The immune system is more complicated and less complicated than most of us really think about. Everyone wants to know where their information fits into the bigger view of autism. Parents, doctors and researchers need to know which area of science can produce information, treatments and understanding for this immunogenetic phenomena. Just like the words for vitamins, enzymes and chemical compounds, the language and terms describing the immune system sound intimidating. This complicated language is science at its best. Science (or a scientist) finds something and the finder may name it based on his name, how it looks or how he or she thinks it acts. Sometimes a substance ends up with two or three names and these different names might be used by different branches of science. People reading and researching have to learn all of the names used which describe what they are researching in order to get the whole or bigger picture. For instance, a complement component is named and is also called a gene, such as C (complement), C4 (gene), C4B (one half of the gene) which is or reacts to C or CD (immune complement component light chain variable region) with a protein coating (B) and a specific receptor pattern of amino acids (b) that are activated by a simple immune cell called a cytokine (also C or CD but also called a NK ‘natural killer’ cell) but designated to a specific group of cytokines and which can cause other immune cells to react or convert to a different immune cell type. Thus cells coming together during an immune reaction can be written as C4BbBbC5a. Some substances cause a specific type of immune cell to react and for aromatic chemicals the cell which reacts is often CD57 which is also called HNK epitope. These are the cytokines which are found in weird patterns of increased and/or decreased activity in some studies of autism. These are not antibody-producing cells although the activity of these cells can result in increased or decreased production of other immune cells which do make antibodies. Cytokines or ‘natural killer’ cells can also influence signaling which tell other immune cells to switch class, such as from IgG to IgE. So someone with an IgE immune response to a food pathogen might have had an increased sensitivity during a time when the individual was exposed to a completely different type of pathogen or even something like sunlight. An aromatic chemical and some drugs like penicillin are too small to produce an antibody immune response and these pathogens are called haptens. The activity of the NK cells activate the innate and learned immunity signals which are unique to our individual bodies. These are the immune cells that can respond to fumes or odors. We may be exposed to something chemical that has no odor and we do not even know that the body is responding, there is no apparent reaction. Other people smelling the same air may get watery eyes and sneeze. Others may become ill and vomit. Food, sound, light and color (pigment) at the most simple level are vibrations (energy). As humans we react to energy. In autism the reaction to energy is disturbed. The immune system has determined that certain vibrations (food, color, sound, light waves) are not self. In certain lighting, when eating some foods, when smelling some substances, experiencing textures, heat, cold and hearing some sounds the immune system reacts. This is called a ‘fight-or-flight reaction’ of the immune system. You can appreciate this reaction when you think about how it feels to nearly be involved in an automobile accident. You or the driver slams on the brakes and your immune system responds to what you have seen, heard and felt. Your immune system is prepared to react instantly to any injury, whether real or perceived.

I like to think of the immune system as an army in the body trying to protect us from an enemy. Everything that we can do to protect our army from being exposed to the perceived enemy results in a reduction of the need for frontline troops. We can also sometimes teach the immune system that all of these things are not really the enemy, they just sound and look like the enemy. Therapies which promote healing include teaching tolerance for sound, light, touch and color vibrations such as AIT, Prism lenses, Irlen lenses, colored glasses, loving touch, massage, cranio-sacral therapy and squeeze therapy. Some enemies have hidden themselves in the body and these must be removed by special forces which can include nutrition, colon cleansing and chelation therapies. The General who is supposed to oversee the adrenal immune response during a fight-or-flight immune response is called serotonin. Serotonin has been misguided because the serotonin regulation is controlled by lutein activity, and lutein is being perceived by some NK cells as the enemy. This can result in changes to our genes. Yet not all of the systems in the body accept this determination that lutein is the enemy. The reproductive system may disagree intensely and thus a conflict arises. The reproductive system and the retinal pigment epithelial system were not available when lutein was determined to be an enemy and serotonin was misguided.
  Systems inside our bodies are at war. The axis or dividing line is the immune system and genetic (including enzyme) interaction on the one side and digestion and the molecules of emotion on the other side. Both sides are responding to our environment – both internal and external. Some of our genetic information (military intelligence) came from our parents and grandparents and how their immune system and genetics developed in response to their environment. For people who have autism, it is more likely than for the general population that our parents or grandparents had immune systems which produced self-antibodies and this is called autoimmunity. The immune components to which our parents or grandparents produced antibodies are called ‘heat shock proteins’. This is often followed by the developing immune system in the next generations NOT making the same choice or error (evolution). This is a good thing. It means that just because our grandparents had arthritis or lupus doesn’t mean that we will have arthritis or lupus.

