I came across some interesting information regarding Down's Syndrome while reading a book about Autism called Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder by Karyn Seroussi. On page 137-138, I found the following:

Now, the testing that was currently available for identifying what Dr. Park had called type II, or IgG, food allergies, seemed to me to be some what unreliable. A sample of blood was used to determine a reactive response to over a hundred different foods, with results given as scores from 0.100 up. Foods with values under 0.200 were considered tolerable. After speaking to several people about foods that they knew to be a problem, and comparing them with these test results, I decided that any food with a value under 0.150 was probably safe, any food with a value over 0.250 was probably to be avoided, with the foods in the middle as a gray area to be determined by trial and error.

Among the autistic patients I often saw low values, such as 0.130 , for foods that I considered to be low-risk, like celery, bean sprouts, ginger, honey, and lemon juice. Values for dairy and wheat products were consistently high, sometimes over 0.300. Most patients with autism seemed to have about a dozen foods besides dairy and gluten that were problematic.

I sat down in Dr. Kopelson's office, and he handed me a sheet of results.

"What do you make of that?” he asked.

I let out a low whistle. "Wow. This is amazing. I have never seen values like these before!... 0.574, wait, here's one at 0.622. This is incredible. There are at least thirty foods like this. Does this child have autism?"

"No... Down's syndrome."

I couldn't believe my ears. Everyone knew that Down's was caused by an extra chromosome in the twenty-first pair of chromosomes in their DNA.

"Down's syndrome? That seems impossible. I thought Down's was purely genetic."

"Well, yes, the occurrence is genetic. But the disease may be immunological, and treatable, to some degree. In this patient, at least, I believe that there is something that I can do to help."

A few minutes later I met the little boy and his mother, and observed that although the child was verbal and was, actually doing quite well, he showed some overt signs of allergy, like itchy skin and dark circles under his eyes. His mother had long suspected that some foods made it harder for him to function and was quite willing to try restricting his diet. She told me that after speaking with a friend whose Down's child had been helped with vitamins and diet she had decided to give it a try. Dr. Kopelson had recently put her son on a vitamin supplementation program that seemed to be helping.

Whether this particular child's immune problems were co-incidental to his Down's syndrome or whether the two were related was unclear. Dr. Rimland later sent me a videotape about the late Dr. Henry Turkel, who put Down's children on megadoses of multivitamins and found that the musculoskeletal and other outward features of the disease improved as much as did the subjects' mental functioning. If this was true, did it mean that there was some critical metabolic dysfunction and that early treatment could mean a reversal of symptoms? I just didn't have enough information to judge. But I did know that if I had a child with Down's, and the treatment appeared safe, I would certainly explore such a path."

And I agree with the last statement. If the treatment appeared safe and I was working with a doctor that has knowledge in the area then I would definitely explore the path. I've done a search on google for information on Down's Syndrome and the doctor that started the treatment program, Dr. Henry Turkel. Click here and it will take you to the search. You will find websites that are for and against the protocol so you can make an educated decision!

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