No Need For Autism "Detox"

According to some, "detoxifying" a child on the spectrum of heavy metals can cause great improvements. But "detox" isn't only an autism treatment: Everyone's doing it, according to a recent New York Times article about "the thousands of Americans who regularly 'detox' in an effort to rid the gastrointestinal system of unsavory substances that proponents believe build up and can cause allergies, exhaustion and certain cancers." Various combinations of supplements (including cranberry juice and ground flaxseeds) to chelation therapy can be part of a "detox" regimen:

Sales of herbal formulas for cleansing, detoxification and organ support among natural food retailers were more than $27 million from Dec. 2, 2007, to Nov. 29, 2008. A survey by Mintel International, a Chicago-based research firm, found that 54 food and drink products were launched in 2008 with the word “detox” in their descriptions — up from 15 in 2003.

The thinking goes that by avoiding certain foods, adding nutritional and herbal supplements and cleansing your innards, you can cure the body of all sorts of evils.

Guess it's hardly a surprise that detoxification has become another alternative autism treatment. Detoxification for autistic children is based on the belief that exposure to environmental toxins is one factor behind the increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism in the past decade; that "something bad" has gotten into a child's system and must needs be expelled.

But not only are detox regiments unproven as effective (for anyone). Saying that there's something---heavy metals, toxins not otherwise specified---that must be purged from a child's body suggests that there's something you can put into an autistic child to "take the autism out" of her or him and, too, that there's something poisonous about being autistic. When, in reality, there's nothing specific to autism that calls for detoxification by whatever means, for kids on the spectrum---or anyone else.

High time to detox from detox---or, at the very least, to let go of detox having something to do with autism.

Photo by lu_lu.