At age four, Timmy rarely spoke. From the many crayons, he chose only blue to do his scribbles. He seemed tuned out and didn’t make eye contact. Sometimes he spontaneously tantrummed.
Maya sought help. Conventional opinions and treatments ranged from his being an idiot that needed confinement; to he would grow out of it so don’t worry; to he was willful and needed medications.
Maya sought alternatives. One said Timmy’s condition was nutrition-based. The doctor tested Timmy’s blood for heavy metals, then removed them through chelation.
At twenty, Timmy does TED talks and paints with every hue under heaven.
[99 words]
My story is based on a fictional representative of many children who are harmed by environmental landmines. Conventional professionals are currently at a loss to effectively treat them. In this case, Timmy is showing symptoms of autism. Autism, which has been regarded as a psychological issue and treated as such for years, is increasingly believed to have a nutritional origin, where heavy metals that are ingested though varying sources — including inhaling — cross the blood-brain barrier and wreak havoc. Chelating the blood is one way to get those heavy metals out of the system.
I would urge you to learn more about this on your own. A brief abstract on a recent study can be found here.
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is the abiding host of Friday Fictioneers.
P.S. If you’re wondering who the guest photo is of today, it is one of my lovely cats, whose name has grown longer over time: Mlady Crumpet Chronos.
Tao Talk 
My nephew has iron rich blood, which forces him to donate every three months to prevent it from building up. He goes to a special clinic which utilizes this iron rich blood for some special purpose.
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Interesting, Jim. I hope they pay him extra for it, as I’m sure they charge extra for it to whomever benefits from it.
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He does not get paid, he is just glad that his blood is being used to help others.
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Dear Lisa,
I love the way this ends on a hopeful note. Your story is gut wrenching and heartwarming at the same time. Well rendered.
Shalom,
Rochele
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Rochelle, thank you very much.
Shalom,
Lisa
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You’re very welcome, Lisa. 😀
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I liked the way you wove a huge subject into a tiny story. Well done!
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Thank you, Susan.
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I’m glad she didn’t give up on him.
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❤
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Very interesting story Li. If chelation is the answer, imagine how many kids can be treated.
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The mainstream medical community is way behind the times 😦
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There are very mixed reviews about this theory.
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An interesting take on an ill-understood condition
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Thank you, Neil.
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My friend has an Aspergers son who had lead poisoning from their apartment paint. I never realized there was a connection. I wonder if she knows. (K)
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I do know they do chelation for lead poisoning, so he may have had it done. The EPSDT federal child screening program was designed to identify kids with lead issues early to keep it from doing it’s horrific damage — can you say Flint, MI? You might ask her about the chelation and if he’s had it.
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I will, thanks.
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If chelation could be the answer, that would be amazing. I hope the medical community continues to explore this option. A great take on the prompt, Li
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Thank you, Shweta. They use it routinely for lead poisoning, but they haven’t made the connection between other heavy metals and autism yet, at least in the mainstream medical community.
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I remember as a kid everyone used lead paint…when we were looking at houses that is one of the things we looked at.
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I hope the treatment is a breakthrough. More and more people seem to be suffering. I think altering foods might have something to do with it. They can’t even leave vegies on the vine any more. Great take on the prompt.
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I hope so too. Thank you for reading and your comment.
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So glad they found out and treated him, else his future would have been bleak. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Lisa.
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I’m glad they did also. You are welcome.
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A positive conclusion to a tragic tale.
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That explanation makes more sense than vaxxing… I once saw a graph comparing the lead in the air from car exhaust with reported violence in inner cites. The graphs were identical, with an 18 year offset (i.e., the heavier that lead when an infant, the more likely to be violent when 18…) The charts all mysteriously disappeared…
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Trent, it’s lead and others from heavy industry that makes its way into the soil and then into the air. Lead in the body is like taking shards of glass and putting it into a jar of grapes and shaking. I worked with a lot of kids with the lead damage in my old job, many of them adopted and/or coming from slumlord housing where nobody gives a sh*t if the lead paint is removed or not and the rent is paid by the state. The effects are permanent and the lead continues its mayhem in the body unless it is removed early. These are the kids who become gang wannabes (much more dangerous than actual gang members) and get to do the dirty work.
