Dec

An Amazing Article…I Want in!

Yesterday as I was doing research on Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils, I came across this extremely interesting and promising article. I’ve been following some studies which tend to suggest that Omega 3 and 6 oils can help to assist in the speech of children with vocal Apraxia and of course I want to know if this is a direction I should be considering for Simone. She isn’t allergic to shell fish or fish in general, so the search began. I came across this article last night, and I literally had a hard time falling asleep because I was so excited about its implications! I’ll be calling Simmi’s allergist today and discussing this article with him. I’ll also be calling the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, CA to find out if they have an ongoing study that Simmi can be a part of…Here is the article:

Children’s Hospital Oakland Scientist First to Characterize Novel

Syndrome of Allergy, Apraxia and Malabsorption

New Characterization of Syndrome Offers Hope for Treatment Protocols
July 13, 2009–Oakland, Calif. – A landmark study conducted by Children’s Hospital &
Research Center Oakland is the first to reveal a new syndrome in children that presents
with a combination of allergy, apraxia and malabsorption. Autism spectrum disorders
were variably present. Verbal apraxia has until now been understood to be a
neurologically based speech disorder, although hints of other neurological soft signs have
been described. The new study, led by Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland
scientist and pediatric emergency medicine physician, Claudia Morris, MD, and Marilyn
C. Agin, MD, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician in New York, however, suggests that
the symptoms of verbal apraxia are, at least for a sub-group of children, part of a larger,
multifactorial, neurologic syndrome involving food allergies/gluten-sensitivity and
nutritional malabsorption.
“While it is critical to treat verbal apraxia symptoms that often include severe delays in
expressive speech production with speech therapy, we need to start asking why these kids
are having these problems in the first place so that we can identify mechanisms we can
actually target to treat the cause of the symptoms,” says Dr. Morris.
Published in the July/August issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, the
new study takes a major step toward identifying the potential mechanisms that may
contribute to apraxia symptoms. In the study, Dr. Morris collected information from
nearly 200 families with children who suffered from verbal apraxia in order to better
characterize the symptoms and metabolic anomalies of a subset of children. The data
clearly demonstrated a common cluster of allergy, apraxia and malabsorption, along with
low muscle tone, poor coordination and sensory integration abnormalities. In addition,
Dr. Morris was able to gather laboratory analyses in 26 of the children, which revealed
low carnitine levels, abnormal celiac panels, gluten sensitivity, and vitamin D deficiency
among others. All children genetically screened carried an HLA gene associated with
gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. “The sample size is still small and should be
interpreted with caution,” says Dr. Morris. “However this is of particular interest given
the recent publication by Eaton and colleagues in the July 6 online edition of Pediatrics
demonstrating a greater than 3-fold risk of autism in children born to mothers diagnosed
with celiac disease. This brings some credibility to the anecdotal reports of
gastrointestinal and behavioral improvements in children with autism spectrum disorders
and/or verbal apraxia when eliminating gluten from their diets. Although the implications
of these observations remain to be determined, this association and the utility of dietary
modifications warrant further investigation, particularly if we can identify a genetically
vulnerable group”.
Most significantly, the data indicate that the neurologic dysfunction represented in the
syndrome overlaps the symptoms of vitamin E deficiency. While low vitamin E
bioavailability may occur due to a variety of different causes, neurological consequences
are similar, regardless of the initiating trigger. The study suggests that vitamin E could
be used as a safe nutritional intervention that may benefit some children. Growing
evidence support the benefits of omega 3 fatty acid supplementation in a number of
neurodevelopmental disorders. Anecdotally children with verbal apraxia will often
demonstrate leaps in their speech production when taking high-quality fish oil. The
addition of vitamin E to omega 3 fatty acid supplementation in this cohort of children
induced benefits that exceeded those expected from just speech therapy alone, according
to parental report.
“While data from a case series is by no means conclusive, the results clearly point to the
need for further attention to this poorly understood disorder, and a placebo-controlled
study to investigate the potential role of vitamin E and omega 3 supplementation in this
group of children,” says Dr. Morris.
She points out that it is equally important for children given an apraxia diagnosis to
receive a more comprehensive metabolic evaluation than what is current practice. Many
of the nutritional deficiencies like low carnitine, zinc and vitamin D are easily treated. By
not addressing the nutritional deficiencies, the child will continue to suffer from
significant medical consequences of those deficiencies. The first step is to identify and
treat the deficiencies. The next step is to try to figure out why they have these
deficiencies and a fat malabsorption syndrome in the first place. However, Dr. Morris
does advise families to work closely with a physician rather than trying promising but
unproven interventions on their own.
In the mean time, however, Dr. Morris’s study provides the essential foundation for
identifying the children who may need these treatments.
“By identifying these early red flags of the syndrome, we’ve provided a way to get these
kids treatment at the earliest possible moment. While 75 percent of the time kids
identified as late bloomers really are just that, 25 percent of the time there is a true
pathologic condition. To miss it is to miss critically valuable time for early intervention.
If a child has all these symptoms, chances are they are going to fall into the 25 percent
who have a condition that needs further evaluation and treatment.”
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About Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland
Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is Northern California’s only
freestanding and independent children’s hospital. Children’s is the leader in many
pediatric specialties including neonatology, cardiology, neurosurgery and intensive care.
The hospital is a designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center and has the largest pediatric
critical care facility in the region. Children’s Hospital has 190 licensed beds, 201
hospital-based physicians in 30 specialties, more than 2,611 employees and an operating
budget of $312 million. Children’s research arm, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research
Institute, is internationally renowned in bridging state of the art basic science and clinical
research for the treatment and prevention of human disease. With about 300 staff
members and an annual budget of approximately $50 million, CHORI is ranked among
the top ten research institutes in National Institutes of Health funding to children’s
hospitals. CHORI is a leader in translational research, providing cures for diseases,
developing new vaccines for infectious diseases and discovering new treatment protocols
for previously fatal or debilitating conditions such as cancer, sickle cell disease and
thalassemia, diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, pediatric obesity, nutritional deficiencies, birth
defects, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.