Friday, February 20, 2009

Matthew's Heavy Metals & MTHFR Mutation

Above is a picture of Matthew's Fecal Toxic Metals test results. As you can see he is high in Antimony, Nickel, and Tungsten...and pulling lots of other metals. (Mercury is always the last to come out so it is low here.) I've been getting some good advice from my autism mamas on FaceBook, but if you have any advice please comment! This test was done after his 10th round...a round is 3 days on, every 8 hours of transdermal DMSA (cream applied to his feet, back, shins, thighs, or forearms), then we take 11 days off. Most people say transdermal is ineffective and go for oral, suppository, or IV chelation. Well, in Matthew's case, the transdermal is effective and we are sticking with it. His DAN wrote "incredible pull of metals" on her note..which is great that they're coming out, but not good that they're in his little body to begin with!

His blood tests showed that Matthew has the "double defect in MTHFR" which is a genetic mutation. Per LabCorp: "two copies of the C677T mutation were identified. Results for the A1298C were negative." ...so he has 2 copies of the same mutation (C677T), which means he inherited them from both John & I. I will call my doctor next week to schedule a blood test. I read some of the risks associated with this mutation are: heart disease, blood clots, stroke, etc. Our DAN noted that Matthew will have to be on B6, B12, and folate for life (all of which he is already taking - but B6 in P5P form and follinic acid which is folate broken down). This is not good news, but at least we know he has this and can plan accordingly. (BTW, I specifically asked for this test b/c I had heard it was more common in kids with autism.)