Clinic Notes: NIH Cancels Autism Study

Chelation removes heavy metals from the body and is an effective treatment for lead poisoning. Many people believe that mercury in childhood vaccines causes autism so removing the mercury by chelation should be an effective treatment for autism. There are risks associated with chelation and the NIH decided that the risk of exposing children to chelation was unwarranted. Since many studies do not show a causal relationship between mercury and autism this was probably a wise move. Furthermore, the single case reports on chelation as an effective therapy are lacking. I have kids coming to my clinic who are undergoing chelation and I cannot see any improvement. I wish there was a quick fix for autism like chelation. I'd send all of my ABA patients.