Chiropractic Benefits for Autism

Chiropractic treatment has transformed the life of Max Willson and his parents. Christina Hopkinson reports
Quentin Willson is not an obvious advocate of alternative medicine. This is the man, after all, who came to prominence as a presenter on that bastion of blokes, Top Gear, and named his daughters Mercedes and Mini. He admits that until two and a half years ago, the most alternative potion he had ever taken was a vitamin C tablet. But after his taking his son Max to see a chiropractor, he has become one of the treatment’s most evangelical exponents. “I’m startled by the difference in Max before and after chiropractic,” he says. “He has gone from being labeled autistic and needing a classroom assistant to becoming an active and feisty seven-year-old in mainstream education.”

Max was born in April, 1998 after a very difficult labor. The umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck as well as being knotted and, due to his heart rate slowing, he had to be delivered quickly. To add to his wife’s distress, Quentin was six hours late for the delivery. “I was stuck in the floods on the M40 with no mobile reception. Michaela thought I was dead.”

Quentin and Michaela soon noticed that Max was not developing in the same way that his elder sister Mercedes had done, seven years previously. His eyes didn’t focus, while his hand movements were more unco-ordinated that those of his contemporaries. But it was when Max went into education at four that they began to seek help. “You never want to admit to yourself that you’ve got a backward child,” he says, “but it was clear that he was very, very behind. He couldn’t concentrate, was hyperactive and demanding.” Every childhood hurdle was twice as difficult as it had been for his sister – he wore nappies until he was four, was impossible to wean from the bottle and had never slept through the night. Family outings such as visiting a restaurant or friends’ houses were impossible.

The Wilson’s consulted both state and private health professionals to try to discover what was wrong with their son and were given diagnoses including dyspraxia and dyslexia. They even began to think that Max was autistic as he demonstrated symptoms that are often associated with the disorder: he walked on tiptoes, had an obsession with soft clothes and didn’t like labels next to his skin.

They were at the point of putting Max on Ritalin, the drug that is used to treat children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, when they had an “almost surreal” revelation. Quentin went to pick Max up from a birthday party where “he’d done his usual trick of sitting underneath the table for two hours”. There, he met a mother who had been observing Max for the previous hour. She said that she thought his skeleton was out of alignment and that he should see the chiropractor she had used, Deirdre Edwards, who practices in Stratford Upon Avon, near to the Willsons’ home.

Chiropractic is a form of complementary medicine that uses manual spine manipulation to correct alignment and improve the function of the nervous system. Deirdre Edwards practices a type called McTimoney, which takes a holistic approach in examining not only spinal and skeletal misalignments, but also the patient’s general wellbeing and quality of life. Though deeply sceptical, the Willsons felt that they had nothing to lose in crossing yet another treatment off their list.

Deirdre remembers Michaela Willson coming into her practice with an air of resignation and exhaustion, while Max wreaked havoc in the waiting room. Deirdre put him through a range of assessments and discovered that he was delayed in several areas.

A feather touching his skin caused him to say “ouch”, and he had no sense of smell. He couldn’t stand on one leg or follow simple instructions. His eyes twitched involuntarily, he made facial grimaces, had staccato speech and licked his lips continually. But she did manage to make eye contact, which suggested to her that he didn’t have severe autism.

Once she had checked that it was safe to give chiropractic help, Deirdre began to palpate his body. “There are seven bones in the neck,” she says, “and four of his were severely misaligned, affecting the natural balance throughout the rest of his body. Even a lay person would have been able to see that Max had muscular build-up on the left side of his neck, so that it looked like he’d been lifting weights.”

Deirdre believes that this misalignment was strangling his neural cord so that Max “was twisted in such a way that the cord could not transfer messages down the body. He was lucky to be walking.” This over-firing of his nervous system was, she says, interfering with his ability to learn, in turn compromising his immune system and lead to the continual colds and throat infections that he suffered. The Willsons remember the treatment not hurting Max at all. “It was just flicking the bones around his neck and shoulders,” says Quentin, but that night, Max slept continuously until morning for the first time since his birth, nearly five years before. Deirdre continued to see Max about once a week for the first month, and then every 10 to 14 days. His speech, eating and abilities quickly improved to the point where he now only visits her once a month.

