Calming Behavior in Children with Autism and ADHD

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The Electromagnetic Radiation-Lowering Protocol

In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that one in 88 children had autism. Two years later, in March 2014, the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report presented a nearly 30 percent increase in this number. Now one in 68 U.S. children has autism. The diagnosis is much more common in boys (one in 42—up from one in 54 in 2012) than in girls (one in 189). If this trend continues, then eventually most boys will have autism.

Here a pediatrician, a scientist and a software engineer explore the environmental factors that may worsen autism. The doctor offers a free protocol that may reduce the disorder’s severity.

Toril Jelter , MD, has served as a general practitioner since 1985, and a pediatrician since 1990:

In 2006, a two-year-old boy who I had treated since birth was diagnosed with autism. The boy had delayed speech, high-pitched screaming and anxious behavior. During office visits, he crawled under my exam table to hide. An indirect test suggested that mercury was an issue—perhaps because the mother had eaten lots of mercury-laden fish during her pregnancy, hoping that the fish oil would make him smarter. A biochemist proposed chelating (eliminating) the mercury as a treatment for the child’s autistic behavior. The parents asked me to monitor their son during this treatment. I declined, because I’d never heard of such a treatment. I knew about speech therapy and reinforcing good behaviors.

The family left my practice and found a pediatrician who monitored their child while the biochemist chelated him with DMSA.

Three years later, the family visited my office again. To my complete astonishment, the boy—now five years old—made fantastic eye contact with me and spoke normally. He had friends and performed above average without an aid in the classroom. I was shocked. I thought, if one child can recover from autism, so can many more.

Starting with a call to the biochemist, I began researching environmental and integrative medicine. I learned that in environments with less electromagnetic radiation (EMR), children with autism excrete greater amounts of heavy metals (a good thing). I learned that exposure to EMR from wireless technologies can impair a person’s ability to detox.

I reviewed volumes of scientific studies and found that symptoms of heavy metal toxicity are similar to symptoms of EMR-exposure. I also saw an overlap between autism and EMR exposure. Scientists get curious with an overlap of just one biological dysfunction. I saw an overlap of fifty, including genetic alterations, retinal optic damage, increased inflammatory reactions, immune shifts, geno toxicity, increased oxidative stress, altered fetal development and increased auto-immune risks. The list goes on—which tells us that more research is warranted. Until then, there’s no harm in trying a two-week EMR reduction trial (see sidebar below). I offer this protocol to families as my first approach for children with autism.

One of the first families who tried the EMR-Lowering Protocol had a four-year-old boy with an autism-spectrum disorder. He had slept poorly for two years. At night, he climbed into his parents’ bed. So his parents had not slept well for two years, either. Within the first week of their EMR remediation trial, the boy slept through the night, in his own bed.

After two weeks, I prescribed a multi-vitamin and naturally processed fish liver oil. His appetite improved, and his bowel movements became regular.

Later, the boy’s poor sleep returned, and he climbed into his parents’ bed again. His mother thought he’d eaten too much sugar for Halloween. Then she learned that her older child had re-activated their Wi-Fi. Once she turned the Wi-Fi off again, the four-year-old started sleeping again, and his behavior calmed down. Within two months of reduced EMR-exposure and taking the multi-vitamin and fish oil, his cognitive level improved two grade levels. His school principal and teachers were shocked.

Another family had an aggressive, nonverbal ten-year-old child with autism. Every night, the boy ran around the house, screaming from 10 pm until 3 am. This family lived on a military base with high levels of background EMR, so I doubted that the protocol would have any effect. But the parents wanted to try it. They kept the electricity on in their son’s room, but they eliminated their Wi-Fi at night and unplugged all of their cordless phones. Within three days, the boy’s aggressive behaviors decreased, and he spoke a complete sentence for the first time.