Heat Shock Proteins
‘Diseases pathogenesis which might be connected with the existence of Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) include systemic lupus erythematosus, reactive arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. There is also indicated a possible activity of HSPs in the pathogenesis of neoplasia, organ ischaemia and inflammation or degeneration. In fact, in autism although the genetic markers can be identified for many or even all of these diseases, the incidence or occurrence of these diseases appears to be greatly diminished. This shows us that our innate immunity (genetic information) and our own developing immune system (pre-immunocytes) can correct for errors. This is called transcription or frame-shifting. Our genes are altered to protect us from immune reactions that were unfavorable in the previous generation. Scientific investigation for autism has shown us that the cytokine activity (pre-antibody cells) are different in the autism population. Science is also looking at how this type of immunogenetic response occurs in the animal model. It is finding that using heat shock proteins as vaccine carriers results in an antibody response in the parent and an innate immune response in the offspring, indicating that there are problems with this type of vaccine development which has prevented the development and use of heat shock protein chaperone (carrier) vaccines. However, science has unwittingly been using this model for nearly a century. The agarose gel and egg yolk used to culture vaccines contain the heat shock protein structure. Live viruses alter themselves regularly by incorporating DNA, such as that of the heat shock protein, into their own structure. The heat shock protein crosses all living species. Normally we, as humans, do not get viruses from plant foods. The use of vaccines resulted in the virus (pathogen) and the heat shock protein coming into our body together. The specific heat shock proteins of the xanthophyll (egg yolk) plastid and agarose chloroplast DNA have a 72 kDa mass. The heat shock protein which protects the chloroplast in plant foods containing chlorophyll b (pre- lutein)  is also 72 kDa. It is the protein coating on the outside of the chloroplast which tells the chloroplast about the environment and the cell reacts by producing more or less pigment. In the single-celled organism this is the substance that tells the cell about the environment. The organism reacts, for instance by moving towards or away, or by producing chemicals in response to the stimulus. In the human, this is the structure which tells the immune cell when to react and what to react to. The vaccine inclusion of heat shock protein DNA has caused a dilemma – self or not-self? The pre-immunocyte selection of a substance associated with the heat shock protein 72 kDa cannot be reversed in the individual. The plant substance associated with the 72 kDa chloroplast (agarose gel)  or plastid (egg yolk) is chlorophyll or lutein (xanthophyll) pigment, a substance too small to produce an antibody response, it is little more than a vibration. In normal circumstances, the pigment from plant foods is released from the chloroplast in the liver cell mitochondria. Autism has been called a mitochondrial disorder.

Can the Medical Research Council of the UK continue to state that autism is untreatable even after the 2001 review when they were presented with statements that 167 individuals diagnosed with autism had reached symptom-free or recovery with a single treatment approach? Can the National Institute of Health, USA deny knowledge of the lutein theory when they were provided with grant application which was reviewed and which revealed case histories of autists who had reached recovery or declassification using a single treatment approach? Can those people who have researched and promoted the opioid excess theory deny that this theory alone is inadequate but relevant to the lutein theory and that the union of these theories could result in a much-improved rate of improvement and sharing of information within the autism community?
  We were wrong, autism was not caused by poor parenting. We were wrong, autism is not a psychological illness. We were wrong, autism is not genetic. Maybe we were wrong and autism is not multi-causal. Maybe there is one cause – mass vaccination programs and evolution of the immune system responding to vaccination. Now, what are we going to do - treat the cause or just some of the symptoms? For those of us who find that fighting for vaccine legislation and monitoring or changes in vaccination policy is our cause then fight for your beliefs in earnest. For some who have seen results with a single supplement or medication stand your ground. But, for me – I have seen recovery and I want to see more recoveries and so I will stand my ground also and fight for understanding of the cause and treatments that together are effective for treating autism. And I will fight to help people understand this condition with the language of science or whatever language is  needed to do so.

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