The UltraMind Solution

Jackson's Story

Up until about the age of two (and maybe a little longer), Jackson was developing at a completely normal pace. We knew, because we had a benchmark in his older sister. Jackson was following basically the same trajectory she did. He was developing language, had about 20 words, and behaved normally. Granted, his first word was "taxi."

I guess that isn't completely normal, but then we live in New York, so what do you expect. Besides he also said "mama," "dada," "ball," and things like that.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he began losing his linguistic skills. The words he once knew were foreign to him and he didn't (and apparently couldn't) say them anymore. We were obviously concerned and brought the matter to the attention of Jackson's pediatrician.

When we went in to see him, the pediatrician asked Jackson how old he was and he said, "Two." He then asked Jackson what his name was and he astutely replied, "Jackson." Though these were two of the five or so words he had left at that the time, Jackson's responses convinced our pediatrician nothing was wrong with him. He seemed normal; we were told not to worry, so we didn't think much about it.

"About three months later Jackson lost all his speech."

We went back to his pediatrician and, despite the fact that Jackson was clearly having problems, we really had to argue with him to let us see a speech specialist.

Eventually he agreed and we went to see a woman who played blocks and puzzles with Jackson, did some other diagnostic work, and ultimately told us we shouldn't lose any sleep over his condition. However, she also encouraged us to have him tested by a few other doctors.

We followed her recommendations and went to see an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and a psychologist. It was the psychologist who was finally able to uncover what was wrong with Jackson and offer a real diagnosis.

"Jackson was on the autistic spectrum."

He had a condition known as pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD NOS). As I understand it, that's when a child is exhibiting some of the symptoms of autism but not enough to be considered clinically "autistic."

Apparently it's a very common diagnosis.

I remember the psychologist was very prescient in terms of what he told us about how things would evolve. He said Jackson would improve but would improve very slowly compared to his peers, so he would be progressively losing ground. That's sort of exactly what has happened.

Once we got the diagnosis, we met with some other psychologists who told us what to do. We got in touch with a national organization for kids with disabilities, and they gave us contact information for speech therapists, occupational therapists, and people trained in applied behavior analysis. We started all these treatments immediately.

Even so, we didn't fully understand the severity of Jackson's condition and how fast he was moving backward when he was first diagnosed. His speech was really the most notable change, and we thought we could deal with that in therapy with relative ease.

But Jackson started getting more and more irritable as the disorder progressed. He started throwing tantrums. I suppose we didn't make the connection between the frustration he must have been experiencing and these behaviors, so we dealt with it in a way that's almost embarrassing to admit (though I think it's the way any parent would deal with it). We looked for ways to ease his tantrums. For Jackson that meant putting on a video and feeding him.

And what really made him calm down was anything with gluten in it, which is the protein found in wheat, barley, and oats.

He loved eating bread and toast. He also drank a very large amount of dairy–tons of milk. So the strategy was to stick him in his high chair, put on a video, give him a glass of milk and some toast, and he would just zone out.

It was easy.

But I slowly realized he wasn't even watching those videos. He would just tilt his head to one side and stare at the screen. That didn't seem quite right to me.

"It was about that time that our psychologist mentioned dietary interventions as a method for treating kids like Jackson."

At that stage we had heard nothing about it. Our pediatrician never discussed it. No one else ever brought it up either. But this man said that dietary interventions were a noninvasive therapy with very few side effects. He also told us that he knew of many cases where seeming miracles had occurred when using such a treatment.

We began to research all this and finally came in contact with Dr. Hyman. In hindsight that was one of the most important and serendipitous things that happened over the course of Jackson's recovery, because after looking into Dr. Hyman's work and doing some of the things he suggested, we saw immediate change.

We started with Dr. Hyman's first two recommendations to achieve an UltraMind–getting rid of the dairy and gluten.

"Dairy was fairly easy to eliminate, and when we did, it made a big difference. It had an immediate effect."

Jackson had more concentration, and he was more awake. Remember, when Jackson had his tantrums we would give him milk and it would sort of zonk him out. He wasn't really asleep, but he wasn't aware of his surroundings. When we eliminated dairy, that turned around in one day.

Gluten took a little longer to eliminate from his diet. It evolved over time. But when we finally got it all out and his diet and his system processed what was left, it increased the effect that eliminating dairy had. His concentration became even stronger and he was easier to engage with.

