author of the study in press entitled, "Porphyrinuria in childhood autistic disorder." Teri Small is the vice president of Medical Veritas International and commissioning editor of Medical Veritas®: The Journal of Medical Truth, the journal of MVI. MVI recognizes that medical modalities promoted by public health departments and authorities are often compromised by conflicts of interest; MVI encourages independent research into disease mechanisms. Teri is mom to 8 year old Ian, who is diagnosed with autism, but who has also been diagnosed with mercury toxicity and nodular lymphoid hyperplasia, which are consistent with damage attributed to vaccinations.

Dr. Steenblock has been practicing wholistic medicine for about twenty years in Southern California. About twelve years ago, he became interested in hyperbaric oxygen for healing and purchased a monoplace hyperbaric oxygen chamber for treating his patients. Dr. Steenblock saw the immense benefits of HBO for stroke and brain injured patients. He began developing a comprehensive neuro- rehabilitation program that now combines Hyperbaric Oxygen with other wholistic therapies such as nutritional counseling, physical and occupational therapies, biofeedback, neuro-feedback, acupuncture, and pulsed electromagnetic treatments. These therapies work synergistically (the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts) to improve the patient's quality of life. Cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and autistic patients have brain damage that also responds to these different but synergistic therapies. Dr. Kenneth P. Stoller narrates, due to Dr. Steenblocks flight delay.

Jay Charleston received his Masters and Ph.D. in developmental biology from the University of Washington. He has been interested in neurotoxic effects of mercury compounds for the past 15 years following post-doctoral training in environmental toxicology. One of his areas of special interest is the application of modern designed-based stereology methods to quantify cell numbers within specific regions of the central nervous system following toxic insult and trauma, and combining these results with other methods of scientific investigation. Interest in the stereology methods have resulted in multiple collaborations representing a diverse spectrum of biological questions ranging from estimating reproductive reserves in the human ovary to drug discovery efforts using a variety of animal disease models. Recently, Jay and his wife Lynne have established StereotomeNW as a consulting service specializing in the use of these design-based stereology methods in support of basic research.

Dr. Bradstreet has been in Family Practice since 1984 after leaving the USAF. In 1997, his son was diagnosed with autism and since then he has redirected his efforts to autism research and treatments. He is co-founder of the International Child Development Resource Center where he treats children from around the world. The center has two full-time physicians, several research assistants, behavior therapists and a consulting staff in clinical psychology. Dr. Bradstreet has presented his research findings at conferences around the globe and has affiliations for research with Tulane, Washington University, St. Louis, Utah State University, University of Arizona, McGill University, University of Cambridge, Boston University, and University of Copenhagen. He has advised Congress and the National Academies of Sciences - The Institute of Medicine on his findings, and has numerous papers in the process of publication. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Bradstreet and his wife live in Palm Bay, Florida with their two children.

David A. Geier is president of MedCon, a medical / legal consulting firm that helps vaccine injury claimants to try to obtain funds from both the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and through civil litigation.

Dan Olmsted is a senior editor at UPI and a journalist with 30 years experience. He oversees investigations and special projects at UPI, including an ongoing investigation of mental health problems associated with the anti-malaria drug Lariam. UPI first reported that mounting evidence suggests Lariam can lead to suicide; a year later the FDA ordered that everyone prescribed the drug be told in writing about that possibility. The stories appeared in New York Newsday and were the basis for a segment on 60 Minutes II. As Washington bureau chief, he helped coordinate coverage of the 2000 election and its aftermath, the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the anthrax attacks that followed and other major breaking news stories. Olmsted began his journalistic career in high school, working part-time for The Danville (Ill.) Commercial-News. After graduating from Yale, he returned to the paper, where he won the state AP Public Service reporting prize. He was an original staff member of USA TODAY, where he served as an assistant national editor, and was senior editor of USA WEEKEND magazine. He joined UPI in 1999 and, after a brief stint at a dot-com startup, returned to the wire service in 2000 David Kirby is an investigative journalist based in Brooklyn, New York, and was formerly a regular contributor to the New York Times since 1998, he is author of the 2005 book Evidence of Harm - Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy. Kirby has written for many national magazines, including Glamour, Redbook, Self, and Mademoiselle. From 1986 to 1990, Kirby was a foreign correspondent for UPI, and Newsday (among others) in Latin America, covering wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and covered politics, corruption and natural disasters in Mexico. From 1990 to 1993, Kirby was director of public information at the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), worked for New York City Council President Carol Bellamy, and was a senior staff adviser to David Dinkins' successful 1989 run for mayor of New York City. Since May, 2005, Kirby has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.