Group to explore autism therapy

Detroit Free Press -

Feb. 21--Heidi Scheer was told there was nothing she could do for her son, Gannon, after he was diagnosed with autism at age 4.
But the boy, now 8, recently had his first friend sleep over and is happy and playful, said Scheer, 42, of Commerce Township. So what made the difference?
Scheer said biomedical treatments, like a gluten-free diet and cod liver oil, helped Gannon shed heavy metals like mercury in his body.
"It's not my opinion that these treatments work," said Scheer, who is also Mrs. Michigan 2008. "It's what we've lived."
Scheer is one of about 250 parents, educators and health care professionals attending the International Conference on Autism Spectrum Disorders at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Novi this weekend.
One in 150 children in the United States has autism, according to the Web site for the Autism Society of America. That figure is substantially higher from about one in every 2,500 children in the 1980s, according to several published studies.
While many doctors and researchers say the increase is due to better diagnostic methods, others -- including many of the conference's speakers and attendees -- blame the increase on vaccines.
The conference, in its first year, is the idea of Dr. Phillip DeMio, an Ohio physician who created the American Medical Autism Board to certify health care professionals and provide resources for parents seeking biomedical treatments for their children.
DeMio's son, Daniel, was diagnosed when he was about 2 years old. At one point, Daniel was losing weight, suffered one infection after another and would stare into space for hours. He also stopped speaking.
"We felt like we lost him," DeMio said.
So DeMio, who had been a faculty member at the Cleveland Clinic and had a private pain management practice, started doing research on autism. With diet changes and nutritional supplements, DeMio said Daniel-- now 8 1/2 -- is doing well. DeMio now runs a practice treating children with autism.
"Some mainstream doctors will tell you there are no treatments for autism," said DeMio. "We use what we have to make sure the body is better. And that helps the brain."