The Willsons are thrilled.

“He sleeps like a log and has lost all that weirdness,” says Quentin. “He no longer has a classroom assistant and we’ve taken him out of his second genteel preparatory school with five children in the class and put him into a little village state school where he’s flourishing. He’s still a bit behind because he effectively missed out on a couple of years of education, but you can reason with him and he’s reading and writing and it’s amazing. I can only put this down to the chiropractic.”

They are so convinced by the benefits of chiropractic that Quentin is determined to spread the word. “This is the unimpeachable testimony of a man who did not believe in it. We have to raise awareness, because it worked so thoroughly for my son and changed his life and ours. If I can help just one child that’s going through what we went through, then that’s my reward.”

Case Report: autism, otitis media. Khorshid K. ICA Review Fall 2001

This is the case of Victoria, a 3-year-old girl diagnosed with autism, who also suffered from serous otitis media and hearing difficulty. The girl had speech and communication deficits and was considered to be at 9-12 month level of development. An ENT specialist suggested tubes in the ears.

She was placed under chiropractic care. Within 3 weeks of her first chiropractic adjustment, there was complete resolution of her otitis media. It was noticed that her tantrums increased after drinking milk therefore a gluten and casein free diet was implemented and this brought about “terrific” cognitive and emotional improvement, social skills, language and reasoning skills.

Lawrence’ Story: autism and cerebral palsy. In-line with Oklahaven Children’s Chiropractic Center (newsletter), Spring 2001, Oklahoma City, OK.

Six-year-old Lawrence was diagnosed with autism and cerebral palsy.

After beginning chiropractic care “Lawrence became more aware of the people around him and his surroundings. He took his first independent steps while receiving intensive treatments. He now walks 50 or 60 feet on his own, changing direction and standing still as necessary. He is also beginning to feed himself..His fine and gross motor skills have improved immensely and he has a range of different sounds he is making including experimenting with words.”

Chiropractic care and behavior in autistic children. Aguilar AL, Grostic JD, Pfleger B. Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics Vol. 5 No. 1, 2000

This is one of the more ambitious projects regarding chiropractic and autism. Twenty-six randomly selected autistic children received nine months of upper cervical specific care. During this period they had four examinations during which their behavior and neurological response was monitored. Autism rating scales used were Childhood Autism Rating Scale and Modified Autism Behavior Checklist. (Orthospinology upper cervical chiropractic technique which is hypothesized to remove interference from the spinal cord and brainstem was employed as the chiropractic technique.)

The changes in children under chiropractic care included:

Children going off all medication (i.e.Ritalin, Dexadrine)

Improved bladder control

Improved digestion

Starting to speak/ speech improved

Decreased ear infections

Chronic colds stopped or decreased

Improved sleep

Improved eye/vision

Improved behavior

Five children enrolled for the first time in full time inclusion classroom settings.

Heather’ Story. Barnes T. in Kentuckiana Children’s Center Int’l Chiropractic Assn. Review Sept/Oct 2000.

Heather was diagnosed with autism and mild mental retardation. Her ability to walk began to deteriorate about the sixth or seventh grade. She frequently picked at her skin and had sores and scabs on her arms and legs. Her sleep patterns were erratic and she had large mood swings and tantrums. She had been seen by many orthopedists and neurologists and no cause for her condition could be found.

After Heather’s first chiropractic adjustment she was able to take some steps on her own. Additionally, the sores on her arms and legs began to heal and she started sleeping through the night. She continues her chiropractic care. Case report: autism and chronic otitis media. Warner SP and Warner TM. Today’s Chiropractic. May/June 1999 This is the case report of a three and a half year-old girl with autism. She was non-verbal, had compulsive disorders, daily rituals, exhibited head banging and would become violent.

Within one month after beginning chiropractic care, her parents and teacher noticed a 30% improvement socially. After one year of care, an 80% improvement was noticed. Her head banging and other rituals diminished by 50% with less violent behavior. She had chronic serous otitis media and had been on antibiotics for one year. Within a one-week period after her first adjustment, antibiotic use stopped due to a 70% improvement in her otitis media. Autism, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, strabismus and illness susceptibility: a case study in chiropractic management. Amalu WC. Today’s Chiropractic. Sept/Oct 1998. Pp. 32-47.

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