This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hello All My 14 year old autistic son has just been diagnosed with MS. Anyone else out there who has this dual diagnosis?

I don't recall seeing this particular combination before, although I personally have read a few things that indicate strong links between the two conditions.

off the top of my head i'd say low zinc would be a common thread between the two. young children with autism diagnoses have low zinc levels and low zinc is common to ms patients.

low zinc also impairs the body's ability to deal with mercury. differences in childhood zinc status would mean that response to mercury inputs would also vary, resulting in mercury toxicity consequences for some children, but not all. it's been demonstrated that some children are born with high liver zinc stores, and some have much less. and since it's known that children with autism have low zinc status, it's my guess they belong to the latter group.

the liver is yet another connection to ms. it's an excellent place to warehouse nutrients. i can think of at least one peer-reviewed case report where a liver transplant spontaneously resolved all of an ms patient's symptoms. they didn't compare the nutrient content of the diseased and the replacement healthy liver but i would bet good money that the new liver had far better nutrient stores.

i watched a show last year some time where a bacterial infection was linked to autism. both viral and bacterial infection have been linked to ms as well, although which bacteria and which viruses are still a subject for debate. what is known is that zinc is one of several nutrients required to successfully fight infection.

may i ask if you are able to employ nutritional therapy for your son, and if so what kinds of foods and/or supplements are involved?

please excuse me if you are already aware of this but i find it intriguing so posting for any others who may be interested:

The plasma zinc/serum copper ratio as a biomarker in children with autism spectrum disorders (2009)
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10 ... 0902783747
"The frequency of zinc deficiency, copper toxicity and low zinc/copper in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may indicate decrement in metallothionein system functioning. A retrospective review of plasma zinc, serum copper and zinc/copper was performed on data from 230 children with autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-NOS and Asperger’s syndrome. The entire cohort’s mean zinc level was 77.2 μg dl−1, mean copper level was 131.5 μg dl−1, and mean Zn/Cu was 0.608, which was below the 0.7 cut-off of the lowest 2.5% of healthy children. The plasma zinc/serum copper ratio may be a biomarker of heavy metal, particularly mercury, toxicity in children with ASDs."

77.2 ug/dl of zinc is bad. converts to only 11.8 umol/L. that's borderline deficient even using the WHO's ridiculously huge 'normal' range. ms patients sit on average in the low teens. if you can get a serum zinc test for your son you could find out if he is in that low teens ballpark.

from researching levels seen in healthy controls, the zinc to copper ratio should be around 1.1 for optimal health, with the zinc and copper in the high teens but not too much over 20. eg zinc around 18 or 19, and copper around 17 or 18.

When he was first diagnosed with Autism at age 4 we saw a DAN(defeat autism now)Doctor. Lots of tests...lots of supplements! Also went gluten/casein free for a spell. We worked with the DAN for almost two years, but stopped and have been doing things on and off on my own for the last ten years, including homeopathy and hyperbaric oxygen and a laundry list of other supplements. Nothing has been a "wow" for Mason. So, last fall I decided to go through all the mainstream docs again. The neuro ran an MRI and found the white matter lesions. His prior MRI at the age of 4 showed 1 lesion. I was hoping the discovery of these lesions would finally give us something more to go on, but not so much. I'm convinced his autism/MS are one in the same! Doctor thinks they are two separate issues.Perhaps our country's aggressive vaccine schedule triggered the auto-immune reaction. Or there is some chronic viral or bacterial component. His Lyme test was negative. The medical community's ignorance about Autism is terribly frustrating!! I use to follow an autism parent forum very similar to this one, and if appears that so many of the topics discussed here were also disscussed there. Anyways, for now he is taking daily copaxone shots and 1000 iu's vitamin D.

curious if there were serum zinc level tests done associated with any of the previous laundry list of supplements? any ideas provided as to serum targets?
there are definitely common threads. careful with vit d3 - supplements should be balanced with magnesium and zinc. might be ok since it's only 1000 IU. if you test vit d3 levels, it's smart to test magnesium and zinc also. targets for everything associated with ms nutrition here: (look for red subheading 'targets')
http://www.thisisms.com/forum/regimens- ... tml#p15460

MyMason wrote:Hello All My 14 year old autistic son has just been diagnosed with MS. Anyone else out there who has this dual diagnosis?

Welcome to ThisIsMS. It's unfortunate to hear about your son's diagnosis at such a young age.

By the way, one group of researchers found that chelation of toxic metals with DMSA was helpful in autistic children. I don't know if you've ever looked into this, but here are a series of papers that discuss this research. They will give you some idea of what the process involves. All three papers are available for free.

• Safety and efficacy of oral DMSA therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders: Part A--medical results.
• Safety and efficacy of oral DMSA therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders: part B - behavioral results.
• The severity of autism is associated with toxic metal body burden and red blood cell glutathione levels.

If you're interested in this, then it would probably be best to take these papers to a knowledgeable doctor for consultation.


NHE