Bill Welsh of Autism Treatment Trust Shames UK Epedemic Deniers

Give'em Hell, Bill!

Undeniable Fact of Autism
The Scotsman
Wed 11 Jul 2007

It will come as no surprise to parents that one child in 58 in the UK has autism (your report, 9 July). The diagnosis of this devastating childhood condition has increased to such an extent since 1990 that many families are now affected. What is very worrying is that it has taken so many years for the "experts" to even concede that there is an autism epidemic.

Psychiatrists and psychologists and those within the traditional autism support and services organizations must bear the responsibility for this tragic state of affairs, as it is they who have continually denied what we have been witnessing with our own eyes. Foreign epidemiological studies that never survive close scrutiny are paraded as proof that an estimated 100-fold increase in autism is a mirage, or that the controversial MMR vaccine cannot possibly be implicated. The Scotsman article clearly helps illustrate what is a farcical and irrational stance in the face of the latest Cambridge University revelations.

By sustaining their standpoint, these interest groups have hampered clinical examination, and therefore medical treatments.

Autism Treatment Trust opened a consultation and treatment centre in Edinburgh in April 2006 and to date has comprehensively tested almost 200 autistic children. The results are very revealing. For example, heavy-metal toxicity is a common feature, with significantly high levels of lead, aluminium, tin and antimony present.

Inflammation, particularly of the bowel, is often identified. Immune dysfunction is a recurring theme. Food allergies and intolerances regularly emerge.

These abnormalities are all treatable. The simple fact is, autistic children are ill and have been failed at every turn.

This is a shameful episode.

BILL WELSH
President, Autism Treatment Trust
Great King Street
Edinburgh