Motivated, the family eliminated all of their wireless technologies day and night. I also prescribed pharmaceutical-grade, molecularly distilled fish oil for this boy. After three weeks with the Wi-Fi router turned off and daily fish oil, his nightly screaming stopped. His speech, digestion and sleep continued to improve. His anxiety—and his mother’s seizure disorder—both decreased.

If an effect is not apparent within two weeks of the EMR-Reduction Protocol, I suggest that parents return to their original electronics usage, and again rate the child’s three main problems from zero to ten. If no effect is observed, EMR may not be contributing to the child’s illness, or the home’s baseline EMR-exposure may be so high that moving to an area with less EMR exposure may be the only way to calm behavior.

Of course diet also plays a key part in children’s health. The supplement to the January 2010 Journal of Pediatrics reports that 40-80 percent of children with autism have gastro-intestinal problems that can be difficult to diagnose. A diet that is not right for a child can increase her vulnerability to environmental exposures. Likewise, optimal nutrition can increase a child’s resistance to such exposures.

This work has taught me to consider my office a lab: if a child becomes hyperactive in my waiting room and calms down outdoors, that gives me a clue that the home environment or my waiting room may need EMR reduction.

As researchers explore possible environmental contributors to autism, they’d be remiss not to include EMR. Indeed, we’re all researchers now in our high-tech world. Our children are like canaries in the coal mine. We might welcome our children’s agitated behaviors as indications that we need to use technology more safely. By making technology safer, we are also likely to improve health for ourselves, wildlife and the planet.

Andrew Goldsworthy , PhD, is a retired lecturer in biology from Imperial College in the UK:

Some genetic forms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be accounted for by known mutations in genetic coding for ion channels, which result in an increased concentration of calcium in the neurons. This can lead to neuronal hyperactivity and the formation of sometimes inappropriate synapses, which in turn may lead to autistic behaviors.¹

Just after birth, a child’s brain goes through an intense period of becoming aware of new sensory input. He recognizes his or her mother’s face, her expressions, and eventually other people and their relationship to him or her.² During this process, the neurons in the brain make countless new connections, and the brain stores what the child learns. Connections that are rarely used are pruned. The patterns that remain could become fixed into the child’s brain. This pruning process is completed by the time of sexual maturation.³

If the child is exposed to radio frequency (RF) fields during this pruning process, the production of too many and often spurious signals will generate frequent random connections. These will not be pruned, even though they may not make sense. Because the pruning process in children exposed to RF fields may be more random, these children—who may have more brain cells than the rest of us—may lack the mindset for normal patterns of social interaction. This may then contribute to the various autistic behaviors.

Like mobile phone signals, Wi-Fi signals can also cause cell membranes to leak and calcium ions to flow through them in a relatively uncontrolled manner.⁴ In the classroom, this may result in children’s brains losing the ability to concentrate.

Further, electromagnetic radiation (such as that emitted by Wi-Fi, cell phones, cell towers and “smart” meters) may affect the body like light does at night—and inhibit melatonin production. Melatonin is a sleep hormone and a powerful antioxidant. It can reverse oxidative stress that results from radiation.⁵

While scientists explore further how EMR-exposure reduces melatonin production and study whether EMR-induced oxidative stress contributes to autism—along with many other questions—we ought to first, do no harm to our children.

Wi-Fi should therefore be considered an impediment to learning, rather than an aid. Wi-Fi may be particularly hazardous to pregnant teachers, since exposing the brain of a fetus or a very young child to EMR may prevent normal brain development.⁶

Because of genetic and environmental variability, not everyone will suffer the same symptoms. Some may not suffer at all. For the sake of those who do suffer, Wi-Fi is not a good idea in schools—or anywhere else for that matter. Cabled Internet access is a healthier choice.

Peter Sullivan is a software designer:
From birth, our elder son (born in 1996) got triggered easily, especially by noises and touch. At three, he was kicked out of preschool and diagnosed with sensory integration disorder (a symptom of autism). Our younger son (born in 1999) seemed to develop normally. Then, at four, he regressed and stopped playing with other children. He, too, was diagnosed with autism.

