The Autism Spectrum Disorders are treatable. Increasingly evidence shows that autism is a metabolic, GI, immune, and nutritional disorder which is often the result of toxins such as mercury, vaccines, and those that may be in the environment. This leads to profound adverse effects on the brain, development, and behavior. That is, the Autism Spectrum Disorders are medical, not mental, and they respond to medical treatment. Dr. DeMio and his staff are here to help you and your child. Dr. DeMio focuses on the biomedical treatment of the Autism Spectrum Disorders. The goals of treatment are relief of symptoms, restoration of health, and the maximizing your child or loved one’s cognitive function and independence. Dr. DeMio aims to improve your child’s function by improving cognition and gastrointestinal health with the aim that he or she can become functional and independent. The family that succeeds at this for their child will have a total program that includes comprehensive biomedical treatment along with a balanced program including therapy. With this in mind, Dr. DeMio and his staff are here to join you in your journey toward recovery for your child. The following is a list of some of services that we offer for adults and children on the Autism Spectrum.

Click here to see innovative and unique treatment and research at Dr. DeMio’s Whole Health and Wellness practice for the autism spectrum.

The following is a list of some of services that we offer for adults and children on the autism spectrum.

Brain: Dr. DeMio uses dietary intervention, other specialized nutrition, supplements, encephalitis/viral treatments, detoxification of heavy metals (chelation), and neuro-immune treatments. The goal is to allow the brain to recover allowing the patient to gain function and independence.

Gastrointestinal: Dietary intervention is a major treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. The patient’s problems are assessed including those of gastrointestinal immunity, poor enzyme function, malabsorbation, maldigestion, and persistent viral infections. Dr. DeMio takes a multi-pronged approach including antiviral treatments with goals to improve nutrition, reduce pain, form normal bowel function, and take steps toward toilet training. This helps the GI system and the body to tolerate a broader number of foods without toxic and allergic reactions and helps to eliminate dysbiosis such as yeast and clostridia.

Immune system: This involves three areas: immune deficiency (frequent infections that are often prolonged compared to normal), autoimmunity (the body attacking itself, eg. the brain, the thyroid, and the GI system), and finally allergy. The gluten-free/casein-free diet often improves immune function, so this is instituted up front, along with natural supplements that stimulate the immune system, as opposed to poisoning it with vaccines and other toxins. Such treatments as oral or IV immunoglobulins, transfer factors, and probiotics are used for this purpose. Minerals and antioxidants help to redirect the immune system away from autoimmunity and help protect other tissues from damage that occurs with multiple infections, autoimmunity, and allergy. Dr. DeMio attempts to limit the need for medications and unnatural treatments (antibiotics). Among the few drugs that Dr. DeMio may use are antifungal medications to fight yeast, thus helping the immune system to can get a further boost. This is in tandem with herbal treatments that can lessen the dose and frequency of drugs.

Metabolic/hormonal: The goal here is to reverse metabolic blockages, and restore smooth continuous function for your child or loved one’s metabolic and hormonal machinery. Everything from thyroid to testosterone to estrogen can be in disarray leading to complete inability to utilize food, water, and air and turn it into proper body function. This also involves issues of methylation (B-12, folate, TMG/DMG), sulfation, and vitamin metabolism among others. Therefore, based on the history and on testing, Dr. DeMio uses a combination of diet, supplements, and detoxification to assist your child or loved one’s body on the road to improvement of metabolism and hormonal balance.

Detoxification/chelation: Heavy metals and other toxins have wide sweeping effects on the cell nucleus, metabolism, the immune system, GI function and the brain. Therefore detoxification such as chelation and other techniques will help to improve global areas of your child’s cognition and behavior, as well as motor function including muscle tone, and fine movements. Other areas such as sensory integration also benefit. All chelators are available through Dr. DeMio, such as DMSA, DMPS, TTFD (allithiamine), glutathione, along with lipoic acid (a brain chelator, also known as thioctic acid). There are still others that can be used in particular cases. Most of these are now available in creams so we can avoid yeast, taste aversion, and other the GI side effects of older treatments. Supplements and a clean diet are also used to bolster your child or loved one’s own internal detoxification systems.