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This one really caught my interest, Jade. As a therapist, I worked with the parents of these kids, to help them find help for the child, and to find a way to stay connected with each other. I have a grandson, nearly 21, who was on the autistic spectrum. He’s doing very well now, but I wonder if anyone had this knowledge 20+ years ago, and could have made his childhood less troubling. Most interesting information. Thanks!
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You’re very welcome, Linda. It can be frustrating for parents of the low-functioning ones as they often either blame themselves or give “hostile attribution” to the child, which then causes a lot of relational damage between kid and parents. I’m glad your grandson is doing very well now, Linda 🙂
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That was an interesting story, and something I will need to look more closely at. Thank you for the nudge.
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Glad you found it interesting, Sandra, thank you.
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Excellent way to bring something of this nature to the fore. Too many would have simply listened to the one supplying the easiest solution. Well done.
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Thanks, Dale.
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I guess that’s better than leeches. Though I feel better after I give blood.
I’ve heard of chillaxing, but I’ve never heard of chelation. Interesting. It would be nice if we could cure some things.
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Autism is a syndrome of symptoms and clinical manifestations than can show in a range of severity and have a multitude of etiologies. Some may be nutritional. Some are not. Some may be genetic. Others are not. Some may be a combination of environment and predisposition. Some may be due to allergic reactions to things other children tolerate well. Some are due to changes in the father’s sperm. All manner of etiologies. Always good to explore what might be at the base of a specific child’s condition – for one size never fits all.
Nicely penned.
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It is nice that there is now a designation of Autism Spectrum Disorders that includes a wide functionality range. Thanks for the comprehensive comment, Na’ama, and I agree with everything you’re saying, including “one size fits all,” which is never the case with any individual, regardless of diagnosis/non-diagnosis. It would be nice if the heavy metal ingestion would be one of the etiologies that is considered more often by mainstream practitioners.
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In my experience it is sometimes considered, but it is fairly rare and even then the causation (versus correlation) is not clear. As such may not be the first thing on many’s minds. I’m of the view that sometimes thinking outside the box is helpful (e.g. elimination diets to see if there’s a component of allergic reaction and chronic inflammation in some kids), but that one also has to be careful to not get scattered into miracle cures or ‘this explains everything’ when more times than not, it is a combination of risk, predisposition, exposures, experiences, reactions, environment, genetics, temperament, attachment, sensory processing and regulation, and and and … Open mind is a good thing. Thinking it is an either/or is less helpful (which I’m not saying is what YOU think, but can become a risk when people try to do a ‘one size fits all’ in other direction, and claim autism as a nutrition issue or heavy-metals issue). As I said, every child is different, and children can move along the spectrum AND have more than one risk factor AND a combination of behaviors and acquired habits and adapted reactions (in both child and parent) and so much more. Complicated things, human beings are. Especially when there is no one etiology for autism, often not even in the same child (who can have a combination of risk factors, some explains, many not).
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Again thank you for the detailed response, Na’ama. Just like the children are unique in their experiences and diagnoses, so are the experiences of the professionals who work with them. Your experience is not my experience as a professional working with kids with special needs. Can we agree to disagree?
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Absolutely … and, I don’t think we disagree so much as see this from slightly different angles, but with the same overall intent to help and see children as individuals whose needs – and issues – may be unique to them. And, of course, we are each unique in our experiences, too. 🙂
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🙂 For sure, Na’ama. Sharing dialogue on important matters is a good thing.
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🙂 I agree!
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A well written piece that thankfully ends with a happy ending in this instance, but you’ve opened my eyes to soomething I was completely unaware of until now, thanks.
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Thank you and you’re welcome, Michael.
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I’m glad Maya didn’t give up trying help him 🙂
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🙂
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As others have mentioned, I like the mixture of negativity and positivity. It is necessary to be aware, but hopefully there are ways to overcome the issues created by the crazy way we have handled our environment.
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Thank you for reading and your comment.
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A scary prospect. The things we don’t see can have serious consequences indeed
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