I’d thought that autism was entirely genetic, and that there was nothing we could do about it. Then I started reading about healthy children regressing into autism, and others who’d been diagnosed with the disorder and recovered from it.

Meanwhile, I struggled with multiple food allergies. I heard constant buzzing. Tests showed that everyone in our family had high levels of toxic metals. Over several years, my wife and I detoxed ourselves and our sons. Our elder son calmed down, and our younger son started to make friends again. Everyone felt better.

Still, something was off for me. Sleep had become an issue.

For nearly two decades, I worked in the computer industry. Four years after detoxing from heavy metals, I started to realize that my nervous system got overloaded around flickering fluorescent lights and wireless devices.

We turned off our Wi-Fi and used Ethernet cables for Internet access. We quit cordless DECT phones and went back to corded landlines. We stopped putting cell phones near our heads, put them in airplane mode at night, and never used them with a bluetooth. We got demand switches to turn off the electricity to our bedrooms at night. I’m still exploring how to operate a solar power system without degrading power quality, creating electrical noise and causing biological harm.

Both of our teenagers understand the dangers of cell phone use; and they both have them. At school, they’re bombarded with Wi-Fi; but at least their night-time EMR-exposure is very low.

Neither of our sons has autism symptoms now. Both have become high-performance kids. Our elder son will start his second year of college this fall.

In Silicon Valley, if one in one hundred iPhones didn’t work properly, the assembly line would be studied systematically, and the problem’s source would be eliminated in a month. We need to respond to autism in the same way. We need to find the source of autism’s dramatic increase and eliminate it—and give our children a healthy chance. As Frank Clegg, former president of Microsoft Canada, says, “We’re not citizens for no technology. We’re citizens for safe technology.”

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SIDEBARS

The Two-week Electromagnetic Radiation Reduction Trial
Before beginning the trial, parents need to fill out an autism treatment evaluation checklist to rate their child’s sleep quality, behavior, mood and speech. Find a checklist at the Autism Research Institute’s website, www.autismeval.com/ari-atec/atec_form.pdf.

After the two-week trial, fill out the list again, then compare the two.

For an even simpler evaluation, parents can name three of their child’s biggest problems and quantify each of them
from zero to ten before the experiment—and then again two weeks later. (Zero means no problem; ten means the worst
imaginable.)

1. Turn off Wi-Fi at night for at least twelve hours. For Internet access, use a CAT 5 or 6 Ethernet cable.
2. Unplug all cordless (DECT) phones. Keep all mobile devices at least six feet from children and off in the car. (If both parents agree, do not use any wireless technologies day or night for two weeks.)
3. From the breaker box, turn off the electricity to your child’s bedroom at night if you can do so safely. Keep a flashlight beside your child’s bed. (Note: if you have a “smart” digital, transmitting utility meter on your home, avoid being near the meter for prolonged periods. Learn about your state’s regulations; get an analog meter restored. Learn more about “smart” meters at smartgridawareness.com, takebackyourpower.net and stopsmartmetersbe.com.)

Resources
BabySafeProject.org posts an excellent video about the effects of in-utero EMR-exposure on children’s behavior; it features Dr. Hugh Taylor, head of Yale Medical School’s Ob/Gyn dept. See also www.ehtrust.org.

bioinitiative.org 1800 peer-reviewed studies about the bio effects of EMR-exposure, posted by Cindy Sage, MA and David Carpenter, MD.

Buie, T., “Evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of GI disorders in individuals with ASDs: a consensus report,” Pediatrics, 2009-1878c: Doi:10.1542/peds.

Herbert, Dr. Martha (pediatric neurologist at Harvard Medical School) and Cindy Sage, MA (coeditor of the BioInitiative Reports), “Autism and EMF? Plausibility of a pathophysiological link—Parts 1 and 2,” Pathophysiology 2013.

electronicsilentspring.com Posted by Katie Singer, includes an international hot list and her papers posted after An Electronic Silent Spring‘s publication (Rudolph Steiner Books, 2014)—about EMR-exposure and wildlife, telecom law, how electronics impact climate change, cell tower fires, fertility and telecommunications, etc.

Mallery-Blythe, Dr. Erica, “Children, Radiation and Health.” Excellent talk from a British MD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNFdZVeXw7M

resetyourchildsbrain.com Child psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Dunckley, MD, author of Reset Your Child’s Brain, presents her four-week electronic fast to end meltdowns, raise grades and boost social skills by reversing the effects of electronic screen-time.

saferemf.com Peer-reviewed studies about EMR-exposure posted by Dr. Joel Moskowitz, researcher at UC-Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

zonein.ca Cris Rowan works with parents, teachers and students to balance tech time with movement and time in nature.

For a Spanish translation of “Calming Behavior in Children wtih Autism and ADHD:”

Como tranquilizar a los niños con autismoe hiperactividad (ADHD por sus siglas en inglés)Protocolo para disminuir la radiación electromagnética(EMR por sus siglas en inglés)Sin ningún costo o efectos secundarios

CANCER RISK FROM CELL PHONE RADIO FREQUENCY RADIATION
In May, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) of the National Institutes of Health reported partial findings from a
$25 million study of the cancer risk from cell phone radio frequency radiation (RFR). Controlled studies of rats showed that RFR caused two types of tumors: glioma and schwannoma. Scientists report that the results “could have broad implications for public health.”

Otis W. Brawley, MD, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society said, “The NTP report linking radio frequency radiation to two types of cancer marks a paradigm shift in our understanding of radiation and cancer risk. The findings are unexpected; we wouldn’t reasonably expect non-ionizing radiation to cause these tumors.”

According to Dr. Joel Moskowitz, researcher at UC-Berkeley School of Public Health, “The study’s results reinforce
the need for more stringent regulation of radio frequency radiation and better disclosure of the health risks associated with wireless technologies.”

For more comprehensive info on this study, visit saferemr.com.

If you use a mobile phone:
1. Keep it in airplane mode. Program it to operate as a voice messaging device that notifies you every two hours
if you’ve got messages. (When on, a cell phone will constantly check in with the nearest cell tower to see if
you’ve got a message—and you will constantly receive EMR-exposure.)
2. Keep mobile devices off in moving vehicles. At every mile, when the phone connects to a new cell tower, it
goes to maximum power. Much of the radiation gets trapped in the car (a metal box) and bounces around.
3. Keep mobile devices out of your bedroom. Don’t charge them while you sleep. Don’t charge them on walls
shared with your bedroom.
4. Beware of second hand exposure to pregnant women and children.
5. Follow Dr. Jelter’s EMR-Reduction Protocol.

REFERENCES
1. Hawley, T. and M. Gunner. How early experiences affect brain development. (2000), http://tinyurl.com/5u23ae.
2. Huttenlocher, P.R. and A. S. Dabholkar. Regional differences in synaprogenesis in human cerebral cortex. J. of Comparative Neurology, vol. 387, no. 2 (1997): 167-178.
3. Egglias, J. et al, Dynamics of Pruning in Simulated Large-Scale Spiking Neural Networks. BioSystems, Vol. 79 (9); 2005.
4. Pall, Martin. Electromagnetic fields act via activation of voltage-gated calcium channels to produce beneficial or adverse effects. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 6-26-2013.
5. Lerchi, A. et. al (1991), Pineal gland ‘magnetosensitivity’ to static magnetic fields is a consequence of induced electric currents (eddy currents). J. of Pineal Research, 10: 1009-116. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-079X.1991.tboo8261.x.
6. Krey, J. F., Molecular mechanisms of autism: A possible role for Ca2+ signaling. Current

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Summer 2016

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