Fringe autism treatment could get federal study
July 8, 2008 By CARLA K. JOHNSON , Associated Press Writer
Eight-year-old Charlie Blakey, who was diagnosed with autism at age 3, says a prayer before eating dinner with his family at their home on Oak Park, Ill., on April 23, 2008. Charlie's mother Christina, has been using an alternative treatment, chelation, along with a variety of other therapies to treat her son. A proposed federal study of chelation in autistic children has been put on hold because of safety concerns. Chelation helps the body excrete heavy metals and is approved to treat lead poisoning in children. Charlie eats a special diet, swallows chelation pills and has had 40 sessions in a hyperbaric chamber. All have been helpful, according to his mom. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
(AP) -- Pressured by desperate parents, government researchers are pushing to test an unproven treatment on autistic children, a move some scientists see as an unethical experiment in voodoo medicine.
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What group of medical scientists wouldn't LOVE to say they found the cure for autism, or cancer, or any other ailment? The reasoning of the "snake oil"/conspiracy theory nuts doesn't make any sense.