Supplements: A bewildering array of pills, sprays, oils, etc. are on TV, in stores, and on the web, with equally numerous claims of success. Dr. DeMio and his staff will help guide you through this maze. First and foremost, supplements should be clean (GFCF, free of heavy metals, and other toxic additives). Dr. DeMio has selected a group of very pure, high quality supplements that he recommends for his patients including Kirkman. We are proud to have been the largest center for research and development of Kirkman’s latest multiple enzyme products, and we have had much success for our patients with these. We have also helped Kirkman’s to develop special mineral preparations to offer more nutrition for our children with mineral deficiency and for use during chelation. Supplements must be used with a rational basis that is tailored to your child or loved one. They have to be put into a program that you, your family, grandparents, and other caregivers will be able to implement and that your child will accept in daily use. Many of our kids have oral/swallowing issues, so Dr. DeMio is very aware of this challenge. Furthermore, Dr. DeMio uses not only vitamins and minerals, but other specialized supplements from acetylcarnitine to zinc creams. For optimum treatment and for your convenience, supplements are directly available from Dr. DeMio (locally or shipped anywhere). Each supplement comes with an individualized instruction sheet to further maximize the benefits for your child.

Coumpounding Pharmist: Every child on the spectrum needs a compounding pharmacist who is well versed with persons with special needs and who will work closely with a DAN! doctor. Dr. DeMio recommends the Lee-Silsby Pharmacy for his patients. Chelators must be compounded (made from scratch) for the best results. Other treatments include a recently developed topical B-12 so that injections can be avoided. We also use adenosyl-B-12, which can aid recovery in low motor tone in the child or individual who seems to be drained of muscular energy all day.

Special diets and nutrition: This is not simply the removal of all foods that are currently difficult for your child to tolerate. Virtually all of our children with Autism Spectrum Disorders are malnourished. The use of dietary intervention should aim at malabsorbation, gliadorphin/casomorphin/neurotoxic peptides, and extremes of diarrhea and constipation. Dr. DeMio’s plan here is to help restore proper enzyme function, digestion, eubiosis (normal balance of healthy bowel bacteria), and GI immunity. Addressing all of these issues is the best approach to helping your child make the most out of the nutrition that you work so hard to put on their dinner plate and get them to eat. You need to take them a step further so they can actually utilize the nutrition. This is done by administering the necessary diets, not all at once, as opposed to simply erasing every single food that is out there. This is especially true with children who are so picky and have such difficulty with food. The diets Dr. DeMio may use for your loved one include: gluten-free/casein-free, low sugar, modified low carbohydrate, anti-yeast, allergy, toxin/rotation, pigment –restriction (eg. Feingold-like/Sara’s), and whole organic foods. Dr. DeMio himself is on a gluten-free/casein-free, corn-free, soy-free, and peanut-free diet, so he knows directly about implementing special diets at home, when traveling, and when eating out. Additionally, we implement diets with the proper use of supplements, along with Dr. DeMio’s specialized techniques of using enzymes. Additional vitamins and minerals help the body use the nutrition that it absorbs. These recommendations are made in a sensible, balanced fashion under exacting detail.

Other Treatments: Dr. DeMio’s philosophy is to use DAN! treatments and a holistic approach combined with cutting edge state of the art medical care. This includes the use of vitamin and mineral supplements, essential fatty acids, gluten and casein free diet (as well as many other nutritional techniques), digestive aids such as probiotics, enzymes, colostrum, antifungal treatments to control candida and other yeast, control of clostridia and other bacteria, the use of secretin, heavy metal detoxification (eg. chelation), the use of immunoglobulins (intravenous and oral), antiviral treatments for such conditions as persistent viral encephalitis (Valtrex®/Cortef®) and persistent measles (full-dose vitamin A and other immune stimulants), and many other treatments. The take home point is DON”T WAIT! Dr. DeMio and DAN! believe that we have treatments right now that work for our kids today. We can’t hold back the chance of recovery while the clock is ticking, because opposing powers want to mull it over for decades. We all thank Dr. Bernard Rimland, a psychologist and a parent of an autistic son, who has been kind and encouraging to Dr. DeMio in his practice and in the continuing recovery of Dr. DeMio’s son; he has been a tireless champion for the biomedical treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Years ago terms like “refrigerator mother” were the norm along with the mental illness model. Dr. Rimland was the voice standing up for the biological aspects of autism, leading to the treatments we now have. Call Dr. DeMio today to discuss the many biomedical options available for your child or loved one.

Dr. DeMio cares for patients from your town and from across the country and around the world. We see patients from towns all over Ohio, and throughout the United States. Additionally many patients come from international locations, with Dr. DeMio giving care to patients from four continents. You can travel to our practice from most of the U.S. via two major airports that are a short drive from Dr. DeMio. Therefore many patients and families come to see us without staying overnight, and they can be in and out in the same day! For overnighters, we can suggest accommodations. As a parent of a child with autism, Dr. DeMio knows what it is like to travel with a child, especially one who has special needs on a special diet. Full treatment can be provided via telephone and/or video consultation if travel is not an option.