These changes were so profound that we decided to get Jackson tested for food sensitivities. What we learned in those tests was perhaps the most surprising discovery of all. They came back and showed us that Jackson was sensitive to 30 or 40 foods–from things like tomatoes and cinnamon to other more common culprits like yeast.

I'm a trained chef, so in a way it was kind of interesting, challenging, and fun to work out a diet that the family could still enjoy but didn't contain any of the foods he was sensitive to. Still, it was very difficult initially.

With every step we took, Jackson improved more and more. His focus continued to improve and slowly it was like he was opening up again. So we continued with the program.

The next step was to look at areas of nutritional deficiency for Jackson. It turns out his B12 levels were very low. We started giving Jackson B12 shots twice a week and continue that to this day.

"For the first eight weeks we did it, the days he got his shots were by far his best days."

He was more verbal, was more focused, and was in such a good mood and reacted so well that the therapists he was seeing would say, "Is this a shot day? This must be a shot day." They would know without me telling them anything.

After that we got him tested for heavy metals.

What's interesting to me is that he's not particularly off the charts on mercury and other metals. But what Dr. Hyman explains is that there are other markers that indicate metals may be inhibiting important biochemical processes like methylation and sulfation that are extremely important but really hard to test for.

In a way, all that is a bit of a black box to us–my wife and I don't fully understand those processes. But we could clearly see the results when we put Jackson through chelation for heavy metals.

It sort of cleared the fog.

"At that stage Jackson was doing so well we didn't even know there was a fog until it lifted."

After we got the metals out of his system he was more alive, responsive, and verbal. He actually started getting his words back! That was unbelievable.

Today Jackson is so much more pleasant to be around. The first six months after his diagnosis he was just angry all the time. He would get irritable and upset, and it's very difficult for parents to understand what's going on for their kid when that happens.

With kids who are on the autistic spectrum, they aren't throwing a tantrum because they're spoiled brats and aren't getting what they want. They throw a fit because they can't cope with the situation they're in.

As a parent that's hard to deal with. You can't get angry (or you can, but your certainly can't show it). You can't discipline it out of them. It's like you have no options left.

To be honest, that process has taught me as much about myself as it has about Jackson. It takes a lot of patience. Patience is definitely the way to handle it, because when you do lose your temper, the situation escalates. But that's not such an issue for us anymore.

"Jackson's fun now. He's got a sense of humor."

His speech is also coming along. He talks a lot actually. Now his challenge is articulation–motor planning. He knows what he wants to say in his brain, but he can't always get it from his brain out of his mouth.

There are sounds he just doesn't make very well. He doesn't make the c, g, or k (those hard, back-of-the-palate sounds), he doesn't do z's and l's very well. So he can be hard to understand sometimes.

But when he's talking in context to people like me, my wife, or his therapists, we understand him pretty well. I think in a school, peer-socialization kind of setting it may be difficult for him, and that aspect is still a little frustrating. But we're working on it and are hopeful it will improve.

"Every one of his therapists is delighted and surprised at how he's progressed in the last year."

I think it has changed some of their opinions on nutritional therapies and detoxification. I know his progress is remarkable, but I think they have an even better context.

If you're only doing applied behavioral therapy or some other kind of therapy, as many of them are, you're not going to get such quick results. They can see a difference with Jackson, especially when they compare him to other similar children who aren't taking advantage of the same dietary and lifestyle interventions we are.

When they first get the diagnosis, I don't think many parents understand it. They may think, "If we work really hard and get all the help we need, maybe a year from now he'll be in a mainstream preschool." Then when that doesn't happen, they might think, "Well in a year from now maybe he'll be in a mainstream kindergarten."

The reality is Jackson may never be "fine." He's probably always going to have some quirks. But for most therapists the goal is to create a very high-functioning special-needs child. I think if you get quick improvement early in the game and combine that with long-term therapy, dietary intervention, detoxification, and nutritional support, you can create a platform to have a typically developing child with a lot of quirks.

Now for a parent that's a huge, huge difference. Highly developed special needs versus typically developing with some quirks ... I think you can understand the difference in that.

More and more I see that kind of treatment as the key. To find the right combination of factors that will help your child heal, you have to experiment. You can't always know what will work or why. But if you try it and you see the results–that's the best testimony you can have as a parent.

We've tried Dr. Hyman's program. We've seen the results. Jackson is the testimony.

Marc Raisbeck
